Lanty Slee and his 'Mountain Dew'.

Yew Tree Tarn and Holme Fell, near High Arnside, Tilberthwaite.

A lot has previously been written about Lanty Slee, the most notorious illicit whisky distiller in Lakeland. Although the likely locations of his illicit stills have been identified, little more has been added to the facts of his life, moving him more towards a legendary figure, rather than a man of the times, trying to make an extra 'bob', albeit an unlawful one, to maintain his family. I will now try and add that more factual detail, and add at the end to the folklore that developed at the time, based on his notoriety, even some time after his death.

Black Fell summit, behind High Arnside.

Lancelot, or Lanty, Slee was born in the Kirkby Irleth area of Lancashire (now in the south of Cumbria) around 1802. Little further is known of him until he was married to a Miss Mary Richardson who was 18 years younger, on 3rd June 1839, at Ulverston. Lanty's occupation was recorded as a husbandman, so he was involved in farming. In the 1841 census the Slee's were recorded as living in the Tilberthwaite area.

The first clue to Lanty's additional 'profession' as a fermenter of Morning, or Mountain, Dew, came on Tuesday 28th September 1841. Excisemen at Ambleside had received information that an illicit still was at work at the premises of Lanty Slee, who lived in a remote cottage near Tilberthwaite. They set off on that day from Hawkshead, accompanied by constables Grisdale and Jackson. Once there, they systematically searched for the still and eventually found it in an ingenious location; the floor of the stable block had been excavated and a trap door built at its head where the horse's forelegs would be. This had been hidden from view by a heavy covering of hay, and of course, the horse. All Lanty had to do was to call the animal, which would then allow either ingress or egress to or from the hidden vault. A great deal of work had undergone its construction in order to prevent discovery while in operation. The flue of the 25 gallon capacity boiler had been ingeniously routed underground and linked into the chimney of the house itself. It was clear to these officers of the law that the equipment was nearly new, a great expense having been laid out as the scale of the illegal operation of distilling had been expanded to increase the very profitable, yet unlawful, production of the 'dew'. Also seized were two barrels of malt, two casks of sour porter, one cask of treacle, and 27 gallons of wash. Found concealed in some nearby bracken was a small quantity of the whisky itself, which was also impounded; everything was hauled off for storage at Ambleside by the police, as evidence for the court, and also for its later destruction. The excisemen and police had known that Lanty had been conducting his illicit operation for the last 20 years, but had never had the information to locate his still. It has long since been said that he was known to have various such equipment spread across the surrounding valleys, he being a man of the area, working by day in the quarries and mines, also to some degree by farming the land; yet under the cover of darkness he engaged himself in the more profitable occupation of distilling and smuggling his whisky, producing annually 400 to 500 gallons. His product was said to be the strongest known and that now he was caught, the locals would commence a Tea-total Society, as they normally would when his stocks had run low; now it appeared this was forced upon them, by the invoking of the law on his illicit actions.

The newspapers of the day reported that he would never have been caught had it not been for the report of his 'wily lodger'; it appears he was informed on by another. This passing of information to the authorities would no doubt have brought about some reward to the informer; without that it was said he would have continued uninterrupted long into the future. Who that informant was is unclear, but known to be lodging with him in June of that year were two other adults, a 70-year-old quarryman called James Woodend, and a 65-year-old Mary Graham. One other possibility was a Henry Brake who also lived in the Tilberthwaite area. Lancelot Slee had just been before the local magistrates and fined £4 for assaulting Brake. This was the highest fine issued that day at court, the next highest being only £2. Whoever the informer was, he or she, would be forever disowned by the whole neighbourhood; their supply of whisky was now severely interrupted.

On 7th October Lanty was taken before the magistrate W. Gale Esq., by the excise men and fined £30 for the illegal production of whisky. In default of the fine, he was committed to Preston House of Correction for 3 months. 

High Arnside Farm.

By the census of 1851 the Slee family were shown to be at Arnside, Lanty was now recorded as a farmer with 94 acres. He was known to have not altered his ways and continued with his illegal industry to supplement his legal occupation of farmer, come quarryman. He displayed great guile in the concealing of his operations and was never caught in the act of actually transporting, or supplying his much sought after product. The problem of remaining secret would once again rear its head as the crime of illicit whisky distilling requires: possession of a great deal of equipment which would be housed in one location, along with the storage of products for fermentation, and finished whisky for distribution. All that is needed by the excise officers is that the equipment is found, then the identification, and prosecution of the fermenter is inevitable. Lanty lasted for another 12 years before his operations were once again 'interrupted'. He appeared before the Hawkshead Magistrates on 9th May 1853, charged firstly with possession of a private still for illicit distillation, and secondly for having such a still in his custody. A Mr. Scott, of the Board of Inland Revenue prosecuted the case and Lanty was defended by Mr. Wilson of Hawkshead. 

Apart from the defendant the main witnesses were, Mr. C. Bowdon of Customs and Excise, Mr. Gilbanks who was the property owner who rented the High Arnside to the defendant, and a Mr. (William) Pattinson who was from the area. A summary of all the evidence shows that Mr. Gilbanks had rented the property to Lanty, three years previous to the last Martinmas, the first six months were for free rent. He was unaware of any cave in the field, which was known as Old House Field. 

Mr. Bowden had gone to the premises of High Arnside on 12th March, based on information he had received, and discovered a cave about 400 yards from the house in the named field. The entrance was blocked off by a flag and loose brackens. When he entered it he found it to measure about 15ft by 10ft; it was 4ft high at the entrance, rising to about 7ft further back. There was a flagged floor, with rafters and flags for a roof, covered with turf; the sides were also mainly of flags. Inside was a fireplace with recent ash in the grate, the chimney of which was also concealed with flags and bracken. There was a copper still in the fireplace, with a head and worm attached. Mr. Bowden also found a wash tub with a quantity of fermenting wash inside, three casks with taps, two gallons of treacle, two further gallons of 'low wines' (the name given to the first product of the distillation process), three pints of whisky, a second tub, a quantity of oak firewood, and several feet of lead piping. Water was conveyed into the cave via a concealed drain from a dam above, which had been ingeniously constructed to appear to irrigate the adjacent field by the simple turning of a diverting stone, when not in use feeding the boiler. On going to the house, Mrs Slee said her husband was not at home. Mr. Bowdon then went into the barn to obtain a horse and cart to remove the items for evidence, and found within firewood similar to that in the cave. The boiler itself could not initially be removed from the cave entrance; two flags had to be taken down in order to finally do this. He informed the court that a nearby cart track also showed signs of recent and continual movement along it. He finally caught up with the defendant on 27th April, whereupon he served several summonses on him. On cross-examination he stated that it was his opinion that the cave had been used for the illegal distillation process for up to three years, the rafters, being well blackened by the smoke created. The entrance stone was three feet by one and a half feet in size, and a stile leading from the house to the cave was about 8 yards away from it. 

The well worn track.

A possible location of the still?

Mr. Pattinson had been the previous tenant and he told the court that when he had left there was no cave in the field only a small pit, nor any watercourse, dam, or sluice. There had been a stile from the house into the field, but no footpath. The field used to be mown, but he had never seen the Slee family doing so, nor had he recently seen any animals grazing on it. The cave itself could not be seen from the road. When he was questioned about his relationship with the defendant he confirmed he had quarrelled with him about the delivery of sheep. He had killed him a sheep, but had never stolen sheep from him, nor killed one without Slee's knowledge; he denied ever killing his dog. He accepted that 12 weeks previous he had spent some time in the House of Correction through him being unable to pay his debts.

At the conclusion of the evidence Mr. Wilson addressed the magistrates, saying that the evidence was not sufficient to convict his client, but after a lengthy consultation, the magistrates disagreed and found him Guilty and fined him £100, granting a warrant for immediate levy of the fine, to be paid within 6 days. It had been clear that despite no direct link to Slee, no one else could have conducted such a business at the cave without his knowledge and connivance.

It was reported by the news correspondent for the area that the locals of Great and Little Langdale had enjoyed the soothing privilege of the 'Mountain Dew' for nearly 50 years. Despite the vigilance of the excise men and officers of the law, as soon as one still was discovered and broken up, another would take its place and production would increase. Only the previous week one such still had been found in a mud hut in a plantation, near a mountain called John Kell. The apparatus was carried away and the hut raised to the ground. Only a few years previous a still was discovered and impounded at Ambleside. That very night a party of Dalesmen 'released it from the custody of the law', and when the guilty party was released from a period of hard labour, his apparatus was ready for him to continue production. Was this Lanty's equipment from his first arrest? 

That was not to be the last contact of Lancelot Slee with the law. It has always been the case that those that flout to law, still turn to it at their perceived moment of need, and Lanty was no different to other law breakers. On 15th November 1859, so when he is around 57 years old, he was at a wood sale at the house of farmer John Greenhow, at Tilberthwaite, when he alleged he was assaulted by Daniel Dawson of High Park, and Daniel Graves of Oxen Fell. Dawson had remonstrated with Lanty over his sheep being loose and in his fields, to which Lanty called him a liar. He said he was struck in the face by Dawson for this. He got up to leave their company when Graves tripped him and both then set about punching him. Lanty's son John confirmed this account and added that all three men were drunk at the time. As a result of other witness depositions, Dawson was acquitted and Graves was found Guilty and fined 20 shillings.

There have been many widespread accounts of the number of illicit stills dotted secretly around the Tilberthwaite, Wrynose and Langdale areas, some within the living memory of local people, still showing the evidence of equipment storage and the burning of wood for the boilers. It is clear from both these above reported court cases that Lanty had been engaged in the production of his 'Mountain Dew' for all his adult life and had shown him to be well known as the expert at both its production and the avoidance of discovery. Had it not been for the informants in both these incidents, then he would have evaded the law all through his illicit distilling career. Of Pattinson, to speculate, it appears he was in severe debt and therefor ripe for an influence from the excise authorities, perhaps through a visit to the House of Correction and an inducement to a reward for any information leading to a successful prosecution. It is believed that he, understandably, could not show his face in the area again after giving evidence against a hero of the community. Later accounts said of 'Will Patty' that he was in business with Lanty but always managed to distance himself from the production process and himself evade being captured in the act of illegal distilling of the 'Dew'. It seems likely that the whole debacle was a fall out of business partners.

Of the Slee family, it has been discovered from census entries that Lanty and Mary had ten children; however there appears to have been eleven. Their son Joseph was born at the end of 1851, but this name appears to have been a reused one. A Joseph Slee was born in the same area, in the first quarter of 1850 (mother's maiden name of Richardson) and died in the last quarter of the same year. No other Slee's with a mother of that same maiden name were born in the area, so it seems the name was repeated following the death of their child; the dates meant the first Joseph missed any census recordings. Lanty himself passed away at Greenbank Farm, Little Langdale, on 21st May 1878, and was buried in nearby Chapel Stile churchyard; Mary had died 3 years earlier. On his death his illicit activity does not seem to have brought him great wealth as his probate recorded his estate to be valued at below £100. Still, he lives on in the folklore of the area and wider three counties community of Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland. 

Emphasis of this point  was given when on 28th October 1897, when Mr. Daniel Irvine Flattely died at his Windermere residence. In his earlier life he had been the local supervisor of Excise at the Inland Revenue of the Civil Service and spoke with some humour on his dealings with the notorious Lanty Slee, who he regarded as the foremost countryside distiller of those earlier days. He quoted where Lanty had been detained and his illegal still, worm, and working plant, had been taken to Ambleside by the police. No police station yet existed there, so it was all stored for security overnight in the brew house of The Royal Oak, for production at court the next day. The local people were at odds with these actions of the officials of the law and in the morning it was found that all the equipment had disappeared, causing the prosecution to fail. He went on to quote that Lanty was not always that lucky, but the fines, although severe, did not cease his operations, the public themselves subscribing to these penalties, meaning they were paid almost immediately. Lanty apparently had a number of 'interviews' with the magistrates and it was recalled that he could be compared to a modern magician, for within a radius of 20 miles he was supposedly able to lay his hands on a bottle of his 'Dew' within 5 minutes. Mr. Flattely had said that Mr. Davy, the magistrate, had once said to Lanty in the court: "I am told that you are able to furnish your friends with a glass of spirit at any time when desired, but I think we have broken the spell this time." To the considerable merriment of the court audience, and no doubt to the annoyance and humiliation of the magistrate, Lanty produced a full bottle from his coat pocket, held it up and replied: "Mappen ye'r rang. Will ye hev a touch"? The fine on that occasion was set at £50, but again, it was subscribed by the townspeople and paid within an hour of being set. The equipment had also been 'relieved' by them from the custody of the law enforcers and was ready for use by the time Lanty had returned to his place of 'work'. It was also said that this was the third time such a seizure of equipment had been so relieved from lawful possession by the authorities. The law officer and the offender can always have a healthy respect for the task of their adversary, each metaphorically nodding to the cunning and adptitude of the other; it appears this was certainly the case with Mr. Flattely, and no doubt it was with Slee himself.
One other account that supports this return of fermenting apparatus and circumvention of the law, came from a W. Nuttall, of Mountain View, Borrowdale, who told the a newspaper in the 1950's, that his father had known Lanty. Slee had said to a partner, who Mr. Nattall believed to be Neddy Mawson, "If ivver I'se te'an thou mun folla un meak sew'er thou gits t'worm." (Translated as: "if ever I'm taken you must follow and make sure you get the worm.") One day his unfortunate detention occurred. Lanty and his equipment were bundled into a cart for transport to Kendal for his appearance at court. As they passed Skelwith, Lanty pressed his escort to allow him a drink but the escort would hear none of it; this was repeated at Ambleside and again refused. However, when they got to the Lowwood Hotel the escort relented and both went inside. Eventually, when they came out, Lanty had to lean against the cart for support but was able to look inside and see that the worm had indeed been removed, no doubt in accordance with his earlier instruction. At court the following day his defence was that it was impossible to use the equipment for distillation. An expert was called into court, who confirmed that without a worm one could not make alcohol with the equipment. The case was dismissed and no doubt the property returned to Lanty, and the whole operation would recommence.

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Footnote*

Lanty was not the only brewer of Mountain Dew that plied his trade in the Lakes. Perhaps the other renowned one was Moses Rigg, but despite his name embedded in the landscape of Moses Trod and his 'smugglers retreat' at the back of Great Gable, nothing can be found of his existence and operation. One of the Ambleside locality was Johnnie Campbell who was renowned in the area, but never caught by the woefully few excise men assigned to enforcing the law. It was said that he had a number of narrow escapes, just avoiding the schemes of authorities to catch him with the evidence upon him.

Another was 'Whisky Walker' who plied his trade in Borrowdale, another area of mining and quarrying operations. It appears he was never caught, but may not have been on the same scale as Lanty. Tales also abounded about Walker, and in a letter of Thomas Carlyle to Alexander Craig Gibson (1813 - 1874) a surgeon, folklorist and antiquarian, on his receipt of a copy of 'The Folk Speech of Cumberland', Gibson spoke of his rendering aid to two young men who came across a barrel of Walker's whisky and drunk the product neat, with disastrous results. It was not said whether they died of that gleeful alcohol gluttony. he also spoke of Neddy Mawson, confirming him as a further accomplice of Lanty Slee. 

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