[2] The recorded history of Isel begins during the reign of Henry II when Alan, the son of Waltheof, granted Randulph d'Engayne the demesnes of Ishall, Redmain and Blencrake.

[5] In 1544 John Leigh held the manor of Isel and Blencrake of the King by the service of one knight's fee and the cornage of 46s.

Thomas Leigh, the last of the name, gave Isel to his second wife, Maud Redmain, who afterwards married for her third husband Wilfred Lawson, who conveyed the inheritance over to him.

[9] In 1591 the Earl of Northumberland made him Lieutenant of the Honour of Cockermouth (Grand Steward of all his estates) and the Conveyor of the Commissioners of the Marches.

[19] At the time of her Royal highness the Princess Louise and her husband the Marquis of Lorne stayed at Isel on their way to open a bazaar at Carlisle in aid of the Cumberland Infirmary in September 1877, they were the guests of Percy S Wyndham MP.

[20] In 1891 Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 3rd Baronet, of Brayton (21 October 1862 – 28 August 1937), an English Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1910 to 1916 took over the estate.

After the death of Sir Hilton Lawson, 4th Baronet, Isel Hall was sold by private sale to Margaret Austin-Leigh of Fareham, Hampshire, a first cousin of the previous owner.

In 1941, Margaret married Richard Austen-Leigh, the great nephew of Jane Austen through her brother, Henry's marriage.

Margaret had no children and upon her death in 1986 she left Isel to her friend and distant relative Mary Burkett OBE.

Mary had recently retired from a distinguished career as director of Abbot Hall Art gallery and Museum, Kendal.

Mary carried out, with the help of English Heritage many improvements to the fabric of the building, with special attention to the Pele Tower, the terrace and the sunken garden.

Such a position at first sight appears contrary to all precedents, for whenever there is a stream in the vicinity we invariably find an English Pele tower placed on the southern bank, so as to interpose the river between it and the northern enemy.

There existed at that time a dense impenetrable forest between Isel, Uldale and Wigton with no roads through for the marauding Scots to descend.

Their only way would be by the old Roman road from Carlisle and Wigton to Cockermouth, or else by galleys from Dumfries to Allonby or Flimby, and then up the Derwent valley.

We know that in the year 1387 an army of Scots under the banners of the dukes of Douglas and Fife raided and captured Cockermouth Castle, and laid waste to the surrounding countryside.

The basement is barrel vaulted, and divided by a cross wall, in which is the previously mentioned Carnarvon arched doorway.

On the top floor are two light windows with square heads and drip stones in common with the period of Henry VIII.

It has a gable-roof and a plain parapet relieved on both fronts at intervals by small open stone arches surmounted by short pinnacles and having the form of a prick spur.

We find the Lawson arms, inlaid, above the doorway of the present study; while the adjoining panels are ornamented in colour with different devices and figures.

The line of the eaves is broken at regular intervals by a form of ornament superimposed upon the top of the wall and of which only one parallel example exists, that is at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire.

The principal ornament consists of an open arch rib with the feet sunk lightly below the eaves but which rise up clear of the slates being surmounted on the crown by a terminal.

In July 1960 the auctioneers erected an enormous marquee on the terrace lawn outside of the front door of Isel Hall, overlooking the River Derwent.

The highest price paid was £300 for an inlaid mahogany Hepplewhite break front bookcase, the top enclosed by two central and two side astragal glass doors.

[21] However, the bargain of the day went unnoticed, that of an Italian renaissance painting which had hung in the Dining room at Isel for over two hundred years.

Within a year, John Harrington, an American multi millionaire art collector, had purchased the painting from an Atlanta auction saleroom.

Harrington would dedicate the next 30 years of his life travelling the art houses of the world trying to prove that the painting is an authentic masterpiece.