FURNESS, a district of Lancashire, England, separated from the major portion of the county by Morecambe bay. It is bounded by Morecambe bay, the Irish sea, the Duddon estuary, Cumber land and Westmorland. Its area is about 25o square miles. It forms the greater part of the Lonsdale parliamentary division of Lancashire and contains the parliamentary and county borough of Barrow-in-Furness. Except for a coastal strip the surface is almost entirely hilly. The northern half is included in the Lake District, and contains such eminences as the Old Man of Coniston and Wetherlam. Apart from the Duddon, the principal rivers are the Leven (which drains Windermere) and the Crake (which drains Lake Coniston). They flow into a common estuary in Morecambe bay. Several of the place-names are suffixed with that of the dis trict, as Barrow-in-Furness, Dalton-in-Furness, Broughton-in Furness. Between Duddon estuary and Morecambe bay lies Wal ney island, 8 m. in length, and in the shallow strait between it and the mainland are several smaller islands. The south-western part of Furness is rich in iron ore (haematite) which has been worked from early times by the British and Romans, and by the monks of Furness abbey and Conishead priory. It was owing to the existence of this ore that Barrow grew up in the 19th century; at first as a port from which the ore was exported to South Wales, while later furnaces were established on the spot. The haematite is also worked at Ulverston, Askam, Dalton and elsewhere, but the furnaces now depend in part upon ore imported from Spain. The district is served by the L.M.S. railway passing the watering place of Grange to Ulverston, Dalton and Barrow, with branches to Lake Side, Windermere and Coniston.
Furness has an especial interest on account of its famous abbey, the ruins of which, beautifully situated in a wooded valley, are extensive, and mainly of fine transitional Norman and Early Eng lish date. The abbey of Furness, otherwise Furdenesia or the further nese (promontory), dedicated to St. Mary, was founded, and built of fine red sandstone in 1127, by monks of the Benedic tine order of Savigny. In 1124, they had settled at Tulketh, near Preston, but migrated in 1127 to Furness. In 1148, the brother hood joined the Cistercian order. Stephen granted to the monks the lordship of Furness, and his charter was confirmed by Henry II., and subsequent kings. The abbot's power throughout the lord ship was almost absolute; he had a market and fair at Dalton. The abbey became one of the richest in England and was the largest Cistercian foundation in the kingdom. At the Dissolution of the monasteries its revenues alone amounted to between £750 and I800 a year. The abbot was one of the 20 Cistercian abbots summoned to the parliament of 1264, but was not cited after 1330. The abbey founded offshoot houses, the most important being Rushen abbey in the Isle of Man. In the royal com missioners reported four of its inmates including the abbot, for incontinence ; in 1536 the abbot was charged with complicity in the Pilgrimage of Grace; and on April 7, surrendered the abbey to the king. In 1540, the estates and revenues were an nexed to the duchy of Lancaster. About James I.'s reign the site and territories were alienated to the Prestons, from whom they descended to the dukes of Devonshire. Conishead priory, near Ulverston, an Augustinian foundation of the reign of Henry II., has left no remains, but of the priory of Cartmel (1188) the fine church is still in use. It is a cruciform structure of transitional Norman and later dates. The chancel contains some superb Jacobean carved oak screens. Cartmel is just outside Furness. FURNISS, HARRY (1854-1925), British caricaturist and illustrator, was born at Wexford, Ireland, of English and Scottish parents. He was educated in Dublin, and in his schooldays edited a Schoolboy's Punch in close imitation of the original. He came to London when he was 19, and began to draw for the illustrated papers, being for some years a regular contributor to the Illus trated London News. His first drawing in Punch appeared in 188o, and he joined its staff in 1884. He illustrated Lucy's "Diary of Toby, M.P.," in Punch, where his political caricatures became a popular feature. In Royal Academy Antics (189o) he published a volume of caricatures of the work of leading artists. He re signed from the staff of Punch in produced for a short time a weekly comic paper Lika Joko, and in 1898 began a humorous monthly, Fair Game; but these were short-lived. Among the numerous books he illustrated were James Payn's Talk of the Town, Lewis Carroll's Sylvie and Bruno, Gilbert a Beckett's Comic Blackstone, G. E. Farrow's Wallypug Book, and his own novel, Poverty Bay (1905). Our Joe, his great Fight (1903), was a collection of original cartoons. His volume of reminiscences, Confessions of a Caricaturist 0901), was followed by Harry Furniss at Home (19o4). In 19o5 he published How to Draw in Pen and Ink, and produced the first number of Harry Furniss's Christmas Annual. Furniss died on Jan. 16, 1925.