CARLISLE, a parliamentary and municipal borough, episcopal city, and ancient town in North Cumberland, the capital of the co., 12 m. c. of the Solway firth, 300 m. n.w. by n. of London, 101 m. s. of Edinburgh, and 60 w.s.w. of Newcastle. It is a chief station on the w. railway route from London to Edinburgh, and is the terminus of seven different lines of railway. It stands on an eminence in a wide plain at the confluence of, and nearly surrounded by, the Eden, Caldew, and Pcteril. Many fine new streets and buildings have been lately added to the city. The chief branches of industry are cotton, gingham, and check manufactures; print, iron, and dye works; and salmon fisheries. It has a small cathedral of red freestone, of which Paley was archdeacon. The castle was founded in 1092, and is now a barracks; the remains of the keep form a massive lofty tower, with a very deep well. Mary' queen of Scots was confined in the castle after the battle of Langside. A cabal of 11 m., from Bowness on the Solway firth to C., formerly admitted vessels of 100 tons; but the bed of the canal has now been converted into a railway, from which a line also branches to the newly formed port of Silloth, where an extensive dock has been constructed on the Solway, at a distance of 20 m. from Callisle. Pop. in 1763, 4,000; 1801,10,221; 1851, 26,310; 1861, 29,417; 1871,
31,049. C. returns two members to parliament. The total number of vessels that entered the port of C. in 1S76 was 568, of 109,905 tons; cleared 695, of 123,305 tons. Roman remains have been found here—coins, altars, inscriptions, brass incense vases, etc. Being near the w. end of Hadrian's wall, C. was probably a Roman station. It was the seat of the ancient kings of Cumbria. The Picts and Scots ravaged it. About 900, it was destroyed by the Danes, after which it remained desolate for 200 years. Thence to the union of England and Scotland, it was closely connected with the border wars, and underwent many sieges. To its being long a fortified border town it owed much of its importance and privileges, but it declined much after the union. The C. corporation, in 1745, proclaimed prince Charles king of Great Britain. The duke of Cumberland afterwards took the city, and punished the chief actors with death, and the inhabitants with other cruelties. In 1133, Henry I. made C. a bishopric.—The C. tables of mortality, based on the deaths which occurred in C. 1779-87, were drawn up by Dr. Heysham, and have been ever since much used by life-insurance offices, as being near est the average.