"Here Solway's silver wave expands; There Scotia's mountains gleam; While Skiddaw's giant crest commands Hill, valley, lake, and stream."
Maryport derives its name from that of a patriotic lady in the neighbourhood, the wife of Mr. Humphry Senhouse, of Netherhall,[15] who, in 1750, took a lively interest in the place, and, with the assistance of her family connexion and the spirited inhabitants of the place, succeeded in raising it to the distinction of a port town; a title to which it has added many additional claims within the last ten years. The original name was Ellenfoot, so called from its situation at the embouchure of the river Elne with the Solway. It is a chapelry of Cross Canonby, or Crosby--a parochial village about three miles distant; in the church, dedicated to St. John, are several ancient monuments of the Senhouse family, already mentioned, one of whom, Richard Senhouse, was bishop of Carlisle in 1624.
The commerce of Maryport, according to the last report, is decidedly on the increase; and the many advantages it possesses for ship-building and refitting are more and more appreciated by all trading-vessels frequenting this coast. The exports consist principally of coal for Scotland and Ireland, which is furnished in great abundance by collieries in this district, and affords the means of comfortable subsistence to a hardy race of seamen, who, in the hour of danger, have often "done the state some service." The importations consist of timber, flax, and iron, from the Baltic, and various articles of domestic utility from the opposite coasts. The herring-fishery has hitherto been prosecuted with great success; upwards of twenty boats were lately engaged in this enterprise. In winter, the boat-crews are employed in the taking of cod-fish, which is here caught in great abundance, and finds a ready sale on the market-days of Tuesday and Friday. The river Ellen, or Elne, affords no inconsiderable supply of salmon-trout during the season; and as the daily steam-vessels running between Carlisle, the Scottish coast, and Liverpool, generally touch at Maryport for the convenience of passengers, there is a constant air of bustle and activity about the pier that renders the place very agreeable as a sojourn in the summer months. The view across the Frith is one of the finest on the coast, and the inland scenery is proverbially beautiful. It is only six miles from Cockermouth; and is further enlivened by the continual traffic along the great coast-road which connects it with Carlisle on the east, and with Workington and Whitehaven on the west.