Robert Anderson of Carlisle was the most prolific of the 'multiplication of dialect versifiers' to be found in Cumberland in the nineteenth century. Popularly known as 'The Cumberland Bard', he was born into poverty and he had little formal education. Nonetheless, he went on to publish a collection of poetry in standard English and popular editions of Cumberland Ballads in dialect.
More than this, it provides an historical backdrop to St Kentigern and the region, cutting through myths and assumptions to examine the reality of emerging 6th-century Christianity in ‘Britannia’. Kentigern is also known as St Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow, although his influence goes far beyond that city.