THE remote stone symbol can be described as multi-purpose — a nugget of local history, an eye-catching landmark, a remote signpost which tells travellers they are nearing Penrith.

So its virtual disappearance from view is bound to cause alarm and concern to those who live under the shadow of the Beacon.

Perched proudly above the town for centuries, the Beacon Pike is now lost to the landscape … out of sight … vanished … vamoosed.

Or perhaps the word should be submerged — almost obscured by clustering trees.

The Beacon is imprinted on Penrith’s history, originally as a hill-top warning point when Border raiders approached, and latterly as a name-tag for products and organisations.

There is a Beacon Lodge of Freemasons. Penrith Beacon Cricket Club, of 140 years ago, is now just Penrith Cricket Club.

The Penrith Football Club program compiler used to urge fans to encourage the team with the “Beacon roar”.

Housewives sustained themselves with Beacon tea after doing the baking with Beacon flour.

Beaconside School is another reminder of Penrith’s chief mark of identification.

On this August day, the cry goes out: “Bring back the Beacon in all its glory, for the old town is incomplete without its benign presence.”

POVERTY IN PARADISE?

Before people get too excited about revelations about the cost of living in Eden district, they should consider how privileged they are to reside in such a delectable area.

They may be shocked by the State of the Countryside Report, unveiled by the Commission for Rural Communities, with its claim that living in Eden could be costing householders £60 a week more than those in the average urban district.

But don’t forget that, according to another Government department, the Central Statistical Office, Eden is “the closest thing to Paradise in the whole country”.

The basis for this statement, made in 1992, was the fact that the district was the most sparsely populated, with just 35 people to the square mile, compared with 16,657 in a similar area of a London borough.

But mere mathematical calculations do not represent the appeal and desirability of Eden district, which was created in 1974, at the time of local government reorganisation.

Civil servants drew a bold line on a map around a vast area of countryside, dotted with small towns and villages. Whether by chance or by a masterstroke of creative genius, it cannot be said, but the result was the new garden of Eden.

For the planners produced a threesome of scenic delights, with the Eden Valley lying in luxuriant splendour between two immense tracts of contrasting beauty — the sweeping mountains and moors of the Pennines and the more rugged appeal of Northern Lakeland, around Ullswater.

The recent report pinpointed the soaring cost of housing as a major factor in limiting numbers of young folk resident in Eden.

Surely, there are other significant reasons, such as the decline in farming and the aspirations of promising young people, setting out in life, who have to move from the area in pursuit of better job opportunities, though they must be sad to leave beautiful Eden.

TOILET AT THE TOP?

It could well be the ultimate in “spending a penny”, the dizzy height of personal relief.

The French mountain, Mont Blanc, has become so popular that the authorities plan to install a toilet on the summit.

According to a report in The Times, 30,000 people climb to the top each year — an estimated 200 a day at busy times.

Is the Mont Blanc plan for a mountain-top toilet a unique one-off?

Or will the French initiative inspire a call for public conveniences on some popular peaks in the Lake District, where needy fell walkers now rely on the privacy afforded by a handy boulder or a concealing gully?

With Eden District Council and other local authorities already facing financial problems in maintaining public toilets at ground level, the thought of members debating provision for “Ladies and Gents” on the heights of Helvellyn or High Street is quite mind-boggling.

STEALING THE SHOW?

Television has a new “star”, whose charms brought smiles to the faces of a Penrith coffee-drinking group.

Not David Beckham, the footballing super-celebrity, whose every move seems to be filmed for TV, or a new character in Coronation Street.

All the interest centred on the disconsolate dog, a Border terrier, which accompanies Eric Robson as he walks from location to location to give little lectures on local history, kings and queens, in his Out of Town program on Border Television.

The scruffily appealing rough-haired animal gives a spark of humour to the half-hour show, making it a neat blend of factual interest and doggy disinterest.

Such a “star” deserves better presentation. Surely, Border TV or Eric Robson could afford a decent dog lead to replace the tatty length of Michael on which the doleful terrier is trailed about the countryside!