ESK (The), a river of the SW of Cumberland. It rises between Bow fell and Scaw fell; runs 5 miles south-south-westward to Esk-Bridge; goes thence 8 miles, in the same direction, to the sea at Ravenglass; and forms, at its mouth, jointly with the Mite and the Irt, a sinuous, sandy estuary. It receives, on its left, the streamlets of Birker Force and Stanley Force; and, on its right, the stream from Burnmoor tarn.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))