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diff --git a/37891-h/37891-h.htm b/37891-h/37891-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b2b004 --- /dev/null +++ b/37891-h/37891-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6896 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + Bygone Cumberland And Westmorland, by Daniel Scott—A Project Gutenberg eBook + </title> + + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + .br {border-right: solid black 1px; padding-left: 0.5em; padding-right: 0.5em;} + .botbor {border-bottom: solid black 1px;} + + .giant {font-size: 200%} + .huge {font-size: 150%} + .large {font-size: 125%} + + .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .poem {margin-left: 15%;} + .note {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} + .index {margin-left: 20%;} + .caption {text-align: center; font-size: small;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .center {text-align: center;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .smcaplc {text-transform: lowercase; font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + p.dropcap:first-letter{float: left; padding-right: 3px; font-size: 250%; line-height: 83%; width:auto;} + .caps {text-transform:uppercase;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none} + + .verts {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland, by Daniel Scott + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland + +Author: Daniel Scott + +Release Date: October 31, 2011 [EBook #37891] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BYGONE CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>BYGONE CUMBERLAND AND<br />WESTMORLAND.</h1> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">THE LEPERS’ SQUINT, ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH, BROUGH-UNDER-STAINMORE.<br /> +<i>From a Photo by Mr. George Arkwright, Beatrice, Nebraska, U.S.A.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="giant">Bygone Cumberland</span><br /><span class="large">and</span><br /><span class="giant">Westmorland</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">By Daniel Scott</span></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">LONDON:<br /> +<small>WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., 5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, E.C.</small><br /> +1899.</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/printer.jpg" alt="" /></div> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center">TO EMMA.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<div class="note"> +<h2>Preface.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> information contained in the following pages has been derived from +many sources during the last twenty years, and in a considerable number of +cases I have examined old registers and other documents without being then +aware that some of their contents had already been published.</p> + +<p>Few districts in the United Kingdom have been more thoroughly “worked” for +antiquarian and archæological purposes than have Cumberland and +Westmorland. The Antiquarian Society and the numerous Literary and +Scientific Societies have, during the last thirty years, been responsible +for a great amount of research. I have endeavoured to acknowledge each +source—not only as a token of my own obligation, but as a means of +directing others wishing further information on the various points.</p> + +<p>I also desire to acknowledge the help received in various ways from +numerous friends in the two counties.</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Daniel Scott.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Penrith</span>, <i>June 1st, 1899</i>.</p></div> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<h2>Contents.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">An Unparalleled Sheriffwick</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Watch and Ward</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Fighting Bishops and Fortified Churches</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Some Church Curiosities</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Manorial Laws and Curiosities of Tenures</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Old-Time Punishments</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Some Legends and Superstitions</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Four Lucks</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Some Old Trading Laws and Customs</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Old-Time Home Life</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Sports and Festivities</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">On the Road</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Old Customs</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Old School Customs</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td></tr></table> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="giant">Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland.</span></p> + + +<p> </p> +<h2>An Unparalleled Sheriffwick.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">For</span> a period of 645 years—from 1204 to 1849—Westmorland, unlike other +counties in England (excluding, of course, the counties Palatine), had no +Sheriff other than the one who held the office by hereditary right. The +first Sheriff of the county is mentioned in 1160, and nine or ten other +names occur at subsequent periods, until in 1202, the fourth year of the +reign of King John, came Robert de Vetripont. Very soon afterwards the +office was made hereditary in his family “to have and to hold of the King +and his heirs.” The honour and privileges were possessed by no less than +twenty-two of Robert’s descendants. Their occupation of the office covers +some very exciting periods of county history, the tasks committed to the +Sheriffs in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> former centuries being frequently of an arduous as well as +dangerous character.</p> + +<p>The Sheriff had very important duties of a military character to carry +out. Thus in the sixth year of Henry the Third we have the command from +the King to the Sheriff of Westmorland that without any delay he should +summon the earls, barons, knights, and freeholders of his bailiwick, and +that he should hasten to Cockermouth and besiege the castle there, +afterwards destroying it to its very foundations. This order was a +duplicate of one sent to the Sheriff of Yorkshire concerning Skipton +Castle and other places. It is not known, however, whether the +instructions respecting Cockermouth were carried out or not.</p> + +<p>The powers of Sheriff not being confined to the male members of the +family, the histories of Westmorland contain the unusual information that +at least two women occupied, by right of office, seats on the bench +alongside the Judges. The first of these was Isabella de Clifford, widow +of Robert, and, wrote the historian Machell, “She sate as is said in +person at Apelby as Sheriff of the county, and died about 20 of Edward I.” +The other case was that of the still more powerful, strenuous, and gifted +woman, Anne, Countess<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> of Pembroke. Of her it is recorded that she not +only took her seat on the bench, but “rode on a white charger as +Sheriffess of Westmorland, before the Judges to open the Assizes.” It will +not be forgotten that territorial lords and ladies in bygone times held +Courts of their own in connection with their manors and castles. The Rev. +John Wharton, Vicar of South Stainmore, in a communication to the writer +some time ago said: “From documents shown me by the late John Hill, Esq., +Castle Bank, Appleby, the great but somewhat masculine Anne, Countess of +Pembroke and Montgomery, seemed partial to Courts of her own. She sat upon +many offenders as a judge, and it is handed down that she executed divers +persons for treasonous designs and plotting against her estate.”</p> + +<p>The Memoranda Rolls belonging to the Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer, show +the mode of presenting or nominating the Sheriff for Westmorland in the +time of the Cliffords, his admittance to the office by the Barons of the +Exchequer, and his warrant for executing it. From the Rolls of the 15th, +19th, and 23rd years of Edward the First, when the Sheriffwick passed into +the family of the Cliffords, it seems that the right of appointment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> was +the subject of litigation between the two daughters and heiresses of the +last of the Vetriponts. This ended in an agreement that the elder sister +should “present” to, and the younger should “approve” the appointment. In +this way Robert de Moreville was admitted to the office of Sheriff in the +fifteenth year of Edward’s reign, Gilbert de Burneshead three years later, +and Ralph de Manneby in 1295, each swearing faithfully to execute his +office and answer to both daughters. On the death of the sisters the +Sheriffwick became vested in Robert de Clifford, son and heir of the +eldest, and continued in the possession of his descendants until the +attainder in 1461.</p> + +<p>The list of Sheriffs is, of course, a very long one, and even allowing for +the large number of individuals who have left nothing more than their +names, there is much material for interesting study in the histories of +the others. The actual work was rarely done by the holders of the office. +“The functionaries who performed the duties were simply deputies for the +Sheriff, and although we find them attesting many ancient charters and +grants relating to the county, recording themselves as Vice-Comites (or +Sheriffs), they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> simply executed the office as Pro-Vice-Comites (or +Under-Sheriffs). The attainder of the Cliffords during the Wars of the +Roses, until its reversal in the first year of Henry the Sixth, causes a +void as regards their family, their places being filled from among the +supporters of the House of York.”<a name='fna_1' id='fna_1' href='#f_1'><small>[1]</small></a> For a considerable period Westmorland +was treated as part of Yorkshire, the Sheriff of the latter county +rendering an account of the two places jointly. From the time of John, +however, the accounts rendered for Westmorland by Yorkshire Sheriffs would +have been as Sub-Vice-Comites for the Vetriponts.</p> + +<p>The High Sheriffs and their connections lived in considerable state when +the country was sufficiently peaceable to permit of it. This is proved by +the arrangement and size of their castles, while Sir Lancelot Threlkeld, +half-brother of Henry Clifford, used to boast that he had three noble +houses. One, at Crosby Ravensworth, where there was a park full of deer, +was for pleasure; one for profit and warmth wherein to reside in winter, +was the house at Yanwath; and the estate at Threlkeld was “well stocked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +with tenants ready to go with him to the wars.” The various “progresses” +of the Countess Anne also afford evidence of the state kept up, for she +frequently speaks of her journeys from one castle to another “escorted by +my gentlemen and yeomen.”</p> + +<p>Among the numerous pieces of patronage which became the prerogative of the +High Sheriffs of Westmorland, was that of the Abbey of Shap, but there +does not appear to be any record when this and other privileges passed +from them, the property being granted by Henry the Eighth to the Whartons. +Where so much power lay in the hands of one person, or of one family, +differences with other authorities was perhaps inevitable. The interests +of the burgesses of Appleby would seem to have clashed at times with those +of the Sheriff, and for very many years the parties kept up a crusade +against each other, especially during the reigns of the first three +Edwards. What the cost of those proceedings may have been to the Sheriff +cannot be told, but on the other side the result was the forfeiture of +rights for a considerable time, because the fee farm rent had got into +arrear. The Hereditary High Sheriff had the privilege of appointing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +governor of the gaol at Appleby, but he had to pay £15 per annum towards +the salary, while the magistrates appointed the other officials and made +up from the county rates the remainder of the cost of the institution.</p> + +<p>The long period during which the holders of the Sheriffwick held the +privilege is the more remarkable—as Sir G. Duckett, Bart., reminded the +northern archæologists in 1879—because of the way in which ancient grants +and statutes have in almost all cases become a dead letter and obsolete.</p> + +<p>A singular incident in connection with the Sheriffwick happened about +seventy years ago, and is recorded in the life of Baron Alderson, father +of the Marchioness of Salisbury. The Baron went to Appleby to hold the +half-yearly assizes, but on arriving there found that he could not carry +out his work because Lord Thanet was in France, and had omitted to send +the documents for obtaining juries. The Judge had therefore to spend his +time as best he could for several days, until a messenger could see the +High Sheriff in Paris and obtain the necessary papers.</p> + +<p>When the eleventh and last Earl of Thanet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> died in June, 1849, the male +line of the family ceased, the estates passing by will to Sir Richard +Tufton, father of the present Lord Hothfield. The office of Hereditary +High Sheriff was claimed by the Rev. Charles Henry Barham, of Trecwn, +nephew of the Earl, but a question arising as to the validity of a devise +of the office, Mr. Barham relinquished his claim in favour of the Crown. +An Act was afterwards passed—in July, 1850—making the Shrievalty in +Westmorland the same as in other counties.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<h2>Watch and Ward.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> geographical position of the two counties rendered an extensive system +of watching essential for the safety of the residents. In the northern +parts of Cumberland, along the Border, this was particularly the case; but +there watch and ward was more of a military character than was necessary +elsewhere, while as it was a part of the national defence it passed into +the care of the Government for the time being. From the necessity for +“watching and warding” against the northern incursions, came the name of +the divisions of the two counties. Cumberland had for centuries five +wards; more recently for purposes of local government these were increased +to seven; and Westmorland also has four wards.</p> + +<p>The regulations of the barony of Gilsland, in a manuscript volume +belonging to the Earl of Lonsdale, are very explicit as to what was +required of the tenants in the way of Border service. These stipulated for +good horses, efficient armour and weapons for the bailiffs, and a rigid +supervision of those of lower rank. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> tenants’ nags were ordered to be +“able at anye tyme to beare a manne twentie or four-and-twentie houres +without a baite, or at the leaste is able sufficientlye to beare a manne +twentie miles within Scotlande and backe againe withoute a baite.” Every +tenant, moreover, had to provide himself with “a jacke, steale-cape, +sworde, bowe, or speare, such weapons as shall be thought meatest for him +to weare by the seyght of the baylife where he dwelleth or by the +land-serjeante.” The rules as to the watch required that every tenant +should keep his night watch as he should be appointed by the bailiff, the +tenant breaking his watch forfeiting two shillings, which in those days +was a formidable amount. The tenants had to go to their watch before ten +o’clock, and not to return to a house till after cock-crow; they were also +required to call twice to all their neighbours within their watches, once +about midnight, and “ones after the cockes have crowen.”</p> + +<p>Detailed instructions were drawn up for the guidance of the men during +their watches. These were even less emphatic, however, than those which +referred to the maintenance and keeping of the beacons, of which fourteen +public<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> ones (including Penrith and Skiddaw) are named in Nicolson and +Burn’s History. Modernising the spelling, one of the paragraphs runs as +follows:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The watchers of a windy night shall watch well of beacons, because in +a wind the fray cannot be heard, and therefore it is ordered that of a +windy night (if a fray rise) beacons shall be burnt in every lordship +by the watchers. One watcher shall keep the beacon burning and the +other make speed to the next warner, to warn all the lordships, and so +to set forwards. And if the watchers through their own default do not +see the beacons burn, or do not burn their own beacons, as appointed, +they shall each forfeit two shillings. If the warners have sufficient +warning by the watchers, and do not warn all within their warning with +great speed, if any fault be proved of the warner he shall forfeit 18d.”</p> + +<p>The “Orders of the Watch” made by Lord Wharton in October, 1553, are of +considerable local interest in connection with this subject, and the +following extracts may for that reason be quoted:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Ainstable, Armathwhaite, Nunclose, and Flodelcruke to keep nightly +Paytwath with four persons; William Skelton’s bailiffs and constables +to appoint nightly to set and search the said watch. Four fords upon +Raven, to be watched by Kirkoswald, Laisingby, Glassenby, Little +Salkeld, Ullesby, Melmorby, Ranwyke, and Harskew: at every ford +nightly four persons; and the searchers to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> appointed by the +bailiffs and constables, upon the oversight of Christopher Threlkeld, +the King’s Highness’s servant. Upon Blenkarn Beck are five fords, to +be watched by Blenkarn, Culgaith, Skyrwath, Kirkland, Newbiggin, +Sourby, Millburn, Dufton, Marton, Kirkbythore, Knock, and Milburn +Grange; bailiffs and constables to appoint searchers: Overseers, +Christopher Crackenthorp, and Gilbert Wharton, the King’s Highness’s +servants. Upon the water of Pettrel: From Carlisle to Pettrelwray; +bailiffs and constables there, with the oversight of the late Prior of +Carlisle for the time being, or the steward of the lands. And from +thence to Plompton; overseer of the search and watch nightly John +Skelton of Appletreethwayt, and Thomas Herrington, Ednal and +Dolphenby; Sir Richard Musgrave, knight, overseer, his deputy or +deputies. Skelton and Hutton in the Forest; overseers thereof, William +Hutton and John Suthake. Newton and Catterlen, John Vaux, overseer, +nightly. For the search of the watches of all the King’s Highness’s +lands, called the Queen’s Hames, the steward there, his deputy or +deputies, nightly. From the barony of Graystock; the Lord Dacre, his +steward, deputy or deputies, overseers. This watch to begin the first +night of October, and to continue until the 16th day of March; and the +sooner to begin, or longer to continue at the discretion of the Lord +Warden General or his deputy for the time being. Also the night watch +to be set at the day-going, and to continue until the day be light; +and the day watch, when the same is, to begin at the day light, and to +continue until the day be gone.”</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img1.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">PENRITH BEACON.<br /> +<i>From a Photo by Mr. John Bolton, Penrith.</i></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Penrith Beacon had an important place in the system of watch and ward in +the south-eastern <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>parts of Cumberland and North Westmorland. As a +former local poet wrote:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Yon grey Beacon, like a watchman brave,<br /> +Warned of the dreaded night, and fire-fed, gave<br /> +Heed of the threatening Scot.”</p> + +<p>The hill before being planted as it now appears, was simply a bare fell, +without enclosures of any kind. The late Rev. Beilby Porteus, Edenhall, in +one of his books,<a name='fna_2' id='fna_2' href='#f_2'><small>[2]</small></a> after mentioning the uses of Penrith Beacon, +added:—“Before these parts were enclosed, every parish church served as a +means of communication with its neighbours; and, while the tower of +Edenhall Church bears evident tokens of such utility, there yet exist at +my other church at Langwathby, a morion, back, and breast-plate, which the +parish were obliged to provide for a man, termed the ‘Jack,’ whose +business it was at a certain hour in the evening to keep watch, and report +below, if he perceived any signs of alarm, or indications of incursions +from the Border.”</p> + +<p>South Westmorland had as its most important look-out station, Farleton +Knott, where “a beacon was sustained in the days of Scottish invasion, the +ruddy glow of which was responded to by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> the clang of arms and the war +notes of the bugle.”</p> + +<p>Wardhole, now known as Warthol, near Aspatria, was once an important +protection station, watch and ward being kept against the Scots; from this +place “the watchmen gave warning to them who attended at the beacon on +Moothay to fire the same.” The ancient beacon of Moota is about three +miles from Cockermouth. Dealing with the natural position of Bothel, +Nicolson wrote over a century ago:—“The town stands on the side of a +hill, where in old time the watch was kept day and night for seawake, +which service is performed by the country beneath Derwent at this place, +and above Derwent, in Copeland, at Bothil, in Millom. It is called +<i>servicium de bodis</i> in old evidences, whereupon this hill was named the +<i>Bode-hill</i>, and the village at the foot of it <i>Bode-hill-ton</i> (Bolton), +or <i>Bodorum Collis</i>. The common people used to call a lantern a <i>bowet</i>, +which name and word was then in use for a light on the shore to direct +sailors in the night, properly signifying a token, and not a light or +lantern, as they call a message warranted by a token a <i>bodeword</i>, and the +watchmen were called <i>bodesmen</i>, because they had a <i>bode</i>, or watchword +given<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> them, to prevent the enemy’s fraud in the night season.”</p> + +<p>There was a noted beacon near Bootle, from which that town took its old +name—“Bothill”—the beacon being fired, upon the discovery of any ships +upon the Irish Sea which might threaten an invasion, by the watchmen who +lay in <i>booths</i> by the beacon. For the support of this service the charge +or payment of seawake was provided. This payment occurs in connection with +various manors; thus on an inquisition of knights’ fees in Cumberland it +was found that Sir William Pennington held the manor of Muncaster “of the +King as of his castle of Egremont, by the service of the sixth part of one +knight’s fee rendering to the King yearly for seawake 12<sup>d</sup>, and the +puture of two serjeants.” At the same inquiry it was certified that +William Kirkby held the manor of Bolton, in the parish of Gosforth, of the +King “by knight’s service, paying yearly 10/- cornage, and seawake, +homage, suit of court, and witness-man.” He also paid two shillings +seawake for other lands in the district. Many other instances of this tax +for watch and ward in old days might be quoted, but diligent search and +inquiry during the last few months have failed to show that it is now +exacted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> in any form, or when the payments were allowed to lapse.</p> + +<p>Of watch and ward as applied to town and village life as distinct from +Border service there may be found in Cumberland and Westmorland records +many very interesting and suggestive reminders. By the famous statute of +Winchester it was provided that from Ascension Day to Michaelmas in every +city six men should keep watch at every gate, in every borough twelve men, +and in every other town six or four, according to the number of the +inhabitants, and that these should watch the town continually all night +from the setting to the rising of the sun. This was but one of three kinds +of watches, the others being kept by the town constable, and the other set +by authority of the justices. Every inhabitant was bound to keep watch in +his turn, or to find another. It was specially provided that the watching +and warding should be by men able of body and sufficiently weaponed, and +therefore a woman required to watch might procure one to watch for her. +While the person thus chosen had to bear sundry punishments in default of +carrying out a duty which was neither pleasant nor safe, there was the +wise provision that if a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> watchman were killed in the execution of his +duty, as in endeavouring to apprehend a burglar, his executors were +entitled to a reward of £40. In the standard work by Orton’s best known +former Vicar may be found two copies of Westmorland warrants, one for the +keeping of watch, and the other for the commitment of a person apprehended +by the watch, while there is also a copy of an indictment for not +watching. This was no mere matter of form; for hundreds of years after +King Edward instituted the system it was the chief safeguard against +robbery, and in a great many places against incursions of the enemy.</p> + +<p>At Kendal watch and ward was strictly maintained, not for the purpose of +keeping out marauding Scots or other undesirable characters, but for the +maintenance of quiet and order in the streets. In 1575 the Mayor and +burgesses of Kendal made the following order with reference to the +watching of the borough:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“It is ordered and constituted by the Alderman and head burgesses of +this borough of Kirkby Kendal, that from henceforth nightly in the +same borough at all times in the year, there shall be kept and +continued one sufficient watch, the same to begin at nine of the clock +of the night, and to continue until four of the clock in the morning, +in which watch always there shall be six persons, viz.,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> two for +Sowtergate, two for Marketstead and Stricklandgate, and two for +Stramagate, to be taken and going by course in every constablewick one +after the other, and taking their charge and watchword nightly off the +constables or their deputies, severally as in old times hath been +accustomed; which six persons so appointed watchmen nightly shall be +tall, manlike men, having and bearing with them in the same watch +every one a halberd, ravenbill, axe, or other good and sufficient iron +bound staff or weapon, sallett or scull upon every one his head, +whereby the better made able to lay hands upon and apprehend the +disordered night walkers, malefactors, and suspicious persons, and to +prevent and stay other inconveniences, and shall continually use to go +from place to place and through street and street within the borough +during all the time appointed for their watch, upon pain to forfeit +and lose to the Chamber of this borough for every default these pains +ensuing, that is to say, every householder chargeable with the watch +for his default 3s. 4d., and every watchman for his default such fine +and punishment as shall be thought meet by the Alderman and head +burgesses.”</p> + +<p>Shortly before the end of 1582 the foregoing order was repealed and +another regulation substituted. The material part was in the following +quaint terms, the original spelling being observed:</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“And shall contynnally goo and walk ffrome place to place in and +throughe suche streete within the same boroughe as they shal be +opoyntyd and assigned by the Constabull or his deputy then settinge +the watch that is to say ij of them in everie suche streete in +companye together<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> as they may be apoynted ffor their sayd watche vpon +payne to forfeyte and losse to the Chamber of this Bourgh for everie +fault dewly pved theis payns ensuinge that is to say everie +householder and wedow and bachler Chargeable wth the watche for his +default xijd and every watchman ffor his default such ffyne and +punnyshmt as shal be thought mete by the Alderman or his deputye +ffrome tyme to tyme beinge.”</p> + +<p>At Carlisle and several other places the rules for the watch were among +the most interesting and important items in the whole of the rules +concerning local government. On the coast at times very vigorous action +was both required and taken. At Whitehaven, in February, 1793, a meeting +of the authorities was held “in consequence of the daring attempts made by +the enemy in other places and the dangers to which the port was formerly +exposed.” Orders were issued for mounting all the heavy guns, and for +procuring ammunition and other stores. Thirty-six weapons were mounted in +six batteries; governors of these batteries were appointed, with other +officers. A nightly watch was set, and every precaution taken to prevent a +surprise, or to resist any attack which might be made on the port. +Fortunately the precautions were not put to the test.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>Coming down to a much later period, but still connected with the +protection of the two counties, a curious incident may be recalled, if for +no other reason than that it is impossible for such a contretemps ever to +occur again. In 1807, after a ballot for the Cumberland Militia, Penrith +being the headquarters, an order arrived for the recruits to be marched up +to the regiment. They were, wrote an eye witness, accordingly mustered for +that purpose in marching order, and, followed by many of the populace, +arrived at Eamont Bridge, where the sister counties of Cumberland and +Westmorland divide. Here there was a sudden halt. They would not cross the +bridge without their county guinea. After some altercation, and promises +by Colonel Lacy and other gentlemen that they should be paid on joining +the regiment, which promises were of no avail, they were counter-marched +to Penrith. For three successive days they were thus marched, and still +halted at the division of the counties. The lower orders of the populace +took part with the soldiers, and a riot ensued, in which Colonel Lacy, the +commanding officer, was very roughly handled. The consequence was that a +troop of Enniskillen Dragoons was sent for from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +arrived in Penrith on the morning of the third day. A hard black frost was +set in at the time, and the horses being “slape shod,” they were falling +in every direction. They were marched along with the recruits, who again +stopped at the bridge. The populace was still unruly; the dragoons loaded +their firepieces; the Riot Act was read, and the word “March” was given; +but it was of no avail. A general cry was then raised that they would be +satisfied with the promise of Colonel Hasell of Dalemain, but of no other +man. Mr. Hasell came forward, and in a short, manly address, gave his +promise that they should be paid on joining the regiment, and with cheers +for the Colonel, they at once marched off.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> +<h2>Fighting Bishops and Fortified Churches.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> ecclesiastical history of Cumberland and Westmorland is curiously +interwoven with that of secular affairs. This to a large extent arises +from the geographical position of the diocese of Carlisle—and +particularly of the diocese before its extension in 1856, up to which year +it was the smallest in England. The Bishop of Carlisle in bygone centuries +had always to take a leading part in fighting schemes, and as the churches +would be the only substantial structures in some villages, they naturally +came to be put to other uses than those of worship.</p> + +<p>The bishopric was indeed a unique district. Carlisle was the great Border +fortress of the West Marches; the Bishop was invariably a Lord Marcher, +and often Captain of the Castle. In copies which Halucton (Halton) caused +to be extracted from the Great Roll of the Exchequer, frequent references +are made to expenses incurred during a siege. These are believed to refer +to 1295-6, when the Earl of Buchan and Wallace assailed the city, and when +the Bishop was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> apparently Warden. The ecclesiasts during many hundreds of +years must have been almost as familiar with the touch of armour as with +that of their sacred robes. Writing on this subject over a century ago a +Cumberland authority said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“As an example of the prevailing humour of those martial times, what +sort of priest must we suppose Cressingham to have been, who never +wore any coat that is accounted characteristic of a profession, but +that in which he was killed, namely, an iron one. Beck, the fighting +Bishop, was so turbulent a mortal that the English King, in order to +keep him within bounds, was obliged to take from him a part of those +possessions which he earned in battle, and in particular the livings +of Penrith and Symond-Burne. But not to mention Thurstan, who fought +the battle of the Standard, there are sufficient reasons for believing +that most of the priests in the northern parts of England had a double +profession, and they are so often mentioned as principals in these +continual wars that one cannot help concluding that the martial one +was more attended to. When the pastors are such, what must the people be?”</p> + +<p>There was a very interesting quarrel—the facts being too numerous to be +stated here—concerning the manor of Penrith, and those in some other +parts of East Cumberland. They were in the possession of John de Baliol, +by virtue of an agreement come to between the Kings of England and +Scotland, but afterwards Edward the First quarrelled with Baliol, seized +his lands, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> granted them to Anthony Beck, the military Bishop of +Durham already mentioned. That prelate had assisted the King at the battle +of Falkirk, with a considerable number of soldiers, and was greatly +instrumental in obtaining the victory. When the Parliament met at +Carlisle, however, the grant was disapproved, and as the Bishop did not +attend to show by what title he had taken the lands, they were adjudged to +belong to the Crown.</p> + +<p>The manuscripts of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle contain many +references to the knowledge of war required by the early Bishops. When +Linstock was the episcopal residence, it lay exposed to the incursions of +the Scots, whose respect of persons, as Mr. C. J. Ferguson has reminded +us, was small. In April, 1309, Bishop Halton excused himself from obeying +a summons to Parliament, pleading both fear of a Scots invasion and bad +health as reasons. Later correspondence showed that the Bishop had been +employed by the King as his deputy in suppressing outrages in the West +March, and desired to be freed from some of his duties. The King therefore +absolved the prelate from the duties to which he objected, but begged him +to assume the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> remainder of the offices in his commission, so as to +restrain the lawlessness prevailing on both sides of the Border.</p> + +<p>The difficulties of defence, or the constant annoyance, became so great +that in 1318 Edward the Second obtained from the Pope the appropriation to +the bishopric of Carlisle of the church of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, to be +a place of refuge for the Bishop and his successors during the ravages of +the northern enemy. Thomas de Lucy, upon the invasion of the Scots in +1346, “joined his strength with the Bishop of Carlisle [Welton], and so +alarmed the enemy in the night-time, by frequent entering into their +quarters, that at length they fled into their own country. And a truce +shortly after ensuing, he was again joined in commission with the same +Bishop and others to see the same duly observed.” The Bishop was soon +afterwards constituted one of the commissioners for the arraying of men in +the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland for the defence of the Borders, +the French then threatening an invasion. With the growth of these troubles +from abroad, pressure was put upon those who could raise funds, of whom +Bishop Appleby was not the least important. “<i>Brevia de privato sigillo</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +quickly succeed one another at this time,” wrote the Rev. J. Brigstocke +Sheppard, in 1881,<a name='fna_3' id='fna_3' href='#f_3'><small>[3]</small></a> when he had gone carefully through the muniments of +the Dean and Chapter. “The King, in an agony of apprehension, occasioned +by the threat of invasion, backed by a large fleet collected in the +northern ports of France, begs the Bishop again and again to raise a +defensive militia, to cause prayers to be offered in all churches, and +finally to advance him as much money as he can upon security of the +clerical <i>disme</i> which would soon be due.” In a further letter, the King +being determined to borrow from such of his subjects as could best afford +to lend, ordered the Bishop to send for six of the richest clergy and six +of the most affluent laymen in each county, and upon these twenty-four to +impose a loan of fifty marks on an average—more upon those who could +afford it, and less upon those less able to bear the tax. In 1373 Bishop +Appleby was enjoined by the King to reside continually in his diocese upon +the Marches, and to keep the inhabitants in a state of defence as a +protection to the rest of the kingdom against the Scots.</p> + +<p>And so through all the long list of Border<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> troubles the Bishops had to +take a conspicuous share in the proceedings, until the ludicrous incident +on Penrith Fell, which was the last occasion on which a Bishop took part +in fighting on English soil. Various local chroniclers have given +different versions, but there seems to be no room for doubt that the one +by Chancellor Ferguson is accurate. When in 1715 the Jacobites marched +from Brampton to take Penrith, the people from all the country side +(though whether the number was 4,000 or 14,000, as variously stated, is +not material), armed with guns, scythes, pitch-forks, and other handy if +not always military weapons, went on to the fell to meet the rebels. The +“<i>posse comitatus</i> were under Lord Lonsdale and Bishop Nicolson, the +latter seated in his coach, drawn by six horses. So soon as the +Highlanders appeared, the <i>posse comitatus</i> went away; in plain words they +skedaddled, leaving the two commanders and a few of their servants. Lord +Lonsdale presently galloped off to Appleby, and the Bishop’s coachman, +whipping up his horses, carried off his master <i>willy nilly</i> to Rose +Castle. It is said the prelate lost his wig, while shouting from the +carriage window to his coachman to stop.” The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> result of this ignominious +retreat was that the Jacobites took possession of Penrith for the time +being, but behaved well, their most serious action being the proclamation +of James the Third, and the capture of a lot of provisions.</p> + +<p>From fighting prelates to fortified churches is not a long step. Three or +four of these structures have come in for more notice than the rest, +although the latter cannot thereby be considered as lacking some of the +most interesting features of the others. During the last thirty years the +changes necessitated by restorations of churches have caused some of these +relics of turbulent times to be somewhat altered; there are still, +however, numerous village structures which tell their own story much more +vividly, to the trained eye, than could be done by written record. When +the late Mr. John Cory, county architect for Cumberland, read his paper on +the subject at Carlisle a quarter of a century ago, he pointed out some of +the characteristics of these ancient ecclesiastical strongholds: “The +distance from each other tells of a scanty population; the deficiency of +architectural decoration shows that the inhabitants of the district were +otherwise engaged than in peaceful occupations; while traces of continual +repairs in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> the fabric are evidently not to be attributed to the desire +shown in the churches of many southern counties to make good buildings +better, but have resulted from the necessity occasioned by the partial +destruction of churches through hostile aggressions. In many instances it +may be said that the church had been erected scarcely less for the safety +of the body than for the benefit of the soul.”</p> + +<p>That the abbey of Holme Cultram was once both a fortress and a church is +shown to this day by the remains of earthworks which once served for its +defence. Curious entries in the parish books also indicate the bitter +hatred of the Cumbrians for those from over the Border. The value of the +abbey is shown by a petition of the inhabitants of the lordship to +Cromwell in 1538, when they asked “for the preservation and standynge of +the Church of Holme Cultrane before saide; whiche is not onlye unto us our +parish Churche, and little ynoughe to receyve all us, your poore Orators, +but also a great ayde, socor, and defence for us agenst our neghbours the +Scots, witheaut the whiche, few or none of your Lordshipp’s supplyants are +able to pay the King his saide Highness our bounden dutye and service, +ande<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> wee shall not onelye praye for his graciouse noble estate, but also +your Lordshipp’s prosperitie with increase of honour long to endure.”</p> + +<p>The tower of Burgh-by-Sands Church, close to the Solway, was built at the +west end of the structure, with walls six feet to seven feet in thickness. +A further indication of the desire for security is found in the bottoms of +the windows of the church, which were placed eight feet from the ground. +Entrance to the fortified tower could only be obtained through a ponderous +iron door six feet eight inches high, with two massive bolts, and +constructed of thick bars crossing each other, and boarded over with oak +planks. As only one person at a time could gain access to the vaulted +chamber, there was every possibility of offering effective opposition to +attacks, while the ringing of the bells would be the signal for bringing +any available help. What was true of one side of the Solway was equally +true of the other, there being still traces of fortified churches on the +Scottish side of the Firth.</p> + +<p>Newton Arlosh Church is another noteworthy example of a building</p> + +<p class="poem">“Half house of God, half castle ’gainst the Scots,”</p> + +<p>though here the bulk of the attention would seem<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> to have been paid to +bodily danger. The doorway was made only two feet six inches wide, and as +at Burgh the lowest parts of the windows were placed above the reach of a +man’s hand—in this case the sills were seven feet from the ground. Light +was of less consequence than security, and so the windows were only one +foot wide, with a height of three feet four inches.</p> + +<p>Though further away from the Border than either of the other churches +mentioned, that at Great Salkeld was peculiarly liable to attack by the +Scottish raiders, as it occupies a strong position near the river Eden, +whose banks seem to have been much used by the undesirable visitors. The +tower is in a splendid state of preservation, although necessarily much +altered, in detail, from its former condition. There were five floors, +that on the ground level being a vaulted room, with a strong door of iron +and oak leading into the church. Three small apertures afforded light and +opportunities for watching from the first floor, and that room also +contained a fireplace. In a footnote in their “Cumberland” volume of +“Magna Britannia,” the brothers Lysons suggest that Great Salkeld Church +might have been fortified about the time that Penrith Castle was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> built. +There is, however, no direct evidence on the point. Dr. Todd, the former +Vicar of Penrith, who was noted for his encounters with his superiors, +says in his account of Great Salkeld Church, that in his time there was a +place “called the Corryhole, for the correction and imprisonment of the +clergy, while the Archdeacon had any power within the diocese.”</p> + +<p>Prior to the restoration of Dearham Church, the structure possessed +numerous features of interest to the antiquary, some of which have +necessarily been removed or altered. The lower storey of the tower +consisted of a barrel-vaulted chamber, originally enclosed from the +church, and entered only by a small and strongly-barred doorway, similar +to that at Burgh. When the Antiquarian Society visited Dearham some twenty +years ago, the late Canon Simpson drew special attention to this part of +the church. He said it had unquestionably “been one of the old massive +fortified towers peculiar to the Border district: from it, whilst the +parishioners were being besieged, a beacon fire at the top would alarm +their friends in the surrounding country.” Some oak beams then seen in the +tower showed signs of fire, one of them being charred half through.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> The +lower part of the tower of Brigham Church, only a few miles from Dearham, +is strongly vaulted with stone, access being obtained to the chamber above +by means of a narrow door and winding stairs. From these features it has +been concluded by archæologists that this was one of the old Border +fortified churches.</p> + +<p>Further away from the Border, into Mid Westmorland, the searcher may still +meet with evidences of old-time church builders having a much keener eye +for the defensive qualities of their structures than for architectural +beauty. Solidity was the first consideration, and although some of them +were, after all, but ill adapted for the purpose, they must have been, as +the Rev. J. F. Hodgson<a name='fna_4' id='fna_4' href='#f_4'><small>[4]</small></a> once pointed out, “much larger and stronger +buildings than the wretched hovels of the common people. Their enclosures +would very generally offer the best position for defence. Among the +Westmorland churches, those of Crosby Garrett (or Gerard) and Ormside, +though small, and not structurally fortified, seem unmistakably posted as +citadels. Orton Church, too, both in structure and position, is admirably +situated for defence. At Brough, the church, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> massive and easily +defensible building, is situated upon the precipitous bank of the +Hellebeck, and forms a sort of outwork of the Castle.” The church at +Kirkby Stephen certainly occupies a position which would give its +occupants a strong hold on the Upper Eden Valley. The old church at +Cliburn, on the banks of the Leath, was also probably placed there with +some regard to defence. It is believed that the fine old church at Barton +was used for a like purpose, and the vicar some time ago pointed out to +the writer existing evidences of a large moat having probably been formed +in case of necessity, the river Eamont being near enough to ensure an easy +means of water supply.</p> + +<p>There are preserved in the church of Langwathby two specimens of old +Cumberland armour—a helmet and a cuirass. The villagers have versions of +their own as to the wearer of these articles, but obviously the stories +rest on no better foundation than that of tradition; the real explanation +is, doubtless, that given by the late Rev. B. Porteus, and already quoted +in the chapter on “Watch and Ward.”</p> + +<p>Above the tomb of Sir Roger Bellingham (died 1533), in Kendal Church, +there is an ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> helmet suspended, but whether it was put there +because the helmet belonged to the knight, or as a memorial of his having +been created a knight banneret on the field of battle, there has nothing +come to the knowledge of local historians to enable them to decide. The +popular name for the helmet, however, is “the Rebel’s Cap,” and following +the account of Machell, who was living at the time, various writers have +given different versions of a story which, though doubtless correct in its +main points, is open to question on others. The version given by the late +Mr. Cornelius Nicholson<a name='fna_5' id='fna_5' href='#f_5'><small>[5]</small></a> may be quoted, as it is the briefest:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“In the Civil Wars of the Commonwealth, there resided in Kendal one +Colonel Briggs, a leading magistrate, and an active commander in the +Cromwellian army. At that time, also, Robert Philipson, surnamed from +his bold and licentious character, <i>Robin the Devil</i>, inhabited the +island on Windermere, called Belle Isle. Colonel Briggs besieged Belle +Isle for eight or ten days, until the siege of Carlisle being raised, +Mr. Huddleston Philipson, of Crook, hastened from Carlisle, and +relieved his brother Robert. The next day, being Sunday, Robin, with a +small troop of horse, rode to Kendal to make reprisals.</p> + +<p>“He stationed his men properly in the avenues, and himself rode +directly into the church in search of Briggs, down one aisle and up +another. In passing out at one of the upper doors, his head struck +against the portal, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> his helmet, unclasped by the blow, fell to +the ground and was retained. By the confusion into which the +congregation were thrown, he was suffered quietly to ride out. As he +left the churchyard, however, he was assaulted; his girths were cut, +and he himself was unhorsed. His party now returned upon the +assailants; and the Major, killing with his own hands the man who had +seized him, clapped the saddle upon his horse, and, ungirthed as it +was, vaulted into it, and rode full speed through the streets, calling +to his men to follow him; and with his party made a safe retreat to +his asylum on the lake. The helmet was afterwards hung aloft, as a +commemorating badge of sacrilegious temerity.”</p></div> + +<p>The episode was used by Sir Walter Scott for some particularly spirited +lines in “Rokeby” (stanza 33, canto vi.), and in his notes Sir Walter +explained that “This, and what follows, is taken from a real achievement +of Major Robert Philipson, called from his desperate and adventurous +courage <i>Robin the Devil</i>.” A reference to the poem will show that this, +as dealing with fact, can only be applied to the first sixteen lines, +which run:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The outmost crowd have heard a sound<br /> +Like horse’s hoofs on hardened ground;<br /> +Nearer it came, and yet more near,—<br /> +The very death’s-men paused to hear.<br /> +’Tis in the churchyard now—the tread<br /> +Hath waked the dwelling of the dead!<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>Fresh sod and old sepulchral stone<br /> +Return the tramp in varied tone.<br /> +All eyes upon the gateway hung,<br /> +When through the Gothic arch there sprung<br /> +A horseman armed, at headlong speed—<br /> +Sable his cloak, his plume, his steed.<br /> +Fire from the flinty floor was spurned;<br /> +The vaults unwonted clang returned!—<br /> +One instant’s glance around he threw,<br /> +From saddle-bow his pistol drew.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Stockdale, in his “Annals of Furness,” says there was a tradition in +his time that the Parliamentarians in 1643 stabled three troops of horse +in the nave of Cartmell Church; and there can be no doubt that to similar +base uses other ecclesiastical structures in the diocese were occasionally +put in turbulent times. Carlisle Cathedral was often used for purposes of +war, and it was not free from other exciting scenes. During the +Commonwealth it was the centre of much rioting. George Fox preached there, +and files of musketeers had to be brought in to clear the place of the +rioters. After the ill-fated rebellion of ’45, the cathedral was still +further degraded, being made into a prison for captured Highlanders.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> +<h2>Some Church Curiosities.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Under</span> a great variety of divisions many curious facts connected with the +old-time churches of the northern counties might be noted that cannot here +be touched upon. Some of them—especially those associated with the +personal aspect—had their origin solely in the circumstances of the time; +others may be traced to personal idiosyncracies; while geographical +reasons may be found for a third class. With a few exceptions it has not +been deemed necessary in this chapter to go beyond the Reformation. Among +the records concerning Kendal Church is a reference in the Patent Rolls of +1295, in which Walter de Maydenestane is described as “parson of a moiety +of the church of Kirkeby, in Kendale.” An inquiry in <i>Notes and +Queries</i><a name='fna_6' id='fna_6' href='#f_6'><small>[6]</small></a> brought the suggestion that probably this was one of the +places which used to have both a rector and a vicar, several instances of +that arrangement having been in force being mentioned. No information was, +however, forthcoming as to the Kendal case.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>Boy bishops are not unknown, and Westmorland affords an instance of an +infant rector, the following appearing in the list for Long Marton, as +compiled by Dr. Burn:—“1299. John de Medburn, an infant, was presented by +Idonea de Leyburne, and the Bishop committed the custody of the said +infant to a priest named William de Brampton, directing him to dispose of +the profits of the rectory in such manner as to provide for the supply of +the cure, and the education of the young rector in some public school of +learning.” If John de Medburn ever took up the duties of his office, it +could not have been for any extended period, as another rector was +instituted in 1330.</p> + +<p>There was a curious dispute at Holme Cultram in 1636. The Rev. Charles +Robson, who five years previously had become vicar, being a bachelor of +divinity, demanded that the parish should provide him with a hood proper +to his degree. The parishioners objected on the ground that such a claim +had never been made before, the previous vicars having provided their own +hoods, and that Mr. Robson had on all proper occasions, as required by the +canons, worn a hood of his own until within half a year of the dispute +arising. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> case was stated and a legal opinion taken; the result was +entirely against the vicar, who made his position worse, inasmuch as it +was laid down that while the churchwardens were not to provide the hood, +they could be the means, through the ordinary, of compelling a priest who +was a graduate to wear his hood, according to the 58th canon. Another +instance of a clergyman going to law with his parishioners was that of the +Rev. John Benison, vicar of Burton, who was dissatisfied with the payments +of the vicarial revenues. The dispute found its way into Chancery, and +Benison, in 1732, secured the following scale of payments:—“For burial in +the church or churchyard shall be paid 1s., except for women who die in +childbirth, for whom nothing is due. The modus for tithe lands shall be +double for the two first years after the induction of a new vicar, and +every person keeping a plough shall pay yearly 1d. in lieu and full +satisfaction of agistment of barren cattle.”</p> + +<p>Bishop Nicolson has left some curious pictures of the parsons in the +diocese of Carlisle at the time when he made his visitation in the early +years of the eighteenth century. The clergy of that time were for the most +part not remarkable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> for their learning, although there were some notable +exceptions. These were the victims of circumstances; they lived in what +was really a dark age, and no one can feel surprised that so many gave way +to drinking and other unclerical habits. Several, either openly or in the +names of their wives, kept ale-houses; there was one rather glaring +instance of this kind on the western side of Cross Fell. Poverty was +continually their share; an instance of the life some of them led is +recorded by James Clarke,<a name='fna_7' id='fna_7' href='#f_7'><small>[7]</small></a> of Penrith:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Langdale is as poor as any in these parts, except for the slate +quarries, and the slaters (like the miners in Patterdale) debauch the +natives so far that even the poor curate is obliged to sell ale to +support himself and family. And at his house I have played ‘Barnaby’ +with him on the Sabbath Day morning, when he left us with the good old +song—</p> + +<p class="poem">‘I’ll but preach, and be with you again.’”</p></div> + +<p>William Litt (1785-1847), the author of “Henry and Mary,” a story of West +Cumberland life, which was very popular a generation ago, says:—“It is a +well authenticated fact that a rector of Arlecdon left his pulpit for the +purpose of bestowing manual correction on one of his parishioners, whom he +conceived was then insulting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> him. The surplice, however, was such an +impediment to his usual lightness of foot that his intended victim, after +a severe chase, effected his escape, and for that time eluded the +chastisement intended for him by his spiritual pastor.” Although nothing +is known as to the identity of the cleric who thus endeavoured to deal +with a supposed offender, possibly it was Thomas Baxter, who was incumbent +for 62 years (1725 to 1787). He figures by name in “Henry and Mary,” and +is represented as on one occasion reprimanding Squire Skelton, of Rowrah, +very severely for swearing.</p> + +<p>In 1653 George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, visited +Cumberland. One Sunday afternoon he entered the church, and standing on a +seat, he preached three hours to an overflowing congregation; he says in +his journal, “Many hundreds were convinced that day.” A short time +afterwards he again visited the church on a Sunday morning, and entered +into a long theological argument with Mr. Wilkinson, the vicar, who lost +his dinner in consequence. The discussion continued almost to nightfall; +the result seems to have been the conversion of the vicar and the majority +of his congregation, as it is on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> record that Mr. Wilkinson afterwards +became a distinguished minister of the Society of Friends.</p> + +<p>The old customs peculiar to Cumberland and Westmorland of “Whittlegate” +and “Chapel Wage” have long since passed out of the list of obligations +imposed, although the rector of Brougham might still, if he wished, claim +whittlegate at Hornby Hall every Sunday. The parsons of the indifferently +educated class already alluded to had to be content with correspondingly +small stipends, which were eked out by the granting of a certain number of +meals in the course of twelve months at each farm or other house above the +rank of cottage, with, in some parishes, a suit of clothes, a couple of +pairs of shoes, and a pair of clogs. Clarke gives the following +explanation of the origin of the term:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Whittlegate meant two or three weeks’ victuals at each house, +according to the ability of the inhabitants, which was settled among +themselves; so that the minister could go his course as regularly as +the sun, and complete it annually. Few houses having more knives than +one or two, the pastor was often obliged to buy his own knife or +‘whittle.’ Sometimes it was bought for him by the chapel wardens. He +marched from house to house with his ‘whittle,’ seeking ‘fresh fields +and pastures new,’ and as master of the herd, he had the elbow chair +at the table head, which was often made of part of a hollow ash +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>tree—a kind of seat then common. The reader at Wythburn had for his +salary three pounds yearly, a hempen sark or shirt, a whittlegate, and +a goosegate, or right to depasture a flock of geese on Helvellyn. A +story is still (1789) told in Wythburn of a minister who had but two +sermons which he preached in turn. The walls of the chapel were at +that time unplastered, and the sermons were usually placed in a hole +in the wall behind the pulpit. One Sunday, before the service began, +some mischievous person pushed the sermons so far into the hole that +they could not be got out with the hand. When the time came for the +sermon, the priest tried in vain to get them out. He then turned to +the congregation, and told them what had happened. He could touch +them, he said, with his forefinger, but could not get his thumb in to +grasp them; ‘But, however,’ said he, ‘I can read you a chapter out of +Job that’s worth both of them put together!’”</p> + +<p>There may be other instances of the formal appointment of females to +undertake church work usually performed by the other sex, but the writer +has only met with one local example, which occurs thus in the Kendal +churchwardens’ accounts:—“1683, June 29. It is then agreed & consented +too by the major part of the churchwardens that Debora Wilkinson shall be +continued saxton till next Easter, she keeping under her so sufficient a +servant as shall please the Vicar & whole p<sup>r</sup>ish & she to give sufficient +security to the churchwardens for her fidelity. As alsoe it was then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +granted by the major parte of church wardens that the said Debora +Wilkinson for her paines herein shall have & receive to her owne use for +every coffin in the church 2s. 6d. (she or her deputy in takeing up of +fflaggs in the church or lying them downe to place them leveally & in good +order, breaking none of them), and the said Debora or her servant shall +make clean the church att all times according to the Vicar’s order, and to +keepe the font w<sup>th</sup> faire water, changeing itt every fforthnigh or as +often as the Vicar pleaseth.”</p> + +<p>The uses of some parts of ancient buildings have puzzled gentlemen +thoroughly acquainted with church architecture, for the simple reason that +certain of the arrangements might have been made for a variety of +purposes. Leper windows are perhaps sufficiently numerous to show the +intention of the builders, but there are instances where that is not at +all easy to define. The side windows in Bolton Church, near Wigton, one of +which has been described by the Rev. Hilderic Friend as a leper window, +was suggested by the late Mr. Cory as being “for such a purpose as giving +out alms or receiving confession,” as they always had hinges and bolts for +shutters, but not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> glass. Chancellor Ferguson put forward the further +theory that as lepers could not come into the church, they made confession +at these windows. Dr. Simpson rejected these statements, and said that +lamps were placed in the low side windows of some churches after funerals +to scare away evil spirits—an interesting addition to North-Country +folk-lore. Leprosy was apparently a serious trouble in the two counties +five or six centuries ago. John de Vetripont gave to Shap Abbey the +hospital of St. Nicholas, near Appleby, on condition that the abbot and +convent should maintain three lepers in the hospital for ever. In 1356 Sir +Adam, rector of Castlekayroke (Castle Carrock), was cited to show cause +why, being seized with leprosy to such a degree that his parishioners dare +not resort to divine service, he ought not to have a coadjutor assigned +him.</p> + +<p>There are still to be found traces in some of the older churches of the +rooms of anchorites. Experts have stated that the vestry at Greystoke +seems to have been used as an anchor-hold or reclusorium. It is believed +that two reclusi, or inclusi, sometimes dwelt together there, one living +in the vestry and the other in the room above. The latter apartment may +have been used for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> chantry priest, a church watcher, or a sacristan. +Among the architectural curiosities of the two counties may be noted the +church tower of Kirkoswald. The parish church is built at the foot of a +steep hill, facing the Eden, while the old market town is on the sharply +rising ground at the rear. The parishioners would thus have but a small +chance of hearing the bells when sounded for service if they occupied the +ordinary place. Consequently for a very long time—certainly before the +present church was built—the two bells have been placed in a detached +tower on the top of the hill at the rear of the church, and over a hundred +yards away from the building.</p> + +<p>Many ecclesiastical buildings, from the cathedral down to the humblest +village chapel-of-ease, would seem to have had curious inscriptions or +pictures upon their walls. Nearly all these have disappeared, and later +comers are indebted for their knowledge of what has been to such +industrious chroniclers as Machell, Burn, and others. The former put on +paper in 1692 the following lines, which were on the walls of the south +chapel of Kirkby Lonsdale Church:—</p> + +<table style="margin-left: 20%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td align="center">C.</td><td> </td><td align="center">W.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center">(<i>Arms</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">16</td><td> </td><td align="center">68.</td></tr></table> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +“This porch by ye Banes first builded was,<br /> +Of Heighholme Hall they weare;<br /> +And after sould to Christopher Wood,<br /> +By William Bains thereof last heyre;<br /> +And is repayred as you see,<br /> +And set in order good<br /> +By the true owner nowe thereof<br /> +The fore saide Christopher Wood.”</p> + +<p>As in our own day the restoration or alteration of a church frequently +caused much ill-feeling in a parish, and there are records of several such +“scenes” in Cumberland and Westmorland in bygone days. One such was at +Sebergham, where the church was rebuilt in 1825-6, and a tower built at +the west end. On the first Sunday that the edifice was opened the +following protest in rhyme was found nailed to the church door:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The priest and the miller built the church steeple<br /> +Without the consent or good will of the people.<br /> +A tax to collect they tried to impose<br /> +In defiance of right and subversion of laws.<br /> +The matter remains in a state of suspension,<br /> +And likely to be a sad bone of contention.<br /> +If concession be made to agree with us all<br /> +Let the tax be applied to build the church wall.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Churchyard wall now in a ruinous state. Sebergham High Bound, July 12, 1826.”</p> + +<p>While dealing with the architectural curiosities of North-Country +churches, allusion should be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> made to a story connected with that at +Ambleside. A piece of painted glass on the north side of the old church +has a representation of what is locally known as the carrier’s arms—a +rope, a wantey-hook, and five packing pricks, or skewers, these being the +implements used by the carriers and wool staplers for fastening their +packing sheets together. The tradition is that when the church needed +rebuilding, together with the chapels of St. Mary Holm, Ambleside, +Troutbeck, and Applethwaite, which were all destroyed or rendered unfit +for divine worship, the parish was extremely poor; the parishioners at a +general meeting agreed that one church would serve the whole. The next +question was, where it should stand. The inhabitants of Undermillbeck were +for having it at Bowness. The rest thought that as Troutbeck Bridge was +about the centre of the parish, it should be built there. Several meetings +in consequence were held, and many disputes and quarrels arose. At last a +carrier proposed that who ever would make the largest donation towards the +building should choose the situation of the church. An offer so reasonable +could hardly be refused, and many gifts were immediately named. The +carrier, who had acquired a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> fortune by his business, heard them all, and +at last declared that he would cover the church with lead. This offer, +which all the rest were either unable or unwilling to outdo, at once +decided the affair. The carrier chose the situation, and his arms (or more +properly his implements) were painted on the north window of the church. +Tradition adds that this man obtained the name of Bellman, from the bells +worn by the fore-horse, which he first introduced there.</p> + +<p>Several instances of fonts having found their way from churches to private +grounds have been made known during recent years, one being at Penrith, +and others at Musgrave and Brough-under-Stainmore. On the western side of +the county, in the grounds of Mr. T. Dixon, Rheda, is the ancient font, +dated 1578, belonging to Arlecdon Church. In the third decade of this +century, says the Rev. H. Sugden in his notes on the history of the +parish, it was acting at a farm-house as a trough to catch rain-water from +the roof. Subsequently the font was found by Mr. Dixon in a stone wall at +Rowrah Hall, and was removed to its present place of safety. It seems that +the contractor who rebuilt the church in 1829, was allowed to use or +dispose of any of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> the material or contents. The font and an ancient +tombstone of the Dixons, were sold by him, and while the font was made +into a water-catcher, the tombstone found its way to a farm at Kirkland, +where it was utilised as a sconce in the dairy. Occasionally churchwardens +were guilty of what would seem to have been vandalism. At Kirkby Lonsdale +(1686), they recorded the last of a Norman font:—“Received for the old +font stone, 6d.”</p> + +<p>Among the regulations made by the Head Jurie of Watermillock in 1627 was +this:—“Item, It is ordered by the jurie that every tennent of this parish +shall sitt in church in their own seats that hath formerly been set forth +to their ancestors. And if any have a desire to sitt in the Lady Porch, +besides such as have their ancient Rooms therein, they shall sitt there +paying yearly for the same to the use of the Church ijd. p<sup>r</sup> Annum.” The +churchwardens were evidently kept close to their duties by the same +authority, as may be seen by this entry in the book:—“It is ordered that +the Churchwardens of this Parish shall not be discharged of their office +in any year before the Church Stock be fully answered at the sight and +judgment of the Head Jury for the time being.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>This action probably had its origin in the losses of public funds which +had to be deplored in many parishes in consequence of the money being lent +out at interest. “Culyet” is not a word to be found in the standard +dictionaries of our time, although it appears in the parochial records of +Millom. Canon Knowles took the word to mean the free-will offerings made +from house to house, being used at Christ Church, Oxford, as the +equivalent of “collecta,” a collection. In some of the parishes which lent +out church funds, rather heavy rates of security were exacted—at Millom +the arrangement was seven and a half per cent. Hence there can be no room +for surprise that so many parishes have had reason to deplore “lost +stock.”</p> + +<p>Crosthwaite differed from other places in the manner of selecting and +swearing the churchwardens and sidesmen, the form being settled by the +Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes in Queen Elizabeth’s time. They +decreed “That yearly, upon Ascension Day, the vicar, the eighteen sworn +men, the churchwardens, the owner of Derwentwater estate, the sealer and +receiver of the Queen’s portion at the mines, one of the chiefest of the +company and fellowship of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> the partners and offices of the minerals, then +resiant at Keswick, the bailiffs of Keswick, Wythburn, Borrowdale, +Thornthwaite, Brundholme, and the forester of Derwent Fells, shall meet in +the church of Crosthwaite, and so many of them as shall be there assembled +shall chuse the eighteen men and churchwardens for the year ensuing, who +shall on the Sunday following before the vicar take their oath of office.”</p> + +<p>The seating of the men and women on different sides of the church was a +proceeding once so common as to almost remove it from the list of +curiosities. The churchwardens’ books of Crosthwaite contain very minute +orders as to where every person in the parish should sit, and in other +places a similar rule obtained. In these days of “free and open churches” +it is interesting to read of the arrangements which the churchwardens and +vicar made so as to allocate every seat in St. Patrick’s Church, Bampton, +in 1726. The rule appears to have been based on the land tax, and the list +begins with “The Lord Vis. Lonsdale,” who had one complete stall for the +use of the tenants of Bampton Hall, another for Low Knipe, and other seats +elsewhere. The whole of the inhabitants seem to have been provided for, +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> catalogue concluding with a statement of the accommodation set apart +for the school-master of Measand and the school-dame at Roughill; the +master at Bampton Grange, being an impropriator, found a place among the +aristocracy on “the Gospel side” of the chancel.</p> + +<p>Some quaint entries concerning the provision and cost of wine for sacred +purposes—and for other uses not always answering that description—are to +be met with in several of the parochial records. In the vestry book of +Cockermouth is this entry for June, 1764:—“Ordered that all the wine for +the communicants be bought at one house where the Churchwardens can get it +the best and cheapest. Ordered that no wine be given to any clergyman to +carry home.” At one of the meetings of the Cumberland and Westmorland +Antiquarian Society, the late Canon Simpson produced a paper which showed +that very heavy sums, comparatively, had been spent at Kendal in providing +Communion wine. One item was for £6, another £9, and again £11, while +opposite one of the entries was the remark: “That is exclusive of wine +used at Easter.” It was customary for the vicar or rector to give the +Easter Communion wine, receiving in return<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> Easter dues. On another +occasion, when the Bishop of Chester was to visit the church, the wardens +ordered a bottle of sack to be placed in the vestry.</p> + +<p>An interesting ceremony has long been gone through at Dacre Church in +connection with the distribution of the Troutbeck Dole. The principal +representative of the family now living is Dr. John Troutbeck, Precentor +of Westminster. The Rev. Robert Troutbeck, in 1706, by his will gave to +the poor of Dacre parish, the place of his nativity, a sum of money, the +interest of which was ordered to be “distributed every year by the +Troutbecks of Blencowe, if there should be any living, otherwise by the +minister and churchwardens for the time being.” A more curious proviso was +contained in the will of John Troutbeck, made in 1787. By that document +£200 was left to the poor of the testator’s native parish, and the +interest was ordered to be “distributed every Easter Sunday, on the family +tombstone in Dacre churchyard, provided the day should be fine, by the +hands and at the discretion of a Troutbeck of Blencowe, if there should be +any living, those next in descent having prior right of distribution. If +none should be living that would distribute the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> money, then by a +Troutbeck as long as one could be found that would take the trouble of it; +otherwise by the minister and churchwardens of the parish for the time +being; that not less than five shillings should be given to any +individual, and that none should be entitled to it who received alms, or +any support from the parish.” The custom was carried out in due form on +the “through-stone” last Easter.</p> + +<p>Kirkby Stephen, up to about sixty years ago, had a very curious +custom—the payment, on a fixed day every year, upon a tombstone still in +the churchyard, of the parishioners’ tithe. The late Mr. Cornelius +Nicholson, in a now scarce pamphlet on Mallerstang Forest, gave the +following account of the observance:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“The tombstone is unhewn millstone grit, covered with a limestone +slab, whereon a heraldic shield was once traceable, supposed to +indicate the ownership of the Whartons. Tradition says, however, that +it is older than the tombs in the Wharton Chapel. Among the +parishioners it went popularly by the name of the great ‘truppstone,’ +a corruption perhaps of ‘through-stone.’ It is certain, however—and +this is the gist of the story—that for generations, time out of mind, +the money in lieu of tithes of hay was here regularly paid to the +incumbent of the church on Easter Monday. The grey coats of this part +of Westmorland assembled punctually as Easter Monday came round, and +there and then tendered to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> vicar their respective quotas of +silver. Some agreement, oral or written, must have been made between +the parties, which does not now appear. The practice became the law of +custom. The payment was called a modus in lieu of hay tithe. I find +that when Lord Wharton purchased the advowson at the dissolution of +monasteries the tithes of corn and hay were excepted from the +conveyance, which points to this customary modus on the ‘truppstone.’ +If this reference be correct, the curious custom dates back to the +time of Henry the Eighth, and perhaps farther back, and gives it a +continuance of some 300 years.</p> + +<p>“We don’t know its origin, but we do know its extinction. When the +Rev. Thomas P. Williamson became vicar, in the first decade of this +century, a quarrel arose between him and the tithe-payers as to this +modus. Law proceedings were threatened, and some preliminaries were +taken. The parishioners, notwithstanding, attended on Easter Monday as +before, and tendered their doles. The vicar also attended, but +determinedly refused the money, until his death in 1835, which put a +stop to the custom. After his death, the vicar’s widow set up a claim +for the arrears, which had been offered and refused, so she took +nothing by her motion. In 1836 all the tithes were commuted in +England, under the provision of the Tithes Commutation Act, carried +into execution by a Cumberland M.P., Mr. Aglionby, whom I knew very +well, in Lord John Russell’s Ministry. These particulars of the +‘truppstone’ were furnished me by Mr. Matthew Thompson, Kirkby +Stephen, one of the county magistrates, who himself—and this clenches +it as a fact—yearly attended in the churchyard, with his quota, and +who was present on the very last occasion.”</p></div> + +<p>An incident which in some respects has had at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> least one counterpart +within recent years is recorded as happening at Little Salkeld towards the +end of the fourteenth century. The little chapel there was “desecrated and +polluted by the shedding of blood,” and as the parish church of Addingham +was a considerable distance, the vicar was allowed to officiate in his own +vicarage-house “till the interdict should be taken off from the chapel.”</p> + +<p>There is a curious story attaching to some of the wood-work of Greystoke +Church. The misereres under the choir stalls are very quaintly carved, and +one of them, “the pelican in her piety,” was for many years used as the +sign of an inn near the church. From this circumstance the hostelry lost +its old name, the “Masons’ Arms,” and acquired the modern one of the +“Pelican.”</p> + +<p>Although schools in churches were very common, the holding of Courts in +such buildings could not have been frequent. At Ravenstonedale, where +numerous customs peculiar to the parish or immediate district prevailed, +the people had a strong belief in home rule, and insisted on having it. In +the old church there were two rows of seats below the Communion table, +where the steward of the manor and jury sat in their Court<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> of Judicature +in the sixteenth century. The malefactors were imprisoned in a hollow +arched vault, the ruins of which were to be seen not much more than a +quarter of a century ago on the north side of the church. There was so +much wrangling over cases, and the manifestation of such a bad spirit, +which the parishioners felt was unbecoming and unsuited to such an +edifice, that they petitioned Lord Wharton, the lord of the manor, to have +the trying of cases removed to a house belonging to him which stood near +the church. This was granted, and subsequently the Court was held in the +village inn and other places.</p> + +<p>“A gentleman who carries out archidiaconal functions,” is the familiar, +though vague, definition of an archdeacon in our own time, but a couple of +centuries ago that church official had very definite duties and powers. As +Mr. G. E. Moser, solicitor, Kendal, once reminded the members of the two +counties’ Archæological Society, the visits of the Archdeacon of Richmond +to Kendal—where he sentenced offenders from his chair of state erected in +the High Quire—were looked forward to with awe and reverence. The +churchwardens’ books contain the following among other entries:—“Paid for +bent to strawe in the High<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> Quire against Sir Joseph [Cradock] came.” +“Paid to the Churchwardens, which they laid out when they delivered their +presentments to Sir Joseph Cradock.” “Paid for washing and sweeping the +Church against Sir Joseph’s coming to sitt his Court of Correction, which +was the 7 July, 1664.” “At the peremptory day, being the 18th day of +October, 1664, the general meeting of the churchwardens, whose names are +herunder written doth order that Geo. Wilkinson shall keep the clock and +chimes in better order, and shall keep swine out of the churchyard, and +whip the dogs out of the church in time of divine service and sermon, and +remove the dunghill and the stable-door which opens into the churchyard +before the next peremptory day, and reform all abuses belonging to his +office, or else the Churchwardens will make complaint so that it shall be +referred to the ordinary.”</p> + +<p>Chancellor Ferguson told the members that he had found in some documents, +relating to an unnamed Cumberland church, an order that no swine should be +allowed in the churchyard unless they had rings in their noses! There are +many reminders available of the days when rushes or other growths were put +on church floors, by such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> entries as that in Waberthwaite registers, +dated 1755:—“Bent bought, 12d.” At Millom there are charges for dressing +the church. Between 1720 and 1783 there are several entries in the +Hawkshead registers with reference to “strawing the church”—meaning the +covering of the floor with rushes. There are also here, as at Penrith and +some other places, allusions to payments for collecting moss, with which +the rain was often kept out of the churches.</p> + +<p>It was, even within the last half century, a common occurrence for dogs to +accompany their owners to church, but the officials did not appreciate the +custom. Mr. John Knotts, in 1734, left an estate at Maulds Meaburn for the +use of the poor of the township, from which five shillings yearly had to +be paid for keeping dogs out of Crosby Ravensworth Church. The legality of +the will was disputed on a technicality, and the heir-at-law paid a sum of +money instead, which was invested, but how long the crown was paid for +anti-dog purposes is not known. The Rev. J. Wilson wrote in his parochial +magazine a few years ago:—“In the olden days in Dalston there was an +officer whose duty it was to whip dogs out of church during service time, +and, strange as it may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> seem, the custom under another name and in +somewhat altered guise existed till the old church was demolished in 1890. +The parish dog-whipper had £1 a year for his salary during the latter +portion of the 18th century, when the duties of the office were extended +to other matters. In the parish accounts the following entry occurs: ‘May +3, 1753 John Gate for whipping the Dogs out of church, opening and +shutting ye sashes, sweeping ye church &c. for one year, £01 00 00.’ The +same entry occurs regularly every year till 1764, when his widow +undertakes the job: ‘May 6th 1764 Wid: Gate for whipping ye Dogs out of ye +church, opening and shutting ye sashes, sweeping ye church £01 00 00.’ The +office of dog-whipper continues to be mentioned every year till 1774, when +it disappears, and the entry is changed to: ‘May 1, 1774, Wid: Gate for +cleaning ye church £01 00 00.’” The church records show that at Penrith an +annual payment of two shillings was made for many years to the +dog-whipper. Among the items bearing on church expenses contained in the +Torpenhow registers in 1759, was an annual allowance of 5s. to the sexton +for whipping dogs out of the church, and that he might the more +efficiently do his work he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> granted an extra allowance of 3d. for a +whip and 2d. for a thong. There is an item in the Waberthwaite records +which runs:—“According to the canons laitly sett down, four sydmen +[synodsmen] are to be appointed every year, one of whose duties is to +keepe the dogges out of the chirche, 1605.” At Hawkshead a dog-whipper was +provided from 1723 to 1784. If the following paragraph, which appeared in +the <i>Cumberland Pacquet</i>, in January, 1817, may be believed, there was at +least one dog which would not incur the wrath of either parson or +dog-whipper:—“Mr. William Wood of Asby, parish of Arlecdon, has a cur dog +which for these four years past has regularly attended church, if within +hearing of the bells; and what is more singular, the animal never misses +going to his master’s seat whether any of the family attend or not.”</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> +<h2>Manorial Laws and Curiosities of Tenures.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">No</span> doubt because of the proximity of the district to the Border, the +tenures by which certain properties were held in Cumberland and +Westmorland must be regarded as quite local in their character. The +observances are, of course, all the more interesting on that account, and +even in cases for which parallels are to be found in other parts of the +kingdom, little peculiarities may sometimes be seen in local instances +which throw light on the former habits of the people. Lords of manors were +once individuals possessed of great powers. The lords of Millom held their +property for hundreds of years, and had <i>jura regalia</i> within the +seignory, in memory of which a modern stone erected at Gallow, half a mile +below Millom Castle, has the inscription,</p> + +<p class="poem">“Here the Lords of Millom exercised jura regalia.”</p> + +<p>The lord of the manor of Troutbeck, Windermere, is also believed to have +formerly exercised a jurisdiction over capital offences.</p> + +<p>Where such powers existed, it is by no means<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> surprising that the homage +exacted from tenants and servitors on various occasions was of a character +that in modern days would be regarded as extremely degrading. Thus when a +free tenant went to his lord’s residence to do homage according to custom +and duty, he was ushered into the presence of his superior without sword +or other arms, and with his head uncovered. The lord remained seated, and +the tenant with profound reverence knelt before the great man. With his +clasped or joined hands placed between those of the lord, the homager +repeated the following vow, which seems to have been in practically the +same terms in various manors:—“I become your man from this day forward, +for life, for member, and for worldly honour, and unto you shall be true +and faithful, and bear you faith for the lands that I hold of you, saving +the faith that I owe to our Sovereign Lord the King.” The lord, still +sitting, then kissed the tenant, as a token of his approbation. In +Cumberland and Westmorland there are several villages named Carleton, this +being one of the reminders of the days of serfdom. The carls were simply +the basest sort of servants—practically slaves.</p> + +<p>The former servile condition of the poor in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> neighbourhood of barons’ +houses is also preserved in such names as Bongate, or as it was always +written in old documents, Bondgate, at Appleby. In the great trial between +the Cliffords and the burghers, when the former claimed the services of +the freemen, it was decided that neither Robert de Vetripont nor any of +his heirs ever had seizin of the borough, where the burgesses lived, but +that King John gave to him “<i>Vetus Apilbi ubi villani manent</i>”—“Old +Appleby, where the bondmen dwell.” The bondmen, or villeins, were probably +of the same social standing as those known as drenges, the Cliffords +having very many drengage tenements in various parts of their Sheriffwick. +“The drenges were pure villeins—doubtless Saxons kept in a state of the +vilest slavery, being granted by the lords of the manor, with a piece of +land, like so many oxen. In fact they were as much the property of the +lord of the manor as the negroes in the West Indian Colonies were formerly +the property of the sugar planters. It is probable that the drenges were +employed to perform all the servile and laborious offices at Brougham +Castle; for in 1359, Engayne, lord of Clifton, granted to Roger de +Clifford, by indenture, the service of John Richardson, and several +others<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> mentioned by name, with their bodies and all that belonged to +them.”<a name='fna_8' id='fna_8' href='#f_8'><small>[8]</small></a></p> + +<p>In the reign of Richard the First there was given to the church of +Carlisle, “lands in Lorton, with a mill there, and all its rights and +appendages, and namely the miller, his wife, and children”—apparently +clear evidence of the servitors being regarded as part of the property.</p> + +<p>Several manorial lords claimed for their tenants the right to go toll-free +throughout England. This was the case with Armathwaite, while the +privilege also pertained to the prioress and nuns at Nunnery. The manor of +Acorn Bank, near Temple Sowerby, used to have the right, or rather the +privilege was claimed. In the time of the late Mr. John Boazman (the +immediate predecessor of Mr. Henry Boazman, the present owner), the +following was written:—“The lords of this manor can still claim and +exercise for themselves and tenants all the privileges granted to the +Knights Templars, the most important of which is exemption from toll +throughout England. The tenants when travelling carry a certificate, +signed and sealed by the lord of the manor. This certificate, after +reciting part of the old charter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> concludes as follows:—‘Which charter +[that of Henry the Second] was confirmed by King Charles of England, +Scotland, and Ireland, in the fourth year of his reign, in witness whereof +I, the said John Boazman, as lord of the manor, have executed and set my +manorial seal.’” The burgesses of Appleby also possessed under their early +charters privileges of a like character, and these would doubtless be of +very appreciable value.</p> + +<p>The ancient family of Hoton, or Hutton, were by Edward the Third, in +consideration of the service rendered to him by Thomas de Hoton in the +wars against Scotland, restored to the bailiwick and office of keeping the +King’s land or forest in Plumpton, which was first bestowed upon them +prior to the time of Edward the First. It is believed that this led to the +family taking a horn as their badge. Besides the monetary payment of +something under £2 yearly, it was found in the reign of Henry the Seventh +that the lands were also held by the service of holding the stirrup of the +King’s saddle while his Majesty mounted his horse in the Castle of +Carlisle. The adjoining manor of Newton Reigny was held in the early days +of the Lowthers by the service of finding for the King in his wars against +Scotland one horseman with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> a horse of the value of forty shillings, armed +with a coat of mail, an iron helmet, a lance, and a sword, abiding in the +war for forty days with the King’s person. At a later date the terms were +varied; there was then the paying of two shillings per annum for cornage, +and the providing, for the King’s army, “one horseman with habiliments, +one lance, and one long sword.” Penrith and five other manors were once +held by the Kings of Scotland by paying one soar-hawk yearly to the +constable of the Castle of Carlisle, with some privileges concerning +rights in Inglewood Forest. The manor of Cargo, near Carlisle, was held +for many generations by the family of de Ross, by the rendering of a hawk +or a mark of silver yearly. When the same manor was the property of the +Lacys, it was held by cornage, and afterwards by the Vescys for a mew’d +hawk yearly in lieu of all services.</p> + +<p>In the manor of Gaitsgill and Raughton were twenty-two freehold tenants in +1777, who paid 28s. 8¾d. yearly free rent, did suit and service at the +lord’s court when called upon, and paid yearly to the Duke of Portland as +chief lord of the Forest of Inglewood £2 13s. 2d., besides sending a man +to appear for them at the Forest Court at Hesket<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> every St. Barnabas’s +Day, and that representative was to be on the inquest. This manor was at +the Conquest “all forest and waste ground,” and was enclosed by one +Ughtred, who held of the King “for keeping the eyries of hawks which bred +in the Forest of Inglewood.” The posterity of Ughtred took their surname +from Gatesgill, and adopted the sparhawk for their cognisance. The +neighbouring manor of High Head (Higheved) was held of Edward the Third by +William English by the service of one rose yearly. Later, in the time of +Henry the Eighth, it was held by William Restwold as an approvement of the +forest by fealty and the service of rendering at the King’s exchequer of +Carlisle one red rose yearly at the feast of St. John the Baptist.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Philip and Mary, Alexander Armstrong was granted a +considerable amount of property, including a mill, in the parish of +Gilcrux, at a very low rental, on condition of finding and maintaining +five horsemen “ready and well-furnished, whenever the King and Queen and +the successors of the Queen shall summon them within the county.” In +documents belonging to the abbey of Holme Cultram, whereby Flemingby (now +known as Flimby, between Maryport and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> Workington) was handed over to the +monks, Gospatric, the donor, inserted a clause that he would himself do +for the monastery “noutegeld and the like due to the King; and also to the +lord of Allerdale of seawake, castleward, pleas, aids, and other +services.” The nutgeld tax—an impost apparently peculiar to the Border +counties—was even last century frequently enforced in Cumberland and +Westmorland.</p> + +<p>The custom of providing for gilt spurs was of a practical kind, the +articles being peculiarly useful to the grantor. “Every knight (who served +on horseback) was obliged to wear gilt spurs; hence they were called +<i>equites aurati</i>.” The reservation, by Gospatrick, of homage to be +performed by William de Lancastre has provided some interesting questions +for past generations of historians and antiquaries. William de Lancastre +the second gave thirty marks to the King that he might have the privilege +of fighting a duel with Gospatrick, and the theory propounded was that +this contest was caused because “the tenant’s proud spirit could not brook +such a humiliation as that of doing homage.” Remembering the conditions of +life, the supposition is not at all improbable, for what man of good birth +would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> care to submit to perform the service described in the second +paragraph of this chapter? In the same parish of Kirkby Lonsdale, William +de Pickering had the manor of Killington granted to him for the yearly +payment of a pair of gilt spurs, or sixpence, at the feast of Pentecost, +and the service of the twentieth part of one knight’s service when +occasion should require.</p> + +<p>Alice Lucy, a member of the once very powerful family of that name, +reserved out of Wythop a penny rent service, or a pair of gloves; and a +long time afterwards it was found that Sir John Lowther, knight, held the +same manor “by homage, fealty, and suit of court at Cockermouth ... and +the free rent of one penny or one red rose.” The manor, now held by Sir +Henry R. Vane, Bart., Hutton-in-the-Forest, was subsequently sold to the +Fletchers under the services just mentioned. In addition to a heavy fine, +and a rental of £10 yearly, Thomas de Multon paid “one palfrey for the +office of forester of Cumberland,” granted to the family by King John. One +of Multon’s ancestors, Richard de Lucy, also gave money and a palfrey in +order to obtain the grant and other privileges.</p> + +<p>At Hesket, yearly, on St. Barnabas’s Day, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> the highway side under a +thorn tree (according to the very ancient manner of holding assemblies in +the open air), wrote Nicolson in 1777, was kept the Court for the whole +forest of Inglewood, to which Court the manors within that vast +circumference (above twenty in number), owed suit and service; and a jury +was there impannelled and sworn for the whole forest. It is a shadow or +relic of the ancient Forest Courts; and here they pay their compositions +for improvements, purprestures, agistments, and puture of the foresters, +and the jurors being obliged to attend from the several manors, seems to +be part of that service which was called <i>witnesman</i>. “Improvements” in +this case means permission to take up open lands belonging to the manorial +lord.</p> + +<p>Horn tenures, locally known as cornage, were common. At Brougham Hall is +preserved the old and quaintly fashioned horn which was sounded by the +former owners of the estates in complying with the requirement to blow a +horn in the van of the King and his army, when the monarch went into +Scotland, or at other times when the Scots made incursions to the southern +side of the Border. An interesting relic of the same description is +possessed at Carlisle—the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> “Horn of the Altar.” The Charter Horn has thus +been described by Archdeacon Prescott:—“In the year 1290 a claim was made +by the King, Edward the First, and by others, to the tithes on certain +lands lately brought under cultivation in the Forest of Inglewood. The +Prior of Carlisle appeared on behalf of his convent, and urged their right +to the property on the ground that the tithes had been granted to them by +a former King, who had enfeoffed them by a certain ivory horn which he +gave to the Church of Carlisle, and which they possessed at that time. The +Cathedral of Carlisle has had in its possession for a great number of +years, two fine walrus tusks, with a portion of the skull. They appear in +ancient inventories of the goods of the cathedral as ‘one horn of the +altar in two parts,’ or ‘two horns of the altar’ (1674), together with +other articles of the altar furniture. But antiquaries came to the +conclusion that these were identical with the ‘ivory horn’ referred to +above.... Such Charter Horns were not uncommon in ancient days.”</p> + +<p>Blackmail used to bear a significance not fully understood by the modern +use of the word. In the north of England it signified, especially in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +Cumberland, a certain rent of money, corn, or other things, anciently paid +to persons inhabiting upon or near the Border, being men of name and +power, allied with certain robbers within those counties, to be freed and +protected from the devastations of those depredators. By 43 Elizabeth, +cap. 13, it was provided that to take any such money or contribution, +called blackmail, to secure goods from rapine, was made capital felony, as +well as the offences such contribution was meant to guard against. Tenants +in those old times had nearly all the privileges of paying; their +opportunities for getting anything without cash or labour were few. One +such concession which they enjoyed was “plowbote,” being the right of +tenants to take wood to repair their ploughs, carts, and harrows; and for +the making of such articles of husbandry as rakes and forks. Fire-bote was +the term applied to a right enjoyed by many tenants, being the fuel for +firing, and obtainable out of the lands granted to them. Timber-lode was a +service by which tenants were to carry to the lord’s house timber felled +in his woods. The Dean and Chapter of Carlisle were formerly obliged to +provide the tenants of the manor of Morland with wood for the reparation +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> their houses. This was released by an endowment of £16 per annum, +being given by the Dean and Chapter to the school.</p> + +<p>Boon services of all kinds were common in all the manors along what is +known as the eastern fell side—the base of Cross Fell, and north and +south thereof. Before they were enfranchised by Sir Michael le Fleming, +the tenants of Skirwith had to supply such boons as reaping, mowing, +ploughing, harrowing, carrying coals, and spinning a stipulated number of +hanks of yarn. Up to the latter half of last century each tenant of the +manor of Threlkeld was obliged to find half a draught for one day’s +ploughing; give one day mowing, one day shearing, one day clipping, and +one day salving sheep; one carriage load once in two years, but not to go +above ten miles; and to dig and lead two loads of peats every year, the +tenants to have sufficient meat and drink when they performed these +services. The cottagers were to perform the same services, only instead of +half a plough they were to find one horse with a harrow, and a footman +instead of a carriage load. The tenants were also bound to the lord’s +mill, pay the fortieth corn, and to maintain the wall and thatch of the +mill. The tenants had house-boot (wood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> for repairing their houses) as set +out by the lord’s bailiff; peats, turves, ling, whins, limestone, and +marl, with stones and slate for building. About 1764, half the tenants +bought off these services at a cost of five guineas each, the mill service +only excepted. The tenements paid twopence each yearly as greenhue rent, +an impost which was once a common payment by Cumberland and Westmorland +manorial tenants; along with it in the Eskdale and Mitredale manors of the +Earls of Egremont was a due called “door-toll.” What may have been the +origin of the latter seems to be now unknown.</p> + +<p>At Parsonby, near Aspatria, the tenants had to give to the parson each one +boon day yearly at reaping. In the neighbouring parish of Blennerhasset +the tenants, besides being subjected to heriots, each provided one day at +mowing, shearing, ploughing, and meadows dressing, and two days leading +coals. Higher up the fells the score of tenants at High Ireby and +Ruthwaite, under Mr. Fletcher, had to give one day a year, or pay +threepence; one would suppose the most economical alternative was to pay +cash. At Egremont the burgesses who had ploughs were obliged to till the +lord’s demesne one day in the year, but every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> burgess was required to +find a reaper. In one of the manors of the parish of Wetheral, the +tenants, in addition to their monetary payments, had to render to the +Aglionby family, of Nunnery, boon days shearing and leading corn, with a +certain quantity of oats called foster oats, six pecks being equal to four +of Carlisle measure. Various attempts have been made within recent years +to ascertain definitely what was the origin and meaning of the term. +Nicolson says it was “perhaps heretofore for the use of the foresters, +this part being within the forest of Inglewood.” That this was probable is +also shown by a rule which existed in the barony of Greystoke, which was +held of the King <i>in capite</i> by the service of one entire barony, +rendering £4 yearly at the fairs of Carlisle, suit at the County Court +monthly, and serving the King in person against Scotland. The lord’s +tenants, of whom there were some hundreds early in this century, had to +pay “a 20d. fine on the death of lord or tenant, and a 30d. fine upon +alienation; also to pay foster rents, foster corn, mill rents, greenhue, +peat silver, and boons for mowing and leading peats.”</p> + +<p>There are many curious regulations bearing upon local tenures, but there +is not lacking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> evidence that some of a still more noteworthy character +have either been allowed to drop out of recognition, or the duties have +been compounded for. Silver-penny fines are still enforced occasionally. +In Mr. J. E. Hasell’s manor of Dacre, when a mortgagee of real estate is +admitted to the court roll, he has to pay a fine of a silver penny for +each. Heriots is a manorial impost about which some curious information +has at various times been published. Many lords of manors and landlords +have during the last half century allowed many of their rights in this +direction to drop, while others have put on small money payments in lieu +both of heriots and services. All customary property in the barony of +Greystoke, except in the manor of Watermillock, is subject to heriots.</p> + +<p>A curious custom obtains in Mr. H. C. Howard’s manor of Newbiggin (Dacre), +as shown by a case which arose about thirty years ago. A married woman, +seized in fee of customary lands, died, leaving a husband and child. The +query was raised whether the husband was entitled to the estate for his +own life “as tenant by the curtesy.” It was decided that by the custom of +the manor, there being no will, the child or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> heir at law of a deceased +married woman should take the property absolutely, to the exclusion of the +husband. In the adjoining manor of Barton there is another interesting +rule. A Pooley Bridge man, who held certain property of the manor by +payment of a rent of a shilling per annum, died intestate and a bachelor. +His nearest relatives were two nieces, daughters of a deceased brother. +The question was asked whether the two women would be co-heiresses, as in +some other manors, but the eldest was found to take all, to the exclusion +of her sister. The custom of the manor of Inglewood is to the same effect, +the eldest daughter, sister, or other female descendant inheriting.</p> + +<p>A question arose some forty-five years ago as to a peculiar custom +existing in the barony of Greystoke. Mr. William Bleaymire, the then +steward, stated that by custom of that barony a customary tenant might +convey such tenement without concurrence of his wife, as no widow was +entitled to free bench in lands disposed of by her husband in his +lifetime, he not dying seized thereof. Three or four years later a very +similar question arose in the manor of Glassonby, the particular point +being whether an owner could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> devise his customary land to his children so +as to deprive his wife (to whom he was married prior to 1834) of her dower +or free bench therein. The late Mr. Lawrence Harrison, the steward of the +manor, decided that “the man dies seized of the customary tenement; +therefore, notwithstanding his will, she is entitled to free bench +according to the custom. The Dower Act in nowise affects the custom.” It +is a well-known fact that the manorial customs in one village may be +exactly contrary to those obtaining in an adjoining one. In some manors +daughters are practically unnoticed, and in this connection an interesting +point connected with the manor of Watermillock once came up. Mr. Bleaymire +decided that an eldest daughter would be entitled to certain property in +that manor, subject to her mother’s free bench, which was one half.</p> + +<p>A fruitful source of litigation, and of disputes of a less costly +character, may be found in the demands made even in quite recent times, +that purchasers should personally attend the Manorial Court in order to +have admittance. In some local cases such attendance is rigidly enforced, +but in others—the manor of Edenhall for instance—the purchaser is +admitted on production of deed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> of bargain and sale. The law books contain +many cases in which this point has been stubbornly fought. In the manor of +Cumwhitton no admittances are granted, but the property passes by deed of +bargain and sale with the licence of the steward endorsed on the deed, and +a simple enrolment of the purchaser. In the manors of Morland, Plumpton, +and Croglin, the parties seeking to be admitted must attend in person or +by attorney.</p> + +<p>In the manor of Renwick, by an indenture mutually agreed upon in 1676, the +tenants, in addition to a variety of financial payments, were obliged to +scour and cleanse the water course to the lord’s mill from the bottom up +to the mill trough head, and maintain the mill with wall and thatch; bring +millstones thereto, and grind their corn thereat, paying a twenty-fourth +multure. They were entitled to such house-boot as the steward might be +pleased to allot. Some of the mills were of considerable value, a fact +which will be readily understood when it is remembered how tenaciously +lords of manors clung to the right almost down to our own time. The lord +of Drigg had a mill, to which, as was so frequently the case, the tenants +were bound. In these days,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> fortunately, this and other requirements are +not enforced. The same manor had flotsam, jetsam, and lagan, “and so it +was adjudged upon a trial at bar between Henry, Earl of Northumberland, +and Sir Nicholas Curwen in Queen Elizabeth’s time, and afterwards a decree +in Chancery for conforming the said prescription and securing that right +to the sea against the lord paramount.”</p> + +<p>The rector of Caldbeck is, or was, entitled to claim a God’s penny upon +the change of tenant by death, in his manor in the lower part of the +parish. Multure (“mooter”) was formerly a common form of tax in +Cumberland; very many instances of its imposition by lords of manors might +be quoted, but sometimes it extended to the markets. The following is a +copy of a bill relating to a revolt on the part of the inhabitants of +Cockermouth, but the writer has not been able to discover to what extent, +and whether immediately, the residents in the old borough succeeded in +their protest:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">COCKERMOUTH TOLLS.</p> + +<p>At a Meeting of the <span class="smcap">Inhabitants</span> of <span class="smcap">Cockermouth</span>, holden at the <span class="smcap">Court +House</span>, on <span class="smcap">Saturday</span> the 13th Instant, to take into consideration the +unjust and illegal manner in which</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>The TOLL of GRAIN,</p> + +<p>brought into Cockermouth Market, has for some years past been taken; +and it having been admitted by the Lord of the Manor, that the Toll of +Corn is</p> + +<p class="center">ONE HANDFUL<br /> +<i>Out of each Sack sold in the<br /> +Market, and no more</i>;</p> + +<p>It was unanimously resolved, that the undermentioned Gentlemen be +appointed to attend the Corn Market, for the purpose of observing the +mode in which the Toll is taken in future; also that the Landowners, +Farmers, and others, be requested to give information to them, if more +than the Legal Toll be hereafter required or taken by the Lessees of +the Tolls, or if they take it from Grain <i>not actually sold</i>, in order +that such measures may be pursued by and for the Parties aggrieved as +the Law allows.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td>Messrs.</td><td class="br"><span class="smcap">Joseph Steel</span>,</td><td> Messrs. </td><td><span class="smcap">Joshua Sim</span>,</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td class="br"><span class="smcap">William Wood</span>,</td><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">John Fisher</span>,</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td class="br"><span class="smcap">John Hodgson</span>,</td><td> </td><td><span class="smcap">Thomas Wilson</span>.</td></tr></table> + +<p><span class="smcap">That</span> a Meeting of the Inhabitants of Cockermouth, together with the +Landowners and Farmers of its Vicinity, be holden in the Court House,</p> + +<p class="center">On <span class="smcap">Monday</span> the 22d Inst. at Two o’Clock<br /> +<span class="smcaplc">IN THE AFTERNOON</span>,</p> + +<p>to form an <span class="smcaplc">ASSOCIATION</span> for the purpose of <span class="smcap">Prosecuting</span> any Person or +Persons <span class="smcaplc">TAKING MORE TOLL</span> than is allowed by the Ancient Prescription.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Cockermouth, March 15th, 1830.</i></span></p></div> + +<p>The lordship of Millom was anciently exempted from the jurisdiction of the +Sheriff of Cumberland; the lords had power to licence their own +ale-houses, and wreck of the sea was enjoyed until a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> comparatively recent +period—certainly up to near the end of last century—“whereof,” says +Nicolson, “much benefit is frequently made, it being almost surrounded by +the sea.”</p> + +<p>A very unusual tenure has been noted as being in existence in the township +of Kirkland, a few miles from Wigton. It was stated thus a century and a +quarter ago:—“The tenants have a lease granted to them generally by Mr. +Lancelot Salkeld, father of Sir Francis, for 999 years, paying a certain +yearly rent for every tenement, amounting in the whole to £6 15s. 1d. +yearly, and every twenty-one years they are to pay a fine to the lord, +viz., a twenty-penny fine, which they call a running gressom, and then +take new leases, but pay no general fine upon the lord’s death, nor upon +change of tenant, but they pay a heriot upon the death of every tenant.” +Tenures of cumin do not appear to have been common in the two counties. +The best known of the kind was in the time of Henry the Eighth, when a +yearly rent of 2½d., and one pound of cumin and services was paid by +the heirs of John Reede to Fountains Abbey, for the fish garths in +Crosthwaite, Keswick.</p> + +<p>By the custom of some places a parson might<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> be obliged to keep a bull and +a boar, for the use of the parishioners, in consideration of his having +tithes of calves and pigs. Such a condition held in certain parishes in +Cumberland, but as the stipulation said nothing as to the quality of the +animals to be maintained, many farmers, with the progress of agriculture +and education, began to keep their own, and the requirement gradually +became a dead letter.</p> + +<p>A peculiar obligation concerning Sparket Mill was laid on the tenants in +the hamlet of Thackthwaite, in Watermillock parish, as is explained in the +following “Verdict of the Head Jurie of Weathermelock, May 9th, +1709”:—“As for the controversie betwixt the Tennents of Thackthwaite and +ye miller of Sparkhead Mill concerning the repairing of the Mill Dam and +the race, we find upon Oath and upon notice given by ye miller the +tennents of Thackthwaite are to make ye race sufficient to carry water +from the Dam to the Trough Head, upon condition that the miller give them +every time they meet to work it a Pott of ale and a pennyworth of tobacco +as they have had formerly. And as for the Dam we likewise find upon Oath +that the repairing of the same belongs to the Lord of ye Mannor.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>What would owners of dogs in these days think and say were such +regulations in force as used to be enforced at the ancient Cumberland town +of Egremont? The old ordinances of Richard Lucy for the government of the +borough declared that “those who hold burgage tenure in Egremont shall +find armed men for the defence of the fortress forty days at their own +charge; shall find twelve men for the lord’s military array, and be bound +to aids for his redemption from captivity, and hold watch and ward; and +that they shall not enter the forest with bow and arrow, nor cut off their +dogs’ feet within the borough.” The explanation of the last item is that +the inhabitants of the forest, who kept dogs to defend their dwellings, +were obliged to cut off one foot to prevent their chasing the game, but +the precaution was not considered necessary in the town.</p> + +<p>Among the local peppercorn rents the following is interesting. The Gill +estate, in the parish of Bromfield, is said to have belonged to the Reays +“as long as any other estate in the kingdom has been in one family.” The +tradition is that the head of the family had the then extensive lands of +Gill granted to him and his heirs by William the Lion, King of Scotland in +the twelfth century,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> not only in reward for his fidelity to his prince, +but as a memorial of his extraordinary swiftness of foot in pursuing the +deer; outstripping in fleetness most of the horsemen and dogs. The +conditions of the grant were that he should pay a peppercorn yearly, and +that the name of William should, if possible, be perpetuated in the +family. There were several eminent men among the descendants, but the +distinctive Christian name is no longer strictly adhered to.</p> + +<p>An estate enjoying exemption from payments of tithes is that of Scale +Houses, in the parish of Renwick. This arose, declared a writer early in +the present century, “owing to an ancient owner of the land having slain a +noxious cockatrice, which the vulgar at this day call a crack-a-Christ as +they rehearse the simple fable.” The document which gives this exemption +is believed to be still in existence. Among the dues to which the abbot +and convent of Shap could claim were services and money payments from +Bampton as “alms corn,” and there was a similar tribute from Mauld’s +Meaburn and Hoff. Burn mentions in his chapter on Bewcastle a tenant’s +duty not publicly noted in any other local manor, the people having to pay +yearly customary rent, quit rents<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> for improvements, and £2 1s. 4d. +<i>carriage money</i>, whatever that may have been.</p> + +<p>There was a curious regulation in one of the divisions of Windermere +parish, which lasted up to about 1780:—“It was anciently customary in the +township of Applethwaite for every tenant’s wife who lived below the +highway to pay 5d. yearly rent to the lord of the manor, and every other +woman above 16 years of age 2d., above the road every tenant’s wife paid +3d., and every other woman above 16, a penny. How this custom originated, +or why the ladies on the low side of the road were rated higher than their +contemporaries in the opposite division, we are unable to say.”<a name='fna_9' id='fna_9' href='#f_9'><small>[9]</small></a></p> + +<p>Among the old manorial officers at Cockermouth chosen at the Michaelmas +Courts were a bailiff, assessors, assessors of bread and ale, +mill-lookers, moor-lookers, hedge-lookers, leather searchers, +swine-ringers, and appraisers. The jury of the Leet formed the special +jury for the government of the borough, and the bailiff was the returning +officer for elections, as well as clerk of the market. At Egremont the +officers chosen annually were a borough serjeant, two bailiffs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> four +constables, two hedge and corn-viewers, and assessors of damages. Most of +the old manors, indeed, would furnish examples of quaint offices, whose +purpose is now scarcely known. A good deal might be written concerning the +old manorial and other Courts of the two counties. Occasionally these +still afford interesting proceedings, but the real purpose for holding +them has ceased to exist. The Courts of Pie Poudre, at Appleby and several +other places; the Court of Conscience, or, as it was commonly called, the +Wapentake Court, and the Court of Record at Kendal; and the many Court +Leets, are now merely matters of local history.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> +<h2>Old-Time Punishments.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">If</span> one feature is more prominent than another in connection with former +methods of repressing crime, or of punishing those who had been declared +guilty of breaches of the law, it is that of brutality. Refinement, even +in retribution, is perhaps not to be expected, having regard to the habits +of the people and the conditions under which they lived. In the +neighbourhood of the Border, “Jeddart justice”—to hang a man first and +try him afterwards—was doubtless often found a convenient arrangement for +dealing with those who were supposed to be delinquents. There is at least +one case on record, too, of the drowning of a supposed witch at Carlisle, +though the unfortunate woman was probably guilty of no more serious +offence than being insane.</p> + +<p>One of the most remarkable executions on record was that of Sir Andrew de +Harcla, whose place in North-Country history is too well known to need +further reference. He offended Edward the Second—whether he was as guilty +as some historians have endeavoured to show is certainly a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> matter of +opinion—and that monarch sent commissioners to Carlisle to seize de +Harcla for treason. “The law” in those days was merely another name for +the caprice of the King, and de Harcla had no trial. The cedula, or +judgment, ran that Sir Andrew de Harcla, Earl of Carlisle, should be +stripped of his Earl’s robes and ensigns of knighthood, his sword broken +over his head, his gilt spurs hacked from his heels, and that he should be +drawn to the place of execution, and there hanged by the neck; his heart +and bowels taken out of his body, burnt to ashes and winnowed, his body +cut into four quarters, one to be set upon the principal tower of Carlisle +Castle, another on the tower of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a third upon the +bridge at York, and the fourth at Shrewsbury, and his head upon London +Bridge.</p> + +<p>There has been doubt thrown upon the extent to which this revolting +sentence was obeyed. Dr. Burn says “it was performed accordingly,” while +the monks of Lanercost record that de Harcla “suffered in the ordinary +place of execution with great fortitude, affirming to the end that in his +transactions with the King of Scotland he had meant no hurt to his own +King or country.” On the scaffold, they add, he said, “You have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> disposed +of my body at your pleasure; my soul, which is above your disposal, I give +to God.” It was customary to allow a sledge or hurdle on which persons +condemned for high treason were dragged to the gallows; there is nothing +in local records to show in what way the Earl was conveyed to the place of +execution.</p> + +<p>A question which has occupied a good deal of the attention of local +antiquaries at various times is whether the body was dismembered and the +parts dispersed as ordered. De Harcla’s sister petitioned Edward the Third +for the restitution of her brother’s body for burial, and the order +addressed to de Lucy, who had been de Harcla’s executioner, is still in +existence. It runs thus:—“The King to his faithful and beloved Anthony de +Lucy, Warden of Carlisle Castle, greeting. We command that you cause to be +delivered without delay the quarter of the body of Andrew de Harcla, which +hangs by the command of the Lord Edward, late King of England, our father, +upon the walls of the said Castle, to our beloved Sarah, formerly the wife +of Robert de Leyburn, sister to the aforesaid Andrew, to whom we of our +grace have granted that she may collect together the bones of the same +Andrew, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> commit them to holy sepulture, whenever she wishes or her +attorney. And this you shall in no wise omit. Witness the King at York, +the 10th of August (1337), by the King himself.” A portion of the body is +believed to have been buried in Kirkby Stephen Church; the tradition was +strengthened by the discovery of part of the bones of a man under peculiar +conditions when the church was rebuilt half a century ago.</p> + +<p>Although there are several Gallows Hills in Cumberland and Westmorland, +there only seems to be one place which has retained any particular story, +and it is thus told in Mr. William Andrews’ third book relating to +punishments<a name='fna_10' id='fna_10' href='#f_10'><small>[10]</small></a>:—“It has been asserted by more than one local chronicler +that John Whitfield, of Cotehill, a notorious North-Country highwayman, +about 1768 was gibbeted alive on Barrock. He kept the countryside in a +state of terror, and few would venture out after nightfall for fear of +encountering him. He shot a man on horseback in open daylight; a boy saw +him commit the crime, and was the means of his identification and +conviction. It is the belief in the district that Whitfield was gibbeted +alive, that he hung for several days in agony, and that his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> cries were +heartrending, until a mail coachman passing that way put him out of his +misery by shooting him.”</p> + +<p>There is a contemporary record of the execution to be found in the <i>St. +James’s Chronicle</i>, for August 12th, 1768, as follows:—“Wednesday, John +Whitfield, for murdering William Cockburn on the Highway, near +Armithwaite, was executed at Carlisle, and afterwards hung in Chains near +the Place where the Fact was committed.” It will be seen that the record +makes no mention of the culprit having been put into his iron cage when +alive, and one can only hope that there is nothing beyond tradition to +support the assertion.</p> + +<p>Next we come to the gibbeting of a Threlkeld man, one of the earliest +recorded instances of that punishment being imposed in the County +Palatine. The facts are contained in the Rydal papers, published in 1890 +by the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Writing from Rydal on November +24th, 1671, to Sir Joseph Williamson, Sir Daniel Fleming said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Being lately in Lancashire I received there—as a justice of the +peace of that county—an information against one Thomas Lancaster, +late of Threlkeld in Cumberland, who, it is very probable, hath +committed the most horrid act that hath been heard of in this +countrey. He marryed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> the 30th of January last a wife in Lancashire, +who was agreed to be marryed that very day, or soon after, to another; +and her father afterwards conveyed all his reall estate to this +Lancaster upon his giveing security to pay severall sums of money to +himselfe and his other daughters. And through covetousness to pay +these and other payments it is very probable that Lancaster hath +lately poysoned—with white arsenic—his wife, her father, her three +sisters, her aunt, her cosin-german, and a servant boy, besides poyson +given to severall of his neighbours who are and have been sick, that +people—as it is presumed—might think the rest dead of a violent +fevor. I have committed him prisoner unto Lancaster Castle and shall +take what more evidence I can meet with against the next assizes, that +he may there have a fair triall, and—if he be found guilty—such a +punishment as the law shall inflict upon such like offenders.”</p> + +<p>On April 3rd, of the following year, Sir Daniel, writing to Sir George +Fletcher, at Hutton, returned to the subject, after he had discussed +private affairs and the action of the Judges with regard to the Papists. +At the Lent Assizes at Lancaster, he said, “Thomas Lancaster has been +found guilty of poisoning eight persons, and is to be hanged in chains.” +Three weeks later in a letter to Sir William Wilde, Justice of the Common +Pleas, the same gossip recorded that “Thomas Lancaster has confessed that +he poisoned the old woman with arsenic, for a bribe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> of £24 from the heir +to her estate, worth £16 per annum.” It is, however, to the church +registers of Hawkshead that we must turn for an account of the final +proceedings, the entry being under date April 8th, 1672:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Thomas Lancaster, who for poysonninge his owne family was adjudgt att +the assizes att Lancaster to be carried back to his owne house att +Hye-Wrey, where he liv’d, was there hanged before his owne doore till +he was dead for that very facte, and then was brought with a horse and +carr into the Coulthouse meadows and forthwithe hunge upp in iron +chaynes on a gibbett, which was set up for that very purpose on the +South syde, of Sawrey Casey, neare unto the Poole Stang, and there +continued until such tymes as he rotted every bone from the other.”</p> + +<p>There are records of wholesale executions in Cumberland for what may be +called political offences. When the authorities were subduing Aske’s +rebellion, for instance, little was thought of hanging a score of men, and +many readers will no doubt remember the bravery of the victims’ wives on +some of those occasions, for at the risk of their own necks they removed +their executed husbands from the gallows and buried the bodies by night. +At Appleby in former days doubtless many executed men were subjected to +the further indignity of being drawn and quartered. In 1664 three of the +men who supported Captain Atkinson, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> Mallerstang, were, at a special +assize in the county town, convicted of high treason for their share in +the Kaber Rigg rising, and all were hanged, drawn, and quartered. It was +not until the autumn of 1675 that Captain Atkinson was sentenced to die +the death of a traitor, and pursuant to sentence was hanged, drawn, and +quartered on September 1st. It was once common to hand over the bodies of +those who had suffered on the gallows to surgeons for dissection. Probably +the last Gallows Hill victim thus dealt with was George Mackereth, of +Kendal, who was hanged in 1748 for the murder of his sweetheart.</p> + +<p>A more interesting study is to be found in the methods adopted by the +clergy when dealing with refractory individuals. Of excommunication, as +imposed in the diocese of Carlisle, much might be written from the records +preserved in the registry, for not only were poor folks put under the ban. +Bishops and priors were declared “excommunicate,” while rectors, vicars, +and less important people by the score seem to have offended.</p> + +<p>One case of post-mortem punishment at Penrith, by way of appeasing the +wrath of a former Bishop, may be quoted. The latter required the +Archdeacon of Carlisle to seek out and summon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> certain malefactors who had +insulted him while on a visit to the town. Three years seem to have passed +before anything was done, and by that time one of the culprits had died +and been buried. The Bishop ordered the body to be dug up, and to lie +unburied until the form of absolution had been gone through. In +connection, apparently, with the same affair, the Bishop “signified” to +the Court of King’s Bench that John de Agliunby, who had been +excommunicated for assaulting and wounding a priest, “after the term of +forty days still remains impenitent and unabsolved,” and so the aid of the +secular arm was invoked to coerce him. What the result may have been does +not appear.</p> + +<p>There is a peculiar case, perhaps less known than any—that of the priest +or friar who officiated at the Brunskill conventicle, and made a good +harvest from the “miraculous” cures wrought by the strong iron water at +the Holy Well, Brough. The vicar obtained the Pope’s authority, and the +offender was duly excommunicated.</p> + +<p>In the Ven. Archdeacon Prescott’s recently edited transcript of the +“Register of Wetherhall” may be read the full terms of a somewhat peculiar +Cumberland case of excommunication and penance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Robert Highmore, Lord of +Bewaldeth, had taken a mare, the property of John Overhouse of that place, +as a heriot, before the church of Torpenhow had got the mortuary, and he +was promptly punished in the orthodox way. Having quickly asked +absolution, and restored the mare to Sir Robert Ellargill (for the parsons +were always styled “Sir” in those days), vicar of Torpenhow, and by way of +penance given the six best oaks in his wood, the Bishop absolved him. In +some parts of the country the second best horse was due to the Church, +and, says an old historian, “was carried, by the name of mortuary, or +corse present, before the corpse, and delivered to the priest at the place +of sepulture.” But in the diocese of Carlisle the Church was first served, +and the lord only got the second best. Bishop Barrow, who ascended the +episcopal throne at Carlisle in 1423, anathematized all men who took the +heriot before “the Holy Kirke” got the mortuary. The punishment of +excommunicating was far from being reserved for the lower orders. Quite a +long story might be made of the part taken in this way, in the thirteenth +century, by the Bishop of Carlisle, who excommunicated the Bishop of +Dunkeld for refusing to pay the Pope’s tenth for the Holy Land.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>When it became a matter of cursing wrong-doers, there was generally no +tendency towards mincing words. Christian, Bishop of Glasgow, who became a +professor of the Cistercian order, gave to the Abbey of Holme Cultram the +grange of Kirkwinny. In this grant, quoted in Dugdale’s “Monasticon,” the +Bishop charged all men to protect and defend the grange, as they valued +the blessing of God and of himself; threatening, if they did otherwise, +that they should incur the papal excommunication, the curses of Almighty +God and of himself, and the pains of eternal fire.</p> + +<p>In 1361 several persons being accused of shedding blood in the church and +churchyard of Bridekirk, were decreed to be excommunicated by the greater +excommunication, and the incumbents of all the churches of the deanery of +Allerdale were ordered to publish the sentence against them on every +Sunday and holiday at high mass, when the largest number of people should +be gathered together, the bells ringing, the candles lighted and put out, +and the cross erected. The mother church of Greystoke being much out of +repair, the belfry fallen, and the wooden shingles on the roof mostly +scattered, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> inhabitants of Threlkeld and Watermillock refusing to +contribute their proportion of the charge, the Bishop, at his visitation +in 1382, issued his injunction “to all and every of them,” under pain of +the greater excommunication—a proceeding which in those superstitious +times no doubt quickly had the desired effect. Indeed no great provocation +would seem to have been needed to bring the punishment of excommunication. +Complaint having been made of some unknown persons riotously breaking into +the houses and grange at Wet Sleddale, and committing disorders, a former +Bishop issued his mandate to the Dean of Westmorland, and the local +clergy, to denounce the greater excommunication at the time of high mass, +the bells to ring, and the candles to be put out, against the rioters.</p> + +<p>One of the vicars of Appleby St. Lawrence, Thomas de Burnley, was cited to +York for neglecting to serve the chantry in Appleby Castle—doubtless the +action was taken at the instigation of the Hereditary High Sheriff. On +Burnley not appearing before the Judge of the Prerogative Court of the +abbot and convent, he was excommunicated. The sentence was ordered to be +read in the parish churches of St. Lawrence and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> St. Michael, Appleby, and +in other churches and public places in the dioceses of Carlisle and York, +every Sunday and holiday, so long as the abbot and convent required, or +until he should comply and make satisfaction to the judge and parties. +Burnley was not the only holder of his office who objected to the castle +service, as Sir Walter Colwyn, who was appointed vicar of the parish forty +years previously, was also sentenced (doubtless to be excommunicated) for +“having endeavoured to throw the charges of serving the chantry in the +castle upon the prior and convent of Wetheral.”</p> + +<p>About the middle of the fourteenth century, Bishop Welton sent out his +mandate to the rector of Brougham and another cleric to denounce the +sentence of greater excommunication against certain unknown persons who +had broken up a paved way and done some other outrages in the churchyard +of Penrith, reserving to himself the sole power of absolution. Thereupon +several of the inhabitants made a pilgrimage across country to Rose, +confessed themselves guilty, and prayed for a remission of the heavy +sentence. That was granted on condition of each man offering, by way of +penance, a wax candle of three pounds weight,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> before the image of St. +Mary in the parish church of Penrith on the following Sunday. In the same +year the vicar of Penrith had a licence granted to him, to continue from +March 8th to the Easter following, to hear the confessions of all his +parishioners, and to give absolution upon the performance of penance +injoined. Some exceptionally bad cases were, however, specially reserved +by the Bishop. Persons who suffered from the ecclesiastical ban were +deprived of the right of burial in the churchyard. Two cases of the kind +are recorded in the Penrith registers for 1623. “August 29th, Lanc. Wood, +being excommunicate, buried on the Fell. September 5th, Richd. Gibbon, +being excommunicate, buried on the Fell.”</p> + +<p>The most noteworthy instance of a man of any eminence in the Church being +visited with excommunication during the last two centuries is probably +that of Dr. Todd, who was vicar of Penrith in the first quarter of the +eighteenth century. He and Bishop Nicolson had a long and bitter quarrel +as to the rights of the prelate in local Church affairs. The diocesan at +length suspended the vicar <i>ab officio et beneficio</i>, and then +excommunicated him. The story throughout is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> not of a particularly +edifying character; Dr. Todd took his punishment very lightly, and +afterwards he and the Bishop seem to have been very good friends again.</p> + +<p>Still later there are to be found records in various parish registers of +ecclesiastical pressure being brought to bear on parishioners. Without any +reason being shown in the register, Jane Curry was declared excommunicate, +December 10th, 1732, by Hugh Brown, curate of Hayton. At +Kirkandrews-on-Esk the churchwardens’ book shows a list of presentments +for not bringing children to be baptised; for clandestine marriages, +fornication, and contumacy. The parties were either excommunicated, or did +penance, in the church on Sunday. One man did his penance in 1711 after +having for fornication been excommunicated for thirty years; another man +was excommunicated for refusing to be churchwarden. In 1785 two couples +were publicly rebuked in church for clandestine marriage, and Sir James +Graham, on the application of the curate, Mr. Nichol, ordered all his +tenants to pay their fees properly. Clandestine marriages of course +deprived the rector or the curate of the fees, hence the landlord’s +reproof and caution.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>The power of excommunication, which during the time of Charles the First +had been chiefly exercised against the Romanists, was at the commencement +of the reign of James the Second turned against the Protestant +Nonconformists, with, in some districts, results sometimes curious but +almost always sad. The names of forty-four persons were set out in the +Greystoke register on March 29th, 1685, with this announcement following +them: “Were these persons whose names and sirnames are here under written +denounced excommunicate for their offences, and other their contumacy in +not appearing at Consistorye Court for the reformation of their lives and +manners.” Some of the offenders seem to have had only indifferent moral +characters, but the majority were Quakers. Quakerism had been spreading +for many years in the two counties, and during the time Dr. Gilpin was +rector of Greystoke, the Nonconformists, while holding him personally in +the deepest respect, gave him some hard puzzles to solve. “Such were their +novel phrases and cross questions and answers that the doctor seemed +sometimes at a loss what to say to them.” Among those who went over to the +Quakers was a noted yeoman in his day—Henry Winder, of Green<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> Close, who +was appointed by the “Friends” to be the Receiver of all their collections +in Cumberland. He, however, afterwards returned to the Presbyterians, and +wrote some noteworthy pamphlets on religious topics. His many quarrels did +not help to wear out his frame, for we read: “Feb. 9th, 1716/7 if was +buried Henry Winder, sen., of Hutton Soyle; who dyed of a dropsy in the +hundredth and first year of his age.”</p> + +<p>The registers of Bampton contain many curious entries, especially about +people who did not go regularly to church. One, which may be taken as an +example of other reports by the churchwardens, reads:—“We have no +presentments to make but what has been formerly presented, viz., we have +Thomas Braidley and Margret his wife, Richard Simpson, John Hottblacke, +and Syth Gibson, quakers, and noe other we have in our parish, but doe +duely resort to church, nor any other offence presentable to our +knowledge.” In other cases it was further noted that “the parties stand +excommunicated.” The churchwardens were evidently strict about enforcing +order, and on one occasion reported “William Stephenson for violent +beating of John Wilkinson of Shap upon the sabbath and within the +churchyard.” In other ways the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>churchwardens exercised care; and a woman +got into trouble with them for acting as a midwife “without licence to the +prejudice of several persons.” Again, “Lancelot Hogarth is presented to us +by information of Richard Brown for loading corn on the sabbath in time of +divine service.” Sometimes the parish clerk had a share in the work; one +of these presented. “James Hayes of Banton, for reading two sale notices, +without leave on the Sabbath day, one in the church, the other in ye +churchyard.”</p> + +<p>Possibly even Dissenters were not thought to be entirely bad, so long as +they paid their tithes, and in presenting William Simpson once more the +Bampton churchwardens vouched that albeit he was a Quaker he was “a very +moderate one; tho’ he absent the church yett he payes his tythes.” The +Church authorities seem to have carried out their unpleasant duties with a +due amount of consideration; there is a tone of sympathy about some of the +entries; in others indifference may be noted, as where Richard Simpson and +Margaret Braidley (the latter “very old, not able to go abroad, scarcely +help herself,”) are presented along with William Wilson, younger, a +Dissenter—what sort we know not, but he never comes to church.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Although +the Howards of Naworth at one time owned the manor of Thornthwaite, and +lived at the Hall, the only entry in which the name is found is the +following: “We have none to present but who have been formerly presented +and doe stand excommunicated, viz., Mr. William Howard and Jane his wife, +papists, Richard Simpson and Margret Braidley, widow, quakers, all that we +have.”</p> + +<p>Although the sentence of excommunication was frequently used by the +Nonconformist bodies, in this case the proclamation had no such serious +results as followed the sentence in earlier days. Among the records of the +Penrith Presbyterian Church are many allusions to excommunication; one +instance will suffice to illustrate the rest. In 1818, Robert McCreery, a +member of the church, had left the town in company with a woman who was +not his wife, but returning three months afterwards, he petitioned to be +re-admitted to the Presbyterian Society. Before the formalities could be +concluded McCreery seems to have changed his mind and withdrawn his +application, and he was therefore declared from the pulpit to be +excommunicate.</p> + +<p>At Ravenstonedale, in the days of Philip Lord<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> Wharton, there was a ready +method of dealing with slanderers and other transgressors. The “town” was +governed by twenty-four of the principal inhabitants, called the grand +jury, and the oath which they were required to take included a promise +that—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Every person or persons within this lordship which shall be convicted +before the grand jury for the time being and by them be found to have +offended against any person or persons within this lordship, either by +slanderous words or other unlawful speech or report, that the same +offender or offenders shall, upon such a Sabbath Day, before the +celebration of the general Communion then next following the +conviction, and in such manner before the people assembled in the +church ... appoint the said offender or offenders in penitent manner +to confess their fault, and to ask the party aggrieved forgiveness for +the same, upon pain of every such offender or offenders to forfeit to +the lord of this manor, so often as they shall contemptuously or +obstinately deny or defer to make their reconcilements, 3s. 4d.: and +the men in charge of the church not to fail in execution hereof upon +pain to forfeit to the lord 12d.”</p> + +<p>Though paying 3s. 4d. seems a small punishment, it was a large sum towards +the end of the reign of Queen Bess, and would be equal to fully £3 now, +while three years after the rule was instituted the fine was doubled. Mr. +Nicholls, in a series of lectures which he delivered in the village some +twenty-four years ago, remarked:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>“Such a law as this one would expect to be a very wholesome check +against slander. There is a tradition that the culprit was compelled +to stand up, wrapt in a white sheet, and confess his fault; but, +whether this were so or no, the confession must have been a terrible +ordeal, and I can understand that the fine was often paid. It would +seem that notwithstanding the fine or penalty, the vice was a +prevalent one, as its mention is followed by a homily against the sin +of slander, in which many passages of Scripture are cleverly and +skilfully incorporated.”</p> + +<p>The long-since dismantled Abbey of Lanercost had its origin in a tragedy. +Gils Beuth laid claim to a part of Gilsland, and Robert de Vallibus, lord +of Gilsland, slew him at a meeting for agreement appointed between them +under trust and assurance of safety. In consequence of that action +Vallibus laid down arms and began to study law with such good effect that +in time he became a judge. The murder still preyed on his mind until he +made satisfaction to Mother Church by building Lanercost Abbey, and +endowing it with the very lands which had brought about the murder.</p> + +<p>Dr. Burn in one instance shows that not only were people allowed “the +option,” in some cases, but that the money was put to good use. A silver +communion chalice belonging to Beetham Parish Church “was purchased by the +late Commissary Stratford with money paid in commutation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> of penance for +adultery and fornication;” its inscription being “<span class="smcap">Ob Pœn. Mulct. +Dedicat. Huic. Ecclesiæ, 1716</span>.” Slanderers had occasionally to pay not +only a monetary penalty for the free use of their tongues, but to satisfy +the ecclesiastical authorities as well. Chancellor Paley had such a case +before him in November, 1789, where a man had “uttered words of a shameful +nature and unbecoming a Christian, in prejudice to the complainant and his +daughter.” The Chancellor “decreed the defendant to do public penance in +the parish church, and to be condemned in all costs.” The <i>Pacquet</i> which +thus records the decision, is silent as to the method in which the +punishment was carried out. Penance in connection with illegitimacy was +not uncommon; therefore the following entry which occurs in the Kirby +Thore register, dated June 27th, 1779, after the baptism of an +illegitimate child, must be taken only as an example: “William Bowness, of +Bolton B[achelor]: Frances Spooner, widow, of this Parish, the parents, +underwent a public penance in this church.”</p> + +<p>The Millom records under date March 27th, 1595, say that Jenet Benson was +“to be sorye for her sins by order of Mr. Commissorye at <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>Botle;” and in +1608 “Barnard Benson did his penance in the parishe chirche of Millom the +19th of March and payed to the poor of the chirche x<sup>s.</sup> which was openly +delivered in the pulpit, vi<sup>s.</sup> viii<sup>d.</sup> at Millom and iii<sup>s.</sup> iv<sup>d.</sup> at +Ulfall.” The Bensons would seem to have been a troublesome lot, for +another entry is that “Myles Benson p<sup>d</sup> xii<sup>d.</sup> for sleepinge and not +goinge orderly to church.” The wardens at that time could fine any +parishioners a shilling for neglecting to attend church. Insults to the +clergy were visited with such punishments as could be imposed, and the +doing of penance was perhaps the most suitable consequence of such an +action. This paragraph appears in the Greystoke register:—“1608/9 +February 12th. This daye two Sermons by Mr. P’son one afforenone, and the +other afternone, and Edward Dawson taylyor did openlye conffess before the +Congregation that he had abused the mynister Sr. Matthew Gibson upon the +Sabboth daye at Evenynge prayer.” Sacrilege has always been very properly +looked upon as one of the worst crimes, but instances must be +comparatively rare of an estate being forfeited through such an act. +Barwise Hall, near Appleby, descended from the family of Berewyse to that +of Ross, and the last of these is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> said to have forfeited his domain for +stealing a silver chalice out of the church.</p> + +<p>Before the privilege was abolished by Parliament in the reign of James the +First, there were several places in the two counties at which sanctuary +could be obtained. One was at Ravenstonedale. The Rev. W. Nicholls, Dr. +Simpson, Mr. A. Fothergill, the Rev. R. W. Metcalfe, and others have +brought the history of that parish to an unusually complete stage, and the +first-named gentleman has told the story.<a name='fna_11' id='fna_11' href='#f_11'><small>[11]</small></a> The tower, according to +tradition—the structure was demolished about a century and a half +ago—stood apart from the church, on the road side, and rested on pillars, +leaving openings at equal distances on each side, while from the centre +hung the rope of the refuge bell. Any person who had committed any offence +worthy of death—once a very easy matter, there being many such crimes +besides murder—after ringing the bell could not be seized by the Sheriff +or any other King’s officer, but must be tried by the lord’s Court at +Ravenstonedale, which doubtless at first consisted of the monks. Mr. +Fothergill recorded that in his time if a murderer fled to the church and +tolled the holy bell, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> was free, and that if a stranger came within the +precincts of the manor he was safe from the pursuer. He added:—“Of our +own knowledge, and within our own memory, no felon, though a murderer, was +to be carried out of the parish for trial, and one Holme, a murderer, +lived and died in Ravenstonedale; his posterity continued there for two +generations, when the family became extinct.” Some doubt has been thrown +on the local tradition that the privilege of sanctuary was possessed by +the Nunnery, on the banks of the Eden, in Ainstable parish. There is still +an upright pillar, having on one side of it a cross, round which is +inscribed “Sanctuarium, 1088.” There is also near to Greystoke Church what +is called a sanctuary stone.</p> + +<p>In the Museum at Kendal is preserved a good specimen of the scolds’ +bridle, which may have come down from the days, three centuries ago, when +the Corporation set about reforming the conduct of the inhabitants. The +contents of the “Boke of Recorde” are very interesting in this connection. +Gambling in its varied forms was put down rigorously. It was ordered that +any inhabitant allowing any play at cards, dice tables, bowls, or any +other unlawful game should be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> fined for the first offence 6s. 8d., and +for the second offence 13s. 4d., while the players escaped with half those +penalties. These and other fines which were provided for were “over and +beside such other punishment as shall be thought mete and requisite +according to the quality of the offence.”</p> + +<p>Among the punishments provided for may be noted the following as a +specimen, there being several of the kind. Henry Wilson, a burgess and +Justice of the Peace for the borough, having been living incontinently +with Jennet Eskrigge, a married woman, “as is notoriouslye knowen to the +sclannder and offence of the magistrats off the sayd boroughe, and evil +example of the residewe off the inhabitannts heare, wherbye he is thoughte +nott mete to contynewe in the sayd roweme and offyce,” it was ordered that +he should be expelled from his offices. As to the woman, it was decreed +that she should be carted through the town, “to the terror and fear of +other persons of evil disposition for the committing of the like offence +in time to come,” and she was not to be permitted to remain within the +borough unless she was reconciled to and dwelt with her husband. The +punishment did not act as a warning to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> the woman, and further orders are +to be found in the minute-book showing how she was made liable to heavy +fines and forbidden to enter the town “otherwise than as a stranger coming +to the church or market only,” while the inhabitants who gave her shelter +were liable to fines of ten shillings each.</p> + +<p>There is a very long and verbose order passed by the Corporation in +December, 1589:—“For punishinge of a mayd servant for speakinge +slanderouse speeches of her master.” They found that “Mabel Atkinson, late +servant unto Mr. Henry Dickson, and Sybell Dyckson, his wife, inhabitants +of this borough, forgetting her duty to Almighty God and the fear and awe +she ought to have had to the threatening menaces and punishments +pronounced out of His Holy Word and Commandments against such persons as +shall openly or privily unjustly slander, hurt, or impair their neighbours +in body, goods, name or report, and also that servile regard and honest, +and true favour and love she ought to have borne towards her said master +and mistress in all manner of behaviours and reports by the instigation of +our mortal enemy the Devil, the author of all falsehood and lying, hath of +late, even within this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> borough of Kirkbiekendall, most maliciously, +falsely, and untruly imposed, devised, framed, and brought a very +horrible, unjust, and feigned slander and misreport of and against her +master and mistress.”</p> + +<p>The punishment is worth describing in full, but the following extract will +suffice as a specimen of the whole order thereon:—“For condign punishment +in this behalf and for a terror and fear to be wrought in all others for +committing the like offence, it is ordained and constituted that Mabel +Atkinson shall be attached and taken on Monday, in the morning, next, by +the two Serjeants at Mace and ministers of this borough, where and in what +place she may be found, and shall forthwith be had, carried, and conveyed +unto the common prison or ward of the same borough, and there shall remain +and continue without any bail or delivery until Thursday then next +following, in the afternoon, having only for diet every day in the +meanwhile one slender and spare repast of meat and drink, and only two +coverlets nightly to lie in, at which time on the said Thursday, in the +afternoon, being openly called forth of prison to the bar in the Mootehall +of the same borough, if she will and do in very penitent,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> humble, and +sorrowful manner, unfeignedly and truly upon her knees, in the open +presence of the people then and there assembled, and before her said +master and mistress, ask and pray at God His hands mercy and forgiveness +for her said false and untrue report and slander, and pardon also of her +said master and mistress for the said offence, then she to be delivered +out of the said prison or ward, paying such fees and duties as may +appertain, and if she shall the same refuse, in whole or part, or in doing +the same not performing it with such true penitence as in such case is +requisite, and as all the people assembled may and shall therewith be +fully satisfied and resolved, that she be banished from being, tarrying, +or remaining within this borough, or the liberties or precincts of the +same, for and by the space of one whole year then next coming, and that no +person or persons during the same year shall take her into service or +suffer her to dwell in house under or with any such person or persons +(except it be in lawful wedlock) upon pain to lose and forfeit to, and for +the common use of all the inhabitants of the same for every month as much +as ten shillings, to be levied as above.”</p> + +<p>The poor drunkards met with none too <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>considerate treatment from the +justices of the time. Here is a curious “Order against common drunkards, +how to be punished, and for common scolds”:—“Whereas sundry persons +inhabiting this borough and others (of their insatiable minds without any +regard to common honesty, modesty, or fear of God, or His severe +punishment either in this life or the life to come) do give up their +bodies (which Almighty God hath ordained to honour) unto all manner of +dishonour and dissolute kind of life in quaffing immoderate and +superfluous devouring of strong ale at very many needless and unfit times, +continuing the same most foul and detestable vice so long till at length +they be so far overtaken and gone that they become beast-like and +insensible, without reason or any good understanding (besides the great +loss of time and waste of their goods, and miserable want of their +families at home, and their own beggaring at length, and lamentable grief +to all other good Christians, their neighbours, detesting and loathing +that vice) for redress whereof and preventing of sundry mischiefs which +else might happen by this occasion (besides great danger to their souls) +if the same enormity should not in time be speedily foreseen; it is +therefore ordained and constituted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> by the Aldermen and burgesses of this +borough that at all times hereafter when and so often as any person or +persons whatsoever shall be seen or known ... to have been or at any time +to be so far overtaken, besotted or drunken with immeasurable devouring of +strong drink that then it shall be lawful to or for any Alderman, Justice, +or Alderman’s Deputy all and every such misordered person and persons to +cause to be imprisoned within the same borough, there to remain at such +diet and during the pleasure of him that committed him, to the end thereby +to reclaim and warn every one of them from lewdness and detestable +offences of drinking; and also that every such magistrate aforesaid shall +or may commit and command to be set on the cuckstool every common scold, +railer, or of notorious misdemeanour, at the like pleasure of the +Commander or Magistrate.”</p> + +<p>The turning of Thirlmere into a huge reservoir, and the necessary increase +of its depth, hid for ever a number of land-marks. There are, however, +numerous others of an interesting character left. A reminder of the days +when the manorial lord was a king in a small way is supplied by the +Steading Stone. This is supposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> to mark the site where the manor court +of Wythburn was held, and its pains and penalties imposed. The Rev. S. +Barber has supplied<a name='fna_12' id='fna_12' href='#f_12'><small>[12]</small></a> an explanation of a term which has puzzled many a +tourist as well as not a few dwellers in Lakeland:—“The City, as has been +suggested by one who is no mean scholar, is neither more nor less than a +corruption of ‘Sitting,’ that is, the place of session of the early +judges, when they met to adjudicate in criminal cases. We can then picture +the white bearded patriarchs seated in solemn conclave upon the +semi-circle of boulders facing the central rock, and after the giving of +sentence sternly watching the miserable captive led away to be decapitated +on that very rock, before the assembled witnesses.”</p> + +<p>Life in the old gaols for any extended period must have been a very +dreadful experience. The buildings were generally crowded; that they would +be in a perpetually insanitary condition goes without saying, and gaol +fevers were frequent. The prisoners were not treated any better in the +local gaols than in other places. They were chiefly dependent on the +charity of outsiders for subsistence, and the old Carlisle and Whitehaven +newspapers contain hundreds of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> paragraphs recording the gratitude of the +prisoners to the local gentry for gifts of from £1 to £20. In these days +when it is unlawful to send any tobacco or liquors into a prison, the +reader notes with particular interest the announcements of presents of +barrels of ale, prayer-books, bread, coals, and other articles to the +debtors, as well as to those who had been convicted of serious offences.</p> + +<p>Those, too, were “the hanging days.” Note the items in this concise report +of Carlisle Assizes in August, 1790:—“On Friday afternoon the Judges were +met at the usual place, near Carlisle, by Wm. Brown, High Sheriff of the +county, attended by a most respectable and numerous company of gentlemen, +in carriages and on horseback. On their arrival in the city, their +lordships proceeded to the Hall, where His Majesty’s Commission being +opened in due form, the Courts were adjourned to eight o’clock the next +morning—when the business of assize proceeded. The Hon. Sir John Wilson +at the Crown End; and the Hon. Sir Alex. Thomson, in the court of <i>nisi +prius</i>. When our account left Carlisle, Wm. Bleddy, for breaking open the +shop of Miss Crossthwaite, at Keswick; and John Thompson,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> for horse +stealing, were found guilty—death. Bella Ramsay, for stealing wearing +apparel, to be transported. Leonard Falshea, for stealing six sheep, found +guilty—death, but ordered for transportation. Ann Wilson and Elizabeth +White, for stealing a purse, etc., to be transported.”</p> + +<p>There are no stocks standing now on the village greens of Cumberland and +Westmorland, but in Tullie House Museum, Carlisle, are local examples of +both pillory and stocks. Among the records of Greystoke, some seventy +years ago, it was stated that the village then possessed a neat cross, +“the stones of which remain piled together, and also the foot-stocks for +the punishment of evil doers.” Whipping in public was so general in most +towns as to occasion no great amount of notice, and often the punishment +must have seemed out of all proportion to the offence. Thus at the assizes +of 1790, just mentioned, Walter Smith, who was convicted of stealing a +game-cock, was sentenced to be imprisoned six months and publicly whipped +in Whitehaven.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img2.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">GIANT’S THUMB, PENRITH.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>There is a tradition among some of the old folks of Penrith that the holes +at the top of the ancient cross, known as the Giant’s Thumb, in the +churchyard, were at one time used for a pillory. The only <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>authority for +the assertion seems to have been the late Mr. William Grisenthwaite, +builder, who had quite a store of local traditions. It was on his +statement that Mr. George Watson included the information in his +“Notabilia of Old Penrith.” Mr. Grisenthwaite said the last time the cross +was used for that corrective purpose was for the whipping of a young +woman, who died of a broken heart in consequence of her shameful exposure. +It is but fair to say that other old people of great intelligence declare +that they never heard of such an event, and that they do not believe it. +Moreover, Penrith possessed stocks, and doubtless a pillory also, not far +from where the Monument now stands; hence the statement as to the Thumb +being put to such a secular purpose as being used for a whipping-post is +greatly in need of confirmation. The stocks at Penrith had not ceased to +be used in 1781, having been repaired by Thomas Langhorne in that year, at +a cost of £1 14s. Those at Ravenstonedale stood outside the churchyard +wall, and near the Grammar School. The stocks at Orton were near the +church gate; those at St. Michael’s, Appleby, at Bongate Cross. An iron, +with the letters “R. V. T.” (“rogue, vagabond, thief”), was attached to +the dock in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> Crown Court at Appleby, until the Shire Hall was improved +about 1848.</p> + +<p>It is recorded that whipping was formerly practised in Appleby to a +considerable extent. On October 26th, 1743, it was ordered by the Mayor +and Aldermen that the stocks and pillory, then opposite to the house which +had recently belonged to a person named Knotts, should be immediately +removed to the end of the open Hall, facing the Low Cross, “that being +deemed the proper place for the same, and that there be a whipping-post, +and a convenient place for burning criminals in the hand, erected there +also.” The late Mr. M. Cussons, shortly before his death early this year, +told the writer that he particularly remembered the stocks at Appleby. +They were placed at the north end of the old Moot Hall, and were removed +before 1835, in which year the Corporation fixed the present weighing +machine on the site. The stocks were so placed that the culprit undergoing +punishment had his back to the building, and faced the church. When they +were last used has not been ascertained. There were stocks also at Bongate +Cross, but these were removed about thirty years ago by the late Mr. +Richardson, the Bongate parish clerk, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> given by him to the late Mr. G. +R. Thompson, Bongate Hall. From the Appleby Corporation records, Mr. W. +Hewitson, Town Clerk, finds that in 1767 the grand jury set out to William +Bewsher on a lease for 999 years a piece of ground on which to build a +smith’s shop, at the north corner of Bridge End, near where the +ducking-stool stood.</p> + +<p>The last person flogged through the Appleby streets was a man named +Johnnie Copeland, a notorious character in his time. This happened about +1819. The crime for which he suffered this punishment was a criminal +assault. Mrs. Jane Brunskill, Appleby, now in her ninetieth year, who was +an eye witness of the punishment, informed the writer a few months ago +that she remembered the occurrence perfectly. The offender was fastened by +two ropes, placed round his body, one being held by a man who walked in +front, and the other by a man walking behind the culprit. The punishment +was inflicted by a prisoner under confinement in Appleby Gaol. They +started from the High Cross and proceeded to the Gaol, the man being +flogged all the way. This took place on a market day, and the streets were +crowded. The governor of the gaol at that time was named<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> James Bewsher, +and he combined with that office the business of blacksmith, which he +carried on in the premises already referred to as being near the place +where the ducking-stool stood.</p> + +<p>Dishonest workmen also got a taste of the lash occasionally, as witness +this newspaper paragraph of January, 1789: “A fancy-weaver, belonging to +Messrs. Foster and Sons’ manufactory in Carlisle, was publicly whipped a +few days ago, for stealing several of his masters’ patterns, and sending +them to a manufactory in Glasgow.”</p> + +<p>There is believed to have been no example of riding the stang in +Cumberland or Westmorland during the last half century. Previously, +however, it would seem to have been an unpleasantly frequent punishment. +In the <i>Westmorland Gazette</i> for December 19th, 1835, a long description +was given of “the old but now almost neglected custom.” In this case an +Ambleside woman had left her husband and family, and gone with a married +man to America. After an absence of eight months she returned, and, said +the local journalistic chronicler of the period, “the young men of +Ambleside, with that manly and proper spirit which ought to actuate the +breast of every noble mind who values propriety of conduct, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> that +which is decent and of good report, on Monday procured, instead of a pole, +a cart, in which were placed two of their companions, and accompanied by a +party of both young and old, proceeded through the town repeating at +certain places the following lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem">‘It is not for my part I <i>ride the stang</i>,<br /> +But it is for the American——just come hame.’</p> + +<p>The fun was continued to the amusement of hundreds for about an hour, but +not being satisfied with one night’s frolic, the same party, on Tuesday +evening, procured an effigy of the frail lady, and after exhibiting it in +every part of the town, publicly burnt it at the Market Cross, amidst the +loud hurras of the assembled crowd who had met to witness the sight, and +who took that opportunity of testifying their hatred and detestation of +such base and abominable conduct as the parties had been guilty of.”</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> +<h2>Some Legends and Superstitions.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> title of this chapter sufficiently indicates that the legends and +superstitions intended to be dealt with are far from including all which +might be mentioned; indeed not a tithe of those which are still well known +in the two counties can here be touched upon. Mr. Whitfield, <span class="smcaplc">M.P.</span>, in an +address in West Cumberland over thirty years ago,<a name='fna_13' id='fna_13' href='#f_13'><small>[13]</small></a> said that the +superstitions in the Border country concerning fairies and brownies were +more developed, and the belief in spells and enchantments more common than +in many other parts of the country. The various circumstances attending +the growth of those beliefs led to the conclusion that in the Middle Ages +religion as then taught did not exercise any great influence on the +Border. Though monasteries were founded on each side of the Border as some +protection against the desolations of war, the English did not scruple to +ravage the Scottish monasteries during an invasion, and the Scotch treated +with corresponding violence the English foundations. At the time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> of the +Reformation the Border was probably the most ignorant and barbarous +district in England.</p> + +<p>There is a pretty legend pertaining to St. Bees, which is supposed to have +derived its name from St. Bega, an Irish nun, who came to Cumberland about +the middle of the seventh century, and, with her sisters, was wrecked near +to the headland. “In her distress she went to the Lady of Egremont Castle +for relief, and obtained a place of residence at St. Bees. Afterwards she +asked Lady Egremont to beg of her lord to build them a house, and they +with others would lead a religious life together. With this the Lady +Egremont was well pleased, and she asked the lord to grant them some land. +The lord laughed at the lady, and said he would give them as much land as +snow fell upon ‘the next morning in Midsummer Day.’ On the next morning he +looked out from the castle towards the sea, and all the land for about +three miles was covered with snow.”<a name='fna_14' id='fna_14' href='#f_14'><small>[14]</small></a></p> + +<p>Another tradition associated with West Cumberland is that at Kirksanton. +There is a basin, or hollow, in the surface of the ground, assigned as a +place where once stood a church that was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> swallowed up by the earth +opening, and then closing over it bodily. It used to be believed by the +country people that on Sunday mornings the bells could be heard far down +in the earth, by the simple expedient of placing the ear to the ground. A +very similar legend was, in a magazine in 1883, recorded of Fisherty Brow, +Kirkby Lonsdale:—“There is a curious kind of natural hollow scooped out, +where, ages ago, a church, parson, and congregation were swallowed up by +the earth. Ever since this terrible affair it is asserted that the church +bells have been regularly heard to ring every Sunday morning.”</p> + +<p>If an old tradition is to be believed, one of the most conspicuous +land-marks in the north of England should be regarded as a memorial, so +far as its name goes. The story is that the cross was planted, by pious +hands, in the early days of Christianity, on the summit or table land of +the chain of mountains which bounds the eastern side of Cumberland, +separately known by different names along their range, but collectively +called Cross Fell. At any rate, whether or not it takes its name from its +transverse situation to the common run of the immense ridge, this +tradition, as the Rev. B. Porteus has remarked, “is preferable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> to another +which traces its derivative to a cross erected for the purpose of +dislodging the aërial demons which were once thought to possess these +desolate regions, and gave it the name of the Fiend’s Fell.” But the +cyclone (the Helm Wind) and the sending for holy men to Canterbury to +exorcise “the demon” supports the derivation. Alston Church is dedicated +to St. Augustine. Some say the bodies of Christians who had died in the +heathen eastern districts were brought “Cross t’ Fell” to be buried in the +consecrated land of the primitive Christians of Cumberland and +Westmorland.</p> + +<p>There is a tradition that an attempt was made time after time to build a +church in what is known as Jackson’s Park, Arlecdon, but as often as begun +in the day it was destroyed in the night by some unknown and invisible +hand. Eventually the attempt was abandoned, and the church built in its +present position. Then there is the familiar legend connected with the +building of the Devil’s Bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale. There are several +versions of the erection of this structure, and as one is just as likely +to be wrong as another, the story told by Mr. Speight<a name='fna_15' id='fna_15' href='#f_15'><small>[15]</small></a> may be quoted: +“The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> bridge was built by his Satanic Majesty, according to a compact made +between himself and a poor woman who wished to recover her cow which had +strayed at low water to the opposite side of the river, but could not do +so without the convenient means of a bridge. And so the King of Evil +agreed to erect a bridge on condition that he should have the first living +thing that crossed. He knew very well of her husband’s coming home from +market, and hoped to make good booty. But the cunning woman was equal to +the occasion. Seeing the approach of her husband on the opposite hill, she +concealed a scraggy, half-starved dog under her apron, and letting it +sniff a bone, suddenly tossed the latter over the fine, new made viaduct, +and the dog at once bounding after it, she stepped back, and raising her +fingers in a vindictive, and certainly most unbecoming manner, lustily +exclaimed,</p> + +<p class="poem">‘Now, crafty Sir, the bargain was<br /> +That you should have what first did pass<br /> +Across the bridge—so now, alas!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The dog’s your right.</span><br /> +<br /> +The Cheater cheated, struck with shame,<br /> +Squinted and grinned, then in a flame<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He vanished quite.’”</span></p> + +<p>At least two legends have come down to us of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> the days of the wolves. A +lady belonging to the Lucy family—the great territorial lords of West +Cumberland—was one evening walking near to Egremont Castle when she was +devoured by a wolf at a place afterwards marked by a stone cairn, and +known as Woful Bank. The name of Wotobank is given to a place in the +parish of Beckermet. The story here is that Edgar, a lord of Beckermet, +and his lady, Edwina, and servants, were at one time hunting the wolf. +“During the chase the lord missed his lady, and after a long and painful +search the party at last found her body lying on the hill, or bank, slain +by a wolf, with the ravenous beast still in the act of tearing it to +pieces. In the first transports of his grief, the words that the +distressed husband first uttered were, ‘Woe to this Bank’—a phrase since +altered and applied to the place as ‘Wotobank.’” Another wolf legend of a +somewhat similar character is attached to a well called Lady’s Dub, at +Ulpha.</p> + +<p>What can only be described as legends—for as to their authenticity it +would perhaps not be wise to inquire too closely—belong to the fortunes +of several estates in the two counties. One of the owners of Warthell (or +Warthol) Hall, in the parish of Plumbland, was notorious for his passion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +for card-playing—a form of amusement, by the way, which probably for more +than two hundred years has been a favourite among all classes in the two +counties. The Lord of Warthell, Mr. Dykes, one evening lost a large sum, +and was face to face with ruin. Growing desperate, he determined to risk +all on a single game of putt, and at the last deal cried,</p> + +<p class="poem">“Up, now deuce, or else a tray,<br /> +Or Warthell’s gone for ever and aye.”</p> + +<p>While it would perhaps be unjust even to suggest that the people of +Cumberland and Westmorland are now more superstitious than those of other +counties, it is nevertheless a fact that many curious beliefs prevailed in +the country districts long after they had ceased in other places. The +faith in the efficacy of charms has even yet not died away. Toothache has +long been a favourite medium for testing the skill of the charmer and the +faith of the sufferer. The Rev. H. J. Bulkeley, then rector of Lanercost, +who spent much time in collecting records of the old and fleeting beliefs, +told in 1885 how the toothache charm was worked. “A boy suffering from +toothache was taken to an old blacksmith, who prodded the decayed tooth +with a rusty nail; blindfolded the boy, led him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> into a wood, and, taking +the bandage off his eyes, made him hammer the nail into a young oak; +blindfolded him again, and led him out, making him promise not to try and +find the tree or tell anyone of it. And that tooth never ached any more!” +Another method was to rub, with a stone, the part affected, the operation +taking place soon after sunset. While performing the rubbing, the charmer +muttered an incantation which does not seem to have been preserved in +print, although it is doubtless well known in the country districts.</p> + +<p>Fairies have given place to more material creations, but the faith in the +“little folk” has not died out, and even yet occasionally the dairy-maid +may be seen furtively to put a pinch of salt in the fire at churning time, +“so that t’ fairies mayn’t stop t’ butter frae comin’.” The rowan-tree +branch used to be placed above doorways to keep away evil influences +throughout the north of England, and in the Lake Country the stick used +for stirring the cream to counteract the bewitching of the churn is still +frequently made of rowan or mountain ash wood.</p> + +<p>Among the old superstitions is that of the death strokes:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +“As with three strokes above the testered bed<br /> +The parting spirit of its tenant fled.”</p> + +<p>The opinion once very commonly prevailed that shortly before the coming of +the last summons three distinct raps were heard on the wall immediately +over the bed head. This, of course, was nothing more than the noise made +by a small worm when trying to bore itself a passage through the decayed +woodwork where it had been bred.</p> + +<p>“Telling the bees” is a custom in several parts of the country, and is +still believed in by some of the old people of these counties. When a +death occurred in a household where bees were kept it was deemed desirable +for some one to acquaint the occupants of the hives with the fact, and +also to tell them on the day of the funeral that the corpse was about to +be lifted. The late Mr. W. Dickinson, who by his “Cumbriana,” +“Reminiscences,” and “Glossary,” did much to preserve a knowledge of +old-time life in the county, said the last case of “telling the bees” +which came to his knowledge was at Asby, near Arlecdon, in 1855. To miss +taking the doleful news to the bees was held to be a certain way of +bringing ill-luck to the house.</p> + +<p>Supposed miracle workers have not been lacking.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> About the middle of the +fourteenth century the abbot and canons of Shap had licence from Bishop +Kirkby to remove the body of Isabella, wife of William Langley, their +parishioner, famed for having miracles done by it, to some proper place +within the church or churchyard of Shap, that the reliques might be +reverenced by the people with freer and greater devotion.</p> + +<p>“Boggles” have been common in all parts of the two counties; needless to +say the dreadful apparitions when inquired about in a careful manner have +invariably proved to be very commonplace and harmless creatures or +articles. “Boggle” is a Norse word, sometimes equal to personification of +diety or saint. Natural phenomena, as <i>ignis fatuus</i>, account for some; +the mist-mirage explains others. The mist is still called “the haut” (the +haunt). Witches, too, have abounded—according to report,—and some were +drowned, or otherwise persecuted because of their evil repute. Mary +Baynes, the witch of Tebay, died in 1811, aged ninety. She has been +described as a repulsive looking woman, with a big pocket tied upon her +back, and she was blamed for witching people’s churns, geese, and +goslings, so that on account of her witchcraft she became a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> terror to her +neighbours. Many strange things which happened were laid to her charge, +and thoroughly believed by the people. Ned Sisson, of the “Cross Keys +Inn,” had a mastiff which worried old Mary’s favourite cat. The owner +decided to have the grimalkin respectably buried in her garden, and a man +named Willan dug a grave for it. Old Mary handed Willan an open book, and +pointed to something he was to read. But Willan, not thinking it worth +while to read anything over a cat, took pussy by the leg, and said:</p> + +<p class="poem">“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.<br /> +Here’s a hole, and in thou must.”</p> + +<p>Mary grew angry, and warned her companion that he would fare no better for +his levity. Soon afterwards Willan was ploughing in his field when the +implement suddenly bounded up, and the handle struck one of his eyes, +causing blindness. Immediately Mary Baynes was given the credit for having +bewitched the plough. The old lady seems to have tried her hand also at +prophesy. Once when the scholars of Tebay School were out playing, Mary +predicted to them that some day carriages would run over Loupsfell without +the aid of horses. The railway now goes over a portion of the land to +which she referred, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> was then a large stinted pasture. The best +known other “witch” was “Lizzie o’ Branton,” otherwise Lizzy Batty, a +remarkable woman, who, in the early years of this century, occupied a +cottage on the roadside between Brampton and Talkin. She acted in a +peculiar manner, dressed curiously, and generally “acted the part,” with +the consequence that she was credited with many supernatural powers. She +died in 1817, at the age of eighty-eight. The date of her funeral in +Brampton was for long years remembered as the stormiest day the town had +ever seen. Although it was in March, yet darkness came on so suddenly that +lanterns were lighted at the grave-side, only to be again and again +extinguished by the fury of the tempest. A tradition still lingers that +those who bore the coffin to the grave solemnly affirmed that it was empty +and the body gone.</p> + +<p>The belief in the “barguest,” now practically gone, was in comparatively +recent times common enough to excite but little notice. The term was +generally used to denote any kind of ghostly visitant, but referred more +particularly to a fearsome creation which was supposed to haunt the fells +and dales, and make a horrible noise. Mr. B. Kirkby, in his “Lakeland +Words” (1899), gives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> the definition as known in North Westmorland: “One +who has the power of foretelling the demise of others; or one who makes a +great din.” Mr. Anthony Whitehead says, “A barguest is a spirit known only +through the sense of hearing, being a something which, during the dark +hours of night, disturbed the last generations of Westmorland with its +awful howling.”</p> + +<p>There is no lack of ghostly traditions in connection with families. +Perhaps the best known is that belonging to the ancient family of Machell, +of Crackenthorpe Hall, near Appleby. Lancelot Machell—the same who in +open court tore to pieces Cromwell’s new charter for Appleby—married +Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Sleddall, of Penrith. Her portrait was found +on a panel in Penrith some years ago. She was executrix of her husband’s +will, and for some alleged injury to her interest in the estate it used to +be said that she paid the Machells ghostly visitations whenever the head +of the family was about to die. The country folk used to say that she is +laid under the big stone called Peg’s Stone, just below Crackenthorpe +Hall, her term of incarceration being 999 years. They also say she has +been seen driving along the Appleby road at a great pace with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> “amber +leets” in the carriage, and disappear suddenly in Machell Wood, near the +spot called Peg Sneddle’s Trough. Indeed, there is extant a most graphic +and brilliant account of her passage of the Tollbar at Crackenthorpe, +narrated by one “Brockham Dick” (Richard Atkinson, of the “Elephant Inn”), +now many years deceased, who kept the gate in his youth, and who used to +stick to it with much detail of thrilling circumstance, how one night in +each year, when the “helm” wind was blowing, Mrs. Machell made her +appearance and passed this gate in offended state. When storms come on +upon the fell, Peg is said to be angry, and <i>vice versâ</i> in fine weather. +An old tree in the neighbourhood of Crackenthorpe called Sleddall’s Oak, +is also associated with Mrs. Machell’s name, and here a female figure is +supposed to be seen to sit and weep when any misfortune is about to befall +any member of the Machell family.</p> + +<p>When farmers find disease among their cattle, whether it be tuberculosis, +pleuro-pneumonia, or other undesirable visitation, they no longer pin +their faith to the old-time observances. The progress of science has shown +better methods of dealing with the disease, and now the stock<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> owners of +the northern counties would be the first to ridicule the means taken by +their grandfathers for stopping an outbreak. The “needfire,” which has +been witnessed by many people who are not yet old, was probably the last +remnant of fire-worship in this country. “It was once,” says Mr. Sullivan, +“an annual observance, and is still occasionally employed in the dales and +some other localities as a charm for the various diseases to which cattle +are liable. All the fires in the village are carefully put out—a +deputation going round to each house to see that not a spark remains. Two +pieces of wood are then ignited by friction, and within the influence of +the fire thus kindled, the cattle are brought. The scene is one of dire +bellowing and confusion: but the owner is especially anxious that his +animals should get ‘plenty of the reek.’ The charm being ended in one +village, may be transferred to the next, and thus propagated as far as it +is required.”</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau, in her “Guide to the Lakes,” tells a story of a certain +farmer who, “When all his cattle had been passed through the fire, +subjected an ailing wife to the same potent charm.” The last time the +“needfire” was used<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> in the Keswick neighbourhood, Mr. William Wilson +says, was in 1841. In some parts of Cumberland and Westmorland there was +then an epidemic amongst the cattle. It was brought over the Raise and +transferred from farm to farm through the vales. But, at one farm a few +miles out of Keswick, the sacred fire was allowed to become extinct, the +owner, a well-known statesman, not having sufficient faith in its virtue +to take the trouble to transmit it, or even to keep it alight. He told Mr. +Wilson that he was severely rated at the time for his lack of faith. That, +however, served to kill the popular belief in needfire, and even when the +terrible ravages of the rinderpest, foot and mouth disease, and +pleuro-pneumonia, were emptying the pockets and breaking the hearts of the +farmers, not one of them thought of reviving the old “cure.” The last +time, so far as the writer can find, the practice was reported in the +newspapers was this paragraph in the <i>Patriot</i> of July 25th, 1834:—“A +sort of murrain, or pestilential fever, is at present prevalent in the +county of Westmorland, the popular remedy for which is the fumigation of +the infected animals with the smoke of needfire, accompanied by certain +mystic signs.” The Rev.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> J. Wharton, however, well remembers the fire +being made at Long Marton about 1843-4, during a murrain. The term +“needfire” seems to be a corruption of “neatfire,” neat cattle being an +old and common term.</p> + +<p>Among the legends relating to North-Country residences, an interesting one +is concerning Corby Castle and its “Radiant Boy.” This—which corresponds +to the “corpse lichten” of other countries—has been described as a +luminous apparition which made its appearance with dire results, the +tradition being that the member of the family who saw the “Radiant Boy” +would rise to great power, and afterwards die a violent death. The only +example in proof of the tradition so far made known, however, was that of +Lord Castlereagh. That statesman was given a wide margin of time after +seeing the spectre, as that was supposed to have happened when he was a +young man, and he did not commit suicide until 1822.</p> + +<p>The superstition as to the skulls at Calgarth, Windermere, has several +parallels. Those two skulls formerly occupied a niche in Calgarth Hall, +from which they could not be kept for any long time, though they were +reputed to attend the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>banquets at Armboth Hall, Thirlmere, of their own +accord! Above all, “they were buried, burned, reduced to powder, dispersed +by the wind, sunk in the well, and thrown into the lake several times, all +to no purpose”—truly wonderful skulls!</p> + +<p>The superstition concerning “first-foot” has not yet died out; but the +observance is not regarded with that seriousness which ruled half a +century ago, and to the next generation, probably, this ancient New Year’s +custom and belief will have become part of the history of the bygone.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> +<h2>Four Lucks.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Closely</span> associated with the legends of Cumberland and Westmorland, dealt +with in the preceding chapter, are the stories of four “Lucks.” The best +known is that of Eden Hall, which has been made the theme for poems and +innumerable descriptive articles. The most popular version of the origin +of the Luck is that when a servant was going for water one night to the +Fairy Well, in front of the hall he surprised a number of fairies at their +revels, with the goblet in the centre of the ring around which they were +dancing. The servant seized the Luck, while the fairies gave the ominous +warning that</p> + +<p class="poem">“If this cup should break or fall,<br /> +Farewell the luck of Eden Hall.”</p> + +<p>Numerous poets have woven pretty stories out of the tradition, without +attempting to seek the real origin of the treasured possession. The Luck +is an ancient glass vessel widening by an easy curve, and terminating in a +graceful lip. Its colour is green, with enamel of red, yellow, and blue; +one theory is that its origin was Saracenic, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>and that it was brought +from Palestine by a member of the family during the Crusades. Dr. Todd, +when Vicar of Penrith, supposed it to have “been used as a chalice, at a +time when it was unsafe to have those sacred vessels made of costlier +metals, on account of the predatory habits which prevailed on the +Borders.” If absolute care can preserve it, the Luck is safe, for along +with its leathern case, adorned with vine leaves, and having the sacred +monogram “I.H.S.” on the top, the Luck is rarely taken from its place of +security—said to be one of the strong rooms of the Bank of England. +Whenever the Luck is exhibited to privileged visitors at the hall, the +utmost precautions are taken to prevent even the slightest accident.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img3.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">1.—ANCIENT GLASS VESSEL CALLED THE LUCK OF EDEN HALL.<br /> +2.—ITS LEATHER CASE.<br /> +3.—INSCRIPTION ON THE TOP OF THE CASE.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>“The Luck of Muncaster” is reputed to have been the gift of Henry the +Sixth, who stayed for a brief space with the Penningtons, either in 1461 +or 1464. The King was in sore straits, for death had robbed him of the +service of many of his most powerful adherents; howbeit he still held the +affections of large numbers of people in Cumberland and Westmorland. The +owner of Muncaster was one of those able and willing to stand by Henry in +his necessity, and kept the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> King in safety. The room in which the monarch +slept is still preserved with great care; he rested in a carved oak +bedstead, which bears his initials and a crown. At parting Henry gave to +Sir John Pennington a glass cup or basin, about seven inches in diameter, +ornamented with some gold and white enamelled mouldings, with—according +to tradition—the assurance that “the family shall prosper so long as they +preserve this cup unbroken.” It is unnecessary to do more than mention +that this Luck has been celebrated in verse, by way of illustrating the +evil designs of a kinsman who desired to destroy both the cup and the +fortunes of the Penningtons.</p> + +<p>That such a treasured relic should have more than normal risks of +misfortune can be well understood. Mr. Roby has mentioned<a name='fna_16' id='fna_16' href='#f_16'><small>[16]</small></a> one of its +escapes. “The benediction attaching to its security being then uppermost +in the recollection of the family, it was considered essential to the +prosperity of the house, at the time of the usurpation, that the Luck of +Muncaster should be deposited in a safe place. It was consequently buried +till the cessation of hostilities had rendered all further care and +concealment unnecessary.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> The box was allowed to fall when being brought +again to the surface, which so scared the owners that they fancied that +there would be a sudden end to their prosperity. The fright must have been +of long duration, for the story is that forty years elapsed ere one daring +member of the family, having seen no ill effects from the fall, had the +box opened, and experienced the keen delight of finding the Luck +uninjured. In the castle are two paintings, one representing the King +giving the cup to Sir John Pennington, and another allowing the King with +the Luck in his hand. On an old freestone slab in Muncaster Church is the +inscription, “Holie Kynge Harrye gave Sir John a brauve workyd glass cuppe +... whyllys the famylie shold keep hit unbrecken thei shold gretelye +thrif.”</p> + +<p>“The Luck of Burrell Green,” near Great Salkeld, seems to have passed into +the possession of various owners. It is an ancient brass dish of early +embossed work, sixteen and a quarter inches in diameter, and one and a +half inches deep. Mr. J. Lamb, formerly of Burrell Green, read a paper on +the subject two or three years ago to the members of the Archæological +Society, and also exhibited the dish. It is circular in form, and at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> one +time appears to have borne two inscriptions, one in large old English +letters in an inner circle around its central ornament, and the other in +an outer circle, probably in the same style of lettering. Neither +inscription is now legible, although on close examination certain letters +may still be discerned, this being due, no doubt, to the amount of +cleaning and rubbing it has undergone during late years. Thirty years ago, +when greater care was taken of the Luck than has since been the case, and +the inscription on the inner circle was rather more distinct than it now +is, Mr. R. M. Bailey, a London antiquary, tried to decipher it, and was of +opinion that it was in Latin, of which the following is a rendering: +“Hail, Mary, Mother of Jesus, Saviour of Men.” Like the two other Lucks in +Cumberland, the Luck of Burrell Green has its legend and couplet. This is +that it was given to the family residing there long ago by a “Nob i’ th’ +hurst,” or by a witch, a soothsayer, to whom kindness had been shown, with +the injunction that</p> + +<p class="poem">“If e’er this dish be sold or gi’en<br /> +Farewell the Luck of Burrell Green.”</p> + +<p>The Luck has been in the possession of the respective families residing at +Burrell Green for many generations, but its existence has not been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +brought very much before the public. In 1879 the late Mr. Jacob Thompson, +of Hackthorpe, made a painting of the Luck. Mr. Lamb added:</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Apart from the value of the Luck as an example of ancient art, it may +be said to be still more valuable from the mysterious tradition +associated with it, and also as appears very probable from the +rendering of the supposed inscription in the sacred use to which in +all probability it has at some time been applied. From the style of +the inscriptions it appears to be of as early a date as the +commencement of the sixteenth century, or probably earlier. On the day +Burrell Green last changed owners the Luck fell down three times in +succession from its usual position, a circumstance which at that time +had not been known to have occurred before, it always having been kept +in a secure place.”</p> + +<p>“The Luck of Levens” is of a kind quite different from the three already +mentioned. Levens Hall has attached to it one of the oldest deer parks in +England, and within its borders are some peculiarly dark fallow deer. The +local people have come to believe that whenever a white fawn is born in +the herd the event portends some change of importance in the House of +Levens. Four such cases have occurred within living memory—when Lord +Templetown came to Levens after the Crimean War, after General Upton’s +death in 1883, on the day after Captain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> and Mrs. Bagot’s wedding in 1885, +and in February, 1896, when Mrs. Bagot bore to Levens a male heir. Mr. +Curwen, in his monograph on the house, mentions the following “to +illustrate the superstition that had gathered round the white deer so +early as Lord Templetown’s residence at Levens, between 1850 and 1860”:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“A white buck which had appeared in the herd was ordered to be shot, +but the keeper was so horrified with the deed, which he thought to be +‘waur ner robbin’ a church,’ that he actually went so far as to +remonstrate with the Crimean veteran. Persuasion being of no use, he +at last refused point blank to do the deed himself, and another man +had to do it for him. In a few months great troubles came over the +house. In quick succession it changed hands twice; the stewards, +servants, and gardeners all lost their places; and the keeper firmly +held to the belief that all was due to the shooting of this white deer.”</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> +<h2>Some Old Trading Laws and Customs.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">While</span> some of the quaint laws connected with markets and fairs in other +parts of the country are unknown in Cumberland and Westmorland, others not +less interesting may be found in these counties. The searcher after such +old-time lore may find a good deal of it in the standard histories, but +still more in those byways of local literature which are too much +neglected. In this chapter no attempt can be made to do more than touch +the fringe of the subject.</p> + +<p>There is in existence in the Dean and Chapter Library at Carlisle a +monition probably dated towards the end of the fourteenth century +addressed to the clergy of the diocese, requiring them to see the +constitution of Otho strictly carried out—all fairs being banished from +churchyards and suspended on Sundays and solemn feasts. Churchyard fairs +were for the emolument of the churches, and were styled by the name of the +saint whose example is inculcated by the church’s name. The late Canon +Simpson, one of the most eminent antiquaries in the two counties, proved +that, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> England at least, no church was ever dedicated literally to a +saint. Fairs, especially “pot fairs,” still prevail in church cloisters in +Germany.</p> + +<p>Meat selling at church doors was common in the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries, and even so late as the time of Charles the Second. The only +instance of such a thing occurring in Cumberland of which there is record +now was at Wigton. In one of the old local histories appears the following +note:—“The Rev. Thomas Warcup, who erected his monument in the churchyard +long before his death, was obliged to fly from Wigton on account of his +loyalty during the Civil Wars. After the restoration of King Charles he +returned to the Vicarage, and tradition says that the butcher market was +then held upon the Sunday. The butchers hung up carcases at the church +door, to attract the notice of customers as they went in and came out of +church, and it was not unusual to see people who made their bargains +before prayer began, hang their joints of meat over the backs of the +seats, until the pious clergyman had finished the service. The zealous +priest, after having long but ineffectually endeavoured to make his +congregation sensible of the indecency of such practices, undertook a +journey to London on foot,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> for the purpose of petitioning the King to +have the market day established on the Tuesday, and which he had interest +enough to obtain.”</p> + +<p>Warcup became Vicar of Wigton in 1612, and possibly on the principle that +he was the best qualified to write his own epitaph because he knew himself +better than was possible for another to know him, he prepared the +following, which he had put on a headstone many years before his death:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Thomas Warcup prepar’d this stone,<br /> +To mind him of his best home.<br /> +Little but sin & misery here,<br /> +Till we be carried on our bier.<br /> +Out of the grave & earth’s dust,<br /> +The Lord will raise me up I trust;<br /> +To live with Christ eternallie,<br /> +Who, me to save, himself did die.”</p> + +<p>There was a keen rivalry between Crosthwaite and Cockermouth at the +beginning of the fourteenth century. The townsmen sent a petition to +Parliament in 1306, stating that owing to the sale of corn, flour, beans, +flesh, fish, and other kinds of merchandise at Crosthwaite Church on +Sundays, their market was declining so fast that the persons who farmed +the tolls from the King were unable to pay the rent. An order was soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +afterwards issued stopping the Sunday trading at Crosthwaite. But the +fairs and markets in churchyards on week-days were not prohibited by +statute for two hundred and eighty years after the Cockermothians sought +protection. The orders thus issued were not long recognised, but +collectors of scraps of local history in all parts of the county have +added to the general knowledge on this point.</p> + +<p>The announcing of sales in churchyards was in the early part of this +century a common custom. At Crosby Ravensworth the clerk hurried from his +desk immediately the service was concluded, followed by the congregation, +and mounting the steps he announced when a person’s sale by auction would +take place, and read out any notice given to him, for which service he +received a fee of fourpence. The custom has long since become obsolete; +old William Richardson called the last notice in 1837. It has been +asserted, with what amount of truth need not be too closely inquired into, +that when this method of advertising public events was forbidden, the +attendance of the parishioners at public worship showed a rapid +falling-off. The custom of churchyard proclamations prevailed at Orton in +the early part of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> the century, and the inscriptions on certain horizontal +tombstones have been obliterated by the hob-nails in the clerk’s boots. +While necessarily there must have been a great diversity in the articles +announced in the churches or churchyards as likely to be submitted for +public competition, it would be difficult to find a parallel for this +paragraph, which appeared in the <i>Pacquet</i> for March 8th, 1791:—“A few +months ago a person in very good circumstance at no great distance from +Ravenglass buried his wife. His son, a few days since, also became a +widower, and on Sunday, 27th ult., a sale of their wearing apparel was +published at all the neighbouring parish churches! Whether motives of +economy suggested the measure, or a wish to remove whatever could remind +the disconsolate survivors of their loss, can only be guessed at.”</p> + +<p>Among the relics treasured by Lord Hothfield at Appleby Castle, is an +article reminding the visitor of the days when free trading was unknown. +This is the principal corn measure which was used in the market at Kirkby +Stephen more than two hundred years ago; its purpose and record are stated +in the raised letters which run around the copper measure a little below +the rim:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>“The measure of Thomas, +Earle of Thanet Island, Lord Tufton, Lord Clifford, Westmorland, and Vescy, for the use of his Lopps +[lordship’s] market at Kirkby Stephen in Westmorland, 1685.”</p> + +<p>In the same building are two other corn measures, smaller than the Kirkby +Stephen measure just mentioned. One bears only the word “Thanet,” and a +coronet. The other measure, of different design, with the monogram, “A. +P.” in raised characters, indicates approximately its age, as it was +obviously the property of the Countess Anne of Pembroke. The measures, +made of bell metal, formerly in use in Sir Richard Musgrave’s manor at +Kirkoswald, are still carefully preserved by Mr. John Longrigg, the last +steward.</p> + +<p>How long the proclamation has been read at the St. Luke’s Fair at Kirkby +Stephen is unknown; certainly for a couple of centuries the practice has +been observed, and possibly for a much longer period. Although some of the +terms have now no effect, nor the cautions any value, the proclamation is +still made, the following being the terms of a recent one:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“O yes, O yes, O yes, The Right Honourable Henry James Baron +Hothfield, of Hothfield, Lord Lieutenant of the County of Westmorland, +Lord of the Manor of Skipton<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> in Craven, and Lord and Owner of this +Fair, Doth strictly Charge and Command in Her Majesty’s name that all +persons keep Her Majesty’s Peace, and not to presume to ride or go +armed during the time of this Fair to the disturbance of Her Majesty’s +Peace, in pain to be punished according to the Statute in that case +made and provided; and also that all persons bargain and sell lawful +and sound goods and merchandise, and pay their due and accustomed +tolls and stallages, use lawful weights and measures, upon pain to +forfeit the value of their wares and merchandise; and also that buy, +sell, or exchange any horse, mare, or gelding, that the sellers and +buyers thereof repair to the Clerk of the Tolls, and there enter their +names, surnames, and places of abode of all such persons as shall buy, +sell, or exchange any such horse, mare, or gelding, together with the +price, marks, and vouchers at their perils; and lastly if any person +have any injury or wrong done by reason of any bargain or contract, +during the time of this Fair, let them give information thereof, and +the same shall be tried by a Court of Pie Poudre, according to law.</p> + +<p>“God save the Queen, and the Right Honourable Henry James Baron +Hothfield.”</p></div> + +<p>Needless to say, the Court of Pie Poudre has not sat for many years now.</p> + +<p>Many curious and interesting customs were once connected with the holding +of markets and fairs; a few of these survive, though not in the form once +known. The practice a little over a century ago at Ravenglass, where a +fair was held on “the eve, day, and morrow of St. James,” has been thus +described: “On the first of these days<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> in the morning, the lord’s +officer, at proclaiming the fair, is attended by the serjeants of the Lord +of Egremont, with the insignia belonging thereto; and all the tenants of +the Forest of Copeland owe a customary service to meet the lord’s officer +at Ravenglass to proclaim the fair, and abide with him during the +continuance thereof; and for sustentation of their horses they have two +swaiths of grass in the common field of Ravenglass in a place set out for +that purpose. On the third day at noon, the Earl’s officer discharges the +fair by proclamation; immediately whereupon the Penningtons and their +tenants take possession of the town, and have races and other +divertisements during the remainder of that day.”</p> + +<p>The laws of the old Corporations at Kendal, Carlisle, and Appleby, and the +guilds and societies at other places, were very stringent, and far +surpassed the most exacting rules of the trades unions in our own day. +This statement may speedily be verified by a reference to the reprinted +Kendal “Boke of Recorde.” The “shoddy cloth man” appears to have +flourished almost as much three hundred years ago as he does to-day; at +any rate he was sufficiently in evidence to cause the Corporation to pass +a very stringent order in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> regard to “Clothe Dightinge.” The excuse for +the imposition of the regulation was that “Sundry great complaints have +been made in open Court of the insufficient and deceitful dressing and +dighting of clothes uttered and sold within the town, as well by the +inhabitants as foreigners coming to the same, therefore it is ordered by +the Alderman and head burgesses of the borough with the full assent of the +most part of the fellowship of Shearmen now dwelling within the borough, +that if any person or persons either now resident in the town or shall +hereafter be resident here or in the country adjoining, shall from +henceforth have or bring any pieces of cloth to sell or utter within this +borough to any person, not being well and sufficiently dight and dressed +throughout in all points alike, as well one place as another, in cotton, +nop, or frieze as it ought to be; the same being so found by the four +sworn men of the same occupation from time to time appointed, shall +forfeit and lose for every such piece 2s. 4d., the half thereof to the +Chamber of this borough, and the other half to the takers of the same.”</p> + +<p>A further order provided that if any piece of cloth was not “well, truly, +and sufficiently made in all places alike, and all parts thereof of like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +stuff as it ought to be, or which shall not be clean washed and clean +without blemish left in it, upon the like pain of 2s. 4d., to be forwarded +by the maker to those before limited for the first fault, and for every +fault then after committed and duly proved, the fine and penalty to be +doubled.” Factory and workshop inspectors, of a sort, were not unknown +three hundred years ago. The Corporation ordered the appointment of four +members of the “Company and fellowship of tayllers” to be known as +searchers or overseers, having power to have the oversight of all faults, +wrongs, and misusages happening or done in the trade. The order did not +long remain in force before the Corporation decided to repeal them, but +two or three years later they were revived by common consent, and ordered +to continue during pleasure. In still later times travelling tailors were +a brotherhood, and within the last fifty years when on their journeys +levied money on the resident fraternity.</p> + +<p>Cordwainers, when the “Boke of Recorde” was compiled, were only allowed to +do certain kinds of work, and were forbidden to “spetche,” or patch boots. +Tailors, too, could not employ any man who might apply for work, there +being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> a very strict law about the employment of freemen in preference to +those not free; nor could the shearmen enjoy any greater liberty in their +trading operations. One rule ran: “No countryman or person not free shall +be permitted to bargain, buy, exchange, trade, sell, or utter within this +borough or the precincts hereof, any clothes for outside as a shearman, +save only such as be occupiers now of the same trade, or such as shall +purchase their freedom, upon pain to lose ten shillings, whereof to the +Chamber 5s., and Company 5s.”</p> + +<p>There was a salutary rule about the selling of meat on Sundays: “From +henceforth no butcher, or other his servant, or factor shall sell or utter +any flesh or other victuals or meat out of any shop or stall within the +borough or liberties, or the precincts of the same, or keep any his or +their shop or warehouses open or unshut up after the ending of the third +peal or bells ringing to morning or evening prayer on any Sunday or other +festival day, upon pain to lose to the Chamber of this borough 12d.”</p> + +<p>The laws against forestalling, regrating, ingrossing, and otherwise +interfering with the due course of trade, were very strict in the markets +held under manors and also in those otherwise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> regulated. The practice +was, however, not peculiar to Cumberland and Westmorland. One other rule +from Kendal may be mentioned as showing the steps taken for preventing +skins being hoarded up, until prices became high: “It shall not be lawful +for any butcher or other person dwelling out of this borough or the +liberties of the same from henceforth to bring into the borough to be +sold, either on the market day or in the week-day any sheepskin (except +the same skin—having the ears upon it—be cleaving unto the head or +carcase of such flesh where upon it did grow) being so brought to be sold, +nor that they nor any of them shall sell, or offer, or put to sale, any +such skin on any market day so brought to be sold unto the borough before +ten o’clock before noon, upon pain to lose and forfeit as much as 2s.”</p> + +<p>The penalty for buying victuals before they arrived at the market was +forfeiture, while it was further ordered that “no man or woman shall +suffer any corn to be sold or measured in their houses upon pain of 6s. +8d., but that all corn shall be bargained, bought, and measured in open +market only.”</p> + +<p>An old native of the borough not long ago<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> assured the writer that when he +was a boy, in the old coaching days, the suspicion of “poaching” extended +even to the lawyers, for, said he, “At the Assizes at Appleby the Bar had +all to enter the borough together, or not before a certain hour, lest one +individual might secure more than a fair share of the briefs.”</p> + +<p>Market-bells are still rung at various places in the two counties. That in +St. Andrew’s Church, Penrith, is sounded every Tuesday morning at ten +o’clock, before which hour business is supposed to be forbidden. The same +rule prevails at Appleby, where the bell hangs in a campanile over the +Moot Hall. This, of course, is a survival of the days when forestalling +was a very serious offence—and properly so. The archives of the +Corporation of Carlisle contain documents bearing on the connection of the +bells with trading. Mention of the market-bell appears in the bye-laws of +1561, thus: “Itm that noe outman shall sell any corn to any fore nor to +such tym as the market bell be rounge on payn of forfitor.” Happily it is +not possible to apply to all the saying used with reference to one old +market in West Cumberland—that “it opens at twelve o’clock and closes at +noon,” the meaning, of course, being that there is little or no market<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +left. It was recorded by Mr. Green, the noted artist, that at Ambleside +the market was crowded by small merchants, “who were called together by +the tinkling of a small bell. Then all was bustle and animation; joy +beamed in every countenance, for all the traffic was for ready money, and +every individual lived upon the produce of his labour.”</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> +<h2>Old-Time Home Life</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">There</span> is a very great store of gossip and anecdote in existence which +might be utilised to illustrate the picturesqueness of old-time life in +Cumberland and Westmorland. Whether the lack of sanitary comforts, +intellectual facilities, and of opportunities of seeing the world or of +knowing of its doings, were counterbalanced by the freedom from care and +the quiet humdrum lives, which were led by the majority of the people in +the two counties, is an open question. An anecdote told in a book +published well-nigh a century since, well illustrates the simplicity of +life among Lakeland folk generations ago. A foreign physician, eminent in +his profession, practiced in the neighbourhood of Keswick. He was one day +asked by another medical man how he liked his position. “My situation,” he +replied, “is a very eligible one as a gentleman; I can enjoy every species +of country amusement in the greatest perfection; I can hunt, shoot, and +fish among a profusion of game of every kind; the neighbouring gentlemen, +too, seem to vie with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> each other in acts of politeness. But as a +physician I cannot say that it is so alluring to me, for the natives have +got the art of preserving their healths and prolonging their lives without +boluses or electuaries, by a plaster taken inwardly, called thick poddish. +This preserves them from the various diseases which shake the human +fabric, and makes them slide into the grave without pain by the gradual +decay of nature.”</p> + +<p>As might be supposed, a people possessing so many primitive habits, and +whose lives were so circumscribed, had numerous peculiar contrivances in +their homes. Some of these have been so long out of use that their purpose +has almost passed from memory. Before the days of mineral oils, the +general means of illumination, both in mansion and cottage, was the +rushlight. These candles were made of the pith of rushes, dipped in melted +tallow. They were fixed for use in an arrangement known as a “Tom +Candlestick,” which in the early years of this century were common objects +in every village home. Mr. Anthony Whitehead, in the last edition of his +Westmorland poems (1896), mentions a curious belief in this +connection—that the rushes were not considered fit for use unless pulled +at the full moon.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>A love of finery has seldom been a failing with the residents in the +country districts of Cumberland and Westmorland, and especially was this +the case before travel became easy. In the days when at the most the +ordinary folk only saw the shops of a town on “term day”—and in a vast +number of instances that would only occur on a few occasions in a +lifetime—dress was of the most homely and substantial sort. “Hodden grey” +for the men and correspondingly good wear for the females—most of it home +made—were the ordinary fabrics. Clogs were worn at one time by all +classes, from parson down to the poorest labourer, and even on Sundays the +wearing of boots or shoes was often an indication of the owner being a +person of some local consequence. The housewives had a curious method of +preserving the stocking heels, which was probably more efficacious than +cleanly. They took care to “smear the heels of the family’s new stockings +with melted pitch, and dipped them immediately in the ashes of turf. The +glutinous mixture incorporated with the woollen, and altogether formed a +compound both hard and flexible, which was well adapted to resist the +united friction of wood and leather.” The utility of clogs for certain +purposes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> is undoubted, but this useful kind of footgear is apparently +losing its popularity.</p> + +<p>There have been plenty of descriptions left—by old-time tourists and home +historians—at various periods of the methods of life of the people, and +they generally agree that the costumes, especially of the dales-folk, were +picturesque. The homespun material was frequently undyed, black and white +fleeces being mixed to save the expense of dyeing. This homely material, +which is still made in some parts of Scotland and Ireland, has in recent +years been pronounced by fashion to be superior, for country wear, to the +most finished products of the steam loom; so that now the most elegant +ladies do not disdain to wear dresses of the self-same homespun of which +our ancestors made their “kelt coats.” These coats were ornamented with +brass buttons, as were the waistcoats, which were made open in front for +best, in order to show a frilled shirt breast. Knee breeches were the +fashion for centuries. They were buttoned tight round the body above the +haunches, so as to keep up without braces. Those used for best had a knot +of ribbon and four or five bright buttons at the knee, and those who could +afford it, had them made of buckskin. Their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> stockings, which were a +conspicuous part of the dress, were also made from their own wool, the +colour being generally blue or grey. On their feet they wore clogs on +ordinary occasions, but when dressed in holiday costume, they had low +shoes fastened with buckles which were sometimes of silver.</p> + +<p>That picture is a pleasant one; the life in the home was less picturesque. +Churches and farm houses (especially the bedrooms) had next to no +ventilation. The sanitary—or rather insanitary—state of country places +was deplorable, and fevers of a very fatal character were common. The +records of the desolation wrought by some of them is melancholy. Open +drains and sewers in immediate proximity to farm houses were very usual. +Bedrooms very often communicated through the length of a house. This was +economy! A passage or corridor was not required. A leading clergyman, not +finding a casement which would open in a church where he was officiating, +extemporized ventilation by smashing a pane of glass. In the country +cottages and farm houses, as well as in many habitations in the towns, the +chimneys had no flues, and were funnel-shaped, being very wide at the +bottom and gradually contracting to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> the top, where they had an aperture +of the size of an ordinary chimney, through which the smoke escaped. In +these open chimneys, hams, legs of beef, flitches of bacon, and whole +carcases of mutton were hung to dry for winter consumption. Clarke, in his +“Survey,” mentions having seen as many as seven carcases of mutton hanging +in one chimney in Borrowdale, and was told that some chimneys in the vale +contained more. Few of these old-fashioned chimneys are now to be found in +the country.</p> + +<p>Wheat has never been grown in large quantities in Cumberland and +Westmorland; hence the necessity in former days for oat, rye, or barley +bread being the staple foodstuffs. Certainly the Westmorland oatmeal, +which required to pass through many processes, and to be stored with very +great care, was the staff of the rural households. It was used in a +variety of ways. There was the porridge for breakfast and supper, the thin +oatcake serving the main purposes of white bread in these days, and the +“crowdy”—an excellent and invigorating species of soup, made by pouring +the liquor in which beef was boiling, over oatmeal in a basin. Oatmeal +also entered into the composition of pie-crusts and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>gingerbread, like the +famous Kendal “piggin bottoms”—snaps stamped out of rolled dough by the +iron rim which formed the external base of the wooden “piggin” or +“biggin,” a diminutive wooden tub used as a receptacle for various +household requisites. Many good houses had either no oven or a very small +one, and pies were baked in a huge iron pan covered all round and above +the massive lid, too, with burning peats. Hence the contents were equally +cooked on all sides.</p> + +<p>The extent to which flesh meat, both fresh and cured, was used two or +three centuries ago, must have been much less per individual than is now +the case. Leaving out of account the cost to the poor—and the mere fact +that meat was sold for a very few pence per pound does not necessarily +indicate that it was therefore low-priced—there was not a great quantity +available. The art of winter fattening of sheep and cattle was unknown, +and so artificially preserved meat had to be depended upon after +Martinmas, or at the best between Christmas and spring. One old chronicler +wrote:—“The supply of animal food proved inadequate to the demands of the +community, for the fat stock, fed in autumn, being killed off by +Christmas, very little fresh meat appeared in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> markets before the +ensuing midsummer, except veal. The substantial yeomen, as well as the +manufacturers, provided against this inconvenience by curing a quantity of +beef at Martinmas, the greatest part of which they pickled in brine, and +the rest was dried in the smoke. Every family boiled a sufficient piece of +their salt provisions on Sunday morning, and had it hot to dinner, +frequently with the addition of an oatmeal pudding. The cold meat came day +after day to the table so long as any of it remained, and was as often +eaten with oat-bread alone. At the same time a wooden can, full of the +briny liquor in which the beef had been cooked, was placed, warm and +thickened with a little meal, before each person by way of broth. The +stomach was encouraged in the better sort of houses to digest these +stubborn materials by a supply of pickled red cabbage, which was prepared +for the purpose in October or November. Hogs were slaughtered between +Christmas and Candlemas, and converted principally into bacon, which, with +dried beef and dried mutton, afforded a change of salt meat in the spring. +The fresh provisions of winter consisted of eggs, poultry, geese, and +ill-fed veal.”</p> + +<p>In this connection it would be very interesting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> to know whether the +provisions of the will made by Thomas Williamson on December 14th, 1674, +are in any way carried out, or what has become of the charity. He +bequeathed the sum of £20 to be laid out in land to be bestowed upon poor +people, born within St. John’s Chapelry, or Castlerigg, Cumberland, in +mutton or veal, at Martinmas yearly, when flesh might be thought cheapest, +to be by them pickled or hung up and dried, that they might have something +to keep them within doors during stormy days.</p> + +<p>If animal flesh was dear, despite its small cost, there was some +compensation in another way. After the salmon season commenced, great +quantities of this modern luxury were brought from Carlisle and West +Cumberland, and sold in other markets in the two counties. The price was +frequently as low as a penny, and not often higher than twopence per +pound, the lack of carriages and roads of a decent character rendering +conveyance for long distances anything but an easy task. Then the poverty +of the people further south offered the owners of the fish no inducements +to carry the commodity into Lancashire. The abundance and cheapness of +salmon seem to have been proverbial. How far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> the story may be true the +writer cannot say, but it is worth while noting that a condition +concerning apprentices in some west of England towns, is also recorded as +applying to the Charity School at Kendal. The boys apprenticed from that +institution were not to be compelled to dine on salmon, or on fish in +general, oftener than three days in the week.</p> + +<p>Much worse was the condition of the labouring folk of the lower class, who +are said to have “subsisted chiefly on porridge made of oatmeal or dressed +barley, boiled in milk, with the addition of oat-bread, butter, onions, +and a little salted meat occasionally.” This meagre diet was probably the +cause of the agues which were once very common, especially in the country +districts. The disorder, to a large extent, disappeared when the culture +of vegetables became more general, and salted provisions less essential. +Up to 1730 potatoes were very sparingly used, and were chiefly grown near +Kirkby Lonsdale.</p> + +<p>Many of the old stories of the curious methods of dealing with tea, before +it became a common and indispensable article on the tables of all classes +in this country, are obviously either untrue or exaggerated. Hence the +veracity of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> following statements, which appeared in print in +Westmorland in the first decade of this century, is not vouched for:—“Not +long after the introduction of potatoes, tea became a favourite beverage +with the women, in spite of a steady opposition from the men; perhaps it +found its way into the north in form of presents. From the method of +preparing this foreign luxury not being generally understood, these +presents were sometimes turned to ridiculous uses. One old lady received a +pound of tea from her son in London, which she smoked instead of tobacco, +and did not hesitate to prefer the weed of Virginia to the herb of China. +Another mother converted a present of the same sort and magnitude into a +herb pudding; that is, she boiled the tea with dressed barley, and after +straining off the water, buttered the compound, which she endeavoured to +render palatable with salt, but in vain, for the bitter taste was not to +be subdued.”</p> + +<p>How unfavourably the introduction of tea was regarded, by some writers at +any rate, may be gathered from the following paragraph, which appeared in +the <i>Pacquet</i> of October 23rd, 1792:—“A correspondent says that in the +neighbourhood of Greystoke, during the late harvest, added to an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> increase +of wages, the female reapers had regularly their tea every afternoon, and +the men, toast and ale. How different is this from the beef-steak +breakfasts of old! How degenerate is the present age, and how debilitated +may the next be!”</p> + +<p>Oat-cake and brown bread are less favoured in the two counties than was +formerly the case, a fact which was often deplored by the late Bishop of +Carlisle, Dr. Goodwin. It is not a little curious that two articles which +formed the staple portions of the diet of the people from sixty to a +hundred years ago, should now be regarded more in the nature of luxuries. +As an example of the sparing way in which “white flour” was used, an old +Appleby native tells a story concerning what happened at a good hostelry +in the borough, sixty years ago, at a time when wheaten flour was very +scarce, but butcher meat very plentiful. Among other good substantial +things on the table was a huge meat pie, at the shilling ordinary. Just, +however, as the “head of the table” was about to cut the crust, the waiter +whispered to him, “Please, sir, missis says flour is so dear, ye must run +t’ knife round t’ crust and lift it clean off on to my tray to do another +time.”</p> + +<p>From the remains of ancient structures it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> still possible to draw good +pictures of the way the old inhabitants passed their lives therein. The +late Dr. M. W. Taylor by that means elaborated the story of the daily +doings of the people, from lord to vassal, who inhabited Yanwath Hall. A +similar picture has been presented by Mr. J. F. Curwen in his monograph on +Levens Hall “in the bygone”:—</p> + +<p>“Just within would be the raised dais, with its flanking window bay, and +the long table, at the higher side of which the lord with his family and +any distinguished guests took their meals, whilst on the floor below those +of an inferior rank were seated at tables ranging along each side of the +room. At the opposite, or western, end, the oaken screens, nine and a half +feet high, extended across the full width, dividing off the heck or +passage, from which opened out the kitchen, buttery, and other offices, +and from over which the musicians in the minstrels’ gallery would on all +occasions of more than ordinary importance enliven the feast with their +melody. This hall was also used for the transaction of business between +the lord and his vassals, for here he would hold his royalty court, +receiving their suit and service, and administer justice according to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the +powers granted to him by the Crown. At night time the retainers would +huddle together on the thickly strewn rushes in the middle of the floor, +around the fire and its convolving wreaths of smoke ascending to the open +lantern in the roof. For it must be remembered that chimneys were not +introduced into England, except to a few castles, until the fifteenth +century, about the time when the Redemans would be transferring Levens to +Alan Bellingham.”</p> + +<p>With chimneys came new taxes, and some of them were not only keenly +resented, but evaded as openly as was possible. The people seem to have +had a special dislike to the tax of two shillings a year which was passed +in the twelfth year of Charles the Second, for that was a heavy sum, +having regard to the value of money then. Among the manuscripts preserved +at Rydal Hall, Westmorland, by the le Flemings, are a great many +references to this tax. There were schemes for substituting other imposts, +as appears by a sentence contained in a letter (May 10th, 1669) by Daniel +Fleming, Rydal, to Joseph Williamson, who had just purchased the estate of +Winderwath, near Temple Sowerby:—“There are rumours one while that the +Scots are up in armes, another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> while that bishops and dean and chapter +lands will be sold, or annext to the crowne in the place of the excise and +hearth money, and bishops to be maintained by sallaries out of the +exchequer.”</p> + +<p>Another document is from the Lords Commissioners to the justices of the +peace in the Barony of Kendal, concerning the collection of the hearth +tax, and an item in a news-letter of April, 1671, says, “This day the Lord +Treasurer received proposals for the farm of the hearth money; those who +propose to keep it as it was, advancing only £100,000, are to make a new +offer.” During the following summer another came “from the Court at +Whitehall” to the justices of the peace for Westmorland, “Cautioning them +against allowing exemptions from hearth money too readily. They should +consider firstly who are they whom the law intends to be exempted. Then +they should appoint petty sessions for the signing of certificates at such +times and places that the royal officers may attend and be heard. It +cannot be supposed that the law intends to oblige the justices to allow +whatsoever shall be offered them without examining the truth thereof.” A +news-letter of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> April 23rd, 1674, gives an idea of the extent of the tax +in the following sentence:—“This day the farm of the hearth money was +made and let to Mr. Anslem, Mr. Perry, and Mr. Buckley, at £151,000 per +annum, and £25,000 advance, commencing at Michaelmas next.”</p> + +<p>Some of the entries are of special interest to Cumberland and Westmorland. +Thus in a letter to Daniel Fleming on January 8th, 1674-5, Robert Joplin, +writing from Kendal, “apologises for writing as he had not been able to +wait upon him. Has been seven weeks in the country, and surveyed and taken +account of all the hearths in most of the market towns of this county, and +in Cumberland. Had always behaved with all civility. If he will have the +duplicates of the surveys made they will be handed in at the next +sessions.” A week later Robert Joplin and Richard Bell, the collectors of +the hearth tax, report to the justices of Kendal: “Have surveyed most of +the market towns in the two counties, levying the tax of 2s. on every fire +hearth. Would not proceed to distrain without the justices’ permission. +Some refuse to pay because they were not charged before. All kitchens and +beerhouses refuse on the same pretence. Many hearths have been made up, +most of them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> lately. We trust that the justices will be very careful in +giving certificates.”</p> + +<p>A few days afterwards Nathaniel Johnson, another collector of the tax, +writes from Newcastle to Daniel Fleming that he “does not think the +determination of the justices to proceed in the matter of the hearth money +under the old survey, until the new is perfected, is consistent with the +law; nevertheless he will yield to their opinion.” Johnson proves to be a +difficult official with whom to deal, and he writes to Fleming in July, +“Remonstrating against the conduct of the Kendal magistrates in the matter +of the hearth money. It has been already decided that smiths’ hearths are +liable. The practice of walling up hearths in a temporary manner is +plainly fraudulent. The magistrates ought not to countenance such things, +nor refuse the evidence of officials engaged in this business, for of +course none other can be made. May reluctantly be compelled to appeal +against their proceedings.”</p> + +<p>These and similar protests did not appear to have much effect, though +frequently repeated, and ten years later came an order from the Lord High +Treasurer to the Clerk of the Peace of the county of Lancaster, to be +communicated to the justices,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> in view of the difficulties raised by them +in the collection of the hearth money: “The duty is to be levied on empty +houses, smiths’ forges, innkeepers’ and bakers’ ovens, on landlords for +tenements let to persons exempt on account of poverty, on private persons +where there is a hearth and oven in one chimney. The duty may be levied on +the goods of landlords and tenants which are not on the premises whereon +the duty arises.”</p> + +<p>There is a rather amusing reference to the subject in a letter sent by +William Fleming to his brother Roger Fleming, at Coniston Hall: “Tell the +constable the same hearth man is coming again. Tell him to be as kind as +his conscience will permit to his neighbours, and play the fool no more. +The priest and he doth not know how happy they are.”</p> + +<p>The means available, in bygone days, for quenching fire were, everywhere +in the two counties, of a most primitive character. In March, 1657, the +Corporation of Kendal decreed, as there had “happened of late within this +borough great loss and damage by fire,” and the Corporation had not fit +instruments and materials for speedy subduing of the flames, that the +Mayor and Alderman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> should each provide two leathern buckets, and each +burgess one such bucket, before May 1st following, the penalty being a +fine of 6s. 8d. in the case of the leading men, and half that amount for +default on the part of others.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> +<h2>Sports and Festivities.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">It</span> is almost impossible to separate the sports of the Cumberland and +Westmorland people from the festivals, inasmuch as some of the pastimes +were prominent items in gatherings even of a semi-religious character. +Wrestling, that finest of North-Country exercises, has been practically +killed by the competition of other athletic games, but more than all by +the “barneying” so often practised by the wrestlers. To this cause must be +ascribed the fall of the “mother ring” at Carlisle, and the disfavour into +which the sport has dropped in all parts of the two counties, albeit the +Grasmere exhibitions are still kept up to a fair standard of honesty. For +centuries it was the greatest amusement of fellsider, dalesman, and town +dweller, and it was no uncommon thing for men to walk, in the pre-railway +days, twenty miles to a wrestling meeting. Pure love of sport must have +been the motive, because the prize usually consisted only of a belt of the +value of from ten shillings to a sovereign—often much less—and a small +sum of money which would now be looked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> at with contempt even when offered +by way of “expenses.” The men whose prowess gained them more than local +fame were often almost perfect specimens of what athletes should be at +their respective weights, and their skill cannot be approached by any of +the medium and light weights now in the ring. For several other reasons +the sport is entitled—unfortunately so—to be classed among things +belonging to the bygone, and to the next generation wrestling, as +understood at the Melmerby and Langwathby Rounds fifty years ago, will be +unknown.</p> + +<p>Clergymen have often been included among the best wrestlers of their time, +especially in West Cumberland, though some who as young men were noted for +their prowess in this direction gave up this sport when they took holy +orders. William Litt, whose name will always have a place in local +sporting annals through his book, “Wrestliana,” was intended for the +Church. His tastes were so obviously in other directions that the plan had +to be abandoned, and he developed into one of the finest wrestlers of his +time. The Rev. G. Wilkinson, Vicar of Arlecdon, and the Rev. O. Littleton, +Vicar of Buttermere, were also ardent followers of the sport; while the +Rev. A. Brown,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> Egremont, and the inventor of the “chip” known as +buttocking, was described as one of the best exponents of the old game to +be found in the north of England.</p> + +<p>A sporting custom peculiar to the two counties—for the nobleman most +concerned has immense possessions in each—is the race for the Burgh +Barony Cup. The meeting has been well described as “a singular old-world +institution, one of a number of antiquated customs mixed up with the land +laws.” The races are held to celebrate the “reign” of a new Lord Lonsdale, +consequently no earl ever sees more than one—at least when he is the head +of the family. The last meeting on Burgh Marsh was in March, 1883, when +the arrangements were on a royal scale, thousands of persons being +present, an enormous number of them as the guests of his lordship. +Wrestling formed an important part of the proceedings during the two days, +but the central item was the race for the cup. The competitors were +confined to animals owned by free or customary tenants within the Barony, +and the winner of the hundred guineas trophy was greeted with frantic +cheering.</p> + +<p>Carlisle possesses a unique racing relic. The “horse courses” were +formerly held on Kingmoor,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> and the “Carlisle bells” were doubtless prized +as much in their day as the stakes for £10,000 are now. The articles +frequently figure in the Municipal Records as the Horse and Nage Bells, +and were for a long time lost, being ultimately found in an old box in the +Town Clerk’s office. Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt, <span class="smcaplc">F.S.A.</span>, some twenty years ago +gave this description of the relics: “The racing bells are globular in +form, with slits at the bottom, as is usual in bells of that class. The +loose ball which would originally lie in the inside, so as to produce the +sound, has disappeared. The largest, which is two and a quarter inches in +diameter, is of silver gilt, and bears on a band round its centre the +inscription [each word being separated by a cross]:</p> + +<p class="center">+ THE + SWEFTES + HORSE + THES +<br /> +BEL + TO + TAK<br /> ++ FOR + MI + LADE + DAKER + SAKE</p> + +<p>This lady was probably Elizabeth, daughter of George Talbot, fourth Earl +of Shrewsbury, and wife of William, Lord Dacre of Gilsland, who was +Governor of Carlisle in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The other bell, also +of silver, is smaller in size, and bears the initials H.B.M.C. (Henry +Baines, Mayor of Carlisle), 1559. On Shrove<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> Tuesday Kingmoor became a +busy scene, and the contests created much excitement among the freemen and +others. The bell was not an uncommon prize, either in horse-racing or +cock-fighting, and was held by the victor, as challenge cups and shields +are at the present day, from one year to another, or from one race to +another. To win this race was of course a mark of honour, and gave rise to +the popular expression of ‘to bear away the bell.’ At York the racing +prize in 1607 was a small golden bell, and the Corporation Records of +Chester about 1600 show that in that city a silver bell was given to be +raced for on the Roodee; but I am not aware that any of them are now in +existence. Probably the Carlisle examples are unique.”</p> + + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img4.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br /> +<img src="images/img4b.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">CARLISLE RACING BELLS.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p>There are many other evidences that racing has for several centuries been +a favourite pastime with the people of Cumberland and Westmorland. The +race meetings seem to have been made occasions for county gatherings of +other kinds, and especially for cock-fights—a sport which has not yet +entirely died out. The following advertisement of Penrith races in 1769, +which appeared in the <i>St. James’s Chronicle</i> for that year, may be quoted +as an example of many others, relating not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>only to Penrith but to other +towns in the two counties:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"><i>Penrith Races, 1769.</i></p> + +<p>To be run for, on Wednesday, the 24th of May, 1769, on the new Race +Ground at Penrith, Cumberland.</p> + +<p>Fifty Pounds, by any four Years old Horse, Mare, or Gelding, carrying +8st. 7lb. Two-mile Heats.</p> + +<p>On Thursday, the 25th, Fifty Pounds, by any Horse, &c., five Years +old, carrying 9st. Three-mile Heats.</p> + +<p>On Friday, the 26th, Fifty Pounds, by any five, six Years old, and +Aged Horse, &c. Five-year Olds to carry 8st. 3lb. Six-year Olds 9st., +and Aged 9st 8lb. Four-mile Heats.</p> + +<p>All Horses, etc., that run for the above Plates, to be entered at the +Market Cross on Saturday, the 20th Day of May, between the Hours of +Three and Six o’Clock in the Afternoon. The Owner of each Horse, &c., +to subscribe and pay Three Guineas at the Time of Enterance towards +the Races, and Two Shillings and Six-pence for the Clerk of the Race.</p> + +<p>Certificates of each Horse, &c., to be produced at the Time of +Enterance. Three reputed running Horses, &c., to enter and start for +each of the above Plates, or no Race.</p> + +<p>If only one Horse, &c., enters, to receive Ten Pounds, if two Fifteen +between them, and their Subscription paid at the time of Enterance +returned.</p> + +<p>All the above Plates to be run for in the royal Manner, and any +Dispute that may arise to be determined by the Stewards, or whom they +shall appoint.</p> + +<p>The several Plates will be paid without any Deduction or Perquisite.</p> + +<table style="margin-left: 4em;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td rowspan="2" valign="middle">Stewards.<span class="huge">{</span></td><td>CHARLES HOWARD, jun., Esq.</td></tr> +<tr><td>ANDREW WHELPDALE, Esq.</td></tr></table> + +<p><span class="huge">☞</span> A Cock Main, Ordinaries, and Assemblies, as usual.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>Not less interesting than the foregoing announcement is the report of the +event. There was never much attempt at descriptions, either of races or +cock-fights, though one would like to know the names of the gentlemen +indicated in this closing paragraph of the report: “At this Meeting a Main +of Cocks was fought between the Gentlemen of Cumberland, David Smith, +Feeder, and the Gentlemen of Westmoreland, Thomas Bownas, Feeder, which +consisted of 21 Battles, 16 whereof were won by the former, and 5 by the +latter; and of the 15 Bye-Battles Smith won 6, and Bownas 9.”</p> + +<p>Dalston was long the headquarters of cock-fighting in Cumberland—“Dalston +Black-reeds” are still spoken of as the best birds of the kind in the +world. There is a tradition to the effect that cock-fighting was once +carried on at Rose Castle, in the parish of Dalston, but the Rev. J. +Wilson<a name='fna_17' id='fna_17' href='#f_17'><small>[17]</small></a> took particular pains to disprove the assertion. Against that +must be put the following sentence which appeared in <i>Good Words</i> for +December, 1894: “One curious adjunct to an episcopal residence, speaking +loudly of the change of manners and the amelioration of tastes, is the +cock-pit,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> where matches are said to have been at one time fought for the +amusement of the Bishop and his friends.” The favourite day for +cock-fights was Shrove Tuesday.</p> + +<p>Cock-fighting was far from being the only barbarous sport enjoyed by the +people of the northern counties. Bull-baiting and badger-baiting were +probably never more popular than at the time when they were prohibited by +law in 1835. There is still the bull ring at Appleby, and the spectators’ +gallery was removed within living memory. At Kirkoswald and several other +market-places in the two counties the rings are still firmly fixed to +which the bulls were tethered during the baiting process. Mr. W. Wilson, +in his brochure on “Old Social Life in Cumberland,” says: “In Keswick a +large iron ring was formerly fixed in a stone block in the market-place; +this was called the bull ring, and to this a bull, previous to being +slaughtered, was fastened by the ring in its nose, and then baited and +bitten by savage dogs amid dreadful bellowing till the poor beast was +almost covered with foam, and quite exhausted. Great excitement prevailed +when a bull was being baited, and large numbers assembled to witness the +sport. On such occasions the market-place at Keswick<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> was crowded, and +many in order to obtain a good view, might be seen sitting on the roofs of +the adjoining houses. Beyond the excitement which the exhibition produced +among the spectators, the system was thought to be of great value in +improving the quality of the beef, an aged bull being especially tough +unless well baited before slaughtering. When the flesh of a bull was +exposed for sale, it was the rule in Keswick and probably elsewhere, to +burn candles during the day on the stall on which the meat was exposed for +sale, in order that customers might be aware of the quality of the meat +sold there.” In some other places in the two counties the penalty for +killing and selling an unbaited bull was 6s. 8d.</p> + +<p>For a very long period archery was practised in Cumberland and Westmorland +not only as a means of defence and attack, but also as a recreation. The +numerous places called “Butts,” or bearing synonymous names, indicate that +few towns neglected to set apart a shooting ground. In his “Survey of the +Lakes” Clarke blamed the severity of the game laws for keeping up skill in +archery amongst the poachers in the forests of the north-western counties. +He added: “It was this that produced so many noted archers and outlaws<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> in +the forest of Englewood as well as that of Sherwood. For not to mention +Adam Bell and his partners, tradition still preserves the names of Watty +of Croglin, Woodhead Andrew, Robin O’th’Moor’s Gruff Elleck (Alexander), +and of several others as of persons distinguished in that line even +amongst the people who were almost to a man of the same stamp. Besides, as +their squabbles and the subsequent maraudings made the skill thus acquired +at times absolutely necessary to the inhabitants on each side of the +boundary, we may easily conclude that a necessity of this kind, +continually kept alive, must produce no small degree of dexterity.</p> + +<p>“Whoever will consider the circumstances of the battles which were then +fought, will find that wherever the ground or circumstances favoured the +archer for a number of regular discharges, they generally produced such a +confusion, particularly amongst the enemy’s horse, as gave the men-at-arms +of their own party an opportunity of easily completing it. I need cite no +further particulars of this than the battle of Homildon, when the forces +of the Northern Marches encountered the gallant Archibald, Earl of +Douglas; the men-at-arms stood still that day, and the bowmen had the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +whole business upon their hands. It is recorded that no armour could +resist their arrows, though that of Earl Douglas and his associates had +been three years in making. It would seem, indeed, that the Scots excelled +in the use of the spear, and (excepting the Borderers) neglecting the bow; +since one of their own kings is thought to have recommended its more +general use by ridiculing their imperfect management of it.”</p> + +<p>The Kendal bowmen celebrated the prowess of their fore-elders of the same +name by establishing a competition and festival for September 9th in each +year. It was on that day in 1513 that the Kendal bowmen were particularly +distinguished in the battle of Flodden Field. The prizes shot for every +year were a silver arrow and a medal, the members appearing in a uniform +of green, with arrow buttons; the cape green velvet with silver arrow; the +waistcoat and breeches buff, and the shooting jacket was of green and +white striped cotton.</p> + +<p>Whitehaven also had its Society of Archers, and in 1790 had a medal +designed by Smirke as a trophy for competition. On one side were the +bugle-horn, quiver, and bow, above them being the words, “Per Has +Victoriam,” and underneath<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +the three place-names, “Poictiers,” “Cressy,” +and “Agincourt.” On the reverse was the name of the shooting ground, +Parton Green, and the date, while round the edge were the words, +“Captain’s Medal, Cumberland Archers.”</p> + +<p>The Kendal “Boke of Recorde” contains several references to the pastimes +of Westmerians from two to three centuries ago. On one occasion it was +ordered by the Corporation “That whosoever do play at the football in the +street and break any windows, shall forfeit upon view thereof by the Mayor +or one of the Aldermen in the ward where the fault is committed the sum of +12d. for every time every party, and 3s. 4d. for every window by the same +broken, and to be committed till it be paid, the constable looke to it to +present it presently at every Court day.” That knur and spell, the game so +popular still in Yorkshire, was once a favourite pastime in Kendal is +attested by the following entry, dated April, 1657: “It is ordered by the +Court that all such persons, inhabitants within this borough, above the +age of twelve years, that hereafter shall play in the streets at a game +commonly called Kattstick and Bullvett shall forfeit and incur the penalty +of 12d. for every offence, to be levied of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> their goods, and where they +have no goods to be imprisoned two hours.”</p> + +<p>The somewhat questionable glories of Workington Easter football play have +passed away, partly in consequence of the occupation of a portion of the +playing ground by railways and works, and not less because of a change of +feeling. How long these Easter Tuesday matches between “Uppies” and +“Downeys” have gone on no man can tell. Half a century ago it was reported +in the <i>Pacquet</i> that the game in 1849 “was played with all the vigour of +former days, from times beyond ‘the memory of the oldest inhabitant.’” The +goals are about a mile apart, one being a capstan at the harbour, and the +other the park wall of Workingham Hall. There are no rules except those +suggested by cunning and skill, while brute force is of the greatest +importance. If the ball is “haled” over the park wall a sovereign is given +by the owner of the estate to the winners, and of course it is spent in +liquor. The players sometimes number hundreds, and thousands of people +attend as spectators.</p> + +<p>In several places in the two counties “mock mayors” were annually elected, +and the occasion at Wreay was marked by somewhat uncommon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> festivities. +The Rev. A. R. Hall, Vicar of the parish, in a lecture delivered some time +ago, gave an account of these Shrovetide observances, which made the +village famous in its way. Up to 1790 the chief feature was a great +cock-fight, managed by the boys at school. A hunt of harriers subsequently +took the place of the cock-fight, this being followed by a public dinner, +and the election of the mayor. Sometimes this functionary belonged to +Wreay, and sometimes came from Carlisle; in the latter case, those who +wished to keep up the due dignity of the office chartered a coach-and-four +for the accommodation of their friends. Racing and jumping were features +in the sports, the prizes for which were hats. The old silver bell used to +ornament the mayor’s wand of office. In 1872, unfortunately, the bell was +stolen, and Wreay lost this relic, which had been connected for 217 years +with its Shrovetide festivities. In 1880 the hunt and the election of +mayor both came to an end.</p> + +<p>Befitting its importance in the calendar, Christmas seems to have always +held the first place in popularity among the holidays and festivals of the +year. In the summer season Whitsuntide—which marks the end of one term of +farm service—was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> the most popular. At Christmas “the treat circulated +from house to house, and every table was decorated in succession with a +profusion of dishes, including all the pies and puddings then in use. Ale +possets also constituted a favourite part of the festive suppers, and were +given to strangers for breakfast before the introduction of tea. They were +served in bowls, called doublers, into which the company dipped their +spoons promiscuously; for the simplicity of the times had not yet seen the +necessity of accommodating each guest with a basin or soup plate. The +posset cup shone as an article of finery in the better sort of houses; it +consisted of pewter, and was furnished with two, three, or more lateral +pipes, through which the liquid part of the compound might be sucked by +those who did not choose the bread. This plentiful repast was moistened +with a copious supply of malt liquor, which the guests drank out of horns +and the wooden cans already mentioned. The aged sat down to cards and +conversation for the better part of the night, while the young men amused +the company with exhibitions of maskers, amongst whom the clown was the +conspicuous character; or parties of rapier-dancers displayed their +dexterity in the sportive use of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>small-sword. In the meantime the +youth of both sexes romped and gambolled promiscuously, or sat down not +unfrequently to hunt the rolling-pin.”</p> + +<p>The Gowrie Plot is brought to mind by a record in the Greystoke books that +is unusually quaint in its style: “1603, August, ffrydaye the v<sup>th</sup> day +was comnded for to be keapt holy daye yearely from cessation of laybour +w<sup>th</sup> gyvinge of thanks for the kyngs most excelent matye for his ma<sup>tyes</sup> +p’servation and deliverance from the Crewell Conspiracie practized against +his mat<sup>ies</sup> pson in Scotland that v<sup>th</sup> daye of August, 1600.” Three +years sufficed for this celebration; then Gunpowder Plot came in for +notice, as is seen from an item dated November 5th, 1606: “The sayde daye +was Kenges holy day, and one sermon by M<sup>r</sup> pson the xi Isaie 2 verse.” +The chronicler followed this registration of his text by a list of the +names of the chief people in the parish who attended the service.</p> + +<p>The shearing days used to be high festivals on the fells and in the dales +of both counties. Now the gatherings have been deprived of some of their +most characteristic features; and even the chairing is almost forgotten. +Richardson’s chapter on “Auld Fashint Clippins and Sec Like,” in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +“Stwories at Ganny uset to Tell,” relates how the chairing used to be +done. The song, once an indispensable item in the programme, may now and +again be heard, lustily shouted by the dalesmen. After declaring that “the +shepherd’s health—it shall go round,” the chorus continues:</p> + +<p class="poem">“Heigh O! Heigh O! Heigh O!<br /> +And he that doth this health deny,<br /> +Before his face I him defy.<br /> +He’s fit for no good company,<br /> +So let this health go round.”</p> + +<p>The coronation of a monarch was invariably made the occasion for +merry-making by the consumption of much ale by the common folk, especially +by bell-ringers and others who could have the score discharged by the +churchwardens. There is such an entry in the Crosthwaite books relating to +the coronation of George the First. In 1821, November 5th, there was +“spent in ale at Nicholas Graves 5s.” This worthy who was parish clerk at +Crosthwaite for fifty-six years, was also the owner of a public-house in +the town, and among his other qualifications was that of being will-maker +for many of the inhabitants. At Penrith, Kendal, Carlisle, and many other +places the church bells were set ringing, bonfires lighted,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> and ale +barrels tapped—usually at the expense of the churchwardens—on very small +provocation.</p> + +<p>Among other festivals now no longer observed, and probably forgotten, was +that known as Brough Holly Night. In a little pamphlet published between +thirty and forty years ago the following note on the subject was printed, +but the writer has been unable to ascertain when the custom was last seen +in the old Westmorland town: “On Twelfth Night, at Brough, the very +ancient custom of carrying the holly-tree through the town is observed. +There are two or three inns in the town which provide for the ceremony +alternately, though the townspeople lend a hand to prepare the tree, to +every branch of which a torch composed of greased rushes is affixed. About +eight o’clock in the evening the tree is taken to a convenient part of the +town, where the torches are lighted, the town band accompanying and +playing till all is completed, when it is carried up and down the town, +preceded by the band and the crowd who have now formed in procession. Many +of the inhabitants carry lighted branches and flambeaus, and rockets, +squibs, etc., are discharged on the occasion. After the tree has been thus +paraded, and the torches are nearly burnt out, it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> taken to the middle +of the town, where, amidst the cheers and shouts of the multitude, it is +thrown among them. Then begins a scene of noise and confusion, for the +crowd, watching the opportunity, rush in and cling to the branches, the +contention being to bear it to the rival inns, ‘sides’ having been formed +for that purpose; the reward being an ample allowance of ale, etc., to the +successful competitors. The landlord derives his benefit from the numbers +the victory attracts, and a fiddler being all ready, a merry night, as it +is called here, is got up, the lads and lasses dancing away till morning.”</p> + +<p>There were once many wells and springs in the two counties which were held +in more than common regard by the inhabitants, and corresponded to the +Holy Wells of other districts. Between sixty and seventy years ago this +was written of a custom once common at Skirsgill, about a mile from +Penrith: “Upon the sloping lawn is a remarkably fine spring; its water is +pure and sparkling, and was formerly held in such veneration that the +peasantry resorted to it, and held an annual fair round its margin. In +descending a flight of stone steps, you perceive inside a drinking cup, +and over the door-top, neatly cut in stone, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> form of a water jug.” +Cumberland is said to have had nearly thirty Holy Wells, and of one of +these Mr. Hope tells us<a name='fna_18' id='fna_18' href='#f_18'><small>[18]</small></a> that “The Holy Well near Dalston, Cumberland, +was the scene of religious rites on stipulated occasions, usually Sundays. +The villagers assembled and sought out the good spirit of the well, who +was ‘supposed to teach its votaries the virtues of temperance, health, +cleanliness, simplicity, and love.’”</p> + +<p>The various well festivals in the Penrith district have all passed away, +as has a once popular gathering of another kind, known as Giant’s Cave +Sunday. The assemblies were at “the hoary caves of Eamont,” about three +miles from Penrith, and the late Rev. B. Porteus, then Vicar of Edenhall, +wrote of them nearly forty years ago: “The picnics are of frequent +occurrence at this picturesque and romantic spot; and have been +occasionally patronised by special culinary demonstrations by the +hospitable proprietor of the estate. Giant’s Cave Sunday is still +observed, but the custom has dwindled into insignificance, the ‘shaking +bottles’ carried by the children at that season being the only remains of +what it has been. But it affords a pleasant walk to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> people of +Penrith, as it has probably done since the time when the caves were the +residence of a holy man.”</p> + +<p>Among the festivities now to be numbered among bygone things must be +mentioned the Levens Radish Feast, which had much more than a local fame. +In the time of Colonel Grahme there was great rivalry between the houses +of Dallam Tower and Levens. The former once invited every person who +attended Milnthorpe Fair to partake of the good cheer provided in the +park, a piece of hospitality which irritated the Colonel very much. As a +consequence, the following year when the Mayor and Corporation of Kendal +went to proclaim the fair, he took them to Levens, and provided such a +royal entertainment that the civic fathers gladly accepted the invitation +for succeeding years. The fair sex were rigidly excluded. Long tables were +placed on the bowling green, and spread with oat bread, butter, radishes, +and “morocco,” a kind of strong beer, for which the Hall was famed. After +the feast came the “colting” of new visitors, and various amusements that +are better to read about than witness.</p> + + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img5.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">LEVENS HALL.—<i>Front View.</i></p> +<p> </p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> +<h2>On the Road.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Few</span> parts of England could have been so inaccessible as were Cumberland +and Westmorland prior to the middle of the last century. Roads were +scarce, unless the dignity of the name be given to the rough tracks which +served for the passage of pack-horses, and even these did not reach a +great number, having regard to the area which they served. There was +little to call the people away from home, to London and other great +centres of industry. The journey from the north to the Metropolis was such +a great undertaking that men who had any possessions to leave behind them +almost invariably made their wills before starting out. The richer sort, +of course, rode their horses, and an interesting account of the journey +was left by Henry Curwen, of Workington Hall, as to his trip to London in +1726. The most accessible route was very roundabout—by Penrith, +Stainmore, Barnard Castle, York, and so through the eastern counties. This +journey on horseback occupied thirteen days, including four which were +utilised for visiting friends on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> way. The roads he described as being +very bad, and a ride of thirty-two miles he declared to be equal to fifty +measured miles.</p> + +<p>People with fewer guineas to spare had of necessity to walk. +“Manufacturers made their wills, and settled their worldly affairs, before +taking a long journey, and many of them travelled on foot to London and +other places, to sell their goods, which were conveyed on the backs of +pack-horses.”<a name='fna_19' id='fna_19' href='#f_19'><small>[19]</small></a> Even more recently pedestrian excursions from Mid +Cumberland to London have been undertaken; there was the well-known case +of Mally Messenger, who died in August, 1856, at the age of ninety-three +years. Several times before she attained middle age Mally walked to London +and back to Keswick, a distance of 286 miles in each direction. On one +occasion she was passed by a Keswick man on horseback, who by way of a +parting message remarked, “Good-day, Mally; I’ll tell them in Keswick +you’re coming.” The pedestrian, however, was the better traveller, for she +often used to boast afterwards that she reached Keswick first.</p> + +<p>When old-time Bamptonians wanted to see the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> Metropolis they could not go +to Shap or Penrith and thence be carried by excursions for considerably +under a sovereign. This is how the vicar went on foot in 1697, as recorded +in the parish registers: “Feb. the 7 did Mr. Knott set forward for London, +got to Barking to Mr. Blamyres, Friday, March the fourth, to London March +the seaventh, remained there 8 weekes and 2 dayes, came out May the 5, +1698, gott to Bampton Grainge, May the 20, at night.”</p> + +<p>Even apart from the perils which beset travellers during the times of the +Border forays, there were many things which must have restrained the +average Cumbrian and Westmerian from wandering far abroad. To those who +were obliged to walk or ride far, the old hospitals must have been very +welcome institutions. One of these, of which all traces have long been +lost, was the hospital on the desolate and remote fells of Caldbeck. “Out +of Westmorland and the east parts of Cumberland there lying an highway +through Caldbeck into the west of Cumberland, it was anciently very +dangerous for passengers to travel through it, who were often robbed by +thieves that haunted those woody parts and mountains. Thereupon Ranulph +Engain, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> chief forester of Englewood, granted licence to the Prior of +Carlisle to build an hospital for the relief of distressed travellers who +might happen to be troubled by those thieves, or prejudiced by the snows +or storms in winter.” The Prior made the enclosure, and doubtless the +hospice was a boon to many a wayfarer; the population increased, a church +was established, and in the time of King John, the hospital being +dissolved, the property of the secular institution was handed over to the +Church, and to this day the manor is known as Kirkland. The need for +former protection of the kind is still preserved in a landmark in the +parish, “the Hawk,” or as the local pronunciation has it, “Howk.” This +grotto was a noted meeting-place for thieves.</p> + +<p>Even the King’s Judges were not exempted from the perils of the road. +Hutchinson’s description of Brampton says that “The judges, with the whole +body of barristers, attorneys, clerks, and serving men, rode on horseback +from Newcastle to Carlisle, armed and escorted by a strong guard under the +command of the sheriffs. It was necessary to carry provisions, for the +country was a wilderness which afforded no supplies. The spot where the +cavalcade halted to dine, under an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> immense oak, is not yet forgotten. The +irregular vigour with which criminal justice was administered shocked +observers whose lives had been passed in more tranquil districts. Juries, +animated by hatred, and by a sense of common danger, convicted +house-breakers and cattle-stealers with the promptitude of a court-martial +in a mutiny; and convicts were hurried by scores to the gallows.”</p> + +<p>Even taxes did not, it is to be feared, prevent some of the Cumbrians +occasionally throwing in their lot with, or assisting, the vagabonds who +were the cause of all the trouble. “It was often found impossible to track +the robbers to their retreats among the hills and morasses, for the +geography of that wild country was very imperfectly known. Even after the +accession of George the Third, the path over the fells from Borrowdale to +Ravenglass was still a secret carefully kept by the dalesman, some of whom +had probably in their youth escaped from justice by the road.” Such is the +record which may be gathered from Gray’s “Journal of a Tour in the Lakes” +in 1769.</p> + +<p>Coach travelling was an expensive luxury, and those who undertook the +journeys between London and the north did not do so solely for pleasure. +From an advertisement, nearly a column in length,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> which appeared in the +London <i>Star</i> at the end of 1795 the following is taken:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Saracen’s Head Inn.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Snow-Hill, London.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Safe, Easy, and Expeditious Travelling.</span><br /> +With every accommodation that can lessen the fatigue,<br /> +or add to the pleasure of the Journey, to<br /> +most parts of England and the<br /> +Principal Towns in Scotland,<br /> +by the following<br /> +NEW AND ELEGANT COACHES:</p> + +<p>Carlisle and Penrith rapid Post Coach, goes with four horses, and a +guard all the way, passes through Brough, Appleby, Gretabridge, +Richmond, Catterick, Boroughbridge, Wetherby, Alberford, Doncaster, +and Grantham (the nearest way by 18 miles) sets out every morning, and +performs the journey with the greatest ease and convenience. +Passengers desirous to stop on the road, have the advantage of their +seats being secured in the next Coach (with only six Coachmen).</p> + +<p>WILLIAM MOUNTAIN and CO. respectfully acquaint their Friends and the +Public that, still emulous to deserve as well as preserve their +invaluable esteem, they have provided Lamps and Guards, that travel +throughout with all the above Coaches.</p> + +<p>N.B. The Proprietors of the above Coaches from the above inn, will not +be accountable for any Parcel, Luggage, Goods, &c., of more value than +Five Pounds (if lost) unless entered as such and paid for accordingly.</p></div> + +<p>An earlier advertisement which appeared in the Cumberland newspapers of +1775 shows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> that the journey to London was done in three days, at a cost +of £3 10s. per passenger. The notice ran:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Carlisle Post Coach.—In Three Days for London.—Sets out from the +Bush Inn, Carlisle, every Sunday evening, at seven o’clock precisely, +by way of Burrowbridge, being well known to the public to be the +nearest and best road to London (and is also calculated for more ease +and satisfaction to the passengers than any other coach). It also sets +out from the Bell and Crown, Holborn, every Wednesday evening, at +eight o’clock. Each inside passenger from Carlisle to London to pay £3 +10s. From the George Inn, Penrith, £3 7s. 6d., and threepence per mile +for all passengers taken up on the road. Each passenger to be allowed +14lb. luggage; all above to pay 4d. per pound; small parcels at 3s. +each.... Performed by J. Garthwaite and Co.”</p> + +<p>Locomotion was still more difficult and costly in the early part of the +seventeenth century. In the Household Books of Naworth, extending from +1612 to 1640, are found such significant entries as the following:—“March +22, 1626. Hewing a way for the coach beyond Gelt Bridge, 2s. 3d.” On one +occasion, Sir Francis Howard, being sick, hired a coach for his journey +from London to Bowes, which cost £18. Lord William Howard’s journeys to +London were always taken on horseback, and he was generally ten or twelve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +days on the road, the travelling expenses varying, according to the number +of his retinue and the direction of the route taken. A journey by way of +Shiffnal and Lydney occupied eleven days, and cost £30 7s. 1d.; whilst the +expenses of another, from Thornthwaite to London with twenty-four men and +twelve horses in his train, came to £20 15s. 4d.</p> + +<p>In addition to the coaches, people often travelled by what were termed +“expeditious wagons,” which carried goods. One notice dated November 24th, +1790, concerning these vehicles may be quoted:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“In ten days from Carlisle to London, and the same in return by way of +York every week. Messrs. Handleys respectfully inform their friends +and the public in general that they have erected stage waggons which +leave Carlisle early on Tuesday morning and arrive at York on Thursday +night, and Leeds on Saturday morning (where goods for all parts in the +south are regularly forwarded by the respective carriers), arrive at +the White Bear, Bassinghall Street, on Friday night, and set out every +Monday morning, and arrive at and leave York on Tuesday morning, +Bedal, Richmond, Barnard Castle, Burgh, Appleby, Penrith, and arrive +at Carlisle on Friday evening, where goods are immediately forwarded +to Wigton, Cockermouth, Workington, Whitehaven, and any other place in +Cumberland; also to Annan, Dumfries, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and +all other principal towns in Scotland. They hope by their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> attention +to business to merit the favours of all those who please to employ +them. N.B.—Their waggon leaves Sheffield on Saturday, and Leeds on +Monday. For further particulars apply to Robert Wilson, book-keeper, +or J. Birkett, innkeeper, Carlisle.”</p> + +<p>A writer in 1812, on the manners and customs of the people of Westmorland +during the preceding century, stated that wheel carriages were very little +used for private intercourse or trade; for persons of both sexes made +short journeys on horseback, the women being commonly seated on pillions +behind the men. Very few made long excursions from home, except the +manufacturers of Kendal, many of whom travelled on foot in quest of orders +for their worsted stockings and linsey-woolsey. Carriers did not employ +wagons, but drove gangs of pack-horses, each gang being preceded by a +bell-horse, and the owners reckoned a young woman equivalent to half a +pack in loading their beasts of burden. The predilection for transporting +all kinds of commodities on horseback was so general, that the fuel +consumed in Kendal came to the town in this manner. Coals were brought in +sacks upon galloways from Ingleton, and the turf or peat was conveyed from +the mosses in halts. These were a pair of strong wicker hampers, which +were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> joined by a pack-saddle, and hung across a horse’s back. They were +put to various uses in husbandry, which offices are now performed by +carts. Halts gave way to carts in the progress of general improvement. +These vehicles were ill-contrived, particularly the wheels, which +consisted of two circular boards fixed without spokes immovably to the +ends of a cylinderical axle. The injudicious nature of the construction +required the axle itself to revolve beneath the cart, where it was kept in +its place by two pairs of parallel wooden pins, that projected downward +from the frame of the bottom.</p> + +<p>A question concerning these old “tummel wheel’d cars” was asked in the +<i>Carlisle Journal</i> a few months ago, and a correspondent supplied this +answer:—“I have seen at least two of these old-time machines of +locomotion. They had then been many years out of use. I speak now of a +date say 58 years gone past. One of them was stored in an open shed in the +farmyard of its venerable owner—the other had less respect shown to its +remains, for it stood in a neglected and unsheltered corner. Of course, I +never saw either of them in use. The wheels were funny, not to say clumsy, +looking affairs. Without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> spokes or felloes, they consisted of three +segment-shaped blocks of wood, fastened together rudely but strongly with +‘dowels’ of the same material, so as to form a circle. The wheels again +were similarly fastened to the axle, and the whole revolved in one solid +mass. The harness consisted mostly of ropes or girthing with loops at the +ends, and having cleets like the modern ‘coo-tee’ to hold them in +position. Very little leather was used, and but few buckles. Here is Mr. +Dickinson’s description, ‘In old times the horse was yoked to the cart by +a rope from the shoulders, and an iron ring sliding on the shaft held by a +pin. This was hammerband yoking. The tummel wheelers referred to were seen +by me in the Lake District (Ullswater) in the early forties.’”</p> + +<p>Before turnpike roads were made, or wagons came into use, the merchandise +of Kendal was transported by the following pack-horses:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td>One gang of pack-horses to and from London every week, of about</td> + <td align="right">20</td></tr> +<tr><td>One gang from Wigan weekly, about</td> + <td align="right">18</td></tr> +<tr><td>One gang from Whitehaven, about</td> + <td align="right">20</td></tr> +<tr><td>From Cockermouth</td> + <td align="right">15</td></tr> +<tr><td>Two gangs from Barnard Castle</td> + <td align="right">26</td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>Two gangs from Penrith twice a week, about 15 each</td> + <td align="right">60</td></tr> +<tr><td>One gang from Settle twice a week, about 15 each</td> + <td align="right">30</td></tr> +<tr><td>From York weekly, about</td> + <td align="right">10</td></tr> +<tr><td>From Ulverston</td> + <td align="right">5</td></tr> +<tr><td>From Hawkeshead twice a week, about 6</td> + <td align="right">12</td></tr> +<tr><td>From Appleby twice a week, about 6</td> + <td align="right">12</td></tr> +<tr><td>From Cartmel</td> + <td align="right">6</td></tr> +<tr><td>Carriages three or four times a week to and from Milnthorpe, computed at 40 horse load </td> + <td align="right">40</td></tr> +<tr><td>From Sedbergh, Kirkby Lonsdale, Orton, Dent, and other neighbouring villages, about</td> + <td align="right" class="botbor">20</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><span style="padding-right: 2em;">Total</span></td> + <td align="right">294</td></tr> +<tr><td>Besides 24 every six weeks for Glasgow.</td></tr></table> + +<p>Less than sixty years ago the pillion was in constant use in the two +counties, and only the well-to-do yeomen thought of taking their wives and +daughters frequently to market in the “shandry cart.” It is only a quarter +of a century since the old pack-horses ceased to traverse some parts of +Westmorland and its borders. Mr. H. Speight, in one of his books,<a name='fna_20' id='fna_20' href='#f_20'><small>[20]</small></a> +deals with a state of things which existed, not only in the Hawes +district, but considerably northward of that place. Handloom weaving was +an old local industry, and when a sufficient number of pieces were ready, +they were gathered up and conveyed by teams of pack-horses over the +mountains to the various<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> West Riding towns. Discharging their loads they +would return laden with warp, weft, size, and other articles. When the +traffic ceased, hundreds of these sonorous pack-horse bells were sold for +old metal, and the brokers’ shops for a time were full of them. Each bell +weighed from 1lb. to 2lbs. An old resident in North Westmorland not long +ago recalled very vividly the scenes to be witnessed, and confirmed the +accuracy of the following description from Mr. Speight’s volume: “In the +old pack-horse days it was a sight worth remembering to witness the +procession of men and horses with miscellaneous goods, making their way +out of the Yorkshire dales, to Kirkby Stephen and the north. The drivers +from Garsdale and Grisedale came over the moor to Shaw Paddock, and thence +on to Aisgill, and to the old Thrang Bridge in Mallerstang, where they +were met by strings of pack-horses and men coming from the east country by +Hell Gill. It was a busy and picturesque scene, and the Thrang Bridge was +well named. Sometimes on special occasions, as during Brough Hill Fair, +the thrifty wives and daughters of the dales used to go up to Hell Gill +Bridge, and spread out stalls and baskets, stored with cakes, nuts, +apples, and bottles of home-made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> herb beer, and other non-intoxicants, to +sell to passing travellers. And a good business they did too, for there +was a continuous stream of wayfarers, who were glad, particularly if the +day were hot, to linger awhile and hear the gossip of the country-side, +cracking many a joke along with many a nut bought from the buxom stall +women. Occasionally herds of Highland cattle passed this way, and when the +far-travelled animals showed signs of fatigue, it was no uncommon thing to +see one of the men who carried a bagpipe play some lively air as he +marched in front of the drove. The animals seemed to enjoy the music, and +evidently appreciated this relief to the tediousness of the journey, by +walking, as they often would, with a brisker step, while some of them that +had lain down in the road would quickly rise at the novel far-sounding +strains, which brought many a cottager also to his feet from his home in +the echoing glen.”</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> +<h2>Old Customs.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Possibly</span> the custom associated with Westmorland which can claim to be at +once among the oldest, as well as having been the most carefully followed, +is that connected with the familiar Countess’s Pillar in the parish of +Brougham. The famous Countess Anne of Pembroke erected this structure in +1656, as the still perfect legible inscription on the southern side tells +us, for a laudable purpose: “This pillar was erected in 1656 by Anne, +Countess Dowager of Pembroke, etc., for a memorial of her last parting in +this place with her good and pious mother, Margaret, Countess Dowager of +Cumberland, the 2nd day of April, 1616, in memory whereof she has left an +annuity of £4, to be distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham +every second day of April for ever, upon the stone placed hard by. <i>Laus +Deo.</i>” The custom is scrupulously observed, the money being distributed on +April 2nd as directed, except when that day falls, as this year, on a +Sunday, and then the little ceremony is conducted on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> following day. +When asked as to the regularity of the observance shortly before this +year’s distribution, the Rev. W. S. Salman, the venerable Rector of +Brougham, said the details were carefully attended to; and, he added, “we +should soon hear about it if they were not.”</p> + +<p>How far the custom of rush-bearing goes back there is nothing in local +records to show, but there are some very old entries in the registers +concerning the practice. In spite of the Puritans the villagers were +keeping up the festival at Kirkby Lonsdale; there is this item among the +churchwardens’ accounts for 1680: “Paid at the rush-bearing in drink, 3s.” +Although the ceremony had in each place the same general features, +different parishes varied the proceedings. Flowers as well as rushes were +carried by the children, many of the blooms being made into garlands. +After the sermon, the roses and rushes brought the preceding year were +taken out, and the fresh ones put in their places. An old writer made the +following suggestion as to the origin of the custom: “That our forefathers +appointed a day on which they rendered public thanks to the Almighty for +His kindness in causing the earth to bring forth fruit for the sustenance +of man and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> beast, and that on these occasions they brought rushes, or +other productions of the soil, to the sanctuary, which they spread out as +a memorial before the lord.” The theory is doubtless correct, as is proved +by the fact that at Warcop and other places where “rush-bearings”—minus +the rushes—are still kept up every summer, the service and other +proceedings are in the nature of a public thanksgiving.</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img6.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">COUNTESS’S PILLAR, BROUGHAM.<br /> +<i>From a Photo by Mr. John Bolton, Penrith.</i></p> +<p> </p> + +<p>Nut Monday has passed into the region of forgotten things, even at such +places as the schools, where it was once a popular observance. It was, +however, kept so recently as 1861, when September 12th was held in Kendal +as a general holiday, almost every shop being closed. Possibly the failure +of the nut crop in several successive years was a factor in changing the +holiday to another time, and thus the day losing its distinctive +character. This, it will be noted, had nothing in common with another +custom observed in some other parts of the country—Crack Nut Sunday. The +latter was simply a desecrating practice, without a single good feature.</p> + +<p>“Sunday observance” had more than a nominal meaning in bygone days, though +there is nothing to indicate that the people of the two counties had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> any +particular liking for the restrictions imposed. It was the practice in +nearly every town and village for the churchwardens to leave the church +during service time and walk through the town in search of people who +ought to have been at church, and special attention was paid to licensed +premises. Possibly, by the time the hostelries were reached, the +churchwardens felt the need of liquid refreshment; at any rate, they +frequently obtained it. Carlisle, in 1788, was divided into districts, +through each of which two constables and two of the principal inhabitants, +who took it in rotation, patrolled the streets from ten in the morning +till one, and from three to five in the afternoon, during which hours the +doors of all the public-houses were kept shut, the patrol having first +visited them to see that no person was tippling in them. “So much respect +is paid to this regulation,” wrote a chronicler of the period, “that +during these hours no person is seen in the streets but those who are +going to or returning from some place of worship.” Fines were occasionally +imposed for non-attendance at church; that does not seem to have been the +rule, moral suasion apparently sufficing to meet most requirements. The +Corporation of Kendal took powers to inflict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> what were then—three +hundred years ago—heavy fines for selling ale during service hours.</p> + +<p>Among the customs and beliefs noted as prevalent at Whitbeck, in West +Cumberland, in 1794, were these: “Newly-married persons beg corn to sow +their first crop with, and are called corn-laiters. People always keep +wake with the dead. The labouring ox is said to kneel at twelve o’clock at +night, preceding the day of the Nativity; the bees are heard to sing at +the same hour. On the morn of Christmas Day breakfast early on +hack-pudding, a mess made of sheep’s heart mixed with suet and sweet +fruits. To whichever quarter a bull faces in lying on All Hallows’ Eve, +from thence the wind will blow the greater part of the winter.” It has +been surmised that the hack-pudding resembles sweet-pie, which is not +unlike a mince-pie on a large scale, mutton being used instead of beef, +and the ingredients not finely chopped.</p> + +<p>Here, as in other parts of the country, beating the bounds, both of +parishes and manors, was a popular, though oft-times toilsome, observance. +In a few registers, records have been preserved of the old-time landmarks, +a precaution of special value in days before the Ordnance Survey was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +thought of. Dalston registers not only supply this information, but a +description of the ceremony of perambulation. Curiosities of divisions are +not lacking. An old man, once a parishioner of Dalston, told the Rev. J. +Wilson<a name='fna_21' id='fna_21' href='#f_21'><small>[21]</small></a> that he had a vivid recollection of taking part in the ritual +of beating the bounds many years ago, and throwing a rope over a house, +part of which stands in Castle Sowerby, in order to mark the division of +the contiguous parishes. The walls of the house exist still, though +unroofed, where the inhabitants were wont to say, half a century ago, that +they always slept in Dalston and breakfasted in Castle Sowerby.</p> + +<p>“Furth” was a word used by the inhabitants of Orton long ago. In those +days, before the era of coal burning, most of the houses had what were +called hearth fire-places, with big open chimneys but no fire-grates. +Householders had the privilege of getting turf on the moors, and during +the winter nights neighbours used to assemble in one another’s houses in +succession. Orton and Ravenstonedale were famous places for knitting, and +the folks all sat round the blazing turf fire knitting away at top speed. +Both men and women were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> thus occupied, and made a peculiar rattling noise +with so many needles working at once. The conversations at these Furth +Neets were very amusing, the talk ranging from the state of the crops, +such as they were in those days of what would be called low farming, to +the prices of produce and the latest doings of Mary Baynes, the local +witch.</p> + +<p>Formerly some of the inhabitants of Orton had what were called penthouses +in front of their dwellings. It was a custom on Candlemas Day for those +who had money to lend to appear under the sheds or penthouses, with +neckcloths tied round their heads, and if the weather was cold, while the +money-lenders were shivering beneath the scanty shelter, the borrowers +frequented the public-houses, where there was much carousing. This curious +custom has long been discouraged, and only one penthouse is now standing.</p> + +<p>Reminders of Border service remained in the two counties long after the +Act of Union had been passed. Thus the secluded hamlet of Kentmere was +divided into sixty tenements for the maintenance of as many soldiers, and +so recently as the middle of this century it was written: “The vestiges of +this ancient regulation still remain, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> the township is divided into +four parts, and each of these parts into fifteen tenements. For each +tenement a man serves the office of constable, and pays 2s. per annum to +the curate.”</p> + +<p>Public affairs in the village of Torpenhow used to be managed by “the +sixteen men,” elected by the householders in the four quarters into which +the parish was divided, the vicar and churchwardens being apparently <i>ex +officio</i> members of this early Parish Council. The last nomination of the +sixteen took place about 1807; they had a great variety of duties, +carrying out functions that are now discharged by School Boards, Parish, +District, and County Councils. So far as is known, the most detailed +information concerning the duties of the “sworn men” is given in the Orton +(Westmorland) registers, where, following the fourteen names of “the +sworne men of Orto’ anno d’ni 1596,” is this statement, so far as it can +be deciphered:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“<i>Imprimis</i> that thes be diligent and careful to see and provide that +the people be ... and behave the’selves honestlie ... feare of God +according to the Holie word of God and the Good and wholesome laws of +this land. <i>Secondlie</i> to see that the Churchwardens be careful and +diligent in executinge their office, ioyne with thes in suppressing of +sinne and such as behave the’selves inordinatlie to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> reprove and +rebuke those who be found offenders, and if they will not amend to +p<sup>e</sup>sent the’ to be punished. <i>Thirdlie</i> to se that the Church and +Churchy<sup>d</sup> be decentlie repaired and mainteyned. Also we as agreed +y<sup>t</sup> everie p’sonnis beinge found faultie by the Churchwardens and +p’sented to the sworn me’ shall paie xij<sup>d.</sup> to the poor ma’s box. And +that whosoever doth not come p’sent the’selves lawfull warning being +given either of the xij or Churchwardens to the place appointed shall +lose xij to the poore ma’s box without a sufficient cause to the +contrarie whereof thes are to certifie the rest assembled at ... +appointed to their meetinge. Lastly that the Churchwardes ... and take +the sam forfat ... p’sent the offenders.”</p> + +<p>Another kind of Parish Council existed at Helton, near Lowther, about a +century ago. A chronicler of seventy years since gives this account of +it:—“At Helton, at the end of the Tythe Barn, was formerly a stone seat, +where the inhabitants met for the purpose of transacting their parochial +affairs. He who came first waited till he was joined by the rest; and it +was considered a mark of great rudeness for anyone to absent himself from +the meeting. After conferring on such matters as related to the parish +they separated, and each returned home.”</p> + +<p>There was a very noteworthy Council at Watermillock, called the Head +Jurie, and Mr. W. Hodgson, a former schoolmaster in the parish,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> did good +service some years ago by transcribing the records of that body, from 1610 +to more than a century later. They performed all the duties—and more—now +delegated to Parish Councils; indeed they seem to have had control of +everything pertaining to the government of the parish. Among the contents +of the book on “Paines and Penalties laid by the Head Jurie” is this entry +concerning a Court held in 1629:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“We find for a good amongst ourselves that all the inhabitants within +the hamlet of Weathermelock shall amend all the church ways and all +other ways yearly, and every year, upon the first work day in +Christmas, if the day be seasonable, at ye sight of ye Constables and +Churchwardens for the time being upon paine of sixpence of everyone +that maketh default. And alsoe all as aforesaid shall meet and mend +the peat way always upon Whitsun Wednesday, and everyone to meet where +his way lyeth, and everyone to send a sufficient man to the sight of +the Constable for the time being upon paine of sixpence of everyone +that maketh default. And that the Constable be there upon paine of +sixpence to see who make default.”</p> + +<p>In the old manorial halls fools or jesters were frequently to be found +among the members of the households. The late Dr. Taylor suggested that +when Yanwath Hall was a very important link in the chain of Border +defences, such a servant was kept; and Mr. R. S. Ferguson once reminded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +the members of the Archæological Society that, in 1601, both the Mayor of +Carlisle and Sir Wilfred Lawson kept fools, as probably did also the +Bishop of Carlisle. The Mayor’s fool got a coat for Christmas, while Sir +Wilfred’s appears in the accounts of the Corporation as being “tipped” for +bringing messages to Carlisle. A fool was also kept at Muncaster Castle.</p> + +<p>There was a custom very common in connection with the apprenticeship +system at the beginning of the century. In a pamphlet written by John S. +Lough, a former Penrith printer, appeared this paragraph:—“Burying the +Old Wife is a custom still prevalent among the operatives in the north at +the expiration of the term of apprenticeship. The late apprentice is taken +into a room adjoining that where the party is met to celebrate the +loosening, and after an old woman’s cap is put on his head, the body is +enveloped in a white sheet. He is then taken upon the shoulders of his +comrades into the banqueting room, round which he is carried a few times, +in not very solemn procession, and finally placed upon the boards whereon +the figure of a grave is chalked. A kind of funeral service is gone +through, and the old wife is buried.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>“The simple annals of the poor” in the two counties contain many pathetic +accounts of their condition and treatment ere the public conscience was +awakened to the necessity of a more humane method. Here, as in many other +parts of the country, the poor were often let out to contractors. Among +the churchwardens’ accounts at Hayton for 1773 there is a copy of a +contract between the churchwardens and Thomas Wharton, of The Faugh, “for +letting the poor for a year” to the latter. The Rev. R. W. Dixon, vicar of +the parish, about twenty years ago went into the history of this +transaction. A vestry meeting was called for the purpose, and conditions +were entered into between the churchwardens and the overseers on the one +part, and Thomas Wharton on the other. The parish overseers were to find +bedding and apparel for the paupers, but Wharton was to mend their clothes +and stockings, and be allowed 5s. for the purpose. A child not a year old +was to be counted as one person with the mother, and be fed and clothed by +the parish; and if a pauper died in the house he was to be buried at the +expense of the parish. Wharton was to find sufficient meat, drink, +washing, lodging, and firing for the paupers, to the satisfaction of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> the +parish officers, who had authority to visit the house as often as they +pleased. He was to receive a yearly salary of £12 10s., and a weekly +allowance of 1s. 2d. for each pauper, but if a pauper stayed under a week +a deduction was to be made accordingly. On these terms Wharton was +declared master of the workhouse.</p> + +<p>The children who used to attend the ancient Robinson’s School at Penrith +were sent out each day to beg, and that there might be no mistake as to +their identity, each was obliged to wear what was locally called “the +badge of poverty.”</p> + +<p>It is decidedly an unfortunate thing, from the point of view of the +antiquary, that so many of the old plague stones which used to be found in +different places should have disappeared. Penrith had two; and one of them +remains, but from observations occasionally heard it is to be feared that +only a small proportion of the townspeople have an idea of the use of the +old font-like erection. It is interesting to quote the account given by a +Penrith land surveyor and innkeeper, who wrote more than a century ago<a name='fna_22' id='fna_22' href='#f_22'><small>[22]</small></a> +on this subject:—“Nearly half-way between Eamont Bridge and Penrith +stands an house, called from its situation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> Half-way House, but formerly +<i>Mill</i> or <i>Meal Cross</i>, from the following circumstance. During the +dreadful plague which visited this country in the year 1598, and almost +depopulated Penrith (no less than 2,260 in the town falling victims to +this merciless disease), the Millers and Villagers refused to bring their +commodities into the town to market for fear of infection. The +inhabitants, therefore, were under the necessity of meeting them here, and +performing a kind of quarantine before they were allowed to buy anything. +This was said to be almost at the option of the country people. This much +is certain: No man was allowed to touch the money made use of on these +occasions, it being put into a vessel of water, whence they had a method +of taking it without touching it with their fingers. For this purpose they +erected a cross which remains to this day. For greater conveniences they +erected a cross at the town’s-head, and erected shambles, etc.; the place +still retains the name of the Cross-green: they built a third cross near +the Carlisle road a little above the second, where black cattle, sheep, +hoggs, and goats were sold; and it retains yet the name of the Nolt-Fair +[Nolt: Oxen, cows, etc.], and continues to be the market for cattle.”</p> + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img7.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p class="caption">PLAGUE STONE, PENRITH.</p> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>The road was widened and improved in 1834, when the water trough was +found, and afterwards placed where it now stands. There was a somewhat +similar structure in the park at Eden Hall, and is said to mark the site +of the former village. The base is still retained, but some decades ago +there was put a memorial cross upon it. Going over the border of +Westmorland a short distance are other reminders of these old-time +epidemics. In the parish registers of Hawkshead it is stated that in 1721 +the sum of 1s. 6d. was paid to the apparitor for a book concerning the +plague. Here is material for several queries. Was there an outbreak of +some disease which obtained that name so late as 1720, or was the volume +meant for a record of what had gone before? Again, if the book was ever +written, what became of it? The records of the le Flemings, the Earls of +Lonsdale, the Earls of Westmorland, and others published by the Historical +Manuscripts Commission abound in references to the plague.</p> + +<p>A stone in the remote hamlet of Armboth, above what is now the great +reservoir of the Manchester Corporation, marks the place where the local +commerce was carried on when personal intercourse was dangerous on account +of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> plague. The custom existed after the epidemic had passed away, the +people from the fells and dales continuing to take their webs and yarn to +what is still known as “the Webstone.”</p> + +<p>The registers of Dalston are particularly valuable for purposes of local +history, partly owing to the fact that Rose Castle, the residence of the +Bishops of Carlisle, is in that parish. There are also many other ways in +which they are interesting. One of the earliest houses mentioned in the +books is Bell Gate or Bellyeat. Miss Kupar, who closely studied the +records of this and some other parishes, wrote a few years ago with regard +to this house: “The people will have it that a bell hung here to announce +the arrival of the pack-horses <i>en route</i> for Keswick, and some maintain +that it served to warn the neighbourhood of the approach of the +moss-troopers.”</p> + +<p>Although the old custom of ringing the curfew is gradually dying out, in +several places in Cumberland and Westmorland the practice is kept up +still. In the hall at Appleby Castle there is an interesting reminder of +the custom. This is the curfew-bell which was found in the tower at the +Castle, and it finds an honoured place now among the family possessions. +When swung to and fro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> the bell is found to have a very sweet tone, but +while it was vigorously rung in the evenings long ago the burgesses would +not have any difficulty in hearing its loud and peculiar warning note. The +inscription is not very easy to decipher, but it appears to run thus:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Soli Deo Gloria. Pax Homibus, S.S. Fecit, 1661. W.S.”</p> + +<p>Nothing is known at the Castle as to the maker, though it is possible that +experts in bell-lore might be able to trace its record from the +inscription.</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> +<h2>Old School Customs.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> chequered histories of the old schools at Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, +Kendal, Crosthwaite, Carlisle, Penrith, and several other towns in the two +counties, would suffice to make a large book of an interesting character. +Some of the rules which governed the institutions in bygone days were +decidedly quaint. The nineteen long paragraphs which make up the +“Constitutions, Ordinances, and Statutes for the Free Grammar School at +Kirkby Stephen,” as drawn up in 1568 by Lord Wharton, included this +curious stipulation:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“I will that the said Schoolmaster shall have and receive yearly £12 +as his Hire and Wages, at two Terms of the year, if he teach in manner +and form following, viz., At the Feast of Pentecost and St. Martin, by +equal portions, by the hands of my Son, Heir, and Heirs, and the +Governours. And the said Schoolmaster shall, within ten dayes after he +hath taken upon him and be installed in the said Office, before the +said Governours, or two of them, and before my Son and Heir, or Heirs +of my House of Wharton, for the time being, and in presence of the +Churchwardens and Twelve men of Kirkby-Stephen Parish, or six of them, +in the Parish Church there, make this Oath following: ‘I do swear by +the holy Contents of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> this Book that I will freely, without exacting +any money, diligently teach and instruct the Children of this parish, +and all others that resort to me, in Grammar and other Humane +Doctrine, according to the Statutes thereof made; And shall read to +them no corrupt or reprobate Book, or Works set forth at any time +contrary to the Determination of the Universal Catholic Church, +whereby they might be infected in their youth with any kind of Heresy +or corrupt Doctrine, or else be induced to an insolent manner of +Liveing; And further shall observe all the Statutes and Ordinances of +this School, now made or that hereafter shall be made, which concern +me; and shall do nothing in prejudice thereof, but help to maintain +the same, from time to time, dureing my abode herein, to the best of +my power. So Help me God, and the Contents of this book.’”</p> + +<p>At six o’clock in the morning, and at the same hour in the evening, master +and scholars had to march from school to church, for prayers, afterwards +going to the tomb which Lord Wharton had erected in the quire and sing one +of fifteen psalms. This was the order for working hours:—“And the same +Scholemr., every Work-day at the least, shall begin to teach from Six a +Clock in ye morning in Summer, and from Seven a Clock in Winter; and so +shall continue in teaching until Eleven a Clock. The self same thing shall +he diligently do after Dinner, from One of the Clock till Six in Summer +and five in Winter.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>The history of Appleby School extends over nearly four and a quarter +centuries. In 1478 Thomas Whinfell, one of the chantry priests, was bound +“to keep yearly a sufficient Grammar School, taking of the scholars of the +said school <i>scolagia et custumaria secundum antiquam consuetudinem scoloe +prædictæ</i>.” Old school-boys living within the present decade remember that +the <i>scolagia et custumaria</i> included a cockpenny, which had to be paid by +each boy on Easter Tuesday, for the purpose of enabling the master to +provide the pupils with a cock-fight. One of the regulations for Kendal +School was that it should be “free to all boys resident in the parish of +Kendal, for classics alone, excepting a voluntary payment of a cockpenny +as aforetime at Shrovetide.” The “Literary Rambler,” who contributed a +series of papers to the <i>Kendal Chronicle</i> in 1812 (when the custom was +commonly observed), remarked:—“A stranger to the customs of the country +will suspect something whimsical in this name, but it has its foundation +in reason; for the boys of every school were divided into parties every +Shrovetide, headed by their respective captains, whom the master chose +from amongst his pupils. This was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> probably done in imitation of the +Romans, who appointed the <i>principes pivenum</i> on certain occasions. These +juvenile competitors contended in a match at football, and fought a +cock-battle, called the captains’ battle, in both which contests the +youthful rivals were not more interested than their parents.” Though the +barbarous sport had disappeared, the payment of a cockpenny survived +certainly until the middle of this century. This is shown by Mr. W. Sayer, +who, in his History (1847), says that the endowments of Bowness +(Westmorland) School, “together with a cockpenny given by each scholar on +Shrove Tuesday,” amounted to about £60 per annum.</p> + +<p>George Smith, a relative of Dr. Smith who became Bishop of London, built +and endowed the school at Asby, and left £10, the interest of which (about +12s.) was to be disposed of on St. George’s Day yearly for ever in the +following manner: 6s. to the poor of the parish; 5s. to be spent in ale by +the feofees of the school; and the remaining shilling to purchase a +football for the scholars. A custom which seems to have been peculiar to +Appleby was for each pupil leaving to pay half-a-guinea towards the +library, and Mr. R. E. Leach, the headmaster, some years ago<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> compiled a +most interesting list of these donations. It was also an occasional +occurrence that “old boys” gave money when they were married.</p> + +<p>It was by the ancient Parochial Council of Sixteen that the first attempt +to supply elementary education in Torpenhow was made, it being recorded +that on May 12th, 1686, a resolution was passed in favour of founding a +free school for the Bothel district. The “sixteen” from time to time drew +up various rules for the conduct of the school, one of which would greatly +astonish the present generation of certificated masters, because, in 1689, +the master of the institution at Bothel (locally pronounced “Bohl”) was +ordered to “keep school from 6 in the morning till 11, and from 1 till 6 +from Lady Day till Michaelmas,” practically the same rule as was enforced +by Lord Wharton at Kirkby Stephen.</p> + +<p>An instance of the uncertain position occupied by the village schoolmaster +in former days may be found among the records of Holme Cultram. In 1607 +there being some controversy concerning the payment of the parish clerk or +sexton, which previously had been paid in no regular manner, and the clerk +claiming to be paid in meal, though no certain measure of it had been +ascertained, it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> was agreed and ordered by the sixteen men, with the +consent of the other parishioners, that for the future there should be one +person who should be both parish clerk and schoolmaster, and that he +should have for his wages for every copyhold tenement and lease within the +parish paying above 18d. rent, fourpence, and for every cottager and +under-tenant twopence, to be collected yearly at Easter by the clerk, who +was to be chosen by the sixteen men and approved by the ordinary. In +addition, the schoolmaster was to have a quarterly sum for each scholar as +the sixteen men from time to time directed. That scheme was recorded in +1777 as being still in operation.</p> + +<p>In another place it has been shown how the sworn men had often a great +share in the selection of the churchwardens and other officials. Their +duties also extended to the procuring of money for educational purposes. +It was ordered by Commissioners in the thirteenth year of Elizabeth, +concerning the endowed school at Keswick, “that whereas two pence for +every fire-house hath been paid to the parish clerk yearly, and also +certain ordinary fees for night-watch, burials, weddings, and, moreover, +certain benevolences of lamb wool, eggs, and such like, which seem to grow +up to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> greater sum than is competent for a parish clerk; the eight men +shall herafter take up the said two pence a house for the use of a +schoolmaster, paying thereout to the parish clerk yearly 46s. 8d.” In the +time of King James it was found on inquiry by a Commission of Pious Uses, +“that the eighteen sworn men had from time immemorial laid a tax for the +maintenance of the schoolmaster, and other occasions of the parish, and +appointed the schoolmaster, and made orders for the government of the +school, and that the inhabitants had by a voluntary contribution raised a +school stock of £148 2s. 3½d., nevertheless that Dr. Henry Robinson, +Bishop of Carlisle, Henry Woodward, his Chancellor, and Giles Robinson, +brother of the said Bishop, and Vicar of Crosthwaite, had intermeddled, +and that the said Bishop, sometimes by authority of the High Commission +for Ecclesiastical Causes, sometimes as a justice of the peace for the +county, and sometimes by his power as ordinary, had interrupted the orders +of the eighteen men, and had committed thirteen of them to prison. +Therefore the commissioners restore the eighteen men to their authority +concerning the appointing of a schoolmaster, and the government of the +school.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>Among the curious bequests known to have been made at various times by +residents in the two counties, not the least noteworthy was that of the +Vicar of Raughton Head, Mr. Sevithwaite, who, at his death in 1762, left +£20 to the school; and another £20, the interest whereof, after the death +of his widow, was to be laid out yearly in purchasing Bishop Beveridge’s +“Thoughts upon Religion,” and the Bishop of Man’s “Essay for the +Instruction of the Indians,” to be given to the poor housekeepers of the +parish.</p> + +<p>Among the curiosities of tenure in addition to those already mentioned in +a previous chapter, was that of surrendering by the rod. In the summer of +1750 “John Sowerby surrendered to the lord of the manor (of Castle +Sowerby) by the hands of his steward <i>by the rod</i> a messuage at Sowerby +Row ... to the use and behoof of Joseph Robinson and his assigns according +to the custom of the manor; conditioned to pay yearly to three trustees £5 +for the use of a schoolmaster within the liberty of Row Bound to be chosen +by the trustees.” As in most other places, the schoolmaster had to teach +certain children for a very small sum per quarter, and the parents in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +better circumstances had to pay 2s. 6d. per quarter for each child.</p> + +<p>How faithfully some of the clerical schoolmasters performed their duties +during long periods may be proved from numerous sources. One entry, a +burial, will suffice—from the Mardale register of 1799:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Richard Hebson, in ye 75th year of his age. He was 53 years master of +the Free School at Measand, and 51 years the pastor of this Chapelry. +Singularly remarkable for his faithful, assiduous, and conscientious +discharge of the duties of both these stations.”</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were in the diocese of +Carlisle few schools other than those held in the all too frequently +dilapidated parish churches. In most cases the curates were the only +schoolmasters, and it was as an encouragement to those clerics that the +parishioners took it in turn to provide the curate with a “whittlegate.” +Much interesting information about the old-time schools and schoolmasters +may be found in Bishop Nicolson’s Visitation Miscellany. One man, who +afterwards became examining chaplain to Bishop Law, used to keep school at +Sebergham in a mud hut. Of another cleric, the Rev. T. Baxter, who was +incumbent of Arlecdon in the first half of last century, it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> recorded, +in Mr. W. Dickinson’s “Reminiscences of West Cumberland,” that he “taught +the parish school in the chancel of the parish church, on an earthern +floor, without fire either in summer or winter.” Bishop Nicolson’s +descriptions speak eloquently of the poverty of some parishes:—“The quire +at Warwick, as in many other places, is shamefully abused by the children +that are taught in it. Their present master is Thomas Allanson, a poor +cripple, remov’d hither from Rockliff, who has no settled salary, only +12d. per quarter and his diet, and would be thankful for ye commendum of +ye clerk’s place; which, he saies, would bring him an addition of about +six shillings p. an.”</p> + +<p>Of Irthington he wrote:—“The quire is here (as before) miserably spoil’d, +on the floor, by the school boyes; and so vilely out of repair in the roof +that ’tis hazardous comeing in it.”</p> + +<p>Crosby-on-Eden was a little better than the former place:—“Mr. Pearson, +the school master, has no certain and fixed salary. He teaches the +children in the quire; where the boys and girls sit on good Wainscot +Benches, and write on the communion table, too good (were it not appointed +to a higher use) for such a service.” Here is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> picture with regard to +Cumwhitton, not calculated to make people really wish for the old days +about which some grow enthusiastic:—“The south window is unglazed and +starves the whole congregation as well as the poor children; who are here +taught (for the present) by the parish clerk, a man of very moderate +qualification. Mr. Robley, their new curate, is not yet resident among +them; but will shortly come, and take the office of teaching out of this +illiterate man’s hand.”</p> + +<p>In a parish not far from the Cumberland border—Allendale—the curates of +West Allen High and St. Peter’s Chapels were certainly as recently as +1835, and probably still later, obliged to teach the miners’ children for +1s. 6d. per quarter each, in consideration of certain annual payments. +These were five shillings from each miner of one description, and +half-a-crown from those of another, which they, in common with the +incumbent of Allenheads Chapel, received as ministers of the respective +chapels.</p> + +<p>It was certified in 1717 that while at that time there was no divine +service performed in the parish of Clifton, some three miles from +Workington, “formerly every family in the two hamlets [of Great and Little +Clifton], being about forty in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> number, paid 6d. each to one that read +prayers, and taught the children to read, and the rector gave £2 a year, +and officiated there every sixth Sunday, but that these payments had then +ceased for above 40 years last past.”</p> + +<p>Reference was made in a previous paragraph to the custom of whittlegate as +applying to schoolmasters. From the former chapter on church curiosities +it will have been noted that the clergy occasionally had recourse to that +method of supplementing their scanty incomes. As it often happened that +the schoolmaster and parson were one and the same individual, difficulties +were thereby removed. At any rate the following extract from Clarke’s +“Survey” of over a century ago has an interesting bearing on the subject. +Writing of Ambleside, of which the Rev. Isaac Knipe, <span class="smcaplc">M.A.</span>, was curate and +schoolmaster, he remarks:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The chapel is a low, mean building, and stands in the parish of +Grassmere. The inhabitants (who are land owners), as well as those in +the parish of Winandermere, as those in the parish of Grassmere, have +the right of nominating and presenting the curate. The rector of +Grassmere usually nominated the curate, but the inhabitants of this +and many other perpetual curacies in the north have, by custom, gotten +it from the rectors of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> vicars; the reason is this: before the death +of Queen Anne, many of the chapelries were not worth above three +pounds a year, and the donees could not get persons properly qualified +to serve them, so they left them to the inhabitants, who raised +voluntary contributions for them in addition to their salary, with +clothes yearly and whittlegate. Whittlegate is to have two or three +weeks’ victuals at each house, according to the ability of the +inhabitants, which was settled amongst them so as that he should go +his course as regular as the sun, and compleat it as annually.”</p> + +<p>The custom prevailed so late as 1858 in some country parishes; it is not a +little curious that it has not been found to exist in any counties except +Cumberland and Westmorland, though the Rev. J. Wharton, Stainmore, has +informed the writer that it is recognised still in some parts of the +United States.</p> + +<p>The custom of barring out is probably unknown to the present generation of +Cumbrian and Westmerian school-boys—at any rate in the sense in which it +used to be observed. There exist numerous stories of the thoroughness with +which the boys formerly maintained their supposed rights in this +direction. The Rev. E. H. Sugden’s sketch of the history of Arlecdon and +Frizington shows how the observance was followed there every +Christmas:—“The old men of the parish tell with delight their experiences +and adventures in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> carrying out this old custom. One says he remembers the +master entering the school by creeping down the chimney. Another tells of +a boy hiding himself in the chimney when the master had forced the door +open. It appears that during this period of expulsion the doors of the +school were strongly barricaded within, and the boys who defended it like +a besieged city were armed in general with elder pop-guns. In the meantime +the master would make several efforts, both by force and stratagem, to +regain his lost authority. If he succeeded, heavy tasks were imposed, and +the business of the school went on as usual; but it more commonly happened +that he was repulsed and defeated. The siege was continued three days, +after which the terms of capitulation were proposed by the master, who +usually pushed them under the door, and as a rule the boys accepted. These +terms stipulated what hours and times should for the ensuing year be +allotted to study, and what to relaxation and play. Securities were given +by each side for the due performance of these stipulations, and the paper +was then solemnly signed by both master and pupils.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Sibson, of Whitehaven, formerly of this parish, relates the two +following incidents in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> connection with this custom. On one occasion, Mr. +C. Mossop endeavoured to enter the school. As soon as he put his hand on +the window sill, intending to enter that way, a boy hit his hand with a +red-hot poker, so that for many days he went about with it in a sling. On +another occasion, Mr. Hughes, the master, took some slates off the roof, +and succeeded in getting his legs and part of his body past the rafters, +but he could get no further, and the boys with red-hot pokers burnt him +severely before he could be rescued by his friends. In those days many +young men attended the school during the winter time.”</p> + +<p>At Appleby, the “barring out” sometimes lasted for days, and the scholars +slept in the schoolrooms. In most places the mutiny was apt to break out +early on the morning of the day fixed for breaking up for the holidays. +They defied the master by means of sundry cries, that at Kendal being:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Liberty, liberty, under a pin,<br /> +Six weeks’ holiday or <i>nivver</i> come in.”</p> + +<p>Apparently the custom was killed in the old grey town at the beginning of +this century by the then master, Mr. Towers meeting with a distressing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +mishap. He was contending with them, apparently for admittance, when his +eye was accidentally destroyed, and the disaster served to bring about the +abolition of the old custom.</p> + +<p>Fine warm days of that Indian summer so often experienced in the two +counties in September and October were devoted to “going a nutting,” and +the headmaster of Appleby Grammar School never refused a holiday at that +season, provided that each scholar brought him a quart of “leamers”—nuts +sufficiently ripe to leave the husks without compulsory treatment. As +Christmas approached, the schoolmaster was “barred out” in orthodox +fashion, until he agreed (and he only pretended to be loth to make the +contract) to extend the coming holidays as long as his pupils demanded.</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/the_end.jpg" alt="THE END" /></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> +<h2>Index.</h2> + + +<p class="index"> +Acorn Bank, Privileges of tenants of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br /> +<br /> +Ale possets, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br /> +<br /> +Allendale, Old school-days at, <a href="#Page_250">250</a><br /> +<br /> +Alms corn, Payments of, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<br /> +Altar, Horn of the, at Carlisle, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br /> +<br /> +Ambleside—curious church tradition, <a href="#Page_49">49</a><br /> +<br /> +Appleby, Privileges of burgesses of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Barring out custom at, <a href="#Page_254">254-255</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Curious assize incident at, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bull-baiting at, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Excommunication at, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grammar School, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Public whipping at, <a href="#Page_126">126-128</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stocks at, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Appleby Castle, Old corn measures at, <a href="#Page_159">159-160</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Curfew bell at, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Applethwaite (Windermere), Curious regulations at, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Apprentices and salmon, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br /> +<br /> +Apprenticeship custom, An, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br /> +<br /> +Archdeacon’s Court, <a href="#Page_59">59-60</a><br /> +<br /> +Archery, <a href="#Page_196">196-199</a><br /> +<br /> +Arlecdon, Rector of, chasing a parishioner, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church font used as water-trough, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church, Dogs in, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tradition concerning buried church, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">An old school at, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Barring out custom at, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Armathwaite, Gibbeting of Whitfield at, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br /> +<br /> +Armboth Hall, Skulls at, <a href="#Page_147">147</a><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Web-stone at, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Armour in churches, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br /> +<br /> +Assessors of bread and ale, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Assize incident, A curious, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br /> +<br /> +Atkinson, Execution of Captain, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Bampton, Arrangement of families in church, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Punishment of Quakers, <a href="#Page_107">107-109</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Barguest, The, <a href="#Page_141">141</a><br /> +<br /> +Barring out custom at school, <a href="#Page_252">252-255</a><br /> +<br /> +Barton, Probable fortified church at, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Curious manorial custom at, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Beacons, <a href="#Page_10">10-13</a><br /> +<br /> +Beating the bounds, <a href="#Page_227">227</a><br /> +<br /> +Bees, Telling the, <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br /> +<br /> +Beetham Church, Penance at, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br /> +<br /> +Bell-gate at Dalston, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br /> +<br /> +Bell-horses, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br /> +<br /> +Bell legends, <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br /> +<br /> +Bell, Mayor of Wreay’s old silver, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +<br /> +Bells, Carlisle racing, <a href="#Page_191">191</a><br /> +<br /> +Bishop of Carlisle and cock-fighting, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +<br /> +Bishops excommunicated, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br /> +<br /> +Bishops, Fighting, <a href="#Page_22">22-28</a><br /> +<br /> +Blackmail rent, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br /> +<br /> +Bode, bodesmen, bodeword, bode-hill, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br /> +<br /> +Boggles, <a href="#Page_139">139</a><br /> +<br /> +Bongate—A reminder of serfdom, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +<br /> +Boon services, <a href="#Page_76">76-79</a><br /> +<br /> +Bootle, Beacon at, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br /> +<br /> +Border service, <a href="#Page_9">9-16</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68-70</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +Bridekirk, Excommunication at, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +<br /> +Brigham, Fortified church at, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br /> +<br /> +Brough, Probable fortified church at, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church font in private grounds, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Holly Night at, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Brougham, Curious horn at, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Countess’s Pillar at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Bull and boar, Obligation to keep, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +Bull-baiting, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +<br /> +Burgh Barony Cup, Races for, <a href="#Page_190">190</a><br /> +<br /> +Burgh-by-Sands, Fortified church at, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br /> +<br /> +Burrell Green, Luck of, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /> +<br /> +Burton, Curious dispute at, <a href="#Page_40">40</a><br /> +<br /> +“Burying the old wife” custom, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Calgarth skulls, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br /> +<br /> +Caldbeck, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br /> +<br /> +Carleton—A reminder of serfdom, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span><br /> +Carlisle, Watch and ward at, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cathedral, Rioting in, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cathedral used as a prison, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Charter Horn at, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pillory and stocks at, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Racing Bells, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cartmell Church, Troops quartered in, <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br /> +<br /> +Carriage money service, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Castleward, Service of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Charms, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br /> +<br /> +Charter Horn at Carlisle, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br /> +<br /> +Chimney and hearth tax, <a href="#Page_182">182-186</a><br /> +<br /> +Church curiosities, <a href="#Page_38">38-63</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stock, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Holding manorial courts in, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dog-whippers in, <a href="#Page_60">60-63</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Legends, <a href="#Page_131">131-133</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fined for not going to, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Churchwardens’ duties, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Selection of, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Churchyards, Keeping swine out of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Announcing sales in, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Churches, Fortified, <a href="#Page_28">28-37</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Armour in, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Division of sexes in, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seating arrangements in, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Swallowed by the earth, <a href="#Page_131">131-132</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Churning, Superstitions about, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br /> +<br /> +Christmas festivals, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br /> +<br /> +Clergy, Old-time, <a href="#Page_40">40-46</a><br /> +<br /> +Clergymen as publicans, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as schoolmasters, <a href="#Page_248">248-252</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cliburn, A probable fortified church at, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br /> +<br /> +Clifton, Old school-days at, <a href="#Page_251">251</a><br /> +<br /> +Clogs, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Cloth searchers, <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br /> +<br /> +“Clothe Dightinge,” <a href="#Page_163">163</a><br /> +<br /> +Coaching days, The old, <a href="#Page_213">213-216</a><br /> +<br /> +Coals carried on horse-back, <a href="#Page_217">217</a><br /> +<br /> +Cockermouth tolls dispute, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Old manorial officers at, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cock-fighting, <a href="#Page_192">192-195</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br /> +<br /> +Cockpenny, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a><br /> +<br /> +Corby Castle, Radiant Boy of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br /> +<br /> +Cordwainers, Rules for, <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br /> +<br /> +Cornage, Service of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +Coronation festivities, <a href="#Page_205">205</a><br /> +<br /> +Corryhole at Great Salkeld Church, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br /> +<br /> +Councils, Old Parish, <a href="#Page_230">230-232</a><br /> +<br /> +Countess’s Pillar at Brougham, <a href="#Page_223">223</a><br /> +<br /> +County guinea incident near Penrith, <a href="#Page_20">20</a><br /> +<br /> +Courts in church, Holding, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br /> +<br /> +Courts, Old, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a><br /> +<br /> +Crack Nut Sunday, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br /> +<br /> +Croglin, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +<br /> +Crosby Garrett, A probable fortified church at, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br /> +<br /> +Crosby-on-Eden, Old school-days at, <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br /> +<br /> +Crosby Ravensworth Church, Keeping dogs out of, <a href="#Page_61">61</a><br /> +<br /> +Cross Fell, Legend of, <a href="#Page_132">132</a><br /> +<br /> +Crosthwaite, Rivalry between Cockermouth and, <a href="#Page_157">157</a><br /> +<br /> +“Culyet,” <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br /> +<br /> +Cumin tenure, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +Cumwhitton, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +<br /> +Curfew Bell, Ringing the, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br /> +<br /> +Customs, Old, <a href="#Page_223">223-239</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Old School, <a href="#Page_240">240-255</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Dacre Church, Curious custom at, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +Dalston Church, Whipping dogs from, <a href="#Page_61">61-62</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Holy well at, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></span><br /> +<br /> +“Dalston Black-reeds,” <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br /> +<br /> +Dearham Church tower used as a beacon, <a href="#Page_32">32</a><br /> +<br /> +Death stroke superstition, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br /> +<br /> +Dissenters, Punishment of, <a href="#Page_107">107-109</a><br /> +<br /> +Dog-laws at Egremont, Old, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +Dog-whippers in church, <a href="#Page_60">60-63</a><br /> +<br /> +Downies and Uppies at Workington, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +<br /> +Drengage tenements, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +<br /> +Drenges, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +<br /> +Dress, Old-time, <a href="#Page_171">171-173</a><br /> +<br /> +Drigg, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +<br /> +Drunkards, Punishment of, <a href="#Page_119">119-121</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Edenhall, Church tower used as a beacon, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A possible plague stone at, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Eden Hall, Luck of, <a href="#Page_148">148</a><br /> +<br /> +Egremont, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br /> +<br /> +Epidemics, Old-time, <a href="#Page_235">235-238</a><br /> +<br /> +Excommunication and penance, <a href="#Page_98">98-119</a><br /> +<br /> +Executions, Wholesale, for political offences, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br /> +<br /> +Expeditious wagons, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Fairies, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br /> +<br /> +Fairs, Old laws concerning, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Churchyard, <a href="#Page_155">155-158</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span><br /> +Farleton Knott beacon, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +<br /> +Festivities and sports, Old, <a href="#Page_188">188-208</a><br /> +<br /> +Fighting Bishops and Fortified Churches, <a href="#Page_22">22-37</a><br /> +<br /> +Firebote, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br /> +<br /> +Fire, Old methods for quenching, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +<br /> +“First-foot” superstition, <a href="#Page_147">147</a><br /> +<br /> +Flimby, Old tenure at, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Fonts in private grounds, <a href="#Page_50">50-51</a><br /> +<br /> +Food-stuffs, Old-time, <a href="#Page_174">174-178</a><br /> +<br /> +Fools, Old-time, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /> +<br /> +Football, <a href="#Page_199">199-200</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a><br /> +<br /> +Forest Court at Hesket, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +Forestalling and regrating, Laws against, <a href="#Page_165">165-167</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br /> +<br /> +Fortified churches, <a href="#Page_28">28-37</a><br /> +<br /> +Foster-oats, An old manorial rent, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br /> +<br /> +Free-bench, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br /> +<br /> +Furth-neets at Orton and Ravenstonedale, <a href="#Page_228">228-229</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Gallows Hills, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +Gambling, Punishment for, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +<br /> +Gaol-life, Old-time, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br /> +<br /> +Ghosts, <a href="#Page_142">142-143</a><br /> +<br /> +Giant’s Cave Sunday, <a href="#Page_207">207</a><br /> +<br /> +Giant’s Thumb at Penrith, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +<br /> +Gibbeting of criminals, <a href="#Page_94">94-97</a><br /> +<br /> +Gilcrux, Old tenure at, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br /> +<br /> +Glassonby, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br /> +<br /> +Glove service, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +God’s penny custom, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br /> +<br /> +“Gospel side” of a church, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br /> +<br /> +Gowrie Plot celebration, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br /> +<br /> +Great Salkeld, Fortified church at, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br /> +<br /> +Greenhue rent, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br /> +<br /> +Greystoke, Anchorites at, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sanctuary stone at, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“Pelican in her piety” at, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church miserere used as church sign at, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penance at, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Excommunication at, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Foot stocks at, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gowrie Plot celebration at, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gunpowder Plot celebration at, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Guilds and old trade societies, <a href="#Page_162">162-4</a><br /> +<br /> +Gunpowder Plot celebration, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Hack-pudding, <a href="#Page_227">227</a><br /> +<br /> +Halts, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br /> +<br /> +“Hanging days,” The, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br /> +<br /> +Hanging, drawing, and quartering, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +Harcla, The execution of Sir Andrew de, <a href="#Page_91">91</a><br /> +<br /> +Hawk service, The, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a><br /> +<br /> +Hawkshead, Dog-whippers at, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br /> +<br /> +Hayton paupers hired to contractors, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br /> +<br /> +Hedge-lookers, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Helton, Old Council at, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br /> +<br /> +Heriots, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br /> +<br /> +Hesket Thorn Court, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +Holme Cultram, Abbey of, also a fortress, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Petition of inhabitants to Cromwell, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Curious dispute at, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Old-time school life at, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Holy bell at Ravenstonedale, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br /> +<br /> +Holy wells, <a href="#Page_206">206-208</a><br /> +<br /> +Holly Night at Brough, <a href="#Page_205">205</a><br /> +<br /> +Homage, Service of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<br /> +Horn tenures, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +Hospitals, Old-time, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br /> +<br /> +House-boot, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +<br /> +House in two parishes, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Inglewood Forest, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br /> +<br /> +Ireby, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br /> +<br /> +Irthington, Old school-days at, <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jesters, Old-time, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /> +<br /> +Journeys, Some noteworthy old-time, <a href="#Page_209">209-221</a><br /> +<br /> +Judges, Perils of the King’s, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Kaber Rigg Rising, The, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +Kattstick and Bullvett, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +<br /> +Kendal, Scolds’ bridle at, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Punishments at, <a href="#Page_115">115-121</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Watch and ward at, <a href="#Page_17">17-19</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Parson of moiety of church of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Church incident at, <a href="#Page_35">35-37</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bowmen, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Barring out custom at, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Kentmere, Reminders of Border service at, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +Keswick, Bull-baiting at, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">endowed school, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Kirkby Lonsdale, Church inscription at, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bridge legend, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sale of church font, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Kirkby Stephen, Curious tithe custom at, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A probable fortified church at, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Burial of Sir Andrew de Harcla at, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fair, Proclamation at, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">School ordinances, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Kirkby Thore, Penance at, <a href="#Page_112">112</a><br /> +<br /> +Kirkland, Unusual tenure at, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +Kirkoswald, Curious church tower at, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bull-baiting at, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Old manorial measures at, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Knitters, Famous, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br /> +<br /> +Knur and spell, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lancaster, Execution and gibbeting of Thomas, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br /> +<br /> +Lanercost Abbey, Tragic origin of, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br /> +<br /> +Langdale, Curate of, as alehouse keeper, <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br /> +<br /> +Langwathby Church, Armour in, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br /> +<br /> +Lawyers, Restrictions upon, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br /> +<br /> +Leather searchers, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Legend of St. Bega, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kirksanton, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fisherty Brow, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arlecdon, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kirkby Lonsdale Bridge, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Concerning wolves, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Warthol Hall, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Calgarth skulls, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Armboth Hall, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Machell family, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Radiant Boy of Corby, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Legends and Superstitions, Some, <a href="#Page_131">131-147</a><br /> +<br /> +Leper windows, <a href="#Page_45">45-46</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hospitals, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lepers in Cumberland and Westmorland, <a href="#Page_45">45-46</a><br /> +<br /> +Levens, Luck of, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br /> +<br /> +Levens Radish Feast, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br /> +<br /> +Life in the old gaols, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br /> +<br /> +Little Salkeld, Desecration of church at, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br /> +<br /> +Long Marton, An infant rector of, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br /> +<br /> +Lucks, <a href="#Page_148">148-154</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Manorial laws, <a href="#Page_64">64-90</a><br /> +<br /> +Market bells, <a href="#Page_167">167</a><br /> +<br /> +Markets and fairs customs, <a href="#Page_155">155-168</a><br /> +<br /> +Maskers, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br /> +<br /> +Meat selling at church doors, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On Sundays, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bequest, A, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Milling laws, Old, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br /> +<br /> +Mill lookers, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Millom, Manorial jurisdiction at, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penance at, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Minstrel galleries, Old, <a href="#Page_181">181</a><br /> +<br /> +Miracle workers, Supposed, <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br /> +<br /> +Mock Mayors, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +<br /> +Moor lookers, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +Moota, Beacon at, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br /> +<br /> +Morland, Manorial custom at, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +<br /> +Mortuary rights of the Church, <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br /> +<br /> +Multuring, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br /> +<br /> +Muncaster, Luck of, <a href="#Page_149">149</a><br /> +<br /> +Musgrave Church font in private grounds, <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Needfire superstition, <a href="#Page_143">143-146</a><br /> +<br /> +Newbiggin (Dacre), Curious custom at, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br /> +<br /> +Newton Arlosh, Fortified church at, <a href="#Page_30">30</a><br /> +<br /> +Night watch, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br /> +<br /> +Nunnery, Privileges of prioress and nuns of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br /> +<br /> +Nutgeld service, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Nut Monday, <a href="#Page_225">225</a><br /> +<br /> +Nutting days, School, <a href="#Page_255">255</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Old-time Home Life, <a href="#Page_169">169-187</a><br /> +<br /> +Old-time school life, <a href="#Page_240">240-255</a><br /> +<br /> +“Orders of the Watch,” <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br /> +<br /> +Ormside, A probable fortified church at, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br /> +<br /> +Orton, Probable fortified church at, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sworn men at, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stocks, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Pack-horses, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br /> +<br /> +Parsonby, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br /> +<br /> +Paupers hired to contractors, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br /> +<br /> +Peat silver, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br /> +<br /> +Peculiar contrivances, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Penance, Excommunication and, <a href="#Page_98">98-119</a><br /> +<br /> +Penrith Beacon, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +<br /> +Penrith Church font in private grounds, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Plague-stones at, <a href="#Page_235">235-237</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Excommunication at, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stocks and pillory at, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Races, <a href="#Page_192">192-194</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Badge of poverty at, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Penrith Fell, Ludicrous incident on, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Burial of excommunicates on, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Penthouses at Orton, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +Peppercorn rents, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +Pie Poudre Court at Kirkby Stephen, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span><br /> +Pillar, Countess’s, <a href="#Page_223">223</a><br /> +<br /> +Pillions, Riding on, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br /> +<br /> +Pillory and stocks, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br /> +<br /> +Plague-stones, Old, <a href="#Page_235">235-238</a><br /> +<br /> +Plumpton, Manorial custom at, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +<br /> +Plowbote, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br /> +<br /> +Poor people let out to contractors, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br /> +<br /> +Porridge, A tribute to the value of, <a href="#Page_169">169</a><br /> +<br /> +Posset cups, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br /> +<br /> +Pot fairs, <a href="#Page_156">156</a><br /> +<br /> +Poverty, The badge of, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br /> +<br /> +Proclamations at fairs, <a href="#Page_160">160-162</a><br /> +<br /> +Punishments, Old-time, <a href="#Page_91">91-129</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Quakers, Punishment of, <a href="#Page_107">107-109</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Racing, Curiosities in horse, <a href="#Page_190">190-193</a><br /> +<br /> +Radiant Boy of Corby Castle, <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br /> +<br /> +Radish Feast at Levens, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br /> +<br /> +Rapier dancers, <a href="#Page_202">202</a><br /> +<br /> +Ravenglass, Proclamation of fair at, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br /> +<br /> +Ravenstonedale, Holding a Court in church at, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sanctuary bell at, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penance at, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stocks at, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Rebel’s Cap at Kendal, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br /> +<br /> +Rector, An infant, <a href="#Page_39">39</a><br /> +<br /> +Refuge bell at Ravenstonedale, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br /> +<br /> +Renwick tithe exemption, Curious, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<br /> +Riding the stang at Ambleside, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br /> +<br /> +Road, On the, <a href="#Page_209">209-222</a><br /> +<br /> +“Robin the Devil’s” escapade, <a href="#Page_35">35-37</a><br /> +<br /> +Rod, Surrendering by the, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br /> +<br /> +Rose tenure, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +Rowan tree superstition, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br /> +<br /> +Running Gressom, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +Rush-bearing custom, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br /> +<br /> +Rushes and bents for churches, <a href="#Page_59">59-61</a><br /> +<br /> +Rushes, Curious belief about, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br /> +<br /> +Rushlights, Old-time, <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Sacrilege, Punishment at Appleby for, <a href="#Page_113">113</a><br /> +<br /> +Sales in churchyards, Announcing, <a href="#Page_158">158</a><br /> +<br /> +Salmon, Abundance and cheapness of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as apprentices’ food, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sanctuary at Ravenstonedale, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nunnery, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greystoke, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Scale Houses, Peculiar tithe exemption at, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<br /> +Scholars’ badge of poverty at Penrith, <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br /> +<br /> +School customs, Old, <a href="#Page_240">240-255</a><br /> +<br /> +Schools in churches, <a href="#Page_248">248-251</a><br /> +<br /> +Schoolmasters, Old-time, <a href="#Page_240">240-255</a><br /> +<br /> +Scolds’ bridles, <a href="#Page_115">115</a><br /> +<br /> +Seawake, Service of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Sebergham, A protest in rhyme at, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">School in a mud hut at, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Sexton, A female, <a href="#Page_45">45</a><br /> +<br /> +Shearing days, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br /> +<br /> +Sheriffesses of Westmorland, <a href="#Page_2">2-4</a><br /> +<br /> +Sheriffs’ law suits with Appleby burgesses, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Sheriffwick, An Unparalleled, <a href="#Page_1">1-8</a><br /> +<br /> +Shrovetide festival at Wreay, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +<br /> +Silver-penny fines, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br /> +<br /> +Skirsgill well custom, An old, <a href="#Page_206">206</a><br /> +<br /> +Skirwith, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +<br /> +Snow on Midsummer’s Day, Legend of, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br /> +<br /> +Soar-hawk tenure, <a href="#Page_69">69</a><br /> +<br /> +Sparket Mill, Peculiar obligation at, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><br /> +<br /> +Sports and Festivities, Old, <a href="#Page_188">188-208</a><br /> +<br /> +Spur service, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +Stang, Riding the, at Ambleside, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br /> +<br /> +St. Bega, Legend of, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br /> +<br /> +Steading stone at Thirlmere, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br /> +<br /> +Stirrup tenure, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +<br /> +Stocks, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br /> +<br /> +Stockings, Curious method of treating, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Sunday markets, <a href="#Page_156">156-158</a><br /> +<br /> +Sunday observance, <a href="#Page_225">225-226</a><br /> +<br /> +Superstitions and Legends, <a href="#Page_131">131-147</a><br /> +<br /> +Surrendering by the rod, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br /> +<br /> +Swine in churchyards, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ringers, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Tailors, Rules for, <a href="#Page_164">164</a><br /> +<br /> +Tea, Curious methods of dealing with, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br /> +<br /> +Telling the bees, <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br /> +<br /> +Tenures, Curiosities of, <a href="#Page_64">64-90</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br /> +<br /> +Thirlmere, Steading stone at, <a href="#Page_121">121</a><br /> +<br /> +Threlkeld, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +<br /> +Timber-lode, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br /> +<br /> +Tithe exemption, Curious, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span><br /> +Toll-free, Rights of tenants and burgesses to go, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br /> +<br /> +Tolls, An old dispute about, <a href="#Page_83">83</a><br /> +<br /> +“Tom Candlestick,” <a href="#Page_170">170</a><br /> +<br /> +Toothache, Charm for, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br /> +<br /> +Torpenhow, Old Council at, <a href="#Page_230">230-244</a><br /> +<br /> +Town and village watch and ward, <a href="#Page_16">16-21</a><br /> +<br /> +Trading Laws and Customs, Old <a href="#Page_155">155-168</a><br /> +<br /> +Traditions, <a href="#Page_131">131-147</a><br /> +<br /> +Troutbeck dole custom at Dacre, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +Troutbeck (Windermere), Manorial jurisdiction at, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br /> +<br /> +Tummel wheel’d carts, <a href="#Page_218">218</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Uppies and Downies at Workington, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Village schoolmasters, Old-time, <a href="#Page_244">244-253</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Waberthwaite Church, Dog-whippers at, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br /> +<br /> +Warthol, Watching station at, <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"</span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hall, Legend concerning, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Warwick, Old school-days at, <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br /> +<br /> +Watch and Ward, <a href="#Page_9">9-21</a><br /> +<br /> +Watch, Orders of the, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br /> +<br /> +Watermillock, Manorial custom at, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Head Jurie, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Webstone at Armboth, The, <a href="#Page_238">238</a><br /> +<br /> +Well festivals, <a href="#Page_206">206-208</a><br /> +<br /> +Wetheral, Manorial customs at, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br /> +<br /> +Whipping of criminals, Public, <a href="#Page_124">124-128</a><br /> +<br /> +Whitbeck, Old customs at, <a href="#Page_227">227</a><br /> +<br /> +Whitehaven, Society of Archers, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Watch and ward at, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Public whipping at, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Whittlegate, The old custom of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a><br /> +<br /> +Wigton, Curious epitaph at, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Selling meat at parish church, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Wine, Curiosities concerning church, <a href="#Page_54">54-55</a><br /> +<br /> +Witch, Drowning of a supposed, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mary Baynes, the Orton, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lizzy Batty, the Brampton, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Witness man, Service of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br /> +<br /> +Woful Bank, Legend concerning, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br /> +<br /> +Women as judges, <a href="#Page_2">2</a><br /> +<br /> +Workington Easter football play, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br /> +<br /> +Wotobank, Legend concerning, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br /> +<br /> +Wreay, Mock mayoral festivities at, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +<br /> +Wreck of the sea privilege at Millom, <a href="#Page_84">84</a><br /> +<br /> +Wrestling, <a href="#Page_188">188-190</a><br /> +</p> + + + +<p> </p> +<p class="center">WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., PRINTERS, HULL.</p> + + + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> + +<div class="verts"> + +<p class="center"><span class="large">LIST OF PUBLICATIONS</span><br /> +<small>OF</small><br /> +<span class="huge"><span class="smcap">William Andrews & Co.</span>,</span><br /> +<small>5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, LONDON.</small></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>“Valuable and interesting.”—<i>Times.</i></p> + +<p>“Readable as well as instructive.”—<i>The Globe.</i></p> + +<p>“A valuable addition to any library.”—<i>Derbyshire Times.</i></p> + +<p>“There is a charm about the chapters seldom found in works dealing with +antiquarian lore, for they are never dry and always entertaining. The +illustrations are a splendid feature. These county histories call for +appreciation and deserve every success.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p></div> + +<p class="center"><span class="huge">The Bygone Series.</span></p> + +<p>In this series the following volumes are included, and issued at 7s. 6d. +each. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt.</p> + +<p>These books have been favourably reviewed in the leading critical journals +of England and America.</p> + +<p>Carefully written articles by recognised authorities are included on +history, castles, abbeys, biography, romantic episodes, legendary lore, +traditional stories, curious customs, folk-lore, etc., etc.</p> + +<p>The works are illustrated by eminent artists, and by the reproduction of +quaint pictures of the olden time.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>BYGONE BERKSHIRE, edited by Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, <span class="smcaplc">M.A., F.S.A.</span><br /> +BYGONE CHESHIRE, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND, by Daniel Scott.<br /> +BYGONE DURHAM, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE GLOUCESTERSHIRE, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE HAMPSHIRE, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE HERTFORDSHIRE, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE LINCOLNSHIRE (2 vols), edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE MIDDLESEX, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE NORFOLK, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE NORTHUMBERLAND, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, by William Stevenson.<br /> +BYGONE SCOTLAND, by David Maxwell, <span class="smcaplc">C.E.</span><br /> +BYGONE SOMERSETSHIRE, edited by Cuming Walters.<br /> +BYGONE SOUTHWARK, by Mrs. E. Boger.<br /> +BYGONE STAFFORDSHIRE, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE SUFFOLK, edited by Cuming Walters.<br /> +BYGONE SURREY, edited by George Clinch and S. W. Kershaw, <span class="smcaplc">F.S.A.</span><br /> +BYGONE SUSSEX, by W. E. A. Axon.<br /> +BYGONE YORKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews.</td></tr></table> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">England in the Days of Old.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span> WILLIAM ANDREWS.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy, Cloth extra, 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—When Wigs were Worn—Powdering the Hair—Men Wearing +Muffs-Concerning Corporation Customs—Bribes for the Palate—Rebel Heads +on City Gates—Burials at Cross Roads—Detaining the Dead for Debt—A +Nobleman’s Household in Tudor Times—Bread and Baking in Bygone +Days—Arise, Mistress, Arise!—The Turnspit—A Gossip about the +Goose—Bells as Time-Tellers—The Age of Snuffing—State +Lotteries—Bear-Baiting—Morris Dancers-The Folk-Lore of Midsummer +Eve—Harvest Home—Curious Charities—An Old-Time Chronicler—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“A most delightful work.”—<i>Leeds Mercury.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr. Andrews has the true art of narration, and contrives to give us +the results of his learning with considerable freshness of style, +whilst his subjects are always interesting and +picturesque.”—<i>Manchester Courier.</i></p> + +<p>“The old customs, domestic habits, and dress of our forefathers +described in these chapters are too much neglected by historians, and +a study of them will while away a leisure hour very pleasantly.”—<i>The +Times.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Bygone Punishments.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span> WILLIAM ANDREWS.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy, Cloth gilt, 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Hanging—Hanging in Chains—Hanging, Drawing, and +Quartering—Pressing to Death—Drowning—Burning to Death—Boiling to +Death—Beheading—The Halifax Gibbet—The Scottish +Maiden—Mutilation—Branding—The Pillory—Punishing Authors and Burning +Books—Finger Pillory—The Jougs—The Stocks—The Drunkard’s +Cloak—Whipping and Whipping-Posts—Public Penance—The Repentance +Stool—The Ducking Stool—The Brank, or Scold’s Bridle—Riding the +Stang—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“A book of great interest.”—<i>Manchester Courier.</i></p> + +<p>“Full of curious lore, sought out and arranged with much +industry.”—<i>The Scotsman.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr. Andrews has produced a most entertaining book, without departing +from authenticated facts, there is no moralising, and the writer never +obtrudes himself. The result is a work well worth a place on a +bookshelf, and readable to a degree.”—<i>Eastern Morning News.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Literary Byways.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span> WILLIAM ANDREWS.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy, Cloth gilt, 7s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Authors at work—The Earnings of Authors—“Declined with +Thanks”—Epigrams on Authors—Poetical Graces—Poetry on Panes—English +Folk Rhymes—The Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu Cards—Toasts and +Toasting—Curious American Old-Time Gleanings—The Earliest American +Poetess: Anne Bradstreet—A Playful Poet: Miss Catharine Fanshawe—A +Popular Song Writer: Mrs. John Hunter—A Poet of the Poor: Mary Pyper—The +Poet of the Fisher-Folk: Mrs. Susan K. Phillips—A Poet and Novelist of +the People: Thomas Miller—The Cottage Countess—The Compiler of “Old +Moore’s Almanack”: Henry Andrews—James Nayler, the Mad Quaker, who +claimed to be the Messiah—A Biographical Romance: Swan’s Strange +Story—Short Letters—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Readable and entertaining.”—<i>Notes and Queries.</i></p> + +<p>“Turn where you will, there is information and entertainment in this +book.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Curious Epitaphs.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Collected and Edited with Notes</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span> WILLIAM ANDREWS.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy, Cloth extra, 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Epitaphs on Tradesmen—Typographical Epitaphs—Epitaphs on Good +and Faithful Servants—Epitaphs on Soldiers and Sailors—Epitaphs on +Musicians and Actors—Epitaphs on Sportsmen—Bacchanalian +Epitaphs—Epitaphs on Parish Clerks and Sextons—Punning +Epitaphs—Manxland Epitaphs—Epitaphs on Notable Persons—Miscellaneous +Epitaphs—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“A most entertaining collection.”—<i>Newcastle Daily Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>“A book that is sure to be widely read and appreciated.”—<i>People’s +Journal.</i></p> + +<p>“It is an entertaining and instructive work, it may fairly be regarded +as the best on its subject, and it will take a permanent place in our +literature.”—<i>Hull Critic.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Curious Church Customs.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by</span> WILLIAM ANDREWS.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy, Cloth extra, 7s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Sports in Churches—Holy Day Customs—Church Bells: When and +Why They were Rung—Inscriptions on Bells—Laws of the Belfry—Ringers’ +Jugs—Customs and Superstitions of Baptism—Marriage Customs—Burial +Customs—Concerning the Churchyard—Altars in Churches—The Rood Loft and +its Uses—Armour in Churches—Beating the Bounds—The Story of the +Crosier—Bishops in Battle—The Cloister and its Story—Shorthand in +Church—Reminiscences of our Village Church—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“A thoroughly excellent volume.”—<i>Publishers’ Circular.</i></p> + +<p>“A handsomely got up and interesting volume.”—<i>The Fireside.</i></p> + +<p>“We are indebted to Mr. Andrews for an invaluable addition to our +library of folk-lore, and we do not think that many who take it up +will slip a single page.”—<i>Dundee Advertiser.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Ecclesiastical Curiosities.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by</span> WILLIAM ANDREWS.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy, Cloth gilt, 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—The Church Door—Sacrificial Foundations—The Building of the +English Cathedrals—Ye Chapell of Oure Ladye—Some Famous Spires—The Five +of Spades and the Church of Ashton-under-Lyne—Bells and their +Messages—Stories about Bells—Concerning Font-Lore—Watching Chambers in +Churches—Church Chests—An Antiquarian Problem: The Leper +Window—Mazes—Churchyard Superstitions—Curious Announcements in the +Church—Big Bones Preserved in Churches—Samuel Pepys at Church—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“An interesting and engrossing volume.”—<i>Church Bells.</i></p> + +<p>“It consists of studies by various writers in the history, customs, +and folk-lore of the Church of England. Whilst it will appeal most +strongly to those who are given to antiquarian and ecclesiological +inquiry, it contains much that should prove of interest to any +intelligent reader. The various contributions give evidence of +diligent and discriminating research, and embody much old-world lore +that is curious and instructive.”—<i>Aberdeen Free Press.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">The Church Treasury of History, Custom, Folk-Lore, etc.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by</span> WILLIAM ANDREWS.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy, 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Stave-Kirks—Curious Churches of Cornwall—Holy Wells—Hermit +and Hermit Cells—Church Wakes—Fortified Church Towers—The Knight +Templars: Their Churches and their Privileges—English Mediæval +Pilgrimages—Pilgrims’ Signs—Human Skin on Church Doors—Animals of the +Church in Wood, Stone, and Bronze—Queries in Stones—Pictures in +Churches—Flowers and Rites of the Church—Ghost Layers and Ghost +Laying—Church Walks—Westminster Waxworks—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“The book will be welcome to every lover of archæological +lore.”—<i>Liverpool Daily Post.</i></p> + +<p>“It is a work that will prove interesting to the clergy and churchmen +generally, and to all others who have an antiquarian turn of mind, or +like to be regaled occasionally by reading old-world customs and +anecdotes.”—<i>Church Family Newspaper.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Bygone Church Life in Scotland.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by</span> WILLIAM ANDREWS.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy, Cloth gilt, 7s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—The Cross in Scotland—Bell Lore—Saints and Holy Wells—Life +in the Pre-Reformation Cathedrals—Public Worship in Olden Times—Church +Music—Discipline in the Kirk—Curiosities of Church Finance—Witchcraft +and the Kirk—Birth and Baptisms, Customs and Superstitions—Marriage Laws +and Customs—Gretna Green Gossip—Death and Burial Customs and +Superstitions—The Story of a Stool—The Martyrs’ Monument, +Edinburgh—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“The volume is certain to receive a welcome from Scotsmen at home and +abroad.”—<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>“Every sentence in the book is either instructive or amusing, and it +should consequently find many appreciative readers. It contains a vast +amount of traditional and historical lore referring almost to every +district of Scotland. There are some artistic illustrations, +especially those of Glasgow Cathedral and views of ancient portions of +that city from the pencil of David Small.”—<i>Dundee Advertiser.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Lore and Legend of the English Church.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By the Rev. GEO. S. TYACK, b.a.</span></p> +<p class="center"><i>Crown, Cloth extra, 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Introduction—The Building of the Church—The Church +Steeple—The Churchyard—Graves and Funerals—The Nave—The Pulpit and the +Lectern—The Font—Folk-Lore and Customs of Marriage—The Chancel and the +Choir—Alms and Offerings—Conclusion—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“A work that will be read with much interest.”—<i>Somerset Herald.</i></p> + +<p>“A handsome and substantial volume.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“The volume could scarcely be too warmly commended.”—<i>Staffordshire +Advertiser.</i></p> + +<p>“A valuable addition to the splendid series of books on church +curiosities published by Messrs. William Andrews & Co.”—<i>Church +Family Newspaper.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">A Book About Bells.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By the Rev. GEO. S. TYACK, b.a.</span></p> +<p class="center"><i>Crown, Cloth extra, 3s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Invention of Bells—Bell Founding and Bell Founders—Dates and +Names of Bells—The Decoration of Bells—Some Noteworthy Bells—The Loss +of Old Bells—Towers and Campaniles—Bell-Ringing and Bell-Ringers—The +Church-Going Bell—Bells at Christian Festivals and Fasts—The Epochs of +Man’s Life Marked by the Bells—The Blessings and the Cursings of the +Bells—Bells as Time-Markers—Secular Uses of Church and other +Bells—Small Bells, Secular and Sacred—Carillons—Belfry Rhymes and +Legends—Index of Subjects, Index of Places.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Covers the whole field of bell-lore.”—<i>Scotsman.</i></p> + +<p>“‘A Book About Bells’ can be heartily commended.”—<i>Pall Mall +Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“A most useful and interesting book.... All who are interested in +bells will, we feel confident, read it with pleasure and +profit.”—<i>Church Family Newspaper.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">The Grotesque in Church Art.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By</span> T. TINDALL WILDRIDGE.</p> +<p class="center"><small>ONLY 400 COPIES PRINTED, AND EACH COPY NUMBERED.</small></p> +<p class="center"><i>Quarto Cloth extra, 16s. 6d. Many illustrations.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Introduction—Definitions of the Grotesque—The Carvers—The +Artistic Quality of Church Grotesques—Gothic Ornament not +Didactic—Ingrained Paganism—Mythic Origin of Church Carvings—Hell’s +Mouth—Satanic Representations—The Devil and the Vices—Ale and the +Alewife—Satires without Satan—Scriptural Illustrations—Masks and +Faces—The Domestic and Popular—Animal Musicians—Compound +Forms—Nondescripts—Rebuses—Trinities—The Fox in Church Art—Situations +of Grotesque Ornament in Church Art—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“The book is one which will appeal strongly to book-lovers; for the +edition is a handsome one, exquisitely printed and profusely +illustrated, and the edition is strictly limited to four hundred +copies.”—<i>Sheffield Daily Telegraph.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">The Miracle Play in England.</span></p> +<p class="center">An Account of the Early Religious Drama.</p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By SIDNEY W. CLARKE, Barrister-at-Law</span>.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Crown, 2s. 0d. Illustrated.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—The Origin of Drama—The Beginnings of English Drama—The York +Plays—The Wakefield Plays—The Chester Plays—The Coventry Plays—Other +English Miracle Plays—The Production of a Miracle Play—The Scenery, +Properties, and Dresses—Appendix—The Order of the York Plays—Extract +from City Register of York, 1426—The Order of the Wakefield Plays—The +Order of the Chester Plays—The Order of the Grey Friars’ Plays at +Coventry—A Miracle Play in a Puppet Show—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“An admirable work.”—<i>Eastern Morning News.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr. Clarke has chosen a most interesting subject, one that is +attractive alike to the student, the historian, and the general +reader.... A most interesting volume, and a number of quaint +illustrations add to its value.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Legal Lore: Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by</span> WILLIAM ANDREWS.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy, Cloth extra, 7s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Bible Law—Sanctuaries—Trials in Superstitious Ages—On +Symbols—Law under the Feudal System—The Manor and Manor Law—Ancient +Tenures—Laws of the Forest—Trial by Jury in Old Times—Barbarous +Punishments—Trials of Animals—Devices of the Sixteenth Century +Debtors—Laws Relating to the Gipsies—Commonwealth Law and +Lawyers—Cock-Fighting in Scotland—Cockieleerie Law—Fatal +Links—Post-Mortem Trials—Island Laws—The Little Inns of +Court—Obiter—Index.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“There are some very amusing and curious facts concerning law and +lawyers. We have read with much interest the articles on Sanctuaries, +Trials in Superstitious Ages, Ancient Tenures, Trials by Jury in Old +Times, Barbarous Punishments, and Trials of Animals, and can heartily +recommend the volume to those who wish for a few hours’ profitable +diversion in the study of what may be called the light literature of +the law.”—<i>Daily Mail.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Divine Song in its Human Echo.</span></p> +<p class="center">Or, <span class="smcap">Song and Service</span>.</p> +<p class="center">A Series of Short, Plain Sermons on Old-Fashioned Hymns.</p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By the</span> REV. J. GEORGE GIBSON.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Crown, Cloth gilt, 7s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p>“This volume contains thirty-seven sermons on old-fashioned hymns, and +when we say that each discourse averages about ten octavo pages, printed +in good-sized type, it will be seen that they are entitled to be called +short. The Rector of Ebchester is an adept at the production of short +sermons, and the line he has adopted in this instance is an extremely +happy one. It is a conception that appeals to a great multitude, and the +hymns which give the cue to the reflections form a large variety of +well-known spiritual songs, the favourites, indeed, in communities of +every name. Some of the sermons, indeed, most of them, have been prepared +for anniversaries and special occasions, and all are such as might be +expected from a man who is an undoubted lover of hymns. Their brevity +excludes prolixity, and terse summaries of facts, sharp statements of +doctrine, succinctness of argument, and directness of appeal characterise +the whole.”—<i>Newcastle Daily Leader.</i></p></div> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong></p> + +<p><a name='f_1' id='f_1' href='#fna_1'>[1]</a> Paper communicated by Sir G. Duckett, July, 1879.</p> + +<p><a name='f_2' id='f_2' href='#fna_2'>[2]</a> “Sir Ewain; or, the Giant’s Cave.” Penrith, 1860.</p> + +<p><a name='f_3' id='f_3' href='#fna_3'>[3]</a> Historical Manuscripts Commissioners’ Ninth Report.</p> + +<p><a name='f_4' id='f_4' href='#fna_4'>[4]</a> At Kirkby Stephen, September, 1871.</p> + +<p><a name='f_5' id='f_5' href='#fna_5'>[5]</a> “Annals of Kendal,” 1832.</p> + +<p><a name='f_6' id='f_6' href='#fna_6'>[6]</a> 8th series, vol. 9, 1896.</p> + +<p><a name='f_7' id='f_7' href='#fna_7'>[7]</a> “Survey of the Lakes,” 1789.</p> + +<p><a name='f_8' id='f_8' href='#fna_8'>[8]</a> Sayer.</p> + +<p><a name='f_9' id='f_9' href='#fna_9'>[9]</a> Sayer.</p> + +<p><a name='f_10' id='f_10' href='#fna_10'>[10]</a> “Bygone Punishments,” 1898.</p> + +<p><a name='f_11' id='f_11' href='#fna_11'>[11]</a> “History and Traditions of Ravenstononedale,” 1877.</p> + +<p><a name='f_12' id='f_12' href='#fna_12'>[12]</a> “Beneath Helvellyn’s Shade,” 1892.</p> + +<p><a name='f_13' id='f_13' href='#fna_13'>[13]</a> At Cockermouth, October 10th, 1867.</p> + +<p><a name='f_14' id='f_14' href='#fna_14'>[14]</a> The Rev. E. H. Sugden’s “History of Arlecdon and Frizington,” 1897.</p> + +<p><a name='f_15' id='f_15' href='#fna_15'>[15]</a> “Craven and North-West Yorkshire Highlands.”</p> + +<p><a name='f_16' id='f_16' href='#fna_16'>[16]</a> “Traditions of Lancashire.”</p> + +<p><a name='f_17' id='f_17' href='#fna_17'>[17]</a> <i>Carlisle Journal</i>, May, 1895.</p> + +<p><a name='f_18' id='f_18' href='#fna_18'>[18]</a> “Church Treasury of History, Custom, and Folk Lore,” 1897.</p> + +<p><a name='f_19' id='f_19' href='#fna_19'>[19]</a> “The Manners and Customs of Westmorland, etc., in the Former Part of +the Eighteenth Century.”</p> + +<p><a name='f_20' id='f_20' href='#fna_20'>[20]</a> “Romantic Richmondshire,” 1897.</p> + +<p><a name='f_21' id='f_21' href='#fna_21'>[21]</a> “The Parish Registers of Dalston,” 1893.</p> + +<p><a name='f_22' id='f_22' href='#fna_22'>[22]</a> “Survey of the Lakes,” by James Clarke. Penrith, 1789.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland, by Daniel Scott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BYGONE CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 37891-h.htm or 37891-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/9/37891/ + +Produced by Brian Foley and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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