[2] Inquisition post mortem of William de Lancaster, 1246.

[3] Bishop Browne in Theodore and Wilfrith, pp. 20 and 36, inclines to the opinion that this sub-kingdom embraced the western rather than the southern portion of Northumbria, as generally supposed, in which case it would include those portions of Lancashire and the western coasts northwards, laid open by Ethelfrith's conquest at Chester.

[4] See Theodore and Wilfrith. The same.

[5] For the meaning and scope of these early gifts to the church, which not only embraced whole villages, but even hundreds and provinces, see Maitland's Doomsday Book and Beyond, p. 498.

[6] See Rhys' Celtic Britain for a suggestion that Edwin's conquest and Teyrnllwg may represent a considerable portion of our district, also "Rydal" in Westmorland Gazette, May 2nd, 1903. Mr. Farrer, while noticing this point in Victorian History of Lancashire, vol. ii., considers that better authority could be desired. For the list of names of gifts to Ripon that have come down to us, see Canon Raine's Historians of the Church of York. Amounderness, between the Ribble and the Cocker, is one. Cartmel is probably another. The region "dunutinga" may possibly be referred to the Duddon and beyond, where still are manor and fells called Dunnerdale, and the hamlet of Old Dunning Well and Dumerholme. Donya is the name of some explored earthworks at the junction of Bannisdale beck with the Mint, north of Kendal. "Goedyne" suggests "Gadeni" or "Cadeni," a name applied to the people of the Borders. See Prof. Veitch's History and Poetry of Scottish Borders. The lands of William de Dunnington are mentioned in the Furness Abbey Coucher Book, ccviii.

[7] In 1140 Alan, earl of Richmond is stated to have oppressed Ripon; and in 1143 he assaulted Archbishop William by the shrine of St. Wilfrith within the church. Mem. of Ripon. Surtees Society.

[8] Wills and inventories of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire.

[9] This did not take effect, however, until after the death of Bishop Percy in 1856. Victoria History of Cumberland.

[10] See "Lost Churches in the Carlisle Diocese." Transactions Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. xv.

[11] See Victorian History of Cumberland.

[12] See Bates's History of Northumberland.

[13] See Sculptured Crosses of the Diocese of Carlisle. Calverley & Collingwood.

[14] See "Translation of St. Cuthbert." Transactions Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, part 1, vol. ii.

[15] See D. F. Hodgkin's History of Northumberland.

[16] See "Lost Churches in Carlisle Diocese," Transactions Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. XV.

[17] Where it is still, with the mark of a cut from sword or battle-axe plain to see.—Ed.

[18] Monkbergh by Windermere has become Mountbarrow.

[19] The spot was pointed out to Mrs. Simpson by the Rev. Edward Jefferies, who from 1840 was curate in charge.

[20] I find, however, in deeds of the early seventeenth century, only Padman hereabouts. Or is this a mistake for Padmar? Padman appears in the register.

[21] See Transactions Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, N.S. 3, p. 419.

[22] The same legend is attached to three Lancashire churches, the foundations of which date back to Saxon times. One is St. Oswald's, Winwick, where the saint's well was once a place of resort. Tradition has preserved, in the case of St. Chad's, Rochdale, some particulars of the elfish rabble who wrought the change. See Memorials of Old Lancashire, vol. —, p. 91-92.

[23] From Edward Wilson, parish verger till November, 1906. His father, a joiner like himself, did the woodwork for the hydropathic establishment.

[24] Inquisition post mortem. Calendar Patent Rolls, 25 Edward I.

[25] The modern house built upon the knoll had a well within it, and behind the house—where a hidden runner gushes out by a rock—there are traces of old pavement.

[26] Levens Hall MSS.

[27] Bright's Early Church History, p. 291. Bishop Browne's Theodore and Wilfrith, pp. 132 and 690.

[28] It may possibly represent an old sub-kingdom of Northumbria, and is suggestive of Edwin's conquest of a district to the north-west called by the Britons Teyrnllwg. See Rhys's Celtic Britain (quoted in "Rydal," Westmorland Gazette, May 2nd, 1903). It contained large portions at least of that great church province which Wilfrid made over to Ripon Minster, which was for a short time the seat of a bishop. The creation of Richmond as a centre was a late Norman measure.

[29] Whitaker's History of Richmondshire. Dr. Wilson (Victorian History of Cumberland) gives 1120 to 1130 as dates between which Henry I. marked out the county divisions as fiscal areas. In the latter year the new county of Westmarieland was placed under the jurisdiction of a separate sheriff.

[30] For the connection between mother churches and chapelries or vicarages under them, see History of English Church, edited by Dean Stephens, vol. ii., p. 295. ["Walter Gray, Archbishop of York in 1233 consolidated 10 chapelries in the two parishes of Pocklington and Pickering into five vicarages, two and two. Each vicar had two chapels, and was endowed with a sum to support chaplains at both, while he also paid a small sum annually to the mother church in token of subjection."] From the rural deanery of Kendal there were paid the following dues, according to an old voucher, c. 1320: at Easter 12s. 0d. for Synodalia; at Michaelmas £4 16s 8d for Procurationes; besides £3 for Presumptiones, and £3 9s 6d in Peter's pence—a goodly tribute this for the Pope from our mountains lands! Whitaker's History of Richmondshire.

[31] Selden's History of Tithes. Easterby's Law of Tithes, pp. 4, 8, and 13.

[32] The early practice of burial in distant churches is inexplicable to this age. But it should be remembered that in early days man was a peripatetic animal, to whom the distance between Grasmere and Kendal, or Hawkshead and Dalton, would be slight; and that a corpse wrapped in a winding-sheet would be much lighter than one coffined.

[33] Of the first, still paid, there is plenty of evidence. It was even allowed during the Commonwealth. In 1645 the Rydal Hall account-sheets show that arrears were paid to the Kendal parson out of the tithes "upon order for 5 yeares stypd out of Gresmire," amounting to £3 6s 8d or five marks. Next year is entered "Rent due to mr. M. out of Gresmire tithes" 13s 6d. The order came from the Puritan Committee at Kendal.

A mortuary, or corpse present, was distinct from a burial fee, and was supposed to cover any obligation forgotten by the dead man to church or priest. The claim anciently was upon his second best animal, the best going to his feudal lord; but it came to be paid in coin; while a law was passed (21 Henry VIII.) limiting the sum to 10s., and that only when the deceased owned goods to the value of £40. Dr. Cox, Parish Registers of England. The following receipt is in existence for a fee paid to Kendal on the death of Edward Walker of Rydal, who was buried in his parish church of Grasmere:—

"Jan; the 2nd Anno Domj 1652.

Rec. p. fr ye Executors of Edward Walker ye Sume of ffive shillings in full satisfaction of a Mortuary due to ye Vicar of Kendall by me Tho: Willain I say received the day and yeare abouesd by me Tho: Willain ye aforesd sume of 5s 0d."

[34] Creighton's Historical Essays.

[35] At Cartmel in 1642 measures were taken "for the makinge upp of the twentie-fourte ... that there may be four in everye churchwardens division as hath formerlie been used." Stockdale's Annales Caermoelensis.

[36] There is a tradition that a route from Skelwith Bridge dropped sharply from the top of Red Bank to the old ford of the Rothay known as Bathwath (Rydal Hall MSS.), and that it had even been used for funerals. This seems unlikely, unless the use were a repetition of a custom that had prevailed before the present Red Bank road was made; and of superstitious adherence to old corpse-roads the Rev. J. C. Atkinson (Forty Years in a Moorland Parish) gives instances. There may indeed have been once a well-trodden path there. In former times a fulling-mill stood on the left bank of the Rothay, near to the ford, and within the freehold property of Bainrigg. The mill was owned by the Benson family in the fifteenth century, but Bainrigg had belonged before that time to a family of de Bainbrigg, who had at least one capital dwelling or mansion-house standing upon it. Now a road to this house or houses there must have been. The woodman recently found a track leading up from the site of the mill to the rocky height, which emerged upon the present Wishing-Gate road. On the line of this (which was engineered as a turnpike road only about 1770-80) the older way doubtless continued towards Grasmere, past How Top and through Town End. A huge stone standing on this line was known as the How Stone. Levi Hodgson who lived at How Top, and who described the route to Mr. W. H. Hills, remembered fragments of a cottage in the wood. If the Skelwith Bridge folk ever used it as a church path, they would meet their townsmen (who had come over White Moss) at How Top. Close by there is still a flat-topped boulder used for resting burdens upon.

[37] This gate is shown in a map of 1846, as well as the stile which gave its name to the house then still standing, that was immediately opposite. Both disappeared at the widening of the lane from Stock Bridge to the church.

[38] Ambleside Town and Chapel.

[39] It is not easy to discover what was the early practice of the church concerning the administration of the sacrament, or the number of times it was received yearly by the laity. As early as 750, laymen who failed to communicate at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, were not esteemed christians; they were expected to make offerings four times a year. A later rule, which was stringent, seems to have been once a year, though a more frequent attendance—specially at Easter and Christmas, was urged. See Abbot Gasquet's Parish Life in Medieval England, Wall's Old English Parishes, p. 90, and Wordsworth's Medieval Services in England. The sacrament was called housel, and the bread houselling-bread. Henry VII's queen, Elizabeth of York, appears to have communicated three times a year, at the festivals of Easter, All Saints, and Christmas (Canon Simmon's Notes to the Lay Folks' Mass Book, p. 239). Queen Victoria no doubt clung to an old custom when she communicated no oftener than three or four times a year. (See Life.)

[40] The population must have been greater when the Kendal trade in cloth was at its height. There were 1300 "houseling people" reported for the parish of Windermere in 1549 (Commission quoted in Mr. Brydson's Sidelights on MediÆval Windermere, p. 95), and there is no reason to suppose that Grasmere was far behind. At the same time the numbers to collect at one celebration would be considerably lessened if the Easter communion were spread over several occasions, as was the case in the late seventeenth century at Clayworth, Notts, where celebrations were held on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, as well as Easter Day. All parishioners—to judge from the rector's careful record—must at this season have communicated; but at the celebrations of Whitweek and Christmas (for there was none at Michaelmas) the numbers were much lower. (Rector's Book of Clayworth).

[41] We have no evidence of this to show for Grasmere Church. But in 1622 "Sir" Richard Pearson, curate of Troutbeck, was empowered by the rector of Windermere to publicly revoke the sentence of excommunication under which one Adam Birkhead lay. An edict was issued from the registry of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire as late as 1715, citing a form of penance to be gone through by George Birkett, who before the congregation of Troutbeck, and in "penitential habit," was to confess his grievous sin of incest with his deceased wife's sister. An additional note, however, empowered Mr. Barton, rector of Windermere, and Mr. Grisedale, curate, to use their discretion as to the manner of confession, and to allow the sinner, if properly penitent, to make it "in his Ordinary apparell" (Browne MSS.). It may have been the dislike of public penance, with its peculiar habit, that caused the churchwardens of Grasmere so often, and so incorrectly, to return a clean bill of morality in their Presentments.

[42] Wills and Inventories of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire (Rev. J. Raine). The privilege of probate was withdrawn finally from ecclesiastical courts by Act of 1857 (Dr. Cox's History of Parish Registers).

[43] Public Record Office Court Roll 207/122.

[44] Browne MSS.

[45] Rydal Hall MSS.

[46] Rydal Hall MSS.

[47] Public Record Office Court Roll 207/111.

[48] Church inquisition post mortem, Henry VI., No. 36.

[49] See Coulton's Chaucer and his England, where miracle-plays and dances are added to the list.

[50] Calendar Patent Rolls, 4 Richard II., p. 1.

[51] Browne MSS.

[52] Rydal Hall MSS.

[53] Rydal Hall MSS.

[54] Annales Caermoelensis.

[55] From Mr. George Browne, one of the Twenty-four.

[56] At Holme Cultram, Cumberland, a like body—chosen, however, by the people themselves—were responsible for the care of the bridges and common wood, besides providing for the upkeep of the sea-dyke. See "The Sixteen Men of Holme Cultram," Transactions, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, N.S., 3. The Eighteen of Aston, Oxfordshire, were found in 1583 to have control over the common field and meadow, with the yearly allotments made within them. See "Survival of Archaic Communities," Prof. F. W. Maitland (Law Quarterly Review, vol. 9). Prof. Maitland regards the existence of this body as an exceptional case, and thinks it dangerous to assume it to have been a survival of ancient times. Mr. G. G. Coulton in Chaucer and his England considers that the Black Death of 1348-9 and the consequent diminution of the clergy may have thrown the people on their own resources, and caused the lay control over parish finances which appears to have dated (he says) from the fifteenth century.

[57] Calendar of Papal Registers, vol. ii., p. 294.

[58] Tax. Eccle. P. Nicholai, iv.

[59] Lancashire Pipe Rolls, Mr. W. Farrer.

[60] Lancashire Inquests, etc., ed. by Mr. Farrer.

[61] Calendar Patent Rolls, 8 Edw. III. and 14 Edw. III., pt. 3, mem. 11.

[62] Calendar Patent Rolls, 8 Edw. III. There was a question of a marriage between his daughter Mary and the king's brother.

[63] Calendar Patent Rolls, 8 Edw. III.

[64] Calendar Patent Rolls, 13 Edw. III.

[65] Calendar Patent Rolls.

[66] Calendar Patent Rolls, 17 Edw. III.

[67] Calendar Patent Rolls, 17 Edw. III.

[68] Calendar of Close Rolls.

[69] Calendar Patent Rolls and Close Rolls, 22 Edw. III.

[70] Rymer's Foedera, Dic. of Nat. Biography. "Proof that Ingelram Earl of Bedford was son of Ingelram brother of William, who was son of William de Coucy, Christiana's son, is contained in Inq. p.m., 50 Edw. III. (1) No. 18." Mr. W. Farrer.

[71] Calendar Patent Rolls, 5 Rich. II., 9 Rich. II., and 2 Hen. IV., part iv.

[72] Inq. p.m. MS. Rawl., B 438, f. 71.

[73] Inq. p.m., 14 Hen. VI., No. 36.

[74] Calendar Patent Rolls, 1 Edw. IV., pt. 7, mem. 8; and Inq. p.m., 12 Edw. IV., No. 47.

[75] Calendar Patent Rolls, 22 Hen. VI.

[76] Inq. p.m., 22 Hen. VI., No. 19.

[77] Victorian History of Cumberland.

[78] Inq. ad quod damnum, 38/6.

[79] Calendar Patent Rolls, 30 Edw. I.

[80] Calendar Patent Rolls.

[81] Calendar Patent Rolls, 17 Hen. VI., p. 1.

[82] Calendar Patent Rolls.

[83] Sizergh Castle MSS.

[84] MS. Dodsworth 28, fol. 78.

[85] Calendar of Papal Registers, vol. v., p. 1-4.

[86] Dr. Cox, Parish Registers of England, p. 251.

[87] In 1383 Richard de Clifford, "king's clerk" was presented to the church of Warton in Kendale, Calendar Patent Rolls.

[88] MS. Rawlinson, B. 438, f. 2.

[89] Calendar Patent Roll, 20 Edw. III.

[90] Calendar Patent Roll, 20 Edw. III.

[91] Canon Raine's Notes to Testamenta Eboracensia, Sur. So., vol. 30, p. 68.

[92] Min. Acc., Hen. VII., 877.

[93] "List of Rydall-Writings." D.F.

[94] Lay Subsidy Roll, West, 195/1A, 6 Edw. III.

[95] 1575—March 20. James Dugdall, "Clericus" witnesses Indenture between Wil. Fleming of Rydal and his miller.

[96] Levens Hall MS.

[97] Rydal Hall MS.

[98] "List of Rydall-Writings," by D.F., in which he writes the names as Bellowe and Brokylsbee.

[99] Rydal Hall MSS. and Tax Eccles. P. Nicholai.

[100] Chester Diocesan Register.

[101] List of Rydall Writings. D.F.

[102] Coram Rege Roll, N.T., 17 Eliz., ro. 218.

[103] Dated Nov. 3, 1573. "List of Rydall Writings."

[104] Chester Diocesan Registry.

[105] Wills and Inventories of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire. Surtees Society.

[106] Wall's Old English Parish.

[107] Victorian History of Cumberland.

[108] He may have been one of the brothers of William, head of the family, who died in 1660. See "The Orfeurs of High Close," Transactions Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. iii.

[109] It is necessary to be explicit on this point, for, on the authority of the writer's MS., a statement that the church of Grasmere was broken into by the Parliamentary forces appeared twice in print in 1910, without any reference being given to the actual source of information, or its ambiguity.

[110] Shaw, in his Church under the Commonwealth, says that the scheme was already working in Northumberland and Durham at the close of 1645, and that it seems to have been put in force in Westmorland early in 1646. This letter explains the delay.

[111] MSS. Tanner, 60, fol. 527, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

[112] The secret messengers who passed with despatches between the king and his army endured great perils and sometimes lost their lives.

[113] Communicated by Mr. J. A. Martindale.

[114] Dr. Magrath's Flemings in Oxford.

[115] Shaw's Church under the Commonwealth.

[116] Ex. Deps., 15 Chas. II., Mich. 33, Westmorland.

[117] Book of Quarter Sessions Indictments, Kendal Corporation.

[118] Fox's Journals. He says that he had "large meetings" in Westmorland.

[119] Rydal Hall MSS.

[120] Book of Indictments, Kendal Corporation.

[121] See Cumberland and Westmorland Society's Transactions, vol. vi., N.S.

[122] Ex. Deps., 15 Chas. II., Mich. 33, Westmorland.

[123] Rydal Hall MSS.

[124] Gothic Architecture in England, Francis Bond, p. 191.

[125] This is almost a certainty. A drawing made by a friend of Mrs. Fletcher, of Lancrigg, showed two like windows on the south side; but it is unfortunately lost.

[126] S. Holborne: Architecture of European Religions.

[127] See Fullers and Freeholders: Trans. of Cumberland and Westmorland Ant. So., N.S.

[128] Edward Forrest, of Ambleside, when providing, in 1637, for his younger son (then under age) as a landholder, adds "and it is my mind and will that my said son Richard shall sitt next his elder brother Edward in the same forme, and likewise to haue another seate for a woman in the other forme, or seate accustomed for women." This was in Ambleside Chapel, but the custom was general.

Mr. George Browne possesses a copy of a document drawn up in 1629, after there had been contention, which gives the order of seating in Troutbeck Chapel. As this has not been printed, it may be briefly summarized here. A plan accompanies the paper. The general order was, for the men to be seated round the chancel, and upon a certain number of the front benches on the north side, which was free. The women were behind the men, five being placed on each form. They paid for their seats, at a diminishing rate from the front, the price starting at 20d.—one-eighth of a mark. The plan gives the place of every townswoman, and it is expressly stated that if there be a young wife in the family as well as an old one, she is to take her place on another form.

[129] For the custom of Easter offerings, see Canon Simmons' Notes to The Lay Folks' Mass Book, pp. 239-241.

[130] Boke off Recorde of Kirkbie Kendal.

[131] English Church Furniture, Cox and Harvey.

[132] An unusual catechism, printed in the Rev. E. J. Nurse's History, may be seen in the parish church of Windermere.

[133] So important was this scheme of decoration considered, that in the reign of Charles II. the Archbishop of Canterbury gave a commission to his "well-beloved in Christ," a craftsman who belonged to the "Art and mysterie of Paynterstayners of London" to carry it out in all those churches of his province where it was found wanting.—English Church Furniture.

[134] This is somewhat inexplicable unless the copyist, who has a late hand, has mistaken Howhead (in Ambleside) for Hawkshead. And the last figure in the account should be £1 18s.

[135] MediÆval Services in England. Chr. Wordsworth. Tradition from Edward Wilson.

[136] Rydal Hall MSS.

[137] The churchyard wall at Milburn, Westmorland, is still divided for purposes of repair amongst certain inhabitants and property-owners, who speak of their share as dolts (Old Norse deild, a share, from deila, to divide). Transactions, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. 9, p. 297.

[138] The family employed carvers about this time for their houses and elaborate mantelpieces.

[139] This was removed from Baisbrowne, and is now at Water Park, Coniston.

[140] Old church plate of the Diocese of Carlisle.

[141] See Fullers and Freeholders.

[142] Is it possible that this custom may be referred to the ancient one of the Anglo-Saxon race which thrice in the year enforced the attendance of the markmen, unbidden, at a great religious rite, for which the sacrifices were provided at the cost of the whole district? See Kemble's Saxons in England.

[143] About 1634 George Methwen, curate of Bamburgh, was summoned before the Court of High Commission for drunkenness and other misdemeanors, in the evidence this appears: "At Easter gone twelve monethes at Easter last, examinate (the witness) did receive the Holie Communion, and Methwen, when he did distribute the wine, did holde the same in his owne hand and would not deliver it into examinate's handes for to drinke, as he thinketh he ought to have done; for examinate in regard to his holdinge on it in that manner, could scarcelie taste of the wine. Methwen did serve some others at that time in the like manner, whoe tooke offence thereat."—History of Northumberland.

It is possible, of course, that not all the wine was drunk, but passed to an official as a perquisite. See Cox's Parish Registers of England, p. 227.

[144] 7 Ed. VI., 1553. See Transactions, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vols. 6 and 14.

[145] Church Bells of Cockermouth. Translations, vol. 14, p. 295.

[146] Bells of England, J. J. Raven, p. 190.

[147] "Church Bells of Brigham," Transactions, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. 14, p. 283. It seems strange that there was no reliable bell-founder in Kendal, where, in the seventeenth century, there was a goodly number of workers in metal. (See Boke off Recorde.) Of these the Washingtons were apparently the most accredited workmen. A Richard of the name "besydes Kendal" at the Dissolution, bought the house of the Friars in Penrith, with its bell. (Transactions, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. 6, p. 435.) The Richard of the next century was busy with arms during the Civil Wars, and worked for Rydal Hall. Mr. R. Godfrey ("Westmorland Bells," Transactions, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. 6, p. 84) considers that the Crosthwaite bell, dated 1695, was cast by Christopher Hodson in Kendal. In the preceding century one of this name (spelt Hodgson) appears among the freemen of the city, while a John and a Robert stand in the later list of freemen armourers and hardwaremen, though the mark for "foreigner" stands after their names.

[148] Yorkshire Arch. Journal, vols. 16, 17, and 18.

[149] For the Knott family, see "A Westmorland Township," Westmorland Gazette, May 7th, 1810.

[150] Raven's Bells of England, pp. 212-16.

[151] W. Wilson's "Former Social Life in Cumberland and Westmorland," Transactions, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, 1886.

[152] The tower and all the body of the church was rough-cast in 1910 at a cost of £200 5s. 1d.—Ed.

[153] See Middleton's Guide.

[154] This table is now in use at a Mission room in Ulverston parish.

[155] December 18th, 1687: "There hath been three very great Windes lately viz. Nov. 10, 87. at night, Dec. 3, 87. at night, and yester-night and all this day which was ye worst, & which hath blowne down ye great Ewe-tree in Gresmere Church Yard, the very tall Firr Tree at Ambleside, & many trees in Rydal Demesne, etc. It was accompanied with much snow."—Sir D. F.'s Account Book.

[156] The old font cover (see engraving) is lost.

[157] See "Flemings in Oxford."

[158] West's Antiquities of Furness.

[159] The outlay connected with Henry's appointment was considerable. His expenses in Carlisle with his brother Daniel amounted to £2. 7s. 6d.; also after ordination "For ye Bread and Wine at ye Communion in Carlile-Cathedral" 2s. 6d., and 1s. given at the offertory. At Chester, besides expenses and fees, he paid the Bishop of Chester's secretary £5. 5s. Next, on February 13th, comes the item "Delivered my Son Henry to pay tomorrow at Kendal for his Tenths for Gresmer due at Xtmas last, ye sum of" £2. 17s. 0¹/₂ d. Again on May 30th, "Paid at London unto Mr. James Bird for ye first payment of my Son Henry Fleming's First-Fruites for ye Parsonage of Gresmere, ye Sum of" £6. 8s. 7d. On November 18th, the same amount was paid as second instalment; the third on October 9th, 1687, £6. 11s. 1d.; and a final of £7. 1s. on July 31st, 1688. The total, £26. 19s. 3d., is a little over the amount paid by the Rector of Clayworth as first-fruits in 1672. Money was, however, now coming in, and Parson Brathwaite would seem to have furnished the new rector with a round sum of £20 at intervals, beginning in May, 1685; two such being paid in 1687. What the arrangement was in regard to the curate's stipend is not clear.

[160] The beam was dislodged when the new rectory was built in 1895, but upon the furnishing of the old tithe barn as a parish room in 1905, it was appropriately set up there.

[161] Ry. Hall MSS., His. MS. Com. 2084.

[162] See A Westmorland Township, Westmorland Gazette, May 7th, 1910. He was not, however, as there stated, the son of Michael.

[163] See Ambleside Town and Chapel, p. 53.

[164] See Ambleside Town and Chapel. More particulars of the education of George Fleming will be found in the forthcoming Chronicles of Rydal.

[165] See Dictionary of National Biography. The fact of his having acquired the rectorate of Grasmere seems, however, not to have been known to his biographers; but the Registry of Chester shows it.

[166] One would willingly connect this Grasmere land-holder with the astronomer of the same name who enjoys a place in the National Dictionary of Biography. This remarkable man was born of statesmen parents as near as Whitbeck, under Black Combe, in 1767, and was educated at the Hawkshead Grammar School. His biographer, Dr. Lonsdale, in the Worthies of Cumberland, says, "Between his leaving Hawkshead and his becoming a clergyman of the Church of England I have no facts to guide me: but it may be inferred that he went to Cambridge."

[167] Rydal Hall MSS.

[168] Rydal Chronicles.

[169] Letters of the Wordsworth Family.

[170] In the mediÆval story of Reynard the Fox, the Priest's barn is well walled about. See Francis Bond's Misericords, p. 73.

[171] De Quincey Memorials, vol. ii., 90-91.

[172] The Ven. William Jackson, D.D., was born in 1792, and preferred to the benefices of Whitehaven, Penrith, Cliburn and Lowther (Rector 1828-1878) by the Earl of Lonsdale, who gave him Askham Hall to serve as the Rectory of Lowther. Bishop Percy appointed him Canon and Chancellor of Carlisle, and gave him an Archdeaconry, which he resigned on becoming Provost of Queen's College, Oxford (1862-1878). He married the daughter of Mr. Crump who built Allan Bank, and had four daughters; two died young, one married a Mr. John H. Crump, the other the present Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, the Rev. J. R. Magrath, D.D.—Ed.

[173] He had resigned the living in 1878.

[174] See Ambleside Town and Chapel, p. 42.

[175] See Ambleside Town and Chapel, p. 46.

[176] Ambleside "Curates" Bible, Transactions, C. and W. An. S., n.s. vol vii.

[177] Ambleside Town and Chapel, Transactions, C. and W. An. S., n.s. vol. vi., p. 47, where particulars of some of the following curates and their assistants are given.

[178] May mean server or sufferer. But whether we are to take it that John Osgood served as a clergyman or suffered as a Quaker is not easy to decide.—Ed.

[179] See page 173, note.

[180] There were sad doings among the Pluralists and absentee parsons of the eighteenth century; and the unpaid curates were often addicted to drink. See Ambleside Town and Chapel, pp. 56-7 and onward.

[181] From a recent work, Educational Charters and Documents, by H. F. Leach, we learn that the clergy taught both themselves and others from the earliest times; for instance, in the seventh century, Aldhelm, writing to the Bishop about his studies, tells him how after long struggles he grasped at last, in a moment, by God's grace, "the most difficult of all things, what they call fractions." In the tenth century a canon of King Edgar enjoins that "every priest in addition to lore to diligently learn a handicraft," and later in the same century the Council enacted that "priests shall keep schools in the villages and teach small boys without charge," and also that they ought always to have schools for teachers, "Ludi magistrorum scholas" in their houses, thus they would prepare others to take up the work professionally which they were doing for nothing. Five hundred years later we find it ordered at Bridgenorth, in 1503, that "no priste keep no scole, after that a scole mastur comyth to town, but that every child to resorte to the comyn scole." But the plague broke out and swept away "scole masturs" and pupils alike, and in 1529 the Convocation of Canterbury once more bade all rectors, vicars, and charity priests to employ some part of their time in teaching boys the alphabet, reading, singing, or grammar; and appointed a Revision Committee of one archbishop, four bishops, four abbots, and four archdeacons to bring out a uniform Latin grammar for all schools. That grammar was taught in Latin in the tenth and eleventh centuries we know from the Colloquy of Œlfric, 1005, and from his preface to the first English-Latin grammar, in which teachers were told that "It is better to invoke God the Father giving him honour by lengthening the syllable (Pater) rather than cutting it short (Pater); no, comparing pronunciation as is the Britons' way, for God ought not to be subject to the rules of grammar."

Ed.

[182] Dr. Fox's Parish Registers of England.

[183] The dates of these legacies are incorrectly given on the list within the church.

[184] Rydal Hall MSS., Grasmere, was by no means behind the times in education. There was no parish school at Clayworth, Notts., in 1676, when an independent master was encouraged by permission to teach within the church; and an effort made to raise a school "stock" or endowment failed five years later. See Rectors' Book of Clayworth.

[185] The Mackereths made no pretention to learning, and Robert Pooley or Powley acted as school-master after the Revd. Noble Wilson in Sir Richard Fleming's time, and he was keeping the registers in 1814.

[186] Of such charges as were shared by all, two-fifths of one-third was Ambleside's share.

[187] Hawkshead Parish Register.

[188] From Mr. William Satterthwaite, of Colthouse, a member of the Society of Friends.

[189] Indictment Book, Kendal Quarter Sessions.

[190] Papers of the Satterthwaite family.

[191] Transactions, Cumb. and West. Ant. So., vol. 6, N.S.

[192] Indictment Book.

[193] Hone's Table Book.

[194] The following list of omissions in the earliest Grasmere Church Register, 1570-1687, has been kindly supplied by Miss H. J. H. Sumner.—Ed. "No Marriages between ffeb. 1583-4 and June 1611; no Burials between July 1588 and May 1598; no Christenings between Dec. 1591 and ffeb. 1600-1; no Burials between May 1604 and Apr. 1611; no Christenings between March 1603-4 and Apr. 1611; no Christenings between ffeb. 1625-8 and June 1627; no Marriages between July 1625 and May 1627; no Burials between ffeb. 1625-6 and May 1627."

[195] The reference is to the Dean of Durham's Companion to the Temple, the standard work of the period on the Prayer-Book; but the passage goes no further than to say that "some among us" still observe the "former" prohibition.

[196] Dr. Cox's Parish Registers.

[197] See "A Westmoreland Township" in the Westmorland Gazette.

[198] Mr. G. Brown has been helpful in this matter, which is very fully discussed in Mr. H. S. Cowper's Hawkshead. See also Ambleside Town and Chapel.

[199] Memorials of Old Lancashire, vol. i., p. 60.

[200] Browne MSS

[201] Remnants of Rhyme, by Thomas Hoggart, Kendal, 1853.

[202] Hone's Table Book.

[203] Queen Elizabeth's Palace at Greenwich had its Presence Chamber, in 1598, "richly hung with tapestry and strewn with rushes."

[204] Morrison Scatcherd, quoted in the Rushbearing pamphlet compiled by Miss E. Grace Fletcher.

[205] Survey of the Lakes, 1789.

[206] MS. account, given in Whitaker's Richmondshire.

[207] Westmorland and Cumberland, etc., Illustrated, 1833.

[208] The wardens' accounts, given below, practically agree with the story as told in the Rushbearing pamphlet, p. 24, where the Festival of 1885 is described, but apparently the date 1834 should be 1839. "Before leaving the church-yard, the children, to the number of about 115, were each given a sixpenny piece, in accordance with the custom that has prevailed for over the last fifty years. The origin of this gift of sixpence will perhaps be of interest to many. In 1834 there were only seven rushbearers, and it seemed that this revered custom was on the decline. Mr. Dawson, of London, and owner of Allan Bank, was present, and he gave each of the rushbearers sixpence, which gift he has continued yearly ever since. The next year the numbers of bearers was increased to fifty, and year by year this figure has been added to. It is said that Mr. Dawson does not intend to continue his gift any longer, so that it appears the year 1885 will be the last one in which the children will receive their brand new sixpence, unless someone takes the matter in hand, or Mr. Dawson reconsiders his decision."

[209] A supply of Kendal wigs (a special cake still made in Hawkshead) came to the shop once a week, as Miss Greenwood remembers.

"Grasmere Churchwardens' Account General Charge, 1834: to Rushes, 2/6. Grasmere in Part: to Gingerbread for Rushbearers, 5/-. General Charge, 1835: to Rushes, 2/6. Grasmere in Part: to Gingerbread for Rushbearers, 4/6. 1836, General Charge: to Rushes, 2/6. Grasmere in Part: to Gingerbread for Rushbearers, 3/6. 1837, General Charge, Grasmere in Part: to Gingerbread for Rushbearers, 3/-. 1838, General Charge, Grasmere in Part: to Ginger Bread for Rushbearers, 3/9. 1839, General Charge: to Two Years getting Rushes at 2/6, 5/-. Grasmere in Part: to Ginger Bread for Rushbearers, 1/6."