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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43002 ***
+
+[Illustration: THE LATE MARY L. ARMITT.
+
+  _Frontispiece._]
+
+
+
+
+  THE
+
+  CHURCH OF GRASMERE:
+
+  A HISTORY
+
+  BY M. L. ARMITT
+
+  (Author of _Ambleside Town and Chapel_)
+
+  WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARGARET L. SUMNER
+
+  _Frontispiece from a portrait by Fred Yates_
+
+  Kendal:
+  Titus Wilson, Publisher
+  Highgate
+  1912
+
+
+
+
+  TITUS WILSON, PRINTER, KENDAL
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+
+  PART I.
+
+  PREFACE.
+
+  INTRODUCTORY.
+
+  THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH.
+
+  THE SITE.
+
+
+  PART II.
+
+  THE PARISH.
+
+  BOUNDARIES.
+
+  TOWNSHIPS.
+
+  LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH.
+
+  THE EIGHTEEN.
+
+
+  PART III.
+
+  RECORDS.
+
+  PATRONS.
+
+  MONASTIC CONTROL.
+
+  THE CLERGY.
+
+  THE CIVIL WARS.
+
+  THE COMMONWEALTH.
+
+
+  PART IV.
+
+  THE FABRIC.
+
+  THE FURNITURE.
+
+  THE UP-KEEP OF THE CHURCH.
+
+  CLEANING AND REPAIRS.
+
+  EXTRACTS FROM CHURCHWARDENS' ACCOUNTS.
+
+
+  PART V.
+
+  LATER PARSONS OF GRASMERE.
+
+  CHAPEL AND CURATES OF AMBLESIDE AND LANGDALE.
+
+  SCHOOLS AND CLERKS.
+
+  CHURCH RATES.
+
+  NON-RATEPAYERS.
+
+  REGISTERS.
+
+  PRESENTMENTS, BRIEFS, AND CHARITIES.
+
+  THE RUSH-BEARING.
+
+
+
+
+  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  Miss Armitt (_frontispiece_), from a portrait by Fred Yates.
+
+  Exterior of St. Oswald's Church, Grasmere, from a photo, by
+  Green, by permission of G. P. Abraham, Keswick, to face
+  Part I.
+
+  Inscription on the Alms-box, p. 3.
+
+  Date on the Great Bell (Tenor), p. 20.
+
+  Map of Grasmere Parish, to face Part II.
+
+  From the Great Bell: Churchwardens' names (Hird), p. 23.
+
+  From the Great Bell: Churchwardens' names (Wilson. Rigg),
+  p. 39.
+
+  Structure of the Interior of St. Oswald's, Grasmere, p. 41.
+
+  From the Great Bell: Churchwardens' names (Mackereth). p. 45.
+
+  From the Great Bell: "Churchwardens," p. 93.
+
+  Font (from Table Book of W. Hone), copied by Miss S. Armitt, p. 95.
+
+  From the Great Bell: "Gloria in Altissimis Deo," p. 99.
+
+  Ancient Window in the South Wall. Outside View, p. 101.
+
+  Profile of Stone Head, p. 104.
+
+  Carved Stone Head, p. 105.
+
+  Date on Old Bench End, p. 108.
+
+  Old Bench End, p. 109.
+
+  Old Pitch Pipe, p. 119.
+
+  Old Altar, now used as a Credence Table, p. 127.
+
+  The le Fleming Arms on the Great and Middle Bells, p. 140.
+
+  Great Bell and Hammer, p. 142.
+
+  Iron Work on the Inner Door of the Porch, p. 146.
+
+  Hinges of the Outer Door of the Porch, p. 147.
+
+  Door Handle within the Porch, p. 147.
+
+  Old Collecting-plate with Handle, p. 150.
+
+  Plan of Grasmere Church, drawn by W. Buckton, to face Part V.
+
+  From the Great Bell: "Deo," p. 161.
+
+  Founder's Mark from the Middle Bell: "E. Seller, Ebor," p. 180.
+
+  From the Middle Bell: "Soli Deo Gloria," p. 188.
+
+  The Treble, or Little Bell, p. 203.
+
+  Recess in the Porch for Holy Water Stoup, p. 209.
+
+
+
+
+  EDITOR'S PREFACE
+
+
+  The History of Grasmere contained in this little volume was
+  nearly ready for the press when the author, who was working
+  on it to the very last, was taken away. For several years she
+  had been collecting material, leaving no stone unturned to get
+  at facts and records from the earliest times, and at last she
+  was arranging for its publication. Her modest estimate of the
+  value of her work made her often anxious, but her keen love of
+  investigating the antiquities of her neighbourhood and country
+  kept her always eager. To a kindred spirit nothing could be more
+  interesting than to visit with her some old hall or farm or
+  even a site which her historic knowledge could furnish with its
+  original buildings, and people with its old-world inhabitants.
+  What she most desired was to see for herself what she wished to
+  write about, or, if that were impossible, something similar which
+  still existed, and she had a genius for reconstructing, which
+  made her deductions and suggestions singularly valuable.
+
+  She was at no time strong, and for this reason her work was
+  perpetually liable to interruption, still her indomitable courage
+  and her endless patience enabled her to do wonders, and, though
+  never able to work for long together, bit by bit she got through
+  a great deal. How hard she worked and how carefully, no one
+  who reads her book, and sees the number of facts she has got
+  together, and notes the numerous references to books which she
+  had examined, can fail to perceive. Over and over again she
+  had to give in for a time, but her bright intelligence quickly
+  reasserted itself, and she was ready on most days to discuss the
+  subjects which for the time absorbed her. And this she did with
+  a delighted eagerness, and always with that humour which is the
+  salt of all conversation and companionship. On birds and their
+  habits she spoke with authority, and could always contribute much
+  valuable information obtained by personal observation. Generally
+  the first to hear and see the newly arrived summer migrants, and
+  able to distinguish the note of each, she thought no trouble too
+  great if it led to the chance of seeing some rare kind nesting in
+  the neighbourhood. Equally keenly would she follow up the threads
+  of some local history, for she had the true scientific spirit
+  and a genuine passion for archæology, so that by constant study
+  she had accumulated a surprising mass of information relating to
+  old historic Westmorland, and to Ambleside, Rydal and Grasmere
+  in particular. Of Ambleside she has already published a little
+  pamphlet, called _Ambleside Town and Chapel_. The present volume
+  is her completed work on Grasmere; and the History of Rydal, and
+  more especially of Rydal Hall, a more considerable work on which
+  she had been engaged for many years, has advanced so far that we
+  hope soon to see it published. Indeed some chapters of it have
+  already appeared in the columns of the _Westmorland Gazette_.
+
+  We had long ago arranged that I should help in seeing her work
+  through the press; and with her usual thoroughness and care, she
+  had got the present volume so far ready that my task has been but
+  a superficial one, accompanied throughout by the "one pure image
+  of regret" that she did not live to see, herself, the fruits of
+  her long labour.
+
+  W. F. RAWNSLEY.
+
+
+
+
+  THE CHURCH OF GRASMERE.
+
+
+  ERRATA.
+
+  Page 6, _for_ Galway _read_ Galloway.
+
+  " 19, _note_ 25 this pavement is not really old.
+
+  " 130, _for_ Lough _read_ Luff.
+
+  " 141, _Copia Pax Sapientia_. No Latin words are on this bell.
+
+  " 182, _note_ 182 _for_ Fox _read_ Cox.
+
+  " 191, _for_ Tremenhere _read_ Tremenheere, _and for_ Philipps _read_
+  Phillipps.
+
+  " 199, _for_ Swathmoor _read_ Swarthmoor.
+
+  " 208, _for_ customery _read_ customary, _and in note_, _for_ Brown
+  _read_ Browne.
+
+[Illustration: ST. OSWALD'S CHURCH, GRASMERE.
+
+_Photo. by Green, by permission of G. P. Abraham, Keswick._
+TO FACE PART I.]
+
+
+
+
+  PART I
+
+
+  PREFACE
+
+  INTRODUCTORY
+
+  THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH
+
+  THE SITE
+
+[Illustration: Inscription on the Alms Box]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Grasmere draws many pilgrims in these latter days. It has become
+the Shrine of Nature and Poetry, for within its graveyard lies
+buried nature's austerest and most sincere interpreter. The
+natural beauty of the spot, combined with its associations,
+has given rise to a copious literature; and its praises have
+been rehearsed in poetry and prose of a high order. But by the
+historian Grasmere has been neglected. Its geographical position
+has tended to its eclipse. In ancient times locked up from the
+world in the farthest chamber of the mountains, and still the
+remotest parish of Westmorland (itself a neglected county),
+it has missed the attention of the careful chronicler, and no
+serious attempt has been made to penetrate its past. James Torre
+(1649-1699) indeed in his MS. collections for a history of the
+Archdeaconry of Richmondshire, compiled a list of five rectors
+who had served the parish of Grasmere before the Reformation; but
+no searcher has followed up his efforts. Nor has the excellent,
+though necessarily limited, information given in the pages of
+Nicolson and Burn (1770) been since filled up or supplemented.
+
+The following historical sketch makes no pretensions to
+completeness, which would be beyond both the writer's powers and
+opportunities. It began as a small thing, a chapter merely in the
+yet unfinished "Chronicles of Rydal." But there seemed a need for
+the publication of such facts as had been gathered together; and
+in response to an expressed desire, the sketch that had been laid
+by was overhauled, expanded and prepared for press. It contains
+(there is little doubt) some unsuspected errors and oversights,
+for which the reader's leniency is asked.
+
+The information has been collected from many sources, public,
+private, and traditional. The earliest comes from the Record
+Office, where there are treasures still to be explored. For
+the seventeenth century--and particularly the period of the
+Civil Wars--the MSS. at Rydal Hall have yielded facts of great
+interest, especially those culled from the account-sheets of
+Mr. Richard Harrison, who was agent and executor of Squire John
+Fleming.
+
+From all sources, however, the information obtained is
+fragmentary, and facts are disappointingly isolated. Always there
+is something beyond, that we want to know and cannot find out;
+and so the story of the great Restoration Tithe Dispute has no
+ending. The Presentments have been only available for a limited
+number of years. The church registers are defective. Even the
+church-wardens' accounts, which begin at the Restoration, are not
+complete. It is fortunate, however, that the second volume of
+these accounts, long missing, and strangely recovered from papers
+found at the house of descendants of a former parish clerk, was
+copied before it was again lost. There is a gap of seven years
+between the third volume and this copy, owing no doubt to the
+last leaves of the second volume having been torn off.[1]
+
+  [1] Vol. I. ends in 1735. Vol. II. overlaps four years and begins
+  in 1732, but the pages from 1734 to 1739 and from 1743 to 1750
+  are missing, and no entries are made for 1778 and 1779. The vol.
+  ends in 1883.--ED.
+
+The writer has received more help and kindness than can well be
+acknowledged. Thanks are specially due to Mr. Stanley le Fleming and
+Sir Gerald Strickland for granting ready access to their muniments;
+to Dr. Magrath, author of _The Flemings in Oxford_; to the Revs. W.
+Jennings, J. H. Heywood, and M. F. Peterson for permitting the church
+documents to be consulted; to Messrs. W. Farrer, J. A. Martindale,
+and George Browne for their kind contributions of antiquarian
+knowledge; to Mr. W. Buckton I am indebted for the plan of the
+church.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+HOW THE CHURCH WAS FOUNDED IN NORTHUMBRIA
+
+
+All history begins with geography. Grasmere was from early times
+the centre of a parish that embraced the twin valleys of Rothay
+and Brathay, whose waters drain into the lake of Windermere, while
+the lake empties itself into the great bay of Morecambe. Therefore
+Grasmere has always belonged politically to the fertile region
+round about the bay, and the history of that region--from the time
+when the Celt enjoyed it, onward through its conquest by the Angle,
+its aggregation with the province of Deira and the kingdom of
+Northumbria, still onward through its conversion to Christianity and
+its connection with the central church government at York as part
+of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire--is the history of Grasmere
+herself: and to understand the origin of her church, it is necessary
+to briefly indicate the main events in the kingdom of Northumbria and
+the Church of York.
+
+The actual rise of Christianity within the valleys can only be
+conjectured. The Celts who dwelt here through the rule of the Roman
+may not have embraced the faith, but some whisper of Saint Ninian's
+mission must surely have come to them, if not his direct teaching,
+as he passed on his way from Rome through Cumberland, to found at
+Whithorn in Galway a new religious community, like the one his great
+teacher Saint Martin had founded at Tours. The mission of Saint
+Patrick too, who in the fifth century returned to finish the work
+of conversion and church establishment in Ireland, must have been
+noised abroad, for his name is imprinted on many a spot hereabouts;
+Patterdale or Patricdale,[2] with its well named after him, being
+distant barely ten miles from Grasmere.
+
+  [2] Inquisition post mortem of William de Lancaster, 1246.
+
+The holy Kentigern is known to have made missionary excursions from
+Carlisle into the mountains, before 573; and Crosthwaite, where he
+planted a cross, is but 13 miles from Grasmere, along the line of
+the Roman road from Kendal to Old Carlisle. With this artery of
+communication open, it is impossible that tidings of the new faith
+should not have reached our valley before the close of the sixth
+century.
+
+Soon these tidings were to come from the east as well as the west,
+borne by the triumphant arms of the invading Angles. Truly Ethelfrith
+who, in winning the battle of Chester, first laid our mountain
+fastnesses open to his kingdom of Northumbria, was a heathen; but his
+successor Edwin embraced Christianity and brought Paulinus, a member
+of Saint Augustine's mission, to preach the gospel (627). At York,
+the capital of the kingdom, a Christian church was built, a second
+one even being started in stone to replace the wooden structure; and
+the new bishop moved about with the king and his court, preaching and
+baptizing. The valleys of Northumberland and Yorkshire, which were
+the scenes of his labours, are named by Bede, who knew them well; but
+it is not known that he crossed into Westmorland.
+
+Edwin's overthrow gave Northumbria to the pagan king of Mercia, but
+it was soon regained by Oswald, who identified himself completely
+with the new faith. He brought Aidan, who had been educated in the
+Celtic Church (now firmly settled in Scotland) to fill the place of
+the departed Paulinus. But instead of taking up the bishop's seat
+at York, Aidan with the strong predilection shown by his church
+for island-sanctuaries, chose Lindisfarne to be the centre of his
+missionary efforts in Northumbria. Here Finan succeeded him in 651,
+and rebuilt the first rude edifice, constructing it of hewn oak
+thatched with reeds.
+
+King Oswald (slain at Maserfeld, 642) was shortly after succeeded
+by Oswy, an ardent disciple of the new faith, as was Alchfrith his
+son. Alchfrith acted as sub-king in Northumbria under his father.[3]
+He endowed a monastery at Ripon, which was presumably within his
+dominion, and placed there Eata, abbot of Melrose, with a little
+band of Scotic monks. At this time there was a young priest named
+Wilfrith, lately returned from a journey to Rome (658), with whom
+Alchfrith made fast friends. Convinced by Wilfrith that the practices
+of the Anglo-Scotic church, where they differed from those of
+Western Europe, were mistaken, he turned out the monks of Ripon,
+when they refused to alter their customs, and gave the establishment
+over to Wilfrith, to rule as abbot. The kings attempted to settle
+the differences of practice between the churches at the synod of
+Whitby (664), where the counsels of the Roman party under Wilfrith
+prevailed; and this caused the retirement of Colman, bishop of
+Northumbria, who refused to conform. It was now necessary to supply
+his place, and the kings, father and son, seem without disagreement
+to have selected each his own man, presumably for his own province;
+thus making two bishops instead of one.[4] While Alchfrith chose
+Wilfrith for his bishop, and sent him to Gaul for consecration, Oswy
+chose Chad, sending him to Kent to be consecrated as Bishop of York
+"for him and his" by the Archbishop. But by the time that Wilfrith
+had returned from his foreign journey, things were changed at the
+court. Alchfrith was dead, possibly slain in rebellion against his
+father; and Wilfrith, deprived of his patron, settled down quietly at
+Ripon as abbot, while Chad ruled the whole church of Northumbria from
+York.
+
+  [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.
+
+But when Oswy died (670 or 671) and his son Ecgfrith succeeded, Chad
+retired, and Wilfrith was made sole Bishop. Now began a very active
+and happy period of his life. Enjoying undivided power, a position
+which suited his nature, he moved about his huge diocese, everywhere
+creating new foundations and building fresh churches. With skilled
+workmen under him, he was the great architect and builder of his
+time. First he turned his attention to the head church in York, which
+had become, since Oswald's days, ruinous. After building there an
+edifice unique in its time, he took his masons to Ripon, and there
+he built a basilica of dressed stone with pillars and arches and
+porches. He also enriched its altar with vases, and a vestment of
+purple and gold, and laid upon it a book of the Gospels, marvellously
+illumined, and enclosed in a gold and jewelled case. Wilfrith made
+the dedication of this church, which was attended by King Ecgfrith,
+and by tributary kings, reeves and abbots, an occasion of great
+splendour. Standing before the altar, with his face towards the
+concourse of people, he recited the names of the lands with which
+Ripon was endowed, as also of certain sanctuaries of the Britons
+which were taken over by it.
+
+Now this enumeration of lands, said to be given by princes with the
+consent of the bishops, is of great interest.[5] Were these lands
+within Alchfrith's former sub-kingdom--the nucleus being his monastic
+endowment?--and was it intended to create a bishopric there at Ripon,
+separate from the one at York? Certainly the great tracts of country
+mentioned were to be ecclesiastically ruled from Ripon, whether by
+abbot or bishop.
+
+  [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.
+
+Moreover, in the confused and certainly corrupt list of names that
+has come down to us of Wilfrith's remarkable recitation, several have
+been localized within that last conquered portion of Northumbria
+lying to the west, which may have been called by the Celts who lost
+it, Teyrnllwg.[6]
+
+  [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.
+
+Whatever had been Alchfrith's intentions about Ripon, Wilfrith's
+were clear in thus making it the church centre for a district as
+wide as a diocese. In effect, it was a diocese; though only for a
+short time was there a recognized Bishop of Ripon. And this was after
+Ecgfrith and Wilfrith had unhappily quarrelled, and Wilfrith had
+been expelled from Northumbria, when Theodore, the new archbishop,
+who had been called north to re-organize the huge diocese, made
+finally five bishoprics out of it; and Eadhed (after temporarily
+ruling a see at Lindsey) became, according to Bede, the Bishop of
+Ripon. But upon the reconciliation of Wilfrith with King Aldfrith,
+who succeeded Ecgfrith, Eadhed retired from Ripon, and Wilfrith again
+took possession of it, and ruled it--though only as abbot--until his
+death.
+
+Wilfrith's inauguration of Ripon, which took place in the period
+of his sole prelacy of Northumbria (671 to 678) was then an event
+of great importance for the district round the great Bay, and for
+Grasmere; indeed it is hardly too much to say that its results lasted
+over a thousand years. For in spite of the bishop's loss of power,
+his scheme ultimately held good. When the long dark days of Danish
+anarchy were passed, the western district which he gathered in to
+the fold of Ripon emerged as an ecclesiastical entity, and it kept
+its bounds through the administrative changes of the Norman kings,
+which carved out of it the barony of Kendal, and made of it parts of
+Westmorland, Cumberland, Yorkshire and Lancashire. The archdeaconry
+of Richmondshire, which was formally constituted a section of the
+diocese of York in 1090, is in fact almost identical with Wilfrid's
+province of Ripon. It is true that Ripon ceased to be its centre,
+that establishment sinking again into a monastery, which lay indeed
+a few miles beyond the boundary of Richmondshire; while a new
+centre was created at Richmond, a little town without significance
+standing in another Yorkshire vale.[7] This great church province
+was ruled over by an archdeacon, who possessed almost the powers of
+a bishop,[8] until it was transferred by Henry the Eighth in 1541
+from the diocese of York to that of Chester; and it remained intact
+until 1847, when it was broken up among what are now the dioceses of
+Carlisle, Manchester, and Ripon.[9] Our own part of it became the
+archdeaconry of Westmorland, under Carlisle.
+
+  [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._
+
+After Wilfrith had lost favour at the Northumbrian court, and carried
+his grievances to Rome, King Ecgfrith secured the co-operation of
+Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury (669) in the organization of
+the Northern Church. As has been said, there are indications that
+church work went on busily in the district of the great Bay. St.
+Cuthbert, who had served his apprenticeship as a monk at Ripon, was
+made bishop in 685 and administered his great See from Lindisfarne.
+Into his charge Ecgfrith expressly gave Cartmel with its Britons, and
+the newly-conquered district round Carlisle. Carlisle became indeed
+a thriving church centre, with royal nunnery and monastery, and
+with missions spreading round it. Bede has drawn a striking picture
+of the bishop's visit to the ruined Roman city, when a vision of
+the king's overthrow came upon him; as well as of his last meeting
+with St. Herebert, the hermit of Derwentwater, who was wont every
+year to seek his counsel. The district of Cartmel he placed in the
+charge of the "good Abbot Cineferth," as if it were too distant from
+Lindisfarne for his immediate care. But, while his own easiest route
+to Carlisle would be by the straight road along the Roman Wall, he
+would not be ignorant of that other road striking northwards through
+the mountains from the great Bay. He may, indeed, have travelled
+this road himself on his missionary journeys, and even have halted
+to preach in the vale of Grasmere. It is certain at least that some
+of the holy men working for the Anglo-Scottish Church at this period
+must have done so. With the defeat and death of Ecgfrith the glory
+of the Northumbrian kingdom came to an end indeed; but the church
+continued to prosper; and in the two hundred years between that event
+and the final relinquishment of Lindisfarne as a See, on through the
+ravages of the Danes, it wrought a mighty work, not only in the old
+kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira, but in the region westward. Many
+of our existing foundations may well date back from that time; and
+it is probable that the ruined or entirely vanished chapels of our
+district were built in that age of piety.[10] We know from Bede
+that there was a monastery at Dacre in Cumberland, which existed at
+least until 926.[11] It has been suggested that a certain monastery,
+founded by a Northumbrian nobleman in the reign of Osred (slain in
+717) was situated at Heversham in Westmorland.[12] Certainly at
+Heversham may be seen the fragments of a cross wrought in patterns
+such as experts ascribe to the Anglian school of workmanship
+introduced by Wilfrith.[13]
+
+  [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.
+
+Then too a thrilling event in hagiological history touched our parts
+nearly. When the monks of Lindisfarne fled before the ravaging Danes
+with St. Cuthbert's body, they went westward for safety, and their
+wanderings brought them into Cumberland and Westmorland.[14] A gap
+in their travels which the antiquary has yet failed to trace may
+possibly have been filled by a route through Craven--that perpetual
+haunt of refugees--and about Morecambe Bay.
+
+  [14] See "Translation of St. Cuthbert." _Transactions_ Cumberland
+  and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, part 1, vol. ii.
+
+Certainly a well-used road must have passed not far from our district
+in the days of Northumbrian anarchy, when Danish kings and allies
+reigned alike at York and at Dublin. Windermere indeed is associated
+with the murder (741) of two young princes of the royal house.[15]
+
+  [15] See D. F. Hodgkin's _History of Northumberland_.
+
+
+
+
+THE DEDICATION
+
+
+To the question so often asked, When was the church of Grasmere
+founded? no more than a conjectural answer can be given. The district
+formed part--though a remote one--of Northumbria, and doubtless
+shared in the conversion of that kingdom. Even before that time it
+may have been touched by those successive missionary efforts, which
+have been happily classed as the Romano-British of Ninian at the end
+of the fourth century, the Irish of Patrick in the fifth century,
+and the Kymric of Kentigern in the sixth; and these efforts were
+followed up by the steady work of the Anglo-Scottish monks, and the
+establishment under the Anglian kings of an organized church.[16]
+
+  [16] See "Lost Churches in Carlisle Diocese," _Transactions_
+  Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. XV.
+
+The dedication of the Grasmere church favours the supposition that
+its foundation was early. Its name-saint is King Oswald, who planted
+a cross as a standard in the battle by which he gained Northumbria,
+and who was killed at Maserfeld by the heathen Penda in 642. He
+became the idol of the Northumbrian christians, and his relics were
+cherished in many a shrine. When danger threatened Lindisfarne, his
+head was placed for safety in the coffin of St. Cuthbert;[17] and
+with this sacred burden the monks, as stated above, fled westward,
+wandering for years in parts adjacent to Westmorland, if they did not
+actually cross its borders.
+
+  [17] Where it is still, with the mark of a cut from sword or
+  battle-axe plain to see.--ED.
+
+A well in the Grasmere valley shared the dedication with the church,
+and indeed may have been antecedent to it, as a place of resort.
+It is at the foot of Kelbarrow (formerly Kelbergh,[18] the hill
+of the spring); and the Celts were wont to decorate their _kels_
+or springs with votive offerings of a heathen kind. The church,
+however, always took care to possess herself of such wells, absorbing
+any sanctification that was ascribed to them; and the water of St.
+Oswald's well continued to be carried to the church for baptisms
+until quite recent times.[19]
+
+  [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.
+
+Church and well are not, however, close together. The well springs in
+the flat meadow between the path to the Wray and Wray Beck, but it
+is now covered in. The adjacent bay of the lake is called Well-foot,
+and the bridge over the beck has the same name; and when the Wray
+property was "boundered" in 1683, the "welfoot bridge" was spoken of.
+
+It is suggestive that the farmstead close by owns the name of
+Pavement End, being formerly known as Padmire. Could it be proved
+that the name is an ancient one, the idea that the spot was much
+resorted to of old would be confirmed, since the causeway went so far
+and no farther.[20]
+
+  [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.
+
+
+
+
+THE SITE
+
+
+The present site of the church may not have been the original one. It
+is hardly a likely halting-place for a travelling preacher. The Roman
+road which traversed the valley could neither have been the present
+one, that leads to church and village, nor the straight cut from Town
+End that passes the Swan Inn. Both of these cross the flat bottom;
+and the Romans from the summit of White Moss (by which they certainly
+entered the vale) would never have dropped into the marsh below (even
+now water-logged in places), only to climb out again, to that gap
+of the Raise that plainly beckoned them to their goal northward.
+Instead, they would maintain their level as far as might be, and
+keep along the firm slope of the fells at a height of some 300 to
+400 feet; then, with only two rapid becks to ford, they would come
+easily and gradually to the ascent of the pass. It is interesting to
+find that along this presumed route there exists a line of scattered
+homesteads; while the modern road below was--until the recent spurt
+in building, vacant but for a cottage and the Swan Inn; and this last
+stands in reality on an ancient cross "loaning" between the higher
+road suggested, and the village. Many of these homesteads have been
+turned into houses for the wealthy, and great alterations have taken
+place; but a track the whole way may still be made out, though hidden
+in places by private drives and occupation roads. From White Moss it
+dropped but little at first, passing behind the highest of the modern
+houses, according to the belief of old people, who say that this
+section of it, though remembered, was stopped up before their time.
+It touched How Head, a farmhold now deserted; then the Hollins,
+Forest Side, Ben Place and Beck Houses. It crossed Greenhead Gill and
+passed behind Knott Houses, Winterseeds and Gillside, continuing by
+the present ford over Tongue Gill, whence the pass is soon gained.
+
+Now of these names many represented of old not one house, but a
+couple or even a group. Doubtless most of them were planted by the
+Norse settlers either upon or below the Roman road, on some spot
+conveniently above their meadows and common field; and devious lanes
+would in time become trodden between one and another, to the final
+discarding of the old straight track. Still this can be traced in
+places; and a bit to be seen above Winterseeds is probably the actual
+Roman road. A stone celt was recently found in the beck close below
+it. A quern was also found not far off.[21] The fact that a smithy
+existed until recently at Winterseeds--which is only reached now by
+climbing the steep brow from the main road--is strong presumptive
+evidence of an old line of traffic passing by it. There the last
+of the smiths, John Watson, made the ironwork of the present outer
+church-door. When he became old, a smithy was set up on the lower
+road, at Tongue Gill.
+
+  [21] See _Transactions_ Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian
+  Society, N.S. 3, p. 419.
+
+Now it is a singular fact that a field lying a little below this
+road, near the gateway of Forrest Side, bears the name of Kirk How.
+And there is a tradition attached to the spot. It is said that the
+church of the valley was to have been built here, and that the
+materials were even gathered together ready for the start; when lo!
+they vanished in the night-time, only to be found upon the present
+site, and that a second attempt only produced a like result, the
+inference being conveyed, by sly looks and chuckles on the part of
+the narrator, that the task had been wrought by some supernatural
+Being, not to be lightly mentioned. Whether this was the Hob, or
+Hobthrush who played so large a part in the stories of the past,
+cannot be said, but the legend, in its humorous fearlessness, and
+love of a practical joke, is characteristic of the dalesman,[22]
+and coupled with the name of the field it is suggestive. It seems
+possible that here, at a spot where a traveller upon the road might
+so conveniently halt and set up his cross and portable altar, an
+early rude (perhaps timbered) structure may actually have once stood.
+A well, too, for baptism was not far off. There is one in the grounds
+of the Hollins whose water has remained in repute, and which was
+examined by an expert at the time (1843) when an effort was made to
+establish a hydropathic cure in Grasmere.[23] The water was then
+pronounced finer than that of St. Oswald's Well; but as the owner of
+the land would not sell, the establishment was placed at the Wray,
+close to St. Oswald's. The enterprise, started by Mr. Phillips,
+and conducted by a resident doctor and a German bathman, was not
+successful, and was given up in five or six years. If the well at the
+Hollins ever had a name, it is now unknown.
+
+  [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.
+
+It is hard not to let conjecture play round this tradition of a
+change of site. Might it not actually have been made? Could it be
+connected with the turning of Grasmere into a manor, and with the
+parcelling out of a demesne in the valley? The barons of Kendal,
+of whom Ivo de Talbois was the first, possessed all these parts,
+from the time of Henry I. He and his successors governed by feudal
+methods, through agents. There was here no intermediary lord between
+baron and vassal; and the baron's officers--his bailiffs and his
+foresters--would be placed in secure houses or fenced lodges, whence
+they would control and govern. A demesne of Grasmere is mentioned on
+the death of William de Lindesay, 1233, and a manor and park in a
+charter of 1297.[24] The woods sold by Henry the Eighth in 1544 were
+the residue of the lord's forest; he being the inheritor of the Fee.
+
+  [24] Inquisition post mortem. _Calendar Patent Rolls_, 25 Edward
+  I.
+
+Now we may reasonably suppose this demesne to have been planted in
+Kirktown, as the present village came to be called, where the meadows
+were rich and the soil deep for ploughing, but distant from, and
+below the ancient line of road with its scattered homesteads. The
+demesne made a village nucleus; for all the accessories of a manor
+house would spring up about it. We know the lord's brewery was not
+far off, at Kelbergh, where springs--beside the holy one--are still
+abundant.[25] In a rental, dated 1375[26] that concerned the part of
+Grasmere then held by the Hotham and Pedwardyn families, it is stated
+that "Richard Smyth holds the forge and should render 12d and 1d,"
+with the addition that he pays 2s 0d per annum for "Kelebergh." From
+another document we learn that certain tenants of Grasmere pay an
+unspecified sum for the brewery of Keldbergh.
+
+  [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.
+
+This manorial centre was united to the high line of road on the other
+side of the valley by several ways. One, a footpath, still passes
+hard by Kirk How, a now disused smithy being upon it. Two others
+approach and meet to cross Raise Beck together by White Bridge, the
+name indicative of a stone fabric at a time when timber was commoner.
+Here the village pinfold still stands.
+
+What more natural than that the church should be added to this
+central group, and at a time perhaps when enlarged space and entire
+rebuilding of an existing edifice required to be done? The site by
+the river would afford deep soil for burial. To such a change of site
+(supposing it were made) there would naturally be opposition from
+some quarter; whence the tradition.
+
+This, however, is but conjecture. The fabric of the present church
+shows no feature that is of a certainty older than the introduction
+of manorial rule into Grasmere; while it may be as late as the
+fourteenth century. But before considering the question of its age,
+it will be well to point out other evidences of the existence of a
+church in the valley before record began, and then pass on to such
+scant records as time has left to us.
+
+[Illustration: Date]
+
+[Illustration: The PARISH of GRASMERE its Townships and Churches]
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+THE PARISH
+
+BOUNDARIES
+
+THE TOWNSHIPS
+
+LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH
+
+THE EIGHTEEN
+
+[Illustration: Decoration]
+
+
+
+
+THE PARISH
+
+
+The church of Grasmere is found when record begins, serving as the
+centre of a large and regularly constituted parish. The date of
+the creation of this parish is not known; but from the fact that
+its southern boundary runs by the Stock Beck--thus cutting the now
+thriving town of Ambleside into two parts, one of which belonged to
+Grasmere and the other to Windermere--there seems a probability of it
+having been delineated at an early period, when the _sæter_ of some
+Norse settler was but an insignificant clearing in the forest.
+
+Every parish is but a unit in a complex Church organization, which
+passes upwards by rural deanery, archdeaconry, to diocese. In
+historical evolution, there is a descent from the greater to the
+less; while each successive ecclesiastical demarcation followed as
+a rule some political line of kingdom or state. The diocese for
+instance was conterminous with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom; the parish
+represented the township, or the manor.
+
+But in the vast kingdom of Northumbria the superposition of church
+boundaries upon state boundaries was not so simple a matter, and
+the subdivisions that took place are not easy to trace. Archbishop
+Theodore, when called in by King Egfrith (678) to portion his kingdom
+for purposes of church rule, made at least three bishoprics out of
+the one whose centre--after a removal to Lindisfarne--was fixed at
+York.[27]
+
+  [27] Bright's _Early Church History_, p. 291. Bishop Browne's
+  _Theodore and Wilfrith_, pp. 132 and 690.
+
+Next, the archdeaconries were marked out under Thomas, Archbishop
+of York, some time between 1070 and 1100. The archdeaconry of
+Richmondshire, lying in the mountainous region west of the old
+Anglian kingdom, was a great and peculiar province, and the
+archdeacon ruled over it with almost the powers of a bishop.[28]
+
+  [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.
+
+The archdeaconry was divided again into rural deaneries, of which
+Kendal was one. This deanery embraced ten parishes, Grasmere being
+the westermost of them. It appears singular that this group of ten
+parishes lay in three different counties,--Yorkshire, Lancashire, and
+Westmorland; and from this circumstance it has been argued that here
+(as in our own parish) the ecclesiastical division was made prior to
+the political one of counties. This probably was so; and it is clear
+that the deanery represents in reality another political area, viz.:
+that of the barony of Kendal created by William Rufus.[29]
+
+  [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.
+
+Kirkby Kendale, the _caput_ of the barony, became from this period
+the official church centre. There the Synods and Archidiaconal Courts
+were held, and all dues were paid which the higher church authorities
+exacted from the parishes--Grasmere among them.[30] Thither the
+rector or his substitute, along with the churchwardens, annually
+repaired.
+
+  [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_.
+
+The exact relationship between the central church at Kirkby and the
+churches of Grasmere and Windermere in early days is hard to make
+out. They were considered in some sort as dependencies, and were
+called chapels after they had become parish churches. This uncertain
+position recalls the constitution of the early British church. And
+it must be remembered that Theodore's _parochia_ was not a parish
+but a diocese. Again, the laws of Edgar (959-975) place churches in
+three classes: first, the ancient church or monastery of a district;
+second, the church with a corpse-ground; and third, the church
+without a corpse-ground.[31] Tithes moreover were enjoined to be paid
+to the ancient or central church.
+
+  [31] Selden's _History of Tithes_. Easterby's _Law of Tithes_,
+  pp. 4, 8, and 13.
+
+Now Grasmere may at first have ranked in the third order, as a
+mission church (_capella_). It would in that case pay its tithes,
+or a large proportion of them, to Kirkby Kendal, and bury its
+christian dead within the consecrated soil of that church. It may not
+have acquired the right of burial until the lord created a demesne
+there.[32] This view is strengthened by the fact that the church of
+Kendale claimed certain dues from Grasmere and Windermere down to
+a late date. One was a pension of 13s. 4d. (one mark) paid to the
+vicar out of the tithes of the parish. The other was a mortuary fee,
+exacted by him as late as the seventeenth century.[33]
+
+  [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."
+
+
+
+
+BOUNDARIES
+
+
+The boundary of the parish of Grasmere followed geographical lines.
+Starting from the point where the Rothay and the Brathay unite for
+their entrance into Windermere, it ascended the first river for a
+short distance until it reached the tributary, Stock beck. This it
+ascended until, near the source, it struck upwards to the line of
+the watershed. It then followed a devious course along the mountain
+tops, as "heven watter deales" (divides), according to the quaint
+old boundary phrase. Always clinging to the sky line between waters
+flowing north and south, it dropped to Dunmail Raise, to rise to
+the tops again. From these lonely heights it made another short
+artificial course to reach Little Langdale beck near the source, and
+with these waters--named Brathay after emerging from Elterwater--it
+continued to the uniting place of the two rivers at Bird-house Mouth.
+Thus, with the exception of the right bank of the Brathay, the parish
+embraced the whole area of the two valleys of the Rothay and Brathay
+and their confluents. Its boundary marched with that of parishes
+in Westmorland, Cumberland and Lancashire. Its northern line was
+for centuries the boundary between the Anglian rule, and the Celtic
+kingdom of Cumbria. Its circuit counted some thirty-five miles by
+flat measurement; but much of it lay on summits that reach to a great
+height.
+
+
+
+
+THE TOWNSHIPS
+
+
+This parish--a wild tract of fells, becks, and tarns, was divided
+into three component parts.
+
+It has been pointed out[34] that the ancient church of Northumbria
+left certain marks upon the districts she administered which
+may yet be distinguished. One peculiarity was the great extent
+of the parishes, some of which embraced several--occasionally
+many--townships. Another was, that each parish was governed secularly
+by a body of men known as the Twenty-four. Now Grasmere conformed
+nearly, though not exactly, with these rules; for the controlling
+body consisted of Eighteen, not Twenty-four, being in this respect
+like the Cumbrian parish of Crosthwaite to the north. But other
+parishes of the district had their Twenty-four--as Cartmel and Dalton
+in Furness.[35] In the next parish of Windermere, the Twenty-four are
+still an active body, and collect at the church every Easter Tuesday,
+eight coming from each of the three townships, Under-Milbeck,
+Applethwaite and Troutbeck.
+
+  [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_.
+
+The parish of Grasmere also embraced three townships. One was
+Grasmere proper, situated in the basin-shaped vale that catches
+the sources of the Rothay, Langdale; the sister valley formed
+the second township, which extended to Elterwater; the third was
+Rydal-and-Loughrigg (often called Loughrigg and Beneath-Moss) which
+included all the rocky mass between the converging rivers, the
+compact village of Rydal with part of Ambleside.
+
+From three sides of the parish then, by mountain path and
+"horse-trod," the folk wended their way for worship to Grasmere
+Church. Those of the vale of Grasmere proper would gather in units or
+little groups from all the scattered farmsteads, from Far Easdale and
+Blindtarn Gill, from Town Head, Gill Side, and all the houses that
+lay "Aboon Beck" as far as How Head and Town End, till they met at
+their lych-gate on the north side of the church.
+
+From Loughrigg and Beneath-Moss they would collect by many a devious
+track, starting as far back as Clappersgate and Ambleside. From
+Ambleside ancient "trods" passed Nook End, and rose from Scandale
+Bridge by easy grade to Nab Lane (where Rydal folk would join them)
+and White Moss, and thence descending to cross the church bridge to
+enter the garth by the present gate, which was specially their own.
+
+The third stream of worshippers flowed from the farthest sources
+west, from the recesses of Little Langdale, from Blea Tarn, and
+Fell Foot, from Forge and Hackett and Colwith they came, on through
+Elterwater, and across Walthwaite Bottom. Mounting the brow, they
+would meet a tributary stream of fellow-townsfolk, that gathered
+right from Steel End and Wall End, increasing as it flowed down
+Mickle Langdale, till it crossed the ridge of Hunting Stile. Dropping
+steeply into the vale, they would at Nichols (where stood an inn)
+meet a third contingent (from Loughrigg) which, starting at Skelwith,
+mounted by Foul Step to Little Loughrigg, passed by the Fold, the
+Oaks and Scroggs, to descend by Red Bank to the level of Grasmere
+Lake.[36] From Nichols onward the united groups would travel by the
+lake, and past the Holy Well, to enter the church garth by a gate
+at the north-west angle, now gone, called the Langdale gate.[37]
+Here, at Church Stile, stood an important inn, long owned by the
+Harrison family. Shelter and a fire must indeed have been often
+needed (as well as something for the inner man) after the long
+travel--especially at funeral gatherings, when the corpse had to be
+borne through ford and flood, or through the storms and deep snows
+of winter time. The Ambleside folk, when in 1674 they petitioned
+their bishop for the right of burial in their chapel, stated that
+"by reason of the heat in summer and the great snowes and sudden
+inundations of water in winter it is very difficult and dangerous to
+carry their dead thither [to Grasmere] for burial";[38] yet their
+distance from the church was nothing like that of the Langdale
+folk. There were not infrequent burials from the right bank of Little
+Langdale beck, in the parish of Hawkshead or of "Ulverston."
+
+  [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.
+
+Once within the churchyard, the different streams of the townships
+mingled as fellow parishioners. The sexes however, divided, the women
+seeking entrance (presumably) by the great south porch, and the men
+(after business done) herding in by the west door, known as theirs.
+Yet once inside, they again fell rigorously into ranks of townships,
+as we shall see.
+
+The gathering of the dalesfolk for worship must have been a striking
+sight, especially on the great feast days when--four times in the
+year--the sacraments were administered. Certainly attendance at
+church was obligatory upon every Sabbath Day, and fines were levied
+for default. But from the early seventeenth century, if not before,
+the dependent chapels in Langdale (at Chapel Stile) and Ambleside
+would absorb many of the more distant worshippers. For the four
+great celebrations, however, the whole of the adult population of
+the valleys, except the sick and infirm, would attend the parish
+church.[39] It is of course impossible to compute the number of the
+people, especially in early times; but if we accept the statement
+made in the Presentment of 1712, that there were then about 200
+families in the parish, it may be reckoned that at that time and
+for at least a century previously, no fewer than from 500 to 700
+communicants would gather for the rite. Besides the master and
+mistress of the homestead, there were grown-up sons and daughters,
+with farm servants.[40] The garth would be crowded with the concourse
+of folk; and when they trooped into the fane, each township to its
+own quarter of the building, where men and women again divided to
+take their accustomed places upon their separate forms, and the dogs
+sneaked in, hoping to escape the dogwhipper's eye as they settled
+under their masters' legs, the whole space must have been packed.
+
+  [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_).
+
+The old, narrow close-set forms seated far more people than the
+modern benches, but even they could not have accommodated the crowds
+that attended certain funerals. (See Charities.) At Mrs. Fleming's
+funeral, for instance, few short of 2000 persons must have been
+present, including dole-getters, neighbours and relatives.
+
+
+
+
+SOME LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH
+
+
+Thus for worship did the folk gather in the church. They came thither
+also to bury their dead within consecrated soil--for baptism of their
+"barnes" by the priest, and the binding of man and woman in holy
+matrimony. But the edifice and the enclosed space about it served in
+early times not only for purposes of religion, but of the law. Like
+the Roman Forum, it was used for the transaction of public business
+and the administration of justice. Bargains were ratified, covenants
+were witnessed, and protestations made solemn by an oath taken
+upon the Holy Gospel where it lay upon the altar--once a wonderful
+script illuminated and jewelled, that is now represented by the
+dirty little Testament of the Law Courts. Manor Courts and legal
+enquiries or inquests were frequently held within it. Public notices
+that concerned the townships--private ones even of auctions and the
+like--were proclaimed before the assembled people in the garth or the
+porch, if not in the building itself. Punishments for moral offences
+were carried out in face of the congregation.[41]
+
+  [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.
+
+The priests and the clergy acted as legal agents for the unlettered
+folk till comparatively recent times. They were versed in the
+intricacies of law, as well as ritual, and skilled in penmanship and
+the Latin tongue. The higher of them are found acting as agents and
+accountants for the holders of the fees into which the barony became
+split, as documents which concern our parish show.
+
+Frequently the chaplain or the village priest drew up indentures,
+petitions, and secular agreements for the living, as well as the
+testaments of the dying. Wills were proved at the church registry
+of the diocese, and were stored there. The wills of the parish
+of Grasmere went to the town of Richmond, the centre of the
+archdeaconry; and not until 1719 were they proved at the secular
+courts of Kendal and Lancaster.[42]
+
+  [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_).
+
+Instances of the use of the church fabric for secular purposes in
+the neighbourhood may be quoted. A Court Roll of 1443 is headed
+"Court of Wynandremere held at the church of Wynandremere 9 July 21
+Henry VI."[43] An award concerning a private dispute in 1534 between
+George Browne of Troutbeck and Myles Dickson of Applethwaite decrees
+that the former pay to the latter "upon the secunde sonday in lente
+next comynge O-XLs of able ynglyshe money upon or. layde Alter in
+Wyndandermer church betwixe VIII of the clock and XII of the said
+sonday."[44] Again, an indenture made 1571 between Mr. John Benson
+and his Baisbrowne tenants stipulates that the payment of certain
+moneys should be made "in langdaill chappell betweene thoures of
+eyght of the clock at aftr. noine" on the 1st of August in the two
+ensuing years.[45] In 1601, when Widow Agnes Fleming of Rydal Hall
+with her sons sued a Penrith man for debt, the commissioners sat and
+examined witnesses in Ambleside Chapel.[46] And within this building
+were probably taken down depositions in several other cases.
+
+  [43] Public Record Office Court Roll 207/122.
+
+  [44] Browne MSS.
+
+  [45] Rydal Hall MSS.
+
+  [46] Rydal Hall MSS.
+
+As regards Grasmere itself record is scant. The manorial courts were
+occasionally held in the Moot Hall of Kirkby Kendal, as in 1603,[47]
+but in early times it would be impossible to summon the holders from
+so far; and it is stated in 1436 that two courts were yearly held in
+Grasmere.[48] No other building than the church could have contained
+this official gathering. The judgment on the 1583 tithe dispute
+enjoined that the parishioners were to pay their tithe of lambs in
+money every Easter "in the parish church of Gresmier." The church or
+chapel was as a rule the schoolroom where the priest taught.
+
+  [47] Public Record Office Court Roll 207/111.
+
+  [48] Church inquisition post mortem, Henry VI., No. 36.
+
+The churchyard, even more than the church itself, had its secular
+and popular uses, which came down from ancient time. The fairs, the
+markets, the sports and the wrestlings[49] which took place within
+its enclosing walls, and of which we obtain faint intimations, were
+but the survival of the festivals sanctioned by the early church,
+when the wake, or fair of the patron saint was kept. This again,
+with its bull-baiting, its rude sports and its temporary stalls,
+may be linked on to the earlier rites of heathen times, when beasts
+were brought to the Temple for sacrifice, and when the people built
+booths about it, in which to hold a three days' feast. The annual
+or biennial fair, and even the Sunday market, were quite usual in
+the churchyard, before the boroughs obtained a special privilege for
+them. And though an express statute in 1285 forbade the practice,
+neither this nor the later injunction of the Church were heeded. In
+1300 the town of Cockermouth complained that its market was spoilt by
+the bartering carried on at Crosthwaite Church, where not only flesh
+and fish were sold at festivals (and this distinctly smacks of an
+ancient sacrificial practice); but that corn, linen, cloth and other
+commodities were conveyed thither every Sunday for barter. In 1380
+the town of Appleby was suffering from a like cause. Merchants were
+carrying their goods to sell in the churchyards of the surrounding
+district on Sundays, to the detriment of the accredited market.[50]
+If this was done in other places of the district, it was certainly
+done at Grasmere, for the market town of Kendal was sixteen miles
+distant on a road often impassable.[51]
+
+  [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.
+
+It was not until the seventeenth century that markets were
+established in the neighbouring towns of Hawkshead and Ambleside,
+after Grasmere had in vain attempted to secure the privilege.[52]
+
+  [52] Rydal Hall MSS.
+
+A good deal of informal business besides was conducted in the
+churchyard, such as sales proposed or private bargains struck. Of
+proclamations and sale notices made within the church or garth we
+have abundant evidence; and for these the clerk received generally a
+fee of 2d. No doubt the "citation" we hear of for tithe wool due to
+Squire John Fleming (1631) was made at the church. The prohibition
+against cutting wood in Bainrigg (1768) which the Rev. J. Wilson
+suggested should "be given at our church of sunday" and which was to
+deprive the holder of his winter fuel, has been preserved.[53] In
+recent times, according to Edward Wilson, the notices were given out
+by the clerk in the yard, outside the so-called men's or western door.
+
+  [53] Rydal Hall MSS.
+
+The officers of the townships transacted business at church; and the
+notices still hung in church porches are a survival of the custom.
+The overseers of the poor worked in fact in close connection with the
+wardens; and the latter were responsible for some county rates which
+are found entered in their accounts, such as (1708) "To the Jaylor
+at Appleby" and "Prisoner Money." The Overseers' books for Rydal and
+Loughrigg show that when they failed to board a pauper within their
+township, they paid to the clerk 2d. "for advertising her to let."
+
+The constable (and there was one for each township) had a far older
+connection with the parish church. He caused meetings for his
+division to be proclaimed at the church. Among the miscellaneous
+duties which he still performed in late times was payment for the
+slaughter of harmful beasts and birds. The heads of these were hung,
+we are told, on the church gates as visible proof; and Stockdale,
+writing in 1872,[54] says that he has seen them so exposed both
+at Cartmel and Hawkshead. The same practice no doubt prevailed at
+Grasmere. The constable's books for Rydal and Loughrigg record 4d. as
+the price usually given for a raven's head, and 3s. 4d. for that of a
+fox. In 1786, 5s. 0d. was paid "for one old Fox and two young ones."
+Ravens were frequently entered, and as the payments went to William
+Parke, we must suppose them to have been taken on the precipice of
+Nab Scar. Five were paid for in 1787, and twelve in 1790. These would
+decorate the Rydal and Loughrigg gate. Two foxes were paid for in
+1793.
+
+  [54] _Annales Caermoelensis._
+
+
+
+
+THE EIGHTEEN
+
+
+Not Twenty-four, but Eighteen represented the interests of the
+townships in the parish church. This was the case also at Crosthwaite
+in Cumberland, where this ancient body of "sworn" men were swept away
+by the Charity Commissioners at the time that they took over the
+schools. Of the Eighteen in Grasmere six represented--along with two
+wardens--each township. While the wardens, who were all landholders,
+took office for one year only, and in rotation, like all other
+officials of the village communities, such as constable, overseer,
+surveyor of roads, and frithman, the Eighteen appear to have been
+freely elected, and they kept office for an indefinite period.
+
+The names of those who served the office at the Restoration are given
+in the important document concerning the fabric of the church printed
+later, and these names were but slowly altered. In the churchwardens'
+books of 1723 is written "Then chosen Edward Brockbank to be an
+Eighteen man for Little Langdale in the place of John Brockbank his
+father, deceased." Again in 1824 comes "Sides-Man Chosen by the
+Minister Churchwardens and Sides-men," followed by their names. A
+list of these was but infrequently written out, only an erasure
+marking a change, as when in 1708 John Green, serving for Grasmere
+"being Very Old and infirm, desired to be excused," and Thomas Green
+took his place.
+
+The choice of a new member of the body lay apparently with the
+Eighteen themselves, the wardens, and the parson. This is still the
+case in Windermere, where (I am told) the choice of a new member of
+the Twenty-four is discussed in full vestry, the clergyman, however,
+finally nominating.[55] Yet the Eighteen were acting representatives
+in church affairs of the folk of the townships. All contracts for the
+improvement and alteration of the church were made by them. They were
+responsible for the share of their township in its upkeep, and laid
+a rate on the landholders to cover the yearly expenses. It is almost
+certain that the appointment of a clerk and schoolmaster lay with
+them and the wardens, though the parson no doubt sat at the conclave.
+We have no means of knowing whether their powers extended further.[56]
+
+  [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.
+
+It should be noted that the old name for them was simply "The
+Eighteen." They are called Questmen in a contract of 1687, but this
+appears to have been drawn up by a stranger. The term Sidesmen occurs
+late, and so does "The Twenty-four" which reckons the six wardens,
+two for each township, in the number. Strictly, the wardens (of whom
+there were eight in Cartmel) should not be included.
+
+[Illustration: Decorative]
+
+[Illustration: Structure of the Interior of S^t Oswald's
+  Grasmere.]
+
+
+
+
+PART III
+
+RECORDS
+
+PATRONS
+
+MONASTIC CONTROL
+
+THE CLERGY
+
+THE CIVIL WARS
+
+THE COMMONWEALTH
+
+[Illustration: Decoration]
+
+
+
+
+RECORDS
+
+
+The church constitution of Grasmere was therefore from early times
+that of a parish controlled and administered by a body of men
+representing the people, who were responsible for the funds that
+maintained the building and its services, while the clergy who
+officiated were supported by the ancient system of the payment of
+tithes.
+
+The offering of pious folk of the tenth of their yearly yield was at
+first intended to cover all expenses, but it soon became diverted
+into purely ecclesiastical channels. The tithe-paying parish indeed
+early excited the cupidity of the least scrupulous members of Church
+and State. Already in 1254 a rector of Grasmere is found to be
+drawing the revenues of the parish without troubling to serve it
+except by deputy; for the Pope in that year granted a dispensation to
+Henry de Galdington, rector of "Grossemer" in the diocese of York, to
+hold an additional benefice with cure of souls.[57] This is the first
+record of the church discovered so far.
+
+  [57] _Calendar of Papal Registers_, vol. ii., p. 294.
+
+The value of the rectory is stated in the dispensation to be ten
+marks (£6 13s. 4d.). Estimates, however, varied widely. About 1291 a
+taxation was made out for all ecclesiastical benefices in England,
+the cause being Pope Nicholas I.'s promise of the tenths which he
+claimed from them, to Edward I. for a term of six years, towards the
+expenses of a crusade. This great valuation remained the standard
+of taxation until the time of Henry VIII. It is said to have been
+completed for the Province of York in 1292; and it sets down the
+"church of Gressemere" in the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire as being
+worth £16, and that of Wynandermere as £10.[58]
+
+  [58] _Tax. Eccle. P. Nicholai_, iv.
+
+But the high valuation of 1292 did not hold good. Complaints from the
+northern clergy that through impoverishment by various causes, but
+chiefly the invasions of the Scots, they were by no means able to pay
+so high a tax, produced some amelioration. A correction was made in
+1318, when Windermere was written down at £2 13s. 4d., and Grasmere
+at £3 6s. 8d., or five marks. And at this figure it remained.
+
+It stood indeed at five marks in 1283, when the first mention of the
+church occurs in connection with the secular lordship.
+
+
+EDITOR'S NOTE.
+
+     The writing down of the value of the tithes of Grasmere was the
+     subject of correspondence between the author and myself, and
+     she writes: "The so called taxation of Pope Nicholas IV. was
+     acknowledged to be too high for the Northern Counties; but the
+     reduction of Grasmere, when the alteration was made in 1318,
+     from £16 to five marks (£3 6s. 8d.) is unaccountable to me." It
+     had stood at this figure previously but had been raised to £16,
+     and, as will be seen in the text, as early as 1301 in the reign
+     of Edward I., when the abbot of St. Mary's, York, was allowed
+     to appropriate "the chapels of Gresmer and Wynandermere,"
+     Gresmer is described as being worth £20. In 1344, at the
+     Archbishop's Visitation, it is described as worth 5 marks; only
+     to be again raised in 1435. In that year upon the death of
+     John, duke of Bedford and earl of Kendal, to whom they had been
+     granted by his father, Henry IV., we find among the items of his
+     property "the advowsons of Wynandermere and Gressemere each of
+     which is worth £20 yearly." After this the tithes again reverted
+     to 5 marks and in the reign of Henry VIII. the "pension" paid to
+     the abbey is put down as only half of that sum, viz. £1 13s. 4d.
+     at which it still remains.
+
+     The terms "pension" and "advowson" may not always mean the same
+     thing, thus advowson seems to be used sometimes as synonymous
+     with tithe. Hence Miss Armitt writes "The parish churches, such
+     as Kendal, Grasmere, etc., were "taxed" from the twelfth century
+     onward at a certain figure--ten marks (£6 13s. 4d.) £16 or
+     £30. What did this taxation represent? The absolute sum to be
+     paid by the rector from the tithes to king, pope, archdeacon,
+     court, or feudal lord? or was it a valuation only of the tithes,
+     from which was calculated the amounts of the various 'scots'
+     or annual payments to ecclesiastical or temporal authorities?"
+     It seems not unlikely that the rise from £3 6s. 8d. to £20 in
+     the reign of Edward I. may be accounted for by the fact that
+     the "Old Valor" which was granted by authority of Innocent the
+     fourth to Henry III. in 1253 was superseded in 1291 by the "New
+     Valor" granted to Edward I. by Nicholas IV., so that when Henry
+     IV. granted the chapels of Grasmere and Windermere to his son
+     John they were valued in 1435 at £20 each. They were only being
+     put back to the sum named in the "New Valor" of 1291 which had
+     been allowed in 1344 to drop to the 5 marks at which they had
+     stood in the "Old Valor." The tithe taxation as established by
+     the "New Valor" remained in force until Henry VIII. But a "Nova
+     Taxatio" which only affected part of the province of York was
+     commanded in 11 Edward II. (1317) on account of the invasion of
+     the Scots and other troubles. These various taxings will account
+     for the variation in payments which were collected for the
+     benefit of the king.
+
+  W.F.R.
+
+
+
+
+THE PATRONS
+
+
+William Rufus, upon his conquest of Carlisle, gave over to Ivo de
+Tailbois all these parts as a fief. After Ivo a confusion of tenure
+and administration prevails, into which it is useless to enter. The
+line of patrons of Grasmere may perhaps be begun safely with Gilbert
+fitz Reinfred, who married Helwise, daughter and heiress of William
+de Lancaster II., because it was he who first held the Barony of
+Kendal in chief from Richard I., by charter dated 1190.[59]
+
+  [59] _Lancashire Pipe Rolls_, Mr. W. Farrer.
+
+His son William, called de Lancaster III., died in 1246 without a
+direct heir; and the children of his sisters, Helwise and Alice,
+shared the fief between them. It is Alice's line that we have to
+follow. She married William de Lindesey, and her son Walter took that
+portion of the barony which was later known as the Richmond Fee, and
+which included the advowson of our church.
+
+Sir William de Lindesey, his son, was the next inheritor. After his
+death, in 1283, a jury of true and tried men declared that he had
+died possessed of "A certain chapel there (Gresmer) taxed yearly
+at 66s 8d."[60] The chapel of Windermere, set down at a like sum,
+belonged to the same lordship.
+
+  [60] _Lancashire Inquests_, _etc._, ed. by Mr. Farrer.
+
+Christiana, William's heiress, was then only 16. She was married to
+a Frenchman, Ingelram de Gynes, lord of Coucy. There is evidence
+that they spent a considerable part of their time in these parts,
+their seat being at Mourholm, near Carnforth. Ingelram indeed
+fought in the Scottish wars, as did his son William. Christiana
+survived her husband some ten years. They had at least four sons,
+William, Ingelram, Baldwin, and Robert. It was William who inherited
+the chief part of Christiana's property in the barony of Kendal,
+which was declared (1334) to include the manor of Wynandermere,
+and the advowsons of the chapels of Wynandermere, Marieholm, and
+Gressemere.[61]
+
+  [61] _Calendar Patent Rolls_, 8 Edw. III. and 14 Edw. III., pt.
+  3, mem. 11.
+
+The new tenant at once incurred King Edward III.'s displeasure. His
+interests lay apparently in France, where he resided, being styled
+lord of Coucy[62]; and without waiting to do homage for his mother's
+English lands and receiving them formally from the king's hands (as
+was the feudal custom), he passed them over to his young son William.
+The king pardoned the offence, and ratified the grant,[63] but he
+kept the youth, still a minor in 1339, about his person,[64] and
+William's short life seems to have been spent in service under the
+English banner.[65]
+
+  [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._
+
+The family of de Gynes had a difficult part to play during the wars
+that followed upon Edward's claim to the throne of France. Their
+hereditary instincts carried them naturally into the opposite camp,
+and they lost their English possessions in consequence. On William's
+death in 1343 the king--while he seems to have acknowledged the claim
+of his brother Ingelram as his heir,[66] kept the heritage in his own
+hands. Moreover, he declared such lands as were held by Robert de
+Gynes, a son of Christiana, who was a cleric and Dean of Glasgow, to
+be forfeited, because of Robert's adherence to his enemy,[67] and for
+the same reason lands at Thornton in Lonsdale held by Ingelram, son
+of Ingelram and grandson of Christiana, were likewise forfeited.[68]
+
+  [66] _Calendar Patent Rolls_, 17 Edw. III.
+
+  [67] _Calendar Patent Rolls_, 17 Edw. III.
+
+  [68] _Calendar of Close Rolls._
+
+The king presently used the escheated heritage to reward a knight
+who had served him well in the Scottish wars. John de Coupland had
+had the courage and address to secure Robert Bruce as prisoner at
+the battle of Durham; and Edward in 1347 granted to him and his wife
+for their joint lives the Lindesey Fee which was the inheritance of
+Ingelram. He excepted, however, from the grant (along with the park
+and woodlands about Windermere) the knight's fees and advowsons of
+churches belonging to the same.[69]
+
+  [69] _Calendar Patent Rolls_ and _Close Rolls_, 22 Edw. III.
+
+The fortunes of war brought Ingelram, lord of Coucy, and son of
+Ingelram, William's brother, as hostage for John, king of France,
+to the court of Edward. There he gained by his handsome person and
+knightly grace the favour of the king, who granted him the lands of
+Westmorland which had belonged to his great-grandmother Christiana,
+created him Earl of Bedford, and gave him in 1365 his daughter
+Isabella in marriage. Ingelram for some time satisfied his martial
+instincts by fighting in the wars of Italy and Alsace; but on the
+renewal of the struggle between England and France, followed by the
+death of his father-in-law in 1377, his scruples were at an end. He
+renounced his allegiance to England, haughtily returned the badge of
+the Order of the Garter, and joined the side of Charles II.[70]
+
+  [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.
+
+The Lindesey Fee was once more forfeited to the Crown. Richard II.
+granted it, however, to Phillipa, daughter of Ingelram and Isabella,
+and to her husband Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford (1382); and when
+the latter was outlawed by Parliament in 1388 it was confirmed to
+her.[71] After her death (1411) she was declared to have been seised
+of the advowson of the chapel of Grismere, taxed at £10, and that of
+Wynandermere, taxed at 100s.[72]
+
+  [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.
+
+Phillipa had no children. Henry IV. now granted the Fee to his
+son, John, created duke of Bedford and earl of Kendal. He died in
+1435. His property in the barony of Kendal included the "advowsons
+of Wynandermere and of Gressemere, each of which is worth 20 li
+yearly."[73]
+
+  [73] _Inq. p.m._, 14 Hen. VI., No. 36.
+
+The Duke of Bedford's widow, Jaquetta of Luxemburg, received the
+third part of the Fee as her dower, with the advowson "of the church
+in Gresmere." She married Richard Woodville, created earl Rivers.
+After her death she is said (1473) to have possessed "the advowson or
+nomination of the church or chapel of Gressemere," though in 1439 she
+had allowed her privilege to lapse.[74]
+
+  [74] _Calendar Patent Rolls_, 1 Edw. IV., pt. 7, mem. 8; and
+  _Inq. p.m._, 12 Edw. IV., No. 47.
+
+The Fee was next granted by Henry VI. (who inherited it as heir to
+his uncle John) to John Beaufort, duke of Somerset.[75] The duke's
+daughter Margaret--afterwards countess of Richmond--came into
+possession of it at his death.[76] After a lapse, when Yorkists sat
+on the throne, and Sir William Parr of Kendal held it, the Fee (now
+including the advowson of Grasmere) returned to Margaret and passed
+to her grandson Henry VIII. He sold the advowson and patronage of
+Grasmere. Its subsequent history will be given later.
+
+  [75] _Calendar Patent Rolls_, 22 Hen. VI.
+
+  [76] _Inq. p.m._, 22 Hen. VI., No. 19.
+
+Such was the illustrious line of our church's early patrons--some
+of them the most striking figures in a chivalrous age. But it is
+not to be supposed that they knew much of the little parish hidden
+amongst the mountains. When the rectorate fell vacant, they would
+grant the post to some suppliant clerk or priest, who would carry
+their nomination to the higher ecclesiastical authorities. The right
+to nominate often fell into the king's hands, through minority of the
+heir, confiscation, or inheritance. For instance, the king appointed
+to the rectory of Windermere in 1282, in 1377 and in 1388. Edward
+III. nominated Edmund de Ursewyk to "Gressemer" in 1349; and Henry
+IV. did the same for Walter Hoton in 1401.
+
+
+
+
+MONASTIC CONTROL
+
+
+Our church of Grasmere was not left to the control of parson and
+manorial lord like other tithe-yielding parishes, it was snapped up
+by a big monastery. The abbeys that had sprung up all over England
+in post-Norman times were of a very different order from the simple
+religious communities of Anglo-Saxon times; and before long it became
+a question as to how they were to be maintained on the splendid lines
+of their foundation. By the reign of Henry I. they had begun to
+appropriate rectories, and in 1212 the parish church of Crosthwaite
+was given over to the control of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, which
+carried off all the profits of the tithes, merely restoring £5 a
+year to the rector, who was elected by its chapter.[77] St. Mary's
+Abbey had been founded in York city in 1088, and its chapter found
+it necessary by the end of the thirteenth century to look round
+the great church province of Richmondshire to see if there were no
+revenues which might by royal favour be appropriated.
+
+  [77] _Victorian History of Cumberland._
+
+In December, 1301, Edward I. despatched a writ to the sheriff of
+Westmorland, bidding him inquire of true and lawful men whether it
+would be to the damage of the Crown or others if the abbey of St.
+Mary of York were allowed to appropriate the church of Kirkeby in
+Kendale with its chapels and appurtenances.
+
+The inquisition was held, be it noted, not at Kendal but at Appleby,
+where a sworn jury declared the appropriation would damage no one.
+An explicit statement was added which concerns us. "The chapels of
+the said church, to wit the chapels of Gresmer and Winandermere are
+in the patronage of Lord Ingram de Gynes and Christian his wife, by
+reason of the inheritance of the said Christian, and they hold of
+the king in chief.... And the chapel of Gresmer is worth yearly 20
+li."[78]
+
+  [78] _Inq. ad quod damnum_, 38/6.
+
+Accordingly a license was granted by Edward I., under date February
+23rd, 1302, for the Abbot and Convent of St. Mary's, York, "towards
+the relief of their impoverished condition," to appropriate the
+"church of Kirkeby in Kendale, which is of their own patronage, in
+the diocese of York, and consists of two portions, on condition that
+they appropriate none of its chapels, if there are any."[79]
+
+  [79] _Calendar Patent Rolls_, 30 Edw. I.
+
+The appropriation took effect; and moreover the Abbey succeeded in
+gaining jurisdiction over the "chapels" of Windermere and Grasmere.
+The nomination of the rector indeed remained in the hands of the
+lord of the Fee, but it was passed on to the chapter of the Abbey
+for confirmation, before being finally ratified by the Archdeacon
+of Richmondshire. Thus three august authorities had to bestir
+themselves, when a fresh parson was needed for our parish; and in
+1349 King Edward III., the Abbot of St. Mary and Archdeacon Henry de
+Walton were all concerned in the business.[80] No doubt the monks
+seized the right to nominate whenever they could, and in 1439 George
+Plompton was named by them before his admission by the archdeacon.[81]
+
+  [80] _Calendar Patent Rolls._
+
+  [81] _Calendar Patent Rolls_, 17 Hen. VI., p. 1.
+
+This change was not put into effect, however, without fierce
+opposition in the district. In 1309 an appeal went up to the king
+from the Abbot of St. Mary, who styled himself "parson of the church
+of Kirkeby in Kendale," wherein he stated that when his servants had
+gone to carry in the tithe corn and hay, they had been assaulted by
+Walter de Strykeland and others; and moreover that Roger, the vicar
+and the other chaplains and clerks appointed to celebrate divine
+service in that church, hindered them in the discharge of the same,
+trampled down and consumed his corn and hay, and took away the horses
+from his waggons and impounded them. Whereupon three justices were
+appointed to adjudicate upon the case.[82]
+
+  [82] _Calendar Patent Rolls._
+
+From this it would be seen that the local clergy were as bitterly
+opposed to the monastic rule as the gentry and the people. Sir
+Walter de Strickland with armed servants at his command headed
+the opposition. His lands at Sizergh lay to the south of the town
+of Kendal and he refused to the men of the monastery right of way
+across them for the collection of the tithes of corn, which was
+always made while the stooks stood upright in the field. After much
+wrangling, for no abbot was ever known to withdraw a claim, articles
+of agreement were made out between them, which reiterated the
+statement that the church of Kirkby Kendal was "canonically possessed
+in proper use" by the monastery.[83] However, the convent found it
+easier to let the tithes to the opponent, rather than to wrestle with
+an obstructionist policy; and in 1334 Sir Walter is found agreeing
+to furnish to the monastic granary now established at Kirkby Kendal
+three good measures of oatmeal for the tithe of the sheaves of
+Sigredhergh, sold to him by the abbot and convent.[84]
+
+  [83] Sizergh Castle MSS.
+
+  [84] MS. Dodsworth 28, fol. 78.
+
+But the people were not appeased, and when in 1344 the archbishop
+made a visitation, opportunity was taken to lay before him, in the
+name of "the common right," complaints against the monopoly of funds
+by the convent, as the following document shows:--
+
+ Release of the Abbot and Convent of the Monastery of St. Mary,
+ York, concerning their churches, pensions, and portions.
+
+ In the name of God, Amen, Since we, William, by divine
+ permission Archbishop of York, ... in our progress of visitation
+ which we have lately performed in and of our diocese ... have
+ found that the religious men the Abbot and Convent of the
+ monastery of St. Mary, against the common right detain the
+ parish churches and chapels, portions, pensions, and parochial
+ tithes underwritten, namely, ... the annual pensions in the
+ parts of Richmond: of the church of Richmond 100s. and 20
+ lbs of wax, ... of the vicarage of Kirkby Kendall £4, of the
+ churches of Gresmere and Winandermers 5 marks.... We have
+ commanded the said abbot and convent ... to show their rights
+ and titles before us and have caused them to be called, ... and
+ we ... having considered the rights and good faith of the said
+ religious men ... release the said abbot and convent ... as
+ canonical possessors of the said churches, chapels, portions,
+ pensions (&c).... Dated at Cawood, on the 20th day of the month
+ of August in the year of our Lord MCCCXLIIIJ, and in the third
+ year of our pontificate.[85]
+
+The appeal had been made in vain. Yet opposition could not have
+ceased, as the case was finally carried to Rome. In 1396 a
+confirmation of the abbey's possessions (including the chapels of
+Gresmere and Wynandremere, worth 5 marks each) was made by the Pope,
+on petition by the abbey, according to letters patent of Thomas
+Arundel, late archbishop of York, dated November, 1392.[85]
+
+  [85] _Calendar of Papal Registers_, vol. v., p. 1-4.
+
+
+
+
+THE CLERGY
+
+
+Though not successful, Sir Walter de Strickland's opposition had done
+some good, but for exactly 200 years longer did the monastery by the
+walls of the city of York hold sway over the church of Grasmere. In
+what degree its influence was felt in the mountain parish cannot be
+told, or what it gave in return for the pension it abstracted. It
+may have assisted in the rebuilding of the edifice, lending aid by
+monastic skill in architecture. Probably it supervised the worship
+in the church, and improved the ritual, passing on to the village
+priest the tradition of its own richly furnished sanctuary. Signs
+were not wanting at the Reformation that the district had been
+ecclesiastically well served.
+
+It has been seen that the parson of the parish was a pluralist
+and a non-resident as early as 1254; and so were those of his
+successors of whom we have evidence. The glimpses obtained through
+scant record disclose the tithe-taking rector of the valley as a
+figure distinguished by education, if not by family, and known to
+the lofty in station. He is termed "Master," and bears the suffix
+"clerk"; while "Sir" is reserved for the curate, his deputy, who
+has not graduated at either university.[86] He was skilled in law
+more than in theology. He may have served an apprenticeship in the
+great office of the Chancery; sometimes men of his position are
+termed "king's clerk."[87] He was not an idle man, and was often
+employed in secular business by the lord of the Fee. It may have
+been in the collection of the lady's dues--for the heiress Christiana
+de Lindesay, had married Ingelram de Gynes, of Coucy in France, in
+1283--that the parson of Grasmere suffered an assault (1290) at
+Leghton Gynes (later Leighton Conyers). It is certain that when
+Robert de Gynes, one of the sons of Christiana, and possessed of some
+of her lands about Casterton and Levens, went "beyond the seas" in
+1334, he empowered Oliver de Welle, parson of Grasmere, to act with
+Thomas de Bethum as his attorney. Oliver de Welle had a footing in
+our valleys besides his parsonage, for he is stated to have held,
+under the lord William de Coucy, deceased, "a certain place called
+Little Langedon in Stirkland Ketle," which was then (1352) in the
+custody of the executor of his will, John de Crofte.[88]
+
+  [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.
+
+Edmund de Ursewyk, "king's clerk," whom the king nominated
+to Grasmere in 1349--the young lord William de Coucy being
+dead--doubtless came of a Furness family, and may have been related
+to Adam de Ursewyk who held land for his life in the barony, by grant
+of the elder William,[89] as well as the office of chief forester of
+the park at Troutbeck.[90]
+
+  [89] _Calendar Patent Roll_, 20 Edw. III.
+
+  [90] _Calendar Patent Roll_, 20 Edw. III.
+
+"Magister George Plompton" was another learned cleric of good
+family, being the son of Sir William Plumpton of Plumpton, knight.
+He was a bachelor-at-law, and was ordained sub-deacon in 1417. It
+was in 1438-9 that he was nominated to the rectory of Grasmere, by
+the Chapter of St. Mary's, and some years after he acquired that of
+Bingham in Nottinghamshire. This he resigned (and doubtless Grasmere
+also) in two or three years' time, owing to age and infirmities.
+He retired to Bolton Abbey, and in 1459 obtained leave from the
+Archbishop of York to have service celebrated for himself and his
+servants within the walls of the monastery--a permit which gives a
+picture of affluent peace and piety in a few words.[91]
+
+  [91] Canon Raine's Notes to _Testamenta Eboracensia_, Sur. So.,
+  vol. 30, p. 68.
+
+Master Hugh Ashton, parson, acted as Receiver-general for the lands
+of the Countess of Richmond (the Lindesay Fee) in 1505-6.[92] On his
+resignation in 1511, Henry VIII. exercised his right as inheritor
+of the Fee, and nominated John Frost to the rectory; the abbot and
+convent presenting in due form. This happened again in 1525, when
+William Holgill was appointed.[93]
+
+  [92] Min. Acc., Hen. VII., 877.
+
+  [93] "List of Rydall-Writings." D.F.
+
+Of other rectors of the post-Reformation period we know little or
+nothing. Richard, "clericus," was taxed in 1332 on goods worth £4,
+a sum higher by £1 than any land-holding parishioner in the three
+townships.[94]
+
+  [94] _Lay Subsidy Roll_, West, 195/1A, 6 Edw. III.
+
+
+LIST OF RECTORS AND CURATES
+
+  1254     Henry de Galdington. _Calendar of Papal Registers_, vol.
+           2, p. 294.
+
+  1290-91  William de Kendale. _De Banco Rolls_, Rev. 86 in 79d.
+           Adam de Ottelay, "capellanus." Levens Rental of Ed.
+           2 or early Ed. 3.
+
+  1332     Richard "clericus." _Lay Subsidy Roll_. West., 195/1A.
+
+  1334
+  June 24  Oliver de Welle. _Close Rolls and Patent Rolls._ 8 Ed. 3.
+
+  1349     Edmund de Ursewyk. _Patent Rolls._
+
+  1362     Hugo de Middleton. Torre's _Archdeaconry of Richmondshire_.
+  Dec. 3
+
+  1401
+  Jan. 13  Walter Hoton "parson." _Patent Rolls_, Henry IV.
+
+  ----     Reginald Pulham. Torre; no date given.
+
+  1443
+  May 24   Peter Yrford. Torre.
+
+  1459
+  Feb. 10  George Plompton. Torre. _Calendar Patent Rolls._
+
+  1486      James Chamer "capellano."
+
+  1505-6    Hugh Ashton, "clerk," Min. Acc., Henry VII., 877.
+            Resigns Grasmere Rectory in 1512. Rydal Hall
+            MSS.
+
+  1511      John Frost, on resignation of Hugh Ashton. Rydal
+  Oct. 18   Hall MSS.
+
+  1525      William Holgill or Hawgill. Rydal Hall MSS. Chester
+  Mar. 14   Diocesan Registry.
+
+  1548      Gabriel Croft, instituted on death of Holgill. Chester
+  Jan. 11   Registry. Called Rector at Visitation of Bishop of
+            Chester, 1554, when the following names accompany
+            his.
+
+            Dns William Jackson. His will was proved Jan. 21,
+            1569, which calls him "late curat of Gresmer."
+
+            Dns John Hunter.
+
+            Dns Hugo Walton. Hugh Watson "preist" bur. March
+            8, 1577. Grasmere Church Register.
+
+  1563      "Sirre Thomas Benson, curate" witnesses will of John
+            Benson Esq. of Baisbrowne.
+
+  1569      ? Master John Benson, rector.
+
+  ?         Lancelot Levens. Chester Diocesan Registry.
+
+  1575[95]   John Wilson, instituted on death of Lan. Levens.
+  July 18   Chester Diocesan Registry. Bur. May, 13, 1627.
+            Grasmere Church Register.
+
+    [95] 1575--March 20. James Dugdall, "Clericus" witnesses Indenture
+    between Wil. Fleming of Rydal and his miller.
+
+  1627      Robertus Hogge. Removed following year. Rydal Hall
+  July 16   MSS.
+
+  1628      Henry Wilson, B.A., instituted, according to Chester
+  May 24    Diocesan Registry, on death of John Wilson, by
+            presentation of Agneta Fleming. Ejected 1644.
+            Died 1647.
+
+
+CLERGY DOING DUTY DURING THE COMMONWEALTH
+
+  1645.     "Mr. Benson."
+
+  1646.     "Sir Christopher Rawling." Probably had served as
+            Curate for some time previously. The Register
+            gives the baptism of his child in 1641 when he is
+            called "Clericus." He likewise joined Parson Wilson
+            in a bill in 1642.
+
+  1653.     John Wallas. Independent. Ejected 1655.
+
+  1655      John Tompson. Probably Presbyterian.
+
+
+RECTORS AFTER RESTORATION
+
+  1660.     John Ambrose. Probably nominated on death of Henry
+            Wilson, but not allowed to serve.
+
+  1684      Henry Fleming, B.A. on death of J. Ambrose.
+
+  1728      William Kilner on death of H. Fleming.
+
+  1728      George Fleming, LL.D. (Dean of Carlisle) on session of
+            W. Kilner.
+
+  1733      William Fleming, M.A. on resignation of Geo. Fleming.
+
+  1743      John Craik, B.A. on death of W. Fleming.
+
+  1806      Thomas Jackson on death of J. Craik.
+
+  1822      Sir Richard Fleming, Bart., on death of T. Jackson.
+
+
+CURATES
+
+The curates who officiated under the rectors were a different class
+of men. Constantly resident, and seemingly holding the post for
+life, they belonged as a rule to the district--even it might be,
+to the township--as did William Jackson, who died 1569. A sharp
+boy, son of a statesman, might attract the notice of the parson,
+or of the visiting brother from St. Mary's Abbey. After serving an
+apprenticeship, as attendant or acolyte within the church, he might
+be passed on from the curate's tuition--for the latter almost always
+taught school--to Kendal or even to the abbey at York. On being
+admitted into the order of priesthood, he would return to his native
+place (should the post be vacant) and minister week by week to the
+spiritual needs of his fellows and his kinsfolk. Sometimes he even
+took up land to farm. Adam de Ottelay, "chaplain," is set down in an
+undated rental of the early fourteenth century, as joining in tenure
+with John "del bancke."[96]
+
+  [96] Levens Hall MS.
+
+The "chaplain" James Chamer, who witnessed a Grasmere deed in 1486,
+was probably the curate there.[97] It must be remembered, however,
+that the three townships appear to have been, from an early (but
+unknown) date, furnished with resident curates, acting under rector
+and abbot. Little Langdale too, if tradition be correct, had its
+religious needs supplied by a chapel. It is possible, indeed,
+that this may have been served through the priory of Conishead in
+Furness, to which William de Lancaster III.--the last baron to rule
+Kendal as a whole, who died 1246--granted a settlement or grange
+at Baisbrowne and Elterwater, which was later called a manor. This
+grange lay within Grasmere parish, as does the field below Bield,
+where tradition asserts the chapel to have stood. The first express
+mention of a chapel at Ambleside (within the township of Rydal and
+Loughrigg) is found in a document of Mr. G. Browne, dated 1584. But
+in the rental of 1505-6, William Wall, "chaplain," is entered as
+holding in Ambleside one third of the "pasture of Brigges." There
+is little doubt, therefore, that he was resident in the town, and
+uniting husbandry with his clerical office. Of a chapel in Great or
+Mickle Langdale the first evidence that occurs (after the strong
+presumptive evidence of the four priests serving the parish to be
+given immediately) is the indenture of 1571, which expressly mentions
+it.
+
+  [97] Rydal Hall MS.
+
+
+THE START OF THE REFORMATION
+
+The revolution which Henry VIII. brought about in the ecclesiastical
+world of England shook our parish, as the rest of England.
+Not content with the suppression and spoliation of the lesser
+monasteries, he turned to the greater ones, whose riches in gold and
+jewels, in land and revenue, excited his cupidity. Remote Grasmere
+even, by diversion of the pension she had dutifully paid her church
+superior, might supply something to the royal pocket! So the new
+supreme Head of the Church is found in 1543, bartering what he could
+to two of those job-brokers of ecclesiastical property, who were so
+evil a feature of the Reformation. The parchment at Rydal Hall runs
+thus:--
+
+     A Breuiate of the Kings Grant of Gersmire Advowson to Bell &
+     Broksbye in 35^{to} Hen. 8
+
+Be it remembered that in the charter of our most illustrious lord
+Henry the Eight, by the grace of God king of England, France, and
+Ireland, defender of the faith, and on earth supreme head of the
+English and Irish church, made to John Bell and Robert Brokelsby
+within named, among other things it is thus contained:--
+
+     The king to all to whom, &c. greeting. We do also give, for
+     the consideration aforesaid, and of our certain knowledge and
+     mere motion for us, our heirs and successors, do grant to
+     the aforesaid John Bell and Robert Brokelsbye, the advowson,
+     donation, denomination, presentation, free disposition, and
+     right of patronage of the Rectory of Gresmere in our county of
+     Westmorland, which, as parcel of the possessions and revenues
+     of the late Monastery of St. Mary near the wall of the City
+     of York, or otherwise or in any other manner or by any reason
+     whatsoever, has or have fallen, or may fall, into our hands.
+     Witness the king at Walden the twenty-first day of October in
+     the thirty-fifth year of our reign.
+
+This is clearly a copy of but a part of the original charter, and the
+"consideration" which Henry received does not transpire; but in the
+following month the two speculators procured a licence to sell again,
+and they passed over their purchase of the Grasmere advowson, and of
+all woods upon the premises--meaning no doubt the old demesne of the
+Lindesay Fee--to Alan Bellingham, gent., for £30 11s. 5-1/2d.[98]
+Bellingham in the same year purchased direct from the Crown that
+portion of Grasmere known as the Lumley Fee--thus gaining the
+lordship of some part of the valley.
+
+  [98] "List of Rydall-Writings," by D.F., in which he writes the
+  names as Bellowe and Brokylsbee.
+
+Henry's sale of the advowson did not touch the tithes, which were
+left in the hands of the rector; but he reserved for himself the
+"pension" of 2-1/2 marks which had been regularly paid out of them to
+the abbey. It passed down with other Crown property to Charles II.,
+and in his reign was sold, according to an Act of Parliament which
+was passed permitting the sale of such royal proceeds. Since that
+time it has been in private hands, and bought and sold in the money
+market like stocks. It may perhaps be traced by sundry entries in
+account books, as paid by the tithe-holder: in 1645, "for a pension
+for Gresmire due at Mich: last" £1 13s. 4d. It was paid in 1729 by
+Dr. Fleming as "Fee-farm Rent" to the Marquis of Caermarthen; and
+later by Mr. Craike to the Duke of Leeds; while Sir William Fleming,
+as owner of the tithes of Windermere, paid the same from them.[99]
+It is still paid through a London agent, being officially set down
+as "Net Rent for Grasmere, £1. 6s. 8d.: Land tax, 6s. 8d." This sum
+represents--not five marks--but five nobles, or half-marks. Thus it
+may be said that the dead hand of Henry VIII. still controls the
+tithes of Grasmere.
+
+  [99] Rydal Hall MSS. and Tax Eccles. P. Nicholai.
+
+This tyrant wrought other changes for Grasmere. When creating the new
+diocese of Chester, he swept our parts of Westmorland within it. The
+archdeaconry of Richmondshire remained, but the archdeacon was shorn
+of power. He no longer instituted our parson, as in the days prior to
+the rule of St. Mary's Abbey, and this empty form fell to the Bishop
+of Chester; who, on the death of parson Holgill in 1548, appointed to
+the office one Gabriel Croft, upon nomination by the patron.[100]
+
+  [100] Chester Diocesan Register.
+
+Now Croft was seemingly a man of unscrupulous temper. The boy Edward
+was by this time upon the throne, and spoliation of church revenues
+was, under his advisers and in the name of Protestantism, the order
+of the day. The parson of Grasmere was one of those who seized the
+opportunity offered by the general misrule; and he committed an act
+for which there could be no legal pretext. Previous rectors had
+drawn the tithes of the parish, and pocketed the large margin that
+remained, after the stipends of the worthy curates who did their work
+had been paid. But Croft went beyond this. In 1549 he sold the tithes
+on a lease, and not for the period of his life (which he might have
+claimed as his right) but for ninety-seven years. The purchaser was
+his patron, Dame Marion Bellingham of Helsington, widow; and she paid
+him a lump sum of £58 11s. 5-1/2d., upon the agreement that she and
+her heirs would furnish from the tithes a stipend for the rector of
+£18 11s. 7d.[101]
+
+  [101] List of Rydall Writings. D.F.
+
+The bargain, ratified by John, Bishop of Chester, was excellent for
+both parties; but it was disastrous for the parish. So far, the
+tithes, however mismanaged, had lain in the hands of the church
+and the clergy, for whose support they were rendered. The Abbey
+of St. Mary, while exacting a pension from them, exercised in
+return a supervision that was doubtless of benefit; for under it,
+the rector--though he took the bulk of them himself--could hardly
+escape providing the three priests resident within the parish with
+sufficient stipends. Moreover, as he was an absentee, it is probable
+that he made a stable arrangement for their ingetting, that would
+be convenient to himself and comfortable for the parishioners (such
+as obtained later), and that he even farmed them to the dalesmen
+themselves. This method saved him the risks of an annual tithing
+carried out by a paid agent, and it insured him a regular (if more
+moderate) income, in easily transported silver money. The evidence
+of the lawsuits shows that the system of paying a certain fixed
+sum instead of the tenth in kind was actually in force for some
+commodities, while in some cases this composition or prescription
+extended to the whole of a landed estate.
+
+The change was sharp, from church control to control by a lay
+improprietor, whose simple business it was to squeeze as large an
+income as he could out of his investment. He was not likely to leave
+the tithing on the old easy footing, nor was the parishioner inclined
+to increase his offering without resistance. Squire William Fleming
+was a big enough man to front on his own account the common foe.
+Averring that, in satisfaction of all tithes the customary annual sum
+of 20s. had been paid for "the demeanes of Rydall," he refused Alan
+Bellingham's demand for a tenth of hay, wool and lambs taken from the
+yearly yield. Alan, who denied the custom, sued him in the Consistory
+Court at York, including in his claim the proceeds of the years 1569
+to 1572, for which payment had been made. The spiritual court judged
+in his favour; whereupon Fleming carried the case to the civil court
+of King's Bench. Here, after several adjournments, and a trial before
+justices connected with the county, the final verdict was given in
+his favour (1575).[102]
+
+  [102] _Coram Rege Roll_, N.T., 17 Eliz., ro. 218.
+
+Before the case was settled, the contenders struck a bargain, and the
+ownership of the advowson of Grasmere passed from Alan Bellingham
+of Fawcet Forrest, executor of Marion Bellingham, to the Rydal
+squire for the sum of £100, and that of the remainder of the lease
+of the rectory and tithes for £500.[103] The tenfold increase of
+the purchase money in twenty-four years time shows the enormous
+increase in tithe value when in the grasp of lay hands; for a rise
+of agricultural prosperity would not account for it. Squire William
+now became in his turn the oppressor; but the tale of the powerful
+opposition he roused in the parish must be left to another chapter.
+The advowson remains yet in his family.
+
+  [103] Dated Nov. 3, 1573. "List of Rydall Writings."
+
+To return to the parsons. Croft, with an annuity assured to him,
+and a small capital in gold, no doubt troubled himself little about
+his parish. He had defrauded it and crippled its funds for the
+next hundred years. The curates we suppose stuck to their posts,
+though where their stipends came from is a problem. Little change
+in ritual could have been made, before Edward's death and Mary's
+accession brought a reinstitution of the old form of faith, as well
+as a hopeless attempt to restore stolen church property. In 1554 the
+Bishop of Chester held a visitation at Kendal for these parts, and
+the officials of the parish are set down in the following list:--[104]
+
+  Gresmer.  Mr. Gabriel Croft, Rector ibm. pt.
+            Dns Willmus Jackson, pt. xh.
+            Dns Joh^{es} Hunter pt.
+            Dns Hugo Walton pt.
+
+            pt. Joh^{es} Benson   }
+            pt. Georgius Mylforth } Guardiani
+            pt. Edwardus Benson   }
+
+            pt. Rogerus Gregg     }
+            pt. Nicolaus Dicson   } Inquisitores
+                Tho^{as} Gregg    }
+            pt. Hugo Gregg}
+
+  [104] Chester Diocesan Registry.
+
+It is clear from this that three curates then served the
+parish--"Dominus" being the latinized "sir" of the customary title.
+Of the third in the list evidence is found in the parish register,
+where the burial is recorded on March 8th, 1577, of "Hugh Watson
+preist," this no doubt being the correct form of his name. It seems
+likely that he officiated in Ambleside, which by this time was a
+thriving little town. Of John Hunter nothing further is known: he may
+have served the chapel in Langdale.
+
+Record of William Jackson is found in his will:--[105]
+
+     Sir William Jackson _late curet at Gresmer_.
+
+     Jan. 21, 1569. I William Jackson clarke and curat of Grysmer--to
+     be buriede within ye parishe church of Grysmer, near where my
+     IJ brothers was buried--To my parishe church VIs. VIIId. And yt
+     to be payd.... Kendaill for a booke at I bought of (erased) to
+     the betering of the.... To the poor folkes XXXs. to be divided
+     at the sytct of my supervisores. Item I give to every on of my
+     god children, VId.--To every sarvent in my maister's house XIId.
+     Item I geve to Sir Thomas Benson a sernet typet. To my Mr. John
+     Benson a new velvet cap--By me Sir William Jaikson at Grysmer.
+
+     Inventory, 21 Jan. 1569.--Rament unbequested to be sold be my
+     executores and supervisores. A worsate jaccate, a brod cloth
+     jacate, a brod clothe side goune, a mellay side goune, a shorte
+     goune, a preiste bonate, a velvate cape, a sylke hate, II. pare
+     of hosse, a mellay casseck, a worsat typat, a matras, a great
+     chiste, a ledder dublat. Summa, III li. XIIs.... In wax and
+     sergges, books and parchment, with other small thyngs to be sold
+     within my chamber. I owe to Christofor Wolker's wyff Under Helme
+     XIIs. of newe money to be payed to hyr, whych she dyd bowrere
+     for me in my tyme of nede.
+
+  [105] Wills and Inventories of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire.
+  Surtees Society.
+
+The following extract from the Kendal Corporation MSS. may not be
+inappropriate here:--
+
+  MSS. of the Corporation of Kendal.
+  This MS. commences 10th Report.
+
+     Sept. 26, 1653. Prov. at election of a Mayor. Order that every
+     Alderman shall provide _a gowne_ for the following Sunday, or
+     be fined 40s. _Gowns_ according to an ancient order, to be all
+     of one form "of blacke stuffe, to be faced with black plush or
+     velvet, _and Mr. Maior himselfe to have one readie_ against
+     Sunday next or else forfeit 40s."
+
+     (A 13). "Abstract of fines of Leete Courte," Oct. 20, 1612.
+     Various penalties for misdemeanours.
+
+     "Abstracte of Fines for the Bilawes Courte," Dec. 14, 1612.
+     Various injunctions and fines.
+
+     "_Offerings and bridehowes_ allowed by Mr. Alderman" (then
+     head of Corporation) and 4 Burgesses and the Vicar then being.
+     Bidden dinners or "nutcastes, or _merie nightes_" for money not
+     to exceed 12 persons. Same for "_churching dinner_" for monie
+     taking, only 12 wives allowed.
+
+From this will something may be gathered of the life of the village
+priest who belongs to the vale, and whose simple wish is to be buried
+by his two brothers within the church. He has his appointed chamber
+in his master's house--doubtless the rectory. His possessions are
+few. There are some books, also parchment and wax, for the making of
+wills and indentures; there is the mattress on which he slept, and
+a great "chiste," in which no doubt papers and clothes were stored
+together. Of clothes he had a goodly stock, in jackets, gowns,
+tippets, caps, and the stout leather doublet which no doubt he donned
+for his long tramps through storm and rain and snow to the dying. The
+sale of all these was to furnish money for his legacies--for coin he
+had none. His benefactions are characteristic: loyally to his parish
+church a noble, or half a mark; to every servant of his master 12d.;
+to each of his godchildren 6d.; and he desires besides that an old
+debt, incurred in his "tyme of nede," should be paid in new money.
+Some crisis is suggested here, when the good wife of Under Helm
+collected money for him.
+
+But other facts may be gathered from this will. Our good curate
+bequeaths to "Sir Thomas Benson" his sarsnet tippet, clearly from its
+superior stuff, the best that he had. This, the usual outer dress
+of the priest, was a long garment made with sleeves, reaching to
+the ankles, and was tied with a girdle.[106] Now a Thomas Benson,
+"curate," witnessed the will of John Benson of Baisbrowne in 1563; he
+must then have served the chapel of Langdale for a series of years.
+Also it seems probable that the curate's master, John Benson, was the
+rector, succeeding Croft or another.
+
+  [106] Wall's _Old English Parish_.
+
+A spirit of peace and goodwill breathes through this document, and
+one too that suggests continuity in the order of the church. Yet it
+must be remembered that it was written in the reign of Elizabeth,
+when the Protestant religion had been firmly established by law, and
+written moreover by a man who had undoubtedly followed the Catholic
+ritual fifteen years before. His fellow curate too of that date,
+"preist" Watson, was still alive, surviving him by eight years. There
+is a Protestant odour about the cassock, and Jackson possessed one;
+but his wardrobe is distinctly of the old-world, priestly type. It
+is probable indeed that there was little change made for some time
+even in the services of the church. The people of the north-western
+mountains were conservative, and it was they who most stoutly
+resisted the suppression of the monasteries. There is evidence to
+show that the new tenets were but slowly adopted in these parts.
+The church at Crosthwaite was found as late as 1571 to be still in
+possession of the furniture and pictures that had lent a touch of
+splendour to the former ritual; and they were then most stringently
+ordered to be destroyed.[107]
+
+  [107] Victorian _History of Cumberland_.
+
+The people were not likely to welcome changes that brought in their
+train not only impoverishment of service, but reduction in the number
+of the clergy; for with the diversion of the tithes, there ceased to
+be any provision for the salaries of curates.
+
+Langdale did without a curate, and not until over 200 years was
+the township once more blessed with a resident minister, though the
+chapel was used for services. Ambleside was in different case. Now a
+thriving little town, equally distant from the two parish churches
+that claimed it, with fulling mills bringing in wealth, it was able
+to maintain a curate independently, and did so.
+
+James Dugdale the cleric, who witnessed a Rydal deed in 1575, might
+have been supposed to serve at Ambleside, only that Priest Watson was
+then alive. Certain it is that in 1584 the townsfolk placed their
+support of chapel and curate on a solid basis, pledging each man his
+portion of land thereto. This was immediately before the appointment
+of John Bell as curate. The pledge was repeated in a deed of the year
+1597.
+
+The rector of the parish, with no more than £18 odd as stipend,
+had now to perform the entire duty of the wide parish. Nothing is
+known of Croft's later dealings with the rectorate, nor of Lancelot
+Levens, who followed him. But on the latter's death in 1575, John
+Wilson was instituted, and for fifty-two years he served as rector.
+From his handwriting, seen in the market-deed, and from the register
+(most negligently kept during his time of office) an unfavourable
+impression is created. When he died in 1627, there followed--after
+a few months interlude, when Robert Hogge served--the Rev. Henry
+Wilson, B.A., who was to become notorious as a Royalist and
+High-Churchman. He was nominated by Dame Agnes Fleming, the clever
+widow of Squire William, who at this time ruled at Rydal Hall for her
+son John.
+
+The expenses of the tithe gathering were not great. An item of
+2s. 0d. is paid to David Harrison, the Rydal inn-keeper, against
+"tythinge," and "for gathering tith Eggs" 1s. 0d. These last
+offerings were paid in kind, and we know from subsequent accounts
+that this persuasive office was somtimes filled by women, "two
+wiues," being paid in 1643 "for goeing 3 dayes gathering Eggs at
+Easter."
+
+The later account-sheets kept by Richard Harrison show less
+completely than Tyson's the income derived from the tithes.
+
+                                                            li  s  d
+
+  Rec. in pt. of Lambe booke of gresmire at seaverall
+  tymes due before this 23 June 1643 due at Easter
+  last                                                      11  6  0
+
+  Rec. more in pt. of lambe booke, for gresmire that
+  was begun at Easter last. Rec. this 10 Aug.                3  1 10
+
+The tithes on lambs amounted therefore in 1643 to £14. 7s. 10d. Next
+year:--
+
+                                                            li  s  d
+
+  Rec. more at before this 16 Julie 1644 in pt. of Easter
+  Reckinings of Gresmire due at Easter last                  7  1  9
+
+  Rec. more in pt. of Lambe booke then due                  11 12  6
+
+  Rec. for Easter Reckininges Lambe silvr and some
+  arreares due before this 26 Julie 1645 for gresmire       35 12  0
+
+  Rec. of Easter booke & Lambe booke due at Easter
+  1646 for gresmire before this 4 Ap. 1646                  30  2  6
+
+We have no entries discriminating between tithe and demesne wool,
+which was now selling at a high price; nor do we hear of the tithe
+corn, except that in 1643 the sum of 10s. 0d. was paid for the hire
+of a barn for it. In Tyson's accounts the even money received for
+it--as well as other entries which connect its payment with the
+holder of Padmire in Grasmere--give an appearance of it having been
+then farmed, as it was at a later time.
+
+
+
+
+THE CIVIL WARS
+
+
+It is clear that the tithes were dropping in value; and this is
+little to be wondered at when the condition of the country is
+considered.
+
+War was rife, and the "troubles" that affected every household--high
+and low, either in actual fighting or in tax-paying--were felt with
+peculiar poignancy at Rydal Hall. Squire John Fleming, as a rich
+man, had not stooped to conceal his religion, and had cheerfully
+paid his fine of £50 a year as a Catholic of the old faith. He died
+on February 27, 1643, at an unfortunate time for his young children,
+when warfare was just beginning in the north-west. He was buried
+the same evening, like many another recusant, in Grasmere Church;
+and though Parson Henry Wilson was paid a fee for "ouersight of his
+buriall" it is possible that mass was first said over the body in
+the "Chapel" chamber at Rydal; for one Salomon Benson, a mysterious
+member of the group of papists gathered about the Squire, in receipt
+of a pension of five marks a year, was probably a priest.
+
+The orphaned children--two girls growing to womanhood and a younger
+boy--were now left with all the wealth that would be eventually
+theirs, in charge of executors. Chief among these was Richard
+Harrison, a nephew of the Squire, and a Roman Catholic. He appears
+to have lived with his wife and son at Rydal Hall, and to have had
+entire management of the household in the years that followed.
+
+The position was a difficult one, and naturally grew more so as
+time went on, and success began to attend the Parliamentary party.
+The money-coffers of Squire John were freely dipped into for loans
+to support the Royal cause, which the young heir joined in person;
+and the house was the resort of Royalist soldiers and gentlemen of
+the neighbourhood. As a consequence, it was peculiarly obnoxious
+to the supporters of the Parliament, and was likewise detested by
+the Puritans as a hotbed of Papists. Therefore, when the houses
+of Royalists were sacked up and down the county, there was little
+probability that it would escape.
+
+A tradition has always existed that Rydal Hall was entered and
+plundered by the soldiers of the Commonwealth; but it is in the
+account-sheets of Richard Harrison that explicit evidence of the fact
+has now, and for the first time, been found. The catastrophe would
+belong wholly to Rydal history, but for a clause in the accounts
+which concerns Grasmere church.
+
+Dates are difficult to follow in the sheets, but it is clear that
+the year 1644 marked the turning-point of the war. The hopes of the
+Royalists had been high when Prince Rupert marched through Lancashire
+to meet the enemy; but they were crushed by the terrible defeat of
+Marston Moor on July 1st. The king's forces in these parts were
+completely scattered, and there was a tremendous exodus of loyalists,
+who left to join the king's army in the south. The band was led by
+Sir Francis Howard, and it included the young heir of Rydal. The
+exodus is marked in the account-sheets by the numerous sums borrowed
+from the Rydal chests by various people, beginning with the chief
+himself. Even the loyal parsons borrowed, and small sums were lent
+about this time to two of the Cumberland curates, who possibly went
+off on king's business too. Henry Wilson, the rector of Grasmere, was
+a noted Royalist, and apparently acted as an emissary in the cause.
+The following entry records one of the many loans to him, at a time
+when he too was leaving the country:--
+
+                                                                li s d
+Lent parson wilson upon his note by & with the consent of Mr.
+  Phillipson & Mr. Willm. wch. makes that he hath lately lent
+  8 li wch. he will either repay or els giue satisfaction that
+  it may allow when he comes & serues the cure at Gressmire
+  Church lent him this the 13 July                              5 10 0
+
+It is clear that in this year, 1644, the hall and its inmates shared
+in the general sufferings. Friendly messengers rode by night to give
+warning when another hall was sacked. Hostile soldiers were quartered
+on the premises, and some pillaging of horses and other things was
+done, for which Harrison tried to obtain restitution. He also sought
+protection--if it might be granted by wire-pulling and bribery--from
+Colonels Bellingham and Briggs, who commanded the Scots troops in
+Westmorland. It is possible that the new glass required both for the
+hall and for the choir of Grasmere church, "which was broken," may
+have been the result of some hostile demonstration.
+
+But the actual raid upon the hall was made at Eastertide, 1645. The
+soldiers of "Captaine Orfer & Collonell Lawson" entered it, searched
+for money and took all they could find (which was little) and carried
+off Richard Harrison to prison, where he remained till Pentecost.
+
+Further mischief is recorded in another paragraph of the sheets, when
+the sum of £2 4s. 8d. is set down at Easter, 1645, as "pd. for bread
+and wine twice at Gresmire Church in regard it was once plundered by
+Lawson's souldiers."
+
+Now this provision for the Easter communion, which the tithe-holder
+was bound to make, was a special provision, always accounted for
+separately, and probably delivered direct to the church from the wine
+merchant, whose name is occasionally mentioned. So in this case, the
+church itself was presumably entered with violence, and by the same
+troop that visited Rydal Hall.
+
+It was a Cumberland troop that did the mischief, as is evident from
+the names of the officers. Colonel Wilfred Lawson of the Isell
+family was an ardent fighter for the Parliament. Captain Orfeur was
+doubtless a member of the stock of Plumbland Hall.[108]
+
+  [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.
+
+The troop may have marched from the siege of Carlisle Castle, which
+had been held for the king through the winter; and nothing is more
+likely than that, on their march over the Raise, they would halt at
+Grasmere, and do what despite they could to a sacred building held
+by an episcopalian parson and a recusant patron, who were of course
+odious for their so-called "delinquency." The event, however, is
+inferred rather than actually stated in Harrison's account.[109]
+
+  [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.
+
+At Whitsuntide, on his release from prison, Richard Harrison
+returned to his post at Rydal Hall as factotum and financier. The
+position became steadily worse. Young William Fleming had returned
+from Bristol, after reverses in the south, only to be captured and
+imprisoned in Kendal; and his freedom had to be procured by a heavy
+ransom. In restless mood he declared his intention of going overseas,
+and considerable sums were paid for his fitting out; but he never
+got beyond London, where he died shortly after of smallpox. The
+Parliamentary Committee, then sitting at Kendal, exacted heavy fines
+from the estate for delinquency. Oppressive taxes too were repeatedly
+levied for the support of the Parliamentary forces and the Scotch
+army. This extraordinary outflow of money, as well as the loans made
+to friends, must have materially reduced the wealth of Squire John,
+and have left less for the suitors who presently appeared to claim
+the hands of the heiresses.
+
+Not the Rydal estate alone, but the whole country-side groaned under
+the burden of taxation. It is therefore not surprising that from the
+hardness of the times, as well as from possible illwill, the tithes
+began to yield an uncertain return; and that to come by them at all
+it was sometimes necessary to engage a strong man or a stout party
+for the business. An item in the account-sheets for 1645 runs:--
+
+                                                            li  s  d
+
+  spent in 3 dayes when we went to gather the tith woole
+  being ten in company                                       1  4  0
+
+  Spent more when Mr. Mason & I went to gather the
+  Easter dues at severall tymes                                15  0
+
+  Oct. Adam Fisher & young Jarrat for Inning the tith
+  corne at Gresmere this yeare 1645                          1  0  0
+
+Adam Fisher was the Rydal blacksmith, and doubtless a strong man.
+Clearly no farmer could be found to take up a contract for the tithes
+of corn; and as we have seen, a barn had been hired for its housing.
+
+In 1648 Harrison went into Cumberland, and spent a week getting the
+"tith-rents" due on St. Mark's Day; and he enters:--
+
+                                                            li  s  d
+  geaven my cosen Lamplougs man for his paynes in
+  comeinge to meete me there with directions from
+  [parliamentary] comittee to pay there rents unto
+  me, otherwise I had gotten none payd                       0  5  0
+
+Harrison was subjected to another imprisonment, and squeezed by
+the hostile government of many further sums. His account-sheets
+close in 1648-9, when the hall--soon to lie under the ban of
+sequestration--was itself closed.
+
+
+
+
+THE COMMONWEALTH
+
+
+The year 1645 marked the beginning of a great change in the church
+government of Grasmere. Already the new system devised by the
+Presbyterian party (which was now in the ascendant after the success
+of the Scotch at Newcastle) was being put into force as a substitute
+for episcopal rule. The division of the country into sections, each
+called a _classis_--to be administered by a committee of laymen
+empowered to nominate for each parish a minister and four elders--was
+very rapidly carried out. The following answer was sent to the
+Parliament's demand, by letter from the Speaker, that _classes_ for
+South Westmorland should be formed:--[110]
+
+  [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.
+
+  Honourable Sir
+
+     We received your Honours letter (dated the 22nd September last)
+     the 3d of February last Wherein is required of us with advise
+     of Godly Ministers, to returne to your Honour such Ministers
+     and Elders as are thought fitt for the Presbiteriall way of
+     Government (which wee much desire to be established) and the
+     several classes. After wee received your Honours letter to that
+     purpose (though long after the date) wee speedily had a meeting;
+     and upon due consideration nominated the Ministers and Elders
+     which wee thought fitted (as your Honour may conceive by this
+     enclosed) for the Presbiteriall imployment as is desired and
+     have divided the County of Westmerland into two Classes. Since
+     the expediting of this your Honours direction: Wee have heard
+     of an Ordinance of Parliament directing to the election of such
+     persons: But as yet neither Order or Ordinance hath come unto
+     us; Only your Honours letter, is our Warrant and Instruction;
+     And accordingly we make bould to send (here inclosed) the names
+     both of Ministers and Elders. And if we faile in the Parliaments
+     method in this particuler, Wee shall willingly (upon your
+     Honours next direction) rectify any mistake for the present,
+     and shalbe willing to submitt to your Honours and Parliamentary
+     directions; Which wee shall duly expect, that in wharsoever
+     wee haved missed, wee may amend it. Thus with our Service
+     recommended Wee remaine
+
+  Yours Honours Servants
+
+  Ric Prissoe, Maior     Edmond Grey
+  Thomas Gleddall        Rich Branthwait
+  Ger Benson             Allan Gilpin
+  Rowland Dawson         Thom Sandes
+                         John Archer
+
+  Kendall 10 Martii, 1645
+
+     (Endorsement) 10 Martii, 1645 (1645/46). From the Maior and
+     Committee at Kendal with their Classes.
+
+     For the Honourable William Lenthall, Esq., Speaker of the
+     Commons House of Parliament. These--[111]
+
+  [111] MSS. Tanner, 60, fol. 527, Bodleian Library, Oxford.
+
+In the list of the parishes with their church officials which
+accompany this servile epistle, ours appears thus:
+
+  Grasmere
+
+     Mr. Henry Wilson, minister of Gressmer a notorious malignant and
+     articled against at Parliament.
+
+     Elders.
+
+  Mr. Thomas Brathwait     Edward Knotts and
+  Michaell Benson          Francis Benson
+
+The newly-elected elders were men of good position and character.
+Mr. Brathwaite, son of Gawen, and grandson of James, was soon to
+become the head of the Ambleside Hall family. The Bensons were the
+descendants of the rich clothiers of Elizabeth's days. Francis,
+living at his freehold of the Fold, Loughrigg, was later to display
+his indomitable will as a disciple of George Fox. Edward Knott was
+one of a race of Grasmere statesmen whose course was a forward one
+for some hundreds of years, and whose later history belongs to Rydal
+and Coniston.
+
+But before these men were chosen, or this letter written, the
+"Committee" in Kendal had already interfered in church matters in
+Grasmere, and had suspended the parson. The Rev. Henry Wilson had
+served the king's cause in other ways than by preaching; and it is
+probable that the sums of money he began to borrow from 1643 from the
+Rydal Hall estate (whose coffers all the needy Royalists had recourse
+to) were used upon journeys to and fro as an emissary, or were
+expended in some other way for the cause.[112]
+
+  [112] The secret messengers who passed with despatches between
+  the king and his army endured great perils and sometimes lost
+  their lives.
+
+                                                           li  s  d
+
+  Lent to P'son wilson upon his bill & Sr. Chr: Rawlings
+  13th of August for 6 weekes or els to Allow in his
+  wages at Martinmas                                        1  0  0
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Lent to Mr. Wilson P'son of Gresmire the 16 July
+  upon his bill to be allowed in his sty. pd. at martinmas
+  next 1644                                                 3  0  0
+
+By September he had borrowed £4 more, and on December 30th, £2 10s.
+But the Parliamentary party had by this time determined to put a curb
+on the Royalist parson's excursions. There exists among the MSS.
+of the Corporation of Kendal, a bond, dated November 16th, 1644,
+entered into by him to Colonel James Bellingham, "that the said Henry
+Wilson shall appear and render his body into the hands of the Provost
+Marshall of Kendall, at the end of twenty dayes next after the date
+hereof, and in the mean tyme shall not travell forth of the County of
+Westmorland nor hold any intelligence nor send any message by word or
+writeing to any of that party now in armes against the parliament,
+but in all things demeane himselfe well, and not indeavour in any
+wise to seduce or withdrawe the affections of any of his parishioners
+or others from the service of King & Parliament."
+
+Attested by James Bellingham, Thomas Brathwaite, and Thomas
+Kelver.[113]
+
+  [113] Communicated by Mr. J. A. Martindale.
+
+Under the pressure of military force he was constrained to appear
+before the Parliamentary tribune at Kendal; and he must have been
+then formally inhibited from duty; for the Rydal account-book shows:--
+
+                                                          li  s  d
+
+  pd to Mr. Benson who serues at Gresmire put in by
+  the Committee & ordered to pay the stypend to
+  him that was due to Mr. Wilson for Halfe A
+  yeare ended at penticost last 1645                       9  5  9-1/2
+
+  pd to mr. benson by an order from the Committee for
+  Halfe A yeares wage for serving the Cure at Gresmire
+  ended at Martinmas last 1645                             9  5  9-1/2
+
+It is singular that in the Committee's report of its action to the
+Parliament, in the letter already given, it makes no mention of
+Mr. Benson's supersession of the rector. It was not destined to
+stand however; and possibly there was opposition in the parish. For
+Harrison enters, under February, 1646:--
+
+                                                          li  s  d
+
+  pd. to Sr. Chr: Rawling in pt. of his wages for seruing
+  the Cure of Gresmire for Halfe A yeare to end at
+  penticost next & either to pay it again or els to
+  stand in paymt.                                          5  0  0
+
+The remaining £4 was paid on May 22nd, "by order of the Comittee."
+It would be interesting to know who this server of the cure was. He
+had been resident since at least 1641, when a child of his "Christe:
+Rawlinge, cler," had been baptized. He had likewise joined Parson
+Wilson in his bill three years earlier. His prefix "Sir," betokened
+him to be of the lower order of clergy, who had not graduated at
+either University.
+
+Meanwhile Wilson, without stipend, was sinking under a weight of
+debt. A year after the death of his first wife, he had married (in
+1639) Mrs. Dorothy Forrest, and he had (besides a former family)
+young children born in 1642 and 1643. Harrison thought it necessary
+now, in 1645, to obtain the consent of the young heir of Rydal, and
+of another executor, before lending him further sums of money:--
+
+                                                         li  s  d
+
+  Lent parson wilson upon his note by & with the consent
+  of Mr. Phillipson & Mr. Willm. wch. makes
+  that he hath lately lent 8 li wch. he will either
+  repay or els giue satisfaction that it may allow
+  when he comes & serues the cure at Gressmire
+  Church lent him this the 13 July                       5  10  0
+
+Possibly he left Grasmere for a time, yet it is clear that he had
+hopes of recovering his position there. It is noteworthy that the
+curates of St. John's and St. Bride's, Cumberland, borrowed money
+about the same time, and probably for the king's business likewise.
+
+Parson Wilson--for so he was still called--borrowed £2 more in April,
+1646, making in all £10, and £5 more in May. This was done by consent
+of the executors of the late Squire John Fleming, and he gave them a
+bill which terminated on September 29th. He was quite incapable of
+meeting such a bill, and it became necessary to devise a plan for
+securing repayment.
+
+Now steps upon the scene a figure destined to play for long a
+prominent part in Grasmere church affairs. "My Cozen Ambrose" is
+mentioned in Harrison's account-book as ordering an additional 15s.
+to be paid to parson and clerk on death of Squire John "for oversight
+of his buriall" and now he took more pronounced action. He was nephew
+of Squire John, whose sister Dorothy--his mother--had married the
+lord of Lowick. He had been educated for the church, and in 1629 was
+elected Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.[114] From the first
+he was doubtless intended to fill the post of rector of Grasmere,
+as the patronage belonged to the family. Truly, the living for the
+moment was worth no more than £18 11s. 7d., the stipend paid by the
+tithe-holder; but Gabriel Croft's lease of the tithes was to lapse in
+1647, when they would again belong to the rector. So when Wilson was
+found to be in the last straits for money, John Ambrose came forward
+(with the lease in view) to adjust matters. Under date January, 1647,
+Harrison entered in his book:--
+
+     pd. to Mr. Wilson P'son of gresmire accordinge to articles
+     made betwixt Mr. Wm. and him by doctor Ambrose order for
+     delapidations for gresmire Rectorie and for confirmeinge all
+     the tythes of Rydall at 20s P' annm. duringe his life upon his
+     agrement 24 mch 1646, and a bill 15 li lent money deliuered him
+     in, and pd. him this daie more to make up the Some to 22 li 10s,
+     set down by doctor Ambrose 7 li 10s 0d.
+
+  [114] Dr. Magrath's _Flemings in Oxford_.
+
+Thus the broken-down parson was mercifully left in his dilapidated
+house with his debt cleared, a few pounds in hand, and the prospect
+of £1 yearly in lieu of the Rydal demesne tithe, which was the
+ancient prescription.
+
+Little as it was, it was better than nothing, and the incoming of
+other tithes to the parson was problematic, even if he were again
+allowed to serve the cure. But this doubtful future he had not long
+to face. The church register of that year records on June 26th
+"buryall Henry Willson Clerk of Gresmyre."
+
+There is scarcely a doubt that the Rev. John Ambrose was at once
+nominated to the post by the Fleming family. In evidence given for
+the Restoration lawsuit over the tithes, it is stated that he had
+been inducted "about 15 years since," and had kept the office and
+officiated, till ejected by "the late usurpers." The position with
+tithes restored to it, was worth a struggle to keep, and the parish
+elders and the Presbyterian party at large would seem to have offered
+no real opposition to this powerful nominee.
+
+That party indeed was losing ground all over England, where a
+personal examination before administration of the sacrament--rigidly
+enforced under the Scotch system of eldership--was much disliked;
+and by 1649 its control over church affairs was practically at an
+end.[115]
+
+  [115] Shaw's _Church under the Commonwealth_.
+
+The successes of the Parliamentary army had besides, after the
+victory of Naseby (1645), brought the Independents into power.
+Without passing a law to annul the Presbyterian scheme, they brought
+forward in Parliament various fresh ones of their own; and in 1650
+a bill was framed for "the better propagating of the Gospel" in
+Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland and Durham, these counties
+having petitioned that the vexed question of "settling ministers"
+might be finally resolved. The Act was to hold good for three years;
+and after a slight extension it was abandoned, as the Commissioners
+appointed to carry it out had not given satisfaction. It was while
+the Commissioners under the Act were in office, and no doubt by
+them, that Ambrose, an episcopalian and a Royalist, and nominated
+moreover by a family of recusants, was ejected. In the depositions
+taken at Ambleside, October, 1663, for the tithe lawsuit, John Newton
+of Ambleside declared that the ejection took place about Martinmas,
+1653; and "John Wallace of Kendall clerk," aged 32, gave evidence
+"that the complainant Ambrosse, by some of the late usurped powers
+was sequestered out of the parish church of Grasmere, sitting at
+Newcastle on Tyne before 1653, after which this deponent officiated
+in the said cure 1653, 4 and 5; and after he left one John Tompson,
+clerk, officiated till complainant was restored. During deponent's
+officiating most of the parishioners paid their tithes to him,
+and owned him as patron; and he believes they did the like to
+Thomson."[116]
+
+  [116] Ex. Deps., 15 Chas. II., Mich. 33, Westmorland.
+
+Wallas was clearly placed in the Rev. John Ambrose's post by the
+Independents, who now--with John Archer at their head--ruled the
+municipal and religious affairs of Kendal, for the Parliament, by
+a strong-handed committee; and that it was an ill-judged choice
+as well as an ill-favoured one (at least by one section of the
+community) is certain. By no religious party should John Wallas have
+been considered a suitable pastor for the wide and conservative
+parish, since he was either a man of low, disorderly life, or
+unfortunate in making enemies who could successfully libel him. In
+1655 he was summoned before the justices at the Quarter Sessions
+upon two charges. One was the attempted ravishment of Clara Barwis
+of Loughrigg, "a virgin" twenty-two years old, and of this offence
+he was declared not guilty; while the unhappy girl--likewise charged
+with "ye detestable sinne of fornication with John Wallass Clke"--was
+by an irrational and shameful verdict sentenced to three months
+imprisonment for the joint offence. The other charge against him was
+an assault upon one John Hird; but as he brought a counter charge
+against Hird, this disturbance of "ye publique peace" must have
+assumed the aspect of a free fight.[117]
+
+  [117] Book of Quarter Sessions Indictments, Kendal Corporation.
+
+Wallas was not long to enjoy unchallenged his position at Grasmere.
+The situation was being watched by one who only awaited opportunity
+for action. It was a time of unrest and seething thought; and in 1651
+George Fox, after beholding his vision of blood--when he ran through
+the streets of Lichfield crying "Woe, woe"--had begun his wandering
+life as a preacher. The country was swayed to and fro by contending
+religious factions. The more sober and rational-minded among these,
+shocked by the confusion that prevailed, formed themselves into
+"Voluntary Associations," under which the acting church authorities
+of each district--whether Independent or Presbyterian--united for the
+purpose of settling (if this were possible) the vexed questions of
+the administration of the sacrament and the ordination of ministers.
+At once an Association was formed for Cumberland and Westmorland,
+where the success that attended George Fox's first missionary journey
+through the distracted counties in 1652-3, had brought consternation
+to all sections of the Puritan party, and under the leadership of
+Mr. Richard Gilpin it proceeded to action.[118] Meetings for the
+settlement of church affairs were held every month at Carlisle,
+Penrith and Cockermouth, and in 1656 the counties put forth a joint
+manifesto, called "Articles of Association."
+
+  [118] Fox's _Journals_. He says that he had "large meetings" in
+  Westmorland.
+
+It was the existence of this body with its moderate and conciliatory
+policy, that doubtless enabled the new squire of Rydal to take the
+step he had for some time been preparing. Barely of age in 1654, and
+not yet in possession of the family estates, he nevertheless--while
+studying law in London--kept his eye on the condition of affairs in
+Grasmere and sought how he might--if not restore his kinsman Ambrose
+to the rectory--at least oust the intruder. An entry in his accounts
+of 1s. paid on May 24th "for ye Parrishioners of Gresmire their
+Caveat" shows that he had secured the support of part of the parish
+at least. Again on June 27th he paid 1s. 6d. "for a cop. of the
+Refferees names concerning Wallas." Without doubt he was preparing,
+even to the co-operation of Mr. Brathwaite of Ambleside Hall, for
+the swift stroke of ejection which was carried through on the eve of
+his own entrance to Rydal by his faithful servant John Banks. John
+communicated the result in the following letter:--[119]
+
+  [119] Rydal Hall MSS.
+
+  Hounoured Sir,
+
+     I praise God I got saffe to Rydale wth the oxen on Saturday at
+     night where I was fforced to staye all night it was so late I
+     acquainted the P'ishors that you had sent them word to get a
+     minister every Lord's daye till such tyme as you presented one,
+     and that the might paye them out off the tythes, but none would
+     meddle unless I would goe to the Church and appear wth them soe
+     I was fforced either to neglect it or send to Mr. Turner off
+     Amblesyd to procure him to goe to preach wch I did And he went
+     to your Cousin Bratwhait to aske his advice and leave that he
+     might goe, soe he came to Rydale and I went along wth him But
+     Wallas seeing us cum almost at the Church went quite away to
+     Langdale Chapple whether he intended to goe beffore or noe I
+     knowe not But he lefft the Clarke to oppose us who would not
+     suffer Mr. Turner to read in the usuall place soe I wished Mr.
+     Turner to goe into the pulpit and officiate But the Clark begun
+     to read a Chapter and I bid him giue over but he would not soe I
+     shutt the booke soe Mr. Turner read a Chappter and sung a psalme
+     and begune to preach and when the sermon was done I spoke to
+     some of the P'ishoners to procure every Lords daye a minister &
+     pay them off theire tithes.
+
+  Conyston this 11 Feb. 1655.
+
+  Your obedient servant
+
+  John Bankes.
+
+Good John, with the squire's authority at his back and the
+co-operation of the Ambleside curate (a Presbyterian no doubt), had
+successfully carried the situation through for that day, but his
+spirit quailed before it, as did that of the people. Under date
+February 18th he again wrote to his absent master:--
+
+     I should be glad to hear ffrom you iff you have heard anything
+     ffrom Oxford or London concerninge the P'sonage of Grasmire,
+     ffor wallas keepes the place still and saith he will doe it and
+     that he is instructed by Mr. Archer to keepe it til such tyme as
+     he present another, And he saith that he will cause Mr Turner
+     to be put off his place ffor goeing that one daye to officiate
+     there, Sir I desire that you will be pleased iff you heare
+     anythinge to lett me knowe that I may encourage the P'ishoners
+     ffor the are nowe more dismayed then the were beffore.
+
+In a postscript he reverts to the subject:--
+
+     Sir it will not be amisse to remynd them aboue (probably meaning
+     any grandee with whom young Daniel might come into contact
+     during his honeymoon visits) concerning Grasmire ffor it is the
+     Generall oppinion off all heare that Mr. Archer will doe you a
+     preiudice in it iff he can.
+
+Mr. Archer was of course disputing the right of the Rydal squire
+to nominate. But he and the Independents were yet to learn the
+indomitable nature of the will that now opposed theirs. The young
+squire, too wise to attempt the reinstating of his kinsman, and
+assuming the right to nominate, appointed one John Thompson to the
+rectory: and he won his way in spite of obstacles placed in it.
+
+                                                        li  s  d
+  10 ber 4, 56. Spent at Penrith when Mr. Thompson
+  appeared there to showe unto ye Coms. by wt.
+  title hee officied att Gresmer                         00 01 06
+
+John Banks, then doing business in London, wrote in perplexity
+on October 23rd, saying that counsel's opinion was talked of in
+connection with the matter. Thompson, however, kept his post. He may
+have acted in tune with the Presbyterians for the time being, but at
+the Restoration he returned at once to the uses of the re-established
+Church of England. At the Quarter Sessions held at Kendal, September,
+1660, William Willson of Langdale was charged with "disquietinge,
+abuseinge, & disturbinge John Tompson Clerk vicar of Gressmire in
+readinge ye booke of comon prayer or service of ye Church & in his
+collaton or preachinge at Langdale Chappell" on the 26th, "beinge ye
+lord's day" and the said Willson, refusing to submit or to swear the
+oath of allegiance, was committed to gaol, with the option of a fine
+of 100 marks.[120] Willson indeed was a Quaker or Friend, who abjured
+all oaths--a fact at first misunderstood, and which so frequently
+caused their committal on political grounds. He was one of George
+Fox's most fiery adherents, and a speaker among the little band that
+had sprung up in the parish during the anarchy; and in denouncing the
+clergy on their own ground (the "steeple-house") he did but imitate
+his master.
+
+  [120] Book of Indictments, Kendal Corporation.
+
+On the other hand John Wallas--who had apparently been appointed by
+his friends to another church--was charged before the Justices with
+not reading the Book of Common Prayer, as ordained by law. His next
+appearance at court, in 1663, was in connection with the plot against
+the king and government, lately discovered. He was suspected of being
+mixed up in it, and was committed to Appleby gaol for three months.
+
+The young squire of Rydal, Daniel Fleming, had now a free hand in the
+congenial task of setting the church of Grasmere on the old footing.
+There was some delay or uncertainty, however, in the return of his
+cousin Ambrose to the rectory. The church register contains a note
+of money collected, August 25th, 1661, and this is signed by John
+Brathwaite, "Rector of Grasmere," by John Browk, "curate," and the
+churchwardens; and John Browk's signature as curate occurs again
+August 7th, 1663. But it is certain that Parson Ambrose soon made
+good his claim to the position of rector, and that John Brathwaite
+remained as his principal curate in charge. He was a man who had
+seemingly no mind for strife or commotion. He showed supineness in
+allowing the squire to conduct the dispute about the tithes which now
+arose; as well as later to oppose the scheme of the Ambleside folk to
+secure the privileges of baptism and burial for their chapel. On this
+occasion the excuse was made of his being then (1674) in residence as
+Fellow of St. John's, Cambridge.[121] Perhaps he loved too well the
+cloistered ease of the University. He never attempted to reside at
+the rectory, and would seem to have arranged for bachelor quarters
+to be fitted up at the hall, where he might spend such time as he
+thought it necessary to devote to the parish. These entries occur in
+the great account book:--
+
+  [121] See Cumberland and Westmorland Society's _Transactions_,
+  vol. vi., N.S.
+
+                                                         li  s  d
+  Aug. 11. 59. Payed unto Grigg for 3 dayes paveing
+    & guttering of ye Roome under Mr. Ambrose's
+    Chamber                                              00 01 00
+
+  Jan. 26. 59. Lost at Tables unto Parson Ambrose        00 01 00
+
+Such peaceful hours of card-playing--restricted to the festival time
+of Christmas--were occasionally varied by polemical events; if so, we
+may interpret the scene at the Loughrigg inn:--
+
+                                                         li  s  d
+  June 23, 1669. Spent at Braythey Bridge end in ye
+    contest betwixt Jos. Penny & my Cosin Ambrose        00 00 06
+
+For the recovery of the tithes, the rector relied entirely on the
+legal knowledge and acute judgment of his relative; and the draft
+of the Bill presented in the Court of Exchequer, and now lying at
+Rydal Hall, is in the latter's handwriting. From this we learn that
+certain parishioners refused to pay tithes to the newly-instituted
+rector, and that their refusal was moreover of some years standing,
+as neither Wallas nor Thompson had been in a position to compel
+payment from the refractory. There are twenty-one names cited in the
+bill. Many of these were no doubt conscientious objectors, though
+some would be of that ever-present class, who seize any excuse for
+shirking an obligation. From the wording of the petition, that the
+objectors "pretended" John Ambrose never was parson of Grasmere,
+nor had been lawfully restored, it looks as if there had been some
+opposition to the squire's change of minister at the Restoration.
+Mr. Thomas Brathwaite had assisted him as we have seen in the
+removal of the Independent, but now the expulsion of the (probable)
+Presbyterian minister in favour of the Episcopalian roused the ire
+no doubt of the Presbyterian party, headed by the Ambleside Hall
+family. Robert Brathwaite, gentleman, was younger brother of Thomas,
+and had inherited from his father Gawen not only the property of
+High House, Hugill (where he generally resided) but the small
+"manor" of Baisbrowne in Langdale. It was on this estate that tithes
+were claimed from its owner, who heads the list of recalcitrant
+parishioners. Another prominent statesman among them was Christopher
+Nicholson, of Padmire, Grasmere, of whose religious persuasion we
+know nothing. A third was Francis Benson, freeholder; he, along with
+Mr. Brathwaite and Michael Benson, had served as an elder on the
+Presbyterian _Classis_, and had now become an ardent Quaker. These,
+with the rest, had--so the petition declared--combined to resist
+payment, and had persuaded others to do the like. Their position was
+certainly weakened by the fact that they had failed to pay these
+customary dues for its support, while they were satisfied with the
+ministry; yet the demand now made for fourteen years' arrears, may
+well have irritated them. The claim upon Mr. Robert Brathwaite's
+estate stands thus, when placed in the form of a table:--
+
+                                                                  £  s. d.
+  Meadows, of which the "tythe-hay" is worth yearly               0  0 10
+  Ten cow's milk each yearly 2d.                                  0  1  8
+  One tithe-calf                                                  0  1  8
+  Two foals, each 2d.                                             0  0  4
+  Three hundred sheep, of which, the tythe wool is worth yearly   2  0  0
+  One hundred lambs paying a customary sum each year of 1s. 2d.     11  8
+  Three sows, the tithe pigs being yearly                              10
+  Ten geese, ten hens, and ten ducks, tithe yearly                   5  0
+  two swarms of bees, customary payment 2d. each                        4
+  Five bushels of plums, with other fruit, tithe worth               3  0
+  Twenty acres, pastured with barren cattle                          5  0
+  Hemp grown, tithe worth yearly                                     2  0
+  Oblaytions                                                         2  6
+
+The demand made upon each of the foremost defendants in the lawsuit
+was exactly the same, showing that the estimate of the tithes was
+a purely conventional one. It amounted then for each prosperous
+statesman to £3 14s. 10d.--a large sum compared with the commutation
+of the Rydal Hall tithe; and when this figure is multiplied by
+fourteen for arrears, a total of £52 7s. 8d. is reached, which was
+likely enough to arouse dismay and opposition. The case dragged
+on; and on October 20th, 1663, a commission sat at Ambleside, when
+witnesses were called on both sides. The smaller statesmen were no
+longer cited, while Robert Brathwaite, Christopher Nicholson, Francis
+Benson, and John Benson stood as the defendants.[122] The verdict
+is not known; but payment of tithes once more became customary.
+The refusal of the Quakers to pay the church rate will be noticed
+hereafter.
+
+  [122] Ex. Deps., 15 Chas. II., Mich. 33, Westmorland.
+
+The tithes seem often to have been let on lease, which saved the
+rector the trouble and annoyance of collection. Edward Benson of
+Loughrigg declared, in 1663, before the commission, that he and
+Miles Mackereth and John Brathwaite held a lease of them from Parson
+Ambrose for three years, which ended April 15th, 1665. About the year
+1726 they were apparently farmed by the statesmen jointly. A paper
+exists[123] entitled "Grasmere Tyth Corn lett to the Inhabitants Anno
+1726. Some wanting." It contains the names of 55 landholders, with
+the amount--varying from 1s. to 18s.--paid by each as an equivalent
+for the tithe of corn. The total is £18 6s.
+
+  [123] Rydal Hall MSS.
+
+This agrees with the statement of Miss Craik, who in 1752 was
+corresponding with Sir William Fleming on behalf of her incapable
+brother, the rector. While expressing her surprise that he should
+think of renting the tithes of corn, she tells him that Mr. Craik's
+collector had been persuaded to grant a three years' lease at £14
+10s., which was too little. The salary of the collector, she adds,
+had been in a former year £5.
+
+The growth of corn increased seemingly in this district as the
+eighteenth century went by, owing no doubt to its heightened price
+throughout the kingdom. The tithe of it accordingly went up in value,
+while wool, from the decay of the cloth trade, went down.
+
+[Illustration: CHURCH WARDENS]
+
+[Illustration: FONT IN GRASMERE CHURCH.
+
+(FROM TABLE BOOK BY WM. HONE, 1827.)]
+
+
+
+
+PART IV
+
+THE FABRIC
+
+THE FURNITURE
+
+THE UPKEEP OF THE CHURCH
+
+CLEANING AND REPAIRS
+
+EXTRACTS FROM CHURCHWARDENS' ACCOUNTS
+
+[Illustration: Decorative]
+
+
+
+
+THE FABRIC
+
+
+Grasmere Church, as it stands at present, is itself the sole guide we
+have to its age and the method of its building. No document exists,
+prior to the Restoration, that concerns the fabric. It was then
+apparently the same as it is now. As one steps within the portal,
+and sees through the gloom its strange double nave, the rude spaces
+broken through the thick intersecting wall, and the massive, split,
+misshapen timbers that support its roof, one wonders who were its
+planners and builders. Here surely in this strange and original
+structure we see a work conceived and carried out by the very men who
+worshipped within it. Sturdy, strong, and self-dependent, they would
+seem to have asked little or no aid either in money or skill, for the
+rearing and decoration of their church. Yet its builders, when they
+came to remodel, if not to rebuild their ancient place of worship,
+must have known edifices of statelier plan. There was Kendal, their
+great centre, with a church that must always have kept abreast of the
+time in architectural beauty, and which--from the earliest fifteenth
+century at least, showed the dressed columns of stone, the soaring
+arches, and chantried aisles which yet remain. St. Martin's of
+Windermere, too, in the next parish, possessed a duly proportioned
+nave, chancel, and aisle; and the columns--built though they were of
+undressed stone--rose to support a clerestory and the evenly-timbered
+roof. Hawkshead again (whither the dalesmen often repaired to market
+or fair) owned a church that was ruder than the others, indeed--since
+its huge cylindrical piers support circular arches, and the timber of
+its roof is rough-hewn--but had a well-proportioned plan for nave and
+aisles.
+
+[Illustration: Old Window in the South Wall.
+
+Outside View]
+
+These places, it is true, had advantages over Grasmere. Kendal was
+in contact with the great world and with the heads of the church,
+who visited it regularly. It had, besides, access to freestone.
+Windermere, like Hawkshead, had to let the intractable slate of
+the neighbouring mountains suffice for the main structure: hence
+the great piers without capitals and the plaster finish of their
+interiors. But Windermere had an advantage in its nearness to Kendal;
+and Hawkshead in its association with the abbey of Furness, which
+was easily accessible from there. Grasmere, on the other hand, was
+probably ignorant of the beauties of the Abbey Church of St. Mary's
+at York, to which it was attached. The church was practically shut
+up within the remotest chamber of the mountains, and could only be
+reached by 17 miles of bad road from Kendal, over which no wheels
+could travel. But with no freestone near, with only the hard mountain
+slate to rive, or the boulders of the beck to gather; without
+traditional skill and with very little hard cash, our builders of
+Grasmere proceeded--when need came--to alter and enlarge their
+House of God by such simple methods as house and barn "raising" had
+made familiar to them. Thus we read the story of the structure as
+it stands at present, and see that the builders had clearly little
+help from the outer world. We see, too, that this structure was an
+alteration of an earlier one; which was not itself the first, for
+the first stone fane probably replaced a wooden one, either here
+or on Kirk How. It was doubtless of that simple oblong form, without
+chancel or tower, which was technically known as a chapel,[124] and
+of which specimens have remained among the mountains to this day. But
+an _ecclesia parochia_, possessed of daughter chapels, could not be
+permitted by the higher powers--whether of church or manor--to retain
+so lowly a form. The manorial lords may have interested themselves
+in its reconstruction, though there is no evidence of the fact. In
+any case, it is likely that the Abbey of St. Mary would take the
+necessary steps to bring it up to the requirements of its position,
+and of the worship to be conducted within its walls. The visiting
+brother would carry accounts of the remote little church to York; and
+a monk skilled in architecture could be brought over to plan a new
+building, and to direct its construction. The customary model for
+a small parochial church would be adopted, which allowed a chancel
+for priests officiating at the mass; then a nave without aisles
+for the worshippers, lighted by narrow windows--for before glazing
+was possible the opening had to be guarded from weather by wooden
+shutters--and to the west a tower, in which to hang the bells that
+should call the parishioners from far.
+
+  [124] _Gothic Architecture in England_, Francis Bond, p. 191.
+
+Such doubtless was the existing church in its first state, and of
+it there may remain the tower, the porch, the south wall, and one
+window. There are indications that before its enlargement it was more
+ornate then now. Freestone was used, though sparingly, to emphasize
+the chief architectural points. The opening into the tower, piercing
+four feet of solid wall, has a moulding of freestone (now battered
+away) to mark the spring of its slightly-pointed arch; while a
+string-moulding is discernible in the north wall of the nave, which
+may once have accentuated the window heads. The windows--if we may
+suppose the one left between porch and tower to be a relic of the
+original set[125]--were simple openings finished by an "ogee" arch.
+The font may be as old as the window, if not older. Its mouldings,
+which originally followed the rim and divided the bowl into a
+hexagon, are almost obliterated; and though no doubt it suffered
+during the Commonwealth, when it was degraded from its sacred use,
+the damage may not be wholly due to that cause. The freestone used
+in the building was unfortunately friable, and must have suffered at
+every alteration--such as the piercing of the north wall by arches,
+and the building up of the tower-arch for a vestry. It could not be
+replaced by the remodellers; and they seem to have intentionally
+chipped and levelled it, and then freely whitewashed it over, with a
+general view to tidiness. They even went beyond this; for when the
+east wall was reconstructed in 1851, a stone carved with the likeness
+of a face was found built into it. This is now in the Kendal Museum.
+The piscina, too, now refixed (and, unfortunately, redressed), was
+found, covered with plaster, lower down in the same wall.
+
+  [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.
+
+[Illustration: Profile of Stone Head]
+
+The worn, maltreated freestone might, if we knew its origin, tell
+something of the tale of the building. A well-squared yellow block,
+recently laid bare in the porch, is certainly not the red sandstone
+of Furness.
+
+[Illustration: SCULPTURED STONE FOUND IN TAKING DOWN THE EAST
+WALL OF GRASMERE CHURCH]
+
+Now should the age of the fabric, decorated thus simply though
+judiciously, be questioned, it must be owned that there is nothing
+to indicate its being older than the fourteenth century. It is true
+that a western tower with no entrance from outside was a feature
+of many Saxon churches, but such towers continued to be built for
+parish churches until a late date. The rough masonry of the Grasmere
+tower is due to the material; and the massive boulders used in the
+foundation were no doubt gathered from the beck, whose proximity must
+have been highly convenient for builders who were poorly equipped
+for the quarrying of their slate rock. The "ogee" or trefoiled arch
+was a development of the Decorated style of architecture, which
+evolved the form from the elaborate traceries of its windows.[126]
+The Decorated style is roughly computated as lasting from the open
+to the close of the fourteenth century, and the period of its use
+coincides fairly with the time when our church fell under the
+influence of the monastery.
+
+  [126] S. Holborne: _Architecture of European Religions_.
+
+A church of primitive size would be sufficient for the folk of the
+three townships, while they lived in scattered homesteads and were
+all bent upon husbandry, with short intervals of warfare with the
+Scots. But it would become too small for a growing population that
+throve in times of peace upon the wool trade.[127] With walk-mills in
+the valleys, and families growing rich as clothiers, some extension
+of the church would be necessary; and this extension seems to have
+been started in a fashion strangely simple. Leaving the walls of the
+edifice intact with its roof, a space almost equal--for it is but one
+yard narrower--was marked off on the northern side, enclosed by walls
+and roofed over. The intervening wall could not be removed, because
+the builders were incapable of spanning the double space by a single
+roof. It was therefore left to sustain the timbers of the two roofs,
+and through its thickness (over three feet) spaces were broken in the
+form of simple arches. Thus--though one is called an aisle--two naves
+were practically formed, separated by the pierced wall. The date
+of this enlargement is uncertain. If we place it in the era of the
+prosperity of the townships from the cloth trade, it could have been
+done no earlier than the reign of Henry the Seventh, and no later
+than the early days of Elizabeth; while a supposition that it was not
+taken in hand until the dissolution of the monastery had thrown the
+men of the three townships on their resources is strengthened by the
+character of the work.
+
+  [127] See Fullers and Freeholders: _Trans. of Cumberland and
+  Westmorland Ant. So._, N.S.
+
+How long the enlarged church remained under a double roof cannot be
+said. Trouble would be sure to come from the long, deep valley, where
+snow would lodge and drip slowly inside. Clearly there was urgent
+need for action and radical alteration when the powerful Mr. John
+Benson, of Baisbrowne, made his will in 1562. A clause of this runs:
+"Also I giue and bequeath towardes the Reparacions of the church of
+gresmyre XXs so that the Roofe be taken down and maide oop againe."
+
+But how to construct a single roof over the double space? This
+insoluble problem (to them) was met by the village genius in a
+singular manner. The arched midwall was not abolished. It was
+carried higher by means of a second tier of arches whose columns
+rest strangely on the crowns of the lower. These upper openings
+permit the principal timbers to rest in their old position, while
+the higher timbers are supported by the abruptly ending wall. Thus
+a single pitched roof outside is attained, sustained by a double
+framework within. The result is unique, and remains as a monument of
+the courage, resource, and devotion to their church of our mountain
+dalesmen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Since this chapter was written the stone face--p. 104--has been
+returned by Kendal to Grasmere.--ED.]
+
+
+
+
+THE FURNITURE
+
+
+Of early furniture there is, of course, no trace within the
+church. All the accessories of the ritual of the mass, whether in
+metal, wood, or textile, as well as such as would be required for
+processions on Rogation Days, were swept away at the Reformation. A
+reminder of these processions may perhaps be found in the field at
+the meeting of the roads near the present cemetery, which goes by
+the name of Great Cross, for here, doubtless, a Station of the Cross
+stood where the priest and the moving throng would halt and turn.
+Another field is named Little Cross.
+
+[Illustration: Date on Bench End]
+
+One upright piece of oak, roughly cut with the date 1635, remains
+to show us the style of the old benches--or forms as they were
+called--which filled the space above the earthen floor. The bench
+itself, to judge by the aperture left in this end-piece, would appear
+to have been no more than six inches wide, and almost as thick; the
+bench-end, which was further steadied by a slighter bar below, was
+sunk into the ground.
+
+[Illustration: BENCH END.]
+
+These benches could not have been fixed with any permanence, for the
+earthen floor was often broken up for the burial of parishioners.
+The custom of burial inside the church was a favourite one, and
+was continued down to the nineteenth century. While the choir was
+reserved for the knight or gentleman (and of the former there were
+none within the parish) and for the priest, the statesman was buried
+in the nave or aisle; and only
+
+the landless man or cottar would be laid in the garth outside.
+Frequently in wills the testator expressed his wish to be buried
+as near as possible to a deceased relative, or the place where he
+had worshipped. He was in any case buried within the limits of his
+township's division in the church. In 1563 Mr. John Benson, of
+Baisbrowne, who was a freeholder and probably a cloth merchant,
+desired to be buried "in the queare in the parish church of
+gresmire as neare where my wife lyethe as convenientlye may be."
+After the Fleming family of Rydal and Coniston became possessed of
+the advowson, they were many of them--beginning with William the
+purchaser in 1600--buried within the choir; though no monument or
+tablet exists prior to the one commemorating Sir Daniel's father,
+1653. The tithe-paper shows the rate of payment for interment in the
+higher or lower choir. Besides fees paid to the officials of the
+church, the townships, through their individual wardens, took payment
+for all "ground broken," as the phrase went, within their division,
+and the receipts from this source appear regularly in their accounts.
+The usual fee for an adult was 3s. 4d. (a quarter mark), and out of
+this 2d. had to be paid by the wardens for laying the flag. Less was
+charged for children, while women who died in childbirth were buried
+for nothing but the actual cost of the flag-laying. Under the year
+1693, when seven parishioners were laid within the church soil, we
+read "& more for the burying of two Women yt. dyed in Childbed in
+the Church00li 00s 04d." There were seven burials in 1723, five in
+1732, five in 1766, and four in 1773. As late as 1821 Rydal and
+Loughrigg buried one inhabitant in the church, and Langdale three. It
+is singular that the Grasmere township discontinued the custom before
+the two others, for no interment took place in her division after
+1797.
+
+The following extracts from the wardens' accounts show how frequently
+the floor of the church was disturbed and levelled:--
+
+                                                      £   s.  d.
+
+  1674  It. for lying Flags of 2 graves in our third  00  00  04
+
+  1689  For lying the Grave Flags and mending
+        Forms                                         00  00  06
+
+  1690  All three townships pay for "lying Flags
+        and mending Fourmes."
+
+  1713  For Lying ye Flaggs upon Several Graves
+        wh. had fallen in                             00  01  00
+
+  1728  For mending the Flaggs and Fourms             00  02  02
+
+  1729  For flagging and Leavelling ye Church
+        floor                                         00  00  10
+
+  1763  Grasmere mende forms and levell flags, 1s. 6d.; Loughrigg
+        and beneath Moss the same, 1s. 8d.
+
+  1772  New flags bought, and extensive work done upon the
+        floor, at a total cost of £9 8s. 1-3/4d.: the flagging of the
+        "low end" not being completed till next year.
+
+  1774  For "mending Furmes in Church & a Soal-tree" 12s. 4d.
+        is paid.
+
+  1782  Grasmere purchases an oak tree for seats in her third,
+        13s. 4d., carpenter 13s. 4d.; with a final 11s. 6d. next
+        year for repair of the old ones.
+
+  1783  Loughrigg and beneath Moss proceeds to the same; and
+        two new "Sole-trees" [foot-rail] with the railing and
+        repairing of four forms cost £1 9s. 0d., besides 1s. 8d.
+        spent in ale at the public auction of the contract, and 2d.
+        for advertisement of same.
+                                                           s   d
+
+  1811  For Levelling Church & mending Windows             1   6
+
+  1819  To clearing Church of Stones and Rubbish           1   6
+
+  1828  Outlay unusual. Grasmere shows "To Flags & Flagging
+        in the Church" 19s. 4d. "To repairing seates" 2s. 0d.
+        Loughrigg and beneath Moss "To Ambleside Church-warden
+        paid for New Seats" £2 1s. 6d. Langdale "To
+        Repairing Flags in Church" £1 6s. 6d.; Seats and Wood
+        19s. 9d.
+
+  1833  Grasmere repairs "fermes" in Church, 6d.
+
+The soil beneath the church is thus literally sown with bones, and
+the wonder is that room could be found for so many. But in this
+connection it must be remembered that the practice of burying without
+coffins was the usual one until a comparatively recent period.
+
+No wonder that plague broke out again and again, that the fragrant
+rush was needed for other purpose than warmth, and that fires within
+the church could not have been tolerated.
+
+The custom concerning these forms or _ferms_, as locally pronounced,
+was rigid. Every man had a right, as townsman or member of a _vill_,
+to a recognized seat within the church, which was obtained through
+the officials of his township. This seat was, of course, within the
+division of his township. The women sat apart from the men, and even
+the maids from the old wives. So tenaciously was the hereditary seat
+clung to, that reference to it may occasionally be met with in a
+will.[128]
+
+  [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.
+
+Some serious alteration in the allotment of seats was probably made
+in 1676, judging from these entries in the wardens' accounts.
+
+                                                       li  s  d
+
+  Ittem for Laughrig third for lifting seatts upon
+  Church & when ther names was sent in writting        00  2  00
+
+  Itt. for grasmyre third for ye like                  00  2  00
+
+The Squire of Rydal, as soon as the Restoration permitted it, set
+to work to furnish that part of the church in which he worshipped
+suitably to the honour and dignity of his family. The family seats
+had before his time long stood vacant, even if they had been ever
+regularly used. His predecessor, John, as an avowed Roman Catholic,
+had preferred to pay heavy fines rather than obey the law in the
+matter of attendance at the Communion of the parish church; and there
+is little doubt that the mass was celebrated in private for him at
+Rydal Hall. John's mother, Dame Agnes, may have attended during her
+widowhood; but her husband William, the purchaser of the tithes and
+patronage, must--always supposing him to be a good Protestant--have
+attended more frequently at Coniston.
+
+But Squire Daniel was a pillar of the church as well as of the State
+in his neighbourhood, and his accommodation within the building was
+framed in view of the fact. The following entry occurs in his account
+book, under July 13th, 1663. The monument referred to is doubtless
+the brass tablet we now see in the chancel, and it appears to have
+waited for its fixing for ten years after its purchase in London:--
+
+                                                        li  s   d
+
+  Spent at Gresmer, when ye wainscott seat, & my
+  father's monum.t were set up                         00  00  06
+
+
+And two days later the bill for the seat was paid. It is not very
+intelligible, but reads thus:--
+
+  Paid unto Christ. Robinson of Kendall (Joyner)        li  s   d
+  for 10 yards and foot 2/1 of double wainscott at
+  4s P' yard, and yards 4 foot 2/1 of single wainscott
+  at 3s P' yard, for a Board, Ledging & knobs in
+  all (being for ye seats at Gresmere) ye sum of       03  06  06
+
+No doubt this is the fine old pew which still stands between the
+pulpit and the priest's door of the chancel. In it, for nearly forty
+years, the squire worshipped, with his growing family about him. The
+regularity of his attendance is shown by his account book, where
+every collection is entered; and in spite of his frequent ridings on
+public and private business, he never but once (till the close of
+the book in 1688) missed the four yearly communions in his parish
+church. On that occasion, when Easter Day, 1682, was spent at Hutton,
+he attended a service at Grasmere on the previous Good Friday (held
+possibly by his order), at which his Easter offering was given.
+
+     Given this day (being Good-Fryday) at ye Offertory in Gresmere
+     Church for myselfe 5s., for Will, Alice, Dan, Barbara & Mary 5s.
+
+The sums given were invariable: 5s. for himself, 2s. 6d. for his wife
+(while she lived), and 1s. for each child.[129]
+
+  [129] For the custom of Easter offerings, see Canon Simmons'
+  Notes to _The Lay Folks' Mass Book_, pp. 239-241.
+
+It was in 1675 that the sad necessity rose of putting up a monument
+to his excellent wife. The brass was apparently cut in London, for he
+sent to his Uncle Newman there:--
+
+     3li 10s. 0d. towards ye paying for my late dear wifes Epitaphs
+     engraving in brass.
+
+Though 2s. 6d. more was paid afterwards.
+
+     Unto Rich. Washington of Kendall for amending of my late Dear
+     Wifes Epitaph in brass.
+
+Washington, who was entered in 1642 among the "Armerers Fremen and
+Hardwaremen" of Kendal, and was mayor of the city in 1685,[130] was
+wholly entrusted with the next family brass; for we find that under
+date February 10th, 1682, he was paid "for ye Brass & the cutting
+of ye Epitaph for my Mother and Uncle Jo. Kirkby, £4 10s 0d which
+my brothers Roger & William are to pay me again." But this was for
+Coniston Church.
+
+  [130] _Boke off Recorde of Kirkbie Kendal._
+
+It was after the squire's second son, Henry, had become Rector of
+Grasmere, and by his encouragement, that the church was freshly
+beautified and "adorned." The entry of 1s. paid in 1662 to James
+Harrison for "makeing ye sentences w'in ye church" shows that
+something was at once attempted; for it was as imperative that a
+church should be "sentenced" as that the Royal Arms should be put
+up, or the Commandments or Lord's Prayer. All these were devices
+(expressly enjoined by the sovereign) for covering up the nakedness
+of the churches after they had been stripped by the Reformers of
+all objects of beauty and reverence, in roods, images of saints,
+tapestries, &c., &c.; for Elizabeth and many of her subjects had
+been horrified at the effect of changes that appeared to rob the
+churches of their sacred character.[131] Frescoes on plaster had, of
+course, been used from early times as a means of teaching Holy Writ
+and Legend to the unlettered folk, and fragments of such pictures
+are still to be seen in Carlisle Cathedral. But at the Reformation,
+when plaster and paint were again resorted to, only the written
+word was permitted (with the exception of the Lion and Unicorn);
+and the wall-spaces of the churches became covered with texts
+and catechisms,[132] which were surrounded or finished by "decent
+flourishes."[133]
+
+  [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._
+
+In its turn the reformed style has disappeared, even in churches
+peculiarly suited to it, like those of the Lake District, where the
+rough unworkable slate is bound to be covered by a coat of plaster.
+During recent restorations, however, at both Windermere and Hawkshead
+the sentences were found under coats of whitewash, and they were
+in a truly conservative spirit painted in again. Grasmere, weary
+of "mending" the sentences and whitening round them, finally wiped
+them out in the last century, and substituted the ugly black boards
+painted with texts, which still hang between the archways. Fragments
+of the old sentences were descried when the walls were recently
+scraped and coloured.
+
+It was in 1687 that a complete scheme of decoration was carried out
+within the church, and one James Addison, a favourite decorator in
+the district, was engaged for the purpose. The contract made with him
+is preserved in the churchwardens' book:--
+
+     Mr. Adison is to playster what is needfull & whiten all the
+     Quire & Church except that within the insyde of the Arche of
+     the steeple to paint the 10 Coman's on the one syde of the
+     Quire window & the beliefe & Lordes prayer on the other with 8
+     sentences & florishes in the Quire & 26 sentences in the Church
+     with decent Florishes & the Kinges Armes well drawn & adorned.
+
+Later on comes the copy of an agreement in later handwriting:--
+
+  March the 29th An'o Dom'i 1687.
+
+     Mem'd. It was then agreed on by and between James Addison of
+     Hornby in the County of Lancaster Painter on the one part
+     and Mr. Henry Fleming of Grasmer the churchwardens and other
+     Parishioners of the Parish aforesaid: That the said James
+     Addison shall and will on this side the first day of August
+     next after the date hereof sufficiently plaster wash with
+     Lime and whiten all ye church of Grasmer aforesaid (except ye
+     inside of the steeple) and well and decently to paint ye Tenne
+     Commandm'ts, Lord's prayer and thirty Sentences at such places
+     as are already agreed on together with the Kings Arms in proper
+     colours and also to colour the pulpit a good green colour and
+     also to flourish the Pillars and over all the Arches and doors
+     well and sufficiently, the said Parson and Parishioners finding
+     lime and hair onely. In consideration whereof the sd. Parson and
+     Parishioners doe promise to pay him nine pounds Ten shillings
+     when or so soon as the work shall be done.
+
+     And be it likewise remembered the s'd Parson and Parishioners
+     gave him 05s in earnest and that the Parson is to pay the fifth
+     part of the nine pounds Ten shillings, the parishioners being at
+     the whole charge of the lime and Hair.
+
+              The names of the 18 Questmen
+
+  For Grasmer          For Langdale        Rydal Ambleside and
+                                             Loughrigg.
+
+  Reg. Thompson      W. Satterthwaite      Thomas Benson
+  John Hird          Jno. Middlefell       Jo. Banks
+  Jo. Hawkrigge      Geo. Cowperthwaite    Reg. Braithwaite
+      of townhead    Chr. Dawson           Jo. Newton
+  Jo. Hawkrigge      Leo. Benson           Jo. Braithwaite de[134]
+      of Howhead     James Dixon              Hawkshead
+  Hen. Hird                                Hen. Barrow
+  Eadwin Green
+
+    [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.
+
+                    Church Wardens
+
+  For Grasmer             Eadwin Green
+                          Rob't Hird
+  For Langdale            Geo. Cowperthwaite
+                          Leo. Benson
+  For Rydal Ambleside and
+    Loughrigg             Ed. Benson de Highclose
+                          Tho Newton de Ambleside
+
+     Memorand. That to promote ye Painting of ye ch'h ye Parson did
+     offer to pay according to ye proportion ye Quire did bear to
+     ye whole ch'h to ye plastering washing w'h lime and painting
+     of ye ten Command'ts Creed L'ds prayer and 30 sentences, tho'
+     y'er had but been 4 or 5 Sentences in ye Quire before and now ye
+     ten Comma'd'ts and Creed were to be painted on each side of the
+     quire windows The Charge of all which was commuted at £8 0 0 and
+     ye K'gs Arms and ye painting of ye pulpit at ye remainder. So
+     that the quire appearing by measure to be a 5 part ye Parson was
+     to pay £1 12s. 0d. but to be quit of the trouble of providing
+     his proportion of lime and hair he did prefer to pay ye 5 part
+     of the whole £9 10s. 0d. ye parish finding all lime and hair
+     which was agreed to. Besides ye £9 10s. 0d. agreed to be paid
+     there was 5s. 0d. given to the painter in earnest to have the
+     work done well.
+
+                                                          £   s  d
+  March 29. Paid for ye 5 part of the earnest money
+  given to the painter                                   00  01  0
+
+  June 21. Paid to Mr. James Addison for ye parsons
+  share of painting the Church being ye 5 part of
+  £9 10 0                                                00  18  0
+
+The contract included the painting of the pulpit of a cheerful green,
+as we read. It was a plain structure of wood, and the "Quission"
+bought for it in 1661, as well as the cloth then procured for the
+Communion Table, were doubtless worn out; for we learn from the
+church-wardens' Presentment for 1707 that these and some other
+points about the church had been found wanting by the higher church
+authorities. The paper runs:--
+
+     The defects found in our church for and at ye late Visitation,
+     viz. The Floor of the Church-porch & Isles uneven Flagg'd; The
+     South wall of the Inside fro' ye Bellfry unto ye East, dirty;
+     A decent Reading-pew, Com'unio'-Table-cloth of Linen, & pulpet
+     Cushio' wanting; A Table of degrees wanting, & a crackt Bell.
+
+     All these faults except two (viz. The Reading-pew & crackt Bell)
+     are amended. The porch & Isles even Flagg'd. The Wall made
+     white & clean, A decent Table-cloth, Pulpet-Cushion, & Table of
+     degrees, procured.
+
+     A new Reading-pew is in making at present, & will shortly be
+     perfected. & as for the Bell it was referr'd to Dr. Fleming's
+     discerec'on to be amended & made tuneable; & he resolves in
+     convenient time to call together & consult w'th the chief of his
+     Parishion'rs to do it, & in w't time and manner, to the best
+     Advantage."
+
+Accordingly we find entries of the expense incurred by a few of these
+requirements:--
+
+                                                            li   s   d
+  1706   For Cloth, Silk, Fring and Tassles for ye pulpitt
+           Cushion                                         01   02  05
+
+         For Flocks harden and making ye pulpitt
+           Cushion                                         00   03  01-1/2
+
+         For Cloth for ye Table Cloth and makeing          00   05  11
+
+  1709 For mending the Stairs and laying ye Flaggs
+         in ye Clarks pew                                   00  10  00
+
+Nothing is heard, however, of a new reading-pew, and in 1710 the old
+one was mended at a cost of 1s. 8d. The bells, as we shall see, had
+to wait.
+
+Not until a hundred years later was a vestry thought of. In 1810
+Thomas Ellis was paid 7s. for planning it, and George Dixon £12 2s.
+1d. for its erection. It is said to have been made of wood, and
+simply partitioned off the north-west angle of the church. It was
+fitted with a "grate," that cost with carriage 19s.; and this being
+set on the side nearest to the pews, diffused what must have been
+but a gentle warmth through the edifice. It is the first heating
+apparatus that we hear of, and the expenses for charcoal and wood,
+with 3s. paid annually to the clerk for setting on the fire, were
+small. Tradition says that while George Walker lighted the vestry
+fire he rang the eight o'clock bell--a call to matins which had
+survived the Reformation, and the service then abolished.[135]
+
+  [135] _Mediæval Services in England._ Chr. Wordsworth. Tradition
+  from Edward Wilson.
+
+Time brought other improvements. The harmony of a church choir
+entailed its special expenses. In 1812 the ladies of Rydal Hall,
+widow and heiress of Sir Michael Fleming, provided "Psalmody" for
+Grasmere church at a cost of £2 2s., and for Langdale at £1 1s.
+Probably the price of this early tune-book was one guinea. A charge
+of 7s. 6d. appears in 1829 for a new pitch-pipe. A "singing school"
+was started, causing considerable expense in candles (12s. in 1844).
+Edward Wilson fitted the "singing pews" with drawers in 1851. There
+was apparently no instrumental music in the Grasmere choir, though
+there may have been in Langdale chapel to judge from an item of
+expense for violin strings.
+
+[Illustration: Old Pitch Pipe]
+
+Many odd expenses are noted in the accounts, as well as the
+replenishing of worn books and garments. A large Common Prayer Book
+cost in 1692 13s. 6d., and another in 1733 14s. Prayer Books began,
+too, to be supplied in the body of the church; the townships buying a
+few at a time, at a price varying from 6d. to 1s. In 1808 a new Bible
+cost £2 2s., while the price of a large Prayer Book in 1823 was £2
+5s., and another in 1835 £1 12s.
+
+The "surp-cloth," "surpless," or "surplice" was renewed at various
+prices. After the marvellously cheap one of 1661 (5s.; surely the
+product of the valley, in flax-growing, spinning, and weaving),
+others were got in 1697 for £1 12s., in 1730 for £1 11s. 4d., in 1734
+for £2 7s. In 1755 a new one is set down at the modest sum of 1s.
+5-3/4d., which, if multiplied by three, is barely 4s. 6d.; and in
+1775 one (or perhaps the same) was altered for 1s. An amusing item
+appears in the receipt columns of the three townships in 1795, when
+they sold the old surplice and divided the amount. "By 1/3 of the
+Old Surplice 2s. 7-1/2d."
+
+"Communion Linnen" cost in 1823 14s. 6d. In 1820 a surplice cost £2
+18s. 4d., and in 1830 £1 17s. 9d.
+
+
+
+
+THE UPKEEP OF THE CHURCH
+
+
+The one document that exists concerning the fabric of the church and
+of its upkeep was written as late as 1661, when the Episcopal Order
+of church government was restored.[136] There is every probability,
+however, that in substance it merely reinstitutes an old custom. The
+document is printed here:--
+
+  [136] Rydal Hall MSS.
+
+     A true Cattollogue made the twenty-first day of Apprill in
+     the 13th yeare of the Kings Ma'tyes reigne in the yeare of
+     our lord god 1661 by the eighteene men Appointed for the good
+     of the parish church of Gresmyre whos names are here under
+     written that is to say what particulars both of the church &
+     church-yard-wall; and what parte is divided to every Third and
+     what parte is not divided; what hereafter shall be expressed &
+     to whom they doe belong of right to be mayntayned & uphoulden.
+     Imprimus the chancell or quire ought to be maintained by the
+     parson or rector that is to say the roofe to the midle of the
+     rigging soe ffarr as the quire doth extend and the quire doore &
+     ffoure windowes within the Compass of quire: & the pues within
+     the quire and all the body of the church both roofe walles &
+     Timber doth belong to the whole parish equally amongst them that
+     is to say; Gresmyre third: Langdall Third & Loughrigg, Ridall
+     & Ambleside third; to be maintained & uphoulden every third
+     Alike; by even portions and likewise the roofe of the steple
+     & the belle wheeles, things or any nessary thing whatsoever.
+     Concerning the steple or within the steple all to be regarded &
+     done at generall charges of those three thirds Abovementioned
+     without any deniall; & the door both at the topp & below; &
+     the 4 windowes Above at the bells and the steple window below;
+     and the east window opposight to the higher pillors; & those
+     doth belong to all the said 3 thirds equally Amongst Them to
+     be mayntained & upholden; Now for the particulars within the
+     Church ffor every third, & how ffarr every third ought to brake
+     ground; as ffolloweth viz: Gresmyre Third, ffrom the quire
+     wae upon the South side of the Church and Their fformes to ye
+     steple doore; with the Cross alley coming in at the posterne
+     doore; and to the midle of the Alleys of the south side ffrom
+     the quire wale; to the midle of the steple, doth belong to
+     gresmyre third, & five formes next to Langdall quire wale; & to
+     the midle of the alley, & Two short fformes at north side of
+     the second piller & halfe of one fforme being between Loughrigg
+     quire and Ridell fformes with the fformes upon the weste Sid of
+     the Church next to the west doore; doth belong To gresmyre third
+     And all the remaindor of the fformes upon the north sid of the
+     Church to the midle of the north Alley doth belong to Langdall
+     Third; & the midle of the church to the midle of the north
+     Alley; & to the midle of the west alley; with the two crosse
+     alleyes viz, one at the ffont & the other belowe the quire
+     wale; doth belong to Loughrigg Ridall & Ambleside Third; And
+     for the windowes belonging to this Loughrigg third here named,
+     be in number Three being upon the south sid of the church; one
+     window at the backe of the portch; and two windowes betweene
+     the portch doore & the pulpitt; and the portch Doore, doth
+     belong to Loughrigg, Ridall & Ambleside third, to be up houlden,
+     mayntained & kept in repaire of their own proper Costs & charges
+     for ever; and likewise their parte of the Church yard Wale,
+     viz.: one yeat which doth extend ffrom the South nooke of the
+     steple & ffrom thence southward to the east nooke of Gresmyre
+     third; when it begines to be seated with in the church yard; of
+     their owne costs & charges Now windowes belonging to Langdall
+     Third be in number three; one window being in the east end of
+     the church oppossigt Againe the east end of the north Alley &
+     two windowes nexte Adjoyning to it upon the north side of the
+     Church; to be upholden & mayntained & kept in good repaire of
+     Langdall thirds owne proper costs charges and their parte of
+     the church yard, walle from the north nooke of Gresmyre third;
+     being seated within the church yard, to the south nooke of the
+     steple, & likewise one yeate with A feeld opposight Against
+     Robert Harrison Doore; to be keept in good repaire of their owne
+     proper charges & costs of Langdall third without any deniall
+     According to the true intent & meaning of these presents;
+     Gresmyre windowes be in noumber three; upon the north side of
+     the Church the lowest Towards the steple & the west doore doth
+     belong to Gresmyre third; & these to be mayntained & keept in
+     good repaire of gresmyre third own proper Costs & Charges And
+     the church-yard soe ffarr as it is seated within the church-yard
+     with A pair of yeates & the roofe over the said yeattes of their
+     owne proper costs & charges & note all repaireing the pulpitt
+     church chest or any Bookes that doth concerning the church in
+     any respects to be done At A generall Charge of the wholl parish
+     be equall portions without any deniall & likewise the haske &
+     joules at A general Charge of the parish and likewise A fonte
+     At A generall charge to be maintained In Testamony thereof we
+     the said eightenne have sette our honds the day & yeare ffirst
+     above-written.
+
+     [The names of the Eighteen follow, under three headings of
+     Gresmyre, Loughrigg, and Langdall. They are often crossed through
+     and written again. On the other side of the MS. is given the
+     following list.]
+
+The names of the Eighteen of the parish of Grasmere as they now
+stand, April the 24th, 1688.
+
+      Grasmere                  Langdale              Loughrigg and
+                                                      beneath Moss
+
+  Reignald Thompson      George Cooperthwaite       John Banks
+  John Haukrigg          Christopher Dawson         Reignald Brathwaite
+  John Hird              James Dixon                Hendry Barrow
+  John Haukrigg          John Middlefell            Thomas Benson
+  Robert Harrisin        William Satterthwaite      Thomas Newton
+  Edwin Green            Leonard Benson             Thomas Mackereth
+
+Something has already been said of the constitution of the parish,
+and of the lay control which existed over its finances--the three
+townships within the parish being represented by a body of eighteen
+(six for each) as well as by two churchwardens; and this document,
+while it strengthens the suggestion that the great addition to the
+church had been carried out by the united parish, and at the expense
+of the three townships--shows us exactly how each township arranged
+to fulfil its obligation to maintain the building in proper repair.
+
+It was an intricate matter. Each township by a common agreement made
+itself responsible for the maintenance of a particular portion of
+the church, not only of the fittings, but of the walls and windows
+of the fabric, as well as of the garth outside, with the garth wall
+down to its own particular gate of entrance.[137] There were besides
+general charges, along with the expenses of the Sunday worship,
+in which all took an equal share. Such an undertaking--both joint
+and individual--may seem to a merely modern mind a complicated
+business, especially as the church consisted structurally of two
+parts, which had to be divided for purposes of finance into three.
+But such problems were as nothing to men whose farmholds belonged to
+a township (indivisible in itself) that was broken up into several
+lordships, and whose land--though permanent in quantity--was every
+year freshly apportioned within the common fields of his _vill_. The
+subsequent accounts of the churchwardens, of which a few have already
+been given, prove that the obligations incurred by this document were
+rigidly fulfilled.
+
+  [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.
+
+The division of the fabric amongst the townships was made on the
+following lines. The care of the chancel, with its four windows and
+door, fell, of course, to the recipient of the tithes--who at this
+time was the rector. The township of Grasmere undertook to repair
+the south wall of the church from the chancel door to the tower, and
+half the aisle. The benches between this wall and aisle were all
+apportioned to the folk of the township, as well as a few odd ones
+in other parts of the church. The windows for which Grasmere was
+responsible were not, as would naturally be supposed, those of the
+south wall, but three in the north wall nearest to the east.
+
+Langdale's share was wholly on the north side. Between the north
+wall, which it was bound to repair, and the aisle, stood the forms
+on which the folk of that valley were seated. The windows specially
+apportioned to its care were the one in the east wall of the
+northern half of the church (whose precincts were called the Langdale
+choir) with the two in the north wall next to it.
+
+Rydal and Loughrigg (in which township Ambleside above Stock was
+joined for church matters) was responsible for the three windows in
+Grasmere's south wall and for the porch. The forms for this portion
+of the parish were apparently set in the middle of the church, on
+either side the central arched wall.
+
+The churchyard wall also was divided among the townships: Grasmere
+taking the north-eastern portion, with the lych gates; Langdale the
+stretch onward to the tower, with its own gate (now closed), which
+was opposite Church Stile, or Kirk Steel, then an inn; and Rydal and
+Loughrigg the stretch beyond to the south, past the present gate,
+which was reserved at that time for the folk of the township.
+
+Each township had clearly its own quarter of the churchyard as well
+of the church, wherein to bury its dead. Within, the portions were
+marked by the position of each township's seats, and without, by the
+gates. The field apportioned to Langdale, by Harrison's inn, was no
+doubt used for the tethering of horses from that distant valley.
+
+The three townships jointly attended to the upkeep of the tower, the
+bells, the roof of the church, the pulpit, and church furniture.
+
+When the regulations for church repairs were thus solemnly written
+out, there was urgent need for them. Neglect and ill-usage had
+reduced the fabric to a forlorn state, and the accounts of the
+wardens (who, however, went cautiously to work on renovation) show
+what was immediately required for setting the place in decent order
+and reinstituting the services and sacraments of the established
+church. From the sum paid to the "glasser"--6s., for glazing only
+Grasmere's share of the windows--it would seem that the winds of
+heaven had blown freely through the building. The font, which was
+always displaced by the Puritans, and often maltreated, required
+mending in the stone part as well as the lead; and a new cover was
+procured. A table-cloth--presumably of linen--was bought for 1s.
+4d., a bottle (for the wine?) for 3s., a surplice for 1s. 8d., and a
+pulpit cushion for 2s. 2d.
+
+The binding of the Bible next year cost 1s. It had undoubtedly had
+hard wear during the diverse ministrations of the Interregnum. It may
+have been the very book bandied about on that Sunday of 1655 when
+John Banks and his attendant minister were defied by the clerk, and
+John, upon that official's persistence in reading aloud a chapter
+from its pages, forcibly closed it, and handed it to Mr. Turner. Also
+a Book of Common Prayer was got for 1s. 6d., a sum so small as to
+raise a doubt of its newness. The large sum of £1 1s. was expended
+on "makeing up ye raills in ye quire," which shows that this guard
+to the space about the communion table (often maliciously broken by
+zealots) was in a bad state. The rails were entirely renewed, and a
+fresh table made in 1755; and it is interesting to note that they
+were constructed on the spot by joiners brought from a distance,
+no doubt Kendal. The wood was procured in Rydal, at a cost of £4
+12s., with carriage 2s. 6d. Other expenses, in iron-work, turning
+"bannisters," glue, &c., with the boarding of the men, came to £2 1s.
+0-1/2d. No doubt the existing rails are those then made, with the
+little table now used as a credence table.
+
+[Illustration: Old Altar now used as a Credence Table]
+
+An object within the chancel is older than these. It is a box
+carved with the date 1648 and the words "S. Oswaldus Poor Box." It
+is strange that this object should be acquired at a time when the
+country was at strife and the church disestablished--unless, indeed,
+it was the gift of a rich parishioner like Mr. Thomas Braithwaite
+of Ambleside Hall, who was elder of the parish during the rule of the
+Presbyterians.[138]
+
+  [138] The family employed carvers about this time for their
+  houses and elaborate mantelpieces.
+
+The placing of the King's Arms within the church was obligatory.[139]
+This was a costly business, for two men, who brought the painted
+panel, had to be boarded in the village. Some of the money went,
+however, in drink, and the occasion was evidently made an excuse for
+village jollity.
+
+  [139] This was removed from Baisbrowne, and is now at Water Park,
+  Coniston.
+
+Gradually other articles customary in a properly-appointed church
+were acquired. A table-cloth--this time probably of cloth--was bought
+in 1665 at a cost of 16s. 7d., and "A cloth to Cover ye Ellements" at
+2s. followed in 1672. The Communion vessels in use up to this time
+must have been of the rudest description, for those that replaced
+them in 1670 were of simple pewter, except the "dubler"--doubtless a
+plate for the collection of alms.
+
+                                                        li   s   d
+
+  Itt for A pewder dubler & pewder cup & a london
+  plater                                                00   4   6
+
+  Itt. for a wood dubler                                00   00  3
+
+The accounts show no further expenditure on this score, except for
+the repair of a "Flagon" (3d.) in 1708, and for "Sodering ye Tankers"
+in 1726. The existing plate was supplied by private piety, as its
+inscriptions tell. The two silver cups bear the date 1714, and they
+are of the same pattern; but one carries the cross with sacred
+monogram and the legend "The Parish Church Plate of Grasmere Renewed
+Ao. Doi. 1714" (having been probably bought from the proceeds of
+the sale of the older plate or by collected offerings), while the
+other with a coat of arms inside its border, bears the inscription:
+"The gift of Mrs. Dorothy Benson of Coat How to the Parish Church
+of Grasmere Ao. Doi. 1714." This lady, wife of Thomas Benson,
+freeholder, of the homestead by the Rothay, gave also a beautiful
+old silver alms dish, said to be a piece of Dublin plate.[140] The
+date on this is 1729. She gave a silver paten also, on which only the
+maker's date (1731-2) is engraved. It is singular that each of the
+three pieces displays a different coat-of-arms.[141]
+
+  [140] Old church plate of the Diocese of Carlisle.
+
+  [141] See Fullers and Freeholders.
+
+Mrs. Benson's munificence was clearly felt by the parish, for the
+item in the accounts of 1729 "For Wine given as a Present to Mrs.
+Benson," 8s., must have been intended as an acknowledgment.
+
+Another offering of plate was made much later (1852) by Mrs. Letitia
+Lough, a friend of the Wordworths, who resided for some time at Fox
+Ghyll, and later removed to Grasmere.
+
+In connection with the Communion vessels of the Restoration period,
+it must be borne in mind that there was far less use for them then
+than now. The sacrament was at that time administered only four times
+in the year. This fact is not only shown by the accounts of the Rydal
+Hall agent and of the churchwardens, but it is expressly declared by
+one of the answers made by the wardens at the Presentment of 1723.
+They add that they provide fine white bread and good wine for the
+sacrament "att ye charges of ye Inhabitants"; and four years later
+they append to this statement "Easter excepted, which is at the
+Charge of the Parson."
+
+Thus on three occasions--Christmas, Whitsuntide, and Michaelmas--the
+churchwardens and the Eighteen were bound to provide bread and
+wine;[142] while the expenses of the Easter celebration were borne
+by the rector, who received the Easter dues. When the tithes were
+leased to laymen, this layman took over the charge. And as Squire
+John Fleming held the tithes, items for this expenditure are found in
+Tyson's and Harrison's account-books.
+
+  [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_.
+
+In 1632 6-1/2 gallons of wine were procured "against Easter" for
+Grasmere church, at a cost of 13s.; and the Easter bread (fine
+wheaten bread as has been said, much relished by people whose staple
+food was oatmeal), with the charge for procuring it, amounted to 10d.
+In 1643 8 gallons were got in for the same purpose, costing £1 1s.
+8d.; and next year 9 gallons, at £1 4s.--that is to say, some 4-1/2
+dozen bottles of our present size were drunk on this occasion. The
+wine cost 4d. to 5-1/2d. a bottle.
+
+The amount of wine drunk by the parishioners seems large, even
+when we remember that the whole of the adult population in the
+three townships were bound to attend, and did attend these solemn
+functions. Of this there is proof, for every non-communicant was
+taxed, as existing Subsidy Rolls show. It is probable that when
+receiving the wine, the parishioner took a hearty drink from the cup,
+and not a sip as at present.[143]
+
+  [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.
+
+The churchwardens' accounts for bread and wine at the three
+communions are accurately recorded after the Restoration, as well as
+their expenses for the journey required to procure them--the ride to
+Kendal being charged as 8d., or if only to Ambleside 4d. Unluckily,
+however, only the sum expended is given, and not the amount of wine.
+In 1666 the three sacraments cost the parish 9s. 9d., 9s. 3d., and
+9d. 3d. respectively; in 1668, 6s. 11d., 8s. 3d., and 8s. 3d.; in
+1669, 10s. 3d., 10s. 3d., and 7s. 9d. From 1681 the accounts kept
+separately for Grasmere and for Loughrigg with Rydal each show an
+expenditure for bread and wine; but the Langdale division, which had
+now acquired the privilege of a Communion in its own chapel once a
+year, was apparently let off. The expenses for that year were set
+down as £1 13s. 3d.; Grasmere paying £1 0s. 1d. and Loughrigg and
+Rydal 13s. 2d.; the division being based probably upon the number
+of communicants in each township. In 1691 the total expenditure
+was £2 6s. 6d., and it remained at much this figure till 1729. The
+charge from that time became a fixed one, Grasmere paying 7s. 2d.,
+6s. 6d., and 7s. 2d. for the Christmas, Whitsuntide, and Michaelmas
+celebrations (which included two journeys); and Loughrigg and Rydal,
+4s. 4d., 5s., and 4s. 4d. (one journey), and it remained at these
+figures till 1821, when there was a change of rectors. From this
+date the charge was exceedingly irregular, figuring occasionally as
+high as £2 7s. 10d., while sometimes it does not appear at all, the
+bread only being accounted for. Then it dropped greatly. From 1833
+Loughrigg and Rydal ceased to pay--in consideration, no doubt, of the
+celebrations held in the new chapel in Rydal; and Grasmere figured at
+a sum under £1, or not at all! By a new arrangement in 1842 Loughrigg
+and Rydal recommenced its contribution, though on a new basis of
+irregular payments; and this continued until the break-up of the old
+order in 1857, when it joined for the last time at the sacramental
+bread and wine provided at the old parish church, paying 4s. 9d.,
+while Grasmere paid 14s. 3d.
+
+It may be of interest to note that with the new order and the new
+rector (who kept a book in which he entered particulars of the
+communicants) the bread and wine for Grasmere alone cost £2 5s. 9d.
+When, in 1860, it rose to £4 10s., the sum included 8s. paid by the
+rector to the wardens in place of his Easter provision. This ancient
+rectorial charge is mentioned for the last time in 1865. It was
+probably coincident also with the appointment of the Rev. Fletcher
+Fleming, that the old order of sacraments four times in the year was
+changed to a monthly celebration.
+
+The following extracts from the accounts, besides others interspersed
+in the text, show that the townships carried out their separate
+obligations until the Vestry revolution of 1856-7, a period of almost
+200 years. They apparently gave out their share of the work to their
+own townsmen. John Birkett, who received 1s. for a "yeat stoop," in
+1755, for the Loughrigg and Beneath Moss Gate, was a Rydal man. The
+ale charged 1s. 8d. in the public auction, when that township let the
+contract for the repair of its benches in 1783, was doubtless drunk
+at the Fleming's Inn in Rydal, where such scenes were frequent.
+
+     1667 to John Hawkrigg for mending gresmyr-yeat 1s 4d
+
+     1668 for glassing one window for gresmyr 3s 6d
+
+     1669 It. to Milles Mackereth for a Gammer & Crake & loupp to
+     gresmyre Church yeats 1s 9d.
+
+     1670 for mending sliper of our Church yeats 1d
+
+     1678 For langdall yeat & laughrigg yeat for Irron-worke 6d; also
+     "for mending Churchyard wale for laughrigg third" 1s 6d.
+
+     1680 Loughrigg and beneath Moss repaire "our window" 1s 0d
+
+     1683 Grasmere repairs windows, 8d., "yeats" 1s. 0d., and Lou. &
+     b. M. the "Church wals" 10.
+
+     1730 Lou. and b. M. makes a new gate 16s 6d.
+
+     1751 Langdale makes a new gate 10s 7d
+
+     1755 Lou. and b. M. makes new gate 8s 0d. and mends wall 4s 4d
+
+     1759 Grasmere and Langdale repair their walls
+
+     1761 Grasmere mends gates 1s 10d.; while mending of the church
+     porch, 4s 6d is entered in general charges
+
+     1768 Grasmere "glasses" windows 9s 6d
+
+     1769 All three gates are repaired, and Grasmere mends her windows
+
+     1773 Loughrigg and beneath Moss makes new gates and stulps 11s
+     11d, also repairs wall 10s 0d, Langdale does the latter 7s 6d
+
+     1775 Grasmere sells old gates for 4s 0d
+
+     1776 Lou. and b. M. works on wall £3 5s 0d
+
+     1777 Grasmere collects material for wall 19s 4d. Langdale makes
+     new gate 9s 0d
+
+     1780 Grasmere raises wall from the school-house to where it
+     meets "Rydal third" £1 17s 3d. All the townships repair their
+     windows
+
+     1782 Lou. and b. M. again repairs wall, evidently with
+     thoroughness, giving 1s 0d in ale to the men who work the
+     foundation in water (of the river). The leading of stones for 5
+     days with 2 horses cost £1 0s 0d. Total £2 3s 6d
+
+     1790 Langdale pays "for new stoops for Langdale gate & hanging"
+     4s 3d while all three townships mend windows--Grasmere for its
+     "third" 6s 10d, Langdale 10-1/2d, and Lou. and b. M. is 6-1/2d
+
+     1799 Lou. and b. M. pays "To mending Rydale Gates" 1s 0d
+
+     1806 Lou. and b. M. pays £1 5s 6d for a new gate, to Edward
+     Wilson of Grasmere
+
+     1811 Lou. and b. M. repairs "Church Garth Wall" £1 11s 9d; and
+     gate 2s 6d, to John Watson, smith, of Grasmere
+
+     1819 Lou. and b. M. repairs wall, 15s 0d; and windows 15s 3d
+
+     1822 Lou. and b. M. mends and paints church gates 6s 4d
+
+     1832 Lou. and b. M. glazes windows 1s 9d
+
+     1835 Lou. and b. M. pays for new gate £1 0s 0d
+
+     1840 Lou. and b. M. repairs windows 5s 1-1/2d
+
+     1842 Langdale pays 9s 0d to Edward Wilson for new gate
+
+     1852 Lou. and b. M. repairs wall 7s 10d; and mends and paints
+     gate 4s 3d
+
+     1856 The three townships repair separately for the last time:
+     Grasmere painting gate and windows at 7s 6d; "Rydall and
+     Loughrigg" (now styled) painting her gate at 2s 0d and Langdale
+     hers at 1s 6d
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[The churchwardens' accounts are in 3 volumes:
+
+     The 2nd volume of these is missing, but there is a copy. This
+       copy begins in 1732, overlapping by three years the first
+       volume, which ends in 1735; but the copy of the 2nd volume only
+       goes as far as 1782, and the 3rd volume begins in 1790, leaving
+       a gap of eight years.]--ED.
+
+
+
+
+CLEANING AND REPAIRS
+
+
+The townships joined at many general repairs, as well as at the
+cleaning of the church, and the expenses of maintaining worship
+within it. It is interesting to note how extremely small these
+expenses were. The cleaning, or "dressing," as it was called, of the
+church, the greasing of the bells, the washing of the linen, the
+writing of the register, the whipping of dogs out of church, and the
+"drawing" of the accounts, all appear to have been paid for at the
+Restoration at the rate of 1s. each per annum. This moderate fee was
+presently raised to 1s. 6d., 2s. 6d., 3s., or 3s. 6d., but never rose
+higher for over a hundred years. The "surpcloth and table-cloth" were
+washed twice in the year 1662 for 1s., but from 1664 onward three
+times were allowed for 3s., and by 1702 the laundress had secured
+an additional 6d. for mending. The cleaning of the windows "and
+sentences" (which were presumably touched up with paint) became a
+regular charge at 1s., and the burnishing of the church plate was 6d.
+
+But there were other expenses, belonging to the general charge,
+which, being irregular but frequently recurrent, were troublesome to
+the wardens and Eighteen, whose business it was to lay such a rate
+annually on the inhabitants of the parish as should cover the outlay.
+Such was the repair of the church roof, which was often needed; even
+the moss (which it was the custom to stuff within the rigging to
+arrest and absorb the wet which ran down from the ill-fitting slates)
+required frequent replenishing. Accordingly, after sundry payments
+made for "mossing church" or "mending slates," the Eighteen entered
+into a contract, in 1686, with two Grasmere wallers for the upkeep
+of the whole of the church roof, except the choir, for nine years,
+for the sum of 7s. 6d. a year. In 1704 one William Grigg obtained
+the contract for three years at the same rate, and undertook to keep
+the roof in a sound state "as to Slatt and Moss (excepting upon
+extraordinary Storms whereby the roof shall suffer much Damage which
+shall be referred to the Eighteen the Easter following)." Grigg,
+however, made no bad-weather demands, and it was only in 1714, a
+year after the contract had been transferred to Edward Hird, that "a
+violent storme" caused the spending of 18s. beyond the stipulated 7s.
+6d. The parson and Eighteen then (1715) transferred the contract to
+Stephen Haukrigge. The sum was perhaps too small, for in 1718 John
+Warriner secured 8s. 6d. on the contract. "An extraordinary Storme"
+in 1719 cost only an extra 3s. The contract, which afterwards rose
+to 11s. 6d., had ceased by 1732, and odd sums for repair occur from
+time to time, such as 13s. in 1733 and the same in 1734, with 3s.
+3d. for slates and carriage. But little was apparently done, and by
+1809 the roof seems to have been in a bad condition, for the ominous
+item occurs "To cleaning Snow out of Church 2s. 0d." It was radically
+repaired in 1814, when £37 1s. 11d. was spent on the slates, £11 on
+timber, which was paid to Lady Fleming, the wood being doubtless
+felled in Bainriggs, and the extraordinary sum of £1 13s. 6d. on ale
+to the workmen and "letting" the contract.
+
+
+THE BELLS.
+
+Grasmere's pleasant chime of three bells is undoubtedly an old one.
+The metal of the existing bells that sends its resonance through
+the vale may be that of the first bells, though robbed of antique
+inscription or mark by recasting. It is quite possible that at the
+Restoration there still hung in the tower the Pre-Reformation triad,
+stamped with an invocation to some saint in Longobardic characters or
+with a quaint inscription in Black Letter; for the Rev. H. Whitehead
+discovered in Cumberland many an ancient bell that had escaped
+confiscation and the melting-pot in the dark days of Henry VIII.'s
+ruthless robberies and his successor's drastic commission.[144]
+
+  [144] 7 Ed. VI., 1553. See _Transactions_, Cumberland and
+  Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vols. 6 and 14.
+
+They were then, however, in a bad state, and the churchwardens
+immediately proceeded to have them set in order, as the accounts show.
+
+It is clear from the items that one of the wardens, Michael Knott,
+rode to Cockermouth in search of a bell-founder, and that one was
+procured whose name was John Langsha; also that he came over to
+Grasmere and did the work there.
+
+Now Mr. Whitehead considered that there was no bell-foundry in
+Cockermouth at this date. When its three bells were recast in
+1673-4 the expenses of the bell-founders' journey were paid, and
+they apparently dug a pit in the churchyard and cast the great bell
+there.[145] Such a method was resorted to when the remoteness of the
+church or the badness of the roads made the carriage of the bells a
+difficulty.[146]
+
+  [145] _Church Bells of Cockermouth. Translations_, vol. 14, p.
+  295.
+
+  [146] _Bells of England_, J. J. Raven, p. 190.
+
+Who, then, was John Langsha? Until more evidence is forthcoming we
+must suppose him to have been an itinerant founder. He or the firm
+he worked for may have had head-quarters in some town of Cumberland,
+and travelled thence to wherever they were called. According to
+Mr. Whitehead, there was a bell-foundry of some repute at Penrith
+in the seventeenth century. The account books do not show how this
+renovation of the Grasmere bells was paid for. The wardens paid
+John his "earnest," and a small item that remained after he left;
+otherwise the only sum of consequence that appears is 9s. for two new
+bell-ropes.
+
+Only casual expenses in connection with the bells are given after
+this for some time. For instance, in 1669 the item occurs, "in drinke
+when we did turne midlmost bell," 2s. 6d. But the presentment of 1707
+certainly discloses the serious condition of one bell, which was
+then cracked; and the reliance of the wardens on the "discretion" of
+their rector was misplaced, as nothing was done. There would seem to
+have been no good founder at this time in the adjacent counties; for
+when the bells of Brigham were renewed in 1711, under the incumbency
+of Roger Fleming (another son of Sir Daniel), a Gloucester firm of
+founders was actually called to the rescue. The bells, however, went
+no further than Kendal, where there was, adjacent to the church,
+a bell-house which could be hired, and there the Gloucester man
+superintended the casting of them.[147]
+
+  [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.
+
+At Grasmere, procrastination prevailed. The wardens, in 1723,
+admitted "The Bells are not firme & in good order, but they are
+agreed to make them good as soon as possible." In 1727 they again
+admitted the bells to be out of order, but the ropes (it was
+declared) were "good & firm." In 1729 the bells still waited to
+be repaired "upon a convenient opportunity." In 1731 the great
+plunge into expense was at last taken. "One of our bells is in
+good order, The Other two are recasting at York & the ropes are
+making, & everything hastning forwards to have them in good order."
+Accordingly, the accounts for 1732 show the enormous outlay incurred
+of £40 3s. 9-1/2d., and next year of £49 3s. "Towards Casting the
+Bells and other Charges;" besides £3 14s. 5d. for "Charges for a
+Ringing loft."
+
+It is of interest to note that the Grasmere folk, in their bell
+troubles, returned to their old ecclesiastical centre at York, whence
+their first bells would come, and where there were good founders.
+The inscriptions on the two largest bells, in an ornamental border
+running round the crown, are as follows:--
+
+  GLORIA IN ALTISSIMIS DEO 1731
+
+              ED HIRD JOH WILSON GEO
+              HE HIRD WIL RIGG MACKERETH
+
+  CHURCH     E Seller
+  WARDENS     Ebor
+
+                           in. dia.
+  SOLI DEO GLORIA 1731     E Seller
+                           Ebor
+
+Each bell carries besides on the waist below the founder's name,
+the arms and crest of the Flemings of Rydal. Arms: _Gules, a fret,
+argent_. Crest: _A serpent nowed, holding a garland of olives and
+vines in his mouth, all proper_. Motto: PAX, COPIA, SAPIENTIA, on a
+shield 5-1/4 by 3-3/4 inches.
+
+[Illustration: Arms of the Lo. Fleming Family on the Great &
+Middle Bells.]
+
+Information about our bell-founder may be found in Mr.
+
+J. E. Poppleton's _Bells in the West Riding of Yorkshire_.[148] At
+the Restoration, and for nearly a century afterwards, a firm of
+Sellers worked at a foundry in Jubbergate, York. William, the first
+known of the family, founded a bell which yet hangs in Eskdale
+Church, Cumberland. Edward, who followed, died in 1724, and was
+succeeded by his son, the founder of the Grasmere bells. The second
+Edward used the same signatory mark as his father, and it was the
+custom of both to give, after the Latin inscription--and provided
+there was no donor--the names of the rector and churchwardens who
+were in office at the time of the founding. The Fleming coat-of-arms
+undoubtedly stands for Dr. George Fleming, then rector.
+
+  [148] _Yorkshire Arch. Journal_, vols. 16, 17, and 18.
+
+A catastrophe is disclosed by the presentment of 1798, when the
+"least bell" was "burst and unringable." It remained in this
+condition for eleven years, when a private individual came to the
+rescue. Its inscription runs:--
+
+     COPIA PAX SAPIENTIA Re-cast at the expence of Mrs. Dorothy Knott
+     1809 T MEARS & Son of London
+
+Dorothy Knott was probably daughter of John Knott, of the Howe in
+Applethwaite, born 1728, and of the family who removed from Grasmere
+to Rydal.[149] From her benefaction to the school, we learn that
+she lived in Ambleside, where spinster ladies of means were wont to
+settle.
+
+  [149] For the Knott family, see "A Westmorland Township,"
+  _Westmorland Gazette_, May 7th, 1810.
+
+The firm of Mears, who cast the bell, worked at the noted old foundry
+in Whitechapel.[150] If this bell went to London, its journey was
+a long one. But the turnpike roads were now made, which must have
+facilitated carriage, and the bell would arrive by what is now the
+Wishing Gate road. An old man living in Grasmere in 1886 used to
+tell of his grandmother, who remembered the church bells having been
+brought by sledge over the top of White Moss, then the only road into
+the valley.[151] These must have been Seller's bells, for it is just
+possible for three generations to bridge the 155 years; and this
+traditional touch helps us to realize the remoteness of the valley in
+those days, which no wheeled traffic could reach.
+
+  [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.
+
+When odd work was done in the belfry in 1775, a letter from the
+bell-founder cost 5d. for porterage.
+
+Casual repairs continued to be done in the place.
+
+John Watson, the smith of Winterseeds, tinkered the bells in 1807;
+and three years after, when the little bell had arrived from London,
+the two others were also down, for he was paid £3 14s. 8d. for
+repairing them, and John Hartley received the considerable sum of
+£11 14s. 6d. for hanging them. In 1764 bell-wheels and clappers were
+repaired. The head-stocking of the great bell and two bell-clappers,
+in 1767, cost £3 7s. 9d. Again, in 1773, 1774, and 1775, head-stocks,
+clappers, and repairs to ringing-loft cost about £1. The ropes in
+1769 cost 7s. 4-1/2d.
+
+[Illustration: Great Bell Hammer]
+
+It is clear that Sabbath bell-ringing was for long one of those
+boon services which the Grasmere parishioner gave willingly to his
+church. Ringing on Gunpowder Plot day, and some occasions of national
+rejoicing and sorrow were paid for; but until 1692 nothing is put
+down in the accounts for ringing, only a small item for grease
+for the bells. In that year, however, the Eighteen entered into a
+contract with the clerk, who was to procure men to ring on Sundays
+and Holy Days, and to furnish the necessary grease, at the rate of
+10s. a year. Next year, on its renewal with Thomas Knott, the sum
+was dropped to 8s. 6d. "and what more as the Eighteen shall think
+fit." However, the new clerk, Robert Harrison, in 1695 secured 10s.,
+and at this figure it remained for some fifty years. After a gap of
+eight years in the accounts, the item reappears in 1751 at £1, and
+from that time onwards it fluctuates between the sums of 10s., 13s.
+4d., £1, even once in 1759 touching £1 10s., as the Eighteen were
+parsimoniously or liberally inclined. Finally, after a halt at 15s.,
+it rose in 1794 to £1 1s., and from that slowly mounted until by 1814
+it had reached £2 15s. 6d., at which it remained for eleven years.
+From 1826 it rose again, and between 1831 and 1858 it stood at £3 6s.
+£1 was then added.
+
+The tower was an irregular source of expense, as the following items
+show:--
+
+  1665  the makeing of ye steple door 3s 6d
+
+  1694  For mending the Garret: Flags 6d
+
+  1697  Lime for church and steeple £1 17s 1d; this item includes
+        "charge for Bargaining." "For sand" 3s 0d. "For
+        Rough-Casting the steeple" £4 0s 0d
+
+  1717  For repairing the Steeple loft and two Doors
+        02: 14: 00
+
+  1718  Edwin Green, one of the Eighteen, is paid 4s 0d "for
+        attending when the steeple was repaired."
+
+  1734  For a lock to ye Steeple door 8d
+
+Work was done on the steeple and steeple window in 1757; and in 1767
+a load of "slape" cost 1s. and lime 2s. 6d. The work of white-washing
+recurred frequently. Church and steeple were entirely rough-cast
+in 1773, at the considerable cost of £13,[152] the east window
+(presumably of the north aisle) being at the same time repaired. The
+interior was done in 1780 for £1 5s. 6d., and the exterior both of
+church and steeple in 1791--which with the pointing of the windows
+came to £3 15s. The townships repaired their individual windows next
+year, this being repeated more radically in 1801.
+
+  [152] The tower and all the body of the church was rough-cast in
+  1910 at a cost of £200 5s. 1d.--ED.
+
+The years 1803 and 1804 show that drastic work was done. One item
+stands "To expenses of Letting white-washing the Church 8s. 0d."--a
+sum spent mainly of course in copious draughts of ale. Another is
+"To writing Contracts of Letting 1s. 6d." The amount actually paid
+for "mending Roof of Church, and Whitewashing Church in and Out, and
+Pinning up all Broken places in the Ruff Cast & Plaster," was £8
+12s.--certainly a modest one. Church and tower were whitewashed in
+1815 for £5 18s., and Edward Wilson, carpenter, received 18s. for a
+"Craddle to White Wash Steeple." The process was repeated in 1832 at
+a cost of £2 17s. 7-1/2d., and again in 1842, when Levi Hodgson was
+paid £4 15s. 9d. for the work.
+
+The scraping, smoothing, and daubing to which the church was
+constantly subjected, may account for the mutilated state of such
+bits of freestone (shallow mouldings, &c.) as are yet visible. In
+what year Addison's decorations were effaced by a coat of whitewash
+is not known. It is supposed that the black boards, painted with
+texts, which yet hang in the church, replaced them, as being more
+convenient for the whitewashers. If so, the once admired art of the
+painter was allowed little more than fifty years in which to delight
+and instruct the people; for one board gives, with the names of the
+churchwardens, the date 1741. It is singular that in that year the
+accounts show no unwonted expense.
+
+An item that occurred from time to time for "mending sentences" was
+changed in 1763 to an annual charge of 1s. for "cleaning church
+windows and sentences."
+
+Many little odd expenses there were: such as the "hack" or pick,
+which, from its constant work on the graves, often wanted "laying,"
+or a new shaft, at 3d. A fresh one and a "Cald-rake" were bought in
+1715 for 1s. 6d.; while in 1802 "laying Mattock" cost 1s. 9d., and
+"New Coolrake" 1s. 6d. In 1824 a new spade cost 3s. 9d. Occasionally
+the church chest wanted "gimmers" or hinges, or new locks, a pair of
+which cost, in 1752, 1s. 4d. An "iron chest" was bought in 1816 for
+£7 17s. 6d. The ladder was mended often, and a new one in 1734 cost
+9s. The "Corps Cloth," procured before 1798, when it was mended at
+4d., required "Dying and Pressing" in 1803 at 3s. 3d.; and it was
+renewed in 1823 for £2 15s. A new bier cost, in 1812, 11s. 6d. In
+1821 a small hearse was built by Edward Wilson, which could travel
+on the improved, but still narrow roads of the parish. Its use was
+paid for; but in some years it was not had out at all, so--as its
+initial cost was £14 9s., and the clerk was paid presently 5s. a year
+for attending it, and a "Hearse House" was soon found necessary (£11
+15s.)--it was not a paying affair.
+
+Edward repaired the "Corpes Stool" for 2s. in 1847.
+
+"A booke of Canons" was bought in 1665 at 3s. 3d.; a register book in
+1685 at 11s., and again in 1784 at 8s.; a book of articles in 1691 at
+1s.; and in 1692 "a Paper Booke for Registring ye poor" at 2s. 9d.,
+as well as an Act of Parliament "for Setling ye Poor" at 3d.
+
+But besides regular and casual expenses ever increasing, there were
+special acquisitions too costly to be dealt with in the ordinary
+yearly accounts. Such was the church plate, and the bells (as we have
+seen), and, presumably, the clock, which at an unknown date replaced
+the dial. The present clock was, according to the terrier, presented
+in 1817, and was supplied by a Mr. Bellman, of Broughton-in-Furness.
+The bill of 7s. 6d., paid to "Late Mr. Bellman for dressing church
+clock," was not entered until 1820, though the previous year the
+regular charge started "To John Watson for attending clock & keeping
+water from it," which was £1 3s. 6d. for that year and afterwards 2s.
+6d. less. The old clock existed till recently.
+
+[Illustration: _Work on Inner Door._]
+
+The church porch, like the tower, was repaired at the general charge.
+This, in 1761, cost only 4s. 6d. The outer doors of the porch were
+renewed in 1821. Edward Wilson contracted for the wood-work for £5,
+while John Watson executed the iron-work for £3 5s. 8d. The priest's
+door was renewed also, being doubtless paid for by the rector. These
+doors remain, and the initials of the Winterseeds smith, which he
+stamped upon his work, may be seen.
+
+[Illustration: _Hinges of the Outer Door of the Porch._]
+
+[Illustration: Door Handle in the Porch.]
+
+At the opening of the nineteenth century the condition of the church
+floor and of the antique forms had become a matter for serious
+consideration. Nothing effectual, however, could be done in the way
+of levelling and paving until the custom of burying within the church
+had ceased. Even then there was reluctance and difficulty, for the
+soil was full of bones, and so close to the surface did these lie,
+that, according to tradition, many were gathered and laid elsewhere,
+when the alteration finally was made. This was radically
+undertaken in 1840. The floor, which until then was below the level
+of the ground outside, was filled in and paved. The old benches
+were removed, and pews set up in their place. Foreign timber--deal
+painted--was for the first time used instead of native oak, and the
+wood-work was given to an Ambleside man. The cost of the renovation,
+which included repairs to roof and renewal of windows, amounted to
+£300, and this was raised by subscription--Queen Adelaide (who was
+visiting the district) contributing £50.
+
+The abolition of the forms could not do other than tend to the
+breaking up of old customs. The pews were no doubt apportioned to the
+various households, in Grasmere township at least; while the question
+of the rightful share possessed by the sister townships in this
+altered accommodation was left open, as the events of 1856 show (see
+Church Rates). With household pews, men and women sat together. The
+western door, hitherto used by the men, and outside which (according
+to tradition) all secular notices had been given out, was now made
+up. £1 1s. had been paid, as late as 1816, "To John Watson for
+Hanging of Men's Door." At the same time the tower-arch was walled
+up, and the tower used for a vestry--the old wooden one being cleared
+away. The font was brought into the church. The expenses of the old
+vestry fire, which had risen to 5s., cease accordingly, and those of
+lighting the "stove"--placed presumably in the church itself--begin
+at 12s. a year. Comfort was now thought of. Straw matting had indeed
+been procured for the communion rail in 1780 (3s. 1d.); it was bought
+in 1844 for 11s. 4d.
+
+The era of subscriptions raised the rate of church expenses
+enormously, as has been seen in the 1840 renovation. In 1876 the
+rough-casting of the church outside was done by subscription, and
+contracted for at £30; £70 13s. 0-1/2d. being altogether expended
+upon that and new spouts and painting clock, a sum which should be
+compared with the cost on previous occasions.
+
+The Rev. E. Jefferies, who was the first rector--certainly after
+the days of Dr. Fleming--to take a zealous interest in the fabric,
+reconstructed in 1841 the entire east wall at his own expense.[153]
+He also presented the two carved chairs that stand within the
+sanctuary. He made with his own hands a communion-table[154] and
+foot-stools; the latter remain.
+
+  [153] See Middleton's Guide.
+
+  [154] This table is now in use at a Mission room in Ulverston
+  parish.
+
+Another great renovation was carried out in 1879-80 under Mr.
+Fletcher. Like the last, its cost was defrayed by offerings (£660),
+and much of the work done in 1840 was now undone. The deal pews were
+cleared away and the existing oak benches substituted--Grasmere
+workmen being employed. The tower arch was again opened out, and the
+font replaced. A vestry was partitioned off the north-east angle
+of the church, which was formerly known as the Langdale choir. New
+pulpit, font-cover, communion-table, and Litany-desk were provided
+in 1884, and five years later the lectern was given by Miss Agar, of
+Silverhow, in memory of her aunt. The alms-dishes that hang on the
+south wall were found a few years ago in the old tithe-barn, which
+has been turned into a parish-room.
+
+[Illustration: Old Collecting Plate with Handle.]
+
+
+THE CHURCHYARD.
+
+From the Restoration there is evidence that the garth outside the
+church was cared for. It was surrounded, as we have seen, with stout
+rough-cast walls, which were divided among the townships for upkeep.
+The space within them was not strictly divided, yet the older graves
+show that there was an inclination for each township to lay its dead
+adjacent to its own gateway and stretch of wall. The keeping in order
+of the grassy space, with its ever-increasing mounds, fell to the
+general charge. An item stands in 1673, "For dresing weeds out of ye
+Church yard," 1s. 6d.; and a charge becomes frequent for "repairing
+church-yard walks, 4s. 6d.," or "cleaning church-yard," 2s. 6d. Three
+days at this in 1631 cost 6s. 9d.
+
+Grasmere township paid in 1661 "For our P't of the Dyell" 1s. This
+must have proved an unsatisfactory time-teller, as in 1683 4s. was
+paid "For a diall & post." A post alone cost, in 1732, 1s. 9d., and
+again in 1743 a new dial-post was fixed at 3s. 9d.
+
+Trees were planted from time to time. Young ashes were set in 1684
+at a cost of 1s. 6d. The yew tree, though no longer needed for the
+bow, was still grown. A fresh one, planted in 1706, at a cost of
+1s., perhaps took the place of the old one blown down in the gale of
+December 18th, 1687.[155] This, too, which would now have numbered
+over 200 years, appears to have gone. The existing trees were planted
+in 1819 through the instrumentality of the poet Wordsworth (from a
+sum supplied by his friend, Sir George Beaumont), and he continued to
+care for them.
+
+  [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.
+
+The poet himself lies beneath their shade. Of the countless graves
+that stud this ancient burying-place, it is his that draws the
+pilgrims from afar; and the yard, encircled by its yews and the great
+mountains, has perhaps inspired more and better poetry than any other
+plot in England. Hartley Coleridge, Sir John Richardson, Green and
+Hull the artists, are buried here, and their graves may be found by
+referring to the short Guide issued by Mr. Peterson.
+
+Wordsworth's monument, a medallion by Woolner, is within the
+church. The beautiful inscription is a translation of Keble's Latin
+dedication of his Oxford Lectures on Poetry to Wordsworth.
+
+
+
+
+EXTRACTS FROM CHURCHWARDENS' ACCOUNTS AND PRESENTMENTS
+
+
+GRESMYRE.
+
+     The First day of Apprill in the XIIIJth of the Kings Ma'tyes
+     Reigne A treue & A P'fect Acount of ye Disbursment of James
+     Benson & Robert Watson Church Wardens For the yeare last past.
+
+                                                 li  s  d
+
+  Anno Domini 1661 as Followeth
+
+  Imprimus for mending & mossing the Church      00 07 04
+  Ittem for mending the Font stone               00 02 08
+  Ittem for the Font Couer[156]                  00 02 08
+  Ittem soldering the lead in the Font stone     00 00 06
+  Ittem For a Quission for the pulpitt           00 02 02
+  Ittem For A table cloth                        00 01 04
+  Ittem For A Raill at the pullpit side          00 00 10
+  Ittem For our p't of the Dyell                 00 01 00
+  Ittem For mending the great bell Leather       00 00 02
+  Ittem For our p'te of A surp cloth we bought   00 01 08
+  Ittem For Drissing the Church                  00 00 04
+  Ittem For greace to ye bells For our p'te      00 00 04
+  Ittem For Lime for ye windowes & Fireing for
+         glasser                                 00 00 04
+  Ittem payed to ye glasser for mending our p'te of
+         windowes                                00 06 00
+  Ittem For A new botle to the Church            00 03 00
+  Ittem payed For bread and wine                 00 08 04
+  Ittem payed to John Jackson for lying 2 graues 00 00 04
+  Ittem For writting this yeare                  00 00 04
+  Ittem for Two Journeyes to Ambleside           00 00 08
+                                                 --------
+                                                 li  s  d
+
+                              The sume totall    02 09  0
+
+  [156] The old font cover (see engraving) is lost.
+
+Two churchwardens sign by a mark at the bottom. This is clearly an
+account for Grasmere township alone.
+
+GRESMYRE.
+
+     A Booke For the whole p'rish Concerning the Church Affaires, For
+     the Churchwardens to writte their Accounts, euery yeare & to
+     subscribe their names to the same mad The 23th day of Apprill
+     1662.
+
+             Church wardens For this present year.
+  Gresmyre    Michaell Knott    Langdell   James Harrison
+              Willm Watson                 John Harrison
+
+  Laughrigg Ridell Amblesid'   Thomas Partrigge
+                               Thomas Braythwaitt
+
+                                                          li  s  d
+
+  Imprimis for our Journey to Kendal to be sworne         00 06 00
+  Ittem for paper                                         00 00 03
+  Ittem for dresing of ye Church                          00 01 00
+  Ittem for binding ye Church bible                       00 01 00
+  Ittem for ye bell Founder John Langsha in earnest       00 05 00
+  Ittem for Ringing up on Cronoc'on Day                   00 01 06
+  Ittem disbursed for ye Comon prayer book                00 10 06
+  Ittem for mending ye midle bell Ropp                    00 01 00
+  Ittem to James Harrison for makeing ye sentences
+            w'in ye church                                00 01 00
+  Ittem to Michaell Knott for a Journey to cockermouth
+            for bell founder                              00 02 00
+  Ittem left behind unpayed when bell founder was
+            at grismyre                                   00 01 06
+  Ittem for writting ye P'sentm't for ye whole p'rish     00 01 00
+  Itt for writting ye P'sentm't into 3 P'ts               00 01 00
+  Itt payed to ye Archbishopp men                         01 09 06
+  Itt for Ringing upon gunpowder treason day              00 01 00
+  It for our Journey to ye lord Bishopp men               00 08 00
+  Ittem for setting up ye Kings armes & Charges in
+            Drinke                                        00 16 06
+  A slott to ye west doore of gresmyre owne Charges       00 01 09
+  for bread & wine in owne Charges                        00 09 08
+  for grease to ye belles                                 00 01  0
+  washing the surp cloth & table cloth twice in ye
+            yeare                                         00 01  0
+  for makeing up ye raill in ye quire                     01 01  0
+  Ittem for Driueing wedges in ye Frame of ye bells       00 00 03
+  Ittem for gammers for ye Raill doore                    00 01  8
+  Itt. for setting Church (wardens?) nome in ye
+        Church                                            00 00 06
+  Itt for lyeing Flagges at Raill                         00 00 03
+  Ittem for two new bell-roppes                           00 09 00
+  Ittem for writting                                      00 01  0
+  Ittem for mending ye midle bell Claper leather          00  0 06
+  Itt to John Newton for quorter of 2 men y't com
+        to sett up ye Kings Armes in ye Church            00 02  0
+            Finis ye 21th of Aprill 1663.
+                                The sume tottall          06 16 04
+
+  Churchwardens' Accounts for 1790.
+
+  Grasmere April the 6th being Easter Tuesday
+  Churchwardens chosen for the ensuing Year.
+
+  For Grasmere  James Fleming for Knott houses
+                John Allison for Thompson's Underhelme
+  For Langdales John Benson for Milnbeck
+                Edward Tysons for Fieldside
+  For Rydal & Loughrigg--Edward Park for late Edward Benson's
+    High Close
+  For Ambleside--Thomas Lycott.
+
+  General Charge.                                         £ s. d.
+
+  To Ringing on Sundays & Holydays & to Grease &
+      greasing the Bells                                    13 4
+  To dressing Church and Church Yard                         2 6
+  To cleaning Church Windows and Sentences                   1 0
+  To washing Church Linen 3s 6d, to cleaning Church
+      plate 6d                                               4 0
+  To the Rushbearers 2s 6d, to drawing the accounts 3s       5 6
+  To writing Marriage Register 1s, to drawing copy of
+      Register 2s 6d                                         3 6
+  To Dogwhipper 3s to Steeple Window mending 3-1/2d
+      Repairing Choir Door                                   4 5-1/2
+  To Bell ropes mending 1s, to 4 Bushels of Lime &
+      Carriage for Steeple Roof 7s 4d                        8 4
+                                                          ----------
+                                                          £2 2 7-1/2
+                                                          ----------
+
+  For Grasmere in particular.                               £ s. d.
+
+  Received by Assessments for Repairs of Church &
+      Schoolhouse                                           4  3  4
+  Rec.d of the old Churchwardens                            6 11-1/2
+                                                           ------------
+                                                           £4 10  3-1/2
+                                                           ------------
+
+  Disbursements.                                            £ s. d.
+
+  To the old Churchwardens going out of their office
+      & Journey                                                1  4
+  To the new churchwardens entering on their office
+      & Journey                                                1  4
+  Paid to the Commissary for their part of one Presentment
+      and Prayer Books                                         7  7-1/4
+  To Bread & Wine & Carriage at Whitsuntide                    7  2
+  To Bread & Wine at Michaelmas                                6  6
+  To Bread & Wine & Carr: at Christmas                         7  2
+  To writing their part of one Presentment                     1  0
+  To Charges at laying Church Rate 1s, to repairing
+      school windows 1s 3d                                     2  3
+  To repairing Church windows in Grasmere Third                6 10
+  To Wine at Xtmas 1786 lost by Leakage of the Wood
+      bottle & unsettled before                                6 10-3/4
+          Their Third part of General Charge                  14  2-1/2
+                                                            -----------
+                                                            £3 2  3-1/2
+                                                            -----------
+                                                   Remains   1 8  0
+
+  For Loughrigge & beneath Moss.                             £ s. d.
+
+  Received by Assessment for Repairs of the Church           1 13  4-1/2
+  Recd. of the old Churchwarden                              1 13  4
+  Recd. for one burial in the Church                            3  4
+  Recd. of Ambleside Churchwarden                               5  0-1/4
+                                                            ------------
+                                                            £3 15  0-3/4
+
+  Disbursements.
+
+  To the old Churchwarden going out of Office & Journey      8
+  To the new Churchwarden entering on his Office &
+      Journey                                                8
+  Paid to the Commissary for his part of one Presentment
+      & prayer Books                                     5   0-3/4
+  To writing his part of one Presentment                     6
+  To Bread & Wine at Whitsuntide                         4   4
+  To Bread & Wine & Carriage at Michaelmas               5   0
+  To Bread & Wine at Christmas                           4   4
+  To Charges at laying Church Fees 1s, to repairing
+      Church Windows 1s 6-1/2d                           2   6-1/2
+  To flagging a grave 2d To Wine lost by Leakage of
+      w'd bottle at Xmas 1786 4s 7-1/4d                  4   9-1/4
+             His Third part of General Charge           14   2-1/2
+                                                    ---------------
+                                                     2   2   1
+                                                    ---------------
+                                       Remains       1  12  11-3/4
+                                                    ---------------
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The account for Langdale does not appear.
+
+[Illustration: PLAN OF GRASMERE CHURCH   TO FACE PART V.]
+
+
+
+
+PART V
+
+
+  LATER PARSONS OF GRASMERE
+
+  AMBLESIDE CHAPEL
+
+  AMBLESIDE CURATES
+
+  LANGDALE CURATES
+
+  SCHOOLS AND CLERKS
+
+  CHURCH RATES
+
+  NON-RATEPAYERS
+
+  REGISTERS
+
+  PRESENTMENTS, BRIEFS, AND CHARITIES
+
+  THE RUSH-BEARING
+
+[Illustration: On the Great Bell, Gloria in Altissimis Deo]
+
+
+LATER PARSONS OF GRASMERE
+
+
+Grasmere settled down then, after the Restoration, to an absentee
+rector, the Rev. John Ambrose; and under him was a curate-in-charge,
+the Rev. John Brathwaite. One of his name, son of William, "pleb.,"
+matriculated from Queen's College, Oxford, in 1631, aged 18, whom Dr.
+Magrath thinks may have been he.[157] Under Mr. Thomas Brathwaite's
+will, 1674, "Mr. Brawthwaite minister of Grassemire" received a
+legacy of 20s., which shows that he enjoyed the esteem of that
+Puritanical gentleman. He often appears in the Account Book. For
+churching the squire's wife he received regularly 5s.; until there
+comes the melancholy item in 1675:--
+
+  [157] See "Flemings in Oxford."
+
+                                                      £  s. d.
+
+  Apr. 17--Given to Mr. Jo. Brathwait for preaching
+  of my Dear Wifes Funerall Sermon (upon Prov.
+  31, 29) and often visiting her dureing ye time
+  of her sickness and praying by her                  02 00 00
+
+Other items are more cheerful; for often the minister's little
+daughter would carry offerings of fruit, cherries and wild
+blackberries to the Hall, for which she would receive a _douceur_ in
+return. Also, as boys apparently then caught woodcocks in springes,
+as they did later (see Wordsworth's Prelude), the item occurs in
+1782:--
+
+                                                      £  s.  d.
+
+  Dec. 12--Given Parson Brathwait's Son who brought
+      some Wood-cockes                               00  00  06
+
+The daughter seemingly married in 1685, for the Squire's boys were
+dispatched on May 24th, with money to give at her offering--a
+collection made at the wedding for the benefit of the couple; Will
+giving 5s. and Dan 2s. 6d.
+
+It was in 1684 that Parson Ambrose, who for some forty years had
+been connected with the rectory of Grasmere, passed to his long
+rest. By surviving five brothers--several of whom were bachelors
+like himself--he succeeded to the family estate; and the old Furness
+homestead had been added to his other residences.[158] The Rydal
+squire notes in that Account Book--which became practically a diary:--
+
+  [158] West's _Antiquities of Furness_.
+
+                                                       £   s.  d.
+
+  Aug. 20--My Cosin Ambrose, Lord of Lowick and
+      Parson of Gresmere, dying Aug. 16. 84 was
+      this day buried, and I attended his Corps from
+      Lowick-hall unto Ulverston-Church, where he
+      lyes interred, being ye last male of his family
+      in ye North                                      00  00  00
+
+Little as Grasmere had known him, the old man remembered the place
+in his will, and bequeathed £50 for the school, under trust to the
+"minister and such persons as shall be of the four and twenty of the
+parish of Grasmere."
+
+The death of Ambrose left the post vacant for Henry Fleming, the
+squire's second son, who had been bred up to the church, doubtless in
+readiness for it. He had taken his B.A. degree in 1682, from Queen's
+College, Oxford, and there he was still residing, in preparation
+for his M.A. degree, to be taken next year. Presented now by his
+father to Grasmere, he proceeded on November 22nd to Carlisle for
+his ordination, and next month rode to Chester to complete the
+business of his appointment. On January 7th he was formally inducted
+to the ancient fabric, over which he was now--a young man of 25--to
+rule; and his father on this occasion opened heart and purse to his
+neighbours at the Church-Stile Inn in an unwonted manner.
+
+     " ... and spent Jan. 7 at Robert Harrisons in Gresmere when he
+     was Inducted by Mr. Jo. Brathwait 3s. 6d."
+
+The new rector then returned to Oxford, where he remained until the
+end of 1687. Clearly he was in no haste to settle down in Grasmere,
+at any rate before his income was free from burden[159] and until
+something was done to the rectory, which wanted effectual repair. His
+eldest brother assisted him in plans; and he wrote to his father on
+March 14th, 1687, "I have received a letter from my Brother William
+concerning Grasmere church and Parsonage House, with a model of the
+house he designes to build, which I like very well, if the money
+will finish it, and adorn the church. But I am affraid that it will
+fall short unless you be pleased to be assisting in wood."
+
+  [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.
+  0-1/2d. 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.
+
+Probably the squire did assist; and it may be a stout oak from
+Bainriggs that bears still the incised legend "This House was built
+1687 Henry Fleming Par"; which implies that the house was entirely
+remodelled.[160] The work went briskly forward, and on June 22nd the
+squire noted:--
+
+  [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.
+
+                                                     £   s.  d.
+
+  "Spent yesterday at Gresmere when I viewed ye
+      Painting in ye Church, and ye Parsonage new
+      House                                         00   05  00
+
+which meant tips and treats at the alehouse, and a great commotion.
+
+Harry was still in Oxford in October, but early in December he was
+down, and preached to his people.
+
+     Dec. 11--This day my Son Henry Fleming preached his first
+     sermon--upon Romans xiii in Gresmere church, where I would have
+     been, had I had notice of his preaching.
+
+This statement shows Harry's nervousness in face of his clever
+father. It may have been with reluctance that he left the University
+where for nine and a half years he had lived a student's life; but
+that his departure was intended to be final is clear, from the fact
+that his box followed him, the cost of its carriage being 11s.--44
+lb. at 3d. per lb.
+
+Harry would seem to have been a quiet, unostentatious man. His tutor,
+the Rev. Thomas Dixon, wrote of him to his father on his first
+arrival from the country, "Yo^r Son is both frugall and studious, and
+all that I find amiss in him is that he wants courage and heart, I
+do all I can to animate and encourage him and to put some more spirit
+into him. I hope disputeing in ye Hall will put some briskness and
+metall into him, and teach him to wrangle: He is one of three that
+yo^r nephew Fletcher calls his Juniors in ye Hall, So that they
+must endeavour to bafle him and then heel cease to stand upon his
+Seniority or att least to triumph in it. He deserves also all the
+encouragem^t, that may be, because he is willing to do anything and
+frequents Prayers and Disputacons as much as any one, though of much
+less Quality and honour than himselfe. He has another fellow-Pupill
+of ye same order that keepes pace with him, and they have combin'd to
+sett patterns to all ye rest of their Table: I hope theyl continue
+this their emulacon, and that yo^r Son will also excite others of his
+degree to ye same excellency and p'fection."[161]
+
+  [161] Ry. Hall MSS., His. MS. Com. 2084.
+
+It is probable that Harry was never taught to "wrangle"; and though
+his abilities were excellent, he rose to no high office in the
+Church, like his brother George. He had a true interest in his
+parish, as we must suppose, from the encouragement he gave to the
+people over the embellishment of the church; and the accounts show
+that "ye Dr." went over into Langdale at least once (in 1696) to
+preach and administer the sacraments. He neglected the bells, as
+has been seen, and possibly the wardens had a difficulty in getting
+hold of him; for from 1694, when he acquired the living of Asby,
+Cumberland, he resided there. He married, in 1700, Mary, daughter of
+John Fletcher, of Hunslet, and on his death, in 1728, left a daughter
+only.
+
+With Dr. Henry Fleming was associated, as curate, the Rev. Thomas
+Knott. This worthy man was doubtless of the Grasmere stock that for
+so many generations had supplied able and prominent members to the
+village community.[162] He entered his name in the Grasmere register
+as curate and schoolmaster in 1687. In 1694 he was promoted to the
+more independent (and doubtless better paid) curacy of Ambleside. The
+letter he wrote to his rector on the occasion of the Kelsick bequest,
+which does credit to them both, has already appeared in print.[163]
+The Rev. Thomas continued to officiate in Ambleside until his death
+in 1744.
+
+  [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.
+
+The Squire of Rydal (who had been knighted in 1681) died in 1701, and
+it was the curate-in-charge, Dudley Walker, who preached his funeral
+sermon and received the honorarium of £1 1s. 6d.
+
+The removal of this strong spirit must have made a difference in the
+parish. His heir, William, who purchased a baronetcy, was a man of
+feebler type, whose influence would be little felt in the parish.
+He ceased, apparently, to worship at the old church, for in 1728 he
+bought the two front pews in Ambleside Chapel, which had belonged
+to the Braithwaites. On the death of his brother Henry, he appears
+to have nominated for the rectory of Grasmere one William Kilner,
+who immediately retired in favour of another son of Sir Daniel,
+George, born 1667. He was totally unlike his brother Henry in
+temperament. Handsome in person, of good abilities, assured spirit
+and pleasant manners, his path in life proved an easy one. As a boy,
+he, of all the brothers, had found it possible to ask his father
+for money, whether to bet upon his cock at the Shrove-tide fight,
+or to enter his college library, or even to engage in a trading
+venture.[164] Once within the church, he advanced rapidly, for his
+father's old friend, Dr. Smith, Bishop of Carlisle, gave him the
+living of Aspatria in 1695, and four years later made the young man
+his domestic chaplain. From that time he accumulated benefices and
+honours. Made Archdeacon of Carlisle in 1705, he became Dean in
+1727, shortly before his brother's death gave him the opportunity
+of absorbing Grasmere. The wardens' presentment of 1729 states "Our
+expected Rector is not yet Instituted and Inducted, the Cure is duly
+Supplyed by a Curate; we know not what Salary is allowed him." The
+church for the moment would seem to be poorly manned, for it adds "We
+have no Parish Clark or Sexton at present."
+
+  [164] See _Ambleside Town and Chapel_. More particulars of the
+  education of George Fleming will be found in the forthcoming
+  Chronicles of Rydal.
+
+The august rector, who had other benefices, was probably little seen
+in his native parish; and in 1733 he resigned it in favour of his
+only son, William, who also became Archdeacon after him. Next year
+George stepped up to the post of Bishop of Carlisle; and in 1736, on
+his brother William's death, he succeeded to the Rydal estates and
+the baronetcy. His only misfortune was the death of his son in 1743.
+He himself died in 1747, and a nephew became possessed of Rydal Hall
+and of the patronage of the church.[165]
+
+  [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.
+
+It is risky to judge from negative evidence: but there is nothing to
+show that George Fleming, bishop and baronet, did anything either as
+rector or patron to benefit the church where he had worshipped as a
+child, or the parish whence he and his son drew an income for fifteen
+years; the sole mention of him in the church books being a statement
+that he held a confirmation there in place of the Bishop of Chester.
+The wardens and the Eighteen, with the curate, kept parochial matters
+going; and the former, wearied no doubt of waiting for help from the
+rector, tackled the great bell outlay in 1730-2, as has been seen.
+
+After he had become bishop, George Fleming erected in the choir the
+marble monument that commemorates (in grandiose Latin) his father and
+himself.
+
+The Rev. George Briggs acted as curate-in-charge from 1722. Though
+he may not have enjoyed a university training, the facts of his life
+that have been found suggest that his ministrations were beneficial
+to the folk. Like the first "capellanus," of whom there is record,
+Adam de Ottelay, and many another simple curate, he had footing in
+the community as statesman, holding house and land. In 1725 he first
+appears as "Mr. Briggs" in the Rydal rental, paying a lord's rent of
+8s. 4d. for Padmar, or Padmire (Pavement End), which had belonged to
+the Rydal manor apparently since the days of Squire John. In that
+year also the minister, described as "clerk," married Miss Jane
+Knott, of Rydal, daughter probably of Edward and sister of Michael,
+who, for so long, acted as influential agents to the Rydal lord.
+
+Mrs. Jane Briggs remained long as widow in possession of the Padmire
+estate; and the name of the Rev. George Briggs--doubtless her
+son--appears as holder, after a gap, in 1806; in 1819 that of the
+Rev. William Pearson has taken its place.[166]
+
+  [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."
+
+Meanwhile, the death of the Archdeacon had left the rectorate vacant,
+and an unfortunate nomination was made by the patron-bishop. The Rev.
+John Craik, B.A., was probably never resident--a fact quite usual:
+but to this was presently added the more painful one that he became
+incapable of managing his affairs, and his sister had to act for him.
+Only five years after his appointment, Sir William Fleming writes of
+the complaints of the parishioners, who with a church sadly in need
+of repair can do nothing, since the rector will not come over to see
+to it. Matters presently became so acute that a petition was framed,
+begging the Bishop of Chester to intervene, as Mr. Craik was out of
+his mind, and had not been near the church for three years.[167]
+Yet it was not till the man's death, in 1806, that this miserable
+situation came to an end.
+
+  [167] Rydal Hall MSS.
+
+The Rev. Gawen Mackereth was curate under Mr. Craik. To judge by his
+name, he was a native of the vales, and he apparently entered the
+church--like many more in this period--by the door of the village
+school-house. He wrote his name in the register on October 23rd,
+1735, as "Ludimagister et Clericus Grasmereiensis," copying the
+inscription of Thomas Knott, though with a fault in the spelling.
+Twenty years later he preached for the last time his two yearly
+sermons in Langdale. Sir William Fleming chose the next curate
+himself; and he may have intended the Rev. John Wilson to occupy
+the post of rector, should this fall vacant. But that day was far
+distant, and Wilson--who seems from his action with regard to the
+owner of Bainrigg to have been a man of strong temper--lived but a
+short time after his appointment.[168]
+
+  [168] _Rydal Chronicles._
+
+He was followed by Edward Rowlandson, of whom scarcely anything is
+known; but who--according to the register that records his burial in
+1811--served the parish for fifty years. He could not have taught the
+school, as the burial of Thomas Davis, schoolmaster, is recorded in
+1801.
+
+Under him and Craik Grasmere must, indeed, have slumbered
+spiritually. How could it be otherwise? But by this time Craik was
+dead, after being rector for sixty-three years--surely a record term
+for a lunatic! In the same year, 1806, Sir Michael le Fleming, the
+patron who had never exercised his rights, died likewise. His widow,
+Lady Diana, nominated as rector the Rev. Thomas Jackson. With him the
+long record of absentee rectors was broken. He is said to have sprung
+from a family of dalesfolk. He united, like some early predecessors,
+his spiritual office with a temporal one, and acted as "clerk" or
+agent to his patron. With his assistance, the heiress and Lady of
+Rydal Hall freed her estate from debt, bought the ruinous homesteads
+of the village, and replaced them by pretty cottages. Jackson was
+successful also with his own affairs, and left a good deal of
+property at his death, including Harry Place in Langdale, Tail End
+in Grasmere, Brow Head in Loughrigg, and Waterhead on Windermere. He
+lived, it is said, at Harry Place, and on most days rode his pony
+(according to the report of old Langdale folk) over the fell to
+Grasmere or Rydal Hall.
+
+It is well known that the rectory was let to the poet Wordsworth.
+The premises had been sadly neglected, the wardens having, in 1798,
+"presented" the "Rectory-House, Barn, and out-Houses" as being in "a
+ruinous state," but the new rector was too good a business man to
+leave them in that condition. Dorothy Wordsworth writes (May 11th,
+1810) that Mr. Jackson is willing to make the Parsonage comfortable,
+and will contrive a good library out of part of the barn. Later
+(June, 1811), she says, "There is an oblong 4-cornered court before
+the door, surrounded by ugly white walls."[169]
+
+  [169] _Letters of the Wordsworth Family._
+
+This graphic touch is interesting and suggestive. The place had
+apparently an ancient character, with a strongly walled fore-court,
+capable of being closed and defended. Such a plan--which was always
+that of a manor-house--might be necessary of old for rectories,
+where the tithe-barn, often stored with grain and hay, stood
+temptingly, and occasionally was the subject of dispute.[170] Now
+it is just possible that the rectory may occupy the site of the
+former offices of the demesne. No manorial lord was ever resident
+in this remote vale, as far as we know; but a resident bailiff and
+a forester there must at least have been, with a few underlings.
+These officers would be placed in a lodge, stoutly barricaded with
+wooden palisades--later converted into walls. To this nucleus would
+be added, besides byres and barns and smithy, a "knight's chamber,"
+for the accommodation of the lord, if he visited the spot, or pushed
+so far in the chase; and nothing is more likely than that a priest's
+chamber or house (along with the tithe-barn) would find a place
+within this safe enclosure. In such a case, the decay and final
+abolition of the demesne would leave the rectory in sole occupation
+of the ground. Wordsworth gave up his tenancy, after the death of two
+children, in the belief that the spot was unhealthy. It must have
+been still more so in ancient times, while the marsh that almost
+surrounds it was still undrained.
+
+  [170] In the mediæval story of Reynard the Fox, the Priest's barn
+  is well walled about. See Francis Bond's _Misericords_, p. 73.
+
+On the re-construction of the rectory in 1895 the old elevation was
+preserved as much as possible, but the level of the ground floor was
+raised five feet.
+
+Tradition also states that the Rev. Thomas Jackson served personally
+the chapel of Langdale, and certainly--if he lived in that
+valley--this would be more convenient for him than the parish church.
+The curates under him appear to have been men of ability and worth.
+William Johnson indeed secured a fame as educationalist that is
+recorded in the _National Dictionary_. A Cumberland man, born in
+1784, he appears to have come to Grasmere as schoolmaster before the
+death of the old curate Rowlandson. He began to officiate in 1810,
+shortly after he had entered St. John's College, Cambridge. His stay
+in Grasmere was short, for Dr. Andrew Bell, when visiting Wordsworth
+in 1811, was so struck by his management of the village school, that
+he offered him the post of Master of the school then being built by
+the National Society in London; and thither he repaired next year.
+He became organizer to the Society and school inspector and rector
+of a London church. After his retirement from more active work, he
+returned (about 1848) to Grasmere, where he bought a piece of land
+and built the house, since enlarged, called Huntingstile. He was a
+friend of Edward Quillinan, Wordsworth's son-in-law, and in 1853
+edited his poems with a memoir. He lived till 1864.
+
+Johnson's name occurs in the letters of the De Quincey family. The
+future Opium-eater had just settled at Dove Cottage, where he was
+visited by his mother and sisters. The elder lady was a friend of
+Mrs. Hannah More, and it is a little amusing to find that the aid of
+that prophetess of the Evangelical Revival was invoked for Grasmere,
+which was evidently considered, by the strangers who began to invade
+the district, to be in a benighted state. At one particular evening
+reception at Barley Wood, Mrs. More's home, an effort was made to
+engage her interest in what were called "the Christian politicks" of
+Grasmere; but little was gained beyond a vague promise of Tracts,
+until the opportune arrival of Mr. Venn from Clapham, who gave hopes
+of help (for a time at least) from the Sunday School Society in money
+and books. Mrs. De Quincey, in reporting the matter to her son, looks
+forward to the time when "experience recommends the Institution
+to more effectual patronage at home, where at present it is an
+experiment, and viewed with indifference, if not with suspicion,
+by people who must very feebly comprehend the value of religious
+instruction."[171] The "good Pastor" was to be cheered, meanwhile,
+"under his difficult labour" by the magic of Mrs. More's name, and
+the promise of more substantial aid when the De Quincey ladies should
+arrive.
+
+  [171] _De Quincey Memorials_, vol. ii., 90-91.
+
+But aid was to be found at hand, which probably did not excite
+suspicion. To Lady Fleming religion became increasingly dear after
+home troubles left her a lonely woman. Her accounts show that in 1817
+14s. 8d. was paid to "Mr. Noble Wilson, Schoolmaster"--possibly for
+books: and in 1821 a fee of ten guineas was paid him "for Teaching
+Sunday School." Mr. Wilson, who followed Robert Powley (inscribed as
+curate in 1814), must have been a favourite. He came over from his
+cure at Witherslack in 1831 to bury Mr. Samuel Barber, who had made
+"Gell's Cottage" (now Silverhow) his home.
+
+Evil days had fallen once more on the Grasmere rectorate. The Rev.
+Thomas Jackson died in 1822. He left two sons, one of whom, educated
+for the law, succeeded him as agent at Rydal Hall. The other,
+William, was bred up to the church, and no doubt his father had hopes
+that he would succeed him as rector.[172] But the right of nomination
+had, unfortunately, passed into the hands of Sir Daniel Fleming. No
+protest to the bishop, as regards his choice, was of avail, and the
+nominee, Sir Richard le Fleming, took office.
+
+  [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.
+
+The rector remained at the rectory after his inhibition in 1834, and
+curates, named Kingsley, Magrath, and Harris did duty successively
+for two years each. Then, in 1840, came the Rev. Edward Jefferies,
+who for so long ministered to the parish as curate and rector. He
+remained as curate when, in 1857, the opportunity came for Lady
+Fleming to appoint her distant kinsman, the Rev. Fletcher Fleming,
+of Rayrigg (already serving the chapel of Rydal), to the rectorate,
+but when he retired, in 1863, the Rev. Edward was fully installed in
+his office. Mr. Jefferies died in 1893.[173] The men who followed him
+are still (1912) living; the Revs. H. M. Fletcher, W. Jennings, J. H.
+Heywood, and M. F. Peterson.
+
+  [173] He had resigned the living in 1878.
+
+
+THE CHAPELS.
+
+Brief mention of the later history of the chapelries under Grasmere
+may be made here.
+
+Ambleside, when the crisis of the Reformation came, took matters
+strenuously in hand, as we have seen. The townsmen provided a regular
+stipend for a curate who could teach Latin and Greek to their sons,
+and also kept up the fabric of the chapel, in complete independence
+of the mother church. Moreover the right of burial and baptism at
+the chapel was secured in 1676, after some opposition from the
+patron.[174] Nothing, perhaps, was definitely fixed with regard
+to the nomination of the schoolmaster-curate, when the townsfolk
+undertook to furnish his salary in 1584. They may have hoped that it
+would be left to themselves; and certainly they, with Mr. Braithwaite
+at their head, appointed during the Commonwealth. But the strong
+Squire of Rydal soon made it plain, that as patron of the mother
+church, he meant to establish his claim to the patronage of the
+daughter chapel, which stood on the Grasmere side of Stock Beck.[175]
+It has remained in his family ever since.
+
+  [174] See _Ambleside Town and Chapel_, p. 42.
+
+  [175] See _Ambleside Town and Chapel_, p. 46.
+
+
+
+
+AMBLESIDE CHAPEL.
+
+
+It may be well to give a list of the Post-Reformation parsons of
+Ambleside (rectified according to present knowledge), as well as
+the evidence of a provision made for them in 1584. This evidence
+was found amongst Mr. George Browne's MSS. too late for insertion
+in _Ambleside Town and Chapel_, where the deed of 1597 is given in
+full. It is an extract from a contemporaneous document, written out
+in a memorandum book of Christopher Birkett, who owned part of the
+lands of the Forrest family in Ambleside; and it records the fixed
+contributions of that family to the endowment.
+
+     "Forth of the Schedule conteining the sums of money granted by
+     ye Ten^{ts} and Inhabitants of Amble' for the repaires of the
+     Chapel and payeing the Ministers Stipend according to an Award
+     whereto the schedule is Annexed. Dated 16th Octobr in the 26th
+     yeare of Queen Elizibeth.
+
+  John Forrest xijd.
+  Wife of Rich: Forrest viijd.
+  Antony Forrest iiijd.
+  Edw: Forrest 4d.
+  Thomas Forrest 3s. 4d.
+
+     A Schedule of all the P'cels of ground named and set downe to
+     be Occupyed by ye Rulers of Ambleside to the use and intents
+     conteined in the Award annexed.
+
+     One P'cell of ground conteining one Rood lyeing at the height of
+     Seethwait in the possession of John Forrest.
+
+     One P'cell lyeing at Kilnhow, one Rood in the pos'ion of the
+     wife of Richard Forrest.
+
+     One close above the Grove in possession of Edward Forrest.
+
+     One close called Grove close in possession of Thom: Forrest."
+
+
+
+
+AMBLESIDE CURATES
+
+
+The names of two or three priests who may have served Ambleside
+before the Reformation have already been given. A new era was marked
+by the endowment of 1584, and the appointment of an excellent and
+learned man followed.
+
+     1585--JOHN BELL. He was the first curate to inscribe his name in
+     the Bible belonging to the chapel, which, after long alienation,
+     has been restored to the church.[176] Bell's latest inscription
+     tells that he had then served (in 1629) for 44 years. He was
+     buried in Grasmere, December 23rd, 1634. His fine action in
+     constructing with his scholars a causeway across the miry bottom
+     between Ambleside and Rydal was long held in remembrance. In his
+     latter days he must have had an assistant under him, for the
+     burial of Leonard Wilson, "Scolmaister at Amblesyd," is entered
+     for February 12th, 1621.
+
+  [176] _Ambleside "Curates" Bible, Transactions_, C. and W. An.
+  S., n.s. vol vii.
+
+1635--THOMAS MASON (spelt also Mayson and Masonn). It was he,
+doubtless, who witnessed (and wrote out) many Ambleside deeds, though
+not till 1840 does the word "clerk" follow.
+
+1647--HENRY TURNER, undoubtedly a Presbyterian.
+
+1669--JOHN PEARSON. This nominee of the Rydal squire met with some
+opposition in the town, headed by Mr. Braithwaite "upon a private
+Pique"--so the patron reported to the bishop. He was, however,
+ordained and inducted; though the subsequent refusal of some of the
+townsmen to pay their pledged contribution to the salary of the
+curate was no doubt due to discontent.[177]
+
+  [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.
+
+1681 ---- THWAITES. The Christian name of this pedagogue has not been
+recovered. The diocesan registry does not give him; but his name
+is entered in the Curates' Bible, and moreover four of the Rydal
+squire's sons were placed under his tuition in January, 1681. His
+stay was short, and a collection was made for him in the chapel on
+October 20th, 1685, to which the squire contributed 5s.
+
+1682--RICHARD WRIGHT was instituted curate before Mr. Thwaites'
+departure.
+
+1688--ROGER FLEMING. His name suggests his being a native. He united
+husbandry with his other occupations. His burial is entered on
+September 2nd, 1694, and on the 11th, his successor, who had served
+Grasmere, was licensed.
+
+1694--THOMAS KNOTT. He wrote out John Kelsick's will, by which
+Ambleside has so largely benefited. As his name is the last in the
+Curates' Bible, we must suppose that he caused a new one to be bought.
+
+1744--JONATHAN MYLES.
+
+1753--ISAAC KNIPE.
+
+1786--JOHN WILSON.
+
+1791--JOHN KNIPE.
+
+1798 ---- CRAKELT.
+
+1811--JOHN DAWES.
+      THOMAS TROUGHTON.
+      SAMUEL IRTON FELL.
+
+An extraordinary entry appears in the Grasmere register for February
+15th, 1674, "ye buriall of John Osgood of Amblesid surverer[178] for
+ye duty of Christ borne at Ridin in barkeshire."
+
+  [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.
+
+
+
+
+LANGDALE CURATES
+
+
+Langdale was, at the Reformation, in worse case than Ambleside, where
+the townsfolk were rich enough to put both chapel and school on a
+sound financial basis. The Little Langdale chapel ceased to be. The
+one in Great Langdale, bereft of its particular ministering priest,
+was threatened with a like fate. Probably it was never closed,
+however. An intelligent native would be found to act as clerk for
+a nominal wage, and occasionally the rector would visit it, and
+would administer the Easter communion to those who were too old or
+ill to cross the fell. Two clerks appear in the register before
+the Commonwealth, who may have acted as lay readers. During the
+Commonwealth the chapel would be wholly in the hands of the sect that
+happened to be dominant for the moment; and the fact that its pulpit
+was open to any religious speaker undoubtedly caused the followers of
+George Fox to be more numerous in Langdale than in any other quarter
+of the parish. It was a Quaker who resisted the Episcopal church
+service, when it was revived. (See p. 88.)
+
+But order was again established at the Restoration. Weekly services
+were apparently conducted by a lay clerk, and the Grasmere curate in
+charge came over once a year to administer sacrament (at a charge of
+2s. 6d. to the township), and twice or thrice to preach (1s.). From
+1680, when Langdale secured the privilege of a separate communion,
+she ceased to contribute to the bread and wine consumed at the parish
+church celebrations.
+
+The ritual of the chapel is disclosed in a Presentment of its wardens
+for 1732, preserved among the general accounts.
+
+They have (they say) the Commandments set up within the chapel;
+a Communion table; linen cloth; patten; flagon and Chalice;
+Reading-desk and pulpit; a Surplice; books, etc.; with bell and
+bell-rope. "Our minister resides with us; he is not in Holy Orders:
+he reads Prayers and Homilies." He is allowed "the usual salary."
+Sacrament is administered every Easter. Baptisms and marriages are
+solemnized by the curate of Grasmere. No alms are received from the
+Communicants; and they have no alms-box.
+
+The separate parochial accounts kept for Langdale continually give
+items for repair and upkeep of the fabric and its adjuncts. One of
+these was a "common stable," doubtless used for the accommodation of
+those who rode to worship. After consultations, the re-building of
+the chapel and school was decided on in 1751, and the work was slowly
+proceeded with, at the expense of the township, through the next
+three years. There may have been always a priest's lodging in the
+valley. In 1762 the "Parson's House" was repaired for 13s. 3-1/2d.
+
+The following is a list--incomplete in its earlier part--of clerks,
+readers, and curates who served the chapel after the Reformation:--
+
+  William Gollinge "of The Thrange in Langden, clerk" had a son
+    baptized 1590.
+  Charles Middlefell "clerke of Landale" died 1643.
+  Richard Harrison, clerk; died 1670.       Daniel Green, d. 1829.
+  Richard Steele, d. 1780.                  Owen Lloyd, d. 1841.
+  Thomas Jackson, d. 1821.                  Stephen Birkett, d. 1860.
+  William Jackson, 1821.[179]               James Coward, vicar; 1885.
+  Thomas Sewell, 1822.                      R. S. Hulbert, ret. 1900.
+
+    [179] See page 173, note.
+
+Owen Lloyd was the son of Charles Lloyd, who was the friend of
+Charles Lamb and for some time had resided at old Brathay. He
+inherited considerable poetic gifts, and composed the Rushbearing
+Hymn always sung at the Ambleside Festival. He lived for a while with
+his friend, Mrs. Luff, at Fox Ghyll, Loughrigg.
+
+RYDAL.--The chapel of St. Mary, Rydal, was built by Lady Fleming in
+1824 and consecrated by the Bishop of Chester on August 27th, 1825.
+This new foundation took a large slice out of the old parish, though
+customary dues and tithes continued for some time to be paid to the
+rector. (See later.)
+
+BRATHAY.--The church, which was built here in 1836 by Mr. Giles
+Redmayne, stands on the Lancashire side of the river, but its
+parochial boundary took another slice off the old parish, which was
+now wholly robbed of the township of Rydal and Loughrigg.
+
+So the old mother church, robbed of her daughter chapels and the
+folk she so long fostered, rules to-day only the little valley of
+Grasmere.
+
+[Illustration: Decorative]
+
+
+
+
+SCHOOL AND CLERKS
+
+
+Latter-day clerks and schoolmasters present a tangled subject,
+difficult to unravel. Sometimes the clerk taught school. More often
+there was a separate schoolmaster who served as curate, entering
+holy orders for the purpose; for by this economy of labour two
+meagre stipends were put together, and the rector might even effect
+an economy on the one.[180] Sometimes each of the three offices was
+served by its own functionary; and yet again it seems likely that
+they were occasionally all filled by one man--in which case a deputy
+was hired for the menial work.
+
+  [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.
+
+The school of Grasmere was doubtless an ancient institution, taught
+in days before the Reformation by the resident priest. It is not
+unlikely that it would be supervised by the visiting monk from York,
+for monasteries were then the centres of learning. It would, of
+course, be held within the church, or the porch, according to the
+season, as was the custom. After the Reformation, and during John
+Wilson's fifty-two years' term as rector, followed by that of the
+erratic Royalist, Henry Wilson, tuition must have been a good deal
+neglected, or left to the clerk. One Michael Hird was serving as
+clerk in 1613, and a Robert of the name in 1638, who may have been a
+son, since the office was kept in a family whenever possible. Robert
+Hird, "clarke," was buried in 1680, which looks like ejection by the
+Presbyterians, and subsequent restoration.
+
+For we are left in no doubt as to the appointments made by the new
+religious authorities. George Bennison, proud, no doubt, of his
+office and of his smattering of Latin, wrote in the register, "I
+began to teache Schoole att Grassmire the 3 day of May 1641 being et
+Ludimagister et AEdituus."[181]
+
+  [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 OElfric, 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 (P[=a]ter) rather
+  than cutting it short (P[)a]ter); no, comparing pronunciation as
+  is the Britons' way, for God ought not to be subject to the rules
+  of grammar."
+
+  ED.
+
+
+  From his spelling of the place-name--which never had been
+  anything but _Gresmer_--we suspect him to have been a stranger;
+  and it would probably be difficult to fill posts on the spot that
+  had been summarily made void. Next comes "Thomas Wilson clarke at
+  Gresmere in 1655." He it must have been who fought the battle of
+  ritual with John Banks, bailiff, before a trembling congregation,
+  after the minister Wallas had decamped. (See p. 87.) He, in turn,
+  must have lost the post at the Restoration.
+
+  The Parliament passed a law in 1653 obliging every parish to
+  supply a layman for the care of the registers, who was oddly
+  called a "parish-register."[182] Accordingly this was done, and
+  certified by the non-conformist magnate of Ambleside Hall. "Bee
+  it remembered that John Benson of Gresmere being elected and
+  chosen Parish Register of Gresmere by the inhabitants ther was
+  approved of and sworne before me the 9th of Aprill 1656.
+
+  [182] Dr. Fox's _Parish Registers of England_.
+
+Tho: Brathwaite."
+
+John kept the office, as an entry in the accounts shows, at least
+twenty years.
+
+Rector Ambrose, when he left £50 to the parson and "twenty-four"
+of the parish, in trust for the school, gave an impetus to
+education in the place. The sum--or part of it--may have been used
+for the erection of a school-house. At all events, the quaint
+little house still standing by the lych-gates was already there
+when Anthony Dawson, statesman--incited perhaps by the parson's
+example--bequeathed, in 1635, the sum of £7 to a "School Stock in
+Grasmeer."[183] He expressly entrusted it to the patron, rector,
+and incumbent, "towards the maintenance of a Schoolmaster teaching
+Scholars at the School-House built at the Church Yard Yeates in
+Gresmere."[184]
+
+  [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_.
+
+These legacies gave importance to the office of schoolmaster. The
+choice lay then, as now, with the rector and the lay representatives
+of the parish, at that time the Eighteen, now only six. The
+appointment of young Thomas Knott as schoolmaster, shortly after this
+accession of funds, was an excellent one. Curate as well, there is
+a question as to whether he did not occupy also the post of clerk.
+He was termed clerk in the wardens' accounts, when in 1694 he was
+paid 2s. for attending the Visitation and Correction Court. But a
+man who could appear at so dignified a function could hardly have
+swept out the church, or dug the graves--and these, according to
+the Declaration of the Wardens "We have no sexton belonging to our
+Church"--were among the clerk's duties. He may have paid a deputy to
+do these things, since there were perquisites belonging to the post
+worth gathering in.
+
+INCOME OF THE CLERK.--The parish clerk was, in his way, as important
+a functionary as the parson. Like the rector, he had no fixed salary,
+but took from early times the offerings of the folk, which became
+fixed and proportionate, like the tithes. From every "smoke" or
+household fire, he had one penny a year. For church ceremonials, when
+he acted as Master of the Ceremonies, he received a fixed fee, 2d.
+for a wedding and 4d. for a funeral. He was the accredited news-agent
+or advertizer. For instance, when the Rydal and Loughrigg Overseers
+wished to put a pauper out to board, in 1796, they gave him 2d. "for
+advertising her to let." (See Tithes.) He was paid 2d. for every
+proclamation in church or yard.
+
+These ancient fixed fees lessened in value through the centuries,
+as did the tithes. Various small emoluments however became attached
+to the post as time went on. If the clerk was a good penman--as he
+was certain to be when acting as pedagogue--he might be employed on
+the church writings. Besides the joint Presentments, charged at 2s.
+6d. (of which Grasmere and Langdale paid 1s. each and Rydal with
+Loughrigg 6d.), there were the wardens' accounts to be drawn up, at a
+fee rising by degrees from 3s. to 5s.; as well as a fair copy to be
+made into the large register-book from the parson's pocket-register.
+This last duty--oft, alas! negligently performed--was long rewarded
+by 1s. annual payment, which afterwards rose to 3s. 6d. These items
+occur in the accounts:--
+
+                                                          £ s. d.
+  1672--"For writting ye burialls Christenings and
+        Mariages out ye Register Bookes 2 times"         00  2 00
+
+  1675--"Itt. for writting a coppy out of ye Regester
+  Book etc                                              £00  2 00"
+
+  1790--"To writing Marriage Register 1s. 0d. to
+  drawing Copy of Register 2s. 6d."
+
+The contract for bell-ringing was given to the clerk, and doubtless
+he secured a profit upon it. He had an annual payment for lighting
+the vestry fire; another (5s.) for "attending" the hearse. In 1822
+the accounts give--after an item for "cleaning" the church-yard and
+windows:--
+
+     "To Ditto Sentences and Window and Church throughout self and
+     Boy" 7s. 6d.
+
+This was clearly not a school-master clerk, who enjoyed--instead
+of receipts from menial labour--the scholars' pence and the small
+stipend. If we turn back to enumerate the men who served the office,
+we find Robert Harrison (1695 to 1713) followed by Anthony Harrison.
+
+There was no clerk in 1729, according to the presentment. Gawen
+Mackereth (1736 to 1756) is entered as "clarke and schoolmaster,"
+though he certainly entered holy orders; so he may possibly, with a
+deputy, have combined the three offices. John Cautley was clerk in
+1756.
+
+After this came three generations of Mackereths: George of Knott
+Houses; the second George, who filled the office from 1785 to his
+death, at 81, in 1832; and David, his son. These men were clerks,
+pure and simple.[185] David pursued the calling of a gardener,
+working for Mr. Greenwood at the Wyke. In his time it was decided to
+give the clerk a salary. It began in 1845 at £4, and was advanced in
+1854 to £5, with the stipulation, however, that one J. Airey should
+receive 13s. 6d. of it. But David did not prosper, and he emigrated
+to Australia in 1856. He is remembered by Miss Greenwood as a tall,
+fine man, like his successor; he used, after giving out the psalm to
+the congregation at the desk, to march into the singing-pew (which
+stood where the organ is) and there lead the voices. Indeed, the
+parish clerk of old, besides a tuneful voice, was generally endowed
+with a fine presence. The family is spoken of in an old newspaper
+of nearly a year ago. Grasmere, December 31st, 1909: "Death of a
+noted Guide.--Last week there died at Grasmere one of the best known
+guides in the district, and one of the best known characters in
+his day--John Mackereth. He was descended from a very old family
+of Grasmere statesmen, intimately connected with Grasmere Church
+in three generations of parish clerks, and earlier still as 'Ludi
+magister et clericus.' The Rev. Gawin Mackereth held these offices
+from 1736 to 1756. George Mackereth, of Knott Houses, parish clerk,
+was buried July 23rd, 1785. His son George became parish clerk, and
+was buried 22nd October, 1832, aged 81 years. He was succeeded by his
+son, David Mackereth, who held the office up to the fifties. David's
+son, George, was much disappointed that he was not chosen clerk after
+his father's time. He was a tailor, and also a noted guide. He died
+in 1881, and Johnny as he was always called took his place as guide.
+He was also boatman in Mr. Brown's days at the Prince of Wales Hotel.
+In these capacities he was known to hundreds of visitors, who never
+came to Grasmere without looking him up. Of late years he worked on
+the roads for the council. He was great on wrestling, and for many
+years collected money for prizes at the rush-bearing. He had no
+children, but four brothers and three sisters, all of whom have left
+Grasmere, survive him." One Brian Mackereth was, in 1677, ranked
+among the Freeman Tanners of the City of Kendal. (_Boke of Recorde_.)
+In the same year Squire Daniel gave 5s. "at ye Collection of Brian
+Mackereth's Houseburning." James Airey, the next clerk (1856 to
+1862), must have been a clever, ingenious man, for he kept the clock
+in order from 1831. He was also appointed schoolmaster--an office
+that had often changed hands, and been united with the curacy--and
+Edward Wilson was taught by him (along with the younger De Quincey
+children) until he went with his brother to the Ambleside school.
+
+  [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.
+
+The school, meanwhile, had received other benefactions. The church
+list records £80 given by William Waters, of Thorneyhow, in 1796,
+towards the master's salary; and good Mrs. Dorothy Knott followed
+this, in 1812, by £100, the interest of which was to be spent on the
+education of five Grasmere children, born of poor and industrious
+parents. John Watson, yeoman and smith, made a similar bequest in
+1852, stipulating that the recipients should be chosen annually by
+the trustees of the school. In 1847 Mr. Vincent G. Dowley gave £10.
+
+While the salary of the master was paid out of the school "stock"
+or endowment, the township took upon itself the maintenance of the
+school-house; and the expenses were duly entered in the accounts
+of the Grasmere "Third." The waller of those days was differently
+remunerated from the workman of these. For instance, the large
+statement of 1729 "For mending the School-house" is followed by the
+small sum of 14s. 6d. Naturally the windows wanted "glassing" from
+time to time. Occasionally new forms were procured--four in 1781 cost
+5s. 4d.; or a new table, in 1805.
+
+A loft or upper floor was constructed in the small house in 1782, the
+opportunity apparently being taken when the Grasmere township had
+bought an oak-tree for the renewal of their decayed benches in the
+church, and while workmen were on the spot. The expences stand as
+follows:--
+
+                                                           s. d.
+  24 ft. of oak boards for school-loft at 3d. per ft.       6  0
+
+  8-1/2 days carpenter laying school loft                  14  0
+
+  1000 nails for the same                                   4  6
+
+  2 Jammers for door and some hair                          1  0
+
+The little house, so stoutly built and prudently kept up, remains
+the same, only that partitions have been erected for rooms, and the
+entrance has been changed from the church-yard to the outer side. The
+cupboard where the boys kept their books, the pump where they washed
+their hands, may still be seen. School was held within its walls till
+1855, when the present schools were built.
+
+With James Airey, who acted as both, the record of former
+schoolmasters and clerks may be closed. But one who, appointed in
+1879, served the office of verger (substituted for clerk) up to 1906,
+must be mentioned. Edward Wilson was son of the carpenter of the same
+name, and he pursued the craft himself. No custodian of old could
+have filled the office with greater reverence or dignity, nor graced
+it by a finer presence. Intelligent, calm, quietly humourous, he was
+also gifted with an accurate memory of the events of his youth; and
+his death, in 1910, at the age of 88 seems truly to have shut to
+finally the door of Grasmere's past.
+
+[Illstration: Decoration]
+
+
+
+
+THE CHURCH RATES
+
+
+The church rate, levied by the wardens and the Eighteen on the
+parishioners for the up-keep of the church, must for long have
+stood at a low figure. In Squire Daniel's Account-book for February
+16-62/63 the item appears "Paid ye other day an Assess to ye church
+for my little tenem^t in Gressmer 00 00 02."
+
+This was a small farm-hold at the Wray, which he had inherited from
+his uncle. And forty years later, when the year's expenditure was
+high, the freeholder, Francis Benson of the Fold, was rated no higher
+than 5s. 9d. for all his lands. The general charges after 1662, when
+the equipment for the episcopal services was complete, up to 1810,
+averaged in those years when there was no extraordinary outlay,
+barely more than £2, to which, of course, were added those incurred
+by each township individually. In 1733, when the bells caused a great
+outlay, it is possible that money was borrowed, for an item stands
+"For interest to Jane Benson 5s. 0d." Rydal and Loughrigg furnished,
+in 1661, the sum of £2. 9s. as its share in the maintenance of the
+church; and in 1682, £1. 5s. 6d.; while in 1733 it mounted to £13.
+3s. 7d., of which the special Ambleside churchwarden produced, on
+behalf of his district, 19s. 1d.
+
+When the churchwardens' books re-open in 1790, the general charges
+stand at £2. 2s. 7-1/2d., and those of the three townships united
+at £7. 13s. 2-1/2d.; our township paying of this £2. 2s. 1d. The
+following table shows the progress of expense:--
+
+          Complete Charges   Share paid by
+            of Three         Loughrigg and
+           Townships.        beneath Moss.      Ambleside.
+
+         £  s.  d.           £  s.  d.         £  s.  d.
+
+  1790    7 13  2-1/2        2   2   1             --
+  1800    5  4 11-1/2        1  15   6-1/4         --
+  1810   50  1  4-1/2       16   1  11-1/2     5  18   0-1/2
+  1820   21  5  5-1/2        7   1   0-1/2     2   2   7-1/2
+  1830   18  7  5            4  11   5-1/2     1   8   4-1/2
+  1840   13 17  8            4   6  11-1/2     1  14   0
+  1850   20 16  9-1/2        6   6   2-1/2     2   4   9-1/2
+  1857   34 15  8-1/2       11  17  11-1/2[186]4   2  11-1/2
+
+    [186] Of such charges as were shared by all, two-fifths of
+    one-third was Ambleside's share.
+
+The extraordinary expense of 1810 was caused by the building of the
+vestry and hanging of the bells. In the year of the great outlay
+upon the roof (1814), when Rydal produced £35. 19s. 11d. and £14.
+7s. 4d. from Ambleside, the wardens laid for the last time but one,
+the old church rate or "sess." Henceforth, the Overseers of the Poor
+took it over, and so long as it lasted paid it out of the Poor Rate.
+This seems to have been a period of laxity, when the old spirit of
+responsibility and watchful care in the custodians of the building,
+as representatives of their townships, became weakened. It was now,
+in 1816, when the wardens and Eighteen would seem to have less to do,
+that an annual dinner was instituted for them and the "minister."
+This cost 2s. a head; and though at the Easter Meeting of 1849 "it
+was resolved that in future the Landlord at the Red Lion Inn shall
+provide dinners for the 24 at the Rate of 1s. 6d. p^r Head, Ale also
+to be Included in the said Sum," the sum paid remained £2.
+
+A fee of 1s. 4d. paid to the churchwardens on entry or exit from
+office (which covered his journey to Kendal) had long been customary.
+Besides this fee, his expenses began in 1826 to be paid separately at
+the rate of 3s.
+
+But the old order, long decrepit, was soon to be wiped out. Strangers
+were pressing into the remote valley, which Gray had found in
+1769 without one single gentleman's residence. Not only poets and
+literary men began to settle in it, but rich men from cities, who
+bought up the old holdings of statesmen and built "mansions" upon
+them. These men demanded accommodation in the old parish church of
+a kind befitting their notions of dignity. Opposition seems to have
+been made to their demands. It is not quite easy to discover, from
+the account given in the churchwardens' book of the meetings held
+about the matter in 1856 and 1857, where the difficulty lay. We may
+surmise, however, that while the seats in the Grasmere division of
+the church were full to overflowing, those belonging to the other
+townships would be often vacant, since not only the old Chapels of
+Ambleside and Langdale were in use for regular worship and communion,
+but new ones were built for Rydal and Brathay. It is possible that
+an attempt to sweep away the traditional divisions and put Grasmere
+folk in Langdale or Loughrigg seats produced the dead-lock we read
+of. At all events, a vestry meeting was held on July 24th, 1856, with
+the Rev. Sir Richard Fleming in the chair, "to consider the propriety
+of making such an arrangement with respect to the free and open
+sittings in the church as may conduce to the general convenience of
+the inhabitants; and preparatory to an allotment by the churchwardens
+of such free and open Sittings among the parishioners in proportion
+to their several requirements, due regard being had to all customary
+Sittings and to the rights of persons, having property in pews."
+This proposal was made by Mr. Tremenhere and seconded by Captain
+Philipps, both new-comers, though the latter (who had opened the
+Hydropathic Establishment at the Wray) seems to have been chosen as
+one of the Eighteen; and it was promptly negatived by a majority of
+nineteen to four. Mr. Thomas H. Marshall, another new resident, at
+whose instigation the matter had been begun, persisted in it however;
+and the two wardens for Grasmere agreed to take lawyer's counsel
+as to their action in carrying out a Faculty already procured, and
+for which they paid Dr. Twiss £3. 6s. This counsel is not very
+clear, but paragraph ii. of its text is of interest: "I think that
+the appropriation of any number of pews in a Mass to the separate
+townships, so as to exclude permanently the Inhabitants of the
+parish in general from the use of them, would be a proceeding in
+contradiction to the express provisions of the Faculty. The Faculty
+must be taken to have superseded any antecedent custom under which
+pews in a mass were appropriated to separate townships. I think it
+is the duty of the Churchwardens to assign to such parishioners
+as shall apply from time to time, indiscriminately as regards the
+townships, pews or seats, as the case may be, among the free and open
+sittings." Again, after expressing his opinion that the burden of
+the church rate should fall on the inhabitants in general, he speaks
+of "the custom for the townships to repair their own portions of the
+Church applied to the Church in the state in which it was, and under
+the exceptional arrangements of the Sittings which existed prior to
+the issuing of the Faculty.... The manner of collecting the rate by
+the officers of the townships may still hold good, but the rule of
+assessment must, I think, be derived from the general law."
+
+The Archdeacon was likewise applied to by Mr. Marshall and Mr.
+Stephen Heelis, a lawyer from Manchester, who had bought a holding
+at Above Beck, and had built himself a house there. He was an able
+man, and at once took a prominent part in the proceedings. He was
+made churchwarden for Grasmere, and with his colleague, William
+Wilson, set to work in 1857 upon the unrestricted allotment of seats
+countenanced by the authorities. This was the end of the individual
+shares held by the townships in the fabric of the old mother church;
+it was the end of the Eighteen who had represented the township; it
+was an end, likewise, of the general church rate for which those
+Eighteen stood responsible; since it was manifestly unfair to tax
+those whose rights had been taken away. Langdale fell away, and the
+Brathay part of Loughrigg, and Ambleside-above-Stock. The rate of
+1-1/2d. in the £ on property, which the wardens proceeded to levy on
+the whole of the parishioners, was responded to for the last time
+in 1858, when Ambleside paid £7, Rydal and Loughrigg £10 17s. 10d.,
+and Langdale £8 6s. 3d., to Grasmere's £13 14s. 11-3/4d. The little
+division of Rydal with part of Loughrigg was indeed, by dint of its
+being dubbed a chapelry, held yet a little longer in the grasp of
+the old church; four statesmen and one warden were allowed her in
+return for the rate she continued to pay. This she seems at first
+to have paid equally with Grasmere, and in 1859 she contributed
+the high figure of £15 0s. 10-1/2d. towards the expenses of the
+church. In 1861 she paid £13 5s. 1-1/2d. By 1866, however, the rate
+to supply the immensely increased expenses of worship had become a
+burden, even to Grasmere folk. A voluntary rate took its place, and
+Rydal contributed its unspecified portion to this for the last time
+in 1870. The offertory that then superseded all rates, paid only by
+worshippers, was an immediate success.
+
+In 1879, when the volume of accounts closes, the year's expenditure
+stands at £155 14s. 1d.
+
+
+
+
+NON-RATEPAYERS
+
+
+The religious factions--whether Baptist, Anabaptist, Independent
+or Presbyterian--that had sprung up during the Commonwealth left
+behind them no vital seeds of dissent in the wide parish of Grasmere,
+although the two last had in turn held the rectorate and the pulpit.
+As soon, indeed, as the Episcopal Church was restored, along with the
+Monarchy, the people returned with apparently a willing mind, and
+almost unanimously, to the old order of worship.
+
+There was an exception, however, to be found in the Quakers, who were
+firm in refusing to re-enter the Church. George Fox, wandering on
+foot like an old Celtic missionary, had made his appearance in these
+parts in 1653, and at once his preaching (which mirrored his mystic
+and simple mind), united with a magnetic personality, had secured
+him a following. His teaching discountenanced all creeds, forms, and
+ritual. His meetings were, therefore, held in private houses; and
+so much abhorred by his followers was the "steeple-house" with its
+consecrated ground, as well as any fixed form of service (even the
+Office for the Burial of the Dead), that they often laid their dead
+in silence in their own garden-ground, rather than carry them to the
+church.
+
+As the little band grew larger, a plot of ground was, however,
+secured as early as 1658 at Colthouse, near Hawkshead, in Lancashire,
+as a graveyard[187]; and in that neighbourhood, where they built a
+meeting-house in 1688,[188] they became numerous and active; and on
+the Westmorland side of the Brathay--in Langdale and in Loughrigg
+more especially--George Fox also found adherents. In particular,
+Francis Benson, freeholder of the Fold, of a wealthy family of
+clothiers, and an influential man who served as Presbyterian elder in
+1646, became his follower; and remained so through the persecutions.
+He received Fox into his house, even when the preacher had become a
+marked man. Fox's _Journal_, after recording his Keswick preachings
+in 1663, runs on:--
+
+  [187] Hawkshead Parish Register.
+
+  [188] From Mr. William Satterthwaite, of Colthouse, a member of
+  the Society of Friends.
+
+     We went that night to one Francis Benson's in Westmorland; near
+     Justice Fleming's House. This Justice Fleming was at that time
+     in a great Rage against Friends, and me in particular; insomuch
+     that in the open Sessions at Kendal just before, he had bid Five
+     Pounds to any Man, that should take me; that Francis Benson told
+     me. And it seems as I went to this Friend's House, I met one Man
+     coming from the Sessions, that had this Five Pounds offered him
+     to take me, and he knew me; for as I passed by him, he said to
+     his Companion, That is George Fox: Yet he had not power to touch
+     me: for the Lord's power preserved me over all.
+
+The fanatical spirit of Fox is shown perhaps in this passage, where
+he ascribes the inaction of these two parishioners of Grasmere, not
+to a generous tolerance of mind (certainly God-given), but to a
+direct interposition of Providence in his own favour. He likewise
+attributes the death of the Squire's good and gentle wife later on to
+God's wrath and judgment upon the husband for his persecution of the
+Friends.
+
+In truth, Squire Daniel was not the man to view leniently the
+opposition offered by the new sect to the restoration of the old form
+of worship. It must be allowed that the method of their preachers
+was not only irritating but provocative; for it was their wont,
+when the congregation was assembled in the "steeple-house" to rise
+and denounce both worship and officiating clergy as instruments of
+Belial; with an occasional result of rough handling and ejection by
+the people. We have seen that William Wilson, a Langdale man and one
+of their speakers, resorted to this method of interruption when the
+Church of England service was restored in the chapel. The parson of
+Windermere later on wrote to Squire Daniel begging his magisterial
+help, as a woman was in the habit of rising during worship and
+denouncing him. Wilson's misdemeanour was immediately dealt with at
+the Quarter Sessions, and on his refusing to swear the oath--a matter
+of principle with the Quakers, which was not rightly understood,
+and which made their offence a political one--was thrown into gaol,
+where, if his fine of a hundred marks was not paid in six weeks, he
+was to remain for six months, and to be brought again before the
+magistrates.[189]
+
+  [189] Indictment Book, Kendal Quarter Sessions.
+
+This was certainly a severe judgment. How the case ended is not
+apparent, nor how long Wilson remained in prison. A letter exists
+at Rydal Hall, addressed to "Justice fleeming" and signed L.M.,
+reproaching him for his treatment of the Quakers, especially of
+the four now in prison. One of these is "Wm. Willson, thy poore
+neighbour," of whose wife and children the Squire is admonished to
+have a care, since the prisoner had little but what he got by his
+hands--a statement which implies that Wilson was a craftsman.
+
+The Rydal Squire had at first believed that he could force the
+Friends back to the common worship in the old parish church by means
+of fines, for he had the frugal man's belief that the pocket can
+be made to act upon the conscience. With the passing of the Act of
+Uniformity (1662) and the later Conventicle and Five Mile Acts,
+however, he and his fellow magistrates had a powerful legal hold over
+them. It is clear that he caused the known Quakers of the parish
+to be watched. One, James Russell, brought him word that there had
+been a meeting on November 1st, 1663, at the house of John Benson,
+of Stang End. This was on the Lancashire side of Little Langdale
+beck, but the Westmorland folk who attended were Francis Benson, his
+son Bernard, "Regnhold" Holme, Michael Wilson, and Barbara Benson.
+Of Lancashire folk there were only Giles Walker, wright, who had
+walked from Hawkshead, and William Wilson and his wife. Wilson was
+the speaker, so his imprisonment had not damped his ardour. Again,
+next year, the constable of Grasmere, Thomas Braithwaite, and a
+churchwarden, Robert Grigge, gave evidence that certain Quakers had
+been seen returning from Giles Walker's house near Hawkshead; and
+among them were William Harrison, of Langdale, and Edward Hird, of
+Grasmere.
+
+These doings were not passed over by the Squire. He even tried
+conclusions with the most powerful of the sect, Francis Benson, of
+the Fold, and accordingly the latter was summoned, in 1663, along
+with his wife Dorothy, to appear at the Quarter Sessions to answer
+the charge of having been present at a meeting. The penalty of
+non-appearance was a fine of thirty shillings, while the fines of
+John Dixon and William Harrison, both of Langdale, charged with the
+same offence, were respectively twenty shillings and ten shillings.
+Francis Benson probably cleared his legal mis-demeanours by money
+payments, for no evidence has been found of his imprisonment. He
+and his family, however, remained staunch Friends. The place of his
+sepulchre is not known, though his death is recorded for February,
+1673, of "Fould in Loughrig," in the Quaker Registers. There is a
+tradition of a burying-ground at the Fold, somewhere about his now
+vanished homestead, and it is quite possible that some members of the
+family might be buried there, as the early Friends not infrequently
+made a grave-plot on their own ground. The Fold was so much a
+centre of the sect that a marriage took place there between William
+Satterthwaite, of Colthouse, and the daughter of Giles Walker, of
+Walker Ground, Hawkshead, on December 11th, 1661.[190] According to
+another tradition, a Baptist Meeting-house stood at the Fold, and
+an old man, named Atkinson, whose forbears had owned the adjacent
+farmhold of the Crag--where he was then living--pointed out the exact
+spot on a little triangle by the road where the building had stood,
+and the "Dipping" took place. But this story is against all record,
+for we can trace the Bensons' adherence to the Friends to a late
+period.
+
+  [190] Papers of the Satterthwaite family.
+
+A large number of Quakers travelled to Rydal in 1681 to make their
+Test or Declaration before Squire Daniel and his son, but the only
+folk of the parish among them were Bernard Benson, of Loughrigg, and
+Jane his wife, and "Regnald" Holme, of Clappersgate, and his wife
+Jane.
+
+In 1684 a Rydal man "presented" before the justices quite a concourse
+of people who had been present at a "Conventicle" in Langdale. Some
+seventeen Loughrigg and Langdale names were cited: Edward Benson of
+High Close (his only appearance as a Dissenter), John Dixon of Rosset
+in Langdale, William and James Harryson of Harry Place, "Regnald" and
+Jane Holme of Loughrigg, James Holme, the Willsons of Langdale, etc.
+
+Reginald Holme's name frequently appears in the Indictment Book
+of the Quarter Sessions, and generally in connection with secular
+disputes. He was, in fact, a turbulent character, little fitted to
+belong to the peace-loving sect, which he joined possibly from sheer
+love of dissent. Some items of his history have been given elsewhere.
+He owned the mill at Skelwith Bridge--probably then, as later, a
+corn-mill, though it is extremely likely that a walk-mill would be
+set up additionally on this fine flow of water. About this water
+and other matters he was in constant dispute with his neighbours.
+One altercation, with a certain Thomas Rawlingson, the Friends
+tried to settle for him but as he refused to accept their verdict,
+a resolution was passed at a Monthly Meeting, held at Swathmoor
+(1676), that the law might now take its course. On another occasion
+Reginald was brought up before the Magistrates for assault; but the
+recurring bone of contention was a dam or weir which he had built
+across the river for the good of his mill--and to the damage, it
+was declared, of the pathway above, and of his neighbours' grounds.
+The Rydal Squire twice headed a party for the forcible destruction
+of this dam, as has been told[191]; but long afterwards Holme was
+in fierce conflict with Michael Satterthwaite, of Langdale, yeoman,
+about this or another dam.[192] Finally, in 1684, a crisis occurred,
+and Reginald's goods were seized by the strong arm of the law--a most
+unwonted proceeding; on which occasion his sons and his daughter fell
+upon the unfortunate officers, and beat them and put them forth with
+violence--which made another indictable offence.
+
+  [191] _Transactions_, Cumb. and West. Ant. So., vol. 6, N.S.
+
+  [192] Indictment Book.
+
+After the law-suit concerning the tithes, which followed upon
+the Restoration (see ante), in which law-suit Francis Benson was
+concerned, and possibly other Quakers, we have no evidence as to
+whether the sect continued to oppose the payment of church scot.
+But there is abundant evidence to show that they were resolute in
+non-attendance at church, and in refusal to pay the church rate or
+"sess" levied on the townships for the upkeep of the fabric and its
+walls by the representative men of the parish. The Subsidy Rolls
+of 1675 show that Francis Benson paid for himself and his wife
+Dorothy the tax of 1s. 4d., which the Government demanded from all
+non-communicants, as did "Reynald" Holme for self and wife, and John
+Benson of Langdale.
+
+From wardens' accounts and presentments we gain many particulars of
+the dissenters of the parish, who appear to diminish in number as
+time goes on. It had become necessary by 1694 to account, in the
+books, for the deficit caused by the Friends' non-payment; and though
+in the following year two of them yielded, Bernard Benson paying up
+the large arrears of 15s. 11d. for "Church: Sess," and Jacob Holme
+7s. 6d., the "Allowance for Dissenters" appears each year on the
+debit side.
+
+Presentments are only available from 1702. The following extracts
+give the names of the non-payers of the two townships. Those of
+Langdale would appear in their separate presentment:--
+
+                           Loughrigg.                 £   s.  d.
+
+  1705--Francis Benson of the Fold                    0   1   8
+        The same for property in Grasmere             0   0  10
+        Jacob Holm of Tarn Foot                       0   1   1
+        The same for property in Grasmere             0   0   2
+        Jane Holm of Skelwith Bridge                  0   0   4-1/2
+        John Shacklock of the How                     0   1   4
+
+                          Grasmere.
+
+        Francis Benson of Grasmere, Underhow          0   0   2
+        Jane Benson, widow                            0   0   3
+        Miles Elleray of Clappersgate                 0   0   2
+        Arthur Benson                                 0   0   2
+
+                            Loughrigg.
+
+  1706--Francis Benson of the Fold                    0   1   1
+        For Grasmere                                  0   0  10
+        Jacob Holm                                    0   1   4
+        For Grasmere                                  0   0   2
+        Jane Holm                                     0   0   8
+        For Mill Brow                                 0   0   4
+        Miles Elleray                                 0   0   1
+
+                          Grasmere.
+
+        Jane Benson                                   0   0   3
+        Francis Benson, Underhow                      0   0   2
+
+  Loughrigg.
+
+  1707--Francis Benson of the Fold                   £0   2    9
+        For Grasmere                                  0   1    2
+        Jacob Holm                                    0   1   10
+        For Grasmere                                  0   0    1
+        Henry Dover                                   0   0   11
+        John Rigg                                     0   0   10-1/2
+
+  Grasmere.
+
+        Jane Benson, widow                            0   0    4
+        Francis Benson, Underhow                      0   0    2
+        The wardens add "Likewise we present two
+           churchmen [name crossed out] and George
+           Mackereth of Clappersgate                  0   0    9
+
+  1712--Presented "for denying to pay their church-sess":--
+
+        Jane Benson of Nichols in Grasmere            0   0    5
+        Francis Benson of ye Fold in Loughrigg        0   0    3
+        The same for Loughrigge and Rydal             0   1    8
+        Henry Dover for Loughrigg                     0   1    2
+        "We present Wm. Ulock Church sess"            0   0    4
+        "We have in o^r. parish about two hundred
+           Familys in all. No papists. No protestant
+           Dissenters, Except 6 or 7 families of
+           Quakers."
+  1717--Only Francis Benson of the Fold is presented
+           for refusing to contribute to the Rates    0   1    8
+        And for his Estate in Grasmere                0   1    4
+  1723--The wardens declare that none refuse to pay
+           the parson's dues, or clerk's fees, or church-rates,
+           but the Quakers. "We do not know
+           that they have qualified themselves according
+           to ye act of Toleration. We do not
+           know that the place of their meeting has
+           been duly certified. We do not know that
+           their preacher, or teacher, hath qualified
+           himself by taking the oaths etc., as the Law
+           requires."
+  1727--"None refuse to pay Church rate, but Francis
+           Benson a Quaker for not paying his Church
+           sess, viz.                                 00  01   03"
+  1729--Francis Benson is again presented for refusing
+          to pay his Church sess                      £0   1   5
+  1732--His unpaid share is set down at                0   5   9
+        And Bernard Benson's                           0   3   0
+
+This Francis Benson, the third Friend of his name at the Fold, is
+the last we know of. As the old families died out or dispersed, no
+new adherents of the sect appear to have arisen in the parish, and
+dissent ceased.
+
+The only comment on non-conformity found in the registers occurs in
+the second volume (1687-1713). It runs:--
+
+     A perticular Register of some pretended Marryages of the people
+     called Quakers within the parish of Grasmere As followeth--
+
+But only two weddings from Great Langdale are set down. Also is
+entered:--
+
+     Jane daughter of John Grigge of Stile End in Great Langdale was
+     baptized by A prebyterian minister the tenth day of Aprill Ano
+     Dom 1710.
+
+The "minister" so clearly obnoxious to the registrar may have been a
+visitor to the valley.
+
+When a stranger entered the church in 1827 and asked the clerk if
+there were any Dissenters in the neighbourhood, he was told that
+there were none nearer than Keswick, where were some who called
+themselves Presbyterians; and of these the clerk professed so little
+knowledge that he hazarded the suggestion that they were a kind
+of "papishes." The clerk aforesaid was old George Mackereth,[193]
+forgetful alike of the Colthouse Meeting-House and the small Baptist
+Chapel at Hawkshead Hill, built in 1678? For about the first
+clustered a few families who clung to the faith of their fathers;
+though the latter (of which little seems to be known) may have
+dropped out of use.
+
+  [193] Hone's _Table Book_.
+
+Dissent had never existed in Ambleside. The men of that town, who
+managed the affairs of their chapel, had no real leanings towards
+it, and the Restoration found them all churchmen again. The only man
+of the town-division who could be taxed as a non-communicant in 1675
+was Roger Borwick, and he was a disreputable inn-keeper at Miller
+Bridge, a Roman Catholic who had once been a personal servant of the
+ill-fated heir of Squire John Fleming.
+
+[Illustration: The Little Bell
+
+RECAST AT THE EXPENCE OF MRS DOROTHY KNOTT, 1809 T. MEARS & SON
+OF LONDON FECIT]
+
+
+
+
+THE REGISTERS
+
+
+The early registers are contained in three parchment books. The
+first measures 15 inches by 7, and has a thickness of 1 inch. It was
+re-bound recently in white vellum, and an expert has endeavoured
+to restore the almost vanished characters of the first page. The
+earliest legible entries are for January 1570-71. The sheets may have
+once got loose and some lost, for there is a complete gap between
+the years 1591-98, and another between 1604-11. There are minor gaps
+besides, which, perhaps, may be explained by the system of register
+keeping that obtained in these parts. A smaller book for entries was
+kept, called a pocket-register, in which the minister (or the clerk)
+noted down the ceremonies as they occurred; and these were copied
+from time to time into the larger book. It was a system that, in the
+hands of careless officials, produced nothing short of disaster, as
+far as parochial history is considered. The re-entry, long over-due,
+had often not been made, before the pocket-register was mis-placed
+or lost. In times of stress, like those of the plague-years, the
+church officials seem to have become paralized, and ceased to cope
+for months at a time with the registration of the dead. For instance,
+in the deadly year 1577, February, April, May and July are blank;
+eight burials are then entered for August, and none for the rest of
+the year. Again, next year, eight deaths are recorded for July, nine
+for September, and twelve for November, while the intervening and
+succeeding months are blank. This state of things continues through
+the years of oft-returning plague that followed, and through the
+long rectorate of John Wilson, diversified by the occasional loss
+of a page or a mysterious skip, _e.g._, in marriages there is a gap
+between the years 1583-4 and 1611--more than 27 years.[194]
+
+  [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."
+
+The first register-book is, therefore, a disappointing document, from
+which no satisfactory conclusions as to population or death-rate
+can be drawn, nor adequate information concerning families or
+individuals. The Hawkshead register-book is a complete contrast to
+this one, in neatness and fulness; and the scribe has marked with
+a cross all deaths from plague. Maybe the grammar-school there,
+with its master, affected favourably the records of the parish. In
+Grasmere the school was, after the Reformation, left in general to
+the parish clerk. This first book shows signs, like the Curate's
+Bible of Ambleside, of having been accessible to the scholars--no
+doubt while these were yet taught in the church; for experiments in
+penmanship and signatures occur on blank spaces, which were seized
+upon with avidity by the learner--parchment and paper being hard to
+come by.
+
+The condition of the third register-book is wholly satisfactory. It
+is in its original binding, but the clasps have gone. It measures
+16-1/2 inches by 7, with a thickness of 3 inches. Its title runs,
+"Grasmere's Register Book, from May the 7th, A.D., 1713. Henry
+Fleming, D.D., Rector; Mr. Dudley Walker, Curate; Anthony Harrison,
+Parish Clerk." The book closes in December, 1812. As in the earlier
+volumes, the baptisms and marriages are written on the left page, and
+burials on the right. The first entry is a receipt from the man who
+furnished the book:--
+
+                    June ye 21, 1713.                 lb.   s.  d.
+
+  Recd. of ye Reverend Dr. Fleming one Pound and
+    Eleven Shillings for ye Parchmt. wherwth. this
+    Book is made for ye clasps eightpence and for ye
+    Binding Six Shillings. I say Recd. by me Bry:
+    Mackreth                                           1   17   8
+
+Some entries of confirmations were made in this volume. The first
+has caused considerable surprise, and it is of interest on three
+scores. It shows that the solemnization of the rite had been long
+neglected--the Bishop of Chester no doubt finding this remote parish
+of his diocese very inconvenient to reach, and relegating it on this
+occasion to his brother of Carlisle, who but recently was its rector.
+It likewise proves that the population was larger then than in the
+next century, and that the estimate of the number of communicants
+given on a preceding page was under, rather than over, stated. It
+illustrates the fact, besides, that the old forms would accommodate
+at least twice the number of the present benches.
+
+     October the 23, 1737.
+
+     A Confirmation was then holden at this Church by the Right
+     Reverend Father in God Sr. George Fleming Baronet Lord Bishop
+     of Carlisle at the instance of the Lord Bishop of Chester at
+     which time and place About five Hundred Persons were Confirmed.
+     [The next confirmation recorded is in 1862.]
+
+An entry on the first page, in fine hand-writing, is likewise of
+interest, as showing that long after the Reformation, and even after
+the Prayer Book revision of 1662, the prohibition of the old Sarum
+Manual against marriages taking place during the three great feasts
+of Christmas, Easter and Penticost still had weight, though it could
+not be enforced, and that the rector--a stout churchman--desired its
+observance.
+
+     Marriages Prohibited from Advent Sunday till a Week after the
+     Epiphany, from Septuagesima Sunday till a Week after Easter,
+     from Ascension day till trinity Sunday; Secundum Dr. Comber.[195]
+
+  [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.
+
+Curious entries, or any bearing upon local history, such as are
+frequent in some registers, are scarce in the Grasmere books. The law
+that commanded the use of woollen for shrouds, by way of propping up
+a declining industry, caused the usual amount of trouble here in the
+way of affidavits and entries.
+
+Another enactment, that all sickly persons who presented themselves
+for cure by the Royal touch--a remedy much resorted to under the
+Stuarts--were to come armed with a parochial certificate,[196] has
+left its trace here.
+
+  [196] Dr. Cox's Parish Registers.
+
+     Wee the Rector and Churchwardens of the Parish of Grasmere in
+     the County of Westmorland do hereby certify that David Harrison
+     of the said Parish aged about fourteen years is afflicted as wee
+     are credibly informed with the disease comonly called the Kings
+     Evill; and (to the best of o^r knowledge) hath not hereto fore
+     been touched by His Majesty for ye s^d. In testimony whereof wee
+     have here unto set o^r hands and seals the Fourth day of Feb:
+     Ano Dom 1684.
+
+             HENRY FLEMING Rector.
+             JOHN BENSON
+             JOHN MALLISON Churchwardens.
+  Registered by JOHN BRATHWAITE Curate.
+
+This poor youth was probably of the Rydal stock of Harrisons, where
+several generations of Davids had flourished as statesmen, carriers
+and inn-keepers.[197] The journey to London would be little to them.
+
+  [197] See "A Westmoreland Township" in the _Westmorland Gazette_.
+
+The introduction of gunpowder into the slate quarries could not have
+long pre-dated the following entry:--
+
+"Thomas Harrison of Weshdale [Wastdale?], wounded with the splinters
+of stone and wood the 29th of August last by the force of gunpowder
+was buryed September the 2nd. Ano Dom 1681."
+
+An instance of longevity is given in 1674, when widow Elizabeth
+Walker, of Underhelme, "dyed at ye age of 107 years old."
+
+But the entry that has caused the most comment is one that
+commemorates a boating disaster on Windermere Lake. Forty-seven
+persons were drowned, with some seven horses: "in one boate comeinge
+over from Hawkshead" on October 20th, 1635. Singularly enough, this
+is the only known record of an event with which tradition and later
+story has been busy. These affirm that the boat-load consisted
+of a wedding-party; also that the corpses were buried under a
+yew-tree in Windermere church-yard. If the catastrophe happened to
+the customery ferry, known as Great Boat, plying between Hawkshead
+Road and Ferry Nab, the interment would naturally be made at that
+church, though an unfortunate gap in the registers for the period
+prevents certainty on the point. But why was the event written down
+at Grasmere? It appears to have been inscribed by George Bennison,
+clerk and schoolmaster, who did not enter office till 1641. Had he
+the intention (unfortunately unfulfilled) of recording local history
+in the register-book? Could we suppose the Ambleside Fair for October
+20th--an occasion of great resort only a few decades later--to have
+been in vogue before its charter was gained, the conjecture that the
+drowned folk had been attending the fair might be entertained.[198]
+There were other passage-boats on the lake besides the Great one.
+In connection with the number drowned, it may be mentioned that
+ferry-boats were formerly of great size. Miss Celia Fiennes, who,
+about the year 1697, had occasion on her journey to cross the Mersey
+with her horses from Cheshire to Liverpool--a passage which occupied
+1-1/2 hours--did it in a boat which, she says, would have held 100
+people.[199]
+
+  [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.
+
+Miss Helen Sumner has been, since 1906, engaged in a transcript of
+the first register-book. It is now complete, and it will be put into
+use instead of the old illegible volume, of which it is an absolutely
+accurate copy, done in fine modern script.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Miss Armitt was under the impression when writing of the
+     Registers that the Second Register was missing, so consequently
+     made no extracts from it.--ED.
+
+[Illustration: Recess in the Porch for Holy Water Stoup.]
+
+
+
+
+PRESENTMENTS, BRIEFS, AND CHARITIES
+
+
+The Presentment for 1702 may be given fully as a specimen of the
+document which the wardens were bound to furnish at the Visitation
+of the Bishop or his emissary. A few extracts may be added, for
+the simplicity and shrewdness of some of the answers make them
+entertaining, as in the entire repudiation of an apparitor and his
+dues.
+
+During Dr. Fleming's rectorate, a difference arose between the
+officials who controlled the finance department of the Visitation
+and the vestries of the parishes of Windermere and Grasmere.[200]
+It was proposed by the latter to make one Presentment serve for the
+whole parish, mother-church and chapels together; and the rector
+of Grasmere stated that it was only through a mis-conception that
+separate Presentments had been made. This was a sound, economical
+plan for the parish, but it was firmly opposed (as was natural) by
+the higher officials, who affirmed that separate Presentments were
+the rule. The table of "ancient and justifiable fees" was given as
+follows:--
+
+  [200] Browne MSS.
+
+                                                        £  s. d.
+  For appearance and presentment of every warden, four
+      old and four new                                  0  8  0
+  Book of Articles                                      0  1  0
+  Examination Fee and registration of every presentment 0  0  8
+  Citation Fees and exhibiting the transcript           0  1  0
+  Due to the King for Citation                          0  0  6
+  Apparitor's Fee                                       0  0  8
+
+  Also apparitors received at the Visitation a fee for carrying
+  out books sent by the King and Council--as Thanksgiving Books,
+  etc.; and for each of these he might claim a fee of 1s., which
+  raised the sum total to be paid at a Visitation occasionally to
+  14s. or 15s. No wonder our wardens disclaimed all knowledge of
+  the apparitor! For their consolation they were reminded that in
+  other Jurisdictions the wardens were called to Visitations twice
+  a year, which doubled the fees and expenses.
+
+  In 1691 the parish paid "To the Chancellor at the Bishop's
+  Visitation for a Presentment" 5s. 10d. The writing of it cost
+  4s. 2d. A Book of Articles was bought also. Five years later a
+  Presentment for the whole parish cost 13s. 2d.
+
+     (Presentment for 1702.)
+
+     The presentment of John Mackereth, George Benson and Edward
+     Tyson, Churchwardens, for the Church of Grasmere, within the
+     Arch-Deaconry of Richmond in the Diocese of Chester, at the
+     Ordinary Visition of John Cartwright, D.D., Commissary and
+     Official, of the said Arch-Deaconry on Friday the fifteenth day
+     of May Ano Dom 1702, in the parish church of Kirby Kendall, as
+     followeth:--
+
+  Articles                         Tit. I.
+    1,     Our Church is in good repair, and no part of it
+  2,3,4,  demolishd, nor anything belonging to it Imbezzled or sold.
+    5,    We have a Font with a Cover, a decent Communion Table,
+          wth one decent Covering and another of Linnen, with a
+   6,7,   Chalice and a cover, and two flagons for the Communio,
+          &c., wth all the other things the Articles of this title
+   8, 9,  inquire of, and they are ordered and used as they ought
+          to be, according to our Judgmts, so yt we have nothing
+    10.   to present in answr to the Articles of this first Title.
+
+  Articles                         Tit. II.
+  1, 2, 3,  Our minister, the Revrend Dr. Henry Fleming, is
+          qualified accordg to Law, Legally Inducted, hath read
+    4,    the 39 Articles wthin the time Appointed by law, and
+          declared his Assent thereto, we believe and know nothing
+  5, 6, 7, to the contrary. He has another Ecclesiasticall Benefice.
+           He preaches, we believe, every Lords Day, unless sickness
+     8,    or reasonable absence hinder him. Mr. Dudley
+           Walker his Curate supplys the cure in his Absence.
+     9,    Both our Parson and his Curate do all things inquired
+           of by the Articles of this Title, and are not guilty of
+    10.    any of the faults therein mentioned, as we are perswaided.
+           So we have not any thing to present in Answer to the
+           Articles of this Title.
+
+  Articles                       Tit. III.
+   1, 2,     We know not of any Adulteries, Fornicators or Incestuous,
+           Com'on Drunkards or Swearers, or other
+     3,    Sinn'rs and Transgressors inquired of in the Articles of
+   4, 5,   this Title, wthin our Parish. We believe each person
+     6,    behaves himself as he ought, during the time of Divine
+   7, 8,   Service, nor have we observed anything to the contrary.
+     9,    Onely in Answer the (_sic_) 4th Article of this Title
+    10.    we present the persons whose names follow for refuseing
+           to pay their duty for Easter Offerings, and for refuseing
+           to contribute to the Rates for Repairing of our Church,
+           and things thereto belonging, viz., _Francis Benson_ of
+           the Fold, and _Dorothee_ his wife, _Jacob Holm_ and _Sarah_
+           his wife of Tarnfoot, _John Holm_ and _Jane Holm_ his
+           mother of Skelwath Bridge-End. All Quakers and
+           come not to Church or Chapell to divine service. _Francis
+           Benson_, of Under How, and _Jane Benson_, widow in Grasmere,
+           Quakers, and come not to church to divine service.
+
+  Articles                      Tit. IIII.
+     1.      We have a Parish Clark belonging to our Church aged
+           21 years at least, of honest life, able to perform his duty,
+     2.    chosen by our Parson, and dos his duty diligently in his
+           office of Parish Clark, as we are perswaided.
+
+  Articles.                      Tit. V.
+     1,      We have no hospitall, alms-houses, nor freschool.
+           But we have a School and a Schoolmaster, licons'd by
+           the Ordinary, who teaches his schollers in the Church
+           Catechism, and doth ye other things inquired of in the
+     2,    Articles of this Title, as in duty he ought. The Revenue
+           of the School is Ordered as the Founder appointed, and
+           as ye Laws of ye Land allow, to the best of our knowledges.
+     3.    We have none that practiseth physick, Chyrurjery,
+           or midwifery in our parish w'thout License from the
+           Ordinary, that we are privy to, or know of.
+
+  Articles                   Tit. 6.
+     1,      Our church-wardens are chosen duly, and have done
+    2, 3.  their duty, as we think they ought to have done, in all
+           things here Inquired of.
+
+  Articles                 Tit. VIII. (_sic_).
+
+     1,      We do not know wt faults the Officers of our Ecclesisticall
+           Courts are guilty of, and wh are Inquired of by
+           these Articles of this Title. We have heard that they
+           take greater fees then of Right they ought to do, and
+     2,    if they do so, we wish they may reform such Injuryous
+     3,    practices: But because we are privy to no thing of
+           this kind done by any Ecclesticall Officer, we dar not
+     4,    upon Oath present it, and here ends our Presentmt.
+
+  GEORGE BENSON  }
+  JOHN MACKERETH } Churchwardens.
+  EDWARD TYSON   }
+
+     The later presentments, up to 1732, are--except where quoted
+     from elsewhere--largely repetitions of this. One or two answers
+     to queries, however, are naive. In 1712 "we have no physitia's,
+     nor Sargions in or parish."
+
+     Concerning officers of Ecclesistiall Courts, we know not their
+     Officers; nor wh their Officers are; nor now they perform them,
+     well, or ill; nor wh their just Fees are, and can therefore give
+     no account of ym.
+
+     In 1717 "Concerning Apparitors. We know not how Apparitors do
+     their office, nor can we present them, or any of tm, for any
+     undue Fees exacted by them, and we think we ought not to pr'sent
+     any man for faults wch we know not by him."
+
+     Between 1702 and 1732 only one woman is "presented" for
+     "fornication"; and only occasionally, in a later set of
+     Presentments, between 1768 and 1796 is the fault--which the
+     registers show to have been not infrequent--mentioned.
+
+
+BRIEFS.
+
+Printed briefs, that called upon the churches to succour the
+unfortunate by offerings in money, reached Grasmere, remote as it
+was. Such of these sheets, as were found to be sufficiently intact,
+were quite recently gathered together and bound as a volume. Within
+the register-book the amount realised by some of these collections
+is set down. At Christmas, 1668, the offering made for the poor of
+London after the fire, reached the high figure of £17 6s. 3d., which
+shows how that great calamity affected the popular mind. Among other
+recipients of the parochial bounty are found: "Captives at allgeeres"
+(Algiers), 3s. 1d., also "A breife beyond ye seaes and for ye suply
+of printing The bible for one John de Krins..y," 7s. 3d. Very
+frequently individuals or towns that had suffered loss from fire or
+other causes were relieved. Perhaps there was grumbling then, as now,
+at the many collections, and 8d. only was realised for the relief of
+Hartlepool. The Squire, who generally gave one shilling for a brief,
+was doubtless absent that day.
+
+
+CHARITIES.
+
+The care of the poor was of old a parochial matter. The regular
+supply of money for this purpose came from the offertories at the
+great feasts of the church, and was distributed (at least after the
+Reformation, if not before) by the wardens. There were other and
+casual sources, such as the doles given at the funeral of a person of
+gentle birth. The scale of the dole differed according to the rank
+of the individual. In the seventeenth century four pence (the old
+silver penny) was the usual sum, though at the funeral of William
+Fleming, of Coniston (claimant to Rydal Manor), only 2d. was given.
+Squire John Fleming was buried quietly, on the evening of his death,
+like many another recusant. There was no time, therefore, for that
+extraordinary and seemingly magnetic gathering of the poor, that
+sometimes occurred, even on a day's notice--for such news sped like a
+telegraphic message.
+
+But some indigent folk collected next morning, when £1 10s. was
+distributed. This, at 4d. a piece, would represent 90 persons. The
+concourse was far greater when Squire Daniel's wife was interred,
+when it numbered over 1,800 persons; the amount given reaching
+£30 10s. 4d., while the dole-givers spent at the inn 3s. 6d. The
+gathering at his little son's funeral, two years later (1677), was
+naturally smaller. The entry in the account-book is as follows:--
+
+  June 1--Given to ye Poor (at 2d. apeice) at ye
+      Funerall (this day) of my son Tho. Fleming at
+      Gresmere-church (where he was buried near
+      unto my Fathers Grave on ye north side thereof
+      close to ye wall, and who dyed yesterday, being
+      Thursday, about 8 of ye clock in ye morning
+      at Rydal Hall) ye sum of                          04  03  08
+
+  It[em] paid to ye Minster for attending ye Corps all
+      ye way 5s., to ye Clark for ye same, and
+      makeing of ye Grave 2s., to ye Ringers 2s. 4d.,
+      in all                                            00  09  04
+
+The first bequest on record to the poor of Grasmere is that of
+old Mrs. Agnes Fleming, the shrewd mistress of Rydal Hall. Her
+will, dated 1630, directs that threescore and ten pounds shall be
+devoted to the poor of Staveley and "Gressmire," the interest to be
+distributed every Good Friday. In this distribution George Dawson
+"beinge blinde" was to receive during his life-time a noble, which
+was 6s. 8d. or half a mark. Accordingly, after her death, the bailiff
+entered in his accounts £1 13s. as "paid the poor folke at Easter
+1632 for my old mis"; the blind lad's noble was also set down. This
+charity seems, however, to have been lost during the "Troubles" that
+presently overtook family and country. An effort to re-institute the
+one at Staveley at least was made by Squire Daniel.
+
+  March 25, 1659--Spent with my Cosen Philipson at
+      Staveley when I went to Mr. Feilde to looke
+      yt ye Poor of Staveley bee not wronged in ye
+      distribution of ye £40 interest, left ym by
+      my great Grandmother Mrs. Agnes Fleming           00  00  06
+
+Mention of an extraordinary gift appears in the same account-book.
+The young Earl of Thanet had lately, as Lord Lieutenant of
+Westmorland, entered the county in great state, and with a lavish
+expenditure of money. His generosity (which may have had a political
+bias) extended even to this remote quarter of the Barony. In those
+days £10 was a large sum; and the coin (as a precise entry under
+February, 1685, informs us) was conveyed to Kendal by a servant,
+delivered to the mayor, who passed it on to the Rydal Squire. One
+half was for Windermere, the other for Grasmere; and one wonders how
+large was the gathering at the church for the dole.
+
+  Mar. 1, 8-4/5--Distributed this day at ye Parish
+      Church in Gresmere to ye Poor Householders
+      yt go to Church in ye said Parish; being ye
+      gift of Tho. Earl of Thanet, ye sum of           05  00  00
+
+Other charitable gifts to the poor are written on boards hanging in
+the church, viz.:--
+
+Edward Partridge and others of Grasmere £50, the interest to be
+distributed on St. Thomas's Day to such poor as do not receive
+parochial relief. (Undated.)
+
+William and Eleanor Waters, in 1807, £200, the interest to be
+distributed under the like restrictions on Lady Day.
+
+
+
+
+THE RUSHBEARING
+
+
+It is impossible, in an account of Grasmere, to pass over the
+Rushbearing, a Church Festival that has come down from ancient times,
+and which, after a period of languishment, has revived once more into
+a popular pageant.
+
+It may be the remnant of some fair or wake held on St. Oswald's Eve
+and Day, and organized by the early church to supersede some Pagan
+Feast of the late summer. The close of July, or the early part of
+August, was a good time for merry-making in these parts; for then
+the husbandman's chief harvests were gathered in--the wool from the
+sheep, and the hay from the meadows; while the little patches of oats
+were hardly ready for the sickle. We hear of a great pageant and play
+devised by Thomas Hoggart[201] being performed in the open air at
+Troutbeck village (1693) on "St. James his Day," which was the 25th
+of July, equal to the 5th of August, new style.
+
+  [201] _Remnants of Rhyme_, by Thomas Hoggart, Kendal, 1853.
+
+The Rushbearing at Grasmere was held in recent times on the Saturday
+nearest to July 20th; and a stranger, T. Q. M., found a celebration
+taking place in 1827 on July 21st.[202] In fact, the Day of the
+church's dedicatory Saint, August 5th (which is equal to August 16th,
+new style) seems not to have been associated recently in the minds of
+the people with the Festival; though it was associated at St. Oswald,
+Warton, where the ceremony survived till the close of the eighteenth
+century. It is possible that the shift from old to new style, in
+1752, weakened the connection between Saint's Day and Festival in
+the minds of the folk, leaving them content to await the summons of
+the clerk, who reminded them, it is said, when it was time to cut the
+rushes. The old chapels of the parish likewise had their Rushbearing.
+That of Langdale appears in the wardens' accounts for that township,
+where 2s. 6d. was generally put down for expenses attending it.
+The item disappears, however, after 1752, for then the chapel was
+rebuilt, and was no doubt paved throughout with the fine slate of
+the valley: the need for rushes there being over, more than 80 years
+earlier than was the case with the mother church. The Ambleside
+Festival has continued to the present day (though with a lapse of a
+few years, according to Grasmere folk), and is regularly held near
+the day of her Saint (Anne), July 26th, the hymn used being the same
+as at Grasmere.
+
+  [202] Hone's _Table Book_.
+
+As a matter of fact, the Rushbearing had of old a real meaning,
+for the sweet rushes were strewn over the floors of churches and
+halls alike, both for warmth and cleanliness.[203] The covering
+was particularly necessary in churches where the soil beneath the
+worshippers' feet was full of corpses. The great annual strewing
+(though we would fain believe that it was done oftener than once a
+year) was naturally performed when rushes were full grown. It was
+a boon service given to the church by the folk during a spell of
+leisure. Such service they were well accustomed to. The statesman not
+only by custom immemorial, gave to his lord a day's labour at harvest
+time, but he and his wife cheerfully turned into their neighbour's
+field for the like. Sheep-clipping has survived as a boon service;
+and what a man in old days gave to his fellow, he did not grudge to
+his church.
+
+  [203] Queen Elizabeth's Palace at Greenwich had its Presence
+  Chamber, in 1598, "richly hung with tapestry and strewn with
+  rushes."
+
+Food and drink alone were the boon-workers' meed of old; and the
+first entry that concerns the Rushbearing in the wardens' accounts
+shows that the drink at least was looked for.
+
+  1680--"For Ale bestowed on those who brought
+      Rushes and repaired the Church                 00  01  00"
+
+It appears from this entry that the boon service was not limited
+to rush-bearing in old times; but that general repair was done by
+willing craftsmen. The item for ale continues "on Rush-bearers and
+others"; in 1684 it rises to 2s., and to 5s. 6d. next year. The
+amount was perhaps considered excessive by the more temperate of
+the parishioners--a runlet could be had for 3s.--and from 1690 the
+charge "To Rushbearers" became a fixed one of 2s. 6d. At this figure
+it stood for 150 years, though from 1774 the township of Grasmere
+added on its own account a further 1s. for "Getting of rushes for the
+church."
+
+The parochial charge "To Rushes for Church," 2s. 6d. appears for the
+last time in 1841. With the paving of the floor, which took place in
+1840, the need for the fragrant covering was over, and matting was
+laid down--probably only in the aisles--in 1844, at an expense of
+11s. 4d.
+
+Up to then rush-strewing had been necessary. Burials in the earthen
+floor had continued up to 1823; and the forms, from the gradual
+sinking of the ground, had to be constantly lifted and re-set. Only
+in 1828 the townships had gone to considerable expense in re-seating
+and re-flagging their portions of the interior, and in the same year
+a stray visitor to Grasmere expressed himself as shocked at the
+primitive condition of the church. "I found the very seat floors
+all unpaved, unboarded, and the bare ground only strewed with
+rushes."[204] In the previous year T. Q. M. had found the villagers
+seriously working at their annual task of strewing. It seems to have
+been done informally, under the superintendence of the clerk; and
+later in the day--nine o'clock it is said--came the spectacle and the
+merry-making. A procession was formed, when the wild flowers--which
+the children had been busily engaged during the day in gathering and
+weaving into garlands--were carried to the church and laid there. An
+adjournment was then made to a hay-loft, where dancing was kept up
+till midnight, and where no doubt more than the parochial ale was
+drunk. Old James Dawson, the fiddler, boasted to the stranger that he
+had for forty-six years performed on the occasion. He complained of
+the outlandish tunes introduced by the "Union Band chaps," who had
+apparently superceded him in the honour of leading the procession.
+But James may be said to lead the music in spirit yet, for a certain
+march, used for an unknown period and handed down by his son Jimmy
+(who succeeded him as village fiddler), is still played.
+
+  [204] Morrison Scatcherd, quoted in the Rushbearing pamphlet
+  compiled by Miss E. Grace Fletcher.
+
+Clarke was present at the Festival at an earlier date,[205] and he
+gives a rather different account of it. His description, however, is
+of something he had seen in the past; and one is inclined to doubt
+that the Rushbearing was ever held at the end of September. According
+to him, the rushes were actually borne in the procession, which was
+headed by girls carrying nosegays, the chief of whom (called the
+Queen) had a large garland. When the work of strewing was done, and
+the flowers laid in the church, the concourse was met at the church
+door by the fiddler, who played them to the ale-house, there to spend
+an evening of jollity.
+
+  [205] _Survey of the Lakes_, 1789.
+
+An account of the ceremony at Warton, earlier still,[206] gives an
+interesting variation of custom. Here the floral decorations were
+not separate from the rushes, but covered the bundles as crowns. The
+smartest of them, trimmed with fine ribbon and flowers, were carried
+in front by girls. The crowns were detached in the church, and
+after the strewing of the rushes were left as ornaments. Artificial
+trimmings were in use in Grasmere in 1828, for the stranger's eye
+had been "particularly attracted by the paper garlands which I found
+deposited in the vestry; they were curiously and tastefully cut, and
+I was almost tempted to buy one of them." The sketch by Allom of
+the Ambleside Festival in 1833 shows how elaborate and artificial
+the bearings had become.[207] But taste and meaning could not have
+been altogether banished for certain sacred emblems and devices
+were cherished; and Moses in the Bulrushes, and the Serpent in the
+Wilderness--the latter wholly composed of rushes--which are still
+carried as "bearings" at Grasmere, are said to have been handed down
+from a forgotten past. The same is claimed for the Ambleside Harp,
+the strings of which are contrived from the pith of the rush--the
+"sieve" of the olden days of rush-lights.
+
+  [206] MS. account, given in Whitaker's _Richmondshire._
+
+  [207] _Westmorland and Cumberland, etc., Illustrated_, 1833.
+
+It has been seen that the joint payment by the townships for the boon
+service ceased when the actual rush-strewing ceased. But the Festival
+continued, though it was clearly changing its character and becoming
+the children's Feast of Flowers. This is shown by Grasmere's special
+contribution to the occasion. The annual gift, after rising a little,
+is entered in 1819 as 3s. 9d., "To Rushbearers' Gingerbread paid
+Geo: Walker." From that time Grasmere's expenditure for "Rushbearers
+bread" is a constant though varying item. In 1839 it dropped as low
+as 1s. 6d., which, supposing two-pennyworth to be the amount given to
+each child, would represent but nine bearers. From this low figure
+however it rose; and the languishing Festival was revived, if not
+saved, by the munificence of Mr. Thomas Dawson, of Allan Bank, who
+began about this time to present each bearer with 6d.[208] The
+gingerbread item was often 6s.; in 1847 it was 9s. 10d.; in 1851
+it is set down as "To Rushbearers 62," 10s. 4d. In 1856 13s. 6d.
+was paid to A. Walker for "Rushbearers Cake," and in the next two
+years the climax was reached by the sums £1. 1s. 5d. and £1. 1s.
+The long-continued item then abruptly ceases--seventeen years after
+the provision made for ale by the whole parish ceased--swept away
+no doubt by the revolution in church-management and church-rates,
+and for thirteen years there is a gap. When, however, the ancient
+but now resisted church-rate was dropped in 1871, and all expenses
+were defrayed from the large and gladly-paid offertory, the church
+again provided for the Festival. The expenses were now put down under
+"Rushbearing," as Bells 6s., Wilson 8s., Cakes 19s.; amounting to £1
+13s., towards which the collection at the church service (for the
+first time established) furnished 16s. 8d. Next year there was a
+marked increase: Band £2, Joiners 8s., Ringers 6s., Gingerbread £1.
+5s. 10d., and Baldry 4s. 1d.; total £4. 3s. 11d.; collection, £2.
+18s. 1d. The payment to joiners must have been for making the frames
+of the bearings, which have assumed many varied forms.
+
+  [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."
+
+The Festival has, since 1885, taken place on the Saturday next to
+St. Oswald's Day. The procession, from which everything gaudy and
+irreverent has been eliminated, now makes a beautiful spectacle.
+Children of all ages take part in it, even tiny toddlers, supported
+by parent or grandmother. The floral burdens are deposited in the
+church and the service held, when all disperse; and on the next
+Monday the children have their feast with games and prizes, paid for
+by the united contribution of the parishioners.
+
+The Walker family, who for so long provided the gingerbread, are
+remembered to have had a little shop--the only one in the place--and
+it stood near the present one of Messrs. Gibson.[209] Presumably,
+Dinah, the wife, baked the cake; and George, in the manner of the
+time, pursued the additional trade of tailor. Mrs. Mary Dixon, of
+Town End, was the gingerbread maker for many years, but has recently
+given it up.
+
+  [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."
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+The continuity of village life is illustrated by the following list
+of house names in Grasmere existing in the sixteenth and seventeenth
+centuries; all with asterisks are still there.--ED.
+
+LIST OF NAMES OF HOUSES IN GRASMERE MENTIONED IN EARLIEST CHURCH
+REGISTER.
+
+  1571 * The Wray.
+  1574 * Brimahead.
+  1576   The beck.
+   "   * Underhelm.
+   "     Bankhousehow.
+  1577 * Turnhow.
+  1579   Beckhousehow.
+   "   * Blintarngill.
+  1586 * Sick syd--(Syke side).
+  1600   Beckhouses.
+  1601 * Scorcrag.
+  1604   The heirig.
+  1611 * fforrest syd.
+  1612 * Howhead--(How top).
+  1613 * banriges--(Bainrigg).
+  1614 * The wick, (or) wike--(Wyke).
+   "     Wallend.
+  1619 * Grenhead.
+  1629 * Winterseeds.
+  1630 * The mosse.
+  1630 * Broadraine.
+  1638 * Church Steele--(stile).
+  1638   Knott place.
+  1640 * Gilfoote.
+  1642 * Gillside.
+  1644 * Hollings.
+   "   * Pademan--(Pavement End).
+  1646   below sike.
+  1651   beneath sike.
+  1655 * Underhow.
+   "   * Knothouses.
+  1656 * Thornehowe.
+  1669 * Tailend--(Dale end).
+  1672 * Mosse side.
+  1682   Mitchel place.
+   "     Nicols.
+   "   * Benplace.
+  1683 * Underhowcragge.
+  1684   Underlangcragge.
+
+DISTRICTS MENTIONED.
+
+  1604   Townhead.
+  1611   Townend.
+  1640   Eiesdall.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+  Above Beck, 192.
+
+  Addison, James, 115.
+
+  Adelaide, Queen, 149.
+
+  Advowson, sale of, 63, 66.
+
+  Agar, the Misses, 150.
+
+  Airey, James, 185, 187, 188.
+
+  Algiers, captives at, 214.
+
+  Ambleside Chapel, 71, 89, 166, 174, 191.
+
+  Ambleside Curates, 176, 177.
+
+  Ambleside Hall, 183.
+
+  _Ambleside Town and Chapel_, 181, _note_.
+
+  Ambrose, Rev. John, 82-85, 90, 183.
+
+  Appleby, 36, 53.
+
+  Aston, Oxon, 39, _note_.
+
+
+  Baisbrown, 62, 91.
+
+  Banks, John, 86, 87, 126, 182.
+
+  Baptists, 198, 202.
+
+  Barber, Mr. Samuel, 173.
+
+  Beaumont, Sir George, 151.
+
+  Bell, Dr. Andrew, 172.
+
+  Bellman, Mr., 146.
+
+  Benson, Mrs. Dorothy, of Coat How, 130.
+
+  ---- Edward, 92.
+
+  ---- Francis, of Loughrigg Fold, 92, 195, 197.
+
+  ---- John, 92, 183, 197.
+
+  ---- Michael, 91.
+
+  ---- Salomon, 73.
+
+  Birkett, Christopher, 175.
+
+  Braithwaite, the family of, 90, 91, 183.
+
+  Brathay, 180, 191.
+
+  Briefs, Church, 213, 214.
+
+  Browne, Mr. George, 39, _note_.
+
+  ---- MSS. of, 62, 175.
+
+  Burials, 109, 110.
+
+  ---- in woollen, 207.
+
+
+  Cartmel, 12, 28 _note_, 37.
+
+  Catalogue of 1661, 121.
+
+  Charities, 214-216.
+
+  Chester, Bishop of, 64, 65.
+
+  ---- Dr. G. H. Law, Bishop of, 173.
+
+  Church Stile, 30, 125, 163.
+
+  Civil Wars, the, 73-77.
+
+  Clayworth, 183, _note_.
+
+  Close Rolls, Calendar of, 50.
+
+  Colthouse, 194.
+
+  Confession, Public, 33, _note_.
+
+  Confirmations, 206.
+
+  Coniston Church, 114.
+
+  Coucy, Lords of, 48-50.
+
+  Cox, Dr. J. C., _Parish Registers of England_, 57, 182, 207.
+
+  Craik, Rev. John, 168, 169.
+
+  Croft, Rev. Gabriel, 64-67.
+
+  Cross, Great and Little, 108.
+
+  Crosthwaite, 7, 36, 38, 70.
+
+
+  Dale End, 170.
+
+  Davis, Thomas, 169.
+
+  Dawson, Anthony, 183.
+
+  ---- James, 220.
+
+  ---- Mr. Thomas, 222.
+
+  De Quincey, Thomas, 172.
+
+  Dixon, Mrs. Mary, 223.
+
+  ---- Rev. Thomas, 164.
+
+  Dove Cottage, 172.
+
+
+  _Educational Charities_, 182, _note_.
+
+  Elterwater, 62.
+
+
+  Fire of London, the Great, 214.
+
+  Firstfruits, 163, _note_.
+
+  Fisher, Adam, 77.
+
+  Fleming, arms of the family, 140.
+
+  ---- Dame Agnes, 71, 215.
+
+  ---- Sir Daniel, 86, 88, 89, 109, 112, 166, 195-197.
+
+  ---- ---- account book of, 161, 164, 189.
+
+  ---- Sir Daniel le, Bt., 173.
+
+  ---- the Lady Diana le, 170.
+
+  ---- Dorothy, 82.
+
+  ---- Rev. Fletcher, 133, 174.
+
+  ---- Rev. Sir George, Bt., 166-168, 206.
+
+  ---- Rev. Henry, D.D., 163, 164.
+
+  ---- Squire John, 36, 73, 214.
+
+  ---- Lady le, 118, 173, 180.
+
+  ---- Rev. Richard le, 173.
+
+  ---- Sir Michael le, Bt., 170.
+
+  ---- Rev. William, 167.
+
+  ---- Sir William, Bt., 92, 163, 166, 169.
+
+  ---- Squire William, 66, 67, 76, 109.
+
+  Fletcher, Rev. H. M., 150, 174.
+
+  ---- Miss E. Grace, 219.
+
+  Forrest, the family of, 175.
+
+  Fox, George, 85, 86, 194, 195.
+
+  Friends, Society of, 85, 86, 92, 178, 194, 198.
+
+
+  Galdington, Henry de, Rector of "Grossemer," 45.
+
+  GRASMERE (Grassmire, Gresmer, Gresmire, Grossemer), 3, 19, 45.
+
+  ---- Church, 33, 99-107.
+    Altar, altar rails, 126.
+    bells, 137-143.
+    bench end, 108.
+    books for, 126.
+    Bread and Wine for, 75, 130-133.
+    carved stone face, 104, 105.
+    chest, 145.
+    choir, 118, 119.
+    church rate, 189-193.
+    clock, 145, 146.
+    corps cloth, corps stool, 143.
+    decoration of, 115-118.
+    dedication of, 14, 15.
+    doors, 146, 147.
+    earliest record of, 45.
+    Font, 126, 150.
+    furniture, 108, 120.
+    implements, 145.
+    pitchpipe, 119.
+    plate, 129, 130.
+    poor box, 126.
+    presentments, 200-202, 210-216.
+    registers, 204-209.
+    renovation of, in 1841, 149.
+    in 1879, 150.
+    repairs to, 136, 137.
+    roof, 106, 107, 136, 137.
+    rough-casting of, 144, 149.
+    Royal Arms, 129.
+    Rydal Hall pew, 113.
+    seats and seatings, 111, 112, 191, 192.
+    secular use of, 33, 34, 37.
+    sentences in, 114-116, 144.
+    steeple (tower), 143.
+    tithes, 45-47, 65, 66, 77, 90-93.
+    tithe barn, 150.
+    white-washing of, 143, 144.
+    windows, 124-126, 145, 200.
+
+  ---- Churchwardens, 38.
+    accounts, 4, 133-135, 153-157, 190, 193.
+
+  ---- Churchyard, 35, 151.
+    graves in, 152.
+    Langdale gate, 30.
+    sundial in, 151.
+    yewtrees, 151.
+    secular use of, 35.
+
+  ---- Curates of, 61, 62, 168-174.
+
+  ---- "Eighteen," the, _see_ Sidesmen.
+
+  ---- House names in, 224.
+
+  ---- Overseers of, 37, 184.
+
+  ---- Parish boundaries, 27.
+
+  ---- Parish clerks, 184, 185.
+
+  ---- Patrons of the living, 48-52.
+
+  ---- Rectors of, 57-61, 161-174.
+
+  ---- Rectory, 162, 164, 170, 171.
+
+  ---- School, 181, 205.
+
+  ---- Schoolhouse, 183, 187, 188.
+
+  ---- Sidesmen, 28, 38, 39, 123, 183, 193
+
+  ---- Townships, 24, 28-32, 123-125.
+
+  ---- "Twenty-four," the, _see_ Sidesmen.
+
+  Gell's Cottage, 173.
+
+  Gilpin, Richard, 86.
+
+  Gray, Thomas, 191.
+
+  Greenwood, Mr., 185.
+
+  ---- Miss, 186.
+
+
+  Harrison, David, 71.
+
+  Harrison, Richard, 72-77, 81-83.
+
+  Harrison, Robert, 143.
+
+  Hawkshead, 37, 100, 115, 116.
+
+  Hearse, the, 145.
+
+  Heywood, the Rev. J. H., 174.
+
+  Hird, Rev. Michael, 181.
+
+  ---- Rev. Robert, 181.
+
+  Hodgson, Levi, 30 _note_, 144.
+
+  Hoggart, Thomas, 217.
+
+  Hollins, the, 18.
+
+  Holme, Reginald, 197, 198.
+
+  Huntingstile, 172.
+
+
+  Independents, 84, 85.
+
+
+  Jackson, Rev. Thomas, 170.
+
+  ---- Rev. William, 68.
+
+  Jefferies, Rev. Edward, 150, 174.
+
+  Jennings, Rev. William, 174.
+
+  Johnson, Rev. William, 171, 172.
+
+
+  Kelbarrow, 15, 19.
+
+  Kendal, Barony of, 24, 48, 49, 62.
+
+  ---- Corporation MSS., 68.
+
+  ---- Kirkby, 24, 25, 35, 53, 56, 99, 100.
+
+  King's Evil, the, 207.
+
+  Kirk How, 17, 19, 103.
+
+  ---- Steel, _see Church Stile_.
+
+  Kirktown, 19.
+
+  Knott, Mrs. Dorothy, 141, 187.
+
+  ---- Jane, 168.
+
+  ---- Michael, 138.
+
+  ---- Rev. Thomas, 165, 183.
+
+
+  Langdale, Great or Mickle, 62, 178.
+
+  ---- Chapel, 62, 70, 71, 88, 119, 171, 178, 179, 191.
+
+  ---- Churchwardens' Accounts, 179.
+
+  ---- Curates, 179.
+
+  ---- Parson's House, 179.
+
+  ---- Presentment, 179.
+
+  ---- Rushbearing, 218.
+
+  ---- School, 179.
+
+  ---- Little, 58.
+
+  ---- ---- Chapel, 62, 178.
+
+  Langsha, John, 138.
+
+  Lawson, Colonel Wilfrid, 73, 76.
+
+  Lindesay, William de, 19.
+
+  Lindesay Fee, 50, 51, 63.
+
+  Lloyd, Rev. Owen, 179, 180.
+
+  Loughrigg Fold, 197.
+
+  Luff, Mrs., of Fox Ghyll, 130, 180.
+
+  Lumley Fee, 64.
+
+
+  Mackereth, the family of, 185, 186.
+
+  ---- Rev. Gawen, 169.
+
+  ---- George, 202.
+
+  Maitland, Professor H. W., 39, _note_.
+
+  Markets, 36.
+
+  Marriages, Prohibition of, 206.
+
+  Marshall, Mr. T. H., 192.
+
+  Mears & Son, the Whitechapel Bellfounders, 141.
+
+  Miller Bridge, 203.
+
+  Monuments, 112, 113.
+
+  More, Mrs. Hannah, 172.
+
+  Mortuary fee, 26.
+
+
+  Non-ratepayers, 194.
+
+  Northumbria, Church and Kingdom of, 6-13, 23.
+
+
+  Orfeur, Colonel, 75, 76.
+
+  Osgood, John, 177.
+
+  Oxford, Queen's College, 163.
+
+  ---- ---- Provosts of, 173, _note_.
+
+
+  Padmire End, _see_ Pavement End.
+
+  Papal Registers, Calendar of, 45, 56.
+
+  Parish-Register, 182.
+
+  Patent Rolls, Calendar of, 49-51, 54-59.
+
+  Patterdale, 7.
+
+  Paupers, 184.
+
+  Pavement End, 15, 72, 168.
+
+  Pension Paid to St. Mary's Abbey, 47, 64.
+
+  Peterson, Rev. M. F., 152, 174.
+
+  Phillipps, Captain, 18, 191.
+
+  Plague years, 204.
+
+  Pope Nicholas I., 46.
+
+  Presentments, 184, 200-202.
+
+  Prisoner money, 37.
+
+
+  Quakers, _see_ Friends.
+
+  Quillinan, Mr. Edward, 172.
+
+
+  Ravens, 37.
+
+  Reading, 177.
+
+  Record Office, the, 4.
+
+  Redmayne, Mr. Giles, 180.
+
+  Reformation, the, 62-72.
+
+  Registers, the Grasmere Church, 182, 184, 204-209.
+
+  Restoration, the (1660), 88, 178.
+
+  Richmondshire, Archdeaconry of, 24, 46, 64.
+
+  Richmond Fee, 48.
+
+  Ripon, 9, 12.
+
+  Roman Road, 16.
+
+  Rushbearing, the Grasmere, 217-223.
+
+  ---- Hymn, 180, 218.
+
+  Rydal Chapel, 180, 191.
+
+  ---- Hall, 73-77, 170.
+
+  ---- Hall accounts, 72, 77, 90, 173.
+
+  ---- Hall MSS., 4, 183.
+
+  ---- and Loughrigg, 125, 189, 193.
+
+
+  Saint Oswald, 7, 8, 14, 217.
+
+  ---- ---- Well of, 14.
+
+  ---- Wilfrith, 8.
+
+  Scatcherd, Morrison, 219, _note_.
+
+  Sess, 199.
+
+  Slate quarries, 207.
+
+  Smithy, 17.
+
+  Steeple house, 89, 195.
+
+  Strickland, Walter de, 55.
+
+  Sumner, Miss Helen J. H., 205, 209.
+
+
+  Tailbois, Ivo de, 18, 48.
+
+  Tail End, _see_ Dale End.
+
+  Thanet, Earl of, 216.
+
+  Tremenheere, Mr., 191.
+
+
+  Venn, Mr., 172.
+
+  Visitation, 211.
+
+
+  Walker family, the, 223.
+
+  Wallas, Rev. John, 84, 90, 182.
+
+  Watson, John, 17, 187, 142, 146, 147.
+
+  White Bridge, 19.
+
+  ---- Moss, 16.
+
+  Whithorn in Galloway, 6.
+
+  Wilson, Edward, senior, 119, 144, 145, 146.
+
+  ---- ---- junior, 18, 36, 118 _note_, 188.
+
+  ---- Rev. Henry, 71-73, 79-83, 181.
+
+  ---- Rev. John, 71, 181, 205.
+
+  ---- Rev. Thomas, 182.
+
+  Windermere, 23, 28, 34, 46, 100, 210.
+
+  ---- Ferry-boat accident, 208.
+
+  Winterseeds, 17, 142.
+
+  Wool trade, the, 93, 106.
+
+  Wordsworth, Dorothy, 170.
+
+  ---- William, 170, 172.
+
+  ---- ---- monument to, 152.
+
+  Wray, the, 15, 18, 189.
+
+
+  York, 6, 9, 140, 181.
+
+  ---- Archbishops of, 24, 56.
+
+  ---- Bellfoundry at, 141.
+
+  ---- Saint Mary's Abbey, 46, 47, 53, 54, 64, 65.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been
+retained except in obvious cases of typographical error.
+
+Missing page numbers are page numbers that were not shown in the
+original text.
+
+Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
+
+The carat character (^) indicates that the following letter
+is superscripted (example: S^t). If two or more letters are
+superscripted they are enclosed in curly brackets (example: 35^{to}).
+
+Footnote 181: [=a] indicates macron over "a". Example: (P[=a]ter)
+
+Page 175: The closing ) was missing in the following and has been
+added by the transcriber: "It may be well to give a list of the
+Post-Reformation parsons of Ambleside (rectified according to present
+knowledge), as well as the evidence of a provision made for them in
+1584."
+
+The transcriber has moved the "V" section of the index into
+alphabetical order.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Church of Grasmere, by Mary L. Armitt
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43002 ***