Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland Part 2

Among the architectural curiosities of the two counties may be noted the church tower of Kirkoswald. The parish church is built at the foot of a steep hill, facing the Eden, while the old market town is on the sharply rising ground at the rear. The paris.h.i.+oners would thus have but a small chance of hearing the bells when sounded for service if they occupied the ordinary place. Consequently for a very long time--certainly before the present church was built--the two bells have been placed in a detached tower on the top of the hill at the rear of the church, and over a hundred yards away from the building.

Many ecclesiastical buildings, from the cathedral down to the humblest village chapel-of-ease, would seem to have had curious inscriptions or pictures upon their walls. Nearly all these have disappeared, and later comers are indebted for their knowledge of what has been to such industrious chroniclers as Mach.e.l.l, Burn, and others. The former put on paper in 1692 the following lines, which were on the walls of the south chapel of Kirkby Lonsdale Church:--

C. W.

(_Arms_) 16 68.

"This porch by ye Banes first builded was, Of Heighholme Hall they weare; And after sould to Christopher Wood, By William Bains thereof last heyre; And is repayred as you see, And set in order good By the true owner nowe thereof The fore saide Christopher Wood."

As in our own day the restoration or alteration of a church frequently caused much ill-feeling in a parish, and there are records of several such "scenes" in c.u.mberland and Westmorland in bygone days. One such was at Sebergham, where the church was rebuilt in 1825-6, and a tower built at the west end. On the first Sunday that the edifice was opened the following protest in rhyme was found nailed to the church door:--

"The priest and the miller built the church steeple Without the consent or good will of the people.

A tax to collect they tried to impose In defiance of right and subversion of laws.

The matter remains in a state of suspension, And likely to be a sad bone of contention.

If concession be made to agree with us all Let the tax be applied to build the church wall.

Churchyard wall now in a ruinous state. Sebergham High Bound, July 12, 1826."

While dealing with the architectural curiosities of North-Country churches, allusion should be made to a story connected with that at Ambleside. A piece of painted gla.s.s on the north side of the old church has a representation of what is locally known as the carrier's arms--a rope, a wantey-hook, and five packing p.r.i.c.ks, or skewers, these being the implements used by the carriers and wool staplers for fastening their packing sheets together. The tradition is that when the church needed rebuilding, together with the chapels of St. Mary Holm, Ambleside, Troutbeck, and Applethwaite, which were all destroyed or rendered unfit for divine wors.h.i.+p, the parish was extremely poor; the paris.h.i.+oners at a general meeting agreed that one church would serve the whole. The next question was, where it should stand. The inhabitants of Undermillbeck were for having it at Bowness. The rest thought that as Troutbeck Bridge was about the centre of the parish, it should be built there. Several meetings in consequence were held, and many disputes and quarrels arose. At last a carrier proposed that who ever would make the largest donation towards the building should choose the situation of the church. An offer so reasonable could hardly be refused, and many gifts were immediately named. The carrier, who had acquired a fortune by his business, heard them all, and at last declared that he would cover the church with lead. This offer, which all the rest were either unable or unwilling to outdo, at once decided the affair. The carrier chose the situation, and his arms (or more properly his implements) were painted on the north window of the church.

Tradition adds that this man obtained the name of Bellman, from the bells worn by the fore-horse, which he first introduced there.

Several instances of fonts having found their way from churches to private grounds have been made known during recent years, one being at Penrith, and others at Musgrave and Brough-under-Stainmore. On the western side of the county, in the grounds of Mr. T. Dixon, Rheda, is the ancient font, dated 1578, belonging to Arlecdon Church. In the third decade of this century, says the Rev. H. Sugden in his notes on the history of the parish, it was acting at a farm-house as a trough to catch rain-water from the roof. Subsequently the font was found by Mr. Dixon in a stone wall at Rowrah Hall, and was removed to its present place of safety. It seems that the contractor who rebuilt the church in 1829, was allowed to use or dispose of any of the material or contents. The font and an ancient tombstone of the Dixons, were sold by him, and while the font was made into a water-catcher, the tombstone found its way to a farm at Kirkland, where it was utilised as a sconce in the dairy. Occasionally churchwardens were guilty of what would seem to have been vandalism. At Kirkby Lonsdale (1686), they recorded the last of a Norman font:--"Received for the old font stone, 6d."

Among the regulations made by the Head Jurie of Watermillock in 1627 was this:--"Item, It is ordered by the jurie that every tennent of this parish shall sitt in church in their own seats that hath formerly been set forth to their ancestors. And if any have a desire to sitt in the Lady Porch, besides such as have their ancient Rooms therein, they shall sitt there paying yearly for the same to the use of the Church ijd. p{r} Annum." The churchwardens were evidently kept close to their duties by the same authority, as may be seen by this entry in the book:--"It is ordered that the Churchwardens of this Parish shall not be discharged of their office in any year before the Church Stock be fully answered at the sight and judgment of the Head Jury for the time being."

This action probably had its origin in the losses of public funds which had to be deplored in many parishes in consequence of the money being lent out at interest. "Culyet" is not a word to be found in the standard dictionaries of our time, although it appears in the parochial records of Millom. Canon Knowles took the word to mean the free-will offerings made from house to house, being used at Christ Church, Oxford, as the equivalent of "collecta," a collection. In some of the parishes which lent out church funds, rather heavy rates of security were exacted--at Millom the arrangement was seven and a half per cent. Hence there can be no room for surprise that so many parishes have had reason to deplore "lost stock."

Crosthwaite differed from other places in the manner of selecting and swearing the churchwardens and sidesmen, the form being settled by the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes in Queen Elizabeth's time. They decreed "That yearly, upon Ascension Day, the vicar, the eighteen sworn men, the churchwardens, the owner of Derwent.w.a.ter estate, the sealer and receiver of the Queen's portion at the mines, one of the chiefest of the company and fellows.h.i.+p of the partners and offices of the minerals, then resiant at Keswick, the bailiffs of Keswick, Wythburn, Borrowdale, Thornthwaite, Brundholme, and the forester of Derwent Fells, shall meet in the church of Crosthwaite, and so many of them as shall be there a.s.sembled shall chuse the eighteen men and churchwardens for the year ensuing, who shall on the Sunday following before the vicar take their oath of office."

The seating of the men and women on different sides of the church was a proceeding once so common as to almost remove it from the list of curiosities. The churchwardens' books of Crosthwaite contain very minute orders as to where every person in the parish should sit, and in other places a similar rule obtained. In these days of "free and open churches"

it is interesting to read of the arrangements which the churchwardens and vicar made so as to allocate every seat in St. Patrick's Church, Bampton, in 1726. The rule appears to have been based on the land tax, and the list begins with "The Lord Vis. Lonsdale," who had one complete stall for the use of the tenants of Bampton Hall, another for Low Knipe, and other seats elsewhere. The whole of the inhabitants seem to have been provided for, the catalogue concluding with a statement of the accommodation set apart for the school-master of Measand and the school-dame at Roughill; the master at Bampton Grange, being an impropriator, found a place among the aristocracy on "the Gospel side" of the chancel.

Some quaint entries concerning the provision and cost of wine for sacred purposes--and for other uses not always answering that description--are to be met with in several of the parochial records. In the vestry book of c.o.c.kermouth is this entry for June, 1764:--"Ordered that all the wine for the communicants be bought at one house where the Churchwardens can get it the best and cheapest. Ordered that no wine be given to any clergyman to carry home." At one of the meetings of the c.u.mberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, the late Canon Simpson produced a paper which showed that very heavy sums, comparatively, had been spent at Kendal in providing Communion wine. One item was for 6, another 9, and again 11, while opposite one of the entries was the remark: "That is exclusive of wine used at Easter." It was customary for the vicar or rector to give the Easter Communion wine, receiving in return Easter dues. On another occasion, when the Bishop of Chester was to visit the church, the wardens ordered a bottle of sack to be placed in the vestry.

An interesting ceremony has long been gone through at Dacre Church in connection with the distribution of the Troutbeck Dole. The princ.i.p.al representative of the family now living is Dr. John Troutbeck, Precentor of Westminster. The Rev. Robert Troutbeck, in 1706, by his will gave to the poor of Dacre parish, the place of his nativity, a sum of money, the interest of which was ordered to be "distributed every year by the Troutbecks of Blencowe, if there should be any living, otherwise by the minister and churchwardens for the time being." A more curious proviso was contained in the will of John Troutbeck, made in 1787. By that doc.u.ment 200 was left to the poor of the testator's native parish, and the interest was ordered to be "distributed every Easter Sunday, on the family tombstone in Dacre churchyard, provided the day should be fine, by the hands and at the discretion of a Troutbeck of Blencowe, if there should be any living, those next in descent having prior right of distribution. If none should be living that would distribute the money, then by a Troutbeck as long as one could be found that would take the trouble of it; otherwise by the minister and churchwardens of the parish for the time being; that not less than five s.h.i.+llings should be given to any individual, and that none should be ent.i.tled to it who received alms, or any support from the parish." The custom was carried out in due form on the "through-stone" last Easter.

Kirkby Stephen, up to about sixty years ago, had a very curious custom--the payment, on a fixed day every year, upon a tombstone still in the churchyard, of the paris.h.i.+oners' t.i.the. The late Mr. Cornelius Nicholson, in a now scarce pamphlet on Mallerstang Forest, gave the following account of the observance:--

"The tombstone is unhewn millstone grit, covered with a limestone slab, whereon a heraldic s.h.i.+eld was once traceable, supposed to indicate the owners.h.i.+p of the Whartons. Tradition says, however, that it is older than the tombs in the Wharton Chapel. Among the paris.h.i.+oners it went popularly by the name of the great 'truppstone,'

a corruption perhaps of 'through-stone.' It is certain, however--and this is the gist of the story--that for generations, time out of mind, the money in lieu of t.i.thes of hay was here regularly paid to the inc.u.mbent of the church on Easter Monday. The grey coats of this part of Westmorland a.s.sembled punctually as Easter Monday came round, and there and then tendered to the vicar their respective quotas of silver. Some agreement, oral or written, must have been made between the parties, which does not now appear. The practice became the law of custom. The payment was called a modus in lieu of hay t.i.the. I find that when Lord Wharton purchased the advowson at the dissolution of monasteries the t.i.thes of corn and hay were excepted from the conveyance, which points to this customary modus on the 'truppstone.'

If this reference be correct, the curious custom dates back to the time of Henry the Eighth, and perhaps farther back, and gives it a continuance of some 300 years.

"We don't know its origin, but we do know its extinction. When the Rev. Thomas P. Williamson became vicar, in the first decade of this century, a quarrel arose between him and the t.i.the-payers as to this modus. Law proceedings were threatened, and some preliminaries were taken. The paris.h.i.+oners, notwithstanding, attended on Easter Monday as before, and tendered their doles. The vicar also attended, but determinedly refused the money, until his death in 1835, which put a stop to the custom. After his death, the vicar's widow set up a claim for the arrears, which had been offered and refused, so she took nothing by her motion. In 1836 all the t.i.thes were commuted in England, under the provision of the t.i.thes Commutation Act, carried into execution by a c.u.mberland M.P., Mr. Aglionby, whom I knew very well, in Lord John Russell's Ministry. These particulars of the 'truppstone' were furnished me by Mr. Matthew Thompson, Kirkby Stephen, one of the county magistrates, who himself--and this clenches it as a fact--yearly attended in the churchyard, with his quota, and who was present on the very last occasion."

An incident which in some respects has had at least one counterpart within recent years is recorded as happening at Little Salkeld towards the end of the fourteenth century. The little chapel there was "desecrated and polluted by the shedding of blood," and as the parish church of Addingham was a considerable distance, the vicar was allowed to officiate in his own vicarage-house "till the interdict should be taken off from the chapel."

There is a curious story attaching to some of the wood-work of Greystoke Church. The misereres under the choir stalls are very quaintly carved, and one of them, "the pelican in her piety," was for many years used as the sign of an inn near the church. From this circ.u.mstance the hostelry lost its old name, the "Masons' Arms," and acquired the modern one of the "Pelican."

Although schools in churches were very common, the holding of Courts in such buildings could not have been frequent. At Ravenstonedale, where numerous customs peculiar to the parish or immediate district prevailed, the people had a strong belief in home rule, and insisted on having it. In the old church there were two rows of seats below the Communion table, where the steward of the manor and jury sat in their Court of Judicature in the sixteenth century. The malefactors were imprisoned in a hollow arched vault, the ruins of which were to be seen not much more than a quarter of a century ago on the north side of the church. There was so much wrangling over cases, and the manifestation of such a bad spirit, which the paris.h.i.+oners felt was unbecoming and unsuited to such an edifice, that they pet.i.tioned Lord Wharton, the lord of the manor, to have the trying of cases removed to a house belonging to him which stood near the church. This was granted, and subsequently the Court was held in the village inn and other places.

"A gentleman who carries out archidiaconal functions," is the familiar, though vague, definition of an archdeacon in our own time, but a couple of centuries ago that church official had very definite duties and powers. As Mr. G. E. Moser, solicitor, Kendal, once reminded the members of the two counties' Archaeological Society, the visits of the Archdeacon of Richmond to Kendal--where he sentenced offenders from his chair of state erected in the High Quire--were looked forward to with awe and reverence. The churchwardens' books contain the following among other entries:--"Paid for bent to strawe in the High Quire against Sir Joseph [Cradock] came."

"Paid to the Churchwardens, which they laid out when they delivered their presentments to Sir Joseph Cradock." "Paid for was.h.i.+ng and sweeping the Church against Sir Joseph's coming to sitt his Court of Correction, which was the 7 July, 1664." "At the peremptory day, being the 18th day of October, 1664, the general meeting of the churchwardens, whose names are herunder written doth order that Geo. Wilkinson shall keep the clock and chimes in better order, and shall keep swine out of the churchyard, and whip the dogs out of the church in time of divine service and sermon, and remove the dunghill and the stable-door which opens into the churchyard before the next peremptory day, and reform all abuses belonging to his office, or else the Churchwardens will make complaint so that it shall be referred to the ordinary."

Chancellor Ferguson told the members that he had found in some doc.u.ments, relating to an unnamed c.u.mberland church, an order that no swine should be allowed in the churchyard unless they had rings in their noses! There are many reminders available of the days when rushes or other growths were put on church floors, by such entries as that in Waberthwaite registers, dated 1755:--"Bent bought, 12d." At Millom there are charges for dressing the church. Between 1720 and 1783 there are several entries in the Hawkshead registers with reference to "strawing the church"--meaning the covering of the floor with rushes. There are also here, as at Penrith and some other places, allusions to payments for collecting moss, with which the rain was often kept out of the churches.

It was, even within the last half century, a common occurrence for dogs to accompany their owners to church, but the officials did not appreciate the custom. Mr. John Knotts, in 1734, left an estate at Maulds Meaburn for the use of the poor of the towns.h.i.+p, from which five s.h.i.+llings yearly had to be paid for keeping dogs out of Crosby Ravensworth Church. The legality of the will was disputed on a technicality, and the heir-at-law paid a sum of money instead, which was invested, but how long the crown was paid for anti-dog purposes is not known. The Rev. J. Wilson wrote in his parochial magazine a few years ago:--"In the olden days in Dalston there was an officer whose duty it was to whip dogs out of church during service time, and, strange as it may seem, the custom under another name and in somewhat altered guise existed till the old church was demolished in 1890.

The parish dog-whipper had 1 a year for his salary during the latter portion of the 18th century, when the duties of the office were extended to other matters. In the parish accounts the following entry occurs: 'May 3, 1753 John Gate for whipping the Dogs out of church, opening and shutting ye sashes, sweeping ye church &c. for one year, 01 00 00.' The same entry occurs regularly every year till 1764, when his widow undertakes the job: 'May 6th 1764 Wid: Gate for whipping ye Dogs out of ye church, opening and shutting ye sashes, sweeping ye church 01 00 00.' The office of dog-whipper continues to be mentioned every year till 1774, when it disappears, and the entry is changed to: 'May 1, 1774, Wid: Gate for cleaning ye church 01 00 00.'" The church records show that at Penrith an annual payment of two s.h.i.+llings was made for many years to the dog-whipper. Among the items bearing on church expenses contained in the Torpenhow registers in 1759, was an annual allowance of 5s. to the s.e.xton for whipping dogs out of the church, and that he might the more efficiently do his work he was granted an extra allowance of 3d. for a whip and 2d. for a thong. There is an item in the Waberthwaite records which runs:--"According to the canons laitly sett down, four sydmen [synodsmen] are to be appointed every year, one of whose duties is to keepe the dogges out of the chirche, 1605." At Hawkshead a dog-whipper was provided from 1723 to 1784. If the following paragraph, which appeared in the _c.u.mberland Pacquet_, in January, 1817, may be believed, there was at least one dog which would not incur the wrath of either parson or dog-whipper:--"Mr. William Wood of Asby, parish of Arlecdon, has a cur dog which for these four years past has regularly attended church, if within hearing of the bells; and what is more singular, the animal never misses going to his master's seat whether any of the family attend or not."

Manorial Laws and Curiosities of Tenures.

No doubt because of the proximity of the district to the Border, the tenures by which certain properties were held in c.u.mberland and Westmorland must be regarded as quite local in their character. The observances are, of course, all the more interesting on that account, and even in cases for which parallels are to be found in other parts of the kingdom, little peculiarities may sometimes be seen in local instances which throw light on the former habits of the people. Lords of manors were once individuals possessed of great powers. The lords of Millom held their property for hundreds of years, and had _jura regalia_ within the seignory, in memory of which a modern stone erected at Gallow, half a mile below Millom Castle, has the inscription,

"Here the Lords of Millom exercised jura regalia."

The lord of the manor of Troutbeck, Windermere, is also believed to have formerly exercised a jurisdiction over capital offences.

Where such powers existed, it is by no means surprising that the homage exacted from tenants and servitors on various occasions was of a character that in modern days would be regarded as extremely degrading. Thus when a free tenant went to his lord's residence to do homage according to custom and duty, he was ushered into the presence of his superior without sword or other arms, and with his head uncovered. The lord remained seated, and the tenant with profound reverence knelt before the great man. With his clasped or joined hands placed between those of the lord, the homager repeated the following vow, which seems to have been in practically the same terms in various manors:--"I become your man from this day forward, for life, for member, and for worldly honour, and unto you shall be true and faithful, and bear you faith for the lands that I hold of you, saving the faith that I owe to our Sovereign Lord the King." The lord, still sitting, then kissed the tenant, as a token of his approbation. In c.u.mberland and Westmorland there are several villages named Carleton, this being one of the reminders of the days of serfdom. The carls were simply the basest sort of servants--practically slaves.

The former servile condition of the poor in the neighbourhood of barons'

houses is also preserved in such names as Bongate, or as it was always written in old doc.u.ments, Bondgate, at Appleby. In the great trial between the Cliffords and the burghers, when the former claimed the services of the freemen, it was decided that neither Robert de Vetripont nor any of his heirs ever had seizin of the borough, where the burgesses lived, but that King John gave to him "_Vetus Apilbi ubi villani manent_"--"Old Appleby, where the bondmen dwell." The bondmen, or villeins, were probably of the same social standing as those known as drenges, the Cliffords having very many drengage tenements in various parts of their Sheriffwick.

"The drenges were pure villeins--doubtless Saxons kept in a state of the vilest slavery, being granted by the lords of the manor, with a piece of land, like so many oxen. In fact they were as much the property of the lord of the manor as the negroes in the West Indian Colonies were formerly the property of the sugar planters. It is probable that the drenges were employed to perform all the servile and laborious offices at Brougham Castle; for in 1359, Engayne, lord of Clifton, granted to Roger de Clifford, by indenture, the service of John Richardson, and several others mentioned by name, with their bodies and all that belonged to them."[8]

In the reign of Richard the First there was given to the church of Carlisle, "lands in Lorton, with a mill there, and all its rights and appendages, and namely the miller, his wife, and children"--apparently clear evidence of the servitors being regarded as part of the property.

Several manorial lords claimed for their tenants the right to go toll-free throughout England. This was the case with Armathwaite, while the privilege also pertained to the prioress and nuns at Nunnery. The manor of Acorn Bank, near Temple Sowerby, used to have the right, or rather the privilege was claimed. In the time of the late Mr. John Boazman (the immediate predecessor of Mr. Henry Boazman, the present owner), the following was written:--"The lords of this manor can still claim and exercise for themselves and tenants all the privileges granted to the Knights Templars, the most important of which is exemption from toll throughout England. The tenants when travelling carry a certificate, signed and sealed by the lord of the manor. This certificate, after reciting part of the old charter, concludes as follows:--'Which charter [that of Henry the Second] was confirmed by King Charles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in the fourth year of his reign, in witness whereof I, the said John Boazman, as lord of the manor, have executed and set my manorial seal.'" The burgesses of Appleby also possessed under their early charters privileges of a like character, and these would doubtless be of very appreciable value.

The ancient family of Hoton, or Hutton, were by Edward the Third, in consideration of the service rendered to him by Thomas de Hoton in the wars against Scotland, restored to the bailiwick and office of keeping the King's land or forest in Plumpton, which was first bestowed upon them prior to the time of Edward the First. It is believed that this led to the family taking a horn as their badge. Besides the monetary payment of something under 2 yearly, it was found in the reign of Henry the Seventh that the lands were also held by the service of holding the stirrup of the King's saddle while his Majesty mounted his horse in the Castle of Carlisle. The adjoining manor of Newton Reigny was held in the early days of the Lowthers by the service of finding for the King in his wars against Scotland one horseman with a horse of the value of forty s.h.i.+llings, armed with a coat of mail, an iron helmet, a lance, and a sword, abiding in the war for forty days with the King's person. At a later date the terms were varied; there was then the paying of two s.h.i.+llings per annum for cornage, and the providing, for the King's army, "one horseman with habiliments, one lance, and one long sword." Penrith and five other manors were once held by the Kings of Scotland by paying one soar-hawk yearly to the constable of the Castle of Carlisle, with some privileges concerning rights in Inglewood Forest. The manor of Cargo, near Carlisle, was held for many generations by the family of de Ross, by the rendering of a hawk or a mark of silver yearly. When the same manor was the property of the Lacys, it was held by cornage, and afterwards by the Vescys for a mew'd hawk yearly in lieu of all services.

In the manor of Gaitsgill and Raughton were twenty-two freehold tenants in 1777, who paid 28s. 8-3/4d. yearly free rent, did suit and service at the lord's court when called upon, and paid yearly to the Duke of Portland as chief lord of the Forest of Inglewood 2 13s. 2d., besides sending a man to appear for them at the Forest Court at Hesket every St. Barnabas's Day, and that representative was to be on the inquest. This manor was at the Conquest "all forest and waste ground," and was enclosed by one Ughtred, who held of the King "for keeping the eyries of hawks which bred in the Forest of Inglewood." The posterity of Ughtred took their surname from Gatesgill, and adopted the sparhawk for their cognisance. The neighbouring manor of High Head (Higheved) was held of Edward the Third by William English by the service of one rose yearly. Later, in the time of Henry the Eighth, it was held by William Restwold as an approvement of the forest by fealty and the service of rendering at the King's exchequer of Carlisle one red rose yearly at the feast of St. John the Baptist.

In the reign of Philip and Mary, Alexander Armstrong was granted a considerable amount of property, including a mill, in the parish of Gilcrux, at a very low rental, on condition of finding and maintaining five hors.e.m.e.n "ready and well-furnished, whenever the King and Queen and the successors of the Queen shall summon them within the county." In doc.u.ments belonging to the abbey of Holme Cultram, whereby Flemingby (now known as Flimby, between Maryport and Workington) was handed over to the monks, Gospatric, the donor, inserted a clause that he would himself do for the monastery "noutegeld and the like due to the King; and also to the lord of Allerdale of seawake, castleward, pleas, aids, and other services." The nutgeld tax--an impost apparently peculiar to the Border counties--was even last century frequently enforced in c.u.mberland and Westmorland.

The custom of providing for gilt spurs was of a practical kind, the articles being peculiarly useful to the grantor. "Every knight (who served on horseback) was obliged to wear gilt spurs; hence they were called _equites aurati_." The reservation, by Gospatrick, of homage to be performed by William de Lancastre has provided some interesting questions for past generations of historians and antiquaries. William de Lancastre the second gave thirty marks to the King that he might have the privilege of fighting a duel with Gospatrick, and the theory propounded was that this contest was caused because "the tenant's proud spirit could not brook such a humiliation as that of doing homage." Remembering the conditions of life, the supposition is not at all improbable, for what man of good birth would care to submit to perform the service described in the second paragraph of this chapter? In the same parish of Kirkby Lonsdale, William de Pickering had the manor of Killington granted to him for the yearly payment of a pair of gilt spurs, or sixpence, at the feast of Pentecost, and the service of the twentieth part of one knight's service when occasion should require.

Alice Lucy, a member of the once very powerful family of that name, reserved out of Wythop a penny rent service, or a pair of gloves; and a long time afterwards it was found that Sir John Lowther, knight, held the same manor "by homage, fealty, and suit of court at c.o.c.kermouth ... and the free rent of one penny or one red rose." The manor, now held by Sir Henry R. Vane, Bart., Hutton-in-the-Forest, was subsequently sold to the Fletchers under the services just mentioned. In addition to a heavy fine, and a rental of 10 yearly, Thomas de Multon paid "one palfrey for the office of forester of c.u.mberland," granted to the family by King John. One of Multon's ancestors, Richard de Lucy, also gave money and a palfrey in order to obtain the grant and other privileges.

At Hesket, yearly, on St. Barnabas's Day, by the highway side under a thorn tree (according to the very ancient manner of holding a.s.semblies in the open air), wrote Nicolson in 1777, was kept the Court for the whole forest of Inglewood, to which Court the manors within that vast circ.u.mference (above twenty in number), owed suit and service; and a jury was there impannelled and sworn for the whole forest. It is a shadow or relic of the ancient Forest Courts; and here they pay their compositions for improvements, purprestures, agistments, and puture of the foresters, and the jurors being obliged to attend from the several manors, seems to be part of that service which was called _witnesman_. "Improvements" in this case means permission to take up open lands belonging to the manorial lord.

Horn tenures, locally known as cornage, were common. At Brougham Hall is preserved the old and quaintly fas.h.i.+oned horn which was sounded by the former owners of the estates in complying with the requirement to blow a horn in the van of the King and his army, when the monarch went into Scotland, or at other times when the Scots made incursions to the southern side of the Border. An interesting relic of the same description is possessed at Carlisle--the "Horn of the Altar." The Charter Horn has thus been described by Archdeacon Prescott:--"In the year 1290 a claim was made by the King, Edward the First, and by others, to the t.i.thes on certain lands lately brought under cultivation in the Forest of Inglewood. The Prior of Carlisle appeared on behalf of his convent, and urged their right to the property on the ground that the t.i.thes had been granted to them by a former King, who had enfeoffed them by a certain ivory horn which he gave to the Church of Carlisle, and which they possessed at that time. The Cathedral of Carlisle has had in its possession for a great number of years, two fine walrus tusks, with a portion of the skull. They appear in ancient inventories of the goods of the cathedral as 'one horn of the altar in two parts,' or 'two horns of the altar' (1674), together with other articles of the altar furniture. But antiquaries came to the conclusion that these were identical with the 'ivory horn' referred to above.... Such Charter Horns were not uncommon in ancient days."

Blackmail used to bear a significance not fully understood by the modern use of the word. In the north of England it signified, especially in c.u.mberland, a certain rent of money, corn, or other things, anciently paid to persons inhabiting upon or near the Border, being men of name and power, allied with certain robbers within those counties, to be freed and protected from the devastations of those depredators. By 43 Elizabeth, cap. 13, it was provided that to take any such money or contribution, called blackmail, to secure goods from rapine, was made capital felony, as well as the offences such contribution was meant to guard against. Tenants in those old times had nearly all the privileges of paying; their opportunities for getting anything without cash or labour were few. One such concession which they enjoyed was "plowbote," being the right of tenants to take wood to repair their ploughs, carts, and harrows; and for the making of such articles of husbandry as rakes and forks. Fire-bote was the term applied to a right enjoyed by many tenants, being the fuel for firing, and obtainable out of the lands granted to them. Timber-lode was a service by which tenants were to carry to the lord's house timber felled in his woods. The Dean and Chapter of Carlisle were formerly obliged to provide the tenants of the manor of Morland with wood for the reparation of their houses. This was released by an endowment of 16 per annum, being given by the Dean and Chapter to the school.

Boon services of all kinds were common in all the manors along what is known as the eastern fell side--the base of Cross Fell, and north and south thereof. Before they were enfranchised by Sir Michael le Fleming, the tenants of Skirwith had to supply such boons as reaping, mowing, ploughing, harrowing, carrying coals, and spinning a stipulated number of hanks of yarn. Up to the latter half of last century each tenant of the manor of Threlkeld was obliged to find half a draught for one day's ploughing; give one day mowing, one day shearing, one day clipping, and one day salving sheep; one carriage load once in two years, but not to go above ten miles; and to dig and lead two loads of peats every year, the tenants to have sufficient meat and drink when they performed these services. The cottagers were to perform the same services, only instead of half a plough they were to find one horse with a harrow, and a footman instead of a carriage load. The tenants were also bound to the lord's mill, pay the fortieth corn, and to maintain the wall and thatch of the mill. The tenants had house-boot (wood for repairing their houses) as set out by the lord's bailiff; peats, turves, ling, whins, limestone, and marl, with stones and slate for building. About 1764, half the tenants bought off these services at a cost of five guineas each, the mill service only excepted. The tenements paid twopence each yearly as greenhue rent, an impost which was once a common payment by c.u.mberland and Westmorland manorial tenants; along with it in the Eskdale and Mitredale manors of the Earls of Egremont was a due called "door-toll." What may have been the origin of the latter seems to be now unknown.

At Parsonby, near Aspatria, the tenants had to give to the parson each one boon day yearly at reaping. In the neighbouring parish of Blennerha.s.set the tenants, besides being subjected to heriots, each provided one day at mowing, shearing, ploughing, and meadows dressing, and two days leading coals. Higher up the fells the score of tenants at High Ireby and Ruthwaite, under Mr. Fletcher, had to give one day a year, or pay threepence; one would suppose the most economical alternative was to pay cash. At Egremont the burgesses who had ploughs were obliged to till the lord's demesne one day in the year, but every burgess was required to find a reaper. In one of the manors of the parish of Wetheral, the tenants, in addition to their monetary payments, had to render to the Aglionby family, of Nunnery, boon days shearing and leading corn, with a certain quant.i.ty of oats called foster oats, six pecks being equal to four of Carlisle measure. Various attempts have been made within recent years to ascertain definitely what was the origin and meaning of the term.