THE LEPERS’ SQUINT, ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH, BROUGH-UNDER-STAINMORE. From a Photo by Mr. George Arkwright, Beatrice, Nebraska, U.S.A. Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland By Daniel Scott LONDON: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., 5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, E.C. 1899. TO EMMA....

The information contained in the following pages has been derived from many sources during the last twenty years, and in a considerable number of cases I have examined old registers and other documents without being then aware that some of their contents had already been published. Few districts in the United Kingdom have been more thoroughly “worked” for antiquarian and archæological purposes than have Cumberland and Westmorland. The Antiquarian Society and the numerous Literary and Scientific

For a period of 645 years—from 1204 to 1849—Westmorland, unlike other counties in England (excluding, of course, the counties Palatine), had no Sheriff other than the one who held the office by hereditary right. The first Sheriff of the county is mentioned in 1160, and nine or ten other names occur at subsequent periods, until in 1202, the fourth year of the reign of King John, came Robert de Vetripont. Very soon afterwards the office was made hereditary in his family “to have and to hold of the

The geographical position of the two counties rendered an extensive system of watching essential for the safety of the residents. In the northern parts of Cumberland, along the Border, this was particularly the case; but there watch and ward was more of a military character than was necessary elsewhere, while as it was a part of the national defence it passed into the care of the Government for the time being. From the necessity for “watching and warding” against the northern incursions, came th

The ecclesiastical history of Cumberland and Westmorland is curiously interwoven with that of secular affairs. This to a large extent arises from the geographical position of the diocese of Carlisle—and particularly of the diocese before its extension in 1856, up to which year it was the smallest in England. The Bishop of Carlisle in bygone centuries had always to take a leading part in fighting schemes, and as the churches would be the only substantial structures in some villages, they naturall

Under a great variety of divisions many curious facts connected with the old-time churches of the northern counties might be noted that cannot here be touched upon. Some of them—especially those associated with the personal aspect—had their origin solely in the circumstances of the time; others may be traced to personal idiosyncracies; while geographical reasons may be found for a third class. With a few exceptions it has not been deemed necessary in this chapter to go beyond the Reformation. Am

No doubt because of the proximity of the district to the Border, the tenures by which certain properties were held in Cumberland and Westmorland must be regarded as quite local in their character. The observances are, of course, all the more interesting on that account, and even in cases for which parallels are to be found in other parts of the kingdom, little peculiarities may sometimes be seen in local instances which throw light on the former habits of the people. Lords of manors were once in

If one feature is more prominent than another in connection with former methods of repressing crime, or of punishing those who had been declared guilty of breaches of the law, it is that of brutality. Refinement, even in retribution, is perhaps not to be expected, having regard to the habits of the people and the conditions under which they lived. In the neighbourhood of the Border, “Jeddart justice”—to hang a man first and try him afterwards—was doubtless often found a convenient arrangement fo

The title of this chapter sufficiently indicates that the legends and superstitions intended to be dealt with are far from including all which might be mentioned; indeed not a tithe of those which are still well known in the two counties can here be touched upon. Mr. Whitfield, M.P. , in an address in West Cumberland over thirty years ago, [13] said that the superstitions in the Border country concerning fairies and brownies were more developed, and the belief in spells and enchantments more com

Closely associated with the legends of Cumberland and Westmorland, dealt with in the preceding chapter, are the stories of four “Lucks.” The best known is that of Eden Hall, which has been made the theme for poems and innumerable descriptive articles. The most popular version of the origin of the Luck is that when a servant was going for water one night to the Fairy Well, in front of the hall he surprised a number of fairies at their revels, with the goblet in the centre of the ring around which

While some of the quaint laws connected with markets and fairs in other parts of the country are unknown in Cumberland and Westmorland, others not less interesting may be found in these counties. The searcher after such old-time lore may find a good deal of it in the standard histories, but still more in those byways of local literature which are too much neglected. In this chapter no attempt can be made to do more than touch the fringe of the subject. There is in existence in the Dean and Chapt

There is a very great store of gossip and anecdote in existence which might be utilised to illustrate the picturesqueness of old-time life in Cumberland and Westmorland. Whether the lack of sanitary comforts, intellectual facilities, and of opportunities of seeing the world or of knowing of its doings, were counterbalanced by the freedom from care and the quiet humdrum lives, which were led by the majority of the people in the two counties, is an open question. An anecdote told in a book publish

It is almost impossible to separate the sports of the Cumberland and Westmorland people from the festivals, inasmuch as some of the pastimes were prominent items in gatherings even of a semi-religious character. Wrestling, that finest of North-Country exercises, has been practically killed by the competition of other athletic games, but more than all by the “barneying” so often practised by the wrestlers. To this cause must be ascribed the fall of the “mother ring” at Carlisle, and the disfavour

Few parts of England could have been so inaccessible as were Cumberland and Westmorland prior to the middle of the last century. Roads were scarce, unless the dignity of the name be given to the rough tracks which served for the passage of pack-horses, and even these did not reach a great number, having regard to the area which they served. There was little to call the people away from home, to London and other great centres of industry. The journey from the north to the Metropolis was such a gr

Possibly the custom associated with Westmorland which can claim to be at once among the oldest, as well as having been the most carefully followed, is that connected with the familiar Countess’s Pillar in the parish of Brougham. The famous Countess Anne of Pembroke erected this structure in 1656, as the still perfect legible inscription on the southern side tells us, for a laudable purpose: “This pillar was erected in 1656 by Anne, Countess Dowager of Pembroke, etc., for a memorial of her last p

The chequered histories of the old schools at Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, Kendal, Crosthwaite, Carlisle, Penrith, and several other towns in the two counties, would suffice to make a large book of an interesting character. Some of the rules which governed the institutions in bygone days were decidedly quaint. The nineteen long paragraphs which make up the “Constitutions, Ordinances, and Statutes for the Free Grammar School at Kirkby Stephen,” as drawn up in 1568 by Lord Wharton, included this curio