ico
Ryda
RYD AL
RYDAL
BY
THE LATE MISS ARMITT
/.'ir
Author of the "Church of Grasmere."
EDITED BY.
\<\^
WILLINGHAM F.^RAWNSLEY, M.A.
AUTHOR OF
"Early Days at Uppingham." "Introductions to
the Poets," and "Highways and Byways
in Lincolnshire."
ILLUSTRATED
L. - /M/S;
!
Kendal
Titus Wilson
Printer and Publisher
1916
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V.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
Most people in the neighbourhood of Rydal, and all
in the County who take pleasure either in Archaeology
or Natural History have long known Miss M. L. Armitt's
writing and valued it. Her observations were pains-
taking and her statements accurate.
It was my privilege to be a frequent visitor at Rydal
Cottage when all the sisters were alive, and I question
if since the days of the Brontes in the parsonage at
Haworth any small roof-tree ever covered so interesting
a triad. Each in her own line had so much first-hand
information, and each was so ready in the simplest manner
to impart it and to make it attractive. The survivor
of this remarkable family, Mrs. Stanford Harris, in spite
of ill-health, has written with vigour and with no ordinary
charm a very considerable amount both in prose and
verse, and her sound critical judgment has been of great
service to me in editing the present volume.
Though all were fond of things Antiquarian and es-
pecially of old buildings, and though in the days before
they kept school together at Eccles (and what a delightful
school it must have been with those young, enthusiastic
teachers !) they had been students of Literature, Paint-
ing and Music, I think that the chief interest latterly
of the other sisters was some branch of Natural History.
Sophia, who died first (June I2th, 1908), was a genuinely
scientific botanist, not only a lover of plants and flowers,
as many of us are, but a real authority on all that con-
cerned the vegetable world. She regularly contributed
papers to a Botanical Society to which she belonged ;
and her excellent notes on flowers, together with those
of her sister on birds were reprinted continuously between
December, 1911 December, 1912 in the Parents Review,
VI. EDITOR S PREFACE
edited by Charlotte M. Mason. She loved to go on archaeo-
logical excursions, and all the way she would be ready
to point out the habitat of some rare plant or the geo-
logical conditions which favoured certain flora.
On one occasion, in July, 1907, when we went with
the Cumberland and Westmorland Society to Crosby
Ravensworth, she seized the opportunity to take us to
the place where she had always hoped to find a rather
rare plant, the Alpine Bistort (Polygonum Viviparum),
and where we indeed quickly found it. At another time
she pointed to the outcrop of the Coniston limestone
by the road side, with its own peculiar flora. Or she
would gather samples of the foreign plants which had
taken root on the sea bank near the little port of Silloth
on the Cumberland side of the Solway Firth. At home
she once showed me the specially interesting arrangement
for the fertilization of the Grass of Parnassus, of which
she was watching the daily development, or she would
be painting with admirable fidelity the smaller funguses
or lichens ; and her garden, tended entirely by herself,
was a treasury of interesting plants. Her sister, M. L.
Armitt, known to her intimates as " Louie," was for
years more or less of an invalid ; but she managed to
do a surprising lot of reading and research in matters
archaeological, and especially in all that pertained to the
life of the early dwellers in the Rydal Valley and neigh-
bourhood. But I think her keenest enjoyment was in
the little expeditions, some of which we had together, in
search of some rare or notable bird. Every bird was
known to her, his habitat, his dates of migration, his
note, his method of nesting, and all that a bird would be
at most pains to conceal, was to her an open book. The
Pied Flycatcher, the migratory Wagtails, the Dipper, his
song, his singular habits and the discovery of his nest
were an annual delight to her. The circling Buzzards
were, I might almost say, her familiar friends. Together
EDITOR S PREFACE Vll.
we went to call on the black and white " Tufted Duck,"
and found him at home without fail on " Priests Pot "
near Hawkshead ; and the crested Grebe, though not so
easy to see, was not far off on Esthwaite, near which
Miss Armitt noted with satisfaction the increasing number
of Redshanks, reported by that very " rara avis " a
Naturalist gamekeeper to be nesting thereabout. Her
face lit up with pleasure when I described to her the
Woodcock who alighted close to me on the lawn at Lough-
rigg Holme in order to get a firmer hold of the young
one she was carrying in her claws, and who tried to
wriggle away from her grasp. But the greatest delight
of all was the sight, early in the spring, of a Mother Snipe
and her three young ones on the Little Langdale road.
We pulled up close to them, and when the mother flew
into the grass on one side of the road the little ones ran
back to the other side and in a moment, squatting close,
were so hidden that we could not find a trace of them,
though all the time they were within a few feet of us.
A full report of the birds of the Lake District, from
her pen, forms the opening chapter in Part II. [Natural
History and Sport] of Prof. Collingwood's delightful
Lake Counties, one of the series of Dent's County
Guides ; and her special list of the birds of Rydal, pub-
lished in The Naturalist in August, 1902, is given in the
Appendix at the end of the volume, by kind permission
of the Editor.
But though the Natural History of Birds was Miss
Armitt J s chief delight, and the subject in which she most
excelled, her hard close work extending over several years
was given to the History of Rydal and Grasmere. Her
Grasmere book was published in 1912, a year after her
death, and the Rydal Book, about which I had had a
good deal of conversation with her at various times, and
had gone through the MS. of several chapters, was left
practically finished at her death, on July 3ist, 1911, and
Vlll. EDITOR S PREFACE
I could not help feeling that it was a duty I owed to her
valued friendship that, according to her wish, I should
do what was necessary to prepare it for the press. The
task for many reasons has not been a very easy one ; but
the result will, I think, be found to be a very full and in
many directions an extremely interesting account of the
History, not only of Rydal, but of all the neighbourhood,
and also of the whole county, and in some respects of
the whole realm. The chapters on trade and husbandry
and on domestic life and fashions in the seventeenth
century will be found most interesting : and the life and
times of Sir Daniel Fleming are described with great
fullness and much humour.
The work all through seems to me to exhibit an amazing
deal of research, often of a most laborious kind, and to
be a monument of what the old writers called " painful "
industry, resulting in an accuracy which was the Author's
constant aim. The interest mostly centres in Rydal Hall
and its owners, and the uniquely interesting Rydal Hall
MSS. have of course been the main source of information
for several of the chapters : and it is chiefly owing to the
free access to them which the owner, Mr. Stanley le
Fleming, has permitted, that Miss Armitt was enabled
to begin and encouraged to continue this main work of
her later years. Help, too, she undoubtedly received,
and that of a very valuable kind, from Dr. Magrath,
Provost of Queen's Coll., Oxford, whose two vols. The
Flemings in Oxford, contain so much information, mostly
derived from the same fountain-head.
By her will Miss M. L. Armitt left her own and her
sister Sophia's books to form a students' library in Amble-
side. This was opened in November, 1912, under the
name of the Armitt Library, the excellent Ruskin Library,
which had been in existence for 30 years in Ambleside,
being joined to it and the balance of the funds of the old
" Ambleside Book Society," founded in 1828, of which
EDITOR S PREFACE IX.
W. Wordsworth was a member, handed over to it. Por-
traits of the founders and of their Rydal home are on
the walls, and among other things a copy of a sonnet,
by one who knew them well. This, which was written
at the time of the opening of the Library, may I think
fitly find a place at the end of this Preface.
W. F. RAWNSLEY.
SONNET.
As in some inland solitude a shell
Still gently murmurs of its home, the deep,
So in the world of being beyond all sleep
Where those two happy sister spirits dwell,
This book-lined room, this simple Students' cell
Shall, in the silence, pure memorial keep
Of those who sowed that other minds might reap
Their wisdom won from lake and wood and fell :
And as we gather up their gentle lore,
Made rich by jewels from their treasury,
The whispers grow " Behold ! These souls had power
Because with patient heart and loving eye
They learned that man and bird and beast and flower
Were in God's purpose friends for evermore."
H.D.R.
EDITOR'S PREFACE
POSTSCRIPT.
The editor had hoped to complete long ago the task
left him to do. But the war, which has everywhere
borne heavily on printer and publisher, has caused one
delay after another. Still, if such Antiquarian studies
as Miss Armitt had spent the latter years of her life over
are worth anything, I must agree with Professor Haver-
field that, " even in war-time, it does not seem necessary
or desirable to drop all intellectual work on them save
in the direst need." ' Hence he argues that we do well
to keep up, within due limits, both the holding of regular
meetings and the issuing of publications, and thus con-
tinuing our more serious intellectual activity. With this
strong opinion to uphold me I have thought it best to
bring this book out at once, hoping that it will be found
of permanent interest far beyond the immediate neigh-
bourhood of Rydal, rather than wait for the end of the
war, an event whose date lies yet upon the knees of the
gods.
It was not until a good deal of the book was already
in type that I first saw the sketch of George Banks, the
Rydal clerk. The Banks family is described on pages
363 to 368. John Banks, having come to Rydal in 1669,
was for twenty years the agent and factotum at the Hall.
Two centuries went by before George took up the duties
of parish clerk in Rydal chapel. He was the last of his
kind, and used to give out the hymns and tunes, start
the orchestra with his pitch-pipe, and then play his part
on the flute. There are still some living who remember
how some boys stopped his pipe with cobbler's-wax.
A Lincolnshire clerk in similar difficulties gave it up,
saying aloud, " pick-pipe weant speak, she's full o' muck."
but George would not be beaten, and when the clergyman
(Mr. Fleming) said " I think, George, we'll have a prayer,"
the old fellow declined this fictitious aid and said, " nea
prayer ! nea prayer ! We'll hev t' hymn"
XI.
From a sketch in possession of Mary Tyson, Rydal.
Xll.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
Chapter i . Introductory.
2. The days of the Celt and Roman.
Appendix The Roman Camp and Borrans Field.
,, 3. The Angles, Danes and Norsemen.
4. Norman Administration. The making of West-
morland.
5. The Barony of Kendal.
6. The Land and the People.
7. The Institution of the Manor.
8. The Lord's Demands. Fines, etc.
9. The Heriot.
10. Yearly Dues.
Appendix Rights of Common,
ii. The Law of Greenhew.
12. The Courts.
Appendix Witheburne Court-Baron.
13. Military Service and Border Warfare.
Appendix Calls on the County for Service and
Contributions.
14. The Lord's Deer Parks.
Appendix Summons for Forest trespass.
PART II.
THE DE LANCASTERS.
Chapter i. Roger the Hunter.
Two Appendices Deeds and Agreements.
,, 2. The Flemings in Rydal.
Appendix Military Service.
3- Trade in the Valleys.
Appendix Kendal Cloth.
4. The Lords of Rydal.
Three Appendices Letters and Agreements.
5. The Lord's Seat.
Appendix Sir Daniel's Alterations.
CONTENTS. X11U
PART III.
AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES.
Chapter I. Husbandry in Rydal.
2. Cattle Grazing and Marketing.
3. Corn-growing.
4. Sheep.
5. The Fisheries.
PART IV.
A LAKELAND TOWNSHIP AND ITS FOLK.
Chapter I. The Typical House.
2. Husbandry.
3. The Farmholds.
4. The Smithy.
5. The Cornmills.
6. The Inns.
7. The School.
PART V.
UPHEAVALS IN MANOR AND KINGDOM.
Chapter I. Sir John Fleming.
2. The Rydal Household.
3. The Troubles.
4. The Struggle for Rydal.
PART VI.
THE GREAT SQUIRE OF RYDAL.
Chapter i. Rydal House.
,, 2. Dress and Fashion.
3. Sir Daniel's Public Life.
Appendix.
,, 4. Later Days.
PART VII.
" THE NAB."
Home of De Quincey and Hartley Coleridge
Unpublished Letters of De Quincey.
APPENDIX.
THE BIRDS OF RYDAL.
XIV.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
Miss Armitt's garden, Rydal Cottage . . . . Frontispiece.
G. Banks xi.
Rydal 9
The Author . . 45
Sophia Armitt . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Site of the Old Hall 237
" Hartshead " in Rydal . -. . . . . . . . . 331
Nab Cottage 356
View of a Rydal Homestead about 1822 .. .. 362
Pelter Bridge, Rydal 387
The Smithy and White Lion Inn, Ambleside . . . . 394
Old Inn called " Davids," Rydal ... .,. ... ... 435
Cottage in Rydal, " Hare and Hounds " . . . . 441
Coniston Old Hall . . 475
Daniel Fleming . . . . . . . . . . . . 561
Pedigree Fleming of Rydal At end.
XV.
ERRATA.
On page 43, line 2, for Marsh, read March.
52, ,, 14, for Penwardyn, read Pedwardyn.
,, 119, ,, 7, for part vi., read part vii.
171, ,, n, for one of his descendants, read Sir John
de Lancaster.
181, 25, for Ed. VI., read Ed. IV.
,, 214, ,, 9, for 1686, read 1486.
,, 215, ,, 4, for Huddlesden, read Hudleston.
475, ,, 13, for Greys, read Grays.
Pedigree for A. F. Hudleston d. 1883, read 1861.
PART I
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
The Parish of Rydal ; the Dawn ; the Manor, Township
and Vill.
THE parish of Rydal is modern, its boundaries having
been laid down in 1826, when a district appor-
tioned to the chapel, built by Lady le Fleming in
1825, was made independent of the mother parish of
Grasmere. But Rydal, as manor and as township, has a
history reaching back into ancient times. Manor and
township were never, however, identical, their boundaries
being different, and each being different again from the
parish. All possess a common boundary from the summit
of Nab Scar round the amphitheatre of heights that close
in Rydal Head and drop thence by the Scandale Beck to
the Rothay ; but there they part company. The ancient
manor boundary (according to a deed of 1274) turns up
stream with the Rothay, and from the southern shore of
Rydal water crosses the lake to ascend the face of Nab Scar.
The parish boundary on the other hand turns for a short
distance down the Rothay, ascends the face of Loughrigg
by a tiny rill near Gilbert Scar, continues along the tops
to Huntingstile, drops by a rill to Grasmere Lake, girdles
the lower end of the lake to the grounds of the Prince of
Wales Hotel and runs up the field by the foot-path to the
higher White Moss road ; then, when Dunna Beck is
reached, climbs by that stream to the summit of Nab Scar.
The township is still larger ; it follows the Rothay down
to the union of this river with the Brathay, and goes up
B
2 RYDAL
by the Brathay to Elterwater, whence it strikes by means
of a runnel up to Huntings tile, to join the parish bound-
ary again. It thus embraces the whole of the low moun-
tain mass of Loughrigg that lies between the converging
rivers, while the parish takes only that half of Loughrigg
that slopes down to the Rothay and Rydal Water.
The township, however, parts company again with the
parish on the road over White Moss, and skirts round and
below the ancient common. It descends to the Rothay at
the foot-bridge, embracing a field at the swampy lake-head ;
and at the promontory of Swan Stone turns to run directly
up the face of Nab Scar ; thus coinciding with the ancient
manor in its final outlines.
Another small divergence is where the parish follows the
old road (since altered, about 1830) and embraces Miller
Field which the township handed over to Ambleside about
1880. We will now deal with the parish more fully.
The parish of Rydal (as distinct from the manor and
township) contains 3,020 acres. Its mountainous char-
acter is evident from the one fact alone, that within this
small area lie the summit of a mountain nearly 3,000 feet
high and a lake only 180 feet above sea-level. It is drained
by the river Rothay, flowing through its main valley, and
by the Rydal Beck, a considerable stream rising within its
boundaries, which joins the Rothay below Smithy Bridge.
Its boundaries follow in general the sky-line of the heights
which hem in its lake and its streams. A line ruled along
the rugged and much deflected summits of Loughrigg,
rising to a general altitude of 1,000 feet, represents its
boundary to the south. Where the mass of Loughrigg falls
to the dip of Red Bank (which alone separates it from the
neighbour-height of Silver How), the boundary cuts down
in an arbitrary and almost straight line to the shore of
Grasmere Lake ; it follows the shore downwards passing
the exit of the river Rothay from the lake-foot and com-
pletely round the lower end of the lake, till it reaches the
INTRODUCTORY 3
grounds of the Prince of Wales Hotel. Thence it turns,
after crossing the high-road, along a wall within the grounds
of How Foot that borders the drive, and so reaches the
older, higher road between Rydal and Grasmere. This it
follows upward, mounting with a still higher and older
road till the summit is reached at White Moss Tarn,
believed by some to be the scene of Wordsworth's Leech-
gatherer,* and now a tame, domestic duck-pond. Thence,
leaving all tracks, it strikes up the rough fell-side to Dunna
Beck, a small stream draining the back of Nab Scar.
With the beck it rises and curves round the Scar, till, leav-
ing the source behind, it reaches the bold height of Lord
Crag, 1,500 feet high. Thence it follows the summits
of those heights that form so remarkable an amphi-
theatre round the upland valley of Rydal Head (or
Fairneld basin), touching as it runs northward Heron
Crag (2,000 feet), Great Rigg (2,500 feet), and stopping a
little short of the actual summit of Fairneld (2,862 feet) .
At this point it meets the boundary of Barton parish,
and turning with it follows the sky-line still, but now
southward and downward (though with little drop at
first) to Hart Crag (2,598 feet), and still on, after the
Barton boundary strikes away to skirt Scandale, along
the gradually lessening heights to High Pike (2,155 feet),
to Low Pike (1,656 feet), until, with the shoulder of the
fell, it drops abruptly to the main stream of the Scandale
Beck ; with this it crosses the highway at Scandale
Bridge, and the flat meadows of the bottom, till it reaches
the Rothay itself. The boundary should now keep with
the river, but in actual fact does not. A wide deflecting
curve is made by it about the meadows towards the new
church of Ambleside and Cross Syke. And this curve
represents the old course of the river, for which a shorter
and artificial channel was cut some time back ; so that
* A reedy pool lower down also claims this honour, and more fitly.
4 RYDAL
it may be said that the river has left the boundary,
rather than the boundary the river. It regains the river
just past the grounds of Miller Bridge, follows it to the
house called Gilbert Scar Foot, and thence strikes
straight up Gilbert Scar, to reach the heights of Loughrigg :
and so completes its circuit in some fourteen miles.
The area thus circumscribed falls into three natural
divisions :
(1) A mountain basin which holds Rydal Water, the
smallest mere of the country, scarcely over a mile long
and a quarter broad. It was described by Hawthorne as
a flood in a field, and yet it possesses in miniature every
property of a true glacial lake, in sloping rocky shores,
wooded islands, and rocky islets. And small as it is, the
mountain basin that holds it is no larger. The water brims
to the slopes, and Loughrigg and Nab Scar rise at either
hand without a perch of flat meadow between ; while the
scant pasture and meadow land of this division has al-
together an Alpine character, on steep, thin-soiled inclines.
The Rothay, flowing into the lake from Grasmere, rounds
the projecting arm of White Moss by a rough little pass at
full speed ; then, slackening speed as it enters the lake,
forms a very small marsh at the head. On leaving the
lake it again finds but a narrow passage, and rounds the
outstanding spur of Loughrigg in rapids, leaving the mere
shut in completely.
(2) The second natural division embraces the rise and
course of the Rydal Beck up to its union with the Rothay.
The stream is enclosed by the amphitheatre of heights
enumerated above, and their wild and desolate slopes
rising sheer above it forms as typical an Alpine valley as
Lakeland possesses. Springs supply its source, and inter-
mittent rills that flow down the northern face of Fairfield,
often crowned with snow ; it starts fairly at a height of
1,500 feet, and pursues a tolerably level course on a valley
bottom that drops imperceptibly till it reaches a point
INTRODUCTORY 5
almost parallel with Lord Crag on one hand and Low Pike
on the other. Here it meets with a wall of rock that lies
right across its path a massive, pyramidal wall, not
high, but even and smooth and regular as a breakwater
made of concrete. No better instance of the action of ice
in a former age can be offered than this wall of rock,
ground and polished to an even height by the glacier that
no doubt once filled the valley and poured its volume
downward and over the obstacle with irresistible force.
Now the little stream turns sharp against the wall and runs
behind it, till it finds the crack itself has worn at flood-
times or when perhaps at a higher level than now. And
by this it flings itself over the wall in a long fall, to settle
at the base in a deep pool known to natives by the strange
name of Buckstones Jum. Once beyond this natural lock,
that has kept its level high, the beck knows no quietude,
but leaps down the sloping screen that shuts off Rydal
Head from the Rothay valley in a series of waterfalls
that are among the shows of the county.
(3) When Rydal Beck has entered the Rothay, the last
natural division of our parish is reached. This division
consists of a flat and fertile valley bottom, enclosed on
three sides by moderate heights. Cut off completely from
Rydal Water, it seems to form a basin, filled in with alluvial
matter, to itself. But it is in fact only the head of the
Windermere basin ; and the great lake, shut off by rocky
knolls, is at present only half a mile beyond our boundary
limit, while once, no doubt, it reached further up the flat.
This valley bottom, formerly a marsh, has been carefully
drained by the farmer, and its water-channels walled and
guarded ; and it forms the only deep arable land of the
parish. Its smooth, green surface is diversified by hum-
mocks of rock that stud it like islands ; and once maybe
they were islands in the wide stream of ice that has ground
their up-valley sides into pyramidal and smooth con-
tours, and left their down- valley sides sharp and broken.
6 RYDAL
All of them are crowned with trees, remnants of a forest
that was older than the age of man's settlement and his
careful tillage of the soil.
It is not known certainly when Loughrigg was united to
the old manor of Rydal as a township. It would be
hardly safe to place the date further back than the reign
of Elizabeth, when the Poor Law of 1601 was passed, and
provision for its administration was made through the
townships, whether by existing ancient ones, or new ones
created for the purpose. Rydal and Loughrigg stood in
different manors and were owned by different lords from
the time of William de Lancaster III., who died without
heirs in the early part of the thirteenth century.
Nicolson and Burn (Hist, of Westmorland] describe these
adjacent lands as being two manors, making one village,
united by a bridge. But this is hardly correct. Three
or four of the homesteads that nestle under Loughrigg are
indeed fairly contiguous to Rydal village, but they make no
part of it ; and Loughrigg besides possesses a true hamlet
of its own, at Clappersgate, where the once important
wharf for freight-boats on Windermere was situated.
Neither Rydal nor Loughrigg can in fact be termed manors
in the strictest sense of the word, which signifies a complete
territorial unit dating from Saxon times, ruled by a resi-
dent lord exercising jurisdiction through courts of his own,
and which is identical often with parish and township.
For both Rydal and Loughrigg in ancient times were
merely parts of much larger holdings, that were settled
late ; and for ages they were but loosely associated with
the more firmly established manorial lands about Kendal.
Loughrigg especially, being but a rocky mass hemmed in
by waters, must have had little territorial importance at
first. We know it to have been part of the lands carried
by Alice de Lancaster to her husband, when, on the death
of her brother William de Lancaster III., the Barony of
Kendal was divided between herself and her sister Helwise.
INTRODUCTORY 7
Yet in an inquisition of n Edward I., describing the pro-
perties left by her grandson William de Lindsay, it is not
even mentioned by name. We can only suppose that the
settlers on the Rothay side of Loughrigg were so few as
barely to count, while those on the Brathay side were
classed as in Langdale ; for this inquisition of 1273, after
enumerating tenants of Langdale, its forest and its mill,
mentions a fishery belonging to it called Routhamere, worth
i8d. yearly ; thus bringing the district of Langdale right
over Loughrigg down to the shores of Routhamere, as
Rydal Water was then called. Nor does the name of
Loughrigg appear in a rental of the year 1375, nor in
several succeeding ones preserved at Levens. It first
appears in a rent-roll of uncertain date, though apparently
of the next century, wherein are enumerated by name
nineteen tenants in Loughrigg, who paid their dues to
the Lord of the Manor holding that portion of the
Barony of Kendal that was subsequently called the
Richmond fee.
Rydal seems to be first mentioned in a deed of 1275,
which shows it to have been apportioned, when the Barony
of Kendal was divided between the two sisters, to Helwise,
as Loughrigg was apparently to Alice. But of this later.
It is to the Barony of Kendal therefore that we must look
if we would know anything of the history of our parish
in ancient times.
But to tell the tale of our village without reference to
the larger world outside it, would be much as if an attempt
were made to describe a tiny twig that was wantonly
broken from the tree that bore it. The twig in its place
is a continuation of the branch, the branch is joined to the
mighty trunk, and the trunk through which the sap
courses is sustained by the millions of roots that suck
moisture from mother-earth. So our village, whether
viewed as a present entity or as an historic survival, be-
longs to the corporate body of the nation, and is linked
8 RYDAL
on to the governmental centre, from which it receives the
impulse of a national life.
The vill is enclosed in the manor ; the manor is associ-
ated with the township ; both belong to the county, as the
county to the kingdom. So, if the history of our village
and manor is traced backward into the dim receding past,
we find them in the first instance to have been a parcel of
the Norman Barony of Kendal, which was part of the
newly constituted oounty of Westmorland ; next, and a
little earlier, classed in Doomsday Book as Stirkland in a
nameless district of Yorkshire ; earlier still to be part of
Deira, which (before England was corporate) made the
southern half of the powerful kingdom of Northumbria ;
and, still earlier, to belong to the Celtic land of Teyrnllwg,
which was wrested from the Britons by the victorious
Angles in the seventh century.
Something of all these parcels and states must be known
(in as far as they are revealed in record) if we would under-
stand the little community of men, who clustered their
simple dwellings on the slope of the mountain, above the
river and the fords, and called the place Rydal.
But the scant tale is not an easy one to tell ; for many
skeins, criss-crossed by historic events, entangle the little
place with neighbouring lands. Only as a vill had it an
individual entity. It was but one half of the township
called Rydal and Loughrigg, while even the manor slipped
in places over the river that made the division between
the two place-names. And three townships were needed
to make up the parish of Grasmere, to which it was ecclesi-
astically attached from time immemorial. Parish, town-
ship, manor, all have their history, which also is in great
part that of the little vill dependent on them.
If we would seek to understand the place, to learn the
secret of its origin, we must look to the primeval forces of
nature, and study its geography. And there is no better
spot for the study than the rock that rises abruptly from
INTRODUCTORY 9
the valley flat, and is now known as Old Hall Hill.
The head of the great lake, that stretches its sinuous
length twelve miles southward towards the great Bay of
Morecambe, is but a bare mile from here ; but it cannot
be seen, for the rising ground between, while the river
that flows towards it, disappears too; swerving under the
steep slope of Loughrigg, in order to round that rise. The
rock or " how " stands in the centre of what seems a small
flat, but which is in reality a cup-like hollow that catches
the water that pours down from the mountains north and
east, and which was of old a marsh. The mountains close
in abruptly, as we look north across the strip of green, the
last spur of the Fairfield range advancing to meet Gate
Crag, the outpost of Loughrigg, while between the two as
between half-closed doors the fretted Rothay runs in
rapids, slackening in a curve of rest at our very feet,
where it meets its confluent beck from Rydal Head.
Here is the veritable gateway of the mountains, locked
by the river. Yet, once through the gateway, a chamber
opens beyond, in which the lake Routhamere of old
reposes ; and beyond that again, a second more spacious
chamber, with lake and rich flat lands. At the head of
the second chamber, indeed, lies the water-shed, from
which streams flow north and south ; but so low and easy
is it, that it presents the appearance of a gap, cleft
between the mighty flanks of the Helvellyn and Scafell
ranges on either side of it. It is a natural and obvious
northward road through the heart of the mountains.
Here then we have the very spot to promote events : a
fitting theatre for invasion and battle. First and farthest
the water-shed, that makes the natural line between king-
dom and kingdom ; next the lake-chambers, hemmed in
by sudden mountains, fit refuge for a harassed race ; then
the gap that beckons an invading foe ; with the closed
gate, so easily defended, that guards the gap ; and finally
the rock in the marsh that watches the gate.
10
CHAPTER II
THE CELT AND THE ROMAN
The Borrans Field; "Cotes" ; Appendix The Roman
Camp.
*" I ^HERE are not wanting evidences, that even in the
dim ages, the valley of the Rothay knew stirring
events. It was the marching line of armies, the
wrestling ground of opposing races, the scene even of a
known great battle, fought upon that watershed which
was for so long the boundary between the kingdoms of the
Celt and the Angle.
In those pre-historic days, when the Briton roamed as
master over the land (having crushed maybe an earlier
race), the valley would be a place impenetrable to the
stranger, where morasses filled the bottoms, and thick
tangled forest clothed the steep slopes of the mountains.
But the hunter would have his paths, simple " trods "
though they might be, worn and kept open by use. The
lake below, on which he floated his wicker-work coracle,
would furnish him with ample store of fish ; and upwards
he would follow the red deer, that grazed in boundless
freedom over vale and crag and mountain-top. The trib-
utary " glen " of Rydal Head, remote and nigh, would
have peculiar attractions for the deer. Its rocky hum-
mocks that flank the beck polished smooth by the glacier
of yet earlier ages are still known as Beckstones, and
there no doubt the monarchs of the herd were wont to
foregather. Hart Crag is not far away, over in Scandale.
Other quarry too there was for the hunter the wolf, the
fox, the wild cat, the pine-marten, all of which, as well as
hawks and eagles, were themselves preying on the smaller
life of the forest. The brock, or badger besides was there,
that has left its name at several spots. Erne Crag
THE CELT AND THE ROMAN II
(degraded now to Heron Pike) that lifts a precipitous face
above the glen, records the former nesting place of the
eagle.
And not by the nomad huntsman alone, who slept
beneath an easily planted shelter of boughs, may the
vale have been peopled. A settlement, a group of huts
surrounded by walls, where a family or tribal division
associated themselves and pastured their flock of cattle in
common,* may early have existed here. If so, it was lifted
well above the marshes of the bottom, and placed so as to
have an outlook over the approaches to the valley. Such
a spot we may find above the later village, where the
sunny slope of Nab Scar rounds itself to Rydal Head, and
a slightly terraced flat has a wide southward view over
the river gate below and the great shining lake of Winder-
mere beyond. Here are gathered many little stones, as if
the refuse of walls which the villagers of late times may
have cleared away for their houses. And it is suggestive
to find that the highest of the village fields is named Burn
Mire ; for Borran, with its contraction Burn, was a name
that clung hereabouts to the ruined stony sites of a for-
gotten people.
The Celt indeed has left few tangible traces behind him
in the country round. A few clusters of hut-circles, a few
rude fortifications, a few dropped stone-implements, two
or three so-called Druidical circles, as at Keswick, and an
apparently vanished one on Kirkstone Pass ; with a few
place-names, to be mentioned later, are all the record of
his race that peopled the valleys for so long.
There came a time when his mastery of even these re-
mote mountain lands was disputed. The Roman legions
had not long gained footing in the south before they pushed
onward to conquer (if they might) the whole island of
Britain. When Agricola in the year 79 led his army from
* See Vinogradoff's Growth of the Manor.
12 RYDAL
Chester northward, he avoided, it is supposed, the more
direct routes up the narrow wooded valleys that open
upon Morecambe Bay, regarding them as dangerous traps
where the hostile natives would have great advantages of
attack ; and chose instead the more circuitous but open
route across the estuaries and round the coast.* But
when the land beyond the great barrier of the Cumbrian
mountains was conquered, and a great Wall was built from
shore to shore to define the limits of the Roman empire to
the north, a new and" quicker route as also a sounder one
was required by which to forward supplies for it from the
military base at Chester. The easy waterway by the
great lake, and the tempting gap in the mountains at the
head of the Rothay, over which the far summit of Cum-
brian Skiddaw beckoned, were not overlooked, since they
led straight to their town of Carlisle ; while the Wry-nose
Pass, at the head of Rothay 's twin valley Brathay, though
higher by 500 feet (1281 against 782) was seen to form a
convenient route to their Cumbrian sea-port of Ravenglass.
The Romans thereupon proceeded to lay a military base,
on a small scale, at the head of the great lake, which they
approached from Kendal by a road trending somewhat
north of the present road to the modern town of Winder-
mere, passing by Gilthroton, the site of the old " chapel
in the wood " f behind Bannerrigg and Orrest Head, by
Broadgate, and thence dropping down to Troutbeck
Bridge ; and so by the lake-shore to Ambleside. Here
their camp was laid out as a parallelogram, close by where
the united streams of Rothay and Brathay, called Bird-
house Mouth, flow into the lake, upon very flat ground
hemmed in by marsh, which they crossed on a corduroy
road.
* See Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and
Archaeological Society, vol. iii., o.s., which show that Chancellor Ferguson
and Mr. W. Jackson arrived at this conclusion independently.
t For a suggestion of a dedication here to the Irish St. Rodan, see "Lost
Churches in the Diocese of Carlisle," Transactions, C. & W. A. & A. Society,
vol. xv., o.s.
THE CELT AND THE ROMAN 13
We know that during the late excavations for the
sewerage in the Borrans Road at Ambleside, some rather
interesting evidences of the old Roman road were dis-
covered. The site is about 500 feet north of the north-
west angle of the station, and the finds were in the follow-
ing order : (i) Oak stakes placed alongside big stones.
(2) transverse oak beams laid as a " corduroy " road
apparently across a moss. These were observed for 85 feet,
The beams were four to five feet below the present road,
and were covered with some six inches of metalling ; the
old road surface. From here north for about 130 feet
there was no corduroy, but at a similar depth there was
what appeared to be a roughly made pavement, and at
one place the points of upright posts or piles were found
at intervals. In the way of relics nothing but the usual
potsherds were discovered. It seems possible; though the
evidence is very fragmentary, that the roads from Raven-
glass, Keswick and Brougham united somewhere above
Rothay Bridge, and a single road led across an intervening
moss to the main gate at the east front of the castrum.
Since the lake and the river protected the west and south
sides, and mosses the northern side, the site strategically
was well chosen.
But it seems certain, from turn-overs of the soil in the
last half century, that an extensive suburb stretched over
the rising ground to the north and east of the camp,*
where all but the soldiers were lodged. The place,
when Camden saw it towards the close of the sixteenth
century, was strewn with the wreckage of an ancient city,
amongst which could be traced paved approaches, ram-
parts, and ditches. But with the growth of the little
modern town on the adjacent hill-slope, the site was grad-
ually stripped. It is certain that the Brathwaite family
of Ambleside Hall, who owned the Borrans, or Borrans-
*See "Ambleside Town and Chapel," Transactions, C. & W. A. & A,
Society, vol. vi., N.S.
14 RYDAL
Ring, as it came to be called, made from the spot the collec-
tion of coins which Gawen bequeathed in 1653 to his son
Thomas as family heirlooms, and which had been stored
apparently in the " Box w th drawers in it for antiquies "
that figures in the inventory of his furniture. Thomas in
his turn bequeathed his " ancient medals and Roman
Antiquities " to the University of Oxford, through the
Provost of Queen's, but they appear never to have been
handed over by either claimant of the disputed will. The
antiquary Machel saw this collection, which was said to
have numbered 6 gold, 66 silver, and 250 brass or copper
coins ; and Clarke in his Survey of the Lakes (1789) stated
that they had lately been in the possession of the Countess
Dowager of Lichfield : but nothing further is known of a
collection that might, if preserved intact, have thrown
considerable light on the history of the camp. The place
was not entirely denuded in Clarke's time ; for after men-
tion of the Castle at Ambleside, he goes on to speak of
" another place called the Borrans, a square fort, more
remains of which may be seen than of the other." He
tells how, not very long before, the inhabitants had dug
up there several pieces of freestone, which were probably
altars or the like ; and greatly valuing such stone, which
was not to be had within twenty-five miles of Ambleside,
had broken them small " for sco wring sand ! " West, who
published his Antiquities of Furness in 1774, found some
slight remains, for he says, in speaking of the place " it is
evident that the stones made use of in the walls of the said
castrum have been carried thither from the neighbourhood
of Dalton in Low Furness, where only freestone of the
same kind and colour is found." Probably they were
brought by boat and landed on the adjacent wharf.*
When the Romans proceeded to lay down their road
northward through Rydal, they did not apparently keep
* Some of this stone was found when the site of the camp was dug in 1913.
See Appendix. ED.
THE CELT AND THE ROMAN 1.5
on the level by the Rothay, which studded as it then
was by holms and dubs must have offered but treach-
erous ground. The road, whether it came through Amble-
side or not, crossed the rise between Ambleside and Rydal
known as Scandale Hill, much on the line of the present
road. This was proved when the turnpike road was en-
gineered between the years 1763 and 1768 ; and Colonel
Thornton* was clearly repeating what he had either seen
or had heard on his visit in 1786 to Sir Michael le Fleming
(who was responsible for the construction of the road
through his demesne) when he wrote "it is evident that
the ancient Roman road took the same direction as the
present turnpike road through Rydal." The excellent
antiquary West, in his Guide (1821) gives further partic-
ulars, and says " in forming the turnpike-road through
Rydal, an urn was lately taken up, which contained ashes
and other Roman remains, and serves to prove that the
tract of the ancient road laid (sic) that way."
Several old people speak of traces of it having been dis-
covered some thirty years back, when alterations at the
side of the road were being made near Old Orchard, which
is the strip of flat between Scandale Hill and the Old Hall
rock. It was found at some depth below the surface, and
no doubt it had sunk in the marsh that once filled this
basin, as did the road close to the camp which is now five
feet below the surface.
The watch-fires of the Romans, in the time when they
first held the valley in the face of the hostile natives, and
later when they constructed the road, must have blazed
from Old Hall Hill. Their paved way came straight for
it, skirting it possibly on its south-western side. And
next ? For here they were confronted by the locked gate-
way of the mountains, through which they had to push.
Across the river, curving almost at their feet, was the
* See his Sporting Tour.
l6 RYDAL
rising ground about Gate Crag, that offered firm soil to
the pavior and an excellent, open out-look forward for the
sentinel. The river, shallow except after rains, was easily
forded at this point, and had but a narrow marge of flat
on either side. Once through the water, the ground was
hard and solid. It is difficult, indeed, standing on the spot
not to credit the Roman engineer with forging straight
ahead by Gate Crag and Cote How and so debouching on
the lake ; and there is an interesting tradition that a
Roman way once crossed this very strip of land, which
would be wholly inexplicable if they did not ford the river.
A ford existed here from ancient times, it is certain. Only
cattle use it now, and one side of it was partly walled up
in 1903. But the ancient stepping-stones, that seem now
to lead no whither in particular, and are the joy of the
young, are really a relic of it ; for they carried the foot-
passenger across the water a little lower than the ford,
where the higher banks landed him dry-shod from shore
to shore. That a paved way led down to the ford and
stones from Old Hall Hill even in comparatively recent
times is certain, for Sir Daniel Fleming in his account-
book for 1685 enters 33. od. for nine days work " paveing
ye Cawsey in Berkitmoss." Cote How too on the farther
side must have received its name from the shelter placed
there for passengers through the ford, who might be de-
tained by storm and flood, or for a guard to watch the
way. We find the word " cote " lingering by many a now
forgotten ford or crossing of the waters ; and the actual
shelter or shanty is mentioned in deeds concerning the
Ferry over Windermere. For Cote means a covering or
shelter. We have it in Salt Cotes by the Esk mouth in
Cumberland and in Sea Cote near St. Bees both probably
indicating the site of some salt pans with a cover for the
workers. Again near Carnforth we find Coat Stones, and
Cote How at Ambleside, a rise just outside the town which
held a shelter possibly for a guard to watch the approach.
THE CELT AND THE ROMAN 17
Pigeon or dove-cote remains, while the frequent peat-cote
(the shelter used for storing peats on the moss and men-
tioned in old wills and documents) has died out with the
use of peat. In 1789 the " shedd or coathouse " on Ferry
Nab, Windermere, was rebuilt. In 1707 Wil. Rawlinson,
Esq., bought the right of Ferry on Windermere with boats,
&c. and " all that House, shelter, harbour or coat for
passengers on ye Nab."
It is true that the Romans, by carrying their road over
the ford, would have later to re-cross the river ; whereas
if they pursued the line of the present road they would
have to cross Rydal Beck, just above its union with the
Rothay. There is evidence however that this spot was a
dangerous one even down to recent times. In floods, the
waters of the beck and its confluent sike were forced back
by the overcharged river into a far-reaching deep morass ;
and to skirt this, paths from Old Hall to the village of
Rydal made a wide detour. The ground by the beck was
broken up into islands, about which the waters meandered
in ever-changing channels, or allans. To encompass this
slough, the Romans would have to turn sharply to the
right and trend upwards, almost as far as the present Hall ;
and thence pursue their way under the frowning precipices
of Nab Scar, a route that would lay them open, in troubl-
ous times, to ambuscades both from Rydal Head, and the
broken ground of the Scar. On the other hand, the more
direct line of the ford and the southern shore of the lake
would enable them to pursue their march on safer as well
as firmer ground.
The name of this old ford, which was the key that un-
locked the river-gate between the rock-posterns that led
into the mountains, we do not know ; unless the Celt's
simple significant term of Ry, = the ford, clung to it, and
spread to all parts adjoining. The Old Hall of Rydal
truly stood in front of the ford ; the how that goes by the
name of Rydal rises from its brink ; the beck so-called
c
1 8 RYDAL
flows into the river there ; while the village or the slope
above may have caught a nomenclature, which as we
know did not spread to the lake till about the sixteenth
century. However that may be (and another derivation
has to be considered), this ancient ford must have played
a considerable part in the early history of the place and
valley. The other, at the head of the lake, represented
by the present foot-bridge, which the Romans would also
use, if they marched on the southern lake-shore, we have
fortunately recovered the name of, from an old deed
in which it is spoken of as Bath-wath.
There is no doubt of the line of the Roman road from
Bathwath. It struck upward over the projecting arm cf
White Moss in a direct line for Grasmere. It exists yet,
in the highest line of road ; but the ground here has been
so much mauled, first by quarries, and then by the Man-
chester water- works, which planted during the period of
pipe-laying a row of workmen's sheds and offices on the
common land about it, that no trace of it is now recog-
nizable. Mr. Herbert Bell remembers the large slab of
stone that paved it, totally different from the round cobble
later used for " causage " ; and the late Mr. Dawson, of
High Close, hard by, considered that its workmanship
proved it to be Roman.
Along this road then, which leaves the boundary of
Rydal at this point, the Romans marched, pushed troops
and stores, and conducted the business of governing the
country and its wild tribes for almost three centuries.
Whether they built a permanent fort on Old Hall Hill is
not certain, though it is probable. A route that would
lead from it over Loughrigg to join their road to Raven-
glass (whose guardian fort is still in evidence) bears to this
day the suggestive name foreign to these parts, of Fox
Gill Street.
But the time came (410) when the great administrative
rule of Rome over Britain drew to an end ; and her legions
THE CELT AND THE ROMAN 19
were withdrawn, to defend her borders nearer home. The
Celt was left again to the mastery of the land ; left with
the roads, the camps, the forts, and above all the great
Northern Wall, all of them constructed by a great civil-
izing force and all too big for his hands. Something
he had learned from Rome, of art, and civilization and
perhaps Christianity ; but something too he had lost, in
primaeval strength and independence of character. His
own tribal system of government had been overlaid by
the urban rule of the Romans which he was unequal to
carry out. He was left to fight unaided the enemies that
soon swarmed upon him, the Pict and the Scot, the Angle
and the Dane ; and the vale after three hundred and fifty
years of Roman rule, fell back into silence and the undis-
puted occupation once again of the Celtic huntsman.
APPENDIX.
From Camden's Britannia (ist edition 1586) trans, with additions-
1695-
" At the upper corner of this Lake Winandermere, lyes the carcaes,
as it were, of an ancient City, with large ruins of walls, and
scatter'd heaps of rubbish without the walls. The Fort has been
of an oblong figure, f ortify'd with a ditch and rampire, in length
132 Ells, and in breadth 80. That it was the work of the Romans,
the British bricks, the mortar temper 'd with small pieces of
bricks, the little Urns or Pots, the Glass Vials, the Roman coins,
commonly met with, the round stones like Mill-stones (of which
soder'd together, they us'd formerly to make Pillars) and the
pav'd ways leading to it ; are all undeniable Evidence. But
the old name is quite lost ; unless one should imagine from the
present name Ambleside, that this was the Amboglana mention'd
by the Notitics."
Additions to Westmorland made by " Mr. Thomas Machel."
He discourses on the question of Ambleside being " Amboglana,"
speaks of " several medals " found here, and in collection of
Mr. T. " Brathwate " left to Queen's Coll.
" A little north of Ambleside, is Ridal-haM, a convenient
large ancient house : in which Lordship is a very high mountain
call'd Ridal head." ... " The present owner being Sir Daniel
20 RYDAL
Fleming, a great lover of ancient Learning, to whom we are
particularly oblig'd for several useful informations in this County
and Lancashire." Speaks of Camden travelling fr. Lancaster,
through the Barony of Kendal, to Workington in Cumb. and so
neglecting the bottom of Westmorland.
Camden in Lancashire says : " Upon this lake (Windermere)
stands a little town of the same name, where in the year 791
Euthred, King of the Northumbrians, slew the sons of King
Elfwold, after he had taken them from York ; that by his own
wickedness and their blood he might secure himself in the
Kingdom."
It is said in a volume-published by C. Bates in 1895, that they
were drowned in the lake. This seems quite probable because
Windermere would be on the route from York to the Isle of Man,
which was then used as a place of refuge.
The Latin original runs thus :
Anno DCC.XCI filii Elfwaldi regis ab Eboraca civitate vi
abstracti, et de ecclesia principali per promissa fallacia abducti,
miserabiliter sunt perempti ab Ethelredo rege in Wonwaldremere*
quorum nomina Oelf et Olelwine fuere.
Symeonis Dunelmensis,
Historia Regum.
EDITOR'S NOTE.
The Roman camp, in the Borrans field spoken of above as
the head of lake Windermere, being in imminent danger of being
built over, was happily acquired in the autumn of 1912, and
vested in the National Trust. Digging was begun in 1913 and
continued the two following years under the superintendence of
Mr. R. G. Collingwood ; the whole of the wall of the camp,
enclosing 275 acres, and the top of which was mostly within
six inches of the surface, was laid bare. The form was a
parallelogram, measuring about 420 feet by 300, the longest
axis being east and west, with corner turrets. The largest of
the four gates was on the east side ; on the south the threshold
stone, 10 J by 4^ feet, with socket holes was in situ. In the middle
of the camp was found the commandant's house, the Principia
and the Granary. A double outer ditch was traced on the north
side. The finds were more numerous than valuable, a couple
* " Winandermere, or Windermere." Note by John Hodgson Hinde,
F.S.A., Surtees Society Edition p. 30.
THE CELT AND THE ROMAN 21
of ladies' shoes, fragments of Samian and other ware, lead, glass,
bronze nails, sling bullets, roof slates, a silver spoon, a few silver
and bronze coins, one of the Emperor Valens (d. 375) which
would show that the camp which probably dates from Hadrianic
times, cir. 135 A.D., was occupied for some 240 years at least. Like
those on Hardknott and at Ravenglass, it was one of the chain of
strategic sites garrisoned by the Romans in order to keep the
natives quiet along the frontier ; but the soil in one of the turrets,
and elsewhere, showed evidence of more than one burning,
which if done by hostile hands would point possibly to some
successful raids by our barbarian ancestors. ED.*
CHAPTER III
THE CELT AND THE ANGLE
The Danes in Northumbria ; Athelstan ; Norsemen
Colonists.
THE natives of these parts, though peculiarly liable to
incursions from northern foes, were however secure
for a far longer period than their tribal relatives
of the south and east from the inroads of the Saxon and
the Angle. It was the southern and eastern coasts that
were first attacked by the pirates, who came and went
across the sea ; and some hundreds of years were to
elapse before those first settlements, made along the
shore by handfuls of fighters under a leader of prowess,
grew into little states or kingdoms. One of the foremost
-of these kingdoms from the beginning was Bernicia,
traditionally founded in the sixth century by Ida on the
rock of Bamborough, which later became Northumbria ;
and it was to this alien power after it had absorbed its
neighbour kingdom Deira that the Celts of the district
round the great Bay of Morecambe were ultimately
forced to submit. For long indeed they valiantly held
* A full account with photographs and diagrams is given in Transactions,
C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. xv., N.S., 1915.
22 RYDAL
their own in the west, and their dominion stretched
unbroken down the western shores through Cumbria or
Cumberland, Cambria or Wales, to west Wales or Devon
and Cornwall. But the time came when the bleak
Pennine chain, flanked by barren lands, which protected
this dominion from the conqueror in the north, was to
be crossed. It was Ethelfrith, King of Northumbria, who
first broke the line, and by the battle of Chester (fought
according to the Saxon Chronicle in 607, but according
to Welsh Annals in 613) extended his kingdom to the
western sea, cutting off for ever the Britons of Cambria
from those of Cumbria. He is reputed to have gained
more territory than he could well govern, so while he
colonized a portion with his Anglian followers, he left
the rest in the hands of the natives on payment of tribute
by them. It is doubtful if his successes affected our parts.
He was himself killed in battle in 617 ; and it was left to
his successor Edwin, who was mighty enough to proclaim
himself overlord of England, to conquer in 620 the British
state of Elmet, in western Yorkshire, by which West-
morland would be most easily accessible.* Again, Edwin
was slain in 633 by the great Celtic leader Cadwallan or
Caedwalla, who regained not only the lands recently lost
by the British, but the whole of Northumbria, till he
was himself slain at Hexham in 635 by King Oswald of
saintly memory. It is difficult therefore to assign an
exact date to the conquest by the Angle of that large
western district, including the later north Lancashire,
south Westmorland, and a piece of Cumberland by the
coast, which appears to have been nameless to the con-
queror, while the Briton called it Teyrnllwg ; but if we
place it as late as King Oswy's victory over the old heathen
Penda, Saxon king of Mercia, who for so long had been
the constant enemy of Northumbria, and the ally of the
* See Mr. Collingwood's story of Cumbrian independence in " Early Sculp-
tured Crosses " of the Diocese of Carlisle.
THE CELT AND THE ANGLE 23
Celt, at Winwaed, we get it no later than 650. Of this
conquest Professor Rhys says* " The disgrace the Kymry
felt at losing the crown of Britain . . . was probably
nothing in comparison with their bitterness at being
robbed of one piece after another of their country. We
have already alluded to Eadwine annexing Lordes and
Elmet to his own kingdom of Deira ; but far more fatal
to Kymric independence was the appropriation by the
Angles of the district of Teyrnllwg, described by Welsh
tradition as reaching from the Dee to the forests of Cum-
berland and the neighbourhood of the Derwent, which
was once the boundary of the diocese of Chester : the
tract consisting of the level part of Cheshire and south
Lancashire must have been taken from the Kymry soon
after, possibly before, the battle of Chester."
When the western sea was gained, near the estuary of
the Dee, and the mountain passes at the head of the west
Yorkshire dales were open, there was little indeed to check
the conquerors till the mountains of Cumbria were reached.
The lands round the great frith of Morecambe that lay
to the west would soon be over-run ; the fertile valleys
that opened upon it would tempt them onward ; and
the great lake whose foot was barely five miles from the
sands would lead them forward still, to the Roman fort
at its head, standing silent now after 250 years of aband-
onment, and to the open road beyond, running due north.
Truly, if the Angles pushed further than the deserted
fort, our mountain gateway at Rydal would soon give
them pause. With forests filled with retreating Celts,
it would hardly be safe to hazard the passage of the ford
and the narrow gorge, to be overwhelmed possibly in the
closed mountain chambers beyond.
And as a matter of fact, the boundary of the Anglian
kingdom is found, when it emerges into the light of history,
* Celtic Britain.
24 RYDAL
to lie hereabouts. It is defined, to the west, by the
water-shedding line of the Brathay and the Rothay, with
their tributaries, as it is to the north-west by that of the
Kent and by the forest of Ingle wood. Beyond the moors
of Shap, beyond the high slate hills of Rydal, the Celt
held his own in the kingdom of Cumbria for nearly 500
years longer ; and for that period our mountain Fairfield
rose as a bulwark between lands of the Englishman and
the Briton.
The position of this newly acquired province (the
British Teyrnllwg) must have rendered it peculiarly
difficult for the Angle to govern. It lay beyond the barren
moorlands of the Pennine chain, and could only be reached
from Deira, to which it was annexed, by long passes at
the head of the Yorkshire dales. The main road from
York, the capital of Deira, was the Roman one connecting
that city with Carlisle, and it led over the high and
dangerous Stainmoor, then, and for long after, the battle-
field of races. Safer and more direct routes might be
made up Wensleydale and the Aire, to emerge at Kirkby
Lonsdale and Sedbergh. And there is evidence that
within seventy years after the battle of Chester an effort
was being made to colonize this district to the west by
means of the Church, which was becoming a powerful
agent among the recently converted English. A mon-
astery had been founded at Ripon by the pious King
Alchfrid, who ruled Deira under his father, Oswy of
Northumbria, about 660 ; and some four years later he
handed it over to Wilfrid, the great churchman and prelate
of the north. Wilfrid proceeded to build there, in a fashion
new to the English, whose churches hitherto had been
of wood or wattle, a basilica of polished stone, sustained
by columns and vaults, and furnished with rich accessories,
in the manner of the western church. The consecration
of this splendid building was an affair of state, attended
by King Egfrid the successor of Oswy, and his brother
THE CELT AND THE ANGLE 25
Alfwin, by sub-kings, reeves, and abbots of other mon-
asteries ; and at the close of a gorgeous ceremony Wilfrid,
with his face turned towards the people, recited the names
of the lands, recently as well as formerly, bestowed upon
Ripon, together with some holy places of the British
Church. Through the garbled version of these names
that have come down to us, several at least are clear, and
they refer to the lately conquered district. Parts about
the Ribble are mentioned, and Amounderness, the district
between the Ribble and the Cocker. Cartmel seems to
be referred to on the peninsula between the estuaries of
the Leven and Kent ; and in the name " Duninga " may
possibly be recognized Dunnerdale, about the river
Duddon, where we still find the hamlet of Old Dunning
Well.*
This consecration took place after the deaths of Kings
Oswy and Alchfrid in 670 ; and before Wilfrid's dispute
with King Egfrid, and his banishment in 678, which must
have checked the great scheme of church colonization
for a time. But Egfrid himself clearly recognized the
political uses of the new church, and invited Archbishop
Theodore from the south, for the purpose of arranging
his unweildy kingdom of Northumbria into bishoprics.
To the saintly Cuthbert, appointed Bishop of Lindisfarne,
he gave over, we are expressly told, the district of Cartmell,
with all the Britons in it ; and Cuthbert, finding it no
doubt too distant for his immediate supervision, handed
it over to the care of the " good Abbot Kineferth." f
The restless Egfrid, whose conquest of the city of Carlisle
was likewise given over to Cuthbert, met his death in
685, when fighting the Picts north of the Wall ; and with
him vanished for ever the supremacy of Northumbria
over the rest of the English kingdoms. Incessant war
* See Edde's Life of Wilfrid, Memorials of Ripon ; Surtees Society. Ratne's
Historians of the Church of York, and Victoria History of Cumberland.
t See Simson's Life of Cuthbert.
26 RYDAL
between weak claimants to the throne paralyzed the
State for the next hundred years, when the ravages of
the Danes began on the eastern coasts. Yet through all
the anarchy and mis-rule, the church seems to have
spread and flourished ; and where her sacred buildings
and monasteries were planted, and pious priests officiated
and taught, there the Anglian rule must have swayed
the subject Celt. The late seventh and eighth centuries
seem to have been a great cross-erecting era* ; and the
fragment of one ascribed by experts f to Anglian workmen
is to be seen at Heversham. Indeed it is supposed that
a monastery may have been founded at Heversham in
the reign of Osred, who was slain in 717.
It is in this century that we hear of a connection
between Northumbria and the Isle of Man and Ireland
via the coast of Cumberland. St. Bega is reputed to
have been travelling from Ireland in order to visit the
holy places of the Anglian church when she was ship-
wrecked at St. Bees. The Isle of Man became a refuge
for claimants to the throne of Northumbria, or for expelled
rulers of Bernicia or Deira. Later, Irish and Norse allies
came over by way of Cumberland to help the decrepit
kingdom to withstand the power of the Wessex kings.
Now this route of travel crossed our district, and came
very near to Rydal. The landing was doubtless at
Ravenglass, the haven of the Romans, and the only
natural one on the Cumbrain coast, which was within
the lines of the old land of Teyrnllwg, wrested from the
Celt by the Angle. The route probably (and almost
certainly at an early date), followed the straight Roman
Road over the Wrynose and Hardknott passes, dropping
to the deserted camp at Ambleside, and continuing by
* The magnificent cross erected at Bewcastle to the memory of King Alchfrid
still stands. One stated to be of great beauty was placed at Lindisfarne by
Bishop Ethelwold (724-40), and was later mutilated by the Danes.
t The Lake Counties, by W. G. Collingwood.
THE CELT AND THE ANGLE 27
Kendal to cross one of the passes of the Pennine chain
into Yorkshire.
There is another route which may have been pursued
at a later time, less direct but less mountainous and ex-
posed. It started perhaps, near the easy landing at
Waberthwaite, on the east branch of the Ravenglass
harbour, crossed Burn moor to the Duddon, dropping
by Ulpha Old Hall (which has been hitherto something
of a puzzle), and thence by Walna Scar to Coniston
where some minor king may once have held sway ;
thence by Hawkshead Hill, (where we find the name of
High Cross) and along the shore of Esthwaite to Winder-
mere, which would be crossed by the Ferry ; and so to
Kendal. On this route we find evidence of traffic in the
number of holy places of unknown date upon it ; the chapel
on Mary-holme ; St. Martin's on the lake shore ; St.
Catharine's on the brow above the lake ; crosses higher
still ; then the site of the old chapel in the wood by Hugill,*
as well as the old manor house on the island of Langholme.
It is impossible to overlook, in the history of these
parts, the existence from an early time of this manor-
house on the lake of Windermere. It is mentioned as
early as 1272, when Walter de Lindesay died, as well as
in the various Inquisitions of his followers, where it is
always spoken of as ruined and derelict, and as being of
no worth, since the houses had gone to decay. (See
Appendix.) There is no indication indeed of it being in
use, in Norman times, as a centre of manorial life, where
a resident lord might hold sway over the neighbouring
lands. Yet there are signs that seem to show that it
once occupied such a position, and that there was con-
course and traffic in its neighbourhood. The church on
the shore of the lake was its companion, and was to
remain as the parish church of a wide district. On the
* See " Lost Churches of the Diocese of Carlisle," Transactions C. & W.
A. & A. Society, vol. xv., o.s.
28 RYDAL
other hand sacred spots hard by were, like it, when we
first obtain a glimpse of them, going to decay. The uses
of the little Chapel of St. Catherine, of which some vestige
remained till the eighteenth century, have never been
recorded. Those of St. Mary's on the island appear from
the time of their first mention in 1272 to 1350, when they
appear to have lapsed for a time, to have been gradually
sinking.
The fact that the chantry was affiliated to the Augus-
tinian House of Segden, at Berwick in Scotland, suggests
a possibility that it was a foundation of the early Anglo-
Scottish church, whose invariable habit it was, where
possible, to place their sacred buildings on an island,
both for peace and for security against heathen attack.
St. Herbert, the hermit of the island of Derwent water, is
known to us through his friendship with St. Cuthbert,
as narrated by Bede. But of this island fane, sometimes
called a hermitage, but apparently of greater importance
and standing, since it was served by two chaplains till
the time of Edward III., the origin is unknown.
The occupation of Langholme may likewise have been
early. From the fact that remains of a former building
were found at a depth of six feet, when Mr. English built
the present house there in 1774, as well as " a beautiful
pavement curiously paved with pebbles of a small kind " *
it has been conjectured that a Roman villa stood upon
the island. It is not impossible. But it is more probable
that the conquering Angles planted foot here. When
they pushed up the lake, to find the Roman city at the
head, they would, if they acted in their usual manner,
reject the site, preferring a fresh and rural settlement.
The island would offer, in the face of a hostile and only
partially subjugated foe, safe ground whereon a thane or
lord might plant his capital dwelling, which was to serve
* Nicolson and Burn, vol. i. Addenda.
THE CELT AND THE ANGLE 2Q
as a centre to the manor which his followers would form
on the annexed lands round about ; and where the infant
church, protected by him, would give him support in the
work of colonization. And if the old manor house on the
island were actually of Anglian origin, it must have seen
stirring events, connected with Northumbrian history.
In 788 King Alfward the Just was slain in battle near the
Roman wall, and his body, conducted by a long procession
of monks and clergy singing dirges, was carried for burial
to Hexham. His sons, AH and Alfwin, were infants, so
Osred was called to power. A year later, when an
insurrection took place in favour of Ethelred I. (who had
occupied the throne before) he was obliged to fly to the
Isle of Man. Ethelred, embittered perhaps by eleven
years of life in a dungeon, behaved with great barbarity
to the rival royal house.* The High-Reeve, Erdwulf, he
caused to be executed before the monastery of Ripon ;
and the kindly monks prepared to bury him, when he was
discovered to be living, and escaped to become (in 800)
king himself. Alf and Alfwin had likewise been placed by
their friends in sanctuary, in the Minster of York, where
the tyrant dared not touch them. By some specious
promise however, he beguiled them thence, and caused
them (says Symeon of Durham) to be drowned in
Winwaldremere a name that has generally been supposed
to mean Windermere.f
If an Anglian burh or manor-house did exist on the
Island, this story becomes more explicable. Under
pretext of carrying the children to a safe place, Ethelred
would have an easy opportunity of getting rid of them,
by causing the boat which conveyed them to the strong-
hold across the lake to be sunk. Horror of the crime, it
* See Appendix to Chapter II.
t See note by J. Hodgson Hinde to Bates' Northumberland. In connection
with the likeness yet unlikeness of the two names, it may be mentioned that
for Wansfell, the mountain at the head of the lake, the derivation Wodensfell
has been found. To the whole side of the mountain the name Groves still
clings, suggesting a place of heathen rites.
3O RYDAL
is said, caused Osred to be recalled from the Isle of Man ;
but he was captured by his enemies on the coast of
Cumberland, and there slain.
The first descent of the Danes on Northumbria followed
soon on this murder. Lindisfarne was desecrated and
robbed, and the lands accessible from the Danish ships
were over-run and pillaged. The distracted country was
in no position to withstand the claim of Egbert, king of
Wessex, to the position so long held by its own kings
of over-lord of Britain. ; and when he marched north in 827
the men of Northumbria did homage to him. Then once
more, in 835, after fifty- three years of absence, the Danes
poured in upon England, ravaging, destroying, and this
time settling upon the lands they had wrested from the
Angles. The House of Wessex had much ado, for years
to come, to hold its own precariously against them in the
south, and in Northumbria they swamped the frail
government and put an end to the race of effete kings.
The slaughter of Osbert and Ella at York, (867) may be
said to have put the close to the kingdom founded by
Ida 320 years before.*
A Danish king, Hulfden, son of Ragnas, became ruler
at York ; while other sons of Ragnas raided the coasts
of Ireland and Scotland, and set up a kingdom at Dublin.
In 875 Hulfden crossed the Tyne and invaded Bernicia,
hitherto unharried, and destroyed churches and monas-
teries. This was the death-blow to the Christian civil-
ization of Northumbria.
It is probable that in this time of confusion and blood-
shed, our district suffered less on account of its position
west of the Pennine chain which checked the Danish
advance, than the older province to which it was attached.
There may have been indeed a considerable influx of
Angles at this time into these parts, fleeing west in the
* History of Northumberland, by J. Hodgson Hinde.
THE CELT AND THE ANGLE 3!
face of the Danes ; for it is unlikely that the monks of
Lindisfarne (who did not await a second attack) were the
only ones who resorted to this plan of safety. The
district, unlinked from its old centre of government
both in church and state which lay over the passes
eastward, would drift for a time in a kind of chaotic
independence ; and the Celt, always numerically strong,
would rise in power as the Angle weakened. Eugenius,
king of the old British state of Cumbria, now took occasion
to spread his bounds, which are said to have extended
in 904 from the Clyde to the confines of Lancashire.*
But the Wessex kings, who had been making slow but
sure headway against the Danes, now stepped forward
as over-lords, for the control of the distracted and
dismembered north ; and in 923, Edward the Elder (great
Alfred's son) compelled the submission of Ragnas, King
of Northumbria, and Ealdred, ruler at Bamburgh, as well
as the kings of Scotland and Strathclyde, with all their
mixed peoples Scots, Angles, Danes, Norwegians and
Britons. It seemed, for the moment, as if England were
united under one strong ruler. But such turbulent
elements could not be held long in control, especially by
a government whose centre was fixed in the distant south
coast. Almost as soon as Atheist an succeeded his father
Edward in 925, he came north to settle matters with
recalcitrant rulers. On the death of the Danish king of
Deira, he deposed Guthred, the son of Sihtric and took
over this great state to govern without a subordinate.
With Constantine king of the Scots, however, and
Eugenius or Oswain king of Cumbria he made a treaty.
Their meeting with him took place in 926, and is severally
recorded by William of Malmesbury who says it was at
Dacre and by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which speaks
of the river Eamont. Now at Dacre, which stands on
* History of Northumberland, by J. Hodgson Hinde.
32 RYDAL
the little river of that name about 8 miles above its con-
fluence with the Eamont, there was a monastery in Bede's
time ; and it may well have been in the security of its
sacred precincts that the two northern rulers chose to
stand face to face with the great southern king. The
place of the meeting is significant. The Eamont indeed,
curving eastward on its outflow from the lake of Ulls-
water, to its junction with the Eden, has ever played a
great part as a boundary or " mere " stream. It is now
the dividing-line between Cumberland and Westmorland.
From the earliest times of church history the wide parish
of Barton, which touches Rydal on the summit of Fairfield,
stopped against its current. At different times Celt and
Angle, Scot and English have looked with alien eyes across
its waters, claiming or acknowledging it as the line past
which they might not move. To this day its banks,
fertile though they are, are strewn with the defences of
combatants of all ages. The Roman reared his fort over
against the ford at Brougham, where Norman lords
eventually followed him. The earth- work at Eamont
Bridge is possibly an ancient burh that guarded the
crossing ; and May borough the work of the Briton.
Mediaeval castles and pele towers abound along its line ;
for every gentleman had need to fortify his house till the
days of Elizabeth, against the raiding Scot. It seems as
if Athelstan, marching up to this river of strife by York
and across Stainmoor, and meeting there the northern
kings, regarded it also as a boundary for his kingdom of
England, and as a line up to which he meant personally
to govern.*
Of the district round the Bay of Morecambe we hear
nothing, in treaty or in subsequent conflicts. Amounder-
ness indeed, part of the old British province won by the
* There is in Dacre Church, a carved stone which possibly bears witness of
this meeting of the three kings. C. & W. A. & A. Society's Extra Series,
vol. xi.
THE CELT AND THE ROMAN 33
Angles, Athelstan gave over in 930 to the metropolitan
church of St. Peter at York.
This grant we find quoted from the original Latin in
Historians of the Church of York, by James Raine, &c.,
vol. iii.
A Grant of Lands in Amunderness by King Athelstan to Walstan,
Archbishop of York.
Nottingham, June 7, 930. (Preamble)
Ego Adelstanus Rex Anglonim, per Omnipotentis dextram,
quae Christus est, totius Britanniae regm solio sublimatus,
quandam non modicam telluris particulam Deo Omnipotent i
et Beato Petro Apostolo ad ecclesiam suam in civitate Ebo-
racensi tempore quo Wulfstanum archiepiscopum illuc constitui,
in loco quern solicolae Aghemundernes vocitant, sub Dei
timore libenter attribuo, ut ille episcopus ea sine jugo exosae
servitutis, cum pratis pascuis, silvis, rivulis, omnibusque ad earn
utilitatibus rite pertinentibus, quamdiu aura in naribus spiritali
ocellorumque convolatu cernibili utatur, ac satius heredibus post
se semper illius ecclesiae in aeternam hereditatem derilinquat.
Hanc praefatam donationem propria, et non modica, emi pecunia,
[I have bought with the money of my own and no small sum] non
solum illam quin potius cuncta illius praetitulatae praedia.
Pr . . . autem a mare sursum in Cocur usque ad fontem illius
fluminis, ab illo fonte directe in alium fontem qui dicitur Saxonice
Daleshope ; sic per descensum rivuli in Hodder, ipso dirigamine
in Ribbel, et sic in illo flumine per dimidium alveum iterum
recursus in mare ....
This is a huge area, and in later times, in 1233 we
that Archbishop Gray having set the difficulties arising
for the too large parishes in his Diocese before Gregory
IX., the latter writes bidding him build oratories and
chapels where he sees need. CX. 1244. Licence from
Innocent IX. to Arch. Gray, to confirm and consecrate
Bishops of Man.
This measure no doubt was intended to promote
peaceable colonizations in an imperfectly governed district,
as well as to protect the Christian establishments within
it ; and it served to bind our lands still more closely to
Deira, and its church. D
34 RYDAL
But peace was not possible yet, nor for long after, with
the turbulent mixed races of the north. Athelstan was
soon after fighting Constantine and Eugenius, and their
defeat only produced a brief breathing-space. For now
all the northern rulers drew together in one vast effort
to withstand and overthrow the English king. The
dethroned king of Deira got his Danish relative, Anlaf,
King of Dublin, to come to his aid with another Anlaf.
Eugenius, the Kingof.Strathclyde, joined with his Britons
from the west, and Constantine from the north came both
by sea and land with his Scots. At a place in Deira called
Brunanburh the allies were met by Athelstan and his
brother Edmund, and in a mighty battle in which five
Danish sea-kings and seven earls, as well as Eugenius
and the son of Constantine, are said to have been killed
they were defeated. This terrific conflict, and the fore-
gathering for it, which took place in 937, must have
affected our district, though it was not fought upon the
ground.* From all sides forces were drawn for it. The
Celts of Cambria would pour over the pass at the head
of the Rothay, marching through the valley by the
Roman road to Kendal, being joined doubtless as they
marched by their kinsmen who had unwillingly suffered
the domination of the hated English. The Danes of
Dublin under Anlaf would land at Ravenglass, and pursue
the road over Wrynose or the lower one across Duddon
to reach the battle-field in the East. With shattered
forces he doubtless returned the same way, carrying news
of the disaster through all the country-side.
For a time there was peace. But soon after Atheist an 's
death in 940 an insurrection broke out in Northumbria,
and a Danish king was placed upon the throne. Edmund,
* The spot has not been definitely fixed. Aldborough by Boroughbridge r
on the Ouse has been suggested (Skene's Celtic Scotland) and as several of
the chief combatants escaped to their ships lying in the Humber, it must have
taken place in eastern Yorkshire, [or in north Lincolnshire near Barton. ED.}
THE CELT AND THE ANGLE 35
as successor to his brother on the throne of Wessex, had
again to subdue the province, and expel two minor kings
from it. Wearied with a struggle that Northumbria
continually renewed by the help of the Danes of Dublin,
who passed to and from Deira through the friendly state
of Cumbria, he determined to chastise Cumbria ; and in
945 he advanced to the west, and overthrew Dunmail
(or Donald) king of Cumbria, son of Eugenius, and handed
over the little state (extending from the Clyde to the
Duddon) to Malcolm, King of Scotland, who undertook,
to do fealty to him for it. The battle took place, according
to tradition, at the head of the Rothay, on the pass ever
since called Dunmail Raise, where a great cairn of stones
marks the grave if not of the British king (for some
accounts say that he escaped, and afterwards went to
Rome) at least of his followers, and of the English who
fell on that day. Through the forest of Rydal then the
great Edmund marched with his army by the Roman way ;
and on the rock by the ford, afterwards called Old Hall
Hill, he might well set a watch to guard his return, and
erect a burh in the vale to hold its Britons in awe.
A year after he died, by the hand of an assassin, and
his brother Eadred had at once the work to do over again.
He did it more brutally however, and when Northumbria
rebelled, and set up again a Danish king, he devastated it,
not sparing even churches and monasteries, and destroying
Ripon by fire. This was in 947. The last Danish king
of Northumbria and his son were slain, " in a lonely
region called Stainmoor (954) . Eadred, after some further
trouble, in 954 entrusted the government of Northumbria
to an earl, Osulf ; and its days of kingship finally closed.
Uchtred acted as Earl in the days of King Ethelred, who,
finding the Danes again troublesome, attacked and van-
quished them, apparently in the west ; for in 1000 he
" went into Cumberland, and ravaged it well nigh all."
Eadulf, who was earl in the reign of Hardicnut, is remem-
36 RYDAL
bered as acting with great barbarity to the Celts or Britons,
whose territory he invaded, He ruled in partial indepen-
dence, but submitted to Hardicnut in 1041. Next came
Siward who died at York, 1055.* He ruled Northumbria as
its earl under Edward the Confessor, last king of the royal
line of Wessex, then Tosti, son of the great earl Godwin.
The wide lands which he owned in Amounderness and
Furness are conjectured to have been wrested from the
Celts by his predecessor Eadulf.f His own oppressions
nded in revolt, and Morcar was chosen in his place.
Tosti played a dire part in the last tragedy of the old
English kings, for when he landed in Deira with a hostile
force, he fell at Stamford Bridge, fighting his brother
Harold, 1066. Harold then had to return in haste to
io meet Duke William on the field of Hastings, where he
also fell.
In all this varied and bloody history of the state to
which our district was so long attached, through all the
attacks it endured from foreign foes, coming east and north
and south, we hear not one word of an invasion that is
generally allowed to have taken place from the west.
Not the valley of the Rothay alone, but the dales of the
whole of Cumberland and Westmorland are studded with
names that betray a Norse origin ; and the sturdy tall
folk who inhabited these dales are believed to have come
from Norway. The silence of this invasion perhaps
bespeaks its character. The Norsemen came, not as
conquering warriors, nor as raiding pirates, but as colonists
landing from their long boats with wives and children
and cattle to form peaceful settlements on the more
fertile slopes of the fells. The rugged country, so like
their own, would appeal alike to their sense of home and
of husbandry ; and it is thought that the hardy race of
* His rule seems to have been benificent. See Mr. Wilson's judgment in
Victoria History of Cumberland.
t History of Northumbria, J. Hodgson Hinde.
THE CELT AND THE ANGLE 37
Herd wick sheep that graze on these mountains, and which
have formed for hundreds of years the main wealth of
the farmer, was brought in by them. They must by this
inroad it is true, have dispossessed the Celt of his lands
to a large extent ; but their settlements, or set as, would
be small, and with their different methods of husbandry,
the two races might after a time fit in together in tolerable
amity. The fact that the Welsh numerals have been
found in use for the counting of sheep in some parts of the
district up to recent times, is considered to show that the
older race was used by the new-comers for menial service
and for herding the sheep.* The settlement of the Norse-
men may have been favoured by the Danish kings who
were in the ninth and tenth centuries ruling at York and
at Dublin. f
These far-off days of conflict and final settlement have
left scarce a tangible trace in our valley. It is harder
to certify the mark of the Celt and the Angle within it
than even that of the Roman, for all alike have been
slowly wiped out by the dalesman, whose utilitarian
mind and unsuperstitious temper causes him to set his
hand to everything he finds. But one or two sites must
be mentioned. The sunny slope above the village of
Rydal, is perhaps a shadowy one, whence the keen-eyed
Celt, from a safe retreat in the upland valley behind him,
could watch the mountain gate through which the river
flowed below and the open road from the south, by which
his enemy always advanced ; another site is by Dunna
* The Celtic system of counting sheep still lingers in Lincolnshire ; 4, 5, 10,
n, 15, 16, being pethera, pimp, dik, yan-a-dik, bumpit, yan-a-bumpit : the
Welsh equivalents being pedwar, pump, deg, un-ar-deg, pymtheg, unarbym-
theg. Both systems start again at 15, and do not go further than 20, when
a "score" was cut on the tally, and the counting commenced over again.
See Mansel Sympson's Lincolnshire, p. 63. ED.
t It has been suggested by Mr. Collingwpod (Book of Coniston) that the
immigration was caused by Harold Fairhair, King of Norway, who sailed
(880-890) to do battle with the Vikings settled in Ireland, Galloway, Man and
the Western Islands, which caused these incontinently to flee and take refuge
in the mountains of Cumbria.
38 RYDAL
Beck, where in our lake recess (looking southward too) he
guarded the further ford and the arm of Whitemoss.*
But there is another, just over the line of our manor and
on the Ambleside side of Scandale beck, that may well
have been an outpost of the Angle after he had conquered
the district. It too, like the Celt's post, from elevated
and secure ground, with a valley (Scandale) behind,
watched the ford below ; but, unlike the Celt's which
looked south, it had a northern out-look towards the
narrow mountain gate through which the Celt might
come. It is called the Castle field. Not a vestige of
building or of mound shows upon it. Yet this is probably
the place which, so recently as 1789 Clarke in his Survey
of the Alps, casually mentions as a Roman station, called
the Castle, where he says, the remains are less apparent
than at another place called the Borrans which is the
certified Roman station at the head of the lake.
And in the village itself is an artificial mound of
prehistoric age. It stands in the old row of homesteads
dotting the slope, and has given the modern name of
Rydal Mount and Undermount to those next above and
below it. It is flat-topped, with sloping sides, which drop
to a terrace bounded now by the garden wall, beyond
which again in the field below, there are appearances of a
second terrace. No story of the past is connected with
the spot, nor is it known for what purpose it was reared
upon this rocky slope. Could it have served, for the last
northern settlers, who pitched their group of homesteads
(as ever) on the dry sunny slope, out of reach of floods,
as a place of council and of village government ? Was
it a little moot-hill or Thing-mount, where the body of
free and equal townsmen discussed not only the dails or
* Mr. W. H. Hills has found here, in the White Moss intake, a number of
great stones, apparently artificially placed. They are too incoherent however,
for any kind of identification. The habit, prevalent to this day, of breaking
up large stones and boulders for building purposes, must have destroyed
many a mark of history.
THE CELT AND THE ANGLE 39
divisions of the land which they owned in common,* and
which they held in a yearly rotation, but where they
themselves administered justice and the unwritten laws
of their race ? If this were so, the sacred well, a temple
by a stream, said always to be associated with such a spot,
and to be connected with it by a straight path leading
east, can be found here readily. For the way from the
mound by the field gate, if followed across the road and
continued by the one in the park, would lead to a spot
sought after to this day, where the Rydal beck plunges
down in its last long fall. Here there exists a summer-
house, built by Squire Daniel Fleming, in 1668, at what
he calls the " Caw-weel," meaning perhaps the well with
the paved way (caw or causey) ; the bridge above being
likewise called the Caw-bridge. (See appendix following).
APPENDIX.
From D. F's Account Book.
1668. Dec. 19. Payment for walling " ye Sumer house at ye Caw
weel " at 5<i a day.
1669. April 30. " Paid unto Jo. Green, Slater for 12 load of
Slate 3 s , and 4 dayes slating ye Grot in ye Mill-
Orchard 2 s ."
July 2. "for plastering ye Grott " and other work
a- *.
oo. 14. oo.
,, " Paid by J. B. unto ye Kendall
Joyner for Wainscotting of my Grott-
House ye sum of . . . . 03. oo. oo.
,, July 15. "for glassing of ye Grott &c " the sum of
155 od is paid.
* Hence the term "dalesman."
CHAPTER IV
NORMAN ADMINISTRATION
The making of Westmorland.
THOUGH nominally conqueror of England in 1066,
it was years before William forced the wild north
to his yoke. Northumbria now to the east
divided into the counties Northumberland, Durham and
Yorkshire again and again defied him. He tried at first
to keep terms with the men in power there, of whom
Gospatric was chief. Gospatric was a great personage,
A large land-owner like Tosti, he was moreover grandson
to King Ethelred, and was allied to the royal house of
Scotland ; besides which he claimed an hereditary right
to the earldom of Northumbria through his mother
Aldgotha, who was daughter of Earl Uhelred.* William
in 1067 allowed this claim, but by next year the earl had
fled into Scotland, being implicated in all probability in
the rebellion of Edwin and Morcas. William, while he
separated Yorkshire from Northumbria, and ruled it as a
county through a sheriff, yet thought well to receive
Gospatric 's submission for a time ; but in 1072 he deprived
him of all power, on the grounds that he had connived
at the murder of Robert Cumen, the Norman adminis-
trator at Durham, as well as at the slaughter of the
Normans at York. For these two outbursts of the men
of the north, William's revenge was terrible. Marching
north himself, he devastated the country, and left the
awful peace of desolation behind him.
From sharing in this great disaster, our position west
of the Pennines seemingly saved us. But a little later
William's land surveyors and tax-layers crossed the chain
for their great survey, written down in Doomsday Book
* Victoria History of Cumberland.
NORMAN ADMINISTRATION 4!
and completed in 1086. No Westmorland truly is men-
tioned in it, nor Cumberland, a matter once considered
mysterious, until the historians discovered that these
counties did not at that time exist. Cumbria, the
shrunken hold of the Britons, was no part of England,
but a fief in the hands of the king of Scotland ; while the
district round the great bay of Morecambe, extending to
Kendal and our own parts, was yet without an official
name. It was classed in the Survey along with north
Lancashire, Yorkshire (Eurvicscire) , being still regarded
as a part of the Northumbrian province of Deira. In
Mr. Farrer's examination of the Doomsday Survey of
this old conquest of the Angles,* he says
" The discovery that Furness, Kendal and North Lancashire,
bounded on the north by the river Duddon, Dunmail Raise,
Kirkstone Pass and Borrow Beck, and on the south by the river
Ribble, formed a complete fiscal area of five hundred team-lands
for the levying of Danegeld, is of great importance, not only
in proving the identity of certain obscure names in Furness,
Cartmel, and Millum, but also in demonstrating the distinct
tribal separation of that territory from Cumbria in Strathclyde
on the north, and Mercia on the south. This area was, in fact,
a rateable district within the kingdom of Northumbria, while
the land between the Ribble and the Mersey was a rateable
area with Cheshire within the kingdom of Mercia."
The district immediately round Kendal is called in the
Survey Stircaland, which is accounted as " The land
of the King " and nine manors, of which Cherchebi,
or Kirkby Kendal, is one, are entered as belonging to
it. The list finishes with the laconic statement, " These
Gilemichelf had. In these there are 20 teamlands to
geld."
Stircaland then was the Anglian name of a lordship, or
goderd, of which no doubt the centre was Kendal ; and to
* See Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society's Transactions, vol. xviii.
t It has been pointed out that Gilmichel is an Irish name. This is another
fact favourable to the suggestion that our district was largely open, in the later
times of Northumbria, to intercourse with the west.
42 RYDAL
this centre the people of the various vills within its radius
would assemble for their hundred moot or court. How
many vills or townships there were at that time we have
no means of knowing. It is possible that some of the
small Norse settlements in the forest beyond the great
lake (self-governing communities) were overlooked in this
tax survey. Mr. Farrer considers that the nine manors
reckoned as Stircaland embraced as many as twenty-two
present townships, and among them Grasmere, Lang-
dale, and Rydal-and-Loughrigg.* The name Stircaland
became Strickland, and has survived as Strickland Roger
-and Strickland Ketel, two small townships near Burneside.
The later name was once applied to the valley of the
Brathay, for as late as the close of the fourteenth century
the manor of Little Langdale is stated to be in " Stricke-
land Kettyll " f It seems probable therefore that the
valley of the Rothay was also within it, and that at a
period later than the Doomsday book it was ruled by
some sub-lord whose name was Ketel. The name is also
found at Ketilthorp, near Lincoln.
William Rufus it was, as is well known, who finally
fixed the boundary of England to the north-west. March-
ing north in 1092, he took from Dolpin, son of Gospatric,
the land of Carlisle, which the latter had been ruling under
the protection of the King of Scotland, and joined it to
England. The ancient British kingdom of Cumbria,
much shrunk, was soon to become the modern Cumberland.
But the evolution of the counties of Cumberland and
Westmorland is not an easy one to follow. The admin-
istration of these incoherent districts and lands to the
* A great number of these were estates which had been granted out after
the date of the survey, but never assessed to Danegeld, being originally pasture
and waste, and only constituted townships by a gradual process of enclosure
and settlement, partly from wastes nominally belonging to the nine manors,
but largely by purpresture made in the Forest of Kendal. This explains
the reason that the yearly levy, called Noutgeld, in lieu of cattle, was rendered
to the Crown from Kendal ... in place of money service from each vill
or manor.
t Rental at Levens Hall.
NORMAN ADMINISTRATION 43
north-west, either for purpose of peace or taxation, was
from their character as Marsh or border-land, different,
and the first attempts were tentative. Both William
Rufus and Henry I. who carried on the work of re-con-
struction begun by his brother relied at first on their
father's method of placing Districts or Honours under the
lordship of some foreign noble, whom they believed thej'
-could trust. The barony of Kendal when it emerged from
the old Stircaland, was given over as a fief by William to
Ivo Taillebois, a native of Anjou who had been married
(in the summary fashion of the time) to an English heiress
named Lucia. Ivo had only one daughter, who married
Ranulf Meschin. Now Ranulf was a Norman of great
possessions. Henry I. had given to him the land of
Carlisle, where he had built a castle. Moreover, on the
death of his cousin in the White Ship in 1120, he succeeded
to the great earldom of Chester.
On this last acquisition, however, Ranulf resigned his
more northern fiefs to the king, who possibly feared he
might become too great a subject to rule ; and Henry
appears to have held the administration of them in his
own hands between 1120 and 1130. It is probably to
some unfixed year within these dates that we may assign
the great reconstruction of these parts, and the formation
of the county of Westmorland.* It is in 1130, that
" Westmarieland " (a very poetic name, if it means the
land of the western sea) appears as a definite area, ruled
over by a sheriff. It was made up in the main of two dis-
tinct parts, which had come to be known under the Norman
kings as the barony of Appleby and the barony of Kendal.
The latter, or more southerly portion, whose waters flow
into the Bay of Morecambe, had been part of the Anglian
conquest of the seventh century, annexed to Deira. The
former, whose waters flowed west to Carlisle and the
* Victoria History of Cumberland.
44 RYDAL
Solway Firth (and which seems to have fixed the wander-
ing name of Westmorland) had been part of the alien
kingdom of Cumbria, long struggled over, and ruled by
Celt or Scot, till the days of the Red king. Thus a
political boundary line, 500 years old, was summarily
wiped out, on the formation of the county ; and it is
interesting to note that the church preserved this line
for 700 years longer. For while the bishopric of Carlisle
created by Henry I. in 1133, embraced Appleby, Kendal
was left to her old diocese of York. And even when
Henry VIII. created the see of Chester, and caused Kendal
to be added to it, the barony still remained within the
archdeaconry of Richmondshire, which repeated in so
remarkable a manner the contour of the old British land
of Teyrulwyg, that now was broken up into parts of
Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire and Yorkshire.
It was not till 1856, when the new archdeaconry of
Westmorland was formed, and Kendal as part of it was
handed over to the diocese of Carlisle, that this district
and our valley finally lost that connection with Yorkshire
that had been begun 1200 years before.
The two districts, or baronies, lying on two sides of a
watershed, there summarily united to form a county by
Henry I . , have never cohered. Westmorland is practically
a county without a centre or county-town. Appleby,
that wears that dignity, a little place that grew about a
great Norman stronghold, has had no other importance
or influence. Kendal, a busy trading town, is the centre
of its own district, and troubles not at all with Appleby,
except when a criminal has to be carried thither for justice
in the higher Courts.
THE AUTHOR.
TO FACE P. 45.
45
CHAPTER V
THE BARONY OF KENDAL
Its Divisions and its Lords ; Will, de Lancaster and his
daughter Helwise.
THE confusion that characterized the tenure of the
lands of Appleby and Kendal during the reign
of Henry I., Stephen, and Henry II. is not easy
to penetrate, and the reader who desires to wrestle with
all the details of the subject is referred to those authors
who have studied the Pipe Rolls in the original.*
It seems sufficient for this small history to say that
during this period our district of Stircaland seems to have
been held, not directly of the crown by a tenant in chief,
but by a subsiduary lord who paid suit and court for it to
the chief lord. That chief lord was in the days of Henry I. ,
Nigel de Albini, of the house of Mowbray, who held it by
grant of the king as subsequent charters show, and he
was followed by his son Roger de Mowbray. Roger de
Mowbray handed it over to an under tenant between
1150-1153, giving " all my land of Lonsdale, and of
Kendal, and Horton of Ribblesdale " to one William, son
of Gilbert de Lancastre, to hold by service of four knights.
The lordship of Kendal however, seems to have been lost
to Mowbray in 1154 ; and Henry II., when restoring
order after the anarchy that prevailed in Stephen's time,
seems to have united it to " Westmarieland " (which he
gave over to Hugh de Morville) as a mesne lordship held
by service of rendering neatgeld.f Hugh de Morville
ceased to enjoy it at the time of the rebellion of 1173-4,
with which he was probably connected ; and after the
* See Pipe Rolls of Cumberland and Westmorland, Hodgson- Hinde ; and
Pipe Rolls of Lancashire, W. Farrer ; also the latter's " Tenure of Westmorland."
Transactions, C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. vii. N.S.
t Mr. Farrer's Tenure of Westmorland.
46 RYDAL
sheriff had accounted for it for three years, it was handed
over to Henry's chief justice, Ranulf de Granvill.
We thus arrive at a family calling themselves de
Lancastre, who held the lands of Kendal successively
under Roger de Mowbray, Hugh de Morville and Ranulf
de Granvill as chief lords in rapid succession.
William, son of Gilbert, first of the family to acquire
the lands of Kendal, was a man of affairs, who acted
probably as seneschal to William Earl Warren, the Lord
of Lancaster.* He stood high in favour with the earl,
married a relative of his, and by licence took the surname
of Lancaster.
He was followed by his son, likewise William, who
dying in 1184, left a daughter and heiress only,,
named Helwise. Helwise was given in marriage to
Gilbert fitz Reinfred, whom the king styles in the grant
as " our Dapifer." Gilbert had acted occasionally as
Justiciar, and on Richard I.'s accession he as well as his
father Roger were employed in the administration of
justice and peace in the district. There was room for
them, for Richard had at once deprived his father's chief
justice, Ranulf de Granvill of all his appointments, and
likewise robbed him of the lordship of Westmarieland.
Gilbert, who under Ranulf had held Kendal, by right of
his wife Helwise, now secured the fee by a freer and higher
tenure. Hitherto the holder of it had rendered to his
superior the annual rent of 14 6s. 3d., which was a money
equivalent of the old Nout or Neatgeld, a tax: formerly
paid in cattle. Gilbert gave the king 600 marks to
exchange this service of neatgeld for the nobler one of
military service, which placed him in the higher feudal
position of tenant in chief, responsible to no man but the
king. Richard's charter, which indelibly fixed the lands
of Kendal as a barony, is dated April 15, 1190, and of the
* Mr. Farrer's Lancashire Pipe Rolls.
THE BARONY OF KENDAL 47
same date is a confirmation to Gilbert of the forest of
Westmorland, of Kendal, and of Furness, as William de
Lancaster the son of Gilbert had held it ; and that he
should hold the forest in Kendal which the king had given
him along with six librates of land " as fully and freely
as Nigel de Albini had ever held it." When King John
came to the throne, Gilbert proffered him a fine of 100
for arrears of coinage charged him, and for a confirmation
of the charters he held, including the " holding in peace
the land in Kendal which he had by the gift of King
Richard."
Gilbert and his wife Helwise had three children who
came to be concerned in the barony of Kendal and our
own parish ; William, Alice, and Helwise. They all, as
well as a half brother Roger, took the surname of de
Lancaster. Gilbert died some time between 1217 and
June of 1220. In the former year he is instructed by
mandate to meet the king of the Isles, who comes to do
homage to Henry III., at Sulewad, or Carlisle, or Lancaster
or some other place in those parts *; and in the latter
William de Lancastria is bidden to deliver up a young
girl " whom King John our father entrusted to the
nurture of Gilbert son of Reinfrid, thy father." It is
evident therefore that the wardship of this heiress had
been closed by the probably recent death of Gilbert.
William de Lancaster, who succeeded, was the third
of that name. He is said to have fought in the Barons'
war against King John f and to have been taken prisoner
in 1216. Certainly one of the name was a prisoner at
Chester in 1217, and by the king's mandate was despatched
under safe conduct to Gloucester. { No doubt he was
pardoned ; and as baron of Kendal and great land-owner
in Westmorland and Lancashire he played his due part.
* Patent Rolls, Henry III.
t West's Antiquities of Furness.
t Patent Rolls i Henry III.
48 RYDAL
Like other great people of his time, he was the benefactor
of religious houses. His great-grandfather William had
given lands by the Cocker to a distant establishment at
Leicester,* and his grandfather William had interested
himself in the formation of an abbey there, called Cocker-
sand. He himself endowed the new Priory of Conishead
on the shore of Morecambe Bay (which had taken the
place of the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem at Bardsey)
with much land about Ulverston, and many perquisites ;
and besides these, with a small remote corner of his
barony of Kendal, viz., the " land of Basebrune " in Little
Langdale, which is in the parish of Grasmere. He likewise
conferred some lands on Furness Abbey, which was now
taking the lead of all other houses in Furness and
Amounderness. This was in 1240, when he expressed his
wish to be buried there as his grandfather had been. He
died in 1246, without issue, and bequeathed certain lands
to other than his heirs. To the religious men of Conishead
he left meadow lands at Elterwater, adjacent to their
settlement at Baisbrowne. Above all he enfeoffed
" Roger de Lancastre of 220 acres of land of his demesne in
Patricdale [Patterdale] worth 4 li. yearly, and of one mill worth
6os. yearly, and of the farm of free tenants to the value of i8s. lod.
The said Roger has the service of Gilbert de Lancastre, who
holds by knight's service by the tenth part of one knight's fee.
And the service of Walter de Lancastre, who holds by knight's
service, by the tenth part of one knights' fee." " Also the said
Roger d Lancaster of the whole forest of Westmorland, except
Fensdale and S. Cartefel, and the head of Martindale, which
the said Roger held before of ancient feoff ment."f
Through three November days William dictated the
charter of his gifts, and at midnight of the 2ist, his death
seeming imminent, his seal (we are told) was solemnly
broken. He revived however, but only for a few days.
* W. Farrer's Lancashire Pipe Rolls.
t Mr. Farrer's Lancashire Inquests, Extracts, &c.
THE BARONY OF KENDAL 49
The king took over his lands, as the custom was, and after
an Inquisition, held by worthy men, and after assigning
a reasonable dower to William's widow (Agnes de Brus)
he handed them over to his true heirs.
These heirs were declared to be Peter de Brus and Walter
de " Lyndeseye," the nephews of the dead man. For,
in default of right male heirs, the inheritance of the barony
now reverted to his sister, the daughter of Helwise de
Lancaster and Gilbert fitz Reinfred ; and Alice de Lancas-
ter had been married to William de Lindesey, and Helwise
to Peter de Brus, lord of Skelton. In these two lines
(with a further division of the Brus portion) the lands of
the barony remained till they were united under the crown
in Queen Elizabeth's days ; and the crown in Charles II '&
time leased them to the Lowther family, whose chief
member has been lord of the manor ever since.*
This division between the de Lancaster sisters and their
heirs, that took place in the middle of the thirteenth
century, affected not only the parish of Grasmere, but
even our little domain of Rydal. The wide lands were
parted in a fashion that, to our simpler modes of land
tenure, seems strangely complicated and confused.
Instead of one clear line being drawn across the barony
with all the lands on one side assigned to Alice, and all on
the other to Helwise, the partitions were scattered and
minute, and struck through existing town, parish, township,,
or hamlet alike. For this reason the manorial rights in
the barony have always been peculiarly involved ; and
dalesmen who have been neighbours on their little estates
owed suit and service and paid dues to different lords of
the manor.
The original land-tenure of these parts, before the
manorial methods were somewhat loosely applied to them,
must be briefly considered later. At the time that this
* See Mr. Farrer's Lancashire Inquests, Escheats, &c.
5O RYDAL
division was made, the Forest of Kendal, as it was called,
stretched along the eastern shores of Windermere and on
into the valleys of the Rothay and the Brathay (meeting
at the lakes' head) with breaks here and there where
settlements had been made, and clearings, that would
ensure pasture and plough-land to the little village
communities that had sprung up around the first
settlements of the conquering race. These settlements
are generally called, in the early rentals, hamlets ; but
they seem to have been already locally governed as
townships. Several townships were grouped together for
church government in one parish ; the parish of Winder-
mere, with its church by the lake for a centre, embracing
Undermilbeck, Applethwaite, Troutbeck, with part of
Ambleside ; and that of Grasmere embracing the township
of that name (lying within the last chamber of the
Rothay where the mother church stands) with its neigh-
bour " Langdesse " at the head of the Brathay, and Rydal
with part of Ambleside to which latter township was
united the scattered homesteads on Loughrigg the rocky
mass separating the lower parts of the valleys. That this
ecclesiastical division was made at a very early time, is
certain ; for we find that the natural boundary of Stockgill
which it followed, cuts in two a little settlement that was
later to become the thriving town of Ambleside, now in
the division.
The stretch from the middle of the lake to its head,
belonging to the parish of Windermere (which came to be
more exclusively considered a forest for game) was handed
over intact to Alice de Lindesey ; it included the town-
ships or hamlets of Applethwaite and Troutbeck and
crossed the church boundary at Stock-gill in order to include
the whole of Ambleside likewise. Beyond that, within
the parish of Grasmere, Rydal with its hamlet and sub-
sidiary valley fell to the lot of Helwise de Brus. Beyond
that again, Grasmere, Langdale and Loughrigg seem each
THE BARONY OF KENDAL 51
to have been divided equally between them, the two
taking half the holdings in the three settlements. Nor
was even little Loughrigg divided by one clear line ; for
though Helwise certainly got the majority of the holdings
that stood opposite to Rydal, on the further bank of the
river, even here a few important ones such as Cockstone,
Fox-gill, Loughrigg Brow, and Miller Bridge were
assigned to her sister, Alice de Lindesey, and broke up
into many parts what might have been an even stretch
of demesne, rising to the watershed.
The fisheries then an important source of revenue to
the manorial lord were likewise divided in a complicated
fashion. Alice had the whole lake of Windermere with
its islands, except Roger Holme, which fell to her sister.
She had also Routhmere (Rydal Water) with the plentiful
" dubs " or pools of the Rothay, also a part of the fishing
of Grasmere, and the Brathay as far as the "on' brygge "
at Skelwith.
Helwise appears to have taken " Skelef water " else-
where called Bratha lake (by which Elterwater is probably
meant) and the greater share of the Grasmere fishing.
She obtained the balance of Alice's rich possessions in
the great lake by the fisheries of the Kent, then of high
value ; though even here her sister had a fraction, as she
had in Windermere.
Helwise took half the town of Kendal as her portion ;
and Alice, who also had half of Ulverston in Lancashire,
the other half.
And the king in confirming this division of lands between
the two ladies and their heirs, assigned to each " a chief
messuage," that of Peter de Brus, son of Helwise, being
at Kirkby [Kendal] and that of Walter de Lindesey,
Alice's son, at Wart on in Lancashire.
The Lindeseys therefore, as long as they were in
residence in these parts, lived at Wart on, and thence
controlled their manorial possessions in our valleys ;
52 RYDAL
while the line of Brus or Bruce ruled at the nearer strong-
hold of Kendal Castle.
That line changed its name in the next generation,
Hel wise's son Peter died without issue in 1272, and his
possessions fell to his four sisters. With one, Ladarina,
who married John de Belle Aqua, we have nothing to do,
for she received of Kendal lands only Kentmere. Lucy
another sister married Marmaduke de Twenge ; and her
son Marmaduke eventually took a large share of Grasmere
and some of Langdale ; and this share, after being
enjoyed by his three sons, William, Robert, and Thomas,
passed to his daughter Margaret. Margaret's daughter
Matilda married a de Hothorne, and her daughter Isabella
(who was married to Walter Penwardyn) and her son
John de Hothorne shared it. A rental of the year 1375,
at Levens Hall, accounts for their receipt from some thirty
tenants at Grasmere and eleven at Langdale. The
Hothornes were seated at Staveley, where they likewise
had a share of the barony, and in later times, when their
possessions in our valleys seem to have shrunk, these were
claimed as belonging to the manor of Staveley. When
an Inquisition * was held on the possessions of the late
Sir John Hothorne in 1434, only three messuages or farm-
holds were accounted for in the " hamlet of Grysmere,"
and three in the " hamlet of Skelmeser and Langdenef " ;
and this attenuated portion passed by purchase from a
John de Hothorne in 1570, along with Staveley J to Allan
Bellingham.
A third daughter of Helwise is a factor in the history of
Rydal not to be forgotten. Her name was Margaret ;
she was married to Robert de Ros of Wick, whose father,
likewise Robert, had married Isabel, daughter of the king
of Scots. As her husband died in 1274, two years after
* See Chan. Inq. p.m. 14 Ed. III. (ist num.) 31 and No. 68 (ist num.)
48 Ed. III.
t See Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Henry VI. No. 16.
Nicolson and Burn.
THE BARONY OF KENDAL 53
her childless brother Peter, we hear of her often, for she
not only held large landed possessions, but seems to have
enjoyed considerable power in the disposal of them. On
the great partition of Peter's property, she and her husband
had received " the castle ot Kirkeby in Kendale, with all
Kendale, whatever pertained to Sir Peter de Brus in
demesnes, villeinages, rents and service of freemen and
others, except the dale of Kent mere, which is assigned
to Sir John de Bella Aqua and to " Luderana " (sic) his wife,
and with the advowson of Konigesheved priory." * And
Margaret, on her husband's death does fealty to the king
for these lands, and takes oath not to marry without his
licence. In 1281, some re-distribution of Peter's lands
took place. Margaret was declared not to have received
her full share, and three-quarters of a fee held by William
de Stirkeland which had been assigned to the fourth sister
Agnes (married to Walter de Faucumberg) was transferred
to her. Her lands clearly included almost the whole of
her mother Hel wise's half of the barony, as stated ; and
one half of Grasmere, Langdale and Loughrigg. With
Rydal she parted the very next year ; and the charter by
which she granted it to her kinsman, Sir Roger de Lan-
caster, gives us our first record of the place, and of its
boundaries. (See Appendix). The rest of her property
she divided between her son William and her nephew
Marmaduke de Twenge : so that when an inquisition
was held at her death in 1307, the jurors declared that
she then held nothing. They continued
" but she sometimes held the moiety of the Barony of Kendal
except the vale of Kentmere of the King in chief by the
service of one knights fee. Of which moiety the said Margaret
enfeoffed Roger de Lancaster of the vale of Ridale, to hold of
the King in chief by the service of the fourth part of one knight's
fee, whereof he has the King's charter ; it is worth 20 in all
issues. The said Margaret also enfeoffed William de Ros, her
* See Cal. of Close Rolls, Ed.I.
54 RYDAL
son, of the Castle of Kyrkeby in Kendal, with the fourth part
of the town of Kyrkeby, and the hamelets of Hoton Haye,
Scalthaybrige, Stirkeland Randolfe, and Greurige, with 45 acres
of land of the demesnes of Helsington, and with the holdings
of William, son of Adam and Henry de Wytfalhend in Hogayl,
with the mills of the Castle, Hoton, Greurige, Strykeland Randolfe,
and Dillaker ; the moiety of the mills of Patton, Grarige,
and Respton, worth ^40 yearly, to hold to the said William and
the heirs begotten of his body (in default to remain to Marmaduke
de Thwenge and his heirs) of the lord the King by the service
of the third part of one knight's fee
The said Margaret also enfeoffed Marmaduke de Thweng of
the manor of Helsington except 40 acres of land of the demesne
of Helsington and of the fourth part of the vill of Kyrkeby-in-
Kendal, with the hamelts, of Crosthayth, Gresmer, and Langden
with the appurtenances, and o the mill of Helsington, with
moiety of the mills ol Crosthayth, Respton, Gresmer, and Langden,
worth ^40 yearly in all issues ; to hold of the said Marmaduke
and the heirs begotten of his body (in default to remain to William
de Ros and his heirs) of the King in chief by the service of the
moiety of the third part of one knight's fee, whereof the said
Marmaduke has the Kings charter of confirmation." .... *
It will be seen that (according to this inquisition) no
portion of her Grasmere and Langdale lands went to her
son. Yet her son's line is eventually found in possession
of almost the half of these two townships ; and we can
only conjecture that it was re-acquired from the Ped-
wardyns, since after 1375 we hear no more of that branch
of the Twenge line in either of the places. Margaret's
line ran through William, Thomas, and John de Ros, and
through John's daughter Elizabeth, (who married Sir
William Parr) into the Parr family, till it ceased with
Sir William, who rose into high favour with Henry VIII.,
and was created by him Earl of Essex and Marquis of
Northampton. His possessions in the barony of Kendal,
including half of Grasmere and Langdale, came to be
known as the Marquis Fee, and will be called so in the
* Mr. Farrer's Lancashire Inquests, Escheats, &c.
THE BARONY OF KEN DAL 55
following pages : they represent, roughly speaking, the
share given over to Helwise de Lancaster and her heirs
in 1246.
Alice's share passed through Walter and William de
Lindesey, and by William's heiress Christiana, to the
French family of de Gynes, who were lords of Coucy.
From 1284, onward, Christiana's husband, Ingram or
Ingelram was playing his role in these parts as chief
tenant to the king, being summoned to council and
parliament, and bidden to advance with the other northern
knights (of whom his connection Marmaduke de Twenge
was one) against the Scots.* His journeys thither were
sometimes of a more peaceful character ; one was taken
in 1284 with his wife and mother-in-law, who was daughter
of John de Balliol, when both he and the latter appointed
attorneys to act for them during their absence. Chris t-
tiana survived him ten years, dying in 1335, and she
was followed by their son William, though another son
Robert took a portion of the lands in east Westmorland
for life. On William's death in 1343 an Inquisition
declared Ingelram his brother to be his heir. Ingelram's
claim however was set aside by the king, who wished to
reward John de Coupland (who married William de Coucy's
widow Joan) for his prowess in battle, and his capture of
the king of Scots alive at the battle of Neville's Cross ;
and so granted to him and his wife, for their joint lives
William's possessions in the barony, with reversion to
Ingelram de Gynes and his heirs. This Ingelram, the
sire of Coucy was a great man, though more French in his
interests than English. That he was in favour with
Edward III. at least for a time is certain, for he married
his daughter Isabella, and was created Earl of Bedford.
But when the boy Richard came to the throne, Ingelram
haughtily renounced his allegiance to the English king,
* See Close Rolls, 1307 and 1313.
56 RYDAL
and returned the Order of the Garter which had been
bestowed on him ; and his confiscated lands in England
were assigned to the support of his wife. The children
of Ingelram and Isabella were Philippa and Mary ; and
while, to Mary were assigned her father's possessions in
France, Philippa (who married Robert de Veer, Earl of
Bedford, and Duke of Ireland) took the English ones,
including apparently those of Kendal, with which we
are concerned. These last remained from that time in
the hands of the royal house. They were granted to
John, Duke of Bedford, son of Henry IV., and on his
death in 1436 fell to his nephew Henry VI., a third
however being portioned to his widow Jaquetta (who
married Sir Richard Woodville) as a dower. Next they
were assigned to John, Duke of Somerset ; and he,
dying in 1444, left only a little daughter Margaret,
afterwards to be the mother of Henry VII., who carried
them to her husband the Earl of Richmond. After a
temporary deprivation of them during the ascendency
of the House of York, in favour of its adherents the
Parrs of Kendal, Margaret, Countess of Richmond
resumed them ; and it was from her (it is said) they
gained their name of the Richmond Fee. Through
Henry VII. they passed to Henry VIII., who endowed
his natural son, the Duke of Richmond, with them. When
they fell to Elizabeth, she not only kept them in her own
hands, but with the widow of the Marquis of Northampton
she exchanged lands, so that the Marquis Fee became hers
likewise. The bulk of the lordship of Kendal thus became
re-united, and passed down the line of sovereigns
James I. allowing it as a portion to his son Prince Charles,
and Charles II. settling it as a dower on his queen till it
was leased and ultimately sold to the Lowther family.
Such, briefly put, is the roll of the lords of the manor
who ruled conjointly over the lands of Kendal. This
descent will be more clearly scanned in a table. Two of
THE BARONY OF KENDAL 57
the lines branching from Helwise remained as residents
in the neighbourhood, at Kendal and at Staveley. The
third passed through local de Lindeseys and French
Coucys to mighty warriors and kings ; and it is with this
line we are chiefly concerned, because half Loughrigg
belonged to it.
The Inquisitions that were held when these lords died,
and from the rentals and accounts made out for them
by the steward, are our only materials for reconstructing
the history of our valleys and their villages till the line
of Elizabeth ; and these unfortunately are incomplete
and scanty. Of court rolls, in which the proceedings of
the village courts were written, but one specimen appears
to exist, which is in the Record Office.
The descent of the manor of Rydal through Sir Roger
de Lancaster will be given later.
CHAPTER VI
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE
Meaning of " Dalesman," "Dales " and " Meres " ;
" stinted " pastures ; Appendix ; " Boundering."
IT is with the rulers that history first concerns itself ;
and thus it is through the lords of the manor who held
them that we first hear of the lands of the Rothay
and Brathay. But there was an ownership other than
theirs in those lands, older, closer, and more lasting ;
that of the people who lived upon and by the soil. Reach-
ing far back into the past, silent, yet tenacious, the char-
acter of this occupation and possession can only be
guaged by later evidences, and by the customs that were
found to prevail when record begins.
Along the valleys, making gaps here and there in the
ancient forest, were little communities of men, each
58 RYDAL
bearing a name and constitution, as mil or township.
The open spaces surrounding these villages, where forest
had been cleared for pasture of cattle and sowing of corn
were no doubt of immemorial age ; and if the Celt had
not anywhere planted on them his permanent " vicus,"
he would certainly have erected on them the summer
dwellings that belonged to his more nomad state. The
conquering Angle or the Norseman had but to seize the
ground, erect with a few of his fellows their houses, and
to begin, along with them and some slaves or dependents,
that life of common possession and joint interest that
made each village community an autonomy, self-governing
and independent.
From the rocky nature of the soil, which made arable
land hard to find, these communities were small. Three
of them Troutbeck, Ambleside, and Rydal, occupied
similar sites, close upon the banks of subsidiary streams
just above where these streams fell into the main valley,
with their houses clustered pretty thickly together on the
dry sunny slope. Here they were not only lifted above
the morasses of the bottom, but behind them on the fell
was good grazing for their cattle, while below them was
to be found that scanty patch of flat alluvial land that
yielded a soil deep enough for the plough to turn. In
Grasmere, with its circular vale, the homesteads were more
scattered, as they were in Langdale ; but there too, while
each man held his toft and croft, or allotment on which
his house actually stood, as his own by private right, the
rest was open field, which he held jointly with his neighbour
and tilled and controlled by common council. The
town field, towards Easdale, is known, and yet unenclosed
in parts, while the mere-stones, which divided, etc., one
man's balks or strips from his neighbour's, are not all
gone. On the other side of the valley, the little meadows
like those of Rydal were found early last century
(though then enclosed) to be in possession of several
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 59
statesmen, relic of the time when every part of the village
land was held jointly and interchangeably. In Loughrigg
indeed, where of arable land there was practically none,
the men of the few homesteads on the pastures by the
Rothay were joined on to Rydal as a township ; for the
hamlet of Clappersgate, within the Loughrigg division,
never was a vill, but appears to have sprung up late about
the wharf on the Brathay, that was used for landing
goods brought by Windermere.
Around the houses of each village community there lay
then the open fields, of which each member owned a
certain share, fixed in quantity, but changing in position,
This he held as alad, his indeed unalienably and by
inheritance, yet held by witness of the community only.
He tilled his apportioned strip each year with the plough
and team of oxen he held in common with his fellows ;
he reared his temporary hedge or fence round his appor-
tioned pasture while the hay grew upon it. His cattle,
drawn in to the village for winter, roamed in summer
the wide common pasture. In the forest, which lay
between village and village unenclosed, and grew densely
up to the clearings, he had his apportioned strip upon the
edge, called his wood-mire, where he cut all the elding
wanted for his fire-hearth, and all the timber needed for
his house and implements. On the fell, he had his
bracken-dale, where he could gather the fern for bedding
of his cattle ; and in the moss, his dalt or dale for the
cutting and drying of his peat. These shares or dales,*
in which all his property, excepting house and cattle,
was held, gave him his name of dalesman ; though he was
later known, when property in land had become more
individual and consolidated, as statesman or estatesman
too. When he died, his house and his share of village
* Dale = to divide, share. The word occurs in many wills and deeds of
the i7th and i8th century. A deal a part or portion. See appendix to this
chapter.
60 RYDAL
land passed to his family, to his widow first for her life
(who held it for his children) and then in general to his
eldest son. That however, it had originally been property
vested in the family, and not in the individual, seems
likely.
In an Ambleside rental of 1505-6, Christopher Par-
try gge and James Partrygge are charged 6s. 8d. rent
"for a tenement and 5 cattle, to hold of one of them
according to the custom of the manor, and the other is
bound to agree for his part upon view of his years."
Some settlement between the two was clearly made.
And in what late wills we possess, the testator endeavoured
to compensate his younger sons for their heritage by
causing the inheritor to pay to them a certain sum in
money (generally out of the estate). Also if there were
an idiot in the family (as in the case of the Parks of the
Nab less than a hundred years ago) there was a charge
laid upon the estate for his maintenance.*
But written wills were a very late device. In the
primitive community when a man died his fellows drew
together, and a selected number of them, called a Jury,
examined his affairs, declared what his communal portion
amounted to, and to whom it passed. This declaration
developed after lands became fixed and enclosed, into
the practice of " boundering " of which we have an
example written out for the benefit of Sir Daniel Fleming,
after he had inherited a small estate at the Wray in
Grasmere. (See Appendix to this chapter).
The village law in fact was custom ; a custom founded
on ages of usage : and that law was declared by the older
and more revered men of the community. All indeed,
gathered together for the village moot or council, for all
in these small communities except the few landless
* Both these claims of the family were set down by the jury who were
called to declare the customs of the dalesmen of Furness in 1583. West's
Antiquities of Furness.
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 6l
men or cottars seem to have been equal. There was
so much to be arranged and settled in village affairs.
Besides the extraordinary ones of restraining an unruly
member or witnessing to a dead man's share, there
were the current and very pressing ones of fixing and
apportioning the dales, when these were yearly inter-
changeable in the arable field and the meadow ; there
was the question to be settled if the common were a
" stinted " one * as to how many cattle each member
was entitled from the size of his holding to put upon it and,
above all, there were certain men to be appointed out of
their number, who would undertake that this village
law should be carried out, and the approved custom
upheld throughout the year, in every department of the
village and its lands. Whether all these offices were
ancient is not certain. Some of them may have originated
when the village moot passed into the lord's court. The
reeve, or grave as he was here called, f was the chief
village officer ; and he was bound to represent it at the
higher court of the hundred, which for these parts was
held at Kendal. He came later to collect the lord's rents,
and to be called bailiff ; but it remained an unwritten
law that no man could fill the office who was not a land
holder in the township, and most of his duties eventually
passed to the constable. Then there were the two-
hedge-lookers of whom we hear at Wythburn, and whose
duties no doubt were to supervise those hedges which
must be made by all at the right time ; the moss-lookers,.
who were responsible for the peat-mosses, where no unfair
advantage must be taken by one cutter over another ;
and above all, the house-lookers and bier-law men, I who
had to see that no man exceeded his right to lopping in
the forest, and who later (when their office became a
* Limited i.e., to a certain head of cattle.
t The name occurs in many documents.
j Perhaps the " Wood-Linchers " of W. were the same.
62 RYDAL
most difficult one as we shall see) had to view a man's
house, and declare how much timber it required for its
repair and then (in company with the lord's officer) to
mark out such trees in the common wood as he might cut.
The frithmen * were responsible for the common and the
cattle put upon it during the summer ; and for Rydal,
where the pasture was a " stinted " one, these officers
appear in the Agist-books and papers of the manor down
to the eighteenth century. They are stated also, in the
seventeenth century, "to have the care of the " Pairable
Hedge." They seem to have been elected in rotation,
each village land-holder taking his due turn ; as were the
grave, the constable, the churchwarden, and the later
overseer of the poor and the surveyor of the highways.
Only for the eighteen men who represented the whole
parish of Grasmere in church council, six from each town-
ship (and so six: from Rydal-and-Loughrigg) was there
permanence of office. The grave, however, who originally
served for one year only, as early rentals show, came later
when he degenerated into a mere collector of the lord's
rents to hold office for life; such was Edwin Green of
Rydal.
The village moot or council was held at first, there is
no doubt, in the open air, upon some mound or by some
prominent stone that served as a convenient centre. f The
mount at Rydal may have served such a purpose. A
stone now immersed by the raised water of Thirlmere
was known traditionally as the Steady-stone, because to
it gathered the Wythburn men, to settle the number of
their cattle to be put on their stinted common. The
suggested law- ting J at Fell Foot in Little Langdale just
within the barony of Kendal may have served for a wider
* Frith seems to mean a wood or a clearing in a wood. To Frith = to cut
underwood. Also to drive or clear off cattle. See end of chapter x.
t Such a stone still exists near Spalding. It is called the Elloe Stone
from the Hundred of Elloe in the County of Lincoln. Ed.
J Thing (Dan. and Swed. ting) = a council.
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 63
concourse where the Norsemen of the coast could meet
those of the valleys to discuss larger matters of policy
and war.
APPENDIX. RYDAL MSS.
Outside in Sir Daniel Fleming's hand. "A Verdict concerning
Wray Tenement in Gresmere, May 1683."
Gresmere.
Whereas wee the Queen's Majesties Jureors of the manor of
Grasmer [sic] in the county of Westmorland being comanded
by our bailif according to our Ancient Custome to vew & Bounder
A Tenament of her Majesties Land Called the Richmond Fee
of the yearly Rent of sixteen pound halfepeny farthing stuate
lying & being at wrey in Grasmer within the said county of
Westmorland ; hereto belonging unto Daniell Fleming of Rydall
in the said County, Esq ; (now Sir Daniel Fleming, knight) &
now appertaining unto William Fleming, Esq. his son & heire
apparent ; wee the said jureors whose names are here under
writen being duly empaneld & sworne ; & ; haueing vewed
euery particualer parcell of ground belonged to the said Tenement
haueing lately seen & perused a former verdict or Award Con-
cerning the said tenement bearing daite the 21 day of July
Anno Domi ; 1668 ; haueing set divers marks & meerstones
upon the said Land belonging to the tenement aforesaid wheire
any was needful to bee set ; & haueing heard the Evidence of
diuers old men & of our owne knowledge ; wee according to our
Antcient Custome doe verdict order & Award as ffoloweth.
First that one poll of medow lying at welfoot bridge ; Another
parcell of medow ground lying on the north side of stonydaill
in the wrey feild A parcell of towne ground Caled little Broad
Croft Another parcell of Cornland & medow Lying under Rantry
Cragg A Road of Corne ground Caled Catsend ; Another Rood
of Corn ground lying under Regnald Close ; A parcell of medow
lying in the Broad Ing being the i6 th part of the said closes ;
which was Rente (?) for Robertt wilsone ground at wray And
was afterwarde in the posesion of John Rawson A little parcell
of Corn ground Caled pyottnest ; A litte Intack of pasture ground
adjoining to the wrey gill ; & an House & ylard lying at wrey
upon the south side of the way between the highway And the
gill ; A parcell of Corn ground Caled Thisel Leyes A wall, standing
upon the said daill of ground which said wall mayde by John
64 RYDAL
Jackson or done for him wee order to bee Removed & noe way
to be made at any time hereafter by him or any other persons
ouer the said daill ; in Testimoiny where off wee the said Juriors
haue here subscribed our names & marks ; the i6 th day of may
Anno Domini, 1683.
John Haukrigg John Hird H
Rowland Atkinson Robert Greene
Michell Watson Edwin Green
Robert Hird John Hawkrigg
Michaell Knott K Robert Hird R
John Haukrigg A John Walker x
Gerall Clork H John Benson <
CHAPTER VII
THE INSTITUTION OF THE MANOR
" Bokland " ; Bainbrigg ; Various rentals; Courts in
Moothall or Church.
UPON the once self-governing village community the
manorial system came to be superimposed, by
which it was linked on to the state, and furnished
its share to the state's maintenance.* At what time the
men of our little settlement first acknowledged a feudal lord,
rendering him suit and service for the protection he gave
them, and marching under his banner to the wars, is not
known. The system was in force in Anglo-Saxon times,
and the Angles, when they colonized the region round
Morecambe Bay, certainly laid that region out in manors.
The " capital messuage" or manor-house found upon the
island of Windermere (Langholme) in the very first rental
of these parts, but always spoken of as ruined or waste,
may have been a centre of theirs, where a lord or thane
administered the park around. Certain it is that as late
as 1376, when an Inquisition was made on the death of
* The reckoning would be so many cattle for each stead or holding. In
Ambleside the value of the stead was given in cattle.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE MANOR 65
Joan de Coupeland, she is declared to have held for her
life " the manor of Wynandermer with its members,
namely, the hamlets of Langeden, Loghrigge, Grismer,
Hamelsate, Troutebek, Appelthwayte, Crosthwayt,
Stirkeland-kells and Hoton " * ; and from time im-
memorial the villages of Troutbeck and Ambleside
attended a court held twice a year at Windermere, as
belonging to that manor.
But the Anglian government could never have been
strong in the valleys, that were filled largely with a Celtic
population till the Norsemen made their settlements ;
and during the period of Danish inroad and the anarchy
that resulted, its force must have declined. Our little
mountain settlements, buried in forest, would be left
pretty much to their own independent ways ; and it is
doubtful how much they furnished by way of suit and
service, to that Gilmichael of whom we hear in Doomsday
Book, or whether the sturdy dalesman did him homage
for their lands as lord.
But with Norman rule, and the settlement of the counties
by Henry I. and Henry II., the feudal system was put
into effectual force. The plan of the manor could never
indeed be carried out completely and satisfactorily in
these valleys, from the restricted character of the ground
occupied by the settlements ; but the machinery of the
manor was applied to them, and each little township
though without a lord's seat or manor-house with its
indispensable adjuncts came to be loosely called a
manor. The great barons of Kendal, who owned all the
county, and more, were for long the sole lords of the manor
of our valleys, until the grant of Rydal to William de
Lancaster, and there was nothing between the lord and
the free land-holding ceorl f of those village-settlements,
which he may never have visited, unless he happed upon
* Inq. p.m. No. 29, 49 Ed. III. pt. I.
t A.S. form of churl = man.
66 RYDAL
them in some long day's hunting. Still there were his
officers who could apply the system and see that it
was carried out : and the free ceorl became in legal
language, the lord's man, or tenant at will of the lord,
paying heavy dues for that lord's protection : while
the village moot passed into the Court-baron. The forest
too, lying unenclosed between mil and vill, became the
lord's, and the dalesman had to pay as a tax or acknow-
ledgment for continuing to make use of his old privileges
within it. If the lord did not reserve it for the chase, he
was very apt to grant a large portion of it to some stranger
who had rendered him a service, thus creating a new
species of land-tenure, called bok-land, because the grant
was written down in a book, and that writing gave posses-
sion, in place of the older method of witness by the
community. This new tenure created a new class of men,
who were called free tenants, and took rank higher than
the " tenants at will," because the suit and service they
paid to the lord was beyond the indispensable and most
honourable service in arms light and even complimen-
tary in character. The rent being paid in the form of a
hawk, a pair of spurs, a pair of gloves, a barbed arrow,*
a rose even, though more generally of a pound of cummin,
which was a spice used in noble households. Without a
certain number of these free tenants, it was technically
considered that a Court Baron could not be held.
Of Bok-land we have one well certified instance in our
valley. It is the stretch of woodland called Bainrigg,
lying in what must have been the primeval forest that
separated the settlements of Grasmere and Rydal. It
was a " free " holding, and is stated as late as the early
seventeenth century, to have been held " by ancient
charter."
* The Inq. p.m. of Walter de Lindesay 56 Hen. III. No. 61, whose free
tenants in the barony furnished him with all these.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE MANOR 67
Bainriggs.
Manorium j John Fleming, Esq re holdethe off S r Ja Bellingham
de Staueley : } knight off his manor off Staueley, by doinge
suite off Court yearly, & paying yeerly one pound off Comyn, or
two pence in monye, Tho e Tenne Acres off Land or thereaboutes
lying & being in Gresmire, nye unto or adioying unto gresmire
Tarne, And holdeth y e premisses by an Ancyent Charter ; And
it is called Baineriggs ; Late in y e Tenure of Rob* Bainerigge ;
A tamily of de Bainrig or de Baynbrig held it
in the fourteenth century, when they were already
divided into two branches, represented by Henry, who
paid to the Lindesey Fee a " free " rent of 2d. and a pound
of cummin, and Richard, who paid in 1375 to the Hothom
and Penwardyn Fee 305. 6d. and a pound of cummin.*
It is probably the former branch that is referred to in
William de Lindesey 's Inquisition of 1283 j as " a certain
free tenant " of Grasmere who holds about four acres of
land and renders half a pound of cummin. Later, an
Inquisition of 1335 f speaks of four free tenants of
Grasmere, paying 2s. 8Jd. besides the half-pound to the
same Fee. In the 1375 rental of the other fee there appears
the name of Beatrix de Wyresdale, who owned a " place "
(of higher status than a tenement) now held by someone
else. We hear also of a freehold held in Loughrigg
(probably " Field Foot ") being held by rental of " 2d. and
a peppercorn paid at the Feast of St. Michael to the chief
lord of the Fee if lawfully demanded, with all other services
and dues . ' ' Besides th ese , the family of Alan Pennyngt on ,
knight, are found to be " free " holders of the manor of
Lyttyl-Langdall in Strickeland Kettyll by homage and
fealty and an annual gift of venison, this was in the middle
of the thirteenth century ; at which time William de
Lancaster, the last baron who possessed the lands of
Kendal undivided, likewise chartered the religious men
* Rentals at Levens Hall.
t Inq. p.m. No. 36, n Ed. I. and No. 74 (iz) 8 Ed. III.
68 RYDAL
of Conishead Priory with adjacent lands at Baisbrowne
and Elterwater. These two grants of Bok-land remain
intact to this day, and are dignified by the names of
manor though they consist only of the barren slope of
Lingmoor, facing severally north and south with the few
farmholds and fields that fringe the two river banks.
But the " free " tenant of these valleys, if he had not
greater possessions elsewhere, was not much higher in
actual status than the dalesman or tenant at will ; and
he was apt (like those of Grasmere) to drop into the latter's
class. In the township of Rydal and Loughrigg as a rule
there was no free tenant.
These settlements at the heads of the twin valleys,
whose individual existence can be expressed only as vills
or townships, can never have been closely attached to
Windermere in a manorial sense. The distance was too
great for their men to attend a bi-yearly court at Winder-
mere, or to obtain thence the supplies that were a lord's
monopolies. We find indeed, in the earliest record that
gives details, that Grasmere was then serving, though
without a lord's seat or manor-house, as a manorial
centre for herself and her sister townships of Langdale
and Loughrigg, as, probably, before the grant to Roger de
Lancaster separating it finally from the surrounding lands,
she had done for Rydal also. The fact that there the
church was situated, whose boundaries embraced these
neighbouring townships, gave to her a natural pre-
eminence over them. The men of Langdale, Rydal and
Loughrigg every Sunday set their faces for Grasmere, and
entered its church for worship ; it was easy therefore to
go thither for the Lord's Court, which was not improbably
held in the church too, for want of another building, as it
was at Windermere, as late as 1443.* The Levens' rental
(about 1400) when accounting for the proceeds of that
* Court Roll f g{ 21 Hen VI.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE MANOR 69
roll of Grasmere which belonged to the Lindesey fee,
explains " Half the hamlet there belongs to the lord, the
other half belongs to the lord Hothom, knight. The
aforesaid will hold a court together, the profits whereof
ought to be equally shared between them." The Inquisi-
tion of the Duke of Bedford mentions that it was then the
custom to hold a court in Grasmere thrice a year ; and
a roll for the court held there October 3, 1604, for the
two fees or lordships, exist at the Record Office, though
in the previous year (the first of King James') the men
had been called to a court held at the moot-hall in Kendal.*
The Inquisition of 1283,! which is the first to furnish
any particulars of the townships, shows that certain in-
dispensable adjuncts to a manor existed then at Grasmere
besides the " four acres of meadow in demesne " accounted
for as worth 2s. 6d. yearly. While Langdale likewise
possessed a corn-mill, Grasmere alone had a fulling mill,
where the cloth, spun and woven in the homesteads, was
bound to be carried for the dressing. There was a brewery
there too, for which (and the monopoly attending it) a
brew-wife (braceatrix) paid 6d. yearly to the lord. It
seems to have been the practice at that time to let out
the right of brewing to women, who were perhaps con-
sidered more expert in the art, or to have more time
than men. For King Edward I., in 1250, considering
with his council sitting at Westminister certain complaints
of faulty administration of justice in Westmorland which
were brought before him, ends his edict thus : " For
the rest, the king wills that women brewers (braceresses)
in that county may not for one amercement brew and sell
all the year contrary to the assize and to their profit and
to the damage of the people, but that they shall be
punished according to the award of the county { [court]
* Court Roll | f .
t On the death of William de Lindesay. Inq. p.m. No. s6 b n Ed. I.
J Calendars of Close Rolls.
70 RYDAL
as is done elsewhere in the realm." From which it appears
that the canny wives of Westmorland, after paying a fine
for brewing beer of a quality inferior to that presented
by the " assize/' went gaily on with the same profitable
course, as do many modern defiers of the law.* The next
brewer we hear of in Grasmere was a man.
The Hothom half of the lordship of Grasmere likewise
possessed a brewery, situated at Kelbergh (Kelbarrow),
for which 2s. od. was paid in 1375 ; and it appears later
to have been held in partnership by several tenants there,
who no doubt saw that the beer brewed was up to quality, f
This half also possessed the monopoly of a forge (perhaps
as a balance to the walk-mill), for which Richard Smith
paid i2d. and id.
At a later date, these privileges of a walk-mill, a brewery,
a shop and a forge at first like the corn-mill, the exclusive
property of the lord came to be extended to each
township ; and to the growth of the walk or fulling
industry, a chapter must be subsequently devoted. Thus
Loughrigg came to possess a corn-mill and a brewery.
We hear too, of a shop in Grasmere, which furnished
2d. to the lord. For no more than one accredited trader,
who bartered the very few necessities of life which the
dalesman could not produce from his land and within
his homestead, was tolerated on the manor.
About the shop, or stores, we hear from the subsidies
of later times, for all persons owning goods above a
certain value were taxed ; and the ordinary dalesman's
property not coming up to the fixed sum, only the store-
keeper paid. In 1626-7 J onn Knott in Grasmere paid
on goods ; George Jackson in Ambleside ; Edward Benson
of High Close in Rydal and Loughrigg ; and in Langdale
* The fines of brewers for breach of assize, paid to the Lindesay Fee in
Ulverston, amounted to 253. od. yearly in 1347. Inq. pm.. No. 63 (2 Nrs)
20 Ed. III.
t This portion of the Levens document is too mutilated to be consecutively
legible.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE MANOR 7!
two men (probably allowed because of the scattered nature
of the township), viz. Charles Middlefell and Regnald
Willson. This limit is maintained down to the subsidy
of 1675, the names only of the accredited shop-keepers
changing from time to time.* The traders of Rydal
village (of which we shall hear later) seem to have escaped
taxation. There was a little shop down to recent times.
CHAPTER VIII
THE LORD'S DEMANDS
Inquisition of Queen Elizabeth; Suit and Service;
The Godpenny ; " Old " and " New " Tenants ;
Arbitrary and Extortionate Fines in the manor in
the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries ;
" General " and " Dropping " Fines ; The Income
Fine.
*" I A HE lord of the manor's receipts did not stop with
his monopoly of industries, and his profits on
courts and assizes. Many and various were the
obligations by which the dalesman was bound to him.
But though his steward wrote down the Tenant on the
court roll, as " tenant at will" of his lord, "ad volun-
tatem domini," he had no power to dispossess him of the
holding he had inherited, except for felony or murder.
But he could tax him. And this he did, upon every
occasion possible, both on the extraordinary occasions
of death and inheritance, and on annual ones. The
dalesman paid not only fines and heriots, but a yearly
tax, called rent, on his holding : he paid yearly for the
increase of his flock, for the hewing of timber and the
grazing of his cattle in the forest ; if he enclosed and
worked a little garden on his own land by his homestead,
* Rydal Hall MSS.
72 RYDAL
he paid upon that, and if he kept fowls, he was obliged
to furnish the Hall larder with a hen every year. Besides
all this he had not only to serve in war if required, under
his lord, but he had to assist when a hunt was forward,
and at the harvesting of the lord's crops.
Originally no doubt the dalesman's dues were all paid
to the lord in kind, or by boon-service. The dues differed
in different places according to the character of the place
and of the lord's pursuits ; and some strange ones survived
down to recent times.
These no doubt had their origin in some ancient bargain
struck between lord and tenant, which growing fixed as
" custom " became the law of the village communities,
and tenaciously held by as a right. But many dues in
kind were exchanged gradually for small payments in
money. These were fixed in sum, as was the annual rent
upon the holding. The lord, having no power to raise
these, sought as time went on, to raise the fine or gressum
and heriot due when the tenant died and his next-of-kin
inherited, or when he himself succeeded to the lordship.
Such attempts were stoutly contested by the tenants, on
the plea of custom and tenant-right, with varying success ;
and the smaller and weaker communities, and those that
came more directly under the personal influence of the
lord, were forced to yield, as we shall see. The question
had become such a burning one in the time of the Tudors,
that Queen Elizabeth, when the main portion of the
lordship of Kendal came into her hands, (including both
the Richmond and Marquis Fees), caused an Inquisition
to be held at Kendal, when a jury of landowners sworn
for the purpose, declared before her commissioners, the
Customs of the Lordship, as they had been handed down
from times beyond the memory of man.
This verdict, written down, and confirmed in 1574,
served as a useful text. Many copies of it were made,
and were carefully preserved by such customary tenants
THE LORD'S DEMANDS 73
in the lordship of which there were not a few as had
become large land-holders. The copy used here is
from the Phillipps MSS.
Another, in the possession of Mr. Pollitt, is essentially
the same, but for difference of wording and spelling. It
seems to have been made for a Mr. H. Crossfield of
Godmond Hall in Strikeland- Roger. Mr. Gawen Braith-
waite, of Ambleside Hall, who was a large customary
holder, had a splendid copy of the customs made up on a
parchment roll, which (in its original case) was possessed
by Mr. George Browne up to the time of his death.
In spite of this settlement of vexed questions for those
fortunate holders (including those of Grasmere, Langdale,
Ambleside and part of Loughrigg) who were in the royal
lordship, King James tried to completely upset the land-
tenure of these parts. On the pretext that border- warfare
had ceased with the Union of the two kingdoms, and that
the customary tenant was no longer called to serve in it,
he claimed that the whole bargain between him and his
lord broke down, and that the land reverted to the lord.
At this threatened deprivation, the tenants drew
together, prepared to make a stubborn defence of their
rights ; but there is no doubt that the 2,700 which some
of them collected and offered to the crown as a fine or bribe,
was a main factor in procuring a settlement and confirm-
ation of those rights. The matter was only concluded,
indeed, on the death of James ; and even then, the proposed
settlement by the court of star chamber, of the disputes
between lord and tenant of adjoining lands which
naturally had arisen at this juncture seems never to have
taken place. Upon some manors it is said that the dales-
man compounded with his superiors as to the amount of
the fines exacted ; and it is to be feared that the lord,
who here had his opportunity, in many cases pressed
hard on his poorer tenants.*
* See Nicolson and Burn for a complete account of the long proceedings
that resulted from James' action.
74 RYDAL
These fines and rents and taxes, of whose amounts we
have little evidence before the date of Queen Elizabeth's
Inquisition, we may now consider more particularly,
taking those first in order which were due on extraordinary
occasions, as on inheritance and on death of the lord,
and the widow's heriot ; and next the annual ones, such
as " boon " service and rents.
THE GRESSUM OR FINE
On the death of a. land-holder, his successor, whether
he was classed as a free or a customary tenant, was bound
to appear at the court of the lord and claim admission to
the inherited holding. When the court had ceased to
perform any other functions but the exaction of extra-
ordinary fines, it was called together specially, even in
places as small as Rydal, for the admission of a tenant.
This was no doubt a relic of the freer times of the village
community, when each member received his lands by
witness of the whole community assembled at the moot.
No document was needed for the holding of folk-land,
since the testimony of a holder's fellows proved his right
of possession. Title-deeds indeed began to be written in
the seventeenth century when a holding was sold and
passed into strange hands ; but the majority of the village
lands were still held by the simple and formal admission
at the court. The deeds of the Field Foot estate in
Loughrigg, which had become freehold, go no further back
than its sale in 1773 ; and within the last twelve years
an estate in Grasmere passed into the hands of its purchaser
without a single document but the immediate contract.
The tenant on his admission paid in the " open face
of Court " a piece of silver known as a God's penny.
Originally this would be the old English silver penny, set
down as a token or confirmation of a transaction which
secured to the new holder his inherited land " according
to Ancient Custom, known as Tenant Right." The God's
penny came, however, for the customary tenant, to bear a
THE LORD'S DEMANDS 75
relative value to the value of the land so passed over ;
and that value, exacted as a gressum or fine to the lord,
tended ever to increase.
There seems to be some slight ground for supposing
this fine to have been fixed for the whole of the barony of
Kendal in time of the Norman settlement, at double the
annual rent paid to the lord. We have no means of
guaging the proportion of the gressums that appear in the
accounts of 1515-6,* when John Gyrrigge pays 66s. 8d.
for a messuage with lands inherited from his father
William, in Langdale and another 2os. for property in
Loughrigg, and Henry Coke pays 6s. 8d. in Loughrigg,
because their rents are not told. But an agreement
which was drawn up in 1572, between the tenants and
lord of the little manor of Braisbrowne (long held by the
Priory of Conishead, but now in the hands of the Benson
family) reveal to us the old custom in that remote quarter
of the barony. It states that the tenants there
holding " acordinge to th annciannte and laudable custome of
the countrie called Tenn't -riyghte commonlye used within the
baronye of Kendall withoute memorie of man always payed to
the said John [Benson] and all other persons for the tyme beinge
Lord thereof onlie the double rente and no more for and in the
name of a gresshume or ffyne." Now, however, as certayne
debaite and variannce before this time hathe happenyed . . .
and growne " between the two, " sundry frendes " have brought
about an agreement, by which John Benson undertakes on the
receipt of a certain sume of money tendered to him by these
tenants, to claim no more from them in future than twice the
rent for any fine on change of lord and tenant, t
The Inquisition of 1574 states indeed that in the Rich-
mond Fee of the barony every old tenant pays on change
of lord or tenant a fine equal to two years rent, but a new
tenant pays a sum equal to three times the rent, except
* Ministers Account, Henry VII. 877.
t Rydal Hall MSS.
76 RYDAL
in the " forests of Trout becke and Ambleside," where the
old tenant pays but once the rent and the new tenant
twice the rent. But the rental of customs for the Marquis
Fee given in the same Inquisition declares that at change
either of lord or tenant every tenant ought to pay double
the rent only, adding that if larger sums were paid to the
late marquis or marchioness (as is apparent by the
acquittances), these sums were given only of the good- will
of the tenant or by the persuasion of the lord's officers,
and such payment " is not hurtful to the custom."
It is difficult to understand the distinction made between
" old " and " new " tenant in the customs of the Richmond
Fee.* Perhaps the old was one who could claim by long
descent, going back beyond certain " new rental " which
was made out in the year 1500. At any rate we find at a
court held for the Marquis Fee on September 12, 1602,
the following admissions made. Robert Richardson, for
fine and entry into one tenement in Grasmere inherited
from his father, rent lod. ; fine 2s. 6d., being three times
the rent. Thomas Richardson, inheriting likewise a
tenement from his father, the same. John Knott, for
fine and entry into a tenement inherited from his father,
Edward, rent 2s. 6d. and J of a penny ; fine " at the rate
of two annual rents (for this time only) because he paid
to the Receiver of the lord the king aforesaid at the general
survey the fine for his said father thereupon, at the rate
of the three yearly rents which he ought to pay, for him
only at the rate of two yearly rents, because he was an
ancient tenant " 55. od. John likewise paid for admission
to another tenement, rent 45. 5d., a fine of 8s. lod. And
John Hunter inheriting from his father John, as well as
Reynold Thomson from Robert Grigge, and John Wrenn
from Peter Wrenn all pay " at the rate aforesaid/' that
* The tenants presentment of their case against James I., state old tenants
to imply a change of lord and new tenants a change of holder by death or
alienation. See Nicolson and Burn.
THE LORD'S DEMANDS 7
is, at double the rent ; though again in the final entry the
words occur " for this time only/' as if the lord reserved a
right to set the fine higher.*
The fine appears to have remained fixed, from that
time at three times the rent, at all events for the whole
of the Richmond Fee, except Ambleside and Troutbeck
which was twice the rent ; and this irrespective of " old "
and " new " tenants. f For admissions show that John
Forrest, when inheriting in 1597, from Henry, paid a fine
of 26s. 8d. on a rent of 133. 4d., and Edward Forrest when
inheriting in 1626 from John, 403. on a rent of 2os.,
though the tenure of the Forrests went back to ancient
times. And at a court held at Ambleside in 1707, George
and Richard Cumpston were admitted to the many parcels
of lands inherited by them from George Mackereth at
almost the same rate ; namely, a fine of 3 175. 2d., on
a rent of i i8s. 7d., another of i us. 2d.. on a rent of
153. iod., and others of 133. 4d., on a 6s. 8d. rent.
For Cockstone (now stepping-stones) in Loughrigg, a
customary holding of the Richmond Fee, a God's penny
and 53. od. was paid as admission in full court by Lancelot
Fleming inheriting from his father John, in 1785, and
again in 1819 by Thomas Fleming inheriting from
Lancelot ; the sum being exactly three times the rent of
8d.
The internal economy of the small " manor " of Rydal
is unknown for almost four centuries after it fell to the
lordship of Roger de Lancaster ; because for that period
no manorial records have been preserved. Originally its
customs must have been almost identical with those of
the neighbouring villages and lands, at all events as far
as obligations to their joint lord were concerned. But
* Public Record Office, Court Roll f^f.
t At Courts held at Kendal, 1625 to 1641 for the marquis Fee, tenants of
the other side of the barony Helsington, Hutton in the Hay, Underbarrow,
&c., are all charged on admission a fine of three times the rent.
J Rydal Hall MSS.
78 RYDAL
they emerge, after the dark epoch, as considerably altered
from those of the Richmond and Marquis' lands adjoining.
The isolation of the village from those lands, under the
rule of a separate lord who owned a seat in the place had
not been favourable to the freedom of the community.
While the Loughrigg men across the river, and the men
of Langdale and Grasmere on one side and those of Amble-
side on the other, were free with their graves or reeves to
manage the affairs of their vills, on the old lines, little
disturbed by the occasional visits of the distant lord's
officers, and stoutly resisting any increased demands of
those officers, the men of Rydal fell under the restraints
of a personal connection with their lord, whose claims
they had little power to contest. Isolated as they were,
they had to submit to encroachments on their village
common lands and to the rise of the gressum ; for there
was no joint sufferer in other vills with whom to join hands
so as to offer their lord a strong united opposition and
along with it a seasonable bribe collected from among
their richer members.
Perhaps it was in the convulsion, created by King
James' action, that the Rydal fines were raised ; since
no general confirmation of old customs was secured
at the end of it by the tenants of resident lords in the
barony, as was the case with the tenants of the royal lord.
At all events, on the succession of Daniel Fleming to the
manor of Rydal in 1655, we find the fines much higher
than in the neighbouring places. This energetic and able
man left not only an account of the manorial customs of
Rydal, in writing, but papers showing the fines he exacted
from the tenants on his entry as lord. He declares that
they are bound to pay
" such Arbitrary Fines of Gersumes as their Lord shall be pleased
to assess and demand, upon y e change of every Lord of y e said
Manor by death, and upon y e change of every Tenant there, by
death or Alienation."
THE LORD S DEMANDS 79
The tenants however never acknowledged this arbitrary
fine for both occasions, as we shall see ; and they person-
ally " compounded " with their new lord when he held
his court, seeking as large an abatement in the sum of the
fine as they could secure from him.
Accordingly, we find that the fines were fixed at a
varying proportion to the rent, but all at a figure that is
astonishing when we consider the basis of a two and three
years rent obtaining in all the lands around. The lowest
of them stand at a ten years rent, as when Thomas Hobson
pays 6 135. 4d. on a rent of 135. 4d. From that they
rise through a varying ratio to fifteen and twenty times
the rent, the latter being possibly considered the normal
limit ; though it is twice exceeded, Elizabeth Gregg
paying thirty times (or 155. od. on a 6d. rent) for what was
probably the village shop, and the wealthiest statesman
Edward Walker, who possessed several holdings, as much
as thirty- three times the rent. It is clear that the lord
wrung from each what he thought the holder could pay,
the husbandman Edward Grigg's fine being fixed at
4 los. od. on a 73. 3d. rent, and Thomas Fleming's hus-
bandman, carpenter and inn-keeper as well at 7 os. od.
on a 73. 2d. rent. Graduated as they were, it is to these
fines, imposed upon men who often had not the ready
money to pay with, that we can trace the ruin of several
statesman-families in the place. John Thompson, for
instance, whose fine in 1655 was fixed at 5 los. od. on a
6s. 8d. rent, was already two years in arrears. The
fines were kept up alter this to about the twenty-multiple
of rent, with a general tendency to rise upon any oppor-
tunity.
At a court held September 24 1760, George Parke
inheriting from John, paid a dropping fine of 5 i6s. 8d.
on a rent of 53. iod., and another of 2 los. od. on one of
2s. 6d. ; while Matthew Fleming, purchasing from John
Grigg, paid 7 8s. 4d. on a rent of 73. 5d.
80 RYDAL
In 1778 William Park was admitted to Nab for n os. od.
on an us. od. rent, and to a " parcel " for i 135. 4d.
on is. 8d. John Grigg had been admitted in 1746 for
7 8s. 4d. on a rent of 75. 5d., and in 1748 William Robinson
was admitted to Kittsgill in Loughrigg for 155. od. on a
rent of gd.
When Mr. George Knott died in 1785, the customary
holdings in Rydal which his family had possessed since
the ruin of Walker carried a rent of i 6s. lod. The
steward proceeded to* fix! the fines due from Mr. Knott's
trustees " on the different parcels " at 40 los. od., but
agreed not to insist on the payment before writing for
Sir Michael le Fleming's directions, " because tho' the
Tenants agree the General Fine [on death of lord] is
arbitrary, they acknowledge the Dropping Fines [on
death of tenant] are twenty penny Fines only and are
not subject to variation." And on this latter basis the
fine was finally settled.
The General Fine, which the lord claimed to be able
to fix on an arbitrary basis, seems to have been leniently
laid when the bishop of Carlisle inherited from his brother
Sir William, to judge from the 6 6s. od. charged to
William Grigg on a rent of js. 5d. It did not, as we shall
see, much exceed a twenty-multiple on the death of Lady
Dorothy Fleming in 1788. It rose however on the death
of Sir Michael le Fleming in 1806 to an unprecedented
figure.
There grew up a tendency too, when village holdings
became disintegrated, and were sold on the ruin of their
inheritor, and when a statesman added a piece of what
had formerly been his neighbour's land to his own, to
charge a separate fine (and often at a higher rate) for the
" parcel." A counsel's opinion was asked on this practice
by a tenant on the Lowther manor in 1731, who was
disposed to contest the various fines demanded from him
by the lord's steward when the latter, in order to increase
THE LORD'S DEMANDS 8l
his own fees (it was stated) made out these separate
admissions. Counsel replied ambiguously, that the custom
of the place was to be considered, though his opinion
leant against the steward. The practice certainly
obtained in Rydal. At a court held on August 30, 1769,
Jane Wilkinson, daughter of John Wilkinson and Agnes
Harrison " both of Loughrigg " married, 1729, was
admitted tenant, with the following fines for the principal
holding (the old " Davids " which she had inherited from
the Harrisons) and for parcels.
Rent. Fine.
s. d. s. d.
30 3 10 o
04 068
08 o 13 4
04 068
Arid John Parke at the same time paid a 6s. 8d. fine on
a parcel that carried 4d. rent. In 1807, George Birkett's
admittance to one half the close called Dockey Tarn, of
which the rent was 4d., cost him 8s. 7d., and he paid on it
for Sir Michael's death los. od.
Then too there was the " Income " fine, which Daniel
Fleming claimed for the lord.
" If any stranger (viz. one who is not Tenant within y e said
Manor) shall Buy any House, Land, or Tenement, within the
said Manor, he is obliged by custom to pay forty shillings to y*
Lord as an " Income " over and above his fine, or so much thereof
as his Lord pleaseth to take."
Accordingly, when John Birkett, a carpenter of Rydal,
bought in 1707 a little house for himself carrying a rent of
6d. he not only compounded with his lord (Sir William
Fleming) for an admission fine of los. od., but he paid
also an income fine of 2. os. od. It was not always
pressed so hardly. John Bateman, buying only half a
tenement in 1769, paid 2. i8s. 4d. on a 2s. nd. rent, with
G
82 RYDAL
an additional " Income " fine of 153. od. and William
Richardson paid, on his purchase of the old smithy in
1769, besides his fine of i. os. od. on a is. od. rent, only
55. od. as " income " fine.
CHAPTER IX
THE HERIOT
An Odious Tax ; Difficulty of Compounding ; Cottage
Restrictions.
THE tax of the heriot is said to have existed only in
those parts of England that were settled by Scan-
dinavians or Danes,* and to have had its origin in
the military service demanded of the freeman, whose
lord furnished him with horse or with weapons when he
was called to the war. Subsequently it came to be the
custom on the death of the landowner for his widow (if
he left one) to furnish the lord with the best beast of
which he died possessed "in y e name of an harriott,"
(Inquisition of 1574) and by this the holding is confirmed
to her for life. In times when record is forthcoming, this
claim to the best beast was compounded for and paid in
money. The stewards of the Richmond Fee, in such
early accounts as have been preserved, invariably enter
the assets, or non-assets, from this source ; but no
particulars are given. The courts held at Kendal, indeed,
in Stuart times, furnish more particulars for the other
side of the barony. In 1625 a widow's heriot is appraised
at 263. 8d., on a yearly rent of 193. ; another at 245. 8d.
on a rent of 20s., and a third and fourth at 403., and 3,
rent unquoted. The sum appears to have been propor-
tionate to the rent. The Rydal Hall account-books
show for 1646
* See Vinagradoff's English Society in Eleventh Century. On the other
hand the Church originally claimed the best beast.
THE HERIOT 83
" Rec. of Anthonie Harrison wife for a Herriott, 20 Jan.
i 1 io 8 o d
This was upon a rent of 73. 8d. Daniel Fleming demanded
more ; and in 1662 agreed with " Simon Park wife for
a Hariot " at 3. los. od. on a rent of us. 6d. Two
neighbour statesmen stood surety for her, as no money
was immediately forthcoming, her husband having only
shortly before his death finished the payments of his own
" general " fine on entrance of a new lord, and that due
on the death of his father ; which amounted in all to 13.
Next year a Rydal widow did better, for the lord entered
in his April accounts
" Tho. Hobson's wife is to pay me betwixt (sic) and
Martinmas 1663, for her Hariott, y e sum of 02 1 io s oo d
The rent was 135. 4d.
In 1671 Thomas Fleming undertook perhaps on his
mother's .account to pay 2. 2s. 4d. for " A Heriot-sow
of his Father's," which surely at the price must have been
a superior animal for breeding. In 1697, widow Agnes
Harrison and her son David are found giving the lord a
bill for 20, "for 5 Heriots sold her." This entry seems
to imply that this tax was sometimes farmed.
In 1759, i. us. 6d. was paid as " Heriot for John
Johnson's Tenement in Rydal Manor," and as the expenses
concerning the same are set down as 2s. od., there must
have been some difficulty in securing it. Next year " 2
Hariots of Widow Birkets " stand at the high figure of
9 ; and one of Otley's in 1763 at 2. This shows that
the demand for a separate heriot on each " parcel " like
the fine, had begun to be demanded. In 1791 George
Rigg of Clappersgate died, who had inherited the old
Harrison or " David " holding in Rydal. In order to
secure payment of the four heriots demanded, the steward
of the manor (Thomas Harrison, lawyer of Kendal)
despatched an officer to the premises, and he seized a
horse, a cow, a clock, and a feather bed, "well worth
84 RYDAL
together " the steward gleefully writes, " the 15
demanded." Whether the abatement upon this claim,
which the widow begged, was made, we have no inform-
ation. The " tenement " carried a rent of 33. 6d., and
the " parcels " could not have been more.
On the death of Mr. Blakeney in 1522, who had bought
the Fox How estate in the Rydal manor, his trustees
refused to pay the heriot demanded from his widow ;
whereupon the lord's officer rode off to Whitehaven
(where he had lived) to seize a horse or some other animal
that had been his.
By this time the Gressum and the Heriot had become
as odious to the people as they seemed to be unreasonable.
Their meaning had in fact been lost. That personal
connection with the lord, which had been deemed of so
sacred a character that in Alfred's laws treachery towards
him had been the one uncompoundable sin, and which had
been loyally sustained so long as the men of the village
had ridden out with him to the wars, was now a thing of
nought. Through slow ages the bondage of an effete
" custom " had been borne, and with a dignity and fine
temper that had done credit to the dalesman ; for indeed
his relations with his lord had almost always been excellent ;
and even when there was discontent, friction and rebellion,
he was disposed to blame not so much his superior, but
that superior's officer, whose own fees were increased
by all he could squeeze from the manor. The fine on
admission to the family holding might still have been
cheerfully borne, even on a twenty multiple basis, as is
the legacy duty now exacted by the government ; but
the arbitrary fines on the death of a lord were severely
felt. They came unexpectedly, and often at times when
the little holding had not recovered from the drain of the
last demand.
The Knott estate for instance had had to bear a fine, on
death of the holder in 1785, of over 20 ; and, on the
THE HERIOT 85
death of Lady Dorothy Fleming in 1788, another of 30
was exacted. The decease of this old lady, widow of the
first Sir William, who for long had not resided in Rydal
but who was reckoned as "an admitting lord " or one
who had held courts of admission, wrung a large sum
from the few struggling statesmen of Rydal, which went
into the pockets of Sir Michael's tradesmen in London
and into those of his steward. Only eight years later
the death of Sir Michael himself gave opportunity to the
steward to demand the arbitrary fine of forty times the
rent, which from the Knott estate would produce overdo.*
From this terrible imposition of the arbitrary fine in
1806 the tenants had no legal redress. A letter was
addressed to Miss le Fleming, by one Thomas Ellis, who
was trustee for six orphans to whom the little estate of
Fox How had descended, praying that, as the fine would
deprive them of all source of income from the estate for
three years, she would grant a little relief. Probably
the young heiress had no power of interference ; and the
estate was sold to Mr. Blakeney. The opposition aroused
by this fine was so strong, that some of the tenants
William Park of the Nab, and Thomas Fleming and James
Backhouse among them refused to pay their lord's rents,
hoping no doubt to force from the manor some concession.
Efforts after enfranchisement from the lord's claims
had indeed long been made by the statesmen of the valleys.
Though those who held in the Richmond and Marquis
Fees had enjoyed the fixed low fines confirmed by Eliza-
beth and James, they desired to be able to free themselves
from those by the payment of a reasonable sum of money.
Besides this, the heriot, as exacted by the Lowther
family (after its purchase of these fees) came to be a
source of discontent. Its unreasonableness was apparent
in the case of the school lands of Ambleside, left by John
* Mr. Michael Knptt appears also to have paid a fine in 1803 of 25. i6s. od.,
perhaps on his coming of age.
86 RYDAL
Kelsick to the town. For when Mr. John Knott died,
who had acted as trustee for the endowment, a heriot was
demanded by the lord, because he had left a widow ; and
as the injustice of charging her with it was manifest, it
was suggested that the remaining trustees should pay.
Then the mode of collecting the heriot, when an officer
of the lord entered a dead man's premises, and forcibly
seized any valuable beast or piece of furniture, that
should cover the sum demanded (often exorbitant), was
peculiarly irritating. "We find therefore, when a strong
effort was being made in 1711 by the customary tenants
of the barony of Kendal to bring their difficulties before
parliament, and to obtain an Act for a just settlement
of their relations to their lord, that, of the eight articles
proposed, the one which should fix the heriot to a sum
only three times the rent was considered the most pressing.*
Nothing, unfortunately, seems to have come of this effort.
In 1789, George Birkitt of Rydal freed his holding of
the heriot that would have been due from his widow, by
the payment of a certain sum during his life, which
reached the high figure of 32. los. od., this did not affect
his fine.
The Knotts, who were not only well-to-do customary
tenants of Rydal, but for two generations had acted as
stewards to the manor, and were connected by marriage
with the lord, made several efforts for freeing their
land, first from the fines and heriots, and then from all
rentals. It was a difficult matter ; but from the following
undated statement, it is clear that Mr. Michael Knott
was willing to compensate, not only the present lord
(Bishop of Carlisle) and his heir, but all members of the
family who might have a possible future claim on the
manor.
* Correspondence of Lady Otway and Benjamin Browne. MSS. of Mr,
G. Browne.
THE HERIOT 87
MEMORANDUM ; no name or date attached.
" I propose to give for purchasing only the Fines & Heriots
of my small Estate at Rydall, being willing to Continue the Rent,
Boons, & Services, the Rent being ig s 2 d , & 12 Boon Days yearly,
that is 4 days mowing, 4 Days Shearing, & 4 Days Leading Manure ;
The s d Small Estate was purchased by my Grand-father & only
cost him ;ioo.
To my Lord Bishop for Conveying his Right to the
Fines &c 20. o. o.
To M r Archdeacon Fleming for Conveying his Right 20. o. o.
To Lady Fleming for Conveying Her Right . . . . 10. o. o.
To M r W m Fleming for Sealing . . . . . . 5. o. o.
To M r Dan 1 Fleming for Sealing . . . . . . 5. o. o.
To Mr. Fletcher Fleming for Sealing 5. o. o.
65. o. o.
However on Mr. Knott 's death, the proceedings had
not terminated. Mr. George Knott wrote in 1774 to one
of the officials of the manor, asking for an answer regarding
Rydal Enfranchisement
" as I could wish to know whether it would be agreeable to you
to confirm what your Father and the rest of the Remainder
men has executed and the consideration Money paid by my
Father & whether I may be permitted to gett fresh Deeds Drawn
for your Inspection there is one very small Tenement called
Banks' Tenement " (this the writer had inherited from his uncle
Edward) " which is not included in the old Enf ranch*, but could
wish to have it on the same Footing as the other it being so
intermixed with the other Land."
When George's son, Michael Knott, sold in 1803 or
1804 the whole estate to Mr. Ford North, no terms of
enfranchisement had been settled, and the negotiations
continued by the new tenant were finally broken off in
1812, when he was required to pay up arrears of fines,
rents, and boons. Disgusted and wearied by the whole
proceedings, Mr. Ford North consented to sell the estate
out and out to the Rydal manor, and bought property
that should be a home in Ambleside.
88 RYDAL
In 1820, the refractory Rydal tenants who for the
last six years had been joined by George Birkitt in their
refusal to pay rent were brought to a stand. A court
was held by the Revd. Thomas Jackson (then acting as
steward) and a lawyer, on August 15, to insist on the
payment of arrears, and to consult (it was stated) as to
the " sale of Allotments." At this court John Fleming
and William Park were compelled to produce respectively
14. us. od. and 8. 6s. od. for fourteen years arrears,
and George Birkitt 5/175. od. James Backhouse less
well-to-do than they had weakened, and had already
paid his eleven years arrears (i. 2s. lod.) in 1817. Perhaps
some hope was held out to these indignant statesmen
that reasonable terms would be granted for the enfran-
chisement of their holdings. At any rate through the
following year a good deal of discussion as to terms took
place ; and Mr. Robert Blakeney, holder of Fox How,
offered 28. os. od. to free his estate, which was rented at
35. 4d. But no settlement could be effected, except by
James Fleming, who freed his small property for 25.
The restriction of the number of souls to a cottage and
the rule against taking a lodger shows how the landlord
was able to interfere with the liberty of his tenant in
what to us would seem an unwarrantable manner ; but
in the eighteenth century the lord of the land gave the
Cottage a privilege which he subsequently lost and has
often vainly tried to recapture. For the following Act
of parliament was passed in the 3ist of Elizabeth, 1588.
" For the avoiding of the great inconvenience which are found
by experience to grow by the erecting and building of great
numbers and multitude of Cottages, which are daily more and
more increased in many parts of this Realme : Be it enacted by
the Queans most excellent Majesty, and the Lords Spirituall and
Temporall, and the Commons in this present parliament Assembled
and by Authority of the same, that after the end of this session
of parliament no person shall within this Realme of England
make, build, or erect or cause to be made builded or erected,
THE HERIOT 09
any maner of Cottage for habitation or dwelling, nor convert or
ordaine any building or housing made or hereafter to be made,
to be used as a Cottage for habitation or dwelling, unless the same
person do assigne and lay to the same Cottage or building, joure
acres of ground at the least, to be acompted according to the Statute
or ordinance de terris mensurandis, being his or her own freehold
and inheritance, lying near to the said Cottage, to be continually
occupied and manured therewith, so long as the same Cottage
be inhabited, upon pane that every such offender shall forfeit
to our Sovereigne Lady the Queen's Majesty, her heires and
successors x li. of lawf ull money of England, for every such offence."
1686 April i6 th . At a General Sessions held at Kirkby
Kendal by adjournment present Daniel Fleming, Kt.,
Edward Wilson Sen r , William Fleming, Edward Wilson
Jun r , and John Fisher, Esquires,
John Cookson late of Troutbeck, was Indicted for
having built 6- maintained a Cottage for habitation, without
having assigned sufficient Land to the same (according to
the above statute). The cottage in question is what is
now the farm house at Low Skelgil, Troutbeck.
1737. Easter Sessions John Birkett presented for
having, &c., a Cottage without assigning 4 acres of land to it.
The following presentment of the jury.
Westmorland to wit
The Jurors for our Sovereign Lord the King, upon their Oaths
p r sent that John Birkett late of Troutbeck in the county afore-
said gentleman, on the fourth day of July in the year of our
Lord one thousand seven hundred and thirty four at Troutbeck
aforesaid in the County aforesaid, did support, uphold, maintain
and continue, one cottage house lying in Troutbeck aforesaid
in the County aforesaid, for the Inhabitation of one Will m Wilson,
when in truth and in fact the said John Birkett never laid or
assigned to the said Cottage Four Acres of Freehold land according
to the ordination of measureing & computing land, to be so near
the said Cottage that the same four acres of land might be con-
tinually occupied with the said Cottage so long as the said Cottage
should be Inhabited, to the great contempt of our Sovereign
Lord the King, and against the peace and against the form of the
Statute in that case made and provided. And the said Jurors
90 RYDAL
further upon their Oaths present, that the said John Birkett
the same Cottage so as aforesaid converted for habitation, from
the said fourth day of July one thousand seven hundred and thirty
four, untill the first day of April one thousand seven hundred
and thirty seven at Troutbeck aforesaid in the County aforesaid,
willingly sustained, maintained, upheld and continued, to the
great contempt of our sovereign Lord the King, and against the
peace and against the form of the Statute in that case made and
provided.
Will: Wilkin Cl. of the peace
It was also enacted the Statute 31 Elizabeth Cap. VII.
" that from and after the feast of All Saints next coming There
shall not be any Inmate or more famlies or housholds than one,
dwelling or inhabiting in any one Cottage made or to be made or
erected, upon paine that every Owner or occupier of any such
Cottage placing or willingly suffering any such Inmate, or other
family than one, shall forfeit and lose to the Lord of the Leet,
within which y e cottage shall be, the same summe of ten shillings,
of lawfull money of England for every moneth, that such any
Inmate, or other family than one, shall dwell or inhabit in any
one Cottage as aforesaid " &c., &c.
The Act of the 315^ Eliz. Cap. VII. was repealed i$th
George the 3rd (1774) by an Act setting forth,
" that the said Statute of 3i st Eliz. had laid the industrious poor
under great difficulties to procure habitations, and tended very
much to lessen population, and in divers other respects was
inconvenient to the labouring part of the nation in general."
Cottages with less than 4 acres.
In 1735, the Great-House Estate, Troutbeck, was sold
in parcels. The house, out-buildings and a small portion
of land was sold to James Birkett of Calgarth, who sold
a field off it to John Cookson in 1735 whom the lord
refused to admit tenant of the said field, as will be seen
from the following endorsement of Cookson's deed
TVT x ^ 4.1, i \ 2 th J une I 73 Tms Deed was pre-
Manor of Troutbeck J , vf
. . ,, _ v sented But be it remembered that
parcel of the Manor y ... j - . -, , , ,
r f , TT . , this deed was rejected, tho presented
of Wmdermere &c. .
in due Time
THE HERIOT QI
by reason that there was not sufficient Land left with the Messuage
and Tenement called Great House, whereof the Premises within
Mention were parcel, but as there is now another parcel of the
said Great House Tenement repurchased to it, the within-named
John Cookson is now admitted to it.
At a Court there holden for the said Manor."
Before
Hu Holme.
Dep. Steward.
CHAPTER X
YEARLY DUES
Boon Service ; Yeld ; Walking-silver ; Geld-wether ;
Forest-silver ; The Common Pasture ; Appendix ;
Rights of Common.
OF the various annual dues exacted by the lord, the
Boon services take precedence, as being most
ancient in character. They were never severe in
these parts, and in fact appear to have been non-existent
in most of the village communities of the valleys. When
the barons of Kendal ruled the wild fell lands without
an intermediate lord, it would have been hopeless to try
to draw men from the sources of Rothay and Brathay
to help at the getting in of the manorial hay or corn.
Once indeed we hear of demesne land in Grasmere, but
no tradition of boon labour there has come down to us.
The boon service of the fields hereabouts was a late
importation, introduced by the few lords who, after the
break up of the barony, took up their seat in their small
manors. It is probable nay almost certain that the
Norman lords did impose service on such tenants as
lived within the deer forests, when the hunt was forward,
in warding or turning back the deer [see later]. And such
service may have been performed for Sir Roger de Lan-
caster and his followers by the Rydal men on this side
92 RYDAL
of the mountains, as they were certainly performed on
the other.* They may afterwards have been exchanged
when the deer were no longer hunted, and the lord became
resident on a demesne farm, for that boon service in the
seventeenth century. Sir Daniel Fleming summarized
these when he wrote out a list of the tenants in 1655 as
" yearly i day mowing, i day shearing, & i day leading of
manor (= manure), but Grasmer tenants are excepted,
haveing no Calve grasses in y e Nab. Yearly 2 Tenants by
Turne are to helpe to wash ye sheep." Afterwards, in his
account of the manor, he is more expansive and more
ambiguous. They are to do, he says, so many days
mowing and shearing " as they are named in ye Rental
excepting onely for Baneriggs, which payeth yearly two
of either/'
Only when the old freehold of Bainrigg passed into the
manor of Rydal in Squire John Fleming's time could it
have been brought into the line of " customary tenure "
by boon service. The service of sheep-shearing was
perhaps late, for we find it separately insisted on in the
admission of one of the tenants.
In a MS. at Rydal Hall, we have the following :
" And likewise each of them the same number of dayes Leading
of Manure (haveing onely a dinner) for so many Calves grasses
in y e Nab." This last bargain and obligation is supposed not
to be older than the reign of Dame Agnes Fleming, who introduced
improved methods of agriculture on the demesne. Sir Daniel
also cites another boon labour. " All the said Tenants, upon
warning or summons from their Lord's Sheepheard, or other
servant, are obliged by their custom to helpe yearly to make y e
Wash-Pool, and to Lait, or look for, the Lords sheep for washing,
clipping, and putting y e Ewes to Tupp, or Ram ; And y e said
Tenants are, upon Sumons to assist y e Lord's Sheepheard in all
Snows and other Storms ; and two of them yearly by turn, are to
help to wash the Lord's Sheep within y e said Manor."
* Inquisition of 17.
YEARLY DUES 93
That the tenants faithfully performed service in the
hay-fields, in person or by deputy, is shown in the carefully
kept lists of boon-mowers, which reach down to the year
I733-
They were willing also to give their lord that help
which they always furnished each other on the extra-
ordinary occasion of a house or barn " raising," as Sir
Daniel's Account Book shows [see later]. Indeed, boon-
service rendered each to each was a main feature of the
village community, which survived a century ago in the
small dalesman's hay meadows, as it survives to-day in
the annual sheep-clipping.
The boon-hen, which was in some parts of the barony
demanded by the lord after poultry was introduced,
(with the reduction of a id. from the green-hew rent) was
not required from the Rydal tenants. The Coniston
tenants however each supplied one ; and as many as 43
or 44 arrived at Rydal Hall.
The Rydal papers show that one tenant is called on to
pay the arrears for three half-year's rent, besides 55. 6d.
for the pasture of his cattle on the common ; total 1. los.
He does what he can in payment of this debt by producing
for his lord, one fat calf, valued at 75. od., two sheep,
valued at I2s. od., by his wife's labour in the Hall hay-
field, at 6d. a day and his own in greasing the lord's sheep
at 6d. a day. But in a very few years his name has
dropped from the roll of the manor.
The early Inquisitions and Rentals account for, as dues
paid yearly to the lord by the tenants of the barony,
Forest-silver, Gold or Geld-wether, Yeld, and Walking-
silver.
Yeld. It is not certain what the tax called yeld
covered. It is mentioned in the Levens Rental of 1375,
as " a gressum called yeld," which was due from the
Grasmere and Langdale men who held under the Hothom
Fee.
94 RYDAL
Walking (or Walkyn) silver. There has been some
discussion as to what this tax covered ; but it seems clear
that it refers to the fulling of cloth. This was done at
the walk-mill, a term still known.
In a MS. of 1389, of Wycliffe's translation of St. Mark
IX., 3 (The transfiguration). We have " And his clothes
ben maad schynynge and white ful moche as snow, and
which maner clothis a fullere or walker of cloth may not
make white on irthe." [and his raiment became shining
exceeding white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can
white them]. The words in italics in Wycliffe's version
are given by him as an alternative reading. Note com-
municated by Mr. J. A . Martindale.
It was not exacted from every mil or township. The
Loughrigg men paid it, as we learn from the Levens
Rental of the Richmond Fee (1379-1403) and so did the
men of Ambleside, each township furnishing then 6s. 8d.
to the lord ; while in the Sizergh Rental of 1493-4,
Loughrigg paid 45. 5|d., and Ambleside an unknown sum
merged in the general rents. Loughrigg paid again
45. 5jd. in 1453 and in 1493-4. Burneside outside our
district likewise paid this due. It may have originated
in some compromise, by which the tenants were free to
do their fulling other than at the lord's mill. Ambleside
and Loughrigg, it may be mentioned, both became
considerable centres of the cloth trade.*
Gold-wether, or geld-wether. This was probably a tax
on the dalesman's increase in sheep. It is mentioned
for Langdale in the 1283 Inquisition, when the tenants
furnished 55. od. Afterwards it dropped to quite a
nominal sum. In the Levens Rental (c. 1400), Grasmere
paid I3d., Langdale 6d., and Loughrigg 3d. ; in 1453
Langdale paid 4d. and Loughrigg 5d., and in 1493-4
Grasmere paid 7fd., Langdale 4d., and Loughrigg 3jd.
* See Notes and Queries.
YEARLY DUES 95
In Notes and Queries, 111-170, it is said to have been
a payment by the tenants for the service of Rams kept
by the lord.
Forest-silver and Pasture-dues. The heaviest annual
due paid to the lord at the time of the first Inquisitions
was forest- silver. This was demanded from the dalesman
as compensation for the agistment or pasturage of his
cattle in the wide mark or forest lands, which the lord
had come to claim as his own. We do not know how the
tax was laid or collected, but its amount came to a high
figure under the Plantagent lords, successors to those
Norman rulers who had laid so heavy a burden on the
people by their enclosures of deer forests [see later].
Accordingly we hear in 1283, under the heading of
Grasmere in the Lindesay Fee, or half of the barony, of
a certain forest there " rendering yearly for herbage
3li. 6s. 8d., and for pannage * 5s." and another in Langdale
" whereof the herbage is worth 505. yearly." The forest of
" Skamdal " is mentioned separately from Ambleside,
and is entered at the high figure of 17. 6s. 8d.
Gradually the tax lessened. In 1324, indeed, the forest
of Grasmere is declared to be worth nothing yearly to its
lord, Ingelram de Gynes. But this must have been
temporary. In 1335 its agistment is set down as 403. In
1375, the rental of the Hothom Fee mentions that the
tenants pay forest-silver, but, unfortunately, without
specifying the amount. In the Levens Rental of the
Lindesey Fee, (c. 1400) the Grasmere forest-silver returns
to the 3. 6s. 8d. of 1283, and Langdale to the 503. In
I 453 the two places stand at 445. 5 Jd. and 333. 4d., which is
exactly repeated in 1493. The forest-silver collected from
Loughrigg is mentioned for the first time in 1453, when
* From Lat., pastum ; Fr.. pain. A term still in use in the New Forest,
meaning the feeding of pigs at large on the oak and beech mast. The
" pannage month," being about eight weeks, beginning fifteen days before
Michaelmas. (See Manwood's Forest Laws.) Ed.
96 RYDAL
it amounted to I2d. only ; and in 1493 it had dropped to
8Jd.
Besides which there was in Langdale a separate pasture,
with a name variously spelt, that was probably Whelp-
strath.* At the end of the fourteenth century it realized
53. od., for both the Hothom and Lindesey lords. To the
latter it realized in 1453 and 1493, 35. 4d.
From this time the term forest-silver is dropped.
In Notes and Queries, tenth series iii., 170, we read that
forest-silver was a payment by the tenants in certain
hamlets (e.g. Applethwaite) for the agistment of their
animals in the forest. This expression is explained thus,
viz. that these hamlets had been " purprestures " or
encroachments made in the Forest of Kendal in the
twelfth century with the approval of the lords of Kendal.
These encroachments were legalized by a royal charter
in 1190.
We hear no more indeed of the " lord's forest " at the
heads of the valleys ; and the growth of the communities
of Grasmere, Langdale and Loughrigg, which was rapid
in the fifteenth century, must have absorbed all the
unoccupied ground at a low and fertile level ; while the
rents accruing from the new holdings would more than
compensate to the lord for the clearing of low-lying wood-
land. The case was different with Ambleside and Trout-
beck. The forest about them had from the first been
carefully preserved and guarded as hunting-ground for
the lords, and it remained the home of the deer until Tudor
times [see later]. The dalesmen of the low vills were
consequently more restricted in their use of it both for
timber and for the pasture of their cattle within it. Their
holdings or tenements were rented according to the number
of beasts they were allowed to keep in the forest, and the
scale was rigid. Perhaps it was re-adjusted at the time
* 1375-1400, Whelpstrpcke, Whelpstroth, Qwelpstrathe ; 1453 and 1493,
Whelptreth. The name is now lost.
YEARLY DUES 97
of that " new rental " which is stated to have been settled
between the Countess of Richmond's commissioners and
(at least) the men of Grasmere and Langdale in 1500.*
For from 1505, onwards we find the holdings of these two
vills classed as five and ten cattle tenements, the larger
paying a rent of one mark (133. 4d.) and the smaller half
a mark (6s. 8d.)f each " cattle-gate " (as the phrase went),
representing the pasturage of one cow or ten sheep. And
in the Court Rolls of Windermere for 1442 and 1443, most
of the fines chronicled were exacted from the tenants for
their having exceeded their grazing rights in the forest.
When we reach the only court roll known to exist for
our head valleys that recording the court held at Kendal
for Grasmere and Langdale in 16034 it is the common
pasture that is spoken of, and not the lord's forest. Certain
dalesmen are fined for driving sheep and cattle on the
common pasture against the village law or custom.
The Common Pasture. From primaeval times each,
village community must have possessed its common
pasture, independently of the lord's forest. The pasture
was a cleared ground, always in these parts situated upon
high fell land, on to which the village cattle were driven
in summer, while upon the carefully fenced-in meadow
and field below, the village crops of hay and oats grew
and ripened. The fixing of a barrier, temporary and easily
adjustable with "yeats," (= gates) between their pasture
and the village, was the work of all the dalesmen. The
Frithmen superintended the drawing of the cattle within it
at a certain fixed time, and saw what " Gist " goods each
man put upon it. And any offence against the common
* Min. Account, Henry VII. 877.
f The Ministers Account of 1505-6 adds 4d. and 8d. to these two sums,
doubtless including one or more of the small annual taxes due to the lord.
J Public Record Office Court Roll, 207.
A corruption of the word " agist " which Man wood derives from agito
(= to drive). " Agistment " means both the herbage eaten by the cattle
and also the money paid for the same. (Forest Laws, 4th edition, p. i.) Ed.
H
98 RYDAL
law or custom, as to the number or time, was dealt with
and punished in the village court.
The commons in these parts were in general large ones,
because they occupied the mountain tops, which were
otherwise of little value. Inter-commoning also took
place. That is to say, two vills, separated by wide waste
or fell lands, would drive their cattle from either side on
to that fell-land, without attempt at discussion of it
between the two. Such an instance Rydal afforded, as
Margaret de Brus's deed of 1275 affirms.
" Moreover, I have given and granted to the said Sir Roger, the
whole of my part of Amelsate and Loghrigg, with all the appur-
tenances, by their right bounds, without any retention, with
common of pasture within the bounds of Gressemere, for all
manner of his beasts. Also I have granted, for me and my heirs,
that the aforesaid Sir Roger and his heirs, and their men dwelling
within the aforesaid bounds of Rydale, shall have common of
pasture everywhere with my men of Gressemere."
The statement is perfectly clear. The " men ....
of Rydale " were not to be shut within the new bounds
made by this grant, but were to share the wide common
of Grasmere, as no doubt they had always done. Accord-
ingly, when a boundary was set up about the manor of
Rydal, running from the precipitous crest of Nab Scar,
round the water-shedding line of the mountains about
Rydal Head, a way was left for the passage of cattle
through it, called a Ley-gate. The gate exists to this day.
The Rydal right of inter-commoning on the mountain-
range that stretched between Fairfield and Helvellyn was
never lost sight of, but it became unfortunately absorbed
by the lord of the manor, and lost to the dalesmen. And
so we read the following statement in Sir Daniel Fleming's
hand,
Ry. Hall M.S.S.
1683 Rights of Common
[Scrap of paper in Sir D's hand.]
"In Gresmere there are 4 Ley-yates and 4 Gaps of ease.
YEARLY DUES 99
The Lords of y e Manor of Rydal and their Assignes have right
to put every year three score Heiffers or other Beasts in at any
of y e 4 Ley-yates or y e 4 Gaps of Ease, and to go upon Gresmere
Comon all y e Sumer, or as long as they please. Witness thereof
Rich. Nicholson Ap. 15. 1683."
The witness was a Rydal statesman who was completely
under the influence of his lord.
By the time indeed that we obtain any clear knowledge
of the Rydal customs in regard to the common pasture,
that pasture had become extremely limited in extent.
Starting where the arable land ceased, just above the top
houses of the village, it extended along the right bank of
Rydal beck to the boundaries of the manor on the water-
shed. The whole of the left side of the valley must have
been reserved as park-land from the time of Sir Roger ;
and after the deer were killed, and it was used for pasturage,
the Rydal dalesman, if he put cattle upon it, had to pay
the same rate for agistment as any stranger.
The Rydal pasture was moreover a " stinted " one.
While the happier dalesmen of Grasmere Langdale and
Loughrigg possessed an " unstinted " right of grazing on
the common and had in the case of the two first an almost
limitless acreage on which to freely turn their cattle the
Rydal man could but put thirty sheep and a horse (no
cow) free upon his small common and for the rest pay a
tax to his lord. The amount of the tax is clearly stated
by Daniel Fleming when he became lord ; and was
recapitulated by his successor in the following terms.
" The Tenants of Rydall are yearly (by their custome) on or
before the 14 th day of May to give in upon oath unto such as y e
Lord shall appoint, all such Horses, Beasts, and Sheep as any of
them shall putt unto, or have on y e said day ; all w ch are to be
entered in the Lord's Book, and for which y e s d Tenants are
yearly to pay unto the L d at Michaelmas following, according
unto these Rates, viz., For every Cow, Twelvepence, for every
Horse or Mare above one, two shillings, for every sheep above
Thirty, two shillings and so proportionably for all, tho' under a
100 RYDAL
score, for every three year old Beast eight-pence, and for every
two year old Beast sixpence.* Also two of the Tenants are
then to be sworne yearly to be Frythmen by Turne, who are to-
look unto y e Pasture and the Painable Hedge.
Another recapitulation of 1754 adds the oaths taken by
tenants and frithmen on the annual occasion of driving
in the cattle.
" You sware to give in a True and just ace* of all such Goods as
y u have or shall have upon y e pasture of Rydal this year, 1754.
Except 30 Sheep and a "Horse, for each Tenem* according to y e
Custome of this Manor, So help y u God."
" You Sware well and truly to Execute the Office of Frithmen
for this year 1754 to the best of y r Knowledge and skill. Accord-
ing to y e Custome of this Manor. So help y u God."
The Agist or " Gist " book of the manor, carefully kept
from 1655 to 1700, gives an account not only of the cattle
put on the common, but of all that were taken into the
park to graze, from far and near. The rules for this
privilege, which occasionally the Rydal statesman in his
shortage of ground, was obliged to make use of, were for
a cow 75. 6d. and 8s. od., a heifer 73. od., sheep 55. od. or
5s. 6d. the score, mare and foal i, stag (= colt) 93. od.
and los. od., or by the week, an ox is. od., a cow 6d. and
7d., a stot 5d., a calf 4d., horse or mare gd. and iod., foal
4 d.
The richer Rydal man often, too, rented from the manor
those manor closes that lay among the village fields, on
which to graze his flocks. For Frith in the Nab, i. i6s. 8d.
was annually charged, though it once dropped to i. 135. 4 d. ,
for the Allans I2s. od., Old Hall 153. od., and for the two
with Adam How i. i6s. 8d. The crafty miller however
securing all three, after times got bad in Rydal, for 153. od,
New Close commanded the steady rent of 2. los. od.
* The Agist-booke of 1655 enters these as the twinter, 6d., the thurntor, 8d.,
and there is likewise the duntor, 6d. The cow is key, pi. keyne, a young
heiffer why. Twinter and twinter why is used as late as 1754.
YEARLY DUES IOI
Birket Moss was sometimes let at i. os. od., and Low
Park How at i. i6s. 8d. and i. I2s. 6d.
It may be mentioned, in connection with the stinted
pasture and its rates, that the Ambleside and Trout beck
men, who were likewise stinted, paid for each " cattle-
gate " or " grass " on certain pastures i|d. a year.
There was in Rydal, on the slope of the Nab, a small
close or garth held by the tenants in common, where they
could pasture their calves in summer. This, though not
an unusual adjunct to the mil or manor * is always stated
by the lord's officers to have been granted to them so late
as the time of Mrs Agnes Fleming (who died 1631), and
in exchange for the boon service performed by the holders
of sixteen tenements of leading manure to the demesne
fields one day in the year. From the appended document
that concerns it, which was written at a time when many
of the old families of dalesfolk had fallen in the struggle
with bad times and lord's fees and exactions, it will be
seen how easily imposts sprang up after the village court'
which could protect old rights, became defunct. Through-
steps in the wall still lead over from the high-way into
this old common field, while its present gate is above.
The other document on common rights, made out in
1663, and probably enforced, (since it was signed by a
majority of the tenants), shows how doubly restricted
the Rydal man became in the number of cattle he could
keep. He not only paid a tax on all he placed on the
common beyond one horse and thirty sheep, but he was
limited in these, by the imposition of a further pro-
hibitory fine, to such a number as he could support
through the winter on his own ground, on his dales or in
his byre and hog-house.
By 1751, five statesmen only were putting cattle on
* The name Calgarth or Calfgarth by Windermere must have originated
from such an enclosure.
102 RYDAL
the common ; and aged memory speaks of four village
flocks of sheep that had the run of the now lost common,
APPENDIX. RYDAL HALL MSS.
(Paper in hand of John Banks). Right of Common.
" May (or Maij) the xi th , 1663. It is Ordered by Daniel
Fleming, Esq., Lord of the manor of Rydall, together w th the
Consent of the Customary Tenants of the sayd mannor ; that
if any of the sayd Tenants, shall put to the pasture any more
goods, of what sortt soever, then they can well winter upon there
owne Tenement or other Lands any of them shall take w tb in
the s d mannor (excepting one beast) ; That then Every tenant
for euery Sheepe above the number of ffoure-score then they can
winter as affore s d , w ch they shall put to the sayd Pasture Shall pay
to the Lord Twelve pence And for every beast Two Shillings
and Sixe pence, And that the sayd goods may be put and keept
in the Pinfould till the same bee payed.
In witness whereof they have hereunto put theire hands and
markes the day and yeare above written.
Dan : Fleming
Willi Walker
(fine, old fashioned letters) Richard Nicholson
Charles Wilson his m r ke +
Thomas Fleming his m r ke 8
Gawen Greigg his m r ke -f
Daniel Harrison sen r A
Daniel Harrison Ju r H
Edwin Greene his ma r ke H
John Thompson ma r ke T
RYDAL HALL MSS.
Nab.
(Fragment in iyth cen. handwriting). Common Field.
" Whereas there is a close or pcell of ground in Rydall in the
Co. of West : comonly known by the name of nabbe holden of
S r Dan : Fleming, Kn* Lord thereof w ch doth belong and is
appurtenant to the severall and respective Tenements in Rydall
YEARLY DUES 103
aforesaid, And w ch for the most part hath been kept for the graze-
ing of calves, in w ch every Tenement hath one belonging to it
amounting in all to the number of sixteen. And Whereas the
said Nabbe for several years last past hath been possessed by
Widdows, Infants or Farmers, soe that the same hath been
neglected and is overgrown with Bryers, Brabons(P), and other
offensiue matter. For the better settleing the same for the future,
wee the present Tenants widdows and farmers and occupiers of
the several and respectiue Tenements in Rydall aforesaid, haue
agreed to pay one shilling for every Tenem* this present year
for dressing the same, and likewise to pay an equal and pro-
portionable share towards the walling and repairing the fences
in the scar-foot adjoyning on the high side of the said nabbe from
the Frith-railes, to John Nicholson intacke And for the future
that the same be mown and dressed att an equal charge according
to the number of calfe gates there. And wee doe Likewise agree
that every calfe gate shall be rated att 2S. 6d. amongst ourselves
and that none shall be let or farmed to strangers if any Tenante
in y e said Ry-dall have need. The same to be frithed or driven
at mid-Aprill day in every year and stinted the tenth of May at
w ch time every pson therein concerned shall give in one calfe a
year old or under for every Tenem*, and for want of such calfe
or calves a Cow or heifer for three calves. That every Tenant
shall haue liberty to weane his lambs in y e same that every
Tenant shall put in at the same time, and haueing kept y m there
tenn dayes shall at the same time take y m out againe dureing
w ch time they shall put their calues or other beasts in scar foot.
And wee doe further agree to frith or drive the same att Mich-
aelmas in euery year and soe keep the same clean till wee put
our Ewes and Rams together and then every occupier of any
Ten em* shall for every Tenem* put in Tenne Ewes and soe keep
the same for a month or six weekes at the least for their Rams
and Ewes onely and from the time of takeing out the same shall
lye in Comon till Mid-Aprill-day then next following and the
aforesaid agreements to be looked to by the sworn men for the
pastures. In witness whereof wee the present Tenants widdowes
Farmers and occupiers of the said respective Tenem ts haue
hereunto set our hands the ( ) day of August Anno Domino
1695
(Unsigned)
104
CHAPTER XI
THE LAW OF GREEN-HEW
Forest and Timber rights, their constant restrictions ;
Bierlaw (or Byre Law] men ; Greenhew strife ;
Scott v. Fleming, quarrel over the Oaks of Bainbrigg.
"M d y* every tenant payeth i d green-hew."
SUCH is the legend written alongside the names of
the Grasmere tenants of the Marquis Fee in the
great Inquisition of 1574, which declared the
customs of the barony of Kendal as they had been pre-
served to that time.
Accordingly, if we scan the few court rolls that are at
present known, those of 1442, 1443, and 1603, we find
that the men of Applethwaite, Troutbeck, Ambleside,
Grasmere and Langdale all lay down their pennies or in
some cases two-pence in open court for " vert." This
seems indeed to have been the first business of the court,
and if any man wished to be exonerated from the payment
he swore a solemn oath that he had cut no wood of any
kind since the last court. In fact, on some manors
within the barony he swore in any case, that he had cut
no woods of warrant.* That is oak, ash, holly, or crab-
treef without consent of the lord, before he paid the
green-hew penny, which was his acknowledgment of his
lord's right to the forest, as well as of his own in the same,
to cut underwood J or elding for his hearth-stone.
But the tenant or dalesman had also rights to timber in
the forest besides underwood which it was the continual
effort of the lord to control, and in later days to curtail.
* = of a certain quality. In the N. Forest, a deer of a certain age is called
a warrantable deer. Ed.
t To these, in Wythburn, birch and white thorn seem to have been added.
% The Wythburn list gives this as hazel, wyth (willow), elm, ram-tree
( rowan), yew and eller (= alder).
THE LAW OF GREEN-HEW 105
In the old free days of settlement, when a man cleared
the wild ground with his axe for his homestead, and
built it of the cut wood, no question of rights in timber
could arise. There was enough and to spare ; it was a
civic virtue to fell. But a growing population that lived
by husbandry gradually pushed back the wood-land that
had once grown close up to the settlement, and the forest
shrank. As it shrank, its value grew. When the Anglo-
Saxon noble or lord took over the government of the vill
as a manor, he claimed jurisdiction over the forest marsh
and after making exception to certain prior claims of
the villagers even the direct ownership of it. And
when we consider the vital necessity of woodland to the
community, we can understand the struggle of the
claimants over it, which began in those early times, and
lasted here in Rydal till the early years of last century.
It furnished wood for the hearth, for every common
implement of daily use, and for the structure of the house ;
it was used for the smelting of iron ; and it supplied
the pleasures of the chase to the rich man.
So valuable had the woodland become by the ninth
century, that a law of Alfred's meted out death as the
punishment for the man who cut down the lord's forest
without license. But in the wild mountain lands, the
abundant native forest and its timber must have been
free and open for some hundreds of years after restrictions
had grown up in the south. Till the Norman barons
built their castles at Kendal and Appleby there would be
little talk of rights and of limitations. They, indeed,
soon began to mark out districts for the chase, and we
hear as early as 1225 of the complaints of the people that
had reached the ears of the king, of the afforesting that
had taken place, to the detriment of " Bongate and other
honest men." * The woods of the eastern slopes of
* Calendar of Patent Rolls, Hen. III., vol. i.
106 RYDAL
Windermere, between Kendal and the lake-head, were
devoted to the deer, and the men of the vills upon those
slopes suffered restrictions in consequence. The home-
steads of Troutbeck and Ambleside, paying a lord's rent of
6s. 8d. were allowed only fuel for one fire, and if another
were lighted, a fine of I2d. was imposed.* An order of
the court of Windermere forbade strictly the burning of
charcoal. The deer-park of Sir Roger de Lancaster
closed more than half the woodlands of Rydal at the end
of the thirteenth century.
Yet, powerful as the lords became, they could not
altogether extinguish the earlier rights of the dalesmen
in the woodland. Nor was it in their interest to do so.
The dalesman paid tribute to, and fought under his lord ;
therefore the maintenance of his holding must be made
possible to him. The waste homesteads that we read
of in Langdale, in one Inquisition, were bringing in no
rent. It was, indeed, an offence punishable in the court
if he let his house or his barns fall into decay. In the
court roll of Michaelmas of 1442, several tenants of Trout-
beck are " presented " for having their tenements (house
or mill) defective or ruinous, and a fine of 6s. 8d. imposed,
if they are not put in repair before the following Christmas.
What then were the rights of the villager within the
forest, beyond the right of underwood to maintain his
hearth-fire ? That he had rights in it, conjointly with his
lord, seems certain. For, though the lord might claim
for his own uses all of it that was not required for the
uses of the tenants, he had no right to destroy it, or to
sell it. This was made clear by the action of Charles II.,
who, when lord of the manor of the lands of the barony,
proceeded to sell to Richard Kirkby, squire of Kirkby,
all such timber standing upon them as might not be useful
* In 1443 Roger Fysher of Ambleside was presented in the courts at Winder-
mere for having two fires upon one tenement. His fine was only 6d. Hugh
de Birkehed of Troutbeck the same. Christopher Birkehed was also presented
for the like offence.
THE LAW OF GREEN-HEW IO/
for his navy. The commissioners who viewed the wood,
found standing in Loughrigg, 537 such trees, valued at
39. us. od. (a higher figure than any other township
but Applethwaite), as well as other timbers, valued at
115. us. od., which it was proposed to sell to Mr. Kirkby.
But there were able and powerful men among the tenants
who refused to brook this clearance. An opposition was
formed, whose representatives went to London to prefer
their claims, and Charles lost his case.
It is difficult to determine these unforgotten but un-
written rights of the past. The assertions of them are
all of late date, when old men mouthed traditions, and
evidence is conflicting, according to the side from which
it comes. And it comes almost all from the lord's side.
" Item : That such Term* and Tennants soe admitted (to the
manor) and allowed as is afforesayd is or ought to have by the
appoyntment and delliverie of the Lord or his Bayliffe beeinge
Tennant and ffower other Tenn ts sworne sufficient Timber to bee
had of the same Lands for repayringe of theire buildings and for
Hedge-boote, Plough-boote and Harrow-boote And for other
necessaryes to bee imployed about their Husbandry. ' ' Inquisition
of 1574-
This claim of the dalesman for " sufficient timber "
for the requirements of his holding was large and elastic.
His own ground might furnish him with timber enough ;
for the scattered homesteads, like the Nab, often had a
little patch of old forest trees left upon it. And indeed
in the more closely compacted mils or hamlets, each
holder had his own appointed dale of woodland, or wood-
mere, somewhere on the fields where a few trees grew on
a rocky strip, or along the border of a meadow.* But
these meres, as a rule, furnished him only with elding
and hedge sticks, and not sound old timber for repairs.
* The apportioning of these meres or dales, on the enclosure of the common
fields, was eventually productive of the greatest confusion, and, finally of
strife among the townsfolk, for they were assigned where they could be found,
and often lay against, if not upon, another man's ground.
RYDAL
If, therefore, timber for building was not to be found on
his own holding, he could demand it from other parts
of the township, even upon the lord's demesne.*
*' And Whereas the respective Customary Tenants of the several
Manors of Rydal, Conistone . . . claim a Right to fell, cut down
and take away Timber and other wood from off the Demesne
Lands . . . for the repairs of their respective Customary Houses
situate within the Manor where the timber and other wood is
cut down." . . .
So runs a document of agreement concerning the felling
of old timber within the park which was drawn up by those
members of the le Fleming family who had possible claims
to the estate after the death of George, Bishop of Carlisle.
To prevent this invasion of the demesne, a patch of
woodland was often set aside for the uses of the villagers.
Or in the words of the old document, if their tenements
do not supply them with enough wood
" the Landlord may and doth usually make Springs or Coppices
or such Woody grounds within the Tenants grounds, as have
been anciently Coppices or Sprung, And these after the Lord
have sufficiently fenced them, then they are to be meantaned
and kept by the Tenants, according to the Statute in that case
made and provided."
Such a common wood was Nab wood, which stretched
unenclosed down the slope behind the house of Rydal
village to the shores of the lake, and which may have
existed from the time when Sir Roger shut out the men
from his newly-made park. Its uses are past, but its
ancient oaks (now fast rotting away) show what those uses
were. Another common woodland for Loughrigg was on
the steep slope behind Field Foot called Lanty Scar.
This too, may have been early apportioned by a lord of
Rydal to the uses of the tenants of his manor within the
township of Loughrigg, who were very much mixed up
with the tenants of the Lindesey manor.
* This, however, is denied in MS.
THE LAW OF GREEN-HEW 109
The remnant of the old trees in these common woods ,
as well as those at the Nab, and a few at Bainrigg's,
spread fantastic arms from the crown of an ancient
trunk at the highest some ten feet from the ground.
This height marks the limit of the tenants power to cut ;
for he might not anywhere fell a tree entirely, but only
use its branching wood above the crown. Also, from all
oak cut, even on his own ground, the lord claimed the
bark as a perquisite.
There were or grew up other limitations to the
tenant's use of timber. He might not even use timber for
the erection of a new house or byre, but only for the
repair of an old one, though the old one might be rebuilt
from the ground, so long as it rose again on the old site.
It is probably this law that produced the extraordinary
permanence of the sites of the village houses, which date
back to immemorial times.* He might not enlarge his
premises, but only take timber for " a Convenient dwelling
house, Barn, Byer or Cow house," and the writer of the
old document goes on to say that his old father who had
acted as Lord's steward on some manor used, in
his charge to the jury at the court, to specify particularly
the parts of the frame work of a building allowed,
restricting the " barn or bier " to three pairs of supports,
or even fewer on small tenements.
In this matter of mutual, entangled, and closety-
watched rights, each side had for long its representative
watchers or guardians. The lord had his bailiff, acting
under the steward ; the dalesmen their elected fellows,
to act on their behalf. Four sworn men are spoken of
in 1574 ; but two bierlawmen f or house-lookers was
the general number appointed. On this point the
document says :
* When the writer entered Rydal, in 1896, not a single house stood on a.
new site, while many ancient sites were empty. Since then the new building,
impulse has invaded the place and houses have been erected on new sites.
t See Whittakers' History of Craven.
110 RYDAL
" Tha,t once a year, when the Lord kept his Court, Two of the
most Substantial Tenants in the Lordship were elected by the
Jury and the Court, and those they called Bierlawmen, and their
office was this. If any Tenant complain'd for want of Timber
to repaire his houses ; then these Bierlawmen were to view the
decay, and see whether it came by the Tenants default or by
accident ; and they were also to view what trees would be needfull
and sufficient for the repair ; and if it came not through the
Tenants default, then the Lord's Bailiff Upon the Bierlawmen's
presentment was to sett out for the Tenant upon his own Tenement
such and so many trees as the said Bierlawmen did or should
say to be sufficient."
An order of the Windermere court, agreed upon by
Mr. Christopher Philipson, deputy steward, and the
tenants, on November 30, 1630, stands.
" Itm. It is ordered by the Consent as above said that noe
Tenant in Troutbecke or Ambleside Shall have any Timber
Delivered to his building but upon his own Tenement, without
the Consent of the Owner of the Ground, and the same to be
Assigned by the Houselookers, and Delivered by the Bayliffe
according to the Custome, upon paine of every Default, 6s. 8d.
At what time the dalesmen lost their acting represent-
ative, and house-lookers or bierlawmen ceased to be
elected in court, is not apparent. There is no evidence
of any such village officers existing in Rydal from the
time when particulars of the manor are extant, which is
1654. Yet Rydal needed them ; for while the cordon was
drawn even more tightly round her tenants' rights of
timber, those of the men of the townships surrounding
her, in the royal manor, became even more free and
unfettered. The men of Ambleside were indeed quarrell-
ing among themselves by this time about the law of
greenhew, and were seeking to make their own judges or
umpires, outside the court, as a document of 1633 shows.*
A short reign of freedom came to Rydal with the
interregnum, when not only king and church were deposed,
* See Appendix.
THE LAW OF GREEN-HEW III
but her own manorial lord. Her townsmen clearly made
use of it, cutting timber unrestrained, while they might.
An order was therefore issued in 1654, or the previous
year, which is alluded to in a letter from William ffleminge.
" John Banks
upon Munnday last I receaved a letter from Mr Wharton (the
agent) as alsoe a Coppie of a petiton wch hee hath p r ferred and
already passed the same Comittees, and he likewise writes that
their was then an order granted, but not signed against the
cuttinge downe and spoyleinge of the woodes, wch hee would
send down by the next post, wch if already sent away then soe,
if not then hasten it w th all possible speed for that daylie greate
spoyle is done in the woddes."
When the new lord of the manor was firmly fixed in
his seat, he made it clear to his tenants that there should
be no tampering with timber, except by his license.
Three of the most prominent and wealthy of them appear
to have defied him, or at least to have refused to acknow-
ledge his undisputed power in the matter. Whereupon,
appealing to no village or manor court where a jury of
townsmen would have declared the customary law of
greenhew and pronounced judgment he promptly sum-
moned them to appear before the next Quarter Sessions
at Kendal (on whose bench he sat) to answer for their
actions. Their surrender is shown in his account book
for 1658.
" May 14. Received of David Harrison for felling Ib s. d.
a tree in y e Nab, and for carrying of wood out of
y e Parke, by his children and servants . . oo. 05. oo
more of Thomas Fleming for y e like offence . . oo. 10. oo
22 more of Simond Parke for y e like . . . . oo. 10. oo
Satisfied with his victory, he gives back to the three
2s. 6d., is. od., and 2s. od. respectively. And therefore
we hear only of his own sale of timber-trees on the manor,
to the carpenters of the neighbourhood, of whom there
were three at least among the tenants of his manor.
112 RYDAL
By the time that the eighteenth century opened, the
ancient law of greenhew had hopelessly broken down.
But the results of the old village community remained
even after a fixed tenure and enclosure had taken the
place of a system of rotatory possession in open fields
and showed in the scattered closes and dales and woodmeres
of which a man's holding was made up. Each man and
his successor had to remember what was his, and to stick
as closely to it as he could. There was no longer the
regularly kept village court, where the voice of the aged
declared the customs, and a responsible jury " boundered "
a man's holding, or decided a dispute about the cutting
of wood.* Where there was no resident lord to hold all
in check, a species of anarchy prevailed, the strong
holding their own, and the mean and crafty seeking to
encroach on their neighbour.
Nor was the law of greenhew simple, even for the
honest. Timber needed time to grow. That a man's
trees allotted as the wood-mere of his holding in long
past time grew on another man's land, promoted both
confusion and complications, when there was no court
of appeal. As a striking instance of the confusion and
strife that might and sometimes did ensue, we may quote
the records of Ambleside, though out of our boundary.
Benjamin Browne, a prosperous statesman of Trout beck,
was between the years 1705 and 1717 acting as agent for
the absent Lady Otway, who had inherited the large
and mixed customary lands accumulated by the Brath-
waites of Ambleside Hall. His letters constantly refer
to the greenhew difficulties he had to contend with. For
instance, George Ellis claims a wood-mere in the lady's
field called Old Helmes ; and has not only proceeded to
cut down several great oaks within the close, but several
* It is interesting to note that while Sir Daniel called no court in his manor
for the settlement of timber disputes, he called upon the Grasmere court to
bounder his tenement there, that his rights might be confirmed in it.
THE LAW OF GREEN-HEW 113
others that stood within her wall, pulling down a great
deal of it to get to them, and leaving the close open to
the common fields. In reply she can only suggest an
appeal against this outrage on her rights to the neighbours,
or to the court of Windermere. Again, an old man informs
the agent that the Ambleside Hall property possessed a
wood-mere in a close of John Mackereth's ; and John's
son James now succeeding to the property, proceeds to
cut down wood in it ; nor does an attempted arbitration
succeed. Then widow Kelsick makes a most unwarrantable
claim on the wood growing on Batesmerhow, and even
proceeds to offer it for sale ; this claim is an invention slowly
pushed, the Kelsicks never having ventured to cut wood
there themselves, but sending poor people to do so, who
have begged from them, and have not known the rights
of the matter. It is cheerful to record one straightforward
attempt to straighten matters. Robert Partridge states
that Lady Otway has a wood-mere on his land called
Roughsides, and desires to purchase it. As to Lady
Otway's extensive woods at the Pull, within Lord
Montague's manor of Hawkeshead, the agent is at his
wits end. He can get no timber set out by the bailiff
or lawyer, acting for the manor, even for the repair of
her property there, while trees are felled within them by
his leave for other tenants. A " tip " or a friendly glass
are resorted to in vain as persuaders ; a " guinea or two "
is even spoken of. She grants five or six oaks for the
rebuilding of the Hawkeshead school " mansion house,"
because she is pressed for them ; but this has to be done,
" quietly, and without a noise," while she dare not cut
for herself. " Crooked trees " for certain repairs the agent
reports as not to be had, except at Rydal : he buys some,
however, at Baisbrowne.
Timber, indeed was getting scarce, for the lively state
of the iron trade was tempting everyone who could,
to " coal " their wood for its manufacture [see later].
I
114 RYDAL
Even the customary tenants of Ambleside, regardless of
the ancient forest law, were busy lopping such " springs "
or coppice as they could command, and rearing on the
pit-steads those cones of burning sticks that came out as
charcoal.
Green-hew matters were running no more smoothly in
Rydal, and with a far greater risk of ultimate disaster to
the tenants, whose duel of rights was with lord instead of
neighbours. Discord centred itself for a time in Bainrigg,
the fine stretch of woodland once freehold, that covers
the arm of White Moss. It was held at this time as
customary land under the manor of Rydal by William
Scott, who bought it in 1739 from his father-in-law,
Robert Harrison of Church Stile, Grasmere. William
was apparently a cantankerous man, separated from his
wife and unloved by his neighbours ; but his letters of
complaint to the heads of the manor, who were acting for
the young heir, Sir Michael, reveal an extraordinary state
of affairs, in which he seems not the only one to blame.
According to his own account, he had had a passage of
arms with the late Sir William, who had served him with a
writ " for taking customary rights " of wood in Bainrigg;
but upon his appearing in (presumably) the Kendal court,
and claiming freehold right, the case had dropped, and
the plaintiff had to pay the expenses. This emboldened
William to stop his lord, both when the latter's servant
next came to cut wood, and to order firewood for Mr.
Wilson, the Grasmere parson. So the matter seems to
have stood, at a breather in the contest, rather than a
conclusion, when William in 1751, sold some wood from
his estate to John Fleming, and the latter warned that
Scott's right to sell might be disputed failed to conclude
the bargain and carry off the wood. Whereupon Scott
served him with a writ, and the dispute blazed forth
afresh.
Unfortunately, the Revd. John Wilson fanned the
THE LAW OF GREEN-HEW 115
flames of discord that now broke out from the smouldering
of woodland grievances. He advised the steward (Mr.
Moore) to bring up a counter action on Scott, and thought
this might be made good on the ground of his " cutting
down and coaling several large oaks, and bringing others
home, some of which he had sold." He proposes a notice
being read out in the church, prohibiting Scott's felling
of timber a measure, he adds, which will deprive the
man of his winter fuel, "as he is so detested, that upon
the least whisper no person will work for him." The
notice ran as follows :
" Whereas great quantities of wood have been un-lawfully cut
down in a field or fields called Bainriggs, parcell of y e manor of
Rydal, which is a great injury to the tenants of the said manor
This is to therefore give notice, that if any person whatsoever
shall presume, contrary to y e custom of y e said manor to> cut
down, or peel any wood in the said Bainriggs, they shall be
immediately prosecuted."
Counsel's opinion, however, when appealed to, was not
in favour of bringing a case against Scott ; and Mr.
Michael Knott of Rydal, whose written opinion on the
customs was asked for, he having been " many years
steward to old Sir W m Fleming," replied in the usual
manner. He believed
" that the Wood on the Tenants Ground within the Manor of
Rydal is Chiefly in the Lord of the said Manor ; The Tenants are
by Custom Entitled to House, Fire, Plough and Hedge [paper torn]
ought not to Cutt any Timber Wood even for the [ ]
Repairs or Rebuilding their Houses, till obtain'd (at) the Consent
of the Lord, and to be Sett Out by his Steward or Bailif."
We next hear Scott's side. For in 1759 he was driven
to appeal to Mr. Moore, the acting agent in Sir Michael's
minority, concerning the abuses of the wood on his
ground at Bainrigg. The tenants of Rydal, he said,
though they had sufficient wood in their own ground for
building or repair, get the lord's officers " to sett forth
Il6 RYDAL
large quantities every year in Bainrigs ; then, after letting
it lie several years, convert it to other uses." He particu
larizes with a backward eye to grievances. "Mr. Knott
when he built his House Cutt down above Sixty Trees,
in order to spaire his own, then thinking to gett it a
Freehold as he did quickly afterwards, he hez coal'd it."
Then again, " He hez cutt down wood in Bainrigs Twice
since the former time," in particular cutting down "five
or six years ago eleven trees for building An Ass (ash)
House To ly Ashes Inn " though he had not yet begun it.
Likewise George Otley about twelve years ago had
" near 30 " trees for building a barn, and the surplus " he
converted to privet youses [private uses] & Chists for his
Children." And this year again Mr. Dickson (the bailiff?)
has set out for Otley a quantity more wood, eleven trees
three or four " fine Spires " of large timber thickness
among them being already cut down ; though all that
is required is for two new doors and a "paint-house [pent-
house ?] along the barnside over the doors."
Next John Park of Nab " being Mr. Knots' nephew "
induced the same officials to "set him out sixteen trees in
Bainrigg, though he had plenty of wood on his own estate ;
and last year he had seven more." John Fleming had
cut down fourteen or sixteen trees about six years since ;
and next year, with Mary Park, nearly twenty trees.
John Birket too, had cut down about twenty trees in the
last two years. Altogether he reckons that some 200
oaks have been taken by his neighbours from Bainriggs
since Sir William's accession to the manor. Finally
Scott complains he had lost a beast, which ate the " Oake-
Broom " that was cut unknown to him, that the herbage
of the wood is destroyed by the trailing of the wood and
letting it lie ; that the fences are broken down to bring
it out ; and that the croppings are flung into the water.
Two years later, Scott writes to Sir James Lowther,
the acting trustee for Rydal manor. He recapitulates
THE LAW OF GREEN-HEW 117
his grievances, adding that Mr. Moore has stopped them
carting of some " Botch Wood " he had sold, which
though worth over i now lay rotting. " As for Botch
and Hasel Wood it is an Undisputable right to the
Tenant all over Ingland both by Law and Custom."
The agent has besides tried to frighten people these last
two or three years, so that the writer can scarce hire
labour " To Crop Oake according to custom." He puts
forward again the old freehold tenure of Bainrigg ; and
finally, in face of the many difficulties, offers to sell the
estate (which he values at 400 " guines ") to the manor.
But instead of a purchase, we hear of a law-suit, which
cost the manor, from 1762 to William Scott's death in
1771, 73 I2s. lod. for barristers expenses alone. Scott
in his will provided for the continuance of the struggle,
but the lord was clearly tired of it, and agrees with the
dead man's trustees for the purchase of it for 400.
After this, the lord's officers watched the tenants closely
to see that they did not exceed the green-hew rights now
allowed to them. The letters of John Gibson, who acted
for some years as bailiff to Sir Michael, record for his
master's satisfaction his own ceaseless vigilance in this
and other matters. On June 9, 1781, he writes :
" Mr. Knott has Let his House here to his Sister, and he is
going to make great Alterations and Improvements, for which
purpose I have Set out Eight Trees in his own Wood and Two
in Wm. Park's wood, the Reason of going to Park's, was by Mr.
Knotts' earnest request, Park having gone the last Year into
Mr. Knott and Tho s Fleming's woods, Cut, Peeled, and Carried
away either Two or Three Timber Trees and the Bark, without
the knowledge, leave or Consent of any one, and said that Mr.
Dixon (the late bailiff) had set them out the year before.
I have set out Four small Trees in Geo : Birkett's Wood for
Wm. Swainson, being all that were worth taking, and the rest
were One from every Neighbour.
Have also Set out Two for Geo : Rigge, and Three for Jn
Barnes in their own Woods ; They are all Peeled and I have
taken care of the Bark, but shall not sell or dispose of it without
Il8 RYDAL
your Directions. George Birkett has never Used or taken away
any of the Timber which was Set out and Cut for him above
Three Years since, altho' he promised you so to do, and it is now
not much more than half the value, being so much decayed."
Again in 1782, he reports that George Rigge, who owns
a messuage and tenement in Rydal by right of his wife,
has instructed the man who rents it to grub up three oak
trees avowedly for the improvement of his ground fence,
but without any reference to himself as the lord's officer ;
and that when he had remonstrated with the men at
work, they had answered that the lord could not hinder
a tenant from grubbing wood for the improvement of his
ground. The bark, however, was saved for Sir Michael.
Also he informs against William Park, who about three
years ago grubbed some wood and sold it to three men
whose names are given. The name of the family of Parke
has occurred several times in these green-hew disputes.
Like others of their neighbours, they were perhaps not
above the hopeless and irritating game of reprisals, which
was so often attempted in the absence of a disinterested
court of appeal in disputes. And in their outstanding
homestead, with its own patches of woodland, they had
always taken up an independent attitude as to rights of
timber. Simon Parke was fined by Sir Daniel. At a
court held on February 7, 1769, John Parke was fined
6d. " for cuting down wood with* having leave from
Bailif." Early next century, John Simpson, son-in-law
and successor to William Parke, was indicted for the same
offence. He refused to make amends. An action was
brought against him in a distant court, in which the lord
of the manor pleaded that the Rydal tenant had only
right to cut down trees on his own estate " by the Lord's
direction," and then for repairs solely. It was contended
that most of the tenants were at this time conspiring
to establish the right to cut down timber for new buildings.
From this agreement we may conclude that of the various
THE LAW OF GREEN-HEW 119
versions still told of the ruin of the Simpsons, the one is
correct which makes the use of timber for the building
of a new barn (the one standing at right angles to the
road) the cause of offence and of conviction. John
Simpson lost his case, the cost of which he could not pay.
Various loans of which the strange history is told in
part vi. by the De Quincey letters put off only for a
year or two the evil day ; and in 1834 tne family left
the Nab, which had been their inheritance as far back as
record goes, penniless and homeless.
APPENDIX.
G. BROWNE'S MSS. VOL. xiv. 145. Green-hew.
" The Five and twenteth dale of Aprill, Anno din, 1633.
Knowe all men, That whereas some question is or contrau er sye
likely to growe amongst some of the Tenannts of Amblesyde
tuchinge the grubbing of there Woods as alsoe the use of the
Timber and other Woodes groweing claymed or belonging unto
eu er y mans Tenem* in Amblesyde, and likewise tuchinge the
P'servacon and cherishing of there Woods, according to our
Costome, and according to an Agreem* made by the Consent of
the most part of the Tenannts in Ambleside tuchinge there said
Woods and there Usage thereof, It was heretofore and nowe
is fully concluded and agreed by us whose names and m ar kes are
Underwritten, that eu er ye Tenannt in Amblesyde, that shall
have anie occasion to use anie Tymber or Timber trees for
buildinge or repaireing of his howse or Barne, shall serue himselfe
of his owne woode belonging to himselfe, and not to have or take
anie Timber or other wood claymed or belonginge to an other
mans Tenem* w^out the likeing and Free consent of such Tenannt
as doth clayme or owe the said woods, And if anie Tenan n t or
other pson or psons whatsoeu er doe or shall heareafter goe about
to infring or breake this our agreem* tuching the Usage of Timber
and other Woods, Wee whose names and m ar kes are underwritten
for the better Cherishinge and prserueing of the said Timber and
other Woodes, and prf ormance of this agreem* doe hereby seu er allie
and respectively Couenn* and prmisse too and w th Samuel Jackson,
George Atkinson, John Brathwaite, and Willm Jackson and too
120
RYBAL
and w th eu er ie of them. That wee and eu er y of us whose names
or m ar kes are underwritten shall and will paie or cause to be paM
unto the foresaid Samuel Jackson, Georg Atkinson, John
Brathwaite and Willm Jackson or some of them, w th in one Month
after demand thereof all such some or somes of money as wee
and eu er y of us shalbe assessed to paie by the foresaid Samuel
Jackson, Georg Atkinson, John Forrest, Edward Brathwaite,
& Thomas Mackereth, five Tenannts beneath the stock. And
the foresaid John Brathwaite, Willm Jackson, Edward Forrest,
Edwin Brathwaite, and Dauid Erey, five other Tenannts aboue
the stock or the more part of them, w th the umpage and
Consent of Gawen Brathwaite, esquire, towards the defence of
our title and right herein, the Cherishinge of our Wood and
the prformance of this agreem* according to the Custone
if anie Tenannt or other pson shall attempt or goe about to hinder
or breake the same, And as witness hereof wee have sette our
names or M r kes the daie and yeare first abouewritten.
Gawen Brathwaite
Thomas Fleming
Thomas Ellis
Samuell Jacksonn
John Bra what
Georg Atkinson
Edwin Brathwaite m r ke II
Willm Jackson m r ke M
Dauid Erey m r ke II
John Forreest m r ke H
Edward Forrest m r ke I
Thomas Macherth
Edward Brathwaite m r ke I-
Richard Forrest marke A
John Newton marke 1C
Robart Newton marke D
Georrge Mackereth marke C
John ellis marke O
Robart partridge marke 9
Thomas ellis marke J
George Jackson marke Ic"
Ather Fishere mark C-
Georg machrath mark A
Willm Borwicke mark ft
Edward Brathwait mark V
Ed wine Jackson marke X
Robert Newton marke u
sonne of Myles
121
CHAPTER XII
THE COURTS
For Shire ; Hundred or Borough ; and Vill ; also Court
Baron or Hall Moot ; Election of Parish Officers ;
Appendix ; Witheburne Court Baron.
'"T^HE Anglo-Saxons kept law and order, and admin-
istered justice, by means of a graduated system
of courts. Beginning with the village moot,
which controlled all matters of the vill, and punished
small offences by fine, it passed upwards to the hundred-
moot, controlling a group of vills or a district of a certain
size ; and higher still to the shire-moot, where in the
face of a conclave made up of freeholders and represent-
atives from the towns with their reeves, the highest
dignitary, [the bishop and Eoldarman, or in their places
the shire-reeve or sheriff], gave forth the dooms for the
graver offences, and settled all disputes.* A burh-gemot,
too, meeting twice a year in the peace and security of the
walled town, administered justice for the city or borough,
which was independent of the shire. These moots for
vill and borough and shire, may perhaps be traced in
their later forms in our district. Anything like indeed
a county court for all Westmorland must have been of
late origin, since it never was a shire before the Norman
times ; and the courts presided over by the king's officer
oh the creation of the county were for long disliked.
In 1275 and 1276 the complaints of the men of the
baronies of Westmorland and Kendale were deliberated
over in London. They contended that the sheriff of
Westmorland ought to have " of fee " no more than two
horse and two foot sergeants to attend him, and that
now more than three appear as his officials, exacting
* Political History of England, Hodgkin.
122 RYDAL
lodging and payment, and compelling men to come to
certain assemblies " they call the sheriff turn." More-
over, they cause innocent persons to be molested for
larceny, &c., and imprisoned until they extort from
them heavy ransoms.* It seems as if crime in those
days, as in these, was scarce in Westmorland, and a few
cases had to be manufactured by unscrupulous officials
of the court. Witness these extracts from the Calendar
of Close Rolls, temp Ed. I.
1280. Statutes made by the king and his council in Westmorland.
The king has heard complaints when lately in the county of
Westmorland, viz. that the Sheriff has made his " tourn " more
often than necessary, requiring four men and the Reeve of every
town to repair to divers places where he administers justice.
The King orders that the Sheriff shall only make one turne each
year and that in Kendale and elsewheres in Westmorland four men
and the Reeve shall com from each town once a year at a certain
day after Easter and at a certain place to wit at Kirkeby in Kendal
or at Kirkeby in Lunesdale before the Sheriff and coroners, to do
what pertains to keeping the peace in those parts to wit to indict
outlaws, theives, felons, evildoers, and receivers, in the same manner
as the King does elsewhere in the realm. And the other towns
of Westmorland are to come to certain other places most conveni-
ent to them for the same purposes, and there state their com-
plaints and other grievances against the sheriff and his servants
as to taking fines for detaining of prisoners, &c.
And moreover the King wills that when the men of the county
ought to be amerced the amercements shall be made and taxed
in full county by good and lawful men as ought to be done and
according to the statute and not at the will of the sheriff or his
sergeants. For the rest the King wills that women breivers
(braceresses) in that county may not for one amercement brew
and sell all the year contrary to the assize and to their profit
and to the damage of the people ; but that they shall be punished
according to the award of the county (court) as is done elsewhere
in the realm.
In 1285 a law was passed, appointing justices to hold
in every county, three times a year, assizes, juries and
* Calendar of Patent Rolls, 2 Ed. I.
THE COURTS 123
inquisitions, and two years later William de Stirkeland
and Robert le Engleys, on behalf of Westmorland, were
bidden to enforce this law, as it was found that the
justices were not holding assizes as often as was intended.
But these assizes were outside the courts of custom.
The expenses of the king's justices at Kirkeby-in-
Kendal are accounted for in 1352 (Min. Acct. Gen. Ser.
Bdle. 1118 n. 5), when they seem to have sat three days,
only once in the year.
The court of the hundred is supposed in very early
times to have administered justice chiefly for the theft
of cattle, which was the only valuable asset of the land-
holders that could be stolen. It was necessary to convene
the court frequently, for the thief who had lifted the
cattle had to be followed hot foot and caught, and it was
the duty of every man of the hundred to join in the
pursuit, which was called the " Hue and Cry." It is
said, accordingly, to have been held every four weeks.
See Hodgkin and Stubbs, who say that both shire-moot
and hundred-moot were restored by Hen. I.
Probably the court which is found meeting at Kendal
every three weeks, or month, is the representative of the
hundred and the borough courts in our district. The
Inquisitions of William de Tweng in 1341, stated that he
held his lands in the barony by doing suit in the king's
county court of Westmorland, every month. But a court
is spoken of in the Inquisition held at Kendal on the
death of the Duke of Bedford, in 1436, when the courts
held for the villages in his lands are enumerated as meeting
there every three weeks.
In the Ministers Account for 1453 * the proceeds of
this court are entered as those of the " court baron of
Kendale called county court [Cur Patrie] and borough
court held at Kirkby in Kendal each third week."
* Min. Account, Bdle 644, No. 10,444.
124 RYDAL
In Queen Elizabeth's Inquisition of 1574, for both the
Richmond and Marquis Fees, the three- weeks court held
at Kirkby Kendal is mentioned, with a statement that
is dealt with plaints and actions under 403. This Inquis-
ition speaks also of the Court Leet held twice in the year
in the same town ; the jurors for the Marquis Fee adding
besides two " head Court Barons," also held twice. For
these courts the various divisions of the barony provided
free-holders in due proportion to serve on the Jury ; six
from the Richmond lands, three from the Marquis lands,
and three from those belonging to Sir Alan Bellingham,
sometimes called the Lumley Fee. The profits of the
fines levied at these courts, as well as the tolls on Kendal
fairs and markets, were divided in the same proportion
among the lords of the lands. The time for holding these
courts is stated by the jurors to be the Monday and Tuesday
after Low Sunday (first after Easter), and those of the
week next after Michaelmas Day. A roll of one of these
courts remains, but worn so thin as to be in great part
illegible.* It records what was done in the " Chief
court of the Barony of Kendale held there at Kirkby-in-
Kendale on Tuesday next after the Feast of St. Wilfrid
20 Henry VI." [A.D. 1441]. Several free-holders (and
among them Ralph, late Earl of Westmorland) are fined
4d. " for default of suit of court." The pleas are mostly
for debt, trespass, detention, or breach of agreement, and
the legible fines extracted from the offenders run no higher
than 6d. Fresh agreements are arrived at by means of
an " imparlance " held in face of the court, when the
disputants state their grievances (and possibly bring
forth witnesses) before the jury. A Langdale man, one
John de Gr . . , has to appear for an imparlance on the
charge of Henry Betham.
The Court Baron, or Hall-Moot, presided over by an
* Public Record Office, Court Roll f $$.
THE COURTS 125
officer of the lord of the manor, carried forward the
tradition of the old village moot. Though later degraded
into a mere vehicle for the lord's requirements and even
his exactions, it was originally a court of justice, and the
methods of law-giving remained in force till at least the
sixteenth century. It must be noticed that with its law
and its judgments neither the lord nor his officer had
anything to do. The officer, indeed, presided ; but no
indictment would be made against an offender except
by two land-holders of the mil, who in technical language
" presented " him, while judgment was declared by a
jury chosen from the land-holders themselves.
The fines, which followed in general a fixed code,
were assessed not by the jury, but by two tenants, chosen
on the occasion. These " assurers " are named in the
Windermere roll of 1443 ; and names are given of the
assurers of John Parke's fine in 1769.
The payment of the lord's rents appears to have been
no part of the proceedings. They were collected and
paid in by the grave or reeve, who was likewise bound
to be a townsman. The office of graveship was a yearly
one till the close of the sixteenth century, and was pre-
sumably one of election by the court, like those others
that concerned the administration of the mil, viz. : the
constable, the bierlawmen or house-lookers, the hedge-
lookers, the moss-lookers, the frithmen. Later, the grave
kept his office for a term of years, or for life. Edwin
Green filled it for Rydal from (at least) 1631, till his
death in 1668. He was followed by William Walker,
and it was not until after the latter's defection that the
lord's faithful factotum, John Banks, took it over, having
by that time acquired a holding in the village which
qualified him for it. The grave was also responsible,
in the Richmond and Marquis Fees of the barony, for
the payment of fines and heriots.
126 RYDAL
PARISH OFFICERS.
(i). Paper in Sir D. Fleming's handwriting.
" How y e Constable is to go by y e Turne every third year
(Loughrigg serving two years) in Rydal, beginning A Dom 1667
Imprimis Keen Tenem* for y e year . . . . . . 1667
Then Parkes Tenem* p r A (pro Anno) . . . . . . 1670
[and so on through the seventeen holdings of the manor of Rydal,
concluding]
" The overseers of y e Poor, & y e surveyors of y e Highwayes,
are for y e year 1667 Rich. Nicoldson & Widdow Harrison "
[the twelvth and thirteenth on the list] " & so every 3*d year two
by course as above written goeing downward to y e bottome, &
then beginning at y e topp againe. This was agreed to by all y e
Tenants May y e 9 th A Doi 1667 before mee
Dan : Fleming."
Such was the method which superseded the old election
at moot or court, which after this no longer met with
regularity. It will be noticed that each man served by
right of his holding.
The payment of the green-he w-penny by each tenant,
apparently went with, or represented, his suit of court
to the lord, which he was bound to acknowledge on each
occasion. The God-penny, paid likewise in the face of
the court, was the mark of admission of a new member
to the community, and a new tenant to the manor.
The ceremony, which of old gave the only security a man
had for his land (this being alod, or held by witness of
the community), was long regarded as essential. After
the Rydal court had been reduced as regards the admin-
istration of justice, and was held intermittently, it was
specially convened for the admission of new tenants.
The presentments of offences and the judgments appear
to have followed. These were of a minor character,
affecting only the welfare of the vill. The roll of 1604,
shows that Grasmere and Langdale men were presented
and fined for keeping pigs either unringed, or turning
the lord's soil, 3d. to gd. ; for driving neighbours' sheep
THE COURTS 127
or horses on the common 2od., or for " turnynge on the
common/' 35. 40!. ; driving cattle unreasonably (in
number?) there, 2od. to 35. 4d. ; for cutting neighbours'
oaks, 2d. ; for making "levy (?) huble howe" on a neigh-
bour, 53. od. ; or for putting a scandal on a neighbour.
The word " hubles-how " appears constantly in the rolls of
the neighbourhood as a highly reprehensible offence, to be
reported and punished ; it represented some sort of a row
or commotion, often accompanied no doubt by blows (see
Holm and Fisher).
The Court roll of 1443, shows that several Ambleside
men were indicted and fined 3d. for beasts being taken
under " le Garth " ; for beasts, horses, and pigs being
taken in the forest, id. to i2d. ; for two fires in one
tenement, 6d. ; for a gap in the hedge, 2d. ; and one for
felling an oak though this was pardoned, because it was
used for repairs.
Not every township of our valleys, had in Plantagenet
and later times, its own court baron ; for neighbouring
ones, if under the same lord, joined at one. Also if two
lords possessed lands in one township, they joined at the
court, as we are told that the Hothoms and the Coucys
did about 1400 in Grasmere.* Windermere like Grasmere,
was an old manorial centre, probably because their
churches offered a large roofed space for this great and
solemn legal concourse. It is expressly stated that the
Windermere court of July 9, 21 Henry VI. [1443] was
held within the church. As a rule, the Langdale men,
and those of Loughrigg that did not belong to the Rydal
manor, had their court at Grasmere ; while the Winder-
mere one drew the men of Applethwaite, Troutbeck, and
Ambleside, as well as the ward of " Aid-park," which
was represented by a separate bailiff in the court just
mentioned.
* Levens Rental.
128 RYDAL
This order did not, however, always prevail. Langdale
was called to Windermere 7 Henry VII. [1491-92]. And
by this time Ambleside town had so much increased in
importance and size, that courts were held there. Two
are mentioned 9 Henry VII., viz. : on the Tuesday after
the Exaltation of the Holy Cross [Holy Cross Day,
September 14, 1493], and on June n of 1494. The
arrangement would be favoured by the chapel, which
was almost certainly built by that time.* In 1603 again,
the Grasmere men were for some reason summoned to a
court in the Moot Hall of Kendal.
The expenses of these courts are always entered on the
roll and deducted from the profits (fines, &c.) which go,
to the lord.f At the Moot Hall in Kendal, 1603, they
were 6s. 6d. ; at Grasmere next year, as the lord's officers
had further to go, they naturally stood higher, the town-
ship of Grasmere costing 45. od., and Langdale 6s. od.
The roll of July 9, 1443, gives some interesting particulars,
under expenses of the steward, viz. : bread, 33. 8d. ;
ale, 2s. 8d. ; meat, 2s. lod. ; one kid 4d. ; one capon, 4d. ;
salt, id. ; oatmeal, id. As it would be impossible for
the steward himself to consume this bread, ale and meat
in one day (the kid and the capon more probably serving
for his private meal), it seems that the dinner which in
later times was the invariable accompaniment of a court,
must have come down from those times. Men, indeed,
drawn often from long distances, and engaged in lengthy
proceedings would have to be fed.
The Court Baron was held professedly twice a year
both for Windermere and Grasmere, at dates which
followed Whitsuntide and Martinmas, when the tenants'
rents (paid half-yearly) were due. That these times
* As the men of Amb. and Aid park repaired to Windermere Church for a
court on July 9, 21 Hen. VI. ; I would hazard a conjecture that the Ambleside
chapel was built between that date and this, 1443 and 1494.
t In anglo-Saxon days the profits went to the lord. (See Hodgkin).
THE COURTS 129
were not adhered to, the existing rolls show. The half-
yearly rent is still adhered to in these parts, the I2th of
May and nth of November being the fixtures.
If we look to the Rydal manor, we find no early evidence
of its court. That the strong Sir Roger, who exercised
manorial jurisdiction over large and scattered lands,
would establish one for his isolated vill over against his
deer-park, is certain, and in this the half of Loughrigg
that belonged to him would join, but no records remain.
The men would naturally meet at Old Hall, where Sir
Roger's " loge " or Peel tower stood, but the lord's
steward then, and later, would ride away with rents and
rolls, and the latter would be deposited with the muniments
of the de Lancasters of Howgill Castle, of which nothing
now is known. Squire John Fleming kept his courts in
due and proper form, as a paper shows that admits a
Loughrigg tenant whose holding had been alienated from
the manor for a time, and who then, he states, " did
attorne unto me." All sequence of courts must have
been lost after his death, when the estates were sequest-
rated. Sir Daniel held them whenever they were necessary
for his purposes, but it is doubtful if they served any
purpose connected with the vill or the welfare of its
people, except so far as their admissions were concerned.
We have seen how he wrote out, in a mechanical rotation,
the filling of the village offices of constable, of overseers
of the poor, and surveyors of the highway. The frithmen
too probably took their turn, without open election.
The court-roll of September 23, 1749, is a very meagre
sheet, being practically only a rent list. The names of
the jury are written on the back, sworn in groups of 4,
4, and 3, with Mr. Michael Knott separate as Foreman.
A court was held at Thomas Fleming's Inn, and the
court convened in 1835 was probably the last in Rydal.
The inn had become indeed the refuge of the court in
these latter days, when it shows but as a feeble .relic of
K
130 RYDAL
the past. No customary lands remain in Rydal, but
some few exist in the townships round. For these
portions of the barony the family of Lowther provide,
holding a court of admission on the death of a lord, when
the old skeleton of an archaic instrument of justice is
galvanized into life for a day, and the Norman cry of
Oyez ! oyez ! oyez ! is sounded before the assembled
townsmen. Such a court was held for Grasmere, Lang-
dale, and Loughrigg, at the Rothay Hotel, on April 2,
1906, when the Right Hon. James William Lowther, M.P.
succeeded as lord of the barony the Right Hon. James
Lowther, the last general admitting lord. The two joint
holders of Fox Gill, belonging to the Richmond lands, then
paid a fine of is. od. each. The latter novel charge
would provide for the expenses of the court, and the
dinner of the coachman, who carried the fines.
In the absence of particulars of Grasmere and Rydal
courts, a form for keeping the adjacent court of Wythburn,
which Sir D. Fleming possessed, is given.
APPENDIX. RYDAL HALL MSS.
(Outside in Sir Daniel's Hand, " Witheburne " Court Roll).
" The Ancient order and way of the holding of the Court Baron
of Witheburne, the Last Court Roles perused and the new tenants
then found, called by the baylife unto some convenient place to
the Steward to be Enroleed that they may doe service & 4^ paid
for Enroleing of every one . . . proclamation made . . . free-
holders called A : B : C : D :
Tenants at the will of the Lord Acording to the Custome of
the mannor Called A: B: C: D: E: F:
Proclamation made . If there be
any Tenant or ocupyer belonging to this
manor that Can Cleare themselves of the
payment of a greenehew to the Lord or his
oncers let them apeare So to doe now in
open Court Acording to Ancyent Costome
before the Jury be producted and called or
otherwise the greenehew is payable as
formerly.
This greenehew is
levied upon every
Tenant that doth
not thus excuse
themselves at every
Court.
THE COURTS 13!
THE MANER OF THE EXCUSE.
If any apeare to make excuse they are to be sworne after this
maner. You shall declare the truth the whole truth and nothing
but the truth Concerning such things as you shall heareafter be
examined of so holy you, &c.
The Examination . . . have you neither Cutt nor Cropt :
Topt Lopt nor feld peeled nor grubd : Syelk nor wand : ash,
Oake nor birch, hollin Crabtree nor white thorne : hassell wyeth
nor Elm, Ramtree, ewe nor Ellers within this maner since the last
Court holden for this maner nor any other wood that therin
groweth.
If the person that thus apeare th say they have not it shall
serve for an excuse.
Notice to be taken in a by Role who excuses themselves.
The Jury called \ The fforeman Sworne . . . deligently to
A. B. enquire and true presentment make of all
C. D. I such things as shall be given you in charge
J So holy you &c
The Rest of the Jury Sworne by fours together , . . the same
oath that A.B. your foreman hath taken the same shall you &
every of you take So holy you &c.
The Preamble to the Artickles of the Juryes Charge Acording
to the Stewards discretion.
The Artickles of the Charge . . . you are first to enquire for
the lord. First you are to enquire and find all new tenants
fallen since the last Court holden or before not yet enroleed
whether by discent or Alination.
Also you Shall Enquire of all the Lord's wood within the manor
if there be no wast made therein by Cropping, toping, loping, or
felling ; neither by peeling nor grubing since the last Court
holden or before which hath not beene presented how when and
by whom neither by any other way or maner unlawfull or un-
acustomed : . . .
Also you shall enquire of all f orfetures to the Lord be they by
Indictments for felony special or they fall by escheats or mort-
maines or the non payment of the yearlye Rent by which the
land is holden all which are forfeture to the Lord ....
Also you shall enquire of all goods or Chattels which are or
hath been Lost or taken as weafe and Stray and hath Remained
within this manor a year and a day never chalenged by the right
owner they fall unto the Lord ....
132 RYDAL
You are also to enquire if their be any Concealed Rents
or writings whatsoever belonging to the Lord what they are
and by whom Concealed. . . .
Also you shall try all Actions ot debt or trespas which may by
enterance to the Steward be thus presented unto you : by the
best evidence that shall be exhibited unto you ; one plaint not
exceeding thirty-nine Shillings Eleaven pence halfe peny : Also
you shall enquire of all things Amongst yourselves known to be
done Contrary to Custom or that Remaines under penalty in any
Court Role or other perscription or that can be made Evidently
Aware the Antiquity of it by proof e or that hath formerly beene
given you in particular Articles though now in general : that Such
ofences may be punished by Amerceing the ofender acording to
Custom : all which things as by-Lawes and made amongst your-
selves it canot be expected that a Steward shall perticuler them .:
but putt them all in a generall word, that all which you know or
that can be made out unto you you shall as well enquire of them
present them and punish them as if they were particularised unto
you, so be you impanelled.
The Jury is to be put in minde by the Steward that they
forthwith bring in the names of the new tenants that theire fines
may be Asesed as the Steward shall have Authority when the
Lord is absent ....
Then shall the Steward Examine by the last Court Roles or
the information of the baylif e who was of icers of the last Court as
mos- Lookers : hedge- Lookers wood Lindrers, pendors and persons
of goods distreaned by the baylife of the manor : and examine
what they have to present and take these presentments if they
have any : and put the Jury to apoint others for the time to
come that they may have their charge by the Steward Acording
to Custom. . . .
Then the Jury is to proceed and Come on to the Examination
of particular presentments and give in their verdict Acording
as them and the Steward shall think Convenient.
133
CHAPTER XIII
MILITARY SERVICE AND WARFARE
Bannockburn ; Border-wars and Taxes ; The Clergy and
the tithes; Devastated Vills; Appendix; showing calls
on the County for Military Service and contributions.
THE chief service of the Westmorland land-holder
was originally that of warfare. He had to ride
out under his lord's banner whenever called. As
the Inquisition of 1574 declares, every tenant between
the age of 16 and 60 was to be ready for war, at his own
charges, night or day "at ye west borders of England "
..." Being Warned thereunto by beacon-Fire, post or
proclamation " and to continue with the army at the
Lord Warden's pleasure. There was a traditional limit,
however, to the service, and it came to be the custom,
when warfare with the Scots became incessant, to call
out the forces in autumn, at a time the men had reaped
their harvest.
Land-tenure by military service is of course the oldest
existing ; as it is a man's first duty to protect against a
foe his homestead, his vill, his hundred, his shire, and his
kingdom. For free-holders all over England the obliga-
tion existed, as well as for the men of the old district of
Northumbria, but for these the obligation, instead of
being relaxed by the general peace of a united England,
became confirmed and increased by the quarrel of England
with Scotland, and the chronic condition of border warfare
that resulted from it ; a condition which only ceased
with the Union of the two kingdoms. Westmorland,
unlike her sister counties to the north, was no border
state, but as in the days of Northumbria she fought
with the men of the north in all their battles. Sometimes,
though she did not suffer as frequently as they did, the
Scots pushed within her borders, and slew and burnt
134 RYDAL
and wasted. Witness in proof of this the petition of the
commons of Westmorland and Cumberland to Parliament
in 1390, against the action of the tax collectors of the
tenth and fifteenth in seizing their possessions, when, by
reason of the frequent burning and destruction of their
tenements, goods and chattels by the French and Scots,
they were unable to pay their fines and taxes, which
was responded to by exemption and even by repayment,
when sums of money had been extorted.
In all the Scotch wars our valleys and their little towns
were concerned. The dalesmen of the vills were tenants
of the Barony of Kendal ; they drew into Kendal upon
call by beacon or proclamation, and marched as Kendal
men with the baron or with the succeeding lords who
over-ruled their lands. When the prowess of " Kendal
men " was honoured in the field, it included that of the
dalesmen of Rydal and Loughrigg with the neighbouring
townships.
The call to arms must have been infrequent in Norman
days, and after the anarchy and bloodshed of Stephen's
time, when Westmorland must have suffered sorely from
the King of Scotland's raid, the county had a time of
peace in which to recuperate and to prosper. The wars
of the Barons may have drawn fiery spirits of younger
sons and landless men from the district, and a number
may have followed William de Lancaster, third baron of
Kendal of that name, who fought against John and was
taken prisoner ; but the call could not have been universal,
or frequent.
It was a different matter when the strong Edward
Longshanks determined to subdue Scotland ; and after
the revolt of Baliol (1296) invaded Scotland, and won the
battle of Dunbar. The number of Westmorland footmen
who accompanied him is not certain.* The success of
* For stipulation of men of Cumberland and Westmorland that this should
not form a precedent, see Cal. Patent Rolls 1300, in appendix to this chapter.
MILITARY SERVICE AND WARFARE 135
Wallace at Stirling Bridge in 1297, kept the men of the
county at their homes, defending them against the raiding
Scots. In the next year, 1400 Westmorland footmen
followed the Earl of Surrey into Scotland. Except in
1299, when nothing was done, there were yearly musters
till 1304. 1000 foot were summoned from Westmorland,
though only 732 served, and almost all the men returned.
In the two next years, when Edward remained in the
field, and completed the conquest, barely more than
600 Westmorland men followed him.* Edward's revenge
for a time was complete, but the work was all to be done
over again when he died on the border, a baffled man,
with Robert Bruce, the newly crowned king, defying him.
His weak son was not the man to accomplish what he
had failed in. No time however was lost in attempting
it. In the same September the knights of the north
were bidden, instead of attending the parliament, to
assemble against Robert ; and two lords of the barony,
John de Lancastre (of Rydal and Holgill) and Ingelram
de Gynes (of Loughrigg and the neighbourhood) were
specially commanded to the service. f Preparations for
the invasion of Scotland in June of the next year were on
a large scale. Amongst the provision of carts to be made
by every county, Westmorland had to furnish 15 wains
drawn by 8 oxen, to be ready at Carlisle. Writs to the
northern lords were repeated in the succeeding years,
showing at least an attempt at a continuance of the war-
fare ; John de Lancastre was again specified in 1310 ;
and in 1313, Ingelram de Gynes was again enjoined not
to leave the north, as well as Marmaduke de Tweng,
another lord of our district.
The latter in January of 1314 was excused from parlia-
ment, because defending Scotch marches. Probably this
* See " Cumberland and Westmorland Military Levies," J. E. Morris,
Transactions C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. iii., N.S.
t Calendar of Close Rolls.
136 RYDAL
service, if carried out, was but that of guarding the borders;
for it was only in 1310 that Edward II. really invaded
Scotland with an army, and then unsuccessfully. Bruce
was now becoming strong enough to take the offensive
and to raid the border counties. Carlisle was garrisoned
with a larger force, and placed in 1313, under the care of
the doughty Andrew de Harcla. One of Andrew's
knights and lieutenants was John de Lancaster of Holgill,
soon to possess Rydal, who seems to have fought, not as
leader of a feudal host (who took the field but for a short
time), but as a regular professed soldier, receiving pay.
He remained with Andrew, when the latter held Carlisle
after the terrible defeat of Edward II. and his great army,
at Bannockburn, in June, 1314.* This defeat left the
northern counties for a number of years open to the raids
of the Scots, and the decreased inhabitants were little
able to repel them without assistance. We now hear an
incessant plaint of disaster and impoverishment. In
1315, the men of Westmorland complain that, while
suffering from the " burning and oppressions " of the
Scots during their invasion, they likewise, when they
carry victuals to sell in Carlisle, are robbed of those by
the king's officers. The mills, the bakehouses, the prison,
at Penrith are wrecked ; mills in other places too, are
destroyed, and oaks are granted from Inglewood forest
for their repair. The clergy of the whole district (1318)
grant I2d. in the mark from their revenues, to aid the
king in continuing the war and defending the district.
This money was doubtless expended in raising the army
to recapture the lost Berwick in 1319, when Cumberland
and Westmorland supplied one-sixth of the 6,152 footmen.
But for this sacrifice by the clergy, they later demanded
some allowance in return.
In 1320 the priors of Cartmel and of Furness declare
* Transactions C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. iii., N.S.
MILITARY SERVICE AND WARFARE 137
they cannot pay the general tax of an eighteenth of their
goods owing to the burning, destroying and stealing of
the same by Scotch rebels. In 1327, the clergy are
excused the general tax of a tenth. In 1330 they resist,
on the same ground, the pope's usual quadrennial demand
for a tenth of their revenues, and they request a new
taxation. This would seem to have been granted by
parliament, and the tax fixed as a sexennial one. The
pope however, by his nuncio and sub-collectors, continues
to press for the old taxation, and in 1336, the clergy the
depression and impoverishment still continuing from the
waste of the Scotch wars are said to " have clamour-
ously besought the king to provide a remedy " ; where-
upon the nuncio is begged to desist from all tax-collection
till next parliament.
The men of Westmorland generally demanded con-
sideration on the same ground, and in 1314, they and
their neighbours of Cumberland are declared exempt from
the general tax of a twentieth and fifteenth. The frequent
coming of the " Scotch rebels," is the plea put forward
for exemption from taxes or payment of debts, till the
end of Edward IFs. reign, but the king's invasion of
Scotland in 1322,* with a large army, when Andrew de
Harcla was ordered to assemble all men between 16 and
60 in Cumberland and Westmorland, only increased the
misery. Bruce followed the remnants of it over the
border, and in perhaps the most terrible of his raids pushed
as far south as Lancashire and Preston, devastating and
burning. Possibly it was this raid that particularly
affected our district, and produced the impoverishment
described in the Inquisition taken on the death of Ingelram
de Gynes, lord of Coucy . Part of his possessions lay in the
track of the invaders. A " capital messuage " or manor-
house, at Little Strikeland is described with all the tene-
* Close Rolls which seem to put Edward's invasion at 1323.
138 RYDAL
ments or houses in the same place, as having been " burnt
by the Scots and now are waste/' The free rents due to
the lord from the barony have fallen from 205. 3d., to
6s. 8d. " Burgages " in Kirby Kendal have fallen for
the same reason from 405., to 6s. The court of the borough
there, from 26s. 8d., to nothing. The free tenants there
and in Westmorland from 14. us. 4fd., to 11. 45. od.
Pleas and perquisites of the (County ?) Court from 133. 4d.,
to 6s. 8d. The fishing of the Kent, which should bring
in 4, is only 403.
And up the valleys from Kendal there are wasted lands
and desolate homesteads. Empty tenements are enumer-
ated in Hutton, in Crosthwaite, in Applethwaite ; while
in the mil of Troutbeck are six empty, all of which have
fallen into the hands of the lord, and which had formerly
paid a rent of ins. 2jd.
" In the said hamlet of Hamelsate (Ambleside) was one tenement
which ought to render 13* 4 d and now nothing, because in the
hand of the lord for default of tenant.
Two tenements in the said hamlet of Langeden which ought
to render 3 s 6 d yearly were in the hands of the lord the day of
his death for default of tenants and now lie waste.
The herbage of the forest of Langeden should be worth 4O S
yearly, but now worth nothing for default of beasts.
In the said hamlet of Loghrig were 10 tenements in the hands
of the lord which ought to render io s 2| d yearly, together with
the fishery of Rawthemere and of the water of the Dubbes and a
certain (bracina) there which ought to render yearly 3 s 6 d now
rendering nothing for default of tenants.
In the said hamlet if Gressemere are 1 1 tenements in the hand
of the lord which ought to render 2O S 6 d yearly, together with the
fishery I s 6 d the forest there 2O 8 and certain bracina. there 2 s
and now rendering nothing for default of tenants."
It appears, therefore, that in these valleys Grasmere
and Loughrigg suffered the most. In Ambleside one
homestead was abandoned ; in Langdale two out of
thirteen, eleven being accounted for in the receipts of
MILITARY SERVICE AND WARFARE 139
rent given earlier in the document ; in Grasmere eleven
out of thirty-two, or one third ; and in Loughrigg ten
out of nineteen, being a little over one-half. The case
of Rydal is unknown.
Though small parties of raiders no doubt penetrated
these valleys from time to time by the passes of High
Street, Kirkstone Raise, and Dunmail Raise, it is hardly
to be supposed that the Scotch main army reached them
and ransacked them. The route by Penrith and Kent dale
was their usual and open road for conquest and plunder.
It seems more likely that the empty holdings hereabouts
were due to the loss of men in battle, and the absence of
any successors to fill their places ; for the drain on the
male population of the district, in the incessant engage-
ments and skirmishes, must have been heavy. The
absence of cattle, both in Langdale and Grasmere, bespeak
the extreme poverty of the remaining townsmen, whose
only wealth lay in their beasts. Even if the herds were
not forcibly driven off (and a very small body of the light
Scotch cavalry could effect this, even by mountain pass),
they would have to be parted with, in the general de-
pression that all alike suffered, in this protracted and
disastrous time of border warfare. The defeat of the
Scots at the battle of Dundalk, 1318, gave some pause
to the raids, and with the accession of Edward III., in
1327, and the death of the great Bruce in 1329, a happier
period for the northern counties dawned. The new king,
in his warfare with Scotland, encouraged a more chival-
rous spirit among the northern nobles, and rewarded
individual effort. To John de Coupland of Northum-
berland, who at the battle of Neville's Cross (Oct. 17, 1346)
performed great deeds of valour, and captured King
David of Scotland, alive, he gave that half of the barony
of Kendal which then opportunely fell into his hands by
the death of the lord, William de Coucy, without direct
heirs. The men of Loughrigg and the valleys must
J40 RYDAL
therefore, when called out for warfare, have marched
with this brave man. Another lion in battle, John,
Duke of Bedford, was lord of the same lands, and created
Earl of Kendal, in 1414. He was warder of the marches,
and engaged in border warfare until the death of his
great brother, Henry V., called him to pursue the wars
in France.
APPENDIX.
SHOWING CALLS ON THE COUNTY FOR SERVICE AND CONTRIBUTIONS.
Cal. of Patent Rolls.
1297. Rob. Lengley of co. West, is " taxor " f or $ of movables
of lay persons outside borough, & $ of persons of
boroughs for co. of Cumb.
Alan le Norreys of co. Lane, for co. of Derby
John Wake, Rob. de Clifford & John de Hudleston app.
captains of custody of march of Scotland in co.s
Cumb. & West.
1299. Rob. Tyliol to lead 2000 footmen fr. Cumb. to Scotch
borders, & Hugh de Milton 1500 fr. West.
1300. Jan. 17. Westmorland has to furnish 300 qrs. of oats at
Carlisle on Midsummer Day
Ap. 30. At the same place & time Hugh de Multon &
Tho. de Derwentwater are to lead 1000 footmen fr.
West.
1300. 28 Ed. I. Sep. 20. The men of Cumb. & West, receive
at Rose Castle a ratification, fr. the K. that the foray
(equitatus) wh. they recently made ag. the Scots, in
the 25 th year under Henry de Percy & Rob. de
Clifford sh. not be to their prejudice, or drawn into
a precedent, or that bee. of it the K. & his heirs sh.
claim further service.
Cal. Patent Rolls.
1304. Aug. 22. 32. Ed. I " John son of Silvanus le Fisshere of
Hamelset, for the death of Adam Erewell & for
robberies."
Given as Ambleside in Index.
Cal. of Patent Rolls.
1303. Ap. 9. 31. Ed. I. App. of Harseulph (sic) de Qeseby,
John de Barton & Robert de Furnens to select 1400
footmen in " northbrithing " c. York, & conduct
them to Rokesburg, ag. the Scots.
MILITARY SERVICE AND WARFARE 14!
Wil. de Dacre & 2 others to select 700 " in co. Lane.
Robert Langleys & Walter de Stirkeland to select in
" Westmoreland & the parts of Kendal " 1000
footmen to be at Appleby May 6, & to conduct them
next day to the king : their wages to be paid for 5
days. (Spelt also Lengleys).
Same for Cumb. (1000 men) except parts of Coupeland John
de Hudeleston to sel. in parts of Coupland c. Cumb.
3000 lootmen, & conduct them to Carlisle. Wages
to be p. for 4 days. " Estbrithing " & " West
brithing " of Y. mentioned. Marmaduke de Twenge
one of the 3 enlisting knights for Yorkshire.
1307. Mar. 19. Five gentlemen (Alan le Noreys one) to select
1000 footmen for Lancashire & lead them to Carlisle,
for service in Scotland ag. Robert de Brus, who is in
hiding in the moors & marshes John de Castre, to
take 200 fr. Eskedale & Gilleslande Richard de
Cletere, 200 fr. parts of Coupland & Cokermuwe
Mathew de Redman & the sheriff of Westmerland
fr. co. West & in Kendale, 300 to be at Carlisle at
the morrow of Easter.
1307. Feb. 20. Lanercost. Selection of men fr. various parts
of Cumb. " Robert Lengleys, Henry de Wardecop,
Walter de Stirkeland, & Robert de Wessington, to
select 500 men in the bailewick of Westmorland "
to be in Carlisle next Monday.
1302. 30 Ed. I. Adam Pertrick of Patrikedale pardoned for
larcenie in co. of Westmorland, by reason of his
service in Scotland.
Cal. Pat Rolls. Ed. II. [War.]
1322. Dec. 10. King sends 2 men to survey the munitions of
men at arms, stock of victuals & other things in
castles & towns of West. & Cumb. & in liberty of
Tyndale.
,, March 31. Mandate to men of West. &c. &c. to assemble
with horses & arms to repel invasion of Scots ; & to
obey Andrew de Hartcla Warden of those parts.
,, March 25. 3000 men to be raised in Cumb. & West.
1323. Feb. 10. Men of West. & the North to attend no more
upon An. de Harcla ... he having joined the Scots
& made a treaty with them.
p. 341. Cal. P. Rolls. Ed. II. 1321-1323.
A John de Lancastre frequently sits with 2 others on trials
142 RYDAL
about trespasses. He is called " keeper " of certain of the king's
lands in Lancashire.
One case is an attack by a family de Farequeton & their allies
on the town of F. co. Lan. " owned by Abbot of Evesham, comm.
on an assualt (sic) on the Abbot's Agent, when beginning to hold a
court there," Can he be same as the one who leads West, levies
to the war ?
Cal. Pat. Rolls. 1321-24.
3 letters patent dated from Laskill or Lascales, co. York.
Cal. Pat. Rolls.
1323. Oct. i. * King in Yorkshire.
Several letters patent dated from Skipton in Craven on that
date, In Sep., from Barnard Castle & Richmond.
Cal. Patent Rolls. War.
1 8 Ed. II. 1324. Nov. 17. Commission to array the knights, sq.
& other men at arms & all fencible men "to be
ready by Candlemas for serv. in Gascony ag. k. of
France, add. to 2 gentlemen of each county. For
West. John de Lancastre of Holgil & Hugh de
Louthre ; Cumb. Peter Tilliol & Rich, de Denton ;
Lan. Walter de Stirkeland & Ed. de Nevill.
1324. Aug. i. 1 8. Ed. II. Com. to supervise the array of men
of the county, & to report number of men, horse &
foot, to be armed with sheet armour, & of the residue
of fencible foot to be ready by Mich, next for war
with Aquitaine : for Lan. Rich, de Hoghton &
John de Haveryngton : for Cumb. Hugh de Louther
& Rich, de Denton ; for West. Walter de Stirkland
& John de Lancastre of Holgill.
Aug. 6. Commission to ... select, to arm, & array of footmen in
var. counties, Lane. 240, West. 80, Cumb. 160.
1326. Ap. 13. 19 Ed. 88. Anthony de Lucy, warden of Cumb.
& West ; directs the array ers for Cumb. Peter
Tilliol & Walter de Kirkebride to bring their levies
wherever he shall require ; also to arrayers for
West. Walter de Stirkeland, Gilbert de Lancastre
& Roger de Brendvesheved ; ditto for Lane. Rich,
de Hoghton, Michael de Haverington, & Thorn, de
Latham.
The comm. to these gentlemen "to make the array" . . .
' '& see that beacons be erected & watchmen & sentinels
placed " is dated Dec. 25. 1325.
MILITARY SERVICE AND WARFARE 143
1326. Jan. 24. The like sent to the " chief arrayers " in Lane.
& West. viz. West. Rob. de Wells, & John de
Stirkeland ; Lane. Rich, de Hodelston & Thorn, de
Latham.
1325. Feb. 20. Com. to Hugh de Louthre, in place of Rich,
de Denton & Rich, de Hodeleston, as leader of the
120 "hobelers " selected by latter in Cumb. & West,
& power to raise 80 more, to be marched in same
manner.
Cal. of Patent Rolls. Strickland & War.
1325. Feb. 26. Walter de Stirkeland to join Edmund de Nevill
in raising 80 "hobelers " & 100 archers in co. Lane.,
in place of Michael de Haveryngton, who is going
to Gascony.
1325. Sep. i. Anthony de Lucy app. warden of Cumb. & West.
while K. goes to Aquitaine.
1326. Supervisors of array, to proceed from hundred to hundred,
punish all persons in default, & act as leaders of
array. For Westmorland, Robert de Welle & John
de Strikeland, For Cumb. Anthony de Lucy, &
Randolf de Dacre.
Pat. Rolls 9 Hen. VI. P. i. [Levy]
1431. Com. to Rich. E. of Salisbury, Wil. Harynton, Thorn.
Tunstall, Rob. Haryngton & Thorn. Strykland, kn.s
to John Morley, esq. & to Thorn. Wharf & Nicholas
& Leyton, to 2 more of them, to array & muster 200
archers of the parts of Kendale, Landedale & the
Westriding of York, ... by feast of St. George next.
(1429) July 17. Com. to Rich E. of Sal. Thomas Strykland,
chiv. John Lancastre, chiv. Rob. Laybourne, chiv.
Christopher Moresby, chiv. Thorn Bedome, Rob.
Warkup & Nicholas Laybourn, in view of threatened
invasion, to array all the men at arms & other
fencible men, whether hobelers or archers, dwelling
in co. Westmorland & to cause them to be put in
oooos, ooos & oos, twenties or otherwise as may be
convenient, & lead them to the coast or other places
as occurence may arise, & to take & survey their
muster. All men of the county capable of labour
to go before the com.ers at whose discretion they
shall be arrayed, armed & equipped " Bekyns "
(beacons) to be set up in suitable places to give
warning of arrival of the enemy.
144 RYDAL
Chris. Culwen, chiv. John Peniyngton, chiv &
among com.ers for Cumb.
1429. Sep. 28. Com. to enquire in to breach stated to have
been committed by Chris Moresby, K's sheriff of
Cumb. who after Wil. Legh, chiv ; & Thorn, de la
More had been duly chosen knights of the shire on
Aug. 30 last in the county court at Carlisle, on writ
of summons to Parl. had yet, though no later
county court was held, procured one Thomas Parre
& the said Thorn de la More, to be declared elected
at another time & place,
p. 76.
1430. Mar. 6. Com. of array for co. West. Rich. E. of Sal.
Henry E. of North, Thorn. Stirkeland, chiv. John,
Lancastre, ch. Christopher Moresby, ch. Henry
Thirlkeld, ch. Nicholas Layburn, Hugh Salkeld &.
Rob. Warcopp.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LORDS' DEER-PARKS.
Inglewood ; Kendal and Troutbeck Forests; Ambleside,
Rydal and Calgarth Parks ; the word " Banner " /
The Troutbeck Giant ; Appendix ; Summons for
Forest Trespass.
OF great interest in the history of the barony of
Kendal, and of our lands which belonged to it
is the part played in the life and welfare of the
people by the deer-parks, so extensively laid out by the
lords of Norman and Plantagenet times. The subject
has been already touched upon, in connection with the
lords and the forest dues they exacted ; but it may be
well to give such scant particulars as are forthcoming of
the tract of country specially set apart for deer.
The early conditions of the primeval forest, that
tilled the valleys and reached high on the mountain sides r
are but guessed at.
THE LORDS DEER PARKS 145
Certain spots within the woods would be reserved by
early man for his primitive worship of the forces of nature,
and the sun god, or for later duties that belonged to the
Anglo-Saxon and the northern races. If the word grove
may be allowed to lead us to where he and his priests
performed their sacrifices, then we shall find that he loved
to set them in high places, like the idolatrous Israelites.
The word clings (in High, Middle, and Low Grove) to the
western slopes of Wansfell, to a cottage in Grasmere,
at the foot of a western slope, some distance below the
mysterious enclosure called Chapel Green ; to a beck
that flows down the western slope of Rydal Head, from
the height called Greaves or Groves ; while Greaves is
attached to a stream in a similar position in the vale of
Troutbeck. We cannot but note that all these " Groves "
are placed on a western slope. Wansfell, if its name be
derived from Woden, kept from Celtic to Anglian times,
its sacred character as a mountain ; and if we might
accept Symeon of Durham's Wonwaldermere as being the
original form of Windermere, we should arrive at a
simple and suggestive meaning for it as the lake of the
grove (or wood) of Woden.
When the Norman kings pushed into this north-western
corner of England and began to organize it and the alien
Cumbria, they at once recognized the capability of its
forests for the preservation of the already abundant
game, and for the pursuit of their favourite pastime (to
which they heedlessly sacrificed the interests of the people)
of hunting the deer. To mark out large tracts of it as
royal park was an easy matter. It is certain that William
Rufus, short as was his stay in the newly conquered
Carlisle, and closely as it was followed by his death in the
chase, appropriated the great tract of land between
Carlisle and Penrith, which became the royal forest of
Inglewood. To this Henry II. added pieces east and
west, and north, including in it much of the barony of
L
146 RYDAL
Allerdale ; and all the barony of Brough, so that it
extended to the Solway, and measured, roughly, forty
miles by twenty-five.* It was in his days that the assize
of the forest made legal provisions for the protection
of game, and the punishment of transgressors against
their stringent laws (see appendix). The early admin-
istration of Ingle wood Forest has been fully dealt with.
It remained a notable place for game and for hunting,
and kings and royal dukes, when campaigning in the north,
must often have taken their pastime in it.
Its value too, must have been great in supplying the
royal larders. In July, 1315, the foresters were ordered
to take 12 bucks and 40 harts from the open forest itself,
and from the adjacent chases and parks of Mallerstang,
Whinfell, Flakebrigg, Burgh-under-Stainmore, 38 bucks
and 64 harts ; and after salting the carcases well, to carry
them to the king's receiver at Carlisle, f
The barons and the lords naturally followed the king's
lead, and from the lands granted them, marked out forests
and parks where deer were to be cherished and bred.
When Gilbert fitz Reinfrid secured from King Richard,
in 1190, his charter for the forest of Westmorland, Kendal,
and Furness (which had been held by William de Lan-
caster I.) the grant went back beyond the reign of
Stephen, to recapitulate the possession of the forest of
Kendal by Nigel de Albini, in the reign of Henry I. The
41 afforesting " of lands became so general and extensive,
that when reform was the order of the day in John's
time, an attempt was made to check it. This took,
finally, the form of the Charter of Forests, limiting the
extent of the royal chaces and mitigating the punishments
imposed on offenders, which was passed in Henry Ill's.
reign, in 1217. At the same time, the enclosures made
* " Inglewood Forest," F. H. M. Parker, M.A., Transactions C. & W. A. & A.
Society, vol. v., N s.
t Calendar of Close Rolls. The " Bucks " were fallow the " Harts " were
red deer. See Manwood Laws of the Forest, chapter 4.
THE LORDS' DEER PARKS 147
by the nobles were supervised ; and William de Lancaster,
who followed his father, Gilbert fitz Reinfrid as baron of
Kendal, was warned of " grave complaints " that had
been made by knights and proved men about the recent
afforesting of Westmorland lands which had been before
dis-aff crested ; and ordered to put the matter right.
This was in 1225, the year of the conformation of the
Forest Charter with the Great Charter by the young
king.*
That William cherished his forests, is certain, for when
he allowed to the Abbey of Furness the right to two boats
on Lake Windermere and the fishing with nets, he stip-
ulated that the men who worked the boat and nets should
do no damage to his forest ; and if they did, that they
should be punished by his own court. f
Of the acquisitiveness of William's half-brother, Roger,
in the matter of forest and park, something has been said.
A professional forester in the royal demesne of Inglewood,
he early secured for himself some of the valleys that
descend from the Fairfield and High Street ranges into
Ullswater, and on his brother's death he received the
rest of what was then known as the Forest of Westmorland.
The break-up of the barony lands at that time brought
to the heirs of William's sisters the Forest of Kendal,
stretching along the shores of the great lake to the heads
of the valleys. From one of them Roger got Rydal, for
a deer-park ; from the other he appears to have held,
though as underlord, the vale of Bannisdale, whose
stream flows by the Mint into Kent . J Also for his manor
of Witherslack, where he had stocked a deer-park, he paid
a rent to the same fee of " one niais (nestling) sparrow-
hawk." He therefore had an enormous hunting-range, which
* Calendar of Patent Rolls, Hen. III., vol. i.
t West's Antiquities of Furness.
t The inquisition of William de Lindesay (1283) speaks of Roger holding
41 the moiety of Barnasdisdale " worth four marks.
148 RYDAL
comprised valleys on three sides of the mountain-masses
of Fairfield and High Street, and extended to the tidal
waters of Morecambe Bay. Hemmed in between his
valleys of Rydal Head and Bannisdale, lay the now
attenuated forest of Kendal, the hunting-ground of the
Lindeseys and their followers, de Coucys and branches
of the royal houses. In 1272, it is spoken of as the Forest
of Troutbeck, worth, with a certain park there, 40. In
1283, it appears under the name of the Forest of Skamdal,
worth 17. 6s. 8d. In 1352, the park of Troutbeck is
called the principal park of the manor of Kendal.
The open, unenclosed forest of Kendal, therefore,
which had probably once embraced the whole of the
Rothay and the Brathay valleys * became the Forest
of Troutbeck, and this reached in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries from Applethwaite to Rydal. Within
it lay two vills, Troutbeck and Ambleside ; and it is
possible that the lesser fines paid by them on death of
lord or tenant, than were paid in the rest of the barony,
were a concession made because of the greater restrictions
they suffered, from being surrounded by a deer-forest.
The forest was divided into three wards, Troutbeck,
Ambleside, and Aldpark, which were each represented by
a bailiff at the court baron of Windermere, 1443. f It is
probable that at one time a forester was assigned to each,
and the Maister Forster Place that appears in the Amble-
side rentals, and which (alone of all the statesmen's
holdings) is " farmed " or let at a high figure by the lord
in 1453, and was subsequently divided into several
holdings, was the house of the Master Forester of Amble-
side, before that office was abolished. The office of
Master Forester had become a sinecure in the days of
the weak King Henry VI., and in 1437 we find him
* The Penningtons held Little Langdale by a free rent of venison to the
chief lord.
t Public Record Office, Court Roll f gj.
THE LORDS DEER PARKS 149
conferring the " master forester-ship " of the forest of
Troutbeck and Ambleside in the lordship of Kendal,
on his groom-of-the-chamber, William Clement, to hold
himself or by deputy, with accustomed wages, fees and
profits. William, however, preferred a sinecure closer to
London, so surrendered this in 1440, with the proviso
that another should be found for him of equal worth.
Besides the open forest, there were several small enclosed
parks, where deer were kept under closer supervision.
The park of Ambleside is mentioned in Roger de Lancas-
ter's 1275 Charter of Rydal. It lay in Scandale, and his
new park of Rydal touched it, with the Weythesty (or
hunter's path) descending from " le Swythene " to it.
Its neighbourhood to the Castle Field and problematic
castle of Ambleside (see ante) may be noted. The
park at the head of Troutbeck is often mentioned as
" le Dale hede." The park of Calgarth seems to have
been a later enclosure, though it became the most impor-
tant. When in 1347, Edward III. took over the lands
of the barony on the death of William de Coucy, and
bestowed them for life on John and Joan de Coupland,
he reserved for himself the forest of Troutbeck and the
park of Calgarth. From the name we may conjecture
this garth or close to have originally served the neigh-
bouring mil for the herding of the town calves, which
were kept apart for some months of the year. The king
added to it the land on the shore of Windermere belonging
to the Chapel of St. Mary Holm, which was left to decay.*
He granted to Adam de Ursewyk the office of forester
for life, and Thomas de Stirkeland was keeper of his lands
and his woods from 1351 to 1355, in which latter year he
gave the "park of Troutbeck" over to John de Coupland.
Several times did these lands and woodlands of the
barony fall into the hands of the crown. On the death
* See Inquisition oi John de Coupland in Nicolson and Burn.
150 RYDAL
of the Duke of Bedford, they were inherited by his nephew,
Henry VI., who continued to hold and administer them.
In 1437 Walter Strikeland was appointed receiver of the
lordship " for as long as he bear himself well," at a fee of
10 a year, as William Bedford had had, and other
profits, as for instance, wages of 2s. od. a day when riding
to London. This service, performed twice from Kendal
and back in the next year, and in 1440, took 94 days,
and cost the king 9. 8s. od. Walter was also appointed
keeper of the king's park of Calffegarth for life, at 6d. a
day, as Robert Pylton, late keeper, had had.* As the
lordship was saddled likewise with the young French
duchess's dowry of one third and annuities, granted by
the late Duke, there must have been little profit from it
to the king, even when he farmed the park of Troutbeck,
as he certainly did for the years 1437 and 1438, to John
Frank, one of the servants of his chamber. When he
granted it to the Earl of Richmond in 1453 (after a previous
grant to the Duke of Somerset in 1442), the proceeds of
Aldpark, of the parks at Troutbeck and the Dale Head,
and Calf garth are all mentioned. The last was " occu-
pied " by Walter Strickland and Robert Pilton.f Chris-
topher Birkhede collected the forest silver for Dale Head,
and mended its hedges.
Sir William Parr, when receiving the lands in 1472,
from Edward VI., took also " the close or park of Calgarth."
In 1493-4, when they had reverted to the Countess of
Richmond, Richard Dukell was master forester of the
forest of Troutbeck, with 433. for wages ; and Sir
Reginald Bray was parker of the park of Calgarth, at
3d. a day. Richard Berwyke was " bowderer " at 2d.
a day.J In 1502, the park of Troutbeck with Dale Head
* The Ministers Account and Sizergh Castle documents.
f Sir Thomas Strickland and his son Walter had obtained a confirmation
of the stewardship of the lordship, and of the latter's office of keeper of Calgarth
Park in 1446. See Sizergh Castle MSS.
t The bow-bearer was an under officer of the forest, whose duty it was to
report trespass.
THE LORDS' DEER PARKS
was let for a term of years to Sir Walter Strikeland, for
forty marks, 26. 135. 40!., he to maintain all charges, and
to keep up the fences [note Ministers Account Hen.
VII., 577]. The park of Calgarth was kept in the lady's
own hands, Thomas Phillip being parker, at 3d. a day.
Now this forest of Kendal or Troutbeck, extensive
even after curtailment, must have been a favourite
hunting-ground of its lord, or it would not have been
preserved with so much care and expense. Its earlier
lords were certainly resident in its neighbourhood.
Kendal Castle was their seat, till the division of the barony.
It is not certain where the Lindeseys and de Coucys
lived, though we hear of the decayed manor-house on the
great holm of Windermere, of one at Wart on, and another
at Little Strickland. Christina de Gynes (the Lindesey
heiress) signed the Charter of Ulverston after her husband's
death, in Windermere, which looks as if some residence
were maintained on the island.* Later, a hunting lodge
was doubtless built where old Calgarth Hall now stands.
The customs of the chase on these southern mountain
slopes are less known than those on the northern slopes,
but they were probably much the same. The tenants
of the manor of Martindale are stated, in an Inquisition,
of a date so late as March 25, 1702, to hold their lands by
the boon service of assisting the lord and his officers in
the hunt, by keeping the deer from ranging ; and that
when a hunt is forward, they shall on notice given, take
their several stands or stations, for that purpose. f The
ancestors of the present owner of the forest of Martindale,
J. G. Hasell, esquire, frequently called upon the tenants
to perform this service in the eighteenth century ; but he
himself does not exact it, as the red deer that still roam
* West's History of Furness.
t " Local Antiquary" in Westmorland Gazette, of April, 1876 (the first to
my knowledge to draw attention to the point) says that these stations were
called banner- dales.
152 RYDAL
at large in the forest are not now hunted.* It seems
very possible that this service accounts (as has been
suggested) for the occurrence of the word banner, on the
borders of the forests of Troutbeck and Martindale,
which were originally those of Kendal and of Westmor-
land, and held by different owners from the middle of the
thirteenth century. Cleasby and Vigfusson (Icelandic
Dictionary) give " banda . . . Germ, banner, to make a
sign with the hand, especially to drive back sheep or
flocks " ; and " banna = banda, to stop, drive back."
Now we easily find upon the map four apparent survivals
of this old Norse word in the district of the deer forests.
There is Bannisdale, whose beck flows east into the Mint,
and so into the Kent, owned by the doughty Roger the
huntsman in 1283, according to the Inquisition, where it is
spelt Barnardisdal ; and taken over into Edward Ill's.
hands in 1352, owing to the death of a later Roger, and the
minority of the heir here Banadesdale ; and in 1375,
held by Margaret, Roger's widow. We can well under-
stand the lord's tenants being posted at one or more
stations on the heights here, to turn back the deer
fleeing from the neighbouring forest.
Then there is Banner Rigg, the 871 feet height, rising
above Orrest and the modern town of Windermere.
Here, when a hunt was up in the forest of Troutbeck, the
deer could be stopped from escaping over the boundary
of the lordship and away south into the Prior of Cartmel's
lands, and so lost to the pursuing lord and his followers.
Again there is Bannerdale, in the Forest of Martindale,
next valley to Boardale, whose waters flow into Rampsgill
and so to Ulls water. On the heights above it, men of
Roger and his successors might jealously guard the border-
land where the two forests touched, lest some noble stag
* Kindly communicated by Mr. Hasell, who confirms the statements as to
the contents of the 1702 Inquisition (which I have not seen) and speaks of
many earlier improvements of the forest being in existence.
THE LORDS' DEER PARKS 153
should elude the huntsman and reach the land of the
Lindeseys.
And last, there is John Bell's Banner, a name that has
already excited comment.* It is attached to a height
of 2,474 f eet > which exactly on the boundary between
the two forests commands the head of Candale, whose
waters trickle northwards, the springs of Troutbeck,
flowing south.
Now there is no evidence that there were customary
land- holders in the neighbourhood of Troutbeck of the
name of Bell, very early. The court-roll of 1442, mentions
several for Applethwaite, one being a John Bell, who pays
2d. for green-hew, while his neighbour pays id. More-
over his servant, Roland Bell, is presented at the inquest
for assaulting another man, and John Bell pays the fine
of 2d. for him.
The existence of these forests and parks, and the pre-
sence of so many deer upon the mountain slopes above
the great lake, must have added a keen flavour to the
practice of archery, which was necessary for warfare.
As a matter of fact, ^the Kendal men, as they were called,
were noted bowmen. We have evidence, from the name,
of where the practice went on, both below the villages of
Rydal and Ambleside, for the land at the turn of the
river was called the Butts^f
The tradition of High Hird, the Troutbeck giant, is
an interesting one. It is said by Clarke (Survey of the
Lakes, 1789) to have been written down in 1786 by
Matthew Birket, who had received it from a man who
lived to be 104. Hird had become celebrated for his
deeds of strength and feats with bow and arm (lifting,
* See " Local Antiquary," West. Gazette, April i8th, 1876, and " Ambleside
Bible," Transactions C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. vii., N.S.
Mr. Collingwpod first called my attention to it along with other business
in connection with John Bell, curate of Ambleside, in 1905 ; but this connection
did not appear to work out reasonably.
t In this district the word also occurs in ploughed land, "Sandy Butts " in
Grasmere, &c.
154 RYDAL
for instance, a beam-end of timber that 10 men building
Kentmere Hall had failed to stir), and he was taken up
to London to be shown to the king. A bow was given
to him in the king's presence, for the display of his skill,
but he objected that it was no weapon for a man, and a
second (presumably larger) was fetched, whereupon he
laid the two together, and broke them. He is said to
have lived at Troutbeck Park, and when the Scots came
on their raids along the road still known as Scot Rake
(part of the Roman road, High Street) which lay about
a mile from his house, he would watch their approach,
and kill them with his bow and arrows. This confirms the
belief that the Scots penetrated even these valleys in
their raids, and it is possible that when they rode their
little ponies along that straight way through the moun-
tains, that they aimed at killing the lord's deer, as much
as driving off the tenants cattle. They claimed, indeed,
a certain right (leave being asked) to an annual hunt in
English forests.* The name of Hird Gill is attached to a
portion of the beck at the head of Troutbeck where the
Scot Rake is seen descending the opposite slope. There
is nothing improbable, since the king's officers were to
and fro in the parks and forests, in the story of the gaint
being taken to London ; though it were hazardous to
guess which monarch delighted in his strength of arm
and appetite, the latter being unappeased by half a
sheep. Edward IV. would be a better spectator than
Henry VI.
The forest of Troutbeck was probably disforested in
the sixteenth century, when the success of the woollen
industry gave the breeding of sheep the first importance.
The fashion of hunting the stag too, had declined in
Tudor days. Even the park of Calgarth, with its pele
or hall, passed into the hands of private holders. Christ-
* See Nicolson and Burn, vol. i. cv. and cvi.
THE LORDS' DEER PARKS 155
opher Philipson, who acted as Receiver for the barony
lands under Edward VI., left it by his will in 1566, to his
son Rowland, in whoses line it continued till the eighteenth
century.
It was in 1552 that a division of the forest was first
made between the two now thriving vills of Ambleside
and Trout beck. Until then it had lain open and un-
enclosed. The matter, subject to the approval of the
lord and of his officers, was left to be settled by townsmen,
who appointed fifteen men of standing and repute-
Christopher Philipson among them to act as arbitrators,
and by whose demarcation of boundary they pledged
themselves to abide.
The demarcation of the forest of Rydal was made
nearly three hundred years before, and it is to the history
of the man who made it, and of his descendants who kept
it, that we must now turn.
APPENDIX.
SUMMONS FOR FOREST TRESPASS.
Calendar of Patent Rolls. 10 Edward III. Part. I
May 8th. Commission of oyer and terminer to Robert de Clifford,
Richard de Aldeburgh and Robert Parnyng, on complaint by
William de Coucy that Thomas son of William de Roos of Kendale
William son of William de Roos of Kendale, Robert his brother,
Marmaduke de Twenge, Thomas son of Thomas de Levens, Adam
de la Celere, Roger Oteway, John son of Thomas de Levenes,
Henry son of William son of William de Rispeton, Thomas Roke,
Robert son of Adam Walker, Adam son of Thomas Warde, Robert
de Caplesheved, William son of John of Benedict, William son of
Peter del Mire, Roger, his brother, Nicholas son of Baldwin, son
of Gilbert, Robert Dennyson of Capelsheved, Robert Tilleson,
Patrick son of Patrick Bronnson, Robert de Greteby, Richard
Robertservaunt de Roos', William son of John son of Patrick,
Richard son of Richard de Caplesheved, William his brother,
Roger de Caplesheved, William son of Henry de Caplesheved,
156 RYDAL
William son of Patrick son of William Mons, Adam son of Thomas
del Holme, Alexander de Middleton, William son of Thomas del
Holme, John de Eskebank* and others entered his free chace and
broke his park, at Troutbeck, hunted there, carried away deir,
and killed two Mares of his, worth 20.
By fine of io/- Westmorland.
1335
June n, Pickering. Commision of oyer and terminer to Robert
de Clifford, Ranulph de Dacre, Richard de Aldeburgh and Adam
de Bowes, on complaint by William de Coucy, that Thomas de Ros
of Kendale, William & Robert his brothers, Thomas de Levenes,
John de Levenes, Adam de la Solaref of Kyrkeby in Kendale,
Roger son of Adam Otteway of Kyrkeby in Kendale, Robert de
Capplesheved, Patrick de Shepesheved, William de Aldehargh,
and others broke his park at " Hoton in the Haye " hunted there
and carried away deer. By fine of 2O/- Westmorland.
* Repeated with slight changes for June 6, when the following names
are added : Roger de Levens, Ralph de Levens, Gregory de Holme, Patrick de
Bland, Adam son of Henry Shepherd and others. The Judges this time were
Robert de Clyfford, William de Shareshull, Richard de Aldeburgh, Robert
Parnyng and Edmund de Dacre.
t Repeated with slight changes for Nov. nth.
SOPHIA ARMITT.
TO FACE P. 157
157
PART II
CHAPTER I
THE DE LANCASTERS
Roger the Hunter ; His robberies and extortions as seneschal
of Inglewood Forest ; Boundaries set up by Roger and
Will de Lindesey at Rydal ; Dies 1291 ; His widow
Philippa has Witherslack and Rydal as dower ; John
of Howgill at Rydal 1338 ; a de Lancaster and Le
Fleming marriage ; Appendix I and II.
IT is with Roger de Lancaster that the actual history
of Rydal begins. A man of powerful personality,
who came to enjoy wide possessions, his name
frequently appears in the records of the time ; and yet
his parentage on one side at least is doubtful. William
de Lancaster, last baron of Kendal, when endowing the
Abbey of Furness with lands in 1240, chose " my brother
Roger " to be a witness ; and this, which is twenty years
after the death of Gilbert fitz Reinfrid, William's father,
is probably the earliest mention of him that exists. The
monks of Furness wrote him down as bastard brother of
William ; but they had a quarrel with him (like many
others), and he may well have been a half-brother who
could not share an inheritance which if originally brought
by Helwise de Lancaster to her husband was yet granted
to the latter by the king as lands held in chief.
But whatever was the bar to inheritance, bar there
was, and the lands of the barony went in the main, after
William's death, to his sister. Roger however was quite
capable of securing lands by other methods than inherit-
ance, though when and where he began is not known.
158 RYDAL
When William in dying left him Patterdale and the forest
of Westmorland, on the northern slopes of the Windermere
mountains (including the service of two free tenants of
his name) the exception was made of Fensdale and
S. Cart ef el and the head of Martindale,* which he held
before, it is stated, " of ancient feoffment." He had also
received from his brother half of the manor of Ulverston,
to hold of the Abbot of Furness. He held Witherslack
and Morland. He later secured Rydal from his kinswoman
Margaret de Ros. He married (possibly for his second
wife) Philippa the eldest of four sisters who were co-
heiresses of Hugh de Bolebeck,f and gained with her
lands in Essex and Cambridge.
Probably he had acquired Holgill or Howgill, in east
Westmorland, which remained with his descendants. It
lay conveniently for his business, which for a number of
years from 1256 to 1271 at the least was that of
seneschal of the royal forests north of Trent, including
Inglewood, the great open chase that stretched with its
subsidiary parks from Penrith to Carlisle.}: This district,
Roger, aided by a band of inferior officers, ruled with an
iron hand ; as is shown by certain Inquisitions that exist
yet in writing at the Record Office. The circumstances
of the case in dispute were strange and involved. The
King of Scotland held six manors at that time within
the forest which had been granted in 1242, in satisfaction
of the Scottish claims in the northern counties || ; one of
them being the important vill of Penrith. Roger seems
to have set himself to circumscribe the rights of the men
of these manors and to annoy them in every way possible.
* Fensdale and Martindale are valleys that open out on the centre of Ulls-
water ; the other name is obscure.
t Victoria History of Lancashire Feudal Baronage.
J See Parker's " Inglewood Forest," note to p. 5 of Transactions, C. & W.
A. & A. Society, vol. vi., N.S.
They are given fully in Mr. Parker's " Inglewood Forest," Transactions,
C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. vi., N.S.
il Cox's Royal Forests of England.
THE DE LANCASTERS 159
First, by writ from the king, he held in company with the
Sheriff of Cumberland, two Inquisitions at Maiden Castle
near Penrith in 1268, by which he obtained countenance
for the extension of the king's park at Plumpton, though
this deprived the Penrith men of old rights of common
pasture for their beasts. Loud complaints finally secured
a counter Inquisition in 1271, when Roger no longer held
office, and in this the grievances of the men of Penrith
were fully heard. The indictments against the late
keeper are, enclosure of Plumpton ; imprisonment of the
men who tried to protect their pasture there ; imparking
land where the men of Scotby had pasture ; fencing the
water where the Penrith cattle had been accustomed to
drink ; stopping the supply of wood which the men had
a right to take for the repair of their houses and fences,
so that they had been without timber for fifteen years,
and further, when the men had obtained a mandate
direct from the king for obtaining the same, delaying to
take action ; fining the Sowerby men heavily for beast?
taken on what had been their common pasture ; enclosing
a piece of Penrith common and letting it ; stopping the
right to take dead wood, and a cartload of dead alder
and birch wood yearly for the repair of their waggons
and ploughs ; seizing the swine on the common pastures
when near park enclosures during fawning time and
taking the best pig of the herd for himself ; stopping the
right of the men to free fishing ; permitting the foresters
to enter the manor and eat and drink there against the
will of the townsmen, and likewise to seize the townsmen
in their own houses, and imprison them without any
license from superior authority.*
These indictments, though possibly exaggerated, are
hardly favourable to the character of Roger. Mr. Parker
* An old custom, of quartering the foresters on the tenants within the
forest-bounds, called puture, was often abused. Edward I. called a further
Inquest in 1274, to decide upon the rights of King Alexander's men of Penrith
and Salkeld in the forest. Cox, Royal Forests.
l6o RYDAL
sees in him, indeed, " a man of great, but perhaps indis-
creet loyalty, who would guard what he supposed to be
his sovereign's interests, even at the cost of neglecting
orders and branding himself as a petty tyrant." But
another story may be read from them, that of a nature
strong and unscrupulous, who, where there is no risk of
punishment, is robbing those who are not under the
authority of his own master. It was the true Border
raiding spirit, that kept the war with Scotland alive for
centuries, displayed early by one in royal authority.
And Roger (if later accusations against him be correct)
was not guiltless, even towards his master, the king. He
was a mighty huntsman, it is certain, and loved the deer,
as Norman William did, " like a father." It was an
inherited taste perhaps, for Gilbert Fitz-Reinfrid had
been appointed keeper of the Lancaster Forests by John
in 1206 (Cox). The only public office Roger is known to
have held besides that of keeper of the forests was
Sheriff of Lancaster in 1265 and 1266. To be seneschal
of vast Ingle wood was a post after his own heart, but it
did not quench his desire for parks of his own.
When at an early date (1255) the king (Henry III.) gave
him a warrant for two harts and eight hinds from the
forest of Lancaster, it has been conjectured that he was
stocking a park at his manor of Witherslack.* Later,
he obtained a charter to hunt smaller game in all the
king's forests north of the Trent, which runs thus :
Charter of Roger de Lancastre.
Henry, by the grace of God, etc. to all to whom these present
letters shall come Greeting.
Know ye that we have granted for Ourselves and Our heirs to
our beloved and faithful Roger de Lancastre that during the
whole time of his life he should have this liberty, to wit, that he
may hunt with his own hounds the fox, the hare, the badger and
* Victoria History of Lancashire Feudal Baronage.
THE DE LANCASTERS l6l
the wild cat * throughout all Our forests beyond Trent wherever
he shall wish (excepting the fence month), t and take and remove
them without let or hindrance from Ourselves, Our heirs, our
foresters, verderers or other bailiffs of the forest.
Provided always that he shall not by occasion of this our
concession take our larger beasts, nor course in our warrens nor
the warrens of others.
In witness whereof we have caused these letter's patent to
issue.
Witness Myself at St. Pauls, London, the twenty-first day of
June, the fifty-first year of our reign.
The temptations of his office, however, would seem to
have been too strong for Roger, and he by no means
restricted himself to the limits of the charter. For when
an Eyre of Ingle wood Forest was held at Carlisle in 1285,
and the trespasses of twenty-three years were brought
before the justice, J his name was quoted among the many
and various defaulters.
" It is presented and proved by the foresters and verderers that
lord Roger de Lancastre, at the time when he was keeper of the
Forrest of Inglewood under Roger de Leyburn Justice of the
aforesaid forest did in the 5i 8t year of King Henry take six harts
and hinds.
Furthermore it is presented and proved that in the 52 nd year
of the same reign, Roger took five harts and hinds in the same
forest : and that the same Roger in the 53 rd year took three bucks
in the same forest : and that in the 54 th year the aforesaid Roger
took four hinds and two does."
The indictment appears too likely for it to be false.
Roger's own forest, which by his half-brother's bequest
had spread from Martindale to Patterdale and " the
whole forest of Westmorland," was very handy for
transactions of the sort. The deer had but to be driven
* These were classed as beasts of warren, as opposed to the higher class of
preserved animals, called beasts of the forest.
t "The close season, a fortnight before and after St. John Baptist's day,
June 29."
J " Inglewood Forest," F. H. M. Parker, M.A., Transactions, C. & W. A. & A.
Society, vol. vii., N.S.
M
1 62 RYDAL
across the Eamont, and turned at Tirrell up the rising
moorland road (made by the Romans), to attain with ease
all the mountain recesses at the head of Ullswater that
were Roger's ground and which he would be keen to stock.
The whole region round about where the masses of High
Street, Fairfield, and Helvellyn fall abruptly to the
lake level, and where deep-cleft, wooded valleys rise to
grassy mountain tops, is favourable to game of all kinds.
It is dotted over with names reminiscent of wild life,
e.g., Grisedale, Boardafe, Martindale, Buck Crag, Hartsop,
Brock Crags, Hart Crag, and others connected with the
chase. Clarke's Survey (1789) shows how it teemed with
wild life even in his time ; and to this day the red deer
roam at large in Roger's vale of Martindale.
Probably it was the game that caused Roger to covet
Rydal, and which brought him over the mountain crests
to our valley. Many a time, when he had followed the
hart up his wild glens on the far side and reached the
windy summits, may he have seen it plunge down the
vales to the south, and away, far out of his bounds and
reach. Our upland valley of Rydal Head, surrounded by
an amphitheatre of mountains, was peculiarly adapted
for a sanctuary for deer. It is possible that Roger
introduced here the fallow deer, where hitherto the red
only had roamed wild ; and in contradistinction to the
numerous Hart Crags of the heights, we have Buckstones,
the haunt of the small race, in the seclusion of the upper
park. And moreover for it is hardly to be supposed
that Roger would let the simple matter of a boundary
stop him when following a hard-pressed stag it would be
guarded from intrusion by those men of Rydal whose
village was clustered on the right bank of the beck, and
who would certainly guard the forest rights of their lady
from foreign hunters over the mountain. Besides, in
connection with his choice of Rydal, Roger might find
"his kinsman William de Lindesey, who owned all the
THE DE LANCASTERS 163
southern slope of the mountains with vales and forest,
from the Rydal bounds over to Bowness by Windermere,
unwilling to come to terms. Whereas with Dame Margaret
de Ros he prevailed as we have seen, and he secured
Rydal, along with half Loughrigg and some uncertain
and unknown part of Ambleside. His charter remains
in the Record Office and is given in the appendix.
Only two years after Sir Roger de Lancaster had secured
it (1277), he was at variance with his neighbour ; he met
Sir William de Lindesey, lord of the forests of Ambleside
and Troutbeck in solemn conclave, and the two " having
touched the holy gospels," swore to abide by the agree-
ment made between them and written down on the parch-
ment still existing at Rydal Hall. The two lords were at
too close quarters. Roger would not brook the straying
of the cattle of the men of Loughrigg and Ambleside
(William's men) over the becks (low in summer) into his
park, and dealt high-handedly with them, as had been
his manner when keeper of the king's forest of Inglewood ;
William, on the other hand, came forward to defend his
men from arbitrary forfeits exacted by his arrogant
neighbour in place of the customary small fine. An
enclosure of Roger's lands, where they touched those of
his neighbour's, was decided on ; and both Sir William
de Lindesey and Lady Margaret de Ros agreed to share
with him the cost and labour of rearing what were probably
the first boundaries in the district.
It is of some interest to consider of what material these
boundaries would be made. Where enclosure was not
necessary boundaries were fixed by remarkable natural
stones or by upright stones erected for the purpose, or by
a cross or well. We hear of the standing-stone in this
deed. Solid building in stone could not have been lightly
entered upon in that age. The rock of the district is
hard to cleave or rive, while from the abundant forest,
wood could be easily felled and split. Even the outer
164 RYDAL
defences or peles of castles were at this time constructed
of wood, oak uprights being solidly set close together for
the purpose (see Peel, its meaning and derivation, by
George Wilson). It is probable therefore that these
boundaries were not stone walls, but a permanent develop-
ment of the summer hedges in use, young growing trees
partly cut through and laid horizontally with smaller
stuff interwoven.
The garth and the summer hay, and corn fields of the
townsmen were protected by light fences of wood or
basket-work of boughs, but these were of a temporary
character and easily removed, while the mark-land had
hitherto lain open between vill and vill ; so Rydal became
cut off, once and for all, from the lands about her.
If we examine the agreement, it seems to work out as
follows. The enclosure had only to be made on the two
descending mountain ridges north and south of Rydal,
because towards the west the river and lake naturally
enclose it, while from the summits to the east Roger's
own lands fell away into the steep glens of his forest of
Westmorland. Firstly, Roger is to start his share of wall
or fence from the top of his park and it should be noted
that the park is mentioned as distinct from the forest of
Rydal, it being no doubt situated on the sloping
ground or hanging valley which is still kept enclosed as
park-land, and to run it down for 160 perches along the
boundary between Rydal and " Stamdal " (Scandale)
towards a place designated as " Rogerlloge." Then
William has to begin his part of the fence where Roger
started, running it in the other direction, upwards, for
160 perches towards " le Grag in le Grencone," where
presumably the top of Scandale is reached, and danger
from straying cattle averted. Now " the Crag " is
difficult to define, as many Crags score the ridges here-
abouts. It may mean a Little Dove Crag which is men-
tioned in a boundary riding of 1613, as being the next
THE DE LANCASTERS 165
named station to the High Pike, and this may be synony-
mous with the Dove Crag of Roger's charter-boundary
of 1275, which is selected to make a starting point for the
descent by Scandale, It is strange that while " le
Swythene " is mentioned in the 1275 boundary, it does
not come into the 1277 enclosure-deed, while in the latter
we have a district or a summit called " le Grencone."
In neither does the word Fairfield occur ; and the charter,
when reciting the circuit of the horse shoe of mountains,
passes from Brockstone by the lake upwards, by the Nab,
by Laverd or Lord's Crag, by Erne Crag and thence
upwards " unto the bounds of Westmorland, and so by
the bounds of Westmorland unto the summit of the Dove
Crag." This, while evading the name of the mountain,
shows that Westmorland was still considered distinct
from the barony of Kendal, and that the boundary
between the barony of Kendal and the forest of Westmor-
land stood also for the boundary of Rydal.
On the north or Grasmere side, Roger undertakes
again to start his fence from the lake itself, and run it up
the slope of the Nab, and on as far as Laverd or Lord's
Crag. Thence William will carry it half way on to Arn
or Erne Crag, and Lady Margaret de Ros (who jointly
with him holds the manor of Grasmere) will complete the
portion between the two up to Erne Crag, where the
enclosure ceases.
It is interesting to note that this manor boundary still
runs up the face of the Nab, till stopped by sheer precipice,
and again on, separating yet Grasmere from Rydal.
Across the short meadow to the peninsula of Swan Stone
which is certainly the Brockstone of the charter while
the latter name has been transferred higher it has been
removed, probably by John Park, of Nab, who secured
a piece of Grasmere common land here, and so extended
his meadow by the lake. The meadow now stands in
two townships. And this is a good place to emphasize
l66 RYDAL
the fact that the lake now called by extension of the
name Rydal Water, had little part in Rydal ; two thirds
of its shores being in Loughrigg and in Grasmere, and the
lords of the latter manor possessing the fishing of its
waters. It was Routha mere, the lake of the river
Rothay.
The agreement continues that these fences are to be
completed by Michaelmas of that year, and that if cattle
should up to that time be found in Roger's forest, he is
to charge no more than the customary half-penny for
them, until the matter can be carried before the king and
his council, who shall decide, once and for all, whether
this customary sum, or whether " amercements in another
manner " shall become legal. This appeal shall be put
off no later than All Souls' Day.
Further, there seems to have been some dispute or
uncertainty about the true boundary on the lower ground
by Scandale Beck, therefore " that right bounds shall
be made between them at Stamdalbeck near the park
between Rydal and Stamdal " as well as in other lands
in dispute at Witherslack, a jury shall be called in the
customary manner, and the matter shall be decided by
the " oath of honest sworn men."
This Indenture, which is of great interest in giving us
old names for Rydal, is at Rydal Hall. The seal, tied
up for protection, is unfortunately shattered, or we might
have learned what arms Roger the hunter carried.
Of Roger's keen oversight of his forests and their game,
there is evidence in the indictments he brought at various
times before the courts, for trespasses on his parks in the
county of Essex and in Rydal. In the last year of his life
he sued Richard, son of Alan, John Lyam, and others for
breaking his park of Rydale, hunting therein and taking
his deer to the damage of 20.*
* De Banco Rolls, No. 87, n. 28d.
THE DE LANCASTERS 167
But his hunting days were then over. No more would
he follow the stag the live-long day up the glens from the
north and over the crest, to drop down as evening fell, to
rest and sleep at his " loge " or tower by the Rothay.
He died shortly before March i, 1291, when certain
manors in the south were ordered to be delivered to his
widow Philippa.* The assignment of his estates occupied
the king's officers in the next few months. By April 18,
Philippa had done homage to the king for the lands she
and Roger had held " in chief of her inheritance " and
was granted seisin of them. Moreover, other lands
which had not been hers were given her as dower, and an
order was issued on May 2, and repeated on June 5 and 8,
for the king's escheator
" to deliver to Phillippa, late the wife of Roger de Lancastria,
to be held by her in dower, the manor of Wythir slack, co. West-
morland, which is extended at 15!!. IQS. lod. yearly, the valley of
Ridal, in the same county, which is extended at 2oli as
although the king lately took the homage ol John de Lancastria,
Rogers son and heir, for the lands that his father held in chief,
and caused him to have seisin thereof, it was not his intention to
omit assigning dower of the lands to Phillippa, and he has accord-
ingly assigned to her the lands specified above."
A memorandum records the fact that John had been
warned to appear in chancery " on the morrow of the
Close of Easter," when the assignment of Philippa's
dower was to be made, and that as he did not come, it
had been conducted in his absence. f
While Philippa, therefore, was to enjoy for her life,
along with her own lands, Rydal and Witherslack of the
lands of Kendal, John was declared to be heir of all
that his father, Roger, had held in chief. An elder brother,
Robert, there seems to have been, no doubt by a first wife
of Roger, who took apparently lands of less honourable
tenure, and with them Holgill or Howgill.
* Cal. of Close Rolls, Ed. I. f Cal. of Close Rolls, Ed. I.
l68 RYDAL
But though for the moment we hear nothing of him,
John of Rydal was the great man, tenant in chief, and
baron of the realm. He appears later in various state
matters ; attended parliament, and in 1301 set his seal,
along with the other barons, to the joint letter of expos-
tulation which Edward I. caused them to draw up to the
Pope, concerning the latter's claim to Scotland.* He
was also active in the Border warfare of the years between
1297 and isoi.f His wife was named Annora, and along
with her he made a settlement of his estates during her
lifetime a procedure at that time not unusual. { Accord-
ing to this arrangement the manor of Rydal was to pass,
after the death of the two, without heirs, to John's
brother Roger for his life, and after that it was to revert
to a John of Lancaster, described as " of Holgill," and
apparently son of Robert (the son of Roger by an earlier
marriage ?) The manors of Barton and of Witherslack,
also to be enjoyed by Roger for his life, then passed by
arrangement to strangers.
John of Rydal died childless in 1334 ( ne * s probably
the man referred to in the footnote), and by 1338 his
widow Annora was likewise dead ; for an order was
issued on December 15 for the escheator
"to deliver to John de Lancaster of Holgill the manor of Rydale,
co. Westmorland, .... as the King has learned by inquisition
.... that Annora, late the wife of John de Lancastre, held the
manor with John for life by the grant of John de Lancastre of
Holgill, by the late King's license with remainder after their
death to Roger de Lancastre for life, and then reversion to John
of Holgill arid his heirs, .... and that Roger died 1 1 years ago ;
and John of Holgill is of full age, and that the manor is held in
* The Ancestor, vol.vi.
t Feudal Baronage in Victoria History of Lancashire.
t Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1317-21. Inq. ad quod damnum, i. 209.
Cal. of Close Rolls, 12 Ed. III. Ralph de Dacre took up all Barton but
one holding, perhaps Sockbridge which was later held by this family and the
Harrington family of Witherslack.
THE DE LANCASTERS 169
chief by the service of a fourth part of a knight's fee . . . . ; the
King has taken the homage of John of Hoi gill."*
Time went by and another Sir John held Howgul
and Rydal.
Now this Sir John had four daughters only, and they
were very desirable matches for the young knights and
squires of the country side. Sir Thomas Fleming of
Coniston, Lancashire, early sought to secure one as bride
for one or other of his sons, having in view doubtless the
manor of Rydal, held in chief of the king. The race of
Flemings can be traced back to a certain Sir Michael
" le Fleming," who had obtained lands in Furness and
the sea-board of Cumberland in the time of Henry I.
The manor of Coniston was acquired by Sir Richard,
reckoned fourth in descent from Sir Michael, f through his
marriage with the heiress Elizabeth de Urswick. It
formed part of the Ulverston fief, to whose lord its holder
owed suit and service, and we find that Sir Richard's son,
Sir John, who fought with Edward I. in Scotland, pro-
cured a grant for a free chase or deer-park at Coniston
from his feudal lord, who was Sir John de Lancastre of
Rydal, son of the great Sir Roger, to whom half Ulverston
had come from his brother : for which grant he was to
pay a rose yearly, on St. John the Baptist's Day.J
This fragile token may have been carried over each
year to Rydal, as being nearer than Holgill, and laid down
* Cal. of Close Rolls. Lancastrie, i Edward III.
1327. John de Lancastria, confirmed in his office of keeper of the castle and
house of Lancaster.
1328. John de L., who has custody of certain lands in co. Lane. & collected
money from them, carrying to the Exr. at various times 1,400, has complaned
that he incurred many charges in carrying same (men at arms, &c.) to West-
minster & cannot secure an allowance for same charges fr. treasurer & barons.
K. orders his reasonable expenses to be paid.
t See Pedigree.
J Sir D. Fleming's MS. pedigree. The holders of Coniston owed suit and
service likewise to the lords of the Lindesey Fee, to whom the other half of
Ulverston belonged. " John Flemyng holds Conyngston by the said [knights]
service, half a carucate of land." Inq. p. m., No. 63, 20 Ed. III. [1347],
" Richard Flemmyng knight, holds the manor of Conyngston by homage
and fealty and the service of ad. as of the manor of Ulverston." Inq. p. m.,
No. 29, 49 Ed. III.
170 RYDAL
solemnly in the lord's Hall on the rock, where his courts
would be held. It served to keep up a connection between
the two families of de Lancaster and Fleming, and also
as a reminder that one was a step higher in feudal rank
than the other. In the failure of male heirs to Sir John
de Lancaster, the astute Sir Thomas saw his opportunity,
and the bond drawn up between the two for the marriage
of their children is in existence.* It was dated thus
"at Rydale in Kendale on Thursday next after y e feast of y
exaltation of y e holy crosse, in y e tenth yeare of y e reigne of King
Henry the fourth after y e conquest,"
which was within a week of September 14, 1409 ; a date
not easily understood, in consideration of Sir John's fine
of 1425. It is certain, however, that the young people
were, at the time of its writing, under age, for Sir Thomas
undertakes to keep them " during their nonage." The
dower which Sir John is to give with the young Isabel,
his second daughter, is eighty marks of silver ; thirty to
be paid on the day of the marriage, and the remaining
fifty within the next two years, by half-yearly payments.
Sir Thomas on his part is to supply an income of ten
marks a year [6. 135. 4d.] to the young couple. No clause
deals with Mistress Isabel's ultimate share of her father's
lands, but it is a notable fact that the lord's seat at Rydal
is given her as a residence, since a stipulation is made
that if her father-in-law fail to produce the promised
income within forty days after it is due, she and her
husband Thomas may forcibly seize cattle upon the
manor of Coniston, drive it to " Rydale in Kendale " and
there keep it impounded until full satisfaction be made.
A later clause arranges that if young Thomas should die
without children by Isabel, then a second match is to be
* I have not found the original document, which Sir Daniel Fleming possessed
but only the copy made and " translated out of french " by his friend, Dr.
Thomas Smith, later Bishop of Carlisle.
THE DE LANCASTERS
made between his younger brother John and one of
Isabel's sisters, without either of the fathers laying down
more money. This clause implies considerable deter^
mination on a match between the families, along with
extreme youth in the parties contracted in marriage.
Thus the Le Flemings reached Rydal five hundred years
ago. They had been in the country already at least
three hundred years. Sir Michael " le Fleming " was at
Furness in the reign of Henry I. Sir John the fifth in
descent was at Coniston, after fighting against the Scots
under Edward I. and one of his descendants, having four
daughters, gives the second, Isabel, in marriage to Thomas
Le Fleming, son of Sir Thomas of Coniston, in 1409.
APPENDIX I.
Chart R. 3 Ed. I., m 4 Roll.
1275. [Deed of Lady Margaret de Brus to Sir Roger de Lancastre
of Rydal, and so much of Loughrigg and Ambleside as were of
her demesne].
The King to Archbishops, Bishops, &c., greeting. We
have inspected a charter which Margaret, formerly the wife
of Robert de Ros of Werk made to our wel beloved and
faithf ull Roger de Lancastre, in these words :
Know all men present and to come that I Margaret de Brus,
formerly the wife of Sir Robert de Ros of Werk, in my liege
widowhood and full power, by the assent and will of my
august Prince and Lord, Edward, by the grace of God, King
of England, have given, granted and by this my present
charter confirmed to Sir Roger de Lancastre, the whole of
my forest of Rydale, with all its appurtenances, without any
retention, that is, by these bounds. Beginning from the
Dovekrag by the ridge of the mountain between Rydal and
Scandal as the water deals, following that ridge unto
Standenesstan (standing stone) in the Swythene, and so
descending from the Swythene by a certain path that is
called the Weythesty unto the park of Amelsate, and so fol-
lowing outside the park unto Scandalebec, and so following
Scandalebec unto Routha, and following Routha in going
upwards to Routhemere, and so following Routhemere to
172 RYDAL
opposite the Brockestan, and so in a straight line unto
the Brockestan, and from the Brockestan to the summit of
the Nab, and so ascending by the ridge, as the water deals
unto Laverd-grak by the heights ascending by the ridge unto
the Erne grak, and thence ascending by the ridge of that
mountain unto the bounds of Westmerland, and so by the
bounds of Westmerland unto the summit of the Dove grak.
" Incipiendo del Dove cragg per attiora montes inter
Rydal et Scandal, sicut aqua si dividit, sequendo altiora
montis illius usque ad Scandendestay in le Swythene ; et sic
descendendo de Swythene, per quandam semi tarn quae
vocatur le Waythestl, usque ad parcum de Amelsate ; et sic
sequendo parcum dexterius usque in Scandelbec ; et sic se-
quendo Scandelbec usque in Routha ; et sic sequendo Routha,
ascendendo usque in Routhemere ; et sic sequendo Routhemere
usque ex opposite del Brokestay ; et sic linealites usque le
Brokestay, et de le Brokestay usque ad summitatem de la
Nab ; et sic ascendendo per altiora, sicut aqua se dividit,
usque Laverdkrag ; et de Laverdkrag per super iora ascen-
dendo per altiora usque le Ernekrag ; et inde ascendendo
per altiora illius montis usque ad divisas Westmorlandiae ;
et sic per divisas Westmerlandia* usque ad summitatem del
Dove crag predicti."
Moreover, I have given and granted to the said Sir Roger,
the whole of my part of Amelsate and Loghrigg, with all the
appurtenances, by their right bounds, without any retention,
with common pasture within the bounds of Gressemere, for
all manner of his beasts. Also I have granted, for me and
my heirs, that the aforesaid Sir Roger and his heirs, and their
men dwelling within the aforesaid bounds of Rydale, shall
have common of pasture everywhere with my men of Gresse-
mere ; To have and to hold to the said Sir Roger and his
heirs or assyns and their heirs, all the aforesaid forest, with
free chase of the said forest and all the appurtenances, with
nothing retained, as is aforesaid, without gainsay of me or
my heirs, as freely, quietly, well wholly, in peace, right and
inheritance, as Peter de Brus, formerly my brother, or William
de Lancastre, formerly my uncle, in their time held the same,
without any diminution or retention, in ways, paths, meadows,
marshes, waters, pools, mills, woods, all manner of deer
feeding-grounds, pastures, plains, and all other liberties and
easements to the said forest and lands belonging, of the said
lord the King and his heirs in chief, in the third year of the
THE DE LANCASTERS
reign of the said King by the service of the fourth part of
one knight's fee, for ever, for all service, customs, exactions,
demands, and all manner of suite which at any time by me
or my heirs or assigns or their heirs could be demanded.
For which forest and lands aforesaid, the said King has taken
the homage of the aforesaid Roger, by my assent and by my
instance ; and to the lord the King and his heirs I have
remised and quit-claimed, for me and my heirs, all my right
and claim to the homage and service of the said Roger or his
heirs for the said forest and lands and their appurtenances
whatsoever. And I Margaret and my heirs will warrant to
the aforesaid Roger and his heirs or assigns and their heirs
all the aforesaid forest and all that is aforesaid, without any
retention against all people for ever. In testimony of which,
to this present charter I have placed my seal, these being
witnesses : Thomas de Musegrave, then sheri.fi of Westmor-
land, John de Hyrlawe, John de Morevill, Ranulph de Dacre,
Henry de Stavelegh, Michael de Haricla, and Roger de Burton,
knights, William de Wyndleson, Roger son of Sir Gilbert de
Lancastre, Thomas de Derleye, Ralph de Patton, Roger de
Brunuluesheved, Gilbert his son, Thomas de Lancastre, and
others.
We, moreover, grant and confirm the aforesaid gift and con-
cession to the aforesaid Roger and his heirs, as ehe charter reason-
ably witnesseth ; so that the said Roger and his heirs shall have
and hold the forest aforesaid, and the said part of Amelsate and
Loghrigg and all others contained in the charter aforesaid, of us
and our heirs in relief, performing therefor the service of the
fourth part of one knight's fee for all service, for ever. Witness,
Robert of Bath and Wells, and Walter of Rochester, Bishops,
William de Valencia, Edmund our brother, Earl of Lancastre,
John Fitz John, John de Vesey, Pagan de Chaworth, Robert de
Typetol, Stephen de Penecastre, William de Helyun and others.
Given by our hand at Westminister, 3o th May (1274).
(Charter Rolls, 3 Edw. I., No. 68, m 4, No. n).
APPENDIX II.
Agreement between the neighbouring land-owners at Rydal.
May 3, 5 Edw. I., 1276. This writing indented witnesseth that
since many contentions had arisen between Sir Roger de
Lancaster, of the one part, and William de Lyndesey, of the
174 RYDAL
other part, on the day of the Invention of the Holy Cross
in the fifth year of the reign of King Edward first to wit, that
when the said Roger sought forfeitures of the men of the
said William for their cattle taken in the forest of the same
Roger in Rydal, and the same William said he and his heirs
ought not to be amerced, but to give so much for each ox,
cow and mare found in the aforesaid forest by escape, and
also for a pig a halfpenny, and also for five sheep a halfpenny,
and for five goats a penny, it has thus been settled between
the same that the same Roger has granted for himself and
his heirs that he will cause to be enclosed 160 perches by a
rod of 20 feet, namely, from the upper part of his park of
Rydal, where the park was on the day of the making of
these presents, towards Rogerlloge following the right bounds
between Rydal and Stamdal. And the said William has
granted for himself and his heirs that where the said Roger
fails to enclose by following the right bounds aforesaid that
he will cause to be enclosed 160 perches towards le Grag in le
Grencone. The same Roger has also granted that if he shall
enclose anything of the land of the said William by his park,
he shall let so much of his own land outside his park to the
said William in exchange, and upon his land there let outside
his park (as far as the park of the said Roger extends towards
le Grag in le Grencone, and not on the other side of the water
of Routhmer outside the close towards le Lauergrag) he shall
make no imparkment. The same Roger has also granted
for himself and his heirs that he will cause to be enclosed on
the other side of Rydal from the water of Routhmer as far
as le Lauerdgrag by the right bounds between Rydal and
Gresmer. And the same William has granted for him and his
heirs that he will cause to be enclosed the half of le Lauerdgrag
as far as le Arngrag by the right bounds between Rydal and
Gresmer. And Margaret de Ros shall cause to be enclosed
the other half between le Lauerdgrag and le Arngrag by the
right bounds aforesaid. And these enclosures shall be made
before the feast of St. Michael in the year abovesaid. It is
agreed also between the same that if the cattle of the same
William or his men be taken within the aforesaid forest of
the aforesaid Roger de Rydal by escape, they shall give for
each animal as above, until it has been discussed by the
consideration of the lord the king or his council whether the
said Roger shall take halfpence for cattle taken in form
aforesaid or amercements in another manner. And both
THE DE LANC ASTERS 1 75
the parties have granted that the discussion shall be made
within the feast of All Souls in the year abovesaid. Also
that by the giving and taking of the aforesaid halfpence, to
neither party (nor to their heirs until the aforesaid discussion
be made between them, which shall be made within the
aforesaid time) shall any prejudice be done, and both parties
shall show for their state, before the lord the king or his
council, without plea, what they see to be profitable for them,
and upon this they shall take consideration, and with that
consideration they shall be content for ever. Both the parties
have also granted that right bounds shall be made between
them at Stamdalbeck near the park between Rydal and
Stamdal, and also of the land of the same Roger in Wythir-
slack according to the tenor of his charter on the oath of
honest sworn men. Both parties have also granted that
according to the extent of the honest men exchange shall be
made between the same of the land of the same Roger in
Lickeberg and the land of the same William in Crossetwayt,
so that the same Roger shall have, by right extent, against
the land of Lickeberg, which shall for ever remain to the said
William and his heirs by exchange, the land of the same Will-
iam to the value in Crossetwayt. And that these agreements
may be faithfully observed by each party, having touched
the holy gospels they have sworn and obliged themselves by
mutual faith, and to the present writing indented have
mutually affixed their seals. These being witnesses, Sirs
Henry de Staneley, Roger de Burton, knights, William de
Wyndesheuer, Gilbert de Quythy, John de Crashuthyn,
Gilbert de Brimolsheuid, Richard de Gilpyn, Richard Fitz
Julian, and others. These inter linings, namely, ' ' as far as the
park of the said Roger extends towards le Grag in le Grencone,
and not on the other side of the water of Routhmer outside
the close towards le Lauerdgrag," " nor to their heirs until
the aforesaid discussion be made between them, which shall
be made within the abovesaid time," were made before the
signing of these presents.
176
CHAPTER II
THE FLEMINGS OF RYDAL
Knights, Squires, and Retainers ; Wars of the Roses ;
The Luck of Muncaster ; Families of Bellingham
and Parr; Warwick the king-maker; Appendix
showing agreement for military service.
NO doubt Sir Thomas the father, in forwarding this
arrangement for the marriage of his son to the
young Isabel de Lancaster, remembered the power
that lies in possession. But when Sir John de Lancaster
died, and his various lands were divided among his four
daughters, the coveted little manor of Rydal did not fall
wholly to Isabel, In the strange method of partitioning
that then obtained, she was ordained to share it with her
sister Margaret, who married Sir Matthew de Whitfield.
The Whitfields were a family of long lineage, who took
their name from their place of residence in Northumberland.
They had no wish apparently to dispute the occupation
of the lord's seat at Rydal with the Flemings and almost
from the first an arrangement seems to have been made
by which they " let to farm " to the latter, their half of
the manor at the fixed sum of 10 per annum. This
arrangement is expressed in a parchment document of
1475, drawn up by the successors of Thomas and Matthew,
in which John Whitfield, for the said rent, lets his share
of the manor to John Fleming, reserving only to himself
as part lord the right to hunt in the forest, to keep a
chamber within the Hall court, and to enjoy the profits
of the brewery ; with an added receipt of five marks as
" gressum " from John Fleming, no doubt as acknowledg-
ment of his use of the other's share in the lord's seat.
This John Whitfield died on July 6, 1487; and the
inquisition held at his death declared that he owned a
" moiety " of the manor of " Ridell," worth 4, with a
THE FLEMINGS OF RYDAL 177
moiety of the manor of " Lowthryg," held in chief by
service of a quarter of a knight's fee, and the rent of a
red rose on Mid-summer Day, if demanded. His son and
heir, Robert, was 38 years old.* This old compact was
carried on by the representatives of the two families for
a space of some hundred years, and two documents exist,
of the years 1544 and 1547, i n which a John Whitfield
acknowledges the receipt by the hands of his attorney,
William Sandes, of 5 half-yearly rent from Hugh Fleming.
But before following the history of the manor and the
lord's seat further, it is necessary to notice the succession
and the fortunes (as far as we know them) of the holders.
Thomas and Isabel had at least one son, William.
He was alive in 1474, as were they, when a family deed
was drawn up, conveying to their " kinsman," John
Fleming, the manor of Beckermet, Cumberland, the most
northerly of the family possessions. It is easy to suppose
that this John was the brother of Thomas, for whom in
youth another de Lancaster match had been proposed.
He is put down in the usual pedigrees as son to Thomas ;
but Sir Daniel Fleming, who had examined all the family
documents, ventured on no nearer title than the " kins-
man " of the Beckermet deed.
But William, when the deed was drawn up, may have
been dying. Both he and his father were seemingly dead
the following year, when John Fleming made his agree-
ment to farm John Whitfield's half of Rydal. Isabel
survived as a widow, to what must have been a great age.
For in 1483, she made her will. This proves her still in
legal possession of her patrimony of half Rydal and
Loughrigg, although she had probably on her husband's
death handed over the management of them to the heir.
By this will she constituted " her beloved in Christ John
Flemyng " son of John Flemyng deceased, to be her attor-
ney and executor, in handing over her Rydal and Loughrigg
* Cal. of Inq. p. mort., Hen. VII., vol. I., 314.
N
178 RYDAL
estates to John Fleming of Coniston and John Utlyng,
chaplain. There is an ambiguity of " Johns " here hard
to follow ; but she seems at all events to have left all her
inheritance by the Rothay to the heirs of her husband's
family in the right line.
In the person of John Fleming, the new lord of Rydal,
we are brought into relationship with the great events of
the times. The cliques at court, and the parties among
the nobles that began to form at once round the young
King Richard II., and -which were not to die out till the
rival descendants of Edward III. and of the old noble
families of England were well nigh extinct, either by
murder or combat, were in all probability little felt in
these parts. The old kingdom of Northumbria that had
once fought so fiercely for rival dynasties of its own, had
always been indifferent to the cabals of the court in the
south ; and so long as it was not grossly oppressed, it took
the side, as a rule, with the old order. Besides, the
north country was still absorbed in the Scotch wars, of
which it had to bear the brunt. Richard's ill-advised
raid upon the great towns of Scotland brought no real
relief and was soon to be revenged in the English defeat
at "Chevy Chace" Otterburn by Hotspur, 1388, which
left the victory with the Scotch. But with the opening
of the fifteenth century, and Henry of Bolingbroke's
seizure of the crown, the nobles and knights of
Westmorland and Kendal began to be caught up in the
current of party strife. The increasing power of the
nobles, in face of the weakness of the crown, had by this
time fostered a new method of warfare. By this method
each great nobleman carried a small army of his own into
battle with him, which had enlisted under him, and was
personally bound to him. Not content with his own
officers of the household and personal retainers, he engaged
the services of knights and squires, who undertook to
bring along with them, in their turn, the men they could
THE FLEMINGS OF RYDAL 179
command, and to fight with him upon his personal
summons. This system was called " livery and main-
tenance," because the noble supplied to all his following
while " out/' food as well as wages, and the badge that
betokened them as his men for the time. The bond or
contract drawn out between noble and knight, contained
always a clause that the latter should not be called upon
to fight " against the King," or " against his allegiance " ;
but this was little more than a phase, since a private
interpretation was always possible, and there were besides
often two crowned heads alive together, who would either
of them fit the phrase.
Such bonds are to be found in many of the muniment
rooms of these counties ; as, for instance one of Richard
Otway, esquire, with Ralph, Earl of Westmorland, in 1408,*
and the one made out in 1449 between Walter Strickland
son of Sir Thomas Strickland of Sizergh, and Richard,
Earl of Salisbury. Then in 1478, John Fleming, esquire,
indented in like manner to fight with Ralph, Lord Grey-
stoke, as a bond preserved at Rydal Hall shows f (see
appendix to this chapter). The stipulations vary little
in these documents. In all of them the superior is to be
allowed a third share of the plunder taken by the inferior,
and of the ransoms of his prisoners ; while he gives the
latter and his followers "bouche court" or maintenance,
and such wages as are at that time customary. The
retaining fee in peace varies however. Otway takes four
marks yearly, John Fleming four pounds, and Walter
Strickland (who could carry a large number of men into
the field with him) ten marks.
John Fleming was a free lance, like many another
squire of the time, with leisure and energy to spare. The
Wars of the Roses offered him excitement and occupation,
* Lord Muncaster's MSS. His. MS. Commission.
1 1 have not seen the original which D. F. mentions in his List. The list
in the appendix is taken from that given in Clarke's Survey of the Lakes.
180 RYDAL
as the Crusades had offered in times gone by to men of
his race. He would call around him the restless spirits
and the younger sons of the dalesmen of Rydal, of Coniston,
of Beckermet manors of which he was soon to be lord ;
and with these sturdy archers and billmen, march to
answer the call of Ralph of Greys toke, and to fight under
his banner. But on which side did he fight, for York or
Lancaster, for white or red rose ? That can only be con-
jectured by endeavouring to follow in the scant records
of the period the part taken by his leader in those involved
and shifting scenes of warfare.
With the House of Lancaster our lordship of Kendal
was knit in somewhat close ties. Henry of Bolingbroke's
great son, the Duke of Bedford, was its lord ; and in that
brief period when he came to fight the Scots, he would
surely pause upon his lordship, and hunt the deer in his
forest by the lake. On his death, his unhappy nephew,
Henry VI. inherited it, and it was administered under the
crown. The Stricklands of Sizergh acted as the king's
officials, as they had done before * ; and Walter, son of
the ruling Sir Thomas, held (as already noted) an appoint-
ment from 1437 onwards as receiver of the lordship, and
keeper of the park of Calgarth. In 1444, two-thirds of it
was granted to John, Duke of Somerset ; but his death
in the same year threw it back to the crown, as his heir,
Margaret, was but two years old. The confirmation of
father and son in the office of steward of Kendal lands
was made out in 1446 (4 Nov., 25 Hen. VI., Sizergh MSS.),
for [ominous clause !] "so long as they bear themselves
well in the office." Discontent, sedition, strife were
indeed by this time at large. England's possessions in
France were ignominiously lost ; the marriage of the king
to Margaret of Anjou, which ratified the cession of Maine
and Anjou, was not popular ; and the Duke of Suffolk,
* Under Ed. III. o. Strickland acted as collector of taxes and of the king's
wool.
THE FLEMINGS OF RYDAL l8l
into whose hands the incapable king had allowed the
royal power to slide, was ruling in his own interests alone.
The able and the wise Richard, Duke of York, was begin-
ning to be looked to as a possible succourer of England.
Perhaps Walter de Strickland, as he rode with the king's
monies on the journeys from Kendal to London, the
expenses of which appear in the Minister's Account, was
caught by the seething spirit of the times and took part
in the counsels of the discontented nobles ; perhaps he
thought with others, that reform must come with force,
and that the enemies of Suffolk need not eventually be
the enemies of his master the king. At all events, he
made out his agreement with Neville, Earl of Salisbury,
one of the most powerful of the nobles, whose daughter
had married York, and whose son was the great Earl of
Warwick, the future king-maker. This was in 1449, the
year when Normandy was lost, and the Duke of York made
lieutenant of Ireland ; and some years before swords
were actually drawn. To be sure, York took up arms in
1452, on the ostensible reason of deplacing the Duke of
Somerset, who Suffolk being dead now took his place
with the king, and was only stayed from action by nego-
tiations and compromise : And again in 1453 he marched
aggressively to London with an immense following, which
included, besides his own son, the future Edward VI.,
the Earls of Salisbury, Warwick, and Richmond. To
this army then, Strickland must have joined himself,
with his bowmen and billmen. The die was cast ; he was
an open Yorkist. The red rose that it had been his duty
to lay down yearly in token of allegiance to the king was
no longer paid ; and it is in this year that the grant by
which Henry VI. conferred the lordship of Kendal on
Edmund, Earl of Richmond, married to Margaret,
daughter of the Duke of Somerset, is dated. Strickland's
stewardship was over, and he is only named as renting with
another man the park of Calgarth.
1 82 RYDAL
The king's mind had now entirely given way, and the
Duke of York was appointed protector by the parliament.
Quiet therefore lasted till the king's recovery, and the
restitution of Somerset to power ; when the first battle
was fought in the long Wars of the Roses, at St. Albans,
on the 22nd of May, 1455. Fresh settlements and fresh
battles succeeded each other. At Wakefield Green,
Yorkshire, on the last day of 1460, where the Red Rose
triumphed, York was slain. On this occasion Ralph,
Lord of Greystoke, was' suspected of treachery towards
his party, but succeeded in clearing himself, and swore
allegiance to Margaret, and her son.* Salisbury was
executed next day. But the tide turned, York's son,
Edward, was proclaimed king in London, on March 4, 1461,
straight from his victory at Mortimer's Cross. Then,
hearing of the immense army of Northmen and Borderers
(said to be 60,000 in number) who had gathered to do
battle for Henry in Yorkshire, he and Warwick marched
north, and, meeting it at Towton near York, defeated
it in a fiercely fought battle that is said to have lasted
from one snowy afternoon to the next.
From this battle begin the hunted days of the unhappy
Henry. His person, long guarded by both parties in the
strife, was now not safe from his enemies. He is generally
said to have fled after Towton, with Margaret and his son
Edward, to Scotland and Edinburgh. Bat if contem-
poraneous evidence is examined, it appears rather that
he separated himself from his wife and son, perhaps as an
expedient for safety, and escaped by a more western route
to Scotland. The Paston Letters f tell of his reported
escape by a back postern from a besieged castle in York-
shire, while his followers diverted the attention of the
besiegers by a " bicker " in front ; and of the capture of
some of his fleeing adherents. Of these, the Earl of
* Victoria History of Cumberland.
fNo. 451 of Prof. Gardiner's edition.
THE FLEMINGS OF RYDAL 183
Wiltshire, and Dr. Morton and Makerell, were taken at
Cockermouth. This shows that one pursued party had
taken the road over the " Pennine " pass, through West-
morland and Cumberland to the coast, probably to take
ship to France or to Scotland. If we could suppose the
king to have been of this party, and when the pursuit
became hot, to have been dropped for safety in the quaint
vale of Eskdale, we should have corroboration of the
Muncaster stay, even to the date.* That story tells how
the king, wandering in flight after Towton, sought refuge
(where perhaps it was expected to be warmly given) at
Irton Hall, but he was denied. Some shepherds, finding
him on the heights above the Esk, led him down to
Muncaster Castle, where Sir John Pennington concealed
and cared for him till immediate danger was passed. For
this service he presented his host with a cup, which is
preserved at the castle to this day as the famous " Luck
of Muncaster " ; and in a bedroom of the castle is an old
portrait of the king, kneeling with the cup in his hands,
bearing the date 1461. The cup, which I saw in 1897,
is of antique coloured glass, patterned, and is conjectured
to have been a chalice for sacramental wine, and such the
pious king may well have carried along with him. We
read in a letter dated the close of that summer,
" The King Kerry (sic) is at Kirkhowbre [Kirkcubright] with iiij
men and a childe. Quene Margaret is at Edenburgh and her
son."t
It seems likely therefore that he made his way to Scotland
from Muncaster by a western route.
The Lancastrian party was for the time utterly broken.
The new young king, Edward, who was immensely
popular with the people and with London and other towns,
* Dr. Parker in his Gos forth District, places the incident in 1464, after the
battle of Hexham.
t No. 480.
184 RYDAL
was willing to deal leniently with nobles of the opposite
side who came to him. One of these was Ralph of Grey-
stoke, who is immediately heard of as one of the commis-
sioners appointed to array the men of Westmorland and
the north against Henry, late king, and the Scots.* From
this time his name frequently appears, both as acting in
negotiations with the Scots and fighting in the field with
Warwick, and Warwick's brother Lord Montacute. A
treaty was made with the Scots in 1462, when the queen
of the Scots, widow of James II. is said to have met Lord
Hastings and other nobles at Carlisle, and agreed that the
hunted " King Harry " and his adherents should be given
up (Margaret and the prince had succeeded in reaching
France) . At the same time news spread that Lord Dacre
had yielded, and that he, Sir Richard Tunstall, and " one
Bellyngham " had been beheaded in Carlisle Castle, f
The great Earl of Warwick too, came to Carlisle, in the
hope of pacifying the country and border.
But by the end of the year war blazed out again in the
north-east, where the whole fighting force of the Lancas-
trians was concentrated to support Margaret who landed
with troops from France ; and the three castles of Alnwick,
Dunstanburgh, and Bamborough were held for the party.
Acting with the besiegers was Ralph of Greystoke.
Henry was there ; and after the battle of Hexham, fought
on May 15, 1464, when the Lancastrians were totally
routed, he succeeded in making his escape from the castle
of Bamborough. Among those who helped him, on
May 31, in this hazardous feat, Sir Henry Bellingham is
mentioned, and among the few faithful followers who
rallied round him, and " him assisted, succoured, and
helped," was Alexander Bellingham of Burneside, in
Westmorland, gent . ' ' J For a whole year Henry wandered,
* Rymer's Foedera, under date June 8, 1462, the Victoria History of Cumber-
land, says 1461, also Morris in " Nunburn holme."
t Paston Letters, No. 528.
J History of Northumberland, Ed. Bateson, B.A.
THE FLEMINGS OF RYDAL 185
moving from hall to hall as danger threatened or suspicion
was excited. In the western wilds of Yorkshire he is
said at first to have found shelter, but that he came
over on several occasions into Westmorland, is certain.
That he should have been hidden for a time in the strong
tower of the Bellinghams at Burneside, or even in his old
lordship, the forest of Troutbeck by Windermere, would
seem likely, but for the dangers of passing Kendal.
Besides the powerful Stricklands, who had been his
servants, and whose stronghold of Sizergh was hard by
the town, there was seated in the Castle of Kendal the
family of Parr.* Unlike their neighbours, the Parrs had
been staunch, from first to last, to the house of York,
" Sir Thomas o Parre " being named among those attainted
along with the Duke of York in 1459 (see Paston Letters
No. 423 j). The citizens of Kendal too, who had half
of them owned Henry not only as king but as manorial
lord, were probably by this time, like other townsmen,
supporting the rule of Edward, which promised peace,
* Cal. Pat. Rolls, 7 Ed. IV. p.ii.
1467 Dec. 10. Grant to Wil. Pur., kn. & John Par, esq. his brother & their
heir's of the manor of Burnaldeshede & the Castle of same & 40 m . . s ? 300 ac.
of land, 200 ac. of mead. 100 ac. of wood, & 500 ac. of pasture in Stirkelondket
[tie], co. West with kn s fees, adv.s* lib.s, fran.s, and views of frank-pledge, courts
leet & all app.s, late of Henry Belyngeham, k.n. rebel, & in k's hand . . .
York and Lancaster Cal Pat. R., n Ed. IV., p. i., Wars of the Roses.
1471, July 20. Com. to Wil. Parre, kn, John Parre, kn, Thorn. Strykland, kn,
& Christopher Moresby, kn., to arrest Lancelot Thirkeld,kn, Joan Musgrave,
widow, Thorn. Sandeford, esq. Wil. Musgrave, Nicholas Musgrave, John
Musgrave, Henry Belyngeham, kn, Roger Belyngeham, Christopher Belyngeham
James Belyngeham, Alexander Belyngham, Thomas Skelton son & hr of John
Skelton of Branntethwayte, & Wil. Lancastre son & h. of Roger Lancastre, esq.
who have made forfuture to the king, & bring them before the k, & council
& seize their goods & lands to the k's use.
1471, July 4. Lan. Thykeld, kn's name is among some others to be arrested
and brought bef. k. & goods seized, mostly Scarborough men &Ed. Thornburgh
& Thomas Danell.
t Cal. Pat. Rolls, 19 Hen. Vl., p. iii.
1441, June 6. The k. in his i6th year May 31 comm. to Thorn. Parre, kn.
the reeping of 2 parts of all lands in the hamlets of Crossethwayt & Hoton
in the town of Strykelandketyll, & in the towns of Forsethwayt, Strykeland-
ketyll & Helsyngton & the keeping of the fishing of Rente, &c. West, & all
lands & ten.s in Whityngton, Co. Lancaster, in the K's hand, by death of John
d of Bedford, to hold fr. Easter the last fr 10 years, rending' yly 25 12 10 ;
the k. has granted, to Wil. Ayscogh, Jus of the Bench, the said farm fr
10 years, & after that term the whole of the premisis for life.
I 86 RYDAL
and an increase of trade. John Maychell, of Crakenthorp,
after Henry's capture in Lancashire, was expressly
pardoned for having several times sheltered and concealed
him. One Westmorland gentleman at least sheltered
him ; and the tradition that lingers still at .Crakenthorp
Hall, that he was hidden there in guise of a gardener, and
the garden shown where he worked, is in essentials true.
It was when at last Edward seemed firmly settled on
the throne, in 1468, that our John Fleming made his
fighting compact with Ralph of Greystoke. What did
it mean ? Whether John had previously been in the
field which seems likely or on which side, we have no
means of knowing. It seems probable that the bulk of
the statesmen of our valleys would be on the side of their
old lord, King Harry. And, although Ralph of Greystoke
had for some years been openly fighting for the Yorkists,
it is possible that he was at this time secretly arranging
for an entire change of flank. If so, he was acting as a
pawn in the hands of the king-maker Warwick. For
Warwick had now fallen out with Edward, being displeased
at his marriage, and he had carried along with him his
son-in-law, and Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence.
It is supposed that he intended to raise the latter to the
throne instead of Edward. The two certainly instigated
the rebellion that broke out in the north in 1469, under
the so-called " Robin of Redesdale," which was so far suc-
cessful that its leader, Sir William Conyers, defeated
Edward's forces, and took prisoners the father and brother
of his wife, and beheaded them. But perhaps Warwick
found that there was little chance of rousing all England
for the purpose of setting the worthless Clarence in his
brother's place. He arranged to meet his old enemy,
Margaret of Anjou, at the French king's court, and there
at Amboise was formally reconciled to her ; agreed to
marry his daughter to her young son, and to set the
unfortunate Henry on the throne again. Invading
THE FLEMINGS OF RYDAL 187
England with a great army, he actually did this. Edward
surprised on a march northward, was suddenly deserted
by Montacute, Warwick's brother, (who had hitherto
continued to fight with him), and 6,000 followers, who at
a signal threw the badge of the White Rose from their
caps, and cried " God bless King Harry." Edward,
finding himself deserted, fled on horseback to the coast
and crossed the seas, waiting for the turn of fortune,
which in another year saw him again and finally on the
throne, Warwick slain, and Henry assassinated.
And where, in these rapidly changing and dramatic
scenes, did Ralph of Greystoke and John Fleming with
his Rydal men stand ? Did they proclaim themselves
as Henry VI. and Warwick's partizans by joining the
northern rebellion that broke out so soon after their
compact ? or did they wait, and with Montacute, Ralph's
earlier companion in battle, treacherously fling down the
White Rose in the moment of Edward's need ?
Next year, 1471, when Sir Thomas Strickland was
knighted by Edward on the last, bloody battle-field of
Tewkesbury,* they and other Lancastrians had to make
their peace with him ; and apparently he dealt leniently
with them. We miss the name of Ralph, Lord of
Greystoke, from the commissioners appointed that year
to treat with the Scots, and amongst whom was Sir William
Parr ; but two years later it re-appears. Edward's
only confiscation seems to have been that lordship of
Kendal which included the Forest of Troutbeck, Amble-
side, half Grasmere, Langdale, and Loughrigg ; and this
he handed over (along with the decoration of the Garter)
to his faithful adherent Sir William Parr, of Kendal
Castle, with reversion to his brother Sir John Parr.f His
son, Sir Thomas, was empowered next year, 1473, to
muster in the neighbourhood along with John Sturgeon
* Paston Letters.
t See Cal. of Pat. Rolls.
188 RYDAL
thirteen men-at-arms, and 1,000 archers, whom the king
wished to send to the assistance of his ally and brother-in-
law, the Duke of Burgundy. Such an enrolment was no
doubt of advantage. It would draw off the turbulent,
fighting spirits who promoted disorder and warfare, and
leave the county to that peace which was required, in
order to pursue the trade that became its engrossing
object for the next hundred and fifty years.
APPENDIX.
From Clarke's Survey of the Lakes, 2nd Ed. 1789.
COPY OF INDENTURE, 7 ED. IV.
1468. [Ralph lord of Greystoke sat -on all the Commissions for
these parts from 1467 to 1477. See Cal. of Pat Rolls].
This indenture, made the 9 th day of December in the 7th year
of the reign of King Edward the IV. betwixt Rauf Lord Greystoke
and Wemin on the ton party, and John Fleming Esquire on the
toder party, witness that the said John is reteined and behest
with the said Lord, for terme of his life, as well in were as in peace,
against all manner of men, except his legiance. The [said?]
John taking ol the said Lord four pounds of lawfull money of
England ; and in the time of were, such wages as the king giffs to
such men of such degree, and he go with the said lord. And the
said John to take his said fee be the hands of the receiver of
Greystoke, that is, or shall be, that is to say at Whitsuntide and
Martynmas. And if the said John go with the said Lord over
the sea, or into Scotland, and then it happen the said John
Fleming, or any of his servants, to take any prisoners, that then
the said Lord to have the third and the third of thirds. And if it
happen that the said Lord send for the said John, to come to him
and to ryde with him to London, or for any other matter, that
then the said Lord to pay for his costs, and to give him bouche
court for him and his feliship. In witness hereof, ayther party
to the partyes of these indentures enterchangably hath set to
their seales, wretyn the day and yere aforesaid.
Several indentures are extant showing the nature of
the agreements. There is one at Muncaster Castle, in
which Richard Strong, esquire, agreed to fight with Ralph,
THE FLEMINGS OF RYDAL 189
Earl of Westmorland at the rate, in times of peace, of four
marks a year. This is as early as 1408.
In 1449, Walter Strickland, esquire, of Sizergh con-
tracted with Neville, Earl of Salisbury to follow him to
field with all his tenants, and he was eventually able to
provide without horse, 290 bowmen and billmen ; again
one de Threlkeld, when boasting of the special advantages
of his three separate manors, said that Threlkeld furnished
a goodly list of tenants who would follow him to the wars.
CHAPTER III
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS
English wool Temp. Edward III. to be made up in
England ; Price of wool ; Flemish weavers ; no doth
to be imported ; remission of duty on Herdwick wool ;
Walk-mills in the Loughrigg valleys ; the Bensons ;
Kendal Green, &c. ; Appendix ; Cloths of various
kinds and colours.
UNDER the Norman and early Plantagenet rulers,
our little townships Rydal and Loughrigg, with
their neighbours higher and lower in the valley-
must have passed a quiet existence, quite out of the track
of public events, absorbed by their husbandry ; and, by
the complicated rule of their village lands held in common,
each household was self-sustaining. The land and the
little flock of sheep with a few cattle supplied food and
clothing, which was worked up by the family. In a
petition of the customary tenants of the barony of Kendal
to Charles, Prince of Wales, A.D. 1619, the tenants thus
describe their estates and their own condition :
"Which Estates are verie small, and the soile thereof for the
most part verie barran : yet by reason they trade in making
course clothes, they are the better enabled to live, and their
houses better builded, but not by goodness of their tenements."
RYDAL
The wool was spun and woven into a rough cloth in the
house, and then carried to the lord's walk-mill to be fulled,
before it was stitched into warm, simple garments worn
by the folk. There was little need for the dalesman to
leave his mil from one year end to another, unless he were
called with the *" grave " to the higher court at Kendal
as representative of his township, or to obtain justice
there against a serious wrong.
Then came prolonged warfare, when he was forced to
take a wider out-look and to rub shoulders, through the
hardships of short campaigns, with county men who were
not his neighbours. He must have become, through the
fourteenth century, when the bickering warfare with the
Scots rarely ceased, except from exhaustion, a man of
wider experience and knowledge, as well as a pretty good
fighter with pike and bow. But his home and his village
suffered ; and it is clear that in that age our valleys
languished both in population and prosperity.
Then came the age of trade. True, it was not yet the
age of peace ; but civil warfare in England, as has been
remarked, rarely interfered with and never ruined trade.
After the time of the Conquest, war ceased to be ruthless ;
the husbandman and his cattle were always respected.
England with its moist climate grew wool for all western
Europe ; and the canny Englishman guarded the fleece
that made his gold. So it was that through the Wars of the
Roses the most bloody fought on English soil, and in
which Kendal and our John Fleming and his men had
large concern the infant trade in cloth did not diminish,
but rather increased. It had its rise in Edward III.'s
reign, when it occurred to some wise mind in council or
parliament, that it were well to save the money paid to
foreign countries for cloth made from English wool.
Wool, indeed, had been pouring out of the country for long.
It was wool and not gold that paid the ransom of our
careless king, Richard I. Edward the III. paid for his
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS
French war with it. Foreign merchants Spanish or
Italian and Flemish crowded our seaports, buying and
exporting it, and ever ready with their superfluous cash,
to lend money in place of the Jews, expelled by Edward I.
Even the plant that teased the wool ready for the spinner
(the teasle) was grown in England and exported.
And in this export trade our county, and possibly our
valley, had early come to share. When Edward III.
procured from parliament the large grants of wool, that
served him instead of taxes, Cumberland and Westmor-
land furnished their contingent along with other counties.
In 1335, John Strickland and Roger of Burneside, being
then the king's wool-collectors for Westmorland, the
amount furnished by the county with Cumberland and
Northumberland, was 600 sacks.* In the previous year,
when 30,000 sacks had been levied from the whole country
for the royal exchequer, the amount fixed as payment
for wool from these counties by indenture with the wool
merchants was five marks the sack (3. 6s. 8d.). Now
this was the lowest price paid, the next lowest being five
and a half for Craven wool ; while the range increased,
until twelve marks was paid for the wool of Herefordshire. f
Indeed, when in 1341, the king's grant numbered 20,000
sacks, three wool-merchants of York were empowered to
take 400 sacks from Cumberland and Westmorland,
described as " fulle (foul) & of little value " at as low a
price as four marks (2. 135. 4d.) the sack. J Prices had
fallen somewhat, as the highest was now for Leicester
wool, at eight marks the sack. But in 1342, seventy-
eight odd sacks of Westmorland were sold for the king at
nos. the sack, with half a mark for " custom."
* Calendar of Close Rolls. The sack was very large and was said to contain
26 stone. See Smith, on Wool.
t Calendar of Close Rolls.
j Smith.
A little over 4/- a stone. In 1195 the general price had been 2S. 6d. a
stone. Smith.
IQ2 RYDAL
It was about this time that the most strenuous efforts
were made to encourage the manufacture of cloth in
England, and to stop its importation from foreign countries.
The edicts of Henry III., of 1270 and 1315, which
expelled all foreign cloth- weavers, were reversed, and
Edward issued letters of protection to foreign workers
in cloth whether weavers, fullers or dyers who would
settle in England for the pursuit of their " mistery."
Such encouragement bore fruit. Some weavers are known
to have settled in London, two in York, Thomas Blanket
in Bristol ; John Kemp indeed, who brought over servants,
looms and apprentices, in 1331, is stated by a local
tradition to have made his way to Kendal ; though there
is little likelihood that the early immigrants pushed so
far inland, and there is nothing to substantiate a legend
that is also cherished elsewhere. The Flemish settlers
were certainly most numerous in East Anglia, which
traded freely with Flanders and was easily reached from
that country.* Again in 1337, tne king issued letters of
protection to foreigners, including a French dyer, who in
response was then " plying his mistery " at Winchester, j
That year parliament went so far as to ordain that no
person but kings, queens, and their children should wear
cloth that was not made in the realm, as well as that no
cloth should be imported. {
Results were speedy, and by 1350, the erection of new
mills and weirs on the navigable streams of the land was
so loudly complained of as affecting the passage of boats,
that a law was made that permitted the pulling down of
all those which had been erected later than Edward I.'s
time. Complaints continuing of the invasion of this law,
it was enacted in 1399, that commissions should be appoint-
ed to view the obstructions thus offered to navigation,
* Cunningham's Alien Immigrants,
f Calendar of Close Rolls.
J Statute ii Ed. III., c. 2 and 3.
25 Ed. III., Stat. 3. c. 4.
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS 1 93
and that the justices were to take action according to
their decision, and to see that the condemned mills,
weirs and obstructions were actually pulled down.*
Laws, too, were soon promulgated to control and regulate
the manufacture of cloth. Certain makes or varieties of
cloth generally confined to certain families, cliques, and
eventually places were to obtain certain prices ; the
accredited width and length of each piece or " web " of
the different makes, as well as its quality, was to be main-
tained ; and a public officer, called an alnager, was
appointed to examine every web, roll or pack as it came
into the cloth market, and to set a mark of its length upon
it. It was also to be sealed by the collector of customs,
when the king's tax was paid. It is from a perusal of
these laws that we learn how soon our barony of Kendal
came to the fore in the newly established manufacture of
cloth.
The Westmorland dalesman had in fact a peculiarly
valuable asset in his flock of sheep. His small and hardy
race of Herdwicks whose progenitors may have been
introduced by the Norse settlers were admirably fitted to
graze in summer on the wide barren fells. There the deer
were at first their only rivals ; but the deer along with the
primeval forest, and the lord's personal presence and his
interest in the chase, kept diminishing ; being more and
more restricted to enclosures and parks. The age of wool
in fact succeeded that of sport.
The summer pasture on the mountain tops being almost
boundless, the dalesman's flock was only limited to the
number which his holding would support in winter. The
greatest care was taken to increase natural provision.
The leaves of the ash were garnered like the grass, for
fodder ; holly trees were planted and cherished, as was
the ivy, because their foliage furnished a winter food for
* Stat. i Henry IV., c. 12.
1 94 RYDAL
sheep.* The animals of the first year, called " hogs," were
kept through the winter in houses, and there fed from racks
of hay ranged round the walls, never being taken out
but to water.
And now the mountain of Rydal, with its wide grassy
top and its range of lessening heights (nameless in Sir
Roger de Lancaster's deed), became Fairneld, the sheep-
fell, f The fleece, grey as it was, and short compared
with the longer whiter fleeces of the south country, and
low as was the price it fetched, was yet of commercial
value, and was carried to Kendal, thence to be transported
across the seas, either by York and Hull (for the West-
morland man long gravitated to his old Deiran capital),
or to Newcastle, which later became his invariable
seaport.
In the Cal. of Close Rolls, 21 Edward III., we read :
1347. " The colls & rec.s of King's wool in co of Lancashire
ordered to stop all ' feeble ' wool fr. Cumb. West. & other ports
from being fradulently passed into the 20,000 sacks due from
Lancashire, instead of the better wool of that county."
Then again, when English cloth became the rule of wear
for all classes, the thrifty dalesman saw his opportunity
and quickly used it. The simple loom had always been
plied for his household needs : why should it not spin
webs for sale in Kendal market ? From the very dis-
advantages of his material he made profit. His fleeces
fetched a lower price than any other ; his grey home-spun
web showed but poorly against the fine alien-spun cloths
of the south ; but it was strong and durable, and he could
(with his industry, his few outside wants and indepen-
dence of land-tenure) put it on the market at a price that
commanded a speedy and extensive sale. Accordingly,
* In the New Forest holly used to be the regular winter food of the deer.
t From the Norse. It was De Quincey who first suggested this derivation
which has been recently accepted.
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS
from the time that Kendal cloth is first named in the
statutes, it appears as the wear of the working classes.
In 1363, 37 Edward III. It is enacted that no man
practice more than one mystery or craft. Women
however, are allowed to be brewers, bakers, carders,
spinners and workers of wool, linen and silk. Further,
the apparel for different ranks is graduated, handcraftsmen
and yeomen are to wear cloth the whole price to cost not
more than 405. ; knights and gentlemen owning /ioo a
year may go to 4! marks (6os.) ; those with 200, to 5
marks the piece ; those owning 300, to 6 marks, while
all above 400 a year may wear what they please.
Craftsmen had to have a larger income than the gentry
in order to wear the same. Carters and ploughmen were
to wear nothing but " Blanket " and russet wool of I2d.
That time is 1389. Enactments had been made in
1350-1,* 1353, and 1373, concerning two classes of cloth
which were described as Coloured Cloth and Cloth of
Ray,f and which were originally to be woven, the former
24 yards and the latter 26 elles or yards long in the piece,
with a breadth respectively of 6| and 6 quarters ; but
were afterwards allowed at 26 and 28 yards long,J and
6 and 5 quarters broad. Cloth, however, to be sold to
poor folk was excepted, and by 1389 it became necessary
to specify that a certain class of goods called " Cogware "
and Kendal cloth were exempt from such laws. These
goods, it was stated, were made " by common custom "
in divers counties, of the breadth of 3 quarters or one ell,
and were used to be sold by the piece of five folds for forty
pence (a quarter mark) ; and as such cloth was made of
* Statutes of the Realm. 25 Ed. III., Stat. 3. c. i.
t Striped cloth. Strutt.
% The Statutes of the Realm give 28. But we also find it put at 27. In
all cases the French " aune " is translated " yard " and not " ell." Strutt
says that the word aulne or aune (properly ell) is rendered in the Old English
translations Yard but it really was equivalent to i yard i inch, or in London
i yard and a hand breadth, but the measure i yard and an inch was enforced
all over England by law in 18 Hen. VI.
196 RYDAL
the worst wool, that would not serve for superior stuffs,
and was moreover sold to " cogmen " for export, or to
" poor and needy people " of England, it was ordained
that it might still be made of the old width and length,
without interference from state officials.*
This shows that Kendal cloth and " cog ware " were made
not only at a low price, but on a narrower loom than the
finer cloths ; and perhaps it may be inferred, especially
as use and common custom are spoken of in connection
with it, that this manufacture represented the work of
native weavers, who followed the methods and used the
tools and looms of their forefathers, and were little, if at
all, affected by newly introduced methods.
In 17 Richard II. a law further declared that while
such cloths could be made of any length or breadth, they
were to pay alnage or aulnage duty on each piece, and be
officially sealed. That was considered a grievance, and
in answer to a petition, i Henry IV. (1399), another law
was passed concerning it, whereby it is ordained " for the
ease and relief of poor common people of the realm" that
for a period of three years all " drap (cloth) kersy Kendal
cloth f rise-de-Co ventre Coggeware " or other cloth that
is sold by the dozen yards at 133. 4d. (one mark) shall be
exempt from the usual subsidy and the sealing which
enforces such payment. f
In the Cal. Pat. Rolls, i Richard II. (1377) we find the
appointment of John de Pathorn, York, draper, as collector
of subsidy on cloth for the counties of York, Northumber-
land, Cumberland and Westmorland, with power to retain
all forfeited cloth, and in 1379 Thorn. Forster of Drybeck
to the same post and to seal the cloth when it has paid
subsidy, to make provision against unsealed cloth, with
power to search and seize the same in houses, shops, &c.
In 5 James I., an Act was passed allowing all cogwares,
* 13 Rich. II. Stat. i. c. 10.
t i Hen. IV. c. xix
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS
kendals, coarse cottons, and carpmeals (Cartmells ?) made
in the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, and in
the towns and parishes of Carpmieal, Hawkestead, and
Broughton, in Lancashire, not exceeding 133. 4d. the
dozen yards, should be unrestricted in length and free
from subsidy or alnage.
In accordance with this law, several officials of the
counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, including the king's
alnager or aulnager, were next year bidden to seize all
cloths within those counties, that were not of the pre-
scribed lengths and quality, except " coggeware " and
" kendale-cloth " of the value of 6s. 8d. each.*
Already, in 1326, it was ordained that all cloth worn in
England was to be made in England, and the export of
all appliances connected with the trade forbidden, such
as fuller's earth, madder, woad, and more especially of
" the thistles commonly called tasles," or teasles, which
it was said the merchants of Flanders, Brabant, and
elsewhere were buying up and even destroying the roots
of, in order to stop the home manufacture ; and so great
was the zeal, that the sheriffs of London had to be made
to release 29 barrels of " thistles," which it w r as ascertained
had been bought by three Flemish merchants before
the law had gone forth, f
Again in 1407, it was ordained that " no cloth called
Kendale," which was offered on the market at 6s. 8d.
(half-a-mark) the dozen, should be required to be sealed
(for payment of subsidy 4d. the piece, and scartel 6d.)
or to pay alnage (the fee of Jd. the piece to the alnager,
or official cloth-measurer) . J From which we may con-
jecture that Kendal cloth (no other is mentioned) was
distancing all other low-priced competitors, and placing
a servicable stuff on the market, at a greatly reduced
price.
* Cal. of Patent Rolls, 13 Rich. II.
t Calendar of Close Rolls.
J 9 Hen. IV., c. ii.
198 RYDAL
The cloth merchants of our barony were by this time
becoming well-known on the great trade routes. It is
related by Fuller, in his History of Cambridge, that the
great cloth-fair of Stourbridge owed its origin about 1417,
to a Kendal clothier, who had had the misfortune to get
his cloth wet on the road to London, and so stopped there
and then sold it for what he could get ; making so good
a bargain that he returned to the spot next year with
others of his townsmen. He adds that " Kendal men
challenge some privilege on that place, annually choosing
one of the town to be chief, before whom an antic sword
was carried with mirthful solemnities."
When a rood chantry was founded in Skipton Church,
for a priest to say early mass every day (at six a.m. in
summer and seven in winter), it was for the express
purpose that not only the inhabitants might attend it
before the day's work, but that " Kendalmen and strang-
ers " should hear the same, before continuing their
journey.*
The part played by our valley in this cloth trade of
Kendal has to be considered. For it must again be noted
that Kendal still stood for the barony, and not for the
town, which was Kirbey in Kendale, or the Church-town
of Kendal. And the steady increase of the home-manu-
facture in these remote parts can be gathered even from the
scanty records, inquisitions and rentals, that we possess.
In 1283, one fulling or walk-mill apparently served for
Grasmere, Langdale, and Loughrigg, where the cloth made
for household wear in the valleys could be " y- walked "
or dressed, f It was held by the lord, and situated at
the parochial centre.
* Mediceval Service in England. Cha. Wordsworth.
t It is supposed that the cloth was in primitive times fulled by the feet, hence
the word walk. Cunningham (Alien Immigrants) says that the word was
dkectly introduced by the Flemish weaver of the i4th century. It was
however, apparently in common use at that time in these parts. The official
papers always use the word full, indeed ; but we have mention of one William,
son of Robert le walker in Eskdale in 1338 (Close Rolls) ; and a John Walker
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS IQ9
In 1323-4, the Inquisition of Marmaduke de Twenge
shows that, as lord of half Grasmere and Langdale, he
had held half of two corn-mills and of one fulling mill
(R MSS.).
The Grasmere mill is mentioned in 1324 and 1335, as
bringing in a rent of 6s. 8d. (half a mark). But before
long, mills sprang up in each township, worked by the
enterprise of one man or by partners. The increase
spread, as was natural, from Kirkby Kendal as a centre ;
for thither the webster had at first to carry his cloth for
sale in the market. Through Staveley, Applethwaite,
Troutbeck, it advanced to Ambleside and the remote
valley-heads. And the first new mill in the parish of
Grasmere, of which we have notice, was situated in
Loughrigg, worked by John Walker, and paying 33. 4d.
(a quarter mark) to the lord. This was at the close of the
fourteenth century, when already three walk-mills were
working in Troutbeck, with several men as partners in
each.
Loughrigg in fact, the rocky fell rising between the
streams of Brathay and Rothay, was destined to play a
conspicuous part in the cloth trade. The inhabitants of
this little division had been accustomed, like those of
Ambleside, to pay a tax of Walkyng-silver to the lord.*
Perhaps it was a coincidence that both became the seats
of prosperous fullers who founded families of freeholders.
As our chief concern is with Loughrigg, it need only be
of the Loughrigg fulling mill at the end of the i4th century. As mentioned
in part i. chapter 10. Wycliffe's translation of St. Mark's Gospel ix., 3, gives
14 a fullere or walkere of cloth." Walk-mill remains the traditional phrase.
The invention of fulling-stocks, worked by a small wheel, caused the discon-
tinuance of the old hand methods, which however caused loud complaints
(Strutt's, Dress and Habits).
The word stock commemorates many a vanished mill in these parts.
In Langlands' Piers Plowman, 15, 447, is the following : " Cloth that
commeth froe the weaving is not comely to wear, Till it be fulled under fote
or in a fullyng stocks ; Washen well with water, and with tasels cratched,
y-touked and y-teynted, and under talours hand " &c.
One MS. has y- Walked in the place of y-touked and Langland often uses
" touker " for " fuller." J. A. Martindale.
* See ante, part i. chapter 10.
200 RYDAL
said of the general increase that by 1453, there were six
mills working in the parish of Grasmere ; in another forty
years there were ten on the Richmond half alone ; and in
another hundred, as many as eighteen, if our reckoning
from the rentals of the two fees be correct.*
It is clear that the Wars of the Roses favoured, in-
directly, this increase of the cloth trade in the remoter
parts of the barony. The Parrs, seated at the castle by
the Kent, had the welfare of the borough and its trade
largely at heart. The forest and the deer became less of
interest to them than the people and the cloth manufacture,
which also brought wealth to themselves. Their policy
would seem for some time to have been a liberal one, for
the refusal of the Troutbeck tenants to pay gressums in
I 453 was ascribed to the king having pardoned these, as
shown in the accounts of Sir Thomas Parre, late sheriff
of Westmorland. And when Sir William Parr, owner of
half the lordship of Kendal, was rewarded in 1472, for his
fidelity to the cause of the White Rose, by the other half,
or Richmond Fee, he apparently gave every facility to
the tenants of the valleys for the establishment of new
walk-mills ; for the rental of 1493, for that fee, when the
Countess of Richmond had again resumed possession of
it, expressly mentions that the third mill accounted for in
the townships of Grasmere and Ambleside was constructed
in the time he had been lord. One of these was fixed on
the Rothay, between the lakes of Grasmere and Rydal,
in Bainrigg.
We have thus certified, to within twenty years, the date
of the foundation of one cloth-mill in our division ; the
only one on the left bank of the Rothay, though there
were two then, or a little later, on the right bank. The
next record available f shows that about this time a
* " Fullers and Freeholders of Grasmere, Transactions, C. & W. A. & A.
Society, vol. viii., N.S.
t Public Record Office. Ministers Account, Hen. VII., 877.
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS 201
great deal was being done on the lands between the two
rivers in the way of improvement and mill-construction.
The Ministers Account for 1505-6, runs under the heading
of Loughrigg, and the money produced by John Gerigge,
reeve, thus :
" And (he is charged) with 133 ^ of the rents of all the tenants
there yearly, as well for all ap-provements, Intakes, and other
waste lands by them newly encroached upon, as for license to
enclose the said approvements of waste land, thus demised to
them by the Lady's auditor and receiver general, . . . ." [The
Lady = the Countess of Richmond].
No heriots have fallen in, as the accountant takes oath. But
he answers for .... 2 s by him likewise received from (blank)
for two fulling mills newly built there."
It is unlucky that the names of the fullers at these two
new mills are not given. It is in connection with Langdale
that the name of the family that was to occupy so largely
these valleys, and particularly Loughrigg, occurs. The
entry may, however, concern Loughrigg, the skirts of
which slope down to the common lands of Elterwater,
at a spot which might be fitly described as " the foot of
Langden," since it is here that the first valley chamber
(the long dene) closes, and where, after issuing from the
lake, the river becomes the Brathay. A large intack
skirting the common, and rising towards High Close, on
the Loughrigg and Langdale border, was later in the hands
of the family ; but this, being of the Marquis Fee, is not
the one meant in the entry, which runs :
" And (the reeve is charged) with I2 d of the rent of John Benson,
William Benson, and Robert Benson for one intake newly en-
closed lying at the foot of Langden, containing 5^ acres by
estimation ; . . . . and id of the rent of John Benson for one intake
containing by estimation (blank) acres, yearly."
There was also a Thomas Gyrryge who had recently
enclosed " three intakes in divers places " from the lady's
waste, containing three roods, and who paid a rent of 4d.
2O2 RYDAL
Now it is tolerably certain that these improvements
and enclosures from waste land were made for the milling
industry. The very fact that most of the land of Lough-
rigg, and much of Langdale, was waste, and too rocky
and barren for the husbandman to deal with, explains
in part what appears the strange spread of a manufacture
into the very heart of the mountains. Hummocks of
rock that would scarce give grazing to sheep, served for
the drying of cloth on .the tenters ; and it could be had
cheap. The becks and even the small sikes were enough
with their swift flow to turn the primitive wheel of the old
walk-mill ; there was no question of previous bank and
water rights to hamper their use, no risk of weir-disputes.*
Everything needful was at hand ; the dalesmen with their
fleeces, the scattered homesteads where the wool was spun
by the women and woven at the looms by younger sons ;
the ground and the water. It needed only a group of
men with enterprise and capital to produce commerce
from industry ; the walker first, to set up his mill and full
the cloth on the spot ; then the clothier or cloth-merchant
to buy up the finished article and carry it straightway
with his gang of pack-horses to the great cloth markets
of the south. And both walkers and clothiers were
supplied in the f amity of Bensons. Though not without
rivals at first (for John Hawkrigg ran the Bainrigg mill
in 1493, and Robert Wilkinson with partners one of the
three in Langdale, and Brathwaites and Jacksons the
three in Ambleside, while later Reginald Holm perhaps
had another at Skelwith, and the Griggs one in Langdale)
they yet became dominant ; and increased in wealth and
numbers, till they occupied customary holdings on almost
every tributary stream of the valleys, and bought up
* Two of the old weirs connected with mills can yet be distinguished on the
Rothay, below its exit from the two lakes. It may have been a weir-dispute
which brought Reginald Holme, the miller of Skelwith, into trouble, and
caused the destruction of his weir and dam by the magistrates. The present
weir that holds the Brathay up involved its builder in a law suit. See Fullers
and Free- holders.
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS 2O3
freeholds whenever attainable. In Loughrigg alone, they
were probably in the sixteenth century working six walk-
mills ; and about 1570, three clothiers of the name,
representing different lines of Loughrigg holders, bought
up the whole of the freehold in that division that belonged
to Rydal Manor.
Rocky Loughrigg was indeed, in late Tudor times, their
stronghold, but it is impossible to date their arrival there,
or even to trace the descent of the various branches who
possessed holdings in that division of our township. It
is of interest to note that one, Ralph Benson, is spoken
of in association with a William, son of Robert le Walker,
who as already mentioned held lands and apparently
mills in Eskdale in 1338.* From Eskdale the way is
short by the Roman and mediaeval highway into Langdale.
It may be conjectured that the first walk-mill of Lough-
rigg would be planted on an old agricultural site ; and
none is more likely by situation to have been so used than
the holding called Miller Bridge ; for here the wide arc
which the river described about alluvial land could be
easily segmented by a straight cut, which is probably
now absorbed in the present artificial course. The
ubiquity of the term Miller applied to the adjacent field,
bridge, brow, hagg, and extended by the terms high, low,
little, attest the ancient presence of a mill with its bridge
over the dam, of neither of which the slightest tradition
remains ; though fortunately there is documentary
evidence to prove their existence. It may have been here
that the fulling-mill, accounted for in the Levens Rental,
stood, at the close of the fourteenth century ; this plot
indeed, known as Low Miller Bridge, with the adjacent
one of High Miller Bridge, is the sole one besides High
Cockstones, belonging to the Lindisey or Richmond Fee,
that lay along the river bank. The 1453 rental of the fee,f
* Calendar of Close Rolls.
t Ministers' Account, Bdle. 644, No. 10444.
204 RYDAL
speaks of a corn-mill, and says that 35. 4d. (the old sum)
is received for " the moiety of the fulling-mill there."
The first corn and fulling mills may indeed have run
together, for it was not unusual for two wheels to be
turned by one race. In Ambleside a wooden aqueduct
across the beck connected corn and bark mills ; at
Skelwith Bridge the two wheels of corn and bobbin mills
sat side by side in the flow, pivoted from either bank.
We have the word kiln associated with a corn-mill or
brewery, as a field-name on High Miller Bridge.*
A corn-mill must have been re-established here, perhaps
after the failure of the walk-mill, and right down to the
middle of the nineteenth century, High Miller Bridge
seems to have been held by the Mackereths.
Now a certain Thomas Benson " of Loghrig " was fined
in the court of the Lindesay Fee, on July 9, 1443, for
allowing six pigs to unduly forage in the lord's forest of
Ambleside f ; this proves him to have been a tenant in
that fee, and no doubt pitched at Miller Bridge. Again,
a John of Loughrigg whose alias was Jenkyn,j and who
served as one of the fifteen arbitrators of the division
between the townships of Ambleside and Troutbeck in
I 55> was doubtless another of the same line ; for we find
an old field-name of Jenkyn on the Miller Bridge plot.
It was a " Loughrig " Benson who was rich enough to
marry the daughter of Miles Sawrey, gent., of Graythwaite,
in the time of Henry VI I., but we have no clue to guide
us to his exact date.
It was Barnard the clothier, who was partner in the
freehold purchase, thereby securing his capital messuage
on Housesteads, a plot below Miller Bridge proper, with
* On Mear Ings, close by, the top of a quern was recently turned up. It is
of coarse, granular texture, 15 inches in diameter, dome-shaped with a height
of some four inches, and with a boring not much larger than a man's finger.
t Court Roll, 21 Henry VI.
t Mr. G. Browne's MSS.
West's Annals of Furness.
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS 2O5
other lands and tenements higher up the stream ; and it
was his son Edward who lost or sold this.
Another old homestead and agricultural settlement,
where a mill could be readily planted on the river, and
where even now part of the mill-race can be traced, was
Cote How, between the old fords of the Rothay. Of this
line of Bensons we know nothing till the partition duel,
when Michael the clothier appears as a powerful and
wealthy man, who sweeps off the freehold, not only of
Cote (or Coat) How where he dwells, but of tenements and
lands right and left. He was apparently eager for free-
hold ; and when the manor of Baisbrowne and Elterwater,
secured from the derelict lands of Conishead Priory by a
rich John Benson of Langdale as early as 1546, was being
parted with by John's successor to James Brathwaite
the fuller of Ambleside, the seller stipulated that it should
not be passed over to Michael. Michael, according to
Nicolson and Burn, married a rich cousin, one of the
heiresses of Barnard Benson, of the Fould.
At the time of the joint purchase of the Loughrigg
freehold, Barnard of the Fould, who had married a
daughter of Gilpin of Kentmere,* was already dead. His
widow, Elizabeth, was seated at the principal house there ;
while two other widow Bensons held adjoining houses.
It is difficult not to associate this little community of
Bensons, pitched in the central and remote hollow of
Loughrigg, with the fulling industry. We may conjecture
this rich Barnard with his fellows Robert and Thomas
all dead before 1580 to have been sons of the John,
William, and Robert, who were busy enclosing intakes
" at the foot of Langden " in 1505-6. No river, indeed,
is here ; but the wheel of the primitive walk-stock could
be turned by even such a sike as drops down through
* The Gilpins of Kentmere probably owed their rise, as did a few other
families, to the need for local officials to serve the royal holders of the barony.
In 1440, William Gilpyn received the post for life of the office of clerk to the
king's lordships of Kendale. Cal. Pat. Rolls.
206 RYDAL
Stock Field (where its course has been manifestly diverted)
into Loughrigg Tarn. There is " Tenters Pool " still on the
rocky top of little Loughrigg, where springs abound, such
as dyers want. There is " Tenters " again by Mill Brow, on
the slope, where a little beck runs into the Brathay, and
which was a customary holding of the Bensons, not of
the Rydal Manor.
It is not easy to see, indeed, where a mill could have
stood at High Close, another important seat of the Bensons
that lies on the neck or pass between Loughrigg and
Silverhow. Yet Edward of that place, the third partner
in the freehold purchase, is called a clothier too. Possibly
one may have stood on the Mere Syke, near its source ;
for from a field there called Long Brow, a building is
known to have disappeared.
At the foot of Loughrigg, but on the farther bank of
the Rothay, there was the Bainrigg mill before spoken of.
This freehold one of the few bits existing from early
times in these parts was bought by a John Benson, in
1480. He probably kept only the low strip of land where
the mill stood, which early in the nineteenth century
was still in separate hands ; for in 1487, he sold Bainrigg
itself to the lord of Rydal. In the deeds at Rydal Hall,
he figures as John senior.
Of the walk-mills of Langdale and Grasmere, it is not
needful to speak fully.* Enough has been told to show
that in Elizabethan days there were lines of Bensons who
had secured their holdings in freehold from the Rydal
Manor at Miller Bridge, at Cote How, at High Close, at
the Fould ; besides Bainrigg ; and that all these as well
as other lines of customary holders in our small division
of the district had acquired their wealth in the fulling
and cloth trades.
And what manner of cloth, it may be asked, was our
* See " Fullers and Freeholders," Transactions, C. & W. A .& A. Society,
vol. vii., N.S.
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS 207
district busy turning out through the Wars of the Roses
and the Tudor rule ?
In endeavouring to answer this question from old
records, and principally from wills of tradespeople, we
are met by a confusing number of names, applied to the
cloths of various localities, and of varied manufacture and
colour. The ' ' shepeculer " * " grays ' ' and ' ' fell-side-stuff ' '
we may conjecture to be the natural homespun " Ken-
dale cloth" which in such early days was expressly made
exempt from the alnager's requirements, lest the poorer
classes who bought it should suffer. A " shepe culered
go wen," was apprised as worth 303. at a Kendal man's
death in 1578. But the " Kendall " so frequently found
in the Kirkby Kendal shops of the sixteenth century, was
presumably the " Kendal Green " which by that time had
become noted all over England. This most durable dye
was produced from Genista tinctoria, a plant which grows
wild in these parts, and gives a lively yellow colour. f
Cloth treated with this, was then immersed in woad
(imported) ,J the blue of which, uniting with the yellow,
becomes a fast green. A steady demand made this colour
the barony's own peculiar possession in dyes ; but many
others seemed to have been used. There were motleys,
fantastic variations and patterns, perhaps applied by
hand, on a white ground. Nicolson says these spotted
with red, blue, or green, were called ermines, or spotted
cottons. The stout bowmen of Kendale were distinguished
at the battle of Flodden Field by their " milke- white
coats and crosses red."
"The left hand wing with all his route
The lustly Lord Dacres did lead,
With him the bows of Kendal stout
With milke white coats and crosses red."
* One of the colours allowed by Act 5 Ed. VI., Strutt (See Appendix).
t Reseda luteola, which grows on the lime stone near Kendal, also yields a
yellow dye.
J Some woad was grown near Kendal also ; and it is still grown in two
places in Lincolnshire : Boston and Spalding. Ed.
208 RYDAL
A " black and grene motlaye " * was in stock at a
Kirby Lonsdale shop in 1578. " One cloth of colour
called milk-and-water," (see Appendix) was in a
Kirby Kendal shop in 1562 : a strange colour
indeed! but hardly stranger than " sad-new-culler " f
or " browne-blew." A " blew-and-blacke bayse " may
have been a motley also. A colour of which we find no
mention is " murray " ; J but this esteemed dark-red dye,
that fetched for cloth dipped in it a much higher price
that the green, was certainly produced in our district,
and must have constantly filled the vats of the Benson
firm up at the Fould. It is extracted from a white
lichen, common to the mountains, probably either
Lecavora parella or L. tartarea || ; and as late as 1772, the
Rev. W. Gilpin^f found a number of old people and children
busy collecting the growth from the rocks, between
St. John's Vale and Ullswater. Perhaps it was included
in the " russets " so frequently found.
Cal. Pat. Rolls, 18 Henry VI., Part 2. 1440. Ap. 25.
A burglary in house of John Lyde, " cooke," of St. Kath-
arine Crichirche in Algate ward, comprises after many
pots and pans, and household utensils and furniture, 2
tunics of russet . . . i gown of Kendale, double, with stains,
i ancient doublet of fustian, i old broidered gown . . .
Besides baize, " rugs " and " ketters " are spoken
of ; also " packe (?) " and " selblacks." Carsay or
kersey, a favourite cloth in these parts, was much
made in Yorkshire and Lancaster. ** We read of
it, in the sixteenth century, of a " skye culler/' ft
* Perhaps the old medley colour of Edward's Act, Strutt.
t Mentioned in 5 Ed. VI.
i The " mockadow black redd." (See Appendix), mentioned in 5 Ed. VL
Murray for Edward IV. 's wardrobe cost 35. 4d. a yard. Strutt.
|| Mr. J. A. Martindale kindly furnishes the probable name.
II Observations, &c.
** Sir Daniel procured it from Wakefield.
ft Mentioned also in inventories of wardrobes, and possibly another name
for azure, or waichet mentioned in Edward VI. 's Act. Strutt.
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS
a " white/' a " grene/' a " centre russett," and even a
" gilloflower " variety, which surely was reaching an
aesthetic height ! In the seventeenth century, Sir Daniel
Fleming bought it in grey for making long coats for his
young sons ; for saddle-cloths it was blue. Tammel was
also made into coats ; Sir Daniel procured it in white
and then had it dyed. Chamlett would be procured of
many colours, also mockadows and frescadows.
There were Cartmels as well as Kendals ; and later,
when the clothiers had failed in Loughrigg and our valleys,
an Under-Skiddaw cloth, made presumably at Milbeck,
below that mountain, by Sebastian Zenogle, or Senogle,
was in demand at Rydal Hall.
Cottons, associated with Manchester, Lancaster and
Cheshire in Act of 4 Edward VI., were made in Kendal.
There is reason to believe that the clothiers and wool-
merchants of these parts were in direct touch with the
London market. An early enactment provided for Rews
and Places being provided in staple towns where wool and
goods could be stored, and which were to be leased on
reasonable terms.* And that Kendal men far travellers
as we have seen had footing in London, besides their
commerce at the fairs, is certain. Mr. Henry Fisher
" of Kendall " held at his death in 1578, a lease of two
boothes in London. A widow of Crook " near Kendal/'
who presumably had carried on her husband's business,
had in 1557, debts in London, and cloth standing in
Blackwall Hall, the great cloth market, to the value of
17. 2s. 2d.
A plea in chancery, of some time between 1433 and
1472, shows that a clothman of Kirby-Kendal had been
detained in a London prison over Easter-tide, for a debt
which he affirmed was not yet due.f As his prosecutor
was a London grocer, it looks as if the clothier did a little
* Statutes of the Realm. 27 Ed. III., Stat. 2, c. xvi.
t Early Chan. Prot., vol. ii. Bun. 46, No. 74.
210 RYDAL
carrying trade too, so that his horses should not return
unladen. The clothier's little gangs of pack horses were
indeed constantly on the road ; and there is little doubt
that the Kendal cloth was not only spun, woven, milled
and dyed in our valleys, but was carried off directly to
the south by the richer firms, like the Loughrigg Bensons.
APPENDIX.
KENDAL CLOTH TRADE.
Some particulars from " Wills and Inventories of the Arch-
deaconry of Richmondshire." Surtees Society.
1542. Will of Edward Pykerynge of Scelmisyer (Skelsmergh ?)
parish of Kendal includes ; VI Kendals, IIIJ li. ; VIII
ketters XL s. ; I J russetts, XVIs, ; I J tentors XX s. ; a
payr off stock cards, XVIII d. ; IJ payr of small cards
IUJd.
1553- Wil1 of James Layburne of Bradleyfield, par. of Kendal.
Owing to him " for Kendall of y e last yere XX s." Ditto
" for Kendall LVIP" Ditto " for Kendall, XXVII "
1557. Will of Anne, widow of Christopher Nycolson of Crook
near Kendal. Debts include London ones " desparate
debts and all," 128. 13. 4. " clothe in Blackwell halle
XVII li. IJs. IJd.
1562. Robert Storeye of Kendal " one cloth of colour called
milk and watter " ; IIJ mellyd russets XIII s ; IJ other
selblacks XX. ; rugs, ketters, and a blakene ; a selblacke
in the studies ; Taysles, II J s . II J d . ; a roppe of hylds
Vllld; IIIJ paire of Shearmans shears; shear borde
handills with other geare XL S ; Flocks, wool and yarn ;
A paire of studies, wheills, and cards, IIIJ 8 IIIJ d tentures
with tenture barres, XXXIIJ*. IIIJd.
1562. Robert Doddinge of Stramongate, Kendal. Cardstocks,
Stock cards and hande cards IIJs. IIIJd. ; nj back-bords
Xljd. Tenture posts and woodde VJd. ; IJ tentures XX s .
In the shoppe, shears, shearborde, and wyrkingere XJ S ;
IIJ peces of clothe XLVIIJ 8 ; IIJ wheeills, IJ pare of
garne-wyndills, XVIIJd. A pece of clothe in studies
XIII Js. ; In nyoyn bords and ellerbarks VI s ." Debts
owing him for cloth include "a russett XII J s . ; a selbiacke
XVIIjs."
TRADE IN THE VALLEYS 211
1578. Edward Kyrkelands of Kendal, 4 tenters, 408, 6 selblacks
and 4 grayes 8 ; 7 grayes, 28 s ; "A pair sheares, shere
bord, IJ thrumed bords, and all workin geare " 12 s .
1578. " Mr. Henri Ficher of Kendall " leaves among his clothes
" A shepe culered gowen XXXs." He has " Clothe in
gaige " ; wool, yarn, and " floks " Among debts owing
to him " A lease for twoo bouthes in London. A bill . . .
for XIIIJ stone wooll selblack.
1578. James Backhouse of Kirkby Lonsdale had a shop in
Kirkby Lonsdale that contained a great variety of cloths,
of which the retail price per yard is given. Among them :
red fresadow, 6 s . 6 d ; Turkye culler, 4 s . o d ; browne blew
9 s . o d ; skye culler carsaye I s . 7 d ; black & grene motlaye
2 s . 6 d ; centre russett car say 2 s . 4 d ; grene carsaye, I s . io d ;
gilloflower carsay I s . 6 d ; sad new culler, 3*. 2 d ; shepes
culler, brod a yard & ad. (?) I3 8 . o d (the piece ?) blew and
blacke bayse, 7^ yards, 15 s . 4 d ; brode pucke 4 s . o d a yard ;
red frescadow 2 s . o d ; mockadow black redd I s . 6 d or is. j& ;
single mockadow is. id mockadow blew & browne ;
red borato (double mockadow) 2 s . 2 d ; red chameltt 4 s . 6 d ;
purpel chamlet 45. 6 d ; b. & browne chamlett, 9 yards,
26*. 6 d ; whit carseye in remblands ; checker remblands ;
f ustion is. id ; whit holme fustion, I s i d ; blacke rashe 2 s . 4 d .
212
CHAPTER IV
THE LORDS OF RYDAL
1483, Fleming and Whit field joint owners of Rydal Manor ;
Marriage agreement between Johan daughter of Hugh
Fleming and Lancelot Lowther ; William Grandson of
Hugh becomes Lord of Beckermet, Coniston, and
Rydal ; Buys the Whit field share of the manor, 1570 /
Dies 1600 ; His widow [Agnes Bindlosse] survives him
33 years ; Appendix I. Settlement between John
Fleming and his stepmother, A.D. 1484 ; Appendix II.
Agreement [Lat. and Eng.] between John Benson
and John Fleming for sale of freehold ; Appendix III.
Letters from Mrs. Agnes Fleming and W. Tyson to
John Fleming, A.D. 1631, Bainrigg, 1485.
*" I A HERE is no reason to suppose that the ruling family
at Rydal interested themselves in the walk
industry that was growing to such large dimen-
sions in the valleys round them. Barons, knights, and
the smaller gentry did not concern themselves with
trade. Besides fighting, which often enough was their
profession, they served as commissioners of peace for
their county, as escheators who watched the king's
interest in the affairs of his tenants-in-chief, as receivers
if the king had manors in their neighbourhood, as assessors
for the subsidies, even as assessors of the wool which the
king claimed from each shire. Only with the sale of the
wool and with its production into cloth had they nothing
to do. They left these branches to freeholders and
customary tenants under them, who amassed capital and
finally land, and whose daughters they were many of them
willing to marry when the riches had been gained.*
It is true that the Flemings were a race of practical
* See Paston Letters.
THE LORDS OF RYDAL 213
men, and if their home estates did not keep them busy,
they looked abroad for other business. An agreement
exists, made out in 1482-3, between Dame Mabel Louthre
and her son Hugh, and John Fleming, son and heir of
John " of Ridale," whereby the latter leases the mill at
Newton for 21 years, at six marks a year, with a view
certainly of making a profit on the grinding of the corn.
But this was work done by deputy, and John would
sub-let the mill to a miller.
In 1483 too, John junior renewed the agreement made
by his father (John "senior") seven years before, with the
Whitfield family. By this, John Whitfield leased for his
lifetime his half of the manor of Rydal and Loughrigg to
John, junior, who in return was to pay 10 a year for it.
The deed was executed at Penrith.*
This John it must have been who in the next year is
spoken of by the aged widow of Thomas as " my beloved
in Christ," son of John now deceased ; and it was probably
the recent death of the latter that caused her to make
John of Coniston and John Uttyng, chaplain, her trustees.
But John, son of John of Rydal was doubtless her heir
as well as attorney, and probably came into her lands in
Rydal and Loughrigg soon after the date of the deed.
In 1485, he is found settling his disputes with his step-
mother, Anne Brought on, who had succeeded his own
mother Joan. Four arbitrators were called in for this
purpose, one being the parson of Windermere ; and Anne
and John were bound to accept their decision, under a
penalty of one hundred marks. This decision gave to
Anne the lands and houses in Claughton in Lonsdale
which she had held jointly with her husband, and also
a certain " tenement with appurtenances " in Coniston,
and the pasture of twenty lambs yearly on John's lands
there. This tenement, however, was in the occupation
* List of Rydall Writings, Sir D. Fleming.
214 RYBAL
of two men, Henry Benson and Richard Brokbanke,
and if they refused to evacuate quietly, Anne was not
allowed, for the space of six years and eighteen weeks
(perhaps the term of their lease) to turn them out ; she
was moreover to pay John 8s. 4d. a year for this dower-
house. But he was to give her yearly from Coniston
Park a buck, or a saure (see Appendix I. to this chapter).
John had now ended his long juniorship. He was
clearly a prosperous man, for in 1686 he added to his lands
by the purchase of " a freehold tenement with appur-
tenances called Bainrigg, outside the manor of Rydal. At
this transaction he came into contact with the rising cloth
trade ; for the John Benson who sold to him, kept appar-
ently the second tenement at Bainrigg and the walk-mill
on the river.*
He married Joan Lowther (her name was spelt also
Johan, Jennet, and Jane). In 1508, John Whitfield
apparently being dead, John renewed his lease, in con-
junction with his son and heir, Hugh, " of Rydale " for
the half of Rydal and Loughrigg with Robert Whitfield
and Robert's son, John. This time it was made out for
a hundred years and a day ; and in 1518, John Whitfield
acknowledges the receipt of 6, from John Fleming and
his heir Hugh, being " halfe their farme of y e Manor of
Loghrigg and Rydall." f This was an advance upon the
old rent, but we find Hugh paying only 5 half-yearly in
1544 and 1547.
How long John, "the beloved in Christ" to old Dame
Isabel of the de Lancasters, lived after 1518 is not known.
He was dead in 1538, when his wife was still living. He
is so persistently spoken of as being " of Rydal " that
we may suppose that he resided on the demesne, followin g
his father there and the relict of Sir Thomas. It may be
* See Appendix II.
t Sir D. F.'s List of Rydall Writings.
THE LORDS OF RYDAL 215
therefore, as the books assert, that he died at Rydal Hall,
and was buried at Grasmere.
His son Hugh, who married Joan or Jane, daughter of
Sir Richard Huddlesden of Millom, had probably resided
at Coniston during his lifetime, and continued there.
We find Hugh in 1538 drawing up an agreement of marriage
for his daughter Johan to Lancelot Lowther, by which
he undertakes to give the bride a dower of 100 marks
(66. 133. 4d.) to be paid at the parish church of Lowther,
presumably at the ceremony. He was also to provide
meat and drink for the same, and the license ; and for
the household of the young couple " Bedding and Inseygte
[furniture] as shall stand with his worship to give."*
Each party to pay for their own wedding apparel. An
obligation to carry out this deed exists at Rydal Hall,
signed by Hugh (Hew flemyng) of Coniston, and his son
and heir Anthony (an flemyng), dated May 30, 29 Hen.
VIII.
His heir, described as "of Ridall " had in 1533 been
mated with Elizabeth, daughter of William Hutton, of
Hutton in the Forest ; the marriage portion of the bride
being in this case six score pounds, of which the second
and last instalment was assigned to buy furniture for the
young couple, who were to live " o'th' fourths."
Hugh, who served the office of escheat or for Cumberland
and Westmorland in 1541, had more children than
Anthony and Joan. There was Thomas, who had business
faculties, for he became steward to William Parre,
Marquis of Northampton, the favourite of Henry VIII.,
and the last ruler at Kirby Kendal Castle, f Thomas
was styled " of Coniston, gentleman," and his descendants
were living at New Field in Sir Daniel's time.
* Sir D. F.'s List of Rydall Writings.
t Nicolson and Burn say that his brother David held this position ; but
Sir D. F. says that the great nobleman was the " master" of Thomas, as the
will of the latter proves.
2l6 RYDAL
Another of Hugh's children was David. He resided
at the Old Hall of Rydal, perhaps after his eldest brother,
Anthony's time, and came to have a vested interest in
the lands. He had six sons, two of whom will be men-
tioned later.
Hugh's heir Anthony, though he had time to marry
three wives, did not survive his father. His first wife,
the daughter of Jeffray Middleton, must have died im-
mediately. Perhaps Elizabeth Hutton did not live long,
for by her he had only his heir, William ; Thomas and
Charles of Wedderar in Lancashire were born of Jane,
daughter of John Rigmadon.
William therefore, on the death of old Hugh, became
lord of Beckermet, Coniston and Rydal. He was already
twenty-two on his grand-father's death, which happened
on June 8, 3 and 4 Philip and Mary,* and obtained the
livery of the lands he held in chief, in 1557 (June 25,
5, Philip and Mary).
With William record grows clear, and individual touches
of character begin to give interest to names. He came
early in life to power. Living through the times of
change, and unrest, when the shock of the Reformation
passed off into that short burst of national energy, of
literary and poetic power which characterized the age of
Elizabeth, he himself reflected the spirit of change and
of unlinking from immemorial custom ; and on his
death, forty-four years later, his lands and houses were
in a widely different state from when he inherited them.
He himself passed his life as a country gentleman, living
on his estates ; but some of his kinsmen were at the
heart of the national life, in the times when it throbbed
high. His cousin David, son of David of the Old Hall
in Rydal, was falconer to Queen Elizabeth, and must
therefore have been in close attendance at court. His
* Deed at Rydal Hall.
THE LORDS OF RYDAL 217
own son William, noted for his stature, was a sailor, and
is said by Sir Daniel to have been in the ship that first
sighted the Spanish Armada.* His elder sons were
educated at Jesus College, (Oxford ?), as a letter addressed
thence by his second, Thomas, in 1591 attests.
He was a man, according to West, of some magnificence
in the style of his living, and he is said to have re-built
Coniston Hall, which the heads of the family had, for
perhaps two generations, used as their chief residence.
The fine old block stands yet, little shorn of the ample
proportions he set it to ; and, before it was stripped of
its garnitures of oak, and its great hall was turned into
a barn, and other vandalisms done, it must have shown
as a fair lord's seat for the far northern parts of Furness.
The only letters of William that exist concern a great
entertainment " of worshipful friends and strangers," he
held in 1576, for which he craved the loan of silver plate
from his cousin William Lowther. A chalice sent excites
his interest, and he asks for the " patorne " belonging
to it. It has been suggested that this chalice and patten
may have been church plate, sold at the Reformation.
It is perhaps idle to conjecture the cause of this concourse
of friends and strangers. It comes, though near, yet too
long after the birth of his son and heir, which is given by
Sir Daniel Fleming as 1575, for it to be a christening
party. Was it a house warming? or had William
adhered to the now reformed church, and was it a secret
mass?
His first wife was Margaret, daughter of Sir J.
Lamplugh. By her he had three daughters only. The
eldest, Jane, married Richard Harrison of Martindale ;
and her sons came to have much to do with Rydal in its
stormy days.
* It is difficult to see how this could be, unless boys were placed as midship-
men at a very early age ; and according to Macaulay it was a merchant man.
See Macaulay 's Lays, The Armada.
2l8 RYDAL
His second marriage was productive of far greater
results. It made him the father of nine sons and daugh-
ters ; but more than that, it gave him a wife whose
shrewd temper and business faculty were the means of
building up the fortunes of the house through years of
widowhood. Agnes Bindlosse, indeed, was a great factor
in Rydal history ; and probably with her began that
hedging in of the Rydal statesman's rights, which caused
their early downfall. Her genius for management was
probably inherited ; for she was born of that new class of
gentry who had acquired their lands in the cloth trade.
Her father, Robert, had amassed wealth enough in the
days of Henry VIII. to purchase an estate at Helsington,
that passed to his son, Sir Robert. He dowered his
daughter Dorothy, who married Thomas Brathwaite, the
heir of the rich family of Ambleside fullers, with As-
thwaite Hall in Staveley*; and, though we do not know
exactly the sum he gave to Agnes, it was described in the
Indenture made on January n, 1571, between father
and husband (for Agnes was already William's wife) as a
" Competent Joynture ... in recompense of her do were "
[Copy of deed at Rydal Hall]. Agnes was indeed a
widow when she was married to the lord of Rydal ; and as
her first husband's name was Benson the only fact Sir
Daniel Fleming seemed to know about him, when he
drew up the family pedigree he was not improbably
connected with the cloth trade, as were all the wealthy
members of his clan.
It would be a mistake to ascribe to Agnes Bindlosse 's
shrewd sense, all the reforms which her husband made in
his property. It was before this marriage, which took
place apparently in 1574, that he set about that consolid-
ation of the Rydal manor, which no one before him had
attempted. The ownership of this manor, as it came
* Communicated by Mr. J. A. Martindale.
THE LORDS OF RYDAL 219
down to him, was confused and unsatisfactory. Only
half belonged to him, and even that half was not clear of
claims from his uncle's family. It was in 1569, according
to deeds of that year and the following, that he set about
the purchase of the half of the manor that had belonged
to the Whitfields. It was now in the hands of a certain
John Vaughan and his wife, Dame Ann Knewt.
They consented to part with it to William for the sum
of 400. This purchase should not be overlooked, as it
but balanced that sale of the Loughrigg portion of the
manor which later was so much begrudged by his descend-
ants, who tried to prove that he had unlawfully sold
entailed property. This sale was effected in 1575, at the
time of his agreement with his father-in-law, Robert
Bindlosse, and the fact that in that agreement he settled
only the lordship of Rydal upon his wife, shows that the
Loughrigg was already sold. The lordship of Loughrigg
or such portion as had descended from Roger de Lan-
castre, became by this transaction, as we have seen, the
property of Bensons, clothiers, who were resident there.
From this time William's interest seems to have turned
to Rydal, which he not only secured completely as a
lordship, but proceeded to lay out as a property that
would produce substantial returns, both as a manor and
a farming centre. There is no need to doubt Sir Daniel's
statement that it was William who killed off the deer, and
changed the park from a sequestered woodland devoted
to game, to plough-land and pasture. Two deeds exist
between him and his tenants. One of 1575, lets to
John Grigge
" the corn-mill of Rydal with orchards and garden neare adionynge
unto ther Capitall messuage of Rydall callid the olde hall and a
fishing for the sum of 8. 133. 4d. yearly."
a very respectable rent. In the following year he buys
from John Grigge and his son, probably a well-to-do man
220 RYDAL
connected with the cloth trade, who had emigrated from
his native village, a messuage and tenement in Rydal, of
the exceptionally high rent of 22s. yearly. This deed
was only executed a few months before John Grigge died,
as Squire William had next to covenant with his kin.
His uncle David, who had lived at the Old Hall, and who
had assisted him in securing the Whitfield half of the
manor in 1570, died in 1571, according to the Grasmere
register. His " Relict " Jane was still residing there
when William made this settlement on the new wife, and
she lived on till April, 1600. But already in 1582, Henry
Fleming, the son of David and Jane, called " gentleman,
of Kirby," agreed with his cousin William to part with
all claims in Rydal lands for the sum of 80. This finally
cleared the manor of Rydal, and left it entirely in the
hands of William and Agnes. William himself died on the
22nd, of June, 1600, and was buried in Grasmere Church,
on the 24th. Among his other gains was the advowson
of the ancient church of the valley, which he purchased
from Alan Bellingham, of Fawcet Forest, executor of
Marion Bellingham of Helsington in 1575,* and there
his body was laid, doubtless with all the state that had
belonged to his life. His widow survived him thirty-
three years, and of her doings as mistress of Rydal Hall
there is something to say (see Appendix III.).
APPENDIX I.
[January 17, This endenture made the xvij te daye of Januarie
2 Rich. III.]. in the 2 nd yere of the Regne of kyng Richard
A.D. 1484. the iij d witnesseth that where variannce and
discorde hase beyn hade and monet betwix
Anne, late the wyfe of John Flemyng, apon the tone parte, and
John Flemyng, son and heyre of the foresaide John, opon that
other partye, as wele for the ryght, title, and possession of all
suche landez and tenementez as the said Anne was Joyntly seaset
* See Grasmere, p. 66, by M. L. Armitt.
THE LORDS OF RYDAL 221
in with the forsaid John, hir husband, as of all other landes and
tenementez where-in the saide John, hir husband, was seaset at
any tyme aftre the Espouselse hade and made bytwyx the forsaid
John and hir, wherin the saide Anne claymes to haue hir dower :
Of all whiche variannce and discorde and ryght and title the
partyes aboue-said by mediacion of thaire frendes hase submytt
thayme to be bounden ayther partie to other with sufficiannt
persons with thayme in thaire seuerall obligacions of C markes
to obeye, perfourme and fulfill the ordinannce, deme, and awarde
of vs, Thomas Biggynges, person of Wynnandermere, William
Huddilston, person of Whityngton, Richard Newton, and John
Ambros : Whereopon we, takyng opon vs the office, charge and
busynes of Arbitroures in the premisses, has cald before vs bothe
the saide partyes and the right and title of bothe the said parties,
and also the chalangez and answares of thayme by vs wele
conseyuet and vnderstand and of thaire awen propre will and
agrement, ordeynes, demes, and awardes that the saide Anne,
late the wyfe of the forsaid John, the fader, occupye andreioyse* all
suche landes and tenementez, with thaire appurtenannce, in
Claghton in lonnes-dale, wherin she stode Joyntly seaset with the
said John, hir husband, to haue and to holde all the f orsaide landez
and tenementez, with thaire appurtenannce, to the said Anne
and to hir assignes for terme of hir life, withoute interrupcion,
lettyng, or distourbance of the forsaid John, the son, or any oyer
person or persons in his name, right, or title, or by his will,
procuryng, or assent, the remandre ouer aftre the decesse of the
saide Anne to the said John, the son, and to his heyres : Also we
ordayne, deme, and awarde that the saide Anne shall haue and
reioyse a Tenemente, with the appurtenannce, liyng in Conyngston,
nowe in the holdyng of Henry Benson and Richard Brokbanke,
duryng hir lyfe, with all the comoditez therto belongyng, paiyng
therfore yerely to the said John, the son, iiijs. i]d. at ij festez of
the yere, that is to saye, at Martynmesse and pentecoste by euyn
porcions, or within xl dayes aftre ayther of the saide festez :
Also wee ordeyne, deme, and awarde that the said Anne shall
haue xx i{ lambez euery yere grisset apon suche grounde as is
conuenyent for thayme of the said John, the son, duryng the space
of vij yeres, withoute any gyeste paiyng for thayme to the said
John : Providet alway that the said Anne, nor none other person
nor persons in hir name nor by hir title, put oute, interrupt, nor
lett the saide Henrie and Richard nowe beyng Tenanntez of the
* = enjoy.
222 RYDAL
tenemente abouesaid in the occupacion of the said Tenemente,
with the appurtenannce, duryng the space of vj yeres and xviij
wekes next folowyng the date oi this endenture, withoute she
maye agree with the said Henrie and Richard to avoide from the
occupacion of the saide tenemente of thaire awen voluntare will :
And if hit happyn the said Anne so to agree with the said Henrie
and Richard that thaye will of thaire awen voluntare will avoyde
from the occupacion of the saide Tenemente at any tyme within
the spacez of vj yeres and xviij wekes next f olowing the date of
thees presentes, Then we deme, ordeyne, and awarde that the
saide Anne shall take and remeve hir said xx** lambez oute of the
grisse of the said John, the son, in all gudely haste after the said
Henrie and Richard be remevet from the Tenemente afore saide :
Also we ordeyne, deme, and award that the said Anne shall make
a suffyciannt relesse and quiet clayme unto the said John, the
son, and to his heyres, of all hir ryght and title that sho hase in
any parcell of the lyfelode of the said John, the fader, by reason
ot his dower or of any other astate to hir made : Except suche
landes and Tenementez as beyn abou[e] specif yet within xl dayes
aftre sho be resonably requiret by the said John, the son, so to do :
Also we ordeyne, deme, and awarde the said John to giff yerely
vnto the said Anne duryng hir lyve a Bukke or a saure oute of
Conynston Parke in the (greatest ?) hast possible aftre he be
requiret so to do : Also we awarde the gressun of the tenemente
above saide to rest still opon vs the forsaide Arbitroures to be
demeanet hereaftre as vs thynk best. In wittenes where-of to
theis presente endentures [we] haue set oure scales, giffen the
daye and the yere aboue saide.
[Red wax seals gone].
[Late endorsement].
APPENDIX II.
(1486) DEED AT RYDAL HALL. Bainrigg. Benson.
[July 12, Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego, Johannes
i Hen. VII.]. Benson de Grismar, senior, dedi, concessi, et
A.D. 1485. hac present! carta mea confirmavi Johanni
Flemyng de Ridale, armigero, virum tenemen-
tum, cum pertinencijs, in Grismar predicta vulgariter vocatum
Baynryg. Habendum et tenendum predictum tenementum, cum
omnibus suis pertinencijs, prefato Johanni Flemyng, heredibus
et assignatis suis, de capitalibus dominis feodi illius per seruicia
THE LORDS OF RYDAL 223
inde debita et de iure consueta imperpetuum. Et ego, vero,
predictum tenementum, cum omnibus suis pertinencijs, prefato
Johanni Flemyng, heredibus et assignatis suis, contra omnes
gentes warantizabimus et imperpetuum defendemus. In cuius
rei testimonium huic presenti carte mee sigillum meum apposui.
Hijs testibus, Waltero Flemyng, Jacobo Chamer, capellano,
Roberto Girrig, et alijs. Datum duodecimo die Julij anno regni
regis Henrici septimi post conquestum Anglie primo.
[Broken red wax seal with the letter " R " on it. Late
endorsement].
(1486) [TRANSLATION].
July 12, Know both present and to come that I, John
i Hen. VII. Benson of Grismar, senior, have given, granted,
and by this my present charter confirmed to
John Flemyng of Ridale, esquire, a tenement, with appurtenances,
in Grismar aforesaid commonly called Baynryg. To have and
to hold the aforesaid tenement, with all its appurtenances, to the
aforesaid John Flemyng, his heirs and assigns, of the chief lords
of that fee by service therefor due and of right accustomed for
ever. And I, the aforesaid John Benson, and my heirs will
warrant and for ever defend against all people the aforesaid
tenement, with all its appurtenances, to the aforesaid John Flem-
yng, his heirs and assigns. In witness whereof to this my present
charter I have affixed my seal. These being witnesses, Walter
Flemyng, James Chamer, chaplain, Robert Girrig, and others.
Given on the twelfth day of July in the first year of the reign of
King Henry VII. after the Conquest of England.
APPENDIX III.
LETTERS FROM MRS. AGNES FLEMING AND W. TYSON.
To her verie loveing sonne John Fleminge esq. at Speake these.
Sonne Fleminge these are to let you understand that you r
husbandrie goes not so well forward as I could wish it, for all I
can do is but talke to tysonn whom I do daielie as hard as I can
but for all my talke I feare we are behind w th the worke & that
you will f ynd it so when you come, for he hath so manie busines of
his owne & other mens, that he cannot both looke to his owne
& you r s, & further for all that I can do I cannot get the grounds
set frith (?), but if he will not cause them be done shortlie I will
make it be done & cause some other to do it ; we have great want
of you heare, & that I doubt you will fynd so when you come, so
224 RYDAL
as I could wish you if you can by anie means and that it wilbe
noe great hinderance & losse unto you & that you could get good
securite to get you done in anie indifferent time to make an end
before you come, or els Resolve to take some good Course w th
all you 1 grounds & busines heare, & take you r barnes w th you if you
can have thinges there w th quietness & content otherwise not to
trouble you r self e as for all you r barnes praysed be god they are all
well & comes forward well ; my ladie is well also & takes what
cheare as can be gotten & is verie well content therew tb : M ris
Elsabeth I doubt thought much at you that you writt not 2
wordes unto hir, who is. a verie good gentlewooman & loves you r
barnes well ; so as I tould hir it was but you r forgetlulmes, &
that there was noe such matter as you thought much at hir for
anie thinges. I my selfe am verie weake & ill so as I am like to
be gone before Easter then otherwise but so longe as my health
will serve I shall talke hard to tysonne that thinges maie be
plyed & set forward w th all speed possible ; tyson is Resolved &
doth purpose to buy xx tie bushell of seed otes & doth confesse
there is enough of ou r owne that would serve, & neare as good as
he can buy anie, but that you wished him to buy some for a
change, so as if he buy some there wilbe more to make into malt.
-you 1 shepe good be thanked scay(p?)ed well both heare & at
Conistone, & you r chattell in verie good order & I do talke hard
unto him to haue a speciall care that there be not want of f other
& that there be noe waist maid nor moe horses kept in the house
then is needf ull & he saith there wilbe noe want ; but I doubt it ;
for wood gettinge it was never in this order in my time, though it
was ill enough before, for the fishinge of brathey unlesse you get
a warrant for the mentenance of it w tb wood you nor I can make
either Pmt by kepeninge or lettinge of it ; f ui ther I will talke &
give my Ladie a little touch (?) to looke a little into thinges as
well as I in Regard it concerns hirs ; Thus haveinge manie other
matters to write of unto you, but I would not trouble you in
Regard this bearer can Relaite them unto you w th gods blessinge
& myne & my prayers unto almightie god to bless you once more
wishinge you to Resolve if you can to (give) your mynd to make
an end w tb you r busines in that cuntrie or els to staie heare I rest :
your Loveinge mother, Agnas Fleming.
[William Tyson, agent and bailiff for John Fleming, Esq. at
Speke, Lancaster] dated May 3, 1631. After much detail of
business with tenants and tithes, &c.].
. ..." I doe all I can to give yo r mother Content & haue
THE LORDS OF RYDAL 225
giuen this dale a book of all pticulers rec: & disb: & she shall doe
or haue [any ?] thinge eles to laie quiete, for unquietnes blendes
my braine & vexes me more then all yo r business " [Weather dry,
" chattels " dear, and his own stringency towards Squire John's
refractory tithe-payers and tenants commented on, &c.]. " I doe
earnestlie desire your despatch in Lane, that you might Hue at
home, for I neu er quietlie when yo u are awaie." ... "I pray
yo a (if yo u goe to London or Yorke) remember you r neighbo r s
that are proud & willfull & doe not forget it for heare will be
nothinge but extremitie & the homes of an unrulie bull must be
Cutt." [His master need take no care, as the writer will look to
things] " neither neede you loose 3" 4 d by Rydall more then if
you weare heare."
May 1631 RYDAL HALL MSS. Mrs. Agnes Fleming
143 of His MS. Com.
Sonne Fleminge I se into this world everie daie more and more
that it is nothinge but trouble & in Regard thereof I would advise
you to consider well w th you r selfe, that if you purpose to staie
anie longe time out of this cuntrie, to inquire & cast aboute to
provide betwixt now and michaellmas for some honest farmers
who would take it & give a good rente for it for I knowe that
who soeu er hath there worke done by servants beinge from them
themselfe, unlette is bo th at great Charges & Losse & there worke
& busines neglecked unlesse they had one that would be bo tk
up earlie & laite, & follow them to there worke w ch I knowe you
haue not you rs so done, so as it were you r onlie way to let all by a
Rente, in Regard you r mynd & desire is to luive quietlie & hath
noe desire to trouble you r head w th wordlie busines, w ch rente
would come in easilie w th out anie charge or trouble of mynd unto
you for although you Let it to an honest man that would kepe up
houses & hedges & woods although you Lost a little by it, & let
him have it at that raite that he might Liue of, yet it would be a
great ease unto you : you r worke heare goes forward, but it is
of the easieth fashon as this bearer can tell you but this daie there
are begun to sowe bige, nothinge is sett downe as you wished tyson
to do either for what is, laid out or Receiued not as yet neather
can I get it done, but you are like to f ynd it as you Left it for he
hath so manie thinges in hand what of his owne & you rs that he
cannot do everie thinge : when you haue settled you r barnes at
Speake w th you, w ch I pray god to send them well unto you, I
could wish you to take a time & come over hitther so shortlie
after as you can conveanientlie to sette all you 1 thinges heare,
Q
226 RYDAL
for I feele my self e but weak & ill, so as I could wish to see them
setled in my time & further I thinke if you purpose to come backe
againe, it were a fitt place for you to luive at Urswicke where
you might luive bo th quietlie & neare market & you r frinds wc h
if you should haue a mynd to do then you must cast to mend
houses, Willm Ambrose was w th Richard Barwis and toke the
writings sealed for me w ch he will make you acquainted w th all,
but it is agreed so that if the writinges be not to you r Likeinge
he will mend them when I please, so as you maie talke w th him
of it as you thinke fittinge : Tho. Fleminge sends you a note of
such wronges as you suffer at conistone w ch by you r sufferance
bo tb bringes losse unto you r selfe & you r goodes : & makes them
the tenantes p re sume much upon you now in you r absence : of wch
thinges I would desire you to consider & of all other matters that
this bearer can tell you & do not driue you r thinges but set them
in order : Thus & prayinge to almightie god to bo th blesse you
& you r Children & to send them well unto you & they well to
Like, hopeinge to se you as shortlie as conveanentlie as you can
I rest
Rydall 3] may 1631. You* Loveinge mother,
Agnas Fleminge.
CHAPTER V
THE LORD'S SEAT.
The Logge ; The Old Hall at Rydal ; Its birth and its
passing; Appendix Sir Daniel's alterations in the
Low Park.
BEFORE touching on the new state of husbandry
it is necessary to consider the position of that
" capital messuage " or Hall, which formed the
centre of the demesne. Such a messuage existed, un-
doubtedly, from the time of Roger de Lancastre who so
strictly defined the boundaries of his deer park, amongst
which " Roger loge " is indeed mentioned, a term
probably signifying a hunting lodge such as was usually
erected for the lord's convenience in forests or parks
THE LORD'S SEAT 227
devoted to deer.* It would be a small rough structure
built of wood, as were the peles and lodges of this period.
Sir Roger had larger manors and halls for residence,
notably Howgill Castle which remained the chief seat of
his race, and Witherslack, where he was in residence with
his chaplain at the time of the signing of the foregoing
document. Therefore, it would be but a knight's chamber
with a larger room called a hall, which Roger would reserve
for himself when he pursued the deer over the mountain,
or rode more quietly by the Hunter Path from Scandale,
Caistone and Patterdale, while accommodation for his
men, his foresters, his hounds and his hawks would be
wanted.
We know fairly well from contemporary evidence
what such a lodge would be like. It would not be so
spacious as the king's lodges indeed, one at least of
which must have been in Roger's care while he was
Keeper of Inglewood, and another of which, built in
1285, in Woolmer Forest consisted of a " camera " or
chamber, with chimneys and six windows of glass, a hall
of wood, plastered and painted, with wooden shutters,
a kitchen, two wardrobes, and a queen's garden.
(Medieval England, by Mary Bateson).
But a copy of these on a small scale it would be ; built
of oaks of the surrounding forest, split into stout logs.
Defensible also it would be made, and though in a slighter
degree than the peles of the border, constructed by
Edward I. to hold his conquest, yet suitable for rough
times when marauders and deer-stealers were rife, and
when it was often an advantage to be able swiftly to
drive the cattle of the demesne and even of the little mil
into the ringed palisade about the lodge, and bar the
entrance. Such palisaded places, the first peles of the
* In the Cal. Pat. Rolls of Richard II., the king's "keeper of the Laund"
is authorized to enclose 10 acres of Inglewood Forest and "to build a Logge
thereon."
228 RYDAL
north built on^a mound or rock,* were surrounded by a
deep ditch and fosse, which made their defence the
easier.
We find the word loge in use as late as 1462, when an
attack of the Duke of Suffolk's men on Hellesdon a
small manor claimed by the Paston family, on which the
lord did not reside is described in the Paston Letters. f
In this account, the pulling down of the logge is several
times mentioned, with the aggravating circumstance
that the tenants of the manor were compelled by the
duke's men " to help to brek down the wallys of the place
and the logge both " ; showing that this building, which
served as a manorial centre and lodging, was defended
by a wall.
Where then was Roger's lodge in Rydal ? where he
rested after a hard day's hunt, and listened to complaints
from his parker, of broken fence or stolen deer ; or heard
the report of his bailiff, and received the dues from the
sturdy townsmen now his tenants whose houses were
pitched on the ground outside his new park. There is
nothing conclusively to show. His fence, indeed, is
stated to have run down from the upper part of the park
towards Roger loge. It may possibly have stood on the
confines of Rydal, within Scandale Beck, where later the
close called Sturdy Park was found, and a seventeenth
century mention of a mill occurs, { and where the modern
lodge stands for the new hall-drive.
Or it may have been placed on that rock by the ford
which in later times, at all events, carried a building
known as the Old Hall. This rock, situated as it is,
directly on the line of the Roman road, where this enters
* See Pele : its origin and meaning, by Mr. George Neilson. The work of
repair at Liddell, in Cumberland, in 1300, included the strengthening of the pele
and palisades, and making " lodges " within the mound, in which to house the
men.
t Nos. 615, 616, and 617 of Prof. Gardiner's edition.
J Account Book of 163.
THE LORD'S SEAT 229
the gateway into the mountains, and a natural fortress
in the midst of running waters and morasses, may have
served as a military post, used in times of warfare and
by invading armies, and afterwards abandoned. That
some chapel or sacred building once stood upon it seems
almost certain, from its early name of St. John How,
which happily is found in one document. Such a
structure may have been erected by the Northumbrian
Church in connection with the perils of the ford, which
in times of winter rain must have been great.
The chapel again may have fallen into ruin before the
manor-house was placed on the rock. There is in sites
an extraordinary continuity ; and besides, an easily
defended one was probably still needed when the lord
of Rydal pitched his seat on this steep and narrow how.
The manor-house, with all its accessories that grew upon
and round it, as the once wild deer-forest passed
into demesne, could hardly, at any time, have been a
" mansio " in the most extended sense, serving as the
administrative centre to a large district, such as the
one mentioned as being in decay six centuries ago on
the great island of Windermere, or as Mourholm, near
Carnforth, the seat of the Lindeseys and de Coucys,
who were lords of half of Loughrigg. This last is
described as containing, in 1347,* one na ^ with one
great chamber, one kitchen, one chamber for knights,
one chapel, two granges, one turf-house, one car-
penter's house, one house for dogs, one stable, one
dove-cote, one smithy, and a garden outside with its
fruits. At Dufton, in Westmorland in 1323,! there stood
within the court of the manor a great chamber or hall, a
* Inq. p. m. No. 63 (2 Nos.) 20 Ed. III.
t Cal. of Close Rolls. It is interesting to note, in connection with the
minute divisions of the age, that the lady Alicia had assigned to her in dower
a share of the various chambers. In another place the widow is to enjoy
one third of the dove-cote.
230 RYDAL
chapel, with a little chamber between them, a bake-house
and barns ; and an orchard without.
Yet most of these accessories can be traced, as well as
the usual fish-ponds, about the now deserted rock of
Old Hall, or St. John. The little chamber, indeed,
where in a stately household the ladies were wont to
retire, may not have been represented here ; nor is it
likely that the customary chapel would be maintained,
while the lords were only rarely, and for short times, in
residence. But the great hall the living and eating
room for master and servants the dog-house, the stable,
the smithy, the dove-cote, where the tame prolific birds
were kept on which to feed the caged hawks and some-
times to be used for the table, were certain fixtures. Also
the " knight's chamber," an invariable adjunct, that
seems to have served as a guest-house for travellers
of rank or distinction : for the manor-house was in a
measure a hospice, and no wanderer could be denied
shelter who knocked at the court-gate, which was barred
by sunset. It is often mentioned.* We have seen that
John Whit field, when making his compact with John
Fleming, in 1475, as part owner of Rydal, stipulated that
he might have " a knight chamber," doubtless for his own
use while he exercised his " freedom to hawke, hunt,
fisch, and fowle within the lordeschip."
* There was one in the Fawsett manor-court in 1272-3, with an upper cham-
ber or soler [see A Norfolk Manor, by Miss Davenport] ; while as late as 1639,
the " knight Chamber " is mentioned in the inventory, whereas it was appar-
ently only one of the apartments of Skerwith Hall, Westmorland. Rydall MSS.
Sometimes the apartment was a source of profit to the lord. The Inquisition
of John de Belleme in 1301, concerning his possessions in Kentmere, states
(after mention of other assets) " There is a chamber together with a fulling-
mill, which renders one mark yearly. Lancashire Inquests, Extents, &c.,
W. Farrer.
The Ancient State of the Border, by Nicolson and Burn, p. liy, Feb., 1547,
thus describes an attack of a party under Lord Wharton, on the laird Johnston's
chief house in Annerdale. " It was a fair large tower, .... with a barnekin,
hall, kitchen, and stables, all within the barnekin. They get over the
barnekin wall in dark, and stole into the " house," where only women were
sleeping, 2 men and a woman slept in the tower, wh was secured by both an
iron and a wooden door. In the " house " plenty of beef salted, malt,
barley, havermeal, butter and cheese.."
THE LORD'S SEAT 231
Not all the manorial buildings could be found room for
upon the narrow rock. Solid ground about it was
gained by drainage. A deep cutting circling round it to
the beck and river achieved that object, and formed
a moat, filled not only with ooze from the morass, but
also by the sikes that flowed down the steep sides of the
upper park into this cup-like hollow. It is difficult,
indeed, to realize what must have been the watery state
of this catch-ground in ancient times. Besides the
morass where beck and river met, with its islands and
its " allows," (hollows) dangerous ground till late times,
there were also stagnant pools and wet places to the south-
east. Indeed we have the names of Great and Little
Island in the park where now no water shows. " Midge-
mire " still lives in memory, showing now as only a
well-marked depression by the side of the drive, where
running water may be heard in the paved channels
(called cundreths by the people) made below the sod to
carry it off. A circular depression between Rydal How
and Silver Hill still shows traces of a retaining wall about
its reaches ; and a fragment of a building is remembered
by it. This doubtless was one of the fish-ponds stated
by Nicolson and Burn to be still traceable.* And though
artificial fish-ponds might be supposed to be superfluous
where the river and its chain of " dubs " was teeming with
fish, it must be remembered that the de Lancasters had
originally no rights in the river or the mere (see Fisheries) ,
and that it was convenient to keep the fish which formed
so great an article of diet ready at hand, almost within
the defences of the manor-house.
The drainage from these depressions is now conducted
underground in a curved line, which circles round Old
Hall at a short distance away from the rock. It flows
beneath the high-road where in flood times it may be
* Is it possible that one of these pools may have been the one commemorated
in Wordsworth's poem, which Professor Knight has sought for in vain ?
232 RYDAL
heard roaring and enters the river close to its uniou
with the beck. This curve may represent the actual line
of the old moat, which was much more evident according
to a former woodman before certain alterations were made
in the level of the park some years back. The old cause-
way, re-paved by Sir Daniel in 1686, came down past the
rock to the ford at the same point. On the other side of
the causeway, the present double line of sunk wall may
represent the line of the old moat and the limits of the
demesne to the west", being, no doubt, a later improvement
of Sir Daniel's double ditch constructed for drainage in
1682. Beyond, a long low mound, possibly artificial, or
once carrying palisades, defines the limit of the outer
defences as far as the rising ground of Low Park How ;
and completes the circle of the manor-house's precincts,
enclosing the garden with its fruit-trees, now a cricket
ground and field, but still known as Old Orchard. The
position of the former lord's brewery may be guessed from
the name Kiln-How, applied to the knoll rising from the
bridge over Rydal Beck. This bridge is locally known
as Smithy Bridge, and here a fragment of building is
still remembered. The history of the smithy is clear,
though the last smith to use it was Adam Fisher, who
died in old age in 1660, and was himself connected with
the clearing of the Old Hall ; it was afterwards used as a
little dwelling-house.
Lord's Oak, a tree now in decrepitude, and never
seemingly of phenomenal size, stands not far off.
Here then once stood, on St. John How and round
about it, the group of buildings that once served as the
capital messuage or " mansio " of Rydal. Whenever it
was planted, or by how many of the de Lancasters it was
used, it must certainly have been under its hall-roof that
the youthful couple, Thomas and Isabel, were placed
when their " nonage " was past, and they began house-
keeping together, it was within its walls that they had
THE LORD'S SEAT 233
leave to drive the cattle of the father from Coniston, if
he should not promptly supply them with the stipulated
income. In those turbulent times, when the small
gentry of Westmorland (and notably Isabel's family)
made petty warfare on each other, unrestrained by a
distant and weak government, it no doubt played its
part in strife as well as in peace. We know, indeed, that
Rydal cattle claimed by Isabel's sister were forcibly
driven off by her enemies. Probably by this time the
hall on the rock came to be built as a high, strong tower
of several stories, like the so-called " peles " that sprang
up about this date, newly constructed on old sites, on
almost every lord's seat of the border counties, and of
the district round the great bay. Isabel, in spite of other
claimants, kept, till near the end of the fifteenth century,
her hold upon the place ; and from the frequent mention
of John " of Ridale," and of John's son, John her beloved,
of the same place, we may conclude that they were at
least sometimes resident here. Hugh, John's son, who
lived a long life at Coniston, allowed a younger son of his,
David, to take up his abode in the hall of Rydal, and even
granted him, it seems, some possession in its lands.
David here brought up a large family of six sons ; and
the younger, David, afterwards to have charge of the
queen's falcons, must as a lad have scaled the heights
round and above the park, seeking the hawk's nests and
bringing down the young birds to nourish and train.
Earne Crag would still have its brood every year, no
doubt. Jane, the elder David's widow, lived on in Rydal
as we have seen twenty-five years after the date (1575),
when the place is called the Old Hall in a deed of Squire
William, who was then engaged in consolidating his
interests in Rydal, and eighteen years after her eldest
son Henry parted with his rights in lands thereabouts.
When she died in 1600, the building and its accessories
were probably dilapidated. Agnes, who in the same
234 RYDAL
year became, by the death of her husband, squiress of
Rydal, had certainly already with him made their home
in the present Rydal Hall, probably then known as
Rydal House. The old one was deserted, and the flat
ground round the rock was marked out as " closes " to
fit into the new scheme of husbandry.
A casual mention here and there tells us the fate of the
ancient " lodge " and manor-house. It was probably left,
getting more ruinous, its buildings being used for agri-
cultural purposes only, through the era of the Civil Wars
and the Commonwealth. Sir Daniel, on wresting the
property from his opponents in 1557, clearly found nothing
of the Old Hall worth repairing. He began, indeed, to
demolish what of it still stood. The demesne corn-barn,
built no doubt when the Low Park was " set " as a farm,
beyond the line of old defences, and repaired in 1643, was
in need of enlargement ; so, economical of stone and
labour, he set old Adam Fisher, of the Smithy hard by,
to " trail " the stones doubtless on a small sled from
the ancient manor-house and across the flat to the barn,
where the wallers were busy. In the autumn of the same
year, 1659, ne to k m a mare of " Thomas Benson's, of
Coat How," to graze " in the close call d ould hall," at
is. 4d. ; and next year he let off entirely to his tenant,
David Harrison, the " little close called the ould hall."
From that time it became only grazing ground for cattle,
regularly let to tenants. But still, apparently, the knoll
was crowned with fragments of buildings, for Nicolson
and Burn wrote, in 1777 :
" Upon the top of a round hill . . . was anciently placed the
manor-house or hall near to the said Low-park. But upon the
building of the other hall . . . the said manor-house became
ruinous . . . where is now to be seen nothing but the ruins of
buildings, walks, and fish ponds ; and the place where the orchard
was, is now a large inclosure without even a fruit-tree in it, now
called the Old Orchard."
THE LORD'S SEAT 235
Its stones were again to be of use. When it became
the fashion to remove the farm buildings of the demesne
from their immediate association with the squire's hall,
and Sir Michael le Fleming, a lover of London, let the
demesne farm, a house for the farmer was erected in the
Low Park, hard by the old corn barn. This must have
been done between 1847, when the plans of the house
were paid for, and 1850, when Edward Fidler, farmer,
was in possession. Old inhabitants say that the last
stones of the ancient hall were at that time cleared for
the farm building, and it was doubtless then that the
quern or hand-mill for grinding corn was turned up.
This was placed in the rockery of the Vicarage, but has
now unfortunately disappeared. The farm, once called
Fidlers, and afterwards Crow How, and then Rydal Farm,
was greatly enlarged lately, when the ancient barn
called Birkets, on the other side the Old Hall, but beyond
its precincts, that had become useless as a hoghouse, was
completely cleared for its stones. This illustrates the
mode of the country, which demolishes all old buildings
for present use, even in a day when blasting is easy, and
leaves no record of the past but, possibly, a name and a
bare site.
Superstitious terror, indeed, kept the memory of the
Old Hall alive through many generations. Stories sprang
up to explain its abandonment ; and the deserted rock,
crowned with its pile of ruins, struck awe into the heart
of the traveller who after dark passed it on his road to
Rydal. Strange sounds, strange sights, pervaded it by
night. Wailing voices, as of spirits in distress ; headless
ghosts (three in number), that danced upon its summit ;
and later, a white dog that followed the terrified pas-
senger across the Old Orchard, even, it is believed, to the
middle of last century. No one now living owns to having
seen the white dog, but old men and women confess to
having often in childhood, laid their ear to the road-wall
236 RYDAL
that leans against the How, and to thinking that they
heard, while they listened in breathless expectation,
strange muffled sounds issuing from its depths the
" dirge-like note from inmost chambers far remote."
Such stories, current once amongst the village folk who
still adhere to the tradition of a buried treasure at the
Old Hall, and of an underground passage from it to the
New Hall found echo in verse. " The Shield of Flan-
drensis " * embodies in rhyme along with a good deal
of pure fiction the legend of the strange sounds, and of
the spirits
" That pipe as they whirl around lattice and gate.
With their grey gaunt misty forms : "
Wordsworth did better. In a note to one of his
Duddon sonnets, he speaks of the haunted character the
place had obtained, to which its desertion was ascribed ;
and the sonnet above expresses the feelings excited by
such a site, desolate after many centuries of stirring
history.
" There dwelt the gay, the beautiful, the bold ;
Till nightly lamentations, like the sweep
Of winds though winds were silent struck a deep
And lasting terror through that ancient hold ;
Its line of warriors fled "
It is possible to guess a rational explanation for the
" lamentations, like the sweep of winds," and even for
the mysterious white forms seen by night about the how.
Its situation is directly in the road of the peculiar current
of air that, from the very summit of Fairfield, charges
down Rydal Head with frequency, and often at a high
rate of speed. Blasts strike across the Old Orchard
when there is comparative stillness on either side the
encircling hollows of the how. Then white close mists
* Lays and Legends of the English Lake Country, J. P. White.
THE LORD'S SEAT 237
are apt, even yet, after centuries of draining, to rise and
cling at night-fall (and in mid-summer too) to the flat
fields and hollows round the Old Hall. These, if stirred
and broken by a current of air from the Head might
assume curious shapes, that would be readily distinguished
and described as ghosts by the heated imagination of the
rustic.
But all this is past. Almost the name of the how,
Old Hall Hill, is forgotten, as the earlier St. John How
was, long before. The present Rydal child gives it not a
thought in passing. The modern cricketers and tennis
players, whose pavilion leans on one side of it, have not a
notion of its past ; while the tourists who upon every kind
of vehicle cycle, motor, coach and carriage roll in
hundreds along the highway on the other side, scarcely
note its existence as a picturesque mound.
Yet there the rock stands, beautiful, wooded, fir-crowned.
Few, indeed, who climb its steep slope and view the
exquisite scene around of curving river and mountain
gateway could guess its ancient state. The nettles
that grow on the shale of the summit, the few rooks that
build in its crowning firs, are the only things about it
reminiscent of man. After a thousand years and more,
and the centuries through which it played a stirring part
in the history of the valley, it has become a thing of
nature's solely.
In connection with the alterations at the Hall, a new road
was designed up Hall Bank. The tenants, whose estates
lay on one side, were clearly alarmed lest their " fronts
before door," as the expression went, should be encroached
upon. On December 25, 1782, Gibson writes, " Mr. Knott
and the tenants came here some time since and have
Staked out the Hall Bank (he said as you Directed) but
neither Mr. Harrison (the steward) nor I tho* it prudent
to hold a Court, nor meddle with it, till you be present
and see it."
238 RYDAL
Next April, he reports that he had had " Two Course
Ash Trees opposite to James Dawson's & one large one
above Ja 8 Atkinson, which stood where the R d (up Hall
Bank) will be if Shifted, Grubbed up ; the last of which I
hope may be sold very well."
When Mr. Knott sold High House (Rydal Mount) to
Mr. North, the new-comer was prepared to contest his
rights of timber with the lady of the manor. Of the sorry
" Battle of the Woodlands," as it may be called, we are
apprized by a letter of Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of the
poet.
[From Letters of the Wordsworth Family, ed. by Professor
Knight. Letter cxcix.]
Dorothy Wordsworth to Thomas De Quincey.
Grasmere, Saturday, 6 th May, 1804.
.... You have walked to Rydale under Nab Scar ? Surely
you have ? If not, it will be forever to be regretted, as there is not
anywhere in this country such a scene of ancient trees & rocks as
you might have there beheld trees of centuries growth inrooted
among & overhanging the mighty crags. These trees you would
have thought could have had no enemy to contend with but the
mountain winds, for they seemed to set all human avarice at
defiance ; & indeed if the owners had had no other passion but
avarice they might have remained till the last stump was moulder-
ed away, but malice has done the work, & the trees are levelled.
A hundred labourers more or less men, women, & children,
have been employed for more than a week in hewing, peeling
bark, gathering sticks &c., &c., & the mountain echoes with the
riotous sound of their voices. You must know that these trees
upon Nab Scar grow on unenclosed ground, & M r North claims
the right of lopping & topping them, a right which Lady Fleming
as Lady of the Manor claims also. Now M r North allows (with
everybody else) that she has the right to fell the trees themselves,
& he only claims the boughs. Accordingly he sent one or two
workmen to top some of the trees on Nab Scar; Lady F.'s
steward forbade him to go on ; & in consequence he offered ^5
per day to any labourers who would go & work for him. At the
same time Lady F.'s steward procured all the labourers he could
also at great wages, & the opposite parties have had a sort of
THE LORD'S SEAT 239
warfare upon the crags ; M r North's men seizing the finest trees
to lop off the branches, & drag them upon M r N.'s ground, &
Lady Fleming's men being also in an equal hurry to choose the
very finest, which they felled with the branches on their heads,
to prevent M r N. from getting them ; &, not content with this,
they fell those also which M r N. has been beforehand with them
in lopping, to prevent him from receiving any benefit from them
in future. Oh, my dear Friend ! is not this an impious strife ?
Can we call it by a milder name ? I cannot express how deeply
we have been affected by the loss of the trees (many & many a
happy hour we passed under their shade), but we have been
more troubled to think that such wicked passions should have
been let loose among them. The profits of the wood will not pay
the expenses of the workmen on either side ! !
A law-suit will no doubt be the consequence, & I hope that
both parties will have to pay severely for their folly, malice, &
other bad feelings. M r North is a native of Liverpool. I daresay
you may have often heard us mention him as a man hated by
all his neighbours, M r N. has taken an active part in the business,
APPENDIX.
SIR DANIEL'S ALTERATIONS IN THE Low PARK.
1631 12 s o<* paid for " Gutteringe " by Sturdy Park.
1658 " Sold unto Will. Holme out of y e wood of y e Low parke
barne for y e sum of . . . . . . oo. 06. oo
,, Rich. Nicoldson buys 3 little trees and in Keen Ridding.
1658 Feb. 24. " Paid unto Adam Fisher ( besides 3 s 4 d allowed
him in his fine) for 24 days gardening, making hedge in y e
Low parke ; & cutting of Briers, being all now due unto
him . . . . . . . . . . . . oo. 08. oo
1657 May 21. " Paid unto Adam Fisher for 14 dayes worke
in coaling a Pitt." oo. 07. 02
1658 May 8. Adam is paid for 5 days work " i'th' Round Close
Gutters."
March 28. Adam is paid for n days work in the new
orchard and garden, and one day carrying lime and rubbish.
After another payment for twelve days.
May 2. " Paid unto Adam Fisher for one dayes worke in
y e garden, 5 dayes in traleing stones at y e old hall, one
dayes worke w h hee's yet to doe, & 2 d I owed him since my
last paying him being all now due . . . . oo. 02. 06
240 RYDAL
June 22. " Old Adam " paid for io| days work "at y e
old hall in traleing of stones."
1659 May 7. Two wrights begin to fell wood for " y e Low-parke
barne."
June 14. Contract made for " walling " same at i8 s p.
Rood.
June 29. Four pounds is paid for 4^ roods " for walling "
of y e Low-par ke-barne " besides 16 yards of old wall
which was not medled withall."
July 9. The wright is paid ^2.12.6. for the woodwork of
the barn.
July 1 6. Grigg has " more paid him for a dayes getting
of Stones at y e Low-hall," and 12 s . 6 d more paid him for
50 Load of Slate getting for y e Low parke barne."
1667 April 2. " Paid to a Dyker in y e round close 15 dayes
at 4 d . . . . . . . . . . . . oo. 05. oo
1677 June 18. " y e Birket-barne is repaired for the second time.
1680 March 31. Wil. Wilson is paid 53. od. for " guttering of
y e Round Close, viz. for 56 Rodes of old at o* (=|d.) and
31 of new at i d , at 7 yards y e Rode."
1682 March 4. " Paid unto Will. Harrison of Langdale for
Ditching between y e old Orchard & Birket-moss ( a Double
Ditch at 6 per Rood) being 38 Rood, y e sum of
oo. 1 8. oo
1686 March 9. "I* to Edward Hird of Gresmere for 5 dayes in
paveing y e Cawsey in Birket-moss I s 8 d , to Robert Hawke-
rigg 4 dayes for y e like I s 4 d , in all " . . oo. 03. oo
241
PART III
AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES
CHAPTER I
HUSBANDRY IN RYDAL
Change from Forest to Farm ; Valuation of Demesne^
1655-
IT was at the end of the sixteenth century, when the
deer-forest was swept away, that the history of
husbandry, as we know it, began in Rydal. And
it was under the rule of the widow Agnes, upon whom
the demesne was settled, that the woodland solitudes
were changed into a busy, well-ordered farm. Here,
and doubtless at the new Hall, she lived for 32 years
after her husband's death, bringing up a large family of
sons and daughters, marrying and dowering the latter,
and setting the former on in the world, even to the extent
of buying the Manor of Skerwith for her son Daniel.
And there can be little doubt that her thrift, her sound
sense and business-like habits laid the foundation of that
wealth which her eldest son, John, acquired. It is fitting,
therefore, that these letters of hers to him Part II.,
Chapter IV., Appendix which are all that remain, and
are altogether about the farming of Rydal, should start
the account of it. She had now, professedly, given up the
reins, having let the demesne to him to farm for 200 a
year ; but her active spirit was overlooking all, and fret-
ting her old body ; and there is no doubt that those
R
242 RYDAL
urgings with her tongue, which she called " a little touch "
when applied to her daughter-in-law, and a " talk " to
Tyson promising even to keep this up as long as her
health shall serve was regarded by them both as scolding.
Poor Tyson is forced to complain to his master, that
nothing " blends " (or confuses) his brain " more than
inquietnes " ; and it is to his determination to justify
himself before her complaints that we apparently owe
the earliest account-sheets existing at the Hall. They
date from 1631, and close in 1634, showing that Tyson
triumphed in a sense, and held his own in the office, and
entered his " olde mistress's " funeral expenses in them.
They were audited from time to time by Squire John,
and show his signature, as well as the trust he placed in
his man in a very varied range of business.
It is from these stitched-together sheets of old paper
(of which some are torn) that we get our first glimpse of
the methods of husbandry pursued on the Rydal demesne,
and of which we obtain clear light in Squire Daniel's
time, from the " Gist-Book of Rydal," kept by John
Banks, from the last page of the great account-book,
where a record of the corn sown between 1669 and 1674
is kept, and from the excellent little book (cut and
stitched apparently by its writer) entitled " An account
of Setting Rydal Demesne Yearly." In its pages, of a
few inches in dimension, Richard Fleming, who became
steward to his father in 1693, set down in fine script,
every detail of the work of the demesne farm and Dhe
cost thereof. It closes in 1699. The method of farming
as displayed by these books is much the same, though
Squire Daniel wrung a larger income from the land than
his predecessor.
The value of the demesne must have been largely
increased by its change from forest to farm ; and the
increased income would be started by a lump sum from
the felled wood, always wanted for the Furness ironworks.
HUSBANDRY IN RYDAL 243
It may, indeed, have been from the oaks of Rydal that
Squire William rebuilt his Hall at Coniston,* where the
deer were retained in the small park that continued to
give dignity to the estate. That change involved other
changes, some of which affected, undoubtedly, the village
lands. The extent of the demesne before it, and of the
High and the Low Parks, is not exactly ascertained.
It was rated from the time of Roger de Lancaster as
worth one quarter of a knight's fee, or 10 in money.
The tax paid by its owners in 1302-3 and in 1353 as
succession duty was 355. (Rawlinson MSS.). The Flem-
ings, as we have seen, rented the half at 10 in 1475,
which gave its worth at a nominal 20 a year ; and this
rent was maintained until at least 1547.
A copy of John Banks' Valuation of the Rydal Demesne,
at the time that it came into his master's hands (1655),
is found in Richard's " Setting " Book. It gives the
names of all the " closes " into which the Low and High
Parks had been split up, and of their worth as pasture.
It should be noticed that no acreage is given, only the
number of " grasses " in each close that is to say, the
number of beasts that such a ground space would feed.
This ancient mode of reckoning land and its value
continued till the eighteenth century, as the account-books
of Ambleside Hall estate and of Kelsick of Ambleside
show. It will be seen, too, that the demesne had been
thrown into three classes of land ; the deeper soil reserved
for the plough, a portion much enlarged in Squire Daniel's
time ; the flatter stretches of the Low Park for a crop of
hay ; and the rough ground the hows in the valley and
* In " A general view of Agriculture in the Co. of Westmorland " by M. A.
Pringle, date 1797, it is stated that it is more profitable to fell oaks of 50 or
60 years' growth than to let them stand for 80 or 100 years for ship-building.
In the same treatise we hear of a stratum of grey limestone found near Amble-
side, with regrets that it is so little used for agriculture. It might be burnt
with faggots or " chats " instead of going to the trouble of bringing the lime-
Stone from Kendal or up Windermere Lake at great expense. He also tells
us that women work in the fields and drive harrows and ploughs, and that
clogs are worn by both sexes, the soles being made of birch, alder or sycamore.
244 RYDAL
the wild steep mountain slopes of Rydal Head for the
pasture of cattle. The squire's farm buildings around the
new Hall were steadily increasing. Besides a swine hall
(1659), a ca -tf h anl an d a brew house, a " Keslop hall "
two new stables (1660), and accomodation for oxen under
the great new corn barn (1680), he had erected in 1671, a
slaughter-house or keslop in the upper park. These
extensive outhouses in turn drew rats, of which fact,
likewise, we hear in the account-book :
" Dec. 18. 1686. Paid unto Tho. Lofton of Rufford near York,
Ratcatcher besides 2 s 6 d I am to give at Easter next if he kill ye
Rates for a year . . .... . . . . s. d.
oo. 01. oo.
Dec. 24. Paid Michael & Richard (his son) for
Rats . . . . . . . . . . . . oo. oo. 06.
It may be interesting to place against this estimate of
cattle-gates the modern acreage, taken about 1810,*
which, including some parcels in Loughrigg, brought the
total demesne to I594a. or. 35p.
" A Perticuler Account of the Names of the Cloyses belonging to
the Demasne of Rydal in the County of Westmerl d April the i6 tb
1655- By J. B. St "
Imprimis
1. The Low Parke all Meadow.
2. Birket field and Stonewaite.
3. The Close called the Old Orchard.
4. The Tip Close 4 grasses at 6 s 8 d p grass.
5. The Close called Round-close and Long-close (7*. 2 r . 28 P .)
6. The Close called Lands a p* of it Sowne (8 a . o r . 5 P .)
7.8.9. The 3 Closes called the Hag's 20 grasses at 8 8 o d per
grass.
10. The Close called Rydal-haw 10 grasses at 6 s 8 d per
grass.
11. The Close called Low-parke-haw 6 grasses at 6 s 8 d
per grass.
12.13. The Close called Old-hall and Birket Moss 3 grasses
at io s per grass.
* Valuation Book of Rydal and Loughrigg.
HUSBANDRY IN RYDAL 245
14.15.16. The Close called Adam-haw with Allans 9 s o d
17.18.19. The Closes called Springs 4 grasses at 6 s 8 d p grass
20. The Close called On-man haw 4 grasses at 6 s 8 d p grass.
21. The Close called Frith in the Nab 6 grasses at 6 s 8 d p
grass.
22. The Close called New-close 6 grasses at 6 s 8 d p grass.
23. The High Orchard.
24. The Close called Berk-hagg 5 grasses at 6 s 8 d p grass.
25. The Close called Watley-hagg 8 grasses at 6 s 8 d a grass.
26. The Close called Parke 60 grasses at y s o d p grass.
27. The Close called Buckstones 60 grasses at 7 s o d p grass.
28. The Close called Low-pike 4 grasses at 7 s o d p grass.
29. The Close called High-pike 4 grasses at 6 s 8 d p grass.
30. The Close called Dale-green 8 grasses at 6 8 8 d p grass.
31. The Close called Dale-head-close 30 grasses at 3 s 4 d p
grass.
The above is the Valuation of Rydal Demesne by John Banks
Steward. An Doi. 1655.
CHAPTER II
CATTLE-GRAZING AND MARKETING
Draught Oxen and " Fat beifs."
A GISTMENT, indeed, or the pasturage of cattle,
AA was at first the main source of the lords' agricul-
tural wealth. He not only taxed his tenants
for the grazing of their stock, but he bought beasts to
fatten and sell, and he took in stranger's cattle to graze
on his ground at a fixed rate. Squire John went so far
as a cattle dealer, that he set his baliff to buy cattle at
fairs to be fattened at Rydal and then driven to Speke in
Lancashire, where presumably they fetched a higher
price. On May 13, 1631, Tyson writes to him " I thinke
heare will come jeaste (strangers' cattle) to sett you r
grounds but neu er the lesse we will buy beastes to send
yo u as you have written." Next he reports that he has
bought thirty beasts, most of them oxen and runts ;
246 RYDAL
and will buy ten more. His master may have what he
wants for Speke " for the worst and least price are best
for this Cuntrie." It will not do to buy at the Ravenglass
fair, as " the sickness " is rife in Walney, and dealings
with any man of Cumberland and Furness must be
avoided. In another letter, of May 3, he tells how he will
send the fat runts to Kendal for sale ; but the stotts are
not ready, los. od. or more would be lost on each beast
" for want of a little grasse." Next he reports the sale
of five fat runts for 21. los. od., which is more by 2 than
the next highest bid. The account-book gives the pur-
chase of " 2 read Oxen & one Co we " at 8. 153. od.,
while cows varied in price from 22s. to 293. 6d.
After Squire John's death, Harrison, the steward,
records in 1646, the purchase of 14 oxen at Rosly for
beef by the shepherd, 43. is. od. ; again, in 1647, tne
purchase of ten beasts at Carlisle Fair (including charges
and toll) 29. i os. gd. Two years before, the shepherd
had purchased two draught oxen at Kendal for 9. 135. 4d.
These no doubt would be needed for the plough, which
was then and later drawn by these great oxen. The
shoeing of the oxen is a regular charge at the smith's.
In 1647, is P a id " f r showeinge oxen 2 tymes io 8 6 d "
From 1656 onwards the regular charge was 55. od. for
the team, only once rising to 53. lod. As in '67 the
shoeing of three comes, on March 5, to 2s. 3d., and four
on May 25 to 35. 4d. ; and the re-shoeing of five came to
43. 2d. in 1668, we must conclude that the full team was
six, and the usual charge, lod. a beast.
He likewise was a purchaser of cattle, and his dealings
in live stock greatly increased as his capital grew. His
emissaries, John Banks, or another servant, his brother,
and later his third son Daniel, who became his factotum
on the farm from about 1688, were present at all the great
fairs of the district, buying for him ; and beasts were
driven by many an ancient road over moor and fell to
CATTLE-GRAZING AND MARKETING 247
Rydal, from Rosly, from Broughton-in-Furness, from
Penrith, from Dumesdale, from Egremont, from Becker-
met, but most frequently from Ravenglass, which had
two fairs in the year.
In 1658, $. 33. 4d. was paid for 2 black stotts, at
Kendal ; 2. 73. od. for a heiffer ; 5. 43. od. for a pair
of red stears ; for a black one 2. 53. 6d. ; another
2. 2s. od. ; while the toll cost 7d., and expenses of
driving is. 2d. At Cockermouth, in December, four oxen
were secured for 4. los. od. ; but the 6 oxen which
fetched 19. los. od. at the Ravenglass fair, July 23,
must have been larger beasts. Again, in 1662 beast
were brought over the pass of Three Shire Stones ; a
couple of pairs of oxen being purchased, respectively for
8. los. od. and 7. los. od. ; they cost 4d. " for a fold to
put y m in," 8d. for toll, and 2s. 6d. for charges all night.
In May, 1682, the seven beasts bought by Daniel needed
help to drive them to Dalegarth (4d.), and 4d. was spent
at Fell Foot, bringing the amount paid to 23. 193. lod.
In 1669, a very large purchase was made, the Squire's
three emissaries buying at Cockermouth, 24 oxen and a
bull for 95. 43. 6d., which cost 8s. to bring them home.
At Rosley " 8 oxen for beife " were purchased in July,
1771, for 20. I2s. od, a supply that could hardly be con-
sumed by the family.
Thus buying and selling went on. 34. is. od. was spent
at Ravenglass and Beckermet on May 29, 1676.
But the largest deals were perhaps done in 1684 and
1685, when a certain Mr. Tickle of Rainford, Lancashire,
agreed to purchase 40 oxen from the squire. For the
first 40, a sum of 146 was paid in instalments ; for the
second I trace but 118. 145. 6d. To supply this demand
as well as his private ones, the squire proceeded to buy
largely and in advance. Through the summer of 1683,
at the fairs of Hawkshead, May 17 ; Ravenglass, May 28 ;
and Lancaster, September 28, at least 77 beasts were
248 RYDAL
bought, at prices widely varying. A pair of oxen ranged
from 5. 6s. 6d. to, in an exceptional case, 7. 135. 6d.,
but for young beasts much less was paid, bringing the
average lower ; so that upon the price received for the
40 oxen, which amounted to 3. 135. od. each, or 7. 6s. od.
a pair, the squire no doubt pocketed a substantial profit.
In the succeeding May, the average of 20 oxen bought at
Ravenglass came to a little under 2. i8s. od. ; though
for "2 large oxen " bought at Hawkshead (which no
doubt were not drafted into Mr. Tickle's lot) 8. I2S. od.
was paid. The largest outlay was probably in 1685,
when 94. 3s. 2d. and 39. i6s. 7d. were paid at the two
Ravenglass fairs, making with other purchases a total of
145. 193. 2d. At the Kendal fair in 1686, Daniel secured
from " M r Tickle's man " 46. los. od. for 12 oxen ; and
for eight others sold at the Hawkshead fair, or privately,
40. i6s. 6d.
Some loss there was in these deals, as is shown in the
account-book, which grew more exact as the keeper grew
older. For instance, he marks opposite the three oxen
bought at Hawkshead in 1686 for 9. 53. od., " Beifs,"
which shows their destiny ; while opposite the seven
pairs of Ravenglass oxen six are marked sold, three as
" beif " and three " Dead." The skins of these oxen
that died, probably of the murrain, are sold, respectively
at I2s. od., I2s. od., and 133. 4d. ; but we have note of
" a great Oxe Skin y* was poysoned " fetching i6s. 6d.
This was in 1679, an d tne previous month 8s. 6d. only,
had been procured for a cow skin " which dyed of y*
murraine." At the same date, October i, we find an
entry :
' ' Given to y e Miller of Ambleside for blooding and givin a Drink
to my Cowes for y e murrain . . . . . . oo. 01. oo.
But the usual price of a cow skin was from 95. od. to
135. 6d., and nine ox skins fetched in 1666, 8. los. od.,
CATTLE-GRAZING AND MARKETING 249
which was i. 45. od. more than the same number brought
in 1658. In 1673, nine ox skins, one bull's skin, five cow
skins and two horse skins fetched 18. los. od.
Richard's Setting-Book tells when the start was made
to " kill fat beifs," which varied from October I to 26.
The salt for 12 beasts cost 4. los. od. in 1697. The year
before, 12 bushels at 6s. 8d. had been bought at Keswick
for the same number los. less. The custom of giving
of " flesh " to poor folk on All Saints Day (November i)
which, obtained at Rydal Hall in Squire John's time, was
clearly connected with this slaughter and salting of beef
for winter use.
Richard's book tells us too, with particularity, the num-
ber of beasts which after grazing in the " fog " or
new-grown grass, till shelter was needed were kept up
through the winter. In 1694, 10 calves were taken or
" laid " in the " Low Parke Cow-house " on November 5 ;
15 cows into the one by the new Hall on the 8th ; again,
on the 1 5th, 31, " Geld Beasts " were housed ; and six
more, with 16 " Whys " at Christmas. By the middle
or end of April, or even in May for cows, some 60 to 70
beasts were turned out or " laid " again ; and we are
not only told the exact status of each beast in age and
sex, but also to what member of the squire's family each
belonged, whether to the squire, or to himself, Daniel
Fletcher, and Alice ; for to each of his children who took
to it, did the squire allow a share in the cattle breeding.
It seems, indeed, as if the pigs belonged to the ladies of
the house, and perhaps served ; to supply them with
pin-money, like the poultry.
Squire Daniel's income from agistment in the Park
seems not to have risen, which was a likely result of his
own increase of stock. Perhaps this explains the " pub-
lishing " of his ground, which occurs later on. In early
days at least, cattle came for summer pasture to Rydal
Park from a distance ; from Sawrey, Cartmel Fell,
Crook, Winster, &c.
250 RYDAL
In 1686 the Agist money is set down as 15. 2s. od.,
but this may not have included all. The sum in 1689
is 48. 8s. 5d.
The " Jeast booke " for 1631 showed payments for
grazing amounting to 23. 175. 2d. ; and the next year,
" in part," to 36. 75. 4d., to which 4. 53. od. was later
added. Squire Daniel secured a larger though a varying
income from the same source, and his " Jist-Book "
gives :
' ' The totall sum off the grasse bottom in the prke s. d.
this yeare 1656 is . . . . . . . . 64. 4. o.
And of those (beasts) taken in the dale heade 5 . 15 . 3.
69. 19- 3
He seems to have advertised (probably by cryer at fairs
or markets) his grass, as entries in his account-book show
May 12. 1686 for publishing a Jist-note at H. 2<*
Ap. 14. 1686. paid for Publishing of 6 Notes for Agist i 8
Spent Apr. 16. 88 at Hawkshead I s , for Publishing a Note there,
for Agist at Rydal 4 d . And in 1657 ne refunds Edwin Green I s o<*
spent in Ambleside when Low Park How was let."
At the end of the reign of his son, Sir William, in 1756,
it stood at 62. 43. 5d. But probably the home cattle
breeding was by that time at an end. In 1757, it reached
70. os. 2d., and in the next year 99. los. 4d.
CHAPTER III
CORN-GROWING
Wheat in Rydal ; Women in the fields ; The Coniston
Limestone.
WHEN Squire Daniel let on lease, in 1681, " Frith
i'th* Nab " for five years to his tenant David
Harrison, it was " with liberty to plow so
much thereof for Oates as he shall manure and sow with
Bigg (= Barley) the next year/'
CORN-GROWING 25!
This was the only rotation of crops observed in these
parts, except that on the third year the ground was
allowed to fall back into meadow, or ley. Then a portion
of ground was " laid " each year, and another portion
" broken up." We may trace the start of corn-growing
on a considerable scale upon the demesne from Dame
Agnes' time, for it was said to be she who made a bargain
with her tenants to lead manure for her one day a year
as boon service, in return for " a calf-garth " or field
conceded to them in the Nab ; but of this transaction
we only hear (and indistinctly, from notes for counsel)
from the one side.
It is from Tyson's account-book again that we first
hear of the corn harvest of Rydal. On March 16, 1631,
he paid for " 12 bushels of seede Otes 56 s , and for Chardge"
in all 2. 175. lod. It was, not without opposition from
the old Dame, as her letter shows, that he bought 20
bushels, when " there is enough of ou r owne that would
serve, and neare as good as he can buy anie," but Squire
John upheld his bailiff in the desirability of sowing fresh
seed.
Ploughing began when threshing stopped, in the first
days of February ; and it is clear that Plough Monday
that followed anciently the festivities of Twelftide,* was
not rigidly adhered to in these parts. Then the slow
beasts began the work of breaking up the soil, headed
by the ploughman, who, if not in yearly wage, received
from 4d. a day (1697) ; and tailed off by the boy who
" held " or " drove " the plough, and whose wages were
but half that amount ; for in 1645, he received i6s. 6d.
for 16 weeks, or 2d. a day, and in 1697 only i Jd. a day ;
and in 1693, indeed, this labour was secured for id. a day.
The sowing of oats began in mid-March. In 1656, at
the start of Squire Daniel's reign, John Banks could not
* Tresser's Husbandry.
252 RYDAL
"" set the plough till March i," for a boy to drive it could
not be heard of. While bigg (or barley) started from the
20th of April, onward to early May. Tyson writes, on
May 3, that they had begun yesterday to "plowe bigge,"
which is early, but " the weather being dry and warm
invites to it." On May 13 " we have sowne all ou r bigge
but about two dayes worke w ch will rest till the next
week."
The seed-oats were almost always bought at the Ulver-
ston market, no doubt because of its being the centre of
a good corn-growing district. John Banks, too, early
found out its cheapness, for in 1656 only 33. od. per bushel
was asked there, while at home 35. 8d. to 45. od. His
32 J bushels were all bought there. It is a question
whether the Rydal pack-horses travelled thither with
the deputy buyer. Probably not ; for on the occasions,
1695-98, we have particulars of 8d. a load having been
paid for their carriage as far as " Borrecks " (now Berwick
Ground on the road from Coniston), where no doubt they
would be met by the demesne horses. Prices varied.
In 1645, 40 bushels cost only 4. 8s. od. But there was
soon a rise, probably because of the war, and the soldiers
stationed in the country-side. Harrison naively writes,
under March 27, 1647 :
"' pd. for oats bought at seaverall tymes for scots when they were
w tb us, and would have better then we had of our owne 2. 173. 6d."
Indeed, much of the corn-ground must have fallen into
fallow during this disastrous time, or Harrison would
hardly have noted that year that 7^ bushels had been
sown at Miller Bridge, which then belonged to the demesne.
In the previous year 4. 6s. 8d. had been paid for only
20 bushels for sowing.
The price however had dropped by 1656, and in 1674,
7. 135. 9d. was paid for 40 bushels at Ulverston. The
lowest was possibly reached in 1687, when the majority
CORN-GROWING 253
of the usual 40 bushels bought for sowing was secured at
2s. 90!., and none of it cost more than 35. 4d. In 1695 it
was 45. od., and only 31 bushels were bought. In 1693
it had risen to 45. 4d. and 43. 6d. costing besides 8d. a
load to Borwicks, 3. 45. 8d.
Bigg varied from 45. iod., in 1655, to 55. 8d. and even
to 8s. od., but this was when a tenant paid his rent in it.
The amount sown was never larger, but an increasing
quantity of barley was bought for malt ; so that in 1698,
while 7 odd bushels (the average being about six) were
sown, 52 bushels were got for brewing, making an expen-
diture of 15. los. 4d.
If we look to the total amount of corn-land on the
demesne, we find it given not in acreage, but named in
dales, in measure of seed, and even in stooks. For instance,,
the oats sown altogether in 1675, were 50 bushels, 3 pecks ;
and the bigg 3 bushels, 3 pecks, 2 hoops. In 1694,
37 bushels i| pecks were sown, producing 1,256 stooks ;
next year, 47 bushels and one hoop producing 1,511 stooks ;.
while in 1696 from 51 bushels 3 hoops 1,571 stooks were
counted. Next year, only the same yield was obtained
from 58 bushels 3 pecks.
The yield from bigg was in 1694, 524 stooks from
4 bushels ij pecks of seeds, and next year, only 471 from
5 bushels, 2 hoops.
In the next century, when the lord's watchful eye was
not upon the husbandry, it was found expedient to sell
the crops as they stood before reaping. In 1757, the
growing corn was sold for 47. 35. od., and the-hay meadow
for 81. los. 6d. But this was a fine season for the seller ;
for the steward, Mr. Michael Knott, wrote on February 3,
" At the present 'tis worst times ever known for poor
people in this Country. Wheat at 4O 8 p load, Oats at
7 s & 7" 6 d , and n 8 & 12 s per Bushel, and we have had a
great Storm of Snow for near a Month & Excessive
Frost."
254 RYDAL
Later on, when John Gibson was managing the farm
and demesne for Sir Michael, corn as well as potatoes were
grown in Bainriggs. The seed cost i. 8s. od. in 1782,
and it was reported on September 22, that it was not ripe
by a fortnight. Next year, manure was to be procured
and lime, and one part of Bainriggs to be sown with
barley and the other with wheat ; and next year with
oats, " and then lay it down for either Hay or Pasture."
By this means it is hoped the bracken will be eradicated.
Older farm ground, the Old Orchard, near to Crow How,
is reported as so poor for hay, that it should be sown with
oats, then (adding manure) with two crops of barley and
corn, after which hay would be abundant.
This is the only time we hear of wheat growing in
Rydal. Formerly a little was bought, for use at the lord's
table, where alone it was needed. In 1644, the half
bushels cost 45. 6d. and 55. lod. ; and it rose later to
8s. 4d.
Hops in 1643, were 2s. od. a Ib. ; 26 Ibs. being bought.
Into the corn fields were turned in June the little band
of women " lukers " or weeders, who a month earlier
had " dressed " or stoned the meadows. These were
almost all of the poorer families of tenants, and their
wages varied according to their age. In the beginning
of Squire Daniel's time the fixed rate was 4d. a day ;
in 1697, Richard was paying for him only 3d. without
meat to the dressers, and 4d. to the " lukers." Women,
too, came to be largely used as " sheares," 4d. again,
being their wages ; while they received 6d. for working
in the hay.
The meadows were regularly limed in early spring.
The cost of this application was considerable, and the
fullest particulars of it are often given. In 1631, Tyson
paid 6s. 8d. for 80 loads of lymstone, firing 6d., leading
i. 153. 2d. Again, he paid Edward Benson i for 300
loads ; the firing cost 6d. and the " leading " i. 155. 2d.
Another year he enters :
CORN-GROWING 255
"Paid for breaking 318 loads of lymstone 14*. ictf.
Paid for worke at Lymekilns in all i. 5. o."
In 1647, the breaking of stones for a lime kiln cost
i. QS. 6d. Now whence came the limestone ? In 1656
it was fetched, indeed, fiom Kendal, and probably by
the demesne horses, two loads of lime costing 35. 6d. ;
and in 1662, 10 loads, i, were actually procured at
Cockermouth, the carriers receiving a gratuity of 2s. od.
It is of great interest to note, however, that an attempt
to utilize the small vein of limestone at hand was later
made. This curious narrow band, known as the " Con-
iston Limestone," is intruded through the slate rock from
a point near the summit of Wansfell, where it shows
fossils, and across the head of Windermere, where it
shows in Low Wood Nab and the island called Sea Mew
Crag ; thence tending in the Coniston direction along
the summit of Black Fell. Everywhere plants, special
in character, follow its line ; and old neglected lime kilns
are to be found along the route. There is one close to
the high road near Low Wood ; another stood till about
1820, in the field at the lake head ; another, again, in a
lane between Brathay and Black Fell ; still another
exists by Sunny Brow, below Black Fell, and there is a
last one in wooded Yewdale, by Coniston.
Sir Daniel, mighty in bargain, seems to have been using,
about 1690, this local supply. His son, Michael (then
acting as steward) wrote full particulars of the transaction.
" Paid unto Rowland Braithw* of Brathay yards for Quarry-
roome to getting two hundred loads, Such as a horse can carry
in Crokes 20 or 30 yards from the Quarry s. d.
at Six Score to the Hundred . . . . . . o. 6. 9.
Item for getting of them . . . . . . . . i. 4. o.
Item for great Boat 2 days and a halfe .. .. o. n. 6.
Item for Breaking of ym w ee meat . . ... o. 9. 6.
2. ii. 9.
256 RYDAL
Another entry is :
Ground Limed.
" The lower halfe of the cross dale in Low-parke, which goes
down to the Tarn pot and a little in Stonewhaite Sprinkled here
& there."
The boat mentioned would be the one for heavy goods,
and it would bring the stones across the lake head, and
up Birdhouse mouth to the kiln. The Braithwaite
family of Brathay were well-to-do states-people.
Next year a better deal was done. We read :
"Paid unto Matthew Mackereth of Ambleside for Breaking up
a Quarry for Lime-Stones, to gett two Hundred Shifting loads
or Sixteen Score of such as we can carry Streightaway * for 5 s o d
the getting of them again cost 14 s o d ; the breaking ' without
meat ' iy s o d Total 2. 6. o. This, counting 5" 6 d as the value
of the ' meat/ makes a clear advantage of io s 6 d , besides four-
score more stones given in."
Next Edward Forrest of Ambleside was tried. He gave
"Quarryroome " for the getting of an equal quantity of
stone for as little as 45. od. ! Perhaps the horse or the
man succeeded in staggering away the requisite number
of yards from the quarry with larger loads than before,
for the breaking of them without meat cost is. od. more.
In 1695, Matthew Mackereth gave quarry-room for 35. od.,
and the price for breaking fell back to i6s. od. Under
particulars of " Ground Limed " we hear that " The Kill
rendered in Fuller Lime 25 Coops, and were Sett upon
the Great Dale in the Birket field."
Thus, under the most careful supervision, the work of
the demesne farm went on.
* See Note page 267.
257
CHAPTER IV
SHEEP
The Clipping ; the Salving ; the Wool ; Market Prices ;
the " Setting " book ; Age Names of Sheep and Cattle.
BUT perhaps before all, in Rydal husbandry, came
the sheep. Not alone the statesman, but the
lord, possessed in his flock, with their fleeces,
sound capital that yielded a steady income. On the wide
grassy tops of the mountains, the faar-fell, did the hardy
little creatures roam at will through the summer. While
the deer-forest existed, indeed, the statesmen must have
been the only wool sellers of the valley ; and it was not until
after the lord married the rich cloth merchant's daughter
that a stock of demesne sheep was established. What-
ever this stock was in number at its start, it was reckoned
as 1,200 by Dame Agnes when she made her will in 1630.
It was all her own ; and she determined, if her son John's
heir did not live to be 21, that William, eldest son of her
deceased son Daniel, should inherit it, as well as 40
John had had when he farmed Rydal of her, and all the
household furniture she possessed at the Hall. Tyson ^
whose evidence was taken when the great family law-suit
came on in 1653, declared that John had taken them over
at her death as 1,200, at a valuation of ^,400. Upon his
death, nine years later, the sheep were not valued with
the rest of his property, being entailed. Various wit-
nesses declared them to number then, upwards of 1,200 ;
the shepherds saying that 1,300 and four score (reckoning
as usual six score to the 100) had come to the clipping ;
besides 1,200 lambs that followed the ewes. This great
flock which was reckoned as worth 6 a score, or 6s. od.
apiece, represented then a capital of some 400, which
might mean as much as 2,000 of present money.
S
258 RYDAL
But William, and William's son Daniel, had a hard
fight to obtain possession of the Rydal flock, and when
they succeeded, it was a much smaller one. Some 600
to 700 sheep from it had been sequestered by the parlia-
ment ; and Richard Harrison, the steward, Roman
Catholic and Royalist though he was, was suspected (in
his hatred of the claimants) of conniving at this appro-
priation and of compounding for them himself quietly.
How many Squire Daniel possessed, when he came to
Rydal as the conqueror in a hard-fought fight in 1656,
there is nothing to show ; but by 1667 ne na -d secured an
enormous flock. A memorandum exists of that year
which shows the attention given to every detail of the
estate. It is written in three hands ; first (probably)
the shepherd's ; next the bailiff's (John Banks) and last
the endorsement by the master.
" Sheep shorne at Ridall June y e 2i st 1667 old sheep thirty six
score and two sheep
Lambs marked nine score & eighteene
of M r William's tenne sheep clipped, & 4 lambs.
Moore ould sheepe since the cliping two score and six marked
And Lambs twelve." A total of 992, besides the 112 skins, as
below.
Skins delivered betwixt clipping 1666 & 1667
79 y* were killed, 33 y 1 dyed, in all 112 at 9 d p skin ^4. 4 s . od."
The Mr. William referred to is the little heir, whose
father endowed him, as he endowed his first-born grandson
and godson Wilson later, with lambs at the cost of us. 6d.
This enormous flock of over 1,100 could hardly be
sustained. Richard writes down in 1694 that all together
amount to 1,200 ; while the numbers clipped during the
years of his stewardship varied between 697 and 918.
After Sir Daniel's time, the numbers of sheep kept on
the fell, apparently diminished. At his son's death in
1763, they were valued at 170 ; while nineteen horses
SHEEP 259
were set down as 51. los. od., forty six beasts (oxen,
cows and heifers) as 75, and six fat cattle at 13. los. od.
When in 1741, the heir to the estate, the Rev. Arch-
deacon Fleming, proposed to let the demesne farm, a
flock of 891 was to go with it, consisting of 20 rams, 273
wethers, 416 ewes, and 182 hogs,* which were to be
returned at the end of the tenancy.
In 1748, Sir William reckoned his flock as 596, 440 of
which he had bought from his uncle's widow for 142. 153.
the next year the sheep and lambs amounted to 798.
In 1759, when the sheep were let with the demesne to
William Mason, 500 sheep only were accounted for, viz. :
40 wethers, 210 ewes, 130 twinters, and 120 hogs ; the
wethers and ewes being valued at los. od. each, the twin-
ters 8s. od., and the hogs 73. od.
The sheep now running on Rydal Fell from the farm
let to Mr. Fletcher amount to between 800 and 1,000.
CLIPPING.
The shearing of the sheep made one of the great agricul-
tural occasions of the year, and was also a village festival.
The lord, indeed, demanded boon service for it of his
tenants, and though they were not bound to give more
than one day's work, it required sometimes more than
their number to cope with the flock in two day's time.
Bread, cheese, f and ale were supplied in abundance, and
there is evidence to show that Squire Daniel provided
also every incentive to industry and competitive joviality
among the shearers. The date for clipping varied greatly.
Sep. 21. 1683 Given to Geo. Benson Piper for playing to my
Shearers when they got y e Churne this day . . oo^. oos. o6d.
June 30. 1684, 6<* is given to " Renny Fidler " for playing " this
day to the Clippers."
* See end of chapter.
t In 1632 Tyson paid as. od. " for cheese against clipping." In the extrava-
gant time of Harrison's executorship (1644) both butter and cheese bought
at Keswick " against Clipinge " cost IDS. 6d.
260 RYDAL
" Aug. 25. 1685 Given to Geo. Benson Piper for 2 dayes being
with my Shearers, who did shear all this day .. oo. ois. ood.
In June 1661 an item stands of is. od. paid " for a
pound of Tobacco to y e clippe 1 * " and one individual on
that occasion received a sum of 4d. There are no regular
entries, however, for the wages of the shearers, though
help came to be needed beyond what was given.
In 1645, " 2 paire of shearers " had been supplied " at
Cliping," whose wages with meat came to 2s. 4d. But
what paid service was required was afterwards lumped
together with hay-making (likewise a boon service) and
the leading of corn, making a sum that stood at 2. 195. 9 Jd.
in 1682, and 3. 195. n|d. in 1685. Richard, indeed,-
makes no account of the clipping. The Rydal sheep-
shearing maintained its popularity till the next century,
Benjamin Browne, when on June 29, 1709, he went to
Ambleside to try to affect a sale of the Ambleside Hall
meadow lands, found " the whole Country was gone to
S r Will m Fleming's sheep Clipping." (Mr. G. Browne's
MSS.).
Thus were the golden precious fleeces cut from the
backs of the sheep for a nominal sum, besides the cost
of food produced first-hand on the premises. The piper
(not always supplied) and a few hundred rud-balls, at,
from 6d. to 8d. a hundred, " for smitting of y e Sheep,"
added a bare couple of shillings to the expense.
Not so the salving, which was a great ceremony yearly
performed for the health of the sheep ; and the labour
for which had to be paid for at a comparatively high
rate. Tyson, in 1632, enters " for washinge sheepe " the
substantial sum of 5. 12s. 6d. In 1645, Richard Harrison
paid through the shepherd 4. 55. od. for " greasing
ninescore & fifteene days " ; which comes to a little over
5d. a day, and was " without meat or drinke " ; and in
1644, for 252 days 5. He enters in 1646, " eight score
and six days for the service " at 5d. the daie, and y e over
SHEEP 26l
at all the dales " 3. us. 2d. But the service was nothing
to the cost of the salve, made up of tar and grease.
Harrison's payment for the ingredients stands thus, in
1646 : 26 stone of butter, 5. 35. od. ; 5 more, i. 73. od. ;
8 of tallow, 2. 135. 4d. ; and 3! loads of tar, 4. los. od. ;
which reaches a total of 13. 135. 4d.
But not lightly did Squire Daniel pay such sums as
these. The salt butter in his time was obtained from far
and wide, wherever it was cheapest. For instance, in
1682, he obtained it from Greene of " Aisdal," in Grasmere
at 33. 2d. and 35. 3d. a stone, with an additional quantity
bought in Kirkby at 33. od. His shepherd even succeeded
in obtaining it in 0086, at 2s. 5d., when his salve bill
stood : butter, 2. 2s. nd. ; more I2s. 3d. ; 41 gallons
of tar at iod., i. 143. 2d. ; total, 4. 95. 4d. a very
different one from Richard's ! This, however, was the
lowest drop in the butter market. The price varied as a
rule from 35. 4d. to 45. 4d. a stone ; and it is interesting
to observe that this price kept steady, as in 1745, only
43. od. a stone was paid for 22 stone 13 Ibs. Sometimes,
when butter was dear, and a large amount used (from 19
to 24 stone) that item stood as high as 5. 8s. 4d. in the
account-book. In 1696, however, at 33. 4d. and 35. 5d.,
it was as low as i. 3. 6|d.
Squire Daniel was not able to hire salvers under 6d. a
day. In 1656, he employed 13 Grasmere men and 5
Rydal ones, at a cost of 2. i6s. od. In 1682, 4. 35. od.
was paid for 166 days ; in 1698, 4. i6s. 6d., at 6d. " with-
out meat." This meant that no provisions were supplied ;
but in later times, when the second Sir William was beginn-
ing in 1748 his rule, i6s. 6d. was paid " In ale, when 466
were salved " ; which, at id. a quart, from the village
inn (it was 3d. a gallon in 1678) must have represented
a good deal of drinking. Richard gives minute details
as to the greasing. For instance, in 1698, the butter
cost at Hawkshead, 3. 143. nd. ; tar 4 " costrels " at
262 RYDAL
Ambleside 2. 135. od. ; wages, 4. i6s. 6d. ; total,
11. is. nd. ; and he adds that the hogs took 6 gallons
of tar, and 5 stone and 3 Featlets (a Featlet = 4 Ibs.) of
butter ; while the old sheep took 25 gallons of tar, i6J
stones of butter, and 3 stones of tallow.
This ceremony was performed at the " back end "
while in spring the " hogs " were treated to a special
wash with tobacco.
Of the price of sheep we hear incidentally. In 1647,
three score of the Rydal lambs were sold for 10. 195. od.,
about 35. 8d. each.
Squire Daniel rarely sold his sheep. He bought
frequently at his smaller neighbours' sales, where no
doubt there were bargains to be got. His purchases on
that account may not be a fair test of the market, or of
general Westmorland prices. It is interesting to note
the gradual rise of these.* The sheep of William Benson,
of Kendal, were in 1568, valued at 33. 2d. each.
In the seventeenth century, as we have seen, they were
reckoned as worth 6s. od. each. Prices perhaps fell
during the Commonwealth. The Rydal squire bought
Widow Thompson's nineteen sheep in 1671 for 4. 143. 8d.,
practically 53. od. each. At Jane Mackereth's sale r
however, twenty came to 6. 55. 8d., over 6s. 3d. each,
In 1671 19 sheep were bought for 5. is. od. practically
55. lod. each.
After 1674, the year of great scarcity (see later) when poor
men could not afford to keep their cattle, prices dropped
sharply. At William Grigg's sale in 1675, 2 wethers,
3 ewes, and 3 hogs, knocked down to the Squire, actually
fetched but an average of 45. 4d. each, and the same year
he got 59 old sheep and 17 hogs at Jane Fleming's sale
* A ram, valued in King Athelstan's time at 4<i, had risen by 1185 to 8d.
One shilling of Saxon money was paid in A.D. 1000 for a lost sheep ; while
40, in Henry I.'s reign (1100-35) were valued at i, or 6d. each (Smith's Wool).
The " Demies " or Scholars of Magdalen College, Oxford, still receive once
a year (on Founders Day ?) a threepenny bit. The Statute, dated about 1466,.
time of Henry VI., saying that each scholar is to receive sd. or half a sheep. Ed.
SHEEP 263
for 9 under 2s. 5d. each ! Next year prices had
somewhat righted themselves. Forty-one "fat wethers "
were bought for 16. us. 6d., " besides 55. 2d. given back,"
practically 55. od. a piece ; 50 hogs at 48. 6d.. " besides
is. given me back " ; and 42 lambs from Furness Fell for
6. 6s. od., or 33. od. each. In 1687, the squire succeeded
in getting 6s. gd. for 26 sheep (8. 153. od.) sold to the
butcher.
We have already seen something of the valuation of the
succeeding century. In 1748, ewes were bought at Dame
Dorothy's sale by Sir William at 6s. iod., and twinters at
55. gd. ; in 1659 wethers and ewes were valued at los. od.,
twinters 8s. od., and hogs at 73. od.
Squire Daniel frequently sold his rams at fairs. In
1677, he sold one at Ambleside for 155. 4d. " besides 4d.
given back and 4d. given ye Sheepherd," who deserved
a tip for the good bargain. As a rule, 8s. 6d. to us. 6d.
were the prices fetched. In one year, 2 rams cost i. 43. 4d.
in another 8s. gd.
The sale of sheep-skins made a considerable sum. The
blind skinner of Grasmere at first, on Squire Daniel's coming,
agreed to take all for three years at io d each, the income
varying between 4. I2s. 8d. and 5 ; then he dropped
to gd. At this price the skins of 1667 made 4. 43. od.,
those of 1669, 9. I2s. 5d., and those of 1673 at 6d.,
6. 175. 6d. By 1684 no more than 5d. a piece could be
got. However, two years later a purchaser was found to
take 7 score and n at 6Jd. ; but on his complaining of
" an ill bargain " the squire gave him back the half-
pennies. By 1697 the price rose to 8d.
In 1686 and thereabouts, William Satterthwaite,
tanner, of Cott-house, near Hawkshead, was taking the
Rydal hides ; and as much as 10. 43. od. was paid for
them in that one year.
But the wool was of course the prime source of profit
alike to statesman and squire. In 1198, the price of wool
264 RYDAL
was reckoned at 2s. 6d. per stone ; and 26 stones went to the
pack. It was in wool that King Richard's ransom was
paid. From Harrison's account-book, begun on the
death of Squire John in 1642, we learn many particulars
of prices, for as the latter had largely invested in church
tithes, the tithe- wool came into the demesne store houses
for sale. As no balance was ever struck in the old account-
books, and part payments were constantly made, it is
impossible to gauge profits, or even to compute exactly
the year's income from this source. One entry among re-
ceipts, stands " for eight & 20 score of wool " 164. los. od.
Many smaller sums occur, which show the price of wool
to vary from 6s. od. to 8s. od. a stone.
Squire Daniel .did not deal in tithe- wool. We learn
from his account and " rent " books that bargains were
made with the wool merchants before ever the demesne
sheep were shorn. He realized in general from these
men 8s. 6d. a stone.
We can reckon what the income was from this source
in 1668, when 600 stones of wool were taken up at 8s. 6d.
by two chap-men it being usual in a large transaction
of the kind, to lessen risks by partnership. The trans-
action brought some 255 into the Hall coffers. Next
year, when three men took up the wool at 8s. 6d., there
were only 135 stones, besides 40 stone un- washed which
went for 53. od. ; and 53. od. was given over. This
would produce about 70. The stone was 8 Ibs., making
fourteen to the hundredweight.
Prices fell somewhat, however, and Richard enters in
his Setting Book for 1695 :
" Wooll Sold. S r Daniel Fleming Sold all his Wool then
Clipped for 8 s 4 d p Stone which came to as I remember In all
185 Packs 13 Stones & a halfe, unto M r John Harrison of Kendal,
and M* Bottomley a Yorkshire man."
The squire recorded in his " rent-book " the splendid
total of 610.
SHEEP 265
Prices must have fallen rapidly in the next century.
In 1730, the agent reported to the next heir that he
could get no chapman to offer above 35. od. a stone for
the Rydal wool, so he had decided to hold it back. Again,
in 1752, the report went that there being little demand
for wool " of our Sort," the Rydal fleeces will fetch no
more than 45. od. or 45. 6d., even when " laid at Halifax."
The agent, therefore, would dispose of the two (sample)
packs he had, and return the sheets.
In 1757, the demesne wool realized 33. 6s. od., and
next year 39.
While it is impossible to compute the total income
derived from husbandry in any one year on the Rydal
demesne, it is clear that, where the expenses were kept
so low, the profits must have been considerable. It may
be interesting to print entire, from Richard's "Setting
Book," his accounts of the year 1693, when the cost of
labour and appliances came to only 15. 123. 5|d. It is
true that the amount rises, to 16. 35. 3|d. in 1694 ; to
25. 135. 8Jd. in 1695 ; to 17. 175. 4d. in 1696, and even
to 58. i6s. 5d. in 1698. But then the young steward
was adding each year expenses that were extraneous, as
in the last year, when a large purchase of malt (bought
at various places Staveley and Troutbeck being carefully
labelled with " their measure " as if it were different
from Ambleside and Ulverston) should reduce the total
by 15. los. 4d. Again, he enters the supply of salted
fish (called Killings and evidently a large fish) for the
winter, heading a line " When to bye Killings, Dec. 24.
John Nobb brought 15 Killings a Horse load for is. 6d.,
which cost at Ulverstone los. 8d." The geese were more
relevant, as they probably ate a little Rydal grass before
being killed " Oct. 18. Geese bought. Bought by Adam
Fleming (of Coniston) 19 Geese at 8 d . a piece 12 s . 8 d ."
Not so the following " Jan. 4. Peace for Pottage. Bought
by Adam Fleming i Bushel of Gray Pease for 13 s . and
266 RYDAL
Carriage I s . in all oo 14*. o d ." Peas, however, were some-
times sown. Again, " March 15. Herrings for Lent.
Pd. for 400 Herrings at 2 s . 6 d . p 100 (which is 3 a penny,
with half a score thrown in) and Carriage from White-
haven, oo n s . 6 d .
Two hundred loads of " Christmas Firing " was got in,
in 1694. Richard tells, indeed, all the outdoor proceed-
ings on the farm, how many " bracken Trushes " were
got in, or " Crabs got for Vergis " (= Verjuice), 20 bushels,
as well as the dates for the start of threshing, ploughing,
killing of fat beef, &c.
From the " Setting Book " of Rydal.
RICHARD FLEMING STEWARD ANNO DOMINI 1693.
Ground Laid.
The Stone Waite.
Ground broke up.
Were the Higher halfe of the Crossdale at the Low Parke h<*
(head ?) and all the Lea upon the Crabtree Side in the Lands."
Ap. 20 Oats Sown . . . . . . . . 32 bushels
M. 15 Bigg Sown . . . . . . . . 06 bushels
s. d.
the 12 p d for Mending the Fell- Walls at 4* a day o. 16. o.
the 10 p d for Stoneing and dressing the ground
for 3 d a day , o. 6. 9.
1 6. p d for driving the Plow for i d a day for 36
days o. 3. o.
28. P d for helping to gett Peats . . . . o. i. i.
June 5 Pd. for 3 hundred Rudballs for the Clip-
ping .. .. o. 2. o.
17 Sir Daniel's Sheep Clipped
Gild Sheep . . 439
Ews . . . . 224
Lambs . . . . 144
807
Au. 8. Pd. to the Gras. Mowers . . . . i. 2. o.
12 Pd. to the Hay workers for the Working
of as follows . . . . . . . . . . 4. i. 10.
July 3. Orchard 28 trs. (trusses) Round Close 58 trs.
Long Close 30 trs. Lands Meadow 38 trs. Old Orchard M.
SHEEP 267
26 trs. Birket Moss M. 20 trs. Birket Field M. 53 tis. Low
Parke M. 26 trs. Birket Field L. (ley ?) 63 trs. Birket Moss
L.io trs. Tip Close L. 31 trs. Hagg 66 trs. Lands L. 25
trs. Brackenbedd 14 trs. Stone Waste 34 trs.
In all 746 trusses s. d,
Sep. 8. P d for Shearing and getting in the
Corn o. 6. 6,
Bigg in Stooks.
Aug. 15. Lands 91. Low Parke 294. Bir-
ket Field 167. In all 552 Stooks.
Oats in Stooks.
Stirdy Parke 48 , Lands 167 f, Low Parke 160 Old
Orchard 283. Crabtree waite 84. Stirdy Parke 127.
Drye Lands 126. In all 996 Stooks.
s. d.
June 5. My Bro : (ther) bought 4 pair of New
truss Rops for o. 10. 6.
Oct. 23. P d for 19 Stones and 4 pound of Salt
Butter for Salveing the sheep .. 3. n. 7!
For Hogs.
28 The Sheepherd tooke 3 Stones and a halfe
of Salt butter for 9 gallons of Tarr.
For Old Sheep.
31. He tooke to 27 gallons of Tarr, 13 Stones and a halfe of
Salt butter and 6 Stones and 3 Featlets of Tallow.
For Getting of Lime-Stones.
No. 1 6. P d unto Edwd Forrest of Ambleside for Quarry-roome
to gett two hundred loads Such as a Horse can carry in
Crooks, 20 or 30 yards from the Quarry, and Six Score to
the hundred, or Sixteen Score of Such loads as can be
carried streight away for* . s.
o. 4.
Item for getting of them . . . . i. 4.
d.
o.
o.
Item for Breaking of y m without
meat
o. 15.
0.
In all . .
2. 3.
0.
* The loads to be taken "streight away" to the field are less than two-
thirds of what can be just brought out from the quarry to the road.
268 RYDAL
Ground Limed.
Feb. 14. The higher halfe oi the Cross-dale at Low Parke head,
and the date in the Lands betwixt the Crab-tree
and the Sike Sprinkled a little.
Salt for Twelve Bags.
Sep. 23 They have twelve Bushels Lancaster measure at 3* 6<*
pr Bushel, which comes to in all 2. is. od.
Thressing of Corn.
P d for Thressing, till the 2 n d o f February . s. d.
53 days at 2<* a" day o. 8. 10.
Item for 70 days at 2^ d a day . . . . o. 14. 7.
i. 3- 5-
Oats Winnowed.
In all One Hundred Eighty One B^ and a halfe.
Bigg Winnowed.
In all Seventy Seven Bushels and a halfe.
Disburstments of all . s. d.
In all 15. 12. 5.
If to Richard's "In all " is added the wages of the
shepherd, 3 ; the under shepherd, i. los. od. ; the
ploughman, 3 ; and a couple or so of outdoor men,
which is at the highest rate paid (see Wages), the total
working expenses of the farm will reach but 23. 2s. 5jd.,
hardly more than William Satterthwaite paid for the skins.
And when the assets are considered, from pasture,
from cattle selling, from corn and hay, and above all
from wool, it is clear that the profits of the farm must
have been very large.
AGE-NAMES OF BEASTS.
Mr. G. Browne gives the following information about
sheep-names :
The lamb after salving or dipping at Michaelmas,
becomes a hog. It has two narrow centre teeth called lamb
teeth, until next year, when they are cast for two broader
ones. It then (and formally from its first clipping)
SHEEP 269
becomes a twinter. Next year, having cast two more,
it becomes, at dipping, a Thrinter (Westmorland) or
Thruntor (Cumberland). These names, now in common
use among the shepherds, were clearly once applied, as
the Agist Book shows, to cattle as well. There, too, we
find the duntor ; a beast probably in its fourth year.
These words remind one in their alliterative sound of the
Celtic numerals in use till recently in secluded parts of
our country for the counting of sheep, but of which I can
find no memory among Rydal shepherds.
There were other varieties of names for beasts according
to sex and age. The " key " (with a plural kyne) stepped
up from calf to " why " and heiffer, and we find these
specified as 2-year or 3-year heiffers.
The " runt " and the " stot " were young oxen, while
the steer was a gelded male from 2 to 4 years old (Webster) .
The word " stag," seems to have been used hereabouts ,
for a young stallion.* See "Agriculture in Cumberland,"
Transactions, vol. viii. In Lincolnshire it is used for a
cock barn-door fowl or Turkey.
CHAPTER V
THE FISHERIES
Eel and Trout in Rydal Mere, Rothay, Brathay, Elterwater,
and Loughrigg Tarn ; Char in Windermere and
Coniston Water ; " Case " in the Brathay and
Elterwater ; Char-pie, Colossal size in 1673 ; Potted
Char, last mention, 1797.
IN ancient times the rocky rivers and meres of our
district abounded in fish ; and that the abundance
continued down to recent times is shown by the fact
* In the account of the Kendal Horse Fair, Nov. srd, 1915, in the West-
morland Gazette, of Nov. 6th, we find that " stags and foals were plentiful,"
and "heavy stags " and "light stags " are spoken of. The meaning of the
word here being unbroken animals of either sex. When broken they all are
termed colts, a name which elsewhere signifies a young male. ED.
270 RYDAL
that the great bird that follows the fish the heron had a
nesting colony on the island in Rydal- water up to 1870.
Diving birds there were, too, that pursue the fish under
water, of several species ; and there is reason to suppose
as Mr. Macpherson shows, that the mysterious Gravye,
which Sir Daniel Fleming described as resorting to Win-
dermere, and building in hollow trees, may have been
the goosander.
But there was enough fish in the pure streams, fed by
the great flows or mosses that lay in the hollows of the
hills, as well as in the deep, tranquil tarns and meres,
for both bird and man. The fisheries seem to have been
actively pursued from the earliest times, and we find,
from ancient records, that they had a marketable value,
like the land, and that the yield of the waters was reckoned
in the rentals along with the yield of the land.
No doubt the Celt pursued his fishing industry here
on the lakes of Cumbria, as he did in Cambria, by means
of his basket-work corracle. But we have no records
of the craft, earlier than the times when the Barons of
Kendal ruled under the Norman kings, and were lords
of all those waters that poured into Morecambe Bay by
the Lune, the Kent, the Winster, and the Leven. And,
indeed, it is by inference from later records that we gain
knowledge of the descent by inheritance of the ownership
of the fisheries.
For instance, we know from subsequent record, when
the great estates that made up the Barony of Kendal
were divided between the sisters and heiresses, Helwise
and Alice de Lancaster, that the rivers and meres were
divided between them scrupulously and in various
quarters like the land. To Helwise went the waters of
the Kent, which passed to her eldest daughter Margaret,
and remained in that line, till it came to the Crown (as
the Marquis Fee) in Queen Elizabeth's reign. Helwise
had possibly some part of Windermere, and certainly a
THE FISHERIES 271
share in the rivers Rothay and Brathay, which share
apparently comprised the head-waters of both. For we
find these fisheries later in the hands of descendants of
hers, by her younger daughter Lucy, who married Marma-
duke de Thweng. The de Thweng line again broke its
inheritance amongst heiresses in the reign of Edward III.
{Nicolson and Burn), and part went to an elder sister
Lucy, who married Ralph de Lumley, and part to Margaret,
who married John de Hotham. The fisheries that went
originally to Helwise and then to her daughter Lucy
must have been once more divided between the two.
For we find, in a rental of 1375 (now at Levens) of that
portion of the barony that belonged to " John de Hothome
and Walter Pedwardyn, knight, that they owned the
fishery of the waters of " Gresmer." And Alan Belling-
ham, who succeeded to the Lumley portion, and who
likewise secured the Hotham portion (uniting the two
again) was found on his death in 1578, to have been
possessed of a fishery in Windermere, one in " Skelef water"
(Elterwater ?) and one in " Gresmyre."
But it is with Alice de Lancaster's share of the fisheries
of the barony that we are chiefly concerned, for she took,
besides the main portion of Windermere and the lower
portion of the Brathay, the immediate waters of our
parish of Rydal ; and these were kept in her line long
after the grant, by her sister Helwise's daughter, Margaret,
of the isolated manor of Rydal to Roger de Lancaster.
In the Inquisition held in 1283, on the death of Alice's
grandson, William de Lindesey, which is in the Record
Office, it was found that he held a fishery at " Gresmer "
that was worth 6d. yearly, and a fishery called " Routhe-
mer " (Rydal- water) worth i8d. yearly. To obtain the
present equivalent, the sums should be multiplied by
forty. Again, in an old deed that gives the boundaries
of Alice's inheritance as they were " ffrome the tyme of
Sir Walter of lyndesey and Sir Wyllm hys son and hys
272 RYDAL
heyre, and the tyme of dame Cristiane, the doughter of
the same Sir Wyllm " many quaint particulars are told
of the fishery of Windermere which, however, are not
easy to make out. The deed goes on to enumerate, as
part of the property " And also holffe loghryge w th the
holl Watter to the ou' brygge at Skelgw th ."
In a rental of this inheritance, at Levens Hall, of uncer-
tain date, because the heading is mutilated and destroyed
by damp, we get full particulars of the fisheries, and to
whom they were let. It states that " William Lancaster,
knight, holds a fishery in Rothm' (Rydal- water) and renders
yearly 35. 4d." and that " Thos. Harreson Mackerth and
Jacke Johnson," who were estatesmen of Loughrigg,
" hold the fishery of Rathaw (Rothay), 6d." This MS.
is believed to be of the time of Henry VI. or Edward IV.
If so, the Sir William Lancaster, who rented the fishery
of Rydal- water for 33. 4d. could not have been the owner
of the manor of Rydal, as the last William of that line
(of Howgill) , died in the eighth year of Henry IV. There
was, however, a Sir William in the Sockbridge line,
descended from a younger son of Sir Roger, who acted
publicly in the fourteenth year of Henry VI. He owned
Barton, the adjacent manor to Rydal.
We have, however, certain dates, though fewer par-
ticulars, in other Rentals of Alice's inheritance in the
Record Office. In one of 1453, when Henry VI. gave
over Alice's share (which had come to him from the Duke
of Bedford) to the Earl of Richmond, the fisheries are
mentioned, though not to whom leased at that time. We
are told of " Gresmere " that there is a " defect of farm
of the fishery in the several waters there above charged
at 2s., because it lies in the King's hand for a lack of a
tenant for one year of the period 2s." Of " Loghrigge "
(Loughrigg) it is stated that the " farm of fishery in
Rawthmere (Rydal- water) comes to 2s. 2jd., and the
" farm of the fishing in Rawthey (Rothay) to 4d." ;
THE FISHERIES 273
mentioning again a " decay of fishery/' or some loss of
revenue upon it, which brought it below former receipts.
It was but twenty-two years after this time, in 1475,
that John Fleming and John Whitfield, having both
married daughters of the last de Lancaster of the Howgill
line and taken equal shares, through their wives, in the
Manor of Rydal and Loughrigg, made the agreement
that is yet preserved at Rydal Hall. And in this John
Whitfield, while letting his share of the manor to John
Fleming, reserves his right " to make a brewere in the
sayde lordschip and to hafe a chamer and freedom to
hawke, hunt, fisch, and fowle within the lordeschip."
Unless the ownership of the fisheries of Rydal-water and
the Rothay had been made over by the lord of the Rich-
mond Fee to the lord of the manor of Rydal in those
twenty- two years, this freedom to fish that John Whitfield
kept for himself could only have extended to the waters
of Rydal Beck (see Sizergh MS.).
No particulars have, so far, come to light to show when
the transfer of ownership was made. Two hundred
years later, when the fisheries of our parish come again
into evidence, they were not only in possession of the
Flemings, lords of Rydal, but those lords claimed also
the whole waters of the Brathay, including Elterwater,
and also Loughrigg Tarn. And all memory had passed
of the time when they had not been theirs, for Sir Daniel
expressly says, in his description of Westmorland, that
they had belonged to the lords of Rydal " time out of
mind."
That the fisheries were worked by his immediate
ancestors is proved by papers recently found. His wise old
great grandmother, Mrs. Agnes Fleming, writing to her son
John shortly before her death in 1631, recommending
his speedy return to Rydal to look after his " husbandrie "
and other matters, says, " for the fishinge of brathey
unlesse you get a warrant for the mentenance of it with
T
274 RYDAL
wood you nor I can make either proffit by kepeing or
let tinge of it." As neither the land nor the lordship of
the Loughrigg shore of Brathay was in the hands of the
Flemings, but only the waters, the " warrant " here
needed was probably one from the owner of the land to
fish from it, and to erect some kind of wood- work in the
nature of a fish-garth in the running stream. And possibly
the entry we find in Sir David Fleming's account-book
under October n, 1658 : " Paid unto Robert Shackley,
junior (by J.B.) for ye halfe yeares Rent for ye fishing of
Braythay due at Michaelmas last. 00.02.08." represents
that warrant to fish from Robert Shackley's land. We
shall see later how frequently the Rydal squire let his
fisheries on the far Loughrigg side to estatesmen who
owned adjacent land, thus obviating the need to pay for
their permission. And Squire John, son of Mrs. Agnes,
had obviously attended to his fisheries, as the following
entries in the account-book of his bailiff, William Tyson,
show :
s. d.
1631, Sep. 2ist, paid Edw. Pegg for 2 newe netts
and mending an old one and yarne . . . . 01 6 6
Nov. paid for roups for newe nett . . , . oo 2 2
1632, Aug., paid for an Eile net for Brathey . . oo 12 o
Later, in the mass of papers left behind by Sir Daniel,
there is continual reference, in memoranda, in bills of
craftsmen, and in correspondence, to the fishing that went
on. We learn that there were fish-garths in the Rothay
and Brathay valleys that were regularly in use ; there
was a boat for fishing on Rydal- water ; floating boxes
on both rivers for keeping fish in, called coups or arks ;
and some kind of fish-enclosure called floaks in Rydal
beck.
The memory of the fishgarth and of its construction is
lost. It was the work of the carpenter, and we may
suppose it to have been some kind of fence made of
THE FISHERIES 275
hedging stakes, that enclosed the side of the river at a
wide part. The bills of Richard Nicholson, the Rydal
carpenter, show entries of his work upon the garths
almost every year.
s. d.
1657, One daye mending the Fishgarth at Brathey oo oo 06
And another daye at the Fishgaith and make
ing the Rouller in the garden . . . . . . oo oo 06
1658, Att the Fishgarth at Brathey 3 dayes . . oo 01 oo
Twice over we find entries of the work of Richard and
one of his sons at Floakes in the Rydal Head, where a
deep pool below a fall still goes by the name of Buckstones
Jumb or Jum. This is conjectured by the present beck-
watcher to have been a rough boxing-in of the stream at
a suitable place, with a shutter or door that could be let
down, to keep in the fish that had entered.
1656, For himself e and sonne either two dayes ffor s. d.
makeinge Floakes at Buckstone without meate
at 5d. a day . . . . . . . . . . oo 01 08
1657, One daye and a halfe when we made the fioake
betwixt the Buckstone and Dale Head Green oo oo 06
The coup or ark was no doubt an open-work or perforated
box in which fish were kept in readiness for the table at
any time. They are yet used at Baden-Baden and no
doubt many other places, where the curious traveller
may see the fish he has ordered for dinner drawn out of
the box that is anchored in the running stream. Char
were kept for the tourist in Coniston- water by this method
as lately as 1835, as related by Thompson (Macpherson's
Fauna of Lakeland). The coup, when placed in a lake,
would doubtless be fixed near the entrance of a rivulet,
which ensures a flow of water through it. In 1663,
Richard Nicholson gets " for mending the manor coup "
and another piece of work 8d. The modest items of his
bills cause us, when we come to the following entry in
Sir Daniel's own account-book, a start of surprise.
276 RYDAL
1680, June 28th. Sent for ale to the workmen who
made and this day set a new ark in Rydal- water oo 02 06
Unfortunately we have not the bill for this coup.
The Rydal blacksmith, George Ottley, charges in a
bill of 1665, " for a claspe to the boatte " os. 4d.
Sir Daniel Fleming, in his description of Westmorland,
speaks of there being " store of fish as pikes, perch, trouts,
and eeles," in Rydal- water. These fish were taken by
net in the summer-tiine ; and we must conclude that the
multitude of them made the drawing of the net something
of a sight. For on April 12, 1682, Sir Daniel took his
visitors down from the Hall to the lake, to see the draught
of fishes ; which caused him to tip the " fishers " is. and
enter the amount in his account-book.
This was early in the season, and the haul must chiefly
have been trout. It is not till late summer that the eels
are worth taking. Then these curious and still (to
zoologists) mysterious fish, which in spring-time have sped
up the rivers from the sea as short and wire-like creatures,
have waxed gross, and lie on the lake-bottom in numbers,
and of so large a size as to be " thick as a man's arm,"
waiting the time when they shall speed back again to the
sea. Eel-fishing by net has long gone out of use, but it
was the practice, till quite recently, for the men of the
estate to take a boat out in early morning-time, and to
spear the fish that lay at the bottom from above ; which
must have been an adroit sport.
The waters of Rydal Beck, of the river and the lake
would more than supply the needs of the Hall in trout
and eel and odd fish ; while from Coniston lake, owned
by the same lord, an abundant supply of the much-prized
char could be procured. The outlying fisheries were let,
therefore, as they had been in early times. We have
seen Mrs. Agnes Fleming's anxiety as to the fishery of the
Brathay, which was an important one, as it included the
char. And when her great-grandson, Squire Daniel,
THE FISHERIES 277
settled on the patrimony he had fought for and wrested
from Commonwealth and relatives, he set about letting
the fisheries, which had probably run to waste. His
account-book shows some entries on the subject, while a
careful study of his rent-book and its microscopic writing
furnishes a good many more particulars of these lets and
leases, which did not always run smoothly. Payments
were frequently behindhand ; and the lessee was some-
times forced to join with a neighbour in a bill that secured
to the lord the rent stipulated.
The account-book shows that in 1663 the eel and char
fisheries of the Brathay were let together for the consider-
able sum of i. 43. od. ; in 1666 the fisheries of Elterwater
and Loughrigg Tarn were let at I2s. od. a year ; in 1669
James Benson who held the char fishery of the Brathay,
paid two years rent for Elterwater ; but in 1674 the rent
was overdue by three years, and remained so for seven
years. In 1675 it was divided, and Edward Fisher took
Loughrigg Tarn for three years, paying 35. 4d., and
delivering " 20 of ye August eels yearly." In 1681 both
tarn and lake were let to Bernard Benson of the Fold,
on a lease of seven years, for i6s. a year. This substantial
freeholder was, however, a bad payer likewise, and only
continual bills, to which his neighbours put their hands,
extorted arrears from him in 1691. In 1690 therefore
Sir Daniel let the same fishing to Thomas Roberts (doubt-
less of Ellers) who the year before had taken the tarn alone
at 3s. 4d., reducing the rent to I2S. od. again, with the
addition of a" good dish of fish every year " for Rydal
Hall.
The " Braythey-Ele Fishing," now separated from the
char, was let in 1666 at 2os. od. a year, which was regularly
paid till 1674. In 1676, Sir Daniel let this " Eale fishery "
to Regnald Holme, of Skilwith Bridge ; and as the draft
of the agreement is preserved, we have more particulars
of it. The lease was fixed at the optimistic terms of 1,000
278 RYDAL
years. Regnald, or Reginald Holme, on the part of him-
self and his heirs, undertook to fish the Brathay from the
foot of Elterwater to the head of Windermere, for all fish
but case (char) and to make " no other fish-garths for
eles than the present ones," and to furnish 203. and " such
eels and other fish " as Sir Daniel and his heirs might
require " before any other are served " at reasonable
prices. If the rent should not be paid six days after due,
it was arranged that the goods of Regnald Holme could
be seized and sold.
Regnald Holme stuck to his bargain apparently as long
as he could. But trouble was brewing for him, as we
learn from other MS. records. For in the very year of
this lease one Reginald Holme, a Quaker, of Loughrigg
(and that there were not two of the name we know from the
registers) is the subject of two resolutions passed by the
body of Friends, one at their monthly meeting at Swath-
moor, and the other at their quarterly meeting at Lan-
caster ; which ordain that as he has long resisted their
counsels to settle peaceably the dispute between himself
and another of their body, that other may now have
recourse to the law for the recovery of his rights. But
Reginald Holme was a man who resisted law, as well as
counsel. In 1684 Sir Daniel, as a magistrate, issued a
warrant for the appearance at the Kendal court of
Reginald Holme, his sons John, Jacob, and George, and
daughter Dorothy, who did altogether, when the officers
of the law appeared for " the sequestration of Reginald's
estate, not only hinder them but did also riotously fall
upon them, beat, and abuse them, and did also threaten
them and speak very contemptuously concerning their
authority."
The end of the matter is not recorded ; but in 1695 r
John Holm (doubtless Regnald's heir) was paying the
stipulated 205. od. for the Brathay eel fishery.
The next evidence we have of the eel and trout fisheries
THE FISHERIES 279
of the Brathay valley occurs in the lifetime of Sir William
Fleming, son of Daniel. He drew up an agreement,
July 10, 1729, with one Hammond Metley, by which
Hammond took over the fishing of Elterwater, of " Lofer-
ridge Tarn," and of the river from Elterwater to Winder-
mere, for all fish but case. For this he was to pay 3
yearly, unless he could prove it to be unremunerative at
the price, when an abatement of i was to be allowed.
He also had leave to get " Rushces " (which no doubt
had a certain marketable value) ; while on Sir William's
side, angling either for himself or " his order " was to be
allowed. In 1758 the Rydal fishery was leased to a
Mr. Braithwaite at i. is. od. yearly.
Particulars of the nets for eel fishing are often given in
the old account-books. Squire John, as we have seen,
paid I2s. od. in August, 1632, for an eel net for Brathay.
Richard Nicholson, the Rydal carpenter, charges for
" A frame for ye ele net " with other items, 8d. In 1674,
Sir Daniel secured a very cheap net from the fishermen
of Windermere to whom he had sold his Brathay fishery.
" Allowed unto Christ. Roberts and his son for 4 doz. of case
35. 4d., paid him in full for an eel net is. 6d., and given back 2d.
in all oo 053. ood."
It was perhaps this one-and-eightpenny net that Sir
William was thinking of when he made his bargain for a
" New Eele Net " in 1704. He had to pay, however,
2s. od. for the yarn and 43. od. for the making. In 1708
yarn had risen by 2d., so 6s. 2d. was the total cost of the
fresh net. In 1714, however, the net-maker made the
net one yard shorter than the old model, whereupon
Sir William paid him only 35. 6d., instead of 45. od.
In 1784, eel nets had gone up to almost their ancient
price, for to one Anthony Garnett was paid for " an eal
and trout net los. 6d."
The following three " notes " in Sir William's hand-
writing, were found carefully pinned together, with a
round-headed pin of the time.
280 RYDAL
I.
New Eele Net 1704
Note. Wednesday July 12. Lanty
Lancaster came to make me a new Eeelnet, and he proposed to
take 3d. a day, and meat 6d. a day without meat or 45. for all ;
which I agreed to.
Note I had 3 hanks of yarne by Will Benson from Ulverstone
for Which I pd. him, July 14. o 3 o
of which only 2 hanks was used for the nett.
And I pd. Lanty Lancaster July 19. 1704 43. for making the
net which was just 5 yds. long all.
Soe the net cost me
2 hanks yarne . . . . . . 020
making . . . . . . . . 040
Note he made it in 6 days and was 6 thread all, and 3 of the last
Rows double on 12 threads.
II.
Agreed with Henry Jackson July 17, 1708 to make me a new
Eel-net of the like Lake Length, widenesse, and thicknesse with
that I had July, 1704, and for the like price.
Given him 2 hanks of yarne had of Baxter of ( * ) to the
Hank which cost I3d. a hank.
and two clues of the yarne that spared of the last Eel net.
Note, he brought me the new Eel net July 27. 1708, and I pd.
him .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 040
to Banks for 2 hanks of yarne 10 ( * ) in a hank 022
062
Note he brought a mint (?) yarne back of the quantity of the 2
Clues given him for 2 hanks sufficed.
III.
Agreed with Henry Jackson June 27, 1714 to make me another
Ele Nett of the Like Length with that of July 12. 1704, and that
of July 17. 1708.
Note he had 2 hanks of yarne given him what weighed (not
filled in).
Note he brought it July 22. 1714 said it was all Long but 4 yds.
had 50 meshes at small end and 66 at the wide end.
the old one had 50 or 52 meshes at small end and 67 at wide
end.
* Word not made out.
THE FISHERIES 28l
Soe the new one had all the faults of old and one yard shorter.
Pd. him July 25. 1714 owing of being a yd. shorter 6 6
for which he said it was better but my servant said the Contrary,
soe if found to short upon his mending it he was to have 6*
more.
Certainly the fish of most repute in olden times was the
char, the golden Alpine trout, as it has been called (Salmo
Alpinus, Linn.) of our mountain lakes. Peculiar as this
species is to deep, rocky meres, it very early excited
attention, and the " case charr," the " red charr " and
the "gilt charr" all only seasonal phases of colour in the
same fish were spoken of as distinct varieties. Sir
Daniel Fleming even explained the supposed difference
between the identical case and char. He says, " Up the
river Routha go yearly great plenty of large trouts, and
up Brathey many Case (a fish very like a charr, but of
different species, it spawning at another time of the year),
and tho' these waters runs a good way in one channel
before they fall into Winander-meer-water, and are both
very clear and bottomed alike, yet the owners of Rydal
Hall (to whom the fishing of both these rivers doth belong,
and have a fish-ark or coop in either river), scarce ever
get any trouts in Brathey, or Case in Routhameer." He
invariably spoke of the fish caught in the Brathay as case,
and that taken in Coniston-water or Windermere as
charr.*
The char-fish still preserves the habit he described, in
spite of lake pollution and of great alterations in the bed
of the river. As winter approaches, and the swarms
leave the deep hollows of the lake-bottom, where they
have passed the hot weather, to seek the shallows for a
* The Char or Charr (Salmo Alpinus, Linn.) is believed to be extinct in
Ullswater, but is found in Windermere, Coniston, Hawes Water, Crumrnock,
Buttermere, Ennerdale and Wastwater. Mr. Macpherson quoting " Jenyns,
cited by Day " identifies the case and the charr which D. F. separates (LXXIII,
p. 152). " This fish," he says, " in its ordinary state is a case charr of Pennant ;
when exhibiting the bright crimson belly which it assumes before spawning,
it is called the red charr ; when out of season, the spawn having been shed, it
is distinguished by the name of gilt charr."
282 RYDAL
spawning bed, great numbers run up the wide and rocky
Brathay. The spawning ground is about a mile up the
river from Birdhouse Mouth which is the name of the
short course of the joint streams of Brathay and Rothay.
Here a projection of Loughrigg plants a rocky foot athwart
the path of the river, forming a natural weir, above which
the water moves sluggishly through flat and oft-flooded
meadows, and is known as the pool. This natural weir
presented (before alteration) a series of short cascades,
which made this reach between the Pool and Brathay
Bridge one of the most beautiful bits of river scenery
imaginable. It had its flat stretches too. Between the
highest broken water and the once fine cascade by Brathay
Church there was a level stretch, where the river spread
over sandy shallows and meandered by side-channels ;
where tangles of water growths, of bushes and of flowers
specially of the golden globe flower pressed in upon
it and seemed to impede its course. It may be these
sandy shallows, peculiar to the river for there are not
any such in the course of the Rothay that form the
attraction to the fish ; hereabouts, at any rate, it is that
they have been in the habit from time immemorial of
spawning ; and still do spawn, though the rocks of the
cascades have been blasted away, and a narrow canal cut
for the river through the gravelly flat, in order to prevent
the valley flooding at the Pool. The beck watcher
considers that these changes have greatly incommoded
the char, but have not caused them wholly to forsake
their old haunt.
The land adjacent to this strip of river is still known as
Fish-garths, though all memory of systematic fishing
has gone ; and only the poaching that went on here till
quite recently and even by daylight on Sunday mornings
when decent folk were in the church hard by is remem-
bered.
Here it must have been that the lords of Rydal, from
THE FISHERIES 283
the time they possessed rights over the river, had their
fishery for case, which, as they had abundance of char
in their lake of Coniston for their own household use, they
generally let. Sir Daniel's Rent-book gives us many
particulars of these lets and leases, details of which may
be filled up from his account-book, which begins earlier.
In this we find, as early as 1658, an entry he made
" July 1 4th. Received of Edwin Greene part of ye case fishing
ye last year oolb. 128. 06.'*
Now Edwin Greene was an estatesman of Rydal, who
collected the lords rents of the manor in the years between
1642 and 1645, as is shown by an account book which
exists for those years in the handwriting of Richard
Harrison, executor of Squire John and steward for the
ill-fated young Squire William. It is possible, therefore,
that he did not lease the fishing, but only collected the
rent from the lessee.
The next entry shows that two men undertook the
responsibility of the fishery, one of whom, Reginald
Brathwaite, was an estatesman of Clappersgate, who had
no doubt land adjacent to the fishery.
" 1663, July i4th. Received of Reginald Brathwait and Geo.
Jackson for two yeares rent of ye ele and case fishing of Brathy
O2lb. o8s. ood."
In November i8th of the same year we have a confusing
entry.
" Received of Geo. Braithwait (besides 4d. in earnest and 23.
allowed for two dozen of case) for Brathay Fishing now due
oo. 10. 02.'*
In 1666 both books show that Squire Daniel received
143. od. for one year for the case-fishing and from one
James Benson. Next year Thomas Roberts had it at
the same price ; while in 1668 it reverted to James Benson
who paid 155. od. When entering this sum into his rent
book, March 22nd, he adds, " This fishing is let unto-
James Benson for 5 yeares longer upon ye same terms as
284 RYDAL
above, and when I have a mind to have ye Holme Dubb
drawn, then he's to do it for one halfe of ye fish." * The
next account-book entry shows, however, 145. od.
received, but also that some bargain had been made as
to the supply of so many case (valued at is. od. a dozen)
free to the Hall.
" March 23rd. Received of James Benson for ye fishing of
Elterwater, due Aug. i, 69, I2S., and for ye Case Fishing due
Nov. 3oth, 69, 145. and for 6 case wanting ye last year 6d.,
in all oilb. o6s. o6d."
In 1670 and 1671, i6s. od. was paid, but the additional
shillings may have balanced the gift-fish which the squire
had not had, or " case wanting," for in 1673, i. 8s. od.
is the sum of two years rent.
This fishery had a growing value, perhaps because of
the increased appetite for char pie, and the increased
export of that dainty to London. For at the end of this
lease Squire Daniel was able to secure a rise, and he let
it for seven years to two men of Windermere, for 175. od.
a year, with the stipulation that fish should be supplied
to him, if wanted, at lod. a dozen. We find that he made
use of this, for in 1674 he had four dozen of fish, in 1675
three dozen and a half, in 1676 eight dozen, and 1677 as
many as ten dozen. In this year there was also a deduc-
tion from the rent "for a net and mending, of another
6s." In 1678 he had four dozen of fish, which lessened
the rent by 33. 4d.
In 1679, a better bargain still was made. Two men of
Applethwaite took the Brathay Fishing, on a lease of
nine years at i8s. od. a year, " and to deliver so many
dozen of ye best case quick as I shall at any time demand
ye same, allowing 8d. ye dozen in ye rent." In this way
Squire Daniel secured, in 1687, five dozen fish for 33. 4d.
* A pool in the now diverted course of the Rot hay, near Miller Bridge, is
remembered by the beck-watcher to have been called Brig Holm Dub. That,
being nearer to Clappersgate than to Rydal, may have been the one which
the squire arranged to have fished by the Brathay fishermen.
THE FISHERIES 285
And the demand still grew. Five years before this con-
tract expired, the squire arranged the next run for twenty-
one years at the same rate, with the same Reginald Holm
(coupled with another man) who held the 1,000 year lease
of the eel fishing of Brathay.
If we follow the fortunes of the Brathay char-fishing
further, we find, after a long gap in the evidence, that Sir
William Fleming let it in 1755 to Gawen Braithwaite at
1. is. od. a year, for a period of eleven years, with a
stipulated gift of two dozen fish, and a right for himself
and his " company " to fish without a net.
For angling had come into fashion, as the first Sir
William's stipulation in 1729 to angle in Loughrigg Tarn
and Elterwater shows. And that his successor practised
the gentle art we know, for in 1752 his London agent
writes to him that he has " found it Difficult to get a few
hairs from the King's Horses." He sends therefore,
only the two dozen of these desirable articles that he has
been able to procure (price 2s. od.) along with a fishing
line, which he hopes will prove of the right sort, as " it's
reckon'd to be the best hear for the fly."
The last we hear of the Brathay fishing is in 1772,
when it seems to have been netted for the benefit of the
young squire only, and a record left of the " Chare Fish
taken in the River Bratha." A lamentable taste had
arisen for the fish in their red-coated state, that is, before
they spawn, and when they are said to be actually the
poorest in flavour ; and we find that this draught of 1772
was taken at a time when they must have just run up the
river to seek their spawning ground. On October 13,
twenty-one dozen were netted, all of which except four
and a half dozen reserved for Sir Michael's use were
despatched as presents for friends, whose names are
recorded. On the igih, twenty-nine dozen more were
netted, twenty dozen of which went to Rydal Hall,
doubtless for pie making and potting.
286 RYDAL
Perhaps it was this suicidal policy as regards the fish
that brought the prices up so high. In 1781, six dozen
of char were bought for the Hall at 2. 8s. od., being
8s. od. a dozen ! A different price this from Sir Daniel's
8d. a dozen, which was not even the minimum price, for
we read in his account-book for 1671, November 16,
" 12 case 6d." Eightpence a dozen was never, however,
the true market value of the fish. We find that in 1661,
when Sir Daniel bought outside his domain from the
Windermere fisheries; that he had to pay 2s. 6d. a dozen.
In 1673, when procuring fish for two pots on behalf of
Sir George Fletcher, he paid 145. od. for seven dozen.
This seems to have been the current price for some time.
When Sir William Fleming let his Coniston fishing in
1703 for 3 a year (through his uncle Roger), it was with
the understanding that he could have as many fish as he
wanted at 2s. od. the dozen, which was probably some-
what below the market value.
But the value of the char was well established and
increasing, as is shown by a curious transaction that Sir
William entered into in 1726. The owner of Ambleside
Hall had possessed an old right to have two boats on
Windermere, as well as to exact a tax from the fishers of
the lake of twenty chars yearly, or 55. od in their place.
As the Ambleside Hall property was being sold piece-meal,
Sir William bought from the owner (along with a pew in
Ambleside Chapel that carried with it a charge for the
curate's salary) the right of one boat on the lake and the
char for 6. 43. od. Mr. Dummer, who sold it, wrote to
him from London at the conclusion of the bargain, " I
heartily wish you joy with it, for I hear the charrs are
worth all the money and more." And though Sir William
could proudly reply, that the char were of no moment to
him, as he had plenty in Coniston to be had for less, there
was no doubt some truth in the remark.
From the char-fish to the char-pie is but a step, and one
THE FISHERIES 287
almost as inevitable to the minute historian of the twen-
tieth century as it was to the housekeeper of the seven-
teenth. A dish that figures so largely in the bills, the
correspondence, the memoranda of the latter period, that
was so mysterious and colossal in size, and that became
so famous, can hardly be overlooked by the local antiquary.
Though originally baked no doubt for household use only,
in homes hard by the lake where the fish was caught, it
was presently sent as a speciality to friends and relatives
in neighbouring Westmorland halls ; then, its fame
spreading, it was carried into Lancashire, to Leeds, to
London as far as pack horses could carry it and finally
became, in the hands of Sir Daniel Fleming, an instrument
of social diplomacy, whereby he sweetened (or savoured)
his intercourse with politicians and friends at court.
The antiquity of the char-pie we can hardly guess, but
its genesis we may. Food in ancient days was simple,
coarse, and unpalatable. The bread of the district was
made of oats or barley (bigg), the only two cereals grown
in Rydal, and in the seventeenth century wheaten bread
was procured even for the Hall in small quantities, and
generally ready baked, from Kendal or Ambleside. Fresh
meat was enjoyed only in the summer, even by the wealth-
ier classes. The cattle that could not be sheltered through
the winter in byre and hog house were killed in autumn
and laid down in salt. The butter of the summer, too,
was kept by salting. Lent, in fact, fell at an exceedingly
appropriate time for the larder, when the stock of winter
food was running low, and even becoming putrid.
To make a virtue of necessity is well. But religion
has never controlled man's appetite, nor prevented him
from seeking alleviations to a bare and meagre diet.
Fresh eggs, which become plentiful in February, and which
even furnished the old pre- Lenten feast of pancakes,
were never denied to the accredited faster ; nor was fresh
fish. And how delicious to the palate, wearied by the
288 RYDAL
coarse briny food of winter, must the taste of fresh fish
have been !
Now it was just at the opening of Lent, when winter
storms were over, and the lake maybe thawed from its
armour of ice, that the boats and netters went forth, and
drew the yearly yield of char. For then, as now, a close
season for the fish seems to have been kept, which ex-
tended, if we may judge from the dates in Sir Daniel's
records, to early February, if not as now to the I5th.
We know by the tip given to the Coniston man who
brought the haul of fish to Rydal Hall, when it was taken ;
and we find it was February 18, in 1661, February 19, in
1662, March 8, in 1668, and February 20, in 1671. On
February 4, 1660, some were brought, but only half-a-
dozen. So February 18, 1661, was the date of the Winder-
mere haul ; and though another on that lake was January
31, 1673, this but shows that though there was a wise
law of custom in the matter, there was none of prohibition,
that might not be broken. The dates of the despatch of
char-pies, baked almost immediately, confirms the sup-
position of a close time ; they range from February 22
to March 22, and generally occur on the last few days of
February, or the first of March.
Now the yield for netting was large ; and it was an
economical measure, as well as a satisfaction to the palate,,
to preserve the fish that could not be immediately eaten,
and ro prolong the season of feasting. This was done by
the old expedient of baking in a crust of pastry, with a
heavy seasoning of salt, pepper and spices. The phrase
" to season," as applied to culinary ingredients, show
their ancient use in preserving food beyond its natural
time.
The method of keeping food by spices is so old that its
beginning is not known. It is surprising to find how
early imported delicacies for spicing were present in
English kitchens. Our typically English dishes, plum-
THE FISHERIES 289
pudding and mince-pie dishes created to furnish a feast
that fell in the mid-winter scarcity, and which have lost
their savour now that a variety of foods, and fresh foods,
can be easily procured are almost wholly made up of
foreign ingredients. The dried fruits and spices with
which they are loaded, drown the original English ingre-
dients minced suet and beef (the latter boiled, no doubt
to extract salt), which they were intended to make
palatable. These dried fruits came from south-eastern
Europe, as did no doubt cummin, the dried seed of an
umbelliferous plant, which was used for flavouring.
Cummin was so treasured in Westmorland homesteads
of the better class, and its use (probably to season cakes)
so general, that the complimentary payment of a free-
holder for land to his lord often took the form of a pound
or half a pound of it. An Inquisition of 1283 in the
Record Office shows that a certain freehold in Grasmere
paid half a pound of cummin yearly to the de Lindeseys.
Bainriggs, in Rydal, anciently a freehold, was held by
the payment of the same, from time immemorial.
Pepper, cinnamon, nutmegs and cloves came from
Eastern Asia and the far Spice Islands. Professor Thorold
Rogers tells us something of the ancient overland routes
by which men made the immense and hazardous journey
to Europe and the west. When these routes were blocked
by disturbance in Asia, the trade sought other channels,
and came round partly by desert, some of it passing
through Egypt. In the fifteenth century prices fell, and
pepper dropped to one-half. This may have stimulated
the making of char-pies in Westmorland, but pepper had
been in use here long before that. Like cummin, it
served as a fee on freehold land ; and some of the lands
of Kendal were held in 1301 by payment (besides money)
of three pounds of pepper, two pounds of cummin, one
pound of wax and twelve arrows (Nicolson and Burn.)
The art of baking with a raised crust was doubtless
U
2QO RYDAL
also a very ancient one. There is no time when the record
of feasts does not include pastry. There were game-pies,
veal-pies, eel-pies and venison pasties, as well as char-pies.
In the list of dishes suitable for a wedding feast, copied
by Sir Daniel in his youth, there appears a strange pie
made of sheeps' heads, only the horns of which were to
appear (pointedly to the occasion) from out the enclosing
crust of pastry. Perhaps this humorous dish was peculiar
to East Westmorland, where he was brought up, for there
all the sheep are horned ; it must certainly have been of
large size and involved great skill in the making. But
great skill the dames of the old English household un-
doubtedly possessed ; and cooking, like needlework, was
practised as a fine art. It was learnt traditionally, but
sometimes professional instruction was given in it, as we
find by the following entry in Sir Daniel's account-book
about his daughter :
" 1671, April, i Qth. Delivered to Katy to give unto a cook at
Cockermouth for teaching her pastry work, oolb. los. ood."
The art of making the " raised pie " as it is professionally
called, though almost extinct,* is still practised by a few
old-fashioned housekeepers of the Lake country. Within
the memory of the aged, it was usual in every substantial
household. An old lady tells me that in her childhood,
when a pig was killed, pies were baked in large numbers,
and stored in a cupboard, for use in rotation. It was
considered a disgrace to the maker if the pies would not
keep as long as wanted. Miss Harriet Martineau, who
was a practical economist and kept pigs with profit, had
a cook who was a notable maker of pork pies, and they
were sent round as presents to friends, in the old style.
The eel-pie seems to have become extinct early in these
parts, as there is a note of July 7, 1781, that no " Eals "
had been procured for potting. I am told that it long
* It is by no means extinct in Lincolnshire, in Notts, or Yorkshire. ED.
THE FISHERIES 2QI
survived at the feast of the Chapter at Ely, where it was
an indispensable and immemorial feature, like the boar's
head of the Christmas Feast at Queen's College, Oxford.
The game-pie, though made with a crust until recently,
is now often sealed with lard or butter, or cooked in a
special dish with a lid. Nothing, indeed, is left but the
pork-pie of Melton Mowbray, made by professional cooks,
to show us what the " charr-pye " of old was like.
But whatever its age as a culinary institution, it is
significant that in the very first account-books of the
Fleming family that have so far turned up, and which
represent but two years' expenditure, the char-pie makes
an appearance. William Tyson, bailiff of Squire John
Fleming, wrote in February, 1632 :
Paid for Chardge with the Charr Pyes . . . . 93. yd.
Itm. Gerrard Chardge wth. them . . . . . . 8s. 6d.
Now the heaviness of these items should be noted.
Tyson was at this time paying lod. for a quarter of mutton;
for nine chickens is. 6d. ; for eggs for three weeks at the
Hall 3d. ; for butter, eggs and onions on another occasion
8d.
The 93. 7d. probably represented the condiments for
the pies alone, the fish costing nothing. The 8s. 6d. was
clearly paid for carriage, as Gerrard appears in the next
item as furnishing herrings, which would come from More-
cambe Bay. And the pies were probably despatched to
Speke Hall in Lancashire, where Squire John in these
years spent a great part of his time.
It was when the young Squire Daniel had taken unto
himself a wife, and was about to begin his long and
notable reign at the Hall, that we hear next of the char-pie.
His father's and his own faithful bailiff, John Banks,
wrote to him, February n, 1655, from Coniston, where
the family had been established in the years when Rydal
Hall was still kept from them, and where his widowed
292 RYDAL
mother continued to live : "I hoope wee shall gett the
pye backed (baked) and putt fforward on Saturday next."
And further, " And ffor the ff ether bed tickes the are
heare and will be sent " (no doubt to Rydal Hall) " the
next week, ffor yo'r mother will send a Horse w'th them
and some Chares and some Chares to Yanwath and Hutton
John." At Yanwath lived the Dudleys, who were uncle
and aunt to Daniel, and at Hutton John the Huddlestons,
also relatives.
After this we have abundant information, from Sir
Daniel's account-books, from memoranda in his hand-
writing, and from a bill lately discovered, on the subject
of char-pie.
Entries in his account-book show that the first pies
despatched to London were sent to his Aunt Dudley, then
residing in town, and who no doubt would have missed
the annual delicacy to which she had been accustomed
at Yanwath. For in 1660, March 12, 73. od. was paid for
the carriage of a pie to her ; and on February 28th next
year another went in company with one for Sir George
Fletcher (Squire Daniel's father-in-law), the two weighing
7 stones, 9 pounds, only 6 pounds short of one
hundred- weight ! and costing 145. od. in carriage ; while
next year again, on February 23rd, another pie was
despatched to her that cost 6s. od. in carriage, at the rate
of 2d. a pound. This last pie weighed, therefore, 2 stones
8 pounds, or 36 pounds, and is the lightest recorded.
The weights from that time continued to increase, and
the pies presumably to get larger, while they were sent
with a frequency that makes enumeration wearisome.
The entries need not be quoted verbatim, as some of them
have already been printed in the volume on the Rydal
Hall papers published by the Historical MSS. Commission,
some in Macpherson's Fauna of Lakeland (Article Char),
while all of them appear in the excerpts from the great
account-book, given in Dr. Magrath's The Flemings in
Oxford (2 volumes).
THE FISHERIES 2Q3
Briefly then : In 1663, two pies were despatched on
March 8th, to Mr. Joseph Williamson and Mr. Newman,
which cost i in carriage at the 2d. rate, and which,
therefore must have weighed 4 stone 4 pounds each.
In 1664 Mr. Williamson again had a pie (sent February
25th) which cost 95. 6d. In 1665 he received another,
which, with the one sent at the same time to Lord Arling-
ton, weighed 7 stones 6 pounds, and cost L. In 1666,
this influential man was the recipient of two pies, weighing
9 stones i pound, costing i8s. od., which is less than the
2d. rate ; while two days later (February 23rd) a pie was
despatched to the Earl of Carlisle, weighing 4 stones
5 pounds, and costing 95. od. In 1667 and on the
exceptionally early date of February 8th two pies went
to Mr. Williamson that cost i. os. 6d., at the 2d. rate,
and must have weighed 8 stones n pounds. In 1670 the
pies were smaller, as the two that went off to Mr. William-
son and the Earl of Carlisle weighed together 6 stones
8 pounds, and costing 155. od. It was in 1673 that the
maximum was apparently reached, when a couple of pies
were despatched to the Earl of Carlisle which weighed
" near 12 stone," or 84 pounds each.
The weight of these pieces of pastry has excited comment.
And enormous the pies must have been to attain it ;
even considering the fact that consolidated food of this
character weighs heavily. The quantity of fish used in
them we know, as eleven dozen in one case served for four
pies, in another seven dozen for two ; and three to three
and-a-half dozen seems to have been the usual allowance
for each ; while for the two colossal pies of 1673, eight
dozen were used. Then the condiments and pastry
added to the weight. But besides this, there was the
packing of the pie for carriage.
This point has been hitherto overlooked. Yet it is
certain that the long, slow journey to London, by indiffer-
ent roads, slung on the back of a jolting pack-horse,
294 RYDAL
could not be made by a piece of pastry without protection.
And that it was the weight of the package, as made up
for the carrier, and not of the pie, as it left the kitchen,
that was paid for, is shown by a small piece of paper in the
nature of a ticket, written in Sir Daniel's minute hand,
which evidently accompanied the two pies, mentioned
above as weighing 6 stones 8 pounds, as addresses. On
one side is written
" For the Right Hon'ble the Earl of Carlisle, at his house in ye
old Pallace Yard hast (hasten) these with care. London."
And on the other :
" For Joseph Williamson, Esq., hast these with care, at his
Lodgings in Whitehall, London."
While scrawled across each, in a rougher hand, is the
weight, " 3 stone and a halfe," "3 stone and lib." So
evidently the carrier handed this ticket back with the
attached weight on his return journey, for payment. The
fact is proved by entries found in the bills of Richard
Nicholson, the Rydal carpenter. He notes
" One day caseing up ye pyes oo. oos.
" One day and a halfe for making foure frames, 3 for pyes and
one for Mr. Bracken oos. o6d."
Whatever the fourth frame might be (and as Mr. Bracken
was a portrait painter, it seems to have been for a picture)
the three for pies would no doubt be constructed of the
lats which Richard was in the habit of rieving for partition
work in houses, and which would make a good and toler-
ably light cage for the great cheese-like presents on their
journey. Some later ones, as we shall see, went in boxes.
It is certain that these earlier pies, cased by Richard,
were made in the kitchen of Rydal Hall. But the in-
creasing dignity of the dish, which went to the tables of
noblemen and courtiers, as well as its increasing size and
fame, lifted it about 1670 out of the hands of the amateur
THE FISHERIES 2Q5
pastry maker ; and a class of professional experts sprang
up, who undertook to concoct the delicacy for export
from the district. The bill for the colossal pies of 1673,
which Sir Daniel preserved, has fortunately been found,
and shows them to have been made by one Mrs. Ann
Potter, of Kendal, whose husband seems to have been a
general provider, since he sold wine and candles. In her
large handwriting, which appears in two other bills, and
in her extraordinary spelling, every item is set forth.
The squire docketed it Mrs. Potter's Acq. for 2 charr pies."
" Mrs. Potter's Acq. for 2 charr pies."
A Not what the to pyes comes to
for one pye in mace . . . . . . . . ..^048
Cloues .. .. .. .. .. .. ..044
numuges .. .. .. .. .. .. ..oio
Sinement 018
peper .. .. .. .. .. .. ..oio
buter .. .. .. .. .. .. ..076
wheate .. .. .. .. .. .. ..050
mece .. .. .. .. .. .. ..048
cloues .. .. .. .. .. .. ..044
Nutmuges .. .. .. .. .. .. ..oio
Sinement .. .. .. .. .. .. ..018
peper .. .. .. .. .. .. ..oio
buter .. .. .. .. .. .. ..076
wheate .. .. .. .. .. .. ..050
peste boude (paste-board ?) .. .. .. ..006
for becking them in the Ouen . . . . . . ..046
To boxes and Cords .. .. .. .. ..044
2 19 8
After the settlement of the bill, on 7th March, 1673,
comes a note in the squire's hand "There was 8 dozen of
charrs in these 2 pies, and they weighted almost 12 stone,
the carryage the Earle of Carlisle paid."
The items of this bill are worth noting. They include
a special paste-board. Wheaten flour for each pie cost
53. od. ; butter 75. 6d., and this at a time when salted
296 RYDAL
butter was sold in autumn in the Hawkshead market at
from 2s. lod. to 35. od. a stone. Fresh butter, however,
may have been used. The charge for baking and fuel
seems heavy, but it perhaps included the cook's fee,
which makes no appearance in the bill. Altogether each
pie cost, without counting its chief ingredient, the char,
295. lod. This, if we multiply only by eight (and Bishop
Creighton allows a multiple of twelve to translate the
money of the previous century into present value) brings
the value of the pie, in modern coin, to 11. i8s. 8d. !
But in these two culinary creations of Mrs. Ann Potter
the climax of the char-pie seems to have been reached.
Perhaps some pie cracked on the journey, and there was a
catastrophe : perhaps in the effort to stiffen it, the paste
became so hard (like that of the recent game-pie) as to be
practically uneatable ; but certainly the inconvenience
of making and moving such mountains of meat and paste
on horse-back must have been felt. It is clear that about
this time, pots and tins (called pans, just as the mince-pie
tin was called patty-pan) began to be substituted for the
crust of pastry. Some ornamental tins seem to have been
invented, that simulated the raised crust, and in this the
seasoned fish were baked. In 1674, February 20, John
Banks bought in Kendal " Two Tin-charr-pans, 55, 6d.,"
and also paid for " carryage of a chair-pan to Mr. Secretary
45. 8d." which shows the great lightening of the dish
without pastry and wrappings. An acknowledgment of
this old dish in its altered form has been preserved, written
by the frequent recipient of it, Sir Joseph Williamson,
Secretary of State.
Whitehall ye 2. Apr. 1675.
Deare Sr
You see how ungratefull a Sort of people Courtiers are. I
have quite devoured yor Present before I came to acknowledge
ye having receiued. But if comending & admireing yor Pye were
to deserve it, I have right to another ye next yeare. Indeed nevr
better came to ye Table, & it is concluded by those that haue
THE FISHERIES 2Q?
experience in that sort of Regalle, that this way of Tinne Crusts
does infinitely better. Sr, I beseech yu accept my humble
thankes how late soevr it comes, for ye favor of this & all yor
other kindnesse and believe there is nobody values & desires it
more heartily than I doe, nor can be wth a more perfect esteeme
then I am.
Deare Sr,
Yor most humble and faithfull
Servt
Mr. Fleming. J. WILLIAMSON.
It will be seen by this that he calls the dish a pie still,
though made without paste. In the same way the terms
pan and pot were used indifferently for some time. A
small note is preserved in Sir Daniel's hand that evidently
served as directions to a messenger to Kendal.
" If Mrs. Forth hath made ready ye 3 Pans of chars, Get Mr.
Simpson to send them by ye carrier, and pay for ye Carriage of
them ; thus directing them
For Sr Christopher Musgrave these, at his house in Newport
Street, near Saint Martin's Lane, London.
Send me word by Jo. Banks, by what Carrier ye Charr-Pans
are sent by."
Doubtless Tho. Brigg's receipt of February 26th, 1686,
refers to these same, for it describes his freight as " 3 panns
of Charrs directed to Sr Chrr. Musgrave, weight 5 stone
and lolb." And Thomas signs below for " thirteen
shillings in full of 3 potts Carriage to Lond : "
Mrs. Forth who cooked these was the good dame who
boarded, or " tabled " the squire's sons while at Kendal
school ; Mr. Simpson was a general provision merchant
of the town, who supplied the Hall with many things.
But the earthenware pot, that served at first perhaps
for homely use only, soon ousted the pan or tin. Already
in 1672 a " Pott of charrs," costing 8s. 4d. in carriage,
had gone to Sir Joseph Williamson. Its superior con-
venience must have been felt, and it cost only is. od., as
against 2s. gd. for the tin. Another bill of Mrs. Ann
298 RYDAL
Potter has been preserved, for two pots of char, which
were procured for Sir George Fletcher, through Sir Daniel.
As usual, her spelling is extraordinary, and almost
incomprehensible .
A not Theas to pottes Liseing In
Fade for cloues |
Fade for mace f ff> 9
Fade for nutmuges
Fade for Sinement J
Fade for pepei | . . . o 8 10
Fade for buter )
Pede for backingen the to pottes in the Ouen . . ..020
Pede for the to pottes .. .. .. .. ..020
Pede for to boxes peper and Leder and Cordes ..028
(= paper) Sum In all ..196
(In Mr. Potter's hand) Carriage to London . . . . on 6
210
The yth March, 1673, Rec. in full of this note forty-one shillings
by me, S. S. Potter.
Sir Daniel added to this, " It. 7 dozen of charres 145."
and a later acquittance shows that Lady Mary Fletcher
paid him 2. 155. od.
This bill, if compared with one for pies, shows that the
pot or pan cost about two thirds of the pie for nearly the
same quantity of fish. Also that the spices used were
different in quantity, the pot having nearly twice as much
nutmeg and cinnamon.
The pot clearly came to stay. George Fleming,
writing to his father from Queen's College, Oxford, on
March i6th, 1696, says :
" Sr. I give you my most hearty thanks for the Charr-Pot
you was pleased to send me, and have dispos'd of it as directed ;
Mr. Principal and Mr. Waugh give their serv's to you."
No records of preserved char have been found for some
time after this. The following paper perhaps shows that
in the second William's time the dish was re-instituted
THE FISHERIES
in the Hall kitchen. It is docketed, " a Receipt from
Mrs. Holme at Ramside, Dec'br the I5th, 1749."
" I generally put 2oz. of black pepper to loz. of mace and loz. of
cloves, loz. Jamacoe pepper finely bet and mix'd as y'u use it of the
finest Seasoning will be gone first. Have y'u Seasoning mix'd so
when y'u find the Seasoning leave the salt add more and not much
more. Salt, then Spice. If Conistone fish after they are gutted and
wip'd sprinkle them w'th Salt for an hour or more. Wipe them
clean and Season them well. Lay them in the pot y'u intend to
bake them in and if they can lay all night, it will be better as they
are large Fish. Cover them well wth clarified butter, and when
you pott them throw a little good spice on the bottom of the Pot
and amongst the Fish. Let them Drain well, and don't cover
them wth butter till Quite cold. If Conistone fish, and large,
9 will fill half a Guinea Pot one Layer."
By this time the potting of char had become a trade
in the district, and a lucrative one too. It seems to have
been in the hands still of innkeepers, who also sold fish
and game ; though professed cooks were to be found in
several homesteads of the district. In 1745, March ist,
Sir William sent a " Pott of Charrs " from one Singleton,
Wine and Provision Merchant, as a present into Yorkshire,
which cost los. 6d. This was the usual price ; and the
next squire, Sir Michael, who was an absentee, had sent
to him in London, between January 2nd and March I2th,
1778, twenty " Potts of charr," two every week, besides
two to Scarborough at i. is. od. the pair of pots. He
had, indeed, received, in 1761, two pots which had cost
2is. each, and carriage 33. 7d., while two pots of Wood-
cock had gone off at the same price.
In 1783, Mr. Thomas Rigge, of Hawkshead, who was
agent for the Coniston slate quarries, despatched to Sir
Michael a pot of char as a present, doubtless on the
occasion of his " nuptuals " which the writer mentions.
He sent this off on March 28th by the Kendal waggon,
and hoped it would arrive in London about April 2nd.
This present seems to have whetted Sir Michael's appetite,
for he apparently wrote to his factotum at Rydal Hall,
3OO RYDAL
John Gibson, to see if he could get the delicacy concocted
for him upon the estate. The Coniston fishery was,
indeed, let this time to Mr. Knott, still fish could be
procured from it by arrangement. John Gibson replies
that he went to Coniston on the I4th.
" No chars had been taken for some time before, by reason of the
calm and bright weather, and the Season is now past that they
leave off killing them, nevertheless, Wednesday being a dark Day
and some Rain and Wind, they took some Fish, and Mrs. Walker
(the housekeeper at the Hall) made up two Potts, which I for-
warded yesterday by Mr. Wikeman's Waggon, and will be at the
Castle Inn, in Wood Street, on the ist May. And I hope to
forward two Potts more, to be made up by Mrs. Rigge (who did
those which were sent you by Mr. Thos, Rigge) they will leave
Kendal on the 2yth inst., and be at the Castle Inn on the 8th May.
And as these Potts by the Waggon are so long in coming to Town,
I purpose (if Possable) to forward a Box with One Dozen fresh
Fish on Thursday, the 24th inst., by the Coach which will leave
Kendal on that Morning, by way of Preston and Warrington,
and arrive at the Swan with two Necks in Lad Lane, London, in
three Days."
His next letter, on May 2ist, says :
" The fishers at Conistone did with some difficulty take as many
fish as made two Pots, which Mrs. Rigge Potted, and forwarded
from Kendal by the Waggon on the 8inst., and I hope w'd come
safe to hand on the igth. They were Trouts (not being possible
to get Chare), which, if good, are at this season preferred before
the Chare, and am sorry to say that no more can be had."
It is said that a good deal of the reputed potted char
was in reality trout, as this was. In the following winter
John Gibson began again his exertions to procure the
delicacy. Mrs. Walker, the housekeeper at the Hall,
was never tried again ; and the fish were despatched to
a certain Mrs. Braithwaite, of Mislett. Gibson thinks
her " a very proper person," as she has done a great
quantity, and formerly some for Sir Michael. But if the
recipient does not like her potting, he will for the next
make " tryal of one Mr. Barwick, near Hawkshead, who
Potts all Mr. Knott's Charr."
THE FISHERIES 3OI
It will be seen by these letters how much communi-
cation with London had been improved. The turnpike
road had lately been laid, and instead of the string of
pack-horses, laden with goods of all sorts, that trailed
along badly-kept roads, wheeled traffic bore goods and
passengers easily to the great city. It will be noted that
John Gibson mentions the route through Preston and
Warrington. Indeed, these were early days yet both
for carrier's cart and coach, for Nicholson, in his Annals
of Kendal, dates the start of the mail-coach to London as
two years later, viz. : 1785-6. The carrier's cart (though
optimistically given by Thomas Rigge five days for the
journey) is clearly stated by Gibson to have occupied
eleven, while the new coach did it in three days. It was
thus possible, as the alert Gibson saw, to use it for the
conveyance of fresh fish to London. It is interesting to
know, however, that the early Kendal coach often carried
a more serious freight than dishes for the epicure. It was
to the Swan with Two Necks, in Lad Lane, that
Charles Lamb a little later was in the habit of despatching
parcels of books to one or other of the Lake poets
perhaps ancient treasures from second-hand dealers, or
presentation copies of his own works ; and by the same
coach he received as a gift first editions of theirs.
The last we hear of the coach and char is from a letter
dated December 5th, 1797, when the Rev. T. Jackson
writes to Sir Michael that he sends off from Rydal Hall,
two dozen fresh char and four fine trout.
"They were all alive when put into the Box at nine o'clock this
evening, and shall send Tom with them in the morning to Kendal
to be forwarded by mail."
But even that wonderful improvement, the mail-coach,
has vanished into the past, as the pack-horse did ; and
with the rapid transit of food by railroad there is no
longer need for the old delicacies preserved in spices ; and
the char-pie is now a thing of tradition only.
302
PART IV
A LAKELAND TOWNSHIP AND ITS FOLK,
CHAPTER I.
A TYPICAL HOUSE.
NO early particulars have come down to us of the
people of Rydal. In mediaeval times they would
share the conditions of life with other settlers of
the valleys, and those conditions must have been singularly
free, until the ordering of the counties and the making
of the Barony of Kendal. After that, they would become
subject to those feudal laws which obtained over the rest
of England ; though still, with no intermediary lord
between them and the great baron, the laws must have
pressed more lightly than where a residential knight was
fixed. The Westmorland dalesman was practically a free
land-owner in a self-governing village community, and
so he long remained. Rydal, however, was cut off from
her neighbours under a separate lord as early as 1275 ;
and ultimately she suffered from the creation of a demesne
within her township on which a lord was seated, alike in
the crippling of her lands and in the enormous increase of
dues extracted from her.
But old customs continued to prevail, founded on the
tenant-right that was rooted in an immemorial past ; so
that when we learn details of the life of the people in the
seventeenth century, the little mil does not differ materially
in outward appearance at least from those higher
and lower in the valley. Her population, however, was
A TYPICAL HOUSE 303
stationary, nay, had fallen back, while her neighbours
had more than doubled or trebled theirs. Besides being
shorn of much of her arable land, she was not able to
engage in the lucrative cloth trade. Husbandry was still
the hub of her wheel of industry, though most of her
" statesmen " had begun to associate some other occupation
or craft with the care of their scanty lands.
When Daniel Fleming entered the manor as lord in 1655
there were but thirteen or fourteen of these statesmen
from whom he demanded the customary fine ; though one
of these possessed more than his ancestral holding. The
holdings, too, could not have included all the homesteads
in the place. A full messuage or tenement often consisted
of two dwelling houses, as old rentals show ; and there
labourers and landless craftsmen lived ; for of these at
least half a dozen kinds were at work tailor, weaver,
carpenter, shoemaker, blacksmith and miller, besides a
fiddler. The hatmaker and the pedlar lived in Loughrigg.
The houses formed a more compact cluster than any
other mil about, except Ambleside after its rise ; and they
had no apparent connection with the lord's seat on St.
John How in the lower park. They started high on the
spur of the scar, though well below the possible site of a
primitive settlement ; they straggled down irregularly,
pitched here and there as the hummocks of rock permitted.
The extraordinary nature of the ground for the site of a
village, chosen probably because it was dry and lifted
above the floods, and also because it left the deeper soil
of the valley free for the plough, may be seen in Green's
etchings. Yet clearing and blasting have gone on
continually from Sir Daniel's time. In 1662, for instance,
2s. 6d. was " Given to ye wallers of Ambleside to drink
for breaking of ye great Rock in ye way up to ye gates,"
which stood at the top of the street. The use of gunpowder
made levelling comparatively easy. When the church
was built in 1800 extensive blasting was done ; and in fact
304 RYDAL
every improvement in the village has seen a clearance
of the rocks, down to that of Coat How in 1905.
The nature of the ground prevented any formal row of
houses being built. " Sands " onsett, as we know,
stood at the back of " Banks." A house that occupied
part of the churchyard was reached by a passage between
the house lower down and an abutting barn, as is re-
membered ; and within the courtyard stood an ash tree
of remarkable size. " Hobson's " again lay edgewise
to the highway, though it may possibly have fronted
another route that sloped up from the ford where the
footbridge now stands. Still a rough line of houses
descended on the right of the street that came to be known
as Hall Bank, the last three standing between the church
and the bottom of the hill. The left side of it below the
Hall had, by the time that we know the village, become
almost absorbed by the demesne. At the bottom of the
slope, by the river, the houses turned to the south along
the valley road, which was known here as the town gate,
and finished at the old smithy by Rydal Beck. The
houses on the further bank of the Rothay, of which there
were four at least immediately opposite to the village,
were reached by stepping stones and fords ; they no
longer belonged, however, to the manor of Rydal, though
like the rest of the holdings that straggled under Lough-
rigg, they joined it as a township.
Each little farmstead stood with its barn and byre
grouped round a small enclosure or garth, and often a
little field was attached to it called a parrock, where an
animal could be turned in to graze. But the door of the
house opened in general on to a grassy space bordering
the street, which, though unenclosed, actually belonged
to the holding. This " front before door " was convenient
for the grazing of a beast, or for use during the holding
of a fair ( and mention is made of one in Rydal in 1718) ;
also pigs were wont to wander over it. These spaces
A TYPICAL HOUSE 305
were later enclosed as gardens ; but one cottage opposite
the Hall gates (which were only themselves erected to
enclose the front after 1770) still remains open to the road.
Barn and byre occupied more space than the states-
man's dwelling. The barn was constructed of the
loftiest " crucks " (naturally arched timber) that the
forest would yield, or the lord would permit to be felled.
We can see what a barn might be in the great structure
at Grayrigg Hall, near Kendal, or at Esthwaite Hall.
The " raising " of a barn anew was the occasion of a
village gathering, when each man of the community
lent a shoulder to the heaving and the planting of the
great rough-hewn principals that formed the arch, and
the owner gave a feast to the boon workers. The primi-
tive house, too, in the order of its construction, was begun
by the rearing of arched timbers, to which huge cross-
beams roughly split were tied ; and on this skeleton the
roof was fixed without reliance on the walls, which,
when they came to be of stone, *instead of woodorwattle-
and-daub, were piled up against the wooden pillars as
if by an after-thought. The house was of lower pitch
than the barn, and was besides divided into two floors,
so that the tall statesman had often to bow his head as
he passed his threshold. The lowness of the Westmorland
rooms, even in the Halls, may be noted in many remaining
examples, and this feature was likely to be exaggerated
where the tenant's rights to timber were continually
questioned or curtailed. How could those few lopped
oaks of Nab Wood do other than furnish as time went
on poorer and yet poorer roof-timbers for the homestead ?
On entering from the porch that shielded his door,
the statesman not only bowed his head but lifted his foot
* For the primitive method of building by fork or crucks, see Addy's Evol-
ution of the English House. A couple of crucks are still to be seen in the
older house at Orrest, above Windermere, and in Transactions of the C. & W.
A. & A. Society, vol. xiv., p. 280, N.S., is a photograph of them as now existing
in a barn at Raby Cote.
X
306 RYDAL
to avoid a piece of wood that crossed the bottom of the
door cheeks and stood five or six inches above the ground.
This was called the thresh wood according to old writers,
but I have found no other term remembered but sole, or
sole-foot. In 1713, Brathay Hall was reported to have
" neither Door Cheeks, Leafes, nor Soles about ye house,
but wanted repairing." Soles are still to be found ;
there is one downstairs at the Green, Ambleside. When
several were removed from Townend, Troutbeck, an old
relative of the family was observed still to lift his foot
over the imaginary obstacle.*
Within the door was a passage some four feet wide,
where sacks of corn were placed on the night before
market, or pigs were hung after killing, and where im-
plements were kept. It passed straight through to
a door at the back, recalling those we find in many
Westmorland Halls. According to some authorities the
passage now known as the entry was originally called
the hallan,f though others assign this word to the wall
that formed the passage.
Passing down the entry, the smoke-house, or house,
lay on one side, and the down-house on the other. The
down-house was usually shut off from the entry by a light
partition of wicker-work or oak staves, in which case it
was entered by a door close to the back door. Here the
" elding " (either wood or peat) was piled, and here the
rough work of the household was done baking, brewing,
washing, etc. In the loft above supposing there were
a second storey was fixed the malt-mill, used for the
crushing of the bigg ; and the great arks or kists stood
there. Of these there were generally three, made of oak
and often carved one the bread-kist, made long enough
* See The Remains of John Briggs, who quotes from and comments upon
the Rev. M. Hodgson's description of a Westmorland house in Lonsdale : also
Mr. H. S. Cowper's Hawkshead.
t Addy says that hallan or halland was in N. of Eng. and Scot, the seat
within the outer door.
A TYPICAL HOUSE 307
to hold two stacks of oatcake ; another the meal-kist
in which was stored the haver, or oatmeal ; and the
rnalt-kist. The size of the last two varied according to
the needs of the household. Very large must have been
the " Great Ark in the Storehouse " made for Sir Daniel
in 1696, at a cost of 12. 45. 2d. a large sum in those
days. Then there were the vats lying round ; the gyls
or guil-vat or wort-tub, and the mash-fat, both used in
brewing ; the flesh-fat, and the souse-tub, for the pickling
of meat. The empty cheese- vats and rims would stand
here, but the cheese-press was farther to seek. It stood
under some convenient tree about the garth, which served
as a fixing post for its huge pendulous stone weight.
Wordsworth in his guide mentions this custom ; and two
trees in Hall Bank are still remembered to have had
presses attached. Other utensils, too, were kept in the
down-house, of which the principal was the bakstone.
Once doubtless a stone slab, this was later made of iron
and on it the haver-bread or oat-cake was baked. It was
circular, sometimes three or four feet in diameter, and
was raised above the embers on tall feet. The girdle
was a smaller and lighter plate for the same purpose, tw<>
ieet in diameter, fitted with a bow handle, and was placed
upon a separate iron tripod, called a brandreth. Then
there were the racks and the spits, standing, too, on legs
and feet, and adjustable to various heights to suit the
roast. There were besides, the skellet, a pan with a long
handle, whose foot, repaired by the blacksmith, doubtless
rested in the embers also. Other cooking utensils were
the chafing-dish, a bucket-like metal receptacle, with
handles, in which burning charcoal was placed, to heat
a dish or to raise the temperature, the cockle-pan, and
the scummer, a long-handled spoon for skimming the salt
meat as it seethed in the cauldron. The battling-stone
was used for beating clothes in the wash, and appears to
have had a handle, as it needed " setting " from time to
308 RYDAL
time (at a cost of 4d. in 1660). The cresset must also
have been much used in winter about the byre and out-
houses, for it held in an open iron frame a torch or light.
Not far off, in stable or under pent-house or gallery of the
barn, would stand the weigh-balk, and all the trappings
for the pack-horse, in saddles, wantys, halts and hames ;
as well as gavelock, mell, mattock, hack, scythes, and
sickles. Then there were the teams, yokes, sucke, coulter,
swingle-tree, hott, cowell, sled, trail-barrow, peat-spade
and flaying-spade.
The partition on the other side of the entry was of
stone. Against it, on the inner side, the hearth-stone was
placed, slightly raised, and above it rose the vast chimney.
This was built out from the wall in a hood shape, its sides
in early times being constructed of wicker-work daubed
with clay or cow dung, or else of lath-and-plaster ; and
from the width of six feet at its spring above the hearth
it gradually narrowed to the outlet above. In this
funnel-like opening, joints of meat were hung to dry ;
close about it, when dark came on, the women drew to
spin or knit, the men to card wool, and the clever boy of
the family so the Rev. Mr. Hodgson says to con his
Latin task (a touch which tells how often there was a
scholar in the family), while grandfather regaled the
circle with tales of Hob-thrust. In wet weather a sooty
moisture dropped down the chimney called the hallan-
drop, which may have been the reason why the men
kept their hats on as they sat.
But to reach this social centre, it was necessary to turn
through a doorway in the stone partition and enter a
second passage formed by a partition that jutted out some
six feet from the chimney side, and screened those sitting
by the hearth from the wind.
About the name of the passage and partition there has
been likewise confusion ; for while some authorities call
the partition a heck, others speak of the passage by that
A TYPICAL HOUSE 309
name. The derivation of the word, however, from hedge
(Icel. hagi, an enclosure, German hag, a hedge) as well
.as its present use, supports the former statement. " The
word heck, for hedge, survives in heck-berry/' the common
name for Prunus Padus (Mr. W. H. Hills). The original
hedges were made of cut boughs twined in a rough basket
fashion, set up to protect the hay and corn as it grew in
the common field, and removed at the harvest. This
ancient style of fence is still adhered to by Christopher
Roberts, the last statesman of Loughrigg. The word
survives in the water-heck, a light frame placed across
a beck to keep cattle from straying ; and in cart-heck,
the back of the cart which will take off. Heck was also
the name of the low wooden partition of the byre, and an
old native remembers her father calling " Shut heck,"
meaning the little gate through the partition. Mr. Browne
says that heck also stands for a small gate, such as is
used for a sheep-fold. The Rydal Hall bills (c. 1660)
illustrate the word both as a rough partition and a swing
gate, for the carpenter makes a calf -heck and the black-
smith " gimmers for ye kitchen hecke."
Addy speaks of heck being used for the racks against
the wall into which food for cattle was thrown.
Atkinson gives, besides water-heck, the heck as a half-
door or hatch-door within the old house. For derivation
he also goes back to a hedge made of boughs (Dan.
haek or haekhe) . Perhaps then the heck may be com-
prehensively described as a light frame partition, hinged
or otherwise.
The heck is said to have been frequently carved with
the date and the owners' name ; and in most ancient
houses it stretched as far as the first beam of the upper
storey, where it was finished by an octagonal post. In
the post an augur-hole was bored, and a cow-hair inserted
by a wooden peg to clean the wool combs upon.
The floor of the house generally lower than the threshold
310 RYBAL
is said to have been coarsely paved with pebbles.* Pebble
pavements, done in patterns, were indeed an art of the
country. Later, when smooth slabs of slate came into*
use as flooring, the pebbles were banished to the yards.
This comfortable house-place was lighted by three
windows : one large one, of three or four lights set either
in stone or (more often) in oaken mullions, broke the face
of the front wall, as well as a second one of two lights, the
last being close to the porch and chimney-wing, making:
a recess where the Bible and Prayer Book were placed ;
while the third window looked to the back, and was close
to the end of the heck.
The furniture was as follows : A long oak table stood
under the principal window, and since no aperture would
have admitted it, it was built within the house. Forms
pronounced and spelt firms stood on each side of the
table. The long settle stood with its back to the heck r
and was often a fine piece of carpentry. From its being
but lightly fixed, it was one of the first articles to be
carried away by the dealer to richer homes. Under the
settle sufficient elding was deposited each evening to keep
up the fire, for this was never allowed to go out. Within
the stone partition on the settle side of the chimney was
a small oven, where it is said yarn and stockings were
kept ; on the other side of the chimney was the locker, a
little cupboard made in the depth of the wall and used
for such treasures as the household possessed. Its door
was always adorned by carving or initials and date ; it is
to be found yet in many houses, as in Rydal Mount and
Loughrigg Holme. The " Catmallisonj' ' was also a cupboard,,
made over the fire-window and fronted with panelled
doors. A chair or two of heavy wainscoat and with high
arms, stood about, as well as three-legged stools. Chairs
increased in number, however, when they began to be
made with spokes turned on the lathe or "thrown," and this
* See Manners and Customs of Westmorland, by John Gough, Kendal, 1827,
A TYPICAL HOUSE 311
fashion gave work to several Rydal carpenters. Matthew,
son of John Fleming, of Rydal, cooper, was in 1741,
apprenticed for 8 years as a thrower. In an inventory
of 1697, of goods at Monks Hall, Keswick, only "One
Trown Chare " is mentioned (the one wainscot chair
being relegated to the parlour), while there were eleven
" Thro wen Chairs " disposed of at a Grasmere statesman's
sale in 1710, at from 5d. to gd. apiece.
A light upright pole, fixed in a log of wood, stood near
the hearth. It was called a standart, and was pierced
by a row of holes on one side, into which a long peg or a
bit of iron was stuck. This made an adjustable
socket for a candle, or else it would hold a little pair of
pincers into which the rush-light was slipped.* It was
the pith of the rush dipped into fat which made the feeble
light ; and these prepared piths were called seaves, an
article in constant demand, whether in hall or cottage.
Though on sale at fairs, they were generally prepared
by the women at home.
Across the mouth of the chimney, high up, from wall
to hood, were fixed two short beams, and on these was
placed a long beam, known as the rannel-balk, or the
randle-tree or poll. As this was not fixed, it could be
rolled back and forth, so that the cauldrons and pans
which depended from it by a chain could be adjusted
according to their size the great brewing kettle, for
instance, being drawn forward to prevent contact with
the wall. " Two iron Randle Trees " are given in the Monks
Hall Inventory and these surely would be safer than
timber, though, from the scarcity of iron, not generally
in use. The racken-crook or ratten-crook, consisted of a
chain slung round the rannel-balk, to which two crooks
of different sizes were attached. By catching the little
crook into a link higher up the chain and so shortening
it, the pan (suspended on the longer crook) could be raised.
* Manners and Customs of Westmorland: Kendal, 1827, by John Gough.
312 RYDAL
This simple contrivance has been superseded by the
one now in use, a piece of iron pierced with a rack of holes
or notches. Clark remarks that the " black-hood and the
stoothing," terms not now remembered, enabled the winter
provisions to be dried within the chimney.
Most of the women spun, and hand-cards for teasing
out the wool ready for the spinner were in constant
requisition.
The spinning wheel was a picturesque bit of furniture,
though it is said that the women formerly spun with the
distaff. When knitting came to engross so many of their
quiet hours, the knitting-stock or needle-rest* ornament-
ed in many curious ways, was a common utensil. But
another essential article of household industry there
must have been, at least in early days. This was the
spinning-loom on which was woven (and generally by the
women) the cloth for family wear. From references to
the narrow width of Kendal cloth, it must have been a
small simple machine. Possibly the word studdle,
which I have met with occasionally, may refer to it.f
But the finest article of furniture and the largest for
it reached up to the rafters was the bread-cupboard,
which stood opposite to the chimney. It was a fixture,
and therefore may still be seen in many old houses. It
was always of one design, modified in the hands of the
craftsman, the projecting cupboard below being carried
up by pilasters to a cornice. It was generally decorated
by patterns cut with simple tools, and, somewhere on its
front, initials and date gave a clue to its owner. To the
right and left of the great cupboard opened narrow oak
doorways, let into the wainscot. They led into apart-
ments essential to the family life. One was the aumbry
or pantry, which Briggs says was always placed on the
northern side, for coolness. The other was the bower,
* See Transactions of Ant. Soc. for knitting-rests.
t " Studle " obsolete. An implement belonging to a weaver. Wright.
A TYPICAL HOUSE 313
one-third larger in size than the pantry, and raised slightly,
according to Gough, above the level of the house floor.
In the bower slept the statesman and his wife, and within
it must have been enacted the striking scenes of birth
and death. Here would gather the wives of the village,
flying at sudden call when the babe was born ; then,
again, the whole " laiting " * would troop in though
now in ceremonious fashion, to bring offerings, when the
wiving or upsitting of the mother took place ; an occasion
when rum-butter was the principal delicacy offered to the
company. Here, too, when rest came after toil and pain,
the corpse was " straiked," and was waked with lit
candles through the long night before its burial.
A flight of stone steps led to the upper floor. Originally,
they may have been placed outside under a gallery, but
they are said in general to have been situated near the
bower. This may have been after a roomier chamber
had been built, as at Low House. A few old specimens
may yet be found.
The upper floor was no more than a rude loft open to
the rafters, and divided by rough oaken partitions some
six feet high, such as are still to be seen at Old Orrest.
Here slept the children and the servants, under an open
roof said to have been thatched with heath or straw ;
though later it was covered by slate, which was early
found to rive sufficiently thin for the purpose. The
outside of the homestead was covered with roughcast
and white- wash, which tended to warmth and cleanliness.
The out buildings, however, had no such dressing, but
across the face of the high barn (which well out-topped
the house) frameworks of wood were fixed as galleries,
with steps and pentroof. These, which are looked upon
now as so picturesque in effect, were essential to the life of
the times. They gave shelter while men carried on all
* Late = to seek or invite. The laiting represented the village circle
invited or bidden to all gatherings.
314 RYDAL
kinds of occupations : skins were hung and dried upon
them, and wool could be sorted and heaped up close to
the weigh-balk.
A yew tree, good for bows and for shelter, was generally
planted over against the homestead ; and though this
was probably a later custom, a sycamore tree also for
summer shade.
Such in its main features was the dalesman's home as
known to the older writers. John Briggs in the " Lons-
dale Magazine," vol. in., 1822, quoted and commented
on the Rev. Mr. Hodgson's description of a Westmorland
house in " Beauties of England and Wales " ; and as a
man of the people, at home in farm and cot, his account
may be relied upon. He says that the type thus jointly
described was still, though vanishing, to be met with
frequently, and Clarke's succinct account agrees with
theirs. He wrote, (Survey of the Lakes, 1789,) " I cannot,
however, pass over the method of building each particular
house, especially as it is somewhat singular, and begins
to be disused. From the front door an entry runs close
behind the fire-place of the better kitchen, directly across
the building, to the back-door, which opens into a yard
where the byres and stables generally are. On one side
of this entry is the door leading into the down-house or
kitchen, where they brew, bake, etc. ; on the other side
of the entry is the passage into the house itself, for so the
better kitchen is called ; but this passage is close to the
back door, so that before you arrive at the fire you have
almost gone round it. The various parts and doors of
this entrance into the house are known by the names of
Hallan, Heck, and Mill doors. Opposite to the fire-place
is the door of the chamber, or bower, where the master
and mistress of the family sleep." John Gough, too, in
Manners and Customs of Westmorland, Kendal, 1827,
describes such a house.
Even in the time of these writers the primitive method
A TYPICAL HOUSE 315
of building by forks or crucks had passed away ; straight
timbers and slated roofs had become general. In fact,
the ancient way of rearing arched timbers in couples as
the framework for a house (like a ship reversed) which
the Rev. Mr. Atkinson found in ruined houses of the
Dane-settled parish of Danby, was considered by Mr,
G. Browne, whose opinion has great weight, not to have
been practised in these parts after the close of the sixteenth
century or beginning of the seventeenth ; though doubt-
less buildings so constructed were kept in repair. Barns
are still to be found with crucks, but only a solitary
instance of one pair in situ can be given in an inhabited
house, at Orrest.
The characteristic features of the Westmorland house
may be summed up, then, as follows : First, its long
shape and internal space contained within four walls
and beneath the roof, doubtless resulting from its original
cruck-supported frame. Next, its one stone partition
within the walls, built no higher than the first floor ; this
carried the huge chimney. This internal wall without
doubt husbanded the warmth from the fire ; while the
approach round the chimney along two passages would
have the same effect, very necessary at the time when
the pattern was evolved, for then there was no glass in
the windows, which could only be protected from blasts
by the closing of wooden shutters. It was no doubt
after glazing became common that the dalesman showed
an increasing inclination to enter his " house " straight
from the porch, with only a wooden screen or heck to
keep off the draught. Especially was this the case when
he had turned the bower into a parlour or built on another
room at right angles to the old block. The window to
the back of the house, by the heck, often disappeared,
probably because the weaver's loom (which may have
stood near it for light) was banished to a special craftsmen's
shed. Also an addition to the house was often put out
on that side.
RYDAL
It was to additions and improvements that the second
staircase may be due, which is so often found in the better
class of statesmen's dwellings as well as in the smaller
halls. It was circular, its steps being cut in solid blocks
of oak. It is found in the ruined wing of Coniston Hall,
at Town End, Troutbeck, and How Head, Ambleside.
Other changes, too, came to the old-time home. The
statesman, having left his bower, had to make better accom-
modation upstairs. The stone steps were replaced by
an oaken stairway, finished with well-turned balusters ;
while better and higher partitions, though generally of
"" lat "-and-plaster work, divided the bedrooms. Still,
however, they were open to the rafters ; and often the
moss that stuffed the chinks between the slates failed to
perform its office, and as Robert Hay ton, of Easedale
Tarn, used to tell the snow would drift in and lie upon
the sleeper. Larger things came through sometimes.
Thomas Mandall, of Tarn Foot, awoke one night to find
a Jenny Hullet perched upon his bed hooting at him ;
and forthwith he got his bedroom ceiled.
But deterioration as well as improvement tended to alter
the old form. The oppressive hearth-tax, which allowed
but one fire free, quenched many a down-house smoke,
and put that convenient cooking place out of use. Chim-
neys were stopped up in Rydal by the poorer or more
penurious statesmen. Similarly, when the window- tax
came in, windows were boarded or walled in, even by the
well-to-do Flemings of the Inn, as has been recently
found ; while the poorer dwellings suffered terribly in an
effort to evade the " sess " as the tax was called.
This type of dwelling, even in its rudest and most
ancient form, cannot fall, it seems to me, under those
censures invoked by old houses in Danby and elsewhere,
as miserable, unclean, and indecent. It was at its best,
both commodious and compact. The heads of the house-
hold in the bower commanded the stair, and in the cubicles
A TYPICAL HOUSE 317
of the loft only the children slept. The hinds slept in
outhouse or barn, and on large holdings, like Ambleside
Hall, provision of bedstead, etc., was made for them
there.
Variations on this type there must always have been.
Briggs says that the cotter's home was simpler still, and
had neither down-house nor entry. It was these houses
that mostly survived the poverty of the late eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, while the larger ones were
either swept away or greatly altered. Indeed, they were
often inhabited by the smaller statesmen, as is shown at
Hart Head (before its rebuilding) and Mill Brow, in
Loughrigg, where the barn was carried under the same
line of roof as the humble dwelling. It is difficult now-a-
days to get old people to furnish instances of the entry
or hallan, as so few remain ; but there is one at the Nab.
But of the altered fashion, when the wealthy statesman
turned his down-house into a kitchen, stopped up his
hallan, broke a new entrance straight into the " house,"
and either turned the bower into a parlour or added
another room, can be seen several examples. At
Mr. Browne's, Trout beck, the old hallan was used as a
pantry, while the mell-door in the chimney-wall has been
made up, and another door broken in the wall opposite
the new porch. The hallan at the Green, Ambleside,
now serves as a dark cupboard. Mr. Browne remembered
the disapperance of several entries in his village.
How far the homesteads of Rydal conformed to the
special Lakeland type at the middle of the seventeenth
century would be hard to say. Hardly one remains in
anything like its original condition. The ruin of the
statesmen as a class ; which took some 150 hard years of
struggle from that date to efiect, found at its completion
no more than half-a-dozen of the dwellings in proper
habitable repair. The rest were ruinous, and finally,
having fallen into the hands of the lord, they were swept
318 RYDAL
away, and most of them rebuilt on a modern plan. It is
notable that in 1896 there was not a house in the parish,
except Rydal Farm, that did not stand on an ancient site ;
though since that time quite a number of cottages have
been built. The better houses had, by additions gradually
made, become homes for the gentry. Such were
"Knotts," or the "High House," now Rydal Mount,
and " Davids," (Ivy Cottage or Glen Rothay). Both of
these possess a central chimney, but the entrance into
the house-place or kitchen which it warms, is no longer
whatever it once was round its back, but straight
in by the front.
CHAPTER II
THE ROUND OF HUSBANDRY FOR THE YEAR.
Village Holdings and Rentals.
Good husbandmen must moile & toile,
to laie to liue by laboured feeld :
Their wiues at home must keepe such coile,
as their like actes may profit yeeld.
for well they knowe,
as shaft from bowe,
or chalke from snowe,
A good round rent their Lords they giue,
and must keep touch in all their paie ;
With credit crackt else for to liue
or trust to legs and run awaie.
MAY HUSBANDRIE.
To gras the calues in some medow plot nere,
where neither their mothers may see them or here,
Where water is plentie and barth to set warme,
and look well unto them, for taking of harme.
DECEMBER HUSBANDRIE.
(Ordering of cattel).
Serue reistraw out first, then wheatstraw and pease,
then otestraw and barlie, then hay if ye please :
.But seme them with hay while the straw stouer last,
then loue they no straw, they had rather to fast. TUSSER.
THE ROUND OF HUSBANDRY FOR THE YEAR 319
SOME thirteen or fourteen farmholds stood, as we
have seen, on the left bank of the Rothay. Each
of these represented, as a complete messuage
with its parrock and garden or orchard, a fixed unit in
the joint possessions of a composite village community.
It carried with it the rights over a certain amount of
plough-land, of hay-meadow, and of pasturage for cattle.
Each hereditary holder was therefore by birth-right a
free husbandman, and however frequently he might
be driven to add another occupation or craft to this
primary one this title expressed alike his status and his
privilege.
Reasons there are for the supposition that the village
plough-lands once lay in the bottom of the park. But
when light becomes clearer on the subject, the tenants'
fields, with the exception of some few strips, are found
restricted to the right bank of Rydal Beck and the shores
of the lake. They were likewise at that time enclosed,
and it is probable that each man had now his fixed
portion of land which he might plough or mow in in-
dependence. The fact, however, that to the last, two
or three holders had rights in one field shows that mixed,
and at first interchangeable, land had existed in this as
in other village communities. Each holder remained,
too, bound up with his fellows in all the great tasks of
husbandry brought by the revolving year.
Candlemas, which in Old Style fell in mid-February,
saw his new labours begin. Then the sound of the flail,
beating out last year's grain from the husk on the barn
floor, ceased.* Fresh corn must be sown. Plough-
Monday brought its neighbourly discussions, though the
stripsj that should belong to a man through the season
had no longer to be decided in full conclave of townsmen.
* Threshing done at Berwick Ground as late as 1886.
t Such strips of arable, undivided by fences, are still in use in the Isle of
Axholme in Lincolnshire. ED.
320 RYDAL
The plough was an implement of value when iron was
scarce, and in Rydal a common one appears to have
been kept for the use of the smaller statesmen at least,
who had not one of their own. This had to be brought
out, and its turns arranged. The oxen that drew it had
to be produced or loaned. It seems unlikely that a full
team would be required for the small, sloping fields of
our mil ; probably the statesmen might keep one
apiece, and loan them by arrangement. John Fleming,
miller, statesman and innkeeper, paid for the grazing
of two oxen in the demesne in 1699. It was in a
barn abutting on the inn-premises that the old reputed
village plough lay till 1897 or 1898, when the agent,
having attempted to clear the bed of the river with
it, broke it up. With it had laid an old winnowing
machine, likewise kept for common use. A bull was jointly
possessed by the village, and probably a horse. The
village pump stood open to the street near the inn ; but
this is said to have been a comparatively modern erection.
The cattle made the next care of the husbandman.
The lambing season was an anxious time with him, for,
from the renewal of his flock and the wool it furnished,
he chiefly looked for a profit in ready money.
The season of spring, marked by Lady-Day, saw the
few beasts kept on the holding over winter, brought from
the byre and the hoghouse to green pasture. Every
farmhold or cot had its cow, or perhaps two, though
never more were kept, except by the richer cattle-breeders,
both because fodder in winter was hard to come by, and
because there was (singularly enough) no free common
for kine.
This scarcity of fodder caused trees and shrubs to be
used. The holly bush was preserved on suitable ground
in order that its croppings might be eaten by the sheep,
and it appears that even ash leaves were valued as
furnishing food for cattle. A few young sheep (called
THE ROUND OF HUSBANDRY FOR THE YEAR 321
hogs after the salving* of autumn) were kept up in a
detached building, where they pulled at the hay in the
racks, and were occasionally taken to the beck for water.
And before cattle were brought out, there were fences
and hedges to make, alike for the field of corn, the hay-
meadow and the common. Every statesman had to
share in the labour. The men of Ambleside, as court-
laws emanating from the time of Edward IV. show,
had to have their " Old Field " enclosed by April ist,
and April 24th was to see the fence finished and hinged.
It was the duty of the two Frithmen of Rydal, elected
each year from the statesmen, not only to overlook the
common and the beasts put upon it, but to see that the
" Pairable Hedge " was made. The demesne " Setting
Book " for 1695 shows that the lord's cattle were turned
out from April 27th onwards, beginning with the young
ones, the calves (" t winter " and new), then the cows ;
and lastly the eight draught oxen on May loth. It was
a fineable offence for Ambleside tenants to
" suffer their Kine or Chattell to bee or remaine amongst the
Houses or Doors beneath their Fineable yeats from mid-May
till Michaelmas."
The calf-garth of Rydal was Little Nab field (up to
which one can still mount by broken through-stones
from the road, a token of its once common use) ;
and thither the calves of each farmhold were driven
when separated from their dams in May.
The driving of the cattle to the fell must have made a
great village commotion. The custom in Rydal was
different from either Ambleside or Grasmere or Wythburn.
In Ambleside, once chained by forest laws, there had
apparently been an equalising of the holdings, called a
* The salving of sheep has given place to the dipping, but there is still,
each November, a Salvers' hunt a reminiscence of an annual Shepherds'
holiday on the fells. ED.
322 RYDAL
4 'New Rental." Henceforth these were classed as five
or ten cattle messuages ; and this marked the number
each tenant was permitted to put on the common,
driving them thither by a path or " rake " sanctioned for
him by custom. For a quarrel over the matter see
Transactions of C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. iv., N.s.
In Wytheburn the men of the town, since their common
was a " stinted " one, assembled at the Steading Stone
a well-known mark, now buried under the extended
waters of Thirlmere and there settled the number that
should be allowed to each steading or holding. Grasmere,
freest of all, had an unstinted common on the far-reaching
heights, and its beasts were driven on to them by one of
four ley-gates (pronounced lea), according to the situation
of the holding. There were quarrels here, however, as in
Ambleside, over the " frith," and in 1658 two Grasmere
men were presented at the Quarter Sessions for hindering
John Dawson from driving his cattle, as " has been done
from time immemorial," from a " platt called Thornehow
to a platt called Broadraine," and thence to the common
of Grasmere Fell.
That common of Grasmere had once been open for
" pasture everywhere " to the men of Rydal, as Margaret
de Brus' charter of 1275 attests ; and in fact the Rydal
common must in those early days have been one with it
upon the heights of Nab Scar and upwards. When the
boundary that shut in the Rydal Manor came to be built
soon after, there was left a gap or gateway through it for
the passage of the cattle. But by the seventeenth
century the Rydal men had lost their privilege, and only
the lord claimed a right to put 60 head through the gap
to graze ; while the village pasture was shut within the
narrow limits of the wall upon the height as far upwards
as Erne Crag, whence another enclosing wall shot down
abruptly to Rydal Beck. It had become, by the exigency
of size, a " stinted " common, and each messuage-holder,
THE ROUND OF HUSBANDRY FOR THE YEAR 323
large or small, was permitted no more than 30 sheep and
one horse free upon it. For every score of sheep beyond
this number 2s. od. was paid to the lord, and is. od.
for every cow.
The day fixed for the tenants to put their " goods "
on the common was " on or before ye i/j-th day of May "
old-style May Day in fact. Then in assembly the two
tenants whose turn it was, took oath to serve faithfully
as Frithmen, and after that began the business of swearing
each tenant to put on only the stated number of beasts ;
while the lord's man entered in the Agist Book the
surplus that were not free. The inadequate nature of the
common to the needs of the holding is shown by this book,
for in 1665, the year it was begun under the new squire,
every messuage-holder except Thos. Hobson, paid for
surplus cattle ; and only two besides, Nicholson the
wright and Widow Harrison, failed to put on more sheep
than the allowed 30. The wealthier men, who bred cattle,
were besides forced to rent closes in the demesne, of
which Low Park was let (at first) for i. i6s. od., Frith
1. i6s. 8d., the Allans I2s. od. ; and New Close was also
let. David Harrison, who was butcher as well as breeder,
paid i. I2s. od. in 1656 for beasts being grazed in the
Dale Head. Thomas Fleming, inn-keeper, paid for the
" summerage " of a single cow in the demesne fields 78. 6d.,
and Edward Greige for one at "half gest "35. gd., which
looks as if even their paid-for tale of cattle on common
was also restricted. The total of the extra dues on the
common alone this year came to 2. 155. 6d., and it
remained at about this figure for fifteen years.
The clipping of the sheep, which St. John the Baptist's
Day ushered in, brought the village into close community
again. Nothing is more distinctive of the life of the past
than the joint labour that was voluntarily performed by
townsmen. The lords' " boon-days " had, to be sure,
come to be a fixed bargain, which when not wrought
324 RYDAL
had to be paid for ; but the boon-day a man gave to his
fellow was a free gift as a rule, though it might be returned
to him in like measure. The custom of boon-shearing ,
when neighbours gather for a hard day's work and good
and plentiful food is their only guerdon, has survived to
this time, like the boon-plough to a new settler, as a
relic of the ancient method of neighbours working together
at a stiff task. Yet formerly it was but one of the many
instances in the year's round of husbandry ; and I have
been told of women no longer than 50 years ago " prof-
fering " to do a day's work in a neighbour's hay-field,
when it was a " throng " time with him. The corn cutting
must have been a light matter from the small amount
grown by each holder ; and women sometimes wielded
the scythe, cutting high in the stalk, so that the straw
was left for fodder. Each stook as it stood in the field
was built up of ten sheaves, which made easy reckoning
for the tithe-collector.
Into the big barn then went these garnered fruits of
the earth, which were to sustain life in man and beast
for the year round. The great trusses, composed
of as many as seven stooks sometimes, according to
Mr. Browne's calculation, were fixed on to horse-back
with the truss ropes (four pairs of which cost los. 6d. in
1675), and carried to the barn. To house them there
with a minimum of loss, the barn was often built with its
corner rounded off, and with wide low doors. Some
richer holdings had a place apart for the corn ; this was
called in Troutbeck, within present memory, the " haver-
laith," a word for barn which occurs in old deeds. These
barns had their uses often accommodated to the inequal-
ities of the site, as in the Black Forest, and an upper floor
might be reached on the far side from the rise of the ground
or a drop would give opportunity for a winding-loft, such
as can be seen at Town End, Troutbeck. To dress or
" deet " corn, before the winnowing machine came into
THE ROUND OF HUSBANDRY FOR THE YEAR 325
use, appears to have been a simple yet ingenious task.
The grain, oats or bigg, was tossed from the floor between
two open doors, these openings being, where it was
possible, at a good height from the ground ; and the
through draught thus produced separated the chaff from
the grain.
When the corn was carried, the few beasts were turned
into the stubble, to eat what they could find, and to
give natural enrichment to the soil. The meadows, too,
furnished by the "fog," or aftergrowth, the last eatage
for the cattle. This was the time when fairs were held,
and the statesman disposed if he could of his increase
for ready money.
And at fairs too, money was expended ; for though
old Tusser says that buying in is properly done on St.
Bartholomew's Day (August 24th), it was in these parts
reserved lor the back-end, when the housewife replenished
her stock of utensils, and young people, if they had the
cash, bought " gew-gews."
Then at Martinmas the remaining stock (perhaps a
beast or two) was slaughtered and salted for the winter's
household use. The pig was killed, and sausages and
pork pies made a surfeit of dainties, though these were
perhaps delights of later days, since wheat en flour in old
times was rarely indulged in except by the gentry.
After that, the sheep and a few cattle reserved for the
coming year were housed, and winter closed in, when
tasks that could be done under cover in barn and house
were undertaken, such as threshing, carding, spinning,
weaving, knitting, rushlight and soap-making.
VILLAGE HOLDINGS.
Such was the round of husbandry for the year, which
the messuage-holders of Rydal had followed time out of
mind. If we look into the question of the amount of
land they had to work out a livelihood from, only an
326 RYDAL
approximate answer can be found. Land, as has been
seen, was measured of old not by acres, but by the number
of cattle it would feed ; and the closes were reckoned in
cattle-grasses, not extent, so that the more barren, stony
ground was not over- valued. There is a fine estate map,
not earlier in date, however, than 1842, which gives a
complete acreage for Rydal, and from this can be extracted
and summed up the fields which had belonged to the
statesman in 1656. The estimates agree fairly with a
Valuation Book made for taxation in 1843, though they
are higher than another made between the years 1810-13,
which is more likely to be correct for the older state of
enclosures. We must consider therefore that the total
of iiga. 2r. 36p. to which the statesman's fields in the
map add up, is, if anything, too high. This total when
divided by 12, for there were (excluding the smithy and
the shop, which had common rights, but little land) 12
holders in 1656, gives an average of something under
10 acres each. If, however, we divide by 13, since one
statesman at that time had absorbed at least another
holding (Studarts), we reach an average per holding of
ga. or. 33p.
And this low average very nearly tallies with what can
be made out from the township Valuation Book of 1810-13,
At that time many of the holdings had fallen into the
demesne, while others had been bought up piecemeal by
the wealthier of the few statesmen who remained.
Thomas Fleming, for instance, held I4a. ir. 37p. besides
13^. 3*". 32p. in Loughrigg ; George Birkett I5a. 2r. 5p. ;
and Mr. North, who held the double messuage of 1656
(High House or Rydal Mount) 33a. 2r. 3p. William Park,
again, held in Rydal and Loughrigg from his ancestors
2oa. ir. 3ip., but from this must be deducted at least
4a. 2r. 3p. for the " Back of (Rydal) Water " purchased
by John Park. The Nab, however, would remain one
of the largest holdings of the manor in land extent.
THE ROUND OF HUSBANDRY FOR THE YEAR 327
But besides these, there were left, in 1813, two holdings
apparently in their original state of 1656. One of these
had lately been held by the Barnes family, and had once
been Green's ; as its old rental was 55. 4d. one of the
lowest in the village it may always have been one of
the smaller holdings ; its average is given in separate
fields as 8a. 2r. 34p. The other was the Grigg tenement,
paying the fair rent of 75. 5d. It had passed down to
James Backhouse, and its acreage reaches only 8a. 3r. gp.
The table of fields belonging to these two holdings is so
similar, that they may be given as examples of the small
tenures appertaining to Rydal.
JAMES BACKHOUSE.
(Griggs)
Low Close
Nab Close . .
Little Nab
Rash
House* Close
Burn Mire
Garden
Parrock
E.
LATE BARNES.
A.
R.
P.
(Greens).
A.
R.
p.
I
2
Low Close
i
13
I
I
24
2
36
Little Nab
3
8
I
I
22
Intake
2
2
13
2
2
Rudding
I
25
T
I
18
Gill Close
I
2
32
9
Burn Mires
3
32
I
18
Parrock and
Garden
i
3i
839
8 2 34
It will be noticed that both had portions or dales in
Low Close and Little Nab. Then, in Gill Close and Horse
Close Thomas Fleming had shares, and George Birket
had one in Gill Close. This shows the intermingled-state
of the fields, even after enclosure ; and the statesmen's
dales therein were doubtless marked by mear-stones,
as is the case to this day at the old common field of
Boothwaite in Grasmere.
The two holdings quoted come somewhat below the
estimate of the 1656 average. It must be remembered,
however, that the messuages were of devious size, as is
* (or Horse ?)
328 RYDAL
shown by the rental drawn out by the lord. The rents
varied from 135. 4d. (one mark) to 53. 3d., or something
under half a mark. This irregularity may have accrued
through a long course of years by sale or exchange, and
we see that " David's " at least had been divided ; or
the holdings may have been found by the first lord to be
unequal. The earliest Grasmere rental shows great
variations. But whatever the cause of irregularity, we
know that there had been a Rydal holding in the sixteenth
century rich enough to carry a 22s. 6d. rent. This had
passed to the demesne.
If we look at the stock of cattle kept on these farmholds,
we find it by necessity small. Each, beyond its couple
of horses and cows, had a small flock of sheep on the
common, which in 1656 varied between the minimum of
30 found only in two cases and the 85 of David Harri-
son, cattle breeder. Thomas Fleming, Jane Walker,
widow, and Edwin Green had 50 each ; Symond Parke
and John Thompson 45 ; Charles Wilson 60, and Edward
Grigg 75.
Holdings and stocks so small as were some of these of
Rydal could hardly keep the family in those thrifty
times ; and almost all, as we shall see, joined another
occupation or craft to their husbandry.
The following rental, made out when Daniel Fleming
succeeded as lord, shows the village holdings at that time.
The history of each will be given in the same order :
RYDALL.
General! -
The Tenants names. Tenements. fines.
s. d. s. d.
Richard Nicoldson .. .. . . 510.. 4000
Widow Harrison
Ed. Walker, for Keine tenement
more for Studarts
more for Thompsons
more for ye Frith
more for halfe of Davids tenemt.
7 S
8 o
3 8
26} 33
2 6
2 6
THE ROUND OF HUSBANDRY FOR THE YEAR 329
RYDALL.
Generall-
The Tenants names. Tenements. fines.
s. d. s. d.
Simond Parke n 6 .. 13 oo o
Eliz. Gregg 06.. o 15 o
Jo. Thompson . . . . . . ..68.. 5 10 o
Robert Taylor 6 8 . . 10 o o
Edwin Green . . . . . . ..54..
Tho. Hobson 13 4 . . 6 13 4
David Harrison .. .. .. ..36.. 230
Tho. Fleming 72.. 700
more for a parcel . . . . . . ..34.. Ibid.
Charles Wilson 53 400
Edward Gregg . . . . . . ..75.. 4 10 o
Adam Fisher I o . . o 15 o
RENTALS.
If we come to look more closely into the actual amounts,
annual and periodic, paid by the statesmen of these parts
to the lord of their manor, we shall find far earlier records
for Loughrigg than for Rydal. This is probably due to
the fact that while Loughrigg remained parcel of a great
landed estate which sometimes fell into the hands of
the crown, whose officers furnished accurate written
rentals Rydal became detached in 1274 as an isolated
manor, paying to a minor local lord, who either received
the rentals directly through his steward, or let the rents
to farm.
It has been shown how Rydal and one portion of Lough-
rigg, as manors, came to be parted, when the sister
heiresses of the house of de Lancaster, Helwise and Alice,
shared the wide lands of the Barony of Kendal between
them. And the text of the charter has been given, by
which Helwise's daughter Margaret granted Rydal to
her kinsman Roger. Her grant is recapitulated in an
Inquest held on her death in 1307 (given in Mr. Farrer's
Lancashire Inquests), when her affairs were dealt with by
a body of responsible men of the district, who gave their
330 RYDAL
witness as jurors, as to her estate at the time of her
demise.
There exists also, a very interesting recital of the
boundaries of Alice's share (called the Richmond Fee)
as they stood in Dame Cristiana's time, in which the
passage occurs
" And also halffe Loghrygge w th the holl Watter to the on'
brigge at skelgw th "
But in the Inquest of 1283 concerning her estates,
Loughrigg is not mentioned by name, but seems to be
included in Langdale.
There are at Langeden, (it runs) 15 tenants holding 136 acres
and i rood of land, each worth 6 yearly.
Six tenants there holding 28-| acres of waste and rendering
nothing.
Two cottagers there who ought to render 8 yearly. Now
waste and rendering nothing.
A certain parcel there whereof the herbage is worth 5O S yearly,
A water mill there rendering yearly y s .
A fishery called Routhemer worth i8 d yearly.
All the aforesaid tenants render yearly for Goldwethers 5 s
Total . . 6. us. 7|d.
Again, we find in a rental of 1375 that exists at Levens
Hall, Loughrigg is included in Langdale. The names
are here given of 13 tenants. They furnish jointly,
with forest silver and water-mills I2s. od., a total of
6. los. od. The bailiff or receiver is Alexander de
Bulderby.
But a far more interesting rent-roll exists in the Record
Office, its heading mutilated and destroyed, though
apparently of the reign of Henry VI. or Edward IV.
For this gives the names of the tenants of Loughrigg,
apart from Langdale, as well as of Grasmere and Ambleside.
Ambleside's 28 tenants include one named John de
Lowerige. He joins with Wy. Mylner, jun. at one holding,
for which they pay 2os. 8d. yearly. Indeed, several
Q c
ffi 2
C/3 o
< g
a rt
: I
THE ROUND OF HUSBANDRY FOR THE YEAR 33!
pairs of tenants join there at one messuage or holding
between them ; a possible example of the old method of
making two men responsible for one piece of land, in
order that while one went to war, the other might till it.
The 28 furnish, altogether, with 20s. od. for the corn-mill,
and 6s. 8d. for walking-silver, 28. Again, the Grasmere
tenant, John Walker de Loghrigg appears as holding
one cottage for which he pays 8d. The Loughrigg roll,
date about 1460, follows :
LAUGRIGE.
s. d.
Wy. Mylner holds i cottage and renders yearly . . . . 6
Jhon Wylleson de rydall one cottage called Cokerstone . . 6
Jhoes Wylleson elletson one cottage . . . . . . 13
Thos. Jhonson terreson i toft . . . . . . . . 8
Adam Jhonson terreson i messuage with appurtenances 4 o
M'garett Cockers i messuage with appurtenances . . 23
Wy. Makerth holds half an acre of land . . . . . . 6
Jhoes Smeth i messuage . . . . . . . . . . 18
Jhoes Smeth senior i messuage . . . . . . ..26
CHAPTER III
THE FARMHOLDS
i " Hart Head " ; 2 " Sadlers " ; 3 " Keens" Walker,
Knott (High House), W. Wordsworth (Rydal Mount) ;
4 " The Nab," Parke ; 5 " Littlehouse," see next
chapter ; 6 " Sandes," Neuton ; 7 " Thompsons " ;
8 " Banks" ; 9 " Greens " ; 10 " Hobsons" or " Cause-
way Foot " ; ii and 12 see Inns, chapter VI ; 13
" Wilsons " ; 14 " Griggs" ; 15 " The Little Houses."
i. HART HEAD. This holding stands first on the
rental of 1655, an( l is represented by the top-most house
of the village. It carried a lord's rent of 53. iod.* and
* It is difficult to believe that any statesman's dwelling with land came
under a valuation of aos. annually.
332 RYDAL
was one of the humbler of the statesmen's dwellings, as
is shown by the fact that it paid no hearth-tax. The
family of Nicholsons who owned it were workers in wood,
and may have exercised their craft through several
generations, living by that rather than by the soil. A
certain Richard, who witnessed a deed of Squire William
Fleming in 1550, was no doubt the one whose burial is
registered in 1627. His successor, " Dick," called himself
a dish-turner, and was paid is. od. for dishes by Squire
John in 1631, and i. 45. od. for work done in 1648. A
Thomas of the name was a millwright, and was employed
with his men on the Rydal mill from the year 1632 to the
closing of the Hall. He, however, was not a village
land-holder. The Richard who was in possession of
Hart Head in 1655 was about the only statesman in
Rydal who could write his name, and the caligraphy
shown in his bills suggest the thought that he may have
been one of those scholars who helped the Rev. John Bell,
curate of Ambleside, to make a causeway across the
Old Orchard. He was clearly a quick and clever crafts-
man, and two at least of his sons worked with him ; yet
their sad downfall will be traced in the chapter on work
and wages. The long struggle of the family to keep by
unremitting toil its ancient holding, was closed apparently
about the year 1695, when the name of Nicholson dis-
appears from the Agist Book. An absence of rentals
for this period leaves the fate of the farmhold in doubt ;
but it is probable that a Francis Walker, who did boon-
mowing for the lord by deputy in 1710 and 1720, was the
holder, and the husband of the widow, Jennet Walker,
who in the rental of 1724 to 1734 heads the list with the
old sum of 55. iod., together with is. 8d. for a pasture.
But in 1735 the well-to-do John Park, of the Nab, bought
it, and farmed it with the rest of his growing estate. His
death in 1748 severed it again, for while his older lands
went to his eldest son John, he willed Hart Head and a
THE FARMHOLDS
piece of Hobsons to George, his son by a second wife.
But not until 1759, when the widow Mary died, did
George receive his inheritance, paying unto the Rydal
court a fine of 5. i6s. 8d. for it. His interests, however,
were elsewhere, for he pursued the sadler's trade in
Hawkshead, and in 1769 he disposed of his Rydal property,
when it was split up ; John Bateman, a newcomer,
taking the house and part of the land, and George Birkett,
one of the village family who had prospered by woodcraft
when the Nicholsons had failed the rest. John Bateman,
of Town Head, Grasmere, was content to^forego his half
to Birkett in 1783, for the sum of 38. los. od. Henceforth
it remained with the Birketts, who apparently made it their
home in preference to Sadlers, the house next below, or to
Hobsons (see house No. 10). George died in 1822, at
the age of 84, after playing a prominent part in the village
life as a shrewd well-to-do statesman. His son John,
from whom the manor extracted fines to the amount of
25. 55. 6d., was a city dweller, and let his Rydal property,
until he sold it to the Hall in 1840 for the sum of 850.
His special mention of a cupboard and chest made by his
grandfather, shows that there were some oak fittings of
value in the homestead. Ninety sheep were running on
the common at this date, which were known as Scar,
Hart Head or Birkett sheep, and this old stock remained
till the last tenant went out, and he carried them away
upon some dispute, as was his right if he paid a certain
price. The house was rebuilt for an incoming tenant,
whose daughter remembers it as a little old place. In this
condition, it is figured in " Green's 40 Etchings of Old
Buildings," published 1822.
2. SADLERS. Of the family who gave their name to
this holding nothing is known, unless " Sadler," who paid
55. to Squire John for an ash tree in Hall-bank (1631),
and the " Sadler- wife," who bought decayed wood in
1645 to the extent of 145., and received 35. lod. for a
334 RYDAL
calf in 1657, belonged to them. It is possible, of course,
that sadler was the trade, and not the family name.
It was Widow Elinor Harrison who held the place when
Squire Daniel came, and she paid a rent of 75. 5d. She
was taxed on one hearth not declared, but added on survey
in 1665, which looks as if the farmhold were superior in
the comfort of its down-house fire, as well as in size, to
the one above it. It is difficult to disentangle the Har-
risons, of whom there was a flourishing branch lower
down the village ; but Elinor was seemingly the relict
of the Anthony, who figures in the register as a father in
1619, acted as supervisor of his neighbour Walker's will
in 1643, and was buried in 1645, at which time she paid
to the manor i. los. od. as a heriot. Probably a son
William or " Willing " was associated with her on the
farm ; he put his mare to graze on the demesne for a
fortnight (is. 6d.) in 1658, and in the search for arms in
1660, he had to give up a rapier, which he may have used
on the Parliamentary side. The widow served with her
neighbour, Richard Nicoldson, as overseer for the poor
of the township in 1667, but two years later death closed
the career as stateswoman she had so long enjoyed. An
Anthony followed her ; three neighbours being bound
over for his fines up to the inexplicably high sum of
16. 193. 2d., while an Edward signed another bond.
Anthony was possibly an absentee, or died soon after,
for in 1672, Isabel Harrison, widow, with George Otley,
the smith (and one of the guarantors), paid up i. los. 6d.;
while the latter shortly after paid 195. 2d. " for considera-
tion of Anthony Harrison's fines." It is he also who
paid a rent in 1678 of 75. 8d., the amount of " Sadlers."
An Anthony Harrison, who came into prominence as
a yeoman about 1690, probably belonged to David's
branch lower down the village. The " Sadler " branch
becomes obscure, but a Widow Harrison paid its 75. 8d.
rent till 1729 ; she being probably the Dorothy who took
THE FARMHOLDS 335
the oath at a special Quarter Sessions in 1723. But in
1730 a certain Margaret Atkinson's name occupies the
second place on the rent-sheet, paying that rent, which
Thomas continues in 1749, for " Harrison's Tenement."
He was a butcher of Kirkby Lonsdale, and in 1750 he
sold the place for 40 to John Birket, of Rydal, when it
was described as " Sadlers, once belonging to Edward
Harrison." John, who was the second village carpenter
of the name, was followed by George the farmer, whose
son John sold it along with Hart Head and his other
property.
The homestead, let off as a cottage from 1750, clearly
sank into a derelict place. It stood just below Hart
Head, to which its garden is attached yet ; and, according
to tradition, it fronted Nab Lane, a barn or outhouse
(later a stick-house) abutting on the lane. It is remem-
bered as a one-storied house ; and could it have been left
we should probably have found in it an example of the
primitive dwelling. John Backhouse, who died at Amble-
side in March, 1909, at. 90, remembered old James, elder
brother of Fleming Backhouse, the last of the Rydal
professional fiddlers, living there about 1830. It was
James' habit to make a round of the village houses
and Hall at about two or three o'clock of a Christmas
morning, to wish the inmates a merry season, and play
them a little tune a forced merriment for himself,
certainly, in the cold and darkness of a winter's night.
After this foretaste, he would return in the afternoon to
play again, when the house- wife would give him 2d. or
3d. Also about Christmas he held " a merry night,"
when folk would come even from Ambleside to dance.
The Christmas Day round was indeed the custom of the
vales. A charming description of the Grasmere fiddler's
visit to the Dove Cottage kitchen in 1805 is to be found
in a letter of Dorothy Wordsworth, though it was only
the children who danced there, their wooden shoes
336 RYDAL
pattering on the stone floor with a joyous sound that
penetrated to the parlour.*
An old man named Mason followed the fiddler as tenant
of " Sadlers," and then the place was pulled down,
probably to build the barn at the improved Hart Head.
3. KEEN'S ; HIGH HOUSE OF THE KNOTTS ; RYDAL
MOUNT. The family that gave its name to this holding
had vanished before record began, except that on the
first faded page of the church register the death of one
child of John Kene, of Rydal, and the baptism of another
(Jenet) are inscribed for 1574 and 1575. The rent of
the place was no more than 8s., but it was its fate to be
held by wealthy and prominent families, and it emerged
as one of the most substantial houses of the village,
eventually becoming famous as the residence of the poet
Wordsworth. A family of Walkers owned it from the
seventeenth century, and their first traces are found in
the registers, an Edward marrying Mabell Jackson in
1572. Edward was clearly a notable as well as a well-
to-do man ; he was had up to the Hall to witness deeds
in 1613 and 1617 ; and he lent Jackson, of Baise-browne,
2. 2s. nd. in 1619. He doubtless had made the position
in which his successor was found, renting the village
corn-mill from the lord after Grigg's time, and acquiring
lands beyond his own, viz., " Studarts," a toftstead
rented at 35. 8d. (which may be the little two-storied
place that stands below Rydal Mount and is used by it
as a tool-house) ; " Thompsons/' rent 2s. 6d., and therefore
probably only land bought from Thompson, a statesman
whose homestead stood next again below ; the Frith,
a large field on the slope of the Nab, rent 2s. 6d. ; and
half of " Davids," rent 2s. 6d., which again must have
been land once belonging to the David Harrisons, who
lived at the foot of the hill. The second traceable Edward
* See WordsvYorth's dedication of Excursion for mid-night fiddling at
Grasmere.
THE FARMHOLDS 337
Walker married Isabell Thompson in 1620, and Alice
Richardson in 1630. His position had apparently become
unsound by 1629, when and again two years later he
repaid Squire John 20, described as part of a debt.
Edward's payment of interest on a loan, also figures in
Tyson's accounts as 2. It is significant that the squire,
in signing the acknowledgment of the first, does not
express the amount of the " more sum," yet owing to
him. Walker's reckoning with his lord is as follows for
1632 : he pays 26 " on his bill " (making a repayment
of 66 in three years, besides interest) ; 135. 4d. for the
cow-grass ; 5 for mill-rent ; 2 for Nab (not explained),
and 4 " in part of his mortgage " ; total 38 ! Edward,
in spite of growing difficulties, remained on terms with
his superior, bought cattle for him at distant markets,
furnished the Hall with " bigg malt, and in 1632 collected
the tithes of the three Cumberland churches, receiving
35. for his expenses. The next evidence shows " old
Edward Walker " in July, 1642, borrowing 5 from Squire
John's executors, upon his and his son's bill, due at
Martinmas of the following year. But before that date
old Edward had left money-entanglements behind him.
He was buried on August 6th, having followed his wife
to the grave on the preceding June i8th. His inventory
was written on a strip of parchment, as the custom was,
at the direction of the three neighbours he had appointed
as " supervisors." It ignores his chief difficulties, makes
out his assets as 59. 133. 5d., and his debts, with funeral
expenses, 9. The list of his possessions gives insight
into the goods and chattels of a Rydal homestead.
As in all probate valuations, the animals are put at a
very low figure : sheep only 43. a head and cattle 303.
1643. The Inventory of all the goods and chattels of Edward
Walker of Ridal prysed by Thomas Richard * for Thomas
* Another copy of this inventory gives Richardson.
338 RYDAL
Fleming, Anthony Harrison, and Edward Gregge the
first of August, 1643.
li s d.
Imprimis his apparrell . . . . . . . . 2. o. o
Item brasse, pewther, and pans . . . . . . 6. 18. o
Item 3 kine and a heffer 6. o. o
Item one old Mare .. .. .. .. .. i. 13. 4
Item 40 Shepe . . . . . . . . . . . . 8. o. o
Item ix Stones of Woll 2. 5. o
The moneys oweinge unto him.
Imprimis, by William Jackson * and his mother . . 2. 19. 6
Item by John Knotts . . , . . . . . 4. o. o
Item by John Ottley and his son . . . . . . 3. 12. 10
Item by Regnald Wilson . . . . . . . . 7. o. o
Item by Thomas Richardson . . . . . . 2. 6. o
Item by Michaell Watson . . . . . . . . o. 14. o
Item by Thomas Benson . . . . . . . . 15. o. o
Item by Charles Wilson 3. 4. 9
Debts which he ought at the tyme of his decease
To Thomas Grave . . . . . . . . . . 7. o. o
Funeral Expenses 2. o. o
The younger Edward took up the burden, marrying
Jennett Forrest in November after his succession to the
estate, and in December paying 4 interest on a mortgage
of his tenement. What fines were fixed for him does not
show ; but in 1647, the year he served as Constable for
the township, he paid 20 on his mortgage. Failing men
rarely attain old age. He died in 1652, his inventory
showing 57. is. 8d. assets, and 34. 75. gd. debts.
Strangely enough, though buried at Grasmere, his ex-
ecutors paid a mortuary fee to the vicar of Kendal of 55.
RYDAL HALL MSS. Rydal Statesmen.
(On a strip of parchment).
1652. The Inventorys of all the goods & chattels of Edward
Walker of Rydall, Prysed by Daniel Harrison, John Parke,
John Hunter, & William Makereth, the i6 th of December,
1652.
* "of Loughrigg."
THE FARMHOLDS 339
li. s. ffe.
Imp r His Apparrell . . i. 10. o
Itm Horned Chattell n. o. o
Itm 65 Sheepe . . . . . . . . . . . . 14. o. o
Itm A horse & a mare . . . . . . . . 2. o. o
Itm Haye & Corne . . . . . . . . . . 10. o. o
Itm Brasse, Pewter, & pannes i. 7. o
Itm Flesh, meal & mallt o. 12. o
Itm Chests, Arkes & a Cupboarde . . . . . . i. o, o
Itm Bedding & bedstockes . . . . . . . . i. o. o
Itm Iron implements . . . . . . . . i. 5. o
Itm Wooden Vessell, wheeles, Gardes, Chaires & stooles i. o. o
Itm 3 stone of wooll . . . . . . . . . . i. 4. o
Itm Roapes . . . . . . . . . . . . o. 4. o
Itm Sackes & Peakes . . . . . . . . o. 4. o
Itm Plow, plow-geare & other things belonging horse o. 14. o
Itm Poultry . . . . . . . . . . . . o. i. 8
Itm Money oweing to him . . . . . . . . 10. o. o
li s d
Summa tot 1 . . 57. i. 8
Money w** he did owe at his death.
To Ellis Walker 30. 10. o
To Daniel Harrison .. .. .. .. .. o. n. 7
To Richard O'senhouse o. 12. o
To Mabell Robinson o. 2. 6
To John Brathwhaite .. .. .. .. o. 17. 8
To Elizabeth Knotts '. . . . o. 2. o
To Adam Fisher . . . . . . . . . . o. i. o
To John Makereth .. .. .. .. .. o. i. o
Funerall expenses i. 10. o
li s d
Summa tot. . . 34. 7. 9
Widow Walker is in 1654 found paying an aggregate
rent on the property of 195. 2d. ; but when Squire Daniel
made out the tenant's fines in the following year he set
down the name of Edward as tenant, and fixed the fine
at 33 an enormous sum, being over 30 times the rental.
But it is Widow Jane who continues to pay taxes and
puts cattle on common. With more land, the Walkers
had more live stock than their smaller neighbours.
340 RYDAL
Edward's flock of 65 had, however, diminished to 50:
while 2 " key," 3 " thurntors," and i " duntor " paid
on the common.
In 1662 a certain William Walker appears as represent-
ative of the family, willing to take up the burden of the
encumbered farmhold. An entry in the Account Book
runs :
" Feb. 10, 1662. This day, Will. Walker, of Rydall T
agreed with mee at Ambleside (for his Generall fine, and
fine due upon ye death of his Grandfather, for all his
Lands in Rydall of ye yearly Rent of 193. 02d., and for
ye confirmation of a Close called Thompson-frith, paying
ye same like other Tenants) to pay unto mee upon ye
three next Candlemas-dayes (by equall portions) ye sum
of 33li. oos. ood. (vid Deed).
But " Willing," flourishing as was his start, soon
proved unequal to this call for ready money. Only 23
was paid by 1665, when the prudent Squire bound over
his father-in-law for the rest, which was paid by him two
years later. Now this father-in-law was John Fleming,
"of ye New feild," whom Daniel shows in his pedigree
to have been a distant cousin of his own. The marriage
therefore must have given "Willing" distinction, though
at his wife's " upsitting " the usual 2s. 6d. was sent from
the Hall. The Squire made him bailiff, in the place of
old Edwin Green, who for so long had been the Rydal
rent-collector an office that by ancient law could be
held only by a statesman. He used him for business too,
employed him at the cattle fairs, and bought provisions,
meat and game and grain from him. But it is a question
whether there was much profit in these things, except
for a cute man ; and as early as 1666 William went up
to the Hall to borrow 5 till Candlemas. The next year
finds him only able to renew his bond, and in the following
he borrows 7 more. And so the depressing tale goes on.
By 1671 he had accumulated a debt of 41. 153. gd., for
THE FARMHOLDS 34!
which he gave the squire a mortgage on " Studarts."
Presently the Rydal rents were not forthcoming, and his
neighbours, Richard Nicoldson, and his son (struggling
themselves with debt) had to stand surety for the deficit.
Other neighbour's aid was invoked, perhaps on the refusal
of the squire to lend more ; and the latter exacted a tax
of 153. for his consent to William borrowing from David
Harrison on a further mortgage. Matters by the next
year had grown acute. John Banks also lent money
on a deed, for which the squire extracted another 155.
'" forthwith " from the unfortunate William, who now
owing 53 to his superior handed over to him a deed
of his whole estate. What more hope for William?
In the January of 1679 h* s wife Jane was buried. No
wonder we hear of arrears " when Walker went away "
a ruined man, leaving neighbours (David Harrison and
Robert Barnes) to pay the IQS. 2d. rent on " Walker land "
until a sale or settlement could be made up among the
creditors. Another Walker indeed sprang up, a George,
styled yeoman, who from 1690 to the century end figures
as a Rydal statesman, but in the absence of a rental for
the period it is not certain what lands he had. He paid
a land tax of 6s., and borrowed 2 in two years from the
lord. When next particulars occur, the Knotts are found
in possession of the Walker patrimony.
The Knotts, who followed the Walkers in Rydal,
present the cheerful (and unusual) spectacle of a rural
family who rose by steady steps to wealth. To be sure,
if their record be examined, it will be seen that in this,
as in others, their advance to riches and gentility was
not made by husbandry alone, but by trade, by office,
or by commerce. Thus it was that while statesmen as
a class were gradually sinking by husbandry, the Knotts
rose steadily, till they left that class behind them. The
steps of their progress were slow, but sure; and the
ability of the race may be guaged by the fact that hardly
342 RYDAL
a document has survived connected with the township
of Grasmere or its welfare but contains their name.
Records begin in a rental of the Hotham (later Marquis)
Fee for the year 1375, when Henry " del Knot " stands
as possessed of one tenement in Grasmere. It is quite
likely, too, that the Michael " de Knot," who in 1347
served as juryman at the Inquisition held at Kirkby
Lonsdale upon the lands of the De Couceys, may have
represented there his township. This early form of the
family name suggests a derivation from the Celtic " Cnoc,"
probably referring to the hillock or knoll on which their
farmhold stood. There is still a farm called Knott-houses
in the portion of Grasmere known as Aboon Beck, which
like Knott Place, Broaderaine, and Greenhead was
once theirs. For by the days of Elizabeth the clan had
not only increased in numbers, but had multiplied their
holdings. An Edward of the name was at that period
a prominent townsman. With some others he carried
out in 1564 an extensive deal in timber, purchasing from
Squire William Fleming the wood of Watley Hagg in
Rydal Head, which they undertook to fell and clear under
a penalty of 40. As there was practically no export
trade in timber at that time, this may mean that Grasmere
was then coaling wood, i.e., making charcoal, and smelting
iron for its own use, probably by arrangement with the
lord. A cinder heap, indicating the site of an old bloom-
smithy, can be traced in the wood above Winterseeds,
upon the beck. Again in 1584, when the Crown had let
off the rents of the Richmond Fee to Squire Thomas
Strickland of Sizergh, Edward headed the tenants, who
made a covenant with the latter, that he should exact
no more than the customary rents and fines. In 1598
also, when the Grasmere men agitated for a market of
their own, and guaranteed the expenses connected with
the same to the son of the Squire of Rydal, Edward
" Knottes " was the first after the parson to inscribe his
name on the document.
THE FARMHOLDS 343
It is clear then, that Edward was the foremost of the
numerous Knotts of the valley, one branch of whom,
according to the register, spelt its name Knoth. But he
was dead by 1603, when we have interesting evidence of
the possessions of the family in a Court Roll preserved
at the Record Office. At a court held in that year at
the Moot Hall in Kendal, John Knott appears as heir of
Edward to lands in the Marquis Fee. The rolls run :
From John Knott for his fine and entry into a tenement there
(Grysmyer) at a yearly rent of 2S. 6d. and one third of a penny,
late in the tenure of Edward Knott his father, at the rate of two
annual rents (for this time only) because he paid to the Receiver
of the lord the King aforesaid at the general survey the fine for
the said father thereupon, at the rate of three yearly rents which
he ought to pay, for him only at the rate of two yearly rents,
because he was an ancient tenant. 53. od.
For the same John Knott for his fine and entry into another
tenement there of his said father, at the yearly rent of 43. 5d.
(at the rate aforesaid) 8s. lod.
From the same John Knott, for another tenement (as above)
yearly rent 2 A. 4d.
At a court held for the Marquis Fee in the following
year, John Knott paid the usual green-hew penny (vert
in technical language) for each of these his three tenements;
while a Roland, a Roger, and the widow of a Michael all
Knotts paid theirs likewise. Further, at a court held
on the same day for the Richmond Fee, three separate
pennies were paid under the name of Michael, and another
under that of Robert ; which makes in all ten land-
parcels, if not ten full messuages, held by the clan.
Robert of the Richmond Fee would seem to have been
a man of violence ; for he was presented before that court
for having made an assault " called A hubleshow " * on
his kinsman Michael, for which he was fined los. a large
sum in those days ; while for the like offence upon
* Hubleshow or Hubbeshow from Hubbub orig. Whoop hoop a confused
noise or tumult. ED.
344 RYDAL
William Hawkrigg, the Marquis Court fined him 53.
Michael was unfortunate, for he had suffered besides from
" a scandal " put upon him by one Elizabeth Hirde ;
but the jury let her off without a fine.
The Marquis Fee branch of the family, now represented
by John, was still the principal one. It was earning
wealth by shop or store keeping. Each township had
one general store, at which the inhabitants could supply
those few wants not furnished by the soil and the stock
of cattle. As the keeper of the store was taxed upon his
stock, we may sometimes discover, from stray subsidy
roll, who he was. One such roll for the year 1625,
fortunately preserved at Rydal Hall, enters John " Knotts"
as paying los. 8d. on goods valued at 4 ; while another
roll for 1641 enters the like name (doubtless son of the
former) for the same tax on goods, besides another tax
of i is. 4d. upon land rated at 13 6s. 8d. ; this being
the only subsidy money taken in these years from Gras-
mere. Such possessions in goods and land meant
affluence. The burial of John Knott " of Knott place
in Grissmire " is recorded for 1638. The word place
signifies something superior to the usual dwelling
of the statesman, and in this era of their prosperity
the Knotts appear to have built a dignified residence.
A tradition of this, and of the " gentleman " who built
a dignified residence. A tradition of this, and of the
" gentleman" who built it remained, and was used by
Wordsworth with poetic licence in his Excursion,
Book 7 ; and he expressly says in a note that " the
pillars of the gateway in front of the mansion
remained when we first took up our abode at
Grasmere." John Knott 's name often appears in the
register during the early years of the seventeenth century
as the father of children baptised or buried ; and four
years after his own burial comes that of (apparently) his
son, dignified by the title Mister. An Edward next
THE FARMHOLDS 345
followed (one of this name was elder of the reformed
church in 1645) at Knott Place, and he had a son Robert
baptised in 1652 ; while another Edward " of Broade
Raine " was buried in 1658. A Marquis Fee rental for
1675 records only a John paying 6s. nd. for what may
have been Knott Place. The race was clearly diminishing,
and this branch of the family may have died out altogether.
When next we come upon traces of Knott Place, it had
clearly been sold, and like many other of the larger
houses of the district, cleared away. The lands belonging
to it were divided, and in 1712 part of them were in the
hands of the wealthy Richard Cumpstone of Ambleside.
The Knotts of the Richmond Fee were likewise thinning;
and the same rental for 1675 shows only a John paying
is. lod. and a Michael 6s. 4d. But with Michael (doubtless
son of Edward of Broad-Raine) the family entered into
a new era of prosperity ; and we have evidence that he
was able to leave to his sons four tenements situated at
Grasmere. These sons were Edward, born 1665, who
inherited three tenements, and John, who took the
remaining one, born 1667. Michael's children were
likewise enriched by his wife, who was Jane, daughter
of Thomas Atkinson, of Howe, in Applethwaite. This
wealthy statesman dying in 1680, made Michael's second
son John his heir to the Howe estate, provided that he
paid on inheritance 30 from it to his three sisters. The
eldest grandson, Edward (well provided for), got only
a bequest of 5 ; while Mrs. Knott and her sister shared
the residuary estate. John, who resided at the Howe,
had much intercourse with the Brownes, of Town End,
and Benjamin Browne stood godfather in 1728 to his
child Dorothy. She was probably the Mrs. Dorothy
Knott, who, living to a ripe old age of spins terhood, paid
for the recasting of the third bell of Grasmere Church in
1808, and who left at her death in 1812, 100 to the school.
But it is with the eldest son's line that we have to do.
346 RYDAL
When next evidence is forthcoming, Edward (his father
Michael being dead) is found to have migrated to Rydal,
where he was acting, apparently, as agent for the Rydal
Manor ; for he gave evidence in 1713, when he was 48
years old, in a law-suit, as to what papers he had found
in Sir Daniel Fleming's closet at the time of the latter's
death in 1701. He had established himself in " Keens "
soon to be called "High House"; and improvements
were speedily made in the farmhold of the Walkers, as
is shown by a locker still left in the parlour of Rydal Mount
which is carved with the date 1710, and the letters E.A.K.;
while the tax-paper of 1726 shows that there were nine
windows in the house. Not only " Keens," but the whole
of the Walker property (rent 195. 2d.), was in the hands
of the Knotts ; but the odd thing was that it stood in
the name of Agnes. Edward, as agent for Sir William,
made out the papers of the boon mowers which exist
for 1710 and 1720 and in these she is down as working
by deputy in the hay four days which represented the
number of her holdings ; and she figures as tenant till
the rentals cease in 1734.
Edward, the agent, died in 1734, he being styled in the
register " yeoman." His son Michael, indeed, was the
dominant spirit in Rydal for some thirty years. He
acted on behalf of the son of Major Michael Fleming
(sixth son of Sir Daniel) as early as 1723, when there
could have been no thought that this boy William, with
uncles and cousins in plenty between him and the suc-
cession, would eventually come into estate and title.
The boy was boarded with Mr. Benjamin Browne, of
Troutbeck, and he and his sister attended the latter's
funeral in 1728. The sister is called Susan in the
pedigree, but both the Grasmere tablet and the Hawkshead
register give her name as Susannah. Michael, who, we
know from another source, had an eye to a lady's fortune
as well as face, married Susannah about 1739. The
THE FARMHOLDS 347
marriage can hardly be said to have been beyond his
station. Susannah's mother was a Dorothy Benson,
possibly of Coat How, and if so, a freeholder's daughter.
On the other hand, Michael's sister married John Park,
a yeoman of Rydal, which shows how near the statesman
was to the smaller gentry. Michael's settlements were
good for a probably penniless girl. He agreed to settle
on her his estate of three tenements in Rydal. Should
she survive him childless, his trustees (among them
Mr. Archdeacon Fleming, and her brother), were to pay
her a dower of 200 a year quite a large sum in those
days for a Westmorland widow.
It is clear that Michael was becoming a considerable
person, with ventures beyond land and agency ; though
the Rydal business papers were still written in the fine
Knott script. The " coaling " of woodland, or making
of charcoal, for use in the iron furnaces of Furness, was
becoming a lucrative business, and Michael Knott
though only a customary landholder, obtained permission
apparently to fire the woods on his Rydal estate. He was
doubtless doing well for the squire by his management
of the demesne woods, but it was more likely the con-
nection by marriage (possibly aided by a rent) that gained
him this unusual concession. When William Scott,
owner of Bainrigg, complained so bitterly in 1759 of the
unjust stripping of his timber for the uses of other tenants
he mentioned that Mr. Knott had a few years previously
cut down over 60 trees there for the building of his
own house and even of a coaling-house, in order to
save his own woods for the actual charcoal. This
high-handed proceeding on the steward's part shows that
High House, though not entirely rebuilt, received some
substantial additions in Michael's time. Doubtless a new
front was erected at right angles to the old, which remained
practically unaltered to the poet's time ; and the ancient
toftstead was fitted to the larger fortunes of a man whose
RYDAL
brother-in-law had come to the Hall as squire in 1747,
and who had safely passed the border line between
yeoman and gentleman. In 1770, " Mr. Knott, of Rydal,"
figured among the gentry who sent Livery Men to the
Carlisle Assizes, as did his heir, " George Knott of the
same." For Michael's eldest son, Edward, had died in
1766 at the age of 25, and a newly-purchased tenement
in Rydal " Banks," which his father settled upon him,
passed then to George. The Mother died next year, and
Michael in 1772, at the age of 76. George soon after-
wards made application to the lord of the manor that
the enfranchisement allowed to his father by Sir William
might be confirmed, and " Banks " be added to the
tenements enfranchised. But the position was now
changed ; apparently Mr. Knott had given up acting
for the Hall in 1756 when Sir William died : and his
younger son Sir Michael, had been brought up under the
guardianship of Sir John Lowther, educated at Eton,
and nourished upon lordly ideas. To free any of the
lands of Rydal was outside the policy of his advisers,
of whom Thomas Harrison, the steward, was one.
George Knott never made his home in Rydal. Fol-
lowing his father's lead, he appears to have been con-
cerned in the iron works and export trade of iron from
Furness. His marriage, too, increased his land, and
carried him over the county border into Lake Lancashire.
It is interesting to trace this second migration of the
family of an agent and relative of the le Flemings to the
estate of Waterhead, Coniston. For we have seen that
Richard Harrison, nephew of Squire John Fleming, had
become possessed of the property at the close of the
Civil Wars ; and that Squire Daniel had made peace
with his old enemy, or at least with his enemy's son,
and had visited there. This second Richard had left a
daughter Catherine, who married William Forde, of
Ulverston ; and it was their daughter Catherine who
THE FARMHOLDS 349
married young George Knott, and carried to him Water-
head. Perhaps it was George who rebuilt the house,
which was figured in all its glory of " modern Gothic "
in the Lonsdale Magazine of 1822.
George's life was short. He died at the age of 40, in
1784, and his young wife followed him next year. His
son Michael was a minor, and trustees managed his
estates. Possibly an aunt or aunts kept the house.
It was reported in 1781 that Mr. George Knott had let
his Rydal house to his sister, and was to make great
alterations and improvements in it, which necessitated
trees being cut down, eight from his own wood and two
from Parke's being allotted by Sir Michael's bailiff.
However, the tenant who in two years' time took the
house, was a Mr. Doulby, from Ipswich, probably one
of the new race of scenery lovers, and he remained there
till his death in 1798, when his widow removed. Colonel
Thornton in his Sporting Tour (edited by Sir Herbert
Maxwell), taken probably in 1786, gives us a glimpse into
the Waterhead establishment shortly after the death of
George Knott. With a party from Rydal Hall, he had
ridden over to Ponsonby, and on returning, after the
passage of the Duddon Sands, when twilight was falling
(October 3Oth), they paused at Coniston, and " Drank
tea at Mrs. Knott's." He goes on to say, " These ladies,
who have also a seat in the Highlands, praised Scotland
above the Lakes," in which the traveller, who had just
returned thence, agreed. Then, after more fashionable
and artificial discourse, the gentlemen returned to Rydal
by moonlight, mid sounds of waterfalls, leaving Miss
Fleming, sister of Sir Michael, to remain for the night.
It may be mentioned that the Knotts finally migrated
to Scotland. The death of Eliza Alice, last surviving
child of Michael, at the age of 77, is announced in the
Westmorland Gazette as having taken place at Essex Park,
Dumfries, on the I4th of March, 1895.
35 RYDAL
George Knott's son, Michael, apparently came of age
in 1797, when his father's executors conveyed to him the
Rydal property, consisting of Keen's, rent 8s. 6d.,
Stoddarts' 35. 8d., Thompson's 2s. 6d., half of David's
2s. 6d., Frith 2s. 6d., besides Banks' 6s. 8d., garden 6d.,
old house and orchard 6d. ; total i. 6s. lod. In 1803,
Michael paid an unexplained sum of 25. i6s. od. as fine ;
and he wrote to Sir Michael Fleming from Penny Bridge
that, having bought an estate in that neighbourhood, he
was wishful to sell his Rydal one, and explained that
Mr. Ford-North, of Liverpool, had offered 2,500 for it
and for the rough pasture near Clappersgate ; the sheep
were to be taken at a valuation. He gives Sir Michael
the first chance of purchase. But at such a price the
lord of the manor had no wish to buy, and the estate
passed to the Liverpool man, while the late possessor
is reported in 1807 to have left without paying his general
fine. From Rydal Mount, John Ford-North had children
baptised in 1805, 1807 and 1810 ; but from the first he
found himself entangled in jealous contentions, and in
1812, after a bootless attempt to obtain an enfranchise-
ment of the property and after a fierce fight over green-hew
law, he was glad to sell it to the lord of the manor, and
departed to the estate of the Oaks, Ambleside, which he
had bought. For a time Rydal Mount must have been
in the hands of William Moore, as he paid rent in 1819
on all the old items, except the garden and old house,
i. 55. lod.
In 1813 the poet Wordsworth entered into a tenancy
of the house, and he remained there till his death in 1850.
A letter of his concerning repairs, addressed to Lady
Fleming, may be given here, as it shows how frequently
the old dwellings required renovation.
His. MSS. Com., Rep. 12 (5698).
Knowing your Ladyship to be indisposed, I am sorry to trouble
you with this letter, but as your tenant I should not feel myself
THE FARMHOLDS 351
justified on the present occasion were I to omit stating to your
Ladyship the nature of the repairs necessary at Rydal Mount,
which have been from time to time delayed, and, as we are now
informed, are not to be done at all.
The back apartments of the house ever since we entered it,
have not been habitable in winter on account of the damp, and
in wet seasons not even in summer. Lord Suffolk's agent some
years ago, from the state of the timber, gave an opinion that a
new roof was necessary, and estimated the expense at 10. Since
that time temporary repairs have been made, which were to have
been completed at the first convenient season. Those repairs
never made the house watertight ; and to give your Ladyship an
idea of its state, I need only say that, during the last heavy rains,
an empty trunk standing in the best of the three rooms, was
half filled with water.
Last summer, the late Mr. Jackson and the workmen examined
with me the premises, and it was our joint opinion that when the
rooms were unroofed, if the walls were raised, it would be an
advantage to the house very far beyond the additional expense,
and one which we had little doubt would be approved of by your
Ladyship. Lord Suffolk's agent was consulted ; and, as I under-
stood, the plan was not, in the end, opposed by your Ladyship.
On my part I was to pay interest upon the sum laid out, and on
this supposition my family prepared for the workmen. To my
surprise it was afterwards required that I should relinquish the
barn, and other out-buildings, or the work in the dwelling was
not to be done. This, not only on account of the comfort and
convenience to myself and family, but from respect to your
Ladyship's property, I could not consent to, the character of the
place would be entirely changed and vulgarized, were these
premises turned into a common farmyard. This we have proved
by experience, for upon our first coming to R(ydal) M(ount) as a
temporary accommodation, the farmer had the use of some build-
ings, and the annoyance of cattle hanging about the gates causing
filth and intercepting the way upon the public road to the house
may easily be conceived. To palliate this (and various other
inconveniences) Mr. J(ackson) proposed that the yard should be
divided by a wall, and a gate broken out below, but this, without
removing the evil from us, would only have thrown it nearer the
gates of the Hall, and probably have occasioned the felling of
trees, and exposed the fold yard to the road. Besides, a part of
the barn we could not possibly do without, and an apprehension
of that very evil fire which has already taken place in our
352 RYDAL
neighbour's premises from the ingress and egress of a large
family, many of them children, over whom I should have no
control, was of itself sufficient to prevent my acceding to such an
arrangement.
I have nothing to add to this long, but necessary statement,
except to remind your Ladyship that the rooms under consider-
ation only in one part allow a person to stand upright, and that
it remains to be considered whether it may not be better to raise
the walls according to the plan proposed, or merely to make them
water-tight, which can only be done by means of a new roof.
For notwithstanding what I have heard, I cannot conceive that
it is your Ladyship's intention that it should remain in its present
state, especially after the long inconvenience we have suffered.
The alterations suggested were ultimately carried out,
with others. A bedroom was added to the back, over
passages and low spaces that may have been dairies,
and this was done apparently between the date of Green's
sketch of 1821 and Dora Wordsworth's sketch of 1826.
The poet's bedroom is said to have been added later.*
The old entrance was made up on the south side, and the
new one opened. The old " house," happily, remains
as a parlour ; while the kitchen (once possibly downhouse)
has had its floor lowered to procure height. So by
gradual stages " Keens " has become the present Rydal
Mount. Wordsworth paid for it in 1822, 35, quite a
large rent in those times.
4. THE NAB. With this number on the list of 1655
we come to one of the most interesting as well as picturesque
of the Rydal homesteads. It stands apart, at the foot
of the steep scar from which it is named, looking across
the waters of the mere to the fine, rough slope of Loughrigg.
Externally it is but little altered from the time when it
was rebuilt by John Parke in 1702, and it is a fair example
of the dwelling of the prosperous statesman of that period.
The family of Parke owned the Nab when record begins ;
and the origin of their name is as clear at that of the
Knotts. In an existing Subsidy Roll for 1332 the
* In 1829, ED.
THE FARMHOLDS 353
possessions of one "Ede de le parke" are valued at 155.
The three townships contained within the parish of
Grasmere are not separated in the roll so that we cannot
tell where this Edward's holding exactly lay, but it
appears likely that he or his forbears were connected
with the lords enclosure for deer. In 1583 a Henrie of
the name, " of Rydall," was buried ; two years earlier
a William had a son John baptized, and it was doubtless
he who witnessed a document for Squire William in 1589.
From 1612 to 1614, three Parkes of Rydal (John, Leonard,,
and William) all had children baptized ; but John, wha
lost a daughter from smallpox in 1636, must have been
the head of the clan, for in 1642 he stood surety for $ r
which his neighbour Charles Wilson had borrowed from
the executors of Squire John. William died in 1639, an d
from him or Leonard may have descended the artizan
Parkes of the village, amongst whom were a " George
Parke sonne " with horse on common in 1665 ; another
George, a flourishing weaver at the end of that century ;
and a third George, a tailor, in the next. John the
landholder appears to have died in 1653, having married
for his second wife Jennett Walker. His son Simond or
Symond, was much in favour with the race of German or
" Dutch " miners, who settled in Keswick and Coniston
in Elizabeth's reign, spreading thence over the district,
and it suggests an intermarriage with them by one of
the Parkes. Simond married at once on succeeding to
the estate, and his son John was born in 1656, when the
usual offering at the christening was sent down from the
Hall.
By this time the new squire had arrived in Rydal, and
the tenants were faced by the trying necessity of com-
pounding with him for the General Fine exacted on his
entrance to the manor. The young owner of the Nab
had moreover to pay an additional fine called an alienation
one, which was due from him on the death of his father,.
2 A
354 RYDAL
and which had not been collected. Accordingly he set
his special mark to an agreement, in which he undertook
to pay 13 by equal portions in the February and
September of the year following, the amount of his rent
being us. 6d. But this he was by no means able to do,
and it took a little over two years to finish the payment.
Meanwhile, he had other difficulties to face. The sharp
pull-up of the reins of manorial rule, followed by that of
church rule at the Restoration, produced friction. In
1658 he was formally charged, along with his neighbours,
David Harrison and Thomas Fleming, with felling wood
unlawfully on the manor, and was fined los. ; 2s., how-
ever, being returned to him by favour. It is clear that
money was short with him, for in the following February
he was forced to borrow 135., from the squire, " wh. hee
promiseth to repay about 3 weekes hence," and he was
as good as his word. His accounts must have been
complicated, for this year he took his turn as constable,
and the various " sesses " paid to him for the desmesne
are all put down. Next came reprisals from monarchy
and church. In 1660, the search for arms made on all
suspected Parliamentarians deprived him of sword and
belt ; and far more serious he was cited in a Bill of
Exchequer, with a goodly number of parishioners, as a
defaulter in the payment of church tithes during the
Commonwealth. As arrears were demanded, the amount
required of him must have summed up to a large total.
But to fight this battle there were bigger men than he,
amongst them Mr. Robert Braithwaite, of Baisbrowne ;
and moreover Simond left all disputes behind him in
January, 1662, when the register records his burial at the
early age of thirty- three. He left behind a widow and
three baby sons (a fourth had died), the youngest being only
six months old. Margaret Parke had thus suddenly to
face calamity and need. There was apparently no money
in the house, and the funeral must take place the day
THE FARMHOLDS 355
following, as was the custom. She hurried up to the Hall,
to borrow i6s. " to bury her husband." Then came the
sale of the household effects, quite usual on the death of
the head of the family ; but which left the home empty
except of " barnes," since she had no coin with which to
buy things back. The sale enabled her, however, to
wipe out debts. On February 5th she paid back to the
squire who had purchased a candlestick and chafing
dish at the sale the money she owed him. The stock
probably was also sold ; for, whereas in 1655 the cattle
running on the common were three " key/' two " twinters,'
one horse and forty-five sheep, there were none to pay for ;
nor does her name appear again in the Agist Book until
1673. She had also to find 3. los. for a heriot, two of
her neighbours pledging themselves for her ; and this
she succeeding in doing in the next year.
Now followed years of bitter struggle. Of her industry
through them, while her boys grew up, we obtain a glimpse
through the Account Book. She paid the squire 155. in
1670 for three stone of lockings (the leavings of wool),
as well as 55. and 45. ; and at the end of 1671 her half-
yearly account stands thus :
id. s. d.
Rec. of Simond Park's widow for her Rent . . . . oo 06 oo
It. for ye last part for 4 stone of Lockings (besides is.
given back) . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 08 oo
For what purpose was this wool bought ? We can
only suppose that Margaret spun it into thread ready for
the weaver. What hours of toil at her wheel, probably
during the long nights of winter while her babies slept,
must this weight of wool represent ! Besides her indoor
labour she worked in the harvest-field for money, where
four and a half days of toil brought her in one July, is. 6d.
Her fortunes may have touched a low ebb about 1672,
as we find her joining with two neighbor rs in an oblig- tior
to the squire, for the paymei t of ios> yearly for; evei
356 RYDAL
years ; and this was so hard a matter that the bill was
not cleared until 1689, when a total of 4. 55. 3d. had
been paid. Then 2s. was " Sent unto Simon Parke Wife's
Drinking," which shows that she resorted to the expedient
of a merry night, when her neighbours gathered under
her roof for festivity, bringing money for expenses and
to spare in their hands. But she struggled through, even
though the famine year wiped her name from the Agist
Book ; and she started afresh in 1676 with one cow on
the common. Her eldest son John was now ready to
take up the burden, and next year to formally pay the
rent of us. 6d. He shortly stood too for the town's
office of frithman and of churchwarden. No doubt he
was all the sturdier for the misfortunes of his childhood
and his mother's bravery, and he prospered from the first.
Even when (as in 1681) he had to work off the arrears of
the past year's rent by salving the lord's sheep and making
hay, it did not mean that he was falling back, but rather
forging forward, and spending on cattle ; for next year
he is found paying 45. for " goods " on the common a
sum which had increased in 1699 to 8s. 6d., for two fillies,
three " whies," and thirty sheep, making in all a flock of
sixty. In 1690 he rented the Frith from the squire on
a life-lease, and four years later New Close also, at 2. I2s,
a year. His stock must by this time have been large,
and he clearly knew how to make a profit on it. His
property was assessed at 55. 4d. annually. By 1702 he
was well enough off to rebuild his house, according to the
inscribed stone on its front, which in the good old fashion
couples the initial of his wife Anne with his own. He
died in 1713. The inscription is :
| P 1702
This John, son of Simond, undoubtedly laid the found-
ations of the family prosperity. His own son John
increased it by his marriage and by the purchase of land.
NAB COTTAGE.
From a Photograph by Walmsley Bros., Ambleside.
TO FACE P. 356,
THE FARMHOLDS 357
His first wife was Dorothy Knott, daughter of Edward
the demesne agent ; and he paid an equal window-tax
with his father-in-law. He was ambitious, as well as
prosperous ; and so he added field to field, extending his
little estate that touched the bounds of the manor
beyond those bounds, as often as opportunity occurred.
He bought from Edwin Green, in 1726, Dunna Beck Close,
which is in the Rydal Lake-basin, though belonging
manorially to the Marquis Fee ; besides pieces of land
in Grasmere. Before 1735 he had acquired the messuage
of Hart Head in Rydal, to which he added Gill Close from
shoemaker Harrison nine years later. Again in 1741 he
secured Otley Intack, adjoining the common near Dunna
Beck. Several adjacent closes too were his. They filled
up the space between his purchases and the higher part
of his land within the Rydal manor boundary, which
later passed to Lancelot Fleming, the tailor, and sub-
sequently to the Poet Wordsworth. Beyond the lower
part of the boundary at Swan Stone, he obtained an
enclosure from the Grasmere common. His increased
estate thus gained compactness, though it was of so
composite a character as to be owned under two, if not
three lordships, with some small lots of freehold. It was
probably not until his estate fell to the Hall that the
actual boundary on Swan Stone was removed, leaving
one-half of the undivided field in the township of Grasmere
and the other in that of Rydal and Loughrigg, as it is at
present.
This second John Parke in 1730 lost his wife Dorothy,
who left him an infant son and daughter ; but he repaired
his loss, and by his second wife Mary had two sons.
William, born in 1741, and George in 1744. At his
death in 1748 he left the old Nab estate and contiguous
lands which he had bought, to his eldest son John, while
to the younger George (missing William, who may possibly
have received a legacy in money) he left, after the death
358 RYDAL
of his wife, the little estate and homestead of Hart Head.
Widow Mary remained in possession of this until 1760,
and nine years later it was sold in two portions by George.
This was a time of change in the village. The little
farmholds, each one, from time immemorial, compact
and self-contained, were now, by purchase of the richer
holders from the failing ones, either being lumped together
or split up and sold in separate fields. The young men
were leaving the village ; even the eldest inheriting son
often thought it better to pursue a trade elsewhere, than
stay and tend the fields and flock of his forefathers.
George Parke himself preferred to settle in Hawkshead
as saddler ; and he must have been a man of parts as well
as substance, for both his son and his grandson attained
to the position of vicar of Hawkshead. When the former
was baptized, the registrar thought that George's own
extraction was worthy of being written down in full.
John Parke, third of the name, and now the head of the
family at the Nab, was wealthy in land and in cattle.
In 1751 he had a flock of a hundred and ten sheep on the
common. A valuation of the estate in 1810 (when
certainly it was no larger), gave its extent as 20 acres
I rood 31 poles, and it was valued annually at 15. 145. 4d.
On this he paid a land tax of 2s. 6d. He too bought land,
and in 1768 was fortunate enough to secure for 59. is. 6d.
two fields across the lake that had belonged to the Barrows,
of the Oaks, in Loughrigg ; for these being part of the
Heald were freehold, paying only a complimentary rent
of 2d. and a peppercorn.
This John's name occurs in green-hew disputes. Scott,
owner of Bainrigg, complained of " Mr. Knot's nephew "
for felling timber from that wood without his leave. But
it is possible that his uncle, the agent, favoured him.
Indeed, had John held his Rydal land in freehold or
without interference from the unwritten law of green-hew,
it is probable that he might, by the opportunity of wealth
THE FARMHOLDS 359
that the thriving iron-trade of Furness offered to those
who could coal their own wood, have now passed, like
the Knotts, over the border-line of gentility which he
almost touched. But the green-hew law held him fast;
and when Sir William Fleming the second was dead, and
the Knotts who were mutually connected no longer in
power, John was made to feel its force. In 1769 the agent
of the manor proceeded against him, and he was fined
6d. in the Rydal Court for cutting wood without the
bailiffs' leave. Then, too, John died young in 1770,
leaving no son to follow him. His executors (of whom his
cousin George Knott was one) had instructions to sell
his property for the benefit of his wife and little daughter
both Janes with the exception of one small house in
Rydal, with stable, orchard, etc., rent is. od., which was
reserved for their use. But young Jane, in possession
of a handsome dowry, with " two pair of bedsteads and
one wainscott chest " that had remained at the Nab till
she was grown up no doubt fine pieces of furniture
was not long unmarried ; and three years after the little
house and premises had been formally conveyed to the two
by the executors (in 1786), it was sold to the Rydal manor
for 20, the mother Jane being described as " now of
London," and therefore having no further use for it.
It was the custom of the country, though daughters
inherited, for favour to be shown on sale of an estate to
the nearest male relative, if he were disposed to purchase.
William, second son to the third John, now stepped in as
purchaser of his half-brother's patrimony. The register
shows that he was actually resident there, and doubtless
farming it as tenant, in the year following John's death,
but it was not until 1778 that he was ready with the 300
which he paid for the old Nab estate with house and cus-
tomary land (rent us.), and for the Grasmere portion
that went with it (rent is. 8d.). He was then solemnly
admitted as tenant of the manor, paying fines of 11 and
360 RYDAL
i. 133. 4d. A further 100 paid to the executors probably
purchased the Heald or some of the small pieces in another
fee ; but only in 1802 his final purchase was made from
them, and the trust closed.
William Parke remained on the Nab until his death in
1825, a * the ripe age of 84, and he played a prominent
part amongst the few statesmen left on the manor.
His son was an idiot ; and when in 1794 his daughter
Mary married John Simpson, described as waller of the
parish of Grasmere, -the young people made their home
with the parents. Simpson worked on the Nab almost
as a joint owner, often taking the old man's turn in public
offices. The tale of the ruin of the house, and the part
that De Ouincey played in it, will be told in another
chapter. It happened after William's death, but he
undoubtedly, by his feud with the Rydal lord, sowed the
seeds of it : while the heavy mortgage on the property
which events shortly disclosed, may have had its origin
in his time. In action he seems to have been both
obstinate and unwise. Then, too, the account given by
Mr. Ford North of the attempt he made, along with his
son-in-law (doubtless led by him) to close the upper road
of the Nab to passengers from Grasmere, does not create
a favourable impression of him. But those were difficult
times for Rydal folk !
LITTLEHOUSE, number 5 on the lord's list of 1655, will
be dealt with among the village centres, as it was apparent-
ly the shop or general stores. Next to it comes
6. SANDS. The history of this is disconnected and
obscure. It was perhaps one of a close-set group on the
descending slope, and has wholly disappeared. From a
later description of it being " on the back side of Banks
House," (supposing the latter to be the present house
opposite the Hall gates) it would appear to have stood
off the street, and below the mound. The record of
owners is a confusing one. The register records a William
THE FARMHOLDS 36 1
Newton, of Rydal, buried in 1640, the year after his wife
Jane. In 1641, a second William had a child baptized,
while in 1645 a Lancelot began his family with an Edwin.
William, however, was the land-holder, and he must have
died early, for a jury of the village court declared in 1655
Robert Taylor to be " next heire ot Willing Newton "
for one tenement, of a rent of 75. 6d. Robert, however,
though cattle went on to the common in his name in 1657,
may have been resident elsewhere, as he paid John Banks
at the same time lod. to clear his " Boone-day shearing
and the leading of manour," and his rent was paid by (or
probably through) his neighbour, John Thompson. In
1666 it is recorded that " Robert Talor is to pay to John
Thompson 55. for gerdoing ye frithman," which possibly
means acting as his representative in that office.
Meanwhile, Lancelot Newton probably a kinsman,
without wealth to purchase seems to have farmed the
holding as tenant under Taylor, for he is found putting
cattle on the common and paying for 10 beyond the
30 sheep in 1663* with an extra five for his son Edwin.
He also paid a tax on one hearth. This branch of the
Newton family removed later to Grasmere the name
Lancelot being repeated in Edwin's son ; and the next
available evidence concerning the farmhold shows one
Myles Sands to be paying (in 1679) a 7 s - d- rent upon it.
Already in 1673 Myles had served as Frithman, and his
cattle ran on the common from 1682 ; while his widow
worked the boon-days by deputy in 1710 and 1720, the
latter tasks being done by Robert Jackson, who also
paid down 73. od. rent in 1724. Myles Sands must have
been a man of mark, for the place retained his name,
though it had passed to another Taylor (William) in 1725,
who lived at Sawrey, and for whom Thomas Jackson did
boon- work in 1733. William paid a land tax of 2d. next
* A Thomas Newton " Yeoman " puts cattle on the Common between
1692-8.
362
RYDAL
year, and his rent for " sands Tenem* " until 1755, when
he sold it to Thomas Fleming " Turner," an innkeeper,
(see Inns) for 22. los. od. It is then described as con-
sisting of the closes called Ridding, Gill Close and Horse
Close, with one calf's grass in the Nab and one " Onsett or
Houstead " on the " back side of Banks House." The
word onsett was often used for a derelict dwelling or the
VIEW OF A RYDAL HOMESTEAD ABOUT 1822.
site of such ; and this statement of position (which was
unusual) implies that the farmhold, long let, had at the
least been neglected. It was certainly never used hence-
forth by the holder, whether there remained enough of
it to let or not, for the Flemings laid its fields to their
ancestral ones to farm, and with them it passed on to
the Rydal Manor in 1845.
It is possible that " Sands " was a homestead still
remembered, though, if so, it would seem to have been
THE FARMHOLDS 363
placed a little out of order. This was approached along
the side of a barn (latterly used for storing of bark) that
abutted on the road about where Church Cottage now
stands ; and the path led into a neatly-kept court-yard
paved with cobble-stones, where grew an ash-tree of
great size. Here lived Mrs. Ann Harrison, said to be of
a Grasmere family, whose sons were wallers at a time
when wallers were itinerant ; her close white cap was a
pleasant feature of her appearance. There was a labourer's
cottage attached to the house.
Possibly we have a back- view of Sands (if it be not
Hobsons) in Green's Buildings in Rydal (1822), a view
of a Rydal Homestead, which is highly characteristic of
the place and the century.
7. THOMPSONS OR BANKS.* Of the race of Rydal
Thompsons, who were apparently husbandmen only,
there is little to be told, except their ruin. Squire William
called in one of them to witness a deed in 1589 ; a Richard
Thompson died in 1600 ; a Thomas in 1630 ; in 1635 a
wife of Robert, and in January and February of 1637
(following the year of the smallpox epidemic) a " Jefferay "
and a William. Jefferay was certainly the land-holder,
and probably the last to hold the full messuage or tenement.
At any rate his successor (William) is found in 1645
paying the high sum of i6s. od. as half-yearly interest on
a mortgage, which, if foreclosed, would account for the
statement that the 6s. 8d. rent paid by John Thompson
in 1656 was for "Jeffrey Thompson half tenement;"
and we have seen that a portion of the Thompson land
already had been joined to the Walker property before
1656. So it was with straitened land that John essayed
the life-task of his race. There must have been some
* If we may identify " Banks " with the house fronting the Hall gates,
tradition says that it was occupied later by James (popularly Jimmy) Dawson,
overlooker at the Hall, a strange character who decked himself in antique
gentlemen's clothes, to the wonder and awe of the village boys.
It was afterwards used as a dame's school.
364 RYDAL
doubt of the value of the holding reaching the stipulated
value, for it escaped the hearth-tax of 1663, but was
added to the survey of 1665. In cattle John was not
short, for he had a flock of 45 sheep in 1656, with a cow
and a twinter, and 50 next year with three kyne and a
heifer. But he had no money in pouch or purse on that
day when the new lord called him up to compound for
the dreaded fine.
" John Thompson of Rydal is to pay mee for his General-fine
2lb. 155. od. at Candlemas, 1657, and 2lb. 155. od. at Martinmas
then next following, in all 5lb. los. od."
writes the squire in his account-book.
But John's payments did not start till 1658, with 2,
and they dribbled on till 1662, before he finished. Then,
while putting together all he could for the fine, he got
behind with other payments. The Agist-book for 1657
states that he owed three half-years rent, and 55. 6d. for
his cattle ; which should total 155. 6d., though it is given
at i. IDS. od. The utmost exertions could not repair
such a sliding-back, not John's own labour in greasing
sheep at 6d. a day, nor his wife's in the Hall hay-field at
the same rate, nor even the sale of two sheep to the squire
ior I2s. od., and a fat calf for 75. od. It is a ruinous
policy to part with cattle for debt which hard work can-
not clear, and the end was now only a question of time.
John's final release from his fine was secured, indeed,
at a great cost, viz., by a loan from the squire himself.
1662-63, Feb. 7. Lent unto John Thompson, of Rydal, ye sum
of gib. vid. ye Deed of his tenemt. for security.
And John is found paying los. for " consideration " in
1667 and again in 1669, which looks as if he were then
borrowing elsewhere on mortgage, doubtless from John
Banks. The failing man loses heart and vitality ; and
John Thompson,* of Rydal, was buried on New Year's
* John Thompson, of Rydal, had sons buried in 1687 and in 1688.
THE FARMHOLDS 365
Day, 1670. Two days later the sale of his effects took
place, when the squire bought 19 sheep for 4. 145. 8d.
under 53. apiece. There remained only the transfer of
the property to the (probable) principal mortgagee.
" 1669-70, Feb. 3. Rec. of Jo. Bankes wch. I had lent John
Thompson Feb. 2, 62 upon ye receipt whereof I gave him in a
grant of ye whole Tenemt. oglb. oos. ood.
The name of John Banks, now for the first time a
land-holder in Rydal, has often occurred in the preceding
parts. He was indeed a notable man. Born no doubt of
the humblest parentage, probably in the neighbourhood of
Skirwith (the manor possessed by Dame Agnes Fleming's
son Daniel) he remained in the service of the Fleming
family during the whole of his life. For a wage that
appears merely nominal, he devoted all his superabundant
energy, all his abilities (which were of a high order), and
above all, the rectitude of a truly religious mind to the
direction of their concerns. He was their all-round man,
acting as agent, farmer, rent-collector, land-surveyor,
nay, almost as attorney. He was despatched on long
journeys to push difficult law-suits in strange courts ;
to take the sickly heir to cures of various sorts ; to ride
with up-growing sons to town or college ; and, while
there, to apprentice youths from the country to trade ;
and he was even deputed once to turn an officiating
minister out of pulpit and church in face of the con-
gregation. There was nothing honest John would not
do, if he were told to do it by his master, though often
the spirit within him quailed at the enterprise. So loyal
was he to the family, that he not only worked for them
heart and soul, but he lent to them his small savings, in
order to push their claim to Rydal (then but doubtful)
against bitter adversaries, and to tide young Daniel over
a time of great strait ness of money.
We first hear of John Banks in an inventory of Skir-
with Hall, where the meagre contents of his chamber are
366 RYDAL
set down. He threw in his lot with William, son of
Daniel, who preferred to farm his uncle John's property
to settling with an angry mother on his own small
patrimony. It is at Coniston, when William's health
was failing, and the great struggle for Rydal had started,
that we find John Banks to the fore, and absolutely sole
actor for the family. When William died, leaving his
eldest son little more than a lad, John accepted him
loyally as his master, followed him to Rydal, and served
him all the remaining days of his life.
That he was valued by the family was but natural, and
marks of esteem are shown by higher tips than was usual in
the account-book. For instance, when his wife, Elizabeth
enjoys an " upsitting," 6s. is given by her lady instead
of the 2s. 6d. usual for tenants' wives. And when a son
is born to him, William, the young heir, is allowed to stand
sponsor, and to present los. for the occasion. It is
cheerful to know that John, who lost several children,
had at least one son who grew up and went forth to prosper
in the world as a scholar. For in 1683 we read that IDS.
is presented to William Bankes " he goeing to-morrow
againe for Cambridge.''
On coming to Rydal, John Bankes must have been
accommodated in some cottage belonging to the demesne.
It was not until John Thompson's failure and death that
he had the opportunity to invest his savings in property,
and to become one of the village land-holders. Poor
Thompson's steading had doubtless got out of repair,
but the purchaser (or forecloser) had good money in
hand, and as soon as summer came proceeded to set it
in order. We read
" 1670, July ii. Sent by Katy for ale last Thursday to John
Bankes his House-raising oolb. ois. ood.
So there was the usual boon labour among the neigh-
bours, ending with a feast, when John took the proud
THE FARMHOLDS 367
position of statesman. That he made a good sound house
of Thompson's is certain, for in 1727 the holder of it paid
a tax on nine windows, an unusual number for a simple
farmhold. While some of the adjacent houses went to
ruin, and were cleared away, this one was saved by
Bankes' money, and if we may accept traditional
evidence as to its position stands to this day as a
comfortable roomy cottage opposite the Hall gates. In it
he settled with a rank equal to his neighbours, and with them
was entitled for the first time, as the Agist Book of 1671
shows, to put his cattle on the village common. He was
also now able to act as bailiff, and to collect the lord's
rents, which he proceeded to do, on the failure of William
Walker. He likewise served as Frithman ; and up to
1688 he stood for his township as one of the " Eighteen "
(or Questmen) who controlled the finances of the church
of Grasmere. John's own monetary transactions with
his master are not easy to fathom. Apparently he let
his wages lie, and applied for a lump sum when he wanted
it. The account-book gives under February 23rd,
1673-74 :
" Allowed unto Jo. Bankes 2olb. which I had lent him Jan. 21,
67, and 2olb. 145. ood. which I had lent Edward Benson o' th'
High close, due Feb. 2, 73 ; being in part of his Wages, and in all
5olb. 143. ood.
More singular is the following, entered for April 30th,
1685 :-
" Paid unto Jo. Bankes of Rydal my servant (in full of all Wages,
Debts, Accompts, Claimes and Demands whatsoever from either
my late Father or myself e on his release) ye sum of loolb. oos. ood
Memorandum. I then promised him (in consideration of his
being an ancient Servant to my Father and me, ever since I was
2 years old) to give him meat and Drink, when he would come to
it, and to pay him 403. per an. during his Life and mine ; but not
to have .any Land or Goods but what he shall pay for, saveing a
little he hath plowed onely for this year. oolb. oos. ood.
368 RYDAL
No doubt this settlement of outstanding moneys
between master and man meant practical retirement
from service on John's part. He had become, with the
opportunity that land gave to him, a prosperous husband-
man. He rented the New Close in 1681 at 2. los. od.
In the year of settlement he paid strictly for the grazing
of three cows in the demesne, and in 1688 he arranged
for " two Cowes to go amongst our owne Cowes at los.
a Cow." From the. wording of these passages, it is
probable that he had been allowed, while restricted to a
cottage, to turn a cow free into the Hall meadows ; just
as it was the privilege of the shepherd that besides his
wages he should have a few sheep of his own in the
flock.
John's death soon followed the settlement. He was
buried at Kendal, November 24th, 1688 (Grasmere
Register), and the name of his widow, Elizabeth, replaces
his in the Agist Book for 1689, her cattle continuing to
run on the common until 1696, in which year " her son's
horse " is also paid for on the demesne. Elizabeth
" relict " of John, was buried at Grasmere, Mar. 29th, 1697.
Banks left no son who cared to succeed him in Rydal.
The farmhold was bought by John Fleming, the miller,
and he passed it on (along with the trade) to his son
William. When William died, his brother Thomas,
living in Yorkshire, did not care to keep it, and sold it
to his connection, John, the cooper (see Inns), and^he
re-sold it to Richard Shacklock. The new owner's
occupation lasted twenty-five years, and then it passed
into the possession of the Knotts. " Mr. Edward Knott,
minor," who figures in the Rental, was probably the heir
of Michael. He died young, leaving it to his brother
George. Thus, united to the well-cared-for Knott estate,
it shared the same fortunes, and finally passed to the
manor.
* For other passages about the Banks family, see Flemings in Oxford.
THE FARMHOLDS 369
9. GREENS. We find the burial of one " William
Grene, of Ridall," on the 27th of January, 1579 a month
and year of great mortality from the plague. Five years
later another William had his infant daughter carried to
baptism, followed by a son David. Still another William
(we must suppose) had in 1620 a girl baptized. An
Edwyn also had children baptized and buried from 1600
onward, and was buried himself on the last day of 1623.
His wife, "Hellen," was buried the day before, so it seems
as if plague or other infectious disease may have carried
them off. The next Edwin was a land-holder of a little
estate paying 55. 4d. rent. For many years he served the
office of village " grave " or bailiff, first under Squire John
Fleming (as the accounts of 1631 show), then under his
executors and heirs ; next presumably, under the seques-
trators of the county, and last under the strong young
squire, Daniel. He must have been somewhat of a favourite
with the latter, as besides the rent collecting, he was
much employed about the estate, paying often the wages
of the out-door men, more especially of the shepherds ;
and a leather cap was specially bought for him in London
by John Banks. That " Evan Green," of Rydal, was
charged at the Kendal Quarter Sessions in 1657 with
carrying off horse and arms belonging to George Parke,
of Windermere, value 3, does not necessarily mean that
he had stolen the same, for quarrels led to strange charges.
His name sometimes crops up in its colloquial form as
Evan a Green, which suggests that the surname may have
arisen from some open space about the farmhold that was
used for village purposes. His hearth-tax proves the
house to have been a fairly good one ; and his cattle
were perhaps above the average in number. In 1655 he
had 50 sheep on the common, three cows and one " turn tor,"
and next year he had 60 sheep. ' Later his name appears
irregularly, but in 1660 he rented New Close from the
squire for 2. I2s. 6d. In 1667 he paid in the village
2 B
370 RYDAL
rents for the last time, and his death occurred in the
February of the next year.
Possibly a nephew succeeded him, as 2s. 6d. was sent
to John Green's wife's upsitting in 1676, but Evan's
holding soon passed to Robert Barnes, whose name,
though appearing in the registers from 1671, only shows
in the Agist Book from 1681. John Barnes followed
Robert, and his rent-arrears increased from los. 8d. in
1724 to 1. 6s. 8d. in 1735. The family, however, held
on, Bridgett (perhaps his widow) came next ; and a
Thomas paid the land-tax of is. 2|d. in 1751 on " Greens,"
while Bridgett continued the rent till 1769, besides paying
another rent on " Wilsons " (No. 14), another farmhold
that meantime had been acquired by the family of Barnes.
Perhaps it was for the renovation of the latter dwelling,
that her successor, John Barnes, who lived in Cumberland,
had in 1781 three trees " set out," for him by the lord's
man in his own wood ; he was not admitted to " Greens "
until 1783, paying 5. 6s. 8d. as " Gressom." His fine
on the two properties in 1788, when Lady Dorothy
Fleming died, was 15. 155. od., on a joint rental of
zos. 7d. His son John, of West Crosthwaite, on succeeding
by will in 1796, paid a fine of 10. us. 5d. ; and at the
same time not having apparently any use for them
he sold " Greens " and " Wilsons " to the Rydal Hall
estate for 200. The rateable value of the two in 1810
stood at 6. 33. 6d., with an extent of 8 acres 2 roods,
34 poles.
It seems likely that " Greens " was soundly repaired
by the Hall authorities, and remains to this day as
Undermount. If so, it is undoubtedly represented by
Green's " Cottage in Rydal," 1822. Tradition assigns it
at a period between that date and 1845 to two occupants.
One was Isaac Pattinson, who lived to over ninety years
of age. Adjoining, and behind Pattinson's which was
the present backdoor of Undermount lived Mr. Carter
THE FARMHOLDS 371
with old Jonathan Udall.* John Carter, described as
Land Agent, came to Rydal as Clerk to the poet Words-
worth, in his office of Stamp Distributor in the County of
Westmorland. But Carter was soon able to acquire a
place of his own under Loughrigg (see Low Cockstone,
now Loughrigg Holme), and there, after the removal of
his tenant, John Clarke, mason, he resided, lodging with
his new tenants named Walker.
Green's etching of this farm-hold shows an abutment
over the spot (now under the present dining-room) where
a well deep and dark is remembered. The gateway
served for both houses. The tree on the left was an
ancient eller (alder), beneath which a cheese-press stood.
10. HOBSONS OR CAUSEWAY FOOT. At number 10
we reach what was once an important village holding.
It might, indeed, have been classed among the village
centres, insomuch as it was at one time the abode of a
general provision dealer and carrier. It stood at the
back of the two pretty, new cottages on the high-road,
but endwise and askew. It seems (according to the account
received from two grandsons of James Backhouse, who
owned two of the three dwellings into which it was
eventually broken up, as well as the Rash Field above it)
to have fronted the grassy way that leads through the
Rash. Should this path present an ancient route from
the adjacent river-ford up through Nab wood to the
higher road, its name, Causeway Foot, would be explained,
since if it were only a way used by Hobson, he would
doubtless pave bits of it, past the several springs to give
footing to his pack-horses.
The name of Hobson appears in the earliest page of the
parish register, when "Myles Obson" marries Margaret
Ell wood, and starts a large family. There were also
* In an estate-book of 1822, I find an entry, " To Isaac Pattinson J years
rent for Heald Field and Round Close 6. ss. 6d." From this it would seem
as if he were a land-holder. This Healdfield could hardly have been the one
across the lake. Was it the present Church Field ?
372 RYDAL
Nicholas and Michael, heads of families ; but it was the
latter who succeeded Myles (buried 1618). He is in
evidence from 1617, when he witnesses a deed for Squire
John ; and in 1631 borrows 2 from the same for six
months. He died in 1638. Thomas, his successor, had
been married in the previous year to Annas Parke,
doubtless of the Nab ; for we find that in old times
intermarriages among members of one small village
community were very common. Thomas was a well-to-do
man ; he had not only his large holding in Rydal, rent
135. 4d. (one mark), but he had apparently some sort of
footing at Keswick, whence he brought the cheap cloths
and the meal so frequently sold to the Hall. Probably
it was at Monk Hall, Keswick, which belonged to the
Rydal Squire, that he met William Fleming, at the time
when the latter farmed it for his uncle John ; for he
assisted William's claim to the Rydal estate in 1651 by
the loan of 40. The bill for this amount was renewed
year by year at 8 per cent, (the customary interest), till
it was cleared by Squire Daniel in 1657. It mav have
assisted Thomas in procuring easy terms when " com-
pounding," for he paid a fine of only 6. 135. 4d. on a
rent of 135. 4d. His reckoning stands in 1657 :
Ib. s. d.
Allowed unto Thomas Hobson (in his Sheep rent) for ye
Consideration of 4olb. for ye last year . . . . 03 04 oo
more for three Load of Meal . . . . . . . . 02 14 oo
more for two cheeses . . . . . . . . . . oo 02 08
Given him back . . . . . . . . . . 10 oo 04
The final reckoning is made out apparently by John
Banks (who loved a double f) and is dated
January the 27th, 1657-58.
A particular of the account made with Thomas Hobson off the
4olb. due to him by bond as alsoe ffor some other disbursed by
him.
THE FARMHOLDS 373
Imprimis. Ib. s. d.
due to him the 2gth of September last by bill . . 40 oo oo
And ffor the consideracion ffor it ffor one yeare at
81b. per cent .. .. .. .. . . 03 04 oo
ffore sixe load off lime at gd. ye load . . . . oo 04 06
seaven yards off cloth at is. 4d. ye yard ffor Suite oo 09 04
more ffor 2 yards and a halffe off cloth ffor the boy
at is. 2d. ye yard oo 03 oo
One pecke of meale . . . . . . . . oo 01 08
One pecke off groats . . . . . . . . oo 02 08
44 05 02
This payed to Thomas Hobson. Ib. s. d.
August the ffirst payd . . . . . . . . 20 oo oo
The rent off the Sheepe at Munck hall allowed in
his hand due at martinmas . . . . . . 14 12 04
Payd to him by willing Atkinson w. ch. was the
first parte off his fnn . . . . . . .. 04 02 06
Payd to him by Thomas Lancaster being Tyth
ells fine (?) . . . . . . . . .. 02 03 04
And payd to him this present daye in money . . 03 07 oo
44 05 02
Thomas bought a foal of the squire's breed next year,
but died seemingly in 1663, as his wife is found promising
to pay 2. los. od. for her heriot between April and Martin-
mas. She paid it in October ; likewise in 1665 a tax on
one hearth not declared. But the prosperity of the house
departed with Thomas. The widow, as was customary
in the fee, nominally kept on the holding, while her son
Michael (who must have been young, as he only married
Margaret Benson, of Grasmere, in 1669) worked upon it,
took his turn as constable, churchwarden and frithman,
and put cattle on the common. He apparently continued
his father's carrying trade, as we find him occasionally
supplying the Hall with meat (at 6d. per load for carriage)
as well as with other things from Keswick. Perhaps the
374 RYDAL
trade diminished, and he himself was not sharp at business;
or else the famine year overwhelmed him. At all events,
the estate books tell the sorrowful tale which has to be
told of so many Rydal holdings of lessening weal, arrears
of rent and debt. The details need not be given here ;
they are much the same as in the case of other men cited
in Work and Wages. It is sufficient to indicate the steps
of the slow downfall. In 1676 he joins his mother in a
bill for 2. 135. 2d. from the squire ; and his wife (who
is having a considerable family) turns into the Hall
hay-field, and earns los. od. to help to pay it off. In the
winter he begins to thresh for the squire, at 2d. a day,
and next has that festivity called a " drinking," towards
which his superior furnishes 2s. od. He also salves the
sheep a better paid job. His wife adds to the well-paid
hay work, the cutting of corn in autumn ; and then, in
1682, " dresses " the meadows, a back-breaking labour,
generally left for young girls and poorest women, and paid
only at 3d. a day. The 2d. " given unto Michael Hobson
for bringing mee some money, 1683," helps little, and
Michael only manages with it all to pay 8s. od. of his rent,
which now (probably reduced by some small sale of land)
stands at I2s. 4d. In 1683 he pays the squire i. 35. 4d.
for Edward Harrison's bill (doubtless a mortgage on his
property), and his wife earns 6s. od. in the hay-field to
be placed to his credit. He dies in his prime, like so
many other failing men, and widow Margaret and her son
Michael are left to face disaster. Money is so scant, that
they need to borrow 55. od. from the squire for their
hearth-tax. The reckoning placed now before the young
man is a terrible and a complicated one. Arrears of
grass money reach back to 1679, an d of rent to 1681.
Then a mysterious los. od. is popped on " for a fine due
An. 1675 for 6d. rent," while the new fine " upon the
Death of his Father " is set down at the hard figure of
12. i6s. 3d. being nearly double what his well-to-do
THE FARMHOLDS 375
grandfather paid in 1655. Against this there stands only
his father's labour for sheep-salving for 1697, and for
threshing from 1681 and guttering reaching altogether
a paltry total of 2,. 155. gd. With what consternation
must the simple young statesman have seen the long
intricate sheet of credit and debit made out for him by
the ruler at the Hall, in which the balance dropped so
fearfully low on the debit side. There was nothing for
it but to sign the mortgage deed of half his tenement
prepared for him, in order that the sum total of his debt,
22. I2s. gd., should be secured. This sum he manfully
strove to pay, bringing i or i. los. od. up to the Hall at a
time ; but by 1697 he had only made fy. los. od. way with it,
and had besides to be supported by the bills of neighbours
and by borrowing. He was then at the end of his tether,
and he mortgaged another part of his property to a wealthy
townswoman, Agnes, ^mother of Antony Harrison, who
had become Mrs. Dixon. With this deed the unfortunate
Michael passes out of record,* though his mother must still
have lingered on in a part of the old homestead, as in
1710 her boon-mowing was done by deputy.
Henceforth " Hobsons " was two dwellings, of half
tenements. In one, Edward Harrison plied his trade as
shoemaker, uniting this with a little husbandry ; for his
cattle, including two cows, ran on the common. But
even he gets behind with his half rent of 6s. 3d., and in
1744 sells a piece of land, called Gill Close, to prospering
John Park, of the Nab, for 10, so that the rent falls to
33. gd. This bit was sold off in 1763 by one Isabel Harri-
son, spinster, of Rusland, for 39. os. 6d. to Matthew
Fleming (whose story will follow), and henceforth it
passed on with the Grigg property.
The other half of Hobsons likewise went to a craftsman.
For in 1714 Fletcher Fleming, the youngest son of Sir
* Michael Hobson, of Rydal, buried Oct. n, 1691. John Hobson, of Rydal,
buried Oct. 27, 1691. Michael Hobson, of Rydal, bur. June 13, 1693.
RYDAL
Daniel (who probably had received the mortgaged property
from his father) is found selling it for 24, to John Birkett,
one of a family of wrights or carpenters who had made
their way upwards. John removed to it from the little
house (rent 6d.) that his father John had first purchased ;
and after the death of his elder son and his grandson, it
passed by his will to his younger son George. George,
styled " of Stott-park, Colton," had already been picking
up property in Rydal, and presently was in possession of
three houses and some scattered land. He removed to
Hart Head some time after his purchase of its two halves,
(1769 and 1783) and became one of the most prominent
and characteristic statesmen of the village at the close of
the eighteenth century. In 1788, for some reason, he
was willing to part with Hobson's, which had been let
to a tenant for 3. 155. od. ; and the Hall agent, anxious to
secure it, reports much " discussion and grog " at the
parley over it. The canny townsman asked 50 for
what was then described as a cottage with barn, cowhouse,
orchard, etc., while he reserved two fields and the " layes "
belonging to the half tenement, to be divided ; and,
after a year of haggling, he got his price (1789). The
woodmeres called Nab and Dickey Spring passed with the
rest of his Rydal property to his son, and shared the fate
of Hart Head.
Old John Backhouse, born 1819, told me that he
lived as a boy with his parents at Harrison's, one of the
" Hobson " half-tenements, owned by his grandfather
(see number 14). He describes it as being the upper of
three houses, that faced on to " the Ragh." The lower
house, he said belonged to John Fleming of the Inn.
Only the middle house which may have been the
Birkett half was then in decent repair : the other,
chuckled the old man, " must have been old when Adam
was young."
Perhaps these fragments of " Hobsons," soon after
THE FARMHOLDS 377
swept away, are represented as " Buildings in Rydal,"
in Green's etchings of 1822. Mention should be made of
the sale of the "Rash," which was part of "Hobsons";
for after its sale, " Hobsons " was reduced to a rent of
is. aid.
WILSONS. Numbers n and 12 of the village houses
will appear under the Inns, so we can pass on to number
13. This was held by the Wilson family, of whom the
registers give a John and a Charles, in the first quarter of
the seventeenth century. Charles, supported by his
neighbours' bond, borrowed 3 from Squire John in 1642.
He was apparently a carrier and provision merchant,
like so many Rydal men, supplying to the Hall corn-seed
from Carlisle, bigg, meal, apples for Christmas, and even,
in 1665, after the death of Thomas Hobson, the cheaper
cloth required for the clothes of the house-boy. His
herd of cattle was at least up to the average number ;
he had in 1665 upon the common 60 sheep, two horses,
and four " twinters." By 1673, when his working days
were probably over, he was paying only on two kine and
one heifer, beyond the allotted number. He died in 1674,
having survived his wife six years, and left his daughter
Jane to inherit. She had married in 1649 J onn Udall
(sometimes spelt and pronounced, YowdaJe), and had
continued to reside at the old homestead. On the death
of her husband in 1659 sne P a id a heriot, and the fine on
her father's death was fixed at 5. 53. od. upon a rental
of 55. 3d. His fine in 1654 na d been only 4.
Jane UdalTs son Charles now stepped into his grand-
father's place, and picked up the old business of carrier,
the beat being apparently between Kendal and Keswick
or Workington. It was a fortunate moment for his start,
for the deaths of the younger David Harrisons in 1679
and 1681 left a vacancy, and the squire was free to
transfer his custom to the new man. He used him
frequently, and recommended him to Sir John Lowther,
37$ RYDAL
when the latter proposed to establish a regular service of
pack-horses between Kendal and Whitehaven.
There would seem to have been more than the usual
improvements done at Wilsons on change of tenant ;
for 2s. 6d. was given in 1680 for " Jane YowdalTs House-
Raysing," and 2s. od. next year for Charles Udall's barn-
raising ; with again a 2s. 6d. for his house-raising four
years later. Charles increased his live-stock, and paid
us. for the grazing of " 2 stags two years old " in the
demesne from September to April. In 1681 he rented
New Close at 2. I2s. od. on a seven years' lease, and next
year took for three years a portion of the Park near the
junction of beck and river. This was charged 155. od., the
squire bargaining that his own sucking calves should
continue to be put in " Old Hall." Next, Charles made
the bold stroke of renting a second village holding. This
belonged to William Grigg ; and Charles took it upon a
six years lease, at a rent of 2. los. od. His reason for
this move may have been the superior situation of Grigg's
(placed at the southern entrance of the village) as an inn,
for we find Charles' name in the list of licensed alehouse
keepers for the next year, 1691. His agist money, with
as many as 80 sheep on the common, ran up to 8s. od. in
1689, and to los. od. next year : the flock of Grigg's
holding being doubtless added to his own.
But in spite of these signs of prosperity, Udall's position
was not sound. He was behind-hand in payments, and
in 1688 his arrears of rent, of agistment and pasture were
added up to 2. os. 2d., for which he gave his lord a bill.
Five years later he borrowed as much as 21. i6s. 8d.,
it being necessary to cover the sum by a deed of his
ancestral estate. After that the end soon came, and
Charles Udall, his pack-horses, and his inn, ceased to be
in Rydal. By 1699 one John Nicolson, or Nicholsen,
was in possession of " Wilsons," paying the rent of 55. 3d.
and grass-money until 1739. Then the property passed
THE FARMHOLDS 379
to the Barnes family, who already held " Greens," and
with it was sold to the Hall in 1796. The position of
Wilsons is not certain. If the order of the 1655 Rent-list
be followed, it stood on the highway between Flemings
and Griggs ; in which case it has been etched more than
once by the engraver Green, being best portrayed in his
" South Entrance into Rydal," one of the set of Forty
Old Buildings, 1522. This shows its round chimney, its
tablet for owner's initials, its single glassed window, its
rocky approach ; along with the " Little House " next
to it, and the weaver's shed and outbuildings beyond.
The two last were converted into a house that was for
some years placed at the disposal of the parson of Rydal,
a tenancy which came to an end when the new vicarage
was built. These stood in one block, including the neat
cottage and garden on the south, which may have been
Wilsons.
14. GRIGGS, with Jobsons and Lowhouse in Lough-
rigg. Of the great clan Grigg or Grige, Greig, or Gregg,
as the name was variously spelt something will be said
in connection with the Rydal Mill (Village Centres).
The family began to wane in numbers and in wealth by
the close of Elizabeth's reign. A William, of Rydal,
had children baptized from 1612 to 1619. He died in
1639. H- was probably his son Edward who married
Isabell Flemyne in 1640, when he succeeded to the estate,
as was the prudent fashion of the time. He must have
been well-to-do, for he purchased the freehold of two bits
of property at the other side of the river from Thomas
Benson, of Coat How. This consisted of a tenement
called " Jobsons," rent is. 2d., and another called Low-
house, rent gd. ; along with Jopson Island in Rydal ;
for all of which he paid 7. 75 . od. These were parcels of the
Loughrigg freehold which Squire William Fleming had
sold to the clothier Bensons in 1575, and they had probably
in the interval become ruinous and deserted by their
380 RYDAL
holders. The one called Lowhouse may have stood on
the wide meadow beyond the bridge still known as Grigg
Field ; for the site of a minute house can be made out
to the right of the path, scarcely lifted above the flood
level ; while plough ridges show on the neighbouring
knoll. It was very likely the tenement mentioned in
the sale-deed of 1575, as held by Robert Griegge, being
then rented at nd. The other was doubtless the tene-
ment that the same document states to be held by John
Jopson at a rent of *2s. lojd. This house-stead may have
stood across the river in the field called Steps End (from
the stepping stones that once touched it), where another
site was discovered by the late woodman of the demesne.
It was perhaps the house called Steps End, Rydal, in the
register, as late as 1792, when a child was baptized. But
the Jopsons had died out or left, long before this. There
is scant record of them. In 1505 Richard Jopson's wife
paid 6d. of his " gressum " to John Grigge, he being then
grave or bailiff of Loughrigg. In 1586 John Jopson buried
his wife, while a Robert " of Rydal " had a son William
baptized in 1632. The name still lingers in Jopson Close,
where the quarry beck tumbles down Loughrigg-side into
the lake.
Edward Grigg's deed of purchase of what were either
derelict buildings or fit only to be let as cottages, is
undated. Other indications show him to have been a pros-
perous man, and a provision merchant and even possibly
another carrier ! He supplied the Hall in Squire John's
time with bigg, and in 1646 was paid 8s. od. for a " veale
calf had long since.'' His rent was entered by Squire
Daniel at first as 75. 7d., and then 75. 5d. ; and with that
astute lord he managed to compound for his fine at the
low rate of 4. los. od.
His flocks were large ; he had in 1655, 75 sheep on the
common and two horses, and he paid for cattle in the
demesne as well. Three years later, besides 85 sheep,
THE FARMHOLDS 381
two horses and two kine on the common, he rented Low
How from the squire for i. i6s. od., the latter writing
on the bargain " And they are to cut the Brakes in it in
midsomer month." In 1666 he paid as much as us. 2d.
lor extra cattle on the common. His wife was seemingly
not only a hard worker, but a powerful woman. She
could join the men at the sheep-clipping, for in 1667 she
did this for the Hall, earning 5d. thereby for the day.
(The men had 6d.) She had 4d. per day in the hay
meadows and her daughters 3d. Then Elizabeth and
Isabel Grigg, her daughters also may-be, dressed the
meadows at 3d., and they even bore sods at 2d. Thus
it will be seen that the women of prominent statesmen's
families often engaged in field labour. The Griggs,
however, had a genius for work.
Edward's career was now at its close ; he was buried
on February 26th, 1668. His widow, Isabell, survived
him only four years. It was her name that first appeared
in the Agist Book, and was later followed by the son
" Willing " or William. It is clear that ready money at
this time was scarce, for the fine levied on the father's
death (7. 8s. 4d.) was secured by bond. Money no
doubt had to be paid out to the brothers and sisters, as
was the custom when the eldest son took the farmhold.
Willing must have added a carrier's business to his
husbandry, for he was paid for the carriage of meal to
the Hall. But business must have been slack, and cer-
tainly the times were bad. By 1674 Willing owed his
lord 11. qs. 4d., and was obliged to mortgage his tenement.
This was, besides, the year of famine, when the villagers
had to sell their stock for whatever it would fetch. Grigg
tried the expedient of a public sale, held on March 2nd,
1675, at which the squire bought eight sheep, paying
i. 155. od. for them " into his sister Margaret's hand,"
Now began, on the statesman's part, a stupendous
struggle to keep his holding, by which he became truly a
382 RYDAL
bondman to his lord. A few extracts from the account-
book will tell the tale. The squire had in 1677 further
secured himself on William's bond by taking the assurances
of Mr Thomas Benson of Coat How, and the rich David
Harrison, that they would pay 2 if his mortgage was
forfeited. William saw no other way to meet his difficulties
than by manual labour performed at the Hall ; and next
year when he was straight with his rent, and even got a
cow and an extra horse on the common, he performed
the heaviest and worst paid task of the hireling, and
threshed corn at 2d. a day. To be sure, it was but for a
few days. Yet when his next account was made up in
the new year of 1681 he had threshed 35 days, led manure
for 12 (also at 2d.), done 19 days' mowing and 12 salving ;
earning thereby i. 35. 4d. This threshing must have
represented the work of the previous winter, for on
April 1 3th another account was made up.
" Paid & Allowed unto William Grigg for 72 dayes thrashing at
2d. the day I2S., three dayes makeing the Hedge in ye Low
grounds with meat at 3d. ye day gd., one day filling of manure
3d, five dayes holding ye plow, is. 3d. one day makeing hedge
about ye clothgarth & grubing 3d, one day Salveing with Tobacco
6d in all.
Ib s d
It. four days at ye Outwalls without meat . . . . oo 15 oo
Paid him in money ys, & allowed los. . . . . oo 03 oo
His account next January, made up of various kinds
of labour, mowing, salving, threshing, helping " to Inn
ye Corne " in all 55 days, comes to i. 8s. nd. Of this,
i. 2s. id. is " allowed/' 2s. 6d. is
" kept in my hand for a Syth had of Geo. Wilson of Ambleside,"
so that William receives " in silver " (noble sum !) 45. 4d.
In the next account, May 2ist, his wages amounted to
L. is. 2d. This finishes the season's threshing (making
a long winter of 91 days at 2d. a day) ; and includes
hedging, ditching and walling. From the total 6s. od.
THE FARMHOLDS 383
is " allowed/' which William's wife had been obliged to
ask for at the Hall in order to buy the " Seed-Gates "
requisite for sowing the home-patch of corn, and which
is described as " borrowed." There is also a deduction of
I2S. Od.
"for consideration due June 24, 80,"
and our statesman goes away with 35. 2d. in his hand.
His next account waits for a whole year till May 25th,
1683, and shows that he has achieved the maximum of
threshing in 106 days, with mowing and walling, in all
143 days, making a total of i. i6s. 2d. earned, which is
an average of barely more than 3d. a day. From this
he is " allowed " i. los. 6d., and receives 55. 8d. in cash.
He is clearly just keeping his head above water, in paying
lord's rent, agist money (with special item for a mare),
interest on mortgage ; only that there is the mortgage
itself ! His wife, who, along with the daughter, had been
taking the spring task of " dressing " the lord's meadows,
earning her 3d. a day, dies this year, 1684. He repaired
this loss, by marriage with Grace Harrison, and we read
in the account-book for January 30th, 1686-87 :
' ' Sent by my Son Roger to give at Will Grigg's Offer- li s d.
ing at Amb. oo 02 06
In February the Account Book gives particulars of his
earnings, which were i. 8s. 8d.
A way out of the labyrinth was to open in front of
William Grigg, which saved him from becoming a landless
man, as did so large a proportion of his towns-fellows.
With that rash young neighbour, Charles Udall, he,
" William Greige," drew in 1690 an agreement to " sett
and to farm let " his whole messuage and tenement for
six years at a rent of 2. los. od., he paying the lord's
rent, assessments, and half the charge of putting the
house in repair ; with a proviso that Charles might break
his lease in three years. William was now free ; his
384 RYDAL
chain to his lord was unloosed ; he could seek a better
market for his labour. And we may infer that he did so,
for his mortgage, written down in 1690 as 17. 2s. 4d.,
was paid off gradually through Udall and John Birkett,
as the " Hall Rent-Book " shows.
And so (after a gap in evidences, such as occur from
this time onward), we find the Griggs still upon the little
holding to which they had returned. From 1710 the
Boon-work papers give the name of William Grigg,
perhaps a son of our worker, who does the work by
deputy. He served in all public offices was Frithman,
Constable, Surveyor, Churchwarden in the good old style,
had a sufficiency of cattle on the common, and died in
1745 or 1746. His son and heir, John, was then admitted
to the ancestral messuage and tenement " at Rydall
Town " before the Customary Court, paying a fine of
7. 8s. 4d. But the ancestral landholder, if he had no
trade but husbandry, was by this time recognised as a
person who had little or no chance of success. John
was resident at Whitehaven, a town to which the folk
of Rothay valley often migrated, and is described in the
deed of sale as " labourer " ; for he was willing in 1760
to part with the immemorial " Grigg Tenement," the
last of all the holdings once possessed by the clan, to
Matthew Fleming for 57.
The purchaser was a craftsman, to whom the traditional
feeling for " property " still appealed. By birth he
belonged to the village, being one of the enormous and
most astute clan of Fleming, who had always united a
craft (or two) , with the pursuit of husbandry. (See Inns) .
A son of the wealthy John, " cooper " and innkeeper,
he was apprenticed when a youth at Keswick as a
" Thrower " for eight years ; and must have been a
cunning man at his trade (which he pursued elsewhere),
for he saved enough to buy part of " Hobsons," as well
as " Griggs." He had no children, and after his death
THE FARMHOLDS 385
(his will was dated 1771) and the death of his widow Jane,
some 17 years later, the holdings passed to his brother
John. John's daughter, Mally, was married to James
Backhouse, and she inherited in 1803. Her husband, a
butcher by trade, took up the more dignified position of
statesman with its various social offices. But it was in a
hollow state. Even by the exercise of frugality James was
unable to sustain the position to the close of his long life..
In 1842 he and his wife entered into an agreement with
General le Fleming to sell both Hobsons (except a piece
that must have been the Rashfield) and Griggs, provided
they were allowed to live at the latter for 6. 6s. od. rent,
until the last of them died.
By this time the little homestead was so ruinously out
of repair that something needed to be done. It was
described by an old man, since dead, as being so low-
pitched of door and roof that one could just about get
into it, and that was all. John Backhouse, a grandson,
remembered it as some six feet below the road ; but this
would be in part due to the levelling and raising of the
great highway in front of it. For it seems to have been
situated in a slight hollow, which stretched down its
own parrock ; and the field was finally made flat by the
casting of the rubble of the ruined cottages at the other
side of the road into it. A low shed abutted on to the
road, joining at a right angle to the little homestead,
which was entered across a cobbled yard. The low
gable-end and chimney are seen well in Green's etching
of Pelter Bridge in 1808, as well as in Mr. W. Collingwood's
sketch done in 1841 ; but the latter pictures a barn that
answers to John's description. The barn stood close by
the river, and was reached by a gate from the parrock,
It was fitted up for three horses, two cows, a calf-stall,
with storage for some 100 carts of hay. Possibly the
bigger barn was a new building.
All this was cleared, and a new, tight and neat little
2 C
386 RYDAL
homestead rose in its place about 1844.* Within it the
last statesman of the village passed away at over 90.
He is remembered as a tall, fine old man. His daughters
let the rooms as lodgings ; and one lodger remembers
him with a knife constantly in his hand, whittling wooden
skewers, the last token of his trade.
15. LITTLE HOUSES. Besides the farmholds which
were full " messuages or tenements," there were a few
smaller houses distinct from these, as well as from the
cottages that were so 6f ten attached to the larger dwellings,
and were reckoned as one with them . These ' ' little houses ' '
had rights upon the common and the woodland, with
other communal privileges ; and they appear to have
been so far part of the original village community as to
have shared in the allotment of land for the homestead,
within the village, though not in the open lands outside.
Such was the Shop and the old Smithy, as well as
another small house used for a short time as a smithy
(see Village Centres), and which was probably the one
which became the dower house of Mrs. Parke, of the Nab.
There was also a fourth, which in late times went by the
name of Shaddock's Toftstead, and was possibly connected
with the Robert Shacklock " of Rydal," who paid for a
horse grazing in the demesne in 1663, an( i wno Y e ^ rnakes
no appearance in the rental. Certain it is that when a
Richard Shacklock subsequently took over " Banks," he
paid, besides the 6s. 8d. rent, an " Item for the House
Stead," 6d. Now the word toft was applied to a piece
of ground where a tenement had once stood. In 1600
there were four tofts mentioned as belonging to the
Rydal village, a fact which proves the decay of the place,
and reduction of the population. So when Shacklock's
small holding re-appears several times in the rental as a
toft-shed we may conclude it to have become ruinous.
It was lumped with Bank's holding through the time
* Subsequently " Rydal Cottage " the home of the author. Ed.
^
e *
s
THE FARMHOLDS 387
of the Knot tenancy, though in 1749 the names of Eliza-
beth Hutchinson and William Hodgson are connected
with it, as if it might have been let as a shop. In 1769
it is described as " a Tofts tead not paid for many years."
It figured in George Knott's will as "An old dwelling
house and orchard, rent 6d." Along with the Knott
property, it eventually passed to the Hall. When it
disappeared, or where it stood, is hard to say. It seems
unlikely to have been the small stable now attached to
Rydal Mount, though this is a two-storied place. Was
it the ".rude hut " described by T.Q.M., who made a tour
of the lakes in 1827, which apparently stood on Hall
Bank?
One or two cottages are known to have stood where
the coach-house of " Rydal Cottage " is placed, but nothing
of their history is known. Possibly they represent a
former village holding, which belonged to those lands
(also upon the park-side) which went by the name of
" Birketts," and that subsequently belonged in part to
Mr. Ball. They are not represented in the rental of
1654-
The cottages are well shown in Green's 1808 view of
Pelter Bridge. They had fallen out of repair, and were
used for storage of bark, when extensive wood-cutting
went on in the Park. Old John Backhouse remembered
a privet hedge ran down to the roadway, enclosing their
little garden and fruit trees from the park ; and this
orchard bit is still marked by a few daffodils that spring
year by year. They were finally cleared when Backhouse's
farmhold was rebuilt ; and a stable and byre were
erected for him upon the site.
With the Birkett lands a certain Thomas Hudson,
described as yeoman of Rydal, seems to have been
connected, for in 1658 and 1662 he was paid 6s. 8d. for
hay in "Birkett feild-head." The " Birkett-barne,"
which was mended in 1659, was included in the demesne ;
388 RYDAL
it was no doubt the hog-house which stood until 1907,
when its stones were cleared for alterations at Rydal
Farm. Thomas Hudson, who is not represented in the
rental either, died in 1666, making the simple will of the
statesman. It is given below
WILL OF THOMAS HUDSON.
December ye 6, Ano. Dom. 1666.
In ye name of god Amen I Thomas Hudson of Ridall, sick in
body, but of good and perfect remembrance, thanks be to god
doe make this my last will and first of all I bequeath my soul
to ye maker of it and my body to be buried in ye Parish Church
yard of Gresmere : Secondly I give unto my Daughter Margarett
2S. 6d.
All the rest of my goods and chattels moveable and immoveable
I give unto my wife Chatherine & my Daughter Alice to be
equally divided betwixt y'm paying ye debts and legacies herein
mentioned :
s d
to Robert Walker of Ambleside ... . . 5 06 oo
Thomas Mackereth, of Ambleside . . . . oo oo 06 oo
George Otley . . . . . . . . . . oo 04 oo jo
Thomas Fleming wife elder oo oo 06 oo
John Mackereth, fiedler . . . . . . oo 03 oo oo
David Harrison, wife, elder . . . . . . oo 04 oo oo
David Harrison, elder . . . . . . oo 04 03 oo
In witnesse hereof I have hereunto set my hand and scale
THOMAS HUDSON.
Witnesses
Lancelot Newton
Edward Grigge
William Grigge
George Ottley
William Baxter.
389
VILLAGE CENTRES
CHAPTER IV.
THE SMITHY
Adam Fisher; David Harrison; Some Old Bills; The
Shop or Littlehouse.
THE last Rydal holding of the rental of 1654 (number
14) was the first house of the village (as approached
from Ambleside) and one of the chief village
centres from primitive times. This was the smithy,
which stood at the foot of Kiln How, at the point where
the highway crosses Rydal Beck. From its position it
was clearly one of the manorial buildings that once
clustered about the Old Hall, and was the only one per-
forming its office when our record begins. One Adam
Fisher was then the smith. The register tells that he
(Adam Fysher) married Mabell Partrige in 1614, and
thereafter had children ; and if the 125. od. set down in
Squire John's book as his rent for 1631 was paid for the
smithy, that sum must have been charged for the business,
which was once the lord's monopoly ; the rent of the
little holding being is. od. only. For Adam had not only
smith's work for the demesne to do (which often came to
a good sum), but what he could get from his neighbours,
and from horsemen on the " broad-gate " who might
have slipped a shoe. In November, 1632, Adam was
paid upon " accompt " i. 6s. lod. It is true that the
shoeing of the " Light Horse " for Rydal was done during
the Civil Wars by Anthony Skelton, who rode the stallion,
and there is entered (1643)
" pd. for Gunpowder ned pedler had at seuerall tymes for
Anthony when he showed light horse olb. 23. 6d."
390 RYDAL
Adam's bills for general smith's work were fairly
large, being i. 143. od. for six months of 1643,
i. os. 6d., from June to November, 1644, with an-
other bill of i. 145. 6d. for the same year ; and
i. 55. od. in 1645, as well as an extra i. 2s. 2d.
Adam assisted to get in the Grasmere tithes at a time
when tithe-collecting was no sinecure, and it was as well
to have a big strong man to demand them. Then he
had another and very different occupation : for he was
skilful as a gardener. His own garden is always men-
tioned with his holding, and he was employed in the Hall
gardens.
1642, " pd. for worke done in Garden by Adam Fisher
at Seurall tymes before this 8th of Aprill olb. 2s. 6d. " ;
and in 1645 he is paid 35. 3d. for six and a half days in
the garden, making 6d. a day.
But harder days and sorrow were in store for Adam.
In the previous year William Fisher, presumably his son,
who would have followed him, had died ; and in 1653
and 1657 William's sons, Adam and John died also.
Old Adam, as he now began to be called, had to face his
fine at the new squire's coming, and on October gth,
1655 he set his mark (very like a horse shoe) against an
agreement to pay 153. od. on or before the 26th of the
next April. The proportionate amount of fine to rent
shews that business, or a money turnover, was reckoned
on. But business had become slacker. The smithy at
the exit from Ambleside up on the Brow which it named,
(and there was another at the entrance), was barely over
a mile distant ; and the new lord gave his work to a
Grasmere man. Adam was glad to work off his fine by
mixed labour, and subsequently at a drop in wages of
one-third the old rate. At first, indeed, he was paid the
same, as Banks' account of his fine-debt proves, alike for
guttering the Round Close, graving peats, manuring the
bigg ; though it dropped to 5d. for eight days work
THE SMITHY 39!
" beffore Candlemas." Then he is paid 2s. od. for four
days in the garden, with " one att Brackens in Rydall-
how " thrown in. An entry for February 24th, 1656,
shows the squire's method ol keeping his labour-accounts.
" Paid unto Adam Fisher (besides 33. 4d. allowed him
in his fine) for 24 days gardening, making hedge in ye
Low Parke, and cutting of Briers, being all now due Ib. s. d.
unto him . . . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 05 oo
His fine was not finally worked off until May 2ist, 1657,
when he was paid " for Coallinge off the pitt at Lowe
Parke Barne."
Now this entry proves that Adam was a clever, all-
round craftsman ; for the burning of charcoal is a special
and highly- trained occupation ; and the squire, when he
paid the smith 75. 2d. for " 14 dayes worke in coaling
a Pitt " no doubt saved money, as well as the trouble of
procuring a couple of experts from a distance. Adam
likewise collected moss (doubtless for the roofs), helped
in the hay, and finally was set to the task of clearing the
site of Old Hall, and trailing stones thence for the use
of the builders of the adjacent new barn. He was paid
in October, 1659, f r
" 4 days getting and setting of Crabb-tree Stockes " ;
and such work in the orchard must have been nearer
the old man's heart than dragging stones on a sled
like a beast of burden. But Adam's strength was
failing ; he was buried on March 27th, 1660 ; and
henceforward his cot was known as Fisher House, and
the knoll behind it as Adam How a late instance of
place-names arising from a strong individuality.
The house and garden now fell into the hands of the
lord, probably for want of heirs ; and he disposed of it
to David Harrison, junior, son of the inn-keeper, who was
himself trading as a carrier like his father, and who
being newly married, needed a house. The agreement
392 RYDAL
furnishes an instance of land-tenure in Squire Daniel's
time ; it is given below.
Young David appears to have flourished, marching
with baggage of all kinds char-pies, money, &c., to
Kendal, and there transferring his burdens to the string
of pack-horses bound for Oxford and London ; bringing
back wheat bread, salt, wainscot from the joiners, etc.
His alternate march took him to Keswick, whence he
brought back meal, etc., wanted at the Hall. Like his
father, he dealt in cattle, renting the " little close called
the ould hall " and later on Adam How and the Allans, as
well as New Close. He tired of the bargain that the squire's
calves should go free in the close, and for 1670 we read :
" Given back unto young David Harrison of ye new
close 6d., and because calves were in ye old hall, is., Ib. s. d.
in all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 01 06
In 1674 old David of the Inn died, and young David
moved to the ancestral farm-hold. (See Inns).
The old smithy remained long in the Harrison family.
An Anthony is represented in the Agist Book from 1694
to 1700, and in 1710 he did two days boon work in the
lords fields, one doubtless for Fisher House. A widow
Harrison did the same in 1720 and 1733 ; and in 1746,
William, second son of Anthony, was admitted tenant to
Fisher House. He was a cooper living at Sawrey ;
and in 1768 it was sold by him for 11 to William Richard-
son, of Clappersgate, with all privileges belonging thereto.
A fine of i was paid. John Richardson " of Grasmere "
followed William, and in 1801 he parted with all rights
in " Kiln-howe " to Sir Michael Fleming for the sum of
24-
In 1755 the Rev. Isaac Knipe reported the robbery of a
shoe-shop in Ambleside, adding that Rydal smithy was also
"broke open, but nothing I believe taken from thence."
A fragment of building stood, until recently, by what
is still known as Smithy Bridge.
THE SMITHY 393
THE SMITHY.
(Deed of Purchase).
This indenture made the twenty eight day of May in the year
of our Lord God 1660, Between Daniel Fleming of Rydal in the
County of Westmorland Esquire of one Part and David Harrison
younger of the same Town and County aforesaid Yeoman of
the other Part Wittnesseth, that the said Daniel Fleming for
divers good causes and valuable Consideration Hath granted
aliened and confirmed and by these Presents doth grant alien
and confirm unto the said David Harrison, All that house and
little Parcel of Ground here before used for a little Garden to the
North End of the said House adjoyning Both situate at the
Kilne-howe at the head of the Long Close in Rydall aforesaid,
and parcel of the Demesne there, and Both lately in the Tenure
and occupation of Adam Fisher of the said Rydal Blacksmith,
and also one Calf Grass in the Nab in Rydall aforesaid, And
thirty sheep Grass, and one Horse Grass upon the Pasture and
Commons of Rydall aforesaid, And Liberty to Grave and Digg
one days work of Turves or Peats in and upon the Pasture and
Commons of Rydall aforementioned as other the Tenants within
the Manor of Rydall usually have. And one Cow Gate or Grass
upon the Pasture and Commons of Rydall, aforesaid ; Paying
yearly for the Same As other the Tenants of the said Manor do
usually pay. To have and To Hold the said House Parcel of
Ground, and other Premisses unto him the said David Harrison
his Heirs and Assignes for Ever So As the said David Harrison
his Heirs and Assignes and every of them shall for ever hereafter
well and truly Yield and Pay unto the said Daniel Fleming
his Heirs and Assignes the yearly Rent of Twelve pence. And
yearly do one Boon-day Mowing, One Boon-day shearing, And one
Boon-day Leading of Manure at the several usual Days and Times
according to the Custom of the said Manor of Rydall. As Also
all Fines, Heriots, Dues, Duties, and Services which shall be
hereafter due for the Premisses according to the Custom of the
Manor of Rydall aforementioned there called Tenant Right.
And in such Manner and Sort As other the Tenants do hold their
Tenements within the said Manor. In Wittness whereof Both
the said Parties to these Presents have Interchangably put their
Hands and Seals the Day and Year first abovementioned,
Signed Sealed and Delivered in presence of us. Daniel Fleming.
John Ellis his Mark T
Edward Greige his Mark m O
John Bankes. (Seal).
394
RYDAL
After Adam's time a small house in the village, now
vanished, served as a smithy. It stood in the present
park, almost opposite to the vicarage, upon the town-gate,
and within a field called Round Close. It may possibly
be the subject of a deed dated 1567, described as " Tho.
Fleming of Rydall Waller his grant unto Rich. Philipson
of an House in Rydall of I2d. Rent per annum. Dated
Aug. 6, Ao. 9, Eliz.* " Of the Rydal Philipsons little
is known ; an Agnes was buried in 15734
THE SMITHY AND WHITE LION INN, AMBLESIDE.
Sketch by Mr. J. Harden, 1825.
When Squire Daniel came to Rydal old Adam may have
been unequal to work at the anvil. At any rate he
patronised at first the Grasmere smith, one William
Mackereth, as the bills show. The whereabouts of this
" smiddy " is uncertain. It was usual in old days to
place the blacksmith's shed unless it was an adjunct
* D. Fleming's " List of Rydall Writings."
t A marriage is recorded for 1621, which is difficult to assign to the correct
family branches, between Dorothie Flemyng of the parish of Grasmere and
John Phillipson of Windermere parish.
THE SMITHY 395
of the manor-house at the entrance of the little town,
handy to the traveller whose horse had lost a shoe. In
Ambleside one stood on the right of the road from the
south, before the White Lion (Kiln Sike) was reached ;
and here one Holm worked within the memory of Edward
Wilson. Another was situated at the exit of the town.
At Grasmere one stood conveniently at Town End, as we
shall see. Yet another, and doubtless a far more ancient
one, since it apparently lay on the line of the Roman road,
existed and is still to be seen at Winterseeds, and here John
Watson worked the existing hinges of the outer church
doors. After the turnpike road took the bottom of the
valley, this position accessible only up a steep rise
became inconvenient for custom. Accordingly, another
smithy was opened below, where William Simpson, son of
John, the Rydal statesman, worked until his early death
through fever.* Besides these, a smith's shed, long un-
used, still stands at the cross- ways, near the Hollins.
But " Gresmer Smith " did not work long for Squire
Daniel, who procured a special " Rydall Smith/' in the
person of George Otley. The little Philipson house was
apparently bought by George, who began work in 1659,
and married Agnes Harrison in 1663 ; for he is found'
paying a is. rent for a little place variously described as'
" ye little house by ye Highway side," or " joyning to ye
Round Close." Here George stayed until about 1672,
when he acquired the substantial farmhold of How Head,
rented at 6s. 8d. This holding, though within the boun-
dary of the Grasmere township, was reckoned as an
asset of the Rydal Manor ; and may have been acquired
(like Pavement End) by Squire John, to whom the
Hawkriggs long in possession of it, had mortgaged at
least one portion. Here Otley worked as Rydal smith,
catching custom as we must suppose from wayfarers
* Also remembered by Ed. Wilson, who died in 1910.
396 RYDAL
over White Moss ; and here his descendants remained
till a late date.
A few extracts from Otley's beautifully written but
strangely spelt bills will instance the range of a smith's
work. It will be seen that the squire sometimes produced
the iron from his own foundry ; and that the smith
demanded drink-money when young horses were shod.
The Round Close house was perhaps used again as a
forge, for the death of a blacksmith of Rydal, one John
Holme, is recorded "in 1725. The fate of the house is
uncertain. Well-to-do John Parke, of the Nab, died
(1770) in possession of a tenement in Rydal, with stable,
orchard, rights, easements, etc., of a customary rent of
is. od., which may have been it. As this alone of his
property was to be reserved for his wife and daughter,
it must have been a snug place. The widow sold it,
however, to Sir Michael in 1786, and he probably razed
it to the ground when he improved the Hall and Park.
Rydall Smith's Note, concerning ye Mill, and for all due till
Nov. 27, '59.
first of all s. d.
there is a mill sprinte 60
for the gugan lying 1 . . . . . . . . . . 40
for the mill hoopes . . . . . . . . . . 20
for the spikinge 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 10
for half a hundred little spiking 05
for tow plates . . . . . . . . . . . . o 10
for loapes and stapels . . . . . . . . . . i 6
for the mell 8 . . . . .... . . . . 26
for thre punchaws tow of my iron and one of youres
.and lying of them . . . . . . . . . . 20
for punchaws and pickes sharpinge . . . . . . i o
for the mill chisell lying i o
for the fire shoule i o
for the hay crouke . . . . . . . . . . 05
for the dune horse tew showes of mine and tow of
youres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I o
for the worke horses 4 new showes of mine and tow
of youres and tow remoues . . -,& if . ^ *& b *& * 8
THE SMITHY 397
S. d.
for the bey mare tow new showes 06
November the 27 : 1659 receuied in ffull off this note ffor all
the worke that did belonge to Daniell Fleminge the sum off
Ib.oi 06 06
By me Georg Ottley.
The following items are picked from later bills :
for famors to a bed . . . . . . . . . . oo oo &
for the grindstone axeltree . . . . . . . . oo 02 4
for a croping axe lying oo o 9
for cakers and nailes . . oo o 8
for the oxen showinge . . . . . . . . . . oo 5 o
for a new sucke and the coulter lyinge of your iron . . oo 5 o
for the coulter and sucke lyinge of my iron 4 . . . . oo 2 o
Two pair of gimmers for ye new garden doore 5 . . i 4
for mending two wedges for ye stone getters . . . . oo 15
Two hackes lying for ye stone getters ye one your own
ye other John Holmes 6 01 oo
ffor a laddie shanke . . . . . . . . . . oo 04
for makeing a broyleing iron . . . . . . . . 02 04
A loup and and a crooke for a wichett 7 . . . . oo 04
two sithes crammeing 19 oo 04
two hakers for Robin 8 . . . . . . . . . . oo 02
a staple for a pair of swingle-trees Aprill ye 5 9 . . oo 02
A scrath ye same day 10 oo 09
spikeings for ye nursey floor Aprille ye 20 (1667) . . oo 02
A Kettle banding May ye 29 . . . . . . 06 06
four pair of gimmers and eight clasps for ye new
chamber window June ye 26 02 08
a new jocke 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . 04 oo
for lying a jocke . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 08
swine rings . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 03
a split 02 06
For tow heatens (heaters ?) one of youre iron . . o i
For tow bands one for the hekon sadle and the other
for the male pilyon. o 10
for frosting of all the horses i 8
for 2 andirons of youre iron . . . . . . . . 26
for lying of 22 harrow Teeath . . . . . . . . 3 10
for a yoke mending and a shackel mending . . . . 04
for a forcke show 13 . . . . . . . . . . i o
for the yonge hors and yonge mare in drink . . . . i o
RYDAL
for the Mestris mare the elder 10 new showes three s. d.
of youres and 7 of mine and 5 remoues . . . . 03 3
for a snek and a famor 18 . . N > *^ "- . . . . . . oo 3
for 2 skelats 14 . . . . . . ^wV . . . . 01 o
for a new skrat 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 9
for mending of the broyling yron VK ?. A . . oo 4
for drinke when wee did show the yonge horses . . 01 o
for laynes for the plowe 16 . . . . . . . . . . oo 09
for 3 new haera-teth and other sharpinge one shillinge
Gimmers for a chest . . . . . . . . . . i 6
for mending, a ratton crooke 7 .. .. .. .. j-i ;j8
four reekes for ye brewhouse chimney 16 . . . . 08
for the siey mending . . . . , . . . . . i o
for the chafing dish o i
for a pare of swinaltres and a teame mending 9 . . oo 8
for a new brandiron . . . . . . . . . . 02 6
for 4 pikes to the yeats . . . . . . . . . . 02 6
for 4 paare of famers and cronkes . . . . . . 10 o
for a peare of tonges makeing and a pare binding . . 01 o
for 2 bolteg for a cheese pres . . . . . . . . oo 5
for Ironing. 2 whele barrowes .. .. .. .. 017
for a Fleshe axe lyinge . . . . . . . . . . 09
for a pott startt 17 oo 5
for a plugh clouts 18 oo 7
for a cronke (?) . . . . . . . . . oo 10
for a new goike (?) . . . . . . , . . . 40
for a pere of famers to a bed (?) ... . . . . i o
for curting r.ods and heukes 08
for a claspe to the boatte . . . . . . . . 04
four pair of Gimmers for ye slaughter house doore . . 05 oo
for makeing a cockle panne . . . . . . . . 03 04
for craming a sith 19 . . . . . . . . . . oo 02
Gimmers for ye beef fatt* 01 02
for lying ye flour axe and striking knife 1 . . . . 01 09
Gimmers for ye Kit chin hecke .. .. .. .. 01 oo
spikeings fetcht by ye Coupers for ye mash-fatt a . . oo 01
A seatt for. ye Low parks cowhouse oo oo
a byer crooke . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 04
for two keders (?) one your iron and the other mine 80 . o 9
NOTES FOR BILLS.
1 To " lay " an implement was to set it in its handle or into position.
a Spikings were small nails.
8 Mell, a hammer or Mallet.
THE SMITHY 399
4 The suche or sock was the nose of the plough, and the coulter the blade of
the same. Entries for the shoeing of the plough oxen occur from time to
time.
5 Gimmers, hinges.
6 Hack, a pick.
7 Wicket, a little yeat or gate. The heck that follows is a short light gate
also. The loup slipped over the upright of the gate. The crook (a piece of
bent iron) was of many kinds ; ratton-crook, an iron bar on which the kettle
was held above the fire.
There was a crook by which the plough leader guided the plough, which
could pull or push.
8 Robin was the scullion, whom the squire dressed. Kaker = calker, the
iron rim or plate on a wooden clog or shoe heel (Wright).
9 Swinaltree or Swingle-tree, the cross bar of wood, bound with iron, between
horse and plough to which plough traces and plough are both attached.
10 Scrath, or skrat, a rake.
11 Jock, the northern form of Jack ; but which of the several implements
called by this name is referred to, cannot be determined. The best known is
a machine for supporting the axletree of a cart.
la Forcke-show = the shoe (into which to insert the handle) of a fork.
18 A snek and a famor=a latch and (?) See also a pair of famers to a bed.
4 paare of famers and cronkes.
14 Skellet, a pan with a long handle.
15 Laynes for the plough = plough-lines or reins made of cord.
16 Reekes or rookes, bellows.
17 A pott start = a handle to a saucepan.
18 Plugh clouts or elates = the shoe or foot of the plough.
19 Cramming a sith, to cram a scythe seems to be synonymous with the modern
laying, which means the fixing by the smith of the " heel " of the blade in the
handle. The "grass-rail " is then secured across diagonally, which prevents
the grass getting into the space between blade and handle.
20 Keders, implements of butchery.
THE SHOP.
Number 5 of the 1654 Rental closes the list of Little
Houses in Rydal. If it be identical with the shop of
later days, it was joined on to a small farmhold (probably
Wilson's and now Ivy Cottage) and consisted of but one
room upstairs and down, with outhouse behind. Subse-
quently it was used as a school, and finally, after a modern
house had grown on its further side out of cot and weaving
shed, it degenerated into a coal-hole. From this degrada-
tion it has been lately rescued ; and we step down now
on to its ancient paved floor (two feet below the present
level of the road) with a respectful sense of the part it
played in the past life of the village.
It was Anthony " Greige " who compounded in 1655
for the lord's fine on Littlehouse, on behalf of his daughter
4OO RYDAL
Elizabeth. The rent was but 6d., and the fine being
fixed at 30 times that amount, suggests a tax on a mon-
opoly of the lord for such the village shop was in early
times. The turnover on the business could not have
been large, for in 1665, Elizabeth had not only leisure
for carding wool for the Hall (lod.) but for " looking
(weeding) in ye garden " (2d.). Certainly it did not
keep Anthony. He was a man of education, writing his
name to a contract, and apparently a favourite, for in
1656 John Banks 'brings back from London " a sun
dyeall ffor Anthony Grigge." He was a mighty worker,
whose labour yet (as with some of his neighbours) did
not keep him straight with the world. Settlements always
with him meant further borrowing. He had been in the
habit of working for the estate walling gaps, or breaking
stones for the lime-kiln, as the account books of 1645
show ; and the new squire at once took him on, generally
using him as a hewer of wood, though sometimes as a
waller. Entries of his labour in the Account-book are
endless, this early one being ominous and characteristic,
lb. s. d.
Jan. 24, 1656-57, Lent unto Grigg . . . . . . oo 06 oo
Paid more unto him in full of all wood cutt (excepting
onely 28 load) oo 03 oo
On June 2Oth a grand result is attained, for Anthony
not only pays back 55. od. borrowed in March, but 6s. od.
besides, the last sum owing of his daughter Elizabeth's
fine. However, the other side runs :
Paid unto Grigg for ye cutting of 12 score & 8 load
of wood beeing all now due unto him . . . . oo 12 oo
Given him backe of his fine . . . . . . . . oo 01 oo
Lent unto him . . oo 06 oo
Of the 8s. od., therefore, that Anthony carries away,
6s. od. have yet to be worked for, in 120 loads (probably
as big as he could carry) of wood cut up for fires. When
THE SMITHY 4<3I
paid " for three dayes workeing in getting stones for ye
Oven and mending thereof " his wages are 4d. per day.
He also lays " ye Lime in ye Garner/' and " plasters of
ye hal-loft doore," at the same rate. Anthony's last
debt invariably wiped out his earnings, so that even for
is. od. " to lay his Axe with," he had to make a journey
to the Hall. However, for "12 days working at ye
hal-banck " in 1658 he receives 8d. per day ; and is. od.
for "a wood Bottle," and seems to be straight. Work
next year at walling the boundaries (called the Outwalls)
and " walling of ye new gate at ye Garden-corner " at
the same rate and 2d. given over, helps him too towards
solvency. But the terrible " Lent unto Griggs " of some
amount or other soon recurs, with credit on his side of
numerous wood-loads. Work at the "swine-hull," at the
" lead " help hardly at all ; and mending the kitchen
chimney (1659) ne too > like ld Adam, gets stones at " ye
Low-hall " and 50 loads of slate " for ye Low-parke
barne." This last job brings him in I2s. 6d. He walls
"up ye closett " mends Birkett-barn at 4d., helps at
" payveing of ye highway in Rydall Towne-gate," and
so forth ; but his labour becomes ever more restricted
to wood-cutting. In December, 1671, he has 90 loads
to his credit, but alas ! this still leaves him with a debt
of 43. od. ; and is. 6d. more is lent him. In April,
fourscore more loads leaves his debt at is. 6d., but 35. od.
is lent him. He is evidently living from hand to mouth.
But his toils and his debts are soon to be over.
Sep. 10. Given towards ye burying of Anthony Grigg,
who was yesterday in ye evening found dead in
Rydal-Park, near a Tree wch he had newly felled
for ye Fire, ye sum of . . . . . . . . oo 05 06
A certain Gawen Greige was about this time resident
in Rydal, paying the hearth-tax, and running cattle on
the common ; but he had no permanent hold over Little
House, for after Anthony's death it appears to have been
2D
402 RYDAL
purchased by a Richard Dixon. Richard probably left
the tendance of the shop to his wife, for he interested
himself in husbandry, renting two meadows from the
squire at us. od. on a life-lease. In two more years he
was dead (1681), and his widow Jane continued the rent
and the cattle on the common.
In 1707, however, a prospering mill-wright of the
village, John Birkett, is found buying the place from
William Tyson, and paying, besides a fine of zos. od., and
another " Income " one of 2. This was the first footing
the Birketts obtained upon Rydal land ; but John's son
John (who paid 6d. rent for Little House) had other
holdings, and left the place " in which Thomas Jackson,
lives " to a second or younger son Thomas. But Thomas
had sought, like many another, to better his fortunes
elsewhere, and being settled in Ulverston, preferred in
1777 to sell to William Swainston of Kendal for 15. 73. od.
a " messuage or house with shop and garden commonly
called Little House, formerly Dixon's," with all right of
common, etc. In 1781 Swainston renovated his house,
four small trees from George Birkett 's wood, and one from
every other neighbour's being set out for him by the
bailiff. Another William followed, who paid in 1788 the
enormous general fine on Lady Dorothy Fleming's death
of 15. 155. od., and then came a John, currier by trade,
who sold messuage shop and garden to John Fleming of
the Inn for 45. John's will was proved in 1834, an ^ m
it he left Little House, with fight of herbage in Nab wood
and ground by the lake, also of cutting underwood and
cropping the same, to Lancelot and Thomas Fleming.
They parted with it in 1840 to Lady Fleming, John Scales,
schoolmaster, being then the occupant (see School).
403
CHAPTER V.
THE CORN MILL
Applethwaite ; Grasmere ; Langdale ; Loughrigg ;
Ambleside ; Troutbeck ; Brathay ; Skelwith ;
Calgarth and Rydal ; The Millers.
TEMPORA MUTANTUR.
Troutbeck's turned upside down,
And wise men wane in skill ;
Wives are leaving off to frown,
And Browne has sold his mill.
And if a new mill be erect,
This question pray explaine :
Is it for public respect ?
Or is it private gaine ?
Shall Israel ever be opprest,
And plagued by Pharoah still ?
For thus cry out some fickle heads,
Let's have another mill !
For me, I am not of this mind,
For this is my belief
You may as soon the Phoenix find,
As a mill without a thief.
A head off Hydra cut,
For one there springeth twain ;
More mills more thieves in them are put,
Which the country must maintain.
Written by Thomas Hoggart, native of Troutbeck, who died
in 1709. He was uncle of Hogarth the painter.
N
O institution of the tun or the manor was of greater
importance than the water corn-mill. It began
to supersede the hand-mill or quern in Saxon
404 RYDAL
times.* though these primitive stones continued to be
used in out-of-the-way spots till a recent period ; and
two of them have turned up from the soil of the Rydal
and Loughrigg township, one (now missing) on the likely
ground of Old Hall Hill, the other near Miller Bridge,
this being a mere " crusher " or hollowed stone, in which
a few handfuls of grain could be pounded by a pestle-like
stone held in the hand. The improved contrivance, by
which a wheel set in running water turned stones of a
comparatively large* size, was the property of the lord,
who no doubt originally introduced it ; and in return for
his outlay of capital, and upkeep of gear, in stones and
wheel and shed, he enacted that his tenants should desist
from the use of querns, and bring their corn to his mill
and no other to be ground ; and in payment thereof the
miller, who was appointed by himself, was empowered
to take a certain measure of the corn before it was poured
into the hopper for grinding.
Originally, this toll may have been taken by the
handfulf ; but a measure came into use, called a toll-fat,
or dish, which the miller dipped into the sack and brought
out full as his portion. Now the law exercised no
supervision over the miller's dish, the size of which
became a matter of local custom, and the tenant had no
redress against extortionate or over-full measure, but by
appeal to the lord or the village court. J And, to read
poets and rhymesters from Piers the Ploughman (where
"Maunde the Miller" personifies the thief) down even to
Hoggart, of Troutbeck, one would suppose there had
hardly been an honest miller in the land. The lines at
the foot of this chapter suggest a few of the ways by which
a deft man might increase his gains, most of them causing
* It is mentioned in a charter dated 664. See History of Corn- Milling,
Bennet and Elton, vol., ii., p. 76.
t The same, vol. iii., p. 148.
t Not a single presentment of a miller for extortion occurs in the few local
court-rolls extant.
THE CORN MILL 405
a scattering of the flour over the floor, to be swept up
later.
Yet the miller was often hated without cause, from
the nature of his bond with his lord. While he took his
pay in kind, he in turn paid his lord a rent in kind (besides
grinding all the manor corn free) occasionally and in
part in the eels that fattened in his dam, but generally
in grain. Now the amount of both was fixed ; so when
corn was dear, and was therefore also scarce ; he had to
indemnify himself by taking larger toll from the people,
at the very time that the pinch of scarcity was upon
them.
But of ancient squabbles between miller and folk,
local record says nothing. In these valleys, indeed,
where the land mostly belonged to those two great
fragments of the old Barony of Kendal, called the Rich-
mond and the Marquis Fees, and no resident lord (except
of Rydal) was seated, the tenure of corn-mills and their
customs was peculiarly free, like all the other manorial
institutions ; and it will be seen that not only restrictions
of soke disappeared, but that the township at large
might even exercise an entire control over the mill.
Possibly, however, the mills were early leased at a low
figure by the lord to some private individual, and after
being held in one family for several generations, were
bartered for a good price to a new holder, who con-
tinued to pay the original small " free rent " to the
superior.
Local Mills. The table on page 406 shows the rents of
the town mills belonging to the lord at a few scattered
periods, according as record has been found available.
In some cases the mill-rent, not specified, is being in-
cluded in the general rental-receipts.
The table shows quickly the relative importance of
the mills, which depended upon the size of the particular
township, and the amount of corn ground at it.
406
RYDAL
WATER CORN MILLS.
Date.
Applethwaite.
Ambleside.
Grasmere.
Langdale.
Loughrigg.
1283
..
..
..
7s.
..
1324
Reputed worth
6 6s. 8d.
but now let at
6os.
8s.
20S.
IOS.
1334
6os.
8s.
20S.
IOS.
..
T
1403
Leased to Roger
de Byrkett at
405.
Leased to " all
the tenants " at
2OS.
1436
..
*..
..
..
..
1453
" Farm of 2
parts" at 3i/i?d.
46s. 8d.
"Two parts,"
I3s. 4d.
" Two parts."
135. 4d.
" Two parts,"
6s. 8d.
" Two parts,"
3s. 4d-
1493
" Farmed,"
138. 4d-
" Farmed,"
6s. 8d.
" No Corn Mill."
1505-6
"
* "
"_
"
Tenants pay
6s. for " Multer
Fermc."
Applethwaite. At the head of the list stands the mill
that was undoubtedly the adjunct of the ancient, and
possibly Anglian, manor of Windermere. The Hall on
the Holme Island, the church by the shore, the mill
turned by the fall of Winlas Beck to the lake, all belonged
to one manorial group, and after the manor with an
increasing population had been broken up into the
townships of Troutbeck (with Ambleside below Stock),
Applethwaite and Undermillbeck,* and others had been
established, it retained its pre-eminence as the " common
mill " for the whole parish. When Margaret of Richmond
leased in 1472 her greater half of the barony to the Parrs
and others, this " corn-mill of Appulthwayte " is, while
all the other mills are lumped together, mentioned
specially as one of the larger assets. t Its early rent seems
to have been 10 marks, but with the depreciation of
property that took place during Edward II.'s lamentable
* In 1436 " le milnebek " is spoken of.
being on south side of Milnebeck.
t Cal. Pat. Rolls, 12 Edward IV., p. i.
1443 " Suthermylnbek "... as
THE CORN MILL 407
wars with the Scots, it fell to 3. A rent once dropped,
practically dropped for ever. We see, in the rental of
1453, that one-third was deducted from all the mills
because that was part of the dower assigned to the Duke
of Bedford's young widow, Jacquetta ; yet, after her
death in 1473 such mills as are mentioned remain at
their " 2 parts " figure.
The Grasmere Mill ranks next, as is likely, this being
the seat of an ancient parish church, and of some sort of
a manorial establishment, though neither ancient nor
complete. The rent here also may have been originally
higher. Also after the one half of the town not repre-
sented in the above rentals had become sub-divided, it
is stated that the joint owners joined at a water corn-
mill* ; there may, therefore, have early been a second
lord's mill in the valley.
Langdale comes next. Mentioned as early as 1283, it
even shows a rise in rent, no doubt as the early settlers'
families multiplied and the forest got cleared. Little is
known of the mill. It was probably the one that stood
until recent times on Mill Beck, under the Pikes, and was
long owned by a branch of the Benson family. The
Skelwith Bridge Mill was at a late period a corn-mill.
Loughrigg was so small and rocky a division, that there
would be few tenants there to grind at a lord's mill,
especially after Roger de Lancaster had drawn off half
of them into his manor ; and the quarter mark rent of
the 1453 document seems an appropriate one. A very
ancient mill, however, was probably seated at Miller
Bridge, where the old curve of the river would suggest the
earliest dam ; but the paucity of custom on this fine flow
of water may have caused its conversion into a fulling-
mill, now becoming lucrative. Some arrangement be-
tween lord and tenants was certainly made, and doubtless
at the time of its abolition ; as the emphatic statement of
* Rental.
408 RYDAL
1473 that there was then no corn-mill in Loughrigg. is
superseded in 1505-6 by one that the tenants pay yearly
a rent of 6s. od. called Multer ferme. They doubtless
had by this arrangement freedom from soke. In the
next Century there were Mackereths here, and the family
of Mackereth held High Miller Bridge (of which one close
was called Kiln How) until recent times.
The Ambleside Corn-mill shows, by a considerable rise
in rent, an inversion of the usual process. But the place
had sprung rapidly from a mere clearing in the forest to
a compact little town, whose men were eager to take
advantage of their position on a rushing beck, and to join
in the fast-developing fulling trade. A new rental had
to be made out for them ; and with that solidarity they
later displayed over church affairs they easily clubbed
together and leased from the lord the corn-mill, over
which they thus obtained entire control. This must
have been the " Old milne . . . standing upon Sleddall
becke,* " which as well as the " new " one in Stock Gill
became absorbed by the Jacksons, who are found in 1639
disposing of their rights in both to the owner of a third
corn-mill at Stock Bridge, Gawen Braithwaite. The
minute " milne " rent of 4|d. then paid to the lord for
the first could barely have represented one lease-holder's
share of the original 20s. od.
A tendency towards monopoly of a mill by a family,
long after the lord had yielded up his own monopoly, is
further exemplified in Windermere and Troutbeck ; and
along with the tendency went a multiplication of mills.
The original manorial mill for this division at Applethwaite
had been leased as early as the close of the fourteenth
century to one Roger de Byrkett. In 1445 we find a
Katharine Berkehed suing two members of the Addison
family of Milnebekstok, Westmorland (who doubtless
* See deed of sale of this and a newer mill. " Ambleside Town and Chapel,"
Transactions C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. vi., N.S.
THE CORN MILL 409
had the fulling-mill upon that beck) " touching a tres-
pass.* " The mill remained with the Birketts, for in an
award concerning it, dated 1535 f the arbitrators declare
it to have formerly been in the occupation of " Walt er
byrkhed, Thomas byrkhed, John byrkhed, milners to the
said parishe, yerly paying the Rent." It had, however,
passed to one Hugh Bateman, whose children were now
in dispute with the present miller, John Dixon, as well
about the mill as a right of way to it. The decree of the
twelve arbitrators allowed the hereditary claim, for it
was settled that Dixon or any other " mylner for the
parishe " should pay the Batemans 2s. od. yearly. At
the same time the occupant was confirmed in his post as
" one able honest and lafful mylner ffor the holl
parishe;" the right being reserved, however, by the
folk as a body to " pute furthe " him or any other
miller who should " doe wrong or apos theym Seise to the
parishe." This is an interesting example of the lord's
jurisdiction passing to the people. The later history of
the place is one of decay, like most other mills. " Milne
House " as it was called through the seventeenth century,
then Milners, and Milnes Ground through the eighteenth,
retains now nothing but the name. In 1712 it was sold
by one Rowland Cookson of Troutbeck Park to Dr. Miles
Atkinson of Troutbeck Bridge, being
" All that his Water Corn Miln and Kiln and one Housestead,
and one parcel of arable and waste Ground of the yearly rent of
2 s or thereabouts situate Lying & being at Milner Ground in
Applethwaite. "
Even the house-stead has vanished. It lay on the
north side of the present building, and since the time
* Cal. Pat. Rolls, 23 Henry VI., p.i. One Addison is described in the
printed Calendar as " of Adylthwayt," but this surely, in connection with the
other names, stands for Apylthwayt.
t This interesting document was in the possession of the late Mr. G. Browne
of Troutbeck. It is printed.
410 RYDAL
(still remembered) when the last stones were carted
away for adjacent walls ; its site has been alone marked
by the " Lent Lilies " that bloom there in spring.*
The original Applethwaite mill had its rival no doubt
by arrangement with the lord fairly early. Situated at
Limefit, on the Troutbeck, it was within easy reach of
those thriving homesteads that became closely grouped
along the brow of the valley. It was owned by the
Browne family : George, a wealthy yeoman of that ilk,
bequeathing it to his 'eldest son Thomas in 1558, while
another George, who sold- it in 1699 to one James Long-
mire (which was the cause of Hoggart's rhymes) asserted
that his ancestors had possessed it for hundreds of years,
though it is extremely improbable that it existed before
the Countess of Richmond leased her lordship in 1472,!
while it may have been granted shortly after. A mon-
opoly was in this case, which illustrates a statesman's
hereditary holding of a mill, clearly intended also, though
perhaps limited to the hamlet or township ; for George,
writing in the year of sale to the then lord of the manor,
Viscount Lonsdale, complains that the latter has granted
a licence for another (and apparently pre-existing) mill to
be removed from Rowlandson's Gill to the main beck,
naturally with prejudice to the Limefit custom. Mr.
G. Browne considered that the rhymester's new mill, with
which the people were threatened, was realized in part
only, as a Malt Kiln was built on the Ambleside road ;
which as " Kilne Cottage " still bears the date 1700.
George Browne may have the more readily disposed
of the Limefit mill from the fact that his father (also
George) had in 1649 purchased the half share possessed
by Henry Birkett, M.A., of Oxford, in the Water Corn
Mill at Troutbeck Bridge the other half remaining,
* For all the later particulars of this mill I am indebted to the late Mr. G.
Browne, who had traced it exhaustively by means of his numerous papers,
t Cal. Pat. Rolls, 12 Edward IV., p. i.
THE CORN MILL 411
apparently, to other members of the Birkett family, who
sold to Mr. Robert Philipson of Calgarth in 1668. This
additional mill probably originated in the fulling-mill
which was still running at the time ; and it affords an
excellent example of the way in which fluctuating trade
controlled the water-wheels of the district. Many an
old fulling-mill survived almost to our times as a saw-mill ;
but the Troutbeck Bridge mill-stream beats all record
for the number of industries to which it has successively
lent a motive power. Cloth and corn kept it busy till
1673, when George Cumpstone* of Ambleside whose
father had run a paper-mill upon Scandale Beck rented
it on lease for paper making. This was continued by
Thomas Jones and Robert Tubman, both wheels under
them working paper ; till in 1720 it was let again (and to
a Birkett) as a water corn-mill, the working miller (another
Birkett) paying a rent of 3. los. od., which under a new
man rose to 4. 43. od. The paper-mill expired before
1788, and in 1801 the wheel saw a flax-mill. This was
superseded, before 1829, by a more usual bobbin-mill, and
this again by the present electrical works. This corn-mill
was ruined by fire in 1653^
Another mill that had several changes of trade was
the one on the Brathay at Skelwith Bridge in Loughrigg.
Doubtless constructed as a walk-mill, it became (when
monopolies had ceased) both a corn and a bark-mill,
with twin wheels ; and it still works as a saw-mill. J
The following letter speaks of a mill which was at
Calgarth :
* The Cumpstons seem to have had footing first in Rydal, where a Richard
died in 1600.
t All these particulars were furnished by the late Mr. G. Browne.
I "Fullers and Freeholders," Transactions, C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. viiL,
N.S.
412 RYDAL
Troutbeck,
Windermere,
Feb. ist, 1911.
Dear Miss Armitt,
Philip sons of Calgarth.
I have just been looking over an old deed dated Dec. i8 th
xx th Chas. 2 nd confirming a marriage settlement made on the
marriage of Robert Philipson of Calgarth & Barbara daughter of
William Pennington of Seaton co. of Cumberland. There are
very full particulars of R. Philipson's Estates, but there is no
mention of any Island r Chapel on Windermere. There are
some mention of Milnes that may interest you, some of them are
not exactly in the Lake District : ' And a Milne & one close or
pcell of ground called Briery close lyeinge and beinge in Crocke.
And also all that water corne Milne situate and beinge at Ulth-
waite (Ulthwaite is near Staveley, between Stavely & Kentmere).
And also all that messuage and Tenement at Gate Mill how near
Calgarth aforesaid. And also that his Water Corne Milne w th
the appurtance called Calgarth Milne, And the moity of the Milne
situate at Troutbeck-Bridge. (The other moiety of Troutbeck
Bridge Milne belonged my ancestor Geo. Browne at that time).
This shows that there was a corne Milne at Calgarth and also one
at Troutbeck Bridge.'
Yours faithfully,
GEO. BROWNE.
P.S. Robert Philipson's and Barbara Pennington's marriage
settlement was made April 22 nd 1665, and the marriage would
be solemnized not long after. G.B."
Of the Rydal mill, there is no early record. When
first heard of, it was as it remained a strictly manorial
institution, and had no doubt been maintained by the
lord from the days of Roger de Lancaster. He and his
descendants of Holgill were men of keen business minds.
Some of them had, in the beginning of the fourteenth
century, shares in a distant fulling-mill. One of the
Fleming branch leased in the fifteenth century an alien
corn-mill, certainly for profit ; and probably this branch,
which inherited but the half-share of Rydal, ran the
village corn-mill, since the Whit field branch had the
manorial brewery, as part of their share.
THE CORN MILL 413
But it is not until Squire William Fleming consolidated
his interest in the manor, by buying out the joint holders,
that we hear of the mill ; for a deed exists, dated 1575,
by which he leases it to John Grigge. The deed is here
given :
" This indenture maide the twentie daye of Marche in the
Eighten-the Yeare of the Reigne of our Soureigne Ladie Elizabethe,
by the grace of God of Englande, Frannce, and Irelande, Quene
defender of the faithe, etc. Between Willm Flemynge, of Rydall,
in the Countye of Westmerlande, Esquire, and Agnes his wief,
on the one partie and John Grigge, of Rydall Aforesaide, yeoman,
on the other partie. Witnessith. That the said Willm Flemynge
and Agnes his wief, for the causes and consideracions hereafter
in theise presentes conteyned have graunted demised and to Farme
letten and by the same, do graunte, demise and to Farme lett
unto the saide John Grigge, all that ther kylne and corne mylne
in Rydall Aforesaide, together wth all watter courses and Raises,
soken, suyte, and toole, belonging to the saide mylne, and all
those ther two Orcherds, & one garden or lookegarthe, neare
adionynge unto ther Capitall messuage of Rydall callid the olde
hall, and the whole fishinge in all that ther meere and standinge
watter called Rydall watter, togetter w th that ther fishgarthe
and Eell arcke at the foote of the saide standing watter, one
boate maide for the fishinge of the said watter, and all ther
Free and seuerall fishinge w th in the River of Rothey and the
River discendinge from the saide standinge watter of Rydall.
To Haue, Hold, and Enioye the saide kilne, corne mylne, Orcher-
des, Garden, and Fishinge and other the Premesses aboue specified
unto the saide John Grigge his Executors and Assignes from the
makinge hereof for and duringe the spaice and tearme of ten
yeares nexte Ensewinge, yeldinge and payinge for the same
yearlye duringe all the said tearme of ten yeares unto the saide
Willm Flemynge and Agnes, and the heires of the saide Willm at
his now dwelling howse in Conyston in the Countie of Lancastre
the Annuall and yearlie rente of Eighte pounds thirteene shillinges
fowrepence, of lawfull Englishe monye at the feastes daies of
Saynte Mychaell tharchanngell and St. Mathew thappostle by
Even porcons, And the saide Willm Flemynge and Agnes his wief
for them, and the heires of the saide Willm do Couenannte and
graunte to and withe the saide John Grigge his Executors and
Assignes by theise presentes, that it shall and may be lawfull for
414 RYDAL
the saide John, his Executors and assignes frome tyme to tyme
duringe the saide tearme of ten yeares to Croope, and loope all
the Okes, Asshes, and thornes growinge w th in the saide two
Orchardes, for the vpholdinge, Repayringe, and maynteyning of
the hedges, and Fences Abowte the saide Orchardes. And also
to gett, tacke, and haue yearlye during the saide terme of ten
yeares, one hundretht horse loades of fyrewoode to be spended in
the said kylne, and also so often as neide shall require duringe
the saide tearme sufficiente tymber woode for the necessarie
Repayringe and Amending of the said Kylne and mylne,
& of the saide Boate k fishgarthe, & Eell Arcke the said
fyrewoode and tymberwoode to be takyn alwaies of the
woodes of the saide Willm and Agnes in Rydal Aforesaide,
by the appoyntment and Assignment of the said Willm and
Agnes and the heires of the saide Willm, or of the Assignes
of them or some of them, and not in other maner. And
the saide John grigge for him his Executors and administrators,
dothe couenant and graunte to and w th the saide Willm Flemynge
and Agnes his wief and the heires of the saide Willm, that he the
saide John his Executors, administrators or assignes shall and
will yearlie duringe the saide tearme of ten yeares not onlie well
and trulie content and paye the saide yearlie rente of VIII W.
XIIIs. IUJd. unto the saide Willm Flemynge and Agnes, and the
heires of the saide Willm at the saide daies and place and Accord-
inge to the tenor and effecte aboue specified, but also at all
tymes duringe the saide tearme of ten yeares, well and sumcientlie
repaire vpholde and mayntayne the saide kylne and mylne and all
thinges apperteynynge to either of them and the said fishgarthe,
Eell arcke, and Boate in such sufnciencte and good repairacons
and plite as the same now be, and at the end, expiracon and
determinacon of the saide tearme to leave the same and eu er ie of
them so repaired vpholden and mayntened, And also that neither
he the saide John grigge his Executors ad'strators nor assignes,
nor any other P'sone or P'sons by his or ther P'curement or
assent shall at anye tyme duringe the saide tearme of ten years
putt or cause to be putt, into the saide Orcherdes of either of
them, any sheepe, horsses or other beastes or Cattell for the
depasture, grasse, baitte, or food ther, Provided Alwaies and
uppon Condicion, that if it happen the saide yearlie rent of
VIII/j. XIIJs. IUJd. to be behynde and vnpaide in parte or in
whole at any of the saide feaste daies when the same oughte to be
paied as Aforesaide, That then frome thensfurthe, this present
grannte, demise and lease and all Couenentes and granntes
THE CORN MILL 415
Abouemencionede maide on the P'tie of the saide Willm and
Agnes shall cease and be voide and of none effecte, Any thinge
abouemencioned to the contrarie in any wyse notw th standinge
In Witnes Whereof the P'tyes Aforesaide to the singular parte of
thiese Indentures Interchanngablie haue sett ther scales the day
and yeare abouewritten 1575. [Seals all gone : only slits in the
parchment remain. On the back is the endorsement]
Seallid and deliuerid the daie and yeare w th in written in the
P'sence of us Jacobi dugdall Cleri.
oswold thomson
Henrye myers
Anthony Siluerwoode.
The Grigg family are found more than once to have
been associated with mills in these parts. The name
occurs in a rental of 1505-6 when a John Grigg was
acting as bailiff of Loughrigg, and again in 1506-7, when
Thomas Grygge is found enclosing three intakes con-
taining three roods from the lord's waste in Langdale,
probably for a fulling-mill ; while in the last decade of
the century George Grigge was paying a " milne " rent
in the same valley, but in the Marquis Fee. The clan was
clearly numerous in the sixteenth century in Loughrigg,
judging from the registers of their deaths ; the burials
being, Robert in 1575, Anthony in 1598, Arthur in 1612,
Henrie and Edward in 1613. There were also, living
contemporaneously, a little later, William, Anthony,
Gawen and John, all of Loughrigg. A John held Brow-
head in 1657, while another branch had a small holding
in Grigg field.
John Grigge, the miller of Rydal, was a man of con-
siderable property. His house in the town carried the
high lords rent of 22s. od., and he had a close in Loughrigg
by the lake.* He did not long, however, work the land
he undertook to farm on lease, for his death occurred in
the following year ; and his son Arthur doubtless a
prosperous man on his own account, since he was a
* See Text Rydal House.
41 6 RYDAL
Shearman of Derby straightway disposed of all the
Rydal lands to the lord.
The mill-deed reveals an interesting state of things.
Squire William Fleming and his wife, Agnes, living at the
ancestral seat at Coniston, let to Grigge not only the
corn-mill with the whole of the water courses, and the
lake with its fish, the fishgarth, the boat and the eel-ark,
but the more private part of the demesne, with the two
orchards and the garden adjoining their capital messuage
of Rydal. At this Old Hall, it may be noted, a younger
branch of the Fleming family was then living. And for
these, with liberty to take 100 horse-loads of fire-wood
from the forest for the kiln, and as much timber as would
be necessary for the upkeep of the premises, Grigge
undertook to pay a rent of 13 marks, or 8. 135. 4d.
For those times it was a goodly sum. Fisheries and
land then carried what now appears to us a low rent, and
the chief asset in the bargain was clearly the mill, which
half a century later was let alone for 5. A good deal
of corn must have been ground there to make such a rent
profitable.
Whether the corn-mill stood originally on the precincts
of the Old Hall is not known. Several " cundreths "
cover a flow of water past that spot that would easily
have turned a primitive wheel. Then there are evidences
of a mill having once stood on Scandale Beck, close to
the possible site of Roger de Lancaster's lodge ; though
this is more likely to have been a manorial fulling-mill,
which went to decay during the Civil Wars. But the
site in Grigg's times was probably the same as in later
times, where the magnificent rush of Rydal Beck, before
it leaps to the last of its many falls, would ensure a body
of water at all times, alike in drought or frost, capable
of turning stones of a large size.* According to tradition,
* Speedy grinding was desirable, as at some soke-mills the tenant had a
right, if the corn were not ground within twenty-four hours, to carry it else-
where. His. C. M., vol. iii., p. 146.
THE CORN MILL 417
the mill stood a little below the present Hall, and in front
of it ; and record bears this out. A plan of 1770 shows that
the mill race left the beck above the Hall bridge (as may
still be seen), ran thence across the backyard beneath a
footbridge, and onward against the side of the house and
the garden (planted by Sir Daniel), and so into an en-
closure called the Mill Orchard (likewise planted by him),
round which several small buildings are seen in the plan
to stand one being doubtless the mill itself. When
Sir Michael shortly after this date improved and refronted
the house, the defunct little mill would no doubt be an
eye-sore, and so it was swept completely away.
There is evidence that in 1632, Edward Walker of the
High House was renting a mill on the demesne, yet in
the same account-book a payment stands for the previous
year to " the milner of his waige " 73. od. From this we
must suppose that the alternative method of hiring a
miller and taking the profits direct, had been resorted
to during Mrs. Agnes Fleming's period of management,
and that upon her death the mill was leased.
Old Edward Walker who had got into money difficulties,
died in 1643. The account sheets for that year show
that a " milner " was now hired at a rate of two marks,
or 26s. 8d. the year, and this continued until the sheets
close ; also that a new in-wheel was provided for the
mill at a cost of us. 8d. The whole plant and gear of
the little structure must have gone down during the years
of neglect and dispute that followed, and no doubt the
townsmen carried their grain whither they listed ; but
that it continued to grind is certain, for in 1652 " Edmond
Fleming of Ridell, Miller," was buried.
When Squire Daniel caught up with such firmness the
manorial reins, the jog-trot of customary law began
again inexorably. A miller was at hand, willing to take
over the mill by yearly contract. This was another
member of the Fleming family (see Inns), by name John ;
2E
41 8 RYDAL
and upon his milling prospects he felt able to marry, the
squire sending down (November I7th, 1656) 55. od.
towards the festivity. John's agreement was for a 5
rent for the mill the old high figure ; but he was not
content with his bargain, for 2s. 6d, was returned to him
the first year, and is. od. the next. It is evident, too,
that the need for repairs was pressing, though the squire
where all was dilapidated and money scarce had
postponed them. However, they were undertaken in
1659. The great outlay was in new stones ; and these
since the district furnishes no free-stone, had to be
brought from a distance. But millstone grit, as it is
termed geologically, abounds in Lancashire, and the
place-name Quernmore is said to have had its origin in
the ancient quarries, where the hand mill-stones were cut.
Kellet and Capernwray, however, being nearer, usually
supplied our district ; and these particular Rydal stones
came apparently from a quarry north of Carnforth,
10. los. od. being paid for them to a Mr. West, of Berwick.
The note of their cost for carriage, written by John Banks,
is interesting enough to quote in full. Their journey
across country, drawn by oxen to the foot of Windermere,
was apparently not without mishap. Payment for boat
does not appear.
" The 2oth aboutte the millstones. s. d.
ffor unloading them oo 02 04
ffor drinke and bread and cheise to the men that came
with theire oxen to carrie them to water ffoote oo 13 04
ifor mending teames were broke . . . . . . oo oo 05
flfor makeing the drags to straile the stones on . . oo 01 oo
to the wright that went w th us to ffetch them . . oo oo 06
to the man that brought the l[ett]re to Conyston that
the stones were come . . . . oo oo 02
oo 17 09
A mill-wright and his two assistants were busy on the
THE CORN MILL 419
mill for eighteen days ; and another man thirty days.
A new spindle cost los. od.
Under these improved conditions a fresh agreement
was made between squire and miller. By a legal inden-
ture, the former let to the latter the mill and kiln with
their profits for a term of six years at 5. los. od. ; the
usual stipulations being added, that the lord's grain and
malt should pay no toll, and that the miller should have
sufficient timber from the forest to maintain the gear in
the order in which he found it. An unusual one was
added that the Hall poultry should be kept at the mill,,
where no doubt they would obtain a good living on spilt
grain. A clause provided that either party might, upon
a quarter's notice, break the lease in three years time.
And this was done, for by the second year John's rent
was in arrears, and it actually stood over till 1667, when
the account book runs :
" Received of Margaret Fleming, beeing in full of Jo. Fleming
her husband's grass money and mill-rent . . . . 01 oo oa
From this it seems as if John had sought employment
elsewhere, where milling paid better, and left his wife to
guard the little cottage home and the cow.
A fresh miller, one George Cookson, was now found to
take up the .venture. He made a new bargain with the
squire almost every year, paying first 6, then 5, and
later 5. 55. od. ; while in 1674 the squire again secured
the highest rent with the sop of board thrown in, letting
him the mill " for a year for 6 and his dyet." But the
miller soon grew restive. In February, 1676, it was agreed
that both food and mill should be thrown in for nothing
till May-day, provided he took the premises over for
three years at the old rental of 5. Cookson, however,
appears to have done few repairs ; and items are set
down from time to time for new out-wheel, in-wheel and
axle-tree, with some repairs to kiln and mill-race. The
420 RYDAL
payment in 1676 for walling " ye Low-mill and water- well"
suggests that Sturdy Park mill still ran, perhaps for
fulling purposes. But by 1677 Cookson was likewise in
arrears with mill-rent, and it was necessary to look round
for another miller. Oddly enough, John Fleming, who
now re-appears on the village scene as a statesman, took
up his old post, but upon greatly reduced terms. The
squire wrote in his rent book that the bargain was for a
year, " he paying me 2os. at either halfe yeares end,
makeing all my mault and grinding all my Corne gratis,
and without takeing of any Mulcture and so for 7 yeares
if I and He do both approve thereof." It may be noticed
that the squire's grain had enormously increased of late
years (see Husbandry) ; also that neither here, nor in
the preceding deed, is the soke of the mill mentioned,
John being apparently left to enforce his rights over the
village milling as best he might. The bargain continued
to work smoothly, though on a renewal of the yearly
lease in 1693, John was screwed up to the rent of 2. los.
But he was a fairly good match for the squire, and usually
succeeded (no doubt by systematic grumbling) in getting
2s. 6d. returned on payment of his half-yearly rent.
" Old Miller," as he began to be called, was a canny
member of a canny race. The death of Thomas of the
Inn, and the marriage of Jane (see Inns) left the family
property vacant, and John slipped into it no doubt by
purchase in 1677, and added to his milling the occupa-
tions of selling ale and of husbandry. He had so much
cattle in 1684, that he had to pay 6s. od. extra for beasts
on the common ; and from 1688 till 1699, when he had
two oxen grazing in the park and two cows and two
heifers on the common, he rented Adam How, the Allans,
and Old Hall. He had a " barn-raising " in 1686, and
in 1689 he appears to have bought that excellent farmhold
called Thompson's or Banks's, with which he endowed his
second son William. William became miller after him ;
THE CORN MILL 421
and as a holder served as churchwarden for the Rydal
township in 1699, his father filling the same office three
years later. In 1704 the death of " the Old Miller "
was registered, and Margaret, " the old miller wife of
Rydall," followed him in 1711. So firmly was his char-
acter and profession stamped on his belongings, that
when the old family property was sold by his eldest son
Thomas (who lived at distant Browham, in Yorkshire) it
was described as " Millers." Banks', late in the possession
of William, was also sold ; so that it is clear that by
1723 the younger miller was either dead or had left the
place.
Squire Daniel attended to the upkeep of the mill
through John's favourable lease. By 1683 new null-
stones were again needed,* and of this event the account-
book gives full and interesting particulars. On June igih,
" when J[ohn] B[anks] and Rydal-Miller did go to buy
Mill-stones at KelJet-moor " 35. 6d. was spent, the wright
meanwhile being busy with " sowing of the mill- planks,"
and on July 2Oth the following payments are entered :
9 195. od. To John Ostley " ye mill-ston-getter at
Kellet-moor (besides is. bef . paid) for a pair of mill-stones
deliver'd at Windermeer water-foot " : then
" It[em] given his men 33. Paid to Rich. Robinson
at ye Water-foot for ye stones going over his
ground 53.
Paid Tho. Braithwaitf for Boating of them up Win
dermere-water i6s., and given them in ale is.,
in all . . . . . . . . . . .... 01 05 oo
Once landed at Waterhead, the carriage of the stones
became the squire's care, and so impressed was he by its
difficulty that he wrote the following account of it.
* The old ones had lasted twenty-four years, these only twenty-one, but
the work was heavier. ED.
t The Ambleside Hall family had a great boat on the lake for conveyance
of heavy goods.
422 RYDAL
" Memorandu that ye mill-stones paid for July 20.23 w ^s brought
to ye Head of Windermere-water soon after, and was landed at
(blank) And one of them was (with great difficulty) brought upon
a Dragg by ye Tan-pit and so up by ye side of Rowthey into ye
Low-park, and through it and Stonewhait into ye Low-How, and
breaking through ye wall (below ye gate) in to ye old Orchard,
and through it, and ye old Hall into ye Lane, and so into ye Lands
ye i gth of October, 1683 ; But finding this way very inconvenient
the other stone was brought Oct. 22 ye way aforesaid (upon a
Trail with a pair of Wheels) unto Rydal-bridge end and through
ye water directly into ye long-close and through ye Round Close
unto ye Mill-Door, breakmg a Gap there out of ye said Close into
ye Lane. And then ye other Stone was trailed over ye Gill unto
ye Longclose, and conveyed to ye Mill as ye other was. The
men had Dinners and Tobacco.
No items of expense accompany this entry, therefore
it is probable that the work was done as boon service.
It was obligatory on some manors for the tenants to
carry the stones.
Then follow entries of 39 days of mill-work and wheel-
work, besides 23 more spent in making " 52 Speakes,
3 Draught-trees, 14 Fellows, 4 Naphs," etc., finishing up
with the slating of the mill ; so that both building and
plant were thoroughly renovated.
Little more is known of the Rydal mill. After the
Fleming millers had passed away, a new occupant for it
was hard to find. In 1725, when Sir William Fleming
was seeking to let it, a correspondent writes that if the
lord be free to sell the mill outright, he will give 80 " for
her," and would rather advance 10 on his price than give
so great a "fee rent " yearly. The rent asked is not
quoted.
When leasing the demesne in 1741, Archdeacon
Fleming reserved, among other things, the miln and kiln,
with the right of the miller to take peat from the moss.
It probably was little used after that time.
The following are the last verses of a song against
Millers :
THE CORN MILL 423
From a rat, a mouse a rogue, a thiefe,
(Mill haunters night and day),
From a rent hair cloth and wide dusting sieve,
Libera nos Domine !
From a Westmorland measure, a Lancashire heap,
Rines* layed from stones great way,
A large toll dish, dipt twice in deep,
Libera nos Domine !
From an honest miller with a gilt thumb, f
That ffans and winnows per se
From a pack of knaves, till the day of doom,
Libera nos Domine !
The decreasing value of water corn-mills at the opening
of the eighteenth century was a matter which all owners
had to face, whether the mills were manorial or otherwise.
The correspondence of Benjamin Browne of Trout beck,
who in the early years of 1700 acted as agent for the
Ambleside Hall property then possessed by Lady Otway,
daughter of John Braithwaite gives a lively picture of
the trials of the mill proprietor.^ The mill in question
was the one by Stock Bridge already mentioned, for
which the Braithwaites had acquired a monopoly, and
where they reckoned the flour of the whole township
should be ground. It was therefore adapted for a large
business, conducted under the eye of the owner, whose
house stood adjacent, separated but by the width of a
* The meaning here is uncertain. The rynd is a wooden piece, crossing the
hole of the upper mill-stone, into which the spindle is fitted. The space
about it permits the grain to pass from the hopper. History of Corn-Milling,
vol. i., p. 175. There is a local word " rinning," which is used for the wedge
stuck between the stones, to regulate the quality of the flour ground.
t The miller's thumb was a proverbial expression for any wide, ugly, or
big-headed object. There is a fish of the name ; and the willow-warbler is
in these parts called a miller-thumb for what reason is not apparent. Chaucer
jeered at the miller for his " thumb of gold." But as the peculiarity grew
from the man's necessary care in the exercise of his trade for by pressing
the flour between his thumb and fingers while it poured from the spout, he
ascertained whether his stones ground true and of the necessary fineness
the gibe was an unjust one : though it is possible that some nefarious scattering
of the valuable powder might occasionly accompany the action. See same,
vol. iii., p. 143-5-
J Browne, MSS.
424 RYDAL
court-yard from the humming wheels and the roaring
beck. The miller might be an honest man, for he took
multure not for himself but his master, whose wages he
received ; he slept in the mill-house, which was fitted
up with bedstead, &c., and no doubt took his meals in
the open hall with the big household. But when that
household had vanished, along with its head, and the
so-called " Hall " * of the Braithwaites stood empty, and
its shattered windows faced the town, matters were
different. Grist came in to the mill more slowly,
and a horse-mill at Clappersgate drew custom. The year
1704 spelt actual loss. The miller in charge, besides
2. los. od. for wages, claimed 3. 2s. 6d. for his " table " ;
total, 5. I2s. 6d. ; and he declared that, far from having
gains beyond this sum to hand over, he Was i8s. 5d.
short ! Then, to induce a lease-holder to take charge of
the mill, it had to be overhauled and set in order. Browne
rides to the quarry-masters of Capernwray and Kellett
about stones ; then on since they are exorbitant in
demand to Lazonby ; finally beating a Kellet man
down from 6 to 5. 55. od. The miln-wrights charge
I2d. a day double what the squire of Rydal paid in 1659
with their meat. A new-fangled " Cynder-Kiln " has
to be constructed, as folk will bring their corn to no
other. Next, when a Coniston miller takes the mill on
lease for 7. los. od., he is not content, but clamours for
a drop to 6. Again, a married miller demands more
house-room for his bride. After repeated renewals and
improvements the mill-rent was in 1715 screwed up to a
maximum of 9, the bargain requiring two rides into
Cumberland. And this miller was seemingly the man
" which broke," causing the agent " ffateague, sorrow,
and expense " in distraining for rent two years later.
Browne, who belonged to a milling family, inherited
* It was in no true sense a hall, for its owners were but customary tenants
or statesmen under the lord.
THE CORN MILL 425
a half -share in the mill at Trout beck Bridge. He set
about with his partner in 1719 to rehabilitate this as a
corn-mill.* The miln-wright contracted to set it in
order for 8, but the ultimate cost ran up to little short
of five times that amount. The head men worked at
lod. per day and their subordinates who never out-
numbered the masters at 8d. The mill-stones cost 9.
When finished, the partners secured each a rent from the
mill of i. 8s. 6d., though it was sub-let higher.
Mr. Browne considers that depreciation of mill-property
is shown in the fact that his ancestors sold the Limefit
mill in 1699 for 100, though twenty-two years earlier it
was producing a rent of 12, and grinding, besides, all the
corn grown by the owner and his father.
This depreciation, which became so marked later on,
when water corn-mills fell into decay one after another
for want of custom, is hard to explain. It is true that
the people resented more and more the soke system which
compelled them to carry their grain to a certain mill, and
claimed freedom to go elsewhere. But the corn of which
a far greater quantity was grown there than now had
to be ground somewhere ; and although the prosperity of
the country had diminished with the failure of the fulling
trade, yet the population, which had grown rapidly then,
had hardly diminished, though it might be almost station-
ary. It is possible that the use of hand-mills worked at
home robbed the miller of his earnings ? f
In the History of Corn-milling the invention of a hand
mill in the eighteenth century is mentioned, which was
intended for use by those " distressed by the roguery of
the millers " ; and the new practice excited comment in
the London Magazine of 1758. But the learned authors
* Browne, MSS.
t The law-suit which the Earl of Derby, owner of the manorial corn-mill
of Bury in Lancashire, won over the townsfolk in 1599, was caused by their
use of hand mills. History of Corn-Milling, vol. Hi., 224-5. These hand-mills
could hardly have been querns.
426 RYDAL
of that fascinating history conclude, that " though
numbers of hand-mills were put before the public at this
period, there was never manifested any popular desire
to use them.*
Yet a malt-mill, turned by hand, existed in every
substantial farm-hold of our district till recent days.
One is still in its old position, fixed against the roof -timber,
in Low House, Troutbeck, and grinds the corn for the
hens of Mr. Birket-Forrest. Such handy implements
saved the frugal folk many a journey to the corn-mill.
Of all the corn-mills around lords' mills, town mills,
proprietary mills, horse mills the Braithwaites' mill at
Ambleside has alone survived. In spite of all its distresses
and ups-and-downs, the great wheel has never ceased to
revolve, or the stones to grind. It was to this mill that
a sharp little girl (of nine or tenf) once drove the sacks
of corn to be ground, from Hart Head, Rydal, with
injunctions from her father to stay by it while it was
ground. So she took up her post on the ground floor,
mid the throb and din of the mill ; old Towlson, bustling
uneasily up and down his ladder, calling out from time to
time, "Little girl, hast nought to do in town? No need
to stay here." But Agnes excused herself, saying she
must mind the black horse that stood in the yard, and
stuck ; seeing the measure dipped in the sacks for
" moulter," (=mulcture) and watching the flour come
down the spout from the stones. And her father praised
her on return for the fullness of the sacks.
But sometimes the grain was carried from Rydal the
other way, to be ground at Tongue Gill where still the
ruined shed stands, and the wheel did stand till 1907.
Here Miles Coward worked J and afterwards old Andrew
* Vol. i., pp. 223-4.
t This was Mrs. Tyson who was born June 8th, 1827, and died in Rydal,
April 26th, 1915, at the cottage which was once The Hare and Hounds
Inn. ED.
} Edward Wilson.
THE CORN MILL 427
Moor. The latter not only ground the parish corn, but
sold meal which he procured from Keswick for long the
great mart for ' ' haver. ' ' Aged memory can give no definite
account of the mulcture taken by these recent millers* ;
but no money was paid, unless the grain was damp and
had to be dried in the kiln. The weights and measures
in the country-side were various and irregular, f
The Westmorland measure referred to in the song is
said by Mr. Browne to have contained 16 quarts ; a peck
being 24 quarts. It may have been on this basis that a
Kendal miller in 1693 ground eight measures of wheat at
2s. 8d. per measure (= 2d. a quart) for the squire of
Rydal, when he was supplying his table with white bread
at a more wholesale rate. From this it appears that the
Rydal mill-stones would not grind wheat, which is said
to require, in local parlance " French Burrs," the Buhr-
stone being a form of silica obtained from the neighbour-
hood of Paris. J The stones now grinding wheat in
Ambleside are of this material, while the neighbour
stones, busy on oat-meal, are from the Peak, Derbyshire.
CHAPTER VI.
THE INNS
Davids' " ; Farmhold number n ; David Harrison ;
The Bursar of Peter ho^ise ; Farmhold number 12 ;
" The Hare and Hounds' 1 ; Thos. Fleming; Rydal
Lodge; " Udalls' " ; The third Inn in Rydal;
Chas. Udall, carrier ; Sir John Lowiher's scheme.
' f A half-bushel in the quarter is said to have been the usual toll, and the
ordinary dish or fat held this amount. When, however, a small- holder
brought but a half-bushel of oats to be ground, a smaller dish must have been
the measure. History of Corn-Milling, vol. iii., p. 148-154.
t See Pringle's Agriculture of Westmorland, 1797.
J Chamber's Encyclopedia.
428 RYDAL
THE sketch already made of the Rydal farmholds
reveals the following fact, that every holder, if
he were a well-to-do man, had another occupation
besides that of husbandry. If he were not a craftsman,
he was a carrier ; and it is difficult, where every man was
apparently willing to slip a second pack on his horse to
oblige a neighbour, and so turn a modest coin, to deter-
mine who were the accredited draughtsmen, working
upon regular and established beats. There were several
of these in the village. The Walkers and the Hobsons
are the first we know of. Hobson's beat took him over
the Raise, and, indeed, he had some footing in Keswick,
probably Monk's Hall. Then there was Green ; while
Grigg probably did business with Ulverston. Later the
Harrisons swept all before them, and were not only
carriers of reputation, but cattle merchants, butchers,
and provision dealers, as Hobson had been. They also
kept one of the accredited village inns.
To account for the number of carriers found in Rydal
during the seventeenth century, we must look to the
geographical position of the place, which lies on the north
road between Kendal and Keswick, and is almost equally
distant from both, thus conveniently dividing the march
of the packhorses. It is certain that at least one Rydal
man extended his journeys to Cockermouth ; and when
Sir John Lowther sought to establish a regular service
between Whitehaven and Kendal, it was a Rydal man
who was proposed for the job. From Rydal, too, a road
branched off to Hawkshead and Furness. On the other
hand, the carrier for Penrith was at this time located at
How Head, Ambleside, which was handy for Kirkstone
Pass.
Now every carrier was practically an innkeeper as
well. His house was a place of call, where not only packs
and parcels, but letters were left. The yard and its shed,
the customers who loitered, the bustle when the laden
THE INNS 429
palfreys made their start, the watched-for return, all
conduced to thirst, and a good pull at a tankard of that
home-brewed ale which every household had store of,
and which for long it needed no licence to sell.
Number n of our Rydal farmholds then, being possessed
by the Harrisons, was an inn. It was generally called
David's, because David (interspersed with Anthony)
was a frequent fore-name in the family. It stood con-
veniently for its .business upon the town-gate ; and it
exists still, transformed into the picturesque residence
of Glen Rothay. The first David we know of had a son
christened by the same name in 1625. He must have been
a large dealer in cattle, for in 1631 he paid 9. 55. od. foj
sheep bought from Squire John Fleming. Next year he
rented for the summer Rydal How (the wide knoll that
turns the river westward) at 4 a year. Besides supplying
flesh (specially veal), chandlery, woodcock, etc., to the
Hall, he regularly brought salt from Hawkshead ; and
whether his beat extended to Cartmel, or he made a
special journey, he was in 1643 entrusted with the con-
veyance of money thither, receiving is. od. " for his
paynes." He likewise served the manor in connection
with the tithes, apparently collecting them for a small
fee (see Church of Grasmere). He was a well-to-do man,
and stood surety at this time for Charles Wilson's debt.
When the new squire wrote down the compacts he had
made with his tenants for their general fines, on October
9th, 1655, he entered " David Harrison's rent 35. 6d.,
Genrall ffine 2. 033. od., which is already payde," showing
that unlike most of his neighbours he had money in
hand, and could moreover for that reason make a better
bargain.
The small rent paid may be accounted for by the fact
that " halfe of Davids " (probably a portion of land),
rent 2s. 6d., had at some earlier time been added to Keen's,
and remained with it. David meanwhile paid largely
43 RYDAL
for extra pasturage. Besides an additional horse on the
common, and 55 sheep making a flock of 85 he had
beasts in the Dale Head, and paid i. 123. od. for them.
He also rented Frith, the Allans, and Adam How for
2. 8s. 8d., which he continued till 1664. In the next
few years he did, along with his son, much porterage for
the Hall. He also supplied meat, game, partridges,
many woodcocks, tongues, etc. The squire likewise
patronised his inn, frequent entries appearing in the
account book, such as
lb. s. d.
" Spent at David Harrison's in ale oo oo 03
Spent yesterday at David Harrison's with Mr. R. Bowes oo oo 06
A runlet of ale, supplied from the inn, cost 33. od."
Among unusual occurrences in the village was the
indictment of David in 1658 for felling and carrying away
wood unlawfully " by his children and servants from the
demesne " ; and the extraction of a fine therefore of
53. od. In the 1660 search for arms he was deprived of
one steel cap, which looks as if he might have been out
during the Troubles, and on the side against the king.
His wife in an emergency acted as midwife to the squire's
lady, and received 55. od. For attending a meeting at
Chester with three horses on behalf of the squire, in 1662,
he was paid los. od. In 1668 he held some sort of a sale
at which " a brass pott " fetched QS. od. The hearth-tax
of 1665 reveals three Davids in the little township ; one
of whom declares three hearths ( a most unusual number) ,
this doubtless being old David at the inn ; another
declares one, to which on survey a second is added,
this would be young David, who in 1660 purchased the
old smithy, as we have seen ; while to a third David,
called junior of Loughrigg, two hearths are actually
added to his one declared. This Loughrigg branch of
Harrisons, possibly holding Fieldfoot, will be dealt with
later. " Old " David is now frequently specified in the
THE INNS 431
accounts, where he figures in money-matters and in
mortgages. The mortgages, however, are on other folks'
property ; as when he joins Thomas Fleming, his fellow
innkeeper, in lending to Hawkrigg of Rydal Water-head
and Grasmere Town End ; and pays los. od. to the lord
for giving consent to the same. Indeed the Harrisons'
wealth was often placed at the disposal of their failing
neighbours, as in the case of the Walkers. Old David,
wealthy to the end, died in 1674, the year of scarcity ;
and young David seems to have moved to the ancestral
home and inn. He paid a fine of 3. los. od. to the lord,
who sent down 2s. 6d. to the " House Raising " which he
held next year, and who often looked in about this time
for the good of the house. The year of scarcity affected
his flocks, like those of his neighbours, and no extra sheep
were put on the common, where 70 had run the previous
year ; and it took several years for the stock to mount
up again. Still this may not have meant entire loss, for
he may have sold advantageously in a dear market. He
rented New Close, Adam How, the Allans and " ould
hall " for his cattle in the next years, took up a mortgage
on William Walker's estate, paying 155. od. for the lord's
consent thereto, and made himself responsible for the
rent of this large property ; while in 1679 ne added the
Frith and Nab to the other closes he rented. But while
they prospered among failing townsmen, death struck
repeatedly at the line of Harrisons, carriers and innkeepers.
On October 2ist, 1679, th* 8 David was buried and im-
mediately his widow Agnes took up all the threads of his
business. Soon after Martinmas she is found paying up
the Agist account, with 4d. given back ; but she must
have made some complaint, as at the close of the year
comes the entry :
lb. s. d.
" Given back to David Harrison's widdow because he
had no Horses in ye Pasture save 2 Foals wch we set
down 6d. a piece . . . . . . . . . . oo 01 oo
432 RYDAL
She likewise joined with her son David in a bill for William
Walker's debt to the squire, paid this defaulter's half-
year's rent, as well as their own, and then faced the
payment of " five Herriots," set down at 10. It was
no wonder that we find her needing to borrow about this
time 5. from the banker at the Hall, but it was only for
a fortnight ; and we presently find her in her own name
renting closes for the cattle, as her husband had done.
Her son must have been very young. Still, he (or another
of his name) acted as'Frithman in the next year (1680),
and was zealous in the carrying business. He continued
the old beat between Keswick and Kendal, and amongst
his loads for the Hall were wheat, butter, pewter, plate,
books (an Atlas among them), and wheat-bread. In
March he receives the guerdon of 6d. " for often troubleing
of him," but that was an extra. The rate appears to
have been is. od. per load, since a payment of 55. 6d. is
explained as " being 5j loads brought by young David."
He took up " Frith ith' Nab " in his own name ati. i6s. 8d.
" with liberty to plow for oats as much as he shall manure,
and sow with bigg next year." This he did on a lease
of five years, but before that year (1681) was out, the
burial of " David, son of David Harrison, of Rydal,
deceased," is recorded on October gih. Thus three
David Harrisons died within seven years ; and there
remained another, perhaps a cousin, a sickly boy, who in
1684 was carried up to London to be touched for the
king's evil ; but he may have been the son of Robert
of Grasmere. The Grasmere Harrisons likewise kept an
inn at Church Stile, now the house of Robert Hayes, the
nurseryman. They were wealthy too ; and when Lady
Crossland (daughter of Squire John Fleming) sold in
1686 her patrimony of Bainrigg, Robert " of Churchsted "
bought it, and passed it on to his son Robert. It is
a confusing fact that he also appears to have left a widow
Agnes, who died 1707, in Rydal.
THE INNS 433
To complete the list of deaths among the Rydal Harri-
sons in this decade ; a William, son of David (probably
the second) was buried two months before his brother,
the third David, and their sister Elizabeth in 1684, three
years after ; finally a Matthew, who filled the office of
Frithman in 1684, and must therefore have been another
brother, to whom the property had passed, was buried
as " son of Agnes," in 1687.
It was no wonder then that, in the failure of her men-folk,
widow Agnes is found continuing herself the business of
farming and renting. Of the carrying trade and of the
inn nothing is heard, except that it was in the house of
widow Harrison that many Quakers assembled on Sep-
tember J-4th, 1681, to make that Declaration or Test
which was now allowed to them in place of the Oath of
Allegiance. There were near a hundred of these poor
folk, mostly of the lowlier sort, shoemakers and husband-
men ; and as they tramped or rode in from far-away
quiet Westmorland nooks, and passed along the town-gate
to file into the ale-house, where sat two magistrates,
Sir Daniel Fleming and his son, the scene must have been
a striking one.
Anthony Harrison next became the representative of
his family, serving as Frithman in 1694, churchwarden in
1697, and doing two days boon-mowing (by deputy) in
1710. But again it is the man who drops off early, and a
widow is responsible for boon-mowing in 1720 ; while
three years later there are two women Harrisons, Agnes
and widow Dorothy, who take the oath at a special
Quarter Sessions held in Rydal. Dorothy died in 1728.
The eldest son of Anthony was the last David of the race.
He inherited the principal village property ; the second
son, William, took Fisher House ; David paid the custom-
ary rent, 35. 6d. in 1749 and 1765 ; his land tax in 1751
was is. ijd., and next year for bridges 4d. ; and at the
same time an Agnes paid 6|d. and 2d.
2F
434 RYDAL
Failure of males carried " Davids " into the Wilkinson
family ; for, by will of the last David, Jane Wilkinson
inherited in 1769, and she was presumably daughter of
John Wilkinson and Agnes Harrison, who married in
1729 and who were described by the register as both of
Loughrigg, John's patrimony being apparently at
Clappersgate. Jane paid an entrance fine of ^4. i6s. 8d,
She married George Rigge, who let the premises, and who
was brought to book in 1728 by the Hall bailiff for ordering
his tenant to grub up three oaks without leave. The
arbitrary proceedings of seizing goods for a heriot on his
death is recounted elsewhere.
Though a John Rigge is mentioned as being in possession
of "Davids" in 1806, it was the executors of George who
in 1810 disposed by auction of all the Harrison property
in Rydal. Rich John Fleming of the other inn bought it,
and then split it, keeping the land and selling the house r
which now bore a reduced lord's rent of 2s. 6d. The
next purchaser was one of the new race of scenery-lovers,
and the first to take an old farm-hold for a holiday resort.
He was the Rev. Samuel Tilbrook,* B.D., bursar of
Peterhouse, Cambridge, and of his ways and doings we
hear in the correspondence of the time. " Davids " as
he found it was, according to Green, a good specimen of a
Westmorland farm-house, but Green's own drawing of it,
made in 1809, shows a place which, if solid and capacious,
had clearly ceased to be the home of its owners. The
Cambridge don proceeded to " completely renovate it "
to the admiration of all tourists. It became Ivy House
or Ivy Cottage, and is spoken of by the writers of the
text of Westmorland and Cumberland, etc., illustrated,
as a " beautiful and romantic residence."
* Samuel was the son of John Tilbrook, of Bury St. Edmunds, and was
educated at that school. He became Pensioner of Peterhouse in 1801, and
admitted as a scholar in 1802. He graduated in 1806, became M.A. in 1809,
and was selected fellow in the same year. In 1816 he became B.D. He ac-
cepted the college living of Freckenham in 1827, when he married; and he
died in 1835, at the age of 52. These particulars are kindly supplied by the
Rev. T. A. Walker, author of the College History.
THE INNS 435
Allom drew it for this work, and no greater contrast
to Green's drawing than his, in technique and spirit, can
well be imagined. In Green's picture all is realism and
truth on its sordid side ; alike in the bare road (engineered
some twenty years before) in the deserted looking house,
with its hollow windows, some stopped or latticed ; in
the trees, lopped closely ; in all the scenic points the
river, the stepping-stones, the mountains beyond, which
are reduced to a photographic scale before photography
was known ; the whole conveying not only an impression
of remoteness from the world, but of bare meaness, if
not of penury.
Allom, on the other hand, gives the romanticist's view
of the same scene ; for here are craggy mountains piled
high against the sky, a full river flowing to the lake, and
trees growing to a graceful height. " Davids " too, is
transformed by an ample porch, and palings that denote
a garden by the river side. Then the whole scene wears
an air of animation and joy. Smoke rises from the
increased chimneys ; a fisherman is seen on the bank ;
women cross the foot-bridge that now replaces the stones ;
a number of passengers enliven the bit of road ; while a
horseman denotes cheerful intercourse with the far-off
world ; and to crown all, that vehicle newly imported
for the firm turnpike road, by which the Mrs. Rat cliff es
of the period came to shudder at the mountains, the
chaise itself, is here !
Perhaps these two little pictures of one homestead
may be taken to denote the turning point in the fortunes
of the village ; one suggesting the decay and disappearance
of the old native class of statesman, along with the
industry, the trade, and the ancient customs of a self-
dependent village community ; the other the advent of
the stranger, the enthusiast and the poet, with foreign
ways and extraneous money, that was eventually to
transform the place.
436 RYDAL
The don of Cambridge was not long a dweller in these
parts, enthusiastic strangers rarely are ; but his marks
are still left on " Davids." His crest, with initials and date,
1817, in a lozenge (certainly carved in his university town)
still adorns the door, shaded by his hospitable porch;
and some of the thirteen windows for which he was taxed
in 1828 no doubt remain. The panelled house-place,
a feature that has just come into fashion again, was
doubtless arranged by him too ; the initials above the
fire-place can hardly- be wrested into Harrison names,
nor would 1679 (the year of David's death) be a likely
time for them to be renovated. The Rev. Samuel had leave
from Lady Fleming to fish and boat. He and his friends
practised archery by the river, and a small village boy,
who told me this in old age, was employed to find and
bring the arrows. He knew Wordsworth of course,
whose brother was a fellow don, and Dorothy's letters
often chat about him. An excursion to Hackett in the
summer of 1812 was enlivened by his musical talent.
" We had a very pleasant afternoon. Tillbrook stationed
himself on a rock, and sounded his flute to the great
delight of our own party."
The Fellow of Peterhouse (a bachelor with a slight
lameness) was in fact both learned and amusing, and was
noted for his social gifts. He must have been, during the
vacations that he spent here, an acquisition to the society
of the place. All was not smooth, however. The
expense of keeping up the country cottage was consider-
able ; and Mr. Tilbrook in 1821 expressed himself as
highly incensed against one Mr. Gee, who " kept " the
house, and who had spent money unwarrantably in out-
houses for animals, etc. There are accounts extant
which show that Edward Wilson, carpenter, of Grasmere,
did work on the stables in 1817, and " raused a small
House," items which may be probably referred to the
Gees' expenditure. This couple, also known to the
THE INNS 437
Words worths, seem to have occupied the premises on
easy terms ; but they were gone by 1822, when the house
was sub-let by the bursar to Mr. Edward Quillinan ; and
it was here that the melancholy death of his wife by
burning took place on May 25th. Dr. Christopher Words-
worth afterwards took the place for seven weeks of the
late summer. The Bishop of Chester occupied "Ivy
Cot " in 1827 in the same manner. Mr. Tilbrook is
reported to have been, as was Wordsworth, much excited
by the election of 1822.
Then alas ! the serpent crept into our Rydal Eden.
The Rev. Samuel in 1829 gave up his life in college to
marry Miss Frances Ayling, and with her advent as a
bride began an increased intimacy with Rydal Mount.
This " fascinating woman of the world " threw her spell,
we are told, over the guileless heart of young Dora Words-
worth. There was also a relative (probably a brother),
a certain Mr. Ayrton, whose offer of marriage Dora refused.
The circumstance was awkward ; and it is to be hoped
that Mrs. Tilbrook's behaviour, in noising abroad a highly
erroneous version of the affair, was not so black as it
appeared to her neighbours. But the lamentable point
was reached when the whilom friends sat in the little
village chapel together, and left it without " halting
outside to exchange a word." No wonder that the
Tilbrooks tired of their cot, and that the poet reported
shortly after (September I3th, 1831) " Tilbrook has
offered his house and furniture for sale by private treaty,
the price two thousand guineas ; entre nous eight hun-
dred more than its worth, except for fancy." A different
sum this must have been from its sale price as " Davids,"
a few years before ! The place was bought by a Quaker,
Mr. William Ball, who is still remembered. It was
ultimately sold to the Hall.
Of the inns of Rydal, the most important from first to
last was that of the Flemings, which stood at Bank Foot,
438 RYDAL
on the left of the town gate as the traveller came from
Ambleside. There is nothing, indeed, to show, on the
1655 rental, that number n of the village houses was
anything beyond a farm-hold. But there is immediate
evidence of its being an ale-house, and this position it
maintained, appearing in the list of licensed houses in
1791 under the name of " Hare and Hounds," and con-
tinuing as a house of refreshment until recent times. It
was used much oftener than " Davids " for official
business and for meetings, public and private, as well as
for jollity ; and in the sad days of the township's decline,
its low roof resounded to the voice of the facetious James
Backhouse, as he put up to auction the maintenance of the
wretched paupers, and to the answering bids and coarse
laughter of the overseers of the poor, as they sat round
the board with well-filled glasses, drinking ale at the
public expense. A few of these many and varied occasions
may be mentioned ; and it will be seen that Squire Daniel,
while patronising "Davids" now and then, took much
public custom to Fleming's.
lb. s. d.
1658. July 24. Paid Tho. Fleming for a Pitcher of
ale fetch'd when my Cosen Ambrose was here . . oo oo 03
1659. Dec. 6. Spent at Tho. Fleming's with my
Uncle Kirkby and Brother Roger . . . . oo 01 oo
Paid unto Tho. Fleming wch ye Miller and Smith spent
there when they were arrested . . . . . . oo 01 oo
A village excitement this, of which nothing is known.
1660. July 12. Spent at Tho. Fleming's is. 6d., and
in ye Blay-berry Isle is., with Sr George, his Lady,
&c., in all oo 02 06
1662. Sept. 6. Spent at Tho. Fleming's with my
Cosen Ambrose . . . . . . . . . . oo oo 06
which is repeated in the following year. Probably the
cousin was John Ambrose, squire of Lowick, and not his
brother the parson.
THE INNS 439
1667. May 2. It. given my brothers, and ye rest of
my woodmen at Tho. Fleming's in ale . . . . oo 02 oo
Roger and William must have come over from Coniston
Hall for some special business connected with the wood-
lands of Rydal, possibly to survey and fell for the Furness
bloomeries, or for the private manorial forge at Coniston.
In 1668 the Justice of the Peace summoned a meeting
of Constables, Churchwardens, and Overseers at the
house of Thomas Fleming.
1669. March 19. Spent at Tho. Fleming's with my
Cosin Braithwhait of W. and my Cosin P. about
ye excise . . . . . . . . . . . . oo oo 06
This must have been the poet and accomplished gentle-
man, Richard Brathwhait, who both before and after
the Commonwealth was zealous in public service ; and
possibly Mr. Philipson, of Galgarth. The cousinship,
though always acknowledged, is not yet traced.
The splendid occasion of the squire having received
knighthood from Charles II. was commemorated in
Rydal's chief inn.
1681. June 10. Sir George Fletcher and my Cosin
Henry Browham comeing to Rydal June 8 a few
hours before coming home from London that
night, this day spent with him, my 2 Brothers,
and my Cosin Jack Browham at J. Fleming's in
Rydal oo 01 oo
June n. Given Robert Benson ye Piper . . . . oo 01 oo
The ale house must have been a throng place that day,
when the village folk could pass in and out (partaking, no
doubt, of the ale) and take part in the informal levee, held
by the new-made knight, surrounded by his relatives and
friends.
A General Quarter Sessions was held at Rydal on
October I5th, 1723, for the convenience of those required
to take the oath, but at what house it was held is not
440 RYDAL
mentioned. It was probably at Fleming's, as " Davids "
was now given up as an inn. Later, however, there was
apparently another ale-house (perhaps unlicensed) ; for
the Ambleside constable's account shows, for October 4th,
Att Mrs. Phylipson's at Rydal ye 4th of Octr for
Drink for five men a woman and the Constable 008
The Diary of Benjamin Browne, of Trout beck, gives
another kind of gathering.
" 1726, May nth, at John Fleming's shooting crows."
Much greater extravagance in ale is shown in the
eighteenth century accounts.
lb. s. d,
1748. Oct. 26. To the Salvers in Ale when Salved
466 Sheep ............ 16 6
Nov. 26. To John Fleming for 22 Mens Dinners
at 3d. a piece . . . . . . . . . . 56
For Ale 153. 6d. when salv'd remainder of Sheep . .
i i o
More still was spent in the February following, when
John Cookson was paid at the salving 2. 45. 3d. in
" victuils and ale."
But this seems to have been done out of Rydal, as
Cookson's inn, (unlicensed in 1698, and then kept by a
James), was in Loughrigg.
It was easier to give a village feast at the inn on little
Sir Michael's birthday than to open the Hall specially
for it, as we hear from the accounts.
1757. Nov. 19. Spent on Sir Michael's birthday at
Jno. Fleming's 2 is., Fidler is. .. .. ..^120
Ale flowed abundantly when the crops of corn and hay
standing on the demesne were sold, the payments in 1757
being respectively i. I2s. 4d. and 2. los. 8d.
The public meetings at the Inn increased apparently
in number towards the end of the century, and so did
THE INNS 441
the draughts of ale drunk at the public expense. In
1782 Thomas Fleming was paid 2s. od. for ale at two
Constable's meetings. In 1804-5 the " Cash for Ale "
varied from 35. od. to 6s. od., and even touched once the
phenomenal sum of los. 4d. at one meeting.
Besides these payments, paupers and vagrants were
boarded for short periods at the inn. The item " Two
Lodgers at Fleming's " figures in the Constable's Account
for 1784 at is. Qd., which appears a reasonable charge.
" Jane Horner and son victuals " cost the overseers
2s. 6d. in 1807. But an item of 195. 6d. in 1797 for
boarding three men, while waiting for the day of swearing
them for the army, was surely an imposition on the tax-
payers of the township, who were bound to furnish one
soldier.
There is evidence indeed that the " Hare and Hounds,"
while furnishing Christmas parties to the towns-folk, and
convivial evenings to the officials who gathered round its
board, had become a source of unjustifiable expense to
the community. Tradition whispers too of slyness and
craftiness in the inn-keeper, which eventually wrought
his downfall. For the tale is told, in the old house itself,
that about one hundred years ago " mine host " learnt
that some horse-soldiers marching through the district
from Wythburn, would be quartered upon his inn at the
rate of gd. a head by the day. Such a sum was not
worth his while to receive, so he considered ; and he
bethought him of a cunning way of evading the impost.
He lifted down his sign-board, and for the nonce ceased
to be an inn-keeper. The company had to ride by and
seek another hostelry. But it was a case of biter bit.
The power that then ruled at the Hall, (and Lady Diana
Fleming is spoken of), now stepped in, and declared that
the sign-board, once lifted down, should not be reinstated ;
and the last hostelry of Rydal ceased to be.
The date of this striking village occurrence, if rightly
442 RYDAL
connected with Lady Diana, is limited to the space
between the death of Sir Michael, in 1800, and the marriage
of the heiress to Sir Daniel in 1806. This seems probable
enough in point of time, especially as the young baronet
would be little likely to do the deed ; but to the authority
from whom the edict went forth, the resident in Rydal
has reason to be grateful to this day.
But behind the Fleming's inn we must look to the
farmhold and the sturdy race of statesmen who held it,
and who from first to last when prudence and thrift
had become meanness and craft were men of keen spirit
and of intellect that carried them successfully through
times that ruined almost all their neighbours. Without
commerce, manufacture, or agency, they maintained a
position of steady weal by husbandry and by wood-craft.
For while the side branches of the Fleming clan were
corn-millers and tailors, the men of the main stock on the
farm-hold were, through a number of generations, workers
in wood.
The origin of the statesmen Flemings is not known.
If there was any connection between them and the family
of David Fleming of the Old Hall, who was cousin of
Squire William, the careful pedigree of Sir Daniel does
not show it. In 1567 Thomas Fleming, who was a waller,
parted with a house in Rydal, rent is. od. It was he,
perhaps who had a child baptized in 1574 ; and there
was also a " Henrie " who had children. A David
Fleming figures in the register from 1603, when his son
Thomas was baptized ; and he was buried in 1630.
Thomas had a son David baptized in 1630. No doubt it
is he who stands out in the strong light of the squire's
accounts, which display him as a man of business, as
well as a tenant. With money in his hand, he was able
to compound for his fine on favourable terms, and we
read on the paper written October Qth, 1655, " Thomas
Fleming ffor his tenemt. rent los. o6d. Generall ffine
THE INNS 443
Seaven pounds whereoff ffive pounds is payd in hand and
two pounds the 2gth off September next witness his
hand," to which is appended the circle that is Thomas'
peculiar mark. Particulars give the rent of the tenement
as 75. 2d., with 35. 4d. " more for a parcel."
Thomas had a fair stock of cattle. Three cows, two
" thurntors," and 50 sheep ran on the common, with
doubtless a horse which went free. Two years later he
had, besides what fed there, a heifer, mare and foal, and
two colts in the demesne, at a charge of i. 35. 4d. He
was one of the statesmen charged with felling wood
unlawfully on the manor in 1658, and fined los. od.,
though is. od. was returned. He and his neighbour
Nicholson met the funeral of Mistress Isabel Fleming on
its way from Coniston, and helped as bearers.
But Thomas had dealings with the squire on another
footing than that of tenancy. Craftman though he was,
neither he nor his descendants worked for their superior.
Yet he bought wood rather largely, which shows that a
good deal of business was passing through his hands.
For instance, in 1653 he purchased four ash trees from the
park for i. 33. 4d., in partnership with Thomas Barrow,
both were termed " throwers," ( wood- turners) ^d
therefore probably chair and furniture makers in the
new style. Among later purchases were six ellers (alders),
and a piece of ash (i8s. od. with 6d. given back) ; ellers
and ashes (3) ; two ashes and three ellers (i. is. od.).
The ellers, a wood impervious to moisture, may have
been wrought into churns.
That the son was a worker in wood also is shown by
Thomas " junior " paying 2 for ashes and ellers in 1662.
Thomas " elder " is specified as paying 75. 6d. and 8s. 8d.
for extra cattle on common in 1666 and 1667. Two
shillings were " given to ye raseing of Tho. Fleming's
barnes " in 1660. Ten years later (1671) Thomas the
elder's prosperous career came to an end. The younger
444 RYDAL
Thomas had little time for carrying the family fortunes
higher. He had to pay 2. 2s. 4d. for a " Heriot-sow
of his Father's," showing that his mother's interest as a
widow in the property had to be paid for, although he
inherited ; also that the Fleming breed of pigs must have
been a good one, when the " best animal " it was custom-
ary for the lord to claim from a widow cost so much to
redeem. Thomas had 60 sheep on the common and four
kine in 1673 ; and on July 7th that year he was buried,
only two years after the' elder Thomas.
There can have been no direct male heir. For now
(October 3ist, 1674) we come to the marriage of Jane
Fleming with Thomas Benson, of Coat-how, freeholder
a good marriage for her, and one to which she carried
possessions, these being as usual turned into money by a
sale.
Feb. 22, 1764-75. Paid unto Tho. Benson, of Coathow 1. s. d.
(wh was bought at his wife's Sale), for 59 old
Sheep and 17 Hogs gli., for Hay 348., and for
Gates and Stray ili., gs. 7$d., in all, vid. Acp. . . 12. 03. 7^.
Who now was to take the family holding ?
Two brothers Fleming were about this time becoming
prominent men in Rydal Lancelot the tailor, and John,
formerly the miller. That they were kinsmen of Thomas
of the inn seems certain, but their claim on the ancestral
farmhold had to be established by purchase. John was
possibly absent from the village at this juncture (see
Mills), and from the fact that the thriving tailor put two
" kyne " on the common in 1674, and acted as Frithman
in 1676, it looked as if he were to secure the property.
However, it was eventually taken up by John. For John
not only appears from 1677 as a tenant with cattle on
common, (Lanty now having to pay for grass in the
demesne at the high rate of 6d. a week per cow), but in
that year he made a bargain with the squire for the mill.
He throve mightily in his various occupations. Of his
THE INNS 445
ale-house we hear little, except for its license in 1691 ;
but in land (see Banks) and in flocks he increased.
His success as a husbandman is shown by the rise of his
common dues, which amounted to 6s. od. in 1684 > an d
shortly after this he rented Adam How, the Allans and
Old Hall. He had besides a couple of oxen in the park
in 1699. In 1686, 2s. 6d. was " Sent to Jo. Fleming's
raiseing of his Barne in Rydal." The " Old Miller "
(as he came to be called), after some 30 years at the Inn,
died in 1704, leaving his younger son William at the Mill
and at " Banks," and the elder, Thomas, in possession of
the family farmhold, after the death of his widow. But
Thomas, of Browham, Yorks., preferred to sell his Rydal
property ; and a kinsman and second cousin was at once
ready as purchaser. This was a grandson of Lancelot
the tailor. Lancelot had gained no footing of land in
Rydal, and settled at Cockstone, in Loughrigg, which he
may have inherited. He survived the miller by seven
years, leaving his land to his son Thomas, also a tailor.
(See Work and Wages). Thomas' son John deserted the
needle for the more strenuous wood-craft. He was able
to buy the Rydal holding and village inn in his father's
lifetime, being described in 1722 as cooper, of Rydal.
He paid a tax on nine windows in 1727. In his triple
occupations he also seems to have thriven, and his brood
of sons were noted for their height and longevity. He
apparently resided towards the end of his life at the High
Cockstone, which was his by inheritance, and he died in
1781. After the death of his widow, Mary, four years
later, his will was administered by his sons Thomas and
Lancelot, who had numerous legacies to pay out from the
Rydal and Loughrigg estates before they could themselves
enter into them.
Thomas, the eldest, took the Rydal holding and inn,
with its goods and furniture and flock of sheep, and
pursued the trade of turner ; while Lancelot, brought
446 RYDAL
up as a tailor, took Cockstone. A third son of John r
Matthew, who had been apprenticed to a " thrower " for
seven years, made money somewhere out of Rydal, and
returned to purchase land in his native place (see Grigg's) ,
Thomas, now head of the family, had been well enough
off to buy Gill Close in his father's lifetime. His own son
Thomas (called junior) bought Kittsgill and Little Close
in Loughrigg, at an auction held in the inn premises in
1796. He was apparently a wood-monger,* and joined
with John Benson, of Tail End (also the younger), in
1793, in a large transaction in timber, buying from the
demesne the wood in Birkhagg for 650, doubtless to
supply the iron foundries of Furness. It was not, how-
ever, he who inherited the Rydal property when old
Thomas died (1814), at the age of 95, but John, an eccen-
tric character, who never married. The Fleming family
was by that time in possession of a great deal of land on
both sides of the Rothay. A valuation book of 1810-1813
gives the Rydal estate of Thomas as worth annually
7. is. /Jd., being 14 acres, 3 roods, 32 poles, while
Thomas senior had also a Loughrigg portion, worth
5. 135. 2|d., being 7 acres, 2 roods, 14 poles. Lancelot
the tailor's estate of Cockstone appears as 11. 2s. ojd.
in annual value, being 16 acres, i rood, 32 poles. The
lord's rent on the Rydal property included the old home-
stead (now called "Millers") "Sands" and parcels,
which amounted to i8s. 6d. John, besides his inheritance,
acquired Little-house, and half of "Davids," selling the
house portion of the latter, as we have seen, to a newcomer,
and probably making a good bargain thereby ; while he
kept the land portion himself. The other house which he
(more probably than his father) created in Rydal will be
given separately. John had joined in the statesmen's
rebellion, and in 1820 had to pay up 14 years arrears of
rent, which amounted to 14. us. od. He was a strange
* The local name for one who buys timber uncut.
THE INNS 447
character, living alone (for all his wealth) in the old
homestead, that had once been the centre of the village,
with its bustle and stir of inn and wood-yard and farm-
work. He was alike the sport and terror of a gang of
village boys, who followed his stout figure clad in tight
stockings and knee-breeches, at a safe distance to jeer,
and whom he followed into John Sproat's schoolroom,
throwing apples among them to create confusion, and
calling " Give 'em a good thrashing " an anecdote which,
in spite of dark hints as to his character, bespeaks some
humour and kindliness of disposition. Dorothy Words-
worth mentions him in her letters occasionally.
He died in 1832, at the age of 76, leaving his property
to his brother Lancelot and his nephew Thomas. A rate
book of Rydal describes the property as House and land
(35a.), a good house and two cottages. The two heirs
agreed to sell all the village property to Lady Fleming in
1845 for 3,000, a sum which comparing it with preced-
ing village sales shows its extent and value. It was
the last village holding to fall to the manor, for John
Birkett had sold in 1840, and James Backhouse in 1841.
And so the race of statesmen Flemings came to an end
in Rydal.
RYDAL LODGE.
The creation of a new house in Rydal, where the farm-
holds stood upon sites of immemorial age, was decidedly
an achievement worth recording in the annals of the
statesmen Flemings. Rydal Lodge, now a many-roomed
house, fitted with modern comforts, grew insensibly, as
it were, as an adjunct of the inn, and apparently without
notice of the lord of the manor. The old inn had an
unenclosed plot in front, as was customary before the
village farm-holds. It was paved, and a pump stood
upon it, which was resorted to by some of the neighbours.
On one side the ancient homestead was flanked by great
barns ; one, abutting on the road, being called " Lanty's,"
448 RYDAL
after one of the numerous Lancelots of the Fleming family.
On the other side lay the workshop and the wood-yard
used by the carpenter Flemings. These occupied the
upper portion of the strip of ground between road and
river, which narrowed to the stepping-stones or foot-
bridge ; and this piece also was unenclosed, as can be
seen in Allom's sketch.
But when the Flemings ceased from wood-craft, a
weaving shed was put up, probably on the site of the
work-shop, for it stood close against the house, though
advanced to the very edge of the turnpike road. The
shed was apparently let by the Flemings to one of those
weavers who were resident in Rydal from the close of the
eighteenth century and onward ; and it may have had
a living room attached.
But hand-weaving came to yield too poor a return for
livelihood, and it ceased, like the Flemings' trade of
carpentry. The shed was next converted into a few
rooms, and these appear to have served as an annexe to
the inn. They were entered either from the hallen or
lobby of the old house, or else from the pent-house which
is said to have covered the end of the block towards the
inn-yard. No doubt the rooms would be useful as extra
accommodation for the inn at a busy time, and might
serve to lodge those vagrants and soldiers who were
boarded there at the expense of the township. But the
time came when the business of keeping an inn likewise
ceased ; and after the eccentric and solitary bachelor
John Fleming succeeded his aged father in 1814, the
premises must have been far too large for his wants.
It is clear that he adapted and altered the new set of
rooms, and arranged a separate entrance towards the
road, so that it became an individual dwelling-house.
Green in his Guide (published 1819) speaks of there being
in Rydal " a very neat house built by Mr. John Fleming,
inhabited by Mr. George Gee, who has improved it."
THE INNS 449
And according to the Rydal Hall estate accounts, Mr.
Gee dabbled in farming while he occupied this land-less
house, renting in 1818 the field called Little Nab for
155. od., and Birkett's Orchard for i. is. od. besides
buying the hay off Barnes' Orchard for los. 6d. Mr. Gee,
as we know, " kept " Ivy Cot across the way during the
absences of the Rev. Samuel Tilbrook, and greatly an-
noyed that gentleman by erecting outhouses for live stock
at his expense. Mr. Gee had vacated the new house
before 1822, when Dorothy Wordsworth (always amiable
to unsettled friends) was looking out for another abode
in the neighbourhood for him and his wife. She reports
to a correspondent, " John Fleming is no doubt again in
his glory, for both his houses are empty, he himself
flourishing, for he looks well, and always smiles graciously
upon me at least."
The new house must later have been further improved,
if it be the " good house " rated in the Valuation Book of
1843 at 22, then held by Lancelot Fleming, one of the
heirs of John. Another house assessed at 8, also in his
possession, was probably the old farm-hold itself out of
which the new house grew ; that being a usual valuation
for a village holding which had been kept in good repair.
Shortly after, as stated above, the whole of the land and
houses belonging to the statesmen Flemings were sold
in a block to the le Flemings of the Hall.
At what point of its evolution the house acquired the
fine title of Rydal Lodge cannot be told, nor when the
range of rooms was built that faces the strip of ground
between road and river, now enclosed as a garden. Per-
haps it was appropriate that a house which never paid
a lord's rent, and began its career as a tramps' lodging,
should be subsequently used for sub-letting to transitory
occupants. It became, indeed, the one select lodging-
house of Rydal, and remained a lodging-house until 1909.
Through the long period of its popularity, it has harboured
2 G
450 RYDAL
many distinguished visitors. Thither came Dr. Arnold
with his little flock in holiday times, while Fox How was
being built. Sir Thomas Pasley occupied it for a time,
and Crabb Robinson resorted to it when he wished to
enjoy a little intercourse with the Words worths. William
Hull, the artist, died in it.
UDALL'S INN.
A third inn in Rydal was kept for a time by Charles
Udall, the carrier. He succeeded to the farm-hold of his
grandfather, Charles Wilson, in 1679, ^ we have seen ;
and probably took over the carrying trade from him
(see "Wilsons"). Squire Daniel Fleming patronised the
young man, and procured Keswick goods through him,
and when Sir John Lowther in 1686 attempted to
establish a carrying service between Whitehaven and
Kendal, the Rydal squire recommended him for the job.
It was at Udall's inn that the gayest scene to which Sir
Daniel Fleming contributed took place.
1678, May 27. Spent at Charles Udals with my Sons, Daughters,
neices, and other weddingers ooli. 053. o6d.
This was the day after Barbara, his youngest daughter,
had been married in the parlour of Rydal Hall to John
Tatham, Esq., before a large assembly of relatives " &
many good friends." It was the custom in those days
for festivities to be kept up after the wedding to a late
hour, and for guests to remain not only through the night,
but often through several succeeding days. Indeed, it
was more than a month before gay doings ceased at Rydal
Hall, upon the departure of the married couple. The
interval was spent in merriment and in visits abroad, one
day being devoted to a trip to Sir Christopher Philipson's
new house upon Belle Island. The descent of the party
into the village on May 27th was clearly meant for the
enjoyment of the folk ; and no doubt the gay crowds at
THE INNS 451
UdalTs made up of gentry in their fine clothes and dales-
folk in their home-spun, and even of labourers, would
disport themselves with songs and with dancing, to the
merry tunes of Renny the fiddler, who received 2s. 6d.
for his services at the wedding. Ale to the amount of
55. 6d. would go a good way towards assisting at the
conviviality of the occasion. When finally young Barbara
and her husband set out for their Yorkshire home on
June 28th, they were escorted, says the proud father, by
a company of nearly 100 persons on horseback, who were
entertained by Mr. Tatham during the halt at Kendal,
and for four days after their arrival at his manor of Over
Hall.
Charles Udall extended his premises in 1690, by leasing
his neighbour Grigg's farm-hold (see "Griggs"). But
whether he moved his inn business there, is not known.
He did not prosper ; and in 1693, being in debt to the
squire, made over a deed of his own estate to his superior
(see "Wilsons").
The following letters (printed with the kind permission
of Mr. le Fleming), may be read with interest, as they are
connected with the carrying trade of the district, and
incidentally with the inns. They throw valuable side-
lights on the condition of the roads, the postal service,
and communication generally between Kendal and other
parts in the seventeenth century. Sir John Lowther,
cousin of the Sir John of Lowther, was practically the
founder of Whitehaven as a sea-port.
London, feb. 16, 1685-86.
Sir,
Having had a design of setting up a correspondence betwixt
Kendal and Whitehaven, I have discours'd ye Carriers about it,
and I find they constantly return from London to Kendal upon
a Tuesday, and set forward for London again ye Munday following,
wherby I find they stay four whole dayes in ye Country besides
Sunday ; now if two of these four dayes were alloted to goe to
Whitehaven and two to return, our correspondence with London
452 RYDAL
would be ye same as yours, and much better accommodate any
Irish passengers, than coming round by Penrith ; some advantage
likewise we might have in drawing down ye Kendal Cottons at
our own leizure to Whitehaven, when we ship them off for Virginea;
my desire is to know what sort of Manufacture you have at Kendal
besides Cottons. Some dealings you have in ye Pewther Trade,
but in what manner I doe not wel know, neither what quantity
of Cottons are made ther, nor wher vended.
Sir,
Yr. Most humble Servant,
J. Lowther.
For Sir Daniel Fleming,
at Rydal, near
Kendal, Westmorland.
Sir,
I writ two posts agoe in answer to yours, and should not have
given you a trouble again so early, but yt. Mr. Benson nowhere, tells
me, ye Carlisle Toll taken upon Meal at Rayes betwixt Ambleside
and Keswick is much complain'd off ; a Commission wil be sitt
at Whithaven upon ye Affair by Jeff. Wyker about ye begining
of April. I pray enquire into it, and let me know how long such
Toll has been pretended at Rayes, and when Sir John Lowther
and you meet let examination be made into ye pretence of
Carlisle, for however I may seem more concerned in Trade than
either of you are, you are both too good Countrymen to suffer
your Neighbours to be oppress'd, and ye Country for ever disabled
of Improvement when they are not in a Condition of going to
Market upon ye same termes as others are.
I am, Sir,
Yr. most humble sevt.,
London, Mar. 13, 1685-86. J. Lowther.
A letter follows from Mr. Simpson, the prominent
mercer of Kendal. He expresses, in involved language,
the opinion of his fellow townsmen (which he was been
requested to obtain) upon Sir John's scheme. They
cannot think that the scheme is workable. The London
carriers cannot be true to time. Certainly a carrier
living half-way say at Fell Foot would have the best
chance of carrying it through. He has sounded some of
the dealers in cottons (woollen goods) and " Shifts,"
THE INNS 453
and finds " they wil not venter any by sea that way "
(meaning Whitehaven), " Newcastle (tho' further off)
Beeing not so hazardous by much."
Next April comes the following, with its answer in
May.
Sir,
I received yours, with your approbation of my setting up a
Carrier betwixt Kendal and Whitehaven, which is a great con-
firmation to me. I doe not expect to Perfect your design at
first, and concur with you it wil be better done by others than by
your Kendal Carrier. I hear of One Tyson near you a Sufficient
Man, but ye place wher it wil be best done is at Keswick, for ther
is but four dayes time to goe and return, so ye middle way is ye
best, and I hear of one Hobson there, I have writ Dr. Grey about
it, and pray doe you advise me
Sir,
Yr. Most affect. Kinsman and servant,
London, Ap. 24, 1686. J. Lowther.
With the letter he sends D. F. a Barometer, by
Greenwood, the Carrier, to be in Kendal on Wednesday
next, price so/-. Also six vols. of Philosophical Trans-
actions.
Rydal, May 5, 1686.
Sir,
I have received ye Favour of Yours, and ye Barometer is safely
come into my hand ; for both which I am much your Debter.
As concerning your Whithaven Carrier, if you resolve ye Carriage
shall be brought from Kendal every Wednesday, and returned
thither ye next Saturday following, I think no Keswick man can
conveniently do it. For he must go from home every Tuesday,
and he can bring his Packs every Wednesday but to Ambleside
or hither ; and then it will be too hard for him to go from hence
unto Whithaven upon every Thursday and to return hither ye
next day ; and upon ye Saturdays he cannot go unto Kendal and
venture home ye same day ; Besides ye Carrier at Keswick is
deaf and not fit for such a performance the Kendal carriers bring
their Packs into Kendal about noon every Wednesday ; so that
no other Carrier can carry them forth from thence that day
which makes it too difficult to perform in that week what you
desire. The way over Hard- Knot and Wryness is often not
454 RYDAL
passable ; either by Snow, or by much Raine ; there being a
great want of good Bridges that way. I cannot see, yt any of
our Country Carriers can constantly perform what you desire ;
and whether ye Kendal Carriers will do it, you know best : for
I am clearly of opinion yt no one else can perform it (with any
due profit to themselves) in four dayes. The way, I think, for
you to fix this correspondence with ease and certainty is to agree
with some of our Country Carriers to convey ye Whithaven
Goods that shall come unto Kendal every Wednesday from thence
unto their own Houses some day that week to go from thence
every Munday unto Cockermouth (or near thereunto) and to go
to Whithaven every Tuesday ; from whence all goods may be
carryed so as to be at Kendal every Saturday next following.
This may be preferred with some conveniency to ye carriers ;
and when as anything shall happen to require more speed, it
may be performed. If you approve of this project, I shall then
recommend a Carrier unto you, one Charles Udal, of this town,
who hath a good set of Horses (with Bells, etc.), and who will
perform it as honestly and punchually, I think, as any other you
can imploy : But he'l expect an allowance for a while, until he
will know how he will be weekly fitted with Carriages.
Your most obliged Kinsman and Servant,
D. F.
London, June 5th, 1686.
Sir,
I have yours of the yth, i2th and 28th of May, consequently
ye Money for ye Barometer wch you needed not have been so
expeditious in, but tis your method ; I thank you for your opinion
about ye Carrier and am satisfied none but a Kendal Carrier can
perform it in four dayes, ye Country does not co-operate with me
in it, answerable to my good Intentions. [He goes on to the
question of appointing a schoolmaster for St. Bees].
Yours,
J.L.
In a P. S. to a further letter on this last subject, he asks
D. F. when he goes to the Assizes at Carlisle, to enquire
" upon what pretence ye Citty claimes a Toll in Cumber-
land when they have nothing to doe, it disturbes all our
Trade in ye West of Cumberland, & seems a very foolish
pretence."
455
CHAPTER VII.
THE SCHOOL
Started by Sir Daniel, 1663 ; " Barring out " and " Cock-
pennies " at the boys' schools ; William Baxter and
the Butler ; Schoolmasters at Rydal ; Dancing and
Music Masters for Sir Daniel's Daughters.
UNLIKE the mill, the smithy and the shop, the
school was no ancient centre for the life of the
village. It is improbable that there was a
school before Sir Daniel's time. No doubt in early days
the priest or curate of Grasmere, and later the parish
clerk, would instruct the cleverer and more ambitious
boys of the parish ; and we know that from the time of
James I. onward Ambleside possessed a well-organized
school where Latin and even Greek were taught by the
curate. Such advantages as these would be more than
enough for the valleys. The better educated boys would
then, as later, seek a vocation in life beyond them, and
evidence points to the fact that those who remained on
the farmholds of their fathers had little learning to show.
Of the eleven leading men of Grasmere (two Knotts and
one Benson among them), who in 1598 guaranteed the
expenses for attempting to gain a market for Grasmere,
not one was able to sign his name, but all made crosses
and scribbles after the name of Parson John Wilson,
who wrote the deed.
When in 1655 the Rydal statesmen compounded for
their fines, seven of them signed by hieroglyphs that look
like individual and chosen marks such as a circle, half-
circle, musical sharp sign, etc. One, Robert Taylor,
contrived his initials. Two only, Anthony Griggs and
Richard Nicholson, wrote their names in full. The latter
may have acquired the fine hand which he wrote under
456 RYDAL
the Rev. John Bell, of Ambleside. He used it very little
and left the making out of his bills for carpentry to the
squire's agent, John Banks. It was naturally a great
advantage to the craftsman if he could write himself his
demands. The Grasmere smith managed it (though
indifferently), but George Otley, who became the Rydal
smith, could write a fair hand.
The influence of the Rydal school began to show to-
wards the close of the century, in the increased number
of the workmen who could write, for, whereas the accounts
were made out generally by John Banks at the new squire's
coming, they were later done by the men themselves.
Shoemaker Grigg and Thomas Fleming, tailor, made out
their reckonings in strange fashion, it is true, but still
they did it ; while the latter's father, Lanty, so clever
in work and in that mental arithmetic that makes a for-
tune, probably never set pen to paper for a word of
writing in his life.
Squire Daniel's account-book tells us much about the
start of his village school. It was when the elder of his
children were beginning to need instruction, and delicate
Wil, the heir, was being caught up by the stronger and
cleverer Harry, that he set about making it.
First in 1663, when the new stable was being built
behind the Hall, and a good deal of rock levelled, do we
meet with the odd entry (June 27th) of a payment " in
breaking ye School-house-dower at ye Quarrey." And
Richard Nicholson's bill gives :
And about making the gaties (?) and seting seats in s. d.
the Scolehouse 19 dayes and a half . . . . 06 08
The room, indeed, was the simplest contrivance. It
had an earthen floor, such as existed at Hawkshead till
long after. Perhaps this got moist from the drippings
of the adjacent rock, for in 1669, November i3th,
was :
THE SCHOOL 457
Paid ye Gresmer wrights for Laying ye floors of ye s. d.
Schoolhouse and ye next room to it, etc., being
3 at 6d., 4d., and 2d. apiece p diem, in all . . oo 09 06
And in 1675, Green, the Grasmere slater, receives
payment for " mending over ye school-house."
The inference that this room was one of the group of
buildings that grew up at the back of the present Hall is
verified by a paper of Sir William's time.
Privacy and quietude were not thought of in that age.
The park, indeed, was not closed. An open road crossed
it, as well as a footpath from the ancient smithy to the
new Hall. The mill in front of the Hall was reached by
ways constantly trodden by the village folk. So that
the shouts of the youngsters or the clatter of their clogs
on the cobble pavement would mingle unnoticed with all
the other sounds of cattle and of labour, and servants
going to and fro, all being part of the life of the old manor-
house, itself (in its original form) the chief centre of
village life. Squire Daniel had already, in 1663, looked
out for his schoolmaster :
February 19, Given yesterday at Ambleside unto Willia s. d.
Baxter to drink (having ye hired him to be school-
master for a year from ye 3rd of May next p 403.
and his Diet, and to suffer others to come unto
him) ye sum . . . . . . . . . . oo 01 oo
" A Hornbook and Wire " had already been procured
for 3d., being the first equipment of a scholar, who
grasped the handle of its frame and read through the thin
covering of horn the printed alphabet. Two Primers
were brought on June I4th, p 6d. at Ambleside probably
from that universal provider of the day, Kelsick and
Wil and Harry were fitted out. For the first year no
expenses are entered for school festivals, but on December
Qth, 1664, the item occurs :
S- d-
Given ye other day to ye children at their baring-out oo 01 oo
458 RYDAL
followed by
Jan. 7. It. to ye school-master for bread on New
Year's eve oo 01 06
which sounds as if this might be a perquisite. And on
February 6th, when his third boy had joined the others :
Given unto Will, Harry and Daniel for their cock- s. d.
pennys oo 01 06
Paid unto William Baxter, School-master, his whol
wages, due at May day next to come, ye sum of 02 10 oo
Two more primers, and " A Grammar lod." suggest
that little Catherine had joined her brothers on the Rydal
benches. The school was now at all events in full swing
with work and play. Of the ancient riot of barring-out
the schoolmaster, done generally before Christmas holidays,
something must be said. It was a custom so universal,
that sometimes the charter of a school made rules for it.
The founder of Witton school, in Cheshire, prescribed
that his " schollars should bar and keep forth the school
and the schoolmaster in such sort as other Schollars do in
great Schools." The idea seems to have been a mock
rebellion, the scholars seizing the school, barring the doors,
and refusing to open them until the schoolmaster outside
had been brought to terms in the matter of holidays or
hours of study. Perhaps capitulation ended in a feast ;
or else the money invariably given by the parent was
spent in " tuck " eaten during the siege. The school was
occasionally held through several days and nights, there-
fore the St. Bees festivity was restricted in the charter
to " a day and a night, and the next day till one a clock
in ye afternoon." It may be imagined what a pande-
monium might be created by a few evil spirits ; and the
custom was said to have been abolished at one large
Westmorland school only when the schoolmaster had
had his eye put out. A poem on this outrageous game
exists in Daniel Fleming's hand-writing which likens the
THE SCHOOL 459
besieged scholars to Grecian heroes, and gives a high-
flown version of their coming to terms with the enemy
outside.
Baxter would have no severe struggle with his little
school. The barring-out there was clearly in anticipation
of Christmas, for though it took place once on November
9th, its date was usually between December 7th and I5th.
The children's tip seems to have been at the rate of 6d.
each, though occasionally it rose to is. od. In 1674 the
squire gave " ye children is., and to a Calgarth boy 6d.,"
which looks as if a scholar were boarded in the village
(unless he walked every day from Calgarth and back).
The tip was the same when the boys went to higher grade
schools ; it was entered at is. 6d. when three of them
were at Kendal in 1674.
The schoolmaster apparently gained nothing by the
riot of the barring-out, except an excuse for granting long
holidays. But the authorized cock-fight, which was held
in every school at Shrovetide, brought him in a substantial
sum, for it was the custom for each pupil to pay him the
tribute of a cock- penny. This expression, like the " God-
penny " of the ancient village court, may have once
meant the old English silver penny, worth a groat, but
it came to be variable in value. It differed according
to the rank of the pupil and the status of the school.
The Rydal account book makes this fact clear.
At the village school cock-fight the squire habitually
sent 6d. for each child ; to the Ambleside master is. od. ;
Hawkshead was higher still, 2s. 6d., and Kendal 55. od. ;
while at the last great school Wil, being heir, presented
los. od. as his cock-penny. What this fee had paid for
originally seems uncertain, or what the schoolmaster
exactly provided as its equivalent. One authority says
that he furnished cocks for the boys' sport ; another that
he was obliged to give the boys a premium to fight cocks
for. Some entries in the Rydal account book raise a
460 RYDAL
surmise that the scholars in the person of their captain
supplied one belligerent bird, while the schoolmasters
were bound to supply the other, whence his fee. In that
case there would be reproduced the old typical strife
between master and pupil. Mr. F. Nicholson,* says :
" About three weeks previous to the eventful day, the boys
assembled and selected as their captains two of their school-
fellows, whose parents were willing to bear the expenses incurred
in the forthcoming contests. After an early dinner on Shrove
Tuesday the two captains, attended by their friends and school-
fellows, who were distinguished by blue and red ribbons, marched
in procession from their respective homes to the village green,
where each produced their cocks."
He adds that this appears to have been the practice at
Wreay, near Carlisle.
Customs certainly differed, however, according to
period and place. The sport was held in Hawkshead,
according to tradition, on the floor of the spacious gram-
mar-school itself, and this is borne out by one of the
entries to follow, which shows that a pit was dug afresh
every year at the expense of the captain, this floor being
doubtless kept rush-strewn like the church. The fee
may in this case have acknowledged the schoolmaster's
permission and protection, even if he did not provide a
bird. But many a small village school would be too
small to contain a gathering for the sport, and it may then
have been held on the green, or in Rydal, in some suitable
spot of the undulating ground near the Hall. Again, in
the entries concerning the various schools attended by
the young Flemings, which it may be well to draw together,
no more than one captain is mentioned ; and from the
character of those who stood for the honour, Henry,
George, Roger, James and Fletcher, of whom the first
two were decidedly clever and bookish boys, I have
conjectured that it was the master who nominated the
* See Victoria History of Cumberland. Game of Cock-fighting.
THE SCHOOL 461
boy for the office as a reward for progress. Of course
the father's rank would cause the young Flemings to be
more frequently put in office ; and that he himself entered
with zest into their sport, even adding something for
the betting, is clear.
The is. 6d. or 6d. each first entered as cock-pennies
given to Baxter, rose to 2s. od. Then on Feburary 26th,
1666 :
s. d.
Given to 3 ye Boyes for Cock-Pennys 2S., and to bett 6d. oo 02 06
This item constantly recurs, the amount varying only
with the number of children at school. In May, 1671,
Will and Harry were despatched to the grammar-school
at Kendal, Will now being fourteen and Harry twelve,
and growing beyond Baxter's tuition. Harry, indeed,
was clever, and seems to have been insatiable with his
pen, for in 1669 " A Gramer and Inch-homes for Harry "
had cost is. 3d., and ink-horns were bought for him again
in 1675 and 1677. Besides the usual cock-penny, a boy
always carried an " entering-penny " variable likewise
to a new schoolmaster. The Kendal pedagogue was
Richard Stewardson, with whom the squire had had a
conference at Fords in October.
Given unto Will 35., and unto Harry 2s., and for ye s. d.
school-master ios., when they went first to Kendal
School,* in all oo 15 oo
But at every return after holidays each boy carried
to the master 55. od., while the usher had an occasional
2s. 6d.
Then on the following February 2nd comes the entry :
Sent by Jo. Bankes for Cock-pennies to Will ios., and s. d.
to Harry 53., in all oo 15 oo
* One of the regulations at Kendal School was that it should be free to all
boys resident in the parish of Kendal for Classics alone, excepting a voluntary
payment of a Cock-Penny as aforetime at Shrovetide (Flemings in Oxford,
pp. 424 and 472).
462 RYDAL
These sums were repeated, but in 1675 Harry, being
captain of the sports, presented the master with " a broad
2os. od. piece in gold," reckoned at i. is. 6d., and his
additional expenses for the occasion came to i8s. 6d.
Little Barbara meanwhile had joined her brother
Daniel (good and slow) at the Rydal school. We fancy
her a bright little person. Her horn-book (2d.) had already
been purchased, so she may have learnt her alphabet at
home. And in 1674 an item runs :
i s. d.
Paid to a Scotch Pedler for a bible for Barbara . . oo 02 06
After no doubt a joyous holiday for the five eldest
children at Flookburgh in May, 1672, where the waters
of the Holy Well were drunk, Daniel went to school with
his elder brothers. George now entered Rydal school.
Coming after a girl, he always led the second batch of
the squire's sons. Bright, handsome and ambitious, his
talents and position raised him eventually to the Bishopric
of Carlisle.
The item January ist, 1763 :
s. d.
Paid Katy wh she had disbursed at George's baring-out oo 01 oo
shows that a bare 6d. would not suffice him. By 1678
his four little brothers Michael, Richard, Roger and
James, were all at Rydal school, 2s. 6d. covering their
cock-pennies ; and in February, 1679-80, is noted, " Given
by Captain James to Edward Sawrey for his Cock, 6d."
In the summer of 1678, however, William completed
his education at Kendal with a farewell gift to the master
of los. od., and Harry left for Oxford under the care of
trusty John Banks, with i to " keep his purse," and a
token of gold (value i. 45. od.). Later, George joined
Daniel at the higher school, each carrying 55. od. to the
master and is. od. for their purses. George's entrance
fee must have been small, for it is included with other
THE SCHOOL 463
expenses paid the carrier at 2s. od. The IDS. od. taken
by the boys in January, 1679, are P ut down as 55. od.
and 2s. 6d. for the schoolmaster, and 2s. 6d. for the usher,
and this is repeated each half-year. Daniel left in 1680,
at the age of 20, to become the right-hand of his father
at home ; and George, after six months at Kendal, was
withdrawn and sent with his next three brothers to an
Ambleside schoolmaster. The " entering Pennies " to
Mr. Thwaite amounted for the four to 55. od., and there
was 4d. " to buy Candles for their schoolmaster." George
must have been chosen captain at Shrovetide, for besides
is. od. for his cock-penny, a 6d. is recorded. Little Fletcher,
who had, after George's departure, joined his brothers at
Rydal (again making five), enjoyed the same honour, for
besides cock-pennies for James and himself, there was :
s. <L
Given by Fletcher to Edw. Sawrey for bringing him a
a Cock to fight for him, being a Captaine . . oo oo 06
also is given him " to bett upon his cock." All the boys,
except the Oxford scholar, could now live at home, and
only dinners (i. 155. od. for six months) had to be paid
for in Ambleside for the three. But whether Squire
Daniel was becoming critical of tuition or not it is certain
that he now made frequent changes in his boys' education.
After only half a year at Ambleside (for which the master
got c. zos. od.) they were all four despatched to the
Hawkshead Grammar School, and boarded with a Mrs.
Edmondson at a cost of 5. Probably tuition was free,
as no fees for it are specified.
Only Mr, Sadler, the master, had a gratuity conveyed
to him by the boys after holiday- times, as at Kendal,
while the usher received also an occasional 2s. 6d.
s - d -
Aug. lyth, '81. Delivered George to give Mr. Sadler
for himselfe, Michael, Rich, and Roger . . . . oo 10 oo
It. given them to keep their purses . . . . . . oo 04 oo
464 RYDAL
is an entry that recurs on the following January gth
and April 26th. Paper and candles for the term amount
to 75. od.
It is interesting to note, however, that in this, as in
neighbouring schools, the curriculum did not include
writing and arithmetic, which were taught by masters
who appear to have visited at stated periods. This
instruction had to be paid for.
B. d.
Aug. 23rd, 1684. Paid unto Mr. Ralph Wilson, Scriv-
ener, at Hawkshead, for teaching of my Sons Geo.
and Michael to write and Arithmetick 6 weeks
I2S., and for teaching of Rich, and Roger to write
onely, 6 weeks 6s., in all . . . . ..001800
The festivities of Hawkshead school were seemingly
conducted on a noble scale. The "barring-out " was
attended by a " professional " fiddler, to whom the boys
had before their return at Christmas given 2d. each, a
sum which their father refunded. When Shrovetide
came round, and George was chosen captain, there was
quite a bustle in the family. A cock, doubtless a game-
bird of known prowess, was procured from the squire's
cousin of Kirby Hall in Furness ; another "cousin,"
John Browham, much at Rydal about this time, was busy
over arrangements, and attended the contest with the
squire's son Daniel, when they spent a lavish sum of
money.
i s. d.
Feb. 5, 1682-3. Given to my Cosin Jo. Browham's
messenger about George's Cocks . . . . oo oo 06
Feb. 13. Sent to my Son. Dan. to give unto Mr. Sadler
for cock-pennies, for Captain Geo. ros. for Mich.
Rich, and Roger, 75. 6d. in all oo 17 6
Given by Dan. to Captain Kirkbyes man who brought
a Cock 2S. 6d., to ye Pitmaker is., spent by Dan.
and Cosin Browham us. 6d. Given by Geo. to ye
Fidler is. . . . . oo 16 oo
THE SCHOOL 465
It is necessary, however, to return to our small village
school, where changes had been taking place. Squire
Daniel, if his transactions are followed closely, is found
to improve upon his bargains ; and it was a clever
thought of his to combine the office of schoolmaster and
butler. Accordingly his account book gives, from the
year 1673, on a separate page :
" The Schoolmaster Accompt when every Brewing was at
Rydal whilst he was butler there."
No added wages are set down for this additional duty
which may have meant superintendence of the wine
and beer drunk in the household rather than waiting at
the table ; and William Baxter continued to be paid 2
yearly until 1681, though the payment due each May and
November, often stood over till 3 or 4 were owing.
Baxter's life must have been a penurious one, for the fees
of his village scholars would be small indeed ; and some-
times he borrowed from his employer a small sum. He
paid for a cow on the common. Often he did errands,
helping to collect the rents at Coniston, selling skins
(generally of animals that died), making purchases at
Kendal ; and it is possible that he received a small per-
centage on the receipts he secured, though these are not
apparent. Eighteen years after his coming to Rydal his
payments as schoolmaster cease, but he cannot have left
the neighbourhood altogether, for an entry of January
igth, 1685-6, runs :
Delivered Alice to pay Wil Baxter for 2 Reams of s. d.
Paper, marked with a Flower de liz crowned at
6s. 6d. p. Ream ye sum of . . . . . . oo 13 oo
There is a tragic touch in this simple particular, for it
shows the solitary, ageing man to be doing what he could,
and using his penmanship for the ornamentation of note-
paper.
Quite a succession of masters followed Baxter, as the
account book shows.
2 H
466 RYDAL
" Rowland Noble hired Oct. 25, 82, for 403. per annum to be
Schoolmaster and Butler in ye place of William Baxter."
" For an Accidence for my son Fletcher " 40!. is paid
in 1683 ; James had ink-horns, and is. is refunded
next year to the schoolmaster for two books bought for
James and Fletcher.
But Noble made no long stay. He was paid off on
July 28th, 1685, with an extra 2s. 6d. given him.
" Richard Powley (my Schoolmaster and Butler) came Ap. 8, 85,
and is to have 403. per annum."
At the end of 1685, the older boys were withdrawn
from Hawkshead, and George, with Richard, was placed
at Sedbergh school, in Yorkshire.
Michael (older than Richard, though probably slow)
as well as Roger, was apparently set again on the Rydal
benches under Powley, and joined the village cock-fight.
1686, Feb. 15. Given unto my Sons Michael, Roger, & s. d.
James is. 6d., & to Captaine Fletcher is. . . oo 02 06
And 6d. each was paid for their cock-pennies next year.
They had merry times with a football bought them (6d.),
and the like sum for apples, and were tipped for catching
rats and mice, which were becoming troublesome about
the Hall. " My little Boyes " even received 2s. to
play cards with Mr. Strickland, on December 3ist, 1685.
They had 2s. 6d. for their barring-out on December gth,
1687.
We hear of one famous " cocking " at Rydal, to
be mentioned later. This was under Thomas Hobson,
who superseded George Yates, " My Schoolmaster and
Butler," in July, the latter having served only from
April to June. Hobson remained till 1690, when Fletcher
was fifteen. After that date butlers were engaged who
were not schoolmasters, but at the same sum.
The Rydal school probably lapsed altogether, and the
squire had in future to deal only with more distant
THE SCHOOL 467
masters. That he took an active interest in tuition is
shown in his correspondence in 1674 with Mr. Mark Lewis,
author of an " Accidence and Middle Grammar," which
he liked so well that he bought and presented copies to
several of the neighbouring schoolmasters. He expressed
his opinion that the same author's " Critical Grammar "
would " jus tie Lilly out of most schooles."
The career of another educational dependant of Rydal
Hall can be traced to a melancholy decline, in the pages
of the account book. He was William Hutchinson,
music-master to the squire's daughters. Their mother
had received excellent tuition in Oxford from Edward
Lowe on the keyed instrument of the period, and no
doubt their position required that they too should perform.
It was a period when little was spent on the education of
young ladies. The money was saved for their dower ;
and even the pin-money they required when grown-up
had to be squeezed by them out of poultry and pigs
(generally the latter) which were granted to them as
perquisites. Visits to a grandmother, or to relatives,
who inculcated manners, took the place of the later
fashionable boarding-schools ; and occasionally money
was paid for a lesson or two in pastry-making or artificial
flower-making, if an expert came in the way.
Music, however, and dancing were necessary accomplish-
ments for a young gentlewoman, and we hear of " Kettys
Manycords " being procured at the small cost of i. 6s.
through her grandmother, Lady Fletcher, when Catherine
the eldest daughter was but eleven years old. Per-
haps the mother, whose harpsichord was the reigning
instrument at the Hall, as the cithern had been in Squire
John's time, at first instructed the child. But professional
instruction was easy to procure, as musicians were at
that time to be found who were itinerant. The Civil
Wars had thrown all the court musicians on the world,
and they had to seek a livelihood where they could.
468 RYDAL
Even the Restoration brought them little relief, for
Charles loved French fiddlers as well as French morals,
and the true English school of instrumental music which
had reached so high a level, died out as these men died
off. John Jenkins, whose concerted music delighted the
age, wandered from one country-house to another, where
the gentle or noble inmates cherished him for as long as
he would stay, and where he directed the " consorts " of
viols held among the neighbours and composed special
music for the amateur band.
At the other end of the scale no doubt was William
Hutchinson, who appeared at Rydal as a teacher, and
who had to judge from his frequent re-appearance a
beat limited to the north or even the county. Under
date 1670, September 5th, the account-book runs :
Given by my wife to Will. Hutchison for a moneths s. d.
teaching of Katy & Alice on y Harpiscalls &
manicords 01 oo oo
The name monochord, originally a single string stretched
across a box with a movable bridge, came to be applied
to a keyed instrument of the clavichord type, if it was
not the clavichord itself, which was of tenderer tone than
the harpsichord, the strings being struck from below by
a tangent instead of being plucked by a jack. Will
Fleming's daughters used the cythern (see Rydal House-
hold}.
The eldest now applied herself to the latter, and in
December i was again paid for a month's tuition on
" ye Harpsicalls." This was repeated the following
February, and in August there were three weeks at a
charge of 155. In December of 1672 "for a fourth-
nights teaching of Katy of ye vio." (probably violin)
Hutchinson was paid los. He was even willing to
give a week's tuition, and, in October, 1673, the two
girls shared this for 55. ; and next January they had
another fortnight.
THE SCHOOL 4^9
But dancing now begins to absorb the attention of the
young pupils, and the master for this accomplishment
not only charged twice as high as his music rival, but
demanded an entrance fee as well. Perhaps in conse-
quence he is termed " Mr."
Jan. 12, 1673-74. Given unto Mr. Leak ye Dancing- s. d.
Master as an entrance for teaching of Katy &
Alice to dance (besides 2os. apiece ye moneth) y
sum of . . . . . . . . 01 oo oo
Feb. 6, Paid Mr. Leak ye Dancing-Master for a moneths
Teaching of Katy & Alice 02 oo oo
The master, or a relative, cunningly dealt in shoes,
and next comes an item of 2s. 6d. " to Harry Leak for
dancing shoes." The same articles for Alice only cost
2s. procured at Hut ton.
In October, 1674, Leak is paid 3, for a month's tuition
of both girls at home, and one of Katy " abroad," prob-
ably given at the house of a relative, where she was
visiting, and he halting on his rounds. He had an
attendant : for this entry is followed by :
i s. d.
Given his boy . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 02 oo
The music-master re- appears in July of 1675, after the
death of Mr. Fleming, when he is called " ye Virginal-
Master," and paid 55. for two weeks. His next round
is made in June of next year, when the squire improves
upon his bargains, and gets little Barbara instructed
along with her sisters for the same sum, los. a month.
In 1677 he gets in a month and a fortnight ; and in
February, 1678, six weeks. Then in September comes
an entry of 155. " for teaching, Alice, Barbara and
Mary six weeks upon ye Virginals." This instrument
was a precursor of the piano, and had metal strings
struck by a plectrum. The name " spinet," which was
the same as the virginal, is derived from the spines or
quills by which the sound was evoked. Katy was now
470 RYDAL
married, and little Mary had passed from the nursery,
being provided the year before with " can vis " for her
sampler. In 1679 two visits are paid for. In 1680 a
dancing-master appears again on the scene :
Paid unto Mr. Tinkler in full for teaching (and entrance)
of Barbara and Mary to Dance . . . . . . 02 10 oo
William Hutchinson was perhaps getting old and out
of fashion. He re-appears in the account book after an
interval in a new style of entry, which seems to imply that
he had accepted a position as humble retainer at Rydal
Hall, and was content with small gratuities of 2s. 6d.
or even is. from time to time, and his clothes,
which were often procured with the page-boy's.
July 29, 1684. Given to William Hutchinson besides s. d.
a new suit . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 02 06
Aug. 5. Sheep Skins for Will Hutchinson & Jacks
Packets (jackets ?) gd.
And on September I7th, 6J yards of " brown frezed
cloth " are procured in Ambleside for los. 6d.
"for Will. Hutchinson, my daughter's Master, los. 6d."
A New Year's gift of is. seems to suffice him till
August I3th, 1685 :
Given to Will Hutchinson for Teaching and Tuneing s. d.
ye Virginals . . . . . . . . . . . . oo 02 06
And next February he has the same sum for tuning.
These dribbling sums continue, and in October, 1686,
the village tailors are paid 2s. for making poor Will
" a coat, &c." But he was probably kept in decent
attire, for he seems to have accompanied the squire and
knight as retainer for visits or festive occasions, and a
donation of is. shows that he was present on October
ist, 1687, in a day's expedition to Bowness and to Sir
Christopher Philipson's house on Belle Island.
May 1688, finds the entry :
" Disbursed for four yards of woollen-cloth for Will. Hutchinson's
coat 6s. 8d., for halfe a yr. of black Shalloon to face his Cuffs los."
THE SCHOOL 47!
And with the closing of the account book the decayed
musician passes out of sight.
Of Rydal school there is little more to be said. It
ceased to be a manorial adjunct after Sir Daniel Fleming's
time, and the premises were used as a lumber place.
Indeed, it is doubtful if there was any regular school
after the seventeenth century. Itinerant schoolmasters
there were in plenty about the countryside, and many a
poor youth of talent, like Dr. John Dalton, opened and
taught school in his neighbourhood for such small fees
as the folk would give him. Hartley Coleridge began a
school in Ambleside, and at first did well. It was probably
on their own initiative that the later schoolmasters of
Rydal taught. We have a glimpse of one in the Town-
ship's Directory for 1829, which gives the name of John
Sproat as schoolmaster. He was the son of the head
husbandman on the demesne, and as his father lived at
the present Ivy Cottage (probably " Wilsons ") it was
convenient to him to take the old shop adjoining, and
teach there. On the benches sat little John Backhouse
(born 1819, died 1909), who has told me stories of his
school-days, and who had as fellow-pupils lor a time
De Quincey's younger boys, Horace and Francis. " Willie
and Mar got " were considered too old for the tuition.
Sproat removed to Ambleside, there to enlarge his sphere.
Lady Fleming, who was deeply interested in religion and
education, had her own dame's school at Banks' old
house, opposite the Hall gates.
As late as 1863 there was a resident schoolmaster in
Rydal, one John Butler, whose child was baptized at the
Chapel.
NOTE.
The word " stover," in Tusser's time, at the head of chapter II.
of this part, seems to mean stubble used as fodder. In the days
of reaping-hooks, stubble was longer than it is now. The fol-
lowing note has been kindly supplied to me by Mr. Herbert Bell,
472 RYDAL
the facts being gleaned from books in the Armitt Trust Library,
at Ambleside :
From the Diet, of Nat. Biography, etc., I find that Thomas
Tusser, agricultural writer and poet was born at Rivenhall near
Witham in Essex, about 1524, and died in London in 1580.
His first work was the Hundred Good Pointes on Husbandries
imprinted by Richard To ttel, the third day of February, An. 1557."
In 1573 they were increased to Five Hundred Pointes of Good
Husbandry united to as many of Good Huswifery An edition
(selection) was printed at Oxford in 1848 and the English Dialect
Society's edition appeared in 1878. Tusser 's works also appear
in Southey's Select Wotks of the British Poets, from Chaucer
to Johnson (1831).
The Century Dictionary gives the meaning of Stover " Fodder
and provision of all sorts for cattle " [obsolete or prov. English].
" Where live nibbling sheep,
And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep."
Shakespeare's Tempest iv., i., 63.
The Dialect Dictionary gives " Stover " as used in several
counties and the meaning is " Haulm, stubble ; winter fodder or
litter for cattle ; hay made from the second mowing of clover
or from artificial grasses." ED.
473
PART V.
UPHEAVALS IN MANOR AND KINGDOM.
CHAPTER I.
SQUIRE JOHN FLEMING
WHEN William Fleming, armiger, was buried with
the customary state in the choir of Grasmere
Church, on June 24th, 1600, his eldest son
John was a man of twenty-five, and therefore was entitled
immediately to obtain livery of the ancestral manors of
Beckermet, Coniston and Rydal. " Although this John
Fleming " said Sir Daniel when writing notes of his
family, " was in his younger years a kind of Hector,
somewhat wilde, yet after his said Father's death, he
became a Sober and a very prudent Gentleman, an
Hospitable person (killing Thirty Fat Beeves yearlie in
his House aforesaid, with Fat Muttons &c. proportionable)
and a great Improver of his Estate both Real and Per-
sonal."
John remains somewhat of a mystery, in spite of the
records left of him. A man of apparently great power of
mind, as well as of command over others, he threw himself
on to the losing side in religion, and thus cut himself off
from all those roads in public life by which he might have
achieved distinction ; and remained content to spend
his talents in the amassing of wealth. Yet whatever he
was, he was not a simple country-loving squire. Edu-
474 RYDAL
cated probably at the university* he took up residence
in London, where he may have studied law, as was the
very useful fashion of young men of good family in Queen
Elizabeth's reign. Here probably he acquired the new-
fangled habit of smoking, to which he remained addicted ;
and after his death a little bill stood at 6s., for " J
Tobacco for my master." The earliest records of him
occur at this time. The Grasmere statesmen were just
then striving to obtain a weekly market and two fairs in
the year, which would not only save them from the long
travel with wool and produce to luckier . centres, but
would draw the country-side into them. They were in
1598 sending a deputy up to London to forward the
matter ; and they arranged with Squire William of Rydal
that his son John " Now at london " should if necessary
supply this deputy with money, which twelve of the
most prominent among them undertook to re-fund to
him. The following is the bond which they entered into,
which still exists.
1598
" Memorndm that whereas M r Willm Fleminge Esquire ha the by
his lett r under his hands unto his sonne Jhone Fleminge nows at
london promised that yf thomas crossewyn comethe there he
shall stande proxy of such monie as shall Be nedfule aboute the
purchesse ol a market and the procuringe of towe Faires and more
that he the saide Jhone Fleminge shall make shifte and procure
the said thomas all suche monie as shall be nedfule for the same
so that iff yt hapen or Fall out & that the said Jhone Fleminge
do procure any sum of monye aboute the purchesse of the saide
Faires that then we whosse names ar hereunder wrytten dothe
by this bill of o r handes covenant promisse and binde hus and
everie one of hus o r heires executors and assignes to discharge
and harmles save (= indemnify) the saide Willm Fleming his
heires executors or assignes in witnes whereof we hereunder
* His brother Thomas wrote from " Jesus "in 1591, but neither the students
register for Jesus, Oxford or Cambridge, began so early as this year. It is
therefore impossible to ascertain to which university he was attached. For
help in this matter, I have to thank Mr. Abbott, librarian of Jesus, Cambridge,
as well as Dr. Magrath, Provost of Queen's College, Oxford.
O ffi
SQUIRE JOHN FLEMING 475
have sett to o r markes the seconde of maye in the Fortiethe yere
of her ma ties reinge
John Willson
(Then follows a row of about 10 scrawls, and under)
Edwarde knottes John benson ottlaye
Robert herd Willm hede Christoppere mayson
Rogere kottes Jane Walker anthonie grigg
Jhone hunther Jhone thompson
John's own postscript, characteristically concerns
money, and shows that he was not only amusing himself
by playing cards, but winning at it. In a most polite
letter, addressed from Goldsmiths Hall in Foster Lane,
he requests Mr. Darley of Greys Inn to pay him the sum
owed. Mr. Darley replies, with equally polite assurances,
that the money shall be paid, while reminding him that
the debt was not incurred by himself, but by a friend for
whom he stood surety.
From the life of a gay young man about town, who
may have listened to the plays of Shakespeare when first
acted, he was recalled by his father's death to the care
of his northern estates. His mother Agnes took over
Rydal, as hers by settlement ; and he must have fixed
himself at Coniston, the seat so greatly embellished if
not re-built by his father. He married at once, (for the
marriage settlements were signed June 6th, 1601,) for
his first wife Alice, daughter of Sir Francis Ducket ot
Grayrigg Hall, near Kendal. He was High Sheriff for
the county of Lancashire in 1611. On the death of Alice,
he married Bridget, the daughter of Sir William Norris,
of Speke Hall near Liverpool. She was already the
widow of Sir Thomas Bold, and it was under the name of
Lady Bold that she was buried at Coniston, " about
Feb. 1625."* Jhn next repaired his loss by marrying
Dorothy, daughter of Sir Thomas Strickland, of Sizergh
Hall ; and by her he had born to him in 1629, after two
* See copy of the monumental tablet in Coniston Church, Flemings in
Oxford, p. 538.
476 RYDAL
daughters, an heir. The marriage with her therefore
must have taken place no later than 1626, if so late.
The two deeds catalogued by Daniel Fleming by which in
1629 Agnes Fleming released Rydal to her son after he
had leased it to her in 1625 f r seven years may have been
connected with this third marriage.
41 Sir D. F's List of Rydal Writings.
Le Fleming.
Rydal Demesne.
1625 John Fleming, esq. his Lease of all his estate unto Agnes
his mother 7 years dat. May 6. i Jas. 1625.
1629 Agnes Fleming her Release of Rydale unto John her
son Dat. Dec. 6. 1629.
It is to this marriage with Dorothy that his becoming
a Catholic is ascribed, because the Strickland family were
firm then, as they always remained, in the old faith.
But so equally were the Norrises of Speke, with whom
John kept up a close connection, though their daughter
had given him no son. Sir William Speke was indeed
credited with having dealings with the king's enemies
abroad,* besides being an open Catholic. Again, John's
step-sister, Jane, daughter of William Fleming by his
first marriage, had wedded a Mr. Richard Harrison of
Martindale, and both sons, whom John eventually made
his agents, were Catholic. Their neighbours, the Lan-
casters of Glencune, were likewise Catholics.
Indeed, the influence of the old faith must have been
strong about John. The northern counties, Westmorland
included, had not been eager for change or reform in
religion ; and though they disliked the arbitrary sweeping
away of what was beneficial in the monasteries and
beautiful and ornate in the service of the church, they
yet accepted the Anglicized rubric as a continuation of
the old worship. The Pope's mandate (1566) that no
Catholic might attend a Protestant service awoke them
* Victoria History of Lancashire.
SQUIRE JOHN FLEMING 477
from this position ; and close upon the mandate came
the missionizing efforts of the colleges of Douay and Rome
to recall the county to its old allegiance to the Pope,
Many of the priests sent on secret missions from these
seminaries were north-countrymen, who returned to their
old haunts, and there sowed the seeds of that Catholic
re-action that gave Elizabeth's government so much
trouble. These men wandered in the lonely vales of
Lancashire, of Yorkshire and of Westmorland, and were
hidden in Halls and homesteads as was Henry VI. in his
last days. And the fate of some of them was no happier :
one priest, a native of Westmorland, who for thirteen
years had roamed in secret the valleys and climbed the
passes, nourishing the old beliefs, and celebrating mass
for the faithful, was at last caught, and was executed in
1593.* In this matter, as so often before, the old North-
umbrian spirit of insubordination awoke, to help the
losing cause.
But these things had happened before Squire John
became a prominent figure in the country ; and it was
not for some time apparent in which direction his sym-
pathies lay. In 1621 he is still addressed as living at
Coniston, but in 1624, 1626 and 1629, ne was a * Rydal,
and it was from here that he was " presented " for non-
attendance at his parish church of Grasmere. Having
submitted himself with his wife on this plea, he and she
were admonished by the Lord Bishop of Chester at a
court held at Wigan :
" to repayre dutifully to there parishe Church and other places
of Oratorie there to heare Divine service and sermons and to
participate of the Sacramentes used in the same and to certifye
such there Conformitie in the premisses under the minister and
Churchward (ens) there handes in or about the Feast of the
Purification next." f
* Victoria History of Cumberland.
t Rydal Hall MSS.
478 RYDAL
But from this position there was a money escape. On
September I3th, 1629, Squire John " of Conyston "
appeared at the old monastic centre that had so long
tyranized over the church of Grasmere, viz. : " att the
Manno r of St. Marye neare the walls of the Citty of York,"
and there agreed by an annual rent to be paid to his
majesty to compound for all his lands and his chattels in
the counties of Lancaster, Cumberland and Westmorland.
Therefore the sheriffs of those counties are by writing
admonished that so' long as he pays the rent, he is no
further " to bee disquieted or trobled " in matters of
recusancy.* On October zgth, 1630 he likewise arranged
to pay money instead of receiving knighthood at the
coronation of Charles I. Under date, July ist, 1631,
the heavy restriction that was imposed on influential
Catholics was removed, and the Council of the north gave
him licence to travel beyond the limited five miles from
Rydal for half a year, from the next August ist. He
travelled to Speke Hall, to administer the estates of the
Norris family, which had been left in trust for the heir
during his minority, by the spendthrift and recusant
Sir William, who died 1626.
We find from The Norris Papers, edited by Tho. Hey wood,
Esq., F.S.A., printed for the Cheetham Society, that a
Sir Wil. Norris, was killed at Musselburgh, in 1547.
His half-brother, Edward Speke, died 1596. William his
son and successor was a spendthrift, and his father directs
that the Cheshire estate should be placed in trust for
ten years, and then delivered to his son. However,
Sir William pawned everything, down to two suits of
clothes. He died 1626, and his son William in 1651.
This William had two sons, Edward and Thomas, who
fought for the king. Thomas, stated to have been born
in 1681 (?) took the estates.
Again in a document of 1625, Sir William Norris is
* Rydal Hall MSS.
SQUIRE JOHN FLEMING 479
accused of having some years before sent over money
and arms to the late king's enemies abroad. He paid
60 per annum for recusancy.
From 1626 till at least 1634 Squire John remained in
Lancashire, being spoken of as resident there in that year,
though he appears to have paid a visit to Rydal in the
late summer of 1634. This period furnishes us with a
correspondence (the earliest preserved at Rydal) which
affords stray glimpses into his exceedingly complicated
affairs. But it is difficult to understand, in view of those
affairs, why he stayed away. The entreaties of his old
mother that he should finish his business at Speke, and
return, were of no avail. His children, the " sweet
bairnes," were sent to him, and the grandmother hungers
for news of them. The last months of her life must have
been lonely and sad, with only William Tyson to scold,
and the husbandry that had been her care for so long,
going to rack and ruin (see Letters). The death of their
mother, presumably " my Ladye," is not yet found. In
Coniston Register, under February 3rd, 1633, we have
the burial of " Margaret w. of Le : Fleminge." See
Coniston Registers.
Then, too, the proposals she makes to facilitate his
return are so mysterious. With his manors of Beckermet,
Coniston and Rydal waiting for him, she suggests that he
should take up his residence at Keswick, where he would
be among his friends. It is true that there was at this
time, in all probability, no lord's seat at Beckermet,
where the ancient site had become a grassy mound ; that
Coniston with its commodious hall was let to farm to
John's nephew William,* who was heir to Skirwith : yet
even if Rydal were likewise let to farm and so disposed of,
as she proposed, why should John rich and powerful
settle at quiet Keswick, remotely situated between
* William's two eldest sons, Daniel and Roger, were born there in 1633
and 1634.
480 RYDAL
estuaries, where he held tithes, indeed, but not an acre
of land ?
John's career, indeed, offers several queries, the answer
to which may lie, in part at least, in the religion to which
he was so stubbornly attached. He may have insisted
on remaining where he could hear mass, and conveniently
harbour a priest. His associates were Catholics ; and
who knows whether the small clique of recusants though
dwindled and less courageous than in the queen's days
did not harbour hopes that may sometimes have brought
them very near to plotting? Then, too, John, a " Hector "
in youth, suffered in health from what were apparently
attacks of gout. He is congratulated on recovery from
his " last sickness " in 1621 ; a legal correspondent in
1632 speaks of his presence being needed to forward
certain proceedings in court, yet would not have him
endanger his health by coming to London. Again, when
in March, 1634, ne was sue d by his second wife's nephew,
Mr. William Norris, now come to man's estate, for mal-
administration of his patrimony at Speke, and he induced
Lord Wentworth to write from Dublin to the Council of
the north on his behalf, the latter remarks that the journey
necessary to answer the summons before the Council
Table in Easter Term :
' ' wilbe something troublesome unto him, consideynge his ould
age, and other infirmities incident there unto, yet not w th standing
he is fully determined then to give his attendance upon yo ur Lo ds
accordingly"
The letter goes on to say that part of the heir's complaint
rests on the fact that John Fleming had continued to pay
the 60 a year for which Sir William Norris had com-
pounded, as a recusant " about " four years since,* on the
contention that, the heir being also a recusant, it was
legally due to the commissioners. He bespoke their
favour " in behalf of y e ould Gentleman." f
* Sir William died eight years before ; see Norris Papers.
t Rydal Hall MSS.
SQUIRE JOHN FLEMING 481
Squire John, who had travelled from Speke to London
in May, 1633, and thence in July or August to Rydal,
may have felt it due to his honour to appear likewise on
this occasion ; but most of his legal matters were con-
ducted by deputy. The papers of instructions that
remain to his deputies some of them unlettered men
show how clear a brain'he possessed to control and work
these tangled skeins. Besides the control of the demesne
farm or farms with which he intermingled that of Speke
as we have seen, by the driving of cattle there there was
all the difficult work of " tithinge " to be performed by
his men, in those parishes where he had bought up the
church tenths as an investment. There was the salary
to be paid to the clergymen of these robbed churches, of
Sherburn, of Addingham, of Ulverston, of Grasmere, and
of the " 3 churches " in Cumberland, viz. : St. John's
and St. Bride's at Beckermet, and the church at Cleator ;
and there was besides the repair of their chancels to see
to. Vexed questions cropped up here as elsewhere ; and
John Fleming is found at variance even to the point of
law with his relative John Ambrose, and advising with
counsel as to how he may best make a legal demand for
the tithes of Lowick. Even his mother's will, though it
was evidently sent when written for his approval, was
held in dispute. It was proved at York ; but the admin-
istrators appointed to see its provisions carried out,
amongst whom was his cousin Lamplough, did not please
Squire John, and he appealed against them. Tyson had
to travel to York, in company with Gerrard, a Rydal man
in order to swear to his knowledge of his old mistress'
will ; but they failed to obtain a revocation. Sir John
Lowther, his brother-in-law, whose wife was also an
executor, writes in June 1633 to urge him to " suffer some
end be made," so that legacies of the will may be paid,
and offers to arbitrate between him and his cousin Lam-
plough. He has " loved his cousin Lam plough's wife
from her cradle." 2 I
482 RYDAL
The business about reprisals and compounding which
occupied counsel in London during the years 1631 and
1632 is not easy to understand. Squire John at his
death was paying as a recusant 25 every half year.
This strange lord of Rydal never in fact shunned the
law-courts, with which he was familiar from his youth.
Legal business, too, must have occasionally cropped up
concerning the private bonds he held. For he was a
great money-lender.-
In an age when banks did not exist, the country gentle-
man who had ready money which he would advance
upon security must have been a resource for the whole
neighbourhood. The nation, in spite of the laws against
usury, had never done without credit. After the expul-
sion of the Jews, loans were taken up by the Lombards
and the Flemings, whose merchants waxed rich upon the
wool which they carried from the country in place of
money brought in. But it came to be seen that if English
commerce were to thrive, English capital must be forth-
coming with which to support it, and the law that forbade
lending money on interest, was repealed.
But not alone for forwarding trade were loans wanted.
They served to tide a man over a temporary difficulty
or shortness of cash, though much more often they assisted,
while prolonging, his downfall. All sorts and conditions
came to the well-filled coffers of Rydal Hall, which at
least for three generations were unlocked to the needy
who had sound guarantees to offer. Dame Agnes lent
upon mortgage to the people around, to a failing states-
man perhaps who had lost his cattle, or more often to a
fuller whose trade had declined but who had property
at his back. Her largest monetary transactions, that
appear in Tyson's accounts, were with three Dutchmen,
who were speculative miners at Coniston. They would
seem not to have been successful.* John, following her,
* For Dutch miners see Transactions C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol v., p. 344 ;
and p. 14 of Squire John Fleming.
SQUIRE JOHN FLEMING 483
had apparently an extensive connection as a banker ;
leaving at his death over 10,000 in Bonds and Bills.*
His successor Daniel, too, as soon as he had paid off the
loans he had himself needed in the struggle for possession,
or even before, began to lend ; and his " Rent-book "
furnishes us with a curious insight into the financial
condition of the country at that time. When all classes,
from Deans to petty tradesmen and cobblers, came to
borrow ; and credit was given alike on deeds of mortgage,
or more frequently since deeds were scarce on the
bonds of sound neighbours, or even on a poor man's
" word and his cow/' The usual rate of interest was, as
we shall see in the war-loans, eight per cent in large
transactions. In small ones, borrowed for a specified
time, the interest was often deducted from the sum lent
before it was handed over.
It seems probable that his mother's death left Squire
John not only with a freer hand in the management of
the Rydal demesne, but in matters of religion. It is in
1633 that we fa" 8 * hear of " your servant Harrison " ;
certainly from that time he employed his Catholic nephews
Richard and Edward Harrison, sons of his half sister
Jane (who married a Martindale gentleman) as his agents
and clerks. His own return to Rydal, which we cannot
date, drew a little circle of co-religionists to the place.
A list of them, dated 1640, f makes them ten in number
besides himself : Richard Harrison, with his wife and
son Lancelot ; Edward Harrison, Robert Gardiner,
Richard Wilson, Jane Crosbie, Dorothea Barbon, Alice
Borwicke and Salomon Benson. With the exception of
Jane Crosbie and Alice Borwick, we find all these entered
as " convicted Recusants " in the Subsidy Roll of 1641,
with fines of is. 4d. each to pay. None of these were
Rydal folk : where then did they live ? The Richard
* Evidence of Lancelot Harrison in the lawsuit of 1653.
t Rydal Hall MSS.
484 RYDAL
Harrisons were probably lodged at the Hall, if not close
to it, where Mrs. Harrison would be useful as directress
and chaperone for the squire's two girls, now growing to
womanhood. " Doll Barbon " was a servant, who had
a 3os.-a-year wage, while Gardiner and Wilson may
have been engaged about the demesne. Edward Harrison
occupied the old dwelling-place of the Bensons at Miller
Bridge,* the freehold of which with its adjoining colony
(once in the lordship, of Rydal) Squire John had been
able to buy back in 1638, and for which he held a solemn
Court Baron, for the re-entry of the holders into his
demesne. This little group of Catholics would hardly be
unprovided with their own worship. Salomon Benson,
whose pension of 3. los. od. appears in the books, may
have been the priest who celebrated mass ; and the
names of " Chappel Chamber " and " Priest Chamber "
were in use for two upper rooms of Rydal Hall until 1750,
as an inventory of that date shows. A fall of burning
soot in the great hall chimney, in 1905, caused its ascent
by a waller ; when he found a space some seven to ten
feet square opening on to it, on a level with the upper
floor, in a twelve foot thickness of wall. This possibly
may have served as a hiding-place, such as few Catholic
houses were without, for a priest when danger threatened.
Squire John Fleming, though he lived to 68, j had to
leave his young children and estates to the care of others,
on the eve of a troublous time, when there was most need
of his own astuteness. Richard Harrison writes sadly
of his condition on February I5th, 1643, in answer to
enquiries from his niece, Mrs. Agnes Dudley. Ever
since December " one or other waked w th him night by
night, for still as he gott but one or tow daies ease of the
goute it allwaies took him againe." The writer speaks
* Church Registers, where he is styled " gentleman " on the christening
of his son Robert, in 1643.
t His age was greatly exaggerated by his contemporaries. Even his children
declared him to be nearly 80 at his death.
SQUIRE JOHN FLEMING 485
of his natural strength of body that could withstand this
last " fitt " ten days ago that is the worst he ever had ;
nevertheless " I feare gettinge past this springe wilbe a
Longe Jurney." John's life- journey closed in fact on
the 27th. His riches, may-be, were his greatest achieve-
ment. They so much impressed the circle around him,
that his nephew, Mr. John Fleming, a lawyer, repeated
in court (1653) the statement Edward Harrison had made
on his death-bed, that he had never known nobleman,
knight, or gentleman to die so rich as the squire of Rydal,
in that he left, besides his manors and his flocks and herds,
something like 18,000 in goods, money, plate and bonds.
Counsel afterwards stated this amount as 20,000 a sum
not imposing in these days of American multi-millionaires ;
but which then when money was eight times the value of
what it is to-day was an astounding one for a country
gentleman to amass.
CHAPTER II.
THE RYDAL HOUSEHOLD.
death of John Fleming fell out at a most unhappy
time for the young orphans he left behind him.
A household marked out already by government
for its papistry, Rydal Hall was now to incur the enmity
of the winning side by its adherence to the king's cause
in the Civil war.
No sooner was the master dead, than there hasted
" divine messengers " to his next of kin or of friendship,
to the Lamploughs mentioned above, to Meaburn Hall,
(Sir Christopher Lowther), to Kentmere and Sizergh (the
Stricklands), to carry the news far and wide through
Cumberland and Westmorland. But none if the dates
of church register and Richard Harrison's account book
486 RYDAL
are correct could gather to his burial ; for his body was
laid to earth in Grasmere choir the day ot his death, in
quietude and without any state. Only the coffin and
bier and grave had to be paid for, besides which IDS.
was " given to those that went to Church with him to
drinke," meaning the bearers ; also a gratuity to the
clerk and a special one to the parson Wilson (a great
Royalist and High Churchman) " for oversight of his
buriall." The largest item of the few funeral expenses
was 303. given " to poore folkes the next morning/' who
had apparently assembled too late for the dole usually
distributed at the burial of gentle-folk. Next came the
legal business and the will. An accountant came to
" drawe the office/' for a fee of 2. The will had to be
engrossed and proved, and a journey made to York,
whither Harrison rode with " Cousin Kirkby and his
men," doubtless for protection in these unsettled times.
Another journey was taken again in considerable fear, by
" Mr. Phillipson, Mr. Gilpin, myself, James Tarleton and my
brother next and Lanclott's (his son's) Charges, and our horses,
amounting to us. 8d."
Two Rydal statesmen, David Harrison and Michael
Holme, were entrusted with money to carry to Mr.
Robert Rawlinson of Cartmell, and Mr. Curwen (the
amount being 60. 6s. 6d.) and received is. for their
" paynes." A meeting shortly after was held at Winder-
mere, to obtain powers of administration, at which Messrs.
Philipson, Gilpin, Rawlinson, " Jervis " Benson, and
Wakefield were present. Finally, at a meeting appar-
ently for the appointment of acting trustees, many
expenses were incurred, including those of " Messrs.
Curwen, Rawlinson, Kirkby, Ambrose and self all night,"
with dinners and wine at the high figure of 3. 2s.
Of these gentlemen, some were crown officials, and
some " supervisors " as they were called, of John Flem-
ing's will. At the head of them, uniting both capacities,
THE RYDAL HOUSEHOLD 487
was Mr. Christopher Philipson of Calgarth, a man of
great influence in the country-side. He appears to have
been a barrister-at-law, and a receiver for the king's
lordship of Kendal. It was not surprising therefore that
he was a staunch supporter of the king's authority .and
cause ; and it may well be that he actually served as
major in the royal army as is said, when the struggle
intensified. Of the fighting prowess of his family, which
came to be told in story, more will appear. Jervace
Benson was a law officer of Kendal, and served as major
in 1644. Mr. Robert Rawlinson was also a barrister-at-
law, and seems to have been a trusted friend and adviser
to the family. The Mr. Curwen mentioned was probably
a relative of his, for he had (in addition to his Cotton
patrimony) inherited from his uncle Robert Curwen the
estate of Cark Hall in Cartmel where he resided.* The
Mr. Kirkby was Roger of Kirkby Hall (whose sister had
married William, John Fleming's cousin) who had already
been displaced, and was soon to go under in the wars,
and leave his great family to the care of his able wjfe,
who had been a Lowther. Mr. Ambrose, too, was a
Furness man and a relative, John of that ilk having
married John Fleming's sister, and this being doubtless
John's son William.
But when the first legal business connected with the
transfer of a large estate was got through, the affairs of
Rydal Hall were left almost wholly in the hands of
Richard Harrison, as his account-book shows. He had
control over the household and estate finance, referring
only in extraordinary matters to the " supervisors," with
Mr. Philipson of Calgarth at the head. His wife is never
mentioned, except in the matter of a hat which Mr.
Dudley had procured for her ; but her presence, whether
in the house itself or hard by, may have served as chaper-
onage to the two young girls left with their younger
* West's Antiquities of Furness.
488 RYDAL
brother, as orphans, at the Hall. The house now fell
back into something like its accustomed ways, from which
it was presently to be so rudely shaken.
In the forefront of the servants stood Katharine, who
paid out small sums for the housekeeping, until such
time as the young ladies took this office on themselves.
She may have been the " Keatie Benson " who appears in
Tyson's short-kept accounts of 1631-33, as paying for
butter ; and at that time the butter, eggs, and howleeks(P)
consumed in the house from Easter to Whit Sunday cost
only is. 7d., and eggs and cheeses for three weeks 3d,
Her wages were now 3 yearly. Thomas Bussell was
cook at 2. He may have been only scullion-boy in-
Tyson's time, when is. is accounted for, for making his
clothes and a coat. He now is entrusted with money ;
i8s. 6d. being paid for a brass ladle and other things, and
has a scullion boy under him at i6s. ; a payment that
may be commuted in clothes. " A paire of britches for
sculion boy " was bought at Hawkshead for 2s. Again
the kitchen boy's " showes " cost is. 6d.
Doll Barbon the Catholic had 305. yearly. She had
doubtless been nurse to the children, and she took up
that office again in sickness as well as serving as personal
attendant to the young ladies. Three " servant wenches "
received i or something less a year, and completed the
in-door workers. Out of doors there were the farm hands :
first Wilson the shepherd, at 2. los. ; who paid out
expenses of husbandry ; then the under shepherd ; the
plough-boy ; Anthony Dawson, perhaps the cow-herd, 2 ;
two other men at 365. 8d. each. Then there were irregu-
lar workers : Anthony Skelton, who rode armed to all
the musters of the county's cavalry, which was called
the Light Horse, and furnished by the landed gentry ;
he received 2. " Old Jarrot," a servant of Dame Agnes's
time had 305. ; he superintended and paid out for job
work, such as walling. Adam Fisher the smith was paid
THE RYDAL HOUSEHOLD 489
for piecework, like Thomas Nicolson the wright ; but he
excelled in a garden ; and besides tending his own at
the smithy by the beck and at the foot of the rise that
became known after his time as " Adam How/' he worked
at the hall garden, where he would sow the cabbage and
mustard seed brought from Carlisle by Charles Wilson.
The " milner " received 26s. 8d., or two marks yearly.
Harrison in a later year (1646) lumps the half-yearly
wages, which in general were due at " Penticost " and
" Martinmas," except the shepherd, who had a " Candle-
mas " engagement at 12. 45. 8d. This makes 24. 93. 4d.
for the year; an immense difference from Tyson's
total entry of 9. 195. 6d., paid out at Martinmas 1631,
and Whit Sunday 1632. Tyson, however, entered separ-
ately " the milner of his waige 75. od.," and " Garrard
35. od.," while " my owne waige due att Midsomer 1632,"
and apparently for the year, is 2 ; a moderate sum
surely for the hard-working factotum of the estate.
The provisions for the household were furnished from
the estate. The oats grown were ground at the mill and
made up into the cakes that were the staple food of the
people. The bigg, prepared at the kiln, made malt that
was brewed into beer. Cattle were killed and salted for
winter use, as we have seen.
Even the small requisites of life were manufactured at
home. Fat was used for the rush-lights, for which an
occasional outlay (of 4d. in Tyson's time) for " candle-
seaves," the prepared or peeled rush, was necessary, and
for the home-made candles, the wicks of which Tyson
bought at 6d.
The powerful light of the candle was only used for
the parlour, however, and sometimes had to be purchased
on sudden need. David Harrison, the Rydal purveyor,
furnished 4 Ibs. of candles for is. 7d. towards Christmas
of 1631. On another occasion 2 Ibs. cost 9d. Harrison
enters for 1643 :
490 RYDAL
44 p d to olliv* platt for white candles had before cressemas before
we had gotten ow r owne candles made o 1 5 s 8 d ; "
and to the same Olliver (doubtless a chandler of Kendal)
as much as 43. is paid about the same time for
" weeke for makinge of white candles. *'
Soap was made in the house, bracken being used in
its preparation, and Tyson's accounts show 8d. " for a
makinge of soape, for Speake," actually sent into Lan-
cashire, when the squire was resident there.
Occasional purchases, when the home supply gave out,
show the prices of the period. From Tyson :
s. d.
paid for a q r ter of meale at Easter . . . . . . 12
David H. for a q ter of meale against Whitsundaie . . i 3
for a q ter of fleshe at Shrouetyde . . . . . . i o
This would represent the feast before the fast ; and is
perhaps the one referred to by Harrison in 1645 : " p d
for 2 veale Had of Dauid Harrison before Fatnes even.
-o. 35. 6d." For the long Lent fast, as well as for the
feasts, special provision was made. The fish was brought
from long distances ; Morecambe Bay supplying through
its fishing towns the shell-fish and flat-fish known as
flooks, the Cumberland coast the herrings, and the market
of Penrith into which it was doubtless brought from
the Eden fisheries the salmon.
The supply of fresh-water fish from the estate waters
was also large (see Fisheries, p. 269).
The herrings in Tyson's book are 2s. the 100 ; some
300 being paid for in the season. The cockles, obtained
through David, figure at 6d. and is.
The price of herrings was the same in 1644, when " 6
hunderth," bought at Whitehaven, cost I2S. Two dozen
" salt killings," at apparently 55. the dozen, cost with
carriage from St. Bees, us. 6d. For
THE RYDAL HOUSEHOLD
" Fresh Flookes from Cartmell and a bushell of Cokels and to
one brought fish from pater dale "
is entered 8s. 6d. ; and the tale of fish goes on from all
quarters a salmon from Penrith, eels from Holker, also
char, etc., till we finish with, on April I3th :
" p d more for 100 hearings flookes cokels thornebacks and some
other fish came from cartmell this weeke 53. 2d.,"
making a total of 1000 herrings alone consumed by the
fasting household.
The fish season of 1645 began with a purchase of 100
herrings on February i6th, when 5 pecks of salt at 43.
was also got. Another] 200 followed, after which a more
drastic purchase was made of a barrel (no doubt already
salted) from Kendal, which cost with the carriage i. 2s.
The dear way of buying through a middle-man was
resorted to again ; and a further item appears of " salt
fish in lent and A Cople of ling fish had at kendall of Josie
Ematson " 145. 4d. Josie being no doubt the Josephus
Edm'dson who figures in the list of Kendal burgesses
for that year,* and supplied a good deal to the Hall.
Cockles poured in ; towards the end, 3 pecks cost 2s.,
and another 3 pecks followed in a week.
The next season began with " pease got against lent,"
with fish and mussels and carriage from Ulverston, 73. id.
On February 7th, 150 herrings and two couple of ling-
fish (a fish said to be like the cod, but longer in form)
are accounted for. Cockles were is. 6d., salt " eles "
came again from Holker, and two dozen and two couple
of " salt killing " were " bought at St. bees for lent "
133. 6d., which seems reasonable compared with the price
50 years later. A salmon is 35. 6d. One salmon seems
indeed the allowance each Lent, being reserved no doubt
for the upper table. It was brought by John Brathwaite
* Boke off Recorde of Kirkbie- Kendall.
492 RYDAL
of Howhead, the Ambleside carrier to " Penrith." One
brought by him on July 27th, cost only 2s. 2d. The
Kendal barrel of herrings cost again i. 2s., and cockles
" at several times " los. 6d. Another 200 herrings come
in as a finale, and " red Herrings."
Spices in Lent, used no doubt for the preparation of
the rarer kinds of fish, like char, are entered as (including
" figgs,") I2s. 6d. For the prized Rydal char-pie (see
Fisheries).
But the great outlay in spices was of course for Christ-
mas, a feast for which much preparation was made.
Tyson's moderate account enters indeed but lod. for
them, but this was perhaps in the absence of the family ;
his peck of " Aples " cost 2s. 8d. Harrison's are 33.
Pears are mentioned one year, but as with apples they
are only is., they may have been a present like the
" peares and wardens " that came in 1644 from Chris-
topher Fells, and for which is. was given to the messenger
who brought them from Ulverston.
Very busy must the kitchen have been at these times,
when under Katharine's superintendence the young ladies
left their parlour avocations with glee to help to concoct
the Christmas fare of mince-pies and puddings, whose
ingredients cost so high a figure relatively each year.
Sugar indeed was never bought but for this and other
special occasions.
"p d for spices 16 dec. at Kendall against Cressemas s. d.
vigl. 6 pound raisings VI s 4 pound Currans 2 s 8
four ounces sinomond 4 ounces nutmegs 4 s 8 d a
pound pepper 2 s tow Loves suger 9" g d half a
pound ginger 9 d and 6 pound prones 2 s came in
all to i 7 10
The spices come to i. is. 6d. and i. 95. 6d. in other
years ; while in 1647 " Eamontson " is paid a total of
2. los. lod. for them ; and two bushel of wheat " against
Gressemas from Archer wife " with carriage cost i. 8s.
THE RYDAL HOUSEHOLD 493
This price for wheat is 2s. higher than that paid im-
mediately after the squire's death, when several bills are
cleared off.
pd to P. Brathwaite of Howhead for Salmon he bought ^ s - d -
at penreth at seuerall tymes . . . . . . o 10 o
pd more unto him for two couple of dryed fishe . . 034
pd more unto him for a load and a half of wheate had
of him and A bushell of Jo: Archers wife in kendall
had at seuerall tymes against Christmas and since
and for carriage of it after the rate of i2 the
bushell . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 10 4
A half-bushel of wheat had of Braithwaite " against
Whitsuntide " is again 6s., and another bushel I2S. ;
while 20 bushels of oats to make into meal for the house
is 4, and 30 more for meal and groats 7. los. Veal
for Whitsuntide, with a head of veal is 43. Extra wheat-
bread from Kendal " on whitson even " is 2s. Indeed,
in 1644 a half bushel of wheat was 2s. 6d., but rose in
August to 55. rod. It dropped after harvest to 45. 2d.,
when the weekly loaves went down to is. 6d. and is.
" Biskets " are down.
Wheat bread for the upper table was a constant charge
and figures very highly in comparison with the consump-
tion of this delicacy under the next squire's frugal rule,
when it was not baked in the house, but bought regularly
at Kendal at the rate of about 2s. a week. It is rarely
in Harrison's account below 2s., and more on occasions,
e.g., 2s. 6d. when got for New Year's Eve. Rye bread
too was bought costing 6d.
Some special provision was made against Easter too,
and when visitors were entertained at the Hall. Tyson
accounted for 6s. 6d. spent on butter, eggs, and chicken
during his master's stay at Rydal in 1632, with 6s. gd.
for five quarters of flesh. After his death the outlay on
chickens between April I4th and May ist (Lady Blaxton
being at the Hall), was 35. ; butter, eggs, and starch 53.,
and half a veal 33. For the meeting of the supervisors
494 RYDAL
on May 27th, wheat-bread cost 35., a quarter of lamb is.,
chicken 35., J-lb. of cinnamon, and J-lb. of mace and
cloves (doubtless for char pies) 33. 6d. Special dainties
were procured sometimes.
Harrison enters " 6 couple of Connies " had from Pen-
rith in his master's lifetime 53. Generally one couple of
rabbits are got. " Doukers " figure occasionally.
Woodcocks are brought in by the Rydal purveyor
David Harrison, caught no doubt by the old method on
the fells ; on December 4th, he is paid 45. for birds
brought at " severall tymes." Another year they are
had from Kendall on October 29th and November loth,
at 2s. 4d. and 45. 4d.
The amount of sack consumed was large, and was
procured from one John or Josie Ellerey, a wine merchant
of Kendal, who likewise supplied the Easter wine for
the Grasmere and Ulverston churches ; the holder of the
tithes being responsible for this charge in place of the
parson. The latter church figures in 1643 at i. 6s. ; the
former at r. is. 8d., . being respectively six and five
gallons at 43. 4d. a gallon. Next :
s - d -
p d more for sake had of him in Christmas and since
at 3 seuerall tymes being in all 8 Gallons . . i 16 o
[45. 6d. a gal.]
s- d.
for sacke had of him at seuerall tymes before this
30 Sep. 1644 and some other things sent for by
gentlewomen .. .. .. .. ..300
Drinking vessels of glass were used, being got from
special hawkers.
s. d.
p d for white drinking glasses and other bottles and
glasses to A glasse carrier by Katheran . . . . 030
In 1646, when special provision has been made for
Mr. Biddulph's visit, mentioned on March 7th and I4th,
and again when " Old Jarrat " procures veal and mutton
THE RYDAL HOUSEHOLD 495
for the high feast on " Easter even " for 8s. rod., an
entry follows of 2s. 2d. for " Greene glasses and white
glasses " and " two little Candlesticks at Hawkshead "
iod., which suggests a festive board. Mr. Biddulph was
connected with the family, having married then the
young people's cousin Frances, daughter of the late Mr.
George Preston of Holker, by his second wife Marjorie
Strickland, though it is difficult to explain his presence
for so long at the Hall.
There seems indeed to have been a good deal of " com-
pany " kept of one sort or another, and intercourse was
frequent with the neighbouring halls of Westmorland,
Furness, and even Cumberland, where relatives and friends
resided. Presents came from time to time : fish from Mr.
Philipson of Calgarth, the special eels from Holker ; a
doe from Greystoke ; a " whole buck " from Mr. Preston's
manor (this was doubtless John of Furness Abbey), a
great salmon from him ; venison from " Mr. Laborne " ;
venison and pigeons from Sizergh.
With Sizergh, the old home of their mother, the young
orphans doubtless had most to do. Their uncle, Sir
Robert, the present head of the family, was indeed re-
siding at Thornton Bridge, in Yorkshire ; but two of
their uncle Stricklands, Walter and Thomas, were up to
this date * in occupation of the old Westmorland strong-
hold. Their aunt, Lady Blaxton, who more than anyone
else supervised the doings of the girls, was probably a
Strickland.
These girls, Anne and Bridget, who figure as the
" gentlewomen " in the account book, were on the verge
of womanhood when their father died, being older than
William the heir, who was but a lad of fourteen. They
had probably learnt all that was considered necessary
in those days, to teach young ladies, who appeared to
pick up during long visits to wise and often strict grand-
* Father West, in Sizergh MSS.
496 RYDAL
mothers and aunts all the manners and accomplishments
required for the " female " mind of the period. (See
later ; for the education of Daniel Fleming's daughters).
We hear at least of no actual tuition, though there is
mention in Tyson's book for 1633 of a " Citarine," which
suggests that they were taught music.* They could
while away therefore the tedium of quiet hours by pluck-
ing the wire strings of their table instrument with the
quill plectrum, and fetching from it tunes and pieces
that tickled the ear ; or perhaps it served to accompany
their sweeter voices. They doubtless embroidered. They
certainly, when at home, busied themselves in household
affairs, Harrison giving over to them instead of to Katha-
rine money for kitchen expenses ; and they occupied
themselves in the higher branches of cookery. We find
in August, 1645, " A sugar loafe for Gentlewomen for
P'serueing things with," cost 55 ; and :
pd to nedd pedler for 4 bottels full of Rasisolis sent
for by gentlewomen at seaverall tymes since
25 nov. till 17 may . . . . . . . . 068
Irrespective of any imminent feast too, we find raisins,
currants, nutmegs, and loaf-sugar " sent for gentlewomen 1 '
from " Josie Eamontsons " and brought by the shepherd.
These young girls indeed, though wafted off into York-
shire for visits to relatives from time to time, seem to
have taken up a singularly independent position, which
was strange when viewed with the commotions of the
time, and the dangers of war, that thickened round this
homestead of the mountain, and threatened its entire
extinction. They were of course recognized as heiresses
from the first, to whom though their young brother
would naturally take the largest share of riches as well
* " Given Tho: lavick for bringing Citarne 4<i." This antique instrument
remained in favour after the keyed virginal had come into general use. " New
Citharen Lessons " were published in 1609, and John Playford's " Mustek's
Delight, containing new and pleasant lessons on the Cithern " in 1666.
(Grove's Dictionary of Music}. The Rydal instrument may have come from
Speke.
THE RYDAL HOUSEHOLD 497
as of land would be meted out very highly-desirable
marriage portions. The days were over when they were
content with the home-spun and woven stuffs considered
meet for their childhood. For instance, in 1632 the
spinning and weaving of 14 yards of cloth for the children
had cost but 6s., the wool no doubt being from Rydal
clippings ; and next year their father wrote from Speke
" Then tell him (Tyson) to cause such a pice of Cottoa
be made for barnes as he did last year/'
On the father's death the orphans were well rigged out
with mourning.
Pd. to Jo: Archer* at seuerall tymes for two suits for s. <L
M s Willm a cloke and a smocke cote, A gowne and
Peticote for M rs Bridget, A gowne for M rs Anne
and for two gownes for katherin and doll, and
for all other things for makeing and trimming
them up as appears by A note of P'ticulars under
Jo: Archers hand . . . . . . . . . . 21 2 o
pd. for makeing all the s d seuerall things to willm
Browne Taylor . . . . . . . . . . 0182.
The etceteras were numerous, especially for the heir,,
and some of them procured when the journey to York
was made.
s d.
an elne of Holland for bands and for little brush 5 3.
A bridle leathers bitts & stirrop Irons at Yorke 4 o
A hat for him at Yorke 16 o
at Yorke for him for bands & ruffles & A paire of
boote hose tops . . . . . . . . . . 15 o
A pair of blake stockings for M r Will m & 2 p r for
M rs Bridget and M rs Anne . . . . . . 12 4
2 pairs of Gloves for M' Willm . . . . . . 20
The other two pairs, set down at is. 4d. were doubtless
for the girls. Their " two pairs of shooes " cost 43. 8d.,.
* John Archer is entered as " Maren Freeman " in 1635 ; he is in the list,
of Aldermen for 1644. In 1648, with mercer after his name, he is recorded,
as senior Alderman and Justice.
2K
498 RYDAL
and " A blacke phan for Annas " (perhaps Bridget pos-
sessed one already) 53.
The boy seems to have been allowed (unhappily) to
take a lordly tone from the first. A horse was got for
him, from Andrew Hudleston, for 12 ; and 10 given
to him " by the appoyntmt of the supervisors when he
should have gone to Award." Then :
pd. for 6 yeards of broad cloth for A cloke and A suite for Lancelot
bought by Willm Browne Taylor and sent for by M r Willm
the 22nd of May ^420
Young William had in fact constituted Lancelot Harri-
son, son of his step-cousin, as a kind of squire or hench-
man, to ride forth with him, as we shall see later ; Lancelot
receiving a salary of 3. los. After this, and the entry
of 153. for ten yards of " lin-cloth for shirts " for Mr.
William, the next sounds rather flat, " giuen him againe
when he went to schoole the 28th of May i. os. od."
It was time indeed to set some control over this young
spark, and to limit the expenditure of the young people.
The girls were carried off to Yorkshire with their " Ant
Blaxton," as Harrison notes, in the 33. expenditure for
chickens from April I4th to May ist ; and he adds naively:
"p d more unto my lady Blaxtone the first of may when she went
away for 16 yeards of welch flannall at 22 d the yeard had in my
m r (master's) life time for curtaines for A bed w ch I thought
she had bestowed of him 194
Anne was despatched for this Yorkshire visit with 20,
.and 10 was paid to Mr. John Strickland for a horse
bought for her there besides i. 35. 4d. which she had
already borrowed for this purpose while more money was
:sent to her by Mr. Walter Strickland. The Strickland
uncles seem indeed to have encouraged the orphans in a
free use of the trust money. It was no wonder that
though Bridget was content with a nag from Robert
Benson of Skelwith at 3. 35. the supervisors (who
~" mett " at the end of May, with special extra provision
THE RYDAL HOUSEHOLD 499
for their use of wheat-bread 35. ; quarter of lamb is. ;
chickens 33. ; spices and dried fruit 6s. 6d.) decided to fix
.an allowance for the young ladies, which reached the
liberal sum of 60.* We hear therefore no more of their
clothes in the account book.
Master William however continues to figure largely
there. The school chained him but a month ; for on
June 23rd he receives 5 on going to Corbie, the seat of
Sir Francis Ho ward, f and Penrith, and while at the latter
town seizes the opportunity to buy pairs of " boates and
pantofles " at 145. 6d., also pairs of stockings and shoes,
75. 6d. Then " Britches " of black searge and making
come to 155. ; while four yards of " brodecloth black for
suite, A Smocke Cote at 135. a yard and things for making"
come to 2. 195. 6d. William Browne the tailor is at least
reasonable in price ; for making one suit 2s. is charged ;
for another with two pairs of breeches and a coat 35. 6d.
The sombreness of the costume is broken by grey stock-
ings, another pair, at 2s. 6d. The young blade is now
fitted out (besides " A spanner stringe(?) for him at Yorke
.2s. 6d.") with a " pare of patranals and case " J bought
for him specially in the northern capital by Mr. John
Fleming at a cost of 3. i2s. 6d. And he would seem
to have used these weapons during the summer, for early
in October John Washington, the Kendal mechanician
.and clockmaker is paid 55. for the repair of them, and
for making a new fitting for Anthony Skelton's. After
all these dashing equipments, the entry of " A booke
called Terence," is., comes in strangely, nor do we hear
that it ever needed re-binding.
* The amount is afterwards stated as 40.
t The Flemings in Oxford. Dr. Magrath.
} Petronel : a kind of carbine or large horseman's pistol. Webster.
He appears among the " Armerers Fremen and Hardwaremen," being
elected October 6th, 1625 ; as Burgess in 1645 ; as mayor in 1657, when he
is styled " whitsmith " an interesting bill of his for a clock is given later
oke off Recorde of Kirkbie- Kendall.
500 RYDAL
The ill-fated lad appears again to take to his studies
for a while. We read, under October 3rd :
i s. <L
giuen M r William when he was affrayed of Lancashire
forces should have come when he went away . . 500*
and shortly after los. was given to Mrs. Kirkby, which
her husband had paid " in pt for his wage for his teaching."
The schoolmaster with whom Mr. Kirkby was in com-
munication, was probably, since the " school " later men-
tioned was at quiet Irton in Eskdale, the Scotchman Mr.
Bartle, whom Daniel Fleming mentions as having been
his own instructor for a short time in July, 1644.* We
trace young William's presence in Cumberland by his
purchases of a new suit bought at Cockermouth, which
with the making of it there, cost 4. 95. 2d. A pair of
stockings came to 55. 6d., and a hat at Kendal to 145,
Probably he rode home round by Kendal for Christmas r
for Harrison notes that he gave him 2 "to keepe his
purse with " for that season. Then comes the ominous
entry :
Giuen more to him the 5 Jan: when he went ouer fell s. d,
and durst not stay at Home to put in his purse 2 10 o
and a note is added that this makes 30 that he has
received since his father's death, including i which had
been sent him by " Lantie " to Hutton John.
This suggests that the boy had been fighting and feared
capture. He had indeed started the roving life that
ceased only with his death. Another effort was made to
settle him and to withdraw him from the existing fatal
attraction of warfare.
Giuen to M r Willm when I got him to goe to Schole
Againe to Irton the 4 th feb. . . . . . .
* D. F's autobiographical sketch. The notes to this, p. 2 of The Flemings
in Oxford, show the number of private schools existing in the country at thifr
time, some of them taught by Oxford men whom the war had displaced.
THE RYDAL HOUSEHOLD 501
But it was in vain. The heir to so much wealth had
already begun to secure the notice of big people, and the
die was soon to be cast that bound his lot irrevocably to
the king's cause.
Giuen to M r Willm when he went to Naward (Naworth) s. d.
to se the young lord that sent for him 2 May . . 500
to which is added the sum of i. 155. which he had bor-
rowed from his henchman " Lantie."
His intimacy about this time with the Howard family
is attested by Sir Daniel Fleming, in the family " Notes/' *
who says that he " paid court " to a sister of Charles
Howard, Esq. (afterwards Earl of Carlisle), but the young
people not " agreeing betwixt themselves " he went along
with Mr. Howard to Bristol, Skipton Castle, and other
places where the king's forces were. The succeeding
entries in the account book, apparently for the year 1644,
corroborate this tradition :
giuen to M r Willm at seuerall tymes 22 July and 8 th s. d.
of August when he went to Whitehall with his
sisters 400
The next entry chronicles a departure and the casting
of the die :
August 10. giuen to M r Willm by and with consent s. d.
of M r Phillipson when he went away with S r Fran-
cis Howard . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 o o
More to my sonne who went with him for his wages
for A yeare ended at penticost 1644 . . . . 300
Further particulars, which show that a large company
marched south, and that the actual start was made from
Kendal on August I4th, appear in an entry under money
lent :
" Lent to M r Nicolas Strickland 14 August 1644 at at Mr Willm
Fleming Desire and his sisters when he went with him from
Kendale in Kings armis, to Bristowe by the consent of M r
* Rydal Hall MSS.
502 RYDAL
Phillipson upon his writing 2O 1 and more lent him by S r Geo:
Midleton to be allowed in S r Geo: bond of loo 1 lent him more 30*
so that M r Nicolas Strickland is oweing due by his bond 50' o. o."
The tradition that matrimony had been engaging his
thoughts is corroborated by the account book, which
about this time, shows a considerable expenditure in
horse-trappings and dress " grey made cloth and buttons
and loupes and other things " for a suit i. i6s., and
later 4! yards of grey cloth for "A long Cote," with
trimmings and making 2. 53. The next entries of money
given him announce his entire emancipation ; and it is
pleasant to know that his sister rode to London with him.
CHAPTER III.
THE TROUBLES.
THE step was no doubt inevitable. The waves of
civil war had been rising and falling for two
summers in our valleys of Westmorland. The
first skirmish indeed took place at Manchester on July
3rd, 1642,*- and as the winter turned, and the rich Rydal
squire lay dying, Preston was being stormed and taken
for a Parliamentary force, and Lancaster Castle occupied,
only to be presently re-taken by the Earl of Derby.
Westmorland was astir. The Light Horse of the Barony
of Kendal rode out in the fortnight before his death,
with Anthony Skelton his man amongst them ; and a
general muster was called soon after, which included the
servants of the Hall and the statesmen of the valleys.
There is not a doubt as to which side he would have
taken in this upheaval and cleavage of society, for every
gentleman of Furness (where his mother had said his
friends were), as well as of Westmorland, and every house
allied with his own (except that of Barwise), declared
* Victoria History of Lancashire.
THE TROUBLES 503
themselves of the king's side, which was to them simply
the side of law and order ; but it would have been inter-
esting to know what course his wise, crafty spirit would
have taken amidst the confusion of parties and the mar-
shalling of forces ; and to what extent he would have
put his money-coffers at the disposal of his party. Harri-
son's account book, which starts nineteen days before
his death, shows immediate loans that were clearly
intended to be used for the raising of Royalist forces.
First comes 50 to Mr. William Ambrose, squire of Lowick,
who was nephew to John Fleming, through his mother
Dorothy Fleming. Then 300 to Mr. Thomas Preston,
of Holker, to be lent with a " rent-charge " of 24 a year
for three years, and the writings to be kept by the chief
executor, Mr. Philipson. 100 also went to Mr. George
Preston of Furness Abbey.
These gentlemen of Furness were clearly gathering a
body of horse, that, unlike the militia, could be put into
action at any time. So were the Westmorland gentlemen.
Lent to S r Henry Bellmgham, Mr. Brathwaite and others the
first of march 1642-3 upon there bond for good of Cuntry till
first of M rch 1643-4 ; 2 5- - *
Sir Henry * was the magnate of Levens. Mr. Richard
Brathwaite of Burniside Hall and New Hall in Nether
Staveley was. first cousin to John Fleming, through his
mother, Dorothy Bindlosse. He will be heard of later.
A man of great intellectual gifts, and author of several
poems, other than the one he wrote under the name of
" Dapper Dick," he threw himself heartily into public
affairs, and impoverished himself, as we shall see, for the
king's cause. To Sir Ralph Blaxton and Mr. Walter
Strickland, the brothers-in-law of John Fleming, 60 was
lent.
Besides the forces raised thus, and under the direct
* Later Col. James Bellingham was active for the Parliament.
504 RYDAL
control of their leader, there were the companies of Light
Horse, furnished by the county gentlemen in all times
of war, and for which the Rydal estate equipped one
rider. These in Westmorland were certainly placed on
the king's side, and should under efficient generals have
done good service. The general muster of the militia
or foot-soldiers from the valleys could be, and was also
resorted to, but apparently with little effect. It could
only be kept in the field for short periods ; and, called
as the men were from their steadings by the county
authorities, they would, many of them, be indifferent to
the Royalist cause ; some, and a growing number, even
hostile to it. It was always difficult too, to arm these
irregular troops satisfactorily. In a search for weapons,
which it was thought expedient to make in 1660, the
statesmen of our township of Rydal and Loughrigg turned
up one a sword and belt, another a steel cap, another a
" Little Birding- piece," another a musket without lock,
still another a sword, which may have done service in
these wars. For the men of the estate three muskets
were borrowed at Millom, and repaired.
The account book shows too that the troops were in
movement during this spring of 1643. What is meant
by the grim entry in the church register for April 2Qth :
" The buriall of James Tarlton de Rydall
The buriall of Robert Gardiner de Rydall "
cannot be said. James Tarlton's name does not appear
among the Rydal Hall servants, but he is twice mentioned
as settling accounts, while Robert Gardiner is entered in
the list of recusants in 1640 and 1641. That those two
men met their death in one day indicates violence, either
in a party brawl or in actual warfare ; and if the latter,
it could not have been far distant, as their burial place
was Grasmere. Nothing in the account book throws light
on the circumstance, but there are frequent entries of
the expenses of the men called out on military service.
THE TROUBLES 505
Anthony Skelton's charges " when he went with light
horse to Kendale " as early as the gth of February, and
stayed there, were los. Again he was at Kendal for a
fortnight at a cost of i. los. and there was
" giuen to our seruants .... when they went to General
muster 53. od."
Then too the taxes for payment of the militia had begun.
s. d.
pd the Cunstable of loughrigge for A cast for souldiers
the first of march .. .. .. .. .. 020
A cast ... for souldiers ... to Charles Wilson
Cunstable of Rydall 046
for a cast of ten subsidies for his maiestie to high
Cunstable . . . . . . .... 12 o o
.and rates and minor " casts " continued through the
rsummer.
Anthony Skelton was out three days in Kendal with
the Light Horse from May loth (at a cost of 73. 6d.) and
again seven days from June I2th. This shows that the
Royalist army under prominent leaders, that marched
across the Conishead Sands on May 2ist, and after three
nights' billet in Furness, with plunder and 500 exacted
from the enemy, retreated again, were not accompanied
by the Westmorland horse.* But Anthony was out again
,at Carlisle for nine days in August, no doubt with the
Cumberland forces.
Some of the officers of these forces, if not a whole
company, were entertained at the Hall, possibly on a march
through the valley, or for a party consultation as to
ways and means.
pd. for wheat bread at kendall 23 sept when Colonell
Huddlestone (of Millom) and other company was
at Rydall " ^o. 2. 6.
But feasting was soon to be followed by actual conflict
* Park's narrative in West's Antiquities, quoted in North Lonsdale Maga-
zine, vol. i., p. 241.
506 RYDAL
and disaster, for some at least of the party. The fore-
most excitement of the summer was the siege of Thurland,
that magnificent moated castle on the Lancashire side
of the Lune, which Sir Thomas crenelated by license of
Henry IV. in 1402 (see Cal. Pat. Rolls). Its owner, Sir
John Girlington, had indeed surrendered it in June, but
regaining it, he maintained a brave defence against the
besieging party through September.* Our Rydal men
were out with the county forces on this latter occasion r
and Anthony's expenses for six days at Kendal " when
Sir Jo : Girlington was besieged 6 Sept." were 155. He
was later out nineteen days with his company of horse at
Kirkby Lonsdale (expenses 2s. 6d. a day), and there was
" giuen to our seruants for there Charges when the (sic) went to
Kirkby Lonsdall to be mustered and stayed two days and one
night 5" o d "
The men of our village in fact were part of the troops
that lay supinely on the right bank of the river, watching
the siege of the castle on the opposite bank without an
effort of assistance. The able Parliamentary general,.
Colonel Rigby, who now conducted the siege, reported
to the Parliament *
" During most part of the siege the greatest part of the Forces of
Westmorland lay within our view, and daily threatened us, but
God confined them to their own County, and every day more and
more inclined the hearts of the Commons of Westmorland to
decline any attempt upon us/'f
although, he goes on to say, his own position, cut off in
an angle of Lancashire and far from supplies, might have
tempted them by its fair prospect of victory. It was to
hearten and assist these reluctant troops led by Sir Philip
Musgrave, and to raise the siege, as well as to combine
in a great scheme for the regaining of Lancaster and
* Civil War Tracts, xxxvii. Victoria History of Lancashire, p. 238.
t Civil War Tracts, xxxvii.
THE TROUBLES 507
Hornby Castle, that forces were collected in Cartmel and
Furness under Mr. Roger Kirby and Alexander Rigby,
joined by Colonel Huddleston of Millom and his men.
But Colonel Rigby, quick to act, did not wait for their
coming ; but turning aside, he crossed the sands and
easily routed an army numbering 1500 to 1600 men on
Lindale Moor (Sunday, October ist), after which he
returned to his siege. " This worke in Fournes " he goes-
on to report
"had that influence upon all the Castles and all the Gentry of
Westmorland and Cumberland who then lay within our sight at
Kirby Loynsdale, that within two days after, the Castle was by
the negotiation of Sir Philip Musgrave, then commanding in chief
in Westmorland and Cumberland, agreed to be rendered unto me
to be demolished."
It is clear then, that our Rydal foot-men " commoners/'
statesmen, and Hall servants, who had lain idly within
sight of the siege for two days and a night, had long
returned to their home before its close ; and it was only
the gentlemen or " cas tiers " with their mounted troops
who awaited its lame termination. How badly, indeed,
was the Royalist side in need of a good general in these
parts ! It must not be forgotten that the history of the
times is largely made up from Parliamentary Reports ,_
and it is well to set Mr. Thomas Park's report of the
Furness rout against Colonel Rigby 's, still there seems to
have been little or no attempt made at a stand on this
occasion ; and Colonel Huddleston with many others was
taken prisoner. Rigby was concerned how he should
keep in security " the most considerable Man in Cumber-
land/' who commanded not only the forces of his county,,
but had a regiment also in Yorkshire.
Nothing is said of Mr. Roger Kirby, who is expressly
mentioned in Rigby 's report as present, and who must
therefore presumably have escaped. If indeed his re-
ported flight to Ireland may be placed after this defeat,.
508 RYDAL
instead of after his earlier escape on the relinquishment
of Lancaster Castle (thus supposing an error in Dugdale's
-date), all discrepancy would vanish ; and it may be noted
that his name of " Mr. Kirby " disappears after this date
from the account book, while " Mr. Richard Kirby," his
eldest son, at this time 15 years old, is mentioned. This
disaster seems to have broken the spirit of the Furness
Royalists, and their troops melted away, while their
leaders were imprisoned or fled. It seems possible that
the boy William Fleming had followed Colonel Huddle-
ston or Colonel Kirby into this fight, which would account
for the fear of the " Lancashire Forces " that drove him
irom home two days later. The men of his manor of
Coniston might also many of them be there.*
But the North Westmorland Royalists continued active,
at any rate in putting men in the field. Among items
of money lent at this time, after November 29th, is
" 100 to my Cozen Willm Fleming, my Cozen Jo: Fleming, and
my Cozen Tho. Fleming in their bond ; to pay 8 if kept till Feb.
12, 1644-5 ; or they to keep it longer."
These would all be sons of Daniel of Skirwith, and
therefore first cousins to the young Rydal heir. The
eldest had left his wife and babies at Skirwith, to lead a
company as Major, drawn from his own and neighbouring
manors. The well-thumbed parchment roll of some 98
men, dated March 8th, 1643-4, exists at Rydal Hall.
John was a bachelor and a lawyer ; his name occurs
frequently in the correspondence, and he died at Skirwith.
Meanwhile fresh schemes were concocted and our account
book gives signs of considerable activity among the West-
morland troops through the winter, and early months of
1643-4.
The " casts " for soldiers (levied by the constable of
Rydal for the Royalist forces) were frequent. From the
* See Dugdale's Visitation ; West's Antiquities ; and " Kirkby Portraits,"
in Transactions C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. vi., N.S.
THE TROUBLES 509
preceding October loth to February 27th for outlying
pieces of demesne they amounted to i. 2s. ; from Feb-
ruary 27th to April 22nd to 53. ; and from April 22nd to
June 22nd, to 173. 5d. On July ist, for a cast at the
rate of 5d. in the pound, i. 53. was paid, with another
on the 28th for the same amount to the High Constable.
There was a general muster at Kendal on January nth,
when " our mens charges " for the night came to 6s. ;
and
" Anthony, rode out with the light horse, 73. 6d."
Whatever his fate, this is the last time he is mentioned ;
and Hugh Foord * of Kendal, who proved a true friend
to the cause and to the family, furnished a man and horse
for duty from March loth to May loth for a sum of 133. 6d.
There was likewise a general muster for four days, which
four of the servants attended. These moveiraents may have
been connected with the large scheme of the party con-
cocted about this time for coalition with the king's army ;
(see Municipal "Order," May 3rd, 1693, Boke off Recorde
of Kirkbie Kendall), by which the forces of Cumberland and
Westmorland under the command of Sir Philip Musgrave
were to be divided, the one to support the Marquis of
Newcastle in his advance against the Scots (now threaten-
ing invasion for the relief of Parliament), and the other
to join Prince Rupert in his march to the relief of be-
leagured York. Undoubtedly the loan of 100, made
from the Hall coffers on May 3Oth to Sir Philip Musgrave,
Mr. Philipson and others, was directly connected with this
effort ; as well as the message which summoned the
young Rydal heir to Naworth and gave him an assured
position as Royalist.
* He is the Hugh Forth commemorated among the burgesses in 1645 and
1654 ; and again among the " Pewterers " who had been admitted to the
Guild in 1629. Boke off Recorde of Kirkbie Kendall.
Hugh Forth was an ardent royalist. In 1644 he had to give with some
others a bond in 20 that he would convey no intelligence to the enemy nor
depart from Kendal town without licence from the Mayor.
His. MSS. Com. loth Rep. Kend. MSS. C. 3.
510 RYDAL
There would seem however, from some entries of about
this time, to have been skirmishes and reprisals going on
close over the Lancashire border, if not actually in the
Rothay Valley.
igiuen to A messenger Hugh foord sent from kendall s. d.
all night to giue us notice to looke to ourselves
when grayrigge Hall was plundered . . . . o i 6
and there are suggestive entries of repairs for broken
windows at Grasmere Church, as well as at the Hall.
However that may be, the brilliant successes of Prince
Rupert, as he advanced through Lancashire at the end
of May and early June raised the hopes of Westmorland
Royalists high. If indeed he crossed the sands from
Lancaster, and quartered himself on Cartmel,* the young
bloods of the counties would be at his heels, to pay him
-court, if not to fight. The entry made after June 2nd,
-of payment to Edmond Dobson for " riding light horse
at Kirkby 14 days" i. 155., and then five more I2s. 6d.,
almost certainly refers to this episode, for Kirkby means
to this day Ireleth in Furness, where the Hall of the
Kirkbys stands.
With the general movement of co-operation the follow-
ing has certainly to do :
"p d for Irons for 4 halfe pikes to A Smith in Keswicke for our
seruants to furnish them with when they are called 3 s 4 d ."
But the Westmorland forces were destined to play no
decisive part in the war. Arming, mustering, lagging,
falling back, dissolving, they ever failed, either for want
of true heart, or of a sound general. How many of the
gentry followed Rupert over the pass into Yorkshire can-
not be said, but their terrible defeat at the battle fought
on Marston Moor on July 2nd, 1644, crushed all present
hopes for the cause, not only in the county, but through
* See Life of Master John Shaw Surtees Society, vol. Ixv., quoted in North
.Lonsdale Magazine, vol. i., p. 51.
THE TROUBLES 511
north. With the Scots army advancing to the aid of
their enemies, there was nothing for it but dispersal,
either by private flight, or in following the remnants of
the king's army to the south ; and we have seen how a
large party, including young William Fleming and his
friends, marched from Kendal under the wing of Sir
Francis Howard on the loth of August. Sums were lent
at this time to the leader, Sir Francis Howard, to Mr.
Anthony Dushett of Grayrigg, and Sir Ralph Blaxton,
as well as Mr. Nicolas Strickland. And not only for
them was money lifted from the Rydal chests. Mr.
Philipson acting for the party received various small sums ;
Mr. Philipson of Calgarth borrowed 30 on a bill. Parson
Wilson of Grasmere too, that " notorious malignant," came
for one of his frequent loans. He was doubtless fleeing,
or speeding south to be of use to his party, in the most
dangerous of services that of bearing messages and
letters in cipher.*
But there were others, who either could not, or would
not, get away. Efforts at a rally are apparent, especially
about Kendal, where no doubt the castle was still held
for the king ; while daily the opposite faction grew
stronger, and the Scots' army, under the Earl of Leven,
entering England on September ist,f marched to their
assistance.
p d for our men Charges 2 tymes when they were warned s. d.
to be there and stayed at one tyme 4 days and
at other tyme two dayes and light Horse and
Rider's Charges at same tymes 7 Sept: to 14
Septem: .. .. 116
Pd for A cast of forty shillings in the pound for Rydall
to Colonell dodingj and others to fre them out of
kendall after the had entered and taken the towne 10 o o
* Some of these which still exist are stained with blood.
fS. P. Dom. Chas. I., 20.
J Was he Myles Dodding son and heir of George of Conishead (who died
^650) who married Margaret daughter of Roger Kirkby ?
512 RYDAL
p d more for Gresmire for the same assessm* . . . . 5 o a
p d more for baneriggs for the same assessm* . . . . o 10 o
p d more for milner bridge assessm* . . . . . . 120
p d more for ground in gresmire to same sessi : . . 086
The " caste " paid to the constable on the outlying
portions from June 22nd to October 4th amounted ta
195. ; and these may have been the last levied for the
royal cause. The opposite side had now the whip-hand ;
and heavily and unceasingly was the lash to fall.
No sooner was the king's party under Colonel Doddingf
ousted from Kendal, than the Parliament began that
orderly rule by committees and commissioners sitting in
every town, that had its centre in London, and was backed
by the powerful system of finance through which the
City of London supported the Parliament. There were
plenty of rich burgesses of Kirkby Kendal town, who had
espoused the Roundhead side, to be entrusted later with
this clever system of control ; but at first the governing
body seems to have been chiefly military. It was already
controlling and issuing orders in November, 1644, f r on
the 1 6th of that month the refractory parson of Grasmere
entered into a bond in 20 to Colonel James Bellingham
to appear before the " Provost Marshall " of Kendal in
twenty days time, and was forbidden to travel from West-
morland or communicate with the enemy, or seduce the
affections of his parishioners from the Parliament. He
was moreover deprived of his office.* Thomas Brath-
waite, no doubt of Ambleside Hall, attested the bond.
To this body and others sitting in neighbouring towns,
Rydal Hall had now to sue, drawing together all the
personal influence possible, through relatives not deeply
implicated in Royalist plots, to gain favour and some
mitigation of threatened burdens. We find the following
in (A. 20) MSS. of Cor. of Kendal, His. MS. Com. loth
Report.
* Church of Grasmere.
THE TROUBLES 513
" % 2 - 3-5- claimed as due to the inhab. of Kir- Ken. for billitting
Col. Bellingham's soldiers ' fr. the 3 rd of March, 1644, to the
28 th of same ' ; and some of Col. Brigg's men, one night or 2,
after the rate of 6 d per day every foot-soldier, and 13 d p.d. horse
and man, ' according to the lord Generall's order.' '
Does this date which is a quotation mean 3rd March,
1644 or 1645 ? the year would close on March 25th.
But first there was an effort made to secure again
what had been rifled, in some soldiers' visitation of the
Hall shadowed in the earlier entry, but of which we have
no particulars.
" pd for to redeeme some horses and other goods was taken away,
and plundered from Rydall and my Cozen Jo: Fleming's charges
in goeing to kendall and diuers other places about them and
.giuen to Soldiers 2 7 6.
Mr. John Fleming also went with the writer and
" others " to Penrith and Kendal " about procuring a
protection from Scotts," hence the entry :
" Colonell bellingham and briges and giuen to get our desires
.affected, (being absent five days) i. 8. 6."
This was before October I2th, when there was " giuen
to one brought letters from Mr. Willm from bristowe
2s. 6d." But such attempts, even with a gift to ease them,
availed little ; for the heavy heel of the Parliament was
soon grinding the Royalists into the fine powder of penury,
by means of taxes, fines, composition and sequestration.
The taxation for the Scotch army now planted on the
country, which had bargained for 21,000 a month pay
besides provisions, as the price of their help, began at
>nce and continued, as the following entries extracted
from the next six months show :
pd to M r nicolas Tunstall (High Constable) for A cast s. d.
for the scotts for Rydall for month sessment
25 Nov: 1644 5 10 o
2 L
514 RYDAL
p d more unto him for purveyance money to lay upon
Rydall 163.
Caste to the local constable from July nth to December
ist come also to 3. 43. 2d. Then :
p d for the Psonall assessm* for Rydall to the Scotts in s. d,
dec 1644 . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 o o
p d for A month sessm* for Scotts after rate of XXV d
in the pound for Rydall milner bridge and other
places 4 Jan.* . . . . . . . . . . 7 15 a
And this sum was repeated on February 2Oth, and on
March I5th.
There were besides various taxes paid through the
village constable " for soldiers and fynding of Horses and
riders " now for the Parliament ! which for the Rydal
demesne from October 1644 to May ist, 1645, amounted
to 11. us. 6d. Once again :
s. <L
p d for A cast for Scotts Pvision the 28 th May . . 017 2
The bargain with the Scots was before this time em-
barrassing the Parliament. Of the various committees
sitting in the halls of the rich London guilds, the one at
the Goldsmiths was responsible for this business, and the
treasurer thus found that the required 21,000 monthly
could by no means be squeezed out of the king's adhe-
rents, as cash could not be raised immediately upon their
impoverished estates. Therefore Parliament decreed that
a monthly tax should for four months be levied from the
ist of March on the whole people of the northern counties r
for the support of their allies. The discontent that ensued
is not surprising. The counties had their hereditary foes
from whom they had suffered for hundreds of years forced
upon them in the name of the country's allies. They had
to give them quarter, with food and lodging, and pay
unprecedented taxes for their wage, the while little of
* S.P.Dom. Chas. I, 20.
THE TROUBLES 515
fighting was done. It was a comfortable, nay remember-
ing old times an ironically jocose situation for the Scots,
who, spending their time for the most part comfortably
in garrison, or quartered in county towns, with plenty
to eat and good English money to put in their pockets,
were in no haste to move. Nor do they seem to have
been gentle with the unfortunate folk they were quar-
tered on. On March 13th their Lord General issued an
order to all officers and soldiers quartered in Westmorland
and Cumberland, requiring that all " cesses " on the
people should cease, save those commanded by Parlia-
ment, from March ist.
" They are therefore required not to impose or exact any cess
from the inhabitants, nor offer to plunder, impound, or drive
their goods or imprison their persons, but content themselves
with such entertainment of victuals and provisions as their
quarters can afford them, paying or giving ticket for the same
conformably to the rates . . . agreed on by the Committee of
both kingdoms." *
By April i6th it became necessary to warn the Head
Parliamentary Committee for the north sitting at New-
castle of the report sent to Parliament by the generals
" of some distempers lately grown in Westmorland amongst the
people there against some of the Scots' soldiers, which, if it
should continue or increase, might prove of very ill consequence.
We therefore desire that all endeavours may be used to pacify
and quiet them. We hope the Scots' army will very speedily
be ready to march southward also sorry that any affronts
or discontent should be given to the (parliamentary) soldiers." f
Tension was indeed growing between the Parliamentary
forces and their Scotch allies, as may be seen in the letter
addressed by the chiefs to Colonels Lawson, Cholmeley,
Bellingham, Briggs, and the members of the Committees
of Cumberland and Westmorland, on April 2ist, in which
* S.P. Dom. Chas. I. 20, p. 342-3.
t Ibid. p. 413.
516 RYDAL
" the humours of the discontented people in Westmor-
land " are referred to,* and the need for drawing off, if
possible, the Scottish horse from those counties. And in
truth " A late tumultuous assembly in Westmorland "
had declared its grievances against the Scots, which had
been written and delivered to the heads on paper, through
the agency of Gervase Benson, Mayor of Kendal, Mr.
Henry Massie and others ; whereupon promise of retri-
bution, if injustice or ill-usage from the soldiers could be
proved, was promised, and cessation of all but the Parlia-
ments tax, in order that " the inhabitants of Westmorland
may have no colourable pretence to keep in a body as
they have done for some days past." (April 2ist).f
Four days later the Parliamentary Committees of Cum-
berland and Westmorland declare on behalf of " these
two poor exhausted counties " that they had far rather
undertake the siege of Carlisle (still held for the king)
than pay the Scots. They are determined it can be
successfully done, and of the 3000 foot and 600 horse
required, Westmorland will furnish 1000 foot and 200
horse. They desire only that the Scots may be kept
before Carlisle until the country forces are all gathered
there. And they are urgent that the Scots horse when
withdrawn, should not march through Westmorland
"" lest it occasion new commotions there and endanger the de-
serting of the siege by the Westmorland men, and so expose all
to ruin (a measure which prevented the obnoxious strangers
from passing over Dunmail Raise and through our valley). More-
over, it would be expedient to set the Scots about Skipton and
Bolton, to prevent the enemy there infesting and disturbing
Westmorland." J
This would indeed have been a time for the Royalists,
had they been less broken and dispersed, to have gained
* Ibid. p. 423.
tS P. Dom. Chas. I., 20, p. 422.
} S. P. Dom. Chas. I., 20, p. 432.
THE TROUBLES 5 I/
the people to their side of the struggle. On May 28th,
the Scots were mostly stationed about Kendal or in
Lancashire, and their leaders discussing a move south
by the pass of Stainmore.* On June 8th, the inhabitants
of Westmorland were still in a body, clamouring for the
redress of their grievances, and the Committee, with
Lieut. -Col. Bellingham at the head, were forced to promise
a speedy removal of them " if they return to their own
houses in a peaceful manner." The remonstrance and
petition presented to Parliament by the inhabitants of
the counties recite in detail the burdens they have suffered,
both from the Scots and from the furnishing of men to
Parliament for the blocking up of Carlisle all the previous
winter, so that, being unable to pay any more,
" necessity forced the distressed people in some parts to stand
upon their defence against the taxings and drivings of the
soldiers." f
The Westmorland forces, it seemed, had been hindered
from joining the siege of Carlisle, owing to dissensions
among the officers. It was time indeed to draw the Scots
south ; and the embarrassed Parliament, afraid to offend
their martial guests, yet equally afraid of driving the
people to desperation, or displeasing their own officers,
who were themselves squabbling with the Scots, toiled
by letters and instructions to their committee. Then
came (June 26th) parleys as to the surrender of Carlisle ;
and Sir Thomas Glenham, from within the Castle, com-
plained of the detention of his envoy Captain Philipson
though he had obtained a Parliamentary pass ; as well
as of the fact that Royalist prisoners, whose ransoms had
been paid to Colonel Briggs, had not yet been released. J
The Royalists were in fact completely broken, and in
the power of the Parliamentary committees. The squeez-
* Ibid. p. 531-
t Ibid. p. 576.
JS. P. Dom. Chas. I., p. 614-5.
RYDAL
ing process, by which the financial committees in London
schemed to make the Royalists pay the expenses of the
war, and which was finally to reduce most of them to
penury, was set in motion. It was a dark winter for
Rydal, that of 1644-5, while the siege of Carlisle was
going on ; dark for the tax-ridden people, darker yet for
the Hall. In November, Lady Lowther was over. She
was aunt to the young people, being sister to John and
executor under their father's will ; and she was willing
to bring her personal influence to bear on the dreaded
committee-men, carrying (in the absence of the young
heir) her nieces in her train. The account book of the
time has the following items :
s. d.
Giuen to them that did Inventory the goods the 29
nov: with consent of my lady . . . . . . i 10 o
pd for my lady Lowther M r Phillipson and Gentle-
women and all our Charges and horses when we
went to Comittis to kendall 3 dec. . . . . 190
p<* more our Charges when M r Phillipson and Gentle-
women went to Ulverstone 4 dec. . . . . on 6
pd for sending A letter to M r Robert Rawlinson and
getting A Commission drawne to Committee att
kendal to get some of the forty pounds Abated of
the personall Assessm* . . . . . . . . 036
giuen to M r Rawlinson Lawy r 9 dec for A fee & drawing
of A case sent to Comission rs to newcastle and
Charges Aboute it . . . . . . . . . . o 19 o
p d for m r Phillipson m r s bridget m rs Agnes my owne
and our men and horses Charges when we went
into Lane, to Garstang to speake with the Col-
onels and Comittee . . . . . . . . 220
giuen to willm Tysons man for comeing two seuerall
tymes from Ulverstone to guie us notice when the
Collonels met at Garstang and to let us know when
we should goe .. .. .. .. .. 020
After the turn of the year :
giuen to M r Tho: Brathw* for his paines to yorke and
newcastle and his disbursm*s as appeares by his
letter . 10 o o
THE TROUBLES 519
pa Gentlewomen Charges and ours when we went 2
seuerall tymes in to journas to se if we could agree
with sequestrators for Lane lands . . . . 080
Thus it will be seen that the young ladies shared the
long journeys on horseback, to interview the committees
and plead for lenient terms ; but whether the sight of
such spirited maiden youth (and possibly beauty) appear-
ing in the counsel-room, even if it stirred the hearts of
the stern soldiers, caused them to abate the cash composi-
tions fixed for delinquents and recusants, is very much
to be doubted. Mr. Thomas Brathwaite, eldest son of
Gawen, Ambleside Hall, who was a relative of the family,
was doubtless chosen as an intermediatory at York and
Newcastle, because he had a decided leaning towards,
if he were not already an adherent to the Parliament,
and might have influence.
We come now to an event which made a deep im-
pression on the neighbourhood, but of which there is no
printed record. When in the year 1713, Reginald Brath-
waite of Brathay Bridge, at the age of 78, gave evidence
concerning a point disputed in the law-courts, he declared
that he well knew
" that in the times of the late Civill warrs the family of the
Flemings were Loyall persons, and for their adhering thereto,
one Sir Wilfrede Lawson being then in great power and of the
Contrary party came to Rydall hall, with some Soldiers, and
plundered the same, and there being at that time two young
Ladyes at the hall, daughters of John Fleming Esq they were
forced to fly for refuge, and the said Sir W : L : and his company
ransacked the house and tooke what pillage they mett (might)
away with them." *
The date of this occurrence can be made out from
Richard Harrison's account book, in which it is explicitly
mentioned in four entries ; and it is to be concluded that
it was distinct from that occasion, when Hugh Foord's
* Rydal Hall MSS.
520 RYDAL
courier rode all night to warn them of the attack on Gray-
rigg, and when Rydal itself seems to have been visited.
That would appear to have been in the early autumn of
the previous year, and may have been effected by a
marching band of soldiers (possibly Scots), who, embol-
dened by Rupert's great defeat, stopped to smash windows
and to carry off horses and outside things easily reached,
which (as we have seen), Harrison thought it possible to
recover, as well as to obtain protection against the Scots.
But the raids upon" loyalists' houses now became fre-
quent, being officially sanctioned. The Parliamentary
committees were gaining a firm grip on the country, and
the Church even had to submit to the classis established
at Kendal. It was Cromwell's stern policy to destroy
those gentlemen's houses that could withstand a siege.
The moated Thurland Castle, which, like Latham House,
was surrendered not taken, was practically destroyed by
Rigby, or rendered at all events incapable of defence.
Many of the smaller houses, the strong towers (or so-
called peles) of the Westmorland gentry, were capable
of holding out against a temporary siege. And the siege
of the Philipson's house on the island of Windermere,
told only by tradition, must have occurred about this
time, because Robin the Devil is said to have held it
successfully against Colonel Briggs until such time as his
brother Colonel Huddleston Philipson (who may have
been the Captain Philipson of the despatch) was released
from the siege of Carlisle, and could come to his assistance.
The proud castellers, as the Roundheads called them, were
now to be humiliated by the rifling of their halls, and
where possible, they themselves were captured and im-
prisoned ; when their ransoms (of which Colonel Briggs
was hauling in so many) came in excellently for the
current expenses of the year. Indeed as early as 1644
at the turn of the tide, the account book enters money
lent " to John Kirby and others to get cousin Lamplough
THE TROUBLES 521
out of prison." As to those who had fled, their houses
were ransacked, special search being made for incriminat-
ing papers and for money. It was the preliminary to
cash compounding with the owner, or even to sales. It
is possible that no Royalist house in Westmorland escaped.
Mr. John Philipson, whose estates are said to have been
confiscated in 1652 complained to Squire Daniel Fleming
on returning to his ancestral hall at Calgarth at the Restor-
ation, that the house had been searched and that not
only public papers had disappeared from it, but those
of his own property.* Rydal Hall and its inmates would
be held in peculiar odium. Not only was the household
Royalist, but " notoriously " Roman Catholic ; and its
money-bags, once so full, had been much at the disposal
of the king's party. It was not likely to be spared. The
forcible entry and search was made however from the
Cumberland side, by a party of soldiers under Colonel
(after, Sir Wilfrid) Lawson and Captain Orfeur,f both of
them gentlemen of Cumberland families ; and at a time
when the desultory siege of Carlisle was going on.
After an entry accounting for zos. paid to Mr. Walter
Strickland "for A protection from my lord fayrfax" we
read :
" plundered and taken away out of my trunke by Captaine Orfer,
and Collonell Lawson Soldirs out of trunke in gold and money
besides plate and all other things to best of my knowledg at
least w ch I dare take my oath upon w tb that w ch was taken out
of katherans box and other things taken from us to the valew
^35 os. od.
Such sums did not satisfy the repacity of the men, if
the tradition that they tore up floor and wainscot in the
* Rydal Hall MSS. His. Com.
t Orfeurs of High Close, otherwise Plumbland Hall, Wil. Jackson, Esq.,
Transactions C. & W. A. & A. Society, vol. Hi., N.S. William, Sheriff of Cumb.
1635, d. 1660, had at least four brothers. His sons were : Wil. Sheriff of Cumb.
1676-77, Richard, John, Cuthbert, Francis. Charles sold Plumbland in
1692. Charles had many brothers. Philip=Mary, d. of Rich. Kirkby.
522 RYDAL
search be true. Poor Harrison, who may have effectually
hidden a larger treasure, was himself carried off.
*' my Charges when I was prisoner and stayed eight s. d.
weekes and aboue being from Easter till Trinity
cost me aboue .. .. .. .. .. 400
If this was the occasion on which the young ladies fled,
they evidently returned, and with the housekeeper and
outdoor man conducted the affairs of the place as well as
they could. Amongst the receipts comes :
" Rec. for thre hundreds and thre-score and thirteene s. d.
stones of wooll sould by Go: Wilson (the Shepherd)
and gentleweomen betwixt Easter and pentecost
1645 to seaverall men and seaverall periods, when
I was prisoner and upon the account made to me 122 2 6
That the raid was made in the week previous to Easter
is proved by Harrison's entry of the second payment for
the Easter sacramental wine for Grasmere Church, the
first lot having been drunk by the raiders.
Then we have the exact day of his release :
pd for wheat bread and mutton and veale chickings s. d.
Eggs and other things layd out by katheran and
Jo: Wilson from Easter euen till whitsun tuesday
that I got liberty to come Home layd out by them
there account made to me . . . . . . 196
p d for Hards (= Coarse flax) for sheetes after we were
plundered . . . . . . . . . . . . i o o
A further entry seems to imply that a good deal was
carried off.
But a worse blow was to fall on the household. The
spoilt heir had spent his winter in the south with the
king's army, twice sending letters from " Bristowe " at
a cost of 2s. 6d. for the messenger, but early in the year
he seems to have ridden north again. We can trace him
by the following entry at Skipton, where the Castle was
THE TROUBLES 523
still held for the king, not being surrendered till the follow-
ing December 23rd.*
sent to scipton to M r Willm by M f s Bridget 10 may s. d.
1645 so 1 , and giuen more when he came to Rydall
16 may 2O 1 in all . . . . . . . . . . 50 o o
It was a bold step to take and foolish enough to come
to Rydal, if he meant to hide. Keen watch was kept on
the Hall after Harrison's return, as an entry shows :
" p<* for P'uison for house when Captaine Johnson and s. d.
his company was at Rydall and stayed A weeke
10 June . . . . . . . . . . . . o 3 10
And this was about the date of young William's capture.
A strange entry occurs for about this time :
p d to M r waiter Strickland for clothes for M r Willm
that was M r Geo: Prestons viz* A blacke taffety
suite and cloke and A paire of bootes . . . . 15 10 o
Whether this second-hand and expensive suit was
intended for a disguise or not is only conjecture. At the
same time i was paid for cloth for a suit for one Regnald
Harrison, by Mr. William's order. Next, there comes
the entry that discloses that episode of anger, violence
and humiliation, and the devotion of the sisters, who
lodged with the good pewterer of Kendal, to be near
their brother :
p d at kendall the 23 June and 22 July to Colonel s. d.
Bellingham m r maior m r waiter Strickland at two
tymes for m r willm Flemings releasm* . . . . 100 o o
p d more for m r willm dyet drinke and wine and his
sisters charges at Hugh f oordes for neare six weekes
when he was in prison . . . . . . . . 7 10 o
A sum of ten shillings moreover was paid for fees.
or Gentlewomen Charges and mine when they went
to Islekirk at Keswicke . . . . . . . . 076
* S. P. Dom. Chas. I., 21, p. 533-4.
524 RYDAL
This expenditure might possibly represent the flight
before the plundering earlier in the year, or, simply a
refuge after this calamity of imprisonment. Islekirk
would be safe, as the home of one of the very few among
their relatives who were on the Parliament side. Barwise,
(either Anthony who married Grace Fleming, sister of
John, in 1610, or his son), fought indeed well for that side,
and a brave deed of his is told, of leading the forces when
on the march to the siege of Carlisle through the ford at
Salkeld, when they and their commander hung back at
sight of Sir Philip Musgrave, Sir Henry Bellingham, and
Sir Henry Fletcher with their local levies awaiting them
at the other side.*
The young heir, with ransom paid, now renewed his
restless wandering. He had naturally to be at once (July
25th) provided with a new suit on his exit from prison
(i. 153.), and cash.
giuen more unto him the first of August 1645 when s. d,
he would needs goe into Yorkshire with his Ant
M ra Strickland m r waiter striclands wife . . 20 o o
Mr. Walter himself borrowed 10 on July I2th, and
later 40.
giuen to m r willm Fleming the 30 of octo: 1645 w ch s. d,
he had borrowed when he was in Yorkshire w th
consent of supervisors . . . . . . 20 o o-
The easy system of borrowing and leaving the exe-
cutors to pay was one which Master William resorted to
more and more. His retainer " Lantie " Harrison now
received his wages. The intercourse with the Howards
continued, for when he rode to Naworth on the gth of
December, 5 had to be produced, and then another 5
" in Christmas to himself e." On January, 1645-6, he
" received 20 when he went into Yorkshire with his uncle waiter
Strickland with m r phillipsons aduise."
* Ferguson's History of Westmorland, p. 213.
THE TROUBLES 525
The broadcloth for " a long cloke " with its trimmings
and making for this occasion cost 2. 75., and two new
riding saddles for himself and his man i6s.
Meanwhile the work of payment and intercession went
on. On June 23rd, 1645, while he was still in prison, the
Kendal Committee, with Captain Archer at its head, had
demanded 50 "to be allowed for in sequestracons," or
else repaid. Later :
" Sent to the Committee and Captaine Jo: Archer s. d.
now due upon demand or w th in 2 month . . 100 o o
Again the nearest executors sued for leniency :
" p d for our Charges at kendall when m r phillipson and
my Lady Lowther was there about m r willm
delinquency the 31 of octo: . . . . . . 0136
In February next year (1646) the bargaining with the
committee about his " delinquency " still went on, and
2 was paid to a Mr. Fell, a lawyer " for his aduise and
Counsell " in the matter.
Many of the crushed Westmorland Royalists of the
sober sort, who could neither fight nor flee, were en-
deavouring about this time by means of money payments
to make their peace with Parliament. A list of those
who compounded for their estates in 1655 * includes Mr.
Gawen Brathwaite of Ambleside Hall ; Sir Henry Belling-
ham of Levens ; Sir John Lowther of Lowther ; and Mr.
Christopher Philipson of Calgarth. On April 3rd, 1646,
Mr. Thomas Preston of Holker petitioned the committee
for compounding ; and on the ground that (though he
had acted as a Commissioner of Array) he had never
taken active service in the field for the king, but had
even on one occasion set 40 of the Parliament's soldiers
at liberty ; that moreover he was a good Protestant ;
that he had been at once " sequestered " and charged a
* Printed in " A Catalogue " of those who compounded, quoted by Ferguson,
History of Westmorland.
526 RYDAL
yearly rent, which had already consumed 1,250 out of
an estate in Lancashire not worth more than 450 and
another in Westmorland of 123 in annual value, and
that in November last he had conformed to all Ordinances
of Parliament ; he prayed therefore to be admitted to a
composition. The only other crime the commissioners
could charge him with was that of having
"sent a light horse to the enemy." *
William Fleming of Skirwith who had served as Major,
submitted to the Parliament in September, 1646, when
he took the National Covenant. He compounded for
delinquency on the following March 25th, and cleared
his score by a fine of no.f
Even the Earl of Derby, as the gloomy winter of 1645
drew in, made some overtures of peace from his dominion
of Man, whither he had withdrawn, and the Parliament
answered (November 29th) that they should require those
who had fled with him there, " the greatest causers of
these troubles " among whom were Sir Marmaduke Long-
dale and Sir William Huddleston to be given up.J
Meanwhile, with the expenses of the young heir, and
the taxes levied by Parliament, the wealth of Rydal was
suffering diminution. An abstract of taxes entered in
the account book may be given in brief, following those
monthly levies of 7. 153. for the Scots that ended March
1 5th, 1645, doubtless in accordance with the order of
March 13th, that all taxation should be left for Parlia-
ment.
" May 28 : ' for Scotts P'vision ' iys 2^. June 7 : for a cast for
a horse to Captain Jo: (Johnson) for month pay, 125 6 d ."
* They also state that the enemy had advanced into these parts of Furness
twice, once staying ten weeks, and it was then Mr. Preston procured the
prisoner's release. S. P. Dom. Chas. I., 21, p. 397-8.
t Col. of Com. for Compounding, part iii., pp. 1695-9. Quoted in Flemings
in Oxford, p. 367.
J S. P. Dom. Chas. I., 21, pp. 242-3.
THE TROUBLES
This was the force raised from the county, now in the
hands of the Parliament.
" 3 months to scotts, 4^ d in the , $s %<*, and a tax to the con-
stable, y 8 8 d
July 9, for personal assessment " for Scotts out s. d.
of Grasmere (estate) to High Constable . . 200
July 12, to Captain Archer, at i o s in .. .. 2 10 o
Small casts of gs. 6d. and 43. lod. (the last 55. in the
pound) recur ; in November followed the one for J.
Archer's at los. in the pound.
The next entries imply that some alteration had been
made in the adjustment of the county towns, and that
representative men of the township of Rydal and Lough-
rigg had taken on the business.
p d to Edward Grigg Cunstable of Rydall for 2 casts s. d.
for Milner Bridge and baneriggs n th dec. w ch was
behind for our part of A Horse to Captaine John-
son and for Scotts Carrigs and other dis: made the
28 July by the castors for the Cunstable wicke 9 6
p d more unto him for the it two casts for the demayne
being A 4 th p* of what was casten in the 3 d Cun-
stable- wicke for the I st horse and Carriags . . 117 o
p d more unto the 3 d Cunstable for Another cast made
the 25 nov : for A fourth p* of the 3 d for the de-
mayne for setting Scotts out of the Cuntrye . . o 19 o
A joyful entry surely, if illusory !
pd more unto him for A 4 th p* of another cast made
the 25 nov : last for the demayne for two men
was raised for maior boufferld and arms . . 130
Another company !
The year 1645 concludes with a half year's assessment
on the tithes of Grasmere and compound of 5 ; with a
township " cast " for 55. in the pound for outlying
land, Archer's of los. in the pound for the demesne 2. IDS. ;
and still another " to Rob* stuenson " of 20s. in the pound,
5, is paid on January loth.
528 RYDAL
The year 1646 proceeds
pd for A cast upon an order from the Committee 21"* s. d.
feab : for 4 purveys being ^ 9^ a peece and XVd
to soldiers for there panics y* came out long since o 16 3
The township's caste of 55. in the pound, and the com-
mittee's of ios., continue, but are entered too erratically
(or were " cast " so) to give evidence of their regularity.
pd servants wages when they went to be trayned s. d.
before captaine birkett . . . . . . . . o i 6
which shows that the Parliament was keeping the county
militia in fighting trim.
In fact the " new model " for the army instituted by
Parliament now begins.
On August, 1646, we get an entry, of 2. 135. 6d. paid
to Rob. Stephenson, receiver, August 3Oth, for a cast of
ios. in the pound " for newe moddell for Cap. Johnson
being for a month paie."
Only the day before the high sum of 5. 73. had been
paid to High Constable Nicholas Tunstall at the rate of
2os. in the pound " for a month's pay to Scotts," a tax
which is repeated (apparently) in September, when it is
collected by Edward Walker, Constable of Rydal, and
on October ist.
These terrible people even re-appeared in person, for
we learn that on September 26th, 2. ios. " more " was
given to Mr. William
" when scots came to Rydal to be quartered,"
and when no doubt the young man made off.
It is cheerful to find that in the summer the young man
had tried to make himself a little useful to his family
and the estate. A debt of his to his attendant " Lantie "
has indeed to be cleared off, before he carries 10 (June
26th) to his sister Bridget, who is staying in Yorkshire,
on which occasion the broad cloth for his own saddle
THE TROUBLES 529
cloth (i| yards) costs 135. 6d. Next he goes off (July
28th) to Sizergh with his aunt Blaxton ; then he is off to
into Cumberland, to help to get in the Cleat or tithes for
the tithes which were possessed by the estate were proving
(now that presbyterianism was established) very difficult
to collect, and he gives, as tips at Calder Abbey, where
he and his companion stay for the night, 53. This business
again engages him at the close of the year, when he stays
with Mr. Thomas Lamplough at Ribton. But in the
meantime he had been enjoying himself. He goes off
to Naworth on November I7th, and takes 10 with him.
His friend there " Sir Charles Haward " it may be men-
tioned, had recently borrowed 20 from the estate ; also
a Mistress Sayer and others on their bond 40. Then we
have
" geaven to Mr Wm 18 dec. when he played at cards i. os. od." ;
while the high price of i is paid for his pair of
boots " by his man Roger." This is the first time we
hear of Roger Berwick. Finally, he goes off to London
on February i5th, 1647, with 50 in his pocket, by
" consent of Feoff es."
Meanwhile the Rydal estate pursues its depressing
course of tax-paying. The usual committee's cast (this
time at 155. in the pound) and the one " for captaine
Johnson troupe " are paid on November 4th, 1646 ; and
there follows :
p d to Cap. Elliott men for there pay at sundrie s. d.
tymes till 2 dec. that there cap. came out of
Scotland .. .. .. .. .. .. 106
On the I7th of December a cast is paid " for Sr. Jo.
browne " and on the 27th several casts " to scots " for
outlying lands, which are lumped together as i. 43. 6d.
Then comes
for cap. Ellott souldiers when they marched out of s. d.
yorkshire, till they come to there quarters . . o 16 6
2 M
53 RYDAL
On January 7th the town constable receives 35.
" for a fortnights pay to scots ended Last mundaie."
For the number and variety of taxes paid in two
month's time this record surely would be hard to beat !
The tax for Captain Johnson's " troupe " paid now to
his quarter-master Myles Dawson, reappears April gth,
135. for two month's pay ; on May loth, 75. ; and on
August 3ist, 2, for " the last part of 6 monthes pay at
6s. in ." This was apparently the rate levied on the
whole people, collected by the Parliamentary soldiers
themselves. For the sins of Rydal Hall it paid again
separately, as under August 20th we read:
" a cast for Ry. dem. of 153. in for Johnson troop paid to James
Benson constable ^3 153. od."
For May, 175. 8d. had been paid for Rydal demesne
" to Moddell men ... for a weeke pay."
This terrible burden of monthly taxation the Westmor-
land folk were determined once again to resist. The
account book gives no evidence of that tumultuous
assembly of 1645, when the people refused to disperse
without promise of the redress of the tax-grievance
suffered from the Scots ; but it tells of an outburst of
popular wrath that we do not learn of elsewhere. Under
August 3ist, 1647, comes the entry :
p d on mens charges at kendall when all cuntrie rose s. d.
when they stayed there allmost a weeke 14 Aug. o 10 6
Matters meanwhile were assuming a very serious aspect,
for the estate, witness the following entry :
p d to the cometties in kendall 9 Ap. 1647 to be al- s. d.
lowed in the sequestration of goods at Rydall
accordinge to there order or else a saile had bene
made of the goods . . . . . . . . 60 o o
It appears also, that while money was thus flowing
out fast, it was being checked in its in-flow ; for many men
THE TROUBLES 531
were not only, under presbyterian rule, taking the oppor-
tunity to renounce the payment of tithes, but doubtless
they were afraid of paying their manorial dues, lest the
Parliamentary Committee now threatening to confiscate
the entire estate should make them pay a second time.
Mr. Fell, the lawyer, was resorted to, for counsel and
intervention with the Committees, and received i on
April 2 ist.
" for to get of M r willms delinquencie and a note that came from
comitties to charge all men that was oweinge anythinge to the
gentle woomen to bringe it in and pay it unto them and they
should have a discharge."
The executors of John Fleming were probably growing
uneasy at the heir's prolonged stay in London. On May
3ist, 2s. is paid to a messenger who bears a letter to
James Neveson's
" to be carried to London from the sup r visors to M r willm Flem-
inge."
The date of his return is not given, but it seems not
to have been immediate, for only on August 3ist, 1647,
was paid
" for carrage of 2 trunkes of mr Willm's from London s. d.
to kendall , . . and carrage of a box in all . . i 19 6
The trail of the young man's debts, contracted mostly
during this idle time in London, pass down the page of
the account book, as they were demanded ; but may be
gathered together here. To Mr. Robert Brathwaite, of
Ambleside Hall, 15 borrowed from his brother Mr.
Thomas in London was repaid in October. In the suc-
ceeding February Roger Berwick rides off to London to
pay debts to the amount of 80, for which no doubt lenders
were clamouring. 20 to himself comes next, which he
said he had borrowed " from some one." To Mr. John
Fleming 16, borrowed " long since." The heir was even
532 RYDAL
debtor to the estate shepherd, John Wilson, to the extent
of 10.
The annuities of the young ladies, paid from time to
time, show that Mistress Bridget was the more extravagant
of the two, for she often needed her money beforehand.
It was in this winter, apparently, that she was being
courted by Sir Jordan Crossland, a gentleman of her own
Catholic faith, who had probably been introduced to her
by the Stricklands. But while her outlook on life was
brightening under the glamour that marriage brings, and
the hopes of a speedy release from the dangers and alarms
of Rydal, her sister Ann was falling ill, and was carried
away to York, perhaps to be under a skilled doctor's care.
Master William who had been enjoying the humours of
Kendal fair, as we gather from the following entry :
pd m r willm Charges and ou rs at kendall faire 25 octo s. d.
and beast grasse when we stayed 2 nights . . 176
played now the careful brother, and the account book
shows that he reaped some advantage from the service.
" geaven to M r w m by doll barban (the old servant s. d.
no doubt in charge of the sick girl) at seaverall
tymes when M Ann was not well and in cressen-
mas .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 910
On January 2ist, 1647-8, they set out for York, when
10 more is given to the heir, and 3 to his man Roger,
for whom " 2 frize coats and thinges for makeinge them
up " were procured from " Captaine Archer " for i. 145. 6d.
For John of the draper's shop could hardly be dispensed
with, though he had become a man rampant for the Par-
liament, a member of the committee, and collector of
taxes imposed by the body. The fees of the York doctors
engaged for Mistress Anne are entered :
s. d.
phiseeke stufie for her to m r prisoe . . . . . . 3186
geaven to doctor stoole for his paynes w th her . . 500
geaven more to his man for his paynes . . . . i 10 o
more to m r Sunt for his paynes . . . . . . i o o
THE TROUBLES 533
But poor Anne only got worse ; and William, who had
returned meanwhile to Rydal, was despatched again into
Yorkshire on March igth with 30 " when she was verie
ill and had noe money," and the youth himself had 10
" to put in his purse/'
Mistress Bridget meanwhile was left in charge of the
house, and 3 was given to her on January 28th for
current expenses " when we went to Lancashire." Her
ordering too was lordly ; for besides the fish for Lent,
the cockles, mussels and barrel-and-a-half of herrings,
and the " Linge fish &c. sent for by Mrs. Bridget " i. 2s. ?d.
we have the high charge for Lent spices and garden seeds.
i. 155. 6d. " Nedd makereth pedler of brathey" also
furnished her with " things " to the total of i6s. 6d.
" Ned " was indeed a favourite with the ladies at the
Hall, and earlier is entered :
" p d to nedd pedler for 4 bottels full of Rosis-oles (?) sent for by
gentlewomen at seauverall tymes since 25 nov. till 17 may 6s. 8d."
He also supplied vinegar, wormwood, groceries, " strong
water," and even gunpowder.
But some extravagance in the making of char-pies and
other delicacies might be excused ; for this must have
been the eve of Bridget's wedding, and the following
entry of disbursement for Anne was probably connected
with it :
" pd more for m" Ann to Sir Jordan Crosland w ch he s. d.
had layd out for her for a gowne at London . . 14 9 o
But whether she figured at the wedding in the gown
so thoughtfully provided by the bridegroom, and which
must from its price (equivalent to goodness knows how
much of our money) have been of some magnificence,
cannot be told ; nor where the ceremony took place. An
entry makes it certain it was in Westmorland, and pro-
bably, if not at Sizergh, in some quiet upstairs room of
Rydal Hall, used as a chapel, where a priest in disguise
534 RYDAL
from a distance (for Solomon Benson's " pension " has
by this time disappeared from the books) might be quietly
introduced. The heir was again his sister's escort, riding
with her apparently in the old-fashioned style to her
new home.
" more geaven him when he went into yorkshire 17 th s. d.
of Ap, 1648 w th his sister my Ladie crosland 500
The usual correlation follows, and his man Roger posts
off in May " by m r Willms earnest desire " to repay Sir
Jordan Crossland 50 he had borrowed. The latter
gentleman was now being paid his bride's dower.
" p d to S r Jordan Xrosland at 4 seaverall tymes at s. d.
and before 12 Aug 1648 in p 4 of his wive's portion 700 o o
This summer there was another and the last rising
of the Royalists. The action of the army, which had
overpowered the parliament ; the triumph of the Inde-
pendents over the Presbyterians ; but more than all, the
imprisonment of the king, had stirred the hearts of the
nation strangely. Commissioned by the Prince of Wales,
Sir Marmaduke Langdale, who had never sheathed his
sword, came north to organize the rising. While Sir
Philip Musgrave surprised in April the Parliamentary
garrison in Carlisle, and took the city * for the king,
Langdale himself gathered together a force said to number
on May ist, 5,000 foot well armed and 800 horse. The
former must have been the folk of the shires, who had
borne such a grievous burden of taxation and were will-
ing again to fight for the king ; while among the horse,
and at the head of the companies, rode many a gentleman
who had compounded for his estates with the Parliament
and settled into a grudging acquiescence with the existing
order. William Fleming of Skirwith was not there, for
he had not yet raised his troop of horse as Lieutenant-
Colonel under the newly-made Colonel John Lamplough
* Ferguson's History of Westmorland.
THE TROUBLES 535
of Lancaster ; but his young cousin from Rydal was, and
this time not under the wing of the Howards, but of the
Stricklands. The general muster took place, according
to our account book, on the Penrith fells, where the little
army awaited apparently the Highland Scotch, who were
coming south to back up this gallant enterprise that was
to rescue the king. That a considerable meeting of the
leaders was held at Rydal Hall is shown by an entry in
the household account :
" p d at kendall 6 May when m r W m was at Rydall and s. d.
S r Rob 1 Strickland and many more gentlemen
for mutton wheat-bread and vinegar . . . . 096
On May 23rd, Mr. William has 2 on riding to Kendal
to buy new saddles ; and then come the entries :
Sent to M r w m by his man Roger to kendall in gould s. d.
when he was there w th scots Amry (sic) w ch he
said I must needs send . . . . . . 80 o o
more geaven his man Roger sent unto him 29 may
when he went w th his unckle Sir Robt. Strickland
to a randivow o' to peareth Fell . . . . 1800
The considerable delay in the march of this force south
must have been prejudicial to the success of the move-
ment ; and the folk of the militia in especial, would be
inclined during it to slink back to their homesteads and
not to re-gather. The force too was lessened by the need
to garrison well the castles of Cockermouth, Carlisle, and
Appleby, all now in possession of the Royalists. In the
middle or close of July, when (on the iQth) Mr. William
sends to Rydal for 30 to pay for a horse, a start must
have been made. The little army had marched as far
as Preston, when it was met by Cromwell himself, on
the 1 7th of August ; and in a few hours his mighty arm,
wielding his " Ironside " soldiers like a blade, wiped it out.
The Royalist cause was now lost irrevocably, so long as
his life lasted.
536 RYDAL
Of the northern leaders none lost their lives as Sir
Henry Fletcher had done at Rowton, and some must have
escaped south and abroad, following the Prince of Wales.
But many of them are found some six weeks later to be
holding out in the strong castles of Cumberland and West-
morland. However, after an attempt to concentrate
themselves in Appleby, they were forced on the 7th of
October, to relinquish their last strong-holds. The sur-
render seems to have been complete and general.* The
terms permitted the common soldiers and inferior officers,
after giving up of arms, to return to their homes ; while
the leaders were to "go beyond seas," with six months'
grace allowed for the ordering of their affairs. The list
of the officers includes names of some of the leading
Westmorland gentry, with many cadets. Besides Sir
Philip Musgrave, Sir William Hudleston, and Master
William's uncle, Sir Robert Strickland, there were Lieut.-
Colonels Philipson, Bellingham, Strickland, and other
well-known names.
Master William himself after the disaster of Preston
had flown straight back to Rydal and its money-bags.
geaven to M r Willm w ch he said he must and would s. d.
have the 24 Aug 1648 when the king's partie was
routed at preston when he said he would shift for
himself e and goe over sea in gouid 200! and in
silu r 50! in toto . . . . . . . . . . 250 o o
Unhappy heir of Rydal ! To be banished from home,
and drift on a sea of trouble. He would seem not to
have taken Roger Borwick with him on this flight, but
Harrison's son Lantie, a more responsible companion for
the guarding of the heavy money, and who received as
wages by consent of the executors 4 " before he went to
London with him." Roger, who was still kept on as his
man, had now to be repaid 60 " which he (the heir)
* Civil War Tracts, Cheetham Society, No. xlix.
THE TROUBLES 537
had borrowed from him long since on his bill." He had
charge of his master's horses, and particularly of a mare,
which was kept at Coniston all winter at a cost of
4. 175. 6d. " which he meant to have ridden when he
came."
With the flight of the heir, the home was closed. Mis-
tress Anne was probably in Yorkshire, as her annuity
was sent her through Lady Blaxton. An arrangement
was now made for the young folks' uncle, Mr. Walter
Strickland, to take over the Hall, and to live there.
Harrison continued the house accounts " till penticost
after that Mr waiter Strickland entered of Rydall " ; and
the servants wages were paid up to May 22nd, 1648, the
day " that house was broken up." Perhaps it was con-
sidered that Mr. Strickland's presence protected the Hall.
He was at this time without a home, and quite short of
funds.
JLent to M r Walter Strickland the 20 June w ch he s. d.
promised to pay againe at yeares end when he
paid his rent w ch he borrowed for payinge of sesm ts
when he could get noe money out of goods . . 10 o o
Richard Harrison, with the money-chests and the bonds
of John Fleming's trust, would seem to have moved to
Coniston, though the house at Miller Bridge, where his
brother had lived, and where many papers had been
placed, was still in the possession of the trustees. Left
to contend with the officers of the Commonwealth as best
he might, he had a hard time of it, according to the con-
fidences we find in the account book.
On November 4th two soldiers rode from Carlisle " by
order of Committee," and carried him off, with a threat
that if he resisted " a partie of horse was to come for me."
So Richard sadly went with them, to face the Carlisle
committee men " about Cumberland lands," and paid
. 2s. 6d. before he came away. Worse was to follow.
538 RYDAL
pd to m r pollard man by John harrison and Tho. s. d.
walker 4 dec. 1648, when they did driue and take
all the goods at Coniston for p* of the arreare of
rents for Ulu r ston and Urswicke some p i thereof
beinge due when the sequestrators had all and
p d nothinge, and I was arreasted for the same and
Imprisoned at kendall and had a keper afterward
w th me at Coniston 5 weekes ; beinge by comand
from general Lambert, and for there charges and
fees and charges I was put unto . . . . . . 37 15 o
The Rydal estate was dealt with yet more severely than
the lands of Furness. An entry after January, 1648-9,
runs :
p d at kendall at 3 seaverall tymes for the sequestra- s. d,
tion of the goods at Rydall accordinge to the
priszment to captaine Garnett, for m r W m Flem-
ings delinquence passed over by order from the
comittie to be p d unto him or els he to enter to all
the goods at Rydall bo th w th in house and w th out,
and for charges aboute the same upon his acquit-
tance 310 o o
pd for my charges aboute goeing aboute that busines
to kendall seaverall tymes to get it prvented w ch
I could not prevaile in yet did my best therein o 17 6
Many calls for money were being made too by the
absent heir, who seems to have been doing no good in
London, where he remained, though he sent once for
copies of the charge made out against him as a delinquent.
He wrote a letter in January, asking that Mr. Fell
should be repaid 30 he had borrowed. He also wanted
80 for himself ; and his man Roger carried the sum to
Kendal, to be despatched on January 7th by Richard
Robinson, carrier. On March 3rd Roger rode again to
Kendal, with 100 for the heir " wch he writt for, and
said he was broke and could get nothinge done w th out it."
In April 110 was paid to " Mr. Richard kirkebie " of
Kirkby which he had borrowed from his mother-in-law.
But the end of the drifting and the spending was near.
THE TROUBLES 539
The youth, now 20 years of age, took the smallpox (it is
said), and died on the I2th of May, 1649. He was buried
at St. Giles in the Fields. It is to be hoped that Lancelot
Harrison, though alone of his people, was with him at
the end ; but of this tragic event the pages of the account
book tell nothing. The book also comes to an end soon
after. There was an immediate gathering of the trustees ;
and Lady Lowther, vigorous and kind in emergency, made
her appearance, though she had to put up at the Amble-
side inn, kept by Brathwaite the carrier.
pd for our charges at ambleside when my Ladie s. d.
Lowther and we mett S r Jordan at Rydall 26 may
and stayed 2 nights at how head at ambleside o 15 o
She went later too, with Harrison to the Appleby
assizes, and then to Penrith, where they met Sir Jordan
Crosland, Mr. Moore and others.
With the death of the young heir, there was no further
need to continue the trust, or at least as much of it as
remained in the hands of the supervisors of John Flem-
ing's will. It was closed shortly after, and the money
divided between the sisters. Richard Rawlings, clerk,
was employed to
" summe and cast up all the Bonds and Bills . . . delivered to
Jordan Crossfield and Mr. A. Fleming. They amounted to
1 1,000 or thereabouts." *
With the demesne of Rydal, supervisors and owners
were alike powerless to deal. It lay in the hands of the
sequestrators, nominally let to Mr. Walter Strickland, and
with fate wholly uncertain.
* Depositions in Chancery suit of 1653.
54 RYDAL
CHAPTER IV.
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE.
NOT Rydal alone, but many another hall and tower
of Westmorland lay at this time with lands un-
tilled, desolate and forsaken of its owners nay,
ven in some cases ruined. The lord may have been
beyond the sea ; or -gone, if he were young and reckless,
to other wars ; or he might be only skulking in London.
The few who remained, were settling as broken men on
their estate, seeking, by any means they might, to release
their lands from the sequestrators' hands, and reduce the
payments demanded by the Commonwealth.
The most pitiable plight was that of the ladies, who
were in many cases left alone in the homestead, to fight
with poverty as best they might after their husbands
had gone. The pages of Richard's account book give
us a glimpse of the straits to which they were put. In
the terrible spring and summer of 1645, Mr. Brathwaite's
children were at Rydal for a time, which probably means
that Burniside was sacked about then, as were the halls
of Sir Philip Musgrave, then shut up in Carlisle.* The
erudite Richard had married a second time in 1639, an( ^
is said to have gone to reside on his wife's estate at Apple-
ton near Richmond, f These children may therefore have
been the younger ones of his first wife ; but it seems more
likely that they were the " barnes " of his eldest son
Thomas, who had married early and was now 27, and
to whom Burniside would fall by inheritance. He was
almost certainly out with the king's forces, and indeed
is conjectured to have been the Captain Brathwaite who
* Ferguson's History of Westmorland.
t She was Mary, daughter of Roger Crofts of Kirklington. For all particu-
lars of the Brathwaite family, I am indebted to Mr. J. A. Martindale.
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 54!
was in exile in Breda.* It is very likely he would leave
his wife and little ones (of whom he was eventually to
have 15 !) at the family home ; and it was doubtless for
their succour that on July 26th, 1648 (after the defeat
at Preston) Mrs. Strickland conveyed from the Rydal
chest 18, to " mrs Brathwaite of burneshead " "at mr
Willm expresse comand."
While Harrison was in prison between Easter and
Pentecost, 1645, young Mistress Bridget went to the
estate shepherd, and from the money he had in hand by
the sale of wool took 20, " w ch she lent to Mrs Hudle-
stone of Millom upon pawne of goods."
To Lady Middleton, who was first cousin to the young
people, through her mother Margaret Strickland, 60 was
lent on December 28th, 1648, by the heir's " earnest
desire " ; which recalls Sir Daniel's statement that after
the young man had given up courting Mistress Howard
of Naworth, he had " made his Address unto y e Daughter
and Heir of Sir Geo. Middleton of Leighton in Lane." f
A letter from one of these distressed ladies is preserved, f
Thomas Strickland, heir of Sir Robert (and himself carry-
ing a knighthood which Father West considered to have
been bestowed by the king for his conduct at the battle
of Marston Moor) married a rich young widow Jane
Mosley, Lady Dawney. All the male Stricklands con-
cerned (including his father, Sir Richard, of Thornton
Briggs, and his uncles Thomas and Walter, at that time
residing at Sizergh) made a deed settling the lordship
of Sizergh upon the bridegroom, on November 2ist, 1646,
He would seem to have left his bride immediately, if
we may suppose her letter of January I3th, 1646, ad-
dressed to him in London, to have been written the
* See Die. of Nat. Biography.
t D.F.'s Writings.
J Sizergh Castle MSS.
Sizergh Castle MSS.
542 RYDAL
following January (1646-7). It is a witty and loving
epistle :
" I doe beleve " she tells him " thou hast as poor a wife and
stuard as ever man had, for we by (buy) most of our fodher, and
he calls of me and I of him for money and I think we neither of
us have any . . . the post stays, for God sake writ as often as
thou canst for I take noe comfort but in thy letters. Thearfor
let me not want one as often as thou canst my Deare I am till
Death thy poor wife Jane Strickland."
Her postscript shows that our young wife Bridget and
other relatives were in London at the time.
'' my love to all f rends the lady medlton Lady Crosland cozens
boyntons and all. I should be glad to heare of my lady crosland
safe delevry."
In her next letter she regrets the pains and money laid
out (on Sizergh?) since it is of no avail wanting him,
and begs he may find some place where they may live
together. All her women relatives are in trouble, es-
pecially her cousin Waters for her husband ; and there
is :
" poor nany who thay say now is extreame ill, and tears all hir
hare and flesh of hir, my cozen mary hase beene with hir and is ;
and can doe nothing, thay are in great sorrow now ..."
And so went the sad world to the women of Westmor-
land ; which was not soon to mend. Father West says
that Jane's husband ultimately (and perhaps after the
last rising of 1648) fled to France with Prince Charles,
and remained there nine or ten years. He did in the
interval, however, contrive that she should join him in
London, as is shown by this letter of Mr. Walter Strick-
land.
From the Abstract of the Sizergh MSS.
made by Thomas West in 1778, and copied by Mr. Forres.
Letter from Walter Strickland, brother of Sir Robert.
" These for S r Tho. Strickland Kn* at his lodging in Duke street
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 543
over against veare streete end at one M r Porphery's house a
dancing Master in London. g d Bot."
Ould M r Walter Stricklands Letter.
Leavens 7 b e r 22
S r
I have beene this day with my nephew Biddulph at Lighten,
who intends to serve my bond which I gave him to secure him
from that bond of S r Jor. Croslands, which was to be delivered
to me in the payment for newbey and this I have under S r Jor dans
oune hand, now S r thar is ioo ld and sixtie od pounds dew to me
In S r Jor dans hand for newbey. my desire is that S r Jordan
would diliver M r Tho: prestons bond in to your hand with an
Ingagement from y&u, by bond or otherwise that I will allowe
of that ioo lb at such time as S r Jordan shall thinke him selfe
perfectly secured of that estaite. This I desire in regard of Tho;
prestons Clamour, which is a daly vexation to me. This I hope
you will dou for me, nothing will satisfie but the bond, delivered
to him tis so Just and honest a request as cannot be denide by
a friend, now for your owne consernes. I have moved my
Cosin Bellingham acording to your directions in Tho: Shipards
lettere, his ansur is he will not take 4OO lb except he have it all,
neathur can he forbere it till midsumer next. Then I said what
if it dou not cume till that time, his ansuer was it would breede
a scabe amongst us. All I could dou was to get time till martin-
mase next which I would have you observe and faile not. I hope
in your next we shall heare of my Ladye safe deliverie which we
all pray for, thare are divers came to me this yeare saing they
had warrants from you for buckes, as Ja: Dacket and his sonne
girlington John lowther and ou there (= others ?) now at last
thar cumes a warrant under your hand dated the 13 August
last past, for a bucke to one Dan. Rawlinson the best of this
season which war past 6 dayes before the warrant came to which
I would not consent though your man ned has undertaken to
serve that warrant tomorrow your hake (hawk) kilde 7 partrige
fridy last in 2 houre, my sonn Robin flewe him, who is desirus
to carrie him Into Cumberland tomorrow I hope he will be carefull
of the hauke, with my man Dikee asistance and my directions
I doubt not but thay will bring him safe home. All well at
sisergh and heare noe newse but I must leave Leavens which is
sume truble to your sarvant
wa: Strickland.
Then follows a letter, sent from Levens, April I4th,
544 RYDAL
from Mr. W. Strickland to Mr. Thomas Walton, saying
he will meet latter at " neat by " (Newbey ?) ; that from
the interest he has in that land, his cousin Biddulph
could not part with it without his consent. His cousin
presses him and his wife to desist. He declares he can
make good his proceedings against all who oppose him,
and seems to defy his correspondent to do his worst.
This letter, addressed to his nephew, the same Sir
Thomas, is a striking evidence of the financial confusion
of the time, when bonds were capping bonds, and passing
from hand to hand ; and may have been written before
he took over Rydal Hall ; for he must have left Sizergh
in 1646, and had now, as it seems, reluctantly to leave
Levens, vacated by Sir Henry Bellingham. The traits
that gleam from this and from his transactions with Rydal
suggest a busybody, always short of cash, and leaning on
others' means. Sir Jordan Crosland was likewise appar-
ently a homeless man, and mixed up along with Mr.
Francis Biddulph with the lands of Newby, on which
Mr. Walter asserts, in a further letter, he had incontestible
claim, and which he would appear to be then selling to
Sir Jordan. The latter is described in Dugdale's Visi-
tation of Yorkshire in 1665, as of Newby, so that he must
finally have secured this estate. He had undoubtedly
been both Royalist and Catholic. He had received knight-
hood at Lincoln, July I4th, 1642, and at the Restoration
was made Constable of Scarborough.* At this time (1649)
he is stated to have been of Harmes, near Helmsley,
Yorkshire. f With his wife's money, he was now going
to push his wife's and sister-in-law's claims to Rydal
desperately, and his opponent was William Fleming,
nephew of John Fleming. But the first concern of both
was to make their peace with the Commonwealth, the
arbiter of the destinies of the little manor. Jordan Cros-
* The Flemings in Oxford, p. 10.
t Cal. of Committee for Compounding, part iii., pp. 1695-9.
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 545
land compounded for delinquency " in being in arms in
the first and second wars " on April 2Oth, 1649, his fine
(at one sixth) being computed at 25 or 30. William
Fleming had already by a fine of 110 cleared his own
estates from sequestration in April, 1647, before the out-
break of 1648. Of this the receipt shows that he paid
a second 55 on May 5th, 1649.
Of William's life and the claim he was about to make
upon the Fleming manors something more must be said.
His own patrimony of Skirwith seems to have had little
hold on his affections. Born in 1609, on the death of his
father Daniel in 1621, he was but twelve years of age, and
his mother Isobel, daughter of James Brathwaite of Amble-
side Hall, no doubt ruled the estate ; and he seems not
to have cared, when she died in 1639, to ta ^ e ver the
management of it himself. Instead he let it to his younger
brother Thomas "for 3 score pounds," * taking care to-
draw up a deed and inventory whereby the " household
stuff e and implements," granted by " his well-beloved
grandmother Agnes Fleminge of Riddell " to his father
Daniel should be secured to his own little son Daniel for
an heirloom, in accordance with her settlement on heirs
male. For he had already taken to wife Alice, daughter
of Mr. Roger Kirkby, of Kirkby in Furness, and had, by
some agreement with his uncle John, settled for a time
at Coniston Hall. There in 1633 and 1634 his sons Daniel
and Roger were born. But by 1636 he had moved to
another estate of his uncle's, at Monkhall by Keswick,
as the christening of his son William shows ; and between
the birth of one baby John in 1637, an( i another John in
1641, he had moved again to his own Skirwith, where
Isobel was born in 1642, and Alexander in 1644. By
this time, as we have seen, he had raised a regiment for
the king, and was engaged in war. In February of 1647,.
his estate of Skirwith and his goods were taken over by
* Rydal Hall MSS.
2 N
546 RYDAL
the sequestrators, as the inventory at Rydal Hall shows.
The untimely death of his young cousin, William of Rydal,
in 1649, aroused his interests, and opened the door to
such claims as he possessed as next heir male.
It is difficult to judge of the amount of justice that
lay in those claims ; John's two daughters were alive, and the
ancient customs of inheritance in Cumberland and West-
morland (and all over the ancient kingdom of Northum-
bria in all probability) had never overlooked the women.
The four daughters of Sir John de Lancaster in the
fifteenth century had shared his lands, though there were
numbers of collateral males eager for any spoil they could
by any loop-hole of law lay hands upon. Mr. George
Preston of Holker had left his estates to be shared amongst
his three daughters, irrespective of relatives of the name.
And Sir Jordan Crosland, in the lawsuit of 1654 stated
that his wife and sister Agnes claimed Rydal demesne
" as co-heirs with William dec. and all other lands which
William died seized of."
William of Skirwith's opportunity on the death of the
heir male was not neglected. We find a letter, written
by his wife Alice, who was perhaps an ambitious woman,
to Baron Rigby from Skirwith, as early as November, 1649,
begging his " countenance " towards her husband's secur-
ing " Cosine Fleeminge's " lands, to which he had a right
41 by force of an Estate Taile made by his Grandfather
and father." It was however thought well to take the
opinion of Matthew Hale before fighting the matter. The
claim to Rydal is there shown to have rested on William
Fleming's settlement on his marriage with Agnes Bind-
loss (a document not to be found, but sustained, it was
stated by his will) . The claim to Coniston and Beckermet
went no further back than John Fleming's settlement on
his marriage with Alice Ducket in 1601, by whom he had
no children, but which mentioned heirs male. John's
also, in so far as it corroborated the grandmother
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 547
Agnes's will, as to the sheep and household goods at
Rydal, was brought forward as evidence. The claim on
these last, which were expressly left to Daniel's male heirs
if John's failed, was indeed indisputable ; though it may
be questioned whether it in any way furthered the larger
claim. At any rate, it was decided to push for all.
Hale's opinion was not however thought favourable
enough for quotation, for we find that the opinion of
Mr. Steele, recorder of London, is brought forward before
the committee for compounding on William's side, and
he is named as referee.* He must have been retained as
counsel, as he later receives a fee.f
No time was lost in presenting the claim, and even
before this was done, William took the strong step, (and
strange one, if without the consent of his cousin John's
heiresses,) of moving his family to Coniston Hall ; where,
if he did not oust Richard Harrison, John's agent, his
adversary in the claim, he became his close neighbour,
for Richard was later located at Waterhead, Coniston.
William's health may by this time have broken, for he
made no personal exertion, and the important measure
of presenting his claim before the London committee was
left to John Banks, his faithful henchman, whom he had
brought with him from Skirwith. But with John, a
simple if shrewd countryman, there journeyed on May
29th, 1650, William's heir Daniel, a lad of seventeen, J
who was immediately after entered as a student at Grays
Inn, and then proceeded to Oxford to take up his residence
at Queen's College. Daniel, therefore, keen-witted by
nature, saw the start of the contest when he laid down his
father's petition on the table before the committee ; and
he never ceased to follow it till the fight was won. The
* Calendar of Com. for Compounding.
t Flemings in Oxford, p. 51.
t See his Autobiographical Sketch (342 a of Rydal Hall MSS. as arranged
by the His. MSS. Com.),
548 RYDAL
committee seem to have accepted the entail claim without
much question, and in December decided, of the three
manors for which William prayed to be allowed to com-
pound, " that the Manor of Conyston shall be freed, but
not Rydal and Beckermot." * Sir Jordan Crosland mean-
while had been busy, and a counter petition on behalf of
the daughters of John Fleming had been presented, and
the case had to be heard. In February, 1650-1, good John
Banks was again in London, doing what he could with
the help of Mr. Fell (afterwards Judge), who was William
Fleming's neighbour at Swarthmoor in Furness, and who,
as a staunch Parliamentarian throughout the wars, might
have influence with the authorities. But the moidered
state of poor John's mind is shown in his letters to his
young master at college :
" I am sorry that I cannot come to Oxford to see yo u , But truely
/ am soe tryed heare that puts me by all civilities. I had one
heareing yesterday of yo r fatheres bussiness and shall have
another this daye, god send that I get any thin done. M r Fell goes
out of towne tomorrow and I would gladly goe w th him iff it
weare possible."
Then, on March ist :
" I have done nothing in yo r fathers business but continued it
as it was till the laste weeke in next tearme And there is to be a
refference to frends in the Contry by consent of Counsell on both
sids. Sir I desire yo u to excuse me for I have bene so perplexed
I scarce did know what I did. M r Fell is gone yesterday and yo r
Cousen Richard, (Kirkby) I intend to go on Munday."
John reached Coniston on the 8th, as he writes to young
Daniel, telling now all the news of the family, and the
courtships of his cousins the Mistress Kirkbys. The
parents 'letters to the youth breathe a more anxious spirit, f
The mother Agnes had written in January, after some
parental exhortation
* Rydal Hall MSS.
t They are given in full in Flemings in Oxford.
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 549
" dear sonne soe longe ever as I heare yo r well doeing tis my dayly
comfort : and y u may assure yo r self , there shall be noething
wanting in me to prform the p* of a loueing mother ; and thirdly
thejse tymes are soe troublesome with ous ; and wee are soe
prplexed with this troublesome fellow S r Jordan ; that wee are
not able to get monye by all the meanes we can make to mayn-
tayne the sute and there for a fregale way must be obserued by
us all : if it be possible to gayne our right ; for the shrist (shirts)
y n wrot for, I will get y u them as soune as I can and I will send
y u them abut Whutsonday, about then they are the whitest and
chipest."
Daniel therefore had to wait for his linen ; country-
spun, woven, bleached, and sewn, for some four months.
" p s Your father beds y" plye your booke and y u shall want
noething."
The cry of the parents is urgent, that he shall be frugal,
and that they will do all they can for him, in fitting him
for his future station. The father's letter of May 4th
(which perhaps went with the shirts as well as with 10
for the youth's tutor) is yet more solemn in its advice as
to conduct :
" Truely Sonn though the tymes goe harde w th me ; and that my
troubles dayly rather Encrease then otherwise yett so longe as
you deserue well in applyeinge yo r selfe to yo r studyes ....
I shall bee loath to see you want anythinge fitt ffor you : but w th
my uttmost powers assiste you in the pursuance of yo r accompli-
plishm* to make you a Man ; and indeed a Gentleman ; in hopes
you will bee noe less obedient to my desires ; and Good to all
mine."
The suit dragged on. In February, 1652, the London
Committee for Compounding referred the matter back to
the County Committees of Cumberland and Westmorland,
for examination by witnesses of the conflicting claims.*
Young Daniel, who left Oxford in company with his uncle
John Kirkby, on July I3th, attended a meeting at Skip-
ton, which probably dealt with the enquiry as to John
* Cal. of Com. for Com., part iii.
55 RYDAL
Fleming's possessions in Yorkshire, from July igth to
the 22nd, and thence went home to Coniston. His auto-
biographical notes mention that a " meeting " was held
at Ambleside, on November 5th and 6th, no doubt for
examination as to the Rydal estates, and another at
Cartmel on the I7th and i8th, for the Lancashire portion
of John Fleming's estates. Whatever the official reports
might be, the Coniston family thought it necessary to
follow them up to London ; and thither young Daniel
journeyed on the i8th of December with John Banks.
The heir was now to watch the case himself. The sale
of his horse on arrival for 3. zos. is entered in the accounts
along with the 40 they carried with them ; and he went
into residence at Gray's Inn for his course of law on
January 22nd. The paying out of " ffees in the case,"
to Mr. Pennington i, to Mr. Laton i ; also is. " ffor a
Coach ffor Mr. Pennington to woster house " (where some
of the Parliamentary Committees sat),* for a dinner with
Mr. Wharton on the 5th, 2s. ; and on " the I2th ffor our
dinere wth Mr Wharton and his Brother and others " 45.,
now show how busy the two men were in pushing their
claim. Mr. Thomas Wharton, in the difficult business of
compounding to free estates, was now their chief adviser.
He wrote to William Fleming, to tell him that the report
of the Lancashire enquiry was
" very full for y u , the other from Yorke very imprtinent and
obnoxious, but if Westm r land and Cumbland doe Certifie fully
for y u as Lan. hath done we shall not much feare that of Yorkshire.' 7
He advises the Coniston squire to furnish certain par-
ticulars likely to be of use in the case. He finishes
" Sir I believe if your Adversaryes doe oppose y u they will Leaue
noe stone vnturned y t may annoye y u I doe not yet find them
active but yet it is my Caution y* y u doe not trust them in this
particul* ffor the dang r is great r than y u are aware of."
* The Flemings in Oxford, p. 32.
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 551
The letter of young Daniel, who had been left in London
by John with 24 in hand, written on March 2Qth, shows
how keen and independent was his pursuit of this dis-
puted inheritance, as well as how hopeful his spirit. He
rejects Mr. Wharton's advice, reports to his father and
goes to Mr. Pennington, who joins him in intercession
with the auditor of the Committee for Compounding.
He hopes the case, pressed out yesterday, will be heard
to-morrow, and that he may by the next post send " glad
tidings ..."
" . . . . S r Jordan and my cosen Collingwood are both here, they
doe faythfully promis, that they will not oppose us tomorrow.
There hath beene lately a cruell breach betwixt my cosen Colling-
wood and his father, about the purchaseing of his estate, my cosen
would purchas his father's estate but the old man will neither
permitt him, nor will he purchase it him selfe ; they doe soe
wrangle that its thought y e estate will bee lost betwixt them."
This was the gentleman of Northumberland who had
lately wedded Anne Fleming, and now acted on her behalf.
Young Daniel's pertinacity and vigour commanded at
least a partial success and perhaps deserved it. First
however came sorrowful news, no doubt expected, from
Coniston :
4( My Father dyed May 24. 53, which sad news I heard not (being
at London) before June 3. 53."
He waited only for the favourable decision, dated
September 7th, of the committee :
" that the sequestration of Coniston and Beckermet manors
should be discharged, and the rents to be paid to William Flem-
ing with arrears, from 25 June, 1650," *
to take horse on the 28th and ride home. He had life
to face now as the head of the family, to meet a newly
widowed mother in a home straitened for means ; but
* See Flemings in Oxford, p. 370.
552 RYDAL
with youth and success at his back, and happily in love,
he doubtless cantered northward by the narrow roads in
happy buoyant mood.
But the battle was not yet wholly won. Rydal, small,
but esteemed the pearl always of the Fleming manors,
was yet held by the officials of the Commonwealth. The
decision of September, 1653, that was favourable to the
Skirwith branch, as regarded the Cumberland and Lan-
cashire lands, concluded with :
" The Committee for Compounding cannot, on the proof before
them, discharge Rydal Manor, but leave him (William Fleming)
to make further proof."
The house and demesne indeed, which as the residence
of a family of papists and delinquents always ready too
to supply the sinews of war from its coffers had become
peculiarly obnoxious to the Commonwealth, was placed
on another footing from the other manors. Its case was
referred to the Army Committee, and taken over subse-
quently by the Trustees for the sale of lands forfeited
for Treason. The Westmorland Commissioners for Com-
pounding as reported on March 23rd, 1649-50, had at
first thought it best to let the premises, pending a decision
as to its fate from the centre. They had been already
let by the late Commissioners (they report) to one William
Beck at 202. los. He may have been the agent of Mr.
Walter Strickland, of whom we hear no more, and who
had clearly vacated them. Now two would-be tenants
present themselves, a certain George Mawson, who offers
a rental of 220, and John Harland 240. The officials
decided to settle between the two by setting up a light,
and granting the lease to the one who bid the highest
before the light went out. This odd expedient failed
totally. Mawson, punctual to the tryst, was the sole
bidder, and got it at 180, Harland, coming in too late,
bid 200. Apparently he got it vide infra. " We think,"
says the report :
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 553
" they were employed, one by Sir Jordan Crosland, who married
(young William) Fleming's sister ; the other, by W m Fleming,
of Skirwith, Cumberland, who holds an entail. The estate is
not worth more than ^"120. We want instructions."
The struggle had begun in earnest, and the combatants,
keenly alert, were acting by silent agents. Both were
anxious to obtain the tenancy, since possession is nine-
points of the law ; yet the County Commissioners, in
forwarding rents from sequestrated Westmorland estates
to the Committee for Compounding at Goldsmith's Hall
in October, reiterate their desire for
" directions touching an estate at Rydal sequestered from M r
Fleming, for which 2,000! was offered for one year, though at
the utmost value it was never reputed worth more than 120 1. ;
but it being contest, this was done to gain possession. The
-estate lies waste, so that the profit thereof this year will scarcely
amount to 50 1."
In February next year the report runs :
" The demesne of Rydal in this county being in contest, and the
title in dispute, was farmed out for the last year for ^200 to
John Harland, merely to keep possession, to corroborate the
title of the present occupier, but we could never get any security
for the payment of the money."
The " present occupier " may have been Sir Jordan
Crosland, who backing that extravagant offer of Harland's
that had tempted the commissioners, had slipped into
possession behind it. But he was not to be left in without
a fierce fight. As early as July, 1650, two other appli-
cants for the lease had appeared, viz. : Thomas Garth, a
Penrith solicitor and agent for what may be described as
the gamble of sequestrations,* and Anthony Hale. In
the following year another aspirant is reported, one Ed.
Winter, of whose collusion with William Fleming we have
certain evidence in a letter remaining at Rydal Hall.
See Flemings in Oxford, p. 337.
554 RYDAL
" Mr Willm ffleminge
Yo r health wisher & : I make no doubt but y u have heard of
the objections that is made which hinders y u and me in going on
in our bargine, as concerning Rydall, for when you and I agreed
at 20 lb p Ann. I supposed that possession should have been giuen
me without any query or circumstance at all so that in all probility
if y u and I doe any good herein ; I must be necessitated to wryte
up to London about the same w h will be no small charge, there-
fore I desire to know yo r mind by this same bearer or whom y u
will els, what y u will giue more than our agrement if the thing
be accomplished compleatly : so not doubting but to hear from
y u that I may be the more incoureged to goe on therein so with
my service prsented to y u I Rest
Yo r affectionat servant
Penrith this Edward Winter.
4 th of febr: 1650.
Winter was apparently " incoureged " by a rise from
the 20 offered a contrast indeed to the 200 and 2000
of other bidders to proceed, and proved a most valiant
coadjutor. A battered paper of this date, 1650, sets
forth the wrong-doings of Sir Jordan, calling him " a
Grand Mallignant " and Papist, who is furnishing arms
for the king of Scotland to fight the Commonwealth. His
possession of the Rydal sheep is dwelt upon, and he is
said to declare that he will keep " the house at Rydal
though it be sequestered." Through Winter, application
was now made for the lease directly to the London Com-
mittee. His petition, which seems to have been drawn
up by Mr. Wharton, and which was probably the one
referred to in William Fleming's letter to John Banks *
as sent down to him at Coniston for perusal, was presented
on July Qth, 1651. In it, Winter, described as "of Pen-
rith " desired to become tenant at 200, but had much to
say besides, even against the County Committee. Rydal
manor, he says, was posted up for letting in the previous
November, but was not let till May, and then privately
for 100 to one Walter Cowper ; though he himself had
* No. 236 of Rydal MSS. as arranged by His. MSS. Com.
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 555
offered 200 on good security. Cowper had passed his
lease over to Roger Berwick, a recusant delinquent (here
we stumble on young William Fleming's old servant !)
who held it for his master, Sir Jordan Crosland, a danger-
ous delinquent,
" who keeps possession, to the terror of the well-affected, it being
a strong place, and a noted rendezvous for malignants."
The late County Committee he says had previously
leased it to Sir Jordan in 1650, for 2,000, but the money
had never been paid. Winter, " being faithful and a
sufferer for the Commonwealth, is troubled by this abuse,"
and begs the matter may be examined by the Cumberland
Commissioners, since the Westmorland ones have connived
at it ; also, that the 2,000 shall be forced from Sir Jordan,
and the place handed over to himself for 200. This
being handed over to them, along with an order to survey
the estate, and report how many acres it contained,
how much wood had been felled and to stop any more
felling without order, naturally made the Westmorland
Commissioners very angry ; they denied the truth of the
petition, and stated that Winter himself denies having
written it ; whereupon the central Committee for Com-
pounding produce Mr. Wharton, who affirms that, though
he drew up and presented the petition, he had done it
by Winter's instructions. In this unguarded attack on
their adversary and inculpation of officials, the Skirwith
claimants had probably over-reached themselves ; and
this wrangle was no doubt the cause of the estate being
turned over to the Treason Trustees, sitting at Drury
House, who had power to sell it outright for the Common-
wealth. Before the attack had been made, William
Fleming had written of consultation between his " Bro-
ther " Mr. John Kirkby and Mr. Fell in London
" at his lodgings, where they had a longe discourse about my
business, and wee founde him to bee of very good hope that
Ridall would yet be kept from sale."
556 RYDAL
Whereas on the following January (1651-52) John Banks
writes despairingly to his young master, declaring he
cannot recount the many bewildering points in the contest
*' for all proceedings in theise tymes goes contrary expectacon
for now it is not knowne what will be done concerning Rydale
for the appeale will not be brought to any prfection and now the
presse is to be brought upon the sale, but yet we hope to prevent
them and to get it reported in the house wth some other estats
in the like condicon."
Moreover, there are fresh troubles to report, for the
Coniston squire is summoned to appear at Haberdashers
Hall, with 50 to pay, which was an assessment for a
forced loan, which Parliament had decided to levy on
all who had not supported its side during the war.*
This calamity was happily averted by a general Act of
Pardon.
William Fleming was in fact in straits for money to
support his claim and pay the many law expenses. His
servant, John Banks, lent him money, which was not
repaid, as we shall see, until much later. Michael Hobson,
too, a substantial Rydal statesman lent to further a claim
to which he was no doubt sympathetic, and this his son
Daniel paid off eventually. He had reason therefore to
dread a sale which would carry for ever out of his reach
a property he still hoped he could secure on the plea of
inheritance. Meanwhile, he joined with his adversaries
in endeavouring, by a direct appeal to Parliament, to
disassociate the manor he had already obtained possession
of, from the estates still in contest, f which was the
measure referred to by John Banks. Sir Jordan, mean-
while, had his hands full. He was not only claiming in
a petition of February, 1652, all that John Fleming had
possessed, on behalf of his wife and sister-in-law, and
fighting the Skirwith family for it, but facing an engage-
* See The Flemings in Oxford, p. 22 and 23.
t Cal. of Com. of Compounding, quoted on p. 368 of The Flemings in Oxford.
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 557
ment of affairs with two inheritors of estates which John
Fleming had held in trust, Edward Norris and Francis
Bindloss. The latter, who was son of Sir Francis, and
whose grandfather Sir Robert had entrusted his various
possessions to the squire of Rydal until he should be of
age, filed a Chancery suit against the executors, and had
been awarded 4,000, along with the rectory of Sherburn,
which had been bought for him by John Fleming for
1,500, and unduly sequestrated. The parishioners of
Ulverston again complained in August, 1653, that for
two years their minister had been deprived of his salary
of 10, which was wont to be paid by John Fleming and
later by his executors out of the tithes " of great value "
leased to him at 42 rent by king James* ; but now, owing
to the rectory being sequestrated, " for the Popery and
delinquency " of Sir Jordan in 1651, the agent had for
two years refused payment of the salary. It is interesting
to note that Sir Jordan rebutted the charge of Popery,
which had been inserted in the sequestration of John
Fleming's Lancashire possessions in tithe (extending over
the district of Urswick), and boldly declared himself a
Protestant.
He was better able, with the portions of John Fleming's
daughters to help him, to fight the Rydal matter than was
the family settled at Coniston. The demesne was sur-
veyed on January nth, 1652, with a view to its sale,
the very day after, a meeting of the disputants had been
held at Kendal concerning it, while another meeting fol-
lowed in Ambleside on the igth. It may have been at
this last that the depositions were taken of people in the
neighbourhood, of which a copy exists at Rydal Hall,
under the heading of a law-suit between William Fleming
Esq., on the one part, and Dame Lowther and Richard
Harrison, executors of John Fleming on the other. This
* Dr. Magrath conjectures rightly (p. 34) that the Yorkshire property ot
John Fleming consisted of the tithes of Sherburn.
558 RYDAL
suit was a direct attack on a vulnerable point in the action
of the executors. It was founded on the will of Dame
Agnes Fleming, which had expressly stated that such
household goods as were possessed by her at Rydal, along
with 1,200 sheep there and a certain 40 in money, were
in case of failure of her son John's male heirs, to pass to
her son Daniel and his male heirs. Now no attempt had
been made to carry out this provision of her will. Rather
the sequestration of some 700 Rydal sheep as part of
John Fleming's estate had been acquiesced in, and were
compounded for by Richard Harrison, John Fleming's
representative, who, nevertheless, when the sheep were
demanded from him, answered they were not in his
possession. It was stated moreover that he and Sir
Jordan, with his wife and sister-in-law, had combined
against the complainant and drawn up articles of agree-
ment as long ago as November, 1649.
This relevant charge, founded on no uncertain deeds,
like the larger claim, may have been instigated by young
Daniel. He now, on his father's death, 1653, claimed by
inheritance, and took the front of the fight himself. He
travelled to London again in February, took administra-
tion of his father's goods in May, and notes that " Rydal
Differences were referd to " on July 5th. It was in
this July indeed that there came the tug of war. On
the previous September 6th, Daniel had, before riding
north, " Given unto Mr Morgan " i, and in the following
March, when back in London, a deed was made out by
which Isaac Morgan, acting indubitably for Daniel Flem-
ing, agreed to buy Rydal manor, except the capital
messuage from the trustees for the sale of forfeited lands
(see Appendix), with other sequestered portions of land
at Miller Bridge and Grayrigg by Kendal, that had be-
longed to John Fleming ; and this sale by the Treason
Trustees is confirmed in the Calendar of the Committee
for Compounding, under date March 23rd, discharging
THE STRUGGLE FOR RYDAL DEMESNE 559
the said lands from sequestration. Meanwhile, Sir Jordan
was securing his hold on the hall and demesne. A voucher
dated April, declares that Sir Jordan has paid to the com-
mittee at Goldsmith's Hall a part of the sum of 383. 6s.
" for the Capitall Mansion House called the Hall of Rydall "
with a water-mill and divers plots of lands ; and a docu-
ment of July 3ist states that he, having married Bridget,
a sister and heir of William Fleming, deceased, one of the
persons comprised in the act of sale dated November I5th,
1652, has made his composition for the estate of Rydal ;
which is accordingly freed by the Commissioners from
sequestration, and he is entitled to enter into it.
The valuation of Rydal was made out as follows :
s. d.
Hall and demesne per annum . . . . . . . . 66 4 4
The Manor with its royalties ; profits of Court, fines
and assessments .. .. .. .. .. 200
(In another statement, the value of this is set down as
24. us. 6d.).
Pasture in the forest . . . . . . . . 30 o o
The whole purchase money for Rydal . . . . 937 18 4
The outlying portions, bought with the manor by
Morgan, are valued : Miller Bridge, 10. 155. ; Hyning
tenement by Kendal, 15 ; with hall and manor severed,
how was the matter to rest ? The combatants could not
sit down together in peace ; nor would Daniel's deter-
mined spirit brook the loss of the favourite home of the
family. He preferred, if all else failed, to make monetary
sacrifices for it, and as a final resort, to submit to arbi-
tration. Accordingly, his pen notes, after his arrival at
Coniston from town on August nth, 1654, a meeting
held at Ambleside, on September iQth, with his adversary,
another at Windermere on the 26th, with an award pro-
nounced next day by the five arbitrators who sat in
judgment. By this award the two sons-in-law of John
Fleming were to resign for ever the claim of their wives
56O RYDAL
on the ancestral manors to Daniel, for the sum of 1,500
paid down by him ; while all lands bought by John, in-
cluding Miller Bridge, Barnrigg, and Hyning, were to
remain indisputably theirs. The writings were executed
on the following 2nd of February, when probably Daniel
paid by bond the first sum of 540 in settlement of the
suit.* It was long before he could pay off this under-
taking ; and an acquittance exists dated 1661 signed by
George Collingwood fpr " the sum of 570 being the one
fixed by the arbitrators in 1654." The family feud must
still have run high ; for in the following year we find Mr.
John Kirby, who lived all his mature life with his sister
Alice, William Fleming's widow, at Coniston Hall, pe-
titioning the County Committee for Lancashire for in-
demnity for a certain sum of 40, which he had paid the
committee, but which was part of a debt of 100, due to
the late John Fleming
" for which, and the rest of the debt, the executors, Jordan
Crosland and George Collingwood, have arrested and imprisoned
him."
They were clearly now, having freed in January the
Lancashire estates from sequestration, with a grant of
arrears from December, 1649, gathering in tithes and
other debts with stringency, not sparing even the gentle,
scholarly bachelor of Coniston Hall.f
For the same year also (1655) there exists a summons
to Richard Harrison, of " Conyston waterhead " to appear
at the Court of Chancery, to answer charges against him.
* See p. 10, Flemings in Oxford.
t Cal. of Com. for Compounding.
t Rydal Hall Papers.
Anno Domini 1665
Aetatis Suae 33
PART VI.
THE GREAT SQUIRE OF RYDAL
CHAPTER I
RYDAL HOUSE
DANIEL Fleming obtained his triumph at the early
age of twenty-one. It is true that he was poor,
as far as ready money was concerned, that the
portion of the indemnity which he at once paid was chiefly,
if not all, money borrowed from his family and friends,
and that the rest was a debt left for future clearance.
But he had gained possession of the manors and lands
of his forefathers after a struggle prolonged and almost
hopeless ; he had ability, determination, and self-con-
fidence with which to carve out his life, that lay all in
front of him in glowing hues of hope. For he had other
causes of happiness besides his triumph, and in love as
in law he was destined to win.
Already as an Oxford student he had fixed his affections.
" In June 1651 " say the brief notes he made of memorable
dates of his life * "in St. Maryes Church I did first see
Mrs B. F. afterwards my wife." It was easy enough for
him to obtain an introduction. The fair Barbara was
of northern birth like himself ; her father, Sir Henry
Fletcher, like his, had commanded forces for the king,
and had died on the battle-field of Rowton Heath six
years before, September 24th, 1645. The widow had also
* No. (342a) of the MSS., sorted by the Hist. MS. Commission, and fully
printed in Flemings in Oxford.
2 O
562 RYDAL
suffered, being imprisoned in 1645 with her children at
Carlisle. She was now sojourning in Oxford, finding there
many friends among the loyalists, and obtaining for her
daughters what educational advantages were open to
them. Young Barbara had instruction in voice and harp-
sicord from Edward Lowe, an organist and choirmaster
deprived of his post by the Commonwealth, who fitted
her out with a MS. song book and admonitions, which
still has its place in the library of Rydal Hall,* where
the following delightful letter is set down from the teacher
to his young pupil :
Most virtuous M ris Barbara
I humbly beseech you to play thes Lessons in the Order sett,
downe Constantly once a day, if you haue health and leasure,
Play not without turninge the Lesson in your Booke before you
and keepe your eye (as much as you can) in your booke. If
you Chance to miss, goe not from the Lesson, till you have per-
fected it. Aboue all, Play not too fast. Thes few rules observed
you will gaine your selfe much Honnour and some Creditt to
your Master, whose better title is
Your most humble servant
25 March, 1652. Ed. Lowe.
Daniel was not one to let the grass grow under his feet.
He squired the ladies in a journey westward in the autumn,
and another northward next year, and appears not to
have parted from his lady-love on this latter occasion,
without presenting her with a gold ring. On leaving
Oxford for home, in the summer of 1652, he found occas-
sion to meet her brother, Sir George, at a mutual fireside,
and was invited to Hutton, her ancestral home in the
forest of Cumberland. Thither he naturally rode when
the settlement of the estates was effected, and probably
now an engagement between the young people was
allowed, for he records, in his next absence in London,
under December 5th, " A letter from B.F." Marriage
* See Flemings in Oxford, additional notes, p. 541.
RYDAL HOUSE 563
was foremost in his resolute mind, though neither purse
nor estate warranted speed. Coniston Hall was in his
widowed mother's hands and rule, and she whose spirit
was as keen as his own had three younger sons and a
delicate girl to think for, with her bachelor brother, Roger
Kirkby, to swell the household. Rydal, vacated now by
John's daughters, whose husbands divided the furniture
between them, was not only empty and dismantled, but
out of repair, and its lands lying waste. Nevertheless,
the young man proceeded to furnish a jointure for his
bride, bought his wedding clothes in London, where he
had legal business to transact in the summer of 1655 ;
then rode northward and was married at Hutton on the
27th of August.
But before entering upon Daniel's reign as squire in
Rydal, the antecedents of the house to which he brought
his bride must be considered. It was the present hall,
incomparably situated on rising ground by the lower fall
of Rydal beck ; backed by woods and facing the south ,
with a far outlook on the shining expanse of the great
lake, while " Old Hall," the ancient lords' seat, shows
from it as a solitary wooded rock in the valley below.
The structure shows in its back portions signs of con-
siderable age, and the walls are on places built of great
thickness. Is it possible that two halls existed from
early times, or at least from the days when two (if not
more) of Sir John Lancaster's daughters shared the manor
between them ? * Sir John Whitfield, as has been seen,
stipulated that he should have a knight's chamber in
Rydal ; but this seems rather to mean that he was to
have lodging within the precincts of the manor court,
on his hunting excursions, than that he should erect an
independent seat of his own. The present hall was un-
doubtedly the one raided by the Parliamentary soldiers,
* Vinagrodoff says that two brothers sharing a manor might live each in
his own Hall.
564 RYDAL
and occupied by John Fleming's family ; there is little
doubt that it served as the dower-house, in which John's
mother, Dame Agnes, lived and ruled, after the " relict "
Jane had died in the crumbling pile below. Evidence
goes no further back than this time ; but between the
date of Agnes 's marriage with Squire William, and
William's death, there are deeds (or records of them) that
may possibly throw light on the subject. By a deed of
1575, of which unfortunately only a corrupt copy exists,
William made a marriage settlement of the manor on
Agnes ; and the buildings of the manor are therein des-
cribed as lying on and about St. John How,* with mea-
dows and closes adjacent to the Rothay. A beautifully
executed deed of the same year leases to one John Grigg
the corn-mill of Rydal, and all " the orchards and meadows
adjoining the Old Hall," and all the fishing of the waters,
ior the sum of 6. 133. 4d. (or ten marks) the year, to be
paid to Squire William " at his now dwellinge howse in
Conyston."
Now this John Grigg must have been the most sub-
stantial man in Rydal. He executed another deed with
Squire William on March loth the following year, 1576,
of which we have only Sir Daniel's epitome, in his " List
of Rydall Writings."
*' John Grigg of Rydall his Grant unto William Fleming of Rydall
esq. of his Tenement in Rydall of 228 Rent per ann ; upon con-
dition to performe Covenants."
The church register records, however, the burial of "John
Grige of Rydall " on July 25th of this year, and of his wife
Agnes five days later, which suggests the presence of
contagious disease. Another deed, dated 1592, is des-
cribed by Sir Daniel thus :
* It further describes the mansion-house, both as being now in the occupa-
tion of Mrs. Fleming, and as being called the New Hall ; but this can only
be a mistake of the copyist (to whom the old English capitals were strange)
for Low Hall, it being situated in the Low Park, adjacent to Low Park How.
RYDAL HOUSE 565
" Arthur Grigg of Darby Shearman his Grant unto William
Fleming of Rydall esq. (in consideration of 5 lb io s ) of his Tenem*
in Rydall of y e yearly Rent of 22 s , late in y e possession of John
Grigg deceased, and of his close in Loughrigg adjoyning to y e
watterhead of Rydall late in y e holding of Richard Hanckrigg
deceased and now in the possession of Jo. Hanckrigg his son,
being of y inheritance of Edward Benson son of Michael Benson
deceased and of y e yearly Rent of 2 s ."
The squire of Rydal therefore obtained possession from
a relative of John Grigg's who was in the woollen trade
(probably a son who had migrated to wider fields of
commerce) of a large dalesman's holding in his manor.
That it was of unusual size is shown by its lord's rent of
22s., for no other rent in the village was nearly so high ;
and this tenement was procured by the lord who killed
off the deer in Rydal, and turned it from park-land to
farm, and who would therefore want good quarters for
his farm bailiff. Where indeed did John Grigg's house
stand? Could it have been the nucleus of the present
hall, altered and added to, until it was sufficient to serve
Dame Agnes as a dower-house, when she retired to Rydal
in 1600 ? It is impossible to know what it was in 1592,
but if it stood where the hall stands, its connection with
the village would be much more apparent then than now,
for its position was at the top of the village and open to
the street, and so it remained to Sir Michael's time, the
plan of 1770 shows this. And that there were other
village houses below it, within the present park wall
between the street and the beck, as well as the corn-mill,
is known. But whether Grigg's large tenement was used
as a starting point for a new Hall or not, we can follow
by the pages of the great account book the improvements
that Daniel made to the present hall, which was, by the
way, called Rydal House in the seventeenth century, and
from these we may judge something of its status in John's
time. The position is not a defensible one, nor was there
ever here a pile such as the Westmorland border and the
566 RYDAL
shores of Morecambe bristled with. The style of the
wooden pile with an outer fosse and stockade of Edward
I's time had been succeeded on most demesnes by the
strong stone tower, and we find, in the reign of Edward II.
onwards, many licences for the lords to " crenellate "
their dwellings.
It was from these dwellings that the Roundheads called
the Westmorland gentry " Castellans."
These towers with their four floors, the vault, the living
room above, reached often by an outside stair, the chamber
yet above, and then the battlements, whence arrows could
fly far against the approaching enemy, were designed for
residence as well as defence. They were compact and
self-contained. The cattle could, in case the outer de-
fences of the court were scaled, be driven into the vault,
while the lord, with his family and servants, kept the
upper rooms, whose narrow lights pierced walls of immense
thickness. How great was the need for these defensible
dwellings may be gathered from the national Rolls, which
show the Westmorland gentry not only to have been
engaged for centuries with Border warfare, during the
weak government of Richard II. and Henry IV., but with
the most savage feuds among themselves. The site of
many an unsuspected tower may be found by poking
about the low homestead or outhouses of a quiet farm,
as at Selside, once the seat of the turbulent Thornburghs,
or Hugill Hall.
The best example left of the earlier tower proper is
perhaps Dacre Castle, whose lords played so important
a part in early county history.
The towers that remained seats of the gentry through
the Tudor period were gradually modified. A great living
room, or " house " was built alongside the tower, as at
Yanwath, with oak timbered roof ; chambers spread
around the court. Later still, ambitious builders and
renovators aimed at symmetry, and added stories to the
RYDAL HOUSE 567
house, till it became a solid block with wings (the tower
being often truncated and disguised, as at Howgill) ; or
it assumed an E or H shape. Happily, drastic measures
were not always taken, and the gradual growth of Sizergh
Castle, and the beauty of Levens Hall yet remain to us
as examples of the changes in style that the centuries
brought. Some halls of later times there were, that seem
never to have been defensible. Such was pastoral Cal-
garth, the home of the Philipsons, men, till the Civil war,
of peace and legality, who built for homely uses and for
comfort. The bit of stained glass that remains in the
house place bears the same date that is said to have
shown in the new erected hall of William Fleming at
Coniston. The Elizabethan era of peace indeed saw the
northern gentry expanding into comfort and a certain
amount of splendour, while greater exclusiveness attended
the luxury they affected. The house-place with its long
table and benches no longer served as the eating-place
of the whole household, and general living room. An
upper chamber, wainscoted and ornamented with plaster-
work, was built for the entertainment of guests and used
on occasions of state. In the smaller " parlour " down-
stairs the meals of the family were often taken, since we
find small linen tablecloths were bought for it at Rydal.
It would serve as the resort of the ladies of the family,
while a lord's study became indispensable, even for non-
reading squires.
These rooms are all mentioned in the account book,
which shows that they were renovated if not actually
added by Daniel. But that there was valuable wains-
cotting in the house before his time is shown by the dis-
pute over it. And an entry of March 4th, 1657, before
any radical improvements were begun, proves that this
special room was in use.
s - d -
Paid for ye mending of an Andiron which was
melted in ye wanscott chamber oo. oo. 02.
568 RYDAL
Wainscoting was highly esteemed as decoration by
the northern gentry, who seem to have hung very little
tapestry over their walls ; and that it reached a high
artistic level in Westmorland can be seen from the speci-
men removed from Sizergh to the South Kensington
Museum. It figures as an exceedingly heavy item in the
costs of building. Stone and wood for essentials were
found on the demesne, as well as masons and carpenters,
but the wainscot was made by skilled craftsmen, called
joiners (an unusual word then) who were not to be found
in villages. The Rydal new wainscot came from Kendal,
as did that probably of all the Westmorland Halls, and
its cost soon apprizes us of the additions the young squire-
began to make as soon as purse would permit.* Briefly,
he seems to have thrown up a room over " ye Hall,"
called the Hall loft, which was wainscoted ; (1657) ; then
to have made a parlour (1658) ; next to have raised a
room above the kitchen, called the kitchen loft, and to
have excavated another under " Mr Ambrose's Chamber,"
which apparently looked to the rising ground behind
(1659) * to have " flowered " the stair head (1660) ; to
have made a study or closet, and lastly to have dignified
the approach by levelling, paving, and enclosing.
It is clear then, though there is no description of it,
that rich John Fleming had been content with a simple
house at Rydal. Perhaps the stately and symmetrical
hall, built by his father at Coniston, with projecting ends
and a fine upper guest-chamber stretching between the
two, sufficed his pride, and he retired to homely Rydal
to die, showing therein the strong predilection of his race.
And that his successor in adding rooms above the old
* A prudent rector of Buckinghamshire, re-furnishing in 1659, thinks that
" 6 pieces of hangings, if met with accidentally at the second hand, might all
things considered be easyest had to furnish up the roome," but later he declares
" I would gladly bestow a matter of 8 lb in Wainscot for my parlour rather
than go to a much higher price for Hangings, and then I should like very
well this painted lether for a suit of chaires and stooles, and Carpet too for
it." Verney Memoirs, vol. iii., p. 401.
RYDAL HOUSE 569
ones, aimed at copying, if not equalling, the more im-
posing frontage of the Lancashire Hall he had left to his
mother, may be guessed by comparison of the two as
limned by Crosthwaite in his maps of 1788, where indeed
Rydal tops the other by a set of dormer windows in the
roof. It is unfortunate that the pictures of the hall and
surroundings that Daniel caused to be made in 1652 are
not, as far as is known, extant. His account book has :
" Given unto M r Samuel Moore (M r Adams his
Artist) who did take the Prospect of Rydal Hall
and Garden (out of y e Round Close) of y e Grotto
(out of y e Little House) and of y e Vale from
Rydal Hall to Windermere-water out of y e best
Chamber window (Nov. 20, 21, & 22) the sum of 01. oo. oo.
Possibly Mr. Moore was exploiting a subscription work
on the seats of the gentry, which may never have ap-
peared ; and the only print that pictures the place before
Sir Michael put yet another frontage on it, is Crosth-
waite's. But the estate map drawn in 1770 gives us a
very good notion of the curious back-premises, and ex-
plains what would have been otherwise inexplicable in
Daniel's improvements. The house consisted of two
parallel blocks of building, the back one devoted to domes-
tic offices (and possibly the original homestead), and the
front to the more stately rooms, which may have been
built in Dame Agnes's time. The two were united by a
short cross block, which gave to the whole the form of
the letter H. This was the form of Bleaze Hall, and, in a
measure, of Middleton Hall,* neither of which places show
remains of the old tower-structure, usually found on early
defensible sites. The entrance lay in this cross-piece,
and may originally have been an open paved passage or
kalian between the fore and back courts, such as exists at
Kentmere ; or it may have entered directly into a house-
place or hall. Its height necessitated from the village a
* See Taylor's Old Manorial Halls.
570 RYDAL
flight of steps. Certainly it was this approach that was
improved by blasting and paving, and across which a
curtain wall was thrown to enclose the court, pierced by
gates that were reached by an outer flight of steps. The
present front door probably stands where these old en-
trance gates stood, the intermediate court-space having
been built over ; and it is difficult now, in the trim se-
clusion of the enclosed and gradually rising drive, bor-
dered by shrubberies, to reconstruct the former open wild
approach, beset by those hummocks of rock that once
surrounded all the homesteads of Rydal, and may still
be seen at Undermount.* The approach to the other
court-yard across the wide park was more level, and
crossed the beck as now by Causey bridge, amid a group
of clustering houses.
The mill-race left the beck not far above the bridge
and ran along the edge of a little garden that abutted on
the front block of buildings to the east, and pursued its
course through the orchard planted by Daniel, till it
reached the mill, that stood in front but considerably
below the Hall.f Along this south front there stretched
after his time, if not before, a walled garden for flowers
and herbs, with a stately, stepped approach as at Cal-
garth, while another garden lay across the low road
(walled at this epoch) in 1770 which gave the villagers
access to the mill, and led round the house to the bridge
and the park road.
Such was the form of Rydal Hall as Sir Daniel left it.
When he entered it with his bride it must have been
not only a homely place, but, after its varied fortunes of
pillage, temporary occupation and desertion, absolutely
dilapidated. Daniel did indeed at first attempt little
more than to keep out wind and weather. He notes :
* Rock was blasted for the new stables and the school house.
t An oak that, according to tradition, marked its site has been cut down,
March, 1904.
RYDAL HOUSE 571
" Left Coniston Apr. 27. 1656, when wee began to keep house at
Kydal. May 6. Rydal glazed July 28, Rydal plastered."
The young couple visited among their friends between
April and August, till house and furniture should be ready
for them. The Countess of Pembroke put them up for
a night, and gave them " a silver salt w ch .is not used."
They took turns, between other visits, at the Coniston
home, whence on October 2nd, the bride was taken to see
her future home at Rydal, but longer ones at Hut ton,
where indeed they spent the mid- winter. Perhaps it was to
make presents on these bridal journeys that the following
supplementary dress order was given, in the accustomed
manner, through a relative. Hugh Anderton wrote from
Ewelton that his brother (in-law) Kirkby (probably John,
who seems to have been often there) had left London
before Daniel's request reached him. He therefore has
himself done the best he could, and forwarded the articles
desired in a box with the bill. This last runs :
s. d.
" A paire of perfumed trimmed gloves . . . . oo. 18. oo.
Two paire of lesser trimmed gloves . . . . oo. 10. oo.
A paire of Cordevant gloves with a black fringe . . oo. 08. oo.
Two suits of knotts . . . . . . . . oo. 15. oo.
A laced scarf e &c. .. .. .. .. 01. 16. oo.
It was usual at this period to give gloves to superior
servants as a present. Sir Ralph Verney rewards a cer-
tain good " Bette " with a pair of trimmed gloves at
^i. 53. and Lady Verney gives to another maid " a pare
of gloves trimed." *
There were many things to be thought of and arranged
for this winter, besides smart trappings. The young
squire, mindful no doubt of interest, was already in
October preparing to pay the 600 to John's sons-in-law,
which was not due till Candlemas. He was engaged in
* See Verney Memoirs.
572 RYDAL
a petty squabble with them about the wainscot of certain
rooms at Rydal, and the brewing lead, which he judged
to be fixtures and they furniture ; and the matter had
to be settled by arbitration. Mr. George Collingwood,
the husband of Anne Fleming, and the writer of a calm
letter, complains that his man has been refused a view
of the wainscot, or to take away the press with drawers,
which had fallen to his share in the division with Sir
Jordan Crosland. Moreover, Daniel's mother refused to
let his man meddle with the things at Coniston which are
theirs. To this Daniel answers that Richard Harrison
had said that the press was to be a gift from Collingwood
to his mother ; adding that Bowes is so far (over Stain-
moor) to send the money, that for the next payment he
would wish another place appointed. Collingwood ob-
ligingly sends over a man to receive this pre-dated pay-
ment, but denies that the press was a gift.
Meanwhile honest John Banks, who in feudal fashion
had passed from the service of Daniel's father to his own,
was busy making things ready in frugal country style
for the young couple at the empty house of Rydal. He
writes :
" the parloure table is in all 4 yards and 7 Inches but three qu'tors
off it drawes out at one end w ch is but seldome drawne unlesse
there be much Companie And it wants but two Inches off a yard
broad."
Roger, Daniel's brother next in age to himself, was
empowered to buy the most necessary article, viz. : a bed,
in London. The Coniston parents, who had made the
most strenuous efforts for their eldest son, had nothing
to spare for the education of their younger children after
they had gone through the customary course at Kendal
school. Roger, therefore, had been apprenticed by the
time he was eighteen to the woollen trade, with a Mr.
Lancashire, Manchester, and later he had proceeded to
London. William remained at home, probably farming
RYDAL HOUSE 573
the estate under his mother. John, next in age, after
apprenticeship in London, took to the sea and was lost.
Alexander, the youngest, was also apprenticed in London,
and eventually settled as a merchant in Newcastle.
Roger's early letters show him to have been a most
loyal admirer of his elder brother, and he was now de-
lighted to do his behests, with the aid of mature female
relatives ; and his account of the purchase of the bed,
and his own embarrassments when his " Ant " drove up
in a " choch " to bear him off from the wool market is
too good not to be given in full.
Rydal Hall MSS. His. MS. Com. 289. 1655-6.
(To D. F. at Hutton)
In London this 12 th March 1655.
Kind Brother
I reced yours of the 5 th Instant, I wrott by my last whatt
a good Companie wee wear that went to help to buy your bed ;
your Ant would ath or have Cosen Lamplue and I to goe with
her or else she would not goe ; the first bed thatt wee lookt att
did please the best wee went all up and downe untill night but
could find non that pleast soe well as the first ; I went backe to
Queen st ; whear the bed was that all peacht upon to have
given him ernest ffor it, but he was gon ff orth ; your Ant promised
to goe her Selfe in the morninge that was Wednesday and agree
with him for it ; and then See it taken doune and Boxt up and
Soe Sent to mee and then I should pay him for it ; on Wednesday
I was from home all day or else I would have waited on her ;
When I came home I rec ed a letter from your Ant which desired
thatt I should goe to her on Thursday. I sent her word I could
not goe y* day because I could not leave my Markett, it was all
the markett y* wee have in a weeke, but if she please I would
wait on her in the morninge this did not please her butt in the
afternoune she came in a choch to Blackwell hall about ffoure
acloke the market was all most over ; She then would have mee
w th her, all Excuses Sett asid to joumar her I went w th her ; I
was never So ashamed in my life ; She came into the hall ; I was
very Durtie w th opening Packes and very hott w th showing sume
cloth to Marc (cut off) yett for all this to please her I went w th
her ; and gott the bed Boxt up and Stules brought a Longe w th
mee to the In ; whear Kendall carrier Lies. I paid for the bed
574 RYDAL
and gave your Ant whatt she deminded for what Charges she had
been abut the buying of The bed.
Your loveinge brother to Command
Roger Fleminge."
Details of carriers, &c., follow. Then writer regrets
that the bed-ticks he was commissioned to buy were not
of the width stated by the seller. Wishes D. F. had not
had them cut, or they should have been returned, as his
correspondent in Manchester advises. Is very sorry to
have been so " Cosened " over the first business his
brother entrusted him with, will take any trouble he can.
The writer had already bought bed-ticking for his
brother, which had proved to be not the wid
