COUNTESS’S PILLAR, BROUGHAM.From a Photo by Mr. John Bolton, Penrith.
Nut Monday has passed into the region of forgotten things, even at such places as the schools, where it was once a popular observance. It was, however, kept so recently as 1861, when September 12th was held in Kendal as a general holiday, almost every shop being closed. Possibly the failure of the nut crop in several successive years was a factor in changing the holiday to another time, and thus the day losing its distinctive character. This, it will be noted, had nothing in common with another custom observed in some other parts of the country—Crack Nut Sunday. The latter was simply a desecrating practice, without a single good feature.
“Sunday observance” had more than a nominal meaning in bygone days, though there is nothing to indicate that the people of the two counties hadany particular liking for the restrictions imposed. It was the practice in nearly every town and village for the churchwardens to leave the church during service time and walk through the town in search of people who ought to have been at church, and special attention was paid to licensed premises. Possibly, by the time the hostelries were reached, the churchwardens felt the need of liquid refreshment; at any rate, they frequently obtained it. Carlisle, in 1788, was divided into districts, through each of which two constables and two of the principal inhabitants, who took it in rotation, patrolled the streets from ten in the morning till one, and from three to five in the afternoon, during which hours the doors of all the public-houses were kept shut, the patrol having first visited them to see that no person was tippling in them. “So much respect is paid to this regulation,” wrote a chronicler of the period, “that during these hours no person is seen in the streets but those who are going to or returning from some place of worship.” Fines were occasionally imposed for non-attendance at church; that does not seem to have been the rule, moral suasion apparently sufficing to meet most requirements. The Corporation of Kendal took powers to inflictwhat were then—three hundred years ago—heavy fines for selling ale during service hours.
Among the customs and beliefs noted as prevalent at Whitbeck, in West Cumberland, in 1794, were these: “Newly-married persons beg corn to sow their first crop with, and are called corn-laiters. People always keep wake with the dead. The labouring ox is said to kneel at twelve o’clock at night, preceding the day of the Nativity; the bees are heard to sing at the same hour. On the morn of Christmas Day breakfast early on hack-pudding, a mess made of sheep’s heart mixed with suet and sweet fruits. To whichever quarter a bull faces in lying on All Hallows’ Eve, from thence the wind will blow the greater part of the winter.” It has been surmised that the hack-pudding resembles sweet-pie, which is not unlike a mince-pie on a large scale, mutton being used instead of beef, and the ingredients not finely chopped.
Here, as in other parts of the country, beating the bounds, both of parishes and manors, was a popular, though oft-times toilsome, observance. In a few registers, records have been preserved of the old-time landmarks, a precaution of special value in days before the Ordnance Survey wasthought of. Dalston registers not only supply this information, but a description of the ceremony of perambulation. Curiosities of divisions are not lacking. An old man, once a parishioner of Dalston, told the Rev. J. Wilson[21]that he had a vivid recollection of taking part in the ritual of beating the bounds many years ago, and throwing a rope over a house, part of which stands in Castle Sowerby, in order to mark the division of the contiguous parishes. The walls of the house exist still, though unroofed, where the inhabitants were wont to say, half a century ago, that they always slept in Dalston and breakfasted in Castle Sowerby.
“Furth” was a word used by the inhabitants of Orton long ago. In those days, before the era of coal burning, most of the houses had what were called hearth fire-places, with big open chimneys but no fire-grates. Householders had the privilege of getting turf on the moors, and during the winter nights neighbours used to assemble in one another’s houses in succession. Orton and Ravenstonedale were famous places for knitting, and the folks all sat round the blazing turf fire knitting away at top speed. Both men and women werethus occupied, and made a peculiar rattling noise with so many needles working at once. The conversations at these Furth Neets were very amusing, the talk ranging from the state of the crops, such as they were in those days of what would be called low farming, to the prices of produce and the latest doings of Mary Baynes, the local witch.
Formerly some of the inhabitants of Orton had what were called penthouses in front of their dwellings. It was a custom on Candlemas Day for those who had money to lend to appear under the sheds or penthouses, with neckcloths tied round their heads, and if the weather was cold, while the money-lenders were shivering beneath the scanty shelter, the borrowers frequented the public-houses, where there was much carousing. This curious custom has long been discouraged, and only one penthouse is now standing.
Reminders of Border service remained in the two counties long after the Act of Union had been passed. Thus the secluded hamlet of Kentmere was divided into sixty tenements for the maintenance of as many soldiers, and so recently as the middle of this century it was written: “The vestiges of this ancient regulation still remain, forthe township is divided into four parts, and each of these parts into fifteen tenements. For each tenement a man serves the office of constable, and pays 2s. per annum to the curate.”
Public affairs in the village of Torpenhow used to be managed by “the sixteen men,” elected by the householders in the four quarters into which the parish was divided, the vicar and churchwardens being apparentlyex officiomembers of this early Parish Council. The last nomination of the sixteen took place about 1807; they had a great variety of duties, carrying out functions that are now discharged by School Boards, Parish, District, and County Councils. So far as is known, the most detailed information concerning the duties of the “sworn men” is given in the Orton (Westmorland) registers, where, following the fourteen names of “the sworne men of Orto’ anno d’ni 1596,” is this statement, so far as it can be deciphered:—
“Imprimisthat thes be diligent and careful to see and provide that the people be ... and behave the’selves honestlie ... feare of God according to the Holie word of God and the Good and wholesome laws of this land.Secondlieto see that the Churchwardens be careful and diligent in executinge their office, ioyne with thes in suppressing of sinne and such as behave the’selves inordinatlie toreprove and rebuke those who be found offenders, and if they will not amend to pesent the’ to be punished.Thirdlieto se that the Church and Churchydbe decentlie repaired and mainteyned. Also we as agreed yteverie p’sonnis beinge found faultie by the Churchwardens and p’sented to the sworn me’ shall paie xijd.to the poor ma’s box. And that whosoever doth not come p’sent the’selves lawfull warning being given either of the xij or Churchwardens to the place appointed shall lose xij to the poore ma’s box without a sufficient cause to the contrarie whereof thes are to certifie the rest assembled at ... appointed to their meetinge. Lastly that the Churchwardes ... and take the sam forfat ... p’sent the offenders.”
Another kind of Parish Council existed at Helton, near Lowther, about a century ago. A chronicler of seventy years since gives this account of it:—“At Helton, at the end of the Tythe Barn, was formerly a stone seat, where the inhabitants met for the purpose of transacting their parochial affairs. He who came first waited till he was joined by the rest; and it was considered a mark of great rudeness for anyone to absent himself from the meeting. After conferring on such matters as related to the parish they separated, and each returned home.”
There was a very noteworthy Council at Watermillock, called the Head Jurie, and Mr. W. Hodgson, a former schoolmaster in the parish,did good service some years ago by transcribing the records of that body, from 1610 to more than a century later. They performed all the duties—and more—now delegated to Parish Councils; indeed they seem to have had control of everything pertaining to the government of the parish. Among the contents of the book on “Paines and Penalties laid by the Head Jurie” is this entry concerning a Court held in 1629:—
“We find for a good amongst ourselves that all the inhabitants within the hamlet of Weathermelock shall amend all the church ways and all other ways yearly, and every year, upon the first work day in Christmas, if the day be seasonable, at ye sight of ye Constables and Churchwardens for the time being upon paine of sixpence of everyone that maketh default. And alsoe all as aforesaid shall meet and mend the peat way always upon Whitsun Wednesday, and everyone to meet where his way lyeth, and everyone to send a sufficient man to the sight of the Constable for the time being upon paine of sixpence of everyone that maketh default. And that the Constable be there upon paine of sixpence to see who make default.”
In the old manorial halls fools or jesters were frequently to be found among the members of the households. The late Dr. Taylor suggested that when Yanwath Hall was a very important link in the chain of Border defences, such a servant was kept; and Mr. R. S. Ferguson once remindedthe members of the Archæological Society that, in 1601, both the Mayor of Carlisle and Sir Wilfred Lawson kept fools, as probably did also the Bishop of Carlisle. The Mayor’s fool got a coat for Christmas, while Sir Wilfred’s appears in the accounts of the Corporation as being “tipped” for bringing messages to Carlisle. A fool was also kept at Muncaster Castle.
There was a custom very common in connection with the apprenticeship system at the beginning of the century. In a pamphlet written by John S. Lough, a former Penrith printer, appeared this paragraph:—“Burying the Old Wife is a custom still prevalent among the operatives in the north at the expiration of the term of apprenticeship. The late apprentice is taken into a room adjoining that where the party is met to celebrate the loosening, and after an old woman’s cap is put on his head, the body is enveloped in a white sheet. He is then taken upon the shoulders of his comrades into the banqueting room, round which he is carried a few times, in not very solemn procession, and finally placed upon the boards whereon the figure of a grave is chalked. A kind of funeral service is gone through, and the old wife is buried.”
“The simple annals of the poor” in the two counties contain many pathetic accounts of their condition and treatment ere the public conscience was awakened to the necessity of a more humane method. Here, as in many other parts of the country, the poor were often let out to contractors. Among the churchwardens’ accounts at Hayton for 1773 there is a copy of a contract between the churchwardens and Thomas Wharton, of The Faugh, “for letting the poor for a year” to the latter. The Rev. R. W. Dixon, vicar of the parish, about twenty years ago went into the history of this transaction. A vestry meeting was called for the purpose, and conditions were entered into between the churchwardens and the overseers on the one part, and Thomas Wharton on the other. The parish overseers were to find bedding and apparel for the paupers, but Wharton was to mend their clothes and stockings, and be allowed 5s. for the purpose. A child not a year old was to be counted as one person with the mother, and be fed and clothed by the parish; and if a pauper died in the house he was to be buried at the expense of the parish. Wharton was to find sufficient meat, drink, washing, lodging, and firing for the paupers, to the satisfaction ofthe parish officers, who had authority to visit the house as often as they pleased. He was to receive a yearly salary of £12 10s., and a weekly allowance of 1s. 2d. for each pauper, but if a pauper stayed under a week a deduction was to be made accordingly. On these terms Wharton was declared master of the workhouse.
The children who used to attend the ancient Robinson’s School at Penrith were sent out each day to beg, and that there might be no mistake as to their identity, each was obliged to wear what was locally called “the badge of poverty.”
It is decidedly an unfortunate thing, from the point of view of the antiquary, that so many of the old plague stones which used to be found in different places should have disappeared. Penrith had two; and one of them remains, but from observations occasionally heard it is to be feared that only a small proportion of the townspeople have an idea of the use of the old font-like erection. It is interesting to quote the account given by a Penrith land surveyor and innkeeper, who wrote more than a century ago[22]on this subject:—“Nearly half-way between Eamont Bridge and Penrith stands an house, called from its situationHalf-way House, but formerlyMillorMeal Cross, from the following circumstance. During the dreadful plague which visited this country in the year 1598, and almost depopulated Penrith (no less than 2,260 in the town falling victims to this merciless disease), the Millers and Villagers refused to bring their commodities into the town to market for fear of infection. The inhabitants, therefore, were under the necessity of meeting them here, and performing a kind of quarantine before they were allowed to buy anything. This was said to be almost at the option of the country people. This much is certain: No man was allowed to touch the money made use of on these occasions, it being put into a vessel of water, whence they had a method of taking it without touching it with their fingers. For this purpose they erected a cross which remains to this day. For greater conveniences they erected a cross at the town’s-head, and erected shambles, etc.; the place still retains the name of the Cross-green: they built a third cross near the Carlisle road a little above the second, where black cattle, sheep, hoggs, and goats were sold; and it retains yet the name of the Nolt-Fair [Nolt: Oxen, cows, etc.], and continues to be the market for cattle.”
PLAGUE STONE, PENRITH.
The road was widened and improved in 1834, when the water trough was found, and afterwards placed where it now stands. There was a somewhat similar structure in the park at Eden Hall, and is said to mark the site of the former village. The base is still retained, but some decades ago there was put a memorial cross upon it. Going over the border of Westmorland a short distance are other reminders of these old-time epidemics. In the parish registers of Hawkshead it is stated that in 1721 the sum of 1s. 6d. was paid to the apparitor for a book concerning the plague. Here is material for several queries. Was there an outbreak of some disease which obtained that name so late as 1720, or was the volume meant for a record of what had gone before? Again, if the book was ever written, what became of it? The records of the le Flemings, the Earls of Lonsdale, the Earls of Westmorland, and others published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission abound in references to the plague.
A stone in the remote hamlet of Armboth, above what is now the great reservoir of the Manchester Corporation, marks the place where the local commerce was carried on when personal intercourse was dangerous on account of theplague. The custom existed after the epidemic had passed away, the people from the fells and dales continuing to take their webs and yarn to what is still known as “the Webstone.”
The registers of Dalston are particularly valuable for purposes of local history, partly owing to the fact that Rose Castle, the residence of the Bishops of Carlisle, is in that parish. There are also many other ways in which they are interesting. One of the earliest houses mentioned in the books is Bell Gate or Bellyeat. Miss Kupar, who closely studied the records of this and some other parishes, wrote a few years ago with regard to this house: “The people will have it that a bell hung here to announce the arrival of the pack-horsesen routefor Keswick, and some maintain that it served to warn the neighbourhood of the approach of the moss-troopers.”
Although the old custom of ringing the curfew is gradually dying out, in several places in Cumberland and Westmorland the practice is kept up still. In the hall at Appleby Castle there is an interesting reminder of the custom. This is the curfew-bell which was found in the tower at the Castle, and it finds an honoured place now among the family possessions. When swung to and frothe bell is found to have a very sweet tone, but while it was vigorously rung in the evenings long ago the burgesses would not have any difficulty in hearing its loud and peculiar warning note. The inscription is not very easy to decipher, but it appears to run thus:—
“Soli Deo Gloria. Pax Homibus, S.S. Fecit, 1661. W.S.”
Nothing is known at the Castle as to the maker, though it is possible that experts in bell-lore might be able to trace its record from the inscription.
Thechequered histories of the old schools at Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, Kendal, Crosthwaite, Carlisle, Penrith, and several other towns in the two counties, would suffice to make a large book of an interesting character. Some of the rules which governed the institutions in bygone days were decidedly quaint. The nineteen long paragraphs which make up the “Constitutions, Ordinances, and Statutes for the Free Grammar School at Kirkby Stephen,” as drawn up in 1568 by Lord Wharton, included this curious stipulation:—
“I will that the said Schoolmaster shall have and receive yearly £12 as his Hire and Wages, at two Terms of the year, if he teach in manner and form following, viz., At the Feast of Pentecost and St. Martin, by equal portions, by the hands of my Son, Heir, and Heirs, and the Governours. And the said Schoolmaster shall, within ten dayes after he hath taken upon him and be installed in the said Office, before the said Governours, or two of them, and before my Son and Heir, or Heirs of my House of Wharton, for the time being, and in presence of the Churchwardens and Twelve men of Kirkby-Stephen Parish, or six of them, in the Parish Church there, make this Oath following: ‘I do swear by the holy Contents ofthis Book that I will freely, without exacting any money, diligently teach and instruct the Children of this parish, and all others that resort to me, in Grammar and other Humane Doctrine, according to the Statutes thereof made; And shall read to them no corrupt or reprobate Book, or Works set forth at any time contrary to the Determination of the Universal Catholic Church, whereby they might be infected in their youth with any kind of Heresy or corrupt Doctrine, or else be induced to an insolent manner of Liveing; And further shall observe all the Statutes and Ordinances of this School, now made or that hereafter shall be made, which concern me; and shall do nothing in prejudice thereof, but help to maintain the same, from time to time, dureing my abode herein, to the best of my power. So Help me God, and the Contents of this book.’”
At six o’clock in the morning, and at the same hour in the evening, master and scholars had to march from school to church, for prayers, afterwards going to the tomb which Lord Wharton had erected in the quire and sing one of fifteen psalms. This was the order for working hours:—“And the same Scholemr., every Work-day at the least, shall begin to teach from Six a Clock in ye morning in Summer, and from Seven a Clock in Winter; and so shall continue in teaching until Eleven a Clock. The self same thing shall he diligently do after Dinner, from One of the Clock till Six in Summer and five in Winter.”
The history of Appleby School extends over nearly four and a quarter centuries. In 1478 Thomas Whinfell, one of the chantry priests, was bound “to keep yearly a sufficient Grammar School, taking of the scholars of the said schoolscolagia et custumaria secundum antiquam consuetudinem scoloe prædictæ.” Old school-boys living within the present decade remember that thescolagia et custumariaincluded a cockpenny, which had to be paid by each boy on Easter Tuesday, for the purpose of enabling the master to provide the pupils with a cock-fight. One of the regulations for 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 cockpenny as aforetime at Shrovetide.” The “Literary Rambler,” who contributed a series of papers to theKendal Chroniclein 1812 (when the custom was commonly observed), remarked:—“A stranger to the customs of the country will suspect something whimsical in this name, but it has its foundation in reason; for the boys of every school were divided into parties every Shrovetide, headed by their respective captains, whom the master chose from amongst his pupils. This wasprobably done in imitation of the Romans, who appointed theprincipes pivenumon certain occasions. These juvenile competitors contended in a match at football, and fought a cock-battle, called the captains’ battle, in both which contests the youthful rivals were not more interested than their parents.” Though the barbarous sport had disappeared, the payment of a cockpenny survived certainly until the middle of this century. This is shown by Mr. W. Sayer, who, in his History (1847), says that the endowments of Bowness (Westmorland) School, “together with a cockpenny given by each scholar on Shrove Tuesday,” amounted to about £60 per annum.
George Smith, a relative of Dr. Smith who became Bishop of London, built and endowed the school at Asby, and left £10, the interest of which (about 12s.) was to be disposed of on St. George’s Day yearly for ever in the following manner: 6s. to the poor of the parish; 5s. to be spent in ale by the feofees of the school; and the remaining shilling to purchase a football for the scholars. A custom which seems to have been peculiar to Appleby was for each pupil leaving to pay half-a-guinea towards the library, and Mr. R. E. Leach, the headmaster, some years agocompiled a most interesting list of these donations. It was also an occasional occurrence that “old boys” gave money when they were married.
It was by the ancient Parochial Council of Sixteen that the first attempt to supply elementary education in Torpenhow was made, it being recorded that on May 12th, 1686, a resolution was passed in favour of founding a free school for the Bothel district. The “sixteen” from time to time drew up various rules for the conduct of the school, one of which would greatly astonish the present generation of certificated masters, because, in 1689, the master of the institution at Bothel (locally pronounced “Bohl”) was ordered to “keep school from 6 in the morning till 11, and from 1 till 6 from Lady Day till Michaelmas,” practically the same rule as was enforced by Lord Wharton at Kirkby Stephen.
An instance of the uncertain position occupied by the village schoolmaster in former days may be found among the records of Holme Cultram. In 1607 there being some controversy concerning the payment of the parish clerk or sexton, which previously had been paid in no regular manner, and the clerk claiming to be paid in meal, though no certain measure of it had been ascertained, itwas agreed and ordered by the sixteen men, with the consent of the other parishioners, that for the future there should be one person who should be both parish clerk and schoolmaster, and that he should have for his wages for every copyhold tenement and lease within the parish paying above 18d. rent, fourpence, and for every cottager and under-tenant twopence, to be collected yearly at Easter by the clerk, who was to be chosen by the sixteen men and approved by the ordinary. In addition, the schoolmaster was to have a quarterly sum for each scholar as the sixteen men from time to time directed. That scheme was recorded in 1777 as being still in operation.
In another place it has been shown how the sworn men had often a great share in the selection of the churchwardens and other officials. Their duties also extended to the procuring of money for educational purposes. It was ordered by Commissioners in the thirteenth year of Elizabeth, concerning the endowed school at Keswick, “that whereas two pence for every fire-house hath been paid to the parish clerk yearly, and also certain ordinary fees for night-watch, burials, weddings, and, moreover, certain benevolences of lamb wool, eggs, and such like, which seem to grow up to agreater sum than is competent for a parish clerk; the eight men shall herafter take up the said two pence a house for the use of a schoolmaster, paying thereout to the parish clerk yearly 46s. 8d.” In the time of King James it was found on inquiry by a Commission of Pious Uses, “that the eighteen sworn men had from time immemorial laid a tax for the maintenance of the schoolmaster, and other occasions of the parish, and appointed the schoolmaster, and made orders for the government of the school, and that the inhabitants had by a voluntary contribution raised a school stock of £148 2s. 3½d., nevertheless that Dr. Henry Robinson, Bishop of Carlisle, Henry Woodward, his Chancellor, and Giles Robinson, brother of the said Bishop, and Vicar of Crosthwaite, had intermeddled, and that the said Bishop, sometimes by authority of the High Commission for Ecclesiastical Causes, sometimes as a justice of the peace for the county, and sometimes by his power as ordinary, had interrupted the orders of the eighteen men, and had committed thirteen of them to prison. Therefore the commissioners restore the eighteen men to their authority concerning the appointing of a schoolmaster, and the government of the school.”
Among the curious bequests known to have been made at various times by residents in the two counties, not the least noteworthy was that of the Vicar of Raughton Head, Mr. Sevithwaite, who, at his death in 1762, left £20 to the school; and another £20, the interest whereof, after the death of his widow, was to be laid out yearly in purchasing Bishop Beveridge’s “Thoughts upon Religion,” and the Bishop of Man’s “Essay for the Instruction of the Indians,” to be given to the poor housekeepers of the parish.
Among the curiosities of tenure in addition to those already mentioned in a previous chapter, was that of surrendering by the rod. In the summer of 1750 “John Sowerby surrendered to the lord of the manor (of Castle Sowerby) by the hands of his stewardby the roda messuage at Sowerby Row ... to the use and behoof of Joseph Robinson and his assigns according to the custom of the manor; conditioned to pay yearly to three trustees £5 for the use of a schoolmaster within the liberty of Row Bound to be chosen by the trustees.” As in most other places, the schoolmaster had to teach certain children for a very small sum per quarter, and the parents inbetter circumstances had to pay 2s. 6d. per quarter for each child.
How faithfully some of the clerical schoolmasters performed their duties during long periods may be proved from numerous sources. One entry, a burial, will suffice—from the Mardale register of 1799:—
“Richard Hebson, in ye 75th year of his age. He was 53 years master of the Free School at Measand, and 51 years the pastor of this Chapelry. Singularly remarkable for his faithful, assiduous, and conscientious discharge of the duties of both these stations.”
At the beginning of the eighteenth century there were in the diocese of Carlisle few schools other than those held in the all too frequently dilapidated parish churches. In most cases the curates were the only schoolmasters, and it was as an encouragement to those clerics that the parishioners took it in turn to provide the curate with a “whittlegate.” Much interesting information about the old-time schools and schoolmasters may be found in Bishop Nicolson’s Visitation Miscellany. One man, who afterwards became examining chaplain to Bishop Law, used to keep school at Sebergham in a mud hut. Of another cleric, the Rev. T. Baxter, who was incumbent of Arlecdon in the first half of last century, it isrecorded, in Mr. W. Dickinson’s “Reminiscences of West Cumberland,” that he “taught the parish school in the chancel of the parish church, on an earthern floor, without fire either in summer or winter.” Bishop Nicolson’s descriptions speak eloquently of the poverty of some parishes:—“The quire at Warwick, as in many other places, is shamefully abused by the children that are taught in it. Their present master is Thomas Allanson, a poor cripple, remov’d hither from Rockliff, who has no settled salary, only 12d. per quarter and his diet, and would be thankful for ye commendum of ye clerk’s place; which, he saies, would bring him an addition of about six shillings p. an.”
Of Irthington he wrote:—“The quire is here (as before) miserably spoil’d, on the floor, by the school boyes; and so vilely out of repair in the roof that ’tis hazardous comeing in it.”
Crosby-on-Eden was a little better than the former place:—“Mr. Pearson, the school master, has no certain and fixed salary. He teaches the children in the quire; where the boys and girls sit on good Wainscot Benches, and write on the communion table, too good (were it not appointed to a higher use) for such a service.” Here is apicture with regard to Cumwhitton, not calculated to make people really wish for the old days about which some grow enthusiastic:—“The south window is unglazed and starves the whole congregation as well as the poor children; who are here taught (for the present) by the parish clerk, a man of very moderate qualification. Mr. Robley, their new curate, is not yet resident among them; but will shortly come, and take the office of teaching out of this illiterate man’s hand.”
In a parish not far from the Cumberland border—Allendale—the curates of West Allen High and St. Peter’s Chapels were certainly as recently as 1835, and probably still later, obliged to teach the miners’ children for 1s. 6d. per quarter each, in consideration of certain annual payments. These were five shillings from each miner of one description, and half-a-crown from those of another, which they, in common with the incumbent of Allenheads Chapel, received as ministers of the respective chapels.
It was certified in 1717 that while at that time there was no divine service performed in the parish of Clifton, some three miles from Workington, “formerly every family in the two hamlets [of Great and Little Clifton], being about forty innumber, paid 6d. each to one that read prayers, and taught the children to read, and the rector gave £2 a year, and officiated there every sixth Sunday, but that these payments had then ceased for above 40 years last past.”
Reference was made in a previous paragraph to the custom of whittlegate as applying to schoolmasters. From the former chapter on church curiosities it will have been noted that the clergy occasionally had recourse to that method of supplementing their scanty incomes. As it often happened that the schoolmaster and parson were one and the same individual, difficulties were thereby removed. At any rate the following extract from Clarke’s “Survey” of over a century ago has an interesting bearing on the subject. Writing of Ambleside, of which the Rev. Isaac Knipe,M.A., was curate and schoolmaster, he remarks:—
“The chapel is a low, mean building, and stands in the parish of Grassmere. The inhabitants (who are land owners), as well as those in the parish of Winandermere, as those in the parish of Grassmere, have the right of nominating and presenting the curate. The rector of Grassmere usually nominated the curate, but the inhabitants of this and many other perpetual curacies in the north have, by custom, gotten it from the rectors ofvicars; the reason is this: before the death of Queen Anne, many of the chapelries were not worth above three pounds a year, and the donees could not get persons properly qualified to serve them, so they left them to the inhabitants, who raised voluntary contributions for them in addition to their salary, with clothes yearly and whittlegate. Whittlegate is to have two or three weeks’ victuals at each house, according to the ability of the inhabitants, which was settled amongst them so as that he should go his course as regular as the sun, and compleat it as annually.”
The custom prevailed so late as 1858 in some country parishes; it is not a little curious that it has not been found to exist in any counties except Cumberland and Westmorland, though the Rev. J. Wharton, Stainmore, has informed the writer that it is recognised still in some parts of the United States.
The custom of barring out is probably unknown to the present generation of Cumbrian and Westmerian school-boys—at any rate in the sense in which it used to be observed. There exist numerous stories of the thoroughness with which the boys formerly maintained their supposed rights in this direction. The Rev. E. H. Sugden’s sketch of the history of Arlecdon and Frizington shows how the observance was followed there every Christmas:—“The old men of the parish tell with delight their experiences and adventures incarrying out this old custom. One says he remembers the master entering the school by creeping down the chimney. Another tells of a boy hiding himself in the chimney when the master had forced the door open. It appears that during this period of expulsion the doors of the school were strongly barricaded within, and the boys who defended it like a besieged city were armed in general with elder pop-guns. In the meantime the master would make several efforts, both by force and stratagem, to regain his lost authority. If he succeeded, heavy tasks were imposed, and the business of the school went on as usual; but it more commonly happened that he was repulsed and defeated. The siege was continued three days, after which the terms of capitulation were proposed by the master, who usually pushed them under the door, and as a rule the boys accepted. These terms stipulated what hours and times should for the ensuing year be allotted to study, and what to relaxation and play. Securities were given by each side for the due performance of these stipulations, and the paper was then solemnly signed by both master and pupils.
“Mr. Sibson, of Whitehaven, formerly of this parish, relates the two following incidents inconnection with this custom. On one occasion, Mr. C. Mossop endeavoured to enter the school. As soon as he put his hand on the window sill, intending to enter that way, a boy hit his hand with a red-hot poker, so that for many days he went about with it in a sling. On another occasion, Mr. Hughes, the master, took some slates off the roof, and succeeded in getting his legs and part of his body past the rafters, but he could get no further, and the boys with red-hot pokers burnt him severely before he could be rescued by his friends. In those days many young men attended the school during the winter time.”
At Appleby, the “barring out” sometimes lasted for days, and the scholars slept in the schoolrooms. In most places the mutiny was apt to break out early on the morning of the day fixed for breaking up for the holidays. They defied the master by means of sundry cries, that at Kendal being:—
“Liberty, liberty, under a pin,Six weeks’ holiday ornivvercome in.”
Apparently the custom was killed in the old grey town at the beginning of this century by the then master, Mr. Towers meeting with a distressingmishap. He was contending with them, apparently for admittance, when his eye was accidentally destroyed, and the disaster served to bring about the abolition of the old custom.
Fine warm days of that Indian summer so often experienced in the two counties in September and October were devoted to “going a nutting,” and the headmaster of Appleby Grammar School never refused a holiday at that season, provided that each scholar brought him a quart of “leamers”—nuts sufficiently ripe to leave the husks without compulsory treatment. As Christmas approached, the schoolmaster was “barred out” in orthodox fashion, until he agreed (and he only pretended to be loth to make the contract) to extend the coming holidays as long as his pupils demanded.
THE END