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BYGONE CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND.




[Illustration: THE LEPERS' SQUINT, ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH,
BROUGH-UNDER-STAINMORE.

_From a Photo by Mr. George Arkwright, Beatrice, Nebraska, U.S.A._]




  Bygone Cumberland
  and
  Westmorland


  By Daniel Scott


  LONDON:
  WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., 5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, E.C.
  1899.




TO EMMA.




Preface.


The information contained in the following pages has been derived from
many sources during the last twenty years, and in a considerable number of
cases I have examined old registers and other documents without being then
aware that some of their contents had already been published.

Few districts in the United Kingdom have been more thoroughly "worked" for
antiquarian and archaeological purposes than have Cumberland and
Westmorland. The Antiquarian Society and the numerous Literary and
Scientific Societies have, during the last thirty years, been responsible
for a great amount of research. I have endeavoured to acknowledge each
source--not only as a token of my own obligation, but as a means of
directing others wishing further information on the various points.

I also desire to acknowledge the help received in various ways from
numerous friends in the two counties.

DANIEL SCOTT.

PENRITH, _June 1st, 1899_.




Contents.


                                              PAGE

  AN UNPARALLELED SHERIFFWICK                    1

  WATCH AND WARD                                 9

  FIGHTING BISHOPS AND FORTIFIED CHURCHES       22

  SOME CHURCH CURIOSITIES                       38

  MANORIAL LAWS AND CURIOSITIES OF TENURES      64

  OLD-TIME PUNISHMENTS                          91

  SOME LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS               130

  FOUR LUCKS                                   148

  SOME OLD TRADING LAWS AND CUSTOMS            155

  OLD-TIME HOME LIFE                           169

  SPORTS AND FESTIVITIES                       188

  ON THE ROAD                                  209

  OLD CUSTOMS                                  223

  OLD SCHOOL CUSTOMS                           240

  INDEX                                        257




Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland.




An Unparalleled Sheriffwick.


For a period of 645 years--from 1204 to 1849--Westmorland, unlike other
counties in England (excluding, of course, the counties Palatine), had no
Sheriff other than the one who held the office by hereditary right. The
first Sheriff of the county is mentioned in 1160, and nine or ten other
names occur at subsequent periods, until in 1202, the fourth year of the
reign of King John, came Robert de Vetripont. Very soon afterwards the
office was made hereditary in his family "to have and to hold of the King
and his heirs." The honour and privileges were possessed by no less than
twenty-two of Robert's descendants. Their occupation of the office covers
some very exciting periods of county history, the tasks committed to the
Sheriffs in former centuries being frequently of an arduous as well as
dangerous character.

The Sheriff had very important duties of a military character to carry
out. Thus in the sixth year of Henry the Third we have the command from
the King to the Sheriff of Westmorland that without any delay he should
summon the earls, barons, knights, and freeholders of his bailiwick, and
that he should hasten to Cockermouth and besiege the castle there,
afterwards destroying it to its very foundations. This order was a
duplicate of one sent to the Sheriff of Yorkshire concerning Skipton
Castle and other places. It is not known, however, whether the
instructions respecting Cockermouth were carried out or not.

The powers of Sheriff not being confined to the male members of the
family, the histories of Westmorland contain the unusual information that
at least two women occupied, by right of office, seats on the bench
alongside the Judges. The first of these was Isabella de Clifford, widow
of Robert, and, wrote the historian Machell, "