LITMIR.BIZ

31

Selden's History of Tithes. Easterby's Law of Tithes, pp. 4, 8, and 13.

32

The early practice of burial in distant churches is inexplicable to this age. But it should be remembered that in early days man was a peripatetic animal, to whom the distance between Grasmere and Kendal, or Hawkshead and Dalton, would be slight; and that a corpse wrapped in a winding-sheet would be much lighter than one coffined.

33

Of the first, still paid, there is plenty of evidence. It was even allowed during the Commonwealth. In 1645 the Rydal Hall account-sheets show that arrears were paid to the Kendal parson out of the tithes "upon order for 5 yeares stypd out of Gresmire," amounting to £3 6s 8d or five marks. Next year is entered "Rent due to mr. M. out of Gresmire tithes" 13s 6d. The order came from the Puritan Committee at Kendal.

34

Creighton's Historical Essays.

35

At Cartmel in 1642 measures were taken "for the makinge upp of the twentie-fourte … that there may be four in everye churchwardens division as hath formerlie been used." Stockdale's Annales Caermoelensis.

36

There is a tradition that a route from Skelwith Bridge dropped sharply from the top of Red Bank to the old ford of the Rothay known as Bathwath (Rydal Hall MSS.), and that it had even been used for funerals. This seems unlikely, unless the use were a repetition of a custom that had prevailed before the present Red Bank road was made; and of superstitious adherence to old corpse-roads the Rev. J. C. Atkinson (Forty Years in a Moorland Parish) gives instances. There may indeed have been once a well-trodden path there. In former times a fulling-mill stood on the left bank of the Rothay, near to the ford, and within the freehold property of Bainrigg. The mill was owned by the Benson family in the fifteenth century, but Bainrigg had belonged before that time to a family of de Bainbrigg, who had at least one capital dwelling or mansion-house standing upon it. Now a road to this house or houses there must have been. The woodman recently found a track leading up from the site of the mill to the rocky height, which emerged upon the present Wishing-Gate road. On the line of this (which was engineered as a turnpike road only about 1770-80) the older way doubtless continued towards Grasmere, past How Top and through Town End. A huge stone standing on this line was known as the How Stone. Levi Hodgson who lived at How Top, and who described the route to Mr. W. H. Hills, remembered fragments of a cottage in the wood. If the Skelwith Bridge folk ever used it as a church path, they would meet their townsmen (who had come over White Moss) at How Top. Close by there is still a flat-topped boulder used for resting burdens upon.

37

This gate is shown in a map of 1846, as well as the stile which gave its name to the house then still standing, that was immediately opposite. Both disappeared at the widening of the lane from Stock Bridge to the church.

38

Ambleside Town and Chapel.

39

It is not easy to discover what was the early practice of the church concerning the administration of the sacrament, or the number of times it was received yearly by the laity. As early as 750, laymen who failed to communicate at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, were not esteemed christians; they were expected to make offerings four times a year. A later rule, which was stringent, seems to have been once a year, though a more frequent attendance – specially at Easter and Christmas, was urged. See Abbot Gasquet's Parish Life in Medieval England, Wall's Old English Parishes, p. 90, and Wordsworth's Medieval Services in England. The sacrament was called housel, and the bread houselling-bread. Henry VII's queen, Elizabeth of York, appears to have communicated three times a year, at the festivals of Easter, All Saints, and Christmas (Canon Simmon's Notes to the Lay Folks' Mass Book, p. 239). Queen Victoria no doubt clung to an old custom when she communicated no oftener than three or four times a year. (See Life.)

40

The population must have been greater when the Kendal trade in cloth was at its height. There were 1300 "houseling people" reported for the parish of Windermere in 1549 (Commission quoted in Mr. Brydson's Sidelights on Mediæval Windermere, p. 95), and there is no reason to suppose that Grasmere was far behind. At the same time the numbers to collect at one celebration would be considerably lessened if the Easter communion were spread over several occasions, as was the case in the late seventeenth century at Clayworth, Notts, where celebrations were held on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, as well as Easter Day. All parishioners – to judge from the rector's careful record – must at this season have communicated; but at the celebrations of Whitweek and Christmas (for there was none at Michaelmas) the numbers were much lower. (Rector's Book of Clayworth).

41

We have no evidence of this to show for Grasmere Church. But in 1622 "Sir" Richard Pearson, curate of Troutbeck, was empowered by the rector of Windermere to publicly revoke the sentence of excommunication under which one Adam Birkhead lay. An edict was issued from the registry of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire as late as 1715, citing a form of penance to be gone through by George Birkett, who before the congregation of Troutbeck, and in "penitential habit," was to confess his grievous sin of incest with his deceased wife's sister. An additional note, however, empowered Mr. Barton, rector of Windermere, and Mr. Grisedale, curate, to use their discretion as to the manner of confession, and to allow the sinner, if properly penitent, to make it "in his Ordinary apparell" (Browne MSS.). It may have been the dislike of public penance, with its peculiar habit, that caused the churchwardens of Grasmere so often, and so incorrectly, to return a clean bill of morality in their Presentments.

42

Wills and Inventories of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire (Rev. J. Raine). The privilege of probate was withdrawn finally from ecclesiastical courts by Act of 1857 (Dr. Cox's History of Parish Registers).

43

Public Record Office Court Roll 207/122.

44

Browne MSS.

45

Rydal Hall MSS.

46

Rydal Hall MSS.

47

Public Record Office Court Roll 207/111.

48

Church inquisition post mortem, Henry VI., No. 36.

49

See Coulton's Chaucer and his England, where miracle-plays and dances are added to the list.

50

Calendar Patent Rolls, 4 Richard II., p. 1.

51

Browne MSS.

52

Rydal Hall MSS.

53

Rydal Hall MSS.

54

Annales Caermoelensis.

55

From Mr. George Browne, one of the Twenty-four.

56

At Holme Cultram, Cumberland, a like body – chosen, however, by the people themselves – were responsible for the care of the bridges and common wood, besides providing for the upkeep of the sea-dyke. See "The Sixteen Men of Holme Cultram," Transactions, Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, N.S., 3. The Eighteen of Aston, Oxfordshire, were found in 1583 to have control over the common field and meadow, with the yearly allotments made within them. See "Survival of Archaic Communities," Prof. F. W. Maitland (Law Quarterly Review, vol. 9). Prof. Maitland

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