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 CBOSTHf AIXE GHURCH. 
 

 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 WORDSWORTH COLLECTION 
 
 FOUNDED BY 
 CYNTHIA MORGAN ST. JOHN 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 VICTOR EMANUEL 
 
 OF THE CLASS OF I919 
 
A<^ 
 
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Tmm mLiLw,T©mir 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
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fll SIif@EI 
 
 TIBIEIElLASnSo 
 
 " Wouldst thou know the beauty of hoUness; go alone on some iveek-d.iy, borrowing: 
 the keys of good Master Sexton; — traverse the cool aisles uf some country church; — 
 think of the piety that has kneeled there; — the congregations old and young that have 
 found consolation there; — with no disturbing emotions, no cross conflicting comparisons, 
 drink in the tranquillity of the place; — till thou thyself become as fixed and motionless as 
 the marble effigies that kneel and weep around thee." 
 
 CUAKLES L.VMR, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN BOWYER NICHOLS AND SONS, 
 
 25, PARLIAMENT STREET. 
 
 1853. 
 
 U^ 
 

 H 
 
 '<S=^' 
 
 
In the Summer of 1846 a stranger, whose stay was 
 limited to three days, alighted in the town of 
 Keswick, and subsequently strolled through its long 
 street to the old Church of Crosthwaite, the parish 
 in which that town is situated. He viewed the fabric, 
 and strayed among the grassy grave-mounds that lay 
 so thickly in the surrounding cemetery, reading the 
 mementos graven on head-stones to those whose hearts 
 are laid to rest around the fane within which they 
 have so often swelled with emotion. The erection of 
 the porch was then in progress, and, after speaking for 
 a time with the masons engaged on the work, he went 
 his way. 
 
 The sultry afternoon of a July day in a subsequent 
 year, saw the same individual again a charmed wan- 
 derer amid the scenery of the romantic vale of the 
 
( vi ) 
 
 Derwentwatcrs, and beheld his steps approach the 
 chosen House of God. By chance the persons whom 
 he had met on his first visit were again assembled in 
 the burial-ground. There was the obliging sexton, 
 the well-remembered mason, and the joiner, who had 
 been engaged in the restoration of the church. He 
 fell into conversation, and found them intelligent, for 
 each had his tale to convey respecting the edifice 
 beneath whose antique tower they stood. AVhile thus 
 grouped, a search was made for the roots of those 
 giant yew-trees, which in years that ha^'e died away 
 spread their mournful umbrage over the green hillocks 
 below ; and a piece was chipped off, that was handed 
 to the stranger as a memorial of the spot. He then 
 entered tlic church, and, moving in soothed silence 
 through the cool aisles, heedfuUy noted its architec- 
 tural features, and examined the windows whose 
 pictorial imagery recorded scriptural events, or em- 
 bodied local feelings. His gaze was earnest upon the 
 inanimate resemblance of that gifted man whose 
 mind, an argosie laden with the treasures of learning, 
 and whose life, all virtue, has been awarded so fair a 
 page in his country's history, while his tomb has 
 added a new and paramount interest to the place of 
 
( vii ) 
 
 his sepulture. The effigies and monumental brasses 
 of the ancient race whose chivalrou.s descendant lost 
 life and wide domains in an unsuccessful attempt to 
 replace the Stuart upon the throne of his ancestors 
 last engaged attention, and the stranger's ponderings 
 were intent upon relics which it was fondly hoped 
 would have kept undimmed the remembrance of their 
 dead. Lingering amid these frail memorials of de- 
 parted greatness, his reverie was protracted on all he 
 saw, and more that only passed before the inward eye 
 of his intelligence. The shades of evening closing in 
 gradually deepened the gloom of the long arcades, 
 while the moon peering over Helvellyn's lofty range, 
 and " lighting old windows with gleams day had not," 
 enamelled with resplendent hues the pillars and pale 
 monuments around. The distant Derwent hymned a 
 vesper song as the stars shone out, and heralded the 
 hour as meet for reminiscences of the past. Thus 
 fascinated by the fair forms of creative art, on which 
 the scene, blending with the associations which 
 vocalized them all, bestowed a heightened charm, 
 his contemplations assumed a deeper interest, and 
 thovights, the emanations of that hour of lonely 
 musing, suffused his mind, to which in after-days the 
 
( vili ) 
 
 pen, albeit unequal to the tlieme, has sought to give 
 expression. 
 
 For the sincere veneration with which he would 
 wake the echoes of the eloqiient fane, may the more 
 learned forgive his imperfect knowledge of their 
 ancient tones. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 " How beautiful they stand, 
 These ancient altars of our native land, 
 Amid the pasture-fields and darlc green woods, 
 Amid the mountain clouds and solitudes; 
 By rivers broad that rush into the sea, 
 By little brooks, that with a lisping sound, 
 Like playful children, run by copse and lea : 
 Each in its little plot of holy ground, 
 How beautiful they stand ! 
 ****** 
 
 Something in this aspiring world we need 
 
 To keep our spirits lowly, 
 
 To set within our hearts pure thoughts and holy ; 
 
 'Tis for this they stand, 
 These old grey churches of our native land." 
 
 Mary Howitt. 
 
 The town of Keswick is situated in one of the 
 largest and most beautiful vales in Cumberland, at 
 the northern extremity of the lake district, on the 
 high road, and nearly midway between Ambleside, 
 Cockermouth, and Penrith. It is so well known on 
 B 
 
( viii ) 
 
 pen, albeit unequal to the theme, has sought to give 
 expression. 
 
 For the sincere veneration with which he would 
 wake the echoes of the eloquent fane, may the more 
 learned forgive his imperfect knowledge of their 
 ancient tones. 
 
CROSTIIWAITE CIIURCE 
 
 " How beautiful they stand, 
 These ancient altars of our native land, 
 Amid the pasture-fields and dark green woods, 
 Amid the mountain clouds and solitudes; 
 By rivers broad that rush into the sea, 
 By little brooks, that with a lisping sound, 
 Like playful children, run by copse and lea : 
 Each in its little plot of holy ground, 
 How beautiful they stand ! 
 
 Something in this aspiring world we need 
 
 To keep our spirits lowly, 
 
 To set within our hearts pure thoughts and holy ; 
 
 'Tis for this they stand, 
 These old grey churches of our native land." 
 
 Mary Howitt. 
 
 The town of Keswick is situated in one of the 
 largest and most beautiful vales in Cumberland, at 
 the northern extremity of the lake district, on the 
 high road, and nearly midway between Ambleside, 
 Cockermouth, and Penrith. It is so well known on 
 B 
 
2 c:rosthwaite church. 
 
 account of the many scenes of picturesque loveliness 
 with which its immediate neighbourhood abounds; 
 heightened, as they are, by the romance which en- 
 circles the name of Derwentwater, and the glory 
 reflected from the laurels that crown the tomb of 
 Southey, that any further description is unnecessary. 
 It will only be added, on the authority of one who 
 knew the place a century ago, that it has been " more 
 considerable formerly." The aspect of the country 
 around has also undergone much change since that 
 time, and many of the vestiges of its earlier years 
 have wholly passed away. The crystal meres and 
 the majestic fells, in all their imposing permanency, 
 are still as of old; but the wide and magnificent 
 forests, which within the last age garnished the land 
 between the to^vn and the lakes, have long since fallen 
 beneath the ruthless axe, which has caused so many 
 of the finest woods in the country to disappear, with- 
 out leaving a trace behind. " Ah !" exclaims a native 
 of this alpine district, in his tour from London to tlie 
 Lakes in 1791, "how fallen is the scenery around this 
 lake and vale of Keswick since I saw it in the year 
 1749, when Crow Park, Friar's Crag, Lord's Island 
 and indeed all the shores and islands of this beautiful 
 
CROSTHAVAITE CHURCH. 3 
 
 lake, were covered with tall oaks. The view must 
 have been striking when a child of ten years' old, as 1 
 was then, had such an impression made by it as not 
 to be erased for forty years. Nay, I think I could 
 draw it from memory at this hour if I had time. The 
 wood was so even at top, each tree being about eighteen 
 yards high and very thick, that it looked like a field; 
 and the branches so interwoven that boys could have 
 gone from tree to tree like squirrels." We must not, 
 however, linger with regret on that which, in the 
 wisdom of the present day, may be deemed an unwise 
 lament for the extinction of the olden sylvan glories 
 of a region which the travelled Pennant, with such 
 fine appreciation, has termed " the Elysium of the 
 North," but proceed to bring together a few observa- 
 tions on the history and character of the old church 
 of Crosthwaite ; and, by the illustration of apt acces- 
 sories from the labours of erudite men, impart an 
 interest to the narrative that may awaken regard, not 
 alone in the musing antiquary who delights to dwell 
 on the taste and feeling exhibited in our ancient 
 ecclesiastical architecture, but among those who, in 
 the bright days of summer, annually throng to behold 
 the romantic scenery amidst which this earliest settled 
 B 2 
 
4 CROSTHAVAITE CHURClf. 
 
 centre of tlie Cliristian love and reverence of the vale 
 is so peacefully planted. 
 
 There are several localities in the coimties of Cum- 
 berland and Westmorland Avhose names begin with 
 the word which denotes the emblem of our Divine 
 Kedeemer's passion, as Crosby, which imports what 
 was anciently kno-wii as the Cross, or Church town ; 
 the termination " by," a Danish expression, signifying 
 a town or hamlet. Places whose names have the 
 same initial syllable, are also frequently distinguished 
 by some other supervenient description. Of this the 
 etymon of Crosthwaite affords an example, " thwaite" 
 being a vocable which betokened a spot of cultivated 
 or cleared ground inclosed with hills or woods; and 
 the entire name thus forms that discriminative appel- 
 lation which indicates the site on which the church 
 arose, when the heaven-born tidings of salvation were 
 first preached beneath the mystic temjale of Druidic 
 faith. 
 
 The opinion that would claim for Crosthwaite 
 Church an antiquity prior to the era which beheld 
 this fair realm subject to the Conqueror's rule, is not 
 without support; it being a fact sustained bv the evi- 
 dence of history, that in the early ages of Christianity 
 
CROSTIIWAITE CHURCH. 5 
 
 in England, each proprietor having the degree oi' 
 Thcgne or Thane — a rank of gentry among the Saxons 
 equivalent to that of the Norman Lord of the Manor 
 — was required to be the owner of five hides of land 
 at the least, and to havo a church thereon. It is also 
 traditionally said, that in those days there resided on 
 or near the margin of that beautiful lake — whose name, 
 according to the agreeable topographer before quoted, 
 is derived from " derwen," the Celtic word for an 
 oak, of which kind of trees there grew an exceeding 
 abundance about it — an individual of the Saxon or 
 elder British tribes, who, from the extent of his landed 
 possessions (the parish of Crosthwaite, besides large 
 estates in other parts of Cumberland, and in West- 
 morland, being of old time the inheritance of his 
 family), was especially surnamed De Derwentwater ; 
 their baptismal names, with some personal or terri- 
 torial addition, as John de Derwentwater, Gilbert 
 le Forester, and Michael de Crosthwaite, being those 
 alone by which men were known in such far-off 
 times. Hence it is more than pure matter of con- 
 jecture, that, as the surrounding lands belonged to the 
 Derwentwaters, and the parish was constituted in those 
 ages antecedent to the Conquest which beheld the res L 
 
6 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 of England parcelled into such ecclesiastical divisions, 
 the head of that leading family may, after the custom 
 of the day, have been the primal foimder of the 
 church. An inference applicable to the subject may 
 likewise be drawn from the improbability that so large 
 a district as is comprised within the parochial ambit 
 would have been left until the twelfth century with- 
 out some such permanent religious institution as a 
 parish church, which in Saxon times was distinguished 
 from other chm-ches and oratories as the place where 
 alone the rites of baptism, marriage, and sepulture 
 were solemnized ; the custom of burying in the church- 
 yards having been first introduced and made imperative 
 in England so far back as the year 750 of our era, 
 previously to which the more healthful practice pre- 
 vailed of interring the dead at some distance from the 
 habitations of the living. Moreover, as Glasgow, the 
 diocese whereof extended into Cumberland until Car- 
 lisle was carved out of it (though it is elsewhere held 
 that the latter see was wrested from Durham and made 
 into a separate episcopate in Henry I.'s reign), was 
 the chief seat of the mission of Saint Kentigern, and 
 from whence he spread or restored Christianity through 
 the whole extent of the British kingdom of Strath- 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 7 
 
 clyde or Cumbria, from Loch Lomond and near 
 Stirling to Windermere and as far as Stanemore, 
 that circumstance may likewise be adduced in proof 
 of the conclusion, that the first fixed site of religion 
 in the vale of Keswick was the rude wooden church 
 of the time of its patron saint. 
 
 As, however, the diocese of Carlisle, within which 
 the parish of Crosthwaite is situated, was not consti- 
 tuted until A.D. 1133, and no records have been trans- 
 mitted to posterity in any episcopal or other registers 
 respecting the origin and history of the church before 
 the advent of the Xormans, or how the advowson 
 passed into their hands, it is hardly worth while to 
 speculate further on its title to be considered of anterior 
 date, especially as the notices respecting it at this 
 obscure period are scarcely more than traditionary, and 
 no portion of the existing edifice appears to have been 
 engrafted ujjon the church of the Derwentwaters ; 
 that venerable seat of ancient sanctity in all likeli- 
 hood being swept away in the direful ravages of the 
 Danes in the ninth century, or having through waste 
 of ages been outworn, and at length supplanted by the 
 fabric erected in that great era of chvu-ch-building, 
 the reigns of Henry L and his successor, in which the 
 
o CROSTHWAITE CHURCH, 
 
 " Norman lords adapted the religious edifices on their 
 manors to tlieir own more extended ideas of propriety 
 and magnificence," by a lady to whose ancestors the 
 feudal suzerainship of the district had been granted 
 by the Conqueror. 
 
 In the second volume of " Sir Thomas More, or 
 Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society," 
 its learned author, whose long residence in this charm- 
 ing vale has so strongly connected it with the classic 
 remembrances of his age, in a brief notice of the sacred 
 fane, assigns its foundation to Korman times, and in 
 the story of its saintly guardian exhibits one of those 
 fanciful creations of monastic romance which formerly 
 received the meed of universal credence. 
 
 " Alice de Eomili," says Southey, " heiress of Egre- 
 mont and Skip ton, who in the reign of Stephen or 
 his successor married the Lord of AUerdale, is sup- 
 posed to have been the person by whom it was founded 
 and endowed, and who subsequently gave it to Foun- 
 tains Abbey. It was soon after appropriated to that 
 monastery, the collation being reserved to the Bishop 
 of Carlisle. William FitzDuncan, the husband of this 
 Alice, was son to the Earl of ]\Iurray, and brother to 
 David king of Scotland, and this may perhaps explain 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 9 
 
 why tlic churcli was dedicated to tlic Scotch Saint 
 Kentigern, Bishop of Glasgow and patron of that 
 cathedral, a personage once high among the saints of 
 that age, though now utterly forgotten here, in the 
 parish where, during so many generations, his festival 
 used to be celebrated on the 13th January. Here 
 folio weth his legend, which Hagiologists have related 
 Avithout scruple, and which, during many ages, was 
 believed without hesitation. The saint in question 
 was, as the romance says of Merlin the son of the 
 devil, a gentleman on his mother's side ; his mother, 
 Thermetes or Themis, being the daughter of King 
 Lot, of Lowthean and Orkenay, a personage well 
 known in the annals of the Round Table, by Anna, 
 dauo-hter to Uther Pcndras;on, and half-sister to King 
 Arthur. A more illustrious stock could scarcely be 
 found in chivalrous genealogy. The time of his birth 
 Jias been fixed in the year 514, and, after living high 
 among the saints of that, which was the golden age 
 of saints, and flourishing in holiness and miracles," 
 many of which are detailed at length by our author, 
 though none seem to have had any relation to or been 
 performed in this parish, he died at the prodigious 
 age of 185, and lies biu-icd in the central portion of 
 
10 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 the crypt in Glasgow cathedral, where his tomb may 
 still be visited by the curious. " Wlien our calendar 
 was purged at the Eeformation directions were given 
 that respect should be had to saints of the blood 
 royal. This must have been the chief reason why 
 Saint Kentio-ern's name was inserted, though not in 
 red letters, in the calendar prefixed to that liturgy 
 which gave occasion to the Scotish covenant. Perhaps 
 another motive was, that as his other name, Mungo, 
 had become not uncommon in Scotland, his memory 
 owing to that circumstance might still have been 
 popular. Yet we may reasonably wonder that any 
 motives should have prevailed for its insertion, seeing 
 how entirely fabulous the story is in all its parts." It 
 is not, however, necessary to attach fm-ther considera- 
 tion to a " legend," which, though partly built, as 
 those will perceive Avho possess the critical acumen to 
 separate what is trustworthy in historic fact from what 
 is merely characteristic in monastic chronicle, on a 
 foundation of truth, is, as the same wi'iter has pro- 
 perly observed, " a better word than history for such 
 tales." Had, indeed, the monkish biographers con- 
 fined themselves to Kcntigern the bishop and mis- 
 sionary, and not obscured the real lustre of his actions 
 
CR08THWAITE CHURCH. 11 
 
 by tlie multitude of miraculous fictions, with which 
 through every succeeding age, until the Eeformation, 
 they have loaded his memory, and had they devoted 
 less of their narratives to Kentigern the saint, we of 
 the present day should have been more disposed to 
 reverence the memory of a man whose zeal first dif- 
 fused the light of gospel truth in the locality, and who 
 for his piety and real acts of usefulness — the brighter 
 from the darkness of the age in which he lived, is 
 entitled to no ordinary respect. 
 
 The Lady Alice beforenamed was only child to 
 Eobert de Eomili, Lord of Skipton in Craven, by 
 Alice, daughter and sole heiress of William, surnamed 
 le Meschin, the Norman baron of that portion of 
 Cumberland which before his day was territorially 
 known as Coupland or AUerdale above Derwent, but 
 which denominative, shortly after his investiture, he 
 changed to Egremont, on the occasion of rearing his 
 feudal castle upon the lofty mound which rises above 
 the rapid waters of the Egre or Ehen. Her husband 
 was William Fitz- Duncan, son to Duncan earl of 
 Murray, and nephew of that David king of Scotland 
 who is allowed by early writers to have been a wise and 
 virtuous prince, qualities for which he was afterwards 
 
12 CROSTHAVAITE CHURCH. 
 
 canonized, but whom one of his impoverished suc- 
 cessors, when alhiding to the vast extent of royal 
 domains which David had alienated to the numerous 
 abbeys and religious houses he had built, as a means of 
 civilizing his sul)jects, bitterly styled " A sair sainct 
 for the Crown.'' 
 
 Fitz-Duncan, who after his marriage was also called 
 William de Eomili, was lord of the adjoining Cumbrian 
 seigniory or honor of Cockermouth, and of the barony 
 of AUerdale below Derwent, within which latter fief, 
 Castlerigg and Tallantire, ancient possessions of the 
 Derwentwaters, were subordinate manors. Both of 
 these large estates had descended to him from his 
 motlier Octreda, who inherited them from her grand- 
 father Waldeof, to whom they had been granted by 
 Randoljsh du Bricpresard, also surnamcd le JMeschin, 
 Vicomte du Bessin, elder brother of William Ic 
 Meschin, and the first Norman paramount feudatory of 
 Cumberland. 
 
 By this alliance the baronies of Skipton and Egre- 
 mont were united in the same family with the barony 
 of Allerdalc and honor of Cockermouth. 
 
 Lady Alice had two sons, the younger of whom, 
 from the place of his birth, was called "the Boy of 
 
CEOSXnWAITE CHURCH. 13 
 
 Egremond," and wlio, outliving an elder brother, 
 became the last hope of his family. She had also 
 three daughters, Cecily, Amabil, and Avice, who, on 
 the death of their surviving brother, fell heirs to this 
 extensive heritage, which after their mother's decease 
 was accordingly parted among them. 
 
 Her son, who was named William, is said to have 
 been drowned on his rettu'n from hunting or hawking 
 as he crossed the river TVIaarf, near Barden Tower in 
 Craven. The accuracy of this account, though admitted 
 to be true so far as the death by drowning of a scion of 
 Eomili's house, is however doubted by that popular 
 antiquarian writer Doctor Wliitaker, who states that 
 the drowned son of the Lady Alice or Aaliza was a 
 party and \vitness to the charter of translation to 
 Bolton in 1154 of the canons of the priory of Embsay, 
 founded in 1121 by William le Meschin and Cecilia 
 his wife. Besides, as the Boy of Egremond was alive 
 in 1160, and a partaker in the rebellion of the Pictish 
 Celts of Scotland, of which the oljject was to set him 
 on the throne as the rightful heir, the lucid archaso- 
 logist is of opinion that the story refers to one of the 
 sons (both of whom died young) of Cecilia le Meschin , 
 grandmother of Lady Alice. 
 
14 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 Be this as it may, the generally received version of 
 the tale affirms, that the yonng lord's greyhound, being- 
 tied to his girdle by a leash, hung back as its master 
 sprang across the deep chasm, through which the 
 waters pour with resistless force, and, thus checked in 
 his leap, the unfortunate Romili fell into the seething 
 torrent, at a place called " The Strid," where he was 
 drowned. Wlien the report of her bereavement 
 reached his mother, borne by the attendant who 
 beheld his untimely fate, — and who, wishing to break 
 the pitiful tidings as softly as possible, inquired in 
 language whose phraseology in the present day is 
 almost unintelligible, " Wliat is good for a bootless 
 bene?" meaning thereby, " What remains when prayer 
 is useless?" — tradition avers, that apprehending from 
 the return of the folconer alone, with despair pictured 
 on his countenance, that some great calamity had 
 befallen her son, her answer was couched in that 
 memorable archaism, " Bootless bayl brings endless 
 sorrow," whose heartbroken sentiment, echoed down to 
 our times, in history and ancient song, has within 
 recent years again excited the poetic genius of 
 Rogers, as well as been embodied by Wordsworth in 
 that pathetic manifestation of the beautiful, entitled 
 
CBOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 15 
 
 THE FORCE OP PRAYER, 
 
 OR THE FOUNDING OF BOLTON PRIORY. 
 
 What is good for a bootless bene ? 
 
 With these dark words begins my tale, 
 And their meaning is, Whence can comfort spring, 
 
 When prayer is of no avail ? 
 
 What is good for a bootless bene ? 
 
 The Falconer to the lady said; 
 And she made answer, " Endless sorrow," 
 
 For she knew that her son was dead. 
 
 She knew it by the Falconer's words, 
 
 And from the look of the Falconer's eye. 
 And from the love which was in her soul 
 
 For her youthful Romili. 
 
 Young Romili through Bardon woods 
 
 Is ranging high and low. 
 And holds a greyhound in a leash, 
 
 To let slip upon a buck or doe. 
 
 The pair have reached that fearful chasm, 
 
 How tempting to bestride ! 
 For lordly Wharf is there pent in 
 
 With rocks on either side. 
 
 This striding place is called " The Strid," 
 
 A name which it took of yore ; 
 A thousand years hath it borne that name, 
 
 And shall a thousand more. 
 
 And hither is young Romili come, 
 
 And what may now forbid 
 That he, perhaps for the hundredth time, 
 
 Shall bound across the Strid. 
 
16 CROSTIIWATTE CIIURCir. 
 
 Ho sprang in glee — for what carert he 
 
 That the river was strong and the rocks were steep ' 
 
 But the greyhound in the leash held back, 
 And checked him in his leap. 
 
 The Boy is in the arras of Wharf, 
 
 And strangled by a merciless force, 
 For never more was young Romili seen , 
 
 Till he rose a lifeless corse. 
 
 And now there is stillness in the vale. 
 
 And long unspeaking sorrow ; 
 Wharf shall be to pitying hearts 
 
 A name more sad than Yarrow. 
 
 If for a lover the lady wept, 
 
 A solace she might borrow 
 From death, and from the passion of death 
 
 Old Wharf might heal her sorrow. 
 
 She weeps not for the wedding day 
 
 Which was to be to-morrow ; 
 Her hope was a further looking hope, 
 
 And hers is a mother's sorrow. 
 
 He was a tree that stood alone, 
 
 And proudly did its branches wave ; 
 
 And the root of this delightful tree 
 Was in her husband's grave. 
 
 Long, long in darkness did she sit ; 
 
 And her first words were, " Let there be 
 In Bolton, on the field of Wharf, 
 
 A stately priory." 
 
 The stately priory was reared. 
 
 And Wharf, as he moved along. 
 To matins joined a mournful voice. 
 
 Nor failed at even-song. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 17 
 
 And the Lady prayed in heaviness, 
 
 That looked not for relief ! 
 But slowly did her succour come. 
 
 And a patience to her grief. 
 
 Oh ! there is never sorrow of heart 
 
 That shall lack a timely end, 
 If but to God we turn, and ask 
 
 Of Him to be our friend ! 
 
 Lady Alice seems always to have cherislied those 
 dispositions whose spiritual convictions moved in 
 unison with the votive religious practices of the age 
 — and her devotional feelings being probably increased 
 by the overwhelming melancholy which suffused her 
 heart — she, for the health of her dear sola's soul, founded 
 near the scene of his untimely fate the priory before 
 mentioned, whose legendary history has enshrined her 
 affections and her sorrows in that guise of mythic 
 elegance which has been rendered imperishable by its 
 adoption as the leading feature in the ballad of " The 
 Wliite Doe of Rylstone." 
 
 That Old Man, studious to expound 
 The spectacle, is mounting high 
 To days of dim antiquity ; 
 When lady Aaliza mourned 
 Her Son, and felt in her despair 
 The pang of unavailing prayer ; 
 Her Son in Wharf's abysses drowned, 
 The noble Boy of Egremound. 
 C 
 
18 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 From which affliction — when the grace 
 
 Of God had in her heart found place — 
 
 A pious structure, fair to see, 
 
 Rose up, this stately Priory ! 
 
 The Lady's work ; — but now laid low ; 
 
 To the grief of her soul, that doth come and go, 
 
 In the beautiful form of this innocent Doe : 
 
 Which, though seemingly doomed in its breast to sustain 
 
 A softened remembrance of sorrow and pain. 
 
 Is spotless, and holy, and gentle, and bright ; 
 
 And glides o'er the earth like an angel of light. 
 
 The Lady of Skipton, Cockermouth, and the AUer- 
 dales, also bestowed her lands and goods most liber- 
 ally upon the Abbeys at Fountains and Pomfret, and 
 other religious confraternities. Among such donatives, 
 she gave the church at Crosthwaite, to the first-men- 
 tioned institution, and, though a supposition on the 
 subject is hazarded by the luminous writer already 
 cited at length, the provincial antiquaries are silent as 
 to her being the foundress, their narratives bemg 
 merely to the effect that the " Chtu-ch at Crosthwaite 
 was anciently rectorial, and was given to the abbey at 
 Fountains by Alice de Eomili, and soon after made 
 appropriate, the Bishop of Carlisle reserving to the see 
 the right of collating a vicar." 
 
 But, leaving the unrecorded era of its primary 
 foundation shrouded in that historic doubt which the 
 
CROSTIIWAITE CHURCH. 19 
 
 absence of unimpeachable authority for its elucidation 
 renders obligatory, and passing over the long interval 
 of more than three hundred years posterior to the day 
 of Lady Alice, of whose conjectural structure the most 
 practised eye cannot detect any vestiges, the current 
 of time approaches the epoch when the fabric now 
 standing is considered to have arisen. 
 
 Dating its construction from an age when there 
 prevailed a very rough mode of executing the details 
 of the Perpendicular style in the north of England, 
 and particularly so with respect to the examples in 
 Cumberland, this edifice is one of those old structures 
 chiefly erected in the times of the last Henries, when 
 strength and durability were regarded as important 
 considerations, especially in those churches on the 
 exposed frontier of the county, which, until the union 
 of the crowns, was continually re-echoing to the 
 slogan of border warfere. 
 
 It is a spacious fabric, broad, firm, and true, without 
 a distinct chancel, and totally unlike those modern 
 conceits which even the best efforts of the best archi- 
 tects now-a-days frequently present. The walls, which 
 are coated with roughcast and whitewash (the para- 
 pets, battlements, and dressings of the doorways and 
 c 2 
 
20 CHOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 windows excepted), are thick, strengthened by but- 
 tresses, and a strong square tower at the west end, 
 which imparts an air of dignity to the exterior ; while 
 tlie architecture, on whose ornamentation artistic taste, 
 until recently, has been but sparingly bestowed, is 
 mixed with such trifling portions of preceding styles, 
 as barely prove the justice of the observation made by 
 some old writer, that our forefathers never rebuilt a 
 church without preserving a portion of its predecessor. 
 It stands on a slight green knoll near the centre of the 
 vale, about midway between the Lakes of Derwent and 
 Bassenthwaite, half a mile from the to^vn, and some- 
 what further from the foot of that sublime moimtain 
 whose name is derived from that of the solar god, 
 Ska-da, one of the appellations of the chief deity of 
 Celtic Britain, to whom Skiddaw, in the ages of Gen- 
 tilism, was consecrated. Apart from its associations, 
 it is an object on which the eye rests with pleasure, and 
 many a sketchbook Avill have preserved it, as one of 
 the conspicuous objects in a scene second to none for 
 the picturesque richness of landscape adornment. When 
 approached from the town, as the eye, glancing alono- 
 the meandering vista, takes in the turnings of the road 
 till it meets the distant tower, the ornate porch, and 
 
CKOSTHWAITE CllUliCII. 21 
 
 ancient tree school, witli Skiddaw raising his solemn 
 head above the mists that fleck his verdant slopes, it 
 presents an aspect eminently attractive. Or when be- 
 held from the corner of the footpath which leads by 
 the grounds at Lairthwaite, with the soaring fells of 
 Grisedale and Grasmoor looking down upon it through 
 the long green vale of Braithwaite, and its lone tower 
 looking 
 
 " Upward fixedly, 
 Like stedfast hope beneath some careless wrong," 
 
 it truly constitutes one of the ' ' thought-deseiwing- 
 nesses " in a picture deeply suggestive of those pen- 
 sive emotions that fall upon the heart with all the 
 soft and soothing influence of heaven. 
 
 As has before been said, the darkness of an unlettered 
 era broods over the infancy of the church; and no parti- 
 culars beyond those detailed have been found recorded 
 in books, or hoarded by tradition, relative to the foun- 
 dation, rebuildmg, or the subsequent additions of 
 which it affords evidence previous to the Reformation. 
 In Rome, however, it is understood, there is extant a 
 description of the edifice prior to that event ; it having 
 been a duty of the collector of the ecclesiastical tax, 
 known in this realm in papistical times as the " Rome 
 
22 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 scot," or " Peter's pence," besides the gathering and 
 transmitting to the Vatican of such tribute, to make 
 from time to time a minute return of the religious 
 sti-uctures, with the boundaries, extent, number of 
 houses with fire-hearths, and other matters relative to 
 the state of each parish. 
 
 Neither Leland, or Camden, those archseological 
 pioneers who devoted themselves to the investigation 
 of our national antiquities, have left any description of 
 the church. The former, who under a commission 
 from Henry VIII. dedicated several years to searching 
 after " the secrets of antiquity and everything that 
 seemed memorable in England," and in prosecution of 
 that object visited Cumberland in 1539, omits noticing 
 it, but alludes to the adjacent town as a " lytle poore 
 market to-wn cawUed Keswike." Camden, who fol- 
 lowed on the same route about 1599, likewise pre- 
 serves a sterile silence respecting the church, though he 
 mentions Keswick in these more enlarged terms: " On 
 the edges of this lake, in very rich land, surrounded 
 by dewy hills, and defended from the north winds by 
 Skiddaw, a very high mountain, lies Keswicke, a small 
 market towue, many years famous for the copper works 
 as appears from a charter of King EdAvard IV., and at 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 23 
 
 present inhabited by miners, whose smelting-house is 
 by Derwent-side, which, with his forcible stream, and 
 other ingenious inventions, serveth them in notable 
 stead for easy bellows- works, hammer- works, forge- 
 works, and sawing of boards, not without admiration 
 of those that behold." 
 
 In some distant day, but at what exact period has 
 not been discovered, one of those private religious esta- 
 blishments called a Chantry, which owed its origin to 
 the opinion so generally prevalent in the middle ages, 
 of the efficacy of prayer in respect to the dead as well 
 as the living, was founded in the church, and endowed 
 with lands and tenements for the support of a priest 
 ap]3ointed for the objects specifically mentioned in the 
 instrument of foimdation. It was dedicated to Saint 
 ■ Mary Magdalene de Keswyke, and from the circum- 
 stance of the eastern end of the south aisle, which had 
 been taken for the purpose of this subsidiary institu- 
 tion, being also used as the place of interment of the 
 old Derwent waters, and adorned with their monu- 
 ments, it is probable it was established by them, and 
 that the principal duty enjoined upon the chaplain was 
 to keep up a perpetual succession of prayers for the 
 prosperity of the foimder and his family while living, 
 
24 
 
 CKOSTHWAITE CHUliCH. 
 
 and the repose of tlie souls of those members of it 
 who were deceased. Observances such as these, thus 
 poetically commemorated, 
 
 And aye the mass-priest sings his sung 
 
 And patters many a prayer, 
 And the chanting-bell tolls loud and long, 
 
 And aye the lamp burns there, 
 
 belonged to the times, and had their origin in the idea 
 common to all medieval founders, that in laying out 
 their money on such institutions they were purchasing 
 the salvation of their souls. 
 
 An attentive examination of the fabric will detect 
 where such chantry was situated, by the piscina (now 
 hidden beneath a seat), which was placed in proximity 
 to the chantry altar, and by the portrait of the Mag- 
 dalen, which, from its position in the east window, 
 still with benignant aspect looks down upon the 
 effigies of those who in the days of the Komish com- 
 munion, feeling themselves to be "but strangers and 
 sojourners on the earth," sought in their prayers her 
 mediation with their God and Father in heaven. 
 
 The earliest authentic document that supplies any 
 descriptive particulars of the building is Bishop 
 Nicolson's " Miscellanv Account of the Churches 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 25 
 
 Parsonages, et cetera, in the several Parishes within 
 the Diocese of Carlisle, in 1703;" and, as that record 
 exposes a picture of the interior essentially different to 
 the one of to-day, it will have interest, if so graphic, 
 though in some respects inaccurate, a bit of eccle- 
 siological information be made known in the words of 
 a prelate, without whose ardent and inquisitive zeal as 
 an antiquary much that is now preserved and prized 
 would have been irretrievably lost. " About a year 
 ago I had confirmed about four hundred young 
 persons in this parish church, and had then taken a 
 cursory view of the state it was in; but, the curate, 
 Mr. Clark, being afterwards directed to procure me a 
 list of the charities given to their poor, and the endow- 
 ments of their chapels of ease, I waited for his letter 
 of this day's date (Sept. 15), that I might take the fidl 
 account of all together. The quire wants glazing, and 
 care to be taken of the roof, and yet, with all its im- 
 perfections, it is in a better state than could be well 
 expected where so many are at the charge. The 
 rectory is so parcell'd, and the prescriptions of meal- 
 silver in such a vast number of hands, that repairs are 
 not easily and timely to be had from paymasters so 
 widely dispersed. From the same unfortunate cause 
 
26 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 comes that multitude of seats which crowd up the 
 whole chancel, even to the very sides of the commu- 
 nion-table, which has no rails about it, nor is hardly 
 an inch advanced above the floor. The body of the 
 church is very uneven in its pavement, occasioned by 
 the frequent burying there, and the little care (or noe 
 care) that's taken by those that break the ground to 
 put the floor into the same order wherein they found 
 it, and the same neglect has occasioned the spoiling of 
 a great many seats. There's no monument (of any 
 consideration or age) excepting a small brass inscrip- 
 tion in the quire, which bears a legend" — unnecessary 
 to transcribe, as it will be found hereafter. " There's 
 nothing legible in the windows, more than Sancta 
 Katharina, and Orate pro Anima." 
 
 For the last one hundred years the exterior of the 
 church seems to have undergone little change. A 
 drawing in pencil of its appearance in 1745, with the 
 yew trees which waved their sombre foliage over the 
 virent mounds and moss-grown stones beneath, was 
 taken in that year, and is to be seen in the interesting 
 repository of the antiquities and natural and artificial 
 curiosities of the country, known as Crosthwaite's 
 Museum. The drawing, of which a reduced cojiy is 
 
CR08THWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 27 
 
 here given, was made, wlien a mere youth, by Mr. Peter 
 Crosthwaite, the founder of the museum, who died in 
 1808, after a useful life, chiefly devoted to the careful 
 philosophical and antiquarian examination of a district 
 whose native productions and romantic beaiities he was 
 one of the first scientifically to investigate and point 
 out for the guidance of successive generations of 
 admiring tourists. It is deserving of attention, as 
 preserving a faithful representation of the edifice at a 
 period so far back, when those umbrageous ornaments 
 of its cemetery. 
 
 The warlike yew with which, more than tlie lance, 
 The strong-armed English spirits conquered France, 
 
 flourished in undecayed vigour. 
 
 " These trees," says Mr. Southcj^, in a foot-note to 
 
28 CR08THWAITE CHURCH, 
 
 the Colloquies, " were some of the oldest and finest 
 yew trees in the country. The vicar of that day cut 
 them down, thinking the wood might serve to make 
 a pew for the singers, for which purpose it was found 
 unserviceable when too late, whereupon they were 
 used as props for the gallery. One of them grew 
 beside the school-house, and was so large that an old 
 man, more than fifty years ago, told my excellent 
 friend, whose name I now wi'ite with regret as the 
 late Sir George Beaumont, he had seen all the boys, 
 some forty m number, perched at one time upon its 
 boughs." 
 
 Fifty years ago the church offered nothing different 
 either externally or internally to its aspect in 1745. 
 In the year 1812 the old leaden roof, which had be- 
 come full of holes and crevices, through which the 
 wind whistled at liberty, and the rain gained mi- 
 checked admittance, was stripped off and sold, and a 
 covering of slate substituted. About the same date 
 also, much of the ancient stained glass that had blazed 
 in the windows was found to have been removed by 
 the glazier, who, during a long course of years, acted 
 under a general order to keep them in repair. Xot 
 being looked after, he was in the practice of taking 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 29 
 
 out bits of the coloured glass, so tliat in process of time 
 he carried away all, except the pictured effigies of 
 Saint Antony, the head of Mary Magdalen, and the 
 EadclifFe arms ; and with the abstracted pieces he 
 formed small boxes for sale or disposal among friends, 
 and also covered a clock-case, still in the possession 
 of some of his descendants in a distant part of the 
 county. 
 
 Prior to 1829 the church had fallen into a state of 
 great disrepair. The pulpit, pews, roof, and other 
 important portions were much dilapidated, and it was 
 judged necessary in that year to imdertake what was 
 then deemed an efficient reparation; in the progress 
 of which, the red painted wooden bar that extended 
 in a transverse direction from the second pier on the 
 north side of the chancel, to the correspondent pier 
 on the south, and which had probably been the beam 
 that supported a rood, was removed. 
 
 In 1841 damp and other atmospheric inroads had 
 again made hurtful attacks on the stability of the 
 structure ; and its general state of decadency was such 
 as to afford matter for serious consideration. The 
 roof of 1812 had become infirm, and on point of 
 falling in, and the exterior walls likewise proclaimed 
 
30 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 a rapidly progressive state of decrepitude. The rude 
 old pews and forms, placed in every variety of position, 
 had become rickety with age. An ossuary or charnel 
 vault, partially concealed by seats over it, occupied 
 the west end of the north aisle. The muUions and 
 glass in the windows were broken, and otherwise 
 defective in many places. The Derwentwater effigies, 
 displaced from their original situation, lay exposed to 
 wanton mischief near the principal entrance. The 
 altar- table was a plain substantial plank of oak, set on 
 four equally unornamented legs, and the whole interior 
 was deeply encrusted with the plasterings and white- 
 wash of centuries. The stone-seated porch was old 
 and crazy. The door was of oak, four inches thick, 
 studded with iron nails, and braced inside and out 
 with strong scroll-work hinges of the same diu'able 
 material. Imbedded were found several leaden musket 
 balls, and there were perforations in one or two places, 
 as if at some distant day it had likewise been pierced 
 with missiles of a larger and more powerful kind. 
 Of the time when such violence was committed, record 
 and hearsay are alike silent ; leaving it to be surmised 
 as not unlikely to have occurred in those baleful com- 
 motions of the seventeenth century when conflicts 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 31 
 
 between Cavaliers and Eoundheads outraged even this 
 secluded district. 
 
 Such was the condition of the church when Mr. 
 Stanger, of Lairthwaite, induced by those pious im- 
 pulses which in earlier ages urged the great and humble 
 alike to contribute to the erection of religious houses, 
 proposed to restore and embellish it principally at his 
 own expense. Like David, unto whom it appeared 
 unseemly that the Ark of God should " remain under 
 curtains" while he dwelt in " a house of cedars," Mr. 
 Stanger lamented to behold the fabric, sanctified in 
 the affections of so many generations, in such a failing 
 state. With a mrmificence, therefore, that might vie 
 with the most earnest feelings of those zealous times 
 when men were not niggardly of their means in order 
 to make the house of God worthy of the holy object 
 for which it was designed, he resolved on its perfect 
 renovation, and from thenceforth, until its completion, 
 the midei-taking was a principal subject of his thought 
 and care. 
 
 Having obtained the consent of the parishioners, as 
 well as the necessary ecclesiastical authorization, the 
 commission of redintegration was entrusted to Mv. 
 Georo;e Gilbert Scott, an eminent architect, whose 
 
32 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 taste in church architecture is equalled, not alone by 
 his knowledge and skill, but by that sound apprecia- 
 tion of our own necessities which, while making cor- 
 rect ecclesiastical arrangement a leading object, has 
 not been prevented by a " morbid feeling for antiquity 
 from applying to existing uses those parts of the 
 building whose original intention has become obsolete ;" 
 and from designs so well calculated to enhance his 
 high reputation the church has arisen to its present 
 state of beauty and perfection, the entire cost, with 
 the exception of four hundred pounds, subscribed 
 among the parishioners for the expense of the roof of 
 the nave, being defrayed by Mr. Stanger. 
 
 The plans having been decided upon, the first 
 operation engaged in was to empty the bone-house of 
 its collection of the relics of fi-ail humanity, which 
 were all carefully removed and deposited in graves 
 on the east side of the churchyard. The low walls 
 which separated this osseous receptacle from the nave 
 and aisle were taken down, and the space occupied 
 thrown open to its pristine use. The organ-gallery 
 and pews, the altar-table and rails, and the reading- 
 desk and pulpit, were taken away and sold ; the 
 last-mentioned article, which was of oak, elaborately 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 33 
 
 carved, being bought for tl\e chapel of ease in New- 
 lands, where it forms a handsome ornament in that 
 lately rebuilt sanctuary. 
 
 The flags were raised, and the underlying earth, 
 which for unnoted generations had been used as a 
 place of sepulture, was excavated and decorously car- 
 ried, with its contents (except the remains of the 
 families of Stephenson, and Jackson of Armboth, 
 which being entombed within deep stone vaults were 
 imdisturbed), to the same side of the cemetery where 
 the bones from the charnel-house had been interred, 
 and there thickly covered with fresh mould. In the 
 progress of these cuttings, some old coins of silver, so 
 much abraded as not to be decyphered, and a leaden 
 coin of Stephen's reign, subsequently deposited in 
 Crosthwaite jVIuseum, were discovered near the west 
 end of the nave. Numbers of small encaustic tiles, 
 about six inches square, and nearly an inch thick, of 
 a deep red brick colour, inlaid with quatrefoils of a 
 dirty white inclining to yellow, and evidently once 
 forming either a portion of a decorative pavement, or 
 been affixed to the walls in the style of the paintings 
 met with in old missals, were also exhumed at the 
 east end of the north aisle of the chancel. It was 
 D 
 
34 CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 likewise ascertained that at some former period the 
 nave and chancel had been widened, as the founda- 
 tions of a more ancient row of south piers were un- 
 covered, and the aisle on that side enlarged by being- 
 thrown further out in the same direction. This disco- 
 very serving to explain the cause of the large window, 
 which was of the Decorated or Middle Pointed period 
 of architecture, being placed some feet from the centre 
 of the east end of the chancel, it was determined 
 to alter that which had so long proved unsightly. 
 Accordingly an exact drawing of the window was 
 made, which thereupon, together with a considerable 
 portion of the adjoining wall, was broken away pre- 
 vious to reconstruction. Wlien hollowing that part of 
 the ground at the east end of the south aisle of the 
 chancel, regard was particularly bestowed iipon it, 
 under the impression that, as the brasses commemora- 
 tive of Sir John Radclyffe and his wife rested on his 
 tomb in that part of the church, where also the efEgies 
 of the Derwentwaters had previously reposed, the burial 
 vault of the ancient members of the family or some 
 of their coffins might be found. However, after a 
 careful sifting of the ground to the depth of four feet 
 nothing was brought to light beyond a qiiantity of 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 35 
 
 bones, some of which were inclosed in the knight's 
 tomb, and these were also reverently consigned to the 
 adjacent hallowed earth. The shattered porch and 
 oaken doors were taken down, and the latter burned. 
 The picture of Saint Antony, the Eadclyflfc armorie, 
 and the Head of the IMagdalen, supposed to be a 
 portion of a full-length figure that erewhile enriched 
 the window, were likewise carefully displaced. The 
 roofs of the nave, chancel, and aisles were stripped 
 off, and the piers, arches, walls, and muUions of the 
 windows denuded of their repeated incrustations of 
 plaster and whitewash. 
 
 It may here be mentioned, that on occasion of 
 putting up in 1839, on the flank wall of the north 
 aisle of the chancel, between the first and second 
 windows from the east end, the white marble mural 
 tablet to the memory of Lieutenant- General Peachey, 
 a painting on an inner coat of plaster, of a circular 
 form, and about eighteen inches in diameter, was 
 laid bare on the space now covered by that obituary 
 memorial. It was composed of a series of rings or 
 coloured concentric circles, each about an inch broad. 
 The outer one was black, the second red, and the 
 third yelloAV. The centre was white, and in letters 
 D 2 
 
36 CROSTHWAITE CHUKCH. 
 
 of the old character, on different lines, were legible 
 tlie words " and," " my," " tliy," with the nume- 
 rals " 191." Investigation has not elicited anything 
 satisfactory relative to the purport of these words and 
 figures, though they have been assumed to refer to the 
 era of the building of the Xorman's church. A con- 
 jecture nearer to their true intention may however 
 be ventured, that the inscription, in its undamaged 
 entirety, had regard, not to the refoundation, but was 
 one of those texts of Scripture which, in Edward VI. 
 time, were ordered to be painted up on the walls of 
 churches, and especially as some slight remains of 
 similar chromatic tablature were found on the plaster 
 on some of the arches. 
 
 A low semicircular arched doorway, used in Eomaii 
 Catholic times as an entrance through which penitents 
 were admitted, and which is said to have been walled 
 up at the Reformation, was under the denudating pro- 
 cess likewise exposed to view, near the west end of the 
 flank wall of the north aisle of the nave. Such door 
 may also have been what in some ancient churches 
 was called the devil's door, which stood over against 
 the font in the northern walls, and was thrown open at 
 every baptism for the escape of the fiend, but at all 
 
CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 37 
 
 Other seasons carefully closed. In after ages it probably 
 served as the portal through which the women when 
 they sat apart from the men entered into the church. 
 
 There was likewise micovered on the splayed stone 
 framework on the left hand of each window a circle 
 about five inches in diameter, containing a mark or 
 cross within its compass, and which diagram was 
 repeated on the di'essings on the same side of the 
 windows on the exterior. 
 
 Wlien all things had been thus prepared, and earnest 
 consideration bestowed upon those points of internal 
 accommodation and embellishment which have the 
 effect of giving that tone and aspect to the interior 
 which impress the beholder with reverence, the 
 renascence of the whole structure commenced, and 
 continued in a style designed to harmonize in wall 
 and window, roof and pillar, glass and carvings, as 
 nearly as possible, consistent with the proper arrange- 
 ment of a reformed place of worship, in which " our 
 own ritual and our own necessities were steadily held 
 in view," to the style of the fifteenth century, the era 
 when the largest portion of the edifice appears to have 
 been erected. 
 
 As it now stands, the plan of the church consists of 
 
38 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 a tower, a nave with nortli and south aisles, a sacristy 
 or vestry taken off the west end of the south aisle, a 
 south porch, a chancel door, and a chancel with lateral 
 aisles, together with that on the south aisle of the 
 nave, which are of more recent construction, being 
 wider and loftier than the northern. 
 
 Viewed on the exterior it presents an embattled 
 square tower about sixty feet in height, supported by 
 diagonal buttresses at the north-west and south-west 
 angles of three stages each, which die away into the 
 walls about halfway up, and beneath the battlements on 
 the north and south are two rude stone spouts for the 
 discharge of water from the leaded roof. At the 
 south-western corner is the stair-turret, through which 
 spiral stone stairs, lighted by slits, wind to the lofty 
 summit, from whence start into view 
 
 A thousand beauties at one charming sight ; 
 No pencil's art can such a landscape feign, 
 And nature's self scarce yields the like again. 
 
 Formerly there was a peal of four bells only, re- 
 specting which a volume of Cole's MSS. in the British 
 Museum preserves the following note, under the title 
 of " Dedications and Bells in the Diocesse of Carlisle." 
 Though seemingly copied into the book only in 1765, 
 
CKOSTUWAITE CHUKCH. 
 
 39 
 
 and the date of the original not given, yet as a matter 
 of curiosity, involving likewise a statistical fact in the 
 history of the town of Keswick, it is here transcribed : — 
 
 ELLS, 
 
 Crosthwaite v. 
 
 Keswick, a market town of 
 
 4. 
 
 St. John's. 
 
 55 houses in Crosthwaite 
 
 
 Borrowdale. 
 
 parish. 
 
 
 Wyborne. 
 
 
 
 Tliornthwaite. 
 
 
 
 Newland. 
 
 
 The belfry now carries a set of six fine-toned bells, 
 on each of which, agreeably to the ancient practice, 
 is an inscription extending round the exterior rim. 
 They were hung up in 1767, and on a calm morn of 
 that sacred day so marked by its blessed distinctness, 
 their harmonious carillons, " the most exhilarating," 
 says Southey, " and the most affecting of all measured 
 sounds," rise full upon the air of the romantic vale, 
 with a melody which, 
 
 . . " Wooing to happier thoughts 
 
 Than all the songs and viols in the world," 
 
 was ever listened to with the holiest breathings by 
 that elegant scholar, to whom they spoke of a brighter 
 immortality thati that of fame. 
 
 In the western front of the tower, about midway 
 from the base, is a large window of four lights, whose 
 
40 CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 form and battlemented transom assign its date to tlie 
 later period of tlie Perpendicular or Tudor style, and 
 on each side of the story above is a small stone-mul- 
 lioned round-headed belfry window of three lights. 
 
 A handsome south porch, almost too ornate for the 
 ruder style observable in the church, erected in 1846, 
 occupies the site of the old one. It is built of hammer- 
 dressed dark greystone, with dressings of reddish 
 coloured sandstone for the quoins and buttresses, and 
 framework of the doorway. The coped gable is ter- 
 minated by a floriated cross, and the high-pitched roof 
 is sustained at the angles next the portal by fom- 
 small buttresses of three stages each, which run up to 
 the eave courses, and there finish mider their projec- 
 tions. The doorway has small clustered columns, from 
 which springs a pointed arch of many mouldings, sur- 
 mounted by a weather moulding resting on heads. 
 The roof is open to the framing, and the inner portal 
 presents a plain Tudor arch destitute of ornament. 
 
 There is likewise a doorway of early-English cha- 
 racter, or what is generally understood as a square- 
 headed trefoil, having a flat top and sides supported 
 by a quarter circle from each side of the jamb, near 
 the east end of the south aisle of the chancel, on the 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 43 
 
 right hand of which is a small niche with a mutilated 
 stoup. 
 
 The doors are of oak, studded with nail-heads, and 
 have large scroll hinges of ornamental character and 
 ancient design. 
 
 The church is forty-seven yards long, and exte- 
 riorly presents on the south side two bays, separated 
 by three graduating buttresses, each of several unequal 
 stages, which all sink into the wall below the parapet, 
 one at each end, and one near the centre of the flank 
 wall. In the first bay, from the west, is the porch, 
 and in the second is the chancel, or what formerly 
 was called the priest's door. 
 
 The windows of the aisle on this side are six in num- 
 ber, and are all of three stone-muUioned semi-circular- 
 headed lights each, under square-headed frames. At 
 the west end of the south aisle of the nave, is an ogee- 
 arched stone-mullioned two-light trefoiled window, the 
 eyes of which are open and foliated. At the west end 
 of the north aisle of the nave, in the re-entering angle 
 formed by the north wall of the tower, and the west 
 wall of the aisle, is a plain narrow buttress of one 
 stage only. On the north are three buttresses, similar 
 to those on the south ; they support the flank wall of 
 
42 CROSTilWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 tlic north side of the chancel only, and, dividing it into 
 two nearly equal sized bays, die into the wall below 
 the eaves course. On the north side of the north 
 aisles are eight stone-muUioned windows set within 
 square frames. Three of them are of two lights each, 
 with trefoiled heads under ogee arches ; two of two 
 lights, with cinquefoiled heads under lancet arches; 
 one three-light trefoil window under an ogee arch ; 
 and two round-headed, of two and three lights each; 
 the irregularity of position and want of affinity in 
 form and size being the consequence apparently of 
 alterations and enlargements this side of the fabric, 
 which is considered to date from the Decorated age, 
 has undergone at different periods. On the east, two 
 plain narrow lofty buttresses of unequal height and 
 thickness, but of one stage only, and which finish on 
 the wall under the battlements at the junction of the 
 lean-to roofs of the aisles with the walls of the chancel, 
 separate this end into three bays. In the centre is the 
 large pointed east window, designed after the old one. 
 It is divided by simple chamfered stone-muUions, into 
 three lights, the head being filled by very poor foliated 
 intersecting tracery, and surmounted by a weather 
 moulding which runs down into carved flowers. The 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 43 
 
 north bay on this side lias a heavy stone-muUioned 
 window of two trefoil lights under ogee arches, wliose 
 proportions, seemingly shortened since its original con- 
 struction, and its deep setting in the wall, testify an 
 antiquity that may reach as far back as the fourteenth 
 century. The south bay contains a square stone-mul- 
 lioned window of three round-headed lights. 
 
 The roofs are covered with slate ; and those of the 
 nave and chancel, on the south and east, have an 
 embrasured parapet which rests upon a slightly pro- 
 jecting cornice. The battlements, which harmonise 
 with those on the tower, are of equal intervals, and 
 the capping runs along the top alone. The roof of 
 the south aisle is less imposing, there being only a 
 light overhanging parapet terminated by a kindred 
 capping. The roofs on the north side are finished in 
 plainer style; that over the nave and chancel having 
 merely a parapet and capping, while the roofs of the 
 aisles have only dripping eaves projecting a few inches 
 beyond the wall, and the east end is fiu-nished with a 
 parapet like that on the south aisle. 
 
 On the north, placed at nearly equal intervals, are 
 six clerestory stone-muUioned windows of three semi- 
 circular-headed lights each; and on the south arc 
 
44 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 seven, all of very late Perpendicular. Five of these 
 over tlie nave are eacli of three round-headed lights, 
 while the two easternmost, which are more deeply 
 recessed, are square-headed, and of two lights only. 
 
 The interior comprises a tower, open to the nave 
 by a lofty pointed arch of two chamfered orders, 
 springing from engaged octagonal piers. Its soaring 
 apex reaches nearly to the tie-beams of the roof, and 
 its wide span, which is equal to the breadth of the 
 nave, before the organ gallery and boarding behind 
 were built across it, revealed the inside of the tower, 
 with the large Tudor window in its western front. 
 A nave and chancel, which open into their lateral 
 aisles by arches of similar orders and design, rest 
 at each side upon six plain octagonal piers and two 
 engaged piers at the ends. The bases of the piers 
 are plain, and all have capitals to match. 
 
 The two western arches are filled with paneling, 
 which partly incloses the vestry taken off the south, 
 and the corresponding portion of the north aisle. 
 
 The chancel is raised two steps above the floor of 
 the nave, from which it is separated by the reading- 
 pew and pulpit, and the high backs of such of the 
 stalls as from their transverse position are returned to 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 45 
 
 the east, and mark the distinction between those two 
 principal divisions of the church. Wainscots of oak, 
 open on the upper part, and adorned with plain shields 
 in the expanded heads of the balusters or rails, which 
 sustain heavy embattled architraves, form the backs of 
 the remainder of the stalls. They extend between 
 the first arches from the nave, and, partially flanking 
 the chancel on the north and south, further indicate 
 the separation of that portion of the church from its 
 aisles. 
 
 The windows have been already noticed, and their 
 appearance when viewed from within offers but little 
 that calls for remark, except upon those filled with 
 stained glass, which will be afterwards more particu- 
 larly described. 
 
 The alleys in the nave, aisles, and chancel were 
 flagged, and underneath the pews and altar-platform, 
 which is raised two steps above the chancel, it was 
 boarded, leaving a vacant space of about three feet 
 clear between the floor and the surface of the earth 
 beneath. 
 
 The piers, bases, and capitals, mouldings of the 
 arches, mullions, and jambs of the windows, were 
 chiselled anew; and the natural reddish hue of the 
 
46 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 stone brought to lio-lit with warm and becoming 
 effect, to which the plaster on the walls was tinted 
 to harmonise. 
 
 The roofs, which are of low pitch, were entirely 
 reconstructed; the expense of that of the nave, which 
 is open to the ridge, being defrayed at the general 
 cost of the parishioners. It is, together with the rest 
 of the woodwork in the church, save the portions 
 otherwise mentioned, composed of the best Baltic 
 pitch pine, stained and varnished. The tie-beams, 
 which are triangular in form, with the points hanging 
 down, are richly moulded. Their ends are hidden by 
 projecting cornices of wood of similar mouldings, 
 which flank each wall, and give an appearance of 
 greater elevation to the roof. Short curved braces, 
 resting on the tie-beams, sustain the moulded ribs of 
 the principals, immediately underneath the intersec- 
 tion of the purlins. These, hang horizontally, divide 
 each bay into panels, that are subdivided by plain 
 rectangular common rafters, over which they are 
 boarded. 
 
 The chancel roof jaresents a continuity of desio-n, but 
 the tie-beams and raking cornices being more profusely 
 moxddcd, as well as embattled on their Tipper edo-es, it 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 47 
 
 offers a bolder and more finished construction. It is 
 portioned into four bays, and tlie first and last tie- 
 beams are partly supported by moulded spandrils 
 which rest on stone corbel-heads that spring from the 
 walls, and represent her present Majesty queen Vic- 
 toria, a King, Saint Antony, and a Xun. 
 
 The roofs of the aisles are like that of the nave, 
 except that there are neither tie-beams or braces, and 
 that the cornices which top each flank-wall are of 
 lighter proportions. They are likewise formed into 
 panels by moulded purlins, which at the intersections 
 of the principals, and also at the joinings of the rafters 
 on to the cornices and wall-plates, are tied with foliated 
 bosses, mingled with Evangelistic emblems, and the 
 shields of arms of gentry in the neighbourhood, among 
 which may be noticed those of Stanger, Fisher, Henry, 
 Spedding, and others. The roof of the east end of 
 the north side of the chancel, over the pew belonging 
 to Ormathwaite Hall, once the property of the old 
 family of Williamson, is more elaborately adorned; 
 the cornice on the flank-wall of that part of the aisle 
 being deeper and of an increased number of bands of 
 moulding, and terminated at each end by the graceful 
 figure of an angel, finely carved in wood; such being 
 
48 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 intended to replace the ruder style of ornamentation 
 by wliicli tliis pew was formerly marked. 
 
 At tlie west end of the south aisle is the vestry, 
 separated from it by a high wainscot or screen of cha- 
 racteristic design, surmounted by an architrave, having 
 a battlcmented upper edge. 
 
 The interior was newly seated. The benches in the 
 nave, which, with the exception of two, are all open, 
 have plain slightly-elevated frame ends, and all but 
 one face to the east. 
 
 The stalls in the chancel, eight of which are 
 returned to the east, are twenty in number, and with 
 the numerous open benches in that division of the 
 church, which were rendered necessary by the claims 
 to sittings of the impropriators, are of oak. These 
 benches are worked in carved panels in front, and 
 further distinguished by high-raised standards, termi- 
 nated by carved finials, and with the benches in its 
 aisles, which have only plain slightly-raised ends, face 
 either north or south. The turns of the arms of 
 the stalls and of the benches, together with the 
 poppy-heads of the chancel seats, are adorned Avith 
 foliage, fruit, and flowers, intermingled with the 
 heads of saints and angels and mystical devices of 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 49 
 
 Scriptural subjects, finely and even delicately exe- 
 cuted: the whole thus preserving an agreeable unity 
 of design with the architecture and ornamental details 
 throughout. 
 
 The altar-table, chairs, and rails are of oak, carved 
 in correspondent pattern, and the covering and 
 cushions on the table and steps are of murrey-coloured 
 velvet, the former being trimmed with gold lace and 
 fringe. The sacrarium is boarded and laid over with 
 a carpet of the same rich dye, and in the angle formed 
 by the east and south walls is a plain and perfect 
 piscina, with a segmental head. The reredos or 
 wainscot behind the altar-table extends across the 
 entire width of the chancel. It is divided into nine 
 narrow upright square-headed panels, filled with 
 cinquefoiled arches, having trefoiled cusps, with 
 trefoils in the spandrils, and terminated by an em- 
 battled architrave. The middle panel is of a purple 
 diapered ground, inclosed by an illuminated border of 
 oak and vine leaves, following the course of the arch. 
 It contains a cross floree, emblazoned in gold and 
 colours, within whose radiated centre is en signed the 
 usual sacred monogram, surrounded by a white and 
 gold circle, bearing in black and rubricated letters this 
 
50 CUOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 sentence: " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
 away the sui of the world." The two next panels on 
 each side, within similar enriched borders, contain on 
 white grounds the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the 
 Decalogue, in old characters, with distinctive illumi- 
 nated initial letters and numerals. The remaining 
 compartments are without ornament. 
 
 The pulpit and reading-pew are features of the 
 interior which add much to its general effect, and 
 cannot but of themselves attract admiration. The 
 latter is slightly elevated, and placed near the north 
 pier, at the junction of the nave and chancel. It is 
 an irregular pentagon of handsome Gothic design. 
 Light pillars, which rise from an appropriate base, 
 rear cinquefoiled arches, and form small pierced panels. 
 Above them the book -board rests ; and beneath it, 
 springing from the west, south-west, and south sides, 
 are, in a good style of hagiotypic art, the half-length 
 figures of the four Evangelists, each holding before it 
 a shield, on which is carved the emblem figurative of 
 each inspired writer. The other sides of the pew offer 
 nothing to invite attention. 
 
 The pulpit, which is hexagonal, is of good shape 
 and expression. It stands against the south pier at 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 51 
 
 the joining of the nave and chancel, and on a line with 
 the reading-pew, thus keeping up architectural sym- 
 metry. It terminates in a single pedestal of congenial 
 form, which rests upon a plinth of the same design. 
 The sides are paneled and filled with recessed pointed 
 cinquefoiled arches, that rise from small circular 
 pillars, above which an eagle with expanded wings 
 supports the shelf or book -board. The cushions and 
 draperies, like those in the reading-pew, are of 
 murrey-coloured velvet. 
 
 The organ — towards the expense of which Mr. 
 Stanger was likewise a liberal contributor — and the 
 singers' gallery, occupy the west end of the nave. 
 They conceal the west window and lofty arch which 
 opens from the tower, thus' giving occasion for regret, 
 in the estimation of many, that the ancient arrange- 
 ment of leaving the entire space of the tower, nave, 
 and chancel clear to the view, has not been adhered 
 to. Had there not existed a sufficient reason for doing 
 so, it might no doubt have been desirable, with regard 
 to architectonic expression, not to have closed up the 
 arch or admitted a gallery before it at all. A more 
 carefiil examination of this part of the building, how- 
 ever, tends to show that were these obstructions, 
 E 2 
 
52 CROSTHWAITE CHUKCH. 
 
 which have been made as inoffensive as possible, 
 removed, the effect would not be to improve the 
 character of the interior, as the west window, from 
 which a fine appearance, when seen through the 
 unclosed vault, might be expected, independently of 
 being too small to be an impressive object, is of such 
 debased proportions, and inserted so much more 
 towards one side of the tower than the other, that its 
 awkward position would totally mar the beauty of the 
 present linear perspective, and consequently destroy 
 the pleasing and elegant effect that might be anticipated 
 from the opening of this imposing arch. 
 
 The Font stands a little to the north of the west end 
 of the nave, and immediately below the gallery. It is 
 of stone, about four feet high, and has a pyramidal 
 cover of deal, painted to imitate oak. Through efflux 
 of time and much rough usage, it is partially defaced, 
 and further disfigured by applications of lime and 
 white paint. The head or bowl, which is octagonal, 
 rests upon a stem, whose lower portion is of kindred 
 form, though the upper part is quadrangular, and it 
 rises from a sloping surface placed upon a square base. 
 The four faces of the incline have each had a carving 
 of some grotesque figure, now all but obliterated. 
 
Beneath the head are four other sculptures, all like- 
 wise so much mutilated as not to be defined, but 
 whose position exactly above those on the base causes 
 them to be regarded as having been the capitals of 
 four small columns that afforded ornamental support 
 to the overhanging head. Seven of the sides on the 
 octagonal portion of the stem have carvings in high 
 
54 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 relief of windows of the Decorated period of three 
 lights each, and on the remaining side is represented 
 a window of the same number of lights, but of the 
 early Perpendicular style. Immediately above the 
 upper set of sculptures are Latin inscriptions, in old 
 characters, which run all round the slope of the bottom 
 of the bowl. They have been deeply cut, but so few 
 letters are now legible that nothing can be learned 
 from them ; though most probably they had reference 
 to the subjects rudely executed in raised figures on 
 each side of the square faces or panels of the head. 
 On the first of these is a representation of the tree of 
 life. The second, on a triangular shield, displays the 
 emblems of the crucifixion, with the scourge and a 
 lanthorn in the lower corners. The third face typifies 
 tlie word proceeding out of the mouth of the Almighty 
 to all parts of the world. The fourth symbolizes the 
 Trinity. The fifth is difficult to decypher, but some 
 appearances like vine-leaves may be traced. The 
 sixth, within a triangular shield, has Aaron's rod, and 
 in the corners smaller escutcheons of the same form ; 
 that on the dexter base of the larger, as nearly as the 
 almost obliterated state of the sculpture will permit 
 examination, is charged with the armorial bearings of 
 
CROSTHWAITE_ CHURCH. 55 
 
 the knightly family De Derwentwater, or of the Mul- 
 tons of Cockermouth, and the one next the sinister 
 base is likewise much defaced, though something 
 like unto frette, or chequy, on the lower part of the 
 shield is discernible — such possibly being the cogni- 
 zance of the house with whom the Derwentwater of 
 that day intermarried. The seventh face depicts the 
 tree of knowledge of good and evil, with the tempter 
 of mankind, in the form of a dragon, passing through 
 the trunk, the meaning of which rude symbol is, by 
 the guardian of the church, ingeniously construed to 
 be " the effects of a good sermon cut through by the 
 devil." On the eighth face, within another escutcheon 
 of triangular shape, is, Party per pale, 1 and 4, three 
 lions passant; 2. Six fleurs de lis, three, two, and one ; 
 3. Six fleurs de lis, three and three, the Koyal arms of 
 England as borne by Edward III., the first of our 
 sovereigns who, about a.d. 1340, quartered the lilies 
 of France with the lions of England. This face like- 
 wise has two lesser scutiform figures. That next the 
 dexter base of the regal achievement is charged with a 
 crescent, the armorial ensign of some name of honoured 
 lineage, which has as yet eluded research, and the 
 one near the sinister base carries three luces (or pikes) 
 
5Q CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 t ■• .',■■■ 
 hauriant, the bearings of the Lucies, Lords of Egre- 
 
 mont, AUerdale, and Cockermouth. From the archi- 
 tectural and heraldic details thus perceivable, it has 
 been inferred that the font is as old as the reign of 
 the chivalric sovereign before-named, and that it was 
 a votive offering either by Anthony the last Lord 
 Lucy, ov by his sister Maude, the lineal descendant of 
 Alice de Romili (when in wardship to the Crown), 
 and ultimately in 1370 his sole heiress, previous to 
 either of her marriages, as the arms of her husbands are 
 not sculptured upon it. The crescent may be that of 
 the Percies, it having been one of their ancient badges. 
 Its age may, therefore, be assigned to somewhere 
 between 1340, and antecedent to her first marriage, 
 in the commencement of the third quarter of the 
 fourteenth century, -with that martial noble Gilbert 
 Umfreville, Earl of Angus, who died in 1381. It 
 could not be of much more recent date, as by an mqui- 
 sition taken after her death, at Cockermouth, in 
 22 Richard II., it was found that the high-born donor, 
 who is named by Fuller in his " Worthies" among 
 the "memorable persons" of Cumberland (partly on 
 account of her great affection to her second husband, 
 Henry Percy, first Earl of Northumberland, and partly 
 
CHOSTHAVAITE CHUKCH. 57 
 
 because of her harmless device to perpetuate her 
 memory by rendering the gift of her estates con- 
 ditional upon the Percies quartering the Lucies' arms 
 with their own), was deceased in 1389. 
 
 The east end of the south aisle, generally known 
 as the Derwentwater or Lord's Chapel, as well as the 
 Magdalen's Chantry, is divided from the chancel by 
 an arch, whose span is considerably wider than that 
 of the opposite vaulting on the north, and such would 
 seem to have been its structural arrangement in ac- 
 cordance with the depth of those religious sentiments 
 of the middle ages which held that the effigies of the 
 dead ought not to be hidden from view of the east- 
 end altar. Hence it occurs that that portion of the 
 fabric, or, if no chancel-aisle existed, a small chantry 
 or mortuary chapel, built for the purpose, is fre- 
 quently found in our older churches to have been used 
 for the place of interment of the founder, or persons 
 of peculiar importance or sanctity, and his and their 
 descendants, whose reputed qualities, gentle birth, or 
 extent of landed property, gave them a title to the 
 distinction of having a separate place of sepulture, 
 where the devotional feelings of their posterity might 
 be increased by the reflection that in their private 
 
58 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 family place of worship they knelt amongst the ashes 
 of ancestors to whom they should themselves be 
 gathered, and for whose souls' repose the chantry had 
 been founded. Here, consequently, for unniunbered 
 generations, for they can be traced back as far as the 
 reign of Henry II., beyond which era no records are 
 preserved relative to the pedigrees of the most ancient 
 Cumbrian families, the remains of the Derwentwaters 
 reposed, until exhumed, previous to the renovation 
 of the church. In this sanctuary also rested two of 
 those attractive remnants of antiquity, their sculptured 
 alabaster effigies, which erst while laid sidelong with 
 the brass of their descendant upon an enriched altar- 
 tomb long since destroyed, and to that place of honour 
 they are again restored, to be, it is hoped, no more dis- 
 turbed, but long continue to bear their aifecting testi- 
 mony to the truth of the feeling remark, that " Church 
 monuments are for every reason to be respected. 
 They are the memorials of great families, of times 
 of historical interest. They preserve indications of 
 manners, customs, and religious ceremonial. They 
 are valuable illustrations of the progress and condition 
 of the arts in architecture, sculpture, and architectural 
 decoration in each succeeding century. And, were 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 59 
 
 there no other reason, no mind well cultured would 
 wantonly destroy, on any pretext, what the piety of 
 a precedmg age had raised, either for the becoming 
 embellishment due to a place consecrated to the wor- 
 ship of God, or out of respect to that feeling, common 
 to all ages and creeds, which induces us to raise 
 monuments that may revive the affections of the 
 living by recalling the memory of the dead." To 
 secure these figures, so curious for their costume, so 
 venerable for their antiquity, and so interesting from 
 their associations with the ancient lords of the place, 
 from further injury, as well as to gain additional 
 accommodation for new sittings, they have been 
 placed near the south end of the altar-rails, upon a bed 
 of red sandstone, inclosed by an open screen of the 
 same material, on the top of which rests a heavy slab 
 of marble inlaid with the brass afterwards described. 
 
 The recumbent effigies are those of a knight and 
 lady, and are conjectured to commemorate one of the 
 Derwentwaters and his wife; though, tradition being 
 silent, and no relics or legend having been discovered 
 that could suggest a date to their story, all know- 
 ledge of the particular individuals whom they were 
 intended to honour would seem to be lost. An anti- 
 
60 CROSTWIIAITE CHURCH. 
 
 quary, nevertheless, intimate with the family histories 
 of the northern gentry, and versed in the lore of 
 those pictorial ages of costume whose monumental 
 art, in the absence of inscriptions, is one of the most 
 luminous elucidators of doubtful genealogical and 
 historic enigmas, may be disposed to assign them as 
 the effigies of the last Sir John de Derwentwater and 
 his wife, who flourished in the reigns of Henry VI. 
 and the three preceding sovereigns. 
 
 The male figure is attired in a long, high, loose 
 tunic or robe, with wide sleeves, secured round the 
 waist by a belt, from which a gypciere or purse hangs 
 at the right side. The head is bare, and the hair, 
 formally parted on the forehead, is laid in close ties, 
 and worn long behind. An enriched collar is about 
 the neck. A long embroidered mantle is secured by 
 a heavy cordon crossing from shoulder to shoulder, 
 and the hands, inclosing the form of a heart, Avhich, 
 whether accompanied or not with the representation 
 upon it of a figure in prayer, was considered symbolical 
 of the liberated soul, are upraised in that expressive 
 attitude of humility and supplication which is so 
 affecting in the effigies of ancient times. 
 
 The female is habited in a close-fitting kirtle or 
 
KFUGIES OF THE D E R W EN I W A T ERS. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 61 
 
 cote hardi, encircled by a broad girdle round the 
 waist, and adjusted across the hips by other lesser 
 bands. Under this is worn a dress, in high fashion 
 during a very protracted period, consisting of little 
 more than a narrow strip, as well behind as in front 
 of the figure, but united over the shoulders, and from 
 a little below the waist enveloping in wide folds the 
 entire person, while at the sides the under dress with 
 its sleeves, and the cincture by which it is confined, 
 are visible through the openings in the sideless cote 
 hardi. The head is surmounted by a peculiar kind of 
 coronet, beneath which a veil or hood concealing the 
 hair flows down on each side upon the shoulders. 
 Round the throat is an ornamented collar, and a 
 necklace, from which a pendent jewel rests upon the 
 bosom, while from the girdle hangs a cord whose 
 broken ends descend nearly to the feet. A long open 
 flowing mantle falls from the shoulders, on which it 
 is secured by a band across the bosom, fastened by 
 fermails or brooches ; and the hands, like those of the 
 male figure, clasp in a precatory posture a similar oval- 
 shaped symbol. The heads repose on cushions, which 
 retain traces of sculptin-e, doubtless of small statues of 
 draped angels, and the knight's feet rest upon the 
 
62 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 broken image of that affectionate animal whose form 
 and presence is typical of the admirable qualities of 
 attention and fidelity ; but what support those of the 
 female had, has long been worn away and destroyed. 
 The countenances are defaced, and almost all the finer 
 parts of the sculpture flattened or otherwise mutilated, 
 but that which interests most, the peculiarities of 
 costume, are fortunately but little obliterated. These 
 effigies seem to have been originally painted to the life 
 and gilt; the application of such polychromatic enrich- 
 ment being perceptible, especially on the collar of the 
 female figure, though the remains of colour are too 
 slight to give any clear notion of the original illumi- 
 nation. 
 
 The other memento is one of those vivid repre- 
 sentations of the long-dead personages of a past age 
 which portrays them in no unreal or fancied costume, 
 but according to their very images as they lived and 
 acted. It is a sepulchral brass in perfect preservation, 
 laid down on a slab of dark grey marble, and its 
 value as a relic of art, distinct from its associations, is 
 largely enhanced by the fact of its being one of the 
 very few engraved portraitures on metal that remain 
 in the churches of Cumberland, a county so singularly 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 63 
 
 poor in specimens of tliis important class of our monu- 
 mental antiquities that there are but four others to 
 be met with. The Radclyffe brass, therefore, though 
 not of the most beautiful period of the chalcogra- 
 phic art, is nevertheless valuable, not alone from its 
 local rarity, but as one of the very few material 
 memorials of a family whose influence, through many 
 centuries, was, so widely felt around this their narrow 
 bed. The figure of the knight is represented as 
 sheathed in complete armour of plate, martial and 
 serviceable in all its appointments, but altogether 
 devoid of any of those monstrous and fantastic ap- 
 pendages which distinguished the knightly harness of 
 the day. A gorget and cuirass cover the throat and 
 body. Rerebraces and vambraces, with pauldrons and 
 caudieres, encase the arms, shoulders, and elbows, 
 while taces, with dependent tuillettes and a skirt of 
 mail beneath, complete the most important portions 
 of the defensive equipment. A long straight cross- 
 handled sword hangs with its blade behind the figure 
 in a sloping position, and the small misericorde or 
 dagger on the right is slung in the opposite oblique 
 direction. The flowing hair falls in tresses behind, 
 and the head, face, and hands, which are raised in 
 
64 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 prayer, alone are uncovered. Bound the gorget are 
 the ornamented chains of knighthood, pendent from 
 one of which a decoration rests upon the cuirass. 
 Cuissarts and jambarts inclose the legs above and 
 below the knees, which are themselves guarded by 
 genouillieres. The feet are protected by round-toed 
 laminated sabatons; and rouelle-shaped spurs riveted 
 to the heel, under the edge of the jambarts, perfect 
 the panoply of a man who, according to contemporary 
 memoirs, was so forward a gentleman in the field, 
 that he seldom had leisure to have his feet elsewhere 
 than in the stirrup, or his lance laid by in peace 
 within the hall of his island home. 
 
 On the head of the female is the peculiar angular 
 or pedimental head-dress worn by females of distinc- 
 tion only during the latter part of the reign of Henry 
 VII. and that of his successor, and which is so well 
 known from its representations in the various historical 
 portraits of that eventful era. Pointed stiffly over the 
 forehead, it descends in lappets upon the shoulders 
 and back, and totally conceals the hair. A high, close- 
 bodied gown falls in long, ample folds from the waist, 
 where it is secured by a girdle clasped in front with 
 an ornament comj^osed of four roses or quatrefoils, 
 

 L.^!^'^ 
 
 MONUMENTAL BRASS OF SIR JOHN BATCLIFF AND DAME ALICE HIS WIFE. 
 
*.. 
 
CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 65 
 
 from wliieli, suspended by a cliain reacliing almost to 
 the feet, is another ornament of a globular form, 
 either one of those portable mirrors called Venice 
 glasses, or a box of goldsmith's work, intended to 
 contain a pomander or other perfiunes. The embroi- 
 dered collar of an under-garment encircles the throat, 
 and over all is drawn a supertunic with large open 
 sleeves, beneath which appear the lighter coverings 
 for the arms of the under-dr-ess, finished at the wrists 
 with rufiles. A wrought chain is on the shoulders, 
 and round the neck another, fxstened to a decoration 
 on the bosom, similar to that worn by the male figure, 
 and the hands are also uplifted in a suppliant attitude. 
 The foot legend engraven on brass contains one of 
 those appeals which before the Eeformation it was the 
 practice to inscribe on such sepulchral memorials. Jt 
 is commemorative of the decease of the knight alone, 
 and runs thus : — 
 
 "Of your charitie pray. for the soule of Sir John Ratclyffe, knight, 
 and for the state of Dame Alice his wife, which Sir John died the 
 2nd of Februere, a.d. 1527, on whose soule Jesu have mercie." 
 
 From this inscription it is apparent that Lady 
 RatcliflTe v^^as alive at the period of her husband's 
 decease, and it is probable that not only this graven 
 ¥ 
 
66 CKOSTHWAITE CHUKCH. 
 
 honour was under her cUrections placed upon his tomb, 
 but also that other mark of hereditary distinction, 
 his armorial escutcheon in stained glass in the window, 
 likewise set up in her lifetime. Above the head of 
 the knight is a shield charged with, Argent, a bend 
 engrailed sable, the bearing of the EatclifFes ; and 
 at his feet another. Or, two lioncels passant azure, 
 the device of the family from which Lady EatclifFe 
 was descended. The shield above Dame Alice also 
 carries her paternal cognizance, and ujDon that below 
 are her husband's arms repeated, with the additional 
 charge of a cinquefoil or rose in tlie sinister chief, 
 for a due difference of the younger house from which 
 he sprung. 
 
 The good knight to whose memory this In-ass was 
 laid down, and who seems to have been the last person 
 of note of his family consigned to the tomb in 
 Crosthwaite Church, reckoned in his lineage a lono- 
 roll of high-born ancestors. On the female side he 
 was descended from those old Derwentwaters, whose 
 origin and early annals are lost in the haze of anti- 
 quity ; while of the few members of their race whose 
 names loom through its obscurity, so shadowy are the 
 outlines, and so distant the period when they finally 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 67 
 
 waned, that little more is held in view respecting 
 tliem, than that they once existed, and were persons of 
 honourable and conspicuous station. His great-grand- 
 mother was Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress to 
 Sir John de Derwentwater, wlio in Henry V.'s reign, 
 along with her hand, bestowed the picturesque heritage 
 of her forefathers upon Sir Nicholas Radclyffe, a 
 junior scion of the Wymersley branch of the parent 
 stock of that name, long settled at RadclyiFe Towers, 
 near Bury in Lancashire ; and from which union pro- 
 ceeded the EadclyfFes of Derwentwater. His imme- 
 diate progenitor was John Radclyffe esquire, a 
 younger son to Sir Thomas EadclyfFe of Derwent- 
 water, knight (the builder of the mansion whose 
 foundations now but mark a site of historic interest on 
 Derwent, or as within recent years it has been called, 
 the Lord's, Island), by his wife Margaret, daughter of 
 Sir William Parr, Baron of Kendal, and aunt to 
 Queen Katharine Parr. His mother was Anne, fifth 
 daughter and co-heir of Henry Fen wick, of Fen wick 
 in Northumberland, the head of a border clan of 
 ancient and distinguished ancestry. Wliat interest he 
 held in the Derwentwater estates is unknown, for he 
 was but the son of a sixth son of his grandfather, 
 V 2 
 
68 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 whose eldest male heir was that faithful Sir Eichard 
 EatclifFe of Shakespeare's drama, one of the three 
 favourites (the others being Sir William Catesby 
 and Lord Lovell) who ruled the kingdom under 
 Richard III., and had his name introduced into the 
 humorous distich the last word of which is allusive to 
 the king's adoption of a boar as his badge or cog- 
 nisance : 
 
 " The Rat, the Cat, and Lovell, our Dog, 
 Rule all England under the Hog." 
 
 More fortunate than his colleagues, who survived 
 but to encounter dishonouring fates, RatcliiFe, strong 
 in his attachment, and ttndismayed by the foreboding 
 of the " black day it would be for somebody," sought 
 and found by his royal master's side a soldier's grave 
 on that fatal field of Bosworth, which saw so many of 
 the devoted northern gentry stretched lifeless on their 
 shields. After his grandfather's decease in 1496, and 
 failure of Sir Richard's issue, tlie inheritance vested in 
 Sir Cuthbert, heir of Edward Ratclifte, second son to 
 old Sir Thomas, which Edward, by his lucky alliance 
 with the heiress of the Cartingtons, had about 1490 
 acquired the ownership of their estates at Dilston and 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHUECH. 69 
 
 elsewhere in Nortlivimberland. To liis extensive 
 patrimonial possessions Sir Cutlibert then added the 
 ancient Derwentwater domains, held of the King by 
 the service of two knight's fees and the rendition of 
 various other obligations incident to the feudal system . 
 In the Eatcliifes of Dilstone the estates continued, 
 until for conspiring, in the short-lived and ill-con- 
 ducted insurrection of 1715, to bring "the auld 
 Stuarts back again," they were forfeited to the crown 
 on the attainder and execution of their last noble 
 inheritor, the traditionary stories of whose youthful 
 gallantry and misfortunes have gilded with a gleam 
 of wild romance the dignity of nature around. Sir 
 John of the Isle was nevertheless a personage of much 
 consideration in his day, and, being a soldier of fame 
 in the Scottish wars, was throughout his career actively 
 engaged in the perilous and enterprising duties of a 
 border leader. He was repeatedly selected to fill the 
 important and then martial trust of sheriff of Cumber- 
 land, which county, owing to the hostilities with 
 Scotland, was unrelentingly harassed by the predatory 
 irruptions of that gallant nation ; and was serving his 
 last year of office in 18 Henry VIII. when he died. 
 He was likewise several times accredited to treat on 
 
70 CR08THWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 peace and other matters affecting tlie safety of the 
 reahn with his restless neighbours, and was the last of 
 his race who held any public post of consequence in 
 the county of his birth. From thenceforward the 
 Ratcliffes, though occasionally resident in their lake- 
 girt mansion, were connected with Cumberland only 
 by their landed possessions, and by their names being 
 afterwards ennobled as Earls of Derwentwater, to 
 which title events in a subsequent age gave an undy- 
 ing interest. By his wife Dame Alice, who was a 
 daughter to Sir Edmond Sutton de Dudley, Lord of 
 Dudley in Warwickshire, by Maud his second wife, 
 daughter to Thomas Lord Clifford of Westmoreland, 
 Sir John had not any children ; she survived him 
 until 1554, and lies biiried in the cathedral church at 
 Salisbury, in the registry of which diocese her will, 
 dated 31st March in that year, was proved the 5th July 
 following. By his testament, made at the Isle of 
 Derwentwater, Sir John Eatcliffe directed that his 
 remains should be interred in the church of Saint 
 Kentigern in Crosthwaite. To Lord Dacre he be- 
 queathed his bay hobby ; to Lady Dacre two couples 
 of his best hounds; to Sir Christopher Dacre, knight, 
 a goshawk; and to John Eadclyffe, his kinsman (son 
 
CROSTHWAITE CIIUKCM. 71 
 
 of liis sister Anne Eatclyfte, who was married to her 
 cousin John, a younger son of her father's elder 
 brother Sir Edward KatclifFe of Dilstone, by Anne 
 Cartington), he gave the greater grey horse. He was 
 to be in the rule and ordinance of Lord Dacre during 
 minority ; to be the testator's heir ; and to have all his 
 lands after the death of Alice his wife. The residue 
 of his goods, moveable and immoveable, testator left 
 at the disposal of his widow, whom he ordained sole 
 executrix, and Lord Dacre of Greystoke supervisor of 
 his will ; and he puts his wile as well as his nephew in 
 the governance of that nobleman, whom he prays to 
 be good lord unto them. Testator also ordained that 
 a priest should yearly say mass, and sing daily for his 
 soul and the soid of his wife, before the altar of Our 
 Lady of Pity, in the church of Crosthwaite, until 
 lands should be given or purchased for the finding of 
 a priest to serve the said chapel of Our Lady for ever. 
 A penny dole was to be given to all poor folks on the 
 day of his burial; every priest attending was to have 
 eight pence and his entertainment, and twelve poor 
 folks were each to have a l^lack gown and four pence 
 to bear torches at his interment. The witnesses are 
 William Dacre knight, lord of Dacre and Greystoke, 
 
72 
 
 CROSTIIWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 the renowned border warden; Thomas Dudley of 
 Yanwatli hall, his wife's brother, who had married 
 one of the co-heiresses of Sir Lancelot Threlkeld, and 
 with her acquired the inheritance of that fair West- 
 moreland manor; Thomas Dacre, Lancelot Lancastre 
 of Sokbrede, esquires; Gilbert Wharton; and John 
 More, gentleman. 
 
 The walls in the interior are, in places, incrusted 
 with handsome marble tablets, commemorative of the 
 Wrens and Scotts of Castlerigg; the Brownriggs of 
 Ormathwaite; the Calverts of Greta Bank; Peachey 
 of the Island; Bristow of Portinscale; Jacksons of 
 Armboth ; the Dentons and Edmondsons, Fishers, 
 Whites, and Hodgsons of Keswick;. Loathes of Dale- 
 head, and others; biit such do not call for more than 
 this concise mention. 
 
 The windows, filled with stained-glass, are but six 
 in number. They arc all the production of that 
 tasteful artist AVailes, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; and it 
 will not be devoid of interest if an enlarged account 
 is presented of what has been done by the intro- 
 duction of this resplendent material, to give effect 
 and character to the sacred building. They are de- 
 signed, with the exception of the large east window. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHUllCH. 73 
 
 whicli is after tlie fourteentli century, in conformity 
 with the style of window decoration wiiich prevailed 
 in the succeeding age; and, to an observer learned 
 in the history and genius of mediaeval fenestration — 
 each of them in imitation of the profound designs of 
 those significant times, when a regular system of the 
 mystical meaning of Ibrms and colours was in use — 
 will be found to tell a tale of some local feeling, or 
 convey a truth, in the symbolic language of this 
 beautifully-revived Christian art. 
 
 The use of this gorgeous church embellishment, 
 whose influences are as affecting to the heart as ex- 
 alting to the imagination, formerly arose from an 
 anxiety to exclude those within from the distraction 
 of external objects. " The rich mellowed light which 
 streamed through the storied window," says one whose 
 eloquent remarks are too happily germane to be over- 
 looked, " seemed to belong to a state of existence 
 different from that of the external world, and severed 
 the worshipper from all connection with the material 
 universe. We are not disposed to deny that such 
 adjuncts to devotion may have been abused ; but when 
 we know, from experience, how difficult the process 
 of complete abstraction from worldly things is to the 
 
74 CR08THWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 most pious, and liow tlie sliglitcst sight or sound is 
 sufficient to interrupt tire earnestness of mental dedi- 
 cation, we feel ready to vindicate tire wisdom, that 
 ' shut out the world when man was brought into the 
 immediate presence of his Creator.' " 
 
 The great orient window, as also tlie windows at 
 the ends of the south aisle, are the gifts of the gentle- 
 man at whose expense chiefly the church has been 
 restored. The large window is a splendid effort of 
 lustrous decoration, harmonized by taste and skill in 
 tire execution ; and the seven hierographic illustra- 
 tions, which, amid the blaze of hues that fascinate 
 yet bewilder the eye, bestow its essential character, 
 are incidents of the last days of the Saviour upoir 
 earth. They are — 1. Christ washing the Apostles' 
 feet : 2. The Last Supper : 3. The Agony in the 
 Garden : 4. Christ bearing his Cross: 5. The Cru- 
 cifixion: and, 6. The Kesurrectioir. In the tracery 
 in the head is the Ascent into Heaven, Avith figures of 
 angels holding labels and harps; and, above all, the 
 Agnus Dei ; the whole being interspersed with de- 
 vices, which, by the dispositioir and tone of the pre- 
 dominating colours, produce a brilliant example of 
 art, fill! of fine effects and dcA-otional teirdencies. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHUKCH. 75 
 
 The east window oi' the south aisle is remarkable 
 for its appropriate design, and the beautiful trans- 
 parency of its colouring. It contains pictures of 
 Mary Magdalen anointing the Saviour's feet, the 
 three INIaries at the Sepulchre, and Christ and the 
 Magdalen. Above the second of these subjects, re- 
 placed in its old position, appears in ancient stained 
 glass, tired in a dress of the fifteenth century, the 
 
 head of that saintly penitent, wliose story will con- 
 tinue to affect with exhaustless power, while a heart 
 
76 
 
 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 sliall be left to beat with a feeling of repentance. At 
 the foot of the same pictorial record is also happily 
 placed the arnnorial escutcheon of the family, for 
 
 whom the voice of intercession rose within the 
 consecrated walls, being, c[uarterly, 1, Katclyffe ; 
 2 and 3, Someri de Dudley ; 4, Argent, two bars 
 gules, on a canton of the second a cinquefoil of the 
 first, Derwentwater ; through whose blazonry the 
 light fills with gem-like radiance upon the brasses 
 and motionless effigies of those whose remains were 
 entombed beneath. It is, however, to be appre- 
 hended, that in the cleansing of these heraldic dis- 
 tinctions, previous to being set up again in the place 
 they so fitly adorn, the Katcliffe arms have inad- 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 77 
 
 vertently been blundered, as a discrepancy is observ- 
 able between tlie blazon and the device worked upon 
 the graven shields bcneatli. 
 
 The vestry window displays portraitures of Saint 
 Kentigern and Saint Cuthbert, and attracts admiration 
 not alone by the perfect tone of its rich and solemnly 
 contrasted tints, but for its striking effect as partially 
 seen over the oaken wainscot which separates the 
 vestry from the southern aisle. 
 
 The east window of the north aisle, known as the 
 " Hulton window," from its having been put up at the 
 cost of a gentleman of that name resident in the neigh- 
 bourhood, depicts the Adoration and the Transfigura- 
 tion. Amid the variegated tracery which adds to its 
 expression, are noticeable the armorial insignia and 
 name of the generous donor, by whom it was offered 
 as a further enrichment to the church in the same 
 year 1846 that a full handsome silver-gilt service for 
 the altar was presented by his Isrother, the Reverend 
 Arthur Hulton, of Thrclkeld. 
 
 The adjoining window, on the north side of the same 
 aisle, which engages attention by the gracefulness of 
 its drawing and the chaste elegance of its colouring, 
 is, from the name of the lady whose tastcfid gift it was. 
 
78 CROSTIIWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 styled " tlie Spedding window." It is of three lights. 
 The first is adorned with the figure of the Virgin, 
 holding her emblem the lily in one hand and a bible 
 in the other, with the text " Ecce ex hoc beatam me 
 vocant omnes generationes " at her feet. The second 
 has the Saviour of the World bearing a sceptre and 
 the globe, surmounted by a cross, with this sentence 
 beneath, " Ego sum rcsurrectio et vita;" and in the 
 third light is Saint John, with the eagle, and a reed in 
 his hands, and below, the words " Ecce filius tuns." 
 Underneath the Saviour is a circle, bearing within 
 its cincture an inscription, setting forth by whose 
 liberality this handsome and impressive addition to the 
 fenestral decoration was given in 1846. 
 
 The sixth, or " ]\Iemorial window," is the second 
 from the cast end of the south aisle, and is next the 
 chancel door. It was put up at the charge of the 
 parishioners, as a testimonial to perpetuate their ap- 
 preciation of the generosity by which the neighboiu- 
 hood has been so largely benefited, and the story its 
 pictorial imagery tells is by the subscribers felt to be 
 not less truthfully applicable than deservedly merited. 
 The window is of three lights, each filled with two 
 subjects taken from the sacred volume; and, considered 
 
CROSTIIWAITE CHURCH. 79 
 
 collectively, they make up a composition that has 
 engaged all the amplification necessary to the full 
 expression of the theme. Those in the first light are 
 illustrations of IMatthew, chap. xxv. verse 35 : "I was 
 an hungered and ye gave me meat;" " I was thirsty 
 and ye gave me drink." The second depicts from the 
 same evangelistic page, verses 35 and 36, " I was a 
 stranger and ye took me in;" " I was naked and ye 
 clothed me :" and in the third are representations from 
 the same chapter and verse of the sentences, " I was 
 sick and ye visited me;" " I was in prison and ye 
 came unto me." Underneath these pictures the text 
 from the same inspired writer, verse 40, " Verily I 
 say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
 of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
 unto me," forms a significant and well-pointed allusion 
 to the virtues and beneficent disposition of the indi- 
 vidual to whose honour this window was set up. On 
 the sill beneath is affixed a brass tablet, on which is 
 the following inscription: — 
 
 " A memorial window by the parishioners gratefully to comme- 
 morate the munificent restoration and embellishment of this church by 
 James Stanger, esquire. 
 
 A. D. 1845. I Henry Wood, ) Church- 
 
 The Rev. .James Lynn, Vicar. I Georob AVilliamson, ) wardens." 
 
80 
 
 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 In tlie second window from tlie east end of tlie 
 nortli aisle is tlie half-lcngtli effigies of a priest, with 
 his bell, book, and crntch, or, as it is popnlarly called, 
 
 of Saint Antony ; the colours of which have all faded 
 except the black and bright yellow, bnt leaving the 
 outlines of the cormtejiance and habit still clearly 
 definable. This ancient picture, restored to the window 
 in which it was found, is considered to have l^een set 
 
CROSTHAVAITE CHURCH. 81 
 
 up there in accordance with the credence which held 
 that the north-side of a churchyard was immediately 
 under the influence of the prince of the powers of 
 darkness ; for, as the doctrine of regions is said to have 
 been coeval with the death of our Lord — the East 
 being the region of light, the realm of the oracles, the 
 especial throne of God — the West the domain of the 
 people, the Galilee of all nations being there — the 
 South the land of midday, sacred to things heavenly 
 and divine — so the North was the dominion of Satan 
 and his host, the lair of demons, and the haunt from 
 whence they were supposed to be incessantly seeking 
 entrance into the church itself. In submission to such 
 belief, the head of the austere eremite, whose reputed 
 contests and victories over the fiends have furnished 
 materials for so many monkish legends, was placed 
 here for the purpose of scaring away malignant spirits 
 and of keeping alive the remembrance of his powers 
 over the evil one and his legions, through dread of 
 whom, even up to times not very remote, the northern 
 portion of the cemetery continued to be expressly 
 avoided as a place of sepulture. 
 
 When " all the work that had entered into the 
 heart to make for the house of the Lord was so 
 
82 OROSTHWAITE CIIUKCH. 
 
 ended," and the cliiircli, blending its various sources 
 of beauty into one absorbing and harmonious whole, 
 was rendered all that ecclesiologist could desire, and 
 worthy of its lovely situation, it became not only 
 deserving to rank among the most splendidly restored 
 monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity in Cumberland, 
 but a more suitable temple for the public worship of 
 " the High and Holy One that inhabiteth Eternity" 
 than the dilapidated structure from which it had 
 arisen. 
 
 But, rich and pleasant to behold, and wooing to 
 high devotional feeling as the interior is, that which 
 is its chief ornament, and endows it with a crowning 
 lustre, is the cenotaph of Southey, who, through the 
 long years of his residence, amid the ennobling 
 sympathies of surrouuding nature, knelt within these 
 hallowed walls in lowly-minded piety and prayer — 
 innocence, and the majesty of intellect, chastened by 
 the spirit of religion, humbling themselves under the 
 soul-touchino- truth manifested in his ovm. aifectinsr 
 expression, that " they who are wise unto salvation 
 know feelingly when they have done best that their 
 best works are worth nothing." 
 
 With a reverence for high mental excellence, espe- 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. , 83 
 
 cially when devoted, as its noble powers ever were, to 
 the benefit and instruction of mankind, Mr. Stanger, 
 in consequence of a wish that had been generally- 
 expressed, was further desirous that a permanent and 
 life-like memorial should be placed inside the church 
 to perpetuate the resemblance of one who, as charac- 
 terised in the heartfelt panegyric of a noble philan- 
 throphist, was so " splendid an instance of a poet, 
 a philosopher, an historian, and even a statesman, 
 chastened and yet elevated by the spirit of the Gospel." 
 That the sculptor's art should do honour to the memory 
 of such a man, so that the aspiring intellect of after 
 ages, while seekino; for the scenes where his master- 
 spirit wrought for immortality, might find its pa- 
 triotism expanded and inhale fresh inspiration at his 
 grave, it was especially felt would be an appropriate 
 mark of respect in the place where his genius, by 
 giving to the things and places around a character 
 beyond their own, had sanctified the locality in the 
 associations of his sympathetic and admiring fellow- 
 countrymen. "With such object a subscription was 
 opened for defraying the cost of a tablet, with a 
 medallion in white marble. The committee appointed 
 to carry this into effect afterwards resolved, that in- 
 G 2 
 
84 OROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 stead of such mural remembrance they would erect a 
 medieval shrine and effigy in Caen stone, at the esti- 
 mated expense of 400Z. ; but subsequently it was 
 decided that the figure should be sculptured in the 
 beautiful, though more costly, material of Carrara 
 marble, at the increased charge of 1,100^. A nume- 
 rous list of subscribers, wishful to perpetuate to distant 
 times their sense of deceased worth and greatness, 
 having been obtained, the execution of the memorial 
 was confided to the celebrated sculptor, Lough, whose 
 liberality of feeling, under the circumstances, has 
 earned for him no little applause, and from his hand 
 has thus proceeded the monument of one who occupies 
 so prominent a place in the history of the literature 
 of his country. The situation it occupies is in the 
 south aisle of the chancel, opposite the door, and close 
 to the oaken wainscot, which separates that division 
 of the church from its lateral adjunct. It rests upon 
 an altar-tomb of Caen stone, the sides of which are 
 divided into five square compartments or panels. 
 Four of these have their centres enriched with carved 
 leaves of different kinds, surrounded by double foliated 
 circles, and the spandrils are likewise decorated with 
 smaller tracery of the same description. The middle 
 
CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 85 
 
 panel alone displays a vacant shield, as if intended 
 for tlie armorial device of the deceased, and the 
 ends of the tomb, devoid of other embellishment, 
 are filled only with the inscription and lines hereafter 
 recorded. 
 
 On the top reclines upon a couch, the head and 
 shoulders elevated on double-tasseled cushions, the full 
 length effigy, clad in academic robe, of the Laureate. 
 The left hand rests upon the bosom ; and the face, 
 turned towards the spectator, is cast in meditation, as 
 if musing on the contents of the open volume, which 
 in the intensity of mental abstraction has, together 
 with the hand that held it, dropped listlessly by the 
 side. The position best adapted for viewing this 
 touching and eloquent tribute of honour is in the seat 
 next the wall on the left hand of the chancel door. 
 From thence, in the estimation of those relatives and 
 friends by whom he was most intimately known, the 
 features and character of expression are beheld with 
 truthful effect. This is especially the case when the 
 low-arched portal is opened, and a ray from the sun, 
 streaming in upon the gloom, casts a brilliancy across 
 the chancel and its aisles, and, bringing into bold 
 distinctness the prominent lineaments of the face and 
 
86 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 figure, a picture is displayed which for concentrated 
 beauty and effect is eminently affecting. 
 
 The west end of the tomb bears this legend : — 
 
 " Sacred to the Memory 
 
 of 
 
 ROBERT SOUTHEY, 
 
 whose mortal remains are interred • 
 
 in the adjoining churchyard. 
 
 He was born at Bristol, August xii., mdcclxxiv., 
 
 and died, 
 
 after a residence of nearly XL years, 
 
 at Greta Hall, in this parish, 
 
 March XXI., MDCCCXLIII. 
 
 This Memorial was erected by friends of Robert Southey." 
 
 At the east end are the following lines by the 
 muse of Wordsworth, his early friend and successor 
 to the poetic crown, who, with his son-in-law, j\Ir. 
 Quillinan, stood in sorrow by the grave on the north 
 side of the cemetery : — 
 
 Ye hills and vales, whose beauty hither drew 
 The poet's steps, and fixed him here, on you 
 His eyes have closed ! and ye, loved books, no more 
 Shall Southey feed upon your precious lore — 
 To works that ne'er shall forfeit their renown. 
 Adding immortal labours of his own — 
 Whether he traced historic truth, with zeal 
 For the State's guidance, or the Church's weal. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 87 
 
 Or fancy, disciplined by studious art, 
 Informed his pen, or wisdom of the heart, 
 Or judgments sanctioned in the patriot's mind. 
 By reverence for the rights of all mankind — 
 Wide were his aims ; yet in no human breast 
 Could private feelings find a holier nest. 
 His joys, his griefs, have vanished as a cloud 
 From Skiddaw's top, but he to heaven was vowed. 
 
 During the celebration of that portion of the burial 
 service appointed to be read at the grave, one of those 
 trivial yet moving incidents occurred which fall with 
 such creative effect upon a feeling and imaginative 
 mind. It was wild and dreary weather in the early 
 spring, before the trees had ventured to don their 
 tender leaflets, or the heather on the tall fells to raise 
 its first green tufts above their crests of snow. All 
 was bleak, chill, and desolate as the hearts of the 
 mourners, who drooped in sadness above the minstrel's 
 bier. The day, both before and after the obsequies, 
 was full of gloom and tempest; yet, during the per- 
 formance of that part of the solemn rite, the storm 
 seemed suddenly to lull, and die away in sobs of 
 fitful quietude. The rain ceased to beat, the clouds 
 to threaten, and a transient stillness fell over the 
 whole scene. A cheering ray of sunshine struggled 
 through the murky atmosphere, while two small birds. 
 
88 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 perched upon a tree which then overhung the retired 
 corner selected for his rest, unscared by the presence 
 of the sorrowing train, warbled with tiny pipe their 
 " wood-notes wild." The requiem, by those " Blossoms 
 of the Air," thus chanted over the grave of one 
 " whose brows so well had worn the Laureate wreath 
 of England," was a fact every way too graceful in 
 sentiment not to advance a touching claim for pre- 
 servation, and thus, striking within him the chords of 
 poetic fancy, gave inspiration to the following elegy 
 by Mr. Quillinan: — 
 
 THE FUNERAL OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. 
 
 Crosthwaite tower sends forth a knell, 
 Skiddaw knows its meaning well, 
 And the mountain veils its head 
 As they bear away the dead. 
 Scawfell hides his towering height, 
 Glaramara shrinks from sight ; 
 All the solemn steeps around 
 Hide their faces at the sound. 
 Derwent hears it, Greta hears, 
 And while the clouds supply their tears, 
 The troubled rivers, as they swell, 
 Hoarsely chide the funeral bell. 
 Herbert's haunt on Keswick mere 
 Feels the ghost of genius near ; 
 Lodore sends a deeper wail 
 To the rough heart of Borrowdaic. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 Stream and lake and force and fell, 
 
 Sylvan isle and rocky dell, 
 
 Their part in this day's sorrow bear. 
 
 And heavier make the gloom they share ; 
 
 For our human feelings give 
 
 Sympathies that in them live. 
 
 Where a hedge of blackthorn blooms, 
 
 Close beside the place of tombs, 
 
 As the bearers bear the dead. 
 
 Pacing slow with solemn tread. 
 
 Two feathered choristers of spring. 
 
 To the dark procession sing : 
 
 Heedless of the driving rain, 
 
 Fearless of the mourning train. 
 
 Perched upon the trembling stem, 
 
 They sing the poet's requiem. 
 
 Some sacred phrenzy has possess'd 
 
 These warblers of the russet breast, 
 
 To honour thus, with friendship brave, 
 
 A poet's passage to his grave. 
 
 Poet ! what avails it now, 
 
 That the laurel graced thy brow ? 
 
 What availed it years before 
 
 The angel death thy summons bore ? 
 
 When thy noble mind o'erwrought. 
 
 Stranded lay a wreck of thought, 
 
 Thy bruised spirit all that while 
 
 Was blind to fame's approving smile ; 
 
 Deaf and careless wert thou then 
 
 To the plausive tongues of men, 
 
 As now to notes, more sweet than words. 
 
 Flowing from the hearts of birds. 
 
 As now to the sepulchral bell 
 
 Which smites the vale that loved thee well. 
 
 Honour built on virtue's rock 
 
 Nor disease nor death can shock. 
 
90 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 Poet, virtue's priest wert thou ! 
 So still the laurel decks thy brow ; 
 This avails thee now and ever, 
 Guerdon of thy high endeavour. 
 Love and honour ne'er forsake thee 
 Till the trump of doom awake thee ; 
 Tolls the bell for vanished worth, 
 Earth to earth surrenders earth. 
 Life has lowered death sublime 
 Down the shallow pit of time ; 
 Thence, when ripened in that mine, 
 A gem on heaven's brow to shine. 
 Hid till then its precious light 
 By the j ealous miser night : 
 And yet played on all the while 
 By the deep supernal smile. 
 That can pierce the stone and lead 
 "Which o'erlay the virtuous dead, 
 Just as well as it can reach 
 Planets in their gulfs of air ; 
 Sending brightness due to each, 
 In its 4uly portioned share, 
 To the sun its light creative. 
 To the moon its borrowed force, 
 To the stars a lustre native, 
 Prom the one Eternal Source. 
 
 The Chvu-cli having been thus in all things fully 
 and effectively re-edified, in a spirit of intenser per- 
 ception of the reverence due even to material objects 
 connected with the presence and worship of God, and 
 rendered a lasting memorial of the zeal and piety of 
 its restorer, a plate of brass, on which is engraven 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 91 
 
 in old characters the following commemorative chrono- 
 gram, was affixed to the third pier in the south 
 aisle : — 
 
 " On the 22nd day of June, 1844, a faculty was granted in the Con- 
 sistory Court at Carlisle to the Reverend James Lynn, Vicar of Crosth- 
 waite, and James Stanger of Lairthwaite, esquire, for the restoration of 
 the chancel, the roof, and other portions of this Church, according to cer- 
 tain plans thereof exhibited ; and for the erection of a tomb and sculp- 
 tured monumental figure of the late Robert Southey, poet-laureate ; 
 in accordance with which faculty these restorations were completed 
 under the direction of George Gilbert Scott, architect, and the 
 church was re-opened for divine service on the 3rd day of August, 
 1845, and the monument erected A. D. 1846." 
 
 Of the history of the Parish subsequent to the 
 grant made of the church by Alice de Romili to Foun- 
 tains Abbey, since which time alone any documentary 
 evidences are to be found, some particulars, which it 
 will be best to throw into chronological order as near 
 as can be, now present themselves. 
 
 The first authentic notice relating to it is to be 
 found in the " Taxatio Ecclesiastica Anglite et Wallias 
 Auctoritate Papae Mcholai IV." This record, which 
 forms one of the earliest in the series of our national 
 ecclesiastical muniments, was an evidence anciently 
 
92 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 deemed of so much importance, and was made the 
 ground- work of so much subsequent legislation, and 
 regulations respecting the church and its revenues, 
 that a brief allusion to the causes which led to it will 
 not be inappropriate. 
 
 It is well known that the pope once claimed in all 
 Christian countries the first year's whole profits, and 
 the tenth part of the whole annual profits, of every 
 ecclesiastical benefice. These were called " first- 
 fruits" and "tenths," and were for the most part 
 willingly paid by the clergy to their spiritual superior, 
 who founded his title upon scriptural precepts and 
 practice. In England the pope's claim was first 
 asserted in the reign of king John, and it was subse- 
 quently sanctioned by an ordinance in the 20th year of 
 Edward I., when a valuation of all livings was made, 
 in order that the Koman pontifi^ might know the 
 amount of his revenue from that source ; but posses- 
 sions afterwards acqtiired by the Church were not 
 liable to the payment of tenths, as all livings, save 
 some of those in the North, continued to be charged 
 according to that valuation only. The pope had his 
 collectors in' every diocese, who yearly returned the 
 first-fruits and tenths to Rome. But, while the 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 93 
 
 clergy were tlius liable to taxation by their eccle- 
 siastical head, it was maintained by the Roman 
 Catholic Church that its property enjoyed complete 
 immunity against all claims of the temporal powers, 
 being considered as set apart for the service of God, 
 the support and dignity of the Christian Church, and 
 for works of charity. Upon this point frequent con- 
 tests arose, and the vast possessions of the Church 
 tempted the pope and temporal princes by various 
 modes to exact contributions from the priesthood. 
 The sums thus drawn from the clergy in the 13th 
 century, especially by the pope, appear to have been 
 enormous, and the histories of that period are fall of 
 complaints against papal exactions; so much so that 
 " the Statute of Carlisle," 31 Edward I., was passed, 
 to restrain in some measru'e the extortions of the See 
 of Rome. This was attended apparently with little 
 good results, for seventy years afterwards the Com- 
 mons in parliament are found protesting against such 
 rapacity, and in their remonstrance to the king upon 
 that grievance, asserted " that the taxes paid to the 
 pope yearly out of England amounted to five times as 
 much as the taxes paid to the king." Although com- 
 plaints continued to be made long after this period, 
 
94 CROSTHWAITE CHUKCH. 
 
 no measures were effectual in limiting the demands of 
 the court of Eome, until tlie pope's authority was 
 altogether suppressed in England at the Eeformation, 
 when it appeared that since 1489 Rome had been in 
 the annual receipt of 60,000/. from the first-fruits 
 alone. The immunities claimed by the Church were, 
 however, not sufiicient to protect its revenues from 
 being laid under contribution for the service of the 
 State. Our sovereigns, sometimes by the pope's autho- 
 rity, sometimes by forced or voluntary compliances 
 on the part of the Churcli, and sometimes by their 
 own direct power, obtained large sums from the clergy. 
 The pope, moreover, was not unwilling to assist in 
 oppressing the sacerdotal body for the benefit of kings, 
 when they were inclined to further his own objects 
 either by undertaking crusades, carrying on wars 
 against his enemies, or making concessions to him. 
 He would not suffer the privileges of the Church to be 
 infringed by temporal powers, but he often placed at 
 the disposal of princes its revenues by his own autho- 
 rity. Thus, in 1253, Innocent XXII. gave the first- 
 fruits and tenths of all ecclesiastical benefices to the 
 king for three years. This grant made a valuation of 
 them necessary, which was accordingly undertaken 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 95 
 
 in tlie following year, and is sometimes called the 
 " Norwicli Taxation," and sometimes " Pope Innocent's 
 Valor." All resistance on the part of tlie Chnrcli to 
 these severe demands of their own spiritual despot 
 was unavailing. Again, in 1288, pope Nicholas IV. 
 granted the tenths to king Edward I. for six years, 
 towards defraying the expenses of another invasion of 
 the Holy Land, which he was desirous should be 
 attempted, but which that sovereign, owing to the 
 pressure of the Welsh and Scottish wars, and other 
 domestic affairs, was finally obliged to forego. In 
 order to collect the tenths so granted at their full 
 value, a taxation by the king's precept was begun and 
 finished, as to the province of Canterbury in 1291, 
 and as to that of York in the following year. This 
 taxation is an important record, because all the taxes 
 of the Church, as well to the King of England as to 
 the Pope, were afterwards regulated by it, until the 
 sm'vey ordered by Henry VIII. In the valuation so 
 made the church and vicarage of Crosthwaite were 
 not overlooked, and are therein found thus rated : — 
 
 Decanatus Allerdale. Dioces. Karliolen. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 Eccl'ia de Crostwayt . . . . 30 13 4 
 
 Vicaria ejusdem . . . . 20 
 
96 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 In consequence of complaints made by the clergy 
 that the northern benefices were much impoverished, 
 and unable to pay the high taxation imposed by 
 reason of the continual spoliation to which they were 
 subject from the Scots, who incessantly swept the 
 land of its flocks and herds, and destroyed the crops, 
 Edward IT., in 1318, directed that certain of the 
 livmgs in the North should not be charged at their 
 full value, owing to the losses they had so sustamed. 
 It is consequently found that in the returns made to 
 the sovereign's mandate, the taxation of Crosthwaite, 
 which is one of the parishes enumerated as being 
 wasted, is returned at the reduced valuation of: — 
 
 £ s. d. 
 Ecclesia de Crossethwayt . . .10 
 
 Vicar' ejusdem . . . . .400 
 
 At the Reformation this source of revenue to the 
 pope was by statute 26 Henry VIII., chap. 3, trans- 
 ferred to the king " for more augmentation and main- 
 tenance of the royal estate of his imperial crown and 
 dignity of Supreme Head of the Church of England." 
 In order to collect it, a Court of First Fruits was esta- 
 blished, and a survey and valuation ordered to be 
 made of the whole of the ecclesiastical property of 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 97 
 
 England and Wales, in the state in which it stood on 
 the eve of the Eeformation. The book which con- 
 tains the returns made by the Commissioners under 
 this Act into the Exchequer, forms that important 
 document the " Valor Ecclesiasticus " of Henry VIII., 
 commonly known as the " Liber Regis ;" and all the 
 benefices which have not since been exempted still 
 pay first-fruits and tenths according to that valua- 
 tion. The first-fruits and tenths continued to form 
 part of the royal revenue until Queen Anne, by the 
 Act of the 2nd and 3rd of her reign, c. 11, gave up 
 the proceeds of the same, on the part of herself and 
 successors, and assigned them for ever to the augmen- 
 tation of poor livings. 
 
 When at the Eeformation all the chantry chapels 
 and other minor religious institutions were by the Act 
 of 1 Edward VI., c. 14, absolutely swept away, their 
 revenues vested in the crown, by which they were 
 afterwards given or sold to private individuals, and, 
 the chantry of Maria Magdalena de Keswyke being 
 involved in the general dissolution, its lands and rents 
 were in the 2nd year of his reign granted to Thomas 
 Brende, of London, scrivener, from whom they have 
 since passed into the hands of various owners. Ante- 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 CROSTHVVAITE CIIURCH. 
 
 cedent to their suppression a survey had been taken of 
 all the property settled to these uses by the Commis- 
 sioners imder the Act of 26 Henry VIII., Trhose 
 returns form no inconsiderable portion of the Liber 
 Eegis. From that record the following notices rela- 
 tive to the vicarage of Crosthwaite, translated from 
 the printed accounts, are here brought together, along 
 with abstracts from the entries contained upon the 
 Chantry Rolls, temp. 37 Henry VIII. and 2 Edward 
 VI., relative to the subsidiary foundation of St. Mary's 
 Chantry: — 
 
 The Vicarage of Ckosthwaite. 
 
 John Herynge, vicar of the church of Crosthwaite. He 
 
 has a mansion and glebe pertaining to tlie said vicarage, 
 
 whicli, one year with another, is worth 
 The rectory of wliich is appropriated and annexed to the 
 
 religious men, the abbot and convent of the Jlonastery 
 
 of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fountains. 
 The same John has the tythe of hay of the same parish 
 
 which is worth, one year with another, 
 The same John has the tythes of calves of the same parish 
 
 which is worth, one year with another, 
 The same John also has the tythes of wool, fleeces, and 
 
 lambs, which is worth, one year with another. 
 The same John also has the white tythes, small offerings 
 
 altarage, with the other profits of the Paschal book 
 
 which is worth, one year with another 
 
 Total value, 6il. is. 
 
 Whereof, 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 31 
 
 26 
 
OROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 99 
 
 Senage Pensions and Other Things. 
 
 In the yearly payment to the Bishop of Carlisle for senage 4 
 And in like payment for procurations and visitations of 
 
 the bishop every three years 13s. id., and so annually 4 4^ 
 And in the pension yearly to the abbot and convent of the 
 
 Monastery of Fountains, the impropriators . . . 13 6 8 
 
 £. s. d. 
 Total deductions .13 15 
 And then remains 50 8 11 
 
 Whereof 5 IQi is the tenth. 
 
 The living is thus vahied in the King's Book at 
 50^. 8s. 11(7. 
 
 In 1832 it was certified to tlie parliamentary com- 
 missioners as of the average annual value of 312Z., 
 and in 1845 the tithes were commuted for a yearly 
 rent-charge of 432?. 13s. 2d. 
 
 The Chantry of St. Mary JIagdalen of Keswick. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 John Steyle, chantry priest of the chantry of St. Mary of 
 Keswick, within the parish of Crosthwaite, which is 
 worth, one year with another, on oath made, . . 4 19 7 
 
 £. s. d. 
 The total value . . 4 19 7 
 
 The tenth whereof is . 9 IH 
 
 Survey, 26 Henry VIII. 
 
 From the certificates of surveys of chantries 
 
 within the county of Cumberland, made pursuant to 
 
 a commission of 37 Henry VIII., and preserved 
 
 among the records of the late Court of Augmentation, 
 
 u 2 
 
100 CEOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 it appears that tlie lands assigned for the support of 
 the stipendiary chaplain were in the tenancy of eight 
 individuals, whose names, with the respective rents 
 payable by each, are thus set forth: — 
 
 Land belonging to a Chantry of Mary Magdalen in the Parish 
 Church of Crosthwaite. 
 
 Sir John Clerke, Incumbent. 
 
 First, one tenement in Braithmyre, in the tenancy of Per- 
 ceval Wliarton, one parcel of ground lying in Braithmyre, 
 paying therefor yearly, at Michaelmas and Whitsunday . xij"' vj**' 
 
 Item, Perceval Radclyff one parcel of meadow lying in 
 
 Braithmyre, paying therefor yearly, at the said times . xij'' vj''. 
 
 Item, John Jackson one parcel of meadow, paying therefor 
 
 yearly, at the said terms ...... xij'' vj""' 
 
 Item, Roberte Jackson one parcel of meadow lying . . xij'=' vj""- 
 
 Item, one tenement in the tenancy of Roberte Wod, lying 
 
 in Braithmyre ........ xij'' vj''- 
 
 Item, one tenement of Edward Radclyff, lying in Braithmyre, 
 
 and payethe at the said terms yearly . . . . xij*' vj''' 
 
 Item, one tenement in tenancy of wif of John Williamson, 
 
 paying therefor yearly, at the said terms . . . xij'- v]'^- 
 
 Item, one tenement in tenancy of Miles Williamson, paying 
 
 at the terms yearly . . . . . . . xij'- vjii- 
 
 100'- Whereof, 
 
 Reprisals. 
 
 Paid out of the said land to the king's majesty, for fre rente 
 
 yearly, and for sute of court to Cockermouth . . . xj'"' 
 
 ' And so remaineth clear, il. 19s. Id. 
 
 The term Sir, applied to the chaplain of the chantry, 
 is one now rarely, if at all, given to clergymen. It 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHUKCH. lOI 
 
 seems to have been a title formerly appropriated to 
 SLicli of tlie inferior clergy as were only readers of the 
 service, and not admitted to be preachers, and there- 
 fore were held in the lowest estimation. Speaking of 
 the small chapel in Martindale, near Ulswater, the 
 Rev. J. Maychell records: — " There is little remark- 
 able in or about it but a neat chapel-yard, which by 
 the peculiar care of the old reader, Sir Richard, is 
 kept clean and as neat as a bowling-green. Withui 
 the limits of myne own memory all readers in chapels 
 were called sirs, and have of old been writ so, whence 
 I suppose, such of the laity as received the noble order 
 of knighthood being called sirs too, for distinction's 
 sake had knight writ after them, which had been 
 superfluous if the title sir had been peculiar to them. 
 But now this Sir Richard is the only knight templar 
 (if I may call him so) that retains the old style, which 
 in other places is much laid and grown out of use." 
 
 " Mr. Parsable," states Southey in his Common 
 Place Book, " tells me that the remoter and smaller 
 cures of these counties were served by unordained 
 persons till about 1740, when it was thought proper 
 no one should officiate who was not in orders. But, 
 because there would have been a hardship and an 
 
102 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 injustice in ejecting the existing incumbents, they were 
 admitted to deacon's orders without examination. The 
 reader of Newland's chapel who was thus ordained was 
 by trade a tailor, dogger, and butter-print maker." 
 
 The certificate iinder another survey of such 
 spiritual promotions, made pursuant to a commission 
 of 2 Edward VI., certifies under the various heads of 
 inquiry that the parish of Crosthwaite contained 
 " M" M' howselinge people," or persons of sufficient 
 age, accustomed to receive the Housel or Holy Eucha- 
 rist; and that the chantry in the Church was used to 
 " celebrate masse." That Gawen Brathwayte, of the 
 age of 35 years, who was the incumbent, had the 
 clear yearly revenue of the same for his salary, and 
 that his living besides was " nil." That the lands 
 and tenements belonging to the chantry were of the 
 yearly value of 5/., whereout there Avas lid. deducted 
 for reprisals, leaving " clere by yere 41. 19s. Id.," and 
 that there were neither stores, cattle, jewels, plate, 
 ornaments, or stocks appertaining to the same. 
 
 Though out of the prescribed order of arrangement, 
 the following extraordinary memorial of proceedings, 
 which for the sake of preserving a unity of expoeition 
 in the preceding matters has been deferred, now solicits 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 103 
 
 attention for tlie information it dispenses of a long 
 obsolete practice connected with the Church. In a.d. 
 1300, Isabel, the second wife of William de Fortibus, 
 third Earl of Albemarle, Lord of Skipton, and who in 
 right of his descent from Cecily, the eldest daughter 
 of Alice de Romili, inherited not only that great fief, 
 but also a moiety of the Barony of Allerdale and of 
 the Honour of Cockermouth, being summoned to 
 prove by what right she held a market at Crosthwaite, 
 denied she held any market there, but that the men 
 of the neighbourhood met at the Church on festival 
 days, and there sold flesh and fisli ; and that she as 
 lady of the manor of Derwent Fells took no toll. It 
 would seem this practice was persevered in, for in 
 1306 the inhabitants of Cockermouth represented in a 
 petition to parliament that there was a great con- 
 course of people every Sunday at Crosthwaite Church, 
 where corn, flour, beans, peas, linen, cloth, meat, fish, 
 and other merchandize were bought and sold, which 
 was so very injurious to the market at Cockermouth, 
 that the persons of that place who farmed the tolls of 
 the king were unable to pay their rent. Upon this a 
 prohibitory proclamation was issued against the con- 
 tinuance of sucli an unseemly usage. 
 
104 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 Scandalous as such transactions appear to modern 
 ideas, Crostliwaite was not alone in its maintenance of 
 customs, wliich were more tlian paralleled in otKer 
 parts of the North, even subsequently to the Eeforma- 
 tion. Of the difficulty experienced by the earnest 
 divines of the Reformed faith in their endeavours to 
 eradicate such indecencies, a judgment may be arrived 
 at from the fact that when bishop Grindal was trans- 
 lated to the archbishopric of York in 1570, he found 
 the province in so great disorder that he was obliged 
 to issue a body of archiepiscopal injunctions, among 
 which were these remarkable ones : That no pedlar 
 should be admitted to sell his wares in the church- 
 porch in the time of service ; that parish clerks should 
 be able to read ; and that no lords of misrule, or sum- 
 mer lords and ladies, or any disguised persons, morrice 
 dancers, or others should come irreverently into the 
 church, or play any imseemly part with scoffs, jests, 
 wanton gestures, or ribald talk in the time of divine 
 service. 
 
 In this parish there was in old times a peculiar 
 custom of choosing the churchwardens, and eighteen 
 other men, who were yearly elected by the preceding 
 eighteen men, who were parishioners and inhabitants 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 105 
 
 within the parish, and sworn by the vicar or curate. 
 These churchwardens and eighteen sworn men, or the 
 greater number of them, had always assessed the 
 parishioners to a reasonable sum for the necessary 
 things required by the church, and also towards the 
 maintenance of the common and free school of Cros- 
 thwaite, which had been founded and endowed by the 
 parishioners, so long back that even in queen Eliza- 
 beth's reign the memory of man knew not to the 
 contrary. The said eighteen men likewise had always 
 by prescription and ancient usage been accustomed to 
 choose, place, and displace the master of the school, 
 and direct the government of same, and its mainte- 
 nance and provisions, according to their own wisdom. 
 Nevertheless it appears that, previous to the 13th Eliza- 
 beth, attempts had been made to usurp the govern- 
 ment of the school, and that certain abuses had crept 
 in respecting the employment of the parochial and 
 educational funds, which tended to the injury of that 
 institution. The Eeformation in the early part of 
 Elizabeth's reign had moreover made but few changes 
 in the popish habits of the peasantry. They still re- 
 tained a number of festivities on the Saints' days and 
 on Sundays, and thus, though several years had 
 
106 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 elapsed since the Reformed faitli liad been established 
 generally throughout England, many of the observ- 
 ances, as well as the errors of popery, remained as 
 deeply seated in the breasts of the population of the 
 district, as in those other parts of the North where the 
 clergy almost to a man were opposed to the change. 
 These were all ardent supporters of Aske's rebellion, 
 or, as it was designated, the " Pilgrimage of Grace;" 
 and even as late as 1569 Sir Ealpli Sadler, treasurer 
 of the army, sent to suppress that insurrection of the 
 Northern earls Avliich had for its object the revival of 
 the Roman communion, writes to Lord Burghley that 
 " the hearts of all the commonalty in the North 
 country were altogether blinded with th'olde popishe 
 doctrine." Thus, while gross ignorance of all religion 
 was perhaps scarcely less common, a regard for many 
 of those externals of dress and ritual which give the 
 Church of Rome such a hold upon the imagination 
 and feelings of its professors lingered in the parish. 
 Complaints having been thereupon preferred by cer- 
 tain of the churchwardens and sworn men, an ordi- 
 nance, dated at the Rose, the 31st October 1571, was 
 on reference to them decreed by Richard Lord Bishop 
 of Carlisle ; Henry Lord Scrope of Bolton, Lord 
 
CROSTIIWAITE CHURCH. 107 
 
 Warden of the west marshes of England fbrenenst 
 Scotland; Simon ]\Insgrave, knight; Richard Dudley, 
 of Yanwath Hall, esquire ; and other commissioners 
 nominated for ecclesiastical causes within the province 
 of York ; and as the manner of appointing the guar- 
 dians of the churcli and school, according to the 
 ancient usage, was after long disuse for the first time 
 revived in 1848, it will reward attention if a free use 
 is made of a valuable document which offers some 
 curious individual details that have all but dropped 
 out of sight respecting the church at that period. 
 
 By the decree in cj^uestion, whose original spelling is 
 adhered to, it was ordered that yearly upon Ascension 
 day, at three o'clock of the afternoon, the vicar, the 
 eighteen s'worn men, the churchwardens, Sir George 
 Radclyffe, of the house of Derwentwater, knight, the 
 sealer and receiver of the queen's majesty's portions at 
 the mines, one of the chiefest of the company and 
 fellowship of the partners and officers of the minerals 
 then resyant at Keswick, the bailiffs of Keswick, 
 Wythburn, Borrowdale, Thornthwaite, Brundliolme, 
 and the Forester of Derwent Fells, should assemble 
 in the church, and there choose the eighteen men 
 and churchwardens for the year ensuing, who should 
 
108 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 on the Sunday following between morning prayer 
 and the saying of the Litany, before the vicar or 
 the curate, take their oath of office as therein set 
 forth. The eighteen men and churchwardens were 
 also ordered to provide before Christmas then next 
 following two fair large common cups of silver with 
 covers, one fine diaper napkin for the communion and 
 sacramental bread, and two fair pots or flagons of tin 
 for the wine, which they were directed to buy with 
 the money they should receive for the chalices, pipes, 
 paxes, crosses, candlesticks, and other chm'ch goods 
 which they were to sell. Aud they were also ordered 
 forthwith to sell and put away efifectually before the 
 1st December then next all and every such popish 
 reliques and monuments of superstition and idolatry 
 as remained in the said parish church of the church 
 or parish goods, converting the prices thereof to the 
 parish use wholly, namely, two pipes of silver, one 
 silver paxe [i. e. a tablet or board more or less orna- 
 mented, exhibited to the congregation, upon which 
 was generally depicted the crucifixion, and upon 
 which the communicants individually imprinted the 
 kiss of peace, " hinc dicta la pax"], one cross of cloth 
 of gold, which was on a vestiment, one copper cross, 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 109 
 
 two chalices of silver, two corporate rases [corporax 
 clotlis or napkins of the purest linen to cover tlie 
 elements before and after the celebration of mass], 
 three hand bells, the iron whereon the paschal stood, 
 one pair of sensures [censers], one ship [navis pro 
 encense, the small ship-shaped vessel which contained 
 the embers into which the incense was cast, and 
 which, by the aid of a chain or chord, was swung into 
 such rapid motion that the cinders were rekindled, 
 and the fragrance found its way into every corner of 
 the church], one head of a pair of sensures, twenty- 
 nine brazen or latyne [latten, laten, or laton, a com- 
 pound somewhat resembling brass, but more costly, 
 and far more durable than that alloy ; it was a bright 
 yellow metal, a true bronze, being a mixture of copper 
 and tin, without any zinc — a metal rarely used, if 
 ever, previously to 1550], candlesticks, two brazen 
 candlesticks of six quarters long, one holy water 
 tankard of brass, the canopies which hanged, and that 
 which was carried over the sacrament, two brazen 
 or latjoie chrismatories [vessels for the chrism or holy 
 oil wherewith individuals were anointed in extremis], 
 the vail cloth [a curtain which during Lent was 
 suspended from the roof of the churcli, between the 
 
110 CKOSTIIWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 nave and the chancel, to prevent the congregation 
 from witnessing the solemnities performed within], 
 the sepulchre cloths and painted cloths, with pictures 
 of Peter and Paul and of the Trinity [tapestry sus- 
 pended against the walls of the church upon festivals] , 
 and all other monuments of popery, superstition, and 
 idolatry remaining within the said parish. It was 
 further ordered that the four vestiments, tunicles 
 [robes worn by the subdeacon while he was minister- 
 ing to the priest during the solemnity of mass], five 
 chestables [chesible, chasuble, or casule, a vestment 
 reaching from the neck to the middle of the leg, so 
 as to leave the ornamental parts of the alb and stole 
 exposed to view, and used during the solemnity of 
 mass both by the priest, who wore it round at the 
 bottom, and by the other clergy, who wore it square], 
 and all other vestiments belonging to the said parish 
 church, and to the chapels within the said parish, be 
 defaced, cut in pieces, and of them a covering for the 
 pulpit and cushions for the cliurch made and pro- 
 vided; and that the albes [alb or awlj, the first robe 
 worn above the ordinary dress of the priest; it was a 
 close vest, reaching from the neck to the feet, with 
 sleeves, not full, b^it resembling the cassock, occa- 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. I 1 1 
 
 sionally ornamented over its surface, but almost inva- 
 riably on its lower extremity, wliicli was always visible, 
 notwithstanding the superintegmnents in which the 
 priest was clad] and amysies [amice or oblong piece 
 of fine linen, having on one of its lateral edges an 
 embroidered collar called apparel, which was turned 
 over and brought round the neck, the ends of the 
 amice itself being folded across in front, and which, 
 when drawn on the head, was considered to symbolise 
 the helmet of salvation] shou.ld likewise be sold; and 
 fair linen cloths for the communion table, and a 
 covering of buckram fringed for the same, be bought 
 and provided before Christmas next; and that there 
 should also be provided before that period, for the 
 chapels in the parish, decent common cups of silver 
 or of tin. It was also enjoined that before Christmas 
 next they should make and set up a decent perclost 
 [reading-pew or desk] of wood, wherein the morning 
 and evening prayer should be read, to be placed 
 without the choir door, the length whereof was to be 
 twelve feet and the breadth twelve, the height to he 
 five feet, with seats and desks within the same; and 
 that they should also see the said church furnished 
 with all books convenient for the same before Christ- 
 
112 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 mas then next; that was to say, with a Bible of the 
 largest vokuTie, one or two Communion books, four 
 Psalter books, the two tomes of the Homilies, the 
 Injunctions, the Defence of the Apology, the Para- 
 phrases in English, or, instead thereof, Marlorate upon 
 the Evangelists, and Beacon's Postills, and also four 
 Psalter books in metre. It was likewise ordered, that 
 all the parishioners of Crosthwaite being of years of 
 discretion, and sufficiently instructed in the grounds 
 and principles of the Christian faith, should openly 
 communicate at least three times in their parish church 
 yearly, whereof Easter was to be one time ; and at all 
 such general communications the deacons and ministers 
 of the chapels in the parish should help and assist 
 the vicar and curate at the ministration of the same. 
 It was also commanded that from thenceforth there 
 should be no Divine service publicly said in this 
 church, nor any of the chapels thereunto belonging, 
 nor any bells rung, on any abrogated holidays, nor 
 any concourse of idle people to the church or chapels 
 on such forbidden days; to wit, on the Feasts or days 
 of All Souls, or the evening and night before, on St. 
 Catharine, St. Nicholas, Thomas a Becket, St. George, 
 the Wednesdays in Easter and Whitsun weeks, the 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 113 
 
 Conception, Assumption, and Nativity of our Lady, St. 
 Laurence, Mary Magdalen, St. Anne, or such like, 
 which were forbidden to be kept holidays by the laws 
 of this realm; and that none thereafter should pray 
 upon any beads, knots, portasses [breviaries or prayer 
 books], papistical and superstitious latyne primiers, or 
 other like forbidden or ungodly books, either publicly 
 or openly, and that no communion be said, celebrated, 
 or ministered at the burial of the dead, nor for any 
 dead, nor for any month's minds, anniversaries, or 
 such superstitious uses. 
 
 Of the books ordered to be provided by the com- 
 prehensive document above noticed, not one now 
 remains in the church. Even the subsequently ob- 
 tained folio black-letter Bible, printed in 1585, and 
 from out of which, for upwards of two hundred years 
 it has been asserted, that word which " giveth light 
 and understanding to the simple," was read to gene- 
 rations of devout listeners long since departed, in 
 humble reliance on its promises of the life to come, 
 has been parted with, and may be seen in one of the 
 local museums. A careful examination, however, of 
 the volume referred to leads to the conclusion that it 
 never belonged to Crosthwaite Church; the MS. notes 
 I 
 
114 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 in many of its pages affording indisputable evidence 
 that it was the property of the outlying chapelry of 
 Wythburne at least as far back as 1655, — the name 
 of the Wythburne pastor of that day, and also of a 
 subsequent lector in 1704, being found several times 
 written within. A black-letter Prayer Book, dated 
 1625, is yet in the vestry along with the books forming 
 a parochial lending library of theology for the clergy, 
 established in 1787 by the associates of Doctor Bray. 
 
 A petition having been subsequently presented to 
 the Crown complaining of the undue interference of 
 the Bishop of the diocese and his brother the vicar 
 of the parish, in the appointment of the schoolmaster, 
 and also respecting the misemployment of the moneys 
 and stocks given to the use of the school, another com- 
 mission directed to Sir William Hutton of Hutton 
 Hall, Penrith, knt., John Fleming of Rydal Hall, 
 Henry Blencowe of Blencowe Hall, John Lowther of 
 Lowthcr, and George Fletcher of Tallantire, esquires, 
 was issued to inquire, iipon the oaths of certain jiu'ors, 
 into the premises; and by an inquisition taken before 
 them on the 16th February, 1616, evidence was had 
 respecting the matters complained of Upon con- 
 sideration whereof the commissioners decreed that the 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 115 
 
 eighteen sworn men should be, as of right they were 
 and ought to be for ever thereafter, the sole and only 
 governors of the said school and school stocks, and 
 that with them only should rest the husbanding and 
 disposition of the same, and that they should have the 
 sole and only power of electing, placing, and dis- 
 placing of the schoolmaster, according to their most 
 ancient and laudable custom, and that the Bishop of 
 the diocese, his chancellor, nor the vicar of Cros- 
 thwaite, had not of right nor should claim any power or 
 authority in the election of the said eighteen men, nor 
 in the election, placing, or displacing of the school- 
 master, nor in the government of the said school stock, 
 nor in any other thing concerning the said school ; and 
 that thereafter neither the schoolmaster then em- 
 ployed, or any other who should be thereafter school- 
 master of the said school, should thereafter exercise 
 any other office in the parish or elsewhere, either of 
 curate or otherwise, whereby he should be any ways 
 occasioned to neglect his duty or charge. 
 
 About twenty years subsequently, an obligatory 
 
 mandate, dated 2nd May, 1636, under the Great Seal 
 
 of England, was directed to the then vicar of Cros- 
 
 thwaite and others named, referring to the said pro- 
 
 I 2 
 
116 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 ceedings, and commanding the parties without delay 
 to fulfil and execute with eiFect, under a penalty of 
 five hundred pounds, all and singular whatsoever they 
 were ordered, according to the tenor and true inten- 
 tion of the decree 1616. 
 
 During the visitation of his diocese in 1702, by 
 Doctor Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle, a careful exami- 
 nation was made not only of its religious edifices, but 
 into its numerous charities. In a MS. extant among 
 the diocesan archives, he has recorded the results ; 
 and, as its pages record some noticeable facts relative 
 to this parish, they are best conveyed in the words of 
 that sedulous antiquary: — 
 
 " The free-school has some lands belonging to it, 
 which are now let at y^ yearly rent of 9li. 6s., besides 
 which there's an old school stock of 1 6 li. which 
 yields 16s., and 100 li. lately bequeathed by one 
 Edward Grisedale, a taylour in London, producing 6li. 
 more, so that the yearly stipend at present amounts to 
 sixteen pounds and two shillings. 
 
 " No parish in the diocese has so great a fund for 
 the support of the poor as this of Crosthwaite. Their 
 principal benefactor was Sir John Banks, who gave a 
 house for the use of a manufacture, or the support of a 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 117 
 
 certain number of widows, endowing it with lands, 
 rents, and stock of money, at interest to the yearly 
 value of 58 li. Besides this, Thomas Grave bequeathed 
 for the purchase of freehold lands so much money 
 as raises an annual rent of 10 li. which is yearly 
 distributed to the poor of the parish upon Good 
 Friday. Peter Udall, gentleman, gave a rent-charge 
 of 4Zi. 10s. Ad. out of his lands in Essex to be yearly 
 distributed in manner following, i. e. to twelve poor 
 people of Great Braithwait, five of Little Braithwait, 
 Portinskel, and UUock, and three of Thornthwaite, 
 3s. 8c?. each. To the minister of the parish, for 
 preaching a sermon to these poor folks on Candlemas 
 day, 8s. ; for a dinner to the minister and trustees on 
 the day of distribution, 8s.; and to the person who 
 brings the money out of the South, 2s. There's lately 
 an addition of thirty pounds and ten shillings principal 
 stock made to this charity, which is chiefly owing to 
 the care and management of the present vicar, Mr. 
 Lowry, who received so much arrears from Mr. 
 Udall's executors; and the yearly interest of this, 
 making 1 li. 10s. 6(i., is given at the discretion of the 
 said vicar and the other trustees. Thomas Williamson 
 and Agnes Williamson gave each 20 Zi. to the poor of 
 
118 CK08THWA1TE CHURCH. 
 
 St. John's and Castlerigg, the interest whereof, forty 
 shillings, is as ordered laid out in flesh meat (pickled, 
 hanged, and dried), for their relief on stormy days in 
 winter, that they may not in such weather be forced 
 to hazard their lives in seeking of a dayly support. 
 Hugh Tickell gave lands of the yearly rent of 6 li. for 
 the common stock of the whole parish ; and IVIr. Hud- 
 dleston, some time schoolmaster here, gave the smn of 
 \5li., which yields 15 shillings yearly interest, to the 
 same use. 
 
 " The endowments of the five chappels," forther 
 says the bishop, " are as follows: — 1. Withburn or 
 Wyburn has a salary of 3 li. 8s. 2d., whereof 2 Zj. 13s. 2d. 
 is raised by the tenants at a certain rate of 2s. for 
 every pound rent to the lord of the manor, besides 
 which he has a house and close, farmed at 15s., which 
 makes vip the sum. He has also some other small 
 gratuities in wool and grassing; but these are purely 
 ad libitum and precarious. 2. Borrowdale has a piece 
 of land to the yearly value of 1 li. and a stock of 15 li., 
 which at I2d. per lib. raises the whole to 3fo'. 5s. 2>d. 
 3. The reader of Newlands has vijs. and modes 
 2 li. 15s. \d. : and 4. St. John's 5 li. Is. Lastly, 
 Thornthwaite has 48 li. in stock of money, at 14(/., 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHUKCH. 119 
 
 per li. interest, and 2 li. 5s. 8d. raised yearly by way of 
 assessment upon the lands of tlie inhabitants within 
 that chapelry, which brings the whole stipend to 
 5li. Is. 8d. As mean as these salaries look, the 
 readers in these dales are commonly more rich than 
 the curates (much better provided for in appearance) 
 in other parts of the diocese, having the advantage of 
 drawing bills, bonds, conveyances, wills, &c., which 
 the attorneys elsewhere claim as their property. But 
 since the duty of stamped paper came into fashion, 
 their revenues are much abated on this article." 
 
 Parochial registers were originally introduced by 
 command of Thomas Lord Cromwell in 1538, and 
 ordered to be kept in volumes reserved for that purpose 
 in each parish church, to supply in some measure the 
 loss of those older monastic records which before the 
 Reformation were indited in the abbeys and other 
 religious houses throughout England. " Had it not 
 been for the monks," exclaimed the learned Mosheim, 
 " we should not have had a history of England;" and 
 it is to the valuable information contained in their 
 chartularies and registers that posterity is indebted for 
 much of the materials of our English history, down 
 to the period of the Dissolution. Notwithstanding the 
 
] 20 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH, 
 
 injunctions on the subject, parish registers were not 
 much attended to until the age of Elizabeth, who 
 issued orders concerning them in the first, seventh, and 
 thirty -ninth years of her reign. Though not so old as 
 some in Cumberland — those of Greystoke and Lazonby 
 reaching as high as the period of their first introduc- 
 tion — the registers of Crosthwaite commence in 1562, 
 and for the most part appear to have been carefully 
 kept, except in the decennary period between 1658 
 to 1669, during which there are entered only about 
 a dozen baptisms, and none either of marriages or 
 burials. This is somewhat remarkable, and the only 
 way of accounting for it is by the circrun stance of 
 neglect to make further entries; as those in the last- 
 mentioned year in each case follow on the same pages 
 the entries of 1658. 
 
 These parochial chronicles are almost wholly devoid 
 of any matter of novelty or interest, being literally but 
 documentary records of evidence of the baptisms, 
 marriages,.and burials solemnized ; unless after pausing 
 upon the entry of the marriage of Anne, sister of Sir 
 Francis Radclyffe, of Dilstone, married from her 
 brother's house on the island on Derwentwater to 
 Thomas Pickering, of Crosby Ravensworth, in the 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 121 
 
 county of Westmorland, Esq., 22 January, 1582, the 
 following transcripts relative to birtlis, baptisms, and 
 marriages, in the time of the Protectorate, may be 
 deemed by the curious deserving of attention : — 
 
 " 10 December, 1653. Here beginnyth the regis- 
 tering of the birth of infants, according to an Act of 
 Parliament dated 24 August, 1653." 
 
 And then succeed the entries accordingly, the first 
 of which is worded — 
 
 " 10 December, 1653. William Wilson, sonne of 
 John Wilson and Elizabeth his wife, of Frankishowe, 
 born the 10 of said month." 
 
 In the above manner the births only are recorded 
 until 1659, when baptisms begin again to be written 
 doAvn. The notices respecting marriages during the 
 same period are headed thus : — 
 
 "29 September, 1653. Here endyth marriages by 
 the minister, in a publique manner." 
 
 Followed by this record — 
 
 " 1 December, 1653. Thomas Williamson, of Field- 
 side, and Agnes Atkinson, of Fornside, both above y^ 
 age of 21 years, published three several Lordes dayes, 
 and married by Mr. Henry Towlson, justice of peace, 
 according to an Act of Parliament dated 24 August, 
 
122 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 1653, and no exception made to the contrary where- 
 fore ys said marriage should not be so solemnized." 
 
 After this fashion marriages were celebrated for 
 nearly four years before the various magistrates in the 
 surrounding country, whose names, long forgotten, yet 
 possessing a local interest even at the present day, 
 are again brought to light. They were — Justice 
 Lancelot Fletcher, of Tallantire; Justice Barwis, of 
 Langrig; Justice Hudson, of ; Justice Lang- 
 
 horne, of ; Justice Wren, of Castlerigg, 
 
 and Justice Sisson, of Ellerbeck, in the parish of 
 Barton. 
 
 After marriages according to the statute, these 
 entries appear — 
 
 " 26 October, 1657. Now ministers are empowered 
 to marry again by Act of Parliament. 
 
 " 30 October, 1657. Hiigh Bowe, of Swinside, and 
 Mabel Closher, of Parkside, married by Mr. Kadcliflfe, 
 our vicar." 
 
 From among the notices in the burial register, the 
 following are disinterred: — 
 
 " May, 1629. First burials in the quire. 
 
 " 9 March, 1643. Joyce Jeff- 
 ries, of . . Lord Chappcll. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 123 
 
 " 8 Oct. 1652. Thomas Kad- 
 clifFe, of Keswick, buried 
 
 in ... . Sir Edw<l Cliappell. 
 
 "29 June, 1653. Winifrede 
 
 Hunter, of Keswick . Lord Chappell. 
 " 9 Feb. 1655. Francis Ead- 
 
 clifFe, of Keswick . Lord Chappell. 
 
 " 22 May, 1655. Agnes Col- 
 lins, of Grange . . Lord Chappell. 
 "17 Sept. 1691. William 
 
 Hollins, of Stabell Hills Lord Chappell." 
 Lowly people in station these latest occupiers of the 
 ancestral vault might have become in the lapse of 
 generations, and the downward tendency of even the 
 proudest families; for, as no light authority affirms, 
 "It is but little known how much of the noblest 
 blood there is to be found amongst what is called the 
 yeomanry of England; and, if the old Norman race 
 were still considered worthy of respect, many a proud 
 peer would stand tinbonneted before the farmer." 
 Still they were of gentle lineage, being most likely 
 (with the exception of the last named, who might 
 have been a conlidential servant attaclied to Stable- 
 hills, a dependency on the mainland to their house 
 
124 CEOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 on the island) descendants of collateral branches of 
 the Radcliffes, and as such were entitled to be laid 
 in earth beside the long array of their departed 
 kindred. 
 
 From the same source is also taken the succeeding 
 extract : — 
 
 " 1 August, 1648. Ewan Christian, Captaine 
 Lieutenant to Barronett Edward . . quire." 
 
 The individual named was a gentleman of the old 
 family of Christian, of Mil town, in the Isle of Man, 
 subsequently settled at Ewanrigg Hall, in Cumber- 
 land. He was an officer in the troop raised by Sir 
 Edward EadclifFe for the service of his Majesty King 
 Charles I., by whom the Lord of Dilstone and Der- 
 wentwater, who had ranged himself on the side of the 
 Crown during the civil wars, and for which his estates 
 were sequestered by Parliament, had been raised to 
 baronetage. 
 
 With two more extracts from the Eepertory of 
 Burials, these transcripts are concluded : 
 
 " 29 Sept. 1765. Edward Stephenson, Esq., late 
 Governor of Bengal. 
 
 " 24 March, 1843. Robert Southey, P.L., LL.D., 
 Greta Hall, 68 years." 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 125 
 
 In the depository with the foregoing evidences, is 
 also kept — it can scarcely be said preserved, for it has 
 met with much ill treatment, many of the leaves 
 having been torn out and otherwise mutilated — the 
 shreds of an old worm-eaten MS. book, now of little 
 value, save as indicial of the right of the parishioners 
 in times past to sittings within the church. The 
 pages remaining of this perishing record range over 
 a space of about seventy years; the first being under 
 date of 1616, the last that of 1683; and, as they are 
 somewhat uncommon and significant proofs of a 
 former state of the internal arrangements of the 
 fabric, to which the disputes concerning pews, of 
 a period so late as 1802, attach a slight interest, a 
 few have been selected as samples of their general 
 tenor. 
 
 Before, however, turning attention to the testimony 
 they afford, of the custom which formerly obtained in 
 Crosthwaite Church of separating the men from the 
 women at hours of prayer — the authority for a 
 practice stated to have been founded upon a very 
 early tradition which prevailed, of the separation of 
 the sexes at prayer in the ark — claims introduction 
 for its apposite bearing upon the custom under notice. 
 
126 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. ^ 
 
 " There is," says John Gregory, a writer of the 
 seventeenth century, " a tradition that so soon as ever 
 the day began to break, Noah stood up towards the 
 body of Adam preserved in the Ark, and before the 
 Lord, he and his sons Sem, Ham, and Japhet; and 
 Noah prayed, and his sons ; and the women answered 
 from another part of the Ark, " Amen, Lord:" 
 whence you may note, too (if the tradition be sound 
 enough), the antiquity of that fit custom obtaining 
 still, especially in the eastern parts, of the separation 
 of the sexes, or the sitting of women apart from the 
 men, in the houses of God; which sure was a matter 
 of no slight concernment if it could not be neglected, 
 no, not in the Ark, in so great a strightness and dis- 
 tress of congregation." 
 
 After this quotation the transcripts may speak for 
 themselves : 
 
 " The names of those that have right to the man's 
 forme, being the last but one on tlic south side of the 
 church, next to the middle alley. Lnprimis, John 
 Williamson of Thornthwaite. 
 
 " The names of those that belong to the woman's 
 forme on the north side of the church, the same 
 beina; the lowest form but one of that side. Ln- 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 127 
 
 primis, Thomas Evans of ; Percival 
 
 Williamson of ; John Gasgarth of ; 
 
 John Dowthwaite of ; Percival Cros- 
 
 thwaite of Hill Top; John Williamson of Myrside; 
 Percival Dodgson of Kaddel ; Ptobert Evans of Dale- 
 bottom; and others. 
 
 " This is to certify, that John Lowther of Thorn- 
 thwaite hath four seats in the lowest woman's forme 
 on the south side of the chiu'ch, belonging to his 
 house in Thornthwaite, of right. 
 
 " We, the churchwardens, finds John ToUson of 
 Delicara seat on the next formes but tow on the 
 north side of the ch. Memorandum, that John 
 Stanger of How hath right to a seat in the quire 
 next to Joseph Adamson. 
 
 " The names of those that have right to the tenth 
 forme of the north side of the chtu'ch of the woman's 
 forme, that is to say, as foUoweth: Robert Bowe of 
 Darwinside; John Fisher of Brandle Howe; Jolm 
 Bowe of Swinside; John Fisher of Waterend; and 
 others. 
 
 " The names of those who made of the 
 
 forme upon the south side of the warden's pew: viz., 
 Francis Radcliflfe of Keswick, and others; and as the 
 
128 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 said people comes to church, be it sooner or later, 
 they are to keep their places thar, nor disturbance be 
 made hereafter; and the same forme was made with 
 the consent of the 18 men and churchwardens the 
 26 Dec. 1654. 
 
 " Signed by all the parties, 
 
 " The Eighteen Men. 
 
 " The names of those that have right to the third 
 woman's forme on the north side of the quire. Im- 
 primis, Gawen Korman of Watendlath. 
 
 " The 1 day of February, a.d. 1634. 
 
 " Mem. that I, Umfraye Williamson of Newhall, 
 gentleman, for good consideration me thereunto 
 moving, have given and granted, and by these pre- 
 sents do give and grant, unto William Brownrigg of 
 Milnbeck, all that my interest and right which I the 
 said Umfraye W^illiamson, or my heirs, may or 
 ought to have or in or unto these two formes 
 
 or on the north side of the pish church, 
 
 being half in either the next beneath the forme late 
 William Williamson's deceased, and next adjoyninge 
 on the backside of Mr. Joseph Hecksetter's stalls : To 
 the use and behoof of the said William Brownrigg, 
 his heirs and assigns, for ever. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 129 
 
 Witness my hand the day and year first above 
 written. 
 
 " Ume Williamson. 
 
 " Witnesses, Robert Dowthwaite, 
 W. Smith." 
 
 From the vestry-book the following resolution, to 
 which the foregoing entries give a certain value, has 
 likewise been extracted: — 
 
 " August 12, 1802. At a meeting of the pa- 
 rishioners, held this day at the parish church of 
 Crosthwaite, pursuant to notice given : 
 
 " The disputes concerning the erection and occu- 
 pation of pews, and the claims to a presumed exclusive 
 right to seats having been taken into consideration. 
 Resolved, That it is the opinion of the vestry that the 
 seats in the said church having, from time imme- 
 morial, been occupied in common by the parishioners, 
 and having been repaired at the general expense of 
 the parish, no person can have any prescriptive right 
 to occupy exclusively any seat, or to erect any pew 
 without leave and permission from the Bishop, in 
 whom the appropriation of them is, in both cases, 
 solely and absolutely vested." 
 
 The church, as mentioned in an earlier page, was 
 
 K 
 
130 CROSXHWAITK CHURCH. 
 
 given by Alice de Romili to Fountains Abbey, and 
 soon after appropriated to that monastery; but the 
 advowson did not make part of the transfer, as the 
 collation was reserved to the Bishops of Carlisle, 
 saving to the abbot and convent the rectory of the 
 same, and a yearly pension of ten marks, which con- 
 tinues to be paid out of the vicarial tithes to Lady le 
 Fleming, the proprietrix of the adjoining estate, 
 called the Monks' Hall. This estate is tithe-free ; 
 and the ground of its exemption is, that at the Disso- 
 lution it belonged to a monastery which, being one 
 of the larger Cistercian houses — founded before the 
 time of legal memory — the old possessors, by reason 
 of their order, were discharged of the tithes of all 
 their lands. The abbey having been dissolved, the 
 estate, then tenanted by Gawen RatclifF, under a 
 lease from the abbot, came into the hands of Henry 
 Vin. freed of all tithes; and was so held by him 
 until by letters patent, dated 20 June, in the 32nd 
 year of his reign, it was granted to one John Wil- 
 liamson, along with the wood called the " Vicar's 
 Isle," in the water of Derwent, and other lands and 
 tenements belonging to the said monastery, to hold 
 of the king in capite by the service of a twentieth 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 131 
 
 part of one kniglit's fee. In James the First's reign the 
 Monks' Hall, together with the pension of ten marks, 
 were added by purchase to the estates of Le Fleming 
 of Eydal, by that reconstructor of their impaired 
 wealth and consequence, ]\Irs. Agnes Fleming. 
 
 The great corn-tithes appertaining to the rectory 
 were retained in the hands of the Crown until the 
 reign of Charles I., by whom they were sold to some 
 merchants in London; whose citizens, in the impro- 
 vident reign of James I., and the calamitous one of 
 his son, when the dissipation of church property was 
 completed, obtained the fragments of chantry and 
 abbey lands of the king at a low rate, and almost 
 immediately retailed them out, at advanced prices, to 
 purchasers in the country. The first-mentioned indi- 
 viduals, whose purchase had been made subject to 
 an annual fee-farm rent payable thereout for ever, of 
 14/. 6s. 8d., afterwards disposed of the same to certain 
 parishioners of Crosthwaite, as trustees, who divided 
 them into portions for the convenience of selling over 
 again to each person who was able and willing to 
 purchase his own tithes; and, in the respective deeds 
 of conveyance, the impropriators or purchasers cove- 
 nanted for themselves and their heirs for ever there- 
 K 2 
 
132 CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH, 
 
 after, to keep in good and sutScient repair his or 
 their share of the chancel of the church. In 1845 
 these tithes were commuted for a yearly rent-charge 
 of 1021. 15s., and are now enjoyed by the several 
 landed proprietors, upon whom, by law, consequently 
 rests the obligation of rebuilding or repairing the 
 chancel ; for which purpose all the estates in the 
 parish, save the excepted lands, may, when need 
 arises, be rated in their several ascertained pro- 
 portions. 
 
 In the local histories, a catalogue is set forth of 
 many of the individuals who have held the vicarage, 
 with sundry particulars relative to other matters 
 involved in its history; and possessing, as it does, an 
 interest suitable for detail, the information obtained 
 from these sources is here likewise embodied for the 
 purpose of rendering more perfect the fidelity of this 
 attempt at parochial portraiture. 
 
 In A.D. 1294, Jeifrey Wethamsted is named as 
 having been collated to the vicarage of Crosthwaite 
 by Bishop Halton, saving to the abbot and convent 
 at Fountains the yearly pension of ten marks. 
 
 In 1313 Richard dc Graystoke was, by the same 
 prelate, collated, saving the said pension. 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 133 
 
 In 1335 Sir Richard, the vicar, at the visitation of 
 Bishop Kirbj, proved his being canonically ordained, 
 and was dismissed. 
 
 In 1340 the abbot and convent at Fountains, by 
 their proctor, proved their title to the impropriation 
 of Crosthwaite at the visitation of the last-named 
 bishop in this year. 
 
 In 1354 Bishop Welton appointed two com- 
 missioners to judge a cause depending between 
 the abbot and convent at Fountains, and Thomas 
 Lime, vicar of Crosthwaite, respondent, wherein the 
 said abbot and convent demanded the yearly pension 
 of ten marks, and an oath of fealty from the 
 vicar. 
 
 In 1359, upon an appeal to the court of Rome by 
 John Henry de Broughton, the vicar, complaining of 
 his sufferings by a dispute between his predecessor 
 Thomas Lime and William de Cellaria, the pope's 
 provisor, and the pope's apostolical letters, thereupon 
 Bishop Welton refers the inquiry to certain commis- 
 sioners. 
 
 In 1360 John de Welton was collated by his name- 
 sake Bishop Welton, on his making oath according 
 to the canon of personal residence. 
 
134 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 Soon after which, a prohibition came frem the king 
 against the bishop's admitting any new vicar till his 
 majesty's title to the advowson, then depending in 
 court, was considered and determined. 
 
 In 1361 Peter de Morland, vicar of Torpenhou, 
 was appointed commendatory curate of Crosthwaite, 
 during the vacancy of that vicarage; and presently 
 afterwards, upon his resignation, the same was given 
 in commendam to John Boon. 
 
 From the time of Boon's appointment, a gap of 
 ono hundred and seventy-four years occurs; to fill 
 which there have not been any notices collected by 
 the authorities whose pages have furnished the fore- 
 going materials. 
 
 In 1535 John Herynge appears, from the returns 
 of the commissioners under the Act 26 Henry VIII. 
 c. 2, to have held the living. 
 
 He was succeeded by John EatclifF, on whose 
 decease in 1567, John Maybraye was collated by 
 Bishop Best; and in the next year, on his resignation, 
 William Bennet was collated. 
 
 In 1585, on Bennet's resignation, institution was 
 given to Peter Mayson, who was presented by Michael 
 Benson of Loughrig, in the county of Westmorland, 
 
CR08THWAITE CHURCH. 135 
 
 assignee of Lawrence Cliarlier of Eose Castle, gentle- 
 man ; to whom Bishop Meye had granted that avoid- 
 ance. 
 
 In 1592, on Peter Mayson's resignation, Robert 
 Beck was collated by the same bishop; and, on his 
 resignation — 
 
 In 1597 the same prelate collated Peter Beck. 
 In 1602 Peter Beck likewise resigned, whereupon 
 Bishop Robinson collated his brother Doctor Giles 
 Robinson to the living. 
 
 In 1623 the living again became vacant on the 
 decease of Dr. Robinson, of whom the following notice 
 is authenticated by the burial register : — 
 
 " 22 Sept. 1623. D. Egidius Robinson, Sacra? 
 Theologiae Doctor et Professor, Vicarius Ecclise paro- 
 chialis de Crosthwait, vir per-humanus. Uteris et Unguis, 
 cum sacris quam profanis, inter peritos (si quis alius) 
 peritissimus, inter suorum lachrymas et desideria, 
 vicesimo die Septembris obijt feliciter, sepultvis 
 vicesimo secundo." 
 
 Upon the decease of the last-named incumbent. 
 Bishop Milbourne gave the vicarage to Isaac Single- 
 ton, M.A. who held it till his death; and of whose 
 interment the same record affords this mention : 
 
136 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 " 25 December, 1643, of Mr. Isaac Singleton, 
 vicar of this pisli of Crostliwaite quire." 
 
 The names of tlie incumbents before enumerated 
 have been taken from Nicolson and Burn's, and 
 Hutchinson's Histories of Cumberland. An exami- 
 nation of the parochial registers having, however, 
 disclosed the nomination of other individuals to the 
 vicarage about the middle of the seventeenth century, 
 the result of a search through those evidences enables 
 the historians' omissions to be supplied from the first 
 page of the register, number three. 
 
 " 1643, February." It is not very clear what day 
 of the month, as owing to the want of durability in 
 the colour of the ink and inferiority of parchment, 
 and no little thumbing during the last two centuries, 
 the date and the words for which blanks are unavoid- 
 ably left in the subjoined transcript are illegible in 
 the original record : 
 
 " 1643, February. Mem" that John Winter 
 clerke, was for and in ye name of Mr. 
 
 G. now fellow of College y^ 
 
 day above written to the vicarage of Cros- 
 
 thwaite by vertue of a to was 
 
 inducted by Lancelot in divinity by 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 137 
 
 vertue of a ye Lord Primate of Ireland 
 
 magli and of to y^ 
 
 archdeacon of the diocese of Carlisle, or in his absence 
 to any clerke of the said pish. 
 " Witnesses — 
 
 " Francis 
 
 " Percivall EadclifFe, clerke. 
 
 " William Langhorne. Michel Smythc." 
 " Memorandum y* y^ 18 day of y^ above month of 
 February, in the above s<J yeare of our Lorde 1643, 
 I y'' said John Winter did reade y* 39 Articles 
 immediately after y* lesson at evening prayer in the 
 publique of y^ congregation, and to all y^ 
 
 same gave my assent in behalf of which above 
 for I was inducted." 
 
 The primate alluded to in this extract was the 
 learned Doctor James Usher, to whom King Charles I. 
 on the decease of Bishop Potter, granted the revenues 
 of the diocese of Carlisle to hold in commendam, as 
 some compensation for his great suiFering in his 
 archbishopric of Armagh by the commotions in 1641. 
 From this diocese he received but little advantage, in 
 consequence of its income being diminished by the 
 continuous occupation and spoliation of the country 
 
138 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 by the armies of England and Scotland, and by the 
 Parliament in 1646 having abolished the bishoprics, 
 and seized on their revenues. He was thus again 
 brought to great distress; but, in consideration of his 
 eminent learning and piety, the State granted him a 
 pension of four hundred pounds a year, which was 
 but ill paid until his death in 1655; when Cromwell, 
 " out of an honourable respect to the memory of so 
 learned a champion of the Protestant cause," ordered 
 him to be buried at the public charge in Westminster 
 Abbey. 
 
 As there are not any registers of the see of Carlisle 
 in the period between 1641 and 1647, or anything 
 from which it is possible to ascertain whether the 
 archbishop made a visitation of the diocese, or conse- 
 quently was ever in Crosthwaite Church, the paro- 
 chial memorials, which thus yield what is one of the 
 few existing testimonies of the exercise of his right 
 as patron to a benefice within the diocese, will 
 scarcely fail of fixing attention upon a fact which 
 links the parish in recollection with one of the most 
 memorable divines of the Church of England. A 
 characteristic anecdote of Archbishop Usher about 
 this period, of which however there arc difi^erent 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 139 
 
 versions, has been preserved; and as such a bit of 
 gossip, though but a trifle, is interesting in this place, 
 it is, for the sake of a little variety, recounted in the 
 writer's own words : — 
 
 " When the massacre broke out in Ireland, during 
 the civil war in England, the archbishop was in so 
 great danger, that his friends advised him to make his 
 escape to England. This he did in a very mean 
 habit, and, as having money might betray him, his 
 pockets were of a piece with his garments. In this 
 forlorn state, on his safe arrival, he applied to a 
 respectable clergyman for relief in his distress. It is 
 said that in his person he made so mean an appear- 
 ance, that the clergyman, suspecting him as a cheat, 
 and as ignorant as he was mean, asked him how many 
 commandments there were? The answer was, eleven. 
 The clergyman, believing the answer to be owing to 
 ignorance, asked what the eleventh commandment 
 was. ' A new commandment I give unto you,' said 
 the bishop, ' that ye love one another.' The clergy- 
 man felt the rebuke and asked him kindly to enter. 
 On the Sunday morning the archbishop said that if 
 his host approved of it he would preach after evening 
 prayers. The clergyman, who still looked on him as 
 
140 CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 of as mean an understanding as in his person, in- 
 formed him that there were several very intelligent 
 parishioners who attended the service. The arch- 
 bishop promised not to disgrace the office. Wlien 
 the sermon was ended the clergyman thanked the 
 preacher for one of the best discourses he had ever 
 heard, and said that by the accounts he had ever 
 heard, the Archbishop of Armagh was the only 
 person from whom he could have expected such a 
 sermon. The archbishop thanked him for the honour 
 he did him, and, holding forth his hand, told him he 
 had the archbishop before him. As the clergyman 
 was said to be a man of fortune, we may presume 
 that his grace departed in better apparel than he 
 arrived in." 
 
 No other entry is found relative to the last-named 
 vicar, neither is the period of his interment noticed in 
 the burial register. In that obituary, however, men- 
 tion occurs of another incumbent, whose name is 
 likewise omitted from the list supplied by the local 
 historian. 
 
 " May, 1653. Mr. William Meoles, minister ofthis 
 pish, buried in the quire ;" who is also alluded to in 
 a previous passage in the same record , on the burial of 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHURCH. 141 
 
 his son Joseph Meoles, under the date of 22 March, 
 1649, as "vicar of this parish." 
 
 On the same page, immediately after the particulars 
 related of Mr. Winter, the following partly-illegible 
 notice discloses the name of another incumbent, also 
 forgotten in the list referred to. 
 
 " 1654. By virtue of authority made from 
 
 Commissioners, and for the preaching 
 of the word of God, 
 appointed by Oliver, Lord Protector of the Common- 
 wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, cord- 
 ing to the tenor of the said authority, unto 
 Per ci vail Radcliffe, clerk, to ion of the 
 pish church of Crosthwaite, Cumberland, was 
 inducted unto accordingly. The 2 Nov. 1654. 
 " Witness hereof 
 
 " James Hayes, clerke. 
 - " Eobert Eickerby. John Birkett. 
 
 " Gawen Bowe. William Bowe." 
 
 From 1658 to 1669 the registers are defective, and 
 no entries are to be found of any burials during that 
 period; so that on the decease of Mr. RadcliiFe, the 
 Oliverian appointee, which probably took place in 
 that interval, his interment is not recorded. 
 
142 CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 In 1661 Henry Marshall, M.A., was collated by 
 Bishop Stern. 
 
 In 1667 Eichard Lowrie, M.A., was collated by 
 Bisho]3 Rainbow. 
 
 In 1710 Thomas TuUie, M.A., was collated by 
 Bishop Nicolson, and on his decease the date of that 
 event, and his burial, are tluis minutely set forth in 
 the register. 
 
 " Thomas TuUie, Doctor of Laws, Dean and 
 Chancellor of Carlisle, Rector of Aldingham, Vicar 
 of Crosthwaite, and one of his Majesty's justices 
 of the peace, departed this life, at his house in 
 Carlisle, on Monday, the 16 day of January, a.d. 
 1726, and was interred in the cathedral y^ 18 of 
 said month." 
 
 In 1727 Thomas Nicholson, LL.B., was collated by 
 Bishop Waugh. 
 
 In 1728 Thomas Christian, B.A., fifth son of Ewan 
 Christian, of the Isle of ]\Ian, the first of that name 
 who settled -at Ewanrigg Hall, was collated by the 
 same bishop, and held the living till his death, when 
 he was buried in Crosthwaite churchyard, next to the 
 east end of the church. 
 
 In 1770, on Mr. Christian's decease, James Stephen 
 
CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH, 143 
 
 LusKington, M.A., was collated by Bishop Law; vipon 
 whose resignation, 
 
 In 1780, Henry Denton was collated by the same 
 eminent prelate ; and on his resignation, 
 
 In 1786, Isaac Denton, LL.B., was collated by 
 Bishop Law, and held the living till his decease, when 
 he was interred near his predecessor, Mr. Christian; 
 and 
 
 In 1820, on Mr. Denton's decease, the Kev. James 
 Lynn, M.A., the present vicar, was collated by Bishop 
 Goodenough. 
 
 The Vicarage-house, as connected with the 
 church, must not be passed by without a word. It rests 
 upon an eminence between the church and the town, 
 and commands that beautiful view of the water of Der- 
 went, and the surrounding mountain scenery, with 
 which the poet Gray, who visited the vale in 1769, 
 was so much enraptured. " From hence," says he, in 
 one of those delightfiil letters which were the medium 
 of giving to his fellow-countrymen the first familiar 
 account of the romantic loveliness of a region then 
 rarely explored, " I got to the parsonage a little 
 
144 CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 before sunset, and saw a picture which, if I could 
 transmit to you and fix it in all the softness of its 
 living colours, would fairly sell for one thousand 
 pounds." The point of view from which Gray beheld 
 this fascinating prospect was from the horsing-stone, 
 which then and for long after stood without the right- 
 hand side of the garden gate in front of the dwelling. 
 It was removed several years ago, much to the regret 
 of Mr. South ey, who used often playfiiUy to reflect on 
 the absence of sympathetic feeling shown in the 
 destruction of a memorial so intimately associated 
 with the author of " The Elegy." 
 
 It has been elegantly said that " the world has 
 many a Mecca and many a Medina for those who find 
 a prophet in genius, and holiness in its sepulchre." 
 To the truth of this observation Crosthwaite Church 
 offers its impressive testimony ; for of such noted 
 localities few have won or will continue to be in- 
 vested with more sacredness than the antique fane 
 which shadows the tomb of Southey. Long after the 
 generation that has seen the restoration of the former, 
 and inaugurated the effigy of the latter, shall have 
 faded from the earth, and the memory of, the things 
 here recorded shall have waxed old ; through ages 
 
CROSTHWAITE CHUECH. 145 
 
 to come these sanctities, linked as they are with all 
 that is most eloquent of genius, and environed by all 
 that is most sublime in nature, will be renowned as a 
 pilgrimage in our own dear land, to which thousands, 
 yet unborn, will feel it a duty they owe to the 
 honoiu'ed dead to leave at times the more worldly 
 pursuits of life, and offer with generous hearts homage 
 to the laurels which the admiration of the present age 
 has planted on the spot. 
 
 As in its commencement this memoir of the vene- 
 rable church was graced with a quotation from one of 
 the most instructive works of that accomplished man 
 to whose golden thoughts, now moving and shining 
 throughout the world, we owe so much, so it cannot 
 be more fitly concluded than Avith another extract 
 from the same delightful book, after which it would 
 be sacrilege to add one word more : — 
 
 " I was walking alone in Howrah, looking upon 
 the church and Skiddaw behind it, which was then in 
 all the glory of a Midsummer sunset. The weight of 
 time and eternity was on my spirits. I had also been 
 thinkino- of the change in human institutions — a 
 thou"-ht naturally connected with any permanent 
 monuments of nature or art. The shadows glide over 
 
 L 
 
146 CKOSTHWAITE CHURCH. 
 
 that mountain, and tlie clouds collect there, and the 
 sun glorifies it, as they did when the Druids per- 
 formed their rites within yonder circle of stones — 
 when the Romans and Romanized Britons erected 
 altars to Jupiter and Belatucadrus — and when the 
 Danes offered up victims to Thor and Woden. The 
 church too has undergone its changes. The rood-loft 
 has disappeared, not a bell rings on Saint Kentigern's 
 day, and not a trace of the saint remains in his own 
 parish. I was contemplating that church and yonder 
 mountain. Seven centuries have gone by since the 
 church was founded, and there Skiddaw has stood 
 since the foundations of the hills were laid. My years 
 will presently be like a tale that is told. These will 
 remain ; the one unchangeable ; the other, I trust, 
 never to be changed in its destination and uses, what- 
 ever renovations the structure may require." 
 
^ I ^ „ V PRINTlft) 1 
 
 ft! <u /tcXiX- tt ( ^t?w-^c;-i,' ^ 7 
 
 WESTMINSTEK : 
 BS- JOUN BOWYER NICHOLS AND SONS, 
 25, PARLIAMENT STREET, 
 
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 / . .. /..^ 
 
05 
 
MEMORY OF CANON , ] 
 ^,^1-(JN»^ R/vWNSLEY.1* l^iVif \ 
 
 A further memorial to Canon Rawnsley, 
 whose name will ever be held in 
 affectionate remem'brance by all who love 
 the Lake District, was dedicated on Tues - 
 day . It consists of a tablet of Borrowdale 
 sEone placed in the wall of the baptistry 
 of Crosthwaite church. Tlie design was 
 prepared by Mr. Weeks, director of the 
 Keswick School of Industrial Art, and the 
 work executed by Keswick men. At the 
 head of the tablet are the emblenis, 
 carved in the stone, of St. Kentigern, the 
 patron saint of the church, comprising a 
 bell, a bird, a fish, and a tree. Below 
 is the inscription : " In memoriani, who 
 battled for the true, the jnst, H. D. 
 RawQsley, 1851-1920, thirty-four years vicar 
 of this parish, canon of Carlisle, cliaplam 
 to the King. And Edith his wife." Three 
 Carlisle roses, are' depicted at the base of 
 the tablet. 
 
 Sir George Adam Smith, Principal of 
 Aberdeen University, unveiled the memorial 
 at the customary evensong, during which 
 two of the hymns composed by Canon 
 Rawnsley were sung^ 
 
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