Bygone Cumberland And Westmorland - The Original Classic Edition. Daniel Scott

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       "As an example of the prevailing humour of those martial times, what sort of priest must we suppose Cressingham to have been, who never wore any coat that is accounted characteristic of a profession, but that in which he was killed, namely, an iron one. Beck, the fighting Bishop, was so turbulent a mortal that the English King, in order to keep him within bounds, was obliged to take from him a part of those possessions which he earned in battle, and in particular the livings of Penrith and Symond-Burne. But not to mention Thurstan, who fought the battle of the Standard, there are sufficient reasons for believing that most of the priests in the northern parts of England had a double profession, and they are so often mentioned as principals in these continual wars that one

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       cannot help concluding that the martial one was more attended to. When the pastors are such, what must the people be?"

       There was a very interesting quarrel--the facts being too numerous to be stated here--concerning the manor of Penrith, and

       those in some other parts of East Cumberland. They were in the possession of John de Baliol, by virtue of an agreement come to

       between the Kings of England and Scotland, but afterwards Edward the First quarrelled with Baliol, seized his lands, and[Pg 24]

       granted them to Anthony Beck, the military Bishop of Durham already mentioned. That prelate had assisted the King at the battle

       of Falkirk, with a considerable number of soldiers, and was greatly instrumental in obtaining the victory. When the Parliament met

       at Carlisle, however, the grant was disapproved, and as the Bishop did not attend to show by what title he had taken the lands, they

       were adjudged to belong to the Crown.

       The manuscripts of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle contain many references to the knowledge of war required by the early Bishops. When Linstock was the episcopal residence, it lay exposed to the incursions of the Scots, whose respect of persons, as Mr. C. J. Ferguson has reminded us, was small. In April, 1309, Bishop Halton excused himself from obeying a summons to Parliament, plead-ing both fear of a Scots invasion and bad health as reasons. Later correspondence showed that the Bishop had been employed by the King as his deputy in suppressing outrages in the West March, and desired to be freed from some of his duties. The King therefore absolved the prelate from the duties to which he objected, but begged him to assume the[Pg 25] remainder of the offices in his commission, so as to restrain the lawlessness prevailing on both sides of the Border.

       The difficulties of defence, or the constant annoyance, became so great that in 1318 Edward the Second obtained from the Pope the

       appropriation to the bishopric of Carlisle of the church of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, to be a place of refuge for the Bishop and his

       successors during the ravages of the northern enemy. Thomas de Lucy, upon the invasion of the Scots in 1346, "joined his strength

       with the Bishop of Carlisle [Welton], and so alarmed the enemy in the night-time, by frequent entering into their quarters, that at

       length they fled into their own country. And a truce shortly after ensuing, he was again joined in commission with the same Bishop

       and others to see the same duly observed." The Bishop was soon afterwards constituted one of the commissioners for the arraying

       of men in the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland for the defence of the Borders, the French then threatening an invasion.

       With the growth of these troubles from abroad, pressure was put upon those who could raise funds, of whom Bishop Appleby

       was not the least important. "Brevia de privato sigillo[Pg 26] quickly succeed one another at this time," wrote the Rev. J. Brigstocke

       Sheppard, in 1881,[3] when he had gone carefully through the muniments of the Dean and Chapter. "The King, in an agony of ap-

       prehension, occasioned by the threat of invasion, backed by a large fleet collected in the northern ports of France, begs the Bishop

       again and again to raise a defensive militia, to cause prayers to be offered in all churches, and finally to advance him as much money

       as he can upon security of the clerical disme which would soon be due." In a further letter, the King being determined to borrow

       from such of his subjects as could best afford to lend, ordered the Bishop to send for six of the richest clergy and six of the most

       affluent laymen in each county, and upon these twenty-four to impose a loan of fifty marks on an average--more upon those who

       could afford it, and less upon those less able to bear the tax. In 1373 Bishop Appleby was enjoined by the King to reside continually

       in his diocese upon the Marches, and to keep the inhabitants in a state of defence as a protection to the rest of the kingdom against the Scots.

       And so through all the long list of Border[Pg 27] troubles the Bishops had to take a conspicuous share in the proceedings, until the

       ludicrous incident on Penrith Fell, which was the last occasion on which a Bishop took part in fighting on English soil. Various local

       chroniclers have given different versions, but there seems to be no room for doubt that the one by Chancellor Ferguson is accurate.

       When in 1715 the Jacobites marched from Brampton to take Penrith, the people from all the country side (though whether the

       number was 4,000 or 14,000, as variously stated, is not material), armed with guns, scythes, pitch-forks, and other handy if not always

       military weapons, went on to the fell to meet the rebels. The "posse comitatus were under Lord Lonsdale and Bishop Nicolson, the

       latter seated in his coach, drawn by six horses. So soon as the Highlanders appeared, the posse comitatus went away; in plain words

       they skedaddled, leaving the two commanders and a few of their servants. Lord Lonsdale presently galloped off to Appleby, and the

       Bishop's coachman, whipping up his horses, carried off his master willy nilly to Rose Castle. It is said the prelate lost his wig, while

       shouting from the carriage window to his coachman to stop." The[Pg 28] result of this ignominious retreat was that the Jacobites

       took possession of Penrith for the time being, but behaved well, their most serious action being the proclamation of James the

       Third, and the capture of a lot of provisions.

       From fighting prelates to fortified churches is not a long step. Three or four of these structures have come in for more notice than

       the rest, although the latter cannot thereby be considered as lacking some of the most interesting features of the others. During the last thirty years the changes necessitated by restorations of churches have caused some of these relics of turbulent times to be

       somewhat altered; there are still, however, numerous village structures which tell their own story much more vividly, to the trained

       eye, than could be done by written record. When the late Mr. John Cory, county architect for Cumberland, read his paper on the

       subject at Carlisle a quarter СКАЧАТЬ