Wordsworth in his description of the Lake Country as it was, and
had been through centuries, till within about one hundred years,
thus alludes to the places of worship. "Towards the head of these
Dales was found a perfect Republic of shepherds and agriculturists,
among whom the plough of each man was confined to the maintenance
of his own family, or to the occasional accommodation of his
neighbour. Two or three cows furnished each family with milk and
cheese. The Chapel was the only edifice that presided over these
dwellings, the supreme head of this pure commonwealth: the members
of which existed in the midst of a powerful empire, like an ideal
society or an organised community, whose constitution had been
imposed and regulated by the mountains which protected it.
"The _religio loci_ is nowhere violated by these unstinted, yet
unpretending works of human hands. They exhibit generally a well
proportioned oblong, with a suitable porch, in some instances a
steeple tower, and in others nothing more than a small belfry, in
which one or two bells hang visibly. A man must be very insensible
who would not have been touched with pleasure at the sight of
the former Chapel of Buttermere, so strikingly expressing by its
diminutive size, how small must have been the congregation there
assembled, as it were, like one family; and proclaiming at the
same time to the passenger, in connection with the surrounding
mountains, the depth of that seclusion in which the people lived,
that rendered necessary the building of a separate place of worship
for so few. The edifice was scarcely larger than many of the
single stones or fragments of rock which were scattered near it.
The old Chapel was perhaps the most diminutive in all England,
being incapable of receiving more than half a dozen families. The
length of the outer wall was about seventeen feet. The curacy was
'certified to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty at £1. paid by
the contributions of the inhabitants,' and it was also certified,
'this Chapel and Wythop were served by Readers, except that the
Curate of Lorton officiated there three or four times in the year.'"
Such cures were held in these northern counties by unordained
persons, till about the middle of George II.'s reign; when the
Bishops came to a resolution, that no one should officiate who was
not in orders. But, because there would have been some injustice
and some hardship in ejecting the existing incumbents, they were
admitted to deacons' orders without undergoing any examination.
The person who was then Reader as it was called, at the Chapel in
the Vale of Newlands, and who received this kind of ordination,
exercised the various trades of Clogger, Tailor, and Butter-print
maker.
How otherwise than by following secular occupations were even
Readers to exist? The Chapel of "Secmurthow" on the south side of
the river Derwent, not far from the foot of Bassenthwaite lake,
was certified to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty at £2.,
being the interest of £40. raised by the inhabitants for a Reader.
"Before its augmentation," says Hutchinson, "the Reader of divine
service had a precarious income; but an actual custom existed for
several years of allowing the poor minister a _whittle-gate_. He
was privileged to go from house to house in the Chapelry, and stay
a certain number of days at each place, where he was permitted to
enter his _whittle_ or knife with the rest of the family. This
custom," he adds, "has been abolished in such modern times, that it
is in the memory of many now living." (i.e. 1794.)
The inhabitants of many of the Chapelries in the north got by
custom from the Rectors or Vicars the right of nominating and
presenting the curate; for this reason: before the death of Queen
Anne, many of the Chapelries were not worth above two or three
pounds a year, and the donees could not get persons properly
qualified to serve them; so they left them to the inhabitants,
who raised voluntary contributions for them in addition to their
salary, with clothes yearly and whittle-gate.
Clothes yearly, were one new suit of clothes, two pairs of shoes,
and one pair of clogs, shirts, stockings, etc., as they could
bargain.
Whittlegate is, to have two or three weeks' victuals at each house,
according to the ability of the inhabitants, which was settled
amongst them, so that he should go his course as regularly as the
sun, and complete it annually. Few houses having more knives than
one or two, the pastor was often obliged to buy his own; sometimes
it was bought for him by the chapel-wardens. He marched from house
to house with his whittle seeking fresh pasturage; and as master of
the herd, he had the elbow chair at the table-head, which was often
made of part of a hollow ash-tree, such as may be seen in those
parts at this day.
Buttermere was said to allow its priest whittle-gate, and twenty
shillings yearly; by other accounts, "clogg-shoes, harden-sark,
whittle-gate, and guse-gate"--that is, a pair of shoes clogged or
iron-shod, a shirt of coarse linen or hemp once a year, free-living
at each parishioner's house for a certain number of days, and the
right to pasture a goose or geese on the common.
The Wytheburn reader had sark, whittle-gate, and guse-gate.
The Mungrisdale priest had £6. 0_s._ 9_d._ a year.
Many worthies have appeared, nevertheless, among these unpretending
ministers of the dales; most prominently so, Robert Walker, for
a long period curate of Seathwaite, and surnamed for his many
virtues and industry, the Wonderful: of whose life and actions
an interesting and detailed account is given in the Notes in
Wordsworth's Works.
The Chapel of Martindale, a perpetual curacy under the vicarage
of Barton, near Penrith, was served for 67 years by a Mr. Richard
Birket. The ancient endowment was only £2. 15_s._ 4_d._ per annum,
a small house, and about four acres of land. At his first coming,
Birket's whole property consisted of two shirts and one suit of
clothes; yet he amassed a considerable sum of money. Being the only
man except one in the parish who could write, he transcribed most
of the law papers of his parishioners. Whenever he lent money,
he deducted at the time of lending, two shillings in the pound
for interest, and the term of the loan never exceeded a year.
He charged for writing a receipt twopence, and for a promissory
note fourpence; and used other means of extortion. He likewise
taught a school, and served as parish-clerk; and in both these
offices he showed his wonderful turn for economy and gain; for
his quarter-dues from his scholars being small, he had from the
parents of each scholar a fortnight's board and lodging; and
the Easter-dues being usually paid in eggs, he, at the time of
collecting, carried with him a board, in which was a hole that
served him as a gauge, and he positively refused to accept any
which would pass through. He got a fortune of £60 with his wife; to
whom he left at his decease the sum of £1200. Clark says, that on
account of transacting most of the law affairs of his parishioners,
he was called Sir Richard, or the Lawyer. But with reference to
this title, Nicholson, Bishop of Carlisle, at the beginning of the
18th century says, "Since I can remember, there was not a reader in
any chapel who was not called 'Sir.'" The old designation of the
clergy before the Reformation was always "Sir"; knight being added
as the military or civil distinction. It has also been stated that
the last curate of this parish, or of these parts at all, called
"Sir," was the Reverend Richard Birket (apud 1689).
On the death of Mr. Birket no one would undertake the cure, on
account of the smallness of the stipend: those therefore of the
parishioners who could read, performed the service by turns. Things
remained in this situation for some time; at length a little
decrepid man, named Brownrigg, to whom Mr. Birket had taught a
little Latin and Greek, was by the parishioners appointed perpetual
Reader. For this they allowed him, with the consent of the Donee,
the church perquisites, then worth about £12 per annum. Brownrigg
being a man of good character, and there being no clergyman within
several miles to baptize their children, or bury their dead, the
parishioners petitioned the Bishop to grant him deacon's orders;
this was accordingly done, and he served the cure forty-eight years.
Mr. Mattinson, the curate of Paterdale, who died about the year
1770, was a singular character. For fifty-six years he officiated
at the small "chapel with the yew tree," at the foot of St.
Sunday's Crag. His ordinary income was generally twelve pounds a
year, and never above eighteen. He married and lived comfortably,
and had four children, all of whom he christened and married,
educating his son to be a scholar, and sending him to College. He
buried his mother; married his father and buried him; christened
his wife, and published his own banns of marriage in the church. He
lived to the age of ninety-six, and died worth a thousand pounds.
It has been alleged that this provident curate assisted his wife
to card and spin the tithe wool which fell to his lot, viz. one
third; that he taught a school which brought him in about five
pounds a year; that his wife was skilful and eminent as a midwife,
performing her functions for the small sum of one shilling; but
as according to ancient custom she was likewise cook at the
christening dinner, she received some culinary perquisites which
somewhat increased her profits. Clarke adds, "One thing more I must
beg leave to mention concerning Mrs. Mattinson: On the day of her
marriage, her father boasted that his two daughters were married to
the two best men in Paterdale, the priest and the bag piper."
In Langdale, in Clark's time, the poor Curate was obliged to sell
ale to support himself and his family; and, he says, "At his house
I have played _Barnaby_ with him on the Sabbath morning, when he
left us with the good old song,
'I'll but preach, and be with you again.'"
Taking all their circumstances into consideration, it is not to be
wondered at that the personal failings of these men were looked
upon by their neighbours with a leniency which would hardly be
intelligible elsewhere. Not very long ago an excellent old dame
only recently deceased, who for her intelligence and goodness
was respected and esteemed by the highest and the lowest, and
was one of the finest specimens of nature's gentlewomen to be
found anywhere, was heard warmly upholding the character of a
neighbouring clergyman in these words,--"Well, I'll not say but he
may have _slanted_ now and then, at a christenin' or a weddin'; but
for buryin' a corp, he is undeniable!"
In 1866 the Bishop of Carlisle consecrated a new church at Wythop
on the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake. The old building which this
edifice is intended to supersede is a decayed barn-like structure,
supplied with a bell which hung from an adjoining tree. Some
curious customs are associated with this Church. It was built in
1473. For some hundreds of years the inhabitants of the Chapelry
were in the habit of dividing it into four quarters, from each of
which a representative was elected yearly; the functions of the
four being set forth in a document dated 1623. They have to elect
a parish minister or reader, who was generally the schoolmaster,
a layman being eligible; they had to collect "devotion money,"
supervise the repairs of the fabric, and look after the parish
school. The stipend of the minister was 10½d. per Sunday. Here is a
copy of an old receipt:--"Received of the chapelmen of Wythop the
sum of 28s. 5d. for thirty-one weeks' reading wages, by me, John
Fisher." The stipend was however supplemented by Whittlegate; he
was boarded and lodged by the inhabitants of the four quarters in
turn. The value of the living at the present day is only £51 per
annum.
This old church which is to remain as a curiosity, stands high on
a mountain side; and not many years ago nettles grew luxuriantly
beneath the seats in the pews and along the middle of the passage.
A narrow board on a moveable bracket constitutes the communion
table, and the vessels employed in the celebration of the Lord's
Supper are a pewter cheese-plate and pewter pot. There is no
font provided for baptisms, the purpose was served by a common
earthenware vessel; nor is any vestry room attached to the building.
Vestries are seldom to be found in these remote chapels. And in the
chapel at Matterdale, the sacramental wine used to be kept in a
wooden keg, or small cask; perhaps is so still.
It is said of Whitbeck Chapel, which lies on the base of Black
Combe, near the sea shore, that smugglers frequenting that exposed
part of the coast, on many occasions deposited their illegal
cargoes within its walls, until a convenient opportunity arose
for removing them unobserved. Sunday sometimes came round when
the sacred edifice was not in the most suitable condition for
celebrating divine service. The parish clerk had then to advise
the minister that it would be inconvenient to officiate on that
day. It was not politic to scrutinize too closely the nature of
the difficulty that existed: it was sufficiently understood. A
substantial sample of the intruding contraband element found its
way to the house of the minister; and forthwith due notice was
circulated among the parishioners that the usual service would
not be held until the Sunday following. Meanwhile the stores were
disposed of, and the wild and desperate adventurers were in full
career again towards the Manx or Scottish shore.
In 1300 the Lady of Allerdale, and of the Honour of Cockermouth,
Isabel Countess of Albemarle was summoned to prove by what right
she held a market at Crosthwaite (near Keswick). She denied
that she held any market there, but said that the men of the
neighbourhood met at the Church on Festival days, and there sold
flesh and fish; and that she as lady of the Manor of Derwent Fells
took no toll. This practice being persevered in, in 1306 the
inhabitants of Cockermouth represented in a petition to parliament
that there was a great concourse of people every Sunday at
Crosthwaite Church, where corn, flour, beans, peas, linen, cloth,
meat, fish, and other merchandise 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 continuance of such an unseemly usage.
Things had not got quite straight in this respect within the
sanctuary at a much later period. The Rev. Thos. Warcup, incumbent
of the parish church of Wigton, in the civil war was obliged to fly
on account of his loyalty to the sovereign. After the restoration
of Charles II. he returned to his cure; and tradition says, that
the butcher-market was then held upon the Sunday, and the butchers
hung up their carcasses even at the church door, to attract the
notice of their customers as they went in and came out of church;
and it was not an unfrequent thing to see people, who had made
their bargains before prayer began, hang their joints of meat over
the backs of the seats until the pious clergyman had finished the
service. The zealous priest, after having long, but ineffectually,
endeavoured to make his congregation sensible of the indecency of
such practices, undertook a journey to London, on foot, for the
purpose of petitioning the king to have the market-day established
on the Tuesday; which favour it is said he had interest enough to
obtain.
This faithful priest long before his death caused his own monument
to be erected in the churchyard, with this inscription in verse of
his own composing:
Thomas Warcup prepar'd this stone,
To mind him of his best home.
Little but sin and misery here,
Till we be carried on our bier.
Out of the grave and earth's dust,
The Lord will raise me up, I trust;
To live with Christe eternallie,
Who, me to save, himself did die.
Mihi est Christus et in vita et in morte lucrum. Phil. i. 21.
Obiit anno 1653.
Thus it appears his decease did not take place until some years
after the date at which he records his death; probably a period
marked by some important change in his life, or of unusual
solemnity reminds us that only thirty-five years ago, at a very few
miles from its base, one who served the pastoral office more than
fifty years, eking out a wretched maintenance upon a small farm;
while his sons were at the plough, was of necessity compelled to
send his daughters with horses and carts for coals and lime, and to
lead manure to the fields and distribute it over the land; whilst
the Dean and Chapter of his diocese were the patrons of his cure.
Such things can hardly be witnessed at this day. But a minister may
be seen even now (1867) on the other side of the district, leading
the choir in the aisle, in his surplice, with bow and fiddle in
his hands, and then resuming his place at the desk, with becoming
solemnity, until the course of the service requires his instrument
again. His sense of harmony is acute; for in the middle of the
psalm, his arms will fly apart, and the volume of sound be stopped,
until an offensive note has been ejected, and the strain rectified,
and renewed.
A curious discovery has recently been made in the venerable
parish church of Windermere. The plaster having come away over
one of the arches, a band of red and black was revealed. On the
removal of more of the thick layers of whitewash, a beautiful
inscription in old English characters was found. Further search
was instituted, and similar inscriptions have been discovered on
all the walls between the arches in the nave. It is conjectured
that these inscriptions were placed in the church at the time of
the Reformation, as they are mostly directed against the dogma of
transubstantiation, whilst they give plain instructions in the
doctrine of the Sacraments.