suffice as a specimen of the whole order thereon:--"For condign punishment
in this behalf and for a terror and fear to be wrought in all others for
committing the like offence, it is ordained and constituted that Mabel
Atkinson shall be attached and taken on Monday, in the morning, next, by
the two Serjeants at Mace and ministers of this borough, where and in what
place she may be found, and shall forthwith be had, carried, and conveyed
unto the common prison or ward of the same borough, and there shall remain
and continue without any bail or delivery until Thursday then next
following, in the afternoon, having only for diet every day in the
meanwhile one slender and spare repast of meat and drink, and only two
coverlets nightly to lie in, at which time on the said Thursday, in the
afternoon, being openly called forth of prison to the bar in the Mootehall
of the same borough, if she will and do in very penitent, humble, and
sorrowful manner, unfeignedly and truly upon her knees, in the open
presence of the people then and there assembled, and before her said
master and mistress, ask and pray at God His hands mercy and forgiveness
for her said false and untrue report and slander, and pardon also of her
said master and mistress for the said offence, then she to be delivered
out of the said prison or ward, paying such fees and duties as may
appertain, and if she shall the same refuse, in whole or part, or in doing
the same not performing it with such true penitence as in such case is
requisite, and as all the people assembled may and shall therewith be
fully satisfied and resolved, that she be banished from being, tarrying,
or remaining within this borough, or the liberties or precincts of the
same, for and by the space of one whole year then next coming, and that no
person or persons during the same year shall take her into service or
suffer her to dwell in house under or with any such person or persons
(except it be in lawful wedlock) upon pain to lose and forfeit to, and for
the common use of all the inhabitants of the same for every month as much
as ten shillings, to be levied as above."
The poor drunkards met with none too considerate treatment from the
justices of the time. Here is a curious "Order against common drunkards,
how to be punished, and for common scolds":--"Whereas sundry persons
inhabiting this borough and others (of their insatiable minds without any
regard to common honesty, modesty, or fear of God, or His severe
punishment either in this life or the life to come) do give up their
bodies (which Almighty God hath ordained to honour) unto all manner of
dishonour and dissolute kind of life in quaffing immoderate and
superfluous devouring of strong ale at very many needless and unfit times,
continuing the same most foul and detestable vice so long till at length
they be so far overtaken and gone that they become beast-like and
insensible, without reason or any good understanding (besides the great
loss of time and waste of their goods, and miserable want of their
families at home, and their own beggaring at length, and lamentable grief
to all other good Christians, their neighbours, detesting and loathing
that vice) for redress whereof and preventing of sundry mischiefs which
else might happen by this occasion (besides great danger to their souls)
if the same enormity should not in time be speedily foreseen; it is
therefore ordained and constituted by the Aldermen and burgesses of this
borough that at all times hereafter when and so often as any person or
persons whatsoever shall be seen or known ... to have been or at any time
to be so far overtaken, besotted or drunken with immeasurable devouring of
strong drink that then it shall be lawful to or for any Alderman, Justice,
or Alderman's Deputy all and every such misordered person and persons to
cause to be imprisoned within the same borough, there to remain at such
diet and during the pleasure of him that committed him, to the end thereby
to reclaim and warn every one of them from lewdness and detestable
offences of drinking; and also that every such magistrate aforesaid shall
or may commit and command to be set on the cuckstool every common scold,
railer, or of notorious misdemeanour, at the like pleasure of the
Commander or Magistrate."
The turning of Thirlmere into a huge reservoir, and the necessary increase
of its depth, hid for ever a number of land-marks. There are, however,
numerous others of an interesting character left. A reminder of the days
when the manorial lord was a king in a small way is supplied by the
Steading Stone. This is supposed to mark the site where the manor court
of Wythburn was held, and its pains and penalties imposed. The Rev. S.
Barber has supplied[12] an explanation of a term which has puzzled many a
tourist as well as not a few dwellers in Lakeland:--"The City, as has been
suggested by one who is no mean scholar, is neither more nor less than a
corruption of 'Sitting,' that is, the place of session of the early
judges, when they met to adjudicate in criminal cases. We can then picture
the white bearded patriarchs seated in solemn conclave upon the
semi-circle of boulders facing the central rock, and after the giving of
sentence sternly watching the miserable captive led away to be decapitated
on that very rock, before the assembled witnesses."
Life in the old gaols for any extended period must have been a very
dreadful experience. The buildings were generally crowded; that they would
be in a perpetually insanitary condition goes without saying, and gaol
fevers were frequent. The prisoners were not treated any better in the
local gaols than in other places. They were chiefly dependent on the
charity of outsiders for subsistence, and the old Carlisle and Whitehaven
newspapers contain hundreds of paragraphs recording the gratitude of the
prisoners to the local gentry for gifts of from L1 to L20. In these days
when it is unlawful to send any tobacco or liquors into a prison, the
reader notes with particular interest the announcements of presents of
barrels of ale, prayer-books, bread, coals, and other articles to the
debtors, as well as to those who had been convicted of serious offences.
Those, too, were "the hanging days." Note the items in this concise report
of Carlisle Assizes in August, 1790:--"On Friday afternoon the Judges were
met at the usual place, near Carlisle, by Wm. Brown, High Sheriff of the
county, attended by a most respectable and numerous company of gentlemen,
in carriages and on horseback. On their arrival in the city, their
lordships proceeded to the Hall, where His Majesty's Commission being
opened in due form, the Courts were adjourned to eight o'clock the next
morning--when the business of assize proceeded. The Hon. Sir John Wilson
at the Crown End; and the Hon. Sir Alex. Thomson, in the court of _nisi
prius_. When our account left Carlisle, Wm. Bleddy, for breaking open the
shop of Miss Crossthwaite, at Keswick; and John Thompson, for horse
stealing, were found guilty--death. Bella Ramsay, for stealing wearing
apparel, to be transported. Leonard Falshea, for stealing six sheep, found
guilty--death, but ordered for transportation. Ann Wilson and Elizabeth
White, for stealing a purse, etc., to be transported."
There are no stocks standing now on the village greens of Cumberland and
Westmorland, but in Tullie House Museum, Carlisle, are local examples of
both pillory and stocks. Among the records of Greystoke, some seventy
years ago, it was stated that the village then possessed a neat cross,
"the stones of which remain piled together, and also the foot-stocks for
the punishment of evil doers." Whipping in public was so general in most
towns as to occasion no great amount of notice, and often the punishment
must have seemed out of all proportion to the offence. Thus at the assizes
of 1790, just mentioned, Walter Smith, who was convicted of stealing a
game-cock, was sentenced to be imprisoned six months and publicly whipped
in Whitehaven.
[Illustration: GIANT'S THUMB, PENRITH.]
There is a tradition among some of the old folks of Penrith that the holes
at the top of the ancient cross, known as the Giant's Thumb, in the
churchyard, were at one time used for a pillory. The only authority for
the assertion seems to have been the late Mr. William Grisenthwaite,
builder, who had quite a store of local traditions. It was on his
statement that Mr. George Watson included the information in his
"Notabilia of Old Penrith." Mr. Grisenthwaite said the last time the cross
was used for that corrective purpose was for the whipping of a young
woman, who died of a broken heart in consequence of her shameful exposure.
It is but fair to say that other old people of great intelligence declare
that they never heard of such an event, and that they do not believe it.
Moreover, Penrith possessed stocks, and doubtless a pillory also, not far
from where the Monument now stands; hence the statement as to the Thumb
being put to such a secular purpose as being used for a whipping-post is
greatly in need of confirmation. The stocks at Penrith had not ceased to
be used in 1781, having been repaired by Thomas Langhorne in that year, at
a cost of L1 14s. Those at Ravenstonedale stood outside the churchyard
wall, and near the Grammar School. The stocks at Orton were near the
church gate; those at St. Michael's, Appleby, at Bongate Cross. An iron,
with the letters "R. V. T." ("rogue, vagabond, thief"), was attached to
the dock in the Crown Court at Appleby, until the Shire Hall was improved
about 1848.
It is recorded that whipping was formerly practised in Appleby to a
considerable extent. On October 26th, 1743, it was ordered by the Mayor
and Aldermen that the stocks and pillory, then opposite to the house which
had recently belonged to a person named Knotts, should be immediately
removed to the end of the open Hall, facing the Low Cross, "that being
deemed the proper place for the same, and that there be a whipping-post,
and a convenient place for burning criminals in the hand, erected there
also." The late Mr. M. Cussons, shortly before his death early this year,
told the writer that he particularly remembered the stocks at Appleby.
They were placed at the north end of the old Moot Hall, and were removed
before 1835, in which year the Corporation fixed the present weighing
machine on the site. The stocks were so placed that the culprit undergoing
punishment had his back to the building, and faced the church. When they
were last used has not been ascertained. There were stocks also at Bongate
Cross, but these were removed about thirty years ago by the late Mr.
Richardson, the Bongate parish clerk, and given by him to the late Mr. G.
R. Thompson, Bongate Hall. From the Appleby Corporation records, Mr. W.
Hewitson, Town Clerk, finds that in 1767 the grand jury set out to William
Bewsher on a lease for 999 years a piece of ground on which to build a
smith's shop, at the north corner of Bridge End, near where the
ducking-stool stood.
The last person flogged through the Appleby streets was a man named
Johnnie Copeland, a notorious character in his time. This happened about
1819. The crime for which he suffered this punishment was a criminal
assault. Mrs. Jane Brunskill, Appleby, now in her ninetieth year, who was
an eye witness of the punishment, informed the writer a few months ago
that she remembered the occurrence perfectly. The offender was fastened by
two ropes, placed round his body, one being held by a man who walked in
front, and the other by a man walking behind the culprit. The punishment
was inflicted by a prisoner under confinement in Appleby Gaol. They
started from the High Cross and proceeded to the Gaol, the man being
flogged all the way. This took place on a market day, and the streets were
crowded. The governor of the gaol at that time was named James Bewsher,
and he combined with that office the business of blacksmith, which he
carried on in the premises already referred to as being near the place
where the ducking-stool stood.
Dishonest workmen also got a taste of the lash occasionally, as witness
this newspaper paragraph of January, 1789: "A fancy-weaver, belonging to
Messrs. Foster and Sons' manufactory in Carlisle, was publicly whipped a
few days ago, for stealing several of his masters' patterns, and sending
them to a manufactory in Glasgow."
There is believed to have been no example of riding the stang in
Cumberland or Westmorland during the last half century. Previously,
however, it would seem to have been an unpleasantly frequent punishment.
In the _Westmorland Gazette_ for December 19th, 1835, a long description
was given of "the old but now almost neglected custom." In this case an
Ambleside woman had left her husband and family, and gone with a married
man to America. After an absence of eight months she returned, and, said
the local journalistic chronicler of the period, "the young men of
Ambleside, with that manly and proper spirit which ought to actuate the
breast of every noble mind who values propriety of conduct, and that
which is decent and of good report, on Monday procured, instead of a pole,
a cart, in which were placed two of their companions, and accompanied by a
party of both young and old, proceeded through the town repeating at
certain places the following lines:--
'It is not for my part I _ride the stang_,
But it is for the American----just come hame.'
The fun was continued to the amusement of hundreds for about an hour, but
not being satisfied with one night's frolic, the same party, on Tuesday
evening, procured an effigy of the frail lady, and after exhibiting it in
every part of the town, publicly burnt it at the Market Cross, amidst the
loud hurras of the assembled crowd who had met to witness the sight, and
who took that opportunity of testifying their hatred and detestation of
such base and abominable conduct as the parties had been guilty of."
Some Legends and Superstitions.
The title of this chapter sufficiently indicates that the legends and
superstitions intended to be dealt with are far from including all which
might be mentioned; indeed not a tithe of those which are still well known
in the two counties can here be touched upon. Mr. Whitfield, M.P., in an
address in West Cumberland over thirty years ago,[13] said that the
superstitions in the Border country concerning fairies and brownies were
more developed, and the belief in spells and enchantments more common than
in many other parts of the country. The various circumstances attending
the growth of those beliefs led to the conclusion that in the Middle Ages
religion as then taught did not exercise any great influence on the
Border. Though monasteries were founded on each side of the Border as some
protection against the desolations of war, the English did not scruple to
ravage the Scottish monasteries during an invasion, and the Scotch treated
with corresponding violence the English foundations. At the time of the
Reformation the Border was probably the most ignorant and barbarous
district in England.
There is a pretty legend pertaining to St. Bees, which is supposed to have
derived its name from St. Bega, an Irish nun, who came to Cumberland about
the middle of the seventh century, and, with her sisters, was wrecked near
to the headland. "In her distress she went to the Lady of Egremont Castle
for relief, and obtained a place of residence at St. Bees. Afterwards she
asked Lady Egremont to beg of her lord to build them a house, and they
with others would lead a religious life together. With this the Lady
Egremont was well pleased, and she asked the lord to grant them some land.
The lord laughed at the lady, and said he would give them as much land as
snow fell upon 'the next morning in Midsummer Day.' On the next morning he
looked out from the castle towards the sea, and all the land for about
three miles was covered with snow."[14]
Another tradition associated with West Cumberland is that at Kirksanton.
There is a basin, or hollow, in the surface of the ground, assigned as a
place where once stood a church that was swallowed up by the earth
opening, and then closing over it bodily. It used to be believed by the
country people that on Sunday mornings the bells could be heard far down
in the earth, by the simple expedient of placing the ear to the ground. A
very similar legend was, in a magazine in 1883, recorded of Fisherty Brow,
Kirkby Lonsdale:--"There is a curious kind of natural hollow scooped out,
where, ages ago, a church, parson, and congregation were swallowed up by
the earth. Ever since this terrible affair it is asserted that the church
bells have been regularly heard to ring every Sunday morning."
If an old tradition is to be believed, one of the most conspicuous
land-marks in the north of England should be regarded as a memorial, so
far as its name goes. The story is that the cross was planted, by pious
hands, in the early days of Christianity, on the summit or table land of
the chain of mountains which bounds the eastern side of Cumberland,
separately known by different names along their range, but collectively
called Cross Fell. At any rate, whether or not it takes its name from its
transverse situation to the common run of the immense ridge, this
tradition, as the Rev. B. Porteus has remarked, "is preferable to another
which traces its derivative to a cross erected for the purpose of
dislodging the aerial demons which were once thought to possess these
desolate regions, and gave it the name of the Fiend's Fell." But the
cyclone (the Helm Wind) and the sending for holy men to Canterbury to
exorcise "the demon" supports the derivation. Alston Church is dedicated
to St. Augustine. Some say the bodies of Christians who had died in the
heathen eastern districts were brought "Cross t' Fell" to be buried in the
consecrated land of the primitive Christians of Cumberland and
Westmorland.
There is a tradition that an attempt was made time after time to build a
church in what is known as Jackson's Park, Arlecdon, but as often as begun
in the day it was destroyed in the night by some unknown and invisible
hand. Eventually the attempt was abandoned, and the church built in its
present position. Then there is the familiar legend connected with the
building of the Devil's Bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale. There are several
versions of the erection of this structure, and as one is just as likely
to be wrong as another, the story told by Mr. Speight[15] may be quoted:
"The bridge was built by his Satanic Majesty, according to a compact made
between himself and a poor woman who wished to recover her cow which had
strayed at low water to the opposite side of the river, but could not do
so without the convenient means of a bridge. And so the King of Evil
agreed to erect a bridge on condition that he should have the first living
thing that crossed. He knew very well of her husband's coming home from
market, and hoped to make good booty. But the cunning woman was equal to
the occasion. Seeing the approach of her husband on the opposite hill, she
concealed a scraggy, half-starved dog under her apron, and letting it
sniff a bone, suddenly tossed the latter over the fine, new made viaduct,
and the dog at once bounding after it, she stepped back, and raising her
fingers in a vindictive, and certainly most unbecoming manner, lustily
exclaimed,
'Now, crafty Sir, the bargain was
That you should have what first did pass
Across the bridge--so now, alas!
The dog's your right.
The Cheater cheated, struck with shame,
Squinted and grinned, then in a flame
He vanished quite.'"
At least two legends have come down to us of the days of the wolves. A
lady belonging to the Lucy family--the great territorial lords of West
Cumberland--was one evening walking near to Egremont Castle when she was
devoured by a wolf at a place afterwards marked by a stone cairn, and
known as Woful Bank. The name of Wotobank is given to a place in the
parish of Beckermet. The story here is that Edgar, a lord of Beckermet,
and his lady, Edwina, and servants, were at one time hunting the wolf.
"During the chase the lord missed his lady, and after a long and painful
search the party at last found her body lying on the hill, or bank, slain
by a wolf, with the ravenous beast still in the act of tearing it to
pieces. In the first transports of his grief, the words that the
distressed husband first uttered were, 'Woe to this Bank'--a phrase since
altered and applied to the place as 'Wotobank.'" Another wolf legend of a
somewhat similar character is attached to a well called Lady's Dub, at
Ulpha.
What can only be described as legends--for as to their authenticity it
would perhaps not be wise to inquire too closely--belong to the fortunes
of several estates in the two counties. One of the owners of Warthell (or
Warthol) Hall, in the parish of Plumbland, was notorious for his passion
for card-playing--a form of amusement, by the way, which probably for more
than two hundred years has been a favourite among all classes in the two
counties. The Lord of Warthell, Mr. Dykes, one evening lost a large sum,
and was face to face with ruin. Growing desperate, he determined to risk
all on a single game of putt, and at the last deal cried,
"Up, now deuce, or else a tray,
Or Warthell's gone for ever and aye."
While it would perhaps be unjust even to suggest that the people of
Cumberland and Westmorland are now more superstitious than those of other
counties, it is nevertheless a fact that many curious beliefs prevailed in
the country districts long after they had ceased in other places. The
faith in the efficacy of charms has even yet not died away. Toothache has
long been a favourite medium for testing the skill of the charmer and the
faith of the sufferer. The Rev. H. J. Bulkeley, then rector of Lanercost,
who spent much time in collecting records of the old and fleeting beliefs,
told in 1885 how the toothache charm was worked. "A boy suffering from
toothache was taken to an old blacksmith, who prodded the decayed tooth
with a rusty nail; blindfolded the boy, led him into a wood, and, taking
the bandage off his eyes, made him hammer the nail into a young oak;
blindfolded him again, and led him out, making him promise not to try and
find the tree or tell anyone of it. And that tooth never ached any more!"
Another method was to rub, with a stone, the part affected, the operation
taking place soon after sunset. While performing the rubbing, the charmer
muttered an incantation which does not seem to have been preserved in
print, although it is doubtless well known in the country districts.
Fairies have given place to more material creations, but the faith in the
"little folk" has not died out, and even yet occasionally the dairy-maid
may be seen furtively to put a pinch of salt in the fire at churning time,
"so that t' fairies mayn't stop t' butter frae comin'." The rowan-tree
branch used to be placed above doorways to keep away evil influences
throughout the north of England, and in the Lake Country the stick used
for stirring the cream to counteract the bewitching of the churn is still
frequently made of rowan or mountain ash wood.
Among the old superstitions is that of the death strokes:--
"As with three strokes above the testered bed
The parting spirit of its tenant fled."
The opinion once very commonly prevailed that shortly before the coming of
the last summons three distinct raps were heard on the wall immediately
over the bed head. This, of course, was nothing more than the noise made
by a small worm when trying to bore itself a passage through the decayed
woodwork where it had been bred.
"Telling the bees" is a custom in several parts of the country, and is
still believed in by some of the old people of these counties. When a
death occurred in a household where bees were kept it was deemed desirable
for some one to acquaint the occupants of the hives with the fact, and
also to tell them on the day of the funeral that the corpse was about to
be lifted. The late Mr. W. Dickinson, who by his "Cumbriana,"
"Reminiscences," and "Glossary," did much to preserve a knowledge of
old-time life in the county, said the last case of "telling the bees"
which came to his knowledge was at Asby, near Arlecdon, in 1855. To miss
taking the doleful news to the bees was held to be a certain way of
bringing ill-luck to the house.
Supposed miracle workers have not been lacking. About the middle of the
fourteenth century the abbot and canons of Shap had licence from Bishop
Kirkby to remove the body of Isabella, wife of William Langley, their
parishioner, famed for having miracles done by it, to some proper place
within the church or churchyard of Shap, that the reliques might be
reverenced by the people with freer and greater devotion.