Bygone Cumberland and Westmorland Part 6

"The Luck of Levens" is of a kind quite different from the three already mentioned. Levens Hall has attached to it one of the oldest deer parks in England, and within its borders are some peculiarly dark fallow deer. The local people have come to believe that whenever a white fawn is born in the herd the event portends some change of importance in the House of Levens. Four such cases have occurred within living memory--when Lord Templetown came to Levens after the Crimean War, after General Upton's death in 1883, on the day after Captain and Mrs. Bagot's wedding in 1885, and in February, 1896, when Mrs. Bagot bore to Levens a male heir. Mr.

Curwen, in his monograph on the house, mentions the following "to ill.u.s.trate the superst.i.tion that had gathered round the white deer so early as Lord Templetown's residence at Levens, between 1850 and 1860":--

"A white buck which had appeared in the herd was ordered to be shot, but the keeper was so horrified with the deed, which he thought to be 'waur ner robbin' a church,' that he actually went so far as to remonstrate with the Crimean veteran. Persuasion being of no use, he at last refused point blank to do the deed himself, and another man had to do it for him. In a few months great troubles came over the house. In quick succession it changed hands twice; the stewards, servants, and gardeners all lost their places; and the keeper firmly held to the belief that all was due to the shooting of this white deer."

Some Old Trading Laws and Customs.

While some of the quaint laws connected with markets and fairs in other parts of the country are unknown in c.u.mberland and Westmorland, others not less interesting may be found in these counties. The searcher after such old-time lore may find a good deal of it in the standard histories, but still more in those byways of local literature which are too much neglected. In this chapter no attempt can be made to do more than touch the fringe of the subject.

There is in existence in the Dean and Chapter Library at Carlisle a monition probably dated towards the end of the fourteenth century addressed to the clergy of the diocese, requiring them to see the const.i.tution of Otho strictly carried out--all fairs being banished from churchyards and suspended on Sundays and solemn feasts. Churchyard fairs were for the emolument of the churches, and were styled by the name of the saint whose example is inculcated by the church's name. The late Canon Simpson, one of the most eminent antiquaries in the two counties, proved that, in England at least, no church was ever dedicated literally to a saint. Fairs, especially "pot fairs," still prevail in church cloisters in Germany.

Meat selling at church doors was common in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and even so late as the time of Charles the Second. The only instance of such a thing occurring in c.u.mberland of which there is record now was at Wigton. In one of the old local histories appears the following note:--"The Rev. Thomas Warcup, who erected his monument in the churchyard long before his death, was obliged to fly from Wigton on account of his loyalty during the Civil Wars. After the restoration of King Charles he returned to the Vicarage, and tradition says that the butcher market was then held upon the Sunday. The butchers hung up carcases at the church door, to attract the notice of customers as they went in and came out of church, and it was not unusual to see people who 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 pet.i.tioning the King to have the market day established on the Tuesday, and which he had interest enough to obtain."

Warcup became Vicar of Wigton in 1612, and possibly on the principle that he was the best qualified to write his own epitaph because he knew himself better than was possible for another to know him, he prepared the following, which he had put on a headstone many years before his death:--

"Thomas Warcup prepar'd this stone, To mind him of his best home.

Little but sin & misery here, Till we be carried on our bier.

Out of the grave & earth's dust, The Lord will raise me up I trust; To live with Christ eternallie, Who, me to save, himself did die."

There was a keen rivalry between Crosthwaite and c.o.c.kermouth at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The townsmen sent a pet.i.tion to Parliament in 1306, stating that owing to the sale of corn, flour, beans, flesh, fish, and other kinds of merchandise at Crosthwaite Church on Sundays, their market was declining so fast that the persons who farmed the tolls from the King were unable to pay the rent. An order was soon afterwards issued stopping the Sunday trading at Crosthwaite. But the fairs and markets in churchyards on week-days were not prohibited by statute for two hundred and eighty years after the c.o.c.kermothians sought protection. The orders thus issued were not long recognised, but collectors of sc.r.a.ps of local history in all parts of the county have added to the general knowledge on this point.

The announcing of sales in churchyards was in the early part of this century a common custom. At Crosby Ravensworth the clerk hurried from his desk immediately the service was concluded, followed by the congregation, and mounting the steps he announced when a person's sale by auction would take place, and read out any notice given to him, for which service he received a fee of fourpence. The custom has long since become obsolete; old William Richardson called the last notice in 1837. It has been a.s.serted, with what amount of truth need not be too closely inquired into, that when this method of advertising public events was forbidden, the attendance of the parishioners at public worship showed a rapid falling-off. The custom of churchyard proclamations prevailed at Orton in the early part of the century, and the inscriptions on certain horizontal tombstones have been obliterated by the hob-nails in the clerk's boots.

While necessarily there must have been a great diversity in the articles announced in the churches or churchyards as likely to be submitted for public compet.i.tion, it would be difficult to find a parallel for this paragraph, which appeared in the _Pacquet_ for March 8th, 1791:--"A few months ago a person in very good circ.u.mstance at no great distance from Ravengla.s.s buried his wife. His son, a few days since, also became a widower, and on Sunday, 27th ult., a sale of their wearing apparel was published at all the neighbouring parish churches! Whether motives of economy suggested the measure, or a wish to remove whatever could remind the disconsolate survivors of their loss, can only be guessed at."

Among the relics treasured by Lord Hothfield at Appleby Castle, is an article reminding the visitor of the days when free trading was unknown.

This is the princ.i.p.al corn measure which was used in the market at Kirkby Stephen more than two hundred years ago; its purpose and record are stated in the raised letters which run around the copper measure a little below the rim:--

"The measure of Thomas, Earle of Thanet Island, Lord Tufton, Lord Clifford, Westmorland, and Vescy, for the use of his Lopps [lordship's] market at Kirkby Stephen in Westmorland, 1685."

In the same building are two other corn measures, smaller than the Kirkby Stephen measure just mentioned. One bears only the word "Thanet," and a coronet. The other measure, of different design, with the monogram, "A.

P." in raised characters, indicates approximately its age, as it was obviously the property of the Countess Anne of Pembroke. The measures, made of bell metal, formerly in use in Sir Richard Musgrave's manor at Kirkoswald, are still carefully preserved by Mr. John Longrigg, the last steward.

How long the proclamation has been read at the St. Luke's Fair at Kirkby Stephen is unknown; certainly for a couple of centuries the practice has been observed, and possibly for a much longer period. Although some of the terms have now no effect, nor the cautions any value, the proclamation is still made, the following being the terms of a recent one:--

"O yes, O yes, O yes, The Right Honourable Henry James Baron Hothfield, of Hothfield, Lord Lieutenant of the County of Westmorland, Lord of the Manor of Skipton in Craven, and Lord and Owner of this Fair, Doth strictly Charge and Command in Her Majesty's name that all persons keep Her Majesty's Peace, and not to presume to ride or go armed during the time of this Fair to the disturbance of Her Majesty's Peace, in pain to be punished according to the Statute in that case made and provided; and also that all persons bargain and sell lawful and sound goods and merchandise, and pay their due and accustomed tolls and stallages, use lawful weights and measures, upon pain to forfeit the value of their wares and merchandise; and also that buy, sell, or exchange any horse, mare, or gelding, that the sellers and buyers thereof repair to the Clerk of the Tolls, and there enter their names, surnames, and places of abode of all such persons as shall buy, sell, or exchange any such horse, mare, or gelding, together with the price, marks, and vouchers at their perils; and lastly if any person have any injury or wrong done by reason of any bargain or contract, during the time of this Fair, let them give information thereof, and the same shall be tried by a Court of Pie Poudre, according to law.

"G.o.d save the Queen, and the Right Honourable Henry James Baron Hothfield."

Needless to say, the Court of Pie Poudre has not sat for many years now.

Many curious and interesting customs were once connected with the holding of markets and fairs; a few of these survive, though not in the form once known. The practice a little over a century ago at Ravengla.s.s, where a fair was held on "the eve, day, and morrow of St. James," has been thus described: "On the first of these days in the morning, the lord's officer, at proclaiming the fair, is attended by the serjeants of the Lord of Egremont, with the insignia belonging thereto; and all the tenants of the Forest of Copeland owe a customary service to meet the lord's officer at Ravengla.s.s to proclaim the fair, and abide with him during the continuance thereof; and for sustentation of their horses they have two swaiths of gra.s.s in the common field of Ravengla.s.s in a place set out for that purpose. On the third day at noon, the Earl's officer discharges the fair by proclamation; immediately whereupon the Penningtons and their tenants take possession of the town, and have races and other divertis.e.m.e.nts during the remainder of that day."

The laws of the old Corporations at Kendal, Carlisle, and Appleby, and the guilds and societies at other places, were very stringent, and far surpa.s.sed the most exacting rules of the trades unions in our own day.

This statement may speedily be verified by a reference to the reprinted Kendal "Boke of Recorde." The "shoddy cloth man" appears to have flourished almost as much three hundred years ago as he does to-day; at any rate he was sufficiently in evidence to cause the Corporation to pa.s.s a very stringent order in regard to "Clothe Dightinge." The excuse for the imposition of the regulation was that "Sundry great complaints have been made in open Court of the insufficient and deceitful dressing and dighting of clothes uttered and sold within the town, as well by the inhabitants as foreigners coming to the same, therefore it is ordered by the Alderman and head burgesses of the borough with the full a.s.sent of the most part of the fellowship of Shearmen now dwelling within the borough, that if any person or persons either now resident in the town or shall hereafter be resident here or in the country adjoining, shall from henceforth have or bring any pieces of cloth to sell or utter within this borough to any person, not being well and sufficiently dight and dressed throughout in all points alike, as well one place as another, in cotton, nop, or frieze as it ought to be; the same being so found by the four sworn men of the same occupation from time to time appointed, shall forfeit and lose for every such piece 2s. 4d., the half thereof to the Chamber of this borough, and the other half to the takers of the same."

A further order provided that if any piece of cloth was not "well, truly, and sufficiently made in all places alike, and all parts thereof of like stuff as it ought to be, or which shall not be clean washed and clean without blemish left in it, upon the like pain of 2s. 4d., to be forwarded by the maker to those before limited for the first fault, and for every fault then after committed and duly proved, the fine and penalty to be doubled." Factory and workshop inspectors, of a sort, were not unknown three hundred years ago. The Corporation ordered the appointment of four members of the "Company and fellowship of tayllers" to be known as searchers or overseers, having power to have the oversight of all faults, wrongs, and misusages happening or done in the trade. The order did not long remain in force before the Corporation decided to repeal them, but two or three years later they were revived by common consent, and ordered to continue during pleasure. In still later times travelling tailors were a brotherhood, and within the last fifty years when on their journeys levied money on the resident fraternity.

Cordwainers, when the "Boke of Recorde" was compiled, were only allowed to do certain kinds of work, and were forbidden to "spetche," or patch boots.

Tailors, too, could not employ any man who might apply for work, there being a very strict law about the employment of freemen in preference to those not free; nor could the shearmen enjoy any greater liberty in their trading operations. One rule ran: "No countryman or person not free shall be permitted to bargain, buy, exchange, trade, sell, or utter within this borough or the precincts hereof, any clothes for outside as a shearman, save only such as be occupiers now of the same trade, or such as shall purchase their freedom, upon pain to lose ten shillings, whereof to the Chamber 5s., and Company 5s."

There was a salutary rule about the selling of meat on Sundays: "From henceforth no butcher, or other his servant, or factor shall sell or utter any flesh or other victuals or meat out of any shop or stall within the borough or liberties, or the precincts of the same, or keep any his or their shop or warehouses open or unshut up after the ending of the third peal or bells ringing to morning or evening prayer on any Sunday or other festival day, upon pain to lose to the Chamber of this borough 12d."

The laws against forestalling, regrating, ingrossing, and otherwise interfering with the due course of trade, were very strict in the markets held under manors and also in those otherwise regulated. The practice was, however, not peculiar to c.u.mberland and Westmorland. One other rule from Kendal may be mentioned as showing the steps taken for preventing skins being h.o.a.rded up, until prices became high: "It shall not be lawful for any butcher or other person dwelling out of this borough or the liberties of the same from henceforth to bring into the borough to be sold, either on the market day or in the week-day any sheepskin (except the same skin--having the ears upon it--be cleaving unto the head or carcase of such flesh where upon it did grow) being so brought to be sold, nor that they nor any of them shall sell, or offer, or put to sale, any such skin on any market day so brought to be sold unto the borough before ten o'clock before noon, upon pain to lose and forfeit as much as 2s."

The penalty for buying victuals before they arrived at the market was forfeiture, while it was further ordered that "no man or woman shall suffer any corn to be sold or measured in their houses upon pain of 6s.

8d., but that all corn shall be bargained, bought, and measured in open market only."

An old native of the borough not long ago a.s.sured the writer that when he was a boy, in the old coaching days, the suspicion of "poaching" extended even to the lawyers, for, said he, "At the a.s.sizes at Appleby the Bar had all to enter the borough together, or not before a certain hour, lest one individual might secure more than a fair share of the briefs."

Market-bells are still rung at various places in the two counties. That in St. Andrew's Church, Penrith, is sounded every Tuesday morning at ten o'clock, before which hour business is supposed to be forbidden. The same rule prevails at Appleby, where the bell hangs in a campanile over the Moot Hall. This, of course, is a survival of the days when forestalling was a very serious offence--and properly so. The archives of the Corporation of Carlisle contain doc.u.ments bearing on the connection of the bells with trading. Mention of the market-bell appears in the bye-laws of 1561, thus: "Itm that noe outman shall sell any corn to any fore nor to such tym as the market bell be rounge on payn of forfitor." Happily it is not possible to apply to all the saying used with reference to one old market in West c.u.mberland--that "it opens at twelve o'clock and closes at noon," the meaning, of course, being that there is little or no market left. It was recorded by Mr. Green, the noted artist, that at Ambleside the market was crowded by small merchants, "who were called together by the tinkling of a small bell. Then all was bustle and animation; joy beamed in every countenance, for all the traffic was for ready money, and every individual lived upon the produce of his labour."

Old-Time Home Life

There is a very great store of gossip and anecdote in existence which might be utilised to ill.u.s.trate the picturesqueness of old-time life in c.u.mberland and Westmorland. Whether the lack of sanitary comforts, intellectual facilities, and of opportunities of seeing the world or of knowing of its doings, were counterbalanced by the freedom from care and the quiet humdrum lives, which were led by the majority of the people in the two counties, is an open question. An anecdote told in a book published well-nigh a century since, well ill.u.s.trates the simplicity of life among Lakeland folk generations ago. A foreign physician, eminent in his profession, practiced in the neighbourhood of Keswick. He was one day asked by another medical man how he liked his position. "My situation," he replied, "is a very eligible one as a gentleman; I can enjoy every species of country amus.e.m.e.nt in the greatest perfection; I can hunt, shoot, and fish among a profusion of game of every kind; the neighbouring gentlemen, too, seem to vie with each other in acts of politeness. But as a physician I cannot say that it is so alluring to me, for the natives have got the art of preserving their healths and prolonging their lives without boluses or electuaries, by a plaster taken inwardly, called thick poddish.

This preserves them from the various diseases which shake the human fabric, and makes them slide into the grave without pain by the gradual decay of nature."

As might be supposed, a people possessing so many primitive habits, and whose lives were so circ.u.mscribed, had numerous peculiar contrivances in their homes. Some of these have been so long out of use that their purpose has almost pa.s.sed from memory. Before the days of mineral oils, the general means of illumination, both in mansion and cottage, was the rushlight. These candles were made of the pith of rushes, dipped in melted tallow. They were fixed for use in an arrangement known as a "Tom Candlestick," which in the early years of this century were common objects in every village home. Mr. Anthony Whitehead, in the last edition of his Westmorland poems (1896), mentions a curious belief in this connection--that the rushes were not considered fit for use unless pulled at the full moon.

A love of finery has seldom been a failing with the residents in the country districts of c.u.mberland and Westmorland, and especially was this the case before travel became easy. In the days when at the most the ordinary folk only saw the shops of a town on "term day"--and in a vast number of instances that would only occur on a few occasions in a lifetime--dress was of the most homely and substantial sort. "Hodden grey"

for the men and correspondingly good wear for the females--most of it home made--were the ordinary fabrics. Clogs were worn at one time by all cla.s.ses, from parson down to the poorest labourer, and even on Sundays the wearing of boots or shoes was often an indication of the owner being a person of some local consequence. The housewives had a curious method of preserving the stocking heels, which was probably more efficacious than cleanly. They took care to "smear the heels of the family's new stockings with melted pitch, and dipped them immediately in the ashes of turf. The glutinous mixture incorporated with the woollen, and altogether formed a compound both hard and flexible, which was well adapted to resist the united friction of wood and leather." The utility of clogs for certain purposes is undoubted, but this useful kind of footgear is apparently losing its popularity.

There have been plenty of descriptions left--by old-time tourists and home historians--at various periods of the methods of life of the people, and they generally agree that the costumes, especially of the dales-folk, were picturesque. The homespun material was frequently undyed, black and white fleeces being mixed to save the expense of dyeing. This homely material, which is still made in some parts of Scotland and Ireland, has in recent years been p.r.o.nounced by fashion to be superior, for country wear, to the most finished products of the steam loom; so that now the most elegant ladies do not disdain to wear dresses of the self-same homespun of which our ancestors made their "kelt coats." These coats were ornamented with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons, as were the waistcoats, which were made open in front for best, in order to show a frilled shirt breast. Knee breeches were the fashion for centuries. They were b.u.t.toned tight round the body above the haunches, so as to keep up without braces. Those used for best had a knot of ribbon and four or five bright b.u.t.tons at the knee, and those who could afford it, had them made of buckskin. Their stockings, which were a conspicuous part of the dress, were also made from their own wool, the colour being generally blue or grey. On their feet they wore clogs on ordinary occasions, but when dressed in holiday costume, they had low shoes fastened with buckles which were sometimes of silver.

That picture is a pleasant one; the life in the home was less picturesque.

Churches and farm houses (especially the bedrooms) had next to no ventilation. The sanitary--or rather insanitary--state of country places was deplorable, and fevers of a very fatal character were common. The records of the desolation wrought by some of them is melancholy. Open drains and sewers in immediate proximity to farm houses were very usual.

Bedrooms very often communicated through the length of a house. This was economy! A pa.s.sage or corridor was not required. A leading clergyman, not finding a cas.e.m.e.nt which would open in a church where he was officiating, extemporized ventilation by smashing a pane of gla.s.s. In the country cottages and farm houses, as well as in many habitations in the towns, the chimneys had no flues, and were funnel-shaped, being very wide at the bottom and gradually contracting to the top, where they had an aperture of the size of an ordinary chimney, through which the smoke escaped. In these open chimneys, hams, legs of beef, flitches of bacon, and whole carcases of mutton were hung to dry for winter consumption. Clarke, in his "Survey," mentions having seen as many as seven carcases of mutton hanging in one chimney in Borrowdale, and was told that some chimneys in the vale contained more. Few of these old-fashioned chimneys are now to be found in the country.

Wheat has never been grown in large quant.i.ties in c.u.mberland and Westmorland; hence the necessity in former days for oat, rye, or barley bread being the staple foodstuffs. Certainly the Westmorland oatmeal, which required to pa.s.s through many processes, and to be stored with very great care, was the staff of the rural households. It was used in a variety of ways. There was the porridge for breakfast and supper, the thin oatcake serving the main purposes of white bread in these days, and the "crowdy"--an excellent and invigorating species of soup, made by pouring the liquor in which beef was boiling, over oatmeal in a basin. Oatmeal also entered into the composition of pie-crusts and gingerbread, like the famous Kendal "piggin bottoms"--snaps stamped out of rolled dough by the iron rim which formed the external base of the wooden "piggin" or "biggin," a diminutive wooden tub used as a receptacle for various household requisites. Many good houses had either no oven or a very small one, and pies were baked in a huge iron pan covered all round and above the ma.s.sive lid, too, with burning peats. Hence the contents were equally cooked on all sides.

The extent to which flesh meat, both fresh and cured, was used two or three centuries ago, must have been much less per individual than is now the case. Leaving out of account the cost to the poor--and the mere fact that meat was sold for a very few pence per pound does not necessarily indicate that it was therefore low-priced--there was not a great quant.i.ty available. The art of winter fattening of sheep and cattle was unknown, and so artificially preserved meat had to be depended upon after Martinmas, or at the best between Christmas and spring. One old chronicler wrote:--"The supply of animal food proved inadequate to the demands of the community, for the fat stock, fed in autumn, being killed off by Christmas, very little fresh meat appeared in the markets before the ensuing midsummer, except veal. The substantial yeomen, as well as the manufacturers, provided against this inconvenience by curing a quant.i.ty of beef at Martinmas, the greatest part of which they pickled in brine, and the rest was dried in the smoke. Every family boiled a sufficient piece of their salt provisions on Sunday morning, and had it hot to dinner, frequently with the addition of an oatmeal pudding. The cold meat came day after day to the table so long as any of it remained, and was as often eaten with oat-bread alone. At the same time a wooden can, full of the briny liquor in which the beef had been cooked, was placed, warm and thickened with a little meal, before each person by way of broth. The stomach was encouraged in the better sort of houses to digest these stubborn materials by a supply of pickled red cabbage, which was prepared for the purpose in October or November. Hogs were slaughtered between Christmas and Candlemas, and converted princ.i.p.ally into bacon, which, with dried beef and dried mutton, afforded a change of salt meat in the spring.

The fresh provisions of winter consisted of eggs, poultry, geese, and ill-fed veal."

In this connection it would be very interesting to know whether the provisions of the will made by Thomas Williamson on December 14th, 1674, are in any way carried out, or what has become of the charity. He bequeathed the sum of 20 to be laid out in land to be bestowed upon poor people, born within St. John's Chapelry, or Castlerigg, c.u.mberland, in mutton or veal, at Martinmas yearly, when flesh might be thought cheapest, to be by them pickled or hung up and dried, that they might have something to keep them within doors during stormy days.

If animal flesh was dear, despite its small cost, there was some compensation in another way. After the salmon season commenced, great quant.i.ties of this modern luxury were brought from Carlisle and West c.u.mberland, and sold in other markets in the two counties. The price was frequently as low as a penny, and not often higher than twopence per pound, the lack of carriages and roads of a decent character rendering conveyance for long distances anything but an easy task. Then the poverty of the people further south offered the owners of the fish no inducements to carry the commodity into Lancashire. The abundance and cheapness of salmon seem to have been proverbial. How far the story may be true the writer cannot say, but it is worth while noting that a condition concerning apprentices in some west of England towns, is also recorded as applying to the Charity School at Kendal. The boys apprenticed from that inst.i.tution were not to be compelled to dine on salmon, or on fish in general, oftener than three days in the week.

Much worse was the condition of the labouring folk of the lower cla.s.s, who are said to have "subsisted chiefly on porridge made of oatmeal or dressed barley, boiled in milk, with the addition of oat-bread, b.u.t.ter, onions, and a little salted meat occasionally." This meagre diet was probably the cause of the agues which were once very common, especially in the country districts. The disorder, to a large extent, disappeared when the culture of vegetables became more general, and salted provisions less essential.

Up to 1730 potatoes were very sparingly used, and were chiefly grown near Kirkby Lonsdale.

Many of the old stories of the curious methods of dealing with tea, before it became a common and indispensable article on the tables of all cla.s.ses in this country, are obviously either untrue or exaggerated. Hence the veracity of the following statements, which appeared in print in Westmorland in the first decade of this century, is not vouched for:--"Not long after the introduction of potatoes, tea became a favourite beverage with the women, in spite of a steady opposition from the men; perhaps it found its way into the north in form of presents. From the method of preparing this foreign luxury not being generally understood, these presents were sometimes turned to ridiculous uses. One old lady received a pound of tea from her son in London, which she smoked instead of tobacco, and did not hesitate to prefer the weed of Virginia to the herb of China.

Another mother converted a present of the same sort and magnitude into a herb pudding; that is, she boiled the tea with dressed barley, and after straining off the water, b.u.t.tered the compound, which she endeavoured to render palatable with salt, but in vain, for the bitter taste was not to be subdued."