the rectory in such manner as to provide for the supply of the cure, and the education of the young rector in some public school
of learning." If John de Medburn ever took up the duties of his office, it could not have been for any extended period, as another
rector was instituted in 1330.
There was a curious dispute at Holme Cultram in 1636. The Rev. Charles Robson, who five years previously had become vicar, being a bachelor of divinity, demanded that the parish should provide him with a hood proper to his degree. The parishioners objected on the ground that such a claim had never been made before, the previous vicars having provided their own hoods, and that Mr. Rob-son had on all proper occasions, as required by the canons, worn a hood of his own until within half a year of the dispute arising. A[Pg 40] case was stated and a legal opinion taken; the result was entirely against the vicar, who made his position worse, inasmuch
as it was laid down that while the churchwardens were not to provide the hood, they could be the means, through the ordinary, of compelling a priest who was a graduate to wear his hood, according to the 58th canon. Another instance of a clergyman going to law with his parishioners was that of the Rev. John Benison, vicar of Burton, who was dissatisfied with the payments of the vicarial revenues. The dispute found its way into Chancery, and Benison, in 1732, secured the following scale of payments:--"For burial in the church or churchyard shall be paid 1s., except for women who die in childbirth, for whom nothing is due. The modus for tithe
lands shall be double for the two first years after the induction of a new vicar, and every person keeping a plough shall pay yearly 1d. in lieu and full satisfaction of agistment of barren cattle."
Bishop Nicolson has left some curious pictures of the parsons in the diocese of Carlisle at the time when he made his visitation in the early years of the eighteenth century. The clergy of that time were for the most part not remarkable[Pg 41] for their learning, although there were some notable exceptions. These were the victims of circumstances; they lived in what was really a dark age,
and no one can feel surprised that so many gave way to drinking and other unclerical habits. Several, either openly or in the names of their wives, kept alehouses; there was one rather glaring instance of this kind on the western side of Cross Fell. Poverty was continually their share; an instance of the life some of them led is recorded by James Clarke,[7] of Penrith:--
"Langdale is as poor as any in these parts, except for the slate quarries, and the slaters (like the miners in Patterdale) debauch the
natives so far that even the poor curate is obliged to sell ale to support himself and family. And at his house I have played 'Barnaby'
with him on the Sabbath Day morning, when he left us with the good old song--
'I'll but preach, and be with you again.'"
William Litt (1785-1847), the author of "Henry and Mary," a story of West Cumberland life, which was very popular a generation ago, says:--"It is a well authenticated fact that a rector of Arlecdon left his pulpit for the purpose of bestowing manual correction
on one of his parishioners, whom he conceived was then insulting[Pg 42] him. The surplice, however, was such an impediment to his
usual lightness of foot that his intended victim, after a severe chase, effected his escape, and for that time eluded the chastisement in-
tended for him by his spiritual pastor." Although nothing is known as to the identity of the cleric who thus endeavoured to deal with
a supposed offender, possibly it was Thomas Baxter, who was incumbent for 62 years (1725 to 1787). He figures by name in "Henry
11
and Mary," and is represented as on one occasion reprimanding Squire Skelton, of Rowrah, very severely for swearing.
In 1653 George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, visited Cumberland. One Sunday afternoon he entered the church, and standing on a seat, he preached three hours to an overflowing congregation; he says in his journal, "Many hundreds were convinced that day." A short time afterwards he again visited the church on a Sunday morning, and entered into a long theological argument with Mr. Wilkinson, the vicar, who lost his dinner in consequence. The discussion continued almost to nightfall; the result seems to have been the conversion of the vicar and the majority of his congregation, as it is on[Pg 43] record that Mr. Wilkinson afterwards
became a distinguished minister of the Society of Friends.
The old customs peculiar to Cumberland and Westmorland of "Whittlegate" and "Chapel Wage" have long since passed out of the list of obligations imposed, although the rector of Brougham might still, if he wished, claim whittlegate at Hornby Hall every Sun-day. The parsons of the indifferently educated class already alluded to had to be content with correspondingly small stipends, which were eked out by the granting of a certain number of meals in the course of twelve months at each farm or other house above the rank of cottage, with, in some parishes, a suit of clothes, a couple of pairs of shoes, and a pair of clogs. Clarke gives the following explanation of the origin of the term:--
"Whittlegate meant two or three weeks' victuals at each house, according to the ability of the inhabitants, which was settled among themselves; so that the minister could 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 knife or 'whittle.' Sometimes it was bought for him by the chapel wardens. He marched from house to house with his 'whittle,' seeking 'fresh fields and pastures new,' 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 [Pg 44]tree--a kind of seat then common.
The reader at Wythburn had for his salary three pounds yearly, a hempen sark or shirt, a whittlegate, and a goosegate, or right to depasture a flock of geese on Helvellyn. A story is still (1789) told in Wythburn of a minister who had but two sermons which he preached in turn. The walls of the chapel were at that time unplastered, and the sermons were usually placed in a hole in the wall
behind the pulpit. One Sunday, before the service began, some mischievous person pushed the sermons so far into the hole that they
could not be got out with the hand. When the time came for the sermon, the priest tried in vain to get them out. He then turned to
the congregation, and told them what had happened. He could touch them, he said, with his forefinger, but could not get his thumb
in to grasp them; 'But, however,' said he, 'I can read you a chapter out of Job that's worth both of them put together!'"
There may be other instances of the formal appointment of females to undertake church work usually performed by the other sex, but the writer has only met with one local example, which occurs thus in the Kendal churchwardens' accounts:--"1683, June
29. It is then agreed & consented too by the major part of the churchwardens that Debora Wilkinson shall be continued saxton till next Easter, she keeping under her so sufficient a servant as shall please the Vicar & whole prish & she to give sufficient security to the churchwardens for her fidelity. As alsoe it was then[Pg 45] granted by the major parte of church wardens that the said Debora Wilkinson for her paines herein shall have & receive to her owne use for every coffin in the church 2s. 6d. (she or her deputy in take-ing up of fflaggs in the church or lying them downe to place them leveally & in good order, breaking none of them), and the said Debora or her servant shall make clean the church att all times according to the Vicar's order, and to keepe the font wth faire water, changeing itt every fforthnigh or as often as the Vicar pleaseth."
The uses of some parts of ancient buildings have puzzled gentlemen thoroughly acquainted with church architecture, for the simple reason that certain of the arrangements might have been made for a variety of purposes. Leper windows are perhaps sufficiently numerous to show the intention of the builders, but there are instances where that is not at all easy to