Miscellany Accounts of the Diocese of Carlisle. By William Nicolson,
late Bishop of Carlisle. Edited by R. S. Ferguson, M.A. (Bell and Sons; Tharnam, Carlisle.)—William Nicolson was Bishop of Carlisle from 1704-1718, when he was translated to Derry. He had been for many years a beneficed clergyman in the diocese, and probably knew more of his work than most bishops of his time. Certainly if any one wants to see a curious, minute picture of a Northern diocese at the beginning of the last century, let him study this volume, which has been published by the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaaological Society. The picture is deplorable enough. The churches appear to have been for the most part in a neglected and even ruinous condition. The good Bishop was not exacting in the matter of ornament. If a church was "beautified with the Queen's arms," he seems to have been well content, but he was scandal- ised when he found, as he sometimes did, that there was no Prayer- book. That was the case at Gilcrux, where there were "only a few loose leaves of the last one left." Of course, the clergy were miserably poor, imd"we may add, shamefully robbed by the laity. In one case, the Bishop finds the surplice fees claimed by the lay impropriator, and is afraid that the claim is valid. Here is a little sketch :—" The Vicarage House [Irthington] lyes in most Scandalous Ruines. It fell in the time of the present vicar, Mr. Goslin, who is the wretched and beggarly father of ten poor Children, seven whereof are with him. One Girl he has at Service, one a Boy 'prentice to a Glover at Brampton, and another to a Blacksmith. He has a Gleab worth about 71i., and ownes the whole Liveing to be better than 251i. per Ann." This last sentence seems to show that the Bishop thinks he ought to have been less " wretched and beggarly." The schoolmasters were even worse off than the clergy. At Warwick, we hear that " their present master is Robert Allanson, a poor cripple, removed hither from Rocliff, who has no settled salary, only 12d. per Quarter and his diet." His ambition was to get the " commendam of the clerk's place," which would bring him 6s. more. Yet their social position was higher than it is now. In one parish they boast that they never had a gentleman among them, "except the parson and the school- master." The book is full of curious facts. It was quite common to bury without a coffin. The fee for a child "brought upon a board" was only "one penny and the board," the ordinary fee being thirteenpenee. In one parish "contracts of marriage" were entered in the register, and "Sureties entered for the payment of five Shillings to the poor by the party that draws back." Among Easter dues we find, "every communicant, Id.; " "every foal, 2d.;" "every cast of bees, 2d; at six casts, one hive due." Among other interesting matters are the old statutes of Carlisle Grammar-school. What would head masters say to a clause which limited them to twenty-four days' holiday in the year ? As bearing on a question under discus- sion, we may quote :—" The Quire-part is onely seperated within, and indecently crowded with Seats, insonruch 'that. there is no comeing at the North Side of the Altar, in observance of the Rubrick." There can be no doubt that the Bishop took the "north side" to be the north end, close- up to which the. seats had been put ; they could not have been close up to the front."
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