PENRITH, a parish in LEATH ward, county of
CUMBERLAND, 18 miles (S. E. by S.) from Carlisle, and
283 (N. N. W.) from London, comprising the market
town of Penrith, and the townships of Burrowgate, Dockray,
Middlegate with Sandgate, Netherend-Bridge with
Carleton, and Town with Plumpton-Head, and containing
5385 inhabitants. This is a place of considerable
antiquity: its name is evidently of British origin, and,
signifying "the red hill or summit," has reference either
to the nature of the adjacent soil, or to the red free
stone of which the town is built. Old Penrith, the Bremetenracum
of the Romans, is situated about five miles
north -by-west of the town. At the Conquest, the honour
of Penrith was a royal franchise, which, after repeated
changes, was assigned to Alexander III., King of Scotland,
in consideration of his ceding all claim to the counties
of Cumberland, Northumberland, and Westmorland,
at that time subjects of frequent contests between the
sovereigns of England and Scotland; from him it descended
to John Balliol, on whose defection it was seized
by Edward I., and given to Anthony Beck, Bishop of
Durham: having repeatedly lapsed to the crown, in
1696 it was granted to William Bentinclc, Earl of
Portland, and was sold by the late duke, in 1783, to
the Duke of Devonshire, its present proprietor. During
the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., this town
suffered greatly from the incursions of the Scots, who,
in the latter, having ravaged the country, fired towns
and villages, and enslaved many of the inhabitants;
but becoming infected by the plague, which then raged
here, and conveying the contagion' into Scotland, on
their return, nearly one-third of the inhabitants of that
country fell a sacrifice: a second visitation of this
disease, in the years 1597 and 1598, swept away up wards
of two thousand inhabitants of this town and parish.
The town is pleasantly situated in a fine fertile
vale, which is enclosed by eminences of varied cultivation,
and watered by three small rivers, the Eamont,
the Lowther, and the Petteril, and on the west are
the ruins of an ancient castle: it consists principally
of one long street, situated at the junction of the
main roads from Lancashire and London to Glasgow,
and is well paved, and lighted with oil; the
houses, many of which are modern, are built chiefly of
red freestone, covered with plaster and whitewashed,
and roofed with slate. About the year 1400, a water
course was cut through the town from the river Petteril
to the Eamont, at the expense of Wm. Strickland, Bishop
of Carlisle. On Beacon Hill, so called from having been
anciently crowned with a beacon, is a square stone edifice,
erected in 1719, the windows of which command an
extensive and diversified prospect, combining nearly all
the varieties of landscape scenery; the principal objects
being Lowther and Greystoke castles, with their magnificent
parks; the ancient castles of Brougham and
Penrith; a beautiful, though limited, view of Ullswater
lake, with the finely-wooded hill of Dunmallet; the
mountain scenery of the lakes, viz., Helvelyn, Saddleback,
Skiddaw, &c.; also the Penine Alps, viz., Crossfell,
&c.; and the river and vale of Eden, including
Eden Hall, with the park and forest scenery. Towards
the north is an excellent enclosed race-course, with a
handsome gi-and stand, where, on the four last days of the
first week in October, horse races and stag hunts are
numerously and respectably attended. An assemblyroom,
occasionally used as a theatre, a bowling-green,
news-room, subscription and circulating libraries, in
the town, and many picturesque and beautiful walks in
its neighbourhood, contribute to furnish amusement
and recreation to the inhabitants. The manufacture
of checks, gingham, calico, and other cotton goods, was
formerly carried on to a considerable extent, but is
i\ow on the decline; the mineral produce of the neighbourhood
consists of red freestone, slate, and limestone.
The principal market is held on Tuesday, at which
a considerable quantity of corn is pitched, and there
is a smaller one for butchers' meat on Saturday: fairs
for cattle are held on the 1st of March, 24th and
25th of April, and the third Tuesday in October; two
fairs for hiring servants are held annually on the Tuesdays
at Whitsuntide and Martinmas. New shambles
were erected, and the old market cross, shambles, and
moot-hall, were removed from the market-place, in 1807.
The market and fairs are under the regulation of the
bailiff appointed by the Duke of Devonshire, whose
steward presides at a court baron, every third Monday,
the powers of which extend to the recovery of
debts under 40s.: the county court is held here four
or five times a year, and petty sessions every alternate
Tuesday; also a quarter session for the county, on the
Tuesday in the first week after October llth. A house
of correction was built in 1826, at an expense of £400,
which was defrayed out of the coxmty rate.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and
diocese of Carlisle, rated in the king's books at £ 12. 6.3.,
and in the patronage of the Bishop of Carlisle. The
church, which is dedicated to St. Andrew, was given
by Henry I. to the see of Carlisle, then newly founded:
it was rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in 1722,
and is a plain, neat, and spacious edifice, consisting of
a centre and two side aisles; the choir and centre aisle
are open, and from the lofty ceiling depend two gilt
chandeliers, the gift of the Duke of Portland; the side
aisles are covered with galleries uniting at the western
end, and supported by twenty pillars of the Ionic order,
each consisting of one entire stone, which, from its
colour and high polish, looks like mahogany; the upper
range of pillars from the gallery to the roof are of
wood painted white, with gilt mouldings. The altar
is placed in a semicircular recess adorned with appropriate
paintings in very good style: the church contains
many monuments preserved from the former
building, and, among other inscriptions, a record of
the devastation caused here by .the plague. In the
churchyard are two stone monuments, called the Giant's
Grave, or more commonly the Giant's legs; they are
about twelve feet high, and fifteen feet distant from
each other, and are traditionally said to have been raised
to commemorate the exploits of Sir Ewen Cassarius, an
ancient hero, against the robbers and wild boars that
infested Inglewood Forest. There are places of worship
for the Society of Friends, Independents, Primitive
and Wesleyan Methodists, and Scottish Seceders.
The free grammar school was founded, in 1340, by
Bishop Strickland, who, having established a chantry
here, required his chantry priest to teach music and
grammar, at a salary of £ 6 per annum; it was refounded
by Queen Elizabeth, at the request of her secretary,
Sir Thomas Smith, Dean of Carlisle, and endowed with
the above salary, which was augmented, in 1661, with
a rent-charge of £10, by Mr. William Robinson, and,
in 1782, with another of £6, by Mr. William Bleamire;
the whole endowment at present is nearly £30 per
annum, and the school is on the decline; it is entitled
to share, with other schools in the counties of Westmorland
and Yorkshire, in five exhibitions of £50 per
annum each at Queen's College, Oxford, the bequest
of Lady Elizabeth Hastings, in 1739; and the abovementioned
Mr. William Bleamire gave an additional
rent-charge for providing a silver medal for the best
composition in Latin verse, a silver pen for the best
writer, and a book on arithmetic for the best arithmetician,
with the remainder, if any, to the master; there
are thirty-four scholars, each of whom pays 10s. Qd.
per quarter. Mr. William Robinson built a school for
the education of girls, and in 1661 endowed it with
£ 20 a year, to which the sum of £5 per annum was
added by the Executors of Mrs. Joan Lascelles, for the
instruction of the girls in knitting; these, with subsequent
benefactions, yield an income of about £30 per
annum, for which sixty poor girls are instructed in
reading, writing, needlework, &c., and several of them
in knitting. A school of industry for fifty poor girls
was established in 1813; and there is a National
school, erected in 1816, a commodious stone building,
situated in Benson's Row: it is supported by voluntary
contributions, and one hundred and seventy boys are
instructed, exclusively of more than one hundred girls,
who attend on Sundays.
The remains of the ancient castle are westward of
the town; this fabric is supposed to have been erected
as a protection from the incursions of the Scots; it
was repaired and enlarged by Richard, Duke of Gloucester,
who resided here, and was sheriff of Cumberland
for five years in succession: the site favours the opinion
of its having been a Roman encampment, being
irregularly quadrilateral. It exhibits no indication of
very ancient date, being built of red stone; and the
ruins are remarkable, more for their extent than their
magnificence; the chief objects of interest are the projecting
corbels in the eastern front, which appear to have
supported an open corridor; there are some large vaults,
which were probably prisons: the walls, broken in
many places, and intersected with remaining windows,
assume, from different points of view, many striking
varieties of perspective scenery. After the great civil
war, the edifice was dismantled, and part of the materials
was sold. About half a mile north of Penrith
is a square mount, measuring twenty yards on each
side, which is generally supposed to have been used,
during the rebellion, as a place of execution for the
Scotch rebels. Three miles east by south of the town,
on the north side of the river Eamont, are two remark-
able excavations in a perpendicular rock, called Giant's
Caves, according to fabulous tradition, the residence
of Isis, a giant. On the south bank of the same river
is a circular intrenchment, called King Arthur's Round
Table.