PENRITH, (Cumberland) 214 cm. 282. mm. from London, near the r. Peterel and the conflux of the Eimot and Loder, is a large
well-built T. reckoned the second in the Co. for trade and wealth; being noted for tanners, and having a good Mt. for
corn, &c. on T. and a great cattle Mt. every other T. from Whit-Sund to Aug. 1, and a Fair on Whit-T. It bel. anciently to
the Bps. of Durham, till by reason of the insolence of Anth. Beck, K. Edw. I. took it from him. It had once a royal
castle, which was repaired in the R. of Hen. VI. but is now in ruins. Here was a seat of the late E. of Thanet. In the R.
of Hen. VIII. it had the title of a suffragan Bp. In its Ch.-yard are 2 pillars, about 5 yards from one another, said to
have been set up, in memory of Sir Owen Caesarius, a famous warrior of these parts buried here, who killed so many wild
bears, which much infested this county, that the figures of bears cut out in stone, on each side of his grave, were set
there, in remembrance of the execution he made among those beasts; and it is said his body, extended from one pillar to
the other. In the Mt.-place there is a T.-house of wood, beautified with Bears climbing up a ragged staff; which, tho'
they may allude to Sir Owen's exploits, is the device of the Earls of Warwick. There is a memorandum in the wall of the N.
side of the vestry without, that in 1598, 2266 persons died here of the plague. Here is a ch. sc. for 20 boys and another
for 30 girls, maintained by 55 l. a year, the endowment of Mr. Robinson, a citizen of London, by the sacrament-money, and
parish-stock. In 1715 the Scots highland rebels entered this T. and quartered here one night in their way to Preston,
without doing much harm; but in the last rebellion in 1745, they were very rapacious here, and cruel. Its handsome
spacious Ch. has been lately rebuilt, and the roof supported by pillars, whose shafts are of one entire reddish stone, dug
out of a neighbouring quarry.