The Poiver zuhich Enabled and Suggested the Production 311 



If Bewcastle did not belong to Scottish Cumbria, it certainly lay 

 within the territory which fell more and more under David's in- 

 fluence after he became king. 



In the beginning of the year 1136 he led an army across the border, 

 and made himself master of every castle in Cumberland and Northum- 

 berland except Bamborough, penetrating as far as Durham.^ 



[After the battle of the Standard in 1138] at Carhsle peace was 

 made. . . . David gave hostages, but retained Carhsle and Cumber- 

 land without any condition of homage. ^ 



end windows of the church.' In 1279 permission was obtained for a fair 

 and market to be held here. ' The hving was valued in Pope Nicholas' 

 valuation, 1291-2, Ecclesia de Botecastre, at £ 19: 0: 0; in 1318 it was not 

 taxed : quia non sufficiunt pro stipendio capellani. In 1546 Bewcastell 

 rectoria valet per an' tempore pads £2:0:0; tempore guerre, nihil. At the 

 first date, the bishop of Carhsle had a pension on Bewcastle vicaria of 6/8 ; 

 at the second, nil ; nothing said at the third date. In 1298 the Scots harried 

 the region. Robert de Southayle was rector between 1306 and 1356, being the 

 first of whom we have record. After 1580, Camden speaks of the church 

 as being ' now almost quite ruinated ' [cf. Victoria Hist. Cumh. 2. 78]. In 

 the year 1792 ' it was practically rebuilt, and irredeemably spoilt. Six and 

 a half yards Mere cut off the nave [cf . what is said of the RuthweU renovation, 

 p. 139, below] at the west end, reducing its length by one third, and the 

 curiously ugly tower, I suppose, erected as a set-off. . . . The vandals 

 . . . pierced the upper parts of the southern waU vnth. a second tier of 

 three square sashed Avindows. There are no windows in the northern wall, 

 and it would seem that this is customary in all buildings in this stormy 

 district ' (p. 246). ' The dean and chapter of Carhsle are still the patrons ' 

 (p. 248). ' In 1899 the old fabric was found to be not only out of repair, 

 but dangerous. ... As much as possible has been preserved, and the 

 changes introduced are in the style of the Early Enghsh part of the building. 

 The restored church was opened on Sunday, November 3, 1901 ' (pp. 253-4). 

 It thus appears that the earliest mention of the church was in 1291-2, 

 but that, if we may trust the inference from the windows of the east end, 

 the building must have been in existence considerably before that time. 

 In 1294, it may be noted, there was a ' hospital'— an almshouse— at Bew- 

 castle. This was known as the Hospital of Lennham— for so we must prob- 

 ably interpret the LennW of the Latin. ' The collectors of the tenth, 

 given by the clergy of the diocese of Carhsle in 1294 to Edward I. for the 

 Holy Land, refer to this house— and reported that the hospital of Lennh' 

 in Bewcastle {Hospitale de Lennh' in Bothecaster) was unable to pay the 

 assessment as the land belonging to it lay uncultivated ' ( Victoria Hist. 

 Cumh. 2. 204). 



1 P. H. Brown, History of Scotland 1. 77. 



2 Encyc. Brit., 9th ed., 21. 483. 



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