70 
as English soil. It is not included in the famous Domesday Book, 
the inventory of the possessions of the English Crown. To under- 
stand the whole period, you must set yourselves free, as has been 
said by Mr. Freeman,* from the bondage of the modern map and 
modern nomenclature. Ifyou use the words England and Scotland 
at all in reference to the district, you must remember that they do 
not represent what they represent in modern days—that they 
represent rather two forces which were struggling together for the 
mastery, of which the converging point was the Border line. The 
northern counties were the cause of standing feud between English 
and Scottish kings. Sometimes the south, of what is now Scotland, 
was annexed to England; sometimes the north of England was 
seized by the rival claimant. Cumberland for a considerable time 
was held by them as a fief, for which they did homage to the 
English Crown. David, the king of Scotland—one of the few 
monarchs who has been called, and deserves to be called a saint 
—to whom she owes so many of her famous churches and abbeys— 
to whom, perhaps, we owe some of our own religious foundations 
on this side-of the Border—whose liberality to the Church made 
him, his successor said, ‘“‘a sore saint to the crown”—he held 
English Cumberland (for there was then a Scotch Cumberland as 
well) in the r2th century. His son Henry did the same. A little 
later it was ceded altogether by the Treaty of Carlisle to the 
Scottish Crown: only, however, to be surrendered back again some 
ten years after. It came pretty much to this: it was always claimed 
by the stronger party for the time. Like any other property in 
dispute, it was not a pleasant place to dwell in. All the wild 
and predatory habits of those who dwelt in it, were encouraged 
and fed by the uncertain shifting condition of things, in which they 
found themselves. At the death of the first holder of the see, in 
1156, it was impossible to find a successor: no one cared to be. 
bishop of Carlisle ; and nearly seventy years elapsed before any 
bishop could be got who would reside within the diocese. What 
temporalities there were, were held and enjoyed by foreigners. 
* Cf, Historical Essays, First Series, p. 57. 
