138 
BIsHOP STRICKLAND. 
The earliest on record, and—the conditions of the time con- 
sidered—the most judicious and munificent of Penrith’s benefactors, 
was William Strickland, who was Bishop of Carlisle from 1400 to 
1419. He conferred three great benefits upon the town, each 
peculiarly suited to the exigencies of the time. 
He built a tower to the castle—or as the initial erection of the 
castle afterwards built—for we can scarcely think he could have 
built it after the manor was given to Ralph Nevill, whose first 
duty it would be to commence the erection of a castle. The tower 
was known as the Bishop’s Tower, and also as the White Tower, 
being constructed of white stones. 
Dixon, in his pamphlet of 1821 on Penrith Charities, says this 
tower remained in an almost perfect state of preservation until 
about seventy years before he wrote, and that a painting of it 
then existed at Sandgate Hall, the house of Thomas Scott, Esq., 
afterwards of Brent House. 
The Bishop’s Tower was no piece of useless ostentation, but a 
necessity of the time, being no doubt a watch tower to enable the 
inhabitants of the town to keep a look out for the approach of the 
ever-dreaded foe from over the Borders; and by building his 
tower, Strickland shewed himself, in consideration for the town, to 
be in advance of the royal owner of the manor. 
The Bishop’s second good work was procuring a constant supply 
of running water for the town from the river Petteril. The mere 
work of cutting the new water course was the least important part 
of the scheme; he had to surmount the greater difficulty of 
obtaining from the riparian owners the right to abstract the water 
_ from the river ; and the difficulties of the negotiation are strongly 
_ indicated by the curious stipulation— now obsolete—that no more 
water was to be taken than would pass through the eye of a mill- 
stone. The stream of water thus secured must have been an 
_ immense boon to the often plague-stricken and beleaguered town. 
It may be only fancy, but I cannot help thinking as I look ata 
_ map of Penrith, that its large open areas, with very narrow inlets 
