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mainly a fortress. It was a child of feudalisms, old-age born when 
that system of military despotism was becoming a thing of the 
past ; and when the introduction of gunpowder and ordnance was 
making stone walls useless as places of defiant entrenchment. Its 
first use was in the defence of the district against the Scots; but 
afterwards, mainly as a stronghold in the hands of the House 
of York in overawing the adherents of the rival House of Lancaster; 
and with the final overthrow of the Plantagenets in the person of 
Richard III. its work was done, and it sank into ruin. 
In accordance with the popular idea that there could be no 
devastation and ruin without Oliver Cromwell having a hand in it, 
we are told that he bombarded and knocked down the greater part 
of the castle. It is, however, on record, that in Queen Elizabeth’s 
time it was in a ruinous condition ; and Cromwell’s soldiers would 
not be likely to waste their powder and shot in blazing away at a 
ruin. They might add to its delapidation by demolishing roofs to 
obtain lead for bullets ; but I believe the greatest destroyers of the 
walls were the Penrithians, who found the old castle a convenient 
quarry for building stones. I have myself seen some internal house 
walls composed of time-worn blocks undoubtedly from that source. 
It is true small cannon balls have been found in the rubbish of the 
castle, but they were more likely to have been fired by enemies of 
much earlier date, or to have been part of the castle’s stock of 
ammunition. 
THE PARISH CHURCH. 
Ir was probably during the occupation of the manor by the 
Scottish kings—1236 to 1295—that the old church, demolished 
in 1720, was built. The fine massive arch spanning the entire 
width of the east side of the tower is distinctly of that period ; and 
the dedication of the church to St. Andrew, the patron saint of 
Scotland, although no positive proof, seems to favour the asumption. 
The existence of this arch shows that the tower was ritually part of 
the church, and not, as in some of the old Cumberland churches, 
a fortress or place of refuge—an arrangement indicative of peaceful 
times when the church was built. 
