162 
It is seen from some entries of expenditure, that when the 
church was rebuilt, the roof was covered with the local thin flags 
known as red slates. The old church had been covered in the 
same way, and caused the continual expenditure called in the old 
book “ mossing the church,” that is, stuffing the interstices between 
the flag stones or red slates with moss to keep out wind and 
snow. The old church red slates had been used again upon the 
new church, and their excessive weight proved too much for the 
roof timbers, which were of old second-hand beams—tradition 
says, from Brougham Castle, which was about that time dismantled 
and the materials sold? Some of the principal rafters broke, 
and caused the roof to spread, forcing the south wall and pillars 
out of perpendicular. In 1758, the book records that the centre 
roof was repaired and re-slated with blue slates at a cost of 
£86 16s. od.; and in 1781 the side roofs were treated in the 
same way at a further cost of £66 16s. od. These expenditures, 
amongst many others up to the present day have shown that Dr. 
Todd’s builders set themselves too much to accomplish for the 
money ; neither the materials used nor the details of construction 
being up to the standard of excellence required for a church of the 
size and style attempted. 
In 1764 particulars of the new ring of bells are fully stated ; all 
of which have been given to the public by the Rev. H. Whitehead 
more fully than I can attempt. 
I will conclude these rambling notes of Old Penrith by noticing 
a townsman of the last century, Mr. James Clarke, land surveyor, 
and host of the Swan Inn. In 1787 he published a Survey of the 
Lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland, together with an account 
historical, topographical, and descriptive of the adjacent country. 
In it he gives a map of Penrith, which is the earliest I have met 
with, and is interesting as showing what changes have been made 
in the town within the last hundred years. 
Mr. Clarke gives a cheery and glowing description of Penrith 
and its society in his time, and with it I will conclude. 
“Though an inland town, there are some very considerable 
manufactories of checks, which are daily increasing ; two common 
