60 
town is extraordinary, and cannot be explained by supposing that 
the Fell was only resorted to as a late expedient, the fact being, as 
the notation in the register shows, that burying in the Churchyard 
and on the Fell went on simultaneously. 
During this terrible time the register was kept with the utmost 
regularity, no gaps are to be found in it, it is a perfect day by day 
record of the ravages of the pestilence, and must be taken as an 
authentic enumeration of the number of victims, being, as I have 
stated, 662. How then, is the number 2,240, given on the brass 
plate in the Church as having died at Penrith, to be accounted 
for? The thing was impossible, seeing that a parish with an 
ordinary death rate of 50, and birth rate of 60 in the year could 
not well have contained that number of inhabitants. The only 
feasible supposition, and the one generally accepted, is that the 
number 2,240 represents a large district having Penrith as a centre. 
The pestilence was at the worst in the months of July, August, and 
September, when 115, 104, and 102 died in these months respect- 
ively ; the greatest number in any one day, according to my 
investigation, was 19. One of the entries of burial not marked 
with the fatal P is this :—‘ Margaret, the daughter of Willm 
Seatree buried chappele.” By which I think it must be understood 
that the burial took place in the chancel, then known as St. Mary’s 
Chapel. 
The 27th of November afforded a unique experience in the 
life of William Walleis, for on that day he, while the pestilence 
(although abating) was still claiming its victims, united William 
Dobson and Mabel Dobson in the bonds of holy matrimony, and 
same day buried John Winder and Ann Winder, his wife, both in 
one grave, and opposite the entry are placed the two fatal P’s, 
indicating that they were victims of the plague. Amongst the 
earlier victims we find the wife and son of the vicar, who thus, as 
the previous registers show, is for the third time a widower ; not 
for long, however, for on the 8th day of December, the pestilence 
having almost disappeared, we read this entry—‘“ William Walleis, 
vicar, was married to Dorothy Machell by Szv John Knott.” 
Mr, Walker, in his History of Penrith, writing on the “ plague,” 
