86 
We have seen from the will of William Cookson, that a grave- 
stone with a suitable inscription had to be laid over his grave ; it 
is therefore almost a certainty that one of the four blank sandstone 
slabs now lying on the surface of Penrith churchyard, from which 
time and ill usage have obliterated every vestige of inscription, 
would, if intact, mark the burial place of the poet’s immediate 
maternal ancestors, and, as a natural sequence, that of his revered 
mother; but, while the monumental slabs of Mary Hutchinson’s 
and her mother’s family, the Monkhouses, are, owing to the 
enduring character of the slate stone employed, almost as fresh as 
the day they were laid down, that of the Cooksons, if in existence, 
is a complete blank. 
ADDENDA TO FORMER PAPER, 1888-89. 
As supplementary to some subjects treated of under special 
headings in my former paper on “Notabilia of Old Penrith” 
( Transactions No. XVI, 1888-9), I subjoin the following as 
tending to clear up the doubts as to Bishop Strickland’s parentage. 
BisHOP STRICKLAND. 
The Lowther pedigree at Lowther Castle states that Robert 
Lowther married a Strickland, but without giving her family. 
Nicolson and Burn, however, say she was Margaret, daughter of 
Bishop Strickland, and this appears to be confirmed by the record 
in Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation Charter of Penrith Grammar 
School, that the lands in Penrith parish chargeable with the 
payment of six pounds a year to Strickland’s chantry were then in 
the possession of Richard Lowther, making it pretty clear that the 
Bishop’s estate at Penrith had passed by the marriage of his 
daughter and heiress to the family of Lowther. Nicolson and 
Burn, in describing the Lowther armorial bearings, amongst other 
