and fees payable in respect of admittance to the property, and 

 also the rents payable in lieu of border service, which had now 

 become unnecessary. 



The whole of the tenants of Westmorland, however, did not 

 wait until the struggle was fought out to the bitter end, for many 

 of them, including the tenants of Grasmere, Langdale, Loughrigg, 

 Clappersgate, Rothay Bank, Ambleside, Troutbeck, Applethwaite, 

 Underraillbeck, Winster, and several others, combined, and knowing 

 that the king's opposition to their custom was merely a device for 

 the raising of money, contributed amongst them the sum of ;^2 7oo, 

 which they paid to the king, who forthwith became satisfied that 

 their rights were good and lawful, and proceeded to confirm them 

 without any difficulty ; and the confirmation of those rights states 

 that the customary tenants and their ancestors have from time 

 immemorial been seized to them and their heirs of good and 

 lawful customary estates of inheritance called tenant right, which 

 customary estates are divisible according to the course of descents 

 at common law, save only where a customary tenant dieth having 

 no heir male of his body, his customary lands descend to his 

 eldest daughter, sister, or cousin, and not all the daughters as 

 heirs female or coparceners ; for which premises they have been 

 accustomed to pay certain yearly rents or fines, namely : two years' 

 rent by change of lord by death, and three years' rent for change 

 of tenant by death or alienation, except the tenants of Ambleside 

 and Troutbeck, who pay one year's rent upon change of lord, and 

 two years' rent upon change of tenant. 



A question here arises — why should the tenants of Ambleside 

 and Troutbeck pay only one year's rent where the others pay two ? 

 and that question I think, although it is lost in antiquity, is capable 

 of a reasonable explanation. The fine payable upon the death of 

 the lord or upon the accession of a new tenant, was to enable the new 

 lord to purchase his knighthood, or to pay the cost of registering 

 the tenant upon the manor books. The tenants of most of the 

 lands had a considerable beneficial enjoyment in their property, 

 and the services which as a rule they were required to render were 

 by no means commensurate with the amount of benefit they 



