A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



the watershed on its eastern side, and com- 

 prising some of the greatest mountain masses 

 in England in its central and southern dis- 

 tricts, it may be assumed that its rivers, 

 though not attaining to any dimensions in 

 length or volume of water, are well adapted 

 to the breeding of salmon. With the excep- 

 tion of the Eden, which rises on the borders 

 of Yorkshire and flows through Westmorland 

 and Cumberland, the other rivers can scarcely 

 be dignified by that name owing to the short- 

 ness of their course. Wordsworth was of 

 opinion that the streams of the county were 

 more of the nature of large brooks than rivers, 

 especially while they flowed through the 

 mountain and lake country. But if not of 

 great dimensions all the rivers possess the 

 general feature that their water is remarkably 

 clear and flows with considerable swiftness 

 and often at a good depth over gravelly and 

 rocky channels. At Appleby the Eden is 

 considerably above the sea level, and its aver- 

 age fall is said to be about 28 feet per mile. 

 The Derwent, which flows through two 

 lakes, Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite, 

 receives the Cocker at Cockermouth, so called 

 from the confluence of the streams, and runs 

 into the sea at Workington, forming many 

 pools and sheltered beds in its course. The 

 southern Esk, rising on the side of Great 

 End, enters the sea at Ravenglass, where it 

 mixes on the sands with the Mite and the 

 Irt. The beauty of river scenery in Cumber- 

 land is proverbial, and if we take the Eden, 

 Derwent, and southern Esk as the chief ex- 

 amples, few streams in any county can rival 

 them, either for their waterbreaks and wooded 

 banks or for the picturesque valleys through 

 which they pass. When we consider the 

 migratory habits of the salmon and the laws 

 by which the species is maintained, the spawn- 

 ing on the upper or shallow beds of inland 

 streams, and their mature existence spent in 

 passing to and fro between salt and fresh 

 water, it will be seen how suitable the rivers 

 of the county are to their production and 

 how well adapted is the sheltered condition of 

 the Solway shore to their growth and nurture. 

 In these circumstances it is not surprising 

 that the salmon fisheries should be found 

 among the earliest industries of the county. 

 As soon as we touch the record evidence of 

 the district, clauses about fisheries or fish 

 pools or liberty to fish are embodied in the 

 earliest charters granted to local magnates or 

 religious establishments. Henry I. endowed 

 the priory of Carlisle with a fishery in the 

 Eden. 1 By a special charter Ranulf Meschin 

 made a grant of a sluice and pool for a fishery 



1 Dugdale, Man. vi. 144. 



332 



in the same river to the monks of Wetheral 

 at a date before H2O. 2 Alice de Rumelli, 

 daughter of William Meschin, gave to the 

 priory of St. Bees about 1140 the sole liberty 

 of making fisheries in the port of Whitehaven, 

 in all places in the sea, and in other waters 

 within their bounds. 3 Henry III. confirmed 

 in 1231 to the abbey of Calder fisheries in 

 the Derwent and ' Egre,' which had been the 

 gift of Ranulf Meschin almost a century 

 before. 4 In 1227 Thomas de Multon paid 

 the king a fine of five marks for licence to 

 make a fishery in the forest of Inglewood at a 

 place called Forst' on the bank of the Eden, 

 the condition of grant being that the said 

 fishery should not injure the neighbouring 

 fisheries and especially the fishery which be- 

 longed to the city of Carlisle. 6 These ex- 

 amples will be sufficient to show that at the 

 very dawn of documentary history the creation 

 of private rights in fishing was in full opera- 

 tion. 



In addition to the grant of fisheries, it was 

 the habit of territorial owners at an early 

 period to make annual grants of salmon from 

 their own waters to the religious houses. 

 Thus Alice de Rumelli, the great lady of 

 Allerdale, daughter of William fitz Duncan, 

 confirmed the grant of fourteen salmon every 

 Lent to St. Bees, which had previously been 

 bestowed by Alan son of Waldeve, and six 

 more on her own behalf. 6 Thomas son of 

 Gospatric gave to the abbey of Calder out of 

 his own fisheries twenty salmon yearly at the 

 feast of St. John the Baptist, together with a 

 net in the Derwent between the bridge and 

 the sea. 7 In 1250 Patric son of the fore- 

 going Thomas bound himself and his heirs 

 to give to St. Bees fourteen salmon annually, 

 viz. six in Lent before Palm Sunday and 

 eight at the feast of St. Peter ad vincula, at 

 his house in Workington. 8 These gifts 

 should not be confounded with the tithe of 

 fish owned by the church. For example, 

 when William Meschin founded the priory of 

 St. Bees, he endowed it with the tithes of his 

 fisheries in Coupland. 9 In a dispute between 



2 Reg. of Wetherhal (Cumb. and Westmld. Arch. 

 Soc.) 6-9. 



a Reg. of St. Bees, Harl. MS. 434, lib. i. 6. 



* Chart. R. 15 Hen. III. m. 9. 



s Ibid. 1 1 Hen. III. pt. i. m. 24 ; Fine R. 

 1 1 Hen. III. m. 9. In 1485 a fishery in the Eden 

 under ' Baronwod ' in the manor of Lazonby was 

 reckoned among the possessions of the Dacres of 

 Gillesland (Cal. of Inj. p.m. i Hen. 711. i. 70). 



o Reg. of St. Bees, Harl. MS. 434, lib. i. 7. 



> Chart. R. 15 Hen. III. m. 9. 



s Reg. of St. Bees, Harl. MS. 434, lib. v. 15. 



Ibid. i. 2. 



