A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



jointure. In 1696 they were granted by William III. to William 

 Bentinck, first Earl of Portland. Subsequently the Duke of Portland 

 contested the title of the Crown, holding that the rights in Ingle- 

 wood forest went with the franchise of the Honour ; and he won 

 the lawsuit that resulted. On page 3 of the Schedule attached to 

 the First Report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the State and 

 Condition of the Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues of the Crown, 1787, Sir 

 James Lowther, bart., is shown as holding under lease from the 

 Crown (i) 'the Manor and Forest of Ennerdale, and all the Mines 

 and quarries within the said Manor ' for 99 years or three lives 

 from 1765 at a rental of 20 ijs. 8|</. and one-tenth of the profits 

 on mines and quarries ; and (2) ' the Forest of Inglewood, with all 

 Rents, Courts, Royalties, Mines, Quarries, Privileges and appurten- 

 ances thereto belonging' for 99 years or three lives from 1767 at a 

 rental of ijj. 4^., plus one-third of the profits of the lands and 

 one-tenth those of the mines ; but a note adds that this estate is 

 now lost to the Crown and the lease invalid, the contest regarding 

 it having been ' finally determined at the Summer Assizes for Cum- 

 berland in 1776' in favour of the Duke of Portland. This manor 

 and the forest of Inglewood were afterwards sold by the Duke of 

 Portland to the Duke of Devonshire in 1787.* In 1873, all the land 

 held in this county by the Crown consisted merely of 8^ acres ; but 

 even in 1788 there were no Crown woodlands in any of the northern 

 counties of England. 1 The forest of Inglewood declined to the lowest 

 possible level of an absolutely treeless condition in 1825. 



On Wragmire Moss, until the year 1823, there was a well-known oak, known as 

 the last tree of Jnglezvood forest, which had survived the blasts of 700 or 800 winters. 

 This ' time honoured ' oak was remarkable ... as being a boundary mark between 

 the manors of the Duke of Devonshire and the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, as also 

 between the parishes of Jiesket and St. Cuthberts, Carlisle ; and was noticed as such 

 for upwards of 600 years. This ' gnarled and knotted oak,' which had weathered so 

 many hundred stormy winters, was become considerably decayed in its trunk. It fell 

 not, however, by the tempest or the axe, but from sheer old age ; this happened on 

 13 June 1823. If not of late years as beautiful in its foliage, nor presenting such a 

 goodly assemblage of wide-spreading and umbrageous branches, as some other cele- 

 brated oaks, yet it was an object of great interest, being the veritable last tree of Ingle- 

 wood forest. 3 



1 In this great seignorial franchise, the forest of Inglewood comprises many parishes within 

 the wards of Leath and Cumberland. Hesket, near the western border, is the scene of an 

 interesting survival of the old forest court of freeholders, long after the abolition of the courts in 

 royal forests by the Act of 1817. ' The forest or Swainmote courts for the seigniory are held annually 

 on the Feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle (June 1 1), in the open air, on the great north road to Carlisle. 

 The place where the courts are held is marked by a stone table placed before a thorn called Court Thorn, 

 beneath whose branches unnumbered annual courts have assembled. The tenants of upwards of twenty 

 mesne manors attend here, from whom a jury is impannelled and sworn ; of which, Dr. Todd says, 

 anciently the Chamberlain of the City of Carlisle was foreman. Here are paid the annual dues to the 

 lord of the forest, compositions for improvements, purprestures, agistments, and puture of the 

 foresters ' (Jefferson, History and Antiquities of Leath Ward., 1840, page 205). 



J See The account of the Several Woods, Forests, Parks and Chases under the Surveyor General of His 

 Majesty's Woods and Forests, Appendix No. I, Third Report of Commissioners, &c., 1788, p. 55. 



3 Jefferson, op. cit. p. 206. 



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