THE DOMESDAY BOOK 
Normandy. There can be no doubt that Walter the priest was a 
veritable benefactor of the city of Carlisle, and played a conspicuous part 
in its ecclesiastical reconstruction during the reign of Henry the Clerk. 
But what authority is there for his connection with the building schemes 
of Rufus and the first organization of the city? There is little or 
none except a venerable tradition which can be traced back to 
Leland,’ who visited Carlisle when the religious houses were in process 
of dissolution, and to him its origin has been ascribed. But it must not 
be assumed that Leland invented the story. In the Lansdowne manu- 
scripts there is a document of some interest of earlier date than Leland, 
and of local origin. After describing the expedition of William Rufus 
in 1092, the recovery of the city and the plans of the king for its 
rebuilding, it states that Walter the priest was in charge of the works 
on the death of Rufus, and that Henry I. completed what Walter 
had begun.? The document, which is of some importance for the early 
ecclesiastical history of Carlisle, is said to have been transcribed from the 
Register of bishop Strickland, a diocesan manuscript which would cover 
the period from 1400 to 1419, but which has not been heard of since 
the time of James I. But it is evidently a late compilation, fragmentary 
and doubtful, with nothing to indicate its purpose in the Strickland 
Register except what is contained in the heading.* The date of the 
first coming of Ranulf Meschin, as lord or ruler of the land of Carlisle, 
is as perplexing as that of Walter, his contemporary and fellow-worker. 
If we omit the early tradition embodied in the ‘Chronicon Cumbrie’ 
and kindred compositions, Ranulf’s connection with the district, as 
the administrative officer of William Rufus, rests on the insecure found- 
ation of a disputed reading in a comparatively modern manuscript, 
which we have shown to be at the least very unsatisfactory. There is no 
direct proof of any sort, at present known, sufficient to place Walter the 
priest and Ranulf Meschin in charge of the city and district before the 
Meschina Regina (Calendar of Documents preserved in France, No. 1054). Archdeacon Prescott has 
written an admirable chapter on ‘ Ranulf Meschin, his wife Lucia, and the Honor of Carlisle,’ in which 
much trustworthy information will be found (Register of Wetherhal, pp. 468-77). Mr. J. H. Round, 
with his usual accuracy, has cleared up some doubtful points in the later descents of Ranulf’s family 
(Feudal England, pp. 184-7). 
1 <Walterus presbyter Normannus, quem rex W. Rufus przfecerat urbi Carleolensi, ccepit inchoare 
monasterium in honorem B. Mariz, quo in ipso principio morte sublato, Hen. I. rex predictum monas- 
terium perfecit, Canonicosque Regulares introduxit, deditque monasterio 6 ecclesias, viz. Newcastle, 
Newburne, Warkeware, Robern, Wichingham et Corbridge, fecitque Adelwaldum confessorem suum 
primum Priorem’ (Col/ectanea, i. 120, 121, ed. T. Hearne, 1770). 
2 Lansdowne MS. 721, f. 54. 
3 The Lansdowne manuscript is headed ‘Ex Registerio patris Willelmi Strickland Episcopi Carlio- 
lensis,’ and its story resembles that of Leland, only it is fuller and perhaps more reliable in many 
particulars. Bishop Strickland’s Register was in existence in 1615, and has not been traced since that 
date. We have several references showing that it was consulted by bishop Henry Robinson and lord 
William Howard of Naworth in 1606 about certain fishing rights in the ‘ Eaden between Irthing foot 
and Pow Maurham beck.’ One of lord William’s extracts from it was at folio 104. Other extracts 
from folios 7, 9, 17 and 59 were made in 1615 for the purpose of some litigation between bishop 
Robinson and John Denton of Cardew. All the Registers of the See of Carlisle between 1386 and 
1561 are missing. Attempts to trace them have been made by chancellor Ferguson (Trans. Cumb. and 
West. Archeolgical Society, vii. 295-9), and subsequently by the writer in a letter to the Carlisle Patriot, 
in June, 1894, on ‘The Bishop’s Lost Registers.’ 
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