ART. I.-Kirkoswald Castle. By MICHAEL W. TAYLOR, M.D., Penrith. Read at Kirkoswald, June 10th, 1874. THE THE village of Kirkoswald, or rather the town, for in the reign of King John it had the grant of a market, derives its name from the famous Oswald, King of Northumbria, the redoubtable propagandist and champion of Christianity in the north in the seventh century, to whom the church is dedicated. Though now lonesome and decayed, in the middle ages and before the Reformation, this place was probably of some vitality, and considerable population; it was the market and rendezvous of the occupiers of an important portion of the fertile vale, through which the Eden flows, and of the numerous fellside villages which skirt the base of the Pennine range; to the church was attached a collegiate establishment of twelve secular priests; whilst the safety of the town was secured, and its prosperity sustained, by the neighbouring fortress, the frequent residence of a powerful family. It will be no part of my business to dilate on the pedigree or history of the ancient possessors of this manor; inasmuch as, amongst other reasons, we hope on a subsequent occasion to have some points of genealogical interest, with reference to the Morvilles and Multons, dealt with by a much more competent authority on such subjects, our excellent member Mr. Jackson, of St. Bees; my particular concern is to give as complete and precise a description as I can, of the castle, its plan, and present condition. The castle of Kirkoswald is said, on the authority of Dr. Todd,* to have been originally founded about the year 1201, by Randolph Engayne; but he adds, it was then much inferior in size and magnificence, and "far short of that beauty and state, which it had afterwards by his successors." By the marriage of Ada, granddaughter of this Randolph Engayne, it passed to Simon Morville; and Sir Hugh de Morville, in the 2nd of King John, obtained licence to fortify the castle, and inclose the park. † Mr. There seems to have been a mistake made by Denton, (whose MSS. have been followed by the compilers of our county histories,) in the identification of this Hugh Morville lord of Burgh, and Kirkoswald, with his more notorious namesake, one of the murderers of Thomas-á-Becket. Hodgson Hind, in a paper read at a meeting of the Archæological Institute in Carlisle in 1859, traced the error to the Chronicon Cumbriæ, and shewed that Becket's assassin was Hugh, lord of Westmorland and Knaresburgh at the same time that Burgh was possessed by Simon, the grandfather of his namesake, who held Kirkoswald in the 2nd of King John. The possessions of the Morvilles descended to the Multons, by whom, in the time of Edward II., this castle was further enlarged and fortified. In the seventh year of Edward II, the castle and manor of Kirkoswald, the barony of Gilsland, and other vast estates, were transferred by the marriage of Margaret, daughter and heiress of Thomas de Multon, to Ralph, baron of Dacre, of Dacre Castle. It was during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whilst held by the powerful family of the Dacres, that the castle rose to its full pride and magnificence, and about the year 1500, after having been occupied by their family *"Jefferson Leath Ward" p. 274. The date here is an error: A.D. 1201, was the 2nd of King John: the period of Randolph Engayne was 100 years before the date stated. †The park inclosed a varied and undulating tract extending from the broad and rapid waters of the Eden, over Viol Moor towards the eastern fells, and up the Raven Beck, to the hamlet still called Park Head:-a domain which is now divided into five or six considerable fertile farms. for for eight generations, it received its last improvements from the famous Thomas Lord Dacre, "who encompassed it with a large ditch for better security, and beautified it at great expense." The power of the Dacres of Gilsland and Kirkoswald culminated during the long reign of forty years of this Thomas the Sixth. He succeeded in the 1st of Henry VII. (1485), and died in the 17th of Henry VIII, (1525). Hot, impetuous, and ambitious, he began his career by following the example set one hundred and seventy years before, by his ancestor, Ralph of Dacre Castle, who stole from Warwick Castle the daughter and heiress of the Multons. It was this Thomas, who carried off by stealth, in the dead of night, at Brougham Castle, from the guardianship of the Cliffords, the young and wealthy heiress, Elizabeth of Greystoke, by marriage with whom the Barony of Greystoke became united to that of Gillesland and Kirkoswald. This Thomas was distinguished also in war: Lord Surrey gave him command of the reserve on Flodden Side ; "Lord Dacre with his horsemen light, Marmion. and staunchly did his Cumbrian knights and men-at-arms, and border prickers repel the onslaught of the hot-blooded highland kernes of Huntly and Argyle, and bore their sway with fell intent at the close of the day, to the terrible breaking of the Scottish power on that fatal field. When Lord Warden of the Western Marches, to which appointment he was promoted by Henry VIII., Thomas Lord Dacre frequently resided at Kirkoswald, and dated despatches from thence. He was a diplomatist also; to him Henry entrusted much of the management of Scottish affairs, and the conduct of the intrigues with the factions which rent that kingdom after the battle of Flodden. On the division of the vast possessions of the Dacres into the two branches, known as the Dacres of the North, and the Dacres of the South, the castle of Kirkoswald fell to to the latter branch, which very shortly terminated in the Fiennes and Lennards: the last of whom, marrying a natural daughter of Charles II. by the duchess of Cleveland, was created earl of Sussex, and died in 1715, leaving two daughters. The property was exposed for sale, and bought by the Musgraves, in whose possession it now is. It was during the period of the rapid decadency of this race, and of the impoverishment and non-residency of these latter Dacres of the South, that this castle fell from its high estate, and the work of displenishment and spoliation began. The process of dismantling was in operation between the years 1604 and 1624. First probably, from its value, the lead would be stripped off the roof; and the trappings of the hall, the painted glass casements, and wood carvings, and pannelling would follow fast. Some movable chattels went to Lowther Hall, some glass to Corby and to Wetheral Church; Belted Will Howard enriched his castle of Naworth largely from here. The curious genealogical tree of the Dacre family, with armorial bearings, and inscriptions round them in painted glass, was transferred to the chapel at Naworth; this, and the curious pannelled ceiling with the pictures of the kings, referred to by Sandford, were destroyed at the fire at Naworth in 1844. In the library, in Belted Will's tower, may still be seen a strong, massive, beautifully moulded, and characteristic fourteenthcentury wooden pannelled roof. This, as was pointed out by Mr. J. H. Parker, at the visit in 1859 of the Archæological Institute, was not originally intended for its present situation, as it does not fit the cornice of the room. In all probability it was one of the spoils of Kirkoswald Castle. In the year 1688, when Mr. Thomas Denton wrote, he described the castle as being a bare shell or heap of stones. I have before me the plate published by the Bucks, in 1739, which shews some walls standing in the north-east, which are now gone; otherwise, the rest of the castle is represented |