enrichments. In the time of Henry VIII., the wood work extended seven or eight feet from the floor, and a variety of patterns struck on the solid, were worked on the panel, such as shields, flutings, straight mouldings with the ends so formed as to represent rolls of paper, and also that representing a folded napkin, which is well known as the linen pattern.

Domestic woodwork, even of this period, is very scarce in this part of the country; we saw a remnant of it at Kirkbythore, and the main door in the courtyard at Yanwath is a good example; there are some beautiful illustrations of this style at Brougham.

There is, howhowever, a large quantity of wainscoting left of Queen Elizabeth's time, in a number of the old halls. The conventional style of that period, was to have the wainscot to reach to about eight feet from the floor; the styles and rails were fitted together, and pinned with four pegs at the intersections; they usually had some straight moulding; sometimes the edges were simply bevelled; the panels were always plain, and never above 20 by 12 inches, and often varying in size to suit particular parts of the room. The space between the wainscot and the ceiling was in ornamental plaster work, or pargetting, which was then in extensive use, displaying a variety of scrolls and foliage, allegorical figures, medallions, shields, &c. All these adjuncts of an Elizabethan apartment are well seen in the solar at Yanwath; in the small private antechamber attached to it, anopportunity is afforded of observing the next later stage in the treatment of woodwork. It is of the Jacobean period, and it shews the fluted pilasters, mouldings, and surface embellishment of the renaissance. Every change of style in stone architecture has been accompanied by a change in the furniture, and decoration of the apartment, so when Palladian buildings rose, the small panelled oak wainscoting of the Tudor period became superseded. The wood lining was now carried up to the cornice, in great wide raised panels, often of chesnut, or white wood, painted; spaces were sometimes left for tapestry, or pictures, either on canvas or wood. This style is seen at Meaburn Hall, and in the room at Crackenthorpe, where you have a painting on the wooden panel over the chimney piece.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the woodwork became limited to a panelled skirting, about four feet high, the horizontal moulding of which was carried over the white painted wooden chimney pieces, which are so commonly seen in houses built about the time of Queen Anne. The framework of the doors, panelling, and chimneypiece, in the chief rooms, were often enriched with a great deal of carving, in low relief, presenting a variety of ornaments, derived from the classic revival,-arabesques, allegorical figures, vases, medallions,

wreaths,

wreaths, and running festoons of flowers and foliage. The mouldings, also, exhibit numerous classical devices, amongst which, the rectangular, or intersecting fillets, forming the Greek pattern and fretwork; the two bands intertwining in curves, or the guilloche; the flute and fillet; the row of square blocks or dentels; the egg and tongue on the ovolo, are the most common. Finally, since the invention of block printing on paper, and its universal application, the narrow skirting board of the modern house is all that has survived of the ancient wainscot.

M.W.T.

ART. XXIV.—The Laws of Buck Crag in Cartmel, and of Bampton. By Wm. JACKSON, Esq.

Communicated at Buck Crag, May 27th, 1875.

IN

N visiting this old farm house, deserted of all inhabitants, and fast degenerating into ruin, without any particular features to distinguish it from many of its neighbours other than its more advanced condition of decay, it may be thought that we are scarcely fulfilling the object for which our society was founded; and, indeed, if we but regard the name under which our investigations are carried on, we might well be accused of travelling out of bounds. If we intend, however, as I presume we do, that our Society should not only foster every enquiry which may bear upon the history of the district, but cherish every effort made to elucidate its topography, all researches into old manners and customs, all investigations into the biographical details recoverable of its eminent natives,-then indeed it is good for us to be here, and to visit similar shrines of genius; to draw attention to and to preserve, at least, the recollections of the homes and haunts of our departed worthies. Indeed, it imparts a charming variety to our excursions to pass from the Castle or Hall, rich with architectural detail and glowing with all the splendours of romantic association, to the poor cottage, where, born in humbleness,

humbleness, and nurtured in carefulness, the child of genius cultivated the talents and energy which were to be the means of advancing himself and his descendants to the front rank amongst his fellow men.

Here, in the very house now before us, was born in June, 1703, for he was baptized at Cartmel Church, on the 17th of that month,-Edmund Law, subsequently Bishop of Carlisle, who, remarkable as he was for his own powerful intellect, was still more notable as the patriarch of a line eminently illustrating the truth of Galton's theory of hereditary genius. Although Edmund Law was not a native of the valley of the Lowther, where all his fore-elders had lived, yet it was in the grammar school of Bampton that he was educated, and no school can point to richer fruit than, taking all circumstances into consideration, it has produced. The mere enumeration of the eminent men it has influenced, either directly, or through its alumni, would be tantamount to a repetition of the names of almost half the worthies of Westmorland. It is not my intention to repeat to you any details of the life of Bishop Edmund Law, of whom far too little is known; even the immortal Sylvanus Urban does no more than record his death; but had he lived in our day, fertile in books, he would not have lacked a biographer. Some very interesting facts are narrated in Mr. Stockdale's Annals of Cartmel, (which I see in the hands of several present, and which ought to be in the possession of all interested in our local history,) respecting the father of the bishop, the Rev. Edmund Law, Vicar of Staveley. My object, however, is rather to trace the stream to the mountain source, and to shew the humble beginnings of the house of Ellenborough, which is, perhaps, not the only representative our "Statesmen" can claim in the British peerage.

A few days ago, I was engaged in some researches in the Will Office at Carlisle, and was struck by the occurrence of the name of Edmund Law, in the year 1644; this, and the

fact

fact that we were about to visit this old house, led me to investigate further, and I found the same surname and Christian name repeated in combination again and again. I was finally induced to go through the Indices down to about the year 1750, and to copy every will belonging to the name, from the earliest on record, in the year 1570, down to the latest in 1744. They divide themselves into two groups, the members of the one lived and died in the parishes of Bampton, Askham, and Barton; those of the other resided at Appleby, and Asby; and, singularly enough, the name does not occur elsewhere, so far as the records in the Will Office are concerned. I cannot trace any relationship between the two, though there can be little doubt they sprang from one source. I shall therefore only claim to place those of the first before you, as being those of the Bishop's undoubted relations. I have another motive in desiring to place them on record; they are excellent representative wills, of that interesting class, the "Statesmen" of our district; and they afford us, through their appended Inventories, some idea of the extreme simplicity of their furniture, household implements and modes of life.

Mr. R. S. Ferguson has kindly undertaken to elucidate them from a legal point of view, and his valuable comments will supply a want which has been long felt by every reader of old wills, whether perusing them in the original documents themselves, or in the stores furnished to antiquarians in Nicolas's Testamenta Vetusta, or in the volumes devoted to that subject by the Surtees and Chetham societies.

NO. 1.

Will and Inventory of John Lawe of Yeanwith 1602.

In the name of God Amen I John Lawe of Yeanwith wthin the prish of Barton seeke in body but whole in mind and in pfect remembrance praised be Almighty god doe make this my last will and testament in manner and forme following first I commit my soale to the tuition of almighty god and my body to be buried within the churchyard of Barton paieing all dewes and services belonging Item

NOTES TO PEDIGREES.

It is a matter of great regret to me, that, after devoting much time and thought to the compilation of the foregoing pedigrees, I am unable to fix upon the father of the Bishop of Carlisle. He is named in the Inventory appended to the Will of Anthony Law, as one of the valuers, but nothing is said there to justify a positive statement that he was a younger brother of Anthony, though there can be little doubt that such was the fact.

The Rev. John Hodgson, in his far too brief account of Westmorland, states that he was born at Measand, and upon him I rely; though others name Bomby and Carhullan, both also in Bampton parish, and others again Askham.

I have given all the members of each branch that I have been able to classify.

I am indebted to the Rev. James Darling for information from the Bampton Register, and other assistance, enabling me to compile the pedigree illustrating Wills Nos. 4, 5, and 6; and to the Rev. C. H. C. Baker for extracts from the Askham Register, embodied in the pedigree appended to Will No. 2.

If any errors be detected in either, I hope they will be treated with leniency. Any one accustomed to compiling pedigrees from Registers, with little other assistance, knows how fraught with difficulties his path is.

My acknowledgements are also due to the Rev. E. Keating Clay, Vicar of Cartmel, for information kindly conveyed; and if the strenuous endeavours, made by Thomas Willan, Esq., to ascertain the father of Edmund Law of Staveley, have been as vain as my own, none the less are my thanks due to him.