The troop may have marched from the siege of Carlisle Castle, which had been held for the king through the winter; and nothing is more likely than that, on their march over the Raise, they would halt at Grasmere, and do what despite they could to a sacred building held by an episcopalian parson and a recusant patron, who were of course odious for their so-called "delinquency." The event, however, is inferred rather than actually stated in Harrison's account.[109]
At Whitsuntide, on his release from prison, Richard Harrison returned to his post at Rydal Hall as factotum and financier. The position became steadily worse. Young William Fleming had returned from Bristol, after reverses in the south, only to be captured and imprisoned in Kendal; and his freedom had to be procured by a heavy ransom. In restless mood he declared his intention of going overseas, and considerable sums were paid for his fitting out; but he never got beyond London, where he died shortly after of smallpox. The Parliamentary Committee, then sitting at Kendal, exacted heavy fines from the estate for delinquency. Oppressive taxes too were repeatedly levied for the support of the Parliamentary forces and the Scotch army. This extraordinary outflow of money, as well as the loans made to friends, must have materially reduced the wealth of Squire John, and have left less for the suitors who presently appeared to claim the hands of the heiresses.
Not the Rydal estate alone, but the whole country-side groaned under the burden of taxation. It is therefore not surprising that from the hardness of the times, as well as from possible illwill, the tithes began to yield an uncertain return; and that to come by them at all it was sometimes necessary to engage a strong man or a stout party for the business. An item in the account-sheets for 1645 runs:—
| li | s | d | |
| spent in 3 dayes when we went to gather the tith woole being ten in company | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Spent more when Mr. Mason & I went to gather the Easter dues at severall tymes | 15 | 0 | |
| Oct. Adam Fisher & young Jarrat for Inning the tith corne at Gresmere this yeare 1645 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Adam Fisher was the Rydal blacksmith, and doubtless a strong man. Clearly no farmer could be found to take up a contract for the tithes of corn; and as we have seen, a barn had been hired for its housing.
In 1648 Harrison went into Cumberland, and spent a week getting the "tith-rents" due on St. Mark's Day; and he enters:—
| li | s | d | |
| geaven my cosen Lamplougs man for his paynes in comeinge to meete me there with directions from [parliamentary] comittee to pay there rents unto me, otherwise I had gotten none payd | 0 | 5 | 0 |
Harrison was subjected to another imprisonment, and squeezed by the hostile government of many further sums. His account-sheets close in 1648-9, when the hall—soon to lie under the ban of sequestration—was itself closed.