THE FURNITURE
Of early furniture there is, of course, no trace within the church. All the accessories of the ritual of the mass, whether in metal, wood, or textile, as well as such as would be required for processions on Rogation Days, were swept away at the Reformation. A reminder of these processions may perhaps be found in the field at the meeting of the roads near the present cemetery, which goes by the name of Great Cross, for here, doubtless, a Station of the Cross stood where the priest and the moving throng would halt and turn. Another field is named Little Cross.
Date on Bench End
One upright piece of oak, roughly cut with the date 1635, remains to show us the style of the old benches—or forms as they were called—which filled the space above the earthen floor. The bench itself, to judge by the aperture left in this end-piece, would appear to have been no more than six inches wide, and almost as thick; the bench-end, which was further steadied by a slighter bar below, was sunk into the ground.
BENCH END.
These benches could not have been fixed with any permanence, for the earthen floor was often broken up for the burial of parishioners. The custom of burial inside the church was a favourite one, and was continued down to the nineteenth century. While the choir was reserved for the knight or gentleman (and of the former there were none within the parish) and for the priest, the statesman was buried in the nave or aisle; and only the landless man or cottar would be laid in the garth outside. Frequently in wills the testator expressed his wish to be buried as near as possible to a deceased relative, or the place where he had worshipped. He was in any case buried within the limits of his township's division in the church. In 1563 Mr. John Benson, of Baisbrowne, who was a freeholder and probably a cloth merchant, desired to be buried "in the queare in the parish church of gresmire as neare where my wife lyethe as convenientlye may be." After the Fleming family of Rydal and Coniston became possessed of the advowson, they were many of them—beginning with William the purchaser in 1600—buried within the choir; though no monument or tablet exists prior to the one commemorating Sir Daniel's father, 1653. The tithe-paper shows the rate of payment for interment in the higher or lower choir. Besides fees paid to the officials of the church, the townships, through their individual wardens, took payment for all "ground broken," as the phrase went, within their division, and the receipts from this source appear regularly in their accounts. The usual fee for an adult was 3s. 4d. (a quarter mark), and out of this 2d. had to be paid by the wardens for laying the flag. Less was charged for children, while women who died in childbirth were buried for nothing but the actual cost of the flag-laying. Under the year 1693, when seven parishioners were laid within the church soil, we read "& more for the burying of two Women yt. dyed in Childbed in the Church00li 00s 04d." There were seven burials in 1723, five in 1732, five in 1766, and four in 1773. As late as 1821 Rydal and Loughrigg buried one inhabitant in the church, and Langdale three. It is singular that the Grasmere township discontinued the custom before the two others, for no interment took place in her division after 1797.