On the re-construction of the rectory in 1895 the old elevation was preserved as much as possible, but the level of the ground floor was raised five feet.
Tradition also states that the Rev. Thomas Jackson served personally the chapel of Langdale, and certainly—if he lived in that valley—this would be more convenient for him than the parish church. The curates under him appear to have been men of ability and worth. William Johnson indeed secured a fame as educationalist that is recorded in the National Dictionary. A Cumberland man, born in 1784, he appears to have come to Grasmere as schoolmaster before the death of the old curate Rowlandson. He began to officiate in 1810, shortly after he had entered St. John's College, Cambridge. His stay in Grasmere was short, for Dr. Andrew Bell, when visiting Wordsworth in 1811, was so struck by his management of the village school, that he offered him the post of Master of the school then being built by the National Society in London; and thither he repaired next year. He became organizer to the Society and school inspector and rector of a London church. After his retirement from more active work, he returned (about 1848) to Grasmere, where he bought a piece of land and built the house, since enlarged, called Huntingstile. He was a friend of Edward Quillinan, Wordsworth's son-in-law, and in 1853 edited his poems with a memoir. He lived till 1864.
Johnson's name occurs in the letters of the De Quincey family. The future Opium-eater had just settled at Dove Cottage, where he was visited by his mother and sisters. The elder lady was a friend of Mrs. Hannah More, and it is a little amusing to find that the aid of that prophetess of the Evangelical Revival was invoked for Grasmere, which was evidently considered, by the strangers who began to invade the district, to be in a benighted state. At one particular evening reception at Barley Wood, Mrs. More's home, an effort was made to engage her interest in what were called "the Christian politicks" of Grasmere; but little was gained beyond a vague promise of Tracts, until the opportune arrival of Mr. Venn from Clapham, who gave hopes of help (for a time at least) from the Sunday School Society in money and books. Mrs. De Quincey, in reporting the matter to her son, looks forward to the time when "experience recommends the Institution to more effectual patronage at home, where at present it is an experiment, and viewed with indifference, if not with suspicion, by people who must very feebly comprehend the value of religious instruction."[171] The "good Pastor" was to be cheered, meanwhile, "under his difficult labour" by the magic of Mrs. More's name, and the promise of more substantial aid when the De Quincey ladies should arrive.
But aid was to be found at hand, which probably did not excite suspicion. To Lady Fleming religion became increasingly dear after home troubles left her a lonely woman. Her accounts show that in 1817 14s. 8d. was paid to "Mr. Noble Wilson, Schoolmaster"—possibly for books: and in 1821 a fee of ten guineas was paid him "for Teaching Sunday School." Mr. Wilson, who followed Robert Powley (inscribed as curate in 1814), must have been a favourite. He came over from his cure at Witherslack in 1831 to bury Mr. Samuel Barber, who had made "Gell's Cottage" (now Silverhow) his home.
Evil days had fallen once more on the Grasmere rectorate. The Rev. Thomas Jackson died in 1822. He left two sons, one of whom, educated for the law, succeeded him as agent at Rydal Hall. The other, William, was bred up to the church, and no doubt his father had hopes that he would succeed him as rector.[172] But the right of nomination had, unfortunately, passed into the hands of Sir Daniel Fleming. No protest to the bishop, as regards his choice, was of avail, and the nominee, Sir Richard le Fleming, took office.
The rector remained at the rectory after his inhibition in 1834, and curates, named Kingsley, Magrath, and Harris did duty successively for two years each. Then, in 1840, came the Rev. Edward Jefferies, who for so long ministered to the parish as curate and rector. He remained as curate when, in 1857, the opportunity came for Lady Fleming to appoint her distant kinsman, the Rev. Fletcher Fleming, of Rayrigg (already serving the chapel of Rydal), to the rectorate, but when he retired, in 1863, the Rev. Edward was fully installed in his office. Mr. Jefferies died in 1893.[173] The men who followed him are still (1912) living; the Revs. H. M. Fletcher, W. Jennings, J. H. Heywood, and M. F. Peterson.
The Chapels.
Brief mention of the later history of the chapelries under Grasmere may be made here.
Ambleside, when the crisis of the Reformation came, took matters strenuously in hand, as we have seen. The townsmen provided a regular stipend for a curate who could teach Latin and Greek to their sons, and also kept up the fabric of the chapel, in complete independence of the mother church. Moreover the right of burial and baptism at the chapel was secured in 1676, after some opposition from the patron.[174] Nothing, perhaps, was definitely fixed with regard to the nomination of the schoolmaster-curate, when the townsfolk undertook to furnish his salary in 1584. They may have hoped that it would be left to themselves; and certainly they, with Mr. Braithwaite at their head, appointed during the Commonwealth. But the strong Squire of Rydal soon made it plain, that as patron of the mother church, he meant to establish his claim to the patronage of the daughter chapel, which stood on the Grasmere side of Stock Beck.[175] It has remained in his family ever since.