Marriages Prohibited from Advent Sunday till a Week after the Epiphany, from Septuagesima Sunday till a Week after Easter, from Ascension day till trinity Sunday; Secundum Dr. Comber.[195]
Curious entries, or any bearing upon local history, such as are frequent in some registers, are scarce in the Grasmere books. The law that commanded the use of woollen for shrouds, by way of propping up a declining industry, caused the usual amount of trouble here in the way of affidavits and entries.
Another enactment, that all sickly persons who presented themselves for cure by the Royal touch—a remedy much resorted to under the Stuarts—were to come armed with a parochial certificate,[196] has left its trace here.
Wee the Rector and Churchwardens of the Parish of Grasmere in the County of Westmorland do hereby certify that David Harrison of the said Parish aged about fourteen years is afflicted as wee are credibly informed with the disease comonly called the Kings Evill; and (to the best of or knowledge) hath not hereto fore been touched by His Majesty for ye sd. In testimony whereof wee have here unto set or hands and seals the Fourth day of Feb: Ano Dom 1684.
Henry Fleming Rector.
John Benson
John Mallison Churchwardens.
Registered by John Brathwaite Curate.
This poor youth was probably of the Rydal stock of Harrisons, where several generations of Davids had flourished as statesmen, carriers and inn-keepers.[197] The journey to London would be little to them.
The introduction of gunpowder into the slate quarries could not have long pre-dated the following entry:—
"Thomas Harrison of Weshdale [Wastdale?], wounded with the splinters of stone and wood the 29th of August last by the force of gunpowder was buryed September the 2nd. Ano Dom 1681."
An instance of longevity is given in 1674, when widow Elizabeth Walker, of Underhelme, "dyed at ye age of 107 years old."
But the entry that has caused the most comment is one that commemorates a boating disaster on Windermere Lake. Forty-seven persons were drowned, with some seven horses: "in one boate comeinge over from Hawkshead" on October 20th, 1635. Singularly enough, this is the only known record of an event with which tradition and later story has been busy. These affirm that the boat-load consisted of a wedding-party; also that the corpses were buried under a yew-tree in Windermere church-yard. If the catastrophe happened to the customery ferry, known as Great Boat, plying between Hawkshead Road and Ferry Nab, the interment would naturally be made at that church, though an unfortunate gap in the registers for the period prevents certainty on the point. But why was the event written down at Grasmere? It appears to have been inscribed by George Bennison, clerk and schoolmaster, who did not enter office till 1641. Had he the intention (unfortunately unfulfilled) of recording local history in the register-book? Could we suppose the Ambleside Fair for October 20th—an occasion of great resort only a few decades later—to have been in vogue before its charter was gained, the conjecture that the drowned folk had been attending the fair might be entertained.[198] There were other passage-boats on the lake besides the Great one. In connection with the number drowned, it may be mentioned that ferry-boats were formerly of great size. Miss Celia Fiennes, who, about the year 1697, had occasion on her journey to cross the Mersey with her horses from Cheshire to Liverpool—a passage which occupied 11⁄2 hours—did it in a boat which, she says, would have held 100 people.[199]
Miss Helen Sumner has been, since 1906, engaged in a transcript of the first register-book. It is now complete, and it will be put into use instead of the old illegible volume, of which it is an absolutely accurate copy, done in fine modern script.