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[a]bout L.24 per annum. Mr Mattinson, the late
incumbent, (who died about the year 1770,) was of so
singular a character, that a sketch of his life will, I
hope, prove not unentertaining. His birth-place I cannot
find; but it appears that he buried and married both his
father and his mother, baptized his own wife when an infant
one month old, and when she became marriageable published
the banns himself. He and his wife carded and spun that part
of the tithe-wool which fell to his lot, viz. one
third; and of so saving and penurious a disposition was he,
that he died worth more money than his whole income would
have gained him had it been laid out at compound interest. A
school which he taught added about L.5 to his income;
but even this will hardly account for the sums he left at
his death, which happened in the 96th year of his age, after
having served this curacy for 56 years. His wife was equally
eminent as a midwife, performing her operations for the
small sum of one shilling: but as, according to ancient
custom, she was likewise cook at the christening dinner, she
received some culinary perquisites that somewhat increased
her profits. On these occasions, none more devoutly prayed
for the speedy recovery of the good wife; a quick return of
these comforts, &c. I cannot imagine from what, (unless
the old custom of cooking,) these venerable matrons have
obtained the name of Gully-Wives and
Houdy-Wives; both of these names mean nearly the same
thing, Houdy being derived from houwen, which in the
Dutch signifies cutting. One thing more I must beg leave to
mention concerning Mrs Mattinson: On the day of her
marriage, her father boasted that his two daughters were
married to the two best men in Patterdale, the priest and
the bagpiper. Notwithstanding the avarice of the priest,
after his death his widow and children spent all he had
amassed, and she was obliged to seek support in the College
of Matrons at Wigton *.
Patterdale belonged formerly to the barons of Kendale, one
tenement excepted, which is now the property of John
Mounsey, Esq; of Patterdale Hall. Accordingly we find in
Hartsop Hall in Patterdale, the same armorial bearings as in
Barton Church, viz. three stags heads, which Guillim
says were the bearing of the name of Faldo, in the county of
Kent. After some alienations by marriage, the manors of
Pless-Fell in Patterdale, Barton, Griesdale, and Martindale,
were purchased of Barbara and Anne, the daughters of the
Earl of Sussex, by Sir William Musgrave. The whole Dale
consists at present of five small manors; Hartsop, the
property of the Earl of Lonsdale; Deep-Dale, of the Duke of
Norfolk; Griesdale and Pless-Fell, of William Hassel, Esq;
of Dalemain; and Glenridding, of John Mounsey, Esquire.
Patterdale is called in the Bishop's register Patrickdale,
which is probably its proper name; the corruption being very
easy, and the church being dedicated to St Patrick, makes it
still more probable. A little below the Hall is a well
called St Patrick's Well, where it is said that saint
baptized several persons in the year 540, when he was
shipwrecked upon Duddon Sands, in his road from Dublin. It
was surrounded with four square stones, but the road being
repaired, they were removed, and never set up again;
although Dr Osbaldeston Bishop of Carlisle, and the Dean of
Exeter, when they visited this part, actually paid a man for
setting them up ‡, being unwilling that so early a
piece of Christian antiquity should be destroyed. In the
church-yard is a prodigiously large yew-tree, whose branches
formerly overhung the road, but is now falling to decay.
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