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Page 40:-
the British Empire: since his death, in 1759, the school has
been much upon the decline. This school was founded in the
year 1649 by D. Langbane, Provost of Queen's College, Oxon:
It has since received several donations, and is now of
considerable value.
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cock penny
cock fighting
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At this, and most of the other schools in Westmorland and
Cumberland, it is customary for the master to give the
scholars a prize to fight cocks for: the master for this
receives what is called the Cock-Penny, being a
present according to the ability of the scholar, and the
cock-fighting is held either at Shrovetide or Easter. This
custom seems to have originated in that care which was taken
here to instill into youth a martial and enterprizing
spirit. This farther appears from the founders having
ordered matters so, that in many schools half of the
Master's salary depends on the cock-pennies; and if the
master refuses to give the customary prize, the scholars
withhold their present. At some schools, two captains are
elected by the boys, who each fight a cock for the prize;
and the winner has great honours conferred upon him in the
presence of all the neighbourhood, who never fail to
assemble upon these occasions. When these are the practices
inculcated into early youth, we need not wonder at that
spirit which has so often displayed itself to the terror and
destruction of all opposers. In short, in the
border-counties, every amusement, from the trifling plays of
children to the laborious sports of manhood, seem to have
one uniform tendency; I mean a tendency to train and inure
the inhabitants to war and danger, and to make them
undertake with indifference and coolness the most hazardous
enterprize.
Opposite to Barton school-house is a field called
Dodgey-Rays, whither Mr Wilson used always to send
any of his boys who were imperfect in their tasks, in order
to get them better. So common and well known was this
punishment, that to send a person to Dodgey-Rays is become a
proverbial expression in this county.
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St Michael, Barton
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The Church of Barton is an old building, and in a situation
which reflects the highest disgrace on the Earl of Lonsdale,
the vicar, and the owner of the rectorial tythes, who are
bound to repair it. Upon the chancel there is scarcely any
covering, nor one window with glass in it; nay, only a few
years ago, Mr Hassel's hounds actually killed a hare in it.
The patronage belongs to the Earl of Lonsdale, and is rated
in the King's books at 11l. 1s. 0
½d. Before the dissolution of the monasteries
it belonged to Watre in Yorkshire: it was then given
by Henry VIII. to the Earl of Rutland, who sold it to
Lancelot Lancaster of Stockbridge, or Sockbridge. In the
Lancaster family it continued until that family ended in a
daughter, who was married to Sir Christopher Lowther, one of
the ancestors of the present Earl.
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Dawes Family
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On a brass plate in the chancel is the following monumental
inscription of the Dawes's, an ancient and respectable
family:
"Hic jacet Francisca Dawes, filia Thomae Fletcher de
Strickland, armigeri, natu maxima, perquam charissima,
quidam et perdilecta uxor Lancelot Dawes de Barton Kirke,
generosi. Quae huic mundo spe multo melioris 23 Feb.
valedixit, Anno AEtatis 23, Anno Dom. 1673.
I.
"Under this stone, reader, interr'd doth lye
Beauty and virtue's true epitomy.
At her appearance the Noon-sun
Blush'd, and shrunk in cause quite outdone.
II.
"In her concenter'd did all graces dwell:
God pluck'd my rose that he might take a smell.
I'll say no more; but, weeping, wish I may
Soon with thy dear chaste ashes come to lay.
"Sic efflevit maritus." ---
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Above
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gazetteer links
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-- "Dodgey Rays" -- Dodgie Raise
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-- St Michael's Church
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-- Wayside
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