Grasmere / Grasmire / Grassmere / Gresmere / Gresmyre / Grismere / Grossmer

No individual entry found for Glasmere in the Domesday survey. Noted and illustrated in Hone (1827): "July 22, Sunday. Attended church. After service sketched the font, which appeared to be of great antiquity". Armitt's 1912 history of this church is a good source of documents related to the baptismal font; it cites a Ryde Hall MSS of 1661: "A true Cattollogue made the twenty-first day of Apprill in the 13th yeare of the Kings Ma'tyes reigne in the yeare of our lord god 1661 by the eighteene men Appointed for the good of the parish church of Gresmyre", demands, among other needs, "likewise A fonte At A generall charge to be maintained In Testamony thereof we the said eightenne have sette our honds the day & yeare ffirst above-written". This admonition resulted in the following action by the parish: "The font, which was always displaced by the Puritans, and often maltreated, required mending in the stone part as well as the lead; and a new cover was procured", and there are churchwardens account for that period showing expenses of 2s 8d, "for mending the Font stone", and of the same amount "for the Font couer" [NB: this is the font cover illustrated in Hone; it was lost by the time of writing of this book], and 6d for "soldering the lead in the Font stone". A document ["Presentment"] dated 15 May 1702 submitted to the Arch-Deaconry officials by the churchwardens of Grasmere states the presence, among other requirements, of a font with a cover. Later, in 1816, "the font was brought into the church", after major changes made to the west end, work that had to be undone in 1879-1880, at which time they had "the font replaced" [i.e., 'put back'] and a new font cover provided. "The font may be as old as the window, if not older. Its mouldings, which originally followed the rim and divided the bowl into a hexagon, are almost obliterated ; and though no doubt it suffered during the Commonwealth, when it was degraded from its sacred use, the damage may not be wholly due to that cause." [NB: the illustration in this source was taken from the drawing in Hone (1827)]. A current illustration of the font and cover [NB: is it a reconstruction of the lost cover? Was it found?] appears in David Hall's Lake District Walks website [http://www.walkthefells.net/DIR.asp?DIR_ID=172] [accessed 22 February 2010], with the following note: "Beneath the tower is the font, which it is believed came from Furness Abbey." The font at Grasmere is mentioned by William Wordsworth in a preface to his poem 'To the Lady Fleming on seeing the Foundation preparing for the erection of Rydal Chapel, Westmorland': "the font, instead of standing in its proper place at the entrance, is thrust into the farther end of a pew. When these defects shall be pointed out to the munificent patroness, they will it is hoped be corrected’" [NB: the font was moved to its proper position at the west end of the nave, at the end of the 19th century]. A visit to the church and the tomb of the poet is reported in Harper's New Monthly Magazine (No. CCCLXIX, February 1881. vol. LXII) notes: "examined the ancient font". [NB: the font depicted in Hone [cf. supra] appears to have a different shape from the current one; this may be due to a) the artist's personal rendition, and b) a re-mounting of the font on a stem and the three-step plinth].