Note I. Castleton.
At the time of my visit to Castleton, I did not know what I afterwards learnt, that Edward I. was Constable of the Castle of the Peak before his accession to the throne. He gave the patronage of the living to the Abbey of Vale Royal in Cheshire, with whom it continued till the Dissolution, when it was handed over to the newly-founded See of Chester. The church, which contains Norman features, is dedicated to St. Edmund, one of the royal English saints specially honoured by Henry III. Doubtless this was a re-dedication by Edward. His connection with the place is curiously corroborated by the resemblance I observed to Winchelsea. Castleton is not mentioned by name in Domesday Book, but is simply called "the land of William Peverel's Castle in Peak Forest."
There are two slight discrepancies between the accounts of Mr. Addy and Mr. Brooksbank. Mr. Addy says that the Bradwell people are supposed to be descended from convicts, and the Castletonians from slaves. Mr. Brooksbank reverses this. Mr. Addy says that the tower is adorned with oak-boughs on Garland Day, and the people carry sprigs of oak. Mr. Brooksbank says it is not oak but sycamore. If so, this probably betokens the Whig ascendancy under William and Mary.
"Royal oak
The Whigs to provoke.
Plane-tree leaves
The Church-folk are thieves: "
runs a rhyme of the rival factions quoted by Brand (i., p. 275). The Cavendish family, who were, as we know, among the main instruments in bringing about the Revolution, were then, and are still, lessees under the Crown of the Manor and Castle of the Peak, and the Rev. Samuel Cryer, as we have seen, was not a non-juror. He accepted the Revolution.
Mr. Brooksbank has given me the following interesting notes:
"For a young man and woman to go together in the evening on 'Cauler' (Cawlowe), the hill next the Castle, was supposed to be tantamount to a betrothal, and young people who are suspected to be keeping company furtively are advised to go on Cauler."
