PENRITH, market town, urban district, Penrith and Cocker mouth parliamentary division, Cumberland, England, 281 m. from London on the L.M.S. railway. Pop. (1931) 9,065. It is also served by the L.N.E. railway. A 14th century grammar school was refounded by Queen Elizabeth ; and there are two mansions dating from the same reign, which have been converted into inns. Though there are breweries, tanneries and saw-mills, the town depends mainly on agriculture. There are some ruins of a castle. Near Penrith on the south, above the precipitous bank of the Eamont, stands a small but beautiful old castellated house, Yan wath Hall. To the N.E. of the town Eden Hall, rebuilt 1824, con tains the celebrated enamelled goblet, the "Luck of Eden Hall." Penrith, otherwise Penreth, Perith, Perath, was founded by the Cambro-Celts. In 1222 Henry III. granted a yearly fair extend ing from the eve of Whitsun to the Monday after Trinity and a weekly market on Wednesday, but bef ore 1787 the market day was changed to Tuesday. The manor in 1242 was handed over to the Scottish king who held it till 1295, when Edward I. seized it.
In 1397 Richard II. granted it to the first earl of Westmorland; it then passed to Warwick the king-maker and on his death to the crown. In 1694 William III. granted it to the earl of Portland, by whose descendant it was sold in 5787 to the duke of Devonshire. In the i8th and early part of the 19th century Penrith manufac tured checks, linen cloth and ginghams. Clock and watch-making seems to have been an important trade here in the i8th century. The town suffered much from the incursions of the Scots, and Ralph, earl of Westmorland, who died 1426, built the castle; but a tower called the Bishop's Tower had been previously erected on the same site. In 1597-98, 2,26o persons perished by plague in the Penrith rural deanery. During the Civil War the castle was dismantled by the Royalist commandant. The church of St. Andrew is of unknown foundation, but the list of vicars is complete from 1223.