On Friday the scholars attending the Sunday schools in the deanery of
Gosforth celebrated the Sunday School Centenary at Muncaster Castle.   Early in the day the children belonging to the schools at Booth, Millom, Whicham, Thwaites, Wasdale, Ponsonby, Irton, Haile, Gosforth, Eskdale, Egremont, Drigg Becckermont, Calderbridge, and Muncaster assembled in the deer park, where they were supplied with refreshments.   Most of the clergy in the deanery were present.  Three large tents had been erected, and as rain fell during the greater part of the afternoon these tents were very useful.

After tea had been partaken of, the weather improved, and the children
marched in front of the castle, when the Lord Bishop of Carlisle briefly
addressed the assembly.   He said they had come there that day to celebrate the blessed fact that now for one hundred years there had been Sabbath schools in this country.  He had no doubt that all present had heard a great deal said concerning Robert RAIKES, and what he did in the city of Gloucester in reference to Sunday schools.  Robert RAIKES saw around him a great deal of ignorance, irreligion, and immorality, and he was not content with grieving over what he saw and heard, nor even to make it a matter of prayer; he was determined to do something for his fell citizens and for England, and he set himself to work in a manly and earnest and godly manner to do all he could to improve the condition of the people.   And so he started in a very humble ways a kind of Sunday School in various streets of Gloucester-a very small affair indeed when contrasted with the Sunday Schools of present day.  

One might compare the Sunday Schools started by Robert RAIKES, and those now in existence, with the rude boats that our forefathers built hundreds of years ago, and many of which he (the Bishop)
daresay floated round the old town of Ravenglass close by, and the mighty steamers of the present day.   Rudely constructed boats had grown into mighty, enormous, and powerful ships, and the little primitive schools of Robert RAIKES'S time in the lanes of Gloucester, had, through the blessing of God, grown into the grand and invaluable machinery of Sunday Schools, which are now found in almost every town and village in the United Kingdom.

In conclusion the Bishop exhorted the teachers to continue in their pious
work.-The children spent a pleasant afternoon.  Amongst the company present were Lady MUNCASTER, Lady L'ESTRANGE , the Hon. A. PENNINGTON, Mr. H. L'ESTRANGE, Mr. WATSON (Bootle), the Rev. H. BELL, the R.G. and Mrs. COLLINGWOOD, the Misses FRERE, and others.