glass drinking bowl, in the hope that they should prosper so long as it remained unbroken. The glass, which is still intact, and still at the castle, is now known as 'The Luck of Muncaster'. Tom Fool Each year the castle recruits its own jester in the culmination of a competition that celebrates the art of tomfoolery. The last jester, named Thomas Skelton, whose full-length portrait hangs at the castle, is believed to be the original Tom Fool, who is often said to have inspired Shakespeare's Fool in King Lear. Legend has it that Skelton was enlisted by Wild Will of Whitbeck to behead a carpenter's son, Dick, a servant at the castle, who was an unwanted suitor of his betrothed, Helwise Pennington, the unmarried daughter of Sir Alan Pennington. He is rumoured to have said, "There, I have hid Dick’s head under a heap of shavings; and he will not find that so easily, when he awakes, as he did my shillings." See also Grade I listed buildings in Cumbria Listed buildings in Muncaster List of work on castles and country houses by Anthony Salvin Luck of Edenhall Castles in England List of historic houses in England References Citations Sources External links Gatehouse Gazetteer record for Muncaster Castle, containing a comprehensive bibliography Muncaster Castle and Ravenglass Bath House Houses completed in the 14th century Towers completed in the 14th century Castles in Cumbria Peel towers in Cumbria Country houses in Cumbria Grade I listed buildings in Cumbria Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Cumbria Historic house museums in Cumbria Anthony Salvin buildings