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diff --git a/40584-0.txt b/40584-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffe6518 --- /dev/null +++ b/40584-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6090 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40584 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 40584-h.htm or 40584-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40584/40584-h/40584-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40584/40584-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/cu31924028040032 + + + + + +LANCASHIRE + +[Illustration: EMIGRANTS AT LIVERPOOL] + + +LANCASHIRE + +Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes + +by + +LEO H. GRINDON + +Author of +'The Manchester Flora'; 'Manchester Banks and Bankers'; +'Life, Its Nature, Varieties, and Phenomena'; etc. + +With Many Illustrations + + + + + + + +London +Seeley and Co., Limited +Essex Street, Strand +1892 + + + + +PREFACE + + +The following Chapters were written for the _Portfolio_ of 1881, in +which they appeared month by month. Only a limited space being allowed +for them, though liberally enlarged whenever practicable, not one of +the many subjects demanding notice could be dealt with at length. +While reprinting, a few additional particulars have been introduced; +but even with these, in many cases where there should be pages there +is only a paragraph. Lancashire is not a county to be disposed of so +briefly. The present work makes no pretension to be more than an index +to the principal facts of interest which pertain to it, the details, +in almost every instance, still awaiting the treatment they so well +deserve. If I have succeeded in marking out the foundations for a +superstructure to be raised some day by an abler hand, I shall be +content. It is for every man to begin something, to the best of his +power, that may be useful to his fellow-creatures, though it may not +be permitted to him to enjoy the greater pleasure of completing it. + +Some of the commendations passed upon Lancashire may seem to come of +the partiality of a man for his own county. It may be well for me to +say that, although a resident in Manchester for forty years, my native +place is Bristol. + + LEO GRINDON. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. LEADING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COUNTY + II. LIVERPOOL + III. THE COTTON DISTRICT AND THE MANUFACTURE OF COTTON + IV. MANCHESTER + V. MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS + VI. PECULIARITIES OF CHARACTER, DIALECT, AND PASTIMES + VII. THE INLAND SCENERY SOUTH OF LANCASTER + VIII. THE SEASHORE AND THE LAKE DISTRICT + IX. THE ANCIENT CASTLES AND MONASTIC BUILDINGS + X. THE OLD CHURCHES AND THE OLD HALLS + XI. THE OLD HALLS (_continued_) + XII. THE NATURAL HISTORY AND THE FOSSILS + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + EMIGRANTS AT LIVERPOOL _By G. P. Jacomb Hood_ + SHIPPING ON THE MERSEY _By A. Brunet-Debaines_ + AMERICAN WHEAT AT LIVERPOOL + RAN AWAY TO SEA + ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH, LIVERPOOL _By H. Toussaint_ + THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, LIVERPOOL + ST. GEORGE'S HALL, LIVERPOOL + THE EXCHANGE, LIVERPOOL _By R. Kent Thomas_ + WIGAN + WARRINGTON + THE DINNER HOUR + PAY-DAY IN A COTTON MILL _By G. P. Jacomb Hood_ + IN A COTTON FACTORY + MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL + ST. ANNE'S SQUARE, MANCHESTER + TOWN HALL, MANCHESTER _By T. Riley_ + DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER + IN THE WIRE WORKS + MAKING COKE + SMELTING + GLASS-BLOWING _By G. P. Jacomb Hood_ + ON THE BRIDGEWATER CANAL _By G. P. Jacomb Hood_ + ON THE BRIDGEWATER CANAL + BLACKSTONE EDGE + THE LAKE AT LITTLEBOROUGH + WATERFALL IN CLIVIGER + IN THE BURNLEY VALLEY + THE RIBBLE AT CLITHEROE + CONISTON _By David Law_ + NEAR THE COPPER MINES, CONISTON + LANCASTER _By David Law_ + CLITHEROE CASTLE + FURNESS ABBEY + FURNESS ABBEY _By R. Kent Thomas_ + DARCY LEVER, NEAR BOLTON + SPEKE HALL _By T. Riley_ + HALE HALL + HALL IN THE WOOD _By R. Kent Thomas_ + HOGHTON TOWER + STONYHURST _By R. Kent Thomas_ + + + + +LANCASHIRE + + + + +I + +LEADING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COUNTY + + +Directly connected with the whole world, through the medium of its +shipping and manufactures, Lancashire is commercially to Great Britain +what the Forum was to ancient Rome--the centre from which roads led +towards every principal province of the empire. Being nearer to the +Atlantic, Liverpool commands a larger portion of our commerce with +North America even than London: it is from the Mersey that the great +westward steamers chiefly sail. The biographies of the distinguished +men who had their birthplace in Lancashire, and lived there always, +many of them living still, would fill a volume. A second would hardly +suffice to tell of those who, though not natives, have identified +themselves at various periods with Lancashire movements and +occupations. No county has drawn into its population a larger number +of individuals of the powerful classes, some taking up their permanent +abode in it, others coming for temporary purposes. In cultivated +circles in the large towns the veritable Lancashire men are always +fewer in number than those born elsewhere, or whose fathers did not +belong to Lancashire. No trifling item is it in the county annals that +the immortal author of the _Advancement of Learning_ represented, as +member of Parliament, for four years (1588-1592) the town which in +1809 gave birth to William Ewart Gladstone, and which, during the +boyhood of the latter, sent Canning to the House of Commons.[1] In +days to come England will point to Lancashire as the cradle also of +the Stanleys, one generation after another, of Sir Robert Peel, John +Bright, and Richard Cobden. The value to the country of the several +men, the soundness of their legislative policy, the consistency of +their lines of reasoning, is at this moment not the question. They are +types of the vigorous constructive genius which has made England great +and free, and so far they are types of the aboriginal Lancashire +temper. Lancashire has been the birthplace also of a larger number of +mechanical inventions, invaluable to the human race; and the scene of +a larger number of the applications of science to great purposes, than +any other fragment of the earth's surface of equal dimensions. It is +in Lancashire that we find the principal portion of the early history +of steam and steam-engines, the first railway of pretension to +magnitude forming a part of it. The same county had already led the +way in regard to the English Canal system--that mighty network of +inland navigation of which the Manchester Ship Canal, now in process +of construction, will, when complete, be the member wonderful above +all others. No trivial undertaking can that be considered; no distrust +can there be of one in regard to its promise for the future, which has +the support of no fewer than 38,000 shareholders. Here, too, in +Lancashire, we have the most interesting part of the early history of +the use of gas for lighting purposes. In Lancashire, again, were laid +the foundations of the whole of the stupendous industry represented in +the cotton-manufacture, with calico-printing, and the allied arts of +pattern design. The literary work of Lancashire has been abreast of +the county industry and scientific life. Mr. Sutton's _List of +Lancashire Authors_, published in 1876, since which time many others +have come to the front, contains the names of nearly 1250, +three-fourths of whom, he tells us, were born within the +frontiers--men widely various, of necessity, in wit and aim, more +various still in fertility, some never going beyond a pamphlet or an +"article,"--useful, nevertheless, in their generation, and deserving a +place in the honourable catalogue. Historians, antiquaries, poets, +novelists, biographers, financiers, find a place in it, with scholars, +critics, naturalists, divines. Every one acquainted with books knows +that William Roscoe wrote in Liverpool. Bailey's _Festus_, one of the +most remarkable poems of the age, was originally published in +Manchester. The standard work upon British Bryology was produced in +Warrington, and, like the life of Lorenzo de Medici, by a +solicitor--the late William Wilson. Nowhere in the provinces have +there been more conspicuous examples of exact and delicate +philosophical and mathematical experiment and observation than such as +in Manchester enabled Dalton to determine the profoundest law in +chemistry; and Horrox, the young curate of Hoole, long before, to be +the first of mankind to watch a transit of Venus, providing thereby +for astronomers the means towards new departures of the highest +moment. During the Franco-Prussian war, when communication with the +interior of Paris was manageable only by the employment of +carrier-pigeons and the use of micro-photography, it was again a +Lancashire man who had to be thanked for the art of concentrating a +page of newspaper to the size of a postage-stamp. Possibly there were +two or three contemporaneous inventors, but the first to make +micro-photography--after the spectroscope, the most exquisite +combination of chemical and optical science yet introduced to the +world--public and practical, was the late Mr. J. B. Dancer, of +Manchester. + + [1] _Vide_ Blue Book, 1878, Part I. p. 423. The first return of + Bacon for St. Albans was not until 1601. Roger Ascham, whose + influence upon education was even profounder than Bacon's, sat + for another Lancashire town--Preston--in the Parliament of 1563. + +Generous and substantial designs for promoting the education of the +people, and their enjoyment,--habits also of thrift and of +self-culture, are characteristic of Lancashire. Some have had their +origin upon the middle social platform; others have sprung from the +civilised among the rich.[2] The Co-operative system, with its varied +capacities for rendering good service to the provident and careful, +had its beginning in Rochdale. The first place to copy Dr. Birkbeck's +Mechanics' Institution was Manchester, in which town the first +provincial School of Medicine was founded, and which to-day holds the +headquarters of the Victoria University. Manchester, again, was the +first town in England to take advantage of the Free Libraries Act of +1850, opening on September 2d, 1852, with Liverpool in its immediate +wake. The Chetham Free Library (Manchester) had already existed for +200 years, conferring benefits upon the community which it would be +difficult to over-estimate. Other Lancashire towns--Darwen, Oldham, +Southport, and Preston, for example, have latterly possessed +themselves of capital libraries, so that, including the fine old +collection at Warrington, the number of books now within reach of +Lancashire readers, _pro rata_ for the population, certainly has no +parallel out of London. An excellent feature in the management of +several of these libraries consists in the effort made to attain +completeness in special departments. Rochdale aims at a complete +collection of books relating to wool; Wigan desires to possess all +that has been written about engineering; the Manchester library +contains nearly eight hundred volumes having reference to cotton. In +the last-named will also be found the nucleus of a collection which +promises to be the finest in the country, of books illustrative of +English dialects. The Manchester libraries collectively, or Free and +Subscription taken together, are specially rich in botanical and +horticultural works--many of them magnificently illustrated and +running to several volumes--the sum of the titles amounting to +considerably over a thousand. Liverpool, too, is well provided with +books of this description, counting among them that splendid +Lancashire work, Roscoe's _Monandrian Plants_, the drawings for which +were chiefly made in the Liverpool Botanic Garden--the fourth founded +in England, or first after Chelsea, Oxford, and Cambridge, and +specially interesting in having been set on foot, in 1800, by Roscoe +himself. + + [2] It is necessary to say the "civilised," because in + Lancashire, as in all other industrial communities, especially + manufacturing ones, there are plenty of selfish and vulgar rich. + +The legitimate and healthful recreation of the multitude is in +Lancashire, with the thoughtful, as constant an object as their +intellectual succour. The public parks in the suburbs of many of the +principal Lancashire towns, with their playgrounds and gymnasia, are +unexcelled. Manchester has no fewer than five, including the recent +noble gift of the "Whitworth." Salford has good reason to be proud of +its "Peel Park." Blackburn, Preston, Oldham, Lancaster, Wigan, +Southport, and Heywood have also done their best. + +In Lancashire have always been witnessed the most vigorous and +persistent struggles made in this country for civil and political +liberty and the amendment of unjust laws. Sometimes, unhappily, they +have seemed to indicate disaffection; and enthusiasts, well-meaning +but extremely unwise--so commonly the case with their class--have +never failed to obtain plenty of support, often prejudicial to the +very cause they sought to uphold. But the ways of the people, +considered as a community, deducting the intemperate and the zealots, +have always been patriotic, and there has never been lack of +determination to uphold the throne. The modern Volunteer movement, as +the late Sir James Picton once reminded us, may be fairly said to have +originated in Liverpool; the First Lancashire Rifles, which claims to +be the oldest Volunteer company, having been organised there in 1859. +In any case the promptitude of the act showed the vitality of that +fine old Lancashire disposition to defend the right, which at the +commencement of the Civil Wars rendered the county so conspicuous for +its loyalty. It was in Lancashire that the first blood was shed on +behalf of Charles the First, and that the last effort, before +Worcester, was made in favour of his son--this in the celebrated +battle of Wigan Lane. It was the same loyalty which, in 1644, +sustained Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess of Derby, in the famous +three months' defence of Lathom House, when besieged by Fairfax. +Charlotte, a lady of French extraction, might quite excusably be +supposed to have had less care for the king than an Englishwoman. But +she was now the wife of a Lancashire man, and that was enough for her +heart; she attuned herself to the Earl's own devotedness, became +practically a Lancashire woman, and took equal shares with him in his +unflinching fervour. The faithfulness to great trusts which always +marks the noble wife, however humble her social position, however +exalted her rank and title, with concurrent temptations to wrongdoing, +doubtless lay at the foundation of Charlotte's personal heroism. But +it was her pasturing, so to speak, in Lancashire, which brought it up +to fruition. Of course, she owed much to the fidelity of her +Lancashire garrison. Without it, her own brave spirit would not have +sufficed. Lancashire men have always made good soldiers. Several were +knighted "when the fight was done" at Poitiers and Agincourt. The +Middleton archers distinguished themselves at Flodden. The gallant +47th--the "Lancashire Lads"--were at the Alma, and at Inkerman formed +part of the "thin red line." There is equally good promise for the +future, should occasion arise. At the great Windsor Review of the +Volunteers in July 1881, when 50,000 were brought together, it was +unanimously allowed by the military critics that, without the +slightest disrespect to the many other fine regiments upon the ground, +the most distinguished for steadiness, physique, and discipline, as +well as the numerically strongest, was the 1st Manchester. So striking +was the spectacle that the Queen inquired specially for the name of +the corps which reflected so much honour upon its county. In the +return published in the General Orders of the Army, February 1882, it +is stated that the 2d Battalion of the South Lancashire had then +attained the proud distinction of being its "best signalling corps." +The efforts made in Lancashire to obtain changes for the better in the +statute-book had remarkable illustration in the establishment of the +Anti-Corn-Law League, the original idea of which was of much earlier +date than is commonly supposed, having occupied men's minds, both in +Manchester and Liverpool, as far back as the year 1825. The celebrated +cry six years later for Reform in the representation was not heard +more loudly even in Birmingham than in the metropolis of the cotton +trade. + +The pioneers of every kind of religious movement have, like the +leaders in civil and political reform, always found Lancashire +responsive; and, as with practical scientific inventions, it is to +this county that the most interesting part of the early history of +non-conforming bodies very generally pertains. George Fox, the founder +of the "Society of Friends," commenced his earnest work in the +neighbourhood of Ulverston. "Denominations" of every kind have also in +this county maintained themselves vigorously, and there are none which +do not here still exist in their strength. The "Established Church," +as elsewhere, holds the foremost place, and pursues, as always, the +even tenour of its way. During the forty-three years that Manchester +has been the centre of a diocese, there have been built within the +bishopric (including certain rebuildings on a larger scale) not fewer +than 300 new churches. The late tireless Bishop Fraser "confirmed" +young people at the rate of 11,000 every year. The strength of the +Wesleyans is declared by their contributions to the great Thanksgiving +Fund, which amounted, on 15th November 1880, to nearly a quarter of +the entire sum then subscribed, viz. to about £65,000 out of the +£293,000. They possess a college at Didsbury; not far from which, at +Withington, the Congregationalists likewise have one of their own. The +long standing and the power of the Presbyterians is illustrated in +their owning the oldest place of worship in Manchester next to the +"Cathedral,"--the "chapel" in Cross Street,--a building which dates +from the early part of the sixteenth century. The sympathy of +Lancashire with the Church of Rome has been noted from time +immemorial;--perhaps it would be more accurately said that there has +been a stauncher allegiance here than in many other places to +hereditary creed. The Catholic diocese of Salford (in which Manchester +and several of the neighbouring towns are included) claimed in 1879 a +seventh of the entire population.[3] Stonyhurst, near Clitheroe, is +the seat of the chief provincial Jesuit college. Lastly, it is an +interesting concurrent fact, that of the seventy Societies or +congregations in England which profess the faith called the "New +Jerusalem," Lancashire contains no fewer than twenty-four. + + [3] Namely, 209,480 Catholic, as against 1,437,000 non-Catholic. + +The historical associations offered in many parts of Lancashire are by +no means inferior to those of other counties. One of the most +interesting of the old Roman roads crosses Blackstone Edge. Names of +places near the south-west coast tell of the Scandinavian Vikings. In +1323 Robert Bruce and his army of Scots ravaged the northern districts +and nearly destroyed Preston. The neighbourhood of that town witnessed +the Stuart enterprise of 1715, and of Prince Charles Edward's march +through the county in 1745 many memorials still exist. + +The ruins of two of the most renowned of the old English abbeys are +also here--Whalley, with its long record of benevolence, and Furness, +scarcely surpassed in manifold interest even by Fountains. One of the +very few remaining examples of an ancient castle belongs to the famous +old town from which John o' Gaunt received his title.[4] Parish +churches of remote foundation, with sculptures and lettered monuments, +supply the antiquary with pleasing variety. Old halls are numerous; +and connected with these, with the abbeys, and other relics of the +past, we find innumerable entertaining legends and traditions, often +rendered so much the more attractive through preserving, in part, the +county speech of the olden time, to be dealt with by and by. + + [4] ..."Next to whom + Was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster." + _King Henry VI._, Part 2d, ii. 2. + + The _first_ Duke of Lancaster was Henry, previously Earl of + Derby, whose daughter Blanche was married by John of Gaunt, the + latter succeeding to the title. + +In the sports, manners, and customs which still linger where not +superseded by modern ones, there is yet further curious material for +observation, and the same may be said of the recreations of the staid +and reflecting among the operative classes. It is in Lancashire that +"science in humble life" has always had its most numerous and +remarkable illustrations. Natural history, in particular, forms one of +the established pastimes in the cotton districts and among the men who +are connected with the daylight work of the collieries. Many of the +working-men botanists are banded into societies or clubs, which often +possess libraries, and were founded before any living can remember. +Music, especially choral and part-singing, has been cultivated in +Lancashire with a devotion equalled only perhaps in Yorkshire, and +certainly nowhere excelled. Both the air and the words of the most +popular Christmas hymn in use among Protestants, "Christians, awake!" +were composed within the sound, or nearly so, of the Manchester old +church bells. The verses were written by Dr. Byrom, of stenographic +fame;[5] the music, which compares well with the "Adeste Fideles" +itself,--the song of Christmas with other communions,--was the +production of John Wainwright. On a lower level we find the far-famed +Lancashire Hand-bell Ringers. The facilities provided in Lancashire +for self-culture have already been spoken of. That private education +and school discipline are effective may be assumed, perhaps, from the +circumstance that in October 1880 the girl who at the Oxford Local +Examinations stood highest in all England belonged to Liverpool. + + [5] Originally published in the _Manchester Mercury_, 19th + October 1752. + +Not without significance either is it that the coveted distinction of +"Senior Wrangler" was won by a Lancashire man on five occasions within +the twenty years ending February 1881. Three of the victors went up +from Liverpool, one from Manchester, and one from the Wigan +grammar-school. Lancashire may well be proud of such a list as this; +feeling added pleasure in knowing that the gold medal, with prize of +ten guineas, offered by the Council of Trinity College, London, for +the best essay on "Middle-class Education, its Influence on Commercial +Pursuits," was won in 1880 by a Lancashire lady--Miss Agnes Amy +Bulley, of the Manchester College for Women. + +The list of artists, chiefly painters, identified with the county +appears from Mr. Nodal's researches to be not far short of a hundred, +the earliest having been Hamlet Winstanley, of Warrington, where he +died in 1756. Many of his productions, family portraits and views in +the neighbourhood, are contained in the Knowsley collection. Two of +these Lancashire artists--Joseph Farrington, R.A., and William +Green--were among the first to disclose the beauties of the Lake +District, by means of lithography or engraved views prepared from +their drawings. Farrington's twenty views appeared in 1789. Green's +series of sixty was issued from Ambleside in 1814. A very curious +circumstance connected with art in its way, is that Focardi's +well-known droll statuette, "The Dirty Boy," was produced in +Lancashire! Focardi happened to be in Preston looking for employment. +Waiting one morning for breakfast, and going downstairs to ascertain +the cause of the delay, through a half-open door he descried the +identical old woman and the identical dirty boy! Here at last was a +subject for his chisel. He got £500 for the marble, and the purchasers +acknowledge that it was the most profitable investment they ever made. + +The scenery presented in many portions of the county vies with the +choicest to be found anywhere south of the Tweed. The artist turns +with reluctance from the banks of the Lune and the Duddon. The largest +and loveliest of the English lakes, supreme Windermere, belongs +essentially to Lancashire: peaceful Coniston and lucid Esthwaite are +entirely within the borders, and close by rise some of the loftiest of +the English mountains. The top of "Coniston Old Man"--_alt maen_, or +"the high rock"--is 2577 feet above the sea. The part which contains +the lakes and mountains is detached, and properly belongs to the Lake +District, emphatically so called, being reached from the south only by +passing over the lowermost portion of Westmoreland, though accessible +by a perilous way, when the tide is out, across the Morecambe sands. +Still it is Lancashire, a circumstance often surprising to those who, +very naturally, associate the idea of the "Lakes" with the homes of +Southey and Wordsworth, with Ambleside, and Helvellyn, and Lodore. + +The geological character of this outlying piece being altogether +different from that of the county in general, Lancashire presents a +variety of surface entirely its own. At one extremity we have the +cold, soft clay so useful to brickmakers; on reaching the Lakes we +find the slate rocks of the very earliest ages. Much of the eastern +edge of the county is skirted by the broad bare hills which constitute +the central vertebræ of the "backbone of England," the imposing +"Pennine range," which extends from Derbyshire to the Cheviots, and +conceals the three longest of the English railway tunnels, one of +which both begins and ends in Lancashire. The rock composing them is +millstone-grit, with its customary gray and weather-beaten crags and +ferny ravines. Plenty of tell-tale gullies declare the vehemence of +the winter storms that beat above, and in many of these the rush of +water never ceases. Those who seek solitude, the romantic, and the +picturesque, know these hills well; in parts, where there is moorland, +the sportsman resorts to them for grouse. + +In various places the rise of the ground is very considerable, far +greater than would be anticipated when first sallying forth from +Manchester, though on clear days, looking northwards, when a view can +be obtained, there is pleasant intimation of distant hills. Rivington +Pike, not far from Bolton, is 1545 feet above the sea-level. Pendle, +near Clitheroe, where the rock changes to limestone, is 1803. The +millstone-grit reappears intermittently as far as Lancaster, but +afterwards limestone becomes predominant, continuing nearly to the +slate rocks. It is to the limestone that Grange, one of the prettiest +places in this part of the country, owes much of its scenic charm as +well as salubrity. Not only does it give the bold and ivied tors which +usually indicate calcareous rock. Suiting many kinds of ornamental +trees, especially those which retain their foliage throughout the +year, we owe to it in no slight measure the innumerable shining +evergreens which at Grange, even in mid-winter, constantly tempt one +to exclaim with Virgil, when caressing his beloved Italy, "Hic ver +assiduum!" + +The southernmost part of the county has for its surface-rock chiefly +the upper new red sandstone, a formation not favourable to fine +hill-scenery, though the long ridges for which it is distinguished, at +all events in Lancashire and Cheshire, often give a decided character +to the landscape. The highest point in the extreme south-west, or near +Liverpool, occupied by Everton church, has an elevation of no more +than 250 feet, or less than a tenth of that of "Coniston Old Man." +Ashurst, between Wigan and Ormskirk, and Billinge, between Wigan and +St. Helens, make amends, the beacon upon the latter being 633 feet +above the sea. The prospects from the two last named are very fine. +They are interesting to the topographer as having been first resorted +to as fit spots for beacons and signal-fires when the Spanish Armada +was expected, watchers upon the airy heights of Rivington, Pendle, and +Brown Wardle, standing ready to transmit the news farther inland. It +is interesting to recall to mind that the news of the sailing of the +Armada in the memorable July of 1588 was brought to England by one of +the old Liverpool mariners, the captain of a little vessel that +traded with the Mediterranean and the coast of Africa. + +Very different is the western margin of this changeful county, the +whole extent from the Mersey to Duddon Bridge being washed by the +Irish Sea. But, although maritime, it has none of the prime factors of +seaside scenery,--broken rocks and cliffs,--not, at least, until after +passing Morecambe Bay. From Liverpool onwards there is only level +sand, and, to the casual visitor, apparently never anything besides; +for the tide, which is swift to go out, recedes very far, and seldom +seems anxious to come in. Blackpool is exceptional. Here the roll of +the water is often glorious, and the dimples in calm weather are such +as would have satisfied old Æschylus. On the whole, however, the coast +must be pronounced monotonous, and the country that borders on it +uninteresting. But whatever may be wanting in the way of rocks and +cliffs, the need is fully compensated by the exceeding beauty in parts +of the sandhills, especially near Birkdale and St. Anne's, where for +miles they have the semblance of a miniature mountain range. +Intervening there are broad, green, peaty plateaux, which, becoming +saturated after rain, allow of the growth of countless wild-flowers. +Orchises of several sorts, the pearly grass of Parnassus, the pyrola +that imitates the lily of the valley--all come to these wild sandhills +to rejoice in the breath of the ocean, which, like that of the +heavens, here "smells wooingly." Looking seawards, though it is seldom +that we have tossing surge, there is further compensation very +generally in the beauty of sunset--the old-fashioned but inestimable +privilege of the western coast of our island--part of the "daily +bread" of those who thank God consistently for His infinite bounty to +man's soul as well as body, and which no people in the world command +more perfectly than the inhabitants of the coast of Lancashire. Seated +on those quiet sandhills, on a calm September evening, one may often +contemplate on the trembling water a path of crimson light more +beautiful than one of velvet laid down for the feet of a queen. + +At the northern extremity of the county, as near Ulverstone, there are +rocky and turf-clad promontories; but even at Humphrey Head, owing to +the flatness of the adjacent sands, there is seldom any considerable +amount of surf. + +The most remarkable feature of the sea-margin of Lancashire consists +in the number of its estuaries. The largest of these form the outlets +of the Ribble and the Wyre, at the mouth of the last of which is the +comparatively new port of Fleetwood. The estuary of the Mersey (the +southern shore of which belongs to Cheshire) is peculiarly +interesting, on account of the seemingly recent origin of most of the +lower portion. Ptolemy, the Roman geographer, writing about A.D. 130, +though he speaks of the Dee and the Ribble, makes no mention of the +Mersey, which, had the river existed in its present form and width, he +could hardly have overlooked.[6] No mention is made of it either in +the Antonine Itinerary; and as stumps of old oaks of considerable +magnitude, which had evidently grown _in situ_, were not very long ago +distinguishable on the northern margin when the tide was out, near +where the Liverpool people used to bathe, the conclusion is quite +legitimate that the level of the bed of the estuary must in the Celtic +times, at the part where the ferry steamers go, have been much higher, +and the stream proportionately narrow, perhaps a mere brook, with +salt-marshes right and left. "Liverpool" was originally the name, +simply and purely, of the estuary, indicating, in its derivation, not +a town, or a village, but simply water. How far upwards the brook, +with its swamp or morass, extended, it is not possible to tell, though +probably there was always a sheet of water near the present Runcorn. +Depression of the shore, with plenty of old tree-stumps, certifying an +extinct forest, is plainly observable a few miles distant on the +Cheshire coast, just below New Brighton. + + [6] Unless, possibly, as contended by Mr. T. G. Rylands in the + _Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society's Proceedings_ + for 1878, vol. xvii. p. 81, following Horsley and Keith + Johnston, Pliny intended the Mersey by his "Belisama." But West, + Professor William Smith, and authors in general, consider that + the "Belisama" was the modern Ribble. + +In several parts of Lancashire, especially in the extreme south-east, +the surface is occupied by wet and dreary wastes, composed of peat, +and locally called "mosses." That they have been formed since the +commencement of the Christian era there can be little doubt, abundance +of remains of the branches of trees being found near the clay floor +upon which the peat has gradually arisen. The most noted of these +desolate flats is that one called Chat, or St. Chad's Moss, the scene +of the special difficulty in the construction of the original +Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Nothing can exceed the dismalness of +the mosses during nine or ten months of the year. Absolutely level, +stretching for several miles, treeless, and with a covering only of +brown and wiry scrub, Nature seems expiring in them. June kindly +brings a change. Everything has its festival some time. For a +short period they are strewed with the summer snow of the +cotton-sedge,--the "cana" of Ossian, "Her bosom was whiter than the +down of cana"; and again, in September, they are amethyst-tinted for +two or three weeks with the bloom of the heather. During the last +quarter of a century the extent of these mosses has been much reduced, +by draining and cultivation at the margins, and in course of time they +will probably disappear. + +Forests were once a feature of a good part of Lancashire. Long +subsequently to the time of the Conquest, much of the county was still +covered with trees. The celebrated "_Carta de Foresta_," or "Forest +Charter," under which the clearing of the ground of England for +farming purposes first became general and continuous, was granted only +in the reign of Henry III., A.D. 1224, or contemporaneously with the +uprise of Salisbury Cathedral, a date thus rendered easy of +remembrance. + +Here and there the trees were allowed to remain; and among these +reserved portions of the original Lancashire "wild wood" it is +interesting to find West Derby, the "western home of wild animals," +thus named because so valuable as a hunting-ground.[7] No forest, in +the current sense of the word, has survived in Lancashire to the +present day. Even single trees of patriarchal age are almost unknown. +Agriculture, when commenced, proceeded vigorously, chiefly, however, +in regard to meadow and pasture; cornfields have never been either +numerous or extensive, except in the district beyond Preston called +the Fylde--an immense breadth of alluvial drift, grateful in almost +all parts for good farming. + + [7] Retained to this day as the name of one of the principal + Lancashire "Hundreds," it is West Derby which gives title to the + Earls of the house of Stanley, and not, as often supposed, the + city in the midland counties. + + + + +II + +LIVERPOOL + + +The situation of this great city is in some respects one of the most +enviable in the country. Stretching along the upper bank of an +unrivalled estuary, 1200 yards across where narrowest, and the river +current of which flows westwards, it is near enough to the sea to be +called a maritime town, yet sufficiently far inland never to suffer +any of the discomforts of the open coast. Upon the opposite side of +the water the ground rises gently. Birkenhead, the energetic new +Liverpool of the last fifty years, covers the nearer slopes; in the +distance there are towers and spires, with glimpses of trees, and even +of windmills that tell of wheat not far away. + +Liverpool itself is pleasantly undulated. Walking through the busy +streets there is constant sense of rise and fall. An ascent that can +be called toilsome is never met with; nor, except concurrently with +the docks, and in some of the remoter parts of the town, is there any +long continuity of flatness. + +[Illustration: SHIPPING ON THE MERSEY] + +Compared with the other two principal English seaports, London and +Bristol, the superiority of position is incontestable. A town situated +upon the edge of an estuary must needs have quite exceptional +advantages. London is indebted for its wealth and grandeur more to its +having been the metropolis for a thousand years than to the service +directly rendered by the Thames; and as for Bristol, the wonder is +that with a stream like the Avon it should still count with the trio, +and retain its ancient title of Queen of the West. Away from the +water-side, Liverpool loses. There are no green downs and "shadowy +woods" reached in half-an-hour from the inmost of the city, such as +give character to Clifton; nor, upon the whole, can the scenery of the +neighbourhood be said to present any but the very mildest and simplest +features. Only in the district which includes Mossley, Allerton, +Toxteth, and Otterspool, is there any approach to the picturesque. +Hereabouts we find meadows and rural lanes; and a few miles up the +stream, the Cheshire hills begin to show plainly. Yet not far from the +Prince's Park there is a little ravine that aforetime, when farther +away from the borough boundaries, and when the name was given, would +seem to have been another Kelvin Grove,-- + + "Where the rose, in all its pride, + Paints the hollow dingle side, + And the midnight fairies glide, + Bonnie lassie, O!" + +Fairyland, tram-cars, and the hard facts of a great city, present few +points of contact--Liverpool contrives to unite them in "Exchange to +Dingle, 3d. inside." Among the dainty little poems left us by Roscoe, +who was quick to recognise natural beauty, there is one upon the +disappearance of the brooklet which, descending from springs now dried +up, once babbled down this pretty dell with its tribute to the river. + +To the stranger approaching Liverpool by railway, these inviting bits +of the adjacent country are, unfortunately, not visible. But let him +not murmur. When, after passing through the town, he steps upon the +Landing-stage and looks out upon the heaving water, with its countless +craft, endless in variety, and representing every nation that +possesses ships, he is compensated. The whole world does not present +anything in its way more abounding with life. A third of a mile in +length, broad enough for the parade of troops, imperceptibly +adjusting itself to every condition of the tide, the Liverpool +Landing-stage, regarded simply as a work of constructive art, is a +wonderful sight. It is the scene of the daily movement of many +thousands of human beings, some departing, others just arrived; and, +above all there is the many-hued outlook right and left. + +[Illustration: AMERICAN WHEAT AT LIVERPOOL] + +Thoroughly to appreciate the nobleness, the capacities, and the use +made of this magnificent river, a couple of little voyages should be +undertaken: one towards the entrance, where the tall white shaft of +the lighthouse comes in view; the other, ascending the stream as far +as Rock Ferry. By this means the extent of the docks and the magnitude +of the neighbouring warehouses may in some degree be estimated. Up the +river and down, from the middle portion of the Landing-stage, without +reckoning Birkenhead, the line of sea-wall measures more than six +miles. The water area of the docks approaches 270 acres; the length of +surrounding quay-margin is nearly twenty miles. The double voyage +gives opportunity also for observation of the many majestic vessels +which are either moving or at anchor in mid-channel. Merchantmen +predominate, but in addition there are almost invariably two or three +of the superb steamers which have their proper home upon the +Atlantic, and in a few hours will be away. The great Companies whose +names are so familiar--the Cunard, the Allan, the White Star, the +Inman, and five or six others--despatch between them no fewer than ten +of these splendid vessels every week, and fortnightly two extra, the +same number arriving at similar intervals. Columbus's largest ship was +about ninety tons; the steamers spoken of are mostly from 2000 to 5000 +tons; a few are of 8000 or 9000 tons. Besides these, there are the +South Americans, the steamers to the East and West Indies, China, +Japan, and the West Coast of Africa, the weight varying from 1500 to +4000 tons, more than fifty of these mighty vessels going out every +month, and as many coming in. The total number of ships and steamers +actually _in_ the docks, Birkenhead included, on the 6th of December +1880 was 438. + +A fairly fine day, a sunshiny one if possible, should be selected for +these little voyages, not merely because of its pleasantness, but in +order to observe the astonishing distance to which the river-life +extends. Like every other town in our island, Liverpool knows full +well what is meant by fog and rain. "Some days must be dark and +dreary." At times it is scarcely possible for the ferry-boats to find +their way across, and not a sound is to be heard except to convey +warning or alarm. But the gloomy hours, fortunately, do not come +often. The local meteorologists acknowledge an excellent average of +cheerful weather,--the prevailing kind along the whole extent of the +lower Lancashire coast, the hills being too distant to arrest the +passage of the clouds,--and the man who misses his boat two or three +times running must indeed be unlucky. Happily, these uncertainties +and vexations of the bygones, actual and possible, have now been +neutralised, say since 20th January 1886, by the construction of the +Cheshire Lines tunnel under the river. + +[Illustration: RAN AWAY TO SEA] + +Nothing, on a fine day, can be more exhilarating than three or four +hours upon the Mersey. Liverpool, go where we may, is, in the better +parts, a place emphatically of exhilarations. The activity of the +river-life is prefigured in the jauntiness of the movement in the +streets; the display in the shop-windows, at all events where one has +to make way for the current of well-dressed ladies which at noon adds +in no slight measure to the various gaiety of the scene, is a constant +stimulus to the fancy--felt so much the more if one's railway ticket +for the day has been purchased in homely Stockport, or dull Bury, or +unadorned Middleton, or even in thronged Manchester. Still it is upon +the water that the impression is most animating. High up the river, +generally near the Rock Ferry pier, a guardship is stationed--usually +an ironclad. Beyond this we come upon four old men-of-war used as +training-ships. The _Conway_, a naval school for young officers, +accommodates 150, including many of good birth, who pay £50 a-year +apiece. The _Indefatigable_ gives gratuitous teaching to the sons of +sailors, orphans, and other homeless boys. The _Akbar_ and the +_Clarence_ are Reformatory schools, the first for misbehaving +Protestant lads, the other for Catholics. The good work done by these +Reformatories is immense. During the three years 1876 to 1878, the +number passed out of the two vessels was 1890, and of these no fewer +than 1420 had been converted into capital young seamen.[8] + + [8] _Vide_ Mr. Inglis's Twenty-third Report to Government on the + Certified and Industrial Schools of Great Britain, December + 1880. + +Who will write us a book upon the immeasurable _minor_ privileges of +life, the things we are apt to pass by and take no note of, because +"common"? Sailing upon this glorious river, how beautiful overhead the +gleam, against the azure, of the sea-gulls! Liverpool is just near +enough to the saltwater for them to come as daily visitants, just far +enough for them to be never so many as to spoil the sweet charm of the +unexpected: for the moment they make one forget even the ships. Man's +most precious and enduring possessions are the loveliness and the +significance of nature. Were all things valued as they deserve, +perhaps these cheery sea-birds would have their due. + +The Liverpool docks are more remarkable than those even of London. +Some of the famed receptacles fed from the Thames are more capacious, +and the number of vessels they contain when full is proportionately +greater than is possible in the largest of the Liverpool. But in +London there are not so many, nor is there so great a variety of cargo +seen upon the quays, nor is the quantity of certain imports so vast. +In the single month of October 1880 Liverpool imported from North +America of apples alone no fewer than 167,400 barrels. Most of the +docks are devoted to particular classes of ships or steamers, or to +special branches of trade. The King's Dock is the chief scene of the +reception of tobacco, the quantity of which brought into Liverpool is +second only to the London import; while the Brunswick is chiefly +devoted to the ships bringing timber. The magnificent Langton and +Alexandra Docks, opened in September 1881, are reserved for the ocean +steamers, which previously had to lie at anchor in the channel, +considerably to the disadvantage of all concerned, but which now enjoy +all the privileges of the smallest craft. At intervals along the quays +there are huge cranes for lifting; and very interesting is it to note +the care taken that their strength, though herculean, shall not be +overtaxed, every crane being marked according to its power, "Not to +lift more than two tons," or whatever other weight it is adapted to. +Like old Bristol, Liverpool holds her docks in her arms. In London, as +an entertaining German traveller told his countrymen some fifty years +ago, a merchant, when he wants to despatch an order to his ship in the +docks, "must often send his clerk down by the railroad; in Liverpool +he may almost make himself heard in the docks out of his +counting-house."[9] This comes mainly of the town and the docks having +grown up together. + + [9] J. G. Kohl. _England, Scotland, and Ireland_, vol. iii. p. + 43. 1844. + +The "dockmen" are well worth notice. None of the loading and unloading +of the ships is done by the sailors. As soon as the vessel is safely +"berthed," the consignees contract with an intermediate operator +called a stevedore,[10] who engages as many men as he requires, paying +them 4s. 6d. per day, and for half-days and quarter-days in +proportion. Nowhere do we see a better illustration than is supplied +in Liverpool of the primitive Judean market-places, "Why stand ye here +all the day idle?" "Because no man hath hired us." Work enough for all +there never is: a circumstance not surprising when we consider that +the total number of day-labourers in Liverpool is estimated at +30,000. The non-employed, who are believed to be always about +one-half, or 15,000, congregate near the water; a favourite place of +assembly appears to be the pavement adjoining the Baths. The dockmen +correspond to the male adults among the operatives in the cotton-mill +districts, with the great distinction that they are employed and paid +by time, and that they are not helped by the girls and women of their +families, who in the factories are quite as useful and important as +the rougher sex. They correspond also to the "pitmen" of collieries, +and to journeymen labourers in general. Most of them are Irish--as +many, it is said, as nine-tenths of the 30,000--and as usual with that +race of people, they have their homes near together. These are chiefly +in the district including Scotland Road, where a very different scene +awaits the tourist. Faction-fights are the established recreation; the +men engage in the streets, the women hurl missiles from the roofs of +the houses. Liverpool has a profoundly mournful as well as a brilliant +side: Canon Kingsley once said that the handsomest set of men he had +ever beheld at one view was the group assembled within the quadrangle +of the Liverpool Exchange: the Income-tax assessment of Liverpool +amounts to nearly sixteen millions sterling: the people claim to be +"Evangelical" beyond compare; and that they have intellectual power +none will dispute:--behind the scenes the fact remains that nowhere in +our island is there deeper destitution and profounder spiritual +darkness.[11] When the famished and ignorant have to be dealt with, it +is better to begin with supply of good food than with aëriform +benedictions. Lady Hope (_née_ Miss Elizabeth R. Cotton) has shown +that among the genuine levers of civilisation there are none more +substantial than good warm coffee and cocoa. Liverpool, fully +understanding this, is giving to the philanthropic all over England a +lesson which, if discreetly taken up, cannot fail to tell immensely on +the morals, as well as the physical needs, of the poor and destitute. +All along the line of the docks there are "cocoa-shops," some of them +upon wheels, metallic tickets, called "cocoa-pennies," giving access. + + [10] For the derivation of this curious word, see _Notes and + Queries_, Sixth Series, vol. ii. pp. 365 and 492. 1880. + + [11] Vide _The Dark Side of Liverpool_, by the Rev. R. H. + Lundie, _Weekly Review_, 20th November 1880, p. 1113. + +Liverpool is a town of comparatively modern date, being far younger +than Warrington, Preston, Lancaster, and many another which +commercially it has superseded. The name does not occur in Domesday +Book, compiled A.D. 1086, nor till the time of King John does even +the river seem to have been much used. English commerce during the era +of the Crusades did not extend beyond continental Europe, the +communications with which were confined to London, Bristol, and a few +inconsiderable places on the southern coasts. Passengers to Ireland +went chiefly by way of the Dee, and upon the Mersey there were only a +few fishing-boats. At the commencement of the thirteenth century came +a change. The advantages of the Mersey as a harbour were perceived, +and the fishing village upon the northern shore asked for a charter, +which in 1207 was granted. Liverpool, as a borough, is thus now in its +685th year. That this great and opulent city should virtually have +begun life just at the period indicated is a circumstance of no mean +interest, since the reign of John, up till the time of the barons' +gathering at Runnymede, was utterly bare of historical incident, and +the condition of the country in general was poor and depressed. +Coeur de Lion, the popular idol, though scarcely ever seen at home, +was dead. John, the basest monarch who ever sat upon the throne of +England, had himself extinguished every spark of loyal sentiment by +his cruel murder of Prince Arthur. Art was nearly passive, and +literature, except in the person of Layamon, had no existence. Such +was the age, overcast and silent, in which the foundations of +Liverpool were laid: contemplating the times, and all that has come of +the event, one cannot but think of acorn-planting in winter, and +recall the image in _Faust_,-- + + "Ein Theil der Finsterniss die sich das Licht gebar." + (Part of the darkness which brought forth Light!) + +[Illustration: ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH, LIVERPOOL] + +The growth of the new borough was for a long period very slow. In +1272, the year of the accession of Edward I., Liverpool consisted of +only 168 houses, occupied (computing on the usual basis) by about 840 +people; and even a century later, when Edward III. appealed to the +nation to support him in his attack upon France, though Bristol +supplied twenty-four vessels and 800 men, Liverpool could furnish no +more than one solitary barque with a crew of six. It was shortly after +this date that the original church of "Our Lady and St. Nicholas" was +erected. Were the building, as it existed for upwards of 400 years, +still intact, or nearly so, Liverpool would possess no memorial of the +past more attractive. But in the first place, in 1774, the body was +taken down and rebuilt. Then, in 1815, the same was done with the +tower, the architect wisely superseding the primitive spire with the +beautiful lantern by which St. Nicholas's is now recognised even from +the opposite side of the water. Of the original ecclesiastical +establishment all that remains is the graveyard, once embellished with +trees, and in particular with a "great Thorne," in summer white and +fragrant, which the tasteless and ruthless old rector of the time was +formally and most justly impeached for destroying "without leave or +license." Wilful and needless slaying of ornamental trees, such as no +money can buy or replace, and which have taken perhaps a century or +more to grow, is always an act of ingratitude, if not of the nature of +a crime, and never less excusable than when committed on consecrated +ground. The dedication to St. Nicholas shows that the old Liverpool +townsfolk were superstitious, if not pious. It is St. Nicholas who on +the strength of the legend is found in Dibdin as "the sweet little +cherub"-- + + "that sits up aloft, + And takes care of the life of poor Jack." + +Up to 1699 the building in question was only the "chappell of +Leverpoole," the parish in which the town lay being Walton. + +In 1533, or shortly afterwards, temp. Henry VIII., John Leland visited +Liverpool, which he describes as being "a pavid Towne," with a +castle, and a "Stone Howse," the residence of the "Erle of Derbe." He +adds, that there was a small custom-house, at which the dues were paid +upon linen-yarn brought from Dublin and Belfast for transmission to +Manchester[12]. A fortunate circumstance it has always been for +Ireland that she possesses so near and ready a customer for her +various produce as wealthy Liverpool. Fifty years later, Camden +describes the town as "neat and populous"--the former epithet needing +translation; and by the time of Cromwell the amount of shipping had +nearly doubled: the Mersey, it hardly needs saying, is the natural +westward channel for the commerce of the whole of the active district +which has Manchester for its centre, and the value of this was now +fast becoming apparent. By the end of the sixteenth century south-east +Lancashire was becoming distinguished for its productive power. A +large and constantly increasing supply of manufactures adapted for +export implied imports. The interests of Manchester and Liverpool soon +declared themselves alike. Of no two places in the world can it be +said with more truth, that they have "lived and loved together, +through many changing years"; though it may be a question whether +they have always "wept each other's tears." In addition to the impulse +given to shippers by extended manufacturing, the captains who sailed +upon the Irish Sea found in the Mersey their securest haven, the more +so since the Dee was now silting up--a misfortune for once so favoured +Chester which at last threw it commercially quite into the shade. The +Lune was also destined to lose in favour: an event not without a +certain kind of pathos, since cotton was imported into Lancaster long +before it was brought to Liverpool. Conditions of all kinds being so +happy, prosperity was assured. Liverpool had now only to be thankful, +industrious, honest, and prudent. + + [12] _Itinerary_, vol. vii. p. 40. Oxford, 1711. + +Singular to say, in the year 1635 Liverpool was not thought worthy of +a place in the map of England. In Selden's _Mare Clausum, seu de +Dominio Maris_ there is a map in which Preston, Wigan, Manchester, and +Chester, are all set down, but, although the Mersey lies in readiness, +there is no Liverpool! + +The period of the Restoration was particularly eventful. The Great +Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666 led to a large migration of +Londoners into Lancashire, and especially to Liverpool, trade with the +North American "Plantations," and with the sugar-producing islands of +the Caribbean Sea, being now rapidly progressive. Contemporaneously +there was a flocking thither of younger sons of country squires, who, +anticipating the Duke of Argyll of to-day, saw that commerce is the +best of tutors. From these descended some of the most eminent of the +old Liverpool families. The increasing demand for sugar in England +led, unfortunately, to sad self-contamination. Following the example +of Bristol, Liverpool gave itself to the slave-trade, and for +ninety-seven years, 1709 to 1806, the whole tone and tendency of the +local sentiment were debased by it. The Roscoes, the Rathbones, and +others among the high-minded, did their best to arouse their brother +merchants to the iniquity of the traffic, and to counteract the moral +damage to the community; but mischief of such a character sinks deep, +and the lapse of generations is required to efface it entirely. Mr. W. +W. Briggs considers that the shadow is still perceptible.[13] Politely +called the "West India trade," no doubt legitimate commerce was bound +up with the shocking misdeed, but the kernel was the same. It began +with barter of the manufactures of Manchester, Sheffield, and +Birmingham, for the negroes demanded, first, by the sugar-planters, +and afterwards, in Virginia, for the tobacco-farms. Infamous fraud +could not but follow; and a certain callousness, attributable in part +to ignorance of the methods employed, was engendered even in those who +had no interest in the results. When George III. was but newly +crowned, slaves of both sexes were at times openly sold by +advertisement in Liverpool! Money was made fast by the trade in human +beings, and many men accumulated great fortunes, memorials of which it +would not be hard to find. All this, we may be thankful, is now done +with for ever. To recall the story is painful but unavoidable, since +no sketch of the history of Liverpool can be complete without +reference to it. There is no need, however, to dwell further upon it. +Escape always from the thought of crime as soon as possible. Every +one, at all events, must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the outcry +by the interested that the total ruin of Liverpool, with downfall of +Church and State, would ensue upon abolition, the town has done better +without the slave-trade. + + [13] Vide _Liverpool Mercury_, 11th December 1880. + +The period of most astonishing expansion has been that which, as in +Manchester, may be termed the strictly modern one. The best of the +public buildings have been erected within the memory of living men. +Most of the docks have been constructed since 1812. The first +steamboat upon the Mersey turned its paddles in 1815. The first steam +voyage to New York commemorates 1838. In Liverpool, it should not be +forgotten, originated directly afterwards the great scheme which gave +rise to the "Peninsular and Oriental," upon which followed in turn the +Suez Railway, and then the Suez Canal. The current era has also +witnessed an immense influx into Liverpool of well-informed American, +Canadian, and continental merchants, Germans particularly. These have +brought (and every year sees new arrivals) the habits of thought, the +special views, and the fruits of the widely diverse social and +political training peculiar to the respective nationalities. + +[Illustration: THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, LIVERPOOL] + +A very considerable number of the native English Liverpool merchants +have resided, sometimes for a lengthened period, in foreign countries. +Maintaining correspondence with those countries, having connections +one with another all over the world, they are kept alive to everything +that has relation to commerce. They can tell us about the harvests in +all parts of the world, the value of gold and silver, and the +operation of legal enactments. Residence abroad supplies new and more +liberal ideas, and enables men to judge more accurately. The result +is that, although Liverpool, like other places, contains its full +quota of the incurably ignorant and prejudiced, the spirit and the +method of the mercantile community are in the aggregate thoughtful, +inviting, and enjoyable. The occupations of the better class of +merchants, and their constant consociation with one another, require +and develop not only business powers, but the courtesies which +distinguish gentlemen. A stamp is given quite different from that +which comes of life spent habitually among "hands";[14] the impression +upon the mind of the visitor is that, whatever may be the case +elsewhere, in Liverpool ability and good manners are in partnership. +And this not only in commercial transactions: the characteristics +observable in office hours reappear in the privacy of home. + + [14] In Liverpool, strictly speaking, there are _no_ "hands," no + troops of workpeople, that is to say, young and old, male and + female, equivalent as regards relation to employer to the + operatives of Oldham and Stalybridge. + +The description of business transacted in Liverpool is almost peculiar +to the place. After the shipbuilders and the manufacturers of shipping +adjuncts, chain-cables, etc., there are few men in the superior +mercantile class who produce anything. Liverpool is a city of agents. +Its function is not to make, but to transfer. Nearly every bale or box +of merchandise that enters the town is purely _en route_. Hence it +comes that Liverpool gathers up coin even when times are "bad." +Whether the owner of the merchandise eventually loses or gains, +Liverpool has to be paid the expenses of the passing through. Much of +the raw material that comes from abroad changes hands several times +before the final despatch, though not by any means through the +ordinary old-fashioned processes of mere buying and selling. In the +daily reports of the cotton-market a certain quantity is always +distinguished as bought "upon speculation." The adventurous do not +wait for the actual arrival of the particular article they devote +their attention to. Like the Covent Garden wholesale fruitmen, who +risk purchase of the produce of the Kentish cherry-orchards while the +trees are only in bloom, the Liverpool cotton brokers deal in what +they call "futures." + +Another curious feature is the problematical character of every man's +day. The owner of a cotton-mill or an iron-foundry proceeds, like a +train upon the rails, according to a definite and preconcerted plan. A +Liverpool foreign merchant, when leaving home in the morning, is +seldom able to forecast what will happen before night. Telegrams from +distant countries are prone to bring news that changes the whole +complexion of affairs. The limitless foreign connections tend also to +render his sympathies cosmopolitan rather than such as pertain to +old-fashioned citizens pure and simple. Once a day at least his +thoughts and desires are in some far-away part of the globe. Broadly +speaking, the merchants, like their ships in the river, are only at +anchor in Liverpool. The owner of a "works" must remain with his +bricks and mortar; the Liverpool merchant, if he pleases, can weigh +and depart. Though the day is marked by conjecture, it is natural to +hope for good. Hence much of the sprightliness of the Liverpool +character--the perennial uncertainty underlying the equally +well-marked disposition to "eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we +die," or, at all events, may die. This in turn seems to account for +the high percentage of shops of the glittering class and that deal in +luxuries. Making their money in the way they do, the Liverpool people +care less to hoard it than to indulge in the spending. How open-handed +they can be when called upon is declared by the sums raised for the +Bishopric and the University College. In proportion, they have more +money than other people, the inhabitants of London alone excepted. The +income-tax assessment has already been mentioned as nearly sixteen +millions. The actual sum for the year ending 5th April 1876 was +£15,943,000, against Manchester, £13,907,000, Birmingham, £6,473,884, +London, £50,808,000. The superiority in comparison with Manchester may +come partly, perhaps, of certain firms in the last-named place +returning from the country towns or villages where their "works" are +situated. Liverpool is self-contained, Manchester is diffused. + +[Illustration: ST. GEORGE'S HALL, LIVERPOOL] + +Liverpool may well be proud of her public buildings. Opinions differ +in regard to the large block which includes the Custom-house, commonly +called "Revenue Buildings"; but none dispute the claim of the +sumptuous edifice known as St. George's Hall to represent the +architecture of ancient Greece in the most successful degree yet +attained in England. The eastern façade is more than 400 feet in +length; at the southern extremity there is an octostyle Corinthian +portico, the tympanum filled with ornament. Strange, considering the +local wealth and the local claim of a character for thoroughness and +taste, that this magnificent structure should be allowed to remain +unfinished, still wanting, as it does, the sculptures which formed an +integral part of Mr. Elmes' carefully considered whole. Closely +adjacent are the Free Library and the new Art Gallery, and, in Dale +Street, the Public Offices, the Townhall, and the Exchange, which is +arcaded. Among other meritorious buildings, either classical or in the +Italian palazzo style, we find the Philharmonic Hall and the Adelphi +Hotel. The Free Library is one of the best-frequented places in +Liverpool. The number of readers exceeded in 1880, in proportion to +the population, that of every other large town in England where a Free +Library exists. In Leeds, during the year ending at Michaelmas, the +number was 648,589; in Birmingham, 658,000; in Manchester, 958,000; in +Liverpool, 1,163,795. In the Reference Department the excess was +similar, the issues therefrom having been in Liverpool one-half; in +Leeds and Birmingham, two-fifths; in Manchester, one-fifth. The +Liverpool people seem apt to take advantage of their opportunities of +every kind. When the Naturalists' Field Club starts for the country, +the number is three or four times greater in proportion to the whole +number of members than in other places where, with similar objects, +clubs have been founded. Many, of course, join in the trips for the +sake of the social enjoyment; whether as much work is accomplished +when out is undecided. They are warm supporters also of literary and +scientific institutions, the number of which, as well as of +societies devoted to music and the fine arts, is in Liverpool +exceptionally high. At the last "Associated Soirée," the Presidents of +no fewer than fifteen were present. Educational, charitable, and +curative institutions exist in equal plenty. It was Liverpool that in +1791 led the way in the foundation of Asylums for the Blind. The +finest ecclesiastical establishment belongs to the Catholics, who in +Liverpool, as in Lancashire generally, have stood firm to the faith of +their fathers ever since 1558, and were never so powerful a body as at +present. The new Art Gallery seems to introduce an agreeable prophecy. +Liverpool has for more than 140 years striven unsuccessfully to give +effect to the honourable project of 1769, when it sought to tread in +the steps of the Royal Academy, founded a few months previously. There +are now fair indications of rejuvenescence, and, if we mistake not, +there is a quickening appreciation of the intrinsically pure and +worthy, coupled with indifference to the qualities which catch and +content the vulgar--mere bigness and showiness. Slender as the +appreciation may be, still how much more precious than the bestowal of +patronage, in ostentation of pocket, beginning there and ending there, +which all true and noble art disdains. + +[Illustration: THE EXCHANGE, LIVERPOOL] + +Liverpool must not be quitted without a parting word upon a feature +certainly by no means peculiar to the town, but which to the observant +is profoundly interesting and suggestive. This consists in the through +movement of the emigrants, and the arrangements made for their +departure. Our views and vignettes give some idea of what may be seen +upon the river and on board the ships. But it is impossible to render +in full the interesting spectacle presented by the strangers who come +in the first instance from northern Europe. These arrive, by way of +Hull, chiefly from Sweden and Denmark, and, to a small extent, from +Russia and Germany--German emigrants to America usually going from +their own ports, and by way of the English Channel. Truly astonishing +are the piles of luggage on view at the railway stations during the +few hours or days which elapse before they go on board. While waiting, +they saunter about the streets in parties of six or eight, full of +wonder and curiosity, but still impressing every one with their honest +countenances and inoffensive manners and behaviour. There are very few +children among these foreigners, most of whom appear to be in the +prime of life, an aged parent now and then accompanying son or +daughter. In 1880 there left Liverpool as emigrants the prodigious +number of 183,502. Analysis gave--English, 74,969; Scotch, 1811; +Irish, 27,986; foreigners, 74,115. + + + + +III + +THE COTTON DISTRICT AND THE MANUFACTURE OF COTTON + + +First in the long list of Lancashire manufacturing towns, by reason of +its magnitude and wealth, comes Manchester. By and by we shall speak +of this great city in particular. For the present the name must be +taken in the broader sense, equally its own, which carries with it the +idea of an immense district. Lancashire, eastwards from Warrington, +upwards as far as Preston, is dotted over with little Manchesters, and +these in turn often possess satellites. The idea of Manchester as a +place of cotton factories covers also a portion of Cheshire, and +extends even into Derbyshire and Yorkshire--Stockport, Hyde, +Stalybridge, Dukinfield, Saddleworth, Glossop, essentially belong to +it. To all these towns and villages Manchester stands in the relation +of a Royal Exchange. It is the reservoir, at the same time, into +which they pour their various produce. Manchester acquired this +distinguished position partly by accident, mainly through its very +easy access to Liverpool. At one time it had powerful rivals in +Blackburn and Bolton. Blackburn lost its chance through the frantic +hostility of the lower orders towards machinery, inconsiderate men of +property giving them countenance--excusably only under the law that +mental delusions, like bodily ailments, are impartial in choice of +victims. Bolton, on the other hand, though sensible, was too near to +compete permanently, neither had it similar access to Liverpool. The +old salerooms in Bolton, with their galleries and piazzas, now all +gone, were ninety years ago a striking and singular feature of that +busy hive of spinning and weaving bees. + +Most of these little Manchesters are places of comparatively new +growth. A century ago nearly all were insignificant villages or +hamlets. Even the names of the greater portion were scarcely known +beyond the boundaries of their respective parishes. How unimportant +they were in earlier times is declared by the vast area of many of the +latter, the parishes in Lancashire, as everywhere else, having been +marked out according to the ability of the population to maintain a +church and pastor. It is not in manufacturing Lancashire as in the +old-fashioned rural counties,--Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and appled +Somerset,--where on every side one is allured by some beautiful +memorial of the lang syne. "Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the +plain" is not here. Everything, where Cotton reigns, presents the +newness of aspect of an Australian colony. The archæological +scraps--such few as there may be--are usually submerged, even in the +older towns, in the "full sea" of recent building. Even in the +graveyards, the places of all others which in their tombstones and +inscriptions unite past and present so tenderly, the imagination has +usually to turn away unfed. In place of yew-trees old as York Minster, +if there be anything in the way of green monument, it is a soiled and +disconsolate shrub from the nearest nursery garden. + +The situation of these towns is often pleasing enough: sometimes it is +picturesque, and even romantic. Having begun in simple homesteads, +pitched where comfort and safety seemed best assured, they are often +found upon gentle eminences, the crests of which, as at Oldham, they +now overlap; others, like Stalybridge, lie in deep hollows, or, like +Blackburn, have gradually spread from the margin of a stream. Not a +few of these primitive sites have the ancient character pleasingly +commemorated in their names, as Haslingden, the "place of hazel-nuts." +The eastern border of the county being characterised by lofty and +rocky hills, the localities of the towns and villages are there often +really favoured in regard to scenery. This also gives great interest +to the approaches, as when, after leaving Todmorden, we move through +the sinuous gorge that, bordered by Cliviger, "mother of rocks," leads +on to Burnley. The higher grounds are bleak and sterile, but the +warmth and fertility of the valleys make amends. In any case, there is +never any lack of the beauty which comes of the impregnation of wild +nature with the outcome of human intelligence. Manchester itself +occupies part of a broad level, usually clay-floored, and with +peat-mosses touching the frontiers. In the bygones nothing was sooner +found than standing water: the world probably never contained a town +that only thirty to a hundred years ago possessed so many ponds, many +of them still in easy recollection, to say nothing of as many more +within the compass of an afternoon's walk. + +Rising under the influence of a builder so unambitious as the genius +of factories and operatives' cottages, no wonder that a very few +years ago the Lancashire cotton towns seemed to vie with one another +which should best deserve the character of cold, hard, dreary, and +utterly unprepossessing. The streets, excepting the principal artery +(originally the road through the primitive village, as in the case of +Newton Lane, Manchester), not being susceptible of material change, +mostly remain as they were--narrow, irregular, and close-built. +Happily, of late there has been improvement. Praiseworthy aspirations +in regard to public buildings are not uncommon, and even in the +meanest towns are at times undeniably successful. In the principal +centres--Manchester, Bolton, Rochdale, and another or two--the old +meagreness and unsightliness are daily becoming less marked, and a +good deal that is really magnificent is in progress as well as +completed. Unfortunately, the efforts of the architect fall only too +soon under the relentless influence of the factory and the foundry. +Manchester is in this respect an illustration of the whole group; the +noblest and most elegant buildings sooner or later get smoke-begrimed. +Sombre as the Lancashire towns become under that influence, if there +be collieries in the neighbourhood, as in the case of well-named +"coaly Wigan," the dismal hue is intensified, and in dull and rainy +weather grows still worse. On sunshiny days one is reminded of a +sullen countenance constrained to smile against the will. + +[Illustration: WIGAN] + +A "Lancashire scene" has been said to resolve into "bare hills and +chimneys"; and as regards the cotton districts the description is, +upon the whole, not inaccurate. Chimneys predominate innumerably in +the landscape, a dark pennon usually undulating from every +summit--perhaps not pretty pictorially, but in any case a gladsome +sight, since it means work, wages, food, for those below, and a fire +upon the hearth at home. Though the sculptor may look with dismay upon +his ornaments in marble once white as a lily, now under its visitation +gray as November, never mind--the smoke denotes human happiness and +content for thousands: when her chimneys are smokeless, operative +Lancashire is hungry and sad. + +In the towns most of the chimneys belong to the factories--buildings +of remarkable appearance. The very large ones are many storeys high, +their broad and lofty fronts presenting tier upon tier of monotonous +square windows. Decoration seems to be studiously avoided, though +there is often plenty of scope for inexpensive architectural effects +that, to say the least, would be welcome. Seen by day, they seem +deserted; after dark, when the innumerable windows are lighted up, +the spectacle changes and becomes unique. Were it desired to +illuminate in honour of a prince, to render a factory more brilliant +from the interior would be scarcely possible. Like all other great +masses of masonry, the very large ones, though somewhat suggestive of +prisons, if not grand, are impressive. In semi-rural localities, where +less tarnished by smoke, especially when tolerably new, and not +obscured by the contact of inferior buildings, they are certainly very +fine objects. The material, it is scarcely needful to say, is red +brick. + +All the towns belonging to the Manchester family-circle present more +or less decidedly the features mentioned. They differ from one another +not in style, or habits, or physiognomy; the difference is simply that +one makes calico, another muslins, and that they cover a less or +greater extent of ground. The social, moral, and intellectual +qualities of the various places form quite another subject of +consideration. For the present it must wait; except with the remark +that a Lancashire manufacturing town, however humble, is seldom +without a lyceum, or some similar institution; and if wealthy, is +prone to emulate cities. Witness the beautiful Art Exhibition held not +long ago at Darwen! + +[Illustration: WARRINGTON] + +The industrial history of the important Lancashire cotton towns, +although their modern development covers less than ninety years, dates +from the beginning of the fourteenth century. As early as A.D. 1311, +temp. Edward II., friezes were manufactured at Colne, but, as +elsewhere in the country, they would seem to have been coarse and of +little value. "The English at that time," says quaint old Fuller, +"knew no more what to do with their wool than the sheep that weare it, +as to any artificial curious drapery." The great bulk of the native +produce of wool was transmitted to Flanders and the Rhenish provinces, +where it was woven, England repurchasing the cloth. Edward III., +allowing himself to be guided by the far-reaching sagacity of his wise +queen, Philippa, resolved that the manufacture should be kept at home. +Parties of the Flemish weavers were easily induced to come over, the +more so because wretchedly treated in their own country. Manchester, +Bolton, Rochdale, and Warrington, were tenanted almost immediately, +and a new character was at once given to the textile productions both +of the district and the island in general. Furness Abbey was then in +its glory; its fertile pastures supplied the wants of these +industrious people: they seem, however, not to have cared to push +their establishments so far, keeping in the south and east of the +county, over which they gradually spread, carrying, wherever they +went, the "merry music of the loom." The same period witnessed the +original use of coal--again, it is believed, through the advice of +Philippa; the two great sources of Lancashire prosperity being thus in +their rise contemporaneous. The numerous little rivers and waterfalls +of East Lancashire contributed to the success of the new adventurers. +Fulling-mills and dye-works were erected upon the margins: the +particular spots are now only conjectural; mementoes of these ancient +works are nevertheless preserved in the springing up occasionally, to +the present day, on the lower Lancashire river-banks, of plants +botanically alien to the neighbourhood. These are specially the +fullers' teasel, _Dipsacus fullonum_, and the dyers' weed, _Reseda +luteola_, both of which were regularly used, the refuse, with seeds, +cast into the stream being carried many miles down and deposited where +the plants now renew themselves. The retention of their vitality by +seeds properly ripened, when buried too deep for the operation of the +atmosphere, sunshine, and moisture, all at once, is well known to +naturalists, as well as their germination when brought near enough to +the surface of the ground. This ancient woollen manufacture endured +for quite 300 years. Cotton then became a competitor, and gradually +superseded it; Rochdale and a few other places alone vindicating the +old traditions. + +The Flemings also introduced the national _sabots_, from which have +descended the wooden clogs heard in operative Lancashire wherever +pavement allows of the clatter, only that while the _sabots_ were +wholly wooden, with a lining of lambskin, the Lancashire clogs have +leathern tops. + +In the writings of the period before us, and in others long +afterwards, the Flemings' woollens are called "cottonnes," a +circumstance which has led to much misapprehension as to the date of +the original use in England of cotton _ipsissima_. In 1551-52, temp. +Edward VI., an "Acte" passed for the making of "woollen clothe" +prescribes the length and breadth of "all and everie cottonnes called +Manchester, Lancashire, and Cheshire cottonnes." Leland, in the +following reign, mentions in similar phrase, that "divers villagers in +the moores about Bolton do make cottons." Genuine cotton fabrics +manufactured abroad were known in England, no doubt, though the raw +material had not been seen. Chaucer habits his Knight in "fustian," a +word which points to Spain as the probable source. The truth as +regards the "cottonnes" would seem to be that certain woollens were +made so as to resemble cotton, and called by the same name, just as +to-day certain calicoes have the look of linen given to them, and are +sold as "imitation Irish," and as gloves made of the skins of +uncertain animals are passed off as "French kid"; unless, indeed, as +conjectured by some, the word "cottonnes" was a corruption of +"coatings." + +The employment of cotton for manufacturing in England is mentioned +first in 1641, when it was brought to London from Cyprus and Smyrna. +The word "cotton" itself, we need hardly say, is of oriental origin, +taking one back to India, the old-world birthplace of the plant. Used +there as the clothing material from time immemorial, it is singular +that the movement westward should have been so slow. The people who +introduced it, practically, to Europe, were the Moors, who in the +tenth century cultivated cotton in old Granada, simultaneously with +rice, the sugar-cane, and the orange-tree, all brought by themselves +from Asia. In those days Moslems and Christians declined to be +friendly, and thus, although the looms were never still, the +superabundance of the manufacture went exclusively to Africa and the +Levant. The cotton-plant being indigenous also to Mexico and the West +Indies, when commerce arose with the latter, Cyprus and Smyrna no +longer had the monopoly. Precise dates, however, are wanting till the +first years of the eighteenth century, when the United States and the +Mersey of to-day had their prototype in Barbadoes and the Lune, +already mentioned as having been a cotton port long anterior to +Liverpool. Lancaster city itself is not accessible by ships. The +cotton was usually landed on the curious _lingula_ which juts into the +Irish Sea where the estuary disappears, and hither the country people +used to come to wonder at it.[15] The first advertisement of a sale of +cotton in Liverpool appeared in November 1758, but thirty years after +that Lancaster was still the principal Lancashire seat of import. One +of the most distinguished of the "Lancashire worthies," old Mr. John +Blackburne, of Orford Mount, near Warrington, an enthusiastic +gardener, cultivated the cotton-plant so successfully that he was able +to provide his wife with a muslin dress, worn by her on some state +occasion in or about 1790, the material derived wholly from the +greenhouse he loved so fondly. Strange that, except occasionally in +an engine-room, we scarcely ever see the cotton-plant in the county it +has filled with riches--the very place where one would expect to find +it cherished. How well would it occupy a few inches of the space so +generally devoted to the pomps and vanities of mere colour-worship! +Apart from the associations, it is beautiful; the leaves resemble +those of the grape-vine; the flowers are like single yellow roses. +There never was a flood without its ark. One man a few years ago did +his part with becoming zeal--the late Mr. R. H. Alcock, of Bury. +Lancashire, it may be allowed here to remind the reader, is the only +manufacturing district in England which depends entirely upon foreign +countries for the supply of its raw material. One great distinction +between England and other countries is that the latter send away the +whole, or very much, of their natural produce, usually as gathered +together, England importing it and working it up. How terribly the +dependence in question was proved at the time of the Federal and +Confederate war, all who were cognisant of the great Cotton-famine +will remember. Next in order would come sugar and timber, a dearth of +either of which would unquestionably be disastrous; but not like want +of cotton in Lancashire--the stranding of a whole community. + + [15] _Vide_ the _Autobiography of Wm. Stout_, the old Quaker + grocer, ironmonger, and general merchant of Lancaster. He + mentions receiving cotton from Barbadoes in 1701, and onwards to + 1725, when the price advanced "from 10d. to near 2s. 1d. the + lb." + +The Lancashire cotton towns owe their existence essentially to the +magic touch of modern mechanical art. During all the long procession +of centuries that had elapsed since the time of the "white-armed" +daughter of Alcinous, her maidens, and their spinning-wheels, and of +the swarthy weavers of ancient Egypt, the primeval modes of +manufacture had been followed almost implicitly. The work of the +Flemings themselves was little in advance of that of the Hebrews under +Solomon. In comparison with that long period, the time covered by the +change induced by machinery was but a moment, and the growth of the +weaving communities, compared with that of previous times, like a +lightning-flash. The movement commenced about 1760. Up till long after +the time of Elizabeth, the staple manufacture of Lancashire, as we +have seen, was woollen. Flax, in the sixteenth century, began to be +imported largely, both from Ireland and the Continent, and when cotton +at last arrived the two materials were combined. Flax was used for the +"warp" or longitudinal threads, which in weaving require to be +stronger than the "woof," while cotton was employed only for the +latter--technically the "weft." + +Fabrics composed wholly of cotton do not appear to have been made in +Lancashire before the time of George II., Bolton leading the way with +cotton velvets about 1756. The cotton weft was spun by the people in +their own cottages, chiefly by the women, literally the "spinsters" of +the family, representative eighteen centuries afterwards, of the good +housewife of the _Æneid_ and of the still older one in the Book of +Proverbs, though as the years rolled on so greatly did the demand +increase that every child had work of one kind or another. Thus began +"infant labour," afterwards so much abused. The employment of children +over thirteen in the modern factory is quite a different thing. Placed +under legal restrictions, it is a blessing alike to themselves and to +their parents, since if not there, the children now earning their +bread would be idling, and probably in mischief. Those, it has been +well said, who have to live by labour should early be trained to +labour. Diligent as they were, the spinsters could not produce weft +fast enough for the weavers. Sitting at their looms, which were also +in the cottages, thoughtful men pondered the possibilities of quicker +methods. Presently the dream took shape, and from the successive +inventions of Whyatt, Kay, Highs, and Hargreaves, emerged the +famous "spinning-jenny,"[16] a machine which did as much work in the +same time as a dozen pair of hands. Abreast of it came the +warping-mill, the carding-engine, and the roving-frame: the latter +particularly opportune, since the difficulty had always been to +disentangle the fibres of the cotton prior to twisting, and to lay +them exactly parallel. Arkwright now came on the scene. He himself +never invented anything; but he had marvellous powers of combination, +such as enabled him to assimilate all that was good in the ideas of +other men, and to give them unity and new vitality. The result was +machinery that gave exquisite evenness and attenuation to the +"rovings," and a patent having been granted 15th July 1769, Arkwright +is properly regarded as the founder of the modern modes of +manufacture. Arkwright possessed, in addition, a thoroughly feminine +capacity for good management and perseverance, with that most +excellent adjunct, the art of obtaining ascendancy over capitalists. +Among the immediate results were the disuse of linen warp, the new +frames enabling cotton warp to be made strong enough; and the +concentration of all the early processes, spinning included, in +special buildings, with employment of horse or water-power. The +weaving, however, long remained with the cottagers, and survives to a +slight extent even to the present day. The Lancashire cotton +manufacture, strictly so called, is thus very little more than a +century old. No further back than in 1774, fabrics made wholly of +cotton were declared by statute to have been "lately introduced," and +a "lawful and laudable manufacture." + + [16] That the spinning-jenny was so named after a wife or + daughter of one of the inventors is fable. The original wheel + was the "jenny," a term corresponding with others well known in + Lancashire,--the "peggy" and the "dolly,"--and the new + contrivance became the "_spinning_-jenny." + +[Illustration: THE DINNER HOUR] + +The following year, 1775, saw the perfecting of Crompton's celebrated +"mule," which produced, at less expense, a much finer and softer yarn +than Arkwright's machine. It was specially suitable for muslins; and +from this date most assuredly should be reckoned the elevation of the +manufacture to its highest platform. Like the jenny, it was used at +first in private houses, but a nobler application was close at hand--a +new revolution--the superseding of hand, and horse, and water power, +all at one moment, by steam. Had the former remained the only +artificial sources of help--even supposing rivers and brooks not +subject to negation by drought, the cotton manufacture must needs have +been confined within narrow limits, and the greatest conceivable +supply of the raw material would not have altered the case. Steam, +which, like Lord Chatham, "tramples upon impossibilities," at once +gave absolute freedom; and manufacturing, in the space of thirty +years, eclipsed its history during 3000. The "mule" was now +transferred to the mill, and the factory system became complete. +Power-looms were first employed in Manchester in 1806. Stockport +followed, and by degrees they became general, improvements going on up +till as late as 1830, when the crowning triumph of cotton machinery +was patented as the "self-acting mule." The pride of Lancashire, it +must be remembered, consists, after all, not in the delicacy and the +beauty of its cottons, for in these respects India has not yet been +out-run; but in the rapidity, the cheapness, and the boundless +potentialities of the manufacture, which enable it to meet, if called +upon, the requirements of every nation in the world. While any human +creature remains imperfectly clad, Lancashire still has its work to +do. To be entrusted with this great business is a privilege, and in +the honourable execution consists its true and essential glory. +"Over-production," while any are naked, is a phrase without meaning. +That which wants correcting is deficient absorption. + +[Illustration: PAY-DAY IN A COTTON MILL] + +Reviewing the whole matter, the specially interesting point--rendered +so through inciting to profoundest reflection--is that those poor and +unlettered men--Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, and the others--were +the instruments, under Providence (for such things do not happen +fortuitously), by which the world became possessed of an entirely new +industrial power, fraught with infinite capacities for promoting human +welfare; and which, in its application, introduced quite new styles of +thinking and reasoning, and gave new bias to the policy of a great +nation. Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, had no prescience of what +would come of their efforts. In no part of the transformation was +there any precedent or example; it had neither lineage nor +inheritance; it was anticipated in momentousness only by the +inventions of Caxton and Gioia;[17] and if in our own day the electric +telegraph and the telephone reveal natural laws scarcely +distinguishable from those of miracle, it may still be questioned if +these latter discoveries surpass in intrinsic value the three or four +that gave life to the modern cotton manufacture. + + [17] Inventor of the mariners' compass. + +The interior of a great cotton factory, when at work, presents a +spectacle altogether unimaginable. The vast area of the rooms, or +"flats," filled in every part with machinery, admits of no comparison +with anything else in England, being found in the factory alone. A +thousand great iron frames, exquisitely composite, and kept +fastidiously clean, some by self-acting dusters, are in simultaneous +movement, the arms of some rising and falling, while parts of others +march in and out, and to and fro, giving perfect illustrations of +order, reciprocal adaptation, and interdependence, and seeming not +only alive, but conscious. Nothing is more striking, perhaps, than to +watch the shuttles as they dart alternately right and left, every +movement meaning an added thread to the beautiful offspring. The poets +are supposed by some to concern themselves only with fiction. Men and +women who write verses are poets only when they deal with truth, +though presented in the garb of fable; and assuredly, for a poet's +theme, there is nothing to excel a skilfully conducted human +manufacture. Erasmus Darwin, it will be remembered, describes the +whole series of processes in connection with cotton as observed by him +in Arkwright's original factory upon the Derwent. + +A common practice is to have the looms in a "shed" upon the surface of +the ground. To be as near the earth as possible is a desire no less +with the spinner, who, like the weaver, finds the lower atmospheric +conditions much more favourable to his work than the upper. In any +case, where the power-looms are, long lines of slender pillars support +the roof, presenting an unbroken and almost endless perspective; and +between the machinery and the ceiling, connected with the horizontal +shafts which revolve just below it, are innumerable strong brown +leather straps that quiver as they run their courses. According to the +department we may be in, either threads or coils of cotton whiter than +pearl, and of infinite number, give occupation to those thousand +obedient and tireless slaves--not of the ring or the lamp, but of the +mighty engine that invisibly is governing the whole; and in attendance +are men and women, boys and girls, again beyond the counting. Their +occupations are in no degree laborious: all the heavy work is done by +the steam-engine; muscular power is not wanted so much as delicacy and +readiness of hand and finger. Hence in the factory and the cotton-mill +there is opportunity for those who are too weak for other vocations. +Machinery in all cases has the merit of at once increasing the +workman's wages and lessening his fatigue. The precision in the +working of the machinery enforces upon those who attend to it a +corresponding regularity of action. There is no re-twisting or +re-weaving; everything, if done at all, must be done properly and at +the proper moment. Apart from its being a place wherein to earn +creditably the daily bread, if there be anything in the world which +conduces pre-eminently to the acquisition of habits such as lie at the +foundation of good morals,--order, care, cleanliness, punctuality, +industry, early rising,--assuredly it is the wholesome discipline of +the well-ordered cotton factory. Whatever may befall _outside_, there +is nothing deleterious _inside_; the personal intercourse of the +people employed is itself reduced to a minimum; if they corrupt one +another, it is as people _not_ in factories do. In the rooms and +"sheds" devoted to weaving, the rattle of the machinery forbids even +conversation, except when the voice is adjusted to it. In the quieter +parts the girls show their contentedness not infrequently by singing-- + + "The joyful token of a happy mind." + +[Illustration: IN A COTTON FACTORY] + +"How often," says the type of the true Lancashire poet, most genial of +his race,--the late Edwin Waugh,--"how often have I heard some fine +psalm-tune streaming in chorus from female voices when passing +cotton-mills at work, and mingling with the spoom of thousands of +spindles." That the girls in particular are not unhappy is shown by +their preference of the cotton-mill to domestic service. Their health +is as good as that of any other class of operatives; and though they +have to keep upon their feet, it is not for so long a time as young +women in city shops. Of course there is a shadowy side to life +identified with the factory. The hands do not live in Elysium, any +more than the agricultural labourer does in Arcadia. The masters, as +everywhere else, are both good and bad: in the aggregate they are no +worse than their fellows in other places, and to expect them to be +better would be premature. In case of grievance or abuse there is an +"inspector" to apply to for remedy. The wages are as good as those +earned by any other large class of English work-people; and if the +towns in which so many abide are unlovely, the Lancashire +cotton-operatives at all events know little or nothing of the vice and +filth of metropolitan St. Giles'. + + + + +IV + +MANCHESTER + + +The writer of the entertaining article in the _Cornhill_ for February +1880 upon "The Origin of London" shows that had the choice of the best +site for a capital to be made _now_, and for the first time, the +selection would naturally fall upon south-east Lancashire, and on the +particular spot covered by modern Manchester. Geographically, as the +author points out, it is the centre of the three kingdoms; and its +advantageousness in regard to commerce, all things considered, is +paramount. These facts alone suffice to give interest to the locality; +and that the town itself should have acquired the importance now +possessed, in some respects almost metropolitan, looks not so much +like accident or good fortune as the fulfilment of a law of Nature. +The locality in question is by no means picturesque. The ground, as +said before, is, on the Cheshire side, and westwards, nearly level, +the country being here bordered by the Mersey, a river, as Pennant +long ago remarked, utterly devoid along its course of the charms +usually identified with fairly broad and winding streams. At Northen +there are some pleasant shaded pathways, with willows and poplars like +those upon which _OEnone_ was carved; but the bank, if much above +the level, is artificial, the original having been raised with a view +to protecting the adjacent fields from inundation in time of floods, +such as occur not infrequently--the Mersey being formed in the +beginning by the confluence of several minor streams, which gather +their waters from the moors and the Derbyshire hills, and are apt to +be well filled and of rapid movement. + +At a few miles' distance in other directions, or receding from the +Mersey, the ground becomes slightly elevated, and in parts agreeably +broken, as at Prestwich, and near Heywood, where there are numberless +little dells and ravines, ferny and full of trees. These are a +pleasant change after the flatness on the Cheshire side, but are too +far away to be called Manchester. To the Mersey Manchester makes no +claim: three other rivers are distinctly its own--the Irwell, which +divides the town from Salford, with its tributaries, the Medlock, and +the Irk; and of these, though the colour is inexpressible, unless we +go to mythology for a term, it is proud, since no three rivers in the +world do harder work. All three pass their earlier life in valleys +which in the bygones must have been delightful, and in some parts +romantic. Traditions exist to this day of the times when in their +upper reaches they were "silver-eddied." For a long distance before +entering, and all the way while passing through, they have now for +many years been converted into scavengers; the trout, once so +plentiful, are extinct; there are water-rats instead. This, perhaps, +is inevitable in a district which, though once green and tranquil, has +been transformed into an empire of workshops. + +The Manchester rivers do not stand alone in their illustration of what +can be accomplished by the defiling energy of "works." In the strictly +manufacturing parts of South Lancashire it would be difficult to find +a single watercourse of steady volume that any longer "makes music +with the enamelled stones." The heroine of Verona[18] would to-day be +impelled less to poetical similes than to epitaphs; no sylvan glade, +however hidden, if there be water in it, has escaped the visitation of +the tormentors. Are we then to murmur?--to feel as if robbed? By no +means. Nothing can be regretful that is inseparable from the +conditions of the industry and the prosperity of a great nation. The +holidays will be here by and by. A couple of hours' railway journey +enables any one to listen to the "liquid lapse" of streams clear and +bright as Cherith. Everything lovely has its place of safety +somewhere. However doleful the destiny of the South Lancashire +streams, a thousand others that can never be sullied await us at a +little distance. + + [18] _Two Gentlemen_, ii. 7. + +Little can be said in praise of the Manchester climate, and that +little, it must be confessed, however reluctantly, is only negative. +The physicians are not more prosperous than elsewhere, and the work of +the Registrar-general is no heavier. On the other hand, the peach and +the apricot cannot ripen, and there is an almost total absence of the +Christmas evergreens one is accustomed to see in the southern +counties--the ilex to wit, the bay, the arbutus, and the laurustinus. +In the flourishing of these consists the true test of geniality of +climate; rhododendrons and gay flower-gardens, both of which +Manchester possesses in plenty, certify nothing. Not that the climate +is positively cold, though as a rule damp and rainy. Snow is often +seen in the Midlands when in Manchester there is none. The special +feature, again negative, is deficiency of bright, warm, encouraging +sunshine. Brilliant days come at times, and sultry ones; but often for +weeks together, even in summer, so misty is the atmosphere that where +the sun should be in view, except for an hour or two, there is only a +luminous patch. + +The history of Manchester dates, the authorities tell us, from the +time of the "ancient Britons." There is no need to go so far back. The +genuine beginnings of our English cities and large towns coincide with +the establishment of the Roman power. They may have been preceded in +many instances by entrenched and perhaps rudely ramparted clusters of +huts, but it is only upon civilisation that a "town" arises. Laying +claim, quite legitimately, to be one of the eight primitive Lancashire +towns founded by Agricola, A.D. 79, its veritable age, to be exact, is +1812 years, or nearly the same as that of Warrington, where the +invaders, who came from Chester, found the river fordable, as declared +in the existing name of the Cheshire suburb, and where they fixed +their original Lancashire stronghold. What is thought to have happened +in Manchester during their stay may be read in Whitaker. The only +traces remaining of their ancient presence are some fragments of the +"road" which led northwards over the present Kersal Moor, and which +are commemorated in the names of certain houses at Higher Broughton. +The fact in the local history which connects the living present with +the past is that the De Traffords of Trafford Hall possess lands held +by their ancestor in the time of Canute. How it came to pass that the +family was not displaced by some Norman baron, an ingenious novelist +may be able perhaps to tell. Private policy, secret betrothals, +doubtless lay in the heart of as many adjustments of the eleventh +century as behind many enigmas of the nineteenth. The Traffords reside +close to "Throstlenest," a name occurring frequently in Lancashire, +where the spirit of poetry has always been vigorous, and never more +marked than in appellations having reference to the simple beauty of +unmolested nature. At Moston there is also Throstle-glen, one of the +haunts, half a century ago, of Samuel Bamford. At the time spoken of +the county was divided into "tithe-shires." The "Hundred of Salford" +was called "Salford-shire," and in this last was included Manchester; +so that whatever dignity may accrue therefrom belongs properly to the +town across the river, which was the first, moreover, to be +constituted a free borough, receiving its charter in the time of +Henry III., who died in 1272, whereas the original Manchester charter +was not granted till 1301. To all practical intents and purposes, the +two places now constitute a social and commercial unity. Similar +occupations are pursued in both, and the intercourse is as constant as +that of the people who dwell on the opposite sides of the Thames. + +The really important date in the history of Manchester is that of the +arrival of the Flemish weavers in the reign of Edward III. Though +referable in the first instance, as above mentioned, to the action of +the king and the far-seeing Philippa, their coming to Manchester seems +to have been specially promoted by the feudal ruler of the time--De la +Warre, heir of the De Grelleys, and predecessor of De Lacy--men all of +great distinction in old Manchester records. Leading his retainers to +the field of battle, De la Warre literally, when all was over, turned +the spear into the pruning-hook, bringing home with him some of these +industrious people, and with their help converting soldiers into +useful artisans. A wooden church had been erected at a very early +period upon the sandstone cliff by the river, where the outlook was +pleasant over the meadows and the arriving Irk. By 1422, so much had +the town increased, it sufficed no longer, and then was built the +noble and beautiful "old church," the "cathedral" of to-day, the body +of which is thus now nearly 470 years old.[19] + + [19] The original tower remained till 1864, when, being + considered insecure, it was taken down, and the existing + _facsimile_ erected in its place. + +Up till 1656 the windows of this fine church, in conformity with the +first principles of all high-class Plantagenet and Tudor +ecclesiastical architecture, were coloured and pictorial; the design +being that they should represent to the congregation assembled inside +some grand or touching Scripture incident, making palpable to the eye +what the ear might be slow to apprehend. In the year mentioned they +were broken to pieces by the Republicans, one of the reasons, perhaps, +why the statue of Cromwell--the gloomy figure in the street close +by--has been so placed as for the ill-used building to be behind it. +While the church was in its full beauty the town was visited by +Leland, who on his way through Cheshire passed Rostherne Mere, +evidently, from his language, as lovely then as it is to-day: + + "States fall, arts fade, but Nature doth not die!" + +"Manchestre," he tells us, was at that period (temp. Henry VIII.) "the +fairest, best-builded, quikkest, and most populous Tounne of +Lancastreshire" (v. 78). Whatever the precise comparative meaning +of "fairest and best-builded," there can be no doubt that in Leland's +time, and for a long subsequent period, Manchester was rich in houses +of the Elizabethan type, including many occupied by families of note. +The greater number of these would be "magpie," or wood and plaster +fronted, in black and white, the patterns, though simple, often very +ingenious, as indicated in relics which have only lately disappeared, +and in the old country halls of the same period still perfect, which +we shall come to by and by. The style of the inferior kind is shown in +an old tavern, the "Seven Stars," in Withy-grove. + +[Illustration: MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL] + +At the commencement of the Civil Wars Manchester was important enough +to be a scene of heavy contest. The sympathies of the town, as a +whole, were with the Parliament; not in antagonism to royalty, but +because of the suspicion that Charles secretly befriended Popery. It +was the same belief which estranged Bolton--a place never in heart +disloyal, so long as the ruler does his own part in faithfulness and +honour. Standing in the Cathedral graveyard, it is hard to imagine +that the original of the bridge now called the "Victoria" was once the +scene of a deadly struggle, troops filling the graveyard itself. +Here, however, it was that the severest assault was made by the +Royalists, unsuccessfully, as were all the other attacks, though +Manchester never possessed a castle, nor even regularly constructed +fortifications. + +The town was then "a mile in length," and the streets were "open and +clean." Words change their meaning with lapse of time, and the visitor +who in 1650 thus describes them may have been given a little to +overpraise; but if Manchester deserved such epithets, alas for the +condition of the streets elsewhere! As the town increased in size, the +complexion may also very possibly have deteriorated. The fact remains, +that after the lapse of another 150 years, say in 1800, it was +inexpressibly mean and common, continuing so in a very considerable +degree up to a period quite recent. People who know Manchester only as +it looks to-day can form no conception of the beggarly appearance of +most of the central part no further back than during the reign of +George IV. Several years after he came to the throne, where Market +Street now is, there was only a miserable one-horse lane, with a +footpath of less than twenty-four inches. Narrow "entries" led to +adjacent "courts." Railed steps led down to cellars, which were used +for front parlours. The shops were dark and lowbrowed; of ornament +there was not a scrap. Mosley Street, King Street, and one or two +others comparatively modern, presented, no doubt a very decided +contrast. Still it was without the slightest injustice that so late as +in or about 1845 Mr. Cobden described Manchester as the shabbiest city +in Europe for its wealth. That the town needed some improvement is +indicated rather suggestively by the fact, that between 1832 and 1861 +the authorities paved, drained, and flagged the footways of no fewer +than 1578 streets, measuring upwards of sixty miles in length. Many of +them, certainly, were new, but the great mass of the gracious work was +retrospective. These matters are worth recalling, since it is only by +comparison with the past that modern Manchester can be appreciated. + +Shortly after the Restoration there was a considerable influx, as into +Liverpool, from the surrounding country; and by 1710 again had the +population so much increased that a second church became necessary, +and St. Anne's was erected, cornfields giving place to the "Square." +St. Anne's being the "new" church, the existing one was thenceforwards +distinguished as the "old."[20] Commerce shortly afterwards received +important stimulus by the Irwell being made navigable to its point of +confluence with the Mersey, and by the erection of the original +Manchester Exchange. In 1757 Warrington, the first town in Lancashire +to publish a newspaper, was imitated in the famous old _Manchester +Mercury_. Then came the grand inventions above described, upon which +quickly arose the modern cotton manufacture. In 1771 a Bank and +Insurance Office were found necessary, and in less than a year +afterwards the renowned "Jones Loyds" had its beginning. Social and +intellectual movements were accelerated by the now fast developing +Manchester trade. Liverpool had founded a Subscription Library in +1758: Manchester followed suit in 1765. In 1781 a Literary and +Philosophical Society was set on foot, and in 1792 Assembly Rooms were +built. + + [20] St. Anne's was so named in compliment to the queen then on + the throne. "St. Ann's," like "Market-_street_ Lane," came of + carelessness or something worse. The thoroughfare so called was + properly Market-_stead_ Lane--_i.e._ the lane leading to the + Market-place. + +[Illustration: ST. ANNE'S SQUARE, MANCHESTER] + +New streets were now laid out,--to-day, so vast has been the +subsequent growth, embedded in the heart of the town,--the names often +taken from those of the metropolis, as Cannon Street, Pall Mall, +Cheapside, and Spring Gardens, and at a little later period Bond +Street and Piccadilly. Factories sprang up in not a few of the +principal thoroughfares: perhaps it would be more correct to say that +the building of factories often led to the formation of new streets. +The kind of variety they conferred on the frontages is declared to the +present day in Oxford Road. Similar buildings, though not so large, +existed till very lately where now not a vestige of them remains. The +"Manchester and Salford Bank" occupies the site of a once important +silk-mill. Gathering round them the inferior class of the +population,--the class unable to move into more select neighbourhoods +when the town is relished no longer,--it is easy to understand how, in +most parts of Manchester that are fifty years old, splendour and +poverty are never far asunder. In London, Bath, Leicester, it is +possible to escape from the sight of rags and squalor: in Manchester +they are within a bow-shot of everything upon which the town most +prides itself. The circumstance referred to may be accounted for +perhaps in part by the extreme density of the population, which +exceeds that of all other English manufacturing towns, and is +surpassed only in Liverpool.[21] Manchester, it may be added, has no +"court-end." When the rich took flight they dispersed themselves in +all directions. They might well depart. The reputation of Manchester +in respect of "smuts," that, like the rain in Shelley, are "falling +for ever," is only too well deserved; and, despite of legal +enactments, it is to be feared is inalienable. + + [21] The population per statute acre of the towns referred to, + and of one or two others, which may be usefully put in contrast, + is as follows: + + Liverpool 106 + Manchester 85 + Plymouth 54 + London 49 + Bristol 49 + Birmingham 48 + Salford 38 + Oldham 26 + Nottingham 18 + Sheffield 16 + Leeds 15 + Norwich 12 + +Architecturally, modern Manchester takes quite a foremost place among +the cities by reason of its two great achievements in Gothic--the +Assize Courts and the new Town-hall. Classical models were followed up +till about 1860, as in the original Town-hall (1822-25)--now the City +Free Library; the Royal Institution, the Concert Hall (1825-30), and +the Corn Exchange--one of the happiest efforts of a man of real +ability, the late Mr. Lane. The new Exchange also presents a fine +example of the Corinthian portico. After Mr. Lane, the town was +fortunate in possessing Mr. Walters, since it was he who introduced +artistic details into warehouse fronts, previously to his time bald +and vacant as the face of a cotton-mill. Very interesting examples of +the _primitive_ Manchester warehouse style are extant in Peel Street +and thereabouts. Manchester is now employed in rebuilding itself, to a +considerable extent, under the inspiration received originally from +Mr. Walters, and here and there very chastely. Would that his impress +could have been seen upon the whole of the newly-contrived. We should +then have been spared the not uncommon spectacle of the grotesque, to +say nothing of the grimaces of the last few years. It is not to be +overlooked that the whole of the improvement in Manchester street +architecture has been effected since 1840. Four-fifths of all the +meritorious public buildings, the modern banks also, and nearly all +the ecclesiastical architecture that deserves the name, may be +referred to the same period. The Assize Courts and the new Town-hall +are both from designs by Mr. Waterhouse completed. The former were in +1866, but not used till July 1868, three months after which time the +first stone was laid of the superb pile in Albert Square. The gilt +ball at the apex of the tower, 286 feet high, was fixed 4th January +1876. The dimensions may be imagined from the number of separate +apartments (314), mostly spacious, and approached, as far as possible, +by corridors, which are as well proportioned as elaborate in finish. +The cost up to 15th September 1877, when much remained to be done, +including nearly the whole of the internal decoration, was £751,532. +In designing the coloured windows, Mr. Waterhouse is said to have had +the assistance of a lady. Without pressing for the secret, it is +undeniable that the tints are blended with a sense of delicate harmony +purely feminine. Some people prefer the Assize Courts--a glorious +building, peculiarly distinguished for its calmness. Structures of +such character cannot possibly correspond. Perhaps it may be allowed +to say that the Assize Courts seem to present in greater perfection +the unity of feeling indispensable to all great works of art, however +varied and fanciful the details. Due regard being paid to the +intrinsic fitness of things and their moral significance, which in +Art, when aspiring to the perfect, should always be a prime +consideration, it may be inquired, after all, whether Gothic is the +legitimate style for municipal offices. We cannot here discuss the +point. Liverpool would have to be heard upon the other side. Better, +in any case, to have a Gothic town hall than to see churches and +chapels copy the temples devoted a couple of thousand years ago to the +deities of pagan Greece and Rome. It is not pleasant on a Sunday +forenoon to be reminded of Venus, Apollo, and Diana. The new Owens +College buildings, Oxford Road, are early fourteenth century Gothic, +and when complete will present one of the finest groups of the kind in +England. The architect (Mr. Waterhouse), it has been well said, has +here, as elsewhere, "not fettered himself with ancient traditions, but +endeavoured to make his learning a basis rather than a limit of +thought." A great treat awaits the stranger also in the Catholic +"Church of the Holy Name," a few steps beyond the Owens College. For a +passer-by to help noting the beautiful western front and the maze of +lofty buttresses and pinnacles is impossible. Ornament has been +expended with a lavish but not indiscriminate profusion, the general +effect being one of perfect symmetry--a character possessed equally by +the interior. The style is geometric Gothic of the thirteenth century, +to the capacities of which, all will acknowledge, Mr. Hanson has done +full justice. The very gracefully designed Tudor buildings at Old +Trafford, well known as the Asylums for the Blind and the Deaf and +Dumb, were erected in 1838. + +[Illustration: TOWN HALL, MANCHESTER] + +Manchester is much less of a manufacturing town at present, in +proportion to its extent and the entire breadth of its business life, +than when the cotton trade was young. Now, as described in the +preceding chapter, the towns and villages outside are all devoted to +spinning and weaving. While Liverpool is one great wharf, the middle +of Manchester is one great warehouse--a reservoir for the production +of the whole district. The trade falls under two principal heads--the +Home and the Export. In either case, the produce of the looms, +wherever situate, is bought just as it flows from them--rough, or, +technically, "in the grey." It is then put into the hands of +bleachers, dyers, or printers, according to requirement, and +afterwards handed to auxiliaries called "makers-up." Very interesting +is it to observe, in going through a great warehouse, not only how +huge is the quantity waiting transfer, but how differently the various +fabrics have to be folded and ornamented so as to meet the taste of +the nations and foreign countries they are intended for. Some prefer +the absolutely plain; others like little pictures; some want bright +colours, and embellishment with gold and silver. The uniformity of the +general business of Manchester allowed of agreement, in November 1843, +to shut all doors upon Saturdays at one o'clock. The warehouse +half-holiday movement soon became universal, and now, by four or five +p.m. on Saturdays large portions of the middle of the town are as +quiet as upon Sundays. + +The composition of the Manchester community is extremely +miscellaneous. A steady influx of newcomers from all parts of Great +Britain--Scotland very particularly--has been in progress for eighty +or ninety years, and seems likely to continue. Not very long ago the +suburb called Greenheys was regarded as a German colony. Many +Levantine Greeks have also settled in Manchester, and of Jews the +estimated number is ten thousand. Notwithstanding the influence which +these newcomers have almost necessarily, though undesignedly, brought +to bear upon the general spirit of the town, the original Lancashire +character is still prominent, though greatly modified, both for the +better and the worse. Primitive Lancashire is now confined perhaps to +Rossendale, where, after all, it would be felt that Manchester is the +better place to live in. The people were distinguished of old by +industry and intense frugality, the women in particular being noted +for their thrift. They were enterprising, vigilant, shrewd, and +possessed of marvellous aptitude for business; they had judgment, and +the capacity for minute and sleepless care which is quite as needful +as courage to success in life, and which to many a man has been better +capital to start with than a well-filled purse. Hence the countless +instances in South Lancashire of men who, additionally fortunate in +being born at the favourable moment, though at first earning wages of +perhaps fifteen shillings a-week as porters or mill-hands, rose by +degrees to opulence, and in many cases laid the foundation of families +now in the front rank of local importance. Considering the general +history, it is easy to understand why carriage-heraldry, except of +the worthless purchaseable kind, is scanty; and not difficult either +to account for the pervading local shyness as to pedigrees and +genealogies. Curiously in contrast, one of the very rare instances of +an untitled family having supporters to the heraldic shield is found +in Ashton-under-Lyne, Mr. Coulthart the banker being entitled to them +by virtue of descent from one of the ancient Scottish kings. To a +Lancashire magnate of the old school it was sufficient that he was +_himself_. The disposition is still locally vigorous, and truly many +of the living prove that to be so is a man's recommendation. None of +the excellent attributes possessed by, for instance, the original +Peels and Ainsworths, have disappeared, though it cannot be denied +that in other cases there has been inheritance of the selfish habits, +contracted ideas, and coarsely-moulded character, so often met with in +men who have risen from the ranks. Given to saying and doing the +things natural to them, no people were ever more devoid than the +genuine Lancashire men, as they are still, of frigid affectations, or +less given to assumption of qualities they did not possess. If +sometimes startled by their impetuosities, we can generally trust to +their candour and whole-heartedness, especially when disposed to be +friendly, the more so since they are little inclined to pay +compliments, and not at all to flatter. + +[Illustration: DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER] + +That men of small beginnings, and who have had little or no education, +are apt, on becoming rich, to be irritable, jealous, and overbearing, +is true perhaps everywhere; in Lancashire it has been observed with +satisfaction that the exceptions are more numerous than the rule. +Whatever the stint and privations in the morning of life, these, it +has been again observed, have seldom led to miserly habits when old. +Most of the modern Lancashire wealthy (or their fathers, at all +events, before them) began with a trifle. Hence the legitimate pride +they take in their commercial belongings--a genuine Lancashire man +would rather you praised his mill or warehouse than his mansion. So +far from becoming miserly, no one in the world deteriorates less. Most +Lancashire capitalists are well aware that it is no credit to a man of +wealth to be in arrears with the public, and when money is wanted for +some noble purpose are quick in response. This, however, represents +them but imperfectly. Of a thousand it might be said with as much +truth as of the late Sir Benjamin Heywood, the eminent Manchester +banker, "He dared to trust God with his charities, and without a +witness, and _risk the consequences_." So much for the Lancashire +heart; though on many of its excellent attributes, wanting space, we +have not touched. The prime characteristic of the _head_ seems to +consist, not in the preponderance of any particular faculty, but in +the good working order of the faculties in general; so that the whole +can be brought to bear at once upon whatever is taken in hand.[22] + + [22] For delineations of local and personal character in full we + look to the novelists. After supreme _Scarsdale_, and the + well-known tales by Mrs. Gaskell and Mrs. Banks, may be + mentioned, as instructive in regard to Lancashire ways and + manners, _Coultour's Factory_, by Miss Emily Rodwell, and the + first portion of Mr. Hirst's _Hiram Greg_. Lord Beaconsfield's + admirable portrait of Millbank, the Lancashire manufacturer, + given in _Coningsby_ in 1844, had for its original the late Mr. + Edmund Ashworth of Turton, whose mills had been visited by the + author, then Mr. Disraeli, the previous year. + +The Lancashire man has plenty of faults and weaknesses. His energy is +by no means of that admirable kind which is distinguished by never +degenerating into restlessness; neither in disputes is he prone to +courtly forbearance. Sincerity, whether in friend or foe, he admires +nevertheless; whence the exceptional toleration in Lancashire of all +sorts of individual opinions. Possessed of good, old-fashioned +common-sense, when educated and reflective he is seldom astray in his +estimate of the essentially worthy and true; so that, however novel +occasionally his action, we may be pretty sure that underneath it +there is some definite principle of equity. Manchester put forth the +original programme of the "free and open church" system; and from one +of the suburbs came the first cry for the enfranchisement of women. +Lancashire, if nothing else, is frank, cordial, sagacious, and given +to the sterling humanities of life. These always revolve upon Freedom, +whence, yet again in illustration of the Lancashire heart, the +establishment of the Society (original in idea, if not unique) for the +Preservation of Ancient Footpaths.[23] The large infusion of the +German element has been immensely beneficial, not only in relation to +commerce, but to the general culture of the town. It is owing in no +slight degree to the presence of educated Germans that the Manchester +"shippers," in their better portion, now resemble the corresponding +class in Liverpool. The change for the better, since the time when +Coleridge met with his odd reception, is quite as marked, no doubt, +among the leaders of the Home commerce, in whose ranks are plenty of +peers of the Liverpool "gentlemen." Records of the past are never +without their interest. During the siege, the command of the defence +was in the hands of Colonel Rosworm, a celebrated German engineer, +who, when all was over, considered himself ill-used, and published a +pamphlet complaining of the town's injustice, enumerating the +opportunities he had had of betraying it to the Royalists, and of +dividing the inhabitants against themselves. "But then," he adds, "I +should have been a Manchester man, for never let an unthankful one, or +a promise-breaker, bear another name!" On the titlepage of "The Pole +Booke for Manchester, 22d May 1690," an old list of the inhabitants, +printed by the Chetham Society, the aforetime owner has written, +"Generation of vipers!" + + [23] Founded in 1826. See the interesting particulars in Mr. + Prentice's _Historical Sketches and Personal Recollections_, pp. + 289-295. 1851. + +Manchester is now, like Liverpool, if not a school of refinement, one +of the principal seats of English culture. It possesses not fewer than +ten or twelve fine libraries, including the branches of the City Free +Library, established under Mr. Ewart's Act, which last are available +on Sundays, and are freely used by the class of people the opening was +designed to benefit. The staff of assistants at the City Library and +its branches consists very largely of young women. There is another +first-class Free Library in Salford, with, in the same building, a +Free Gallery of Paintings, and a well-arranged and thoroughly useful +museum. The "Athenæum" provides its members with 60,000 newspapers per +annum, and, in addition, 9500 weekly, and 500 monthly and quarterly +magazines. Societies devoted to science, literature, and the fine +arts exist, as in Liverpool, in plenty. The exhibitions of paintings +at the Royal Institution have always been attractive, and never more +so than during the last few years, when on Sunday afternoons they have +been thrown open to the public _gratis_. The "School of Design," +founded in October 1838, now called the "School of Art," recently +provided itself with a proper home in Grosvenor Square. There is also +a society expressly of "Women Painters," the works of many of whom +have earned honourable places. In addition to its learned societies, +Manchester stands alone, perhaps, among English cities in having quite +seven or eight set on foot purely with a view to rational enjoyment in +the fields, the observation of Nature in its most pleasing and +suggestive forms, and the obtaining accurate knowledge of its +details--the birds, the trees, and the wild-flowers. The oldest of +these is the "Field-Naturalists and Archæologists," founded in 1860. +The members of the youngest go by the name of the "Grasshoppers." +Flower-shows, again, are a great feature in Manchester: some held in +the Townhall, others in the Botanical Gardens. In August 1881 the +greatest and richest Horticultural Exhibition of which there is record +was held at Old Trafford, in the gardens, lasting five days, and with +award in prizes of upwards of £2000. Laid out within a few yards of +the ground occupied in 1857 by the celebrated Fine Art Treasures +Exhibition, the only one of the kind ever attempted in England, it was +no less brilliant to the visitor than creditable to the promoters. No +single spot of earth has ever been devoted to illustrations so +exquisite of the most beautiful forms of living nature, and of the +artistic talent of man than were then brought together. + +Music is cultivated in Manchester with a zest quite proportionate to +its value. The original "Gentlemen's Concert Club" was founded as far +back as the year of alarm 1745. The local love of glees and madrigals +preserves the best traditions of the Saxon "glee-men." On 10th March +1881 the veteran Charles Hallé, who quite recently had been earning +new and glorious laurels at Prague, Vienna, and Pesth, led the _five +hundredth_ of his great concerts in the Free-trade Hall. "Our town," +remarked the _Guardian_ in its next day's report of the proceedings, +"is at present the city of music _par excellence_ in England.... The +outside world knows three things of Manchester--that it is a city of +cotton, a city of economic ideas, and a city of music. Since then the +old character has been more than well sustained. Cobden was perhaps +the first who made all the world see that Manchester had a turn for +the things of the mind as well as for the production of calico and the +amassing of money. Similarly, Mr. Hallé has made it evident to all the +world that there is in Manchester a public which can appreciate the +best music conveyed in the best way." It is but fair to the sister +city to add that the first musical festival in the north of England +was held in Liverpool in 1784, and that the erection of St. George's +Hall had its germ in the local musical tastes and desire for their +full expression. + +A good deal might be said in regard to the religious and +ecclesiastical history of Manchester, a curious fact in connection +with which is, that between 1798 and 1820, though the population had +augmented by 80,000, nothing was done on their behalf by the +Episcopate. The Wesleyan body dates from 7th May 1747, when its +founder preached at Salford Cross--a little apartment in a house on +the banks of the Irwell, where there were hand-looms, being +insufficient to accommodate the congregation assembled to hear him. +The literary history of Manchester is also well worthy of extended +treatment; and, above all, that of the local thought and private +spirit, the underlying current which has rendered the last sixty or +seventy years a period of steady and exemplary advance. To some it may +seem a mere coincidence, a part only of the general progress of the +country; but advance, whether local or national, implies impetus +received; and assuredly far more than simple coincidence is involved +in the great reality that the growth of the town in all goodly +respects, subsequently to the uprise of the cotton trade, has been +exactly contemporaneous with the life and influence of the newspaper +just quoted--the _Manchester Guardian_--the first number of which was +published 5th May 1821. + + + + +V + +MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS + + +Lancashire is not only the principal seat of the English cotton +manufacture. Over and above the processes which are auxiliary to it +and complete it, many are carried on of a nature altogether +independent, and upon a scale so vast as again to give this busy +county the preeminence. The mind is arrested not more by the variety +than by the magnitude of Lancashire work. Contemplating the +inexpressible activity, all directed to a common end, one cannot but +recall the famous description of the building of Carthage, with the +simile which makes it vivid for all ages. Like all other manifold +work, it presents also its amusing phases. In Manchester there are +professional "knockers-up"--men whose business it is to tap at +up-stair windows with a long wand, when the time comes to arouse the +sleeper from his pillow. + +The industrial occupations specially identified with the cotton trade +are bleaching, dyeing, and calico-printing. Bleaching, the plainest +and simplest, was effected originally by exposure of the cloth to the +open air and solar light. Spread over the meadows and pastures, as +long as summer lasted, the country, wherever a "whiter" or "whitster" +pursued his calling, was more wintry-looking in July than often at +Christmas. The process itself was tedious, requiring incessant +attention, as well as being liable to serious hindrance, and involving +much loss to the merchant through the usually long delay. Above all, +it conduced to the moral damage of the community, since the bleaching +crofts were of necessity accessible, and furnished to the ill-disposed +an incentive to the crime which figures so lamentably in their +history. That changes and events, both good and evil, are prone to +come in clusters is a very ancient matter of observation. At the +precise moment when the ingenious machinery produced by Hargreaves, +Arkwright, and Crompton, was developing its powers, a complete +revolution took place in regard to bleaching. Scheele discovered that +vegetable colours gave way to chlorine. Berthollet and Dr. Henry (the +latter residing in Manchester) extended and perfected the application. +By 1774 the bleaching process had been shortened one-half; the +meadows and pastures were released; the summer sunshine fell once more +upon verdure, + + "Diffugere nives, redeunt jam gramina campis"; + +and by about 1790 the art became what we have it to-day, one purely +for indoors. The new method was first practised successfully in the +neighbourhood of Bolton, which place has preserved its original +reputation, though long since rivalled in every part of the +cotton-manufacturing district, and often in more distant spots, a +copious supply of clean water being indispensable, and outweighing in +its value the advantages of proximity to town. Many successive steps +have to be taken before perfect whiteness can be secured, these +demanding the utmost care and the strictest order of procedure. +Finally, unless destined for the dye-house or the print-works, the +cloth is stiffened with starch made from wheaten flour, the +consumption of which article is very large also in the factories, +where it is employed to give tenacity to the yarn, reacting +beneficially upon the agricultural interest; then, in order to give it +the beautiful smoothness and gloss which remind one of the petals of +the snowdrop, it is pressed between huge rollers which play against +one another under the influence of powerful engines. On emerging from +them it is said to have been "cylindered," or, corruptly, +"calendered." Bleaching, it will appear from this, is a process which +but slightly taxes human strength. Very interesting is it to note how, +in the presence of chemistry and steam, the old word "manufacture" has +in modern times changed its meaning. To-day the office of human +fingers is less to "make" than to guide the forces of nature, all the +harder work being delegated to inanimate wood and iron. The time +ordinarily allowed for bleaching is one or two days, though, if +needful, the entire process can be accelerated. The cost is about a +halfpenny per yard. + +Dyeing is carried on in Lancashire quite as extensively as bleaching. +Here, again, the exactest chemical knowledge is wanted. The managers +are usually men well versed in science. A visit to an important +dye-works always awakens the liveliest sentiments of admiration, and +were it not for the relentless fouling of the streams which receive +the refuse, few scenes of industry would live longer in pleasant +memory. For although dye-works exist in towns and their suburbs, they +are more frequently established out in the country, where there are +babbling brooks and "shallow falls," with a view to obtaining a +plentiful and steady supply of clean water. Factories also are +sometimes found amid the fields, occupying quite isolated positions, +the object being similar--the command of some definite local +advantage. When at the foot of a hill it is interesting to observe +that the chimney is placed half-way up the slope, a preliminary +underground passage inducing a more powerful draught. + +It is in the neighbourhood of these rural establishments that the hurt +done by manufacturing to the pristine beauty of the country becomes +conspicuous. Near the towns the results are simply dirt, withered +hedges, and a general withdrawal of meadow adornment. In the country +we perceive how the picturesque becomes affected. Railways are not +more cruel. Cotton, with all its kindliness, reverses the celestial +process which makes the wilderness blossom as the rose. There are +differences in degree--the upper portion of the Irwell valley, near +Summerseat, is in a measure exceptional; but we must never expect to +find a spot wholly devoid of illustrations of blight and mischief. +Against the destruction of natural beauty, when works and factories +assume the sway, of course must be set not only the employment of the +industrious, but the enormous rise in the value of the land; since +rise of such character is a sign of advancing civilisation, which in +due time will more than compensate the damage. In the manufacturing +parts of Lancashire land available for farming purposes commands ten +times the rental of a century ago. Mr. Henry Ashworth's paper on the +increase in the value of Lancashire property, published in 1841, +showed that since 1692 the rise in Bolton had been six hundredfold. + +The highest place in the trio of beautiful arts now before us is held +undeniably by calico-printing, since it not only "paints" the woven +fabric "with delight," but in its power to multiply and vary the +cheerful pictures is practically inexhaustible; thus representing, and +in the most charming manner, the outcome of the sweet facility of the +seasons. Next to the diversities of living flowers assuredly come the +devices of the pattern-designer who discreetly goes to nature for his +inspiration. Much of his work must of necessity be conventionalised, +and some of it cannot be other than arbitrary and artificial; but +there is no reason why, in its steadiest practice, strictly natural +forms and colours should not always be regarded as truest and best. +The tendency is daily more and more in this direction, so that +calico-printing may justly anticipate a future even more +distinguished than its present and its past. The "past," if we press +for the birthday, is an ancient one indeed. Not to mention the +chintzes of India, in the days of Calidasa, Pliny shows us very +plainly that printing by means of mordants was practised in Egypt in +the first century of the Christian era. When introduced into Western +Europe is not known; for our present sketch it is enough that in +England it began about A.D. 1700, coming, like many other excellent +things, of the short-sighted efforts of selfishness, which, +fortunately for mankind, always invites the retaliations of +generosity. In the year mentioned, 1700, with a view to favouring the +manufacturers of woollen and silk, the importation of prints from +India was forbidden. Experiments were at once made with a view to +production of similar work at home. This was soon discovered to be +practicable, and preparations were made for printing upon a large +scale, and at a moderate cost, when a new hindrance arose--say rather +that the old malignant one, jealous opposition, reappeared. For a time +this was successful, but at last the privilege to print in England was +conceded, burdened, however, with the condition that the metropolis +and the immediate vicinity should alone possess the right--a +circumstance which recalls to mind the original law as to joint-stock +banks. The monopoly wrought its own destruction, for there was one +county at least, a despised but courageous one in the north, which was +not likely to remain a passive spectator. Contemporaneously with the +new bleaching process above described, contemporaneously also with the +employment of the new cotton machinery, calico-printing obtained the +provincial footing which from that time forwards has never ceased to +strengthen, and which now renders Lancashire the most important +district in the world in regard alike to the immensity of production +and the inexpressible beauty of the workmanship. It is not too much to +say, with an eminent author, that the calico-printing works of +Lancashire are entitled to count with the most distinguished English +seats of useful science, and the most interesting scenes of the +exercise of tasteful invention. The earliest enterprise was in +Manchester itself, in 1745, the year of the visit of Prince Charles +and his army, the original Lancashire efforts having been made, so +history says, by the grandfather of the late distinguished surgeon, +Mr. Joseph Jordan. The "works" were situated on the banks of the +Irwell, close to St. Mary's Church. Blackburn soon followed, and under +the influence of the supreme abilities of the Peels, remained for +many years the uncontested centre. Print-works are now met with in +every little recess where there is supply of water, doubtless the +first thing looked for when they were founded. The natural current +sufficed at first; but it soon became customary to construct home or +private reservoirs, and upon these the dependence is now essentially +placed. No county in England needs so much water as Lancashire, and +certainly there is not one that presents so many little bits of +water-surface artificially prepared. It is pleasant to observe that +the reservoirs belonging to "works," when belonging to a man of taste, +have often been rendered extremely pretty by the introduction of +water-lilies: flowers not only of unrivalled queenliness among +aquatics, but distinguished among our native vegetation by the pensive +languor always associated with the idea of the Oriental--the +water-lilies' birthright--for, as a race, they are much more Asiatic +than European, and by happy coincidence the most appropriate that +could be placed there, the water-lily being the emblem not more of the +Nile than of the Ganges. + +The multiplicity of the printing processes, and their complexity, call +for many distinct buildings. Hence, when large, and isolated away in +the country, as very generally happens, a print-works has quite the +look of a rising village. There is a laboratory, with library, for the +managing chemist, a suite of apartments for the designers, and a house +and fruitful garden for the resident partner, with, in addition, not +uncommonly, a schoolroom for the children. When the designers have +completed their sketches, the engraver's work begins--a business in +itself, and carried on almost exclusively in town, and especially in +Manchester. Originally the pattern was cut upon a block of wood, +usually sycamore, the success of the transfer to the cloth depending +chiefly upon the dexterity of the workman. In 1785 this very primitive +mode was superseded by "cylinder-printing," the pattern being engraved +upon copper rollers, as many as there are colours; and though +"block-printing" shares the unquenchable vitality of hand-loom +weaving, the roller may now be considered universal. The employment of +copper supplies another very interesting illustration of the resort +made to this metal in almost every kind of high decorative art, and +prepares us to understand the fitness of the ancient mythological use, +and why associated with the goddess of love and beauty. + +These great undertakings--the bleaching, the dyeing, and the printing +of the calico--demand steady supplies of the chemicals and other +agents by means of which the various objects are attained. Hence in +Lancashire the unrivalled number and extent of the manufacturing +chemical works; and, especially in Manchester, the business,--never +heard of in many English counties, here locally distinguished as the +"drysalter's." The drysalter sees to the importation from foreign +countries of the indigo, the madder, and other dye-stuffs in daily +request; he deals also in the manifold kinds of gum constantly asked +for, supplying himself partly from abroad, _viâ_ Liverpool, partly +from works close by which prepare it artificially. A well-known sight +in Manchester is that of a cartload of logs of some curious tropical +dyewood, rudely hewn by the axe, and still retaining in the cavities +of the bark little relics of the mosses and lichens of their native +forest. + +The chemical works are located principally in the extreme south-west, +especially near Widnes, a place which at once betrays itself to the +passing traveller in the almost suffocating atmosphere, and the total +extinction of the beauty of trees and hedges, spectres and gaunt +skeletons alone remaining where once was verdure. Here we find in its +utmost vigour the manufacture of "soda-ash" (an impure carbonate), +and of chloride of lime, both for the use of bleachers; also, prepared +from the first-named, "caustic soda," for the soap-boilers of +Liverpool and Warrington; and chlorate of potash, peculiarly for the +dyers. Nitric acid also is made in immense quantity, the basis being +Chilian saltpetre, though for their materials for the soda-products +the manufacturers have no need to go further than Cheshire, the supply +of salt being drawn entirely from the Northwich mines. The discharge +of stifling vapours was much worse before the passing of the Alkali +Act than at present; and, curiously enough, though by no means without +a parallel, involved positive loss to the manufacturer, who now +manages to detain a considerable amount of good residuum previously +wasted. The Act permits a limited quantity of noxious matter to go up +the chimney; the stream is tested every day to see that the right is +not abused: how terrible is the action even of that little the +surrounding fields are themselves not slow to testify; everything, +even in summer, looks dirty, lean, and dejected. Sulphuric acid +is likewise manufactured on a great scale, especially at +Newton-le-Willows, the basis (except when required to be very pure, +when sulphur is employed) being iron pyrites imported from Spain. +Hundreds of thousands of tons are prepared every year. There is +probably not a single manufacturing process carried on in England in +which chemical agency is involved which does not call for it. Hence, +in the consumption of sulphuric acid, we have always a capital index +to the state of trade, so far as regards appeal to the activity of the +producing classes. + +In the extent of its manufacture of all the substances above +mentioned, Lancashire is far ahead of every competitor in the world; +Germany comes next, and then probably France. + +Carbolic acid is of peculiarly Lancashire origin, having been +originally introduced commercially by the late Dr. Crace Calvert. +Supplies are in daily request for the production of colour: the +employment for antiseptic purposes is larger yet; the export is also +very considerable. Other immensely important chemicals prepared in +South Lancashire, and on a scale almost incredible,--Manchester +helping the Widnes corner,--are sulphate of soda and sulphate of +copper, the last-named being now in unlimited demand, not only by the +dyers and calico-printers, but for the batteries used in electric +telegraphy. In the presence of all this marvellous work, how quaintly +reads the history of the Lancashire chemistry of 500 years ago. It +had then not emerged from alchemy, which, after being forbidden by +Henry IV., and again legalised by Henry VI., was warmly encouraged by +the credulous Edward III., and had no devouter adherents than the +Asshetons and the Traffords, who in their loyalty undertook to supply +the king with silver and gold to the extent of his needs--so soon as +the "philosopher's stone" should be discovered! Before we laugh at +their misdirected zeal, it may be well to inquire whether the world +has suffered more from scornful and premature rejection, or from +honest and simple enthusiasm, such as in playing with alchemy brought +to life the germs of the profoundest and most variously useful of the +sciences. + +Though Lancashire tries no longer to transmute the baser metals into +the precious ones by means of alchemy, it succeeds by the honester and +less circuitous route of industry. Lead is obtained, though not in +large quantity, at Anglezark, near Rivington Pike; and iron, in the +excellent form of hæmatite, plentifully in the Ulverston and Furness +district. The smelting is carried on chiefly at Barrow, where the +business will no doubt continue to prosper, though hæmatite of late +years has somewhat lost its ancient supremacy, methods having been +discovered by which ores hitherto deemed inferior are practically +changed to good and useful ones. + +[Illustration: IN THE WIRE WORKS] + +In any case the triumphs of Lancashire will continue to be shown, as +heretofore, in her foundries and engine-works, the latter innumerable. +Whitworth, Fairbairn, Nasmyth, are names too well known to need more +than citation. Nasmyth's steam-hammer in itself is unique. +Irresistible when it smites with a will, a giant in power and +emphasis, it can assume, when it pleases, the lightsome manners of a +butterfly. Let a lady place her hand upon the anvil, the mighty +creature just gives it a kiss, gently, courteously, and retires. It is +rather a misfortune for the stupendous products of the foundry and +engine-works that, except in the case of the locomotive, as soon as +completed they are hidden away for evermore, embedded where completely +lost to view, and thought of as little as the human heart. Happily in +the streets of Manchester there is frequent reminder, in the shape of +some leviathan drawn slowly by a team of eight, ten, twelve, or even +fourteen superb horses. Bradford, one of the suburbs of Manchester, +supplies the world with the visible factor of its nervous +system--those mysterious-looking threads which now everywhere show +against the sky, and literally allow of intercourse between "Indus and +the Pole." In addition to their manufacture of telegraph-wire, the +Messrs. Johnson prepare the whole of what is wanted for the wire-rope +bridges now common in America. Large quantities of wire are produced +also at Warrington; here, however, of kinds adapted more particularly +for domestic use. In connection with metal it is worthy also of note +that Lancashire is the principal seat of the manufacture of the +impregnable safes which, laughing at thieves and fire, challenge even +the earthquake. They are made in Liverpool by Milner and Company, and +near Bolton by the Chatwoods. + +Lancashire was long distinguished for its manufacture of silk, though +it never acquired the importance held by Macclesfield. In Europe this +beautiful art came to the front as one of the results of the later +Crusades--enterprises which, though productive of untold suffering, +awoke the mind of all the civilised parts of the Continent from its +slumber of ages, enlarging the sphere of popular thought, reviving the +taste for elegant practices forgotten since the fall of the Western +Empire, and extending commerce and knowledge in general. To Lancashire +men the history is thus one of special interest. Italy led the way in +the manufacture; Spain and France soon followed, the latter acquiring +distinction, and at the close of the sixteenth century the English +Channel was crossed. Tyranny, as in the case of calico-printing, was +the prime cause, the original Spitalfields weavers having been part of +the crowd of Protestants who at that period were constrained, like the +unhappy and forlorn in more modern times, to seek the refuge always +afforded in our sea-girt isle.[24] James I. was so strongly impressed +with the importance of the manufacture that, hoping to promote it at +home, he procured many thousands of young mulberry-trees, some of +which, or their immediate descendants, are still to be found, +venerable but not exhausted, in the grounds and gardens of old country +houses. The Civil Wars gave a heavy check to further progress. Little +more was done till 1718, when a silk-mill, worked by a water-wheel, +was built at Derby. This in time had to close its doors awhile, +through the refusal of the King of Sardinia to permit the exportation +of the raw material, always so difficult to procure in quantity. At +last there was recovery; the manufacture crept into Cheshire, and at +the commencement of the present century into Lancashire, taking root +especially in the ancient villages of Middleton and Eccles, and +gradually spreading to the adjacent hamlets. + + [24] The late greatly respected Mr. E. R. Le Mare, who came to + Manchester in 1829, and was long distinguished among the local + silk-merchants, belonged by descent to one of these identical + old Huguenot families. Died at Clevedon, 4th February 1881, aged + eighty-four. + +[Illustration: MAKING COKE] + +The arrival was opportune, and helped to break the fall of the +hand-loom cotton weavers, many of whom could not endure the loss of +freedom imposed by the rules of the factory, and whose latent love of +beauty, as disclosed in their taste for floriculture, was called forth +in a new and agreeable manner. Silk-weaving was further congenial to +these men in being more cleanly and less laborious than the former +work, requiring more care and vigilance, and rather more skill, thus +exactly suiting a race of worshippers of the auricula, the polyanthus, +and the carnation. The auricula, locally called the "basier," a +corruption of "bear's ear," is the subject of a charming little poem +by one of the old Swinton weavers, preserved intact, reprinted in +Wilkinson's _Lancashire Ballads_, and peculiarly valuable in respect +of the light it throws upon the temperament of a simple and worthy +race, now almost extinct. We may be allowed to quote two of the +verses: + + Come and listen awhile unto what we shall say + Concerning the season, the month we call May; + For the flowers they are springing, the birds they do sing, + And the basiers are sweet in the morning of May. + + When the trees are in bloom, and the meadows are green, + The sweet-smelling cowslips are plain to be seen; + The sweet ties of nature we plainly do say, + For the basiers are sweet in the morning of May! + +The silk-weavers about Middleton were renowned also for their zest in +entomology, and truly wonderful were their cabinets of Lepidoptera. +Unfortunately, when all was prosperous, there came a change. Ever +since 1860, the year of the new, and still current, silk-treaties with +France, whereby its original command of the trade was restored, the +manufacture of silk in Lancashire, and everywhere else in England, has +been steadily and hopelessly declining; and at the present day, +compared with half a century ago, the production is less than a tenth +of what it was. Power-looms naturally have the preference with +employers, since they represent invested capital; whereas the +hand-loom weaver, if there is no work for him, has merely to be told +so. The latter, as a consequence, is now seldom met with. The trade, +such as remains, gathers chiefly about Leigh. Middleton, once so +famous for its "broad silks,"--those adapted for ladies' dresses,--now +spends its time chiefly in the preparation of "trimmings"; and +wherever carried on the manufacture is almost wholly of the kind +called "mixed," or cotton and silk combined, this being more in +demand, because lower in price, though not wearing so well. + +[Illustration] + +From silk that befits empresses to hemp, the material of sackcloth, +the way is long. But it must not be overlooked, in regard to the +textile manufactures of Lancashire, that each extreme is familiar. +Warrington, in the bygones, prepared more than half the entire +quantity of sailcloth required for the navy. It was a ship laden with +hemp from the Baltic for use in Lancashire which, touching at the Isle +of Skye, brought the first news of Prince Charles Edward's landing +there. + +Lancashire produces one-sixth of all the paper made in England. In +other words, there are in this county about fifty of the nearly 300 +English paper-mills, including the very largest of them--Messrs. +Wrigley and Sons', near Bury. The first to be established was +Crompton's, at Farnworth, near Bolton, which dates from 1676, or +exactly eighty-eight years after the building of the famous Kentish +one referred to by Shakspere,[25] which itself followed, by just a +century, the primeval one at Stevenage. Every description of paper, +except that required for bank-notes, is made in Lancashire. The mills +themselves, like the dyeworks, haunt the river-sides, though they no +longer draw their supplies of water from the stream. Paper-works +cannot possibly prosper if there be iron in the water they use, or +decomposed vegetable matter. Hence in Lancashire it is now customary +to sink wells of considerable depth, and in any case to provide for +elaborate filtration. No spectacle in its way is more wonderful than +that of a paper-machine at work. There is no limit to the length of +the piece it is able to produce continuously, save that which is +imposed by its own restricted dimensions. A roll could be made--as it +is--of three or four miles in length, the cylinder gradually gathering +up the pulp till it can hold no more. Very interesting also is it to +observe the variety of material now employed. Esparto, or "Spanish +grass," is brought to Liverpool (as to Cardiff and Newcastle) in +exchange for coal, and wood-pulp from Norway and Sweden _viâ_ Hull. + + [25] Sir John Spielman's, at Dartford.--_Vide_ 2nd Henry VI., + Act iv. Scene 7. + +At Darwen we find the largest and most important production in England +of the ornamental wall-papers which now take the place of the +distemper painting of ancient Egypt, Herculaneum, and Pompeii. The +manufacture was originally very similar to block calico-printing. In +or about 1839 Messrs. C. & J. G. Potter introduced "rollers," with the +additional novelty of the pattern being cut in relief; and this is +now almost universal, the Messrs. Potter having progeny, as it were, +all over the country, though they themselves still produce quite +one-half of the quantity consumed. They have customers in every part +of the civilised world, and adapt their work to the diverse and often +fantastic tastes of all in turn, directed not uncommonly, as in the +case of the Hindoos and the Japanese, by native designs, which they +are required to follow implicitly. + +[Illustration: GLASS-BLOWING] + +To go further into the story of modern Lancashire manufacturing is not +possible, since there is scarcely a British industry which in this +county is without example, and to treat of the whole even briefly +would require thrice the space already occupied. Among the foremost +scenes to be described would be the plate-glass works at St. Helens; +and the Manchester india-rubber works, the original, now sixty-seven +years old, still carried on under the familiar name of Charles +Macintosh & Co. The first were established in Glasgow; London, and +then Manchester, were the next following centres, beginning with +simple waterproof, but now producing articles of every conceivable +variety. Thread, tape, pins, carpenters' tools, nails, screws, +terra-cotta, bottles, aniline, soap, brass, and pewter-work, are also +Lancashire staples. Gunpowder is manufactured near the foot of +Windermere; and at Prescot and thereabouts the people employ +themselves, as they have done now for nearly three centuries, in +manufacturing the delicate "works" and "movements" required for +watches. Not without significance either, in regard to the general +capabilities of the county, is the preparation at Newton by Messrs. +M'Corquodale of the whole of the requirements of the Government, both +for home use and in India, in the way of stationery and account-books. +For the Government alone they manufacture forty millions of envelopes +every year. They also execute the enormous amount of printing demanded +by the L. & N. W. Railway Company. The great ship-building works at +Barrow now need no more than a reference. The magnificent Atlantic +Inman steamer, the _City of Rome_, a ship with a gross tonnage of +8400, and propelled by, upon the lowest estimate, 8500 indicated +horse-power, was launched here in June 1881. After the ill-fated +_Great Eastern_, this was the largest vessel then afloat. All has come +into existence since about 1860, when the population of this +out-of-the-way Lancashire village was under 4000, though now nearly +50,000, a growth without parallel except in the United States. + +[Illustration: ON THE BRIDGEWATER CANAL] + +Omitting a considerable number of minor activities, there is, in +addition to the above, the vast sphere of industry, part of the very +life of working Lancashire, though not a manufacture, indicated by the +little word "coal." In their value and importance the Lancashire +collieries vie with the cotton-mills, declaring once again how close +and constant is the dependence of the prosperity of a great +manufacturing district upon its geology. Coalfields lying below the +surface leave the soil above them free for the purposes of the farmer +and the builder; in other words, for the raising of human food and the +development of useful constructive arts. Where there is plenty of coal +double the number of people can exist; the enormous population of +Lancashire south of the Ribble has unquestionably come as much of its +coalfields as of the invention of the spinning-jenny. The prevailing +rock in this portion of Lancashire is the well-known new red +sandstone, the same as that which overlies all our other best English +coal deposits. Concurrently with it, and with the millstone-grit, the +measures which have brought so much wealth to the county, extend from +Pendleton, two miles from Manchester, to Colne in the north-east, and +to St. Helen's in the west, many vast branches running out in various +directions from the principal mass. What the exact thickness may be +of course is not known, but, according to Mr. Dickinson, it may be +estimated at 6450 feet. Some of the deepest pits in the country have +been sunk in it, as at the Rosebridge Colliery, near Wigan, where the +depth already reached is nearly 2500 feet, and the Ashton-moss Pit, +near Ashton-under-Lyne, which goes still lower,--it is said to 2700 +feet,--in which case this last will be the deepest in England. The +direction of the dip is described by the colliers in a very pretty +way. They say it is towards "the rising sun," or "the setting sun," +the different points included between these opposites being similarly +expressed by "dipping towards nine-o'clock sun," "twelve-o'clock sun," +and so on. The sun is thus their compass, though few men see less of +it during their hours of labour. The neighbourhood of a colliery is +generally well declared. Independently of the apparatus over the +opening of the pit, there is no mistaking the significance of the row +of neat cottages, all fashioned on the same architectural model, a few +stray ones here and there, a trim little front garden seldom wanting, +with close by a few shops, a school-house, a chapel, both very plain, +and the proprietor's or agent's residence, somewhat ornate, and +garnished with evergreen shrubs, ready always for the washing of a +kindly shower. In many places, as at Wigan, Atherton, Tyldesley, and +St. Helens, women, both single and married, work at the collieries, +but only above ground, or at the bank. They are prohibited by statute +from descending the pit, and their names and ages are all exactly +registered. Up to the waist they are dressed like men. Above the +knees, instead of a coat, they have a peculiarly fashioned tunic, a +compromise between gown and jacket, by which they may be distinguished +from afar: a limp bonnet tied under the chin protects the head, but +never conceals the ear-rings and plaited hair. Many of these women are +plainly equal to their masculine colleagues in physical power, yet +they earn only two-thirds of the wages given to men. The decorum of +their behaviour while at work is unimpeachable; on Sundays they do +their best to dress like ladies. The Lancashire quarries are also +remarkable, though little resorted to by the architect. Commercial +prosperity is always most conspicuous where the buildings are +principally not of stone, but of brick. + +[Illustration: ON THE BRIDGEWATER CANAL] + +Nothing does more to sustain and encourage the industry of a working +population than a steady system of transit, and a well-timed delivery, +alike of the natural products of the ground and of the articles +manufactured. Hence the early development in Lancashire of the idea +of the canal, and, sixty years afterwards, of that of the railway. The +history of the Bridgewater Canal is one of the most interesting +connected with the county enterprise, the more so since all other +canals were imitations of it. Many, however, are not aware that the +celebrated peer under whose dictation it was constructed--Francis +Egerton, the third and last Duke of Bridgewater--was led to devote +himself for solace sake to engineering through a disappointment in +love. That women, when troubled or bereaved, should take refuge in +works of charity, and that when wealthy they should found hospitals +and build orphanages, is very natural, and has plenty of +exemplification; but for a man to turn when similarly circumstanced to +science is phenomenal, and the records of search for consolation after +this manner would probably be sifted in vain for a parallel case. +Several versions of the story are afloat; whichever way be the true +one, it is beyond a doubt that one of the greatest industrial +achievements ever witnessed in England had for its prime cause the +caprice or the temper of the widowed Duchess of Hamilton,--to whom a +second coronet was offered,--she who in her early days was the +celebrated belle Elizabeth Gunning. There is a waterway of this +description in Lancashire more remarkable in some respects even than +the duke's canal--that one called the Leeds and Liverpool, the +Lancashire portion of which curls round from the great seaport by way +of Ormskirk, Southport, Wigan, Chorley, Burnley, and Colne, where the +Yorkshire boundary is crossed. Near the towns, and especially in the +south-west and south-east, these useful highways are dreary and +uninteresting; but in rural districts, such as they must needs +traverse, often for lengths of many miles, the borders sometimes +acquire an unlooked-for picturesqueness, and are gaily dressed with +wild-flowers. In any case they never fail in possession of the rude +charms of the gliding boat, the slow-paced horse, and artless guide. +The Lancashire railway system, it may be remarked, extends to within a +trifle of 600 miles. + + + + +VI + +PECULIARITIES OF CHARACTER, DIALECT, AND PASTIMES + + +The primitive Lancashire character--industrious, frugal, sanguine, +persevering, inflexible in determination--has already been sketched in +brief. Some additional features, observable more particularly among +the operatives and away in the country, deserve notice, the more so +since it is in a people's average temperament that the key is usually +found to their pursuits in playtime--after the songs, the most +interesting chapter in a local history. The sum total of the private +morals of working Lancashire probably does not differ _pro rata_ from +that which would be disclosed by a census of any other county. So with +the manners and customs, for although in Lancashire the suavity of the +South is soon missed, and though there is little touching of the hat +or saying of "Sir," the absence of a courteous spirit is more +apparent than real, and in any case is amply compensated by a +thoroughness of kindly sentiment which more polished communities do +not always share. The "factory-folk," the colliers, and others, are +usually considered turbulent and given to outrages. They are not so by +nature. Though often rough, self-willed, and obstinate, the working +population as a whole is too thoroughly Saxon for the riotousness one +looks for while in the presence of the Celt. Social conflicts, when +they arise, are set on foot by mischief-makers and noisy idlers whose +personal interest it is to promote antagonisms. Save for these +veritable "disturbers of the peace" the probability is that there +would be few or none of the "strikes" and "turn-outs" which bring so +much misery to the unfortunate women and children who have no say in +the matter. The people who "strike" are in the mass more to be pitied +than held chargeable with love of disorder, for, as a rule, they have +been cruelly misled into the notion that it is the master's interest +to pay as little as possible for their labour, the truth being that +for his own sake he pays them the utmost the business will justify, so +that they shall be strong enough, healthy enough, cheerful and +good-tempered enough, to work with a will, thus augmenting his +personal profits. Every master of common-sense understands the +principle, and _does_ so pay. It may be useful to remind the reader +that the profits made by a Lancashire "cotton-lord" differ totally in +their composition from the payment received for his work by an artist, +a physician, or a barrister. The cotton-manufacturer's profits consist +of an infinite number of particles, an atom per head on the work of +500, and often 1000 assistants. To the outside and afar-off public, +who hear of contentions over pennies, the sum seems nothing, and the +man who refuses the penny a sordid fellow. But to the employer it very +soon means hundreds of pounds, and represents perhaps half a year's +income. + +In Lancashire, whatever may be the case elsewhere, the people who +"strike" are deceived in no slight measure through their own honesty +and sincerity of purpose. One of the original characteristics of the +county is to be fair and unsuspecting; no people in the world have a +stronger dislike of deceit; one of the reasons why a genuine +Lancashire man can usually be trusted is, that he is so little +inclined to overstate or misrepresent. The very circumstance that wins +our esteem thus renders him vulnerable. Disposed to be honest +themselves, the operatives fall so much more readily a prey to +unscrupulous agitators. It is amusing, at the same time, to note how +soon, when he detects an impostor, a Lancashire man will put him out +of countenance; and how quick he is, in excellent balance, to perceive +the meritorious, either in person or subject, and, perceiving, to +appreciate. + +A remarkable instance of the promotion of strikes by mischief-makers +occurred at the commencement of the spring of 1881, when the colliers +stood out for six weeks, at a loss to themselves of no less than +£250,000 in wages, such as otherwise they would have earned. The +chairman of the London and North-Western Railway Company explained it +at the shareholders' meeting on 24th July, pointing out at the same +time the immense collateral harm inflicted: + + "They might remember that at the beginning of the year there + was a settlement made with the colliers of Lancashire and their + employers with regard to a mutual insurance fund against + accident; but a Member of Parliament went down and persuaded + these poor, unhappy people that they had better not accept it, + but take care of themselves. He also persuaded them to make a + strike, the result of which was disaster to every one. Prices + did not go up, and unless prices went up wages could not; and + the men afterwards suffered great distress. From this cause + they estimated that the Company had lost traffic to the amount + of about £100,000." + +Another result was the permanent loss of an important market to the +local colliery proprietors. Many thousands of tons of Lancashire +steam-coal were previously being sent weekly to Birkenhead; but during +the stoppage of the Wigan collieries the coal masters of North and +South Wales obtained possession of the market, and the quantity now +sent to Birkenhead is confined to only a few hundreds of tons. The +general question as to strikes, and of the kind of grievances that may +sometimes be not unreasonably complained of, is no doubt a very large +and complex one. But whatever may be the case elsewhere, it is +impossible for the "strikers" to deny that in the aggregate, and in +the long run, the tendency of the Lancashire masters' doings is to +create and diffuse social happiness among the employed. It is the +master's interest that his people should be not only strong and +healthy and good workmen, but good men. Comfortable homes are prepared +for their families. Schools were provided by innumerable Lancashire +masters long before they were required to do so by law. Many an +employer is noted for the pains he takes, and the money he spends, +with a view to the operatives' enjoyments. + +During the continuance of these ill-advised "strikes," and when the +depression of trade--quite as distasteful to the master as to the +man--involves "short time"--four or five days' work in the week, or +even less, instead of six, another capital feature of the Lancashire +character comes to the front. No people in the world are capable of +profounder fortitude. Patience under suffering never fails. Though +pinched by hunger, such is the manly and womanly pride of the +Lancashire operatives that they care less about privations than to be +constrained to surrender any portion, however trifling, of their +independence. That the large-hearted and intelligent among mankind are +always the last to complain in the hour of trial no one needs telling. +People of this character are probably more numerous everywhere than +may be thought, for the simple reason that they are the least likely +to be heard of; but it is worth putting on paper that no better +illustrations are to be found than exist in plenty in working +Lancashire. It is refreshing also to note the hearty kindness of the +Lancashire operatives one to another in time of distress. Not upon +"Trades' Union" principles, but upon the broad and unselfish basis of +strong, natural, human sympathy, familiar to the friendly visitor; and +which, when elevated, as it often is, by religion, and warmed and +expanded by personal affection, becomes so beautiful that in its +presence all short-comings are forgotten. These good qualities are +unfolded very specially on the occurrence of a terrible accident, +such as a coal-pit explosion. In the yearning to be foremost in help +to rescue; in the gentleness, the deference to authority, the +obedience to discipline, the resignation then exhibited,--this last +coming not of indifference, but of calmness,--a capacity is plainly +shown for the highest conceivable moral development. + +_The Dialect._--The original county dialect of Lancashire is of +twofold interest. Still heard among the rustics, it is peculiarly +valuable to the student of the English language. "Our South Lancashire +speech," says its most accomplished interpreter, "is second to none in +England in the vestiges which it contains of the tongue of other +days.... To explain Anglo-Saxon there is no speech so original and +important as our own South Lancashire _patois_."[26] To the ears of +strangers who know nothing about it the sound is often uncouth and +barbarous. That it is far from being so is proved by the use long made +of this dialect for lyric poetry and for tales both racy and +pathetic.[27] There is conclusive evidence also of its sweet and +meaningful pathos in the resorting to it in times of deep emotion by +people of the highest culture, who then unconsciously throw aside the +learning and the vocabulary of school and college for the simplicity +that never fails to touch the heart. The titles of the stories hold a +conspicuous place in Mr. Axon's list of the no fewer than 279 +publications illustrative of the general subject of the Lancashire +dialect;[28] the literature of which, he justly remarks in the +introduction, is richer than that of the popular speech of any other +English county. This is so much the more noteworthy since, with the +famous manufacturing epoch of 1785, everything belonging to primitive +Lancashire began to experience change and decay. In a certain sense it +may be said that the dialect has not only survived unhurt, but has +risen, during the last thirty or forty years, to a position worthy of +the native talent; and that the latter, in days to come, will have no +better commemoration than the metrical literature. Two particulars at +once arrest attention. No English dialect more abounds in interesting +archaisms; and certainly not one is so little tainted with expressions +of the nature of slang.[29] + + [26] _On the South Lancashire Dialect_. By Thomas Heywood, + F.S.A. Chetham Society. Vol. lvii. pp. 8, 36. + + [27] _Vide_ Mr. George Milner, "On the Lancashire Dialect + considered as a Vehicle for Poetry," _Manchester Literary Club + Papers_, vol. i. p. 20. 1875. + + [28] _Vide_ Mr. George Milner, "On the Lancashire Dialect + considered as a Vehicle for Poetry," _Manchester Literary Club + Papers_, Appendix to the vol. for 1876. + + [29] The modern slang of great towns is of course quite a + different thing from the ancient dialect of a rural population. + Affected misspellings, as of "kuntry" for country, are also to + be distinguished _in toto_ from the phonetic representation of + sounds purely dialectical. + +Rochdale occupies the centre of the most distinctively +Lancashire-dialect region. As ordinarily employed, the phrase vaguely +denotes the rural speech of the manufacturing districts. But beyond +the Ribble, and more particularly beyond the Lune, there is +unmistakable variation from the genuine Lancashire of "Tim Bobbin"; +and in Furness there is an echo of Cumberland. In genuine Lancashire +we have first the old-accustomed permutations of the vowels. Then come +elisions of consonants, transpositions, and condensations of entire +syllables, whereby words are often oddly transformed. Ancient idioms +attract us next; and lastly, there are many of the energetic old +words, unknown to current dictionaries, which five centuries ago were +an integral part of the English vernacular. The vowel permutations are +illustrated in the universal "wayter," "feyther," "reet," "oi," "aw," +"neaw," used instead of water, father, right, I, now. "Owt" stands for +aught, "nowt" for naught. Elisions and contractions appear in a +thousand such forms as "dunnoyo" for "do you not," "welly" for +"well-nigh." "You" constantly varies to thee and thou, whence the +common "artu" for "art thou," "wiltohameh" for "wilt thou have me." A +final _g_ is seldom heard; there is also a characteristic rejection +of the guttural in such words as scratched, pronounced "scrat." The +transpositions are as usual, though it is only perhaps in Lancashire +that gaily painted butterflies are "brids," and that the little +field-flowers elsewhere called birds' eye are "brid een." + +The old grammatical forms and the archaic words refer the careful +listener, if not to the Anglo-Saxon of King Alfred, at all events to +the _Canterbury Tales_; they take us pleasantly to Chaucer, and +Chaucer in turn introduces us agreeably to Lancashire, where "she" is +always "hoo," through abiding in the primitive "he, heo, hit;" and +where the verbs still end in _n_: "we, ye, they loven," as in the +Prologue-- + + "For he had geten him yet no benefice." + +Very interesting is it also when the ear catches the antiquated _his_ +and _it_ where to-day we say _it_ and _its_. Often supposed to +correspond with the poetical use of "his" in personifications (often +found in the authorised version of Scripture), the Lancashire +employment of _his_ is in truth the common Shaksperean one, _his_ in +the county palatine being the simple genitive of the old English +_hit_, as in _Hamlet_, iv. 7-- + + "There is a willow grows aslant the brook, + That shows _his_ hoar leaves in the glassy stream." + +So with the obsolete possessive _it_. When a Lancashire woman says, +"Come to it mammy!" how plain the reminder of the lines in _King +John_-- + + Do, child, go to _it_ grandam, child; + Give grandam kingdom, and _it_ grandam will + Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig; + There's a good grandam. + +Archaic words are illustrated in many a familiar phrase. A Lancashire +girl in quest of something "speers" for it (Anglo-Saxon _spirian_, to +inquire). If alarmed, she "dithers"; if comely and well conducted, she +behaves herself "farrantly"; if delicately sensitive, she is "nesh"-- + + It seemeth for love his herte is tendre and neshe. + +So when the poor "clem" for want of food--"Hard is the choice," says +Ben Jonson, "when the valiant must eat their arms or clem." Very many +others which, though not obsolete in polite society, are seldom heard, +help to give flavour to this inviting old dialect. To embrace is in +Lancashire to "clip"; to move house is to "flit"; when the rain +descends heavily, "it teems"; rather is expressed by "lief" or +"liefer," as in _Troilus and Cresseide_-- + + Yet had I levre unwist for sorrow die. + +_Pastimes and Recreations._--The pastimes and recreations of the +Lancashire people fall, as elsewhere, under two distinct heads; those +which arise upon the poetic sentiment, the love of purity, order, and +beauty, and those which come of simple desire to be entertained. Where +poesy has a stronghold, we have never long to wait for the "touches of +sweet harmony"; hence a characteristic of working Lancashire, +immemorial as to date, is devotedness to music. In all Europe it would +be difficult to find a province where the first and finest of the fine +arts is better understood, or more reverently practised. High-class +sacred music--German music in particular--fills many a retired cottage +in leisure hours with solace and joy; and very generally in villages, +as well as in the large towns, there are clubs and societies +instituted purely for its promotion. "On the wild hills, where whin +and heather grow, it is not uncommon to meet working-men with their +musical instruments on their way to take part in some village oratorio +many miles distant.... Up in the forest of Rossendale, between Derply +Moor and the wild hill called Swinshaw, there is a little lone valley, +a green cup in the mountains, called Dean. The inhabitants of this +valley are so notable for their love of music that they are known all +through the neighbouring country as 'Th' Deign layrocks.'"[30] In +many of the large country manufacturing establishments--the +printworks, for instance--the operatives have regularly organised +"bands,"--the employers giving encouragement,--the value of which, in +regard to moral culture, is shown in the members being usually the +trusted men. + + [30] _i.e._ the larks, or singing birds, of Dean. Edwin Waugh, + _Sketches_, p. 199. + +The same primitive inclination towards the poetic would seem to +underlie the boundless Lancashire love of flowers and gardens. Not +that the passion is universal. The chief seat, as of the intrinsically +best of the dialect, is the south-eastern part of the county: the +portion abutting on Yorkshire is unfavourably cold, and though in the +north occur fine examples of individual enthusiasm, there is little +illustration of confederated work. Societies strong and skilful enough +to hold beautiful exhibitions are dotted all over the congenial parts +of the cotton district. They attend as diligently to the economic as +to the decorative; one never knows whether most to admire the onions, +the beans, and the celery, or the splendid asters, dahlias, and +phloxes--in many parts there is ancient renown also for gooseberries. +After the manner of the wise in other matters, the operative +Lancashire gardeners, if they cannot grow the things they might +prefer, give their whole hearts to liking those they have at command. +The rivalry and ambition in regard to gooseberries is unique. While +the fruit is ripening upon the bushes it is sacrilege for a stranger +to approach within a distance of many yards. On cold and hurtful +nights the owner sits up to watch it, like a nurse with an invalid, +supplying or removing defence according to the conditions, and on the +show day the excitement compares in its innocent measure with that of +Epsom. The exhibitors gather round a table: the chairman sits with +scales and weights before him, calling in turn for the heaviest red, +the heaviest yellow, and so on, every eye watching the balance; the +end of all being a bright new kettle for the wife at home. + +Many of the operative gardeners are assiduous cultivators of +"alpines," the vegetable _bijouterie_ of the mountains; others are +enamoured of ferns, and these last are usually possessed of good +botanical knowledge. The beginning would seem to date from the time of +Elizabeth, thus from the time of Shakspere, when other immigrations of +the Flemish weavers took place. Things of home too dear to leave +behind them, they brought with them their favourite flowers, the tulip +and the polyanthus. These early growers would doubtless for a time be +shyly looked upon as aliens. Nothing is known definitely of the work +of the ensuing century, but there is certain proof that by 1725 +Lancashire had already become distinguished for its "florists' +flowers," the cultivation lying almost entirely in the hands of the +artisans, who have never for an instant slackened, though to-day the +activity is often expressed in new directions. + +It is owing, without doubt, to the example of the operative Lancashire +gardeners of the last century and a half that floriculture at the +present moment holds equal place with classical music among the +enjoyments also of the wealthy; especially those whose early family +ties were favourable to observation of the early methods. More +greenhouses, hothouses, and conservatories; more collections of +valuable orchids and other plants of special beauty and lustre exist +in South Lancashire, and especially in the immediate neighbourhood of +Manchester, than in any other district away from the metropolis. +Orchid culture was practised here, as in Macclesfield and Birmingham, +long before what orchids are was even a question in many parts. The +name of one of the noblest species yet discovered, the _Cattleya +Mossiæ_, commemorates an old Liverpool merchant, Mr. John Moss, one +of the first to grow these matchless flowers; while in that of the +_Anguloa Clowesii_ we are reminded of the beautiful collection formed +at Higher Broughton by the Rev. John Clowes, which, after the decease +of the possessor, went to Kew. A very remarkable and encouraging fact +is that orchids, the queenliest and most fragrant of indoor flowers, +can, like auriculas, with skilful management be brought to the highest +possible state of perfection in an atmosphere in which many plants can +barely exist--the smoky and soot-laden one of Manchester. The proof +was supplied by the late Dr. R. F. Ainsworth of Cliff Point, to whom +flower-show honours were as familiar as to Benjamin Simonite of +Sheffield, that astonishing old florist whose auriculas are grown +where the idea of a garden seems absurd. + +These very practical proofs of the life and soundness of the poetic +sentiment in working Lancashire prepare us for a county feature in its +way quite as interesting and remarkable--the wide-spread and very +deep-seated local taste for myth, legend, and superstition, which, in +truth, is no other than the poetic sentiment uncultured and gone +astray. Faith in "folklore" is by no means to be confounded with inane +credulity. The folk-lore of a civilised nation is the _débris_ of the +grand old spirit-worship--vague, but exquisitely picturesque, and +figuratively significant, which, in the popular religion of the +pre-Christian world, filled every sweet and romantic scene with +invisible beings--Dryads, who loved the woodland; Naïads, that sported +in the stream and waterfall; Oreads, who sat and sang where now we +gather their own fragrant _Oreopteris_,[31] and which assigned maidens +even to the sea--the Nereids, never yet lost. "Nothing," it has been +well said, "that has at any time had a meaning for mankind ever +absolutely dies." How much of the primeval faith shall survive with +any particular race or people--to what extent it shall be +transformed--depends upon their own culture, spiritual insight, and +ideas of the omnipresence of the Almighty, of which the fancies as to +the nymphs, etc., declared a dim recognition: it is affected also very +materially by the physical character and complexion of their country. +This has been illustrated in the completest manner as regards the +eastern borders of Lancashire by the accomplished author of +_Scarsdale_[32] already named: the influence of the daily spectacle of +the wild moor, the evening walk homewards through the shadowy and +silent ravine, the sweet mysteries of the green and ferny clough, with +its rushing stream, all telling powerfully, he shows us with perennial +grace, upon the imagination of a simple-hearted race, constitutionally +predisposed towards the marvellous, and to whom it was nourishment. +Nobody is really happy without illusions of some kind, and none can be +more harmless than belief in the mildly supernatural. The local fairy +tales having now been pretty well collected and classified,[33] it +remains only to recognise their immense ethnographical value, since +there is probably not a single legend or superstition afloat in +Lancashire that, like an ancient coin, does not refer the curious +student to distant lands and long past ages. Lancashire, we must +remember, has been successively inhabited, or occupied, more or less, +by a Celtic people,--by Romans, Danes, and Anglo-Saxons,--all of whom +have left their footprints. No one can reside a year in Lancashire +without hearing of its "boggarts"--familiar in another form in the +Devonshire pixies, and in the "merry wanderer of the night," Titania's +"sweet Puck." Absurd to the logician, the tales and the terrors +connected with the boggarts carry with them, like all other fables, a +profound interior truth--the truth for which, as Carlyle says, "reason +will always inquire, while half-reason stands indifferent and mocking." +The nucleus of the boggart idea is, that the power of the human mind, +exercised with firmness and consistency, triumphs over all obstacles, +and reduces even spirits to its will; while, contrariwise, the weak +and undetermined are plagued and domineered over by the very same imps +whom the resolute can direct and control. So with the superstitions as +to omens. When in spring the anglers start for a day's enjoyment, they +look anxiously for "pynots," or magpies, _one_ being unlucky, while +_two_ portend good fortune. The simple fact, so the ornithologists +tell us, is that in cold and ungenial weather prejudicial to sport +with the rod, one of every pair of birds always stays in the nest, +whereas in fine weather, good for angling, both birds come out. +Illustrations of this nature might be multiplied a hundred-fold, and +to unabating advantage. Time is never ill-spent upon interpretation of +the mythic. The effort, at all events, is a kindly one that seeks-- + + To unbind the charms that round slight fables lie, + And show that truth is truest poësy. + + [31] _Lastrea Oreopteris_, "sweet mountain-fern," abundant in + South-East Lancashire. + + [32] The late Sir James Philips Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart. + + [33] _Lancashire Folk-lore._ By John Harland and T. T. + Wilkinson. 1867. + +The dialect itself is full of metaphor, images of great beauty not +infrequently turning up. Some of them seem inherited from the +primevals. That light and sound are reciprocally representative needs, +for instance, no saying. From the earliest ages the idea of music has +always accompanied that of sunrise. Though to-day the heavens declare +the glory of God silently, in the beginning "the morning stars sang +together":--old Homer's "rosy-fingered morn" is in Lancashire the +"skryke" or cry "of day." + +Though much that is deplorably brutal occurs among the lowest +Lancashire classes, the character of the popular pastimes is in +general free from stain; and the amusements themselves are often +eminently interesting, since in honest and _bona fide_ rustic sports +there is always archæology. The tales they tell of the past now +constitute in truth the chief attraction of the older ones. The social +influences of the railway system have told no less upon the +village-green than on the streets of cities; any picture that may now +be drawn must needs owe its best colours to the retrospective. +Contemplating what remains of them, it is pleasant, however, to note +the intense vitality of customs and ceremonials having their root in +feelings of _reverence_; such, for example, as the annual +"rush-bearing" still current in many parts, and not unknown even in +the streets of modern Manchester. That in the olden time, prior to the +introduction of carpets, the practice was to strew floors and indoor +pavements with green rushes every one knows. Among the charges brought +against Cardinal Wolsey was his extravagance in the too frequent and +ostentatious spreading of clean ones. Employed also in churches and +cathedrals on the anniversary of the feast of the saint to whom the +building was dedicated, when renewed it was with special solemnity. In +an age when processions full of pomp and splendour were greatly +delighted in, no wonder that the renewal became an excuse for a showy +pageant; and thus, although to-day we have only the rush-cart, the +morris-dancers, the drums and trumpets, and the flags--the past, in +association, lives over again. Small events and great ones are seldom +far asunder. In the magnificent "rush-bearing" got up for the +delectation of James I. when at Hoghton Tower, Sunday, 17th August +1617, lay one of the secret causes of the Stuart downfall. Sports on +the Sabbath day had been forbidden by his predecessor. James, +admitting as argument that the cause of the reformed religion had +suffered by the prohibition, gave his "good people of Lancashire" +leave to resume them. The Puritans took offence; the wound was +deepened by Charles; and when the time of trial came it was +remembered. + +"Pace-egging" (a corruption of Pasche or Pasque-egging) is another +immemorial Lancashire custom, observed, as the term indicates, at +Easter, the egg taking its place as an emblem of the Resurrection. +Perverted and degraded, though in the beginning decorous, if not +pious, the original house-to-house visitation has long had engrafted +upon it a kind of rude drama supposed to represent the combat of St. +George and the Dragon--the victory of good over evil, of life over +death. So with "Simnel-Sunday," a term derived from the Anglo-Saxon +_symblian_, to banquet, or _symbel_, a feast, a "simnel" being +literally "banquet-bread."[34] This corresponds with the +Midlent-Sunday of other counties, and, particularly in Bury, is a time +of special festivity. The annual village "wakes" observed everywhere +in Lancashire, and equivalent to the local rush-bearings, partake, it +is to be feared, of the general destiny of such things. Happily the +railway system has brought with it an inestimable choice of pleasure +for the rational. The emphatically staple enjoyment of the working +Lancashire population to-day consists in the Whitsun-week trip to +some distant place of wonder or wholesome gratification, the seaside +always securing the preference. In Lancashire it is not nearly or so +much Whitsun-Monday or Whitsun-Tuesday as the whole of the four +following days. In the south-eastern part of the county, Manchester +particularly, business almost disappears; and very delightful is it +then to observe how many little parties of the toiling thrifty are +away to North Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and even to France. The +factory system always implies _masses_. The people work in masses, and +suffer in masses, and rejoice in masses. In Whitsun-week, fifty miles, +a hundred miles away, we find in a score of places five hundred, +perhaps a thousand. There are salutary home-pleasures ready besides. +Manchester does wisely in holding its principal flower-show during +this great annual holiday, drawing, in fair weather, some 50,000 +visitors. The example is a good one, since with the growing +disposition of the English people to enjoy their holidays, it behoves +all those who have the management of places of healthy recreation to +supply the most humanising that may be possible, and thus mitigate the +influence of the hurtful ones. The staple game of muscular Lancashire +was formerly that of bowls. A history of Manchester would be +incomplete without plenty of lively chat about it; and in regard to +the more modern pastime, the cricket match, it is no vaunt to add that +while the chief cricketing in England lies in the hands of only nine +out of its forty counties, the premiership has once at all events, say +in 1879, been claimed as fairly by Lancashire as by its great rival on +the banks of the Trent. Nottinghamshire, moreover, had held its +position without half the difficulties in the way that Lancashire had +to contend with. + + [34] In the Anglo-Saxon version of the Old Testament there are + many examples of derivative words. In Exodus xxiii. 15, 16, + feasting-time is _symbel-tid_; xxii. 5, a feast-day is + _symbel-dæg_. In Psalm lxxxi. 3, we have _symelnys_, a + feast-day. + + + + +VII + +THE INLAND SCENERY SOUTH OF LANCASTER + + +Scenery more diversified than that of Lancashire, taking the Duddon as +its northern boundary, does not exist in any English county. For the +present we shall keep to the portion south of the Lune, deferring the +Lake District to the next chapter, to which may also be left the +little that has to be said concerning the shore south of that river. +The eastern parts have attractions quite as decided as those of the +north, though of a character totally different. Every acknowledged +element of the picturesque may be discovered there, sometimes in +abundance. The only portion of the county entirely devoid of landscape +beauty is that which is traversed by the Liverpool and Southport +Railway, not unjustly regarded as the dullest in the kingdom. The best +that can be said of this dreary district is, that at intervals it is +relieved by the cheerful hues of cultivation. + +[Illustration: BLACKSTONE EDGE] + +From Liverpool northwards to the banks of the Ribble, excepting at +some distance from the sea, and eastwards to Manchester, the ground is +nearly level. Nothing must be expected where it borders upon the +Mersey above the estuary. To quote the precise terms employed by +Pennant, "The Mersey is by no means a pleasing water." The country +bordering upon it, he might have added, appeals very slenderly to the +imagination; and most assuredly, since the old topographer passed +along, Nature has made no change for the better as regards the river, +while man has done his best to efface any pretty features it may once +have owned. But we have not to go far from the modern Tyre in order to +find hills and the picturesque. Newborough and the vicinity present a +remarkable contrast to the plains beneath. Here the country begins to +grow really beautiful, and thenceforward it constantly improves. Some +of the slopes are treeless, and smooth as a lawn; others are broken by +deep and wooded glades, with streamlets bound for the Douglas (an +affluent of the Ribble), one of the loveliest dells of the kind in +South Lancashire occurring near Gathurst. On the summits, at Ashurst +particularly, a sweet and pleasant air never fails to "invite our +gentle senses." Here too we get our first lesson in what may be truly +said, once for all, of Lancashire--that wherever the ground is +sufficiently bold and elevated we are sure not only of fine air and an +extensive prospect, but a glorious one. At Ashurst, while Liverpool is +not too far for the clear discerning of its towers and spires, in the +south are plainly distinguished the innumerable Delamere pines, rising +in dark masses like islands out of the sea; and far away, beyond the +Dee, the soft swell of the hills of North Wales, Moel Vamma never +wanting. This celebrated eminence, almost as well known in South +Lancashire as in Denbighshire, may be descried even at Eccles, four or +five miles from the Manchester Exchange. + +Eastwards of the great arterial line of railway which, running from +Manchester to Lancaster through Bolton and Preston, almost exactly +bisects the county, the scenery is rich in the eloquent features which +come of wild and interminable surges of broad and massive hill, often +rocky, with heights of fantastic form, the irregularities giving +token, in their turn, of deep chasms and clefts, that subdivide into +pretty lateral glens and moist hollows crowded with ferns. The larger +glens constitute the "cloughs" so famous in local legend, and the +names of which recur so frequently in Lancashire literature. As +Yorkshire is approached, the long succession of uplands increases in +volume, rising at last in parts to a maximum altitude of nearly 1900 +feet. Were a survey possible from overhead, the scene would be that of +a tempest-ruffled ocean, the waves suddenly made solid. + +[Illustration: THE LAKE AT LITTLEBOROUGH] + +Very much of this vast hill-surface consists of desolate, heathery, +unsheltered moorland. The amount of unreclaimed land still existing in +Lancashire, and which must needs remain for ever as it is, constitutes +in truth one of the striking characteristics of the county. Not merely +in the portion now specially under notice are there cold and savage +wastes such as laugh the plough to scorn. The "fells" of the more +northern districts present enormous breadths of similar character, +incapable of supporting more than the poorest aboriginal vegetation, +affording only the scantiest pasturage for a few scattered +mountain-sheep, thus leaving the farmer without a chance. In itself +the fact of course is in no degree remarkable, since there are plenty +of hopeless acres elsewhere. The singular circumstance is the +association of so much barrenness with the stupendous industries of +the busiest people in the world. It is but in keeping after all with +the general idea of old England,-- + + "This precious gem, set in the silver sea,"-- + +the pride of which consists in the constant blending of the most +diverse elements. If we have grim and hungry solitudes, rugged and +gloomy wildernesses, not very far off, be sure there is counterpoise +in placid and fruitful vale and mead. Lancashire may not supply the +cornfield: the soil and climate, though good for potatoes, are +unfriendly to the cerealia; there is no need either to be too +exacting; if the sickle has no work, there is plenty for the scythe +and the spade. + +[Illustration: WATERFALL IN CLIVIGER] + +A few miles beyond Bolton the hills begin to rise with dignity. Here +we find far-famed and far-seen Rivington Pike, conspicuous, like +Ashurst, through ascending almost immediately out of the plain. "Pike" +is in Lancashire, and in parts of the country closely adjacent, the +equivalent of "peak," the highest point of a hilly neighbourhood, +though by no means implying an exactly conical or pyramidal figure, +and very generally no more than considerable elevation, as in the case +of the "Peak of Derbyshire." Rivington well deserves its name, +presenting from many points of view one of those beautiful, evenly +swelling, and gently rounded eminences which the ancient Greeks were +accustomed to call [Greek: titthoi] and [Greek: mastoi], as in the +case of the classic mound at Samos which Callimachus connects so +elegantly with the name of the lady Parthenia. There are spots, +however, where the mamelon disappears. From all parts of the summit +the prospect is delightful. Under our feet, unrolled like a carpet, is +a verdant flat which stretches unbrokenly to the sea-margin, twenty +miles distant, declared, nevertheless, by a soft, sweet gleam of +silver or molten gold, according to the position of the sun in the +heavens. The estuary of the Ribble, if the tide be in, renews that +lovely shining; and beyond, in the remote distance, if the atmosphere +be fairly clear, say fifty or sixty miles away, may be discerned the +grand mountains that cast their shadows into Coniston. Working +Lancashire, though it has lakes of its own, has made others! From the +summit of Rivington we now look down upon half a dozen immense +reservoirs, so located that to believe them the work of man is +scarcely possible. Fed by the inflow of several little streams, and no +pains taken to enforce straight margins, except when necessary, these +ample waters exemplify in the best manner how art and science are able +at times to recompense Nature-- + + "Leaving that beautiful which always was, + And making that which was not." + +After heavy and continuous rain, the overflow gives rise to musical +waterfalls. Up in the glen called Deanwood there is also a natural +and nearly permanent cascade.[35] + + [35] These vast reservoirs belong to the Liverpool Waterworks, + which first used them in January 1857. The surface, when they + are full, is 500 acres. Another great sheet of water, a mile in + length, for local service, occurs at Entwistle, near Turton. + +The eastern slopes of the Rivington range descend into the spacious +valley which, beginning just outside Manchester, extends nearly to +Agricola's Ribchester, and in the Roman times was a soldiers' +thoroughfare. In this valley lie Turton, Darwen, and Blackburn. The +hills, both right and left, again supply prospects of great extent, +and are especially attractive through containing many fine recesses, +sometimes as round as amphitheatres. Features of much the same kind +pertain to the nearly parallel valley in which Summerseat nestles, +with the pleasurable additions that come of care to preserve and to +compensate in case of injury. By this route we may proceed, for +variety, to Whalley, the Mecca of the local archæologist; thence on to +Clitheroe, and to the foot of famous Pendle. At Whalley we find "Nab's +Hill," to ascend which is pastime enough for a summer's evening. +Inconsiderable in comparison with some of its neighbours, this +favoured eminence gives testimony once again to the advantages +conferred by situation and surroundings, when the rival claims +consist in mere bulk and altitude. Lord Byron might have intended it +in the immortal lines: + + "Green and of mild declivity, the last, + As 'twere the cape of a long ridge of such, + Save that there was no sea to lave its base, + But a most living landscape." + +Westwards, from the summit the eye ranges, as at Rivington, over a +broad champaign, the fairest in the district, the turrets of princely +Stonyhurst rising amid a green throng of oaks and beeches. In the +north it rests upon the flanks of airy Longridge, the immediate scene +accentuated by the ruined keep of the ancient castle of the De Lacys. +On the right towers Pendle itself, most massive of English mountains, +its "broad bare back" literally "upheaved into the sky"; and +completing the harmonious picture,--since no landscape is perfect +without water,--below runs the babbling Calder. Whalley Nab has been +planted very liberally with trees. How easy it is for good taste to +confer embellishment! + +Pendle, the most distinguished and prominent feature in the physical +geography of Mid-Lancashire, is not, like mountains in general, broken +by vast defiles, but fashioned after the manner of the Dundry range in +Somersetshire, presenting itself as a huge and almost uniform green +mound, several miles in length, and with a nearly level sky-line. +Dundry, however, is much less steep. The highest point is at the upper +or north-east extremity, stated by the Ordnance Survey to be 1850 feet +above the sea. The superficial extent is estimated at 15,000 statute +acres, or about 25 square miles, including the great gorge upon +the southern side called Ogden Clough--a broad, deep, and +mysterious-looking hollow, which contributes not a little to the fine +effect of this gigantic hill as seen from the Yorkshire side. + +The slope which looks upon Yorkshire marks the boundary of the famous +"forest of Pendle," a territory of nearly 25,000 acres--not to be +understood as now or at any former period covered with great and aged +trees, but simply as a tract which, when the property was first +apportioned, lay _ad foras_, or outside the lands deemed valuable for +domestic purposes, and which was left undisputed to the wild animals +of the country. Immense breadths of land of this description existed +in England in early times, and in no part was the proportion larger +than in Lancashire, where many of the ancient "forests" still retain +their primitive appellation, and are peculiarly interesting in the +marked survival among the inhabitants of the language, manners, and +customs of their ancestors. Generally speaking, these ancient +"forests" are distinguished also by dearth of primitive architecture +and of rude primeval fences, the forest laws having forbidden all +artificial hindrances to the chase, which in the refuges thus afforded +to "deer," both large and small, had its most ample and enjoyable +scope. + +From the summit of Pendle, all that is seen from Whalley Nab, now +diminutive, is renewed on a scale quite proportionate to its own +nobleness. The glistening waters of the Irish Sea in the far west; in +the north the mountains of Westmoreland; proximately the smiling +valleys of the Ribble, the Hodder, and the Calder; and, turning to the +east, the land as far towards the German Ocean as the power of the eye +can reach. When the atmosphere is in its highest state of transparency +even the towers of York Minster become visible. Well might the old +historian of Whalley commend the prospect from mighty Pendle as one +upon which "the eye, the memory, and the imagination rest with equal +delight." To the same author we owe the showing that the common +Lancashire term Pendle-_hill_ is incorrect, seeing that the sense of +"hill" is already conveyed, as in Penmanmawr and Penyghent. "Nab's +Hill" would seem to involve a corresponding repetition, "nab" being a +form of the Scandinavian _nebbé_ or _nibba_, a promontory--as in +Nab-scar, near Rydal, and Nab-crag, in Patterdale. + +All these grand peaks belong essentially to the range reached another +time by going from Manchester to Littleborough, ascending from which +place we find ourselves upon Blackstone Edge, so lofty (1553 feet), +and, when climbed, so impressive in all its circumstances, that we +seem to be pacing the walls of an empire. All the topmost part is +moorland; below, or upon the sides, there is abundance of the +picturesque; precipitous crags and rocky knolls, receding dells and +ravines, occurring frequently. Many of the dells in summer bear +witness to the descent in winter of furious torrents; the broad bed of +the now tiny streamlets that fall from ledge to ledge being strewed +with stones and boulders, evidently washed down from the higher +channel by the vehement water, heedlessly tossed about and then +abandoned. The desolate complexion of these winter-torrent gullies (in +Lancashire phrase "water-gaits") in its way is unique, though often +mitigated by the innumerable green fern-plumes upon the borders. The +naturalist's enjoyment is further quickened by the occurrence, not +infrequently, of fragments of calamites and other fossils. The +ascent to the crest is by no means arduous. Attaining it, provided +the atmosphere is free from mist, the prospect--now an old story--is +once again magnificent, and, as at Rivington, made perfect by water. +Nowhere perhaps in England has so much landscape beauty been provided +artificially and undesignedly by the construction of great reservoirs +as in the country of twenty miles radius around Manchester. The waters +at Lymm and Taxal belong respectively to Cheshire and Derbyshire. +Independently of those at Rivington, Lancashire excels both of them in +the romantic lake below Blackstone Edge, well known to every +pleasure-seeker as "Hollingworth." The measurement round the margin is +quite two miles; hills almost completely encircle it, and, as seen +from the edge, near Robin Hood's crags, so utterly is it detached from +all that pertains to towns and cities as to recall the remotest wilds +beyond the Tweed. Hollingworth Lake was constructed about ninety years +ago with a view to steady maintenance of the Rochdale Canal. Among the +hills upon the opposite or north-western side of the valley, Brown +Wardle, often named in story, is conspicuous; and adorning the lofty +general outline may be seen--best, perhaps, from near "Middleton +Junction"--another mamelon--this one believed in local story to be a +haunt of the maidens of the _Midsummer Night's Dream_. + +[Illustration: IN THE BURNLEY VALLEY] + +Looking westward from the Robin Hood pinnacles, the prospect includes +the valleys of the Roch and the Spodden--the last-named stream in +parts wild and wilful. At Healey its walls of rock appear to have been +riven at different times. Here, struggling through a lengthened and +tortuous cleft, and forming more than one lively cascade before losing +itself in the dingle below, so plainly does the water seem to have +forced a passage, asserting mastery over all impediments, that in the +vernacular this spot is called the "Thrutch." The first phrase heard +in a Lancashire crowd is, "Where are you thrutching?" The perennial +attrition of the broken and impending rocks causes many of them to +terminate in sharp ridges, and in one part has given birth to the +"Fairies' Chapel." The streams spoken of have their beginning in the +lofty grounds which intervene between Rochdale and Cliviger, and +include aspiring Thieveley Pike. Thieveley in the bygones served the +important use of a station for beacon-fires, signalling on the one +hand to Pendle, on the other to Buckton Castle. The prospect from the +top, 1474 feet above the sea, comprehends, to the north, almost the +whole of Craven, with Ingleborough, and the wilds of Trawden Forest. +The nearer portions of the Lake District mountains, now familiar, are +discernible; and on sunny evenings, when the river is full, once more +the bright-faced estuary of the Ribble. The view reaches also to North +Wales and Derbyshire, the extremities of this great map being quite +sixty miles asunder. + +Cliviger, after all, is the locality which most astonishes and +delights the visitor to this part of Lancashire. Soon after quitting +Rochdale, the railway passes through the great "Summit Tunnel," and so +into the Todmorden Valley, there very soon passing the frontier formed +by the Calder,[36] and entering Yorkshire. The valley is noted for its +scenery, new combinations of the most varied elements, rude but not +inhospitable, rising right and left in quick succession. Turning up +the Burnley Valley, we enter Cliviger proper: a district having a +circuit of nearly twenty miles, and presenting an endless variety of +the most romantic features possible to mingled rock and pastured +slope, constantly lifted to mountain-height, the charm of the huge +gray bluffs of projecting gritstone augmented in many parts by +abundance of trees, the predominant forms the graceful ones of larch, +birch, and mountain-ash. The trees are now very nearly a century old, +having been planted during the fifteen years ending with 1799, yet, to +appearance, still in the prime of their calm existence. A striking +characteristic of this admired valley is the frequent apparent +closing-in of the passage by protruding crags, which nevertheless soon +give way to verdant curves. Cliviger in every part is more or less +marked by crags and curves, so that we incessantly come upon vast +green bowls or hemispherical cavities, the bases of which change at +times into circular plateaux, at midsummer overlaid with carpets of +the prettiest botanical offspring of the province,-- + + "In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white, + Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery." + + [36] This, of course, is not the Calder seen at Whalley, there + being three rivers in Lancashire of the name--the West Calder, + the East Calder, and a little stream which enters the Wyre near + Garstang. The West Calder enters the Ribble half way between + Whalley and Stonyhurst; the eastern, after a course of forty + miles, joins the Aire in the neighbourhood of Wakefield. + +For introduction to these choice bits it is needful, of course, to +leave the main thoroughfares and take one of the innumerable by-paths +which lead away to the lonely and impressive silence of the moors, +which, though desolate and sometimes bleak, have a profoundly +delightful influence upon the mind. Their interest is heightened by +the portions which are vividly green with bog-moss, being the +birthplace of important streams. No slight matter is it to stand at +any time where rivers are cradled. Here the flow of water is at once +both east and westwards--a phenomenon witnessed several times in the +English Apennine, and always bidding the traveller pause awhile. The +Ribble and the Wharf begin this way; so do the Lune and the Swale: +playmates in childhood, then parting for ever. Similarly, in Cliviger +Dean the two Calders issue from the same fragment of watery waste, +destined immediately for opposite courses. Hard by, in a stream called +Erewell, at the foot of Derply Hill, on the verge of Rossendale, may +be seen the birthplace of the Manchester Irwell. + +The promise given at Newborough in regard to the scenery of East +Lancashire is thus perfectly fulfilled. It does not terminate either +with Cliviger, being renewed, after passing Pendle, all the way to the +borders of Westmoreland. Ward-stone, eight or nine miles south-east of +Lancaster, part of the Littledale Fells, has an altitude exceeding +even that of Pendle. + +Asking for the best portions of the Lancashire river scenery, +they are soon found, pertaining to streams not really its own--the +Lune, approaching from Westmoreland by way of Kirby Lonsdale, +to which place it gives name; and the Ribble, descending from +the high moorlands of Craven, first passing Ingleborough, then +Settle, and Bolton Abbey. The only two important streams which +actually rise within the confines of the county are the Wyre +and the much-enduring Irwell. Lancashire is rich in home-born +_minor_ streams, a circumstance said to be recognised in the ancient +British name of the district,--literally, according to Whitaker, the +"well-watered,"[37]--and many of these, the affluents in particular, +do, no doubt, lend themselves freely to the production of the +picturesque, as in the case of the Darwen,[38] which glides almost +without a sound beneath Hoghton Tower, joining the Ribble at Walton; +and the Wenning, which, after bathing the feet of a thousand +water-flags and forget-me-nots, strengthens the well-pleased Lune. +Tributaries,--the little primitive streamlets which swell the +affluents,--since they begin almost always among the mountains, are at +all times, all over the world, wherever they run, in their youth pure +and companionable. One joyous consideration there is open to us +always, namely, that if we go to the beginning of things we are fairly +well assured of purity; whatever may be the later history, the +fountain is usually a synonym for the undefiled, as very pleasantly +certified by the Erewell Springs; the beginnings of the unhappy Irwell +itself are clear and limpid. Still, as regards claims to high +distinction, the river scenery of Lancashire is that, as we have said, +which pertains to its welcome guests, the Ribble and the Lune. When +proud and wealthy Ribchester was in existence fifteen centuries ago, +there is reason to believe that the Ribble, for many miles above +Preston, was considerably broader and deeper than at present, or at +all events that the tide came very much farther up than it does +to-day. It did so as late as the time of Leland. The change, as +regards the bed of the river, would thus be exactly the reverse of the +helpful one to which modern Liverpool owes its harbour. England +nowhere contains scenery of its kind more suave than that of the +Ribble, from Ribchester upwards. In parts the current is impetuous. +Whether rapid or calm, it is the life of a peaceful dale, from which +the hills retire in the gentlest way imaginable, presenting as they +go, green, smooth faces fit for pasture; then, through the unexpected +changefulness which is always so much more congenial to the fancy than +repetition, even of the most excellent things, wooded banks and shaded +recesses, followed by more green lawns and woods again, the last +seeming to lean against the sky. When the outline drops sufficiently, +in the distance, according to the point of observation, rises proud +old Pendle, or Penyghent, or Wharnside. Near Mitton, where Yorkshire +darts so curiously into Lancashire, the channel is somewhat shallow. +Here, after a busy and romantic course of its own, the Hodder +surrenders its waters, thus in good time to take part in the wonderful +whirl, or "wheel," at Salesbury, a little lower down, an eddy of +nearly twenty yards in depth, and locally known as "Sale-wheel." If a +haven ever existed at the mouth of the Ribble, it has now disappeared. +The sands at the bar continually shift with high tides, so that +navigation is hazardous, and vessels of light draught can alone +attempt the passage. + + [37] It may not be amiss here to mention the names, in exact + order, of the Lancashire rivers, giving first those which enter + the sea, the affluents and their tributaries coming afterwards: + (1) The Mersey, formed of the union of the non-Lancashire Tame, + Etherowe, and Goyt. Affluents and tributaries--the Irwell, the + Roche, the Spodden, the Medlock, the Irk. (2) The Alt. (3) The + Ribble. Affluents and tributaries--the Douglas, the Golforden, + the Darwen, the West Calder, the Lostock, the Yarrow, the Brun. + (4) The Wyre, which receives the third of the Calders, the + Brock, and several others. (5) The Lune, or Loyne. Affluents and + tributaries--the Wenning, the Conder, the Greta, the Leck, the + Hindburn. Then, north of Lancaster, the Keer, the Bela, the + Kent, the Winster, the Leven (from Windermere), the Crake (from + Coniston Water), and the Duddon. + + [38] The river immortalised by Milton, alluding to the conflict + of 17th August 1648: + + "And Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued." + +[Illustration: THE RIBBLE AT CLITHEROE] + +The very interesting portion of the scenery on the banks of the Lune, +so far as concerns Lancashire, lies just above Lancaster itself. +Nearly all the elements of perfect landscape intermingle in this part +of the valley. If either side of the stream possesses an advantage, +perhaps it will belong to the road along the southern border, or that +which proceeds by way of Melon and Caton to Hornby, distant from +Lancaster about nine miles. The river winds so waywardly that in many +parts it seems a string of lakelets. Masses of woodland creep down to +the edge, and whichever way the eye is turned, green hills form +pictures that leave nothing to be desired. + +_The Roman Road._--The portion of Roman Road referred to at the outset +as crossing Blackstone Edge presents, like all similar remains in our +island, one of the most conclusive as well as interesting memorials we +possess of the thorough conquest of the country by the Cæsars. Labour +and skill, such as were so plainly devoted to the construction of +these wonderful roads, would be expended only by conquerors determined +on full and permanent possession, such as the Romans maintained for +three hundred and seventy years:--the Blackstone Edge road has in +addition the special interest which attaches to features not found +anywhere else, at all events nowhere else in England. The roads in +question were designed not more to facilitate the movements of the +troops than for the easier transport of merchandise and provisions, a +purpose which this one on Blackstone Edge seems to indicate perfectly. +In the district we to-day call "Lancashire" there were several roads +of the principal class, these serving to connect Warrington, +Manchester, Ribchester, and Lancaster, from which last place there was +continuation to Carlisle, and furnishing ready access to modern +"Yorkshire," thus to Ilkley--the Olicana of Ptolemy--and York, the +famous city which saw the death of Severus and the birth of +Constantine. Manchester and Ribchester were the two most important +strongholds in Western Brigantia, standing on the direct great western +line from the south to the north. There were also many branch or +vicinal roads leading to minor stations; those, for instance, +represented to-day by Wigan, Colne, Burnley, Kirkham, Urswick, +Walton-le-Dale, and Overborough. The lines of most of these roads have +been accurately determined, the chief of them having been usually +straight as an arrow, carried forward with undeviating precision, +regardless of all obstacles. They were formed generally in Lancashire +of huge boulder stones, probably got from neighbouring watercourses, +or of fragments of rock embedded in gravel, and varied in width from +four yards to perhaps fourteen. The stones have in most places +disappeared--made use of, no doubt, by after-comers for building +purposes; as exemplified on Blackstone Edge itself, where the +materials of which the wall near the road has been constructed point +only too plainly to their source. Complete remains continuous for any +considerable distance are found only upon elevated and unfrequented +moorlands; where also the substance of the road appears to have been +more rigid. The Blackstone Edge road, one of this kind, ascends the +hill at a point about two miles beyond Littleborough--an ancient Roman +station, here consisting of a strip of pavement exactly sixteen feet +wide. It is composed of square blocks of millstone-grit, obtained upon +the spot, laid with consummate care, and presenting, wherever the +dense growth of whortleberry and other coarse herbage has been cleared +away, a surface so fresh and even, that for seventeen centuries to +have elapsed since its construction seems incredible. The unique +feature of the road consists in the middle being formed of blocks +considerably larger than those used at the sides, harder, and +altogether of better quality, laid end to end, and having a continuous +longitudinal groove, obviously the work of the chisel. This groove, or +"trough," evidently extended down the entire roadway where steep, +beginning at the top of the hill. Nothing like it, as said above, is +found anywhere else in England, for the simple reason, it would +appear, that no other British Roman road descends by so steep an +incline. For it can hardly be doubted that Dr. March is correct in his +conjecture, that it was intended to steady the passage of wagons or +other vehicles when heavily laden; brakes adjusted to the wheels +retarding their progress as indicated by marks still distinguishable. +In some parts there are indications also of lateral trenches cut for +the downflow of water, the road itself being kept dry by a slight +convexity of surface. Over the crest of the hill the descent is easy, +and here the paving seems to have been discontinued. The Robin Hood +rocks close by present remarkably fine examples of typical +millstone-grit. Rising to the height of fifty feet and fantastically +"weathered," on the summits there are basin-like cavities, popularly +attributed, like so many other things they had no hand in, to the +Druids; but palpably referable to a far less mythical agency--the +quiet action, during thousands of years, of the rain and the +atmosphere. + + + + +VIII + +THE SEASHORE AND THE LAKE DISTRICT + + +The coast of Lancashire has already been described as presenting, from +the Mersey upwards as far as the estuary of the Kent, an almost +unbroken surface of level sand. In several parts, as near Birkdale, +the western sea-breeze, pursuing its work for ages, has heaped up the +sand atom by atom into hills that have a romantic and attractive +beauty all their own. But of overhanging rocks and crags there are no +examples, except when at Heysham, in Morecambe Bay, the millstone grit +cropping out so as to form a little promontory, gives pleasing change. +Almost immediately after entering this celebrated bay--although the +vast expanse of sand remains unaltered--the mountains begin to draw +nearer, and for the rest of the distance, up to the estuary of the +Duddon, where Cumberland begins, the scenery close inshore is +picturesque. The peculiar feature of the coast consists, perhaps, in +its estuaries. No seaside county in England has its margin interrupted +by so many as there are in Lancashire, every one of the rivers which +leave it for the Irish Sea, excepting the insignificant Alt (six or +eight miles north of Liverpool), widening immensely as the sands are +approached. Embouchures more remarkable than those of the Ribble, the +Wyre, the Lune, and the various minor streams which enter Morecambe +Bay, are certainly not to be found, and there are none that through +association awaken interest more curious. + +When, accordingly, the visitor to any one of the Lancashire +watering-places south of the Ribble desires scenery, he must be +content with the spectacle of the sea itself, and the glimpses +obtained in fair weather of the mountains of maritime North Wales. At +Blackpool it is possible also, on clear evenings, to descry the lofty +peaks of the Isle of Man, and occasionally even Cumberland Black +Combe. At Fleetwood these quite compensate the dearth of inland +beauty, and with every step northwards more glorious becomes the +outlook. Not to mention the noble sea in front--an ocean when the tide +is in--all the higher grounds of Cartmel and Furness are plainly in +view. Upon these follow the fells of Coniston, and a little more to +the east the dim blue cones which mark the near neighbourhood of the +head of Windermere. Everything is renewed at Morecambe, and upon a +scale still more commanding: the last reflection, as one turns +homeward from that favoured spot, is that the supreme seaside scenery +of old England pertains, after all, to the many-sided county of the +cotton-mills. + +The watering-places themselves are healthful, well-conducted, and +ambitious. None of them had substantial existence seventy or eighty +years ago. Southport, the most important and the most advanced in all +that is honourable, is a daughter of the primitive neighbouring +village of Churchtown,--_filia pulchrior_ very emphatically. +Blackpool, in 1817, was only a rabbit-warren, the sunward slopes, like +those of original Birkdale and Churchtown, a playground for quick-eyed +lizards, their descendants, both gray and green, not yet extinct. +Fleetwood has grown up within easy recollection; Morecambe is a +creation almost of yesterday. Unexcelled, in summer, for the visitor +in search of health, in its cool, firm, ample sands, Fleetwood aspires +to become important also commercially. Morecambe, though destitute of +a deep channel, and unable to offer the security of a natural harbour, +is making vigorous efforts in the same direction. Sir J. E. Smith, in +his account of the evening-primrose in _English Botany_, A.D. 1805, +described the Lancashire coast as a sort of _ultima Thule_:--to-day, +at Southport, there is the finest Winter Garden out of London; and at +a couple of miles distance, reached by tram-car, a Botanical Garden, +including fernery and conservatories, that puts to shame many an +ancient and wealthy city. A drawback to these South Lancashire +watering-places, as mentioned before, is that the water, at low tide, +recedes so far, and ordinarily is so reluctant to return. But is the +tide everything? When out, there is the serene pleasure of silent +stroll upon the vast expanse, the inspiring solitude beyond which +there is only Sea. On these smooth and limitless sands there is plenty +alike for repair of body, the imagination, and the solace of the +naturalist. Shells may be gathered in plenty, and in different parts, +of very various kinds: solens, long and straight; mactras, dentalias, +that resemble miniature elephant's tusks; the fragile pholas; +tellinas, that seem scattered rose-petals; and towards Fleetwood +pearly trochuses, dappled with lilac. A more delicious seaside walk +for those who love the sound of the rolling surge, the sense of +infinite tranquillity, total seclusion from every circumstance of town +and city life, and the sight of old ocean's playthings, may be sought +the world over, and not found more readily than by pursuing the five +or six miles between Fleetwood and Blackpool, one's face turned all +the while to the poetic west. Wanting rocks, upon these quiet sands +there are no native seaweeds, though fragments lie about, torn from +beaches far away, and stranded. + +Very distinct interest attaches to the physical history of this part +of the coast, the elevation of which was at some not very remotely +distant period, almost without doubt, much higher. Mr. Joseph +Dickinson, the well-known geologist, and Government Inspector of +Mines, believes that in certain portions it has subsided through the +solution of rock-salt in the strata below--the circumstance to which +the formation of most, if not all, of the natural Cheshire meres is +attributed. The existence of the rock-salt has been clearly proved by +the sinking of a shaft and subsequent borings, near Preesal, a village +about a mile and a half south-east of Fleetwood. The thickness of the +deposit is similar to that met with in the salt districts of Cheshire, +at Port Clarence, near the mouth of the Tees, and at Stoke Prior, +Worcestershire. The subsidence of the shore at Blackpool is, on the +northern side, very palpable. Here the path to Rossall is pursued for +some distance along the brow of an earthy, crumbling cliff, not very +far from which, exposed at the lowest of low tides, there is a little +insulated mound, upon which, according to well-sustained tradition, +there once stood a cottage long since overwhelmed by envious Neptune. + +The great rampart of sand-hills which stretches for so many leagues, +and which has been calculated to have an area of twenty-two square +miles, is thought by another distinguished geologist--Mr. T. Melland +Reade--to have taken certainly not less than 2500 years to form, +probably a much longer time. Some of the mounds, however, are +manifestly quite recent, interstratifications of cinders and matter +thrown up from wrecks, being found near the base. A strong westerly +wind brings up the sand vehemently, and very curious then becomes the +spectacle of its travel, which resembles the flow of thin waves of +translucent smoke. The wind alternately heaps up the sand and +disperses it, except where a firm hold has been obtained by the +maram,[39] or star-grass, the roots of which bind and hold all +together. Decoration of the smooth surface of the sloping sand-hills +is supplied by the wind-whirling of the slender stalks half way round, +and sometimes quite so, when there is room for free play: circles and +semicircles are then grooved, smaller ones often inside, as perfect as +if drawn with compasses. Another curious result of the steady blowing +of the sea-breeze is that on the shore there are innumerable little +cones of sand, originating in shells, or fragments of shells, which +arrest the drifting particles, and are, in truth, rudiments of +sand-hills, such as form the barrier a little further in. + + [39] Maram, the popular name of the _Ammophila arenaria_, is + probably the Danish _marhalm_, sea-haulm or straw, a term + applied in Norway to the Zostera. + +Further north the shore has little to offer in the way of curiosities, +nor is there any agreeable bathing-ground; not even at Grange. Never +mind. The further we advance towards the county frontier, the more +wonderful become the sands, these spreading, at low water, like a +Sahara, with the difference, that the breath of ocean, nowhere in the +world sweeter, blows across them for ever and ever. On a moonlight +night, when the tide is at the full, Morecambe Bay, surveyed from +Kent's Bank, presents an aspect of inexpressible fascination, the +rippled lustre being such as a shallow sea, gently moving, alone can +yield. + + "Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus." + +Moving onwards, or towards Cumberland, we find that Lancashire is not +without its island. This is Walney, off the estuary of the Duddon, +closely abutting on the mainland of Furness--a very singular bank or +strip of mingled sand, pebbles, and shingle, nearly ten miles in +length, and half a mile broad where widest. Barren as it may seem from +the description, the soil is in parts so fertile that capital crops of +grain are reaped. There are people on it, likewise, though the +inhabitants are chiefly sea-gulls. Walney Island is the only known +locality for that beautiful wild-flower the _Geranium Lancastriense_, +a variety of the _sanguineum_, the petals, instead of blood-colour, as +at Fleetwood, on St. Vincent's Rocks, and elsewhere, cream-white +netted with rose. The seaward or western side of Walney is defended by +a prodigious heap of pebbles, the mass of which is constantly +augmenting, though left dry at low water. At the lower extremity of +the island there is a light-house, sixty-eight feet high, and adjacent +to it there are one or two islets. + +The portion of Lancashire to which Walney belongs, or that which, as +it is locally said, lies "north of the sands" (the sands specially +intended being those of Morecambe Bay), agrees, in natural +composition, with Westmoreland and Cumberland. It is distinguished by +mountain-summits, greatly exceeding in elevation those found upon the +confines of Yorkshire, and the lower slopes of which are, as a rule, +no longer naked, but dressed with shrubs and various trees. Concealed +among these noble mountains are many deep and romantic glens, while at +their feet are lakes of matchless purity. No feature is more striking +than the exchange of the broad and bulky masses of such hills as +Pendle for the rugged and jutting outlines characteristic of the older +rocks, and particularly, as here, of the unstratified. Before +commencing the exploration, it is well to contemplate the general +structure of the country from some near vantage-ground, such as the +newly-opened public park at Lancaster; or better still, that +unspeakably grand terrace upon the Westmoreland side of the Kent, +called Stack-head, where the "Fairy steps" give access to the plain +and valley below, and which is reached so pleasantly by way of +Milnthorpe, proceeding thence through Dallam Park, the village of +Beetham, and the pine-wood--in itself worth all the journey. The view +from the Stack-head terrace (profoundly interesting also, +geologically) comprises all that is majestic and beautiful as regards +the elements of the picturesque, and to the Lancashire man is +peculiarly delightful, since, although he stands actually in +Westmoreland, all the best part of it, Arnside Knot alone excepted, is +within the borders of his own county.[40] Whether the most pleasing +first impressions of the scenery of the Lake District are obtained in +the way indicated; or by taking the alternative, very different route, +by way of Fleetwood and Piel, is nevertheless an open question. The +advantage of the Lancaster route consists in the early introduction it +gives to the mountains themselves--to go _viâ_ Fleetwood and Piel +involves one of those inspiring little initiative voyages which +harmonise so well with hopes and visions of new enjoyment, alluring +the imagination no less agreeably than they gratify the senses. + + [40] "Knot," in the Lake District, probably denotes a rocky + protuberance upon a hill. But it is often used, as in the + present instance, for the hill in its entirety. Hard Knot, in + Eskdale, and Farleton Knot, near Kendal, are parallel examples. + +The Lancaster route implies, in the first instance, quiet and +unpretending Silverdale; then, after crossing the estuary of the Kent, +leafy Grange--unrivalled upon the north-west coast, not only for +salubrity, but for the exhaustless charms of the neighbouring country. +Whatever the final intentions in visiting this part of England, a few +days' delay at Grange will never be regretted: it is one of those +happy places which are distinguished by wild nature cordially shaking +hands with civilisation. Sallying forth from the village in an +easterly direction, or up the winding and shady road which leads +primarily to Lindal, we may, if we please, proceed almost direct to +Windermere, distant about ten miles. Turn, before this, up the green +slope just beyond Ellerhow, the village on the left, perched +conspicuously on the highest hill in front, thus reaching Hampsfell. +Many beautiful views will have been enjoyed upon the way, land and sea +contributing equally; all, at the top of Hampsfell, are renewed +threefold, innumerable trees remembering that no witchery is perfect +in the absence of graceful apparel; while in the valley below, gray +and secluded Cartmel talks of a remote historic past. Fully to realise +the absorbing beauty of the scene, there must be no hesitation in +ascending to the Hospice, where the "herald voice" of "good tidings" +heard at Lindal is proved not to have uttered a single syllable in +excess. Hampsfell may be reached also by a path through the Eggerslack +woods, noted for the abundance of their hazel-nuts, and entered almost +immediately after emerging from Grange; and again by a third, somewhat +circuitous, near the towering limestone crags called Yewbarrow. + +Kent's Bank, a couple of miles beyond Grange, supplies hill scenery +little inferior. The heights above Allithwaite cover almost the whole +of the fine outlook characteristic of the northern shore of Morecambe +Bay. Kirkhead and Humphrey Head also give unlimited prospects, +especially when the tide is in. The man who loves solitude will find +them lonely enough for hermitages:--blackberries beyond measure grow +on the slopes. Humphrey Head presents features rarely met with, +consisting of a limestone promontory, the sides, in part, nearly +vertical, thus closely resembling the rock at the south-western +extremity of Clevedon, with which many associate Tennyson and the +mournful verses which have for their burden, "Break, break, break, on +thy cold gray stones, O Sea!" Grange, Kent's Bank, Kirkhead, and +Humphrey Head, constantly awaken recollections of the beautiful +village on the eastern edge of the Bristol Channel. The scenery +corresponds, and in productions there is again a very interesting +similarity, though Clevedon has a decided advantage in regard to +diversity of species. Hampsfell and Allithwaite recur at intervals all +the way to the borders of the Leven; thence, constantly varying, +westward to the banks of the Duddon, and southward to the Furness +Valley: not, indeed, until we reach Piel--the little cape where the +boats arrive from Fleetwood--is there surrender. + +Piel, as said above, is preferable as a route to the Lake District, +because of the preliminary half hour upon the water, which is +generally smooth and exhilarating. It offers the most interesting way +of approach, also, to Duddon Bridge, where the coast of Lancashire +ends--a place itself of many attractions. The river, it is scarcely +necessary to say, is the Duddon immortalised by Wordsworth, one of +whose sonnets describes the "liquid lapse serene" of this too-seldom +visited stream as it moves through Dunnerdale, after entering, near +Newfield, through a rent in the rocky screen which adds so much to the +romantic features of its early existence. The bridge gives ready +approach to Black Combe, most gloomy and austere of the Cumberland +mountains, but affording full compensation in the magnificence of the +prospects, the height being little short of 2000 feet. Close by, in +Lancashire, we find the ancient village of Broughton, the lords of +which, four or five centuries ago, gave their name to a well-known +suburb of Manchester--so curious is the history of estates. + +The railway, after touching at Broughton, leads right away to +Coniston, then to the foot of the "Old Man," the summit, 2649 feet +above the level of the sea, so remarkable in its lines and curves +that, once exactly distinguished from the crowd of lower heights, +like the head of Ingleborough, it is impossible to be mistaken. +Towards the village it throws out a ridge, upon which the houses are +chiefly placed. A deep valley intervenes, and then the mountain rises +abruptly, the walls in some places nearly perpendicular, but in others +disappearing, so that, if well selected, the path upwards is by no +means toilsome, or even difficult, though impeded here and there by +rocks and stones. The climbing is well repaid. From the brows of the +old giant are seen mountains innumerable, lakes, rivers, woods, deep +valleys, velvety meads, with, in addition, the accessories of every +perfect landscape,--those which come of its being impregnated with the +outcome of human intelligence and human feeling, the love of gardens, +and of refined and comfortable homes. Looking south, south-west, and +south-east, there are changing views of Morecambe Bay, flooded with +brightness; the estuaries of the Kent, the Leven, and the Duddon; the +capes and promontories that break the sea margin; Walney Island, the +shining Irish Sea, with the Isle of Man beyond, and the whole of the +long line of coast which runs on to the portals of the Wyre and more +distant Ribble. + +Over the mouth of the Leven, Lancaster Castle is distinguishable. +Far away, in the same line, the lofty ranges of the Craven district +come in view; and when the atmosphere is very clear a dim blue +mountain wave on the side where sunset will be indicates Snowdon. In +other directions the views are somewhat circumscribed, Coniston being +situated upon the frontiers rather than within the actual area of the +hill country it so greatly enriches. The figure in general, of all +that is seen, so far as the nature of the barriers will allow, is +nevertheless majestic, and in itself worth all the labour of the +ascent. The Old Man, it must be admitted, is prone to hide his ancient +brows in mist and vapour; the time for climbing must therefore be +chosen carefully and deliberately. + +[Illustration: CONISTON] + +The lake, called Coniston Water, extends to a length of about six +miles. It is in no part quite a mile in breadth, but although so +narrow never gives the slightest idea of restriction; thus agreeing +with Windermere, to which, however, Coniston bears not the least +resemblance in detail, differing rather in every particular, and +decidedly surpassing it in respect of the wildness and purple +sublimity of the surroundings. The immediate borders, by reason of the +frequently recurring showers of rain, are refreshingly green all the +year round; they allure, also, at every season, by the daintiness and +the generosity with which the greater portion has been planted. Beyond +the line to which the handiwork of man has been continued, or where +the ground becomes steep and rocky, there are brown and heathy slopes, +fissures and winding ravines, redolent of light and shade, the sunward +parts often laced with little white streamlet waterfalls, that in the +distance seem not cascades, but veins of unmelted winter snow. The +slopes, in turn, like the arches in a Gothic cathedral, lead the eye +upwards to outlines that please so much the more because imperfectly +translatable; since when the clouds hover round the summits of these +soaring peaks, they change to mystery and fable, wooing the mind with +the incomparable charm that always waits upon the margin of the +undiscovered. + +From what particular point the best views, either of the lake or of +the adjacent mountains, are readily obtainable, must of necessity be +very much a matter of taste. Perhaps it is discreetest to take, in the +first instance, the view _up_ the lake, or from Nibthwaite, where the +waters contract, and become the little river Crake--the stream which, +in conjunction with the Leven from Windermere, forms the estuary named +after the latter. + +Contemplated from Nibthwaite, the mountains in which the lake is +bosomed are certainly less impressive than when viewed from some +distance farther up; but the mind is touched with a more agreeable +idea of symmetry, and the water itself seems to acquire amplitude. +None of the mountains are out of sight; the merit of this particular +view consists jointly in their presence, and in the dignified +composure with which they seem to stand somewhat aloof. The view +_down_ the lake,--that which is obtained by approaching Coniston _viâ_ +Hawkshead and Waterhead, is indescribably grand, the imposing forms of +the adjacent mountains, those in particular of the Furness Fells (the +altitude of which is nearly or quite 2600 feet), being here realised +perfectly, the more distant summits fading delicately, the nearer ones +dark and solemn. To our own fancy, the most impressive idea alike of +the water and its framework is obtained, after all, not from either +extremity, but from the surface, resting upon one's oars, as nearly as +possible in the middle. Coniston Water contains a couple of islets, +the upper one named, after its abundant Highland pines, "Fir Island." +Many streamlets contribute to its maintenance, the principal being +Coniston Beck and Black Beck. No celebrated waterfall occurs very +near. All the famous lake waterfalls bearing names belong either to +Cumberland or Westmoreland. + +Windermere, or more correctly, as in the well-known line: + + "Wooded Winandermere, the river-lake," + +is nearly twice the length of Coniston Water, but of little more than +the same average width. Superficially it belongs to Westmoreland; the +greater portion of the margin is, nevertheless, in Lancashire, without +leaving which county the beauty of the English Zurich may be gathered +perfectly. + +The finest view of the lake, as a whole, is obtained near Ambleside, +on the road through the valley of Troutbeck, where it is visible for +nearly the whole extent, the islands seeming clustered in the middle. +Yet nothing can be lovelier, as regards detail, than the views +obtained by ascending from Newby Bridge, the point at which the Leven +issues. The scenery commences long before the lake is actually +reached, the river having a fall, in the short space of four miles, of +no less than 105 feet, consequently flowing with great rapidity, and +supplying a suitable introduction to the charms above its source. +Newby Bridge deserves every word of the praise so often bestowed upon +it. Lofty and wood-mantled hills enclose the valley on every side, +and whichever way we turn the impression is one of Eden-like +retirement. The pine-crowned summit of Finsthwaite, reached by a +woodland path having its base near the river-side, commands a prospect +of admirable variety, the lake extending in one direction, while on +the other the eye ranges over Morecambe Bay. The water of Windermere +is clear as crystal--so limpid that the bottom in the shallower parts +shows quite plainly, the little fishes darting hither and thither over +the pebbles. Taken in its entirety, Windermere is the deepest of the +English lakes, excepting only Wastwater, the level of the surface +being, in parts, upwards of 240 feet above the bed. The maximum depth +of Wastwater is 270 feet. Whether, on quitting Newby Bridge, the +onward course be made by boat, or, more wisely, on foot or by +carriage, along the road upon the eastern margin of the lake, the +prevailing character of the scenery, for a considerable distance, will +be found to consist in consummate softness and a delicacy of finish +that it may be permitted to call artistic. + +[Illustration: NEAR THE COPPER MINES, CONISTON] + +Not until we reach the neighbourhood of Storrs Hall (half way to +Ambleside), where Lancashire ends and Westmoreland begins, is there +much for the artist. The scenery so far has been captivating, but +never grand. Here, however, and of rarest hues, especially towards +sunset, come in view the majestic Langdale Pikes, with mountains of +every form, and Windermere proves itself the veritable "Gate +Beautiful." Everywhere, upon the borders, oak and ash fling out their +green boughs, seeking amiably others that spring from neighbours as +earnest. Woodbine loves to mingle its fragrant coronals of pink, +white, and amber with the foliage amid which the spirals "gently +entwist;" and at all seasons there is the rich lustre of the peerless +"ivy green." The largest of the Windermere islands (in the Lake +District, as in the Bristol Channel, called "holms") has an area of +thirty acres. + +Esthwaite, the third and last of the trio of lakes claimed by +Lancashire, is a quiet, unassuming water, so cheerful, withal, and so +different in character from both Coniston and Windermere, that a day +is well devoted to it. The length is not quite three miles; the width, +at the broadest part, is about three furlongs; the best approach is by +the ferry across Windermere, then ascending the mountain-path among +trees, the lake presently appearing upon the left, silvery and +unexpected, so suddenly does it come in view. Esthwaite, like the +Duddon, has been immortalised by Wordsworth, who received his +education at Hawkshead, the little town at the northern extremity. The +outlet is by a stream called the Cunsey, which carries the overflow +into Windermere. + + + + +IX + +THE ANCIENT CASTLES AND MONASTIC BUILDINGS + + +At the period so memorable in history when Wiclif was giving his +countrymen the first complete English Bible--this under the kindly +wing of John o' Gaunt, who shielded the daring reformer in many a +perilous hour--Lancashire possessed six or seven baronial castles; and +no fewer than ten, or rather more, of the religious houses +distinguished by the general name of abbeys and priories. Every one of +the castles, except John o' Gaunt's own, has disappeared; or if relics +exist, they are the merest fragments. Liverpool Castle, which held out +for twenty-four days against Prince Rupert, was demolished more than +200 years ago. Rochdale, Bury, Standish, Penwortham, are not sure even +of the exact spots their citadels occupied. A fate in some respects +heavier has overtaken the monastic buildings, these having gone in +every instance; though the ruins of one or two are so beautiful +architecturally, that in their silent pathos there is compensation for +the ruthless overthrow: one is reconciled to the havoc by the +exquisite ornaments they confer, as our English ruins do universally, +on parts of the country already picturesque. + + "I do love these ancient ruins! + We never tread among them, but we set + Our foot upon some reverend history." + +Lancaster Castle, the only survivor of the fortresses, stands upon the +site of an extremely ancient stronghold; though very little, somewhat +singularly, is known about it, or indeed of the early history of the +town. The latter would seem to have been the Bremetonacis of the +Romans, traces of the fosse constructed by whom around the castle hill +are still observable upon the northern side. On the establishment of +the Saxon dynasty the Roman name was superseded by the current one; +the Saxon practice being to apply the term _caster_, in different +shapes, to important former seats of the departed Roman power, in the +front rank of which was unquestionably the aged city touched by the +waters of the winding Lune. Omitting fractions, the name of Lancaster +is thus just a thousand years old. The Saxons seem to have allowed the +castle to fall into decay. The powerful Norman baron, Roger de +Poictou (leader of the centre at the battle of Hastings)--who received +from the Conqueror, as his reward, immense portions of Lancashire +territory from the Mersey northwards--gave it new life. He, it is +believed, was the builder of the massive Lungess Tower, though some +assign this part of the work to the time of William Rufus. In any +case, the ancient glory of the place was restored not later than A.D. +1100. + +After the disgrace of Roger de Poictou, who had stirred up sundry +small insurrections, the possession was transferred to Stephen, Earl +of Boulogne, inheritor of the crown, and from that time forwards, for +at least two centuries, the history of Lancaster Castle becomes +identified with that of the sovereigns of our island to a degree +seldom equalled in the annals of any other away from London. King +John, in 1206, held his court here for a time, receiving within the +stately walls an embassy from France. Subsequent monarchs followed in +his wake. During the reign, in particular, of Henry IV., festivities, +in which a brilliant chivalry had no slight share, filled the +courtyard with indescribable animation. The gateway tower was not +built till a later period, or the castle would probably not have +suffered so severely as it did when the Scots, after defeating Edward +II. at Bannockburn, pushed into Lancashire, slaying and marauding. The +erection of this splendid tower, perhaps the finest of its kind in the +country, is generally ascribed to John o' Gaunt (fourth son of Edward +III.), who, as above mentioned, was created second Duke of Lancaster +(13th June 1362) by virtue of his marriage to Blanche, daughter of the +first duke, previously Earl of Derby, and thus acquired a direct +personal interest in the place. But certain portions of the +interior--the inner flat-pointed archway, for instance, the passage +with the vaulted roof, and a portion of the north-west corner--are +apparently thirteenth-century work; and although it is quite possible +that the two superb semi-angular towers and the front wall as high as +the niche containing the statue may have been built by this famous +personage, the probabilities point rather toward Henry, Prince of +Wales, eventually Henry V. Ten years after the death of John o' Gaunt, +or in 1409, this prince was himself created Duke of Lancaster, and may +reasonably be supposed to have commemorated the event in a manner at +once substantial and agreeable to the citizens. The presumption is +strongly supported by the heraldic shield, which could not possibly +have been John o' Gaunt's, since the quartering for France consists +of only three fleurs de lys. The original bearing of the French +monarchy, as historians are well aware, was _azure_, semée de fleur de +lys, _or_. Edward III. assumed these arms, with the title of King of +France, in 1340. In 1364 the French reduced the number of fleurs de +lys to the three we are so familiar with, and in due time England +followed suit. But this was not until 1403, when John o' Gaunt had +been in his grave nearly four years. The shield in question is thus +plainly of a period too late for the husband of the Lady Blanche. + +But whoever the builder, how glorious the features! how palatial the +proportions! Placed at the south-east corner of the castle, and +overlooking the town, this superb gateway tower is not more admirably +placed than exalted in design. The height, sixty-six feet, prepares us +for the graceful termination of the lofty wings in octagonal turrets, +and for the thickness of the walls, which is nearly, or quite, three +yards: it is scarcely possible to imagine a more skilfully +proportioned blending of strength, regal authority, and the air of +peacefulness. The statue of John o' Gaunt above the archway is modern, +having been placed there only in 1822. But the past is soon recalled +by the opening for the descent of the portcullis, though the ancient +oaken doors have disappeared. + +The entire area of Lancaster Castle measures 380 feet by 350 without +reckoning the terrace outside the walls. The oldest portion--probably, +as said above, Roger de Poictou's--is the lower part of the massive +Lungess Tower, an impressive monument of the impregnable masonry of +the time, 80 feet square, with walls 10 feet in thickness, and the +original Norman windows intact. The upper portion was rebuilt temp. +Queen Elizabeth, who specially commended Lancaster Castle to the +faithful defenders of her kingdom against the Spaniards. The height is +70 feet; a turret at the south-west corner, popularly called John o' +Gaunt's Chair, adding another ten to the elevation. Delightful views +are obtained from the summit as, indeed, from the terrace. The chapel, +situated in the basement, 55 feet by 26, here, as elsewhere in the +ancient English castles, tells of the piety as well as the dignity of +their founders and owners. In this, at suitable times, the sacraments +would be administered, not alone to the inmates, but to the foresters, +the shepherds, and other retainers of the baron or noble lady of the +place; the chapel was no less an integral part of the establishment +than the well of spring water; the old English castle was not only a +stronghold but a sanctuary. Unhappily in contrast but in equal harmony +with the times, there are dungeons in two storeys below the level of +the ground. + +The Lancaster Castle of 1881 is, after all, by no means the Lancaster +Castle of the Plantagenets. As seen from Morecambe and many another +spot a few miles distant, the old fortress presents an appearance +that, if not romantic, is strikingly picturesque: + + "Distance lends enchantment to the view," + +and the church alongside adds graciously to the effect, seeming to +unite with the antique outlines. But so much of the building has been +altered and remodelled in order to adapt it to its modern uses--those +of law-courts and prison; the sharpness of the new architecture so +sadly interferes with enjoyment of the blurred and wasted old; the +fitness of things has been so violated that the sentiment of the +associations is with difficulty sustained even in the ample inner +space once so gay with knights and pageantry. The castle was employed +for the trial of criminals as early as 1324, but 1745 seems to be the +date of its final surrender of royal pride. No sumptuous halls or +storied corridors now exist in it. Contrariwise, everything is +there that renders the building convenient for assizes; and it is +pleasing to observe that with all the medley of modern adaptations +there has been preserved, as far as practicable, a uniformity of +style--the ecclesiastical of temp. Henry VII. + +[Illustration: LANCASTER] + +Clitheroe Castle, so called, consists to-day of no more than the Keep +and a portion of the outermost surrounding wall. The situation and +general character of this remarkable ruin are perhaps without a match. +Half a mile south of the Ribble, on the great green plain which +stretches westwards from the foot of Pendle, there suddenly rises a +rugged limestone crag, like an island out of the sea. Whether it +betokens an upheaval of the underlying strata more or fewer millions +of years ago, or whether it is a mass of harder material which +withstood the powerful descending currents known to have swept in +primæval times across the country from east to west, the geologists +must decide. Our present concern is with the fine old feudal relic +perched on the summit, and which, like Lancaster Castle, belongs to +the days of Roger de Poictou and his immediate successors, though a +stronghold of some kind no doubt existed there long previously--a +lofty and insulated rock in a country not abounding in strong military +positions, being too valuable to be neglected even by barbarians. The +probability is, that although founded by Roger de Poictou, the chief +builders were the De Lacys, those renowned Norman lords whose +headquarters were at Pontefract, and who could travel hither, fifty +miles, without calling at any hostelrie not virtually their own. They +came here periodically to receive tribute and to dispense justice. +There was never any important residence upon the rock. The space is +not sufficient for more than might be needed for urgent and temporary +purposes; and although a gentleman's house now stands upon the slope, +it occupies very little of the old foundation. + +The inside measurement of the keep is twenty feet square; the walls +are ten feet thick, and so slight has been the touch, so far, of the +"effacing fingers," that they seem assured of another long seven +centuries. The chapel was under the protection of the monks of Whalley +Abbey. Not a vestige of it now remains; every stone, after the +dismantling of the castle in 1649, having been carried away, as in so +many other instances, and used in the building of cottages and walls. +After four generations, or in little more than a hundred years, the +line of the De Lacys became extinct. Do we think often enough, and +with commensurate thankfulness, of the immense service they and the +other old Norman lords rendered our country during their lifetimes? +The Normans, like the Romans, were scribes, architects, reclaimers of +the waste, instruments of civilisation--all the most artistic and +interesting relics of the Norman age Old England possesses bear Norman +impress. How voiceful, to go no further, their cathedrals--Hereford, +Peterborough, Durham, Gloucester! Contemplating their castles, few +things more touch the imagination than the presence, abreast of the +aged stones, of the shrubs and flowers of countries they never heard +of. Here, for instance, sheltering at the knee of old Clitheroe Castle +Keep, perchance in the identical spot where a plumed De Lacy once +leaned, rejoicing in the sunshine, there is a vigorous young Nepalese +cotoneaster. Surely it is the gardener, perpetuator of the earliest of +ennobling professions, who, by transfer of plants and fruits from one +country to another, shows that art and taste co-operating, as at +Clitheroe, do most literally "make the whole world kin." How welcome +will be the volume which some day will be devoted to thorough survey +of the benevolent work! From whatever point approached, the ancient +keep salutes the eye long before we can possibly reach it: no one who +may seek it will pronounce the visit unrewarded. + +[Illustration: CLITHEROE CASTLE] + +Nor will the tourist exploring Lancashire think the time lost that he +may spend among the sea-beaten remains of the Peel of Fouldrey,--the +cluster of historic towers which forms so conspicuous an object when +proceeding by water to Piel Pier, _en route_ for Furness Abbey and the +Lakes. The castle owes its existence to the Furness abbots, who, +alarmed by the terrible raid of the Scots in 1316, repeated in 1322, +temp. Edward II., discreetly constructed a place for personal safety, +and for deposit of their principal treasures. No site could have been +found more trustworthy than the little island off the southern extreme +of Walney. While artillery was unknown Fouldrey must have been +impregnable, for it was not only wave-girt but defended by artificial +moats, and of substance so well knit that although masses of tumbled +wall are now strewn upon the beach, they refuse to disintegrate. These +huge lumps are composed partly of pebbles, and of cement now hard as +rock. The keep is still standing, with portions of the inner and outer +defences. Traces of the chapel are also discoverable, indicating the +period of the erection; but there is nothing anywhere in the shape of +ornament. The charm of Fouldrey is now purely for the imagination. +Hither came the little skiffs that brought such supplies to the abbey +as its own broad lands could not contribute. Here was given the +welcome to all distinguished visitors arriving by sea, and from +Fouldrey sailed all those who went afar. To-day all is still. No +voices are heard save those of the unmusical seafowl, and of the waves +that toss up their foam-- + + "Where all-devouring Time + Sits on his throne of ruins hoar, + And winds and tempests sweep his various lyre." + +"Peel," a term unknown in the south of England, was anciently, in the +north, a common appellation for castellets built as refuges in times +of peril. They were often no more than single towers, square, with +turrets at the angles, and having the door at a considerable height +above the ground. The word is variously spelt. Pele, pile, pylle, and +two or three other forms, occur in old writers, the whole resolving, +apparently, into a mediæval _pelum_, which would seem to be in turn +the Latin _pila_, a mole or jetty, as in the fine simile in Virgil, +where the Trojan falls smitten by a dart: + + "Qualis in Euboico Baiarum litore quondam + Saxea pila cadit," etc.--_Æneid_, ix. 710, 711. + +Fouldrey itself is not assured of immortality, for there can be no +doubt that much of the present sea in this part of Morecambe Bay +covers, as at Norbreck, surface that aforetime was dry, and where +fir-trees grew and hazel-nuts. Stagnant water had converted the ground +into moss, even before the invasion of the sea; for peat is found by +digging deep enough into the sands, with roots of trees and trunks +that lie with their heads eastwards. Walney, Fouldrey, and the +adjacent islets, were themselves probably formed by ancient inrush of +the water. The beach hereabouts, as said by Camden, certainly "once +lay out a great way westward into the ocean, which the sea ceased not +to slash and mangle ... until it swallowed up the shore at some +boisterous tide, and thereby made three huge bays." Sand and pebbles +still perseveringly accumulate in various parts. Relentless in its +rejection of the soft and perishable, these are the things which old +ocean loves to amass. + +The castle was dismantled by its own builders at the commencement of +the fifteenth century, probably because too expensive to maintain. +From that time forwards it has been slowly breaking up, though gaining +perhaps in pictorial interest; and seen, as it is, many miles across +the water, never fails to excite the liveliest sentiments of +curiosity. One of the abbots of Furness was probably the builder also +of the curious old square tower still standing in the market-place of +Dalton, and locally called the "Castle." The architecture is of the +fourteenth century. + +Furness Abbey, seven miles south-west of Ulverston, once the most +extensive and beautiful of the English Cistercian houses,--which held +charters from twelve successive kings, and whose abbots had +jurisdiction, not only ecclesiastical but civil, over the whole of the +great peninsula formed by the Duddon, the Leven, Windermere, and the +sea,--still attests in the variety and the stateliness of the remains +that the "pomp and circumstance" of monastic authority must here have +been played forth to the utmost limit. In its day the building must +have been perfect alike in design and commodiousness. The outermost +walls enclosed no less than sixty-five acres of ground, including the +portion used as a garden. This great area was traversed by a clear and +swiftly flowing stream, which still runs on its ancient way; and the +slopes of the sequestered glen chosen with so much sagacity as the +site, were covered with trees. To-day their descendants mingle also +with the broken arches; these last receiving comfort again from the +faithful campanula, which in its season decks every ledge and +crumbling corbel, flowering, after its manner, luxuriantly--a reflex +of the "heavens' own tinct," smiling, as Nature always does, upon the +devastation she so loves to adorn. The contrast of the lively hues of +the vegetation with the gray-red tint of the native sandstone employed +by the builders, now softened and subdued by the touch of centuries, +the painter alone can portray. When sunbeams glance through, falling +on the shattered arcades with the subtle tenderness which makes +sunshine, when it creeps into such places, seem, like our own +footsteps, conscious and reverent, the effects are chaste and +animating beyond expression. Even when the skies are clouded, the long +perspectives, the boldness with which the venerable walls rise out of +the sod, the infinite diversity of the parts,--to say nothing of the +associations,--render this glorious ruin one of the most fascinating +in our country. + +Furness Abbey was founded in the year 1127, the twenty-sixth of Henry +I., and sixty-first after the Norman Conquest. The original patron was +the above-named Stephen, Earl of Boulogne, afterwards King of England, +a crowned likeness of whom, with a corresponding one of his queen, +Matilda, still exists upon the outer mouldings of the east window. The +carving is very slightly abraded, probably through the sculptor's +selection of a harder material than that of the edifice, which +presents, in its worn condition, a strong contrast to the solid, +though simple, masonry. The Furness monks were seated, in the first +instance, on the Ribble, near Preston, coming from Normandy as early +as 1124, then as Benedictines. On removal to the retired and fertile +"Valley of Nightshade," a choice consonant with their custom, they +assumed the dress of the Cistercian Order, changing their gray +habiliments for white ones, and from that day forwards (7th July 1127) +they never ceased to grow steadily in wealth and power. The dedication +of the abbey, as usual with the Cistercians, was to Our Lady, the +Virgin Mary. The building, however, was not completed for many years, +transition work being abundant, and the lofty belfry tower at the +extreme west plainly not older than the early part of the fifteenth +century, by which time the primitive objection with the Cistercians to +aspiring towers had become lax, if not surrendered altogether. The +oldest portions in all likelihood are the nave and transepts of the +conventual church, the whole of which was completed perhaps by the +year 1200. Eight pillars upon each side, alternately clustered and +circular, their bases still conspicuous above the turf, divided the +nave from the aisles, the wall of the southern one still standing. +Beneath the window of the north transept the original Early Norman +doorway (the principal entrance) is intact, a rich and delectable arch +retiring circle within circle. Upon the eastern side of the grand +cloister quadrangle (338 feet by 102) there are five other +deeply-recessed round arches, the middle one leading into the +vestibule of the Chapterhouse--the fretted roof of which, supported by +six pillars, fell in only about a hundred years ago. The great east +window, 47 feet in height, 23-1/2 in width, and rising nearly from the +ground, retains little of its original detail, but is imposing in +general effect. + +[Illustration: FURNESS ABBEY] + +Scrutinising the various parts, the visitor will find very many other +beautiful elements. With the space at our command it is impossible +here even to mention them, or to do more than concentrate material for +a volume into the simple remark that Furness Abbey remains one of the +most striking mementoes England possesses, alike of the tasteful +constructive art of the men who reared it and of the havoc wrought, +when for four centuries it had been a centre of public usefulness, by +the royal thirst, not for reformation, but for spoil. The overthrow of +the abbeys no doubt prepared the way for the advent of a better order +of things; but it is not to be forgotten that the destruction of +Furness Abbey brought quite a hundred years of decay and misery to +its own domain. + +[Illustration: FURNESS ABBEY] + +Of Whalley Abbey, within a pleasant walk from Clitheroe, there is +little new to be said; few, however, of the old monasteries have a +more interesting history. The original establishment, as with Furness, +was at a distance, the primitive seat of the monks to whose energy it +owed its existence having been at Stanlaw, a place at the confluence +of the Gowy with the Mersey. In Greenland itself there is not a spot +more desolate, bleak, and lonely. It was selected, it would seem, in +imitation of the ascetic fathers of the Order, who chose +Citeaux--whence their name--because of the utter sterility. After a +time the rule was prudently set aside, and in 1296, after 118 years of +dismal endurance, the whole party migrated to the green spot under the +shadow of Whalley Nab where now we find the ruins of their famous +home. The abbey grounds, exceeding thirty-six acres in extent, were +encircled, where not protected by the river, by a deep trench, crossed +by two bridges, each with a strong and ornamental gatehouse tower, +happily still in existence. The principal buildings appear to have +been disposed in three quadrangles, but the merest scraps now remain, +though amply sufficient to instruct the student of monastic +architecture as to the position and uses of the various parts. +Portions of massive walls, dilapidated archways, little courts and +avenues, tell their own tale; and in addition there are piles of +sculptured stones, some with curiously wrought bosses bearing the +sacred monogram "M," referring to the Virgin, to whom, as said above, +all Cistercian monasteries were dedicated. The abbot's house did not +share in the general demolition, but it has undergone so much +modernising that little can now be distinguished of the original +structure. The abbot's oratory has been more fortunate, and is now +dressed with ivy. + +The severest damage to this once glorious building was not done, as +commonly supposed, temp. Henry VIII., nor yet during the reign of his +eldest daughter, when so great a panic seized the Protestant +possessors of the abolished abbeys, and the mischief in general was so +cruel. "For now," says quaint old Fuller (meaning temp. Mary), "the +edifices of abbeys which were still entire looked lovingly again on +their ancient owners; in prevention whereof, such as for the present +possessed them, plucked out their eyes by levelling them to the +ground, and shaving from them as much as they could of abbey +characters." Whatever the time of the chief destruction wrought at +Furness, that of Whalley did not take place till the beginning of the +reign of Charles II. + +Third in order of rank and territorial possessions among the old +Lancashire religious houses came Cokersand Abbey, founded in 1190 on a +bit of seaside sandy wilderness about five miles south of Lancaster, +near the estuary of the streamlet called the Coker. There is no reason +to believe that the edifice was in any degree remarkable, in point +either of extent or of architectural merit. Nothing now remains of it +but the Chapter-house, an octagonal building thirty feet in diameter, +the roof supported upon a solitary Anglo-Norman shaft, which leads up +to the pointed arches of a groined ceiling. The oaken canopies of the +stalls, when the building was dismantled, were removed, very properly, +to the parish church of Lancaster. + +Burscough Priory, two miles and a half north-east of Ormskirk, founded +temp. Richard I., and for a long time the burial-place of the Earls of +Derby, has suffered even more heavily than Cokersand Abbey. Nothing +remains but a portion of the centre archway of the church. Burscough +has interest, nevertheless, for the antiquary and the artist; the +former of whom, though not the latter, finds pleasure also in the +extant morsel of the ancient priory of Cartmel--a solitary gateway, +standing almost due west of the church, close to the little river Ea, +and containing some of the original windows, the trefoil mouldings of +which appear to indicate the early part of the fourteenth century. The +foundation of the edifice, as a whole, is referred to the year 1188, +the name then given being "The Priory of the Blessed Mary of +Kartmell." The demolition took place very shortly after the fatal +1535, when the church, much older, was also doomed, but spared as +being the parochial one. Contemplating old Cartmel, one scarcely +thinks of Shakspere, but it was to the "William Mareshall, Earl of +Pembroke," in _King John_, that the Priory owed its birth. + +Of Conishead Priory, two miles south of Ulverston, there are but atoms +remaining, and these are concealed by the modern mansion which +preserves the name. The memory of good deeds has more vitality than +the work of the mason:--the monks of Conishead were entrusted with the +safe conveyance of travellers across the treacherous sands at the +outlet of the Leven; the Priory was also a hospital for the sick and +maimed. Upholland Priory, near Wigan, dates from 1319, though a +chantry existed there at a period still earlier. One of the lateral +walls still exists, with a row of small windows, all covered with ivy. +Some fragments of Penwortham Priory, near Preston, also remain; and +lastly, for the curious there is the never-finished building called +Lydiate Abbey, four miles south-west of Ormskirk, the date of which +appears to be temp. Henry VIII., when the zeal of the Catholic +founders received a sudden check. The walls are covered with ivy, +"never sere," and the aspect in general is picturesque; so calmly and +constantly always arises out of the calamities of the past nutriment +for pleasure in the present. + + + + +X + +THE OLD CHURCHES AND THE OLD HALLS + + +Christianity in Lancashire--so far, at all events, as concerns the +outward expression through the medium of places of worship--had a very +early beginning, the period being that of Paulinus, one of the +missionaries brought into England by Augustine. In 625 the kingdom of +Northumbria, which included the northern portions of the modern county +of Lancaster, had for its monarch the celebrated Edwin--he who +espoused the Christian princess Edilberga, daughter of the king of +Kent--the pious woman to whom the royal conversion was no doubt as +largely owing as to the exhortations of the priest who found in her +court welcome and protection. The story is told at length by Bede. +There is no necessity to recapitulate it. The king was baptized, and +Christianity became the state religion of the northern Angles. +Paulinus nowhere in his great diocese--that of York--found listeners +more willing than the ancestors of the people of East Lancashire; and +as nearly as possible twelve and a half centuries ago, the foundations +were laid at Whalley of the mother church of the district so +legitimately proud to-day of a memorial almost unique. Three stone +crosses, much defaced by exposure to the weather, still exist in the +graveyard. They are considered by antiquaries to have been erected in +the time of Paulinus himself, and possibly by his direction; similar +crosses occurring near Burnley Church, and at Dewsbury and Ilkley in +Yorkshire. The site is a few yards to the north of that one afterwards +chosen for the abbey. The primitive Anglo-Saxon churches, it is +scarcely requisite to say, were constructed chiefly, and often +entirely, of wood.[41] Hence their extreme perishableness, especially +in the humid climate of Lancashire; hence also the long step to the +next extant mementoes of ecclesiastical movement in this county; for +these, with one solitary exception, pertain, like the old castles, to +the early Norman times. The Saxon relic is one of the most interesting +in the north of England; and is peculiarly distinguished by the +mournful circumstances of the story which envelops it, though the +particular incidents are beyond discovery. At Heysham, as before +mentioned, four miles from Lancaster, on the edge of Morecambe Bay, +there is a little projecting rock, the only one thereabouts. Upon the +summit formerly stood "St. Patrick's Chapel," destroyed ages ago, +though the site is still traceable; fragments of stonework used in the +building of the diminutive Norman church beneath, and others in the +graveyard, adding their testimony. That, however, which attracts the +visitor is the existence to this day, upon the bare and exposed +surface of the rock, of half a dozen excavations adapted to hold the +remains of human beings of various stature--children as well as +adults. These "coffins," as the villagers call them, tell their own +tale. Upon this perilous and deceitful coast, one dark and tempestuous +night a thousand years ago, an entire family would seem to have lost +their lives by shipwreck. The bodies were laid side by side in these +only too significant cavities; the oratory or "chapel" was built as a +monument by their relatives, with, in addition, upon the highest point +of the hill, a beacon or sort of rude lighthouse, with the maintenance +of which the priest and his household were charged. On this lone +little North Lancashire promontory, where no sound is ever heard but +that of the sea, the heart is touched well-nigh as deeply as by the +busiest scenes of Liverpool commerce. + + [41] Thus in conformity with their general architectural + practice, and as expressed in the Anglo-Saxon word for "to + build"--_getymbrian_. + +The church architecture of the Norman times has plenty of examples in +Lancashire. It is well known also that many modern churches occupy old +Norman and even Saxon sites, though nothing of the original structure +has been preserved. The remains in question usually consist, as +elsewhere, of the massive pillars always employed by the Norman +architects for the nave, or of the ornamented arch which it was their +custom to place at the entrance of the choir. Examples of Norman +pillars exist at Colne, Lancaster, Hawkshead, Cartmel, Whalley, and +Rochdale; the last-named, with the arches above, bringing to mind the +choir of Canterbury Cathedral; at Clitheroe we find a chancel-arch; +and at the cheerful and pretty village of Melling, eleven miles +north-west of Lancaster, a Norman doorway, equalled perhaps in merit +by another at Bispham, near Blackpool. Chorley parish church also +declares itself of Norman origin, and at Blackburn are preserved +various sculptured stones, plainly from Norman tools, and which +belonged to the church now gone, as rebuilt or restored in the De Lacy +times. The most ancient ecclesiastical building in Lancashire is +Stede, or Styd, Chapel, a mile and a half north of the site of +Ribchester. The period of the erection would appear to be that of +Stephen, thus corresponding with the foundation of Furness Abbey. The +windows are narrow lancet; the doors, though rather pointed, are +enriched with Norman ornaments; the floor is strewed with ancient +gravestones. In this quiet little place divine service is still, or +was recently, held once a month. + +Whalley Church, as we have it to-day--a building commemorative in site +of the introduction of the Christian faith into this part of +England--dates apparently, in its oldest portion--the pillars in the +north aisle--from the twelfth century. The choir is a little later, +probably of about 1235, from which time forwards it is evident that +building was continued for quite 200 years, so that Whalley, like York +Minster, is an epitome of architectural progress. The sedilia and +piscina recall times antecedent to the Reformation. Every portion of +the church is crowded with antiquities, many of them heraldic; very +specially inviting among them are the stalls in the chancel, eighteen +in number, transferred hither from the conventual church at the time +of the spoliation. The luxuriant carving of the abbot's stall is in +itself enough to repay an artist's journey. At the head of one of the +compartments of the east window we have the Lancastrian rose; the +flower of course tinctured gules, and almost the only representation +of it in the county: + + "Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, + But dare maintain the party of the truth, + Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me." + + I _Henry VI._, ii. 4. + +The floral badge of the house of Lancaster, it may be well to say, is +the purely heraldic rose, the outline being conventionalised, as is +the case also with the white rose of York. When used as the emblem of +England, and associated with the thistle and the shamrock, the queen +of flowers is represented as an artist would draw it--_i.e._ +truthfully to nature, or with stalk, leaves, and buds, the petals +still, as in the Lancastrian, of a soft crimson hue, "rose-colour" +emphatically. The titles of the various subjects are all in old black +letter. + +The history of Cartmel Church reads like a romance. The original +building was of earlier date than the Conquest, but changes +subsequently made bring it very considerably forwards--up indeed to +the time of Edward III. It was then that the windows of the south +aisle of the chancel were inserted, and painted as usual in that +glorious art-epoch, as shown by the few portions which remain. Other +portions of the coloured glass were probably brought from the priory +when broken up by the unhallowed hands of Henry VIII., under whose +rule the church was threatened with a similar fate, but spared, in +answer to the cry of the parishioners, who were allowed to purchase it +at an indulgent price, with the loss of the roof of the chancel. Thus +laid open to the rain and snow, these were allowed to beat into it for +eighty years, with results still plainly visible upon the woodwork. A +partial restoration of the fabric was then effected, and within these +last few years every part has been put in perfect order. + +The ground-plan of this interesting old church is that of a Greek +cross. The nave, sixty-four feet in length (Furness exceeding it by +only a few inches), leads us through angular pillars, crowned with the +plain abacus, to a choir of unusual proportionate magnitude; and here, +in contrast to the pointed nave-arches, the form changes to round, +while the faces are carved. + +In one of the chapels to which the chancel-arches lead there is some +fine perpendicular work. Similar windows occur in the transepts; and +elsewhere there are examples of late decorated. The old priory-stalls, +twenty-six in number, are preserved here, as at Whalley. + +Externally, Cartmel Church presents one of the most curious +architectural objects existing in Lancashire, the tower being placed +diagonally to the body of the edifice, a square crossways upon a +square, as if turned from its first and proper position half-way +round. What particular object was in view, or what was the motive for +this unprecedented deviation from the customary style of building,--a +parallel to which, in point of the singularity, is found, perhaps, +only in Wells Cathedral,--does not appear. We owe to it, however, four +pillars of great beauty and strength, necessarily placed at the points +of the intersection of the transepts. + +The interior of the church is encrusted with fine monuments, many of +them modern, but including a fair number that give pleasure to the +antiquary. The most ancient belong to a tomb upon the north side of +the altar, within a plain arch, and inscribed, upon an uninjured slab +of gray marble, in Longobardic characters, _Hic jacet Frator Willemus +de Walton, Prior de Cartmel_. Opposite this there will be found record +of one of the celebrated old local family of Harrington--probably the +Sir John who in 1305, when Edward I. was bound for Scotland, was +summoned by that monarch to meet him at Carlisle. An effigy of the +knight's lady lies abreast of that of the warrior; the arch above it +is of pleasing open work, covered with the grotesque figures of which +the monks were so fond. + +Had exact annals been preserved of early church-building in Lancashire +in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they would tell most +assuredly of many important foundations. The beginning of Eccles +Church, near Manchester, on the west, is referred by the archæologists +to about the year 1120, but probably it is one of the two mentioned in +"Domesday Book" in connection with Manchester. The first distinct +reference to Eccles occurs in the "Coucher Book" of Whalley Abbey, or +about thirty years later than 1120. The Whalley monks held large +estates both in Eccles and the neighbourhood, with granaries, +etc.,--the modern "Monton" is probably a contraction of "Monks' Town," +and the very name is thought to indicate a church settlement. +Ecclesiastical relics of age quite, or nearly, corresponding are found +also near Preston, especially in the tower and chancel near the church +of Walton-le-Dale, the former of no great elevation, but very strong, +buttressed and embattled. Placed in a skilfully chosen position on the +crest of a little hill near the confluence of the Darwen with the +Ribble, the aspect of the old place is distinctly picturesque; the +site at the same moment explaining the local appellation of "Low +Church,"--the Anglo-Saxon _low_ or _law_ denoting an isolated +eminence, as in the case of Cheshire Werneth Low and Shuttlings Low. +The date assigned to this ancient tower is 1162; to about thirty years +after which time the oldest existing portions of Samlesbury, a few +miles distant, appear to belong, the relics of the original here +including the baptismal font. Didsbury Church, near Manchester, +represents a chapel built about 1235, originally for the private use +of the lord of the manor and a few families of local distinction, but +a century afterwards made parochial.[42] + + [42] The existing church dates only from 1620, and in many of + its details only from 1852 and 1855. + +There are numerous indications also of ecclesiastical energy, if not +of enthusiasm, temp. Edward III., to which period seem to belong the +choir of Rochdale Church, with its rich window tracery, the choir, +probably, of Burnley Church, and perhaps the older portions of Wigan +Church. As happens with many others, the history of the last-named is +very broken. A church existed at Wigan in 1246, but the larger portion +of the present pile belongs to two centuries later. That it cannot be +the original is proved by the monument to the memory of Sir William +Bradshaigh and the unfortunate lady, his wife, the principal figure +in the legend of Mab's, or Mabel's cross. The knight is cross-legged, +in coat of mail, and in the act of unsheathing his sword; the lady is +veiled, with hands uplifted and conjoined as if in prayer. The deaths +of these two occurred about the time of the Flemish weavers' settling +in Lancashire, and of Philippa's intercession for the burghers of +Calais. + +Manchester "old church," since 1847 the "Cathedral," was founded, as +before stated, in 1422, the last year of Henry V. and first of Henry +VI.--that unhappy sovereign whose fate reflects so dismally upon the +history of Lancashire faithfulness. The site had previously been +occupied by an edifice of timber, portions of which are thought to +have been carried away and employed in the building of certain of the +old halls for which the neighbourhood was long noted, the arms of the +respective families (who, doubtless, were contributors to the cost of +the new structure) being displayed in different parts. But there does +not appear to be any genuine ground for the belief; and at a period +when oak timber was so readily procurable as in the time of Henry VI., +it is scarcely probable that men who could afford to build handsome +halls for their abode would care to introduce second-hand material, +unless in very small quantity, and then merely as commemorative of +the occasion. Choice of a quarry by the builders of the new church was +not in their power. They were constrained to use the red-brown friable +sandstone of the immediate vicinity, still plainly visible here and +there by the river-side. The exterior of the building has thus +required no little care and cost to preserve, to say nothing of the +injury done by the smoke of a manufacturing town. There was a time +when Thoresby's quotation from the Canticles in reference to St. +Peter's at Leeds would have been quite as appropriate in regard to the +Manchester "Cathedral"--"I am black, but comely." The style of the +building, with its square and pinnacled tower, 139 feet high, is the +florid Gothic of the time of the west front and south porch of +Gloucester. The interior, in its loftiness and elaborate fretwork, its +well-schemed proportions and ample windows, excites the liveliest +admiration. The chancel-screen is one for an artist to revel in; the +tabernacle work is, if possible, more beautiful yet. + +The second best of the old Lancashire ecclesiastical interiors belongs +to Sefton, near Liverpool, a building of the time of Henry VIII., upon +the site of a pre-Conquest church. The screen, which contains sixteen +stalls, presents a choice example of carved work. There is also a +fine carved-canopy over the pulpit, though time with the latter has +been pitiless. Striking architectural details are also plentiful with, +in addition, some remarkable monuments of Knights Templars with +triangular shields. Sefton church is further distinguished as one of +the few in Lancashire more than a hundred years old which possesses a +spire, the favourite style of tower in the bygones having been the +square, solid, and rather stunted--never in any degree comparable with +the gems found in Somerset, or with the circular towers that give so +much character to the churches of Norfolk and Suffolk. A very handsome +octangular tower exists at Hornby, on the banks of the Lune, built +about the middle of the sixteenth century. Winwick church, an ancient +and far-seen edifice near Warrington, supplies another example of a +spire; and at Ormskirk we have the odd conjunction of spire and square +tower side by side. Leland makes no mention of the circumstance--one +which could hardly have escaped his notice. The local tale which +proposes to explain it may be dismissed. The probability is that the +intention was to provide a place for the bells from Burscough Priory, +some of the monuments belonging to which were also removed hither when +the priory was dissolved. + +Many remains show that in Lancashire, in the time of Henry VIII., the +spirit of church extension was again in full flow. Indications of it +occur at Warrington, Burnley, Colne, and St. Michael-le-Wyre, near +Garstang, also in the aisles of Middleton Church, and in the towers of +Rochdale, Haslingden, Padiham, and Warton, near Lancaster. Here, +however, we must pause; the history of the old Lancashire churches +treated in full would be a theme as broad and various as that of the +lives and writings of its men of letters. There is one, nevertheless, +which justly claims the special privilege of an added word, the very +interesting little edifice called Langho Chapel, four miles from +Blackburn, the materials of which it was built consisting of part of +the wreck of Whalley Abbey. Sculptured stones, with heraldic shields +and other devices, though much battered and disfigured, declare the +source from which they were derived; and in the heads of some of the +windows, which resemble the relics of others at the Abbey, are +fragments of coloured glass in all likelihood of similar origin. The +date of the building would seem to have been about 1557, though the +first mention of it does not occur until 1575. How curious and +suggestive are the reminders one meets with in our own country +(comparing the small with the great), of the quarrying of the +Coliseum by the masons of mediæval Rome! + +In old halls, mansions, and manor-houses, especially of +sixteenth-century style, Lancashire abounds. A few are intact, held, +like Widnes House, by a descendant of the original owners; or +preserved through transfer to some wealthy merchant or manufacturer +from the town, who takes an equal pride in maintaining the integrity +of all he found--a circumstance to which we are indebted for some of +the most beautiful archæological relics the county possesses. On the +contrary, as would be expected, the half-ruined largely predominate, +and these in many cases are now devoted to ignoble purposes. A +considerable number of stronger substance have been modernised, often +being converted into what are sometimes disrespectfully called +"farmhouses," as if the home of the agriculturist were not one of the +most honourable in the land;--now and then they have been divided into +cottages. Still, they are there; attractive very generally to the +artist in their quaintness, always dear to the antiquary and +historian, and interesting, if no more, to all who appreciate the fond +care which clings to memorials of the past, whether personal or +outside, as treasures which once lost can never be recovered. They +tell of a class of worthy and industrious men who were neither barons +nor vassals, who had good taste, and were fairly well off in purse, +and loved field-sports--for a kennel for harriers and otter hounds is +not rare,--who were hospitable, and generous, and mindful of the poor. + +The history of these old halls is, in truth very often, the history of +the aboriginal county families. As wealth increased, and abreast of it +a longing for the refinements of a more elevated civilisation, the +proprietors usually deserted them for a new abode; the primitive one +became the "old," then followed the changes indicated, with departure, +alas! only too often, of the ancient dignity. + +In the far north a few remains occur which point to a still earlier +period, or when the disposition to render the manorial home a fortress +was very natural. Moats, or the depressions they once occupied, are +common in all parts, even where there was least danger of attack. In +the neighbourhood of Morecambe Bay the building was often as strong as +a castle, as in the case of the old home of the Harringtons at +Gleaston, two miles east of Furness Abbey. These celebrated ruins, +which lie in a hollow in one of the valleys running seawards, are +apparently of the fourteenth century, the windows in the lower storey +being acutely pointed single lights, very narrow outside, but widely +splayed within. Portions of three square towers and part of the +curtain-wall connecting them attest, with the extent of the enclosure +(288 feet by 170 where widest), that the ancient lords of Aldingham +were alike powerful and sagacious. On the way to Gleaston, starting +from Grange, a little south of the village of Allithwaite, Wraysholme +tells of similar times, though all that now remains is a massive +tower, the walls 3-1/2 feet thick as they rise from the sod. It was +near Wraysholme, it will be remembered, that according to tradition +and the ballad, the last of the English wolves was killed. The fine +old tower of Hornby Castle, the only remaining portion of a stronghold +commenced soon after the Conquest, is of much later date, having been +built in or about 1520. That without being originally designed to +withstand the attack of a violent enemy, more than one of these +substantial old Lancashire private houses held its own against +besiegers in the time of the civil wars is matter of well-known +history. Lathom House (the original, long since demolished) has +already been mentioned as the scene of the memorable discomfiture of +Fairfax by Charlotte, Countess of Derby, the illustrious lady in whom +loyalty and conjugal love were interwoven. + +The Elizabethan halls so termed, though some of them belong to the +time of James I., are of two distinct kinds,--the half-timbered, +black-and-white, or "magpie," and the purely stone, the latter +occurring in districts where wood was less plentiful or more costly. +Nothing in South Lancashire, and in the adjacent parts of Cheshire, +sooner catches the eye of the stranger than the beautiful old +patterned front of one of the former;--bars vertical and horizontal, +angles and curves, mingling curiously but always elegantly, Indian ink +upon snow, many gables breaking the sky-line, while the entrance is +usually by a porch or ornamental gateway, the windows on either side +low but wide, with many mullions, and usually casemented. The features +in question rivet the mind so much the more because of the proof given +in these old half-timbered houses of the enduring vitality of the +idea of the Gothic cathedral, and its new expression when +cathedral-building ceased, in the subdued and modified form +appropriate to English homes--the things next best, when perfect, to +the fanes themselves. The gables repeat the high-pitched roof; the +cathedral window, as to the rectangular portion, or as far as the +spring of the arch, is rendered absolutely; the filagree in +black-and-white, ogee curves appearing not infrequently, is a varied +utterance of the sculpture; the pinnacles and finials, the coloured +glass, and the porch complete the likeness. Anything that can be +associated with a Gothic cathedral is thereby ennobled;--upon this one +simple basis, the architecture we are speaking of becomes artistic, +while its lessons are pure and salutary. + +Drawing near, at the sides of the porch, are found seats usually of +stone. In front, closing the entrance to the house, there is a strong +oaken door studded with heads of great iron nails. Inside are chambers +and corridors, many and varied, an easy and antique staircase leading +to the single upper storey, the walls everywhere hidden by oaken +panels grooved and carved, and in the daintier parts divided by fluted +pilasters; while across the ceilings, which are usually low, run the +ancient beams which support the floor above. So lavish is the +employment of oak, that, when this place was built, surely one thinks +a forest must have been felled. But those were the days of giant +trees, the equals of which in this country will probably never be seen +again, though in the landscape they are not missed. Inside, again, how +cheery the capacious and friendly hearth, spanned by a vast arch; +above it, not uncommonly, a pair of huge antlers that talk of joy in +the chase. Inside, again, one gets glimpses of heraldic imagery, +commemorative of ancient family honours, rude perhaps in execution, +but redeemed by that greatest of artists, the Sunshine, that streaming +through shows the colours and casts the shadows. Halls such as these +existed until quite lately even in the immediate suburbs of +Manchester, in the original streets of which town there were many +black-and-white fronts, as to the present moment in Chester, Ludlow, +and Shrewsbury. Some of the finest of those still remaining in the +rural parts of Lancashire will be noticed in the next chapter. Our +illustrations give for the present an idea of them. When gone to decay +and draped with ivy, like Coniston Hall, the ancient home of the le +Flemings, whatever may be the architecture, they become keynotes to +poems that float over the mind like the sound of the sea. In any case +there is the sense, when dismemberment and modernising have not +wrought their mischief, that while the structure is always peculiarly +well fitted for its situation, the outlines are essentially English. +It may be added that in these old Lancashire halls and mansions the +occurrence of a secret chamber is not rare. Lancashire was always a +stronghold of Catholicism, and although the hiding-places doubtless +often gave shelter to cavaliers and other objects of purely political +enmity, the popular appellation of "priest's room," or "priest's +hole," points plainly to their more usual service. They were usually +embedded in the chimney-stacks, communication with a private cabinet +of the owner of the house being provided for by means of sliding +shutters. Very curious and interesting refuges of this character exist +to this day at Speke, Lydiate, Widnes, and Stonyhurst, and in an old +house in Goosenargh, in the centre wall of which, four feet thick, +there are two of the kind. In a similar "hole" at Mains Hall, in the +parish of Kirkham, tradition says that Cardinal Allen was once +concealed. + + + + +XI + +THE OLD HALLS (_continued_) + + +Although the few perfect remaining examples of the old timbered +Lancashire halls are preserved with the fondest reverence by their +owners, the number of those which have been allowed to fall into a +state of partial decay diminishes every year. They disappear, one by +one, perhaps inevitably, and of many, it is to be feared, not a trace +will soon be left. Repairs and restorations are expensive; to preserve +such buildings needs, moreover, a strong sense of duty, and a +profounder devotedness to "reliquism," as some author terms it, than +perhaps can ever be expected to be general. The duty to preserve is +plain. The wilful neglect, not to say the reckless destruction of +interesting old buildings that can be maintained, at no great cost, in +fair condition and as objects of picturesque beauty, is, to say the +least of it, unpatriotic. The possessors of fine old memorials of the +past are not more the possessors in their own right than trustees of +property belonging to the nation, and the nation is entitled to insist +upon their safe keeping and protection. The oaks of Sherwood, +festooned with stories of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, are not more a +ducal inheritance, than, as long as they may survive, every +Englishman's by birthright. Architectural remains, in particular, when +charged with historical interest, and that discourse of the manners +and customs of "the lang syne," are sacred. Let opulence and good +taste construct as much more as they please on modern lines. Every +addition to the architectural adornment of the country reflects honour +upon the person introducing it, and the donor deserves, though he may +not always receive, sincere gratitude. Let the builder go further, +pull down, and, if he so fancies, reconstruct his own particular work. +But no man who calls himself master of a romantic or sweet old place, +consecrated by time, has any right, by destroying, to steal it from +the people of England; he is bound not even to mutilate it. There are +occasions, no doubt, when to preserve is no longer practicable, and +when to alter may be legitimate; we refer not to these, but to +needless and wanton overthrow--such as unhappily has had examples only +too many. There was no need to destroy that immemorial mansion, +Reddish Old Hall, near the banks of the Tame, now known only through +the medium of a faithful picture;[43] nor was there excuse for the +merciless pulling to pieces of Radcliffe Old Hall, on the banks of the +Irwell, a building so massive in its under-structure that the utmost +labour was required to beat it down. We need not talk of Alaric, the +Goths, and the Vandals, when Englishmen are not ashamed to behave as +badly. + + [43] In the Chetham Society's 42nd vol., p. 211. + +[Illustration: DARCY LEVER, NEAR BOLTON] + +Of the venerated and unmolested, Speke Hall is, perhaps, the oldest in +South Lancashire that remains as an example of the "magpie," or +black-and-white half-timbered style. It stands upon the margin of the +estuary of the Mersey, a few miles above Liverpool, with approach at +the rear by an avenue of trees from the water's edge. As with all the +rest of its class, the foundations are of solid masonry, the house +itself consisting of a framework of immensely strong vertical timbers, +connected by horizontal beams, with diagonal bracings, oak in every +instance, the interstices filled with laths upon which is laid a +peculiar composition of lime and clay. The complexion of the principal +front is represented in our drawing, but no pencil can give a perfect +idea of the repose, the tender hues, antique but not wasted, the +far-reaching though silent spell with which it catches and holds both +eye and fancy. Over the principal entrance, in quaint letters, "This +worke," it is said, "25 yards long, was wolly built by Edw. N., Esq., +Anno 1598." The N. stands for Norreys, the surname of one of the +primitive Lancashire families, still represented in the county, though +not at Speke. A baronial mansion belonging to them existed here as +early as 1350, but of this not a stone that can be recognised remains. +A broad moat once surrounded the newer hall, but, as in most other +instances, the water has long since given way to green turf. +Sometimes, in Lancashire, the ancient moats have been converted into +orchards. Inside, Speke is distinguished by the beauty of the +corridors and of the great hall, which latter contains some carved +wainscoting brought from Holyrood by the Sir Wm. Norreys who, serving +his commander, Lord Stanley, well at Flodden, A.D. 1513, got leave to +despoil the palace of the unfortunate monarch there defeated. The +galleries look into a spacious and perfectly square central court of +the kind usually pertaining to these old halls, though now very seldom +found with all four of the enclosing blocks of building. The court at +Speke is remarkable for its pair of aged yew trees; one of each +sex, the female decked in autumn with its characteristic scarlet +berries--a place for trees so exceptional that it probably has no +counterpart. Everywhere and at all times the most imperturbable of +trees, yews never fail to give an impression of long inheritance and +of a history abreast of dynasties, and at Speke the association is +sustained perfectly. + +[Illustration: SPEKE HALL] + +[Illustration: HALE HALL] + +Near Bolton there are several such buildings, all in a state of +praiseworthy preservation. In the time of the Stuarts and the +Republicans they must have been numerous. Smithills, or Smethells, a +most beautiful structure placed at the head of a little glen, occupies +the site of an ancient Saxon royal residence. After the Conquest, the +estate and the original hall passed through various successive hands, +those of the Ratcliffes included. At present it is possessed, +fortunately, by one of the Ainsworth family above mentioned (p. 125), +so that, although very extensive changes have been made from time to +time, including the erection of a new east front in stone, and the +substitution of modern windows for the primitive casements, the +permanency of all, as we have it to-day, is guaranteed. The interior +is rich in ancient wood-carving. Quaint but charmingly artistic +decoration prevails in all the chief apartments; some of the panels +are emblazoned in colours; everywhere, too, there is the sense of +strength and comfort. In the quadrangle, open on one side, and now a +rose-garden, amid the flower-borders, and in the neighbouring +shrubberies, it is interesting to observe once again how the botanical +aspect of old England is slowly but surely undergoing transformation, +through the liberal planting of decorative exotics. + +Speke suggests the idea of botanical metamorphosis even more +powerfully than Smithills. At each place the ancient occupiers, full +of the native spirit of "never say die," the oak, the hawthorn, and +the silver birch,--trees that decked the soil in the days of +Caractacus,--wonder who are these new-comers, the rhododendrons and +the strange conifers from Japan and the antipodes. They bid them +welcome all the same. As at Clitheroe, they stand arm in arm; we are +reminded at every step of the good householder "which bringeth forth +out of his treasure things both new and old." + +Hall i' th' Wood, not far off, so called because once hidden in the +heart of a forest containing wild boars, stands on the brow of a +precipitous cliff at the base of which flows the Eagley. Possessed of +a large bay window, Hall i' th' Wood may justly be pronounced one of +the best existing specimens of old English domestic architecture--that +of the franklins, or aboriginal country gentlemen, not only of +Lancashire, but of the soil in general, though some of the external +ornaments are of later date than the house itself. The oldest part +seems never to have suffered "improvements" of any kind; in any case, +Hall i' th' Wood is to the historian one of the most interesting spots +in England, since it was here, in the room with the remarkable +twenty-four-light window, that Crompton devised and constructed his +cotton-machine. The noble old trees have long since vanished. When +the oaks were put to death, so large were they that no cross-cut saw +long enough for the purpose could be procured, and the workmen were +obliged to begin with making deep incisions in the trunks, and +removing large masses of the ironlike timber. This was only a trifle +more than a century ago. + +Turton Tower, near Bolton, an old turreted and embattled building, +partly stone, partly black-and-white, the latter portion gabled, +originally belonged to the Orrells, afterwards to the Chethams, the +most distinguished of whom, Humphrey Chetham, founder of the Chetham +Free Library, died here in 1653. The upper storeys, there being four +in all, successively project or overhang, after the manner of those of +many of the primitive Manchester houses. The square form of the +building gives it an aspect of great solidity; the ancient door is +oak, and passing this, we come once again upon abundance of elaborate +wood-carving, with enriched ceilings, as at Speke. Turton has, in +part, been restored, but with strict regard to the original style and +fashion, both within and without. + +The neighbourhood also of Wigan is celebrated for its old halls, +pre-eminent among which is Ince, the ancient seat of the Gerards, +and the subject of another of our sketches. Ince stands about a mile +to the south-east of the comparatively modern building of the same +name, and in its many gables surmounting the front, and long ranges of +windows, is not more tasteful as a work of art than conspicuous to the +traveller who is so fortunate as to pass near enough to enjoy the +sight of it. Lostock Old Hall, black-and-white, and dated 1563, +possesses a handsome stone gateway, and has most of the rooms +wainscoted. Standish Hall, three and a half miles N.N.W., is also well +worth a visit; and after these time is well given to Pemberton Old +Hall, half timbered (two miles W.S.W.), Birchley Hall, Winstanley +Hall, and Haigh Hall. Winstanley, built of stone, though partly +modernised, retains the ancient transom windows, opposing a quiet and +successful resistance to the ravages of time and fashion. Haigh Hall, +for many ages the seat of the Bradshaigh family (from which, through +females, Lord Lindsay, the distinguished Lancashire author and +art-critic, descended), is a stately mansion of various periods--the +chapel as old apparently as the reign of Edward II. Placed upon the +brow of the hill above the town, it commands a prospect scarcely +surpassed by the view from Billinge. + +[Illustration: HALL IN THE WOOD] + +The old halls of Manchester and the immediate neighbourhood would a +hundred years ago have required many chapters to themselves. It has +already been mentioned that a great portion of the original town was +"black-and-white," and most of the halls belonging to the local +gentry, it would seem, were similar. Those which stood in the way of +the fast-striding bricks and mortar of the eighteenth century and the +beginning of the nineteenth, if not gone entirely, have been mutilated +beyond recognition. In the fields close to Garratt Hall partridges +were shot only seventy or eighty years ago: to-day there is scarcely a +fragment of it left! Hulme Hall, which stood upon a rise of the red +sandstone rock close to the Irwell, overlooking the ancient ford to +Ordsall,--once the seat of the loyal and generous Prestwich +family,--is remembered by plenty of the living as the point aimed for +in summer evenings by those who loved the sight of hedges covered with +the white bells of the convolvulus--Galatea's own pretty flower. +Workshops now cover the ground; and though Ordsall Hall, its neighbour +across the water, not long ago a mile from any public road, is still +extant, it is hall only in name. Ordsall, happily, is in the +possession of a firm of wealthy manufacturers, who have converted the +available portions into a sort of institute for their workpeople.[44] +Crumpsall Old Hall; Hough Hall, near Moston; Ancoats Old Hall, now the +Ancoats Art Gallery; Barton Old Hall, near Eccles; Urmston Old Hall, +and several others, may be named as examples of ancient beauty and +dignity now given over to the spirit of change. Leaving them to their +destiny, it is pleasant to note one here and there among the fields +still unspoiled, as in the case of "Hough End," a building of modest +proportions, but an excellent example of the style in brick which +prevailed at the close of the reign of Elizabeth; the windows +square-headed, with substantial stone mullions, and transomed. Hough +End was originally the home of the Mosleys, having been erected by Sir +Nicholas Mosley, Lord Mayor of London in 1600, "whom God," says the +old biographer, "from a small and low estate, raysed up to riches and +honour." One of the prettiest of the always pretty "magpie" style is +Kersall Cell, near the banks of the Irwell, at Agecroft, so named +because on the site of an ancient monkish retreat or hermitage, the +predecessor of which in turn was a little oratory among the rocks at +Ordsall, lower down the stream, founded temp. Henry II. Worsley Old +Hall, another example of "magpie," though less known to the general +public than the adjacent modern Worsley Hall, the seat of the Earl of +Ellesmere, is one of the most imposing edifices of its character in +South Lancashire. With the exception of Worsley Hall, Manchester +possesses no princely or really patrician residences. The Earl of +Wilton's, Heaton Park, though well placed, claims to be nothing more +than of the classical type so common to its class. + + [44] Messrs. R. Howarth & Co., whose "weaving-shed," it may be + added, is the largest and most astonishing in the world. + +When relics only exist, they in many cases become specially +interesting through containing some personal memorial. Barlow Hall, +for instance, originally black-and-white, with quadrangle, now so +changed by modernising and additions that we have only a hint of the +primitive aspect, is rich in the possession of an oriel with stained +glass devoted to heraldry. One of the shields--parted per pale, +apparently to provide a place for the Barlow arms, not inserted--shows +on the dexter side those of Edward Stanley, third Earl of Derby, in +seventeen quarterings--Stanley, Lathom, the Isle of Man, Harrington, +Whalley Abbey, Hooton, and eleven others. The date of this, as of the +sundial, is 1574. + +The country immediately around Liverpool is deficient in old halls of +the kind so abundant near Bolton and Manchester. This perhaps is in no +degree surprising when we consider how thinly that part of Lancashire +was inhabited when the manufacturing south-east corner was already +populous. Speke is the only perfect example thereabouts of its +particular class, the black-and-white; and of a first-class +contemporaneous baronial mansion, the remains of the Hutte, near Hale, +furnish an almost solitary memorial. The transom of the lower window, +the upper smaller windows, the stack of kitchen chimneys, the antique +mantelpiece, the moat, still untouched, with its drawbridge, combine +to show how important this place must have been in the bygones, while +the residence of the Irelands. It was quitted in 1674, when the +comparatively new "Hale Hall" was erected, a solid and commodious +building of the indefinite style. Liverpool as a district is +correspondingly deficient in palatial modern residences, though there +are many of considerable magnitude. Knowsley, the seat of the Earl of +Derby, is eminently miscellaneous, a mixture of Gothic and classical, +and of various periods, beginning with temp. Henry VI. The front was +built in 1702, the back in 1805. Croxteth Hall, the Earl of Sefton's, +is a stone building of the negative character indicative of the time +of Queen Anne and George I. Childwall Abbey, a mansion belonging to +the Marquis of Salisbury, is Gothic of the kind which is recommended +neither by taste nor by fidelity to exact principles. Lathom, on the +other hand, is consistent, though opinions vary as to the amount of +genius displayed in the detail--the very part in which genius is +always declared. Would that there existed, were it ever so tiny, a +fragment of the original Lathom House, that noble first home of the +Stanleys, which had no fewer than eighteen towers, without reckoning +the lofty "Eagle" in the centre--its outer walls protected by a fosse +of eight yards in width, and its gateway one that in nobleness would +satisfy kings. Henry VII. came here in 1495, the occasion when "to the +women that songe before the Kinge and the Quene," as appears in the +entertaining Privy Purse Expenses of the royal progress that pleasant +summer, there was given "in reward, 6s. 8d." So thorough was the +demolition of the old place that now there is no certain knowledge +even of the site. The present mansion was built during the ten years +succeeding 1724. It has a rustic basement, with double flight of +steps, above which are rows of Ionic columns. The length of the +northern or principal front, including the wings, is 320 feet; the +south front overlooks the garden, and an abundantly wooded park. An +Italian architect, Giacomo Leoni, was entrusted with the decoration of +the interior, which upon the whole is deservedly admired. + +Ince Blundell is distinguished, not so much for its architecture, as +for the collection of works of art contained in the entrance-hall, a +model, one-third size, of the Pantheon. The sculptures, of various +kinds, above 550 in number, are chiefly illustrative of the later +period of Roman art, though including some gems of ancient Greek +conception; the paintings include works of high repute in all the +principal continental schools, as well as English, the former +representing, among others, Paul Veronese, Andrea del Sarto, and Jan +Van Eyck. The Ince Blundell collection is certainly without equal in +Lancashire, and is pronounced by connoisseurs one of the finest of its +kind in the country. + +The neighbourhood of Blackburn is enviable in the possession of +Hoghton Tower, five and a half miles to the W.S.W., a building +surpassed in its various interest only by Lancaster Castle and the +abbeys; in beauty of situation little inferior to Stirling Castle, and +as a specimen of old baronial architecture well worthy of comparison +with Haddon Hall. The estate was in the possession of the Hoghton +family as early as temp. Henry II., when the original manor-house, +superseded by the Tower, stood at the foot of the hill, by the +river-side. The existing edifice dates from the reign of Elizabeth, +having been erected by the Thomas Hoghton whose departure from "Merry +England" is the theme of the pathetic old ballad, "The Blessed +Conscience." He was one of the "obstinate" people who, having been +educated in the Catholic faith, refused to conform to the requirements +of the new Protestant powers, and was obliged in consequence to take +refuge in a foreign country, dying an exile at Liege, 3d June 1580. + + "Oh! Hoghton high, which is a bower + Of sports and lordly pleasure, + I wept, and left that lordly tower + Which was my chiefest treasure. + To save my soul, and lose the rest, + It was my true pretence; + Like frighted bird, I left my nest, + To keep my consciènce. + + "Fair England! now ten times adieu! + And friends that therein dwell; + Farewell, my brother Richard true, + Whom I did love so well-- + Farewell, farewell, good people all, + And learn experiènce; + Love not too much the golden ball, + But keep your consciènce." + +[Illustration: HOGHTON TOWER] + +The "Tower," so called, occupies the summit of a lofty ridge, on its +eastern side bold and rugged, steep and difficult of access, though to +the north and west sloping gently. Below the declivity meanders the +Darwen, in parts smooth and noiseless; but in the "Orr," so named from +the sound, tumbling over huge heaps of rock loosened from the opposite +bank, where the wall of stone is almost vertical. In the time of its +pride the hill was almost entirely clothed with trees, but now it is +chiefly turf, and the extent of the prospect, which includes the +village of Walton-le-Dale, down in the valley of the Ribble, is +enjoyed perfectly. The ground-plan of the building presents two +capacious courts, the wall with three square towers in front, the +middle one protecting the gateway. The outer court is large enough for +the easy movement of 600 men; the inner one is approached by a noble +flight of steps. The portion designed for the abode of the family +contains noble staircases, branching out into long galleries, which +lead, in turn, to the many chambers. One of the rooms, called James +the First's, is wainscoted. The stay of his Majesty at Hoghton for a +few days in August, 1617, has already been referred to. It is this +which has been so admirably commemorated in Cattermole's best +painting. With a view to rendering his picture, containing some fifty +figures, as historically correct as might be possible, the artist was +assisted with all the records and portraits in existence, so that the +imagination has little place in it beyond the marshalling. Regarded as +a semi-ruin, Hoghton Tower is a national monument, a treasure which +belongs not more to the distinguished baronet by whom it has lately +been in some degree restored after the neglect of generations, than, +as said above, like all others of its kind, to the people of England, +who, in course of time, it is to be hoped, will rightly estimate the +value of their heirlooms. + +Stonyhurst, now the principal English Jesuit College, was originally +the home of the Sherburne family, one of whom attended Queen Philippa +at Calais, while upon another, two centuries later, Elizabeth looked +so graciously that, although a Catholic, she allowed him to retain his +private chapel and domestic priest. It was under the latter that the +existing edifice took the place of one more ancient, though the +builder did not live to complete his work. The completion, in truth, +may be said to be yet barely effected, so many additions, all in +thorough keeping, have been projected. Not that they interfere with +the design of the stately original, its lofty and battlemented +centre, and noble cupolas. The new is in perfect harmony with the +old, and the general effect, we may be sure, is no less imposing to-day +than it was three hundred years ago. The interior corresponds; the +galleries and apartments leave nothing to be desired: they are stored, +moreover, with works of art, and with archæological and historical +curiosities; so richly, indeed, that whatever the value of the museums +in some of the Lancashire large towns, in the entire county there is +no collection of the kind that can take precedence of Stonyhurst. The +house was converted to its present purpose in 1794, when the founders +of the College, driven from Liege by the terrors of the French +Revolution, obtained possession of it. They brought with them all they +could that was specially valuable, and hence, in large measure, the +varied interest of what it contains. In the philosophical apparatus +room there is a _Descent from the Cross_, by Annibale Caracci. +Elsewhere there are some carvings in ivory, and a _Crucifixion_, by +Michel Angelo, with ancient missals, a copy of the Office of the +Virgin which belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots, and antiques of +miscellaneous character innumerable, those of the Christian ages +supplemented by a Roman altar from Ribchester. A curious circumstance +connected with Stonyhurst is, that the house and grounds occupy, as +nearly as possible, the same area as that of the famous city which +once adorned the banks of the Ribble. + +[Illustration: STONYHURST] + +A pilgrimage to the neighbourhood of Stonyhurst is rewarded by the +sight of old fashioned manor-houses scarcely inferior in manifold +interest to those left behind in the southern part of the county. +Little Mitton Hall (so named in order to distinguish it from Great +Mitton, on the Yorkshire side of the stream) supplies an example of +the architecture of the time of Henry VII. The basement is of stone, +the upper storey of wood; the presence-chamber, with its embayed +window-screen and gallery above, and the roof ceiled with oak in +wrought compartments, are alike curious and interesting. Salesbury +Hall, partly stone and partly wood, once possessed of a quadrangular +court, now a farmhouse, was originally the seat of the Talbots, one of +whom, in 1580, was Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London. +Salmesbury, monographed by Mr. James Croston, dates from the close of +the fourteenth century. This is a truly fascinating old place, the +inner doors all without either panel or lock, and opened, like those +of cottages, with a latch and a string. Townley Hall, near Burnley, +one of the most ancient seats in the county, is rich in personal +history. The banks of the Lune in turn supply examples of the ancient +mansion such as befit a valley picturesque in every winding, Hornby +Castle and Borwick Hall counting as chief among them. + +The list of Lancashire remains of this character could be considerably +enlarged. Scarisbrick and Rufford, near Ormskirk; Yealand Redmayne, +nine miles north of Lancaster; Swarthmoor, Extwistle, and many others, +present features of various interest, and in the aggregate supply +materials for one of the most delightful chapters still to be written +for the history not only of Lancashire but of England. But here we +must desist. + + + + +XII + +THE NATURAL HISTORY AND THE FOSSILS + + +An extended account of the flora of Lancashire, or of its fauna, or of +the organic remains preserved in the rocks and the coal strata, is +impossible in the space now at command: it is not demanded either by +pages which profess to supply no more than general hints as to where +to look for what is worthy or curious. A bird's-eye view of +Lancashire, its contents and characteristics, would nevertheless be +incomplete without some notice, however brief, of the indigenous trees +and plants, the birds ordinarily met with, and the fossils. The zest +with which natural history has been followed in Lancashire, for over a +century, has resulted in so accurate a discrimination of all the +principal forms of life, that the numbers, and the degree of diffusion +of the various species, can now be spoken of without fear of error. In +those departments alone which require the use of the microscope is +there much remaining to be done, and these, in truth, are practically +inexhaustible. + +Being so varied in its geology, and possessed of a hundred miles of +coast, Lancashire presents a very good average flora, though wanting +many of the pretty plants which deck the meadows and waysides of most +of the southern counties. The wild clematis which at Clifton festoons +every old thorn is sought in vain. In Lancashire no cornfield is ever +flooded as in Surrey with scarlet poppies; the sweet-briar and the +scented violet are scarcely known, except, of course, in gardens; even +the mallow is a curiosity. Many flowers, on the other hand, occur in +plenty, which, though not confined to Lancashire, are in the south +seldom seen, and which in beauty compare with the best. Mr. Bentham, +in his _Handbook of the British Flora_, describes 1232 native +flowering plants, and 53 of the cryptogamia--the ferns and their +allies--or a total of 1285. Of these the present writer has personally +observed in Lancashire more than 500. In the remoter corners another +score or two, without doubt, await the finding. In any case, the +proportion borne by the Lancashire flora to that of the entire island +is, in reality, much higher than the figures seem to indicate, since +quite a sixth part of the 1285 consists of plants confined to three +or four localities, and thus not entitled to count with the general +vegetation of the country. It is not, after all, the multitude or the +variety of the species found in a given spot that renders it enviable. +The excellent things of the world are not the rare and costly ones, +but those which give joy to the largest number of intelligent human +beings; and assuredly more delight has arisen to mankind from the +primrose, the anemone, and the forget-me-not, than from all the +botanist's prizes put together. Better, moreover, at any time, than +the possession of mere quantity, the ceaseless pleasure that comes of +watching manners and customs, or a life-history--such, for example, as +that of the Parnassia. Not to mention all that precedes and follows, +how beautiful the spectacle of the milk-white cups when newly open, +the golden anthers kneeling round the lilac ovary; then, after a +while, in succession rising up, bestowing a kiss, and retiring, so +that at last they form a five-rayed star, the ovary now impurpled. In +connection with the dethronement of the natural beauty of the streams +in the cotton manufacturing districts, it is interesting to note that, +while the primroses, the anemones, and the forget-me-nots, that once +grew in profusion, here and there, along the margins, have +disappeared, the "azured harebell"[45] holds its own. Even when the +whitethorn stands dismayed, the harebell still sheets many a slope and +shelving bank with its deep-dyed blue. + + [45] Usually miscalled "blue bell," _vide_ "The Shakspere + Flora." + +On the great hills along the eastern side of the county, and +especially in the moorland parts, the flora is meagre in the extreme. +Acres innumerable produce little besides heather and whortle-berry. +When the latter decreases, it is to make room for the empetrum, or the +Vitis Idæa, "the grape of Mount Ida"--a name enough in itself to fling +poetry over the solitude. Harsh and wiry grasses and obdurate rushes +fill the interspaces, except where green with the hard-fern. +Occasionally, as upon Foledge, the parsley-fern and the club-moss tell +of the altitude, as upon Pendle the pinguicula and the cloud-berry. +The hills behind Grange are in part densely covered with juniper, and +the characteristic grass is the beautiful blue sesleria, the colour +contrasting singularly with that of the hay-field grasses. The +choicest of the English green-flowered plants, the trulove, _Paris +quadrifolia_, is plentiful in the woods close by, and extends to those +upon the banks of the Duddon. Everywhere north of Morecambe Bay, as +these names go far to indicate, the flora is more diversified than to +the south; here, too, particular kinds of flowers occur in far greater +plenty. At Grange the meadows teem with cowslips, in many parts of +Lancashire almost unknown. Crimson orchises--Ophelia's "long-purples," +the tway-blade, the fly-orchis, the Lady's tresses, the +butterfly-orchis, that smells only after twilight, add their charms to +this beautiful neighbourhood, which, save for Birkdale, would seem the +Lancashire orchids' patrimony. The total number of orchideous plants +occurring wild in the county is fourteen; and of these Birkdale lays +very special claim to two--the marsh epipactis and the _Orchis +latifolia_. In the moist hollows among the sand-hills, called the +"slacks," they grow in profusion, occurring also in similar habitats +beyond the Ribble. The abundance is easily accounted for; the seeds of +the orchids, of every kind, are innumerable as the motes that glisten +i' the sunbeam, and when discharged, the wind scatters them in all +directions. The orchids' Birkdale home is that also of the parnassia, +which springs up less frequently alone than in clusters of from six or +eight to twenty or thirty. Here, too, grows that particular form of +the pyrola, hitherto unnoticed elsewhere, which counts as the +Lancashire botanical specialty, looking when in bloom like the lily +of the valley, though different in leaf, and emulating not only the +fashion but the odour. It would much better deserve the epithet of +"Lancashire" than the asphodel so called, for the latter is found in +bogs wherever they occur. Never mind; it is more than enough that +there is whisper in it of the "yellow meads," and that in high summer +it shows its bright gold, arriving just when the cotton-grass is +beginning to waft away, and the sundews are displaying their diamonds, +albeit so treacherously, for in another week or two every leaf will be +dotted with corpses. No little creature of tender wing ever touches a +sundew except under penalty of death. Only two other English +counties--York and Cornwall--lend their name to a wild-flower, so that +Lancashire may still be proud of its classic asphodel. + +No single kind of wild-flower occurs in Lancashire so abundantly as to +give character to the county, nor is it marked by any particular kind +of fern. The most general, perhaps, is the broad-leaved sylvan +shield-fern (_Lastrea dilatata_), though in some parts superseded by +the amber-spangled polypody. Neither is any one kind of tree more +conspicuous than another, unless it be the sycamore. Fair dimensions +are attained by the wych-elm, which in Lancashire holds the +place given south of Birmingham to that princely exotic, the +_campestris_--the "ancestral elm" of the poet, and chief home of the +sable rook--a tree of comparative rarity, and in Lancashire never +majestic. The wild cherry is often remarkable also for its fine +development, especially north of the sands. The abele, on the other +hand, the maple, and the silver willow, are seldom seen; and of the +spindle-tree, the wayfaring-tree, and the dogwood, there is scarcely +an example. They do not blend in Lancashire, as in the south, with the +crimson pea and the pencilled wood-vetch. When a climber of the +summer, after the bindweed, ascends the hedge, it is the Tamus, that +charming plant which never seems so much to have risen out of the +earth as to be a cataract of foliage tumbling from some hidden fount +above. Wood-nuts are plentiful in the northern parts of the county; +and in the southern wild raspberries, these equal in flavour and +fragrance to those of garden growth, wanting only in size. Bistort +makes pink islands amid hay grass that waits the scythe. Foxgloves as +tall as a man adorn all dry and shady groves. The golden-rod, the +water septfoil, and the Lady's mantle, require no searching for. At +Blackpool the sea-rocket blooms again towards Christmas. On the +extremest verge of the county, where a leap across the streamlet would +plant the feet in Westmoreland, the banks are dotted for many miles +with the bird's-eye primula. + + +THE BIRDS[46] + + [46] Condensed in part from the chapter on Lancashire Birds in + _Manchester Walks and Wild-flowers_, 1858, long since out of + print. + +With the Lancashire birds, as with the botany, it is not the +exhaustive catalogue that possesses the prime interest. This lies in +the habits, the odd and pretty ways, the instincts, the songs, the +migrations, that lift birds, in their endless variety, so near to our +own personal human nature. + +Adding to the list of birds known to be permanent residents in Great +Britain, the names of those which visit our islands periodically, +either in summer or winter, the total approaches 250. Besides the +regular immigrants, about a hundred others come occasionally; some, +perchance, by force of accident, as when, after heavy weather at sea, +the Stormy Petrel is blown ashore. In Lancashire there appear to be, +of the first-class, about seventy: the summer visitors average about +thirty; and of winter visitors there have been noticed about a score, +the aggregate being thus, as nearly as possible, one-half of the +proper ornithology of the country. The parts of the county richest in +species are naturally those which abound in woods and well-cultivated +land, as near Windermere, and where there are orchards and plenty of +market-gardens, as on the broad plain south-west of Manchester, which +is inviting also in the pleasant character of the climate. Here, with +the first dawn of spring, when the catkins hang on the hazels, the +song-thrush begins to pipe. The missel-thrush in the same district is +also very early, and is often, like the chief musician, remarkable for +size, plumage, and power of song. Upon the seaside sand-hills it is +interesting to observe how ingeniously the throstle deals with the +snails. Every here and there in the sand a large pebble is lodged, and +against this the bird breaks the shells, so that at last the stone +becomes the centre of a heap of fragments that recall the tales of the +giants and their bone-strewed caverns. This, too, where the +peacefulness is so profound, and where never a thought of slaughter +and rapine, save for the deeds of the thrushes, would enter the mind. +The snails are persecuted also by the blackbirds--in gardens more +inveterately even than on the sand-hills--in the former to such a +degree that none can refuse forgiveness of the havoc wrought among the +strawberries and ripening cherries. Both thrush and blackbird have +their own cruel enemy--the cunning and inexorable sparrow-hawk. When +captured, the unfortunate minstrel is conveyed to an eminence, +sometimes an old nest, if one can be near, and there devoured. In +almost all parts of Lancashire where there are gardens, that cheerful +little creature, the hedge-sparrow or dunnock, lifts up its voice. +Birds commence their song at very various hours. The dunnock usually +begins towards sunset, first mounting to the loftiest twig it can +discover that will bear its weight. The sweet and simple note, if one +would hear it to perfection, must be caught just at that moment. The +song is one of those that seem to be a varied utterance of the words +of men. Listen attentively, and the lay is as nearly as may be--"Home, +home, sweet, sweet home; my work's done, so's yours; good night, all's +well." Heard in mild seasons as early as January, the little dunnock +sings as late as August. It rears a second brood while the summer is +in progress, building a nest of moss, lining it with hair, and +depositing five immaculate blue eggs. The robin, plentiful everywhere +in the rural districts, and always equal to the production of a +delightful song, never hesitates to visit the suburbs even of large +and noisy towns, singing throughout the year, though not so much +noticed in spring and summer, because of the chorus of other birds. +The country lads still call it by the old Shaksperean name: + + ... "The ruddock would, + With charitable bill (O bill, sore-shaming + Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie + Without a monument!) bring thee all this; + Yea, and furr'd moss besides."--_Cymbeline_, iv. 2. + +The great titmouse is almost as generally distributed as the robin, +and in gardens never a stranger, being busy most of its time looking +for insects. Were coincidences in nature rare and phenomenal, instead +of, to the contemplative, matter of everyday delight, we should think +more of its note as the token of the time of blooming of the +daffodils. Making the oddest of noises, as if trying to imitate other +birds, poor innocent, it only too often gets shot for its pains, the +sportsman wondering what queer thing can this be now? The blue +titmouse, like the great, would seem to be very generally diffused. +Exquisite in plumage, it attracts attention still more particularly +while building, both the male and the female working so hard. The +meadow pipit, or titling, loves the peat-mosses (those decked with the +asphodel), upon which the nests are often plentiful, a circumstance +the cuckoos, when they arrive, are swift to take advantage of. No bird +that builds on the ground has more work to do for the "herald of +summer." From the end of April onwards--the cuckoo arriving in the +third week--the titlings, whether they like it or not, get no respite. +The young cuckoos are always hungry, and never in the least anxious to +go away. How exemplary the fondness of the cuckoo for its mate! +Though apparently void of affection for its offspring, no bird, not +even the turtle-dove, is more strongly attached to the one it has +taken "for better for worse." Where either of the pair is seen, the +other is sure never to be far away. Greenfinches and chaffinches are +plentiful, the song of the former sweet, though monotonous, the latter +rendered liberally, and always welcome. The chaffinch becomes +interesting through choice of materials so very curious for its +nest. One has been found--where but in Lancashire could it +occur?--constructed entirely of raw cotton. The nest-building and the +choice of abode constitute, in truth, a chapter in bird-life more +charming even than the various outflow of the melody. The pied +wagtail goes to the very localities that most other birds +dislike--rough and stony places, near the water and under bridges; the +tree-sparrow resorts to aged and hollow oaks, rarely building +elsewhere; the long-tailed titmouse constructs a beautiful little nest +not unlike a beehive, using moss, lichens, and feathers; while the +redpole prefers dead roots of herbaceous plants, tying the fibres +together with the bark of last year's withered nettle-stalks, and +lining the cavity with the glossy white pappus of the coltsfoot, just +ripe to its hand, and softer than silk. The common wren,--a frequent +Lancashire bird,--a lovely little creature, sometimes with wings +entirely white, and not infrequently with a few scattered feathers of +that colour, is one of the birds that prefigure character in man. When +the time for building arrives the hen commences a nest on her own +private account, goes on with it, and completes it. Her consort +meantime begins two or three in succession, but tires, and never +finishes anything. Among the Lancashire permanent residents, and birds +only partially periodical, may also be named, as birds of singular +attractiveness in their ways,--though not perhaps always tuneful, or +graceful in form, or gay in plumage,--the skylark that "at heaven's +gate sings"; the common linnet, a bird of the heaths and hedgerows, +captured, whenever possible, for the cage; the magpie, the common +bunting, the yellow-ammer, the peewit, and the starling or shepster. +The starlings travel in companies, and lively parties they always +seem. The "close order" flight of the peewit is well known; that of +the starling is, if possible, even more wonderful. The sudden move to +the right or left of thousands perfectly close together upon the wing; +the rise, at a given signal, like a cloud, from the pastures where +they have been feeding, is a spectacle almost unique in its +singularity. Near the sea the list is augmented by the marsh bunting, +the curlew, and gulls of different kinds, including the kittiwake. In +very tempestuous seasons gulls are often blown inland, as far as +Manchester, falling when exhausted in the fields. They also come of +their own accord, and may be seen feeding upon the mosses. Upon the +sand-hills a curious and frequent sight is that of the hovering of the +kestrel over its intended prey, which here consists very generally of +young rabbits. The kestrel has little skill in building. Talents +differ as much in birds as in mankind. Seldom its own architect, it +selects and repairs an old and deserted crow's or magpie's nest, or +any other it can find sufficiently capacious for its needs. + +The history of the Lancashire summer visitants is crowded with +interest of equal variety. The nightingale stays away. She has come +now and then to the edge of Cheshire, but no farther. Very often, +however, she is thought to have ventured at last, the midnight note of +the sedge-warbler being in some respects not unlike that of Philomel +herself. The earliest to arrive, often preceding the swallows, appear +to be the wheatear and the willow-wren. The sand-martin is also a very +early comer. It cannot afford, in truth, to be dilatory, the nest +being constructed in a gallery first made in some soft cliff, usually +sandstone. While building it never alights upon the ground, collecting +the green blades of grass used for the outer part, and the feathers +for the lining, while still on the wing. The advent of the cuckoo has +already been mentioned. In the middle of May comes the spotted +fly-catcher, an unobtrusive and confiding little creature; and about +the same time the various "warblers" make their appearance. The males +usually precede the females by a week or two; the black-cap going, +like the hedge-sparrow, to the highest pinnacle it can find, and +singing till joined by the hen; while the garden-warbler keeps to the +bushes and gardens, and is silent till she arrives. The whinchat, the +yellow wagtail, and the stone-chat, haunter of the open wastes where +gorse grows freely, never forget. Neither do the dotterel and the +ring-ouzel, the latter in song so mellow, both moving on speedily into +the hilly districts. To many the voice of the corncrake, though harsh +and tuneless, becomes a genuine pleasure, for she is heard best during +those balmy summer evening hours while, though still too light for the +stars, the planets peer forth in their beautiful lustre, clear and +young as when first noted by the Chaldean shepherds, bryony in bloom +in the hedgerows, "listening wheat" on either hand. + +The winter visitants comprehend chiefly the fieldfare and the redwing. +In October and November these birds, breeding in Norway and Sweden, +appear in immense flocks. Winging its way to the vicinity of farms and +orchards, the one piercing cry of the redwing may be heard overhead +any still night, no matter how dark. Siskins come at uncertain +intervals; and in very severe seasons the snow-bunting is sometimes +noticed. + +Such are the ornithological facts which in Lancashire give new +attraction to the quiet and rewarding study of wild nature. The few +that have been mentioned--for they are not the hundredth part of what +might be cited were the subject dealt with _in extenso_--do not +pretend to be in the slightest degree novel. They may serve, +nevertheless, to indicate that in Lancashire there is lifelong pastime +for the lover of birds no less than for the botanist. + + +THE FOSSILS[47] + + [47] One or two paragraphs condensed from the seventh chapter of + _Summer Rambles_, 1866. Long since out of print. + +Although the new red sandstone, so general in the southern parts, +offers scarcely any attractions to the palæontologist, Lancashire is +still a rich locality in regard to fossils. The coal-fields and the +mountain limestone, the latter so abundant near Clitheroe, make +amends. The organic remains found in the mountain limestone almost +invariably have their forms preserved perfectly as regards clearness +and sharpness of outline. The history of this rock begins in that of +primeval sea; the quantity of remains which it entombs is beyond the +power of fancy to conceive, large masses owing their existence to the +myriads, once alive, of a single species of creature. A third +characteristic is that, notwithstanding the general hardness, the +surface wears away under the influence of the carbonic acid brought +down by the rain, so that the fossils become liberated, and may often +be gathered up as easily as shells from the wet wrinkles of the sands. +Access to the mountain limestone is thus peculiarly favourable to the +pursuits of the student who makes researches into the history of the +life of the globe on which we dwell. How much can be done towards it +was shown forty or fifty years ago by the Preston apothecary, William +Gilbertson, whose collection--transferred after his death to the +British Museum--was pronounced by Professor Phillips in the _Geology +of Yorkshire_ at that moment "unrivalled." Gilbertson's specimens were +chiefly collected in the small district of Bolland, upon Longridge, +where also at considerable heights marine shells of the same species +as those which lie upon our existing shores may be found, showing that +the elevation of the land has taken place since their first appearance +upon the face of the earth. + +The quarries near Clitheroe and Chatburn supply specimens quite as +abundantly as those of Longridge. Innumerable terebratulæ, the +beautiful broad-hinged and deeply-striated spirifers, and the +euomphalos, reward a very slight amount of labour. Here, too, are +countless specimens of the petrified relics of the lovely creatures +called, from their resemblance to an expanded lily-blossom and its +long peduncle, the crinoidea, a race now nearly extinct. A very +curious circumstance connected with these at Clitheroe is that of some +of the species, as of the _Platycrinus triacontadactylos_, or the +"thirty-rayed," there are myriads of fossilised _heads_ but no bodies. +The presumed explanation of this singular fact is, that at the time +when the creatures were in the quiet enjoyment of their innocent +lives, great floods swept the shores upon which they were seated, +breaking off, washing away, and piling up the tender and flowerlike +upper portions, just as at the present day the petals of the pear-tree +exposed to the tempest are torn down and heaped like a snowdrift by +the wayside, the pillar-like stems remaining fast to the ground. There +is no need to conjecture where the _bodies_ of the creatures may be. +At Castleton, in Derbyshire, where the encrinital limestone is also +well exhibited, there are innumerable specimens of these, and few or +no examples of heads. The bodies of other species are plentiful at +Clitheroe, where the actinocrinus is also extremely abundant, and may +be detected, like the generality of these beautiful fossils, in nearly +every one of the great flat stones set up edgeways in place of stiles +between the fields that lie adjacent to the quarries. + +The organic remains found in the coal strata rival those of the +mountain limestone both in abundance and exquisite lineaments. In some +parts there are incalculable quantities of relics of fossil fishes, +scales of fishes, and shells resembling mussels. The glory of these +wonderful subterranean museums consists, however, in the infinite +numbers and the inexpressible beauty of the impressions of +fern-leaves, and of fragments of the stems--well known under the names +of calamites, sigillaria, and lepidodendra--of the great plants which +in the pre-Adamite times composed the woods and groves. In some of the +mines--the Robin Hood, for instance, at Clifton, five miles from +Manchester--the roof declares, in its flattened sculptures, the +ancient existence hereabouts of a vast forest of these plants. At +Dixonfold, close by, when the railway was in course of construction, +there were found the lower portions of the fossilised trunks of half a +dozen noble trees, one of the stone pillars eleven feet high, with a +circumference at the base of over fifteen feet, and at the top, where +the trunk was snapped when the tree was destroyed, of more than seven +feet. These marvellous Dixonfold relics have been carefully preserved +by roofing over, and are shown to any one passing that way who cares +to inquire for them. Beneath the coal which lies in the plane of the +roots, enclosed in nodules of clay, there are countless lepidostrobi, +the fossilised fruits, it is supposed, of one or other of the +coal-strata trees. Two miles beyond, at Halliwell, they occur in equal +profusion; and here, too, unflattened trunks occur, by the miners +aptly designated "fossil reeds." Leaves of palms are also met with. +The locality which in wealth of this class of fossils excels all +others in South Lancashire would appear to be Peel Delph. In it are +found calamites varying from the thickness of a straw to a diameter of +two or three feet, and as round as when swayed by the wind of untold +ages ago. The markings upon the lepidodendra are as clear as the +impress of an engraver's seal. In another part there is a stratum of +some four feet in depth, consisting apparently of nothing besides the +fossil fruits called trigonocarpa and the sandy material in which they +are lodged. With these curious triangular nuts, no stems, or leaves, +or plant-remains of any description have as yet been found associated. +All that can be said of them is that they resemble the fruits of the +many-sided Japanese tree called the salisburia. + +At Peel Delph again a stratum of argillaceous shale, five or six feet +in thickness, contains innumerable impressions of the primeval ferns, +the dark tint thrown forward most elegantly by the yellow of the +surface upon which they repose. The neighbourhood of Bolton in general +is rich in fossil ferns, though Ashton-under-Lyne claims perhaps an +equal place, and in diversity of species is possibly superior. + + * * * * * + +Thus whether considered in regard to its magnificent modern +developments in art, science, literature, and useful industries, its +scenery and natural productions, or its wealth in the marvellous +relics which talk of an immemorial past, Lancashire appeals to every +sentiment of curiosity and admiration. + + + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_ + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Archaic and inconsistent spelling and punctuation were retained. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40584 *** |