diff options
Diffstat (limited to '40584-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 40584-8.txt | 6482 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 6482 deletions
diff --git a/40584-8.txt b/40584-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 66828ff..0000000 --- a/40584-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6482 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Lancashire, by Leo H. (Leo Hartley) Grindon - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - - - - -Title: Lancashire - Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes - - -Author: Leo H. (Leo Hartley) Grindon - - - -Release Date: August 26, 2012 [eBook #40584] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LANCASHIRE*** - - -E-text prepared by sp1nd, Matthew Wheaton, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (http://archive.org) - - - -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 LANCASHIRE*** - - -******* This file should be named 40584-8.txt or 40584-8.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/0/5/8/40584 - - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project -Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you -charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you -do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the -rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose -such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and -research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do -practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is -subject to the trademark license, especially commercial -redistribution. - - - -*** START: FULL LICENSE *** - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project -Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at - www.gutenberg.org/license. - - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy -all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. -If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the -terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or -entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement -and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" -or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the -collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an -individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are -located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from -copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative -works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg -are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project -Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by -freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of -this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with -the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by -keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project -Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in -a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check -the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement -before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or -creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project -Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning -the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United -States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate -access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently -whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, -copied or distributed: - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived -from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is -posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied -and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees -or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work -with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the -work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 -through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the -Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or -1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional -terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked -to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the -permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any -word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or -distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than -"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version -posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), -you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a -copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon -request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other -form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided -that - -- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is - owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he - has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the - Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments - must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you - prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax - returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and - sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to - the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." - -- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or - destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium - and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of - Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any - money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days - of receipt of the work. - -- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set -forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from -both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael -Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the -Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm -collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain -"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or -corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual -property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a -computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by -your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with -your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with -the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a -refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity -providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to -receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy -is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further -opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER -WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO -WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. -If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the -law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be -interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by -the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any -provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance -with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, -promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, -harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, -that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do -or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm -work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any -Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. - - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers -including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists -because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from -people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. -To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 -and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org - - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive -Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent -permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. -Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered -throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 -North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email -contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the -Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To -SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any -particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. -To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic -works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm -concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared -with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project -Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. -unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |