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Blackstone edge, at a convenient diftance from the greater ftations, was a fubordinate fort, ftill called the Castle, and near Littleborough, which took its name from it. About two miles from Blackstone edge was dug up the right arı (6 inches long, and near 6 ounces weight) of a filver ftatue of Victory, about 2 feet high. The hand was a caft, and folid; the arm hollow, and formed apparently by having been beaten on a model of wood; the anatomy and proportions good; and on the infide of the thumb a piece of folder which remained may be conjectured to have held a chaplet or palmbranch. There was befides a loofe annulet about the wrift, and another united to the arm above the elbow; to the former of which was appended a plate of filver with this infcription drilled: [See before, p. 9.]

VICTORIAE

LEG VI. VIC

VAL RVFVS

V. S. L. M.

Mr. W. fuppofes this to have been a ftature carried in proceffion, perhaps votive, and prefented by fome officer of the 6th legio victrix stationed at York.

In the Saxon times (c. 3.) Whalley, Falalag, or pællæ, was the feene of a battle A.D. 798, in which Alric and others were flain, and Wada, who confpired againft and flew Ethel red, king of Northumberland, defeat

Some traces of this event Mr. W. finds in a barrow and in names; and derives the Saxon name of Walalæg from the numerous fprings, q. d. the well-field.

Book II. opens with the Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, and the detection of the palpable falfhood of aferibing the foundation of Whalley Abbey to Auguftine, whofe labours, there is no realon to believe, ever reached to any distance in the North of England. This merit muft rather be given to Paulinus, the apofile of the North, who may have preached Chriftianity here about 625, commemorated by the crofles at Whalley, p. 225, and Dewfbury; and the church was called the White Church, from being built of fione. The older incumbents were married, were lords of the manor, and called deans, an authority delegated to them by the bishop of Lichfield, on account of the remote and almott inacceffible fituation of the parifh to which his juifdiction was limited. The dean of

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Whalley was compounded of patron, incumbent, ordinary, and lord of the manor, an aflemblage which may poffibly have met in later time, and in fome places of exempt jurifdiction, but at that time probably an unique in the hiftory of the English church.” (p. 41.) The deanery and vicarage ended by the death of Roger de Whalley, when Peter de Ceftria, 1245. procured from Roger bishop of Lichfield a confulidation of both parts of the benefice. John de Lacy, confiable of Chefter, founded a Ciftertian abbey at Stanlaw, near his cafile of Halton; but, a century after, the fite being found marthy and unhealthy, the tower falling, and the monattery being burned, it was removed hither, 1296. The abbots and tranfactions of the houfe next follow, till the execution of the laft abbot here, 1536-7. Henry VI. was worfhiped in this abbey. (p. 83.) have a curious computus of expences of this houfe, and a portrait of the conftitutional habits of its inhabitants, who, without fheets, fhirts, or a warm bath, contracted fuch impurities on their fkins, as brought on inflammatory diforders, or apoplexy, and rendered "the fuperadded lazinefs and plenty of a convent doubly pernicious.' The fiatement of corn, wine, and meat, confumed at the abbot's table, in the refectory, and at inferior tables, fhews the great difproportion in the quantity of animal food, when compared with the other neceffaries of life, to modern habits; for, in the table of expences, it may be made clearly to appear, that the value of thambles meat confumed was to that of wheat and malt in a much higher ratio than at prefent. The latter circumstance leaves a very favourable impreffion, with refpect to the fobriety of a religious houfe. The quantity of wine accounted for would indeed have allowed a bottle of wine per day to every monk; but it is to be fufpected, that great part of this luxury was intercepted by the abbot and his guests before it reached the refectory; and who can forbear lamenting that thefe poor men had fcarcely a vegetable to eat, or a garden to cultivate? On the whole, to men who fed fo groffly, and had fo little exercife or labour to correct the effects of repletion, how wife and falutary, even in a medical, view, was the inftitution of fafting! Yet, after all the benefits refulting from temporary

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inanition, how peculiar must then have been the ftate of the human body, and confequently the practice of medicine in monafteries, when men born in times, and bred in habits, which almoft exempted them from the evil, thall I fay the privilege of weak confiitutions, were often fwept away in the midst of their days by fuch inflammatory diforders! or, if they furvived to a later period, were knocked down at a ftroke by apoplexies, the fuperadded lazinefs and plenty of a convent muft have been doubly pernicious. But another and a difgafting circumftance in the habits of nonks muft have expofed them to putrid and cutaneous diforders; I mean, a total inattention to cleanlinefs, for which they had to blame the abfurdity of their rule, for they had no fheets to beds, or fhirts to their backs; they flept in their ordinary drefles of woollen; and they never availed themfelves of a practice, from which they do not appear to have been prohibited, and which alone rendered the fame habits tolerable in the antients, namely, a conftant ufe of warm baths, which would have removed all impurities from the fkin; fome of which produce a firange mixture of feelings, to be repelled from the converfation of a man of learning and eloquence by ftench and vermin." (p. 102.)

We have next a good defcription and plan of the monaftic buildings, with much appropriate illuftration. The fite and manor were purchafed of the Crown by John Braddyll and Richard Asheton for 2137.; and afterwards it devolved wholly to the latter. Mr. W. obtained leave, 1793, to inveftigate the whole fite of the church, reduced nearly to foundations only; and very candidly remarks, that, hat luxury aud avarice allowed fcope for generous and difinterefted fentiments at the Reformation, the revenues of the monaftery, not less than 3000l. per annum, not far from the prefent rental of the township, which was entirely abbey demefines, might have been applied to maintain a fuffragan bifhop, rector of the parish, a college of four fellows (three divines and one phyfician), at yearly tipends of 1507, each; two chaplains at 1007. cach; two lay1hoolmasters at 9007.; ten scholars on the foundation, and ten exhibitions at one or both univerfities, 6007.; an organit, 301.; four chorifters, and forty other fervants, on the foundation, 300. in all 2870 1.

Chap. IV. of this Book treats of the vicarage.

Book III. chap. I. of the origin, progrefs, and ramifications of property, from the Saxon to the prefent times, à judicious and interefting difquifition; and a comparative view of antient and modern population and improvement. "From a people occupied like the Saxons in rearing and devouring the progrels [produce of their own hands, pofterity had little to expect; and, accordingly, the fubject of this hiftory cannot boaft one Saxon charter, one remnant of Saxon architecture, properly fo called; and, independently of general hiftory, we have no remaining evidence but that of language, that fuch a race of men ever exited among us. I do not even recollect, that a Saxon penny or a Northumbrian ftica has ever been turned up within the parith. The Normans were a more. abftemious and politic people; their lawyers, with more chicane, had infinitely more knowledge of the principles of jurifprudence; their ecclefiaftics, though more devoted to the court of Rome, had a greater share of piety and learning; their princes alone, haughty, unjust, and cruel, gave a conquered people reafon to look back with on the mild though unfkilful fway of their native monarchy. As feribes and architects in particular, they were men to whom this district was greatly indebted; for our oldeft cattle, our oldelt remaining churches, our most valuable. records, are all early Norman." (p.136.)

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Such was the fate of property and manners when the houfe of Lacy_became poffetfed of Blackburn hire." But, before we go on to that part of the fubject, it may be proper to confider the effects which this great revolution produced on the fate of property in it. The fimplicity and independence of Saxon tenures was completely deftroyed; a tract of country which had been parcelled out among 28 lords now became fubject to one, and all the intricacies of feodal dependence, and all the rigours of feodal exaction, wardfhips, reliefs, efcheats, &c. were introduced at once. rights thus acquired were feldoin exerYet, perhaps, the cifed in their utmoft extent; the Saxon lords, though reduced to a state of galling dependence, do not appear in general to have been actually ripped of their fees; and we have one infiance in which the old poffcilor of a manor

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before the Conqueft alienates after that event in his own name. What a man in fuch circumftances is permitted to transfer he has previoufly

been allowed to retain. But thefe re

maining rights, for the deftruction of which many trains were laid, gradually merged in the fuperior fee, where, perhaps the greater part of them till remains; but others were fucceffively re-granted in military fervice or frank almoigne. Subordinate freehold properties were allo cantoned out in focage; tenures in villenage, which had commenced immediately after the Conqueft, were extended and encouraged; and thus, by fucceffive fteps, the origin of all landed property within the hundred, fome later copyholds alone excepted, is to be traced to voluntary concellions of the Lacies, or their fucceffors of the houfe of Lancaster." (137) Chap. V. contains a lift of the lords of the honour of Clitheroe, the Lacies, of whom Henry, the laft, defpairing of male iffue, furrendered all his lands to the king, who re-granted them to him for life, and, after his deceafe, to Thomas carl of Lancaster, and Alice, his wife, who was a Lacy, and the heirs of their bodies; failing of which, they were to remain over to Edmund, the king's brother, and to his heirs, for ever. On the attainder of Thomas earl of Lancaster, the honour of Clitheroe and hundred of Blackburn were feized into the king's hands, and remained in the crown till the beginning of Edward the Third's reign, when they were granted for term of life to Queen Ifabella; but previous to her death the attainder of Earl Thomas had been reverfed, on the plea that he had not been tried by his peers; fo that, immediately on that event, Henty duke of Lancaffer fucceeded to the honour and hundred by virtue of the entail on Edmund, the king's brother, and his heirs. (p. 146.) Charles II. granted it to General Monk and his heirs. His fon's widow, Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, re-married Ralph duke of Montague, who, by a former wife, had John duke of Montague; who had two daughters; Habel, married to Edward Earl Beaulieu, and Mary, to · George Earl of Cardigan, afterwards Duke of Montague, who had a fon Henry, Duke of Buccleugh. By what act or acts the honour of Cftheroe has patied from one family to

another through a female connected in blood with neither, after having applied in vain for information where it might have been expected, I am not afhamed to plead ignorance. It is poffible it may have been devifed in fee by the fecond duke of Albemarle to his dutchefs; and, as the is known to have left eftates to her flep-fon, John, Duke of Montague, the honour of Clitheroe may have been among the number. But this is merely conjecture. Other inftances, though of lefs magnitude, may occur in the progress of this work, in which, after travelling with cafe and certainty through four or five centuries, our lights have failed at that precife point where private evidences, ceafing to be confidered as the playthings of Antiquarian curiofity, are guarded by the referte of family delicacy, or by the jealouty of legal importance." (p. 150.)

We have next an account of the cafile of Clitheroe with its chapel and honour, with its forefts and other demefines, interfperfed with much intereling and able difcuffion on forefts, game, trees, the witches of Pendle in the 16th century. "Of the fyftem of witchcraft" here, obferves Nir. W. the real defect is not in theory, but in evidence. A poffibility that the bodies of men fhould fometimes be given up to infernal agency, is no more to be denied than that their fouls fhould be exposed to infernal illufions; that such appearances fhould be exhibited in one age and withdrawn in another is equally the cafe with miracles; that they should not extend to all countries is common to them and to revelation itfelf; but all the modern inftances of fuppofed witchcraft, which I have read of, are diferedited either by the apparent fraud or folly of the witneffes. Were I to behold with mine own eyes fuch circumfiances as have often been related, or were they to be related to me by a philofophical obferver of perfect integrity, pon the evidence of his fenfes, I know not upon what principles I could refufe ny aflent to the conclusion, thất they were really the effects of diabolical power. That thefe opinions may not be accused of leaning too much to the doftrines of exploded fuperftition, I will take leave to refer my readers to the following fentiment of a great and enlightened modern Divine: That, for any thing we know, he (the devil) may (fill) operate in the way of poffeffion,

I-do not fee on what certain grounds any man can deny. Bp. Hurd's Sermons, vol. III. p. 239."

Webiter, who wrote against witchcraft, is buried in Clitheroe church, with a calculation of his nativity on his monument. (p. 272.) Sach is on the tomb of Burton in Christchurch, Oxford; fuch on the gardener's houfe at Laurifton for Sir Alexander Napier his celeftial theme, probably calculated by his brother John, inventor of the Logarithms. Wood's Cramond, p. 41. Browfholme, in Bowland foreft, is a large houfe of red ftone, with a good library, a large mifcellaneous collection of antient coins, and a valuable atiemblage of MSS. relating principally to the antiquities of the neighbourhood, and to which this Hiftorian is much indebted. The most valuable relick preferved there is the original feal of the Commonwealth for the approbation of minifters. It is of very mally filver, and inferibed, "The feale for the approbation of public preachers." In the centre are two palm-branches, and within them an open book with thefe words, The Word of God. The workmanship is good; but I could fcarcely venture to afcribe it to Simon. (pp. 208, 209.)

Book IV. of this judicious Hiftory contains a topographical furvey of the prefent parish of Whalley, by townihips, diftributed into three portions; the vale of Calder, the tract between Pendle aud Ribble, and that between the Calder and the Hyndeburne. Whalley came by intail, 1667, to Sir Ralph Afheton, of Middleton, bart. who died 1717, leaving a daughter Mary, married to Sir Afheton Curzon, bart. who died 1775. Their eldest son, Nathaniel, is now Lord Scarfdale, their younger fon, Afheton, now Lord Curzon. His fon, Penn Asheton, died 1797, having married Sophia-Charlotte, eldest daughter of Earl Howe, now Baronefs Howe, whofe eldeft fon, George-Auguftus Curzon, born 1788, is the prefent owner. This rich domain has been retained by the two opulent families of Braddyll and Afheton for a longer period than their monkith predeceffors; and, with the flourishing houfe of Ruflell, which was elevated above the fortune of ordinary gentry only by the abbey domains of Thorney, Waohuru, and Tavistock, may serve as a confutation of the fyfteu of Sir H. Spelaran and his fuperDENT MAG, January, 1802,

fitious followers in the last century. (p. 225.) It appears that a Saxon thief was beheaded in one of the townships; this punishment being probably introduced by the Norman lord; and the right of fuch node belonging to the earls of Chefter, was probably im ported hither by the Halion branch of the Lacies in their fucceeding to the fee of Clitheroe. (p. 243.)

The prefent application of the chapel

at Read hall furnishes our author with fome pertinent obfervations on the little ufe of private chapels and chaplains, compared with the attendance of the whole family at public worship in the church. (p. 248.)

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Near the fummit of Hapton park, and where it declines to the South, are the remains of a large pool, through which, tradition reports that the deer were drawn by their keepers in a manner ftill practifed in the park at Lyme. It is impoflible not to be ftruck with a mixture of antient fimplicity and baronial fplendour in this once-favoured refidence of the family [of Townley]; where, from the windows of their caftellated manfion high and bleak, with no eyes for landfcape and little feeling of cold, they could furvey with undiminifhed pleafure vaft herds of deer, fheep, and cattle, grazing in a park of 10 miles in circumference; where, like the old courtier, who never hunted but within his own grounds, they could enjoy the pleasure of the chace without any interruption or intrufion; and whence they derived inexhauftible fupplies of that plain hofpitality which never confumed a great eftate. Modern eyes, however, will not wonder at the final defertion of Hapton for Townley." (p. 264.)

In Clitheroe church were two alabafter figures of a knight and lady. which, upon the ground which the monument covered being wanted to make a pew, were barbaroufly interred beneath the floor, and are now inacceflible to the draughtfman." (p. 269.) Mr. Nichols, in his Leicefterfhire, has recorded a fimilar fate which overtook a bon compagnon, the Lord Ros [fec our vol. LXII. p. 115]: and fince at Kidderm.inter, vol. LXII. p. 688.

A fingular infiance of the deftruction of a crofs in a church-yard, “by a drunken rabble hired or the purpofe a few years ago, occurs at Burnley. (p. 802) The bar and its infeription remains, removed for lafety to Townley.

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On the market formerly held at Burnley our author has thefe appofite obfervations: The houfes, the habits, the refreshments, the diverfions, of our homely forefathers, affembled upon this occafion in the time of Edward I. could they pafs in review before us, would form a fingular fpectacle, of which the lafi would refemble the manners of the prefent day in nothing but immorality and grofinefs; for, under all the changing fcenes of time and cution, human nature adheres with undeviating exactnefs to its original corruption; and the holy Apofiles would probably be no more delighted by the manner of celebrating their feftival in the 13th than in the 18th century. Men unacquainted with this great after-key of human-nature, and difgufted with the manners of their own times, have ever been prore to fancy a gradual deterioration of their fpecies, and to folace themfelves by imagined fcenes of innocence and finplicity in earlier ages. This is the fource of pafloral poetry; among all the efforts of human invention the weakeft and moft unnatural.--Alas! thefe days were never. Cowper. (310.) The following comparative ftatement may ferve to convey fome idea of the diftribution of property, and perhaps too of the fate of manners, in this neighbourhood at two remote periods. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth there were in the parochial chapelry, popularly though improperly called the parish of Burnley, 12 principal familes, one of knightly rank, the reft in the condition of middling or inferior gentry, all refident in their own houfes, and occupying confiderable portions at leaft of their own eftates. Thefe houfes all remain to this day, feme of them in their original fate. But fix are occupied by tenants and two by agents Six of thefe families are extinét, one of them ruined by extravagance, two loft in heirs general; and of the fix who remain, the reprefentatives of three have abandoned their paternal feats, two only are conftantly refident, one of them a female; and the fixth, by far the noft confiderable, fhorter and lefs frequent in his vifits than were to be wifhed by thofe who partake of an extended beneficence, or thofe who enjoy an elegant and temperate holpitality. Of the habits of thefe families towards the clofe of the 16th and 18th capuries fomething may be inferred,

from the duration of life, in favour of the morals of the former period. At that time, eight of their heads attained, upon an average, to 70 years at leaft: the laft reprefentation of the fix which remain have not, one with another, exceeded 40. In the former period, it cannot be proved that there were more than three widows at one time in the 12 houfes; at one point in the latter, every furviving houfe had a dowager or more. In a fituation of life exempting men from dangerous or from fickly occupations, a fober husband will ordinarily furvive a wife; a country of dowagers, therefore, may fairly he called a country of intemperance. Great change, however, for the better has lately taken place; but where we have made a folitude let us not boaft of fobriety." (p. 814.)

"A more ufeful lecture on the confequences of profligacy and extravagance I have feldom read than in the evidences of the Habrigham efiate; which, after having provided for fo many numerous families, and fapported to many generations in reputation and plenty, funk all at once under the follics of its laft owner. For, from the time that he entered into poflefiion, fcarcely a year elapfed without the fale of a farmi, till at laft the manfionhouse and deniefne were swallowed up by the foreclosure of a mortgage in 1089; and this improvident man was driven by an ejectment from the house of his ancefiors to a cottage in the 39th year of his age. Under what prodigious difadvantage the impoverished land-owner lay a century ago, when money bore an intercft of 6 per cent. and eftates fold for 17 or 18 years purchafe,with little profpect of improvement from mines, and none from manufac tures, and when even annual rents themfelves were rather retrograde than the contrary! The principal and accumulated intereft which devoured this deme.he were little more than gool.; the land was then valued at 301. per acre, the coal-mine about the, fame ; yet in a fingle century, or little more. I have heard 70001. offered for this very efiate; and the coal-nine alone now bears a rent of 3001. In 1759, John, nephew of the unfortunate owner, made an ineffectual effort to recover the chate, by filing a bill in Chancery against the late owner; but foon found three infuperable bars in his way; poverty, a prior conveyance,

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