History of the Fylde of Lancashire

by John Porter

HISTORY OF THE FYLDE.

CHAPTER I.
THE ANCIENT BRITONS, ROMANS, ANGLO-SAXONS, AND DANES.

“See! in what crowds the uncouth forms advance:

Each would outstrip the other, each prevent

Our careful search, and offer to your gaze,

Unask’d, his motley features. Wait awhile,

My curious friends! and let us first arrange

In proper order your promiscuous throng.”

The large district of western Lancashire, denominated from time immemorial the Fylde, embraces one third at least of the Hundred of Amounderness, and a line drawn from Ashton, on the Ribble, to Churchtown, on the Wyre, forms the nearest approach to an eastern boundary attainable, for although the section cut off by its means includes more land and villages than properly appertain to the Fylde, a more westerly division would exclude others which form part of it. The whole of the parishes of Bispham, Lytham, Poulton, and St. Michael’s; and the parish of Kirkham, exclusive of Goosnargh-with-Newsham and Whittingham, are comprised in the Fylde country.

The word Amounderness was formerly considered to signify the “Promontory of Agmund,” or “Edmund,” and this origin is alluded to in a treatise written some years since by Mr. Thomas Baines on the “Valley of the Mersey,” in which the following remarks occur:—“In the year 911 the Northumbrians themselves began the war, for they despised the peace which King Edward and his ‘Witan’ offered them, and overran the land of Mercia. After collecting great booty they were overtaken on their march home by the forces of the West Saxons and the Mercians, who put them to flight and slew many thousands of them. Two Danish Kings and five Earls were slain in this battle. Amongst the Earls slain was Agmund, the governor, from whom the Hundred of Agmunderness (Amounderness) was probably named.” In order that the reader may properly comprehend why Mr. Baines should surmise that Amounderness received its title from the Danish Earl, Agmund, it may be stated that the extensive province of Northumbria, then colonised by the Northmen or Danes, embraced, amongst other territory, the district afterwards called Lancashire, and, consequently, the Hundred of Amounderness would be in a great measure under Danish governance. When, however, we call to mind that the Danes did not invade England until A.D. 787, and learn that this Hundred was entered in the Ripon grant in A.D. 705, as Hacmunderness, it becomes obvious that the name cannot have been conferred upon it by that nation, and some other source must be looked to for its origin. In Gibsons’ Etymological Geography there is “Anderness” (for Ackmunderness) described as a “promontory sheltered by oaks, (ac, oak; and mund, protection).” As many large trunks of trees have been discovered beneath the layers of peat in the extensive local mosses, whilst others have been laid bare along the shore by the action of the tides, it can be readily believed that at one time the greater share of the district was clothed with forests. Leyland, who was antiquary to Henry VIII., and surveyed the Hundred during the reign of that monarch, 1509-47, says:—“Al Aundernesse for the most parte in time paste hathe been full of woods, and many of the moores replenished with hy fyrre trees; but now such part of Aundernesse as is towarde the se is sore destitute of woodde.” With such irrefutable evidences of the early woodland condition of Amounderness, there need be no hesitation in accepting the signification which Messrs. Gibson have given to the name—the Ness or Promontory protected by oaks. The word Fylde is regarded simply as a corruption of “Field.” Camden in his “Britannia” of 1590, writes:—

“Tota est campestris, unde Fild pro Field appellatur.”[1]

(The whole is champaign, whence it is called Fild for Field.)

In a subsequent edition of the same work Fild is spelt File, and the latter orthography was used in Fileplumpton, in the Duchy records, afterwards called Fylde Plumpton, and now Wood Plumpton. The Fylde section of this Hundred is a level well-watered country, highly cultivated and richly productive, especially of grain, from which circumstance it was formerly designated the corn-field of Amounderness.

Anterior to the third invasion of the Romans in A.D. 43, the inhabitants of the Fylde and other portions of Lancashire lying between the range of mountains which separates this county from Yorkshire, and the coast about the Bay of Morecambe, were called the Setantii or Segantii, “the dwellers in the country of water,” but at that date the whole tract populated by these people was included in the more extensive province of the Brigantes, comprehending what are now known as the six counties of York, Durham, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancaster. The Fylde at that epoch would be composed chiefly of morasses and forests, interspersed with limited areas and narrow paths of more stable land, and there can be little doubt that the dwellers on such an uninviting spot must have been very few, but that it was traversed and, as far as practicable, inhabited by the ancient Setantii is evident from the several relics of them which have been discovered amongst the peat in modern days. Two or three canoes, consisting of light wooden frameworks, covered with hides, were found by a man named Jolly, about half a century ago, when cutting the “Main Dyke” of Marton Mere;[2] Celtic hammers, axes, and spears have also been taken out of the mosses in the district, all of which were doubtless originally the property of the aboriginal Britons. The bay of Morecambe and the river Wyre acquired their distinctive appellations from the Setantii, the one being derived from the Celtic gwyr, pure or fresh, and the other from mawr, great, and cam, winding or bent.

The hardihood of the native Britons of these parts is attested by Dion Cassius, who informs us that they lived on prey, hunting, and the fruits of trees, and were accustomed to brave hunger, cold, and all kinds of toil, for they would “continue several days up to their chins in water, and bear hunger many days.” In the woods their habitations were wicker shelters, formed of the branches of trees interwoven together, and, in the open grounds, clay or mud huts. They were indebted to the skins of animals slain in the chase for such scanty covering as they cared to wear, and according to Cæsar and other writers, dyed their bodies with woad, which produced a blue colour, and had long flowing hair, being cleanly shaved except the head and upper lip. That the power of endurance possessed by the Setantii, and the neighbouring Brigantes is not to be understood literally as expressed by Cassius may, we venture to think, be taken for granted. It can scarcely be credited that the human frame could ever be reduced or exalted to such an amphibious condition as to be indifferent whether it passed a number of days on dry land or under water; it seems more probable that in his description Cassius referred to the hunting and other expeditions of the inhabitants into the forests and morasses of the Fylde and similarly wooded and marshy tracts, where there is no question the followers of the chase would be more or less in a state of immersion during the whole time they were so engaged.

The religion of the Setantii was Druidical, and their deities resembled those of other heathen nations, such as the Romans and Greeks of that era, but differed in their names. Cæsar tells us that this order of priesthood was presided over by a superior, who was known as the chief Druid, and had almost unlimited authority over all the rest. The Druids were settled at various points of the island, where they erected their temples, but in addition to these principle stations, many of their order were scattered amongst the native tribes of Britain, over which they appear to have exercised the functions and power of judges, arranging both public and private disputes, and deciding all criminal cases. It was part of the creed professed by the Setantii, to vow, when they were engaged in warfare, that they would, through the agency of the Druids, immolate human victims as an atonement for slaughtered enemies, believing that unless man’s life were given for man’s life, the divine anger of the immortal Gods could not be appeased. There were other sacrifices of the same kind instituted at regularly appointed seasons and on special occasions. The Setantii also believed in an immortal soul, but seem to have had no idea of a higher state, as their priests inculcated the doctrine that after death the soul was transported to another body, “imagining that by this the men were more effectually roused to valour, the fear of death being taken away.”[3] Ornaments called “Druids’ eggs,” and worn only by these priests, have been found in the Fylde.

How Cæsar, in B.C. 54 and 55, invaded Britain a first and a second time, achieving at best an empty conquest, and how, after his death, the emperor Claudius sent over an army with a determination to exterminate the Druids, and after thirty pitched battles, subdued province after province, is beyond the limits of this work to state, but as a connecting link of the history of the country with that of our own county, and that portion of it especially under examination, it may be stated that Britain was finally conquered by the Romans under Julius Agricola, and that the best investigation of the subject leads to the opinion that the district which we call Lancashire, was brought into subjection to the Roman conqueror in A.D. 79. A vigorous resistance was for long offered to the army of invaders in the territory of the Setantii by the natives under the Brigantine chief Venutius, but the well drilled legions of the Romans, when commanded by Agricola, proved too formidable to be checked or broken by the wild, undisciplined valour of the Setantii. Tacitus, the son-in-law of the general, informs us that early in the summer of A.D. 79, Agricola personally inspected his soldiers, and marked out many of the stations, one of which, either made at that time or later by the same people, was situated at Kirkham, on the line of the Roman road running from the mouth of Wyre, which will be described hereafter. He explored the estuaries and woods along the western coast of Lancashire, and harassed the enemy by sudden and frequent incursions. When the Brigantes and Setantii had been thoroughly overawed and disheartened by the invincible Romans, Agricola stayed his operations in order to shew them the blessings of peace, and in that way many towns which had bravely held out were induced to surrender and give hostages. These places he surrounded with guards and fortifications. The following winter was passed in endeavouring, by various incentives to pleasure, to subdue the warlike nature of the Britons, thereby diminishing the danger of an outbreak, especially amongst such tribes as the Setantii, whose intrepid spirits had been so difficult to quell, and who were not likely to submit quietly to the yoke of the conqueror, unless some means were adopted to allure them by the charms of civilised luxury from their free field and forest mode of existence. Temples, courts of justice, and comfortable habitations were first erected; the sons of the petty chiefs were next instructed in the liberal arts, and Agricola professed to prefer the genius of the Britons to the attainments of the Gauls. The Roman dress became the fashion, and the toga was frequently worn. The “porch, luxurious baths, and elegant banquets” were regularly instituted, and by degrees the crafty design of the Roman general was accomplished, and the vanquished Britons had ceased to be the hardy warriors of old.

About one century after the subjugation of Britain by Agricola no less than seven important Roman stations, or garrisoned places, had risen up in the county of Lancaster, and were situated at Manchester, Colne, Warrington, Lancaster, Walton-le-dale, Ribchester, and Overborough. The minor ones, such as Kirkham, supposing their sites to have been first built upon in a season of warfare, subsequently became small settlements only, and were, in all probability, unused as military depots. The rivers which flowed in the neighbourhood of the several encampments, terminated in three estuaries, denominated by Ptolemy,[4] the ancient geographer, in his book, completed in A.D. 130, the Seteia Æstuarium, the Moricambe Æstuarium, and the Belisama Æstuarium. The first of these estuaries is generally regarded as the mouth of the Dee, the second is identified with Morecambe Bay, and the third with the Ribble by some historians and the Mersey by others. The same authority mentions also a Portus Setantiorum, which has been located on the banks of the Ribble, Lune, and Mersey, by different antiquarians, but in the opinion of the most recent writers the ancient harbour of the Setantii was situated at the mouth of the river Wyre. Further reference to the Setantian port will be made in a later page of the present chapter.

At the shore margin of the warren at Fleetwood there was visible, about forty years ago, the abrupt and broken termination of a Roman road, which could be traced across the sward, along the Naze below Burn Hall, and onward in the direction of Poulton. From that town it ran in a southerly line towards Staining, crossing Marton Mere, on its way, in the cutting of which its materials were very apparent, and lying on the low mossy lands to the depth of two yards in gravel. From Staining it proceeded to Weeton, and in a hollow near to the moss of that township, consisted of an immense stony embankment several yards in height; in the moss itself the deep beds of gravel were distinctly observable, and from there the road continued its course up the rising ground to Plumpton, the traces as usual being less obvious on the higher land. From Plumpton it travelled towards the elevated site of a windmill between Weeton moss and Kirkham, at which point it turned suddenly, and joined the public road, running in a continuous straight line towards the latter town. The greater part of the long street of Kirkham is either upon or in the immediate vicinity of the old Roman road. From Kirkham the road directed its course towards Lund church, somewhere in the neighbourhood of which it was joined by another path formed by the same people and commencing at the Neb of the Naze near Freckleton.[5] Leaving Lund it ran through Lea on to Fulwood moor, where it took the name of Watling street, and proceeded on to Ribchester. This road has always been known in the Fylde as the Danes’ Pad, from a tradition that those pirates made use of it at a later period in their incursions into our district, visiting and ransacking Kirkham, Poulton, and other towns or hamlets of the unfortunate Saxons. Numerous relics, chiefly of the Roman soldiery, have been dug or ploughed up at different times out of the soil, bordering on the road, or found amongst the pebbles of which it was composed, and amongst them may be mentioned spears, both British and Roman, horse shoes in abundance, several stone hammers, a battle axe, a broken sword, and ancient Roman coins, all of which were picked up along its line between Wyre mouth and Weeton. Several half-baked urns marked with dots, and pieces of rudely fashioned pottery were discovered in an extensive barrow or cairn near Weeton-lane Heads, which was accidentally opened, and is now pointed out as the abode of the local hairy ghost or boggart. In the neighbourhood of Kirkham there have been found many broken specimens of Roman pottery, stones prepared for building purposes, eight or ten urns, some containing ashes and beads, stone handmills for corn grinding, ancient coins, “Druids’ eggs,” axes, and horse shoes; in the fields near Dowbridge, where several of the above urns were discovered, there was found a flattened ivory needle, about five or six inches long with a large eyelet. A cuirass was also picked up on the banks of the Wyre; but the most interesting relic of antiquity is the boss or umbo of a shield, taken out of a ditch near Kirkham, which will be fully described in the chapter devoted to that township. The Romans were accustomed to make three kinds of roads, the first of which, called the Viæ Militares, were constructed during active warfare, when they were engaged in pushing their way into the territory of the enemy, and easy unobstructed communication between their various encampments became a matter of the utmost importance. The second, or public roads, were formed to facilitate commerce in time of peace; and the third were narrower paths, called private roads. The county of Lancaster was intersected by no less than four important Roman routes, two of which ran from north to south, and two traversed the land from west to east. The course of one road, and perhaps the best constructed of the whole four, we have just followed out; of the remainder, the first, commencing at Carlisle, passed near Garstang and Preston, crossed the Irwell at Old Trafford, and maintaining its southerly direction, ultimately arrived at Kinderton, in Cheshire. The second extended from Overborough to Slack, in Yorkshire, passing on its way through Ribchester, the Ribble, Radcliffe, Prestwich, and Newton Heath; whilst the third had its origin at a ford on the Mersey, in close proximity to Warrington, and from that spot could be traced through Barton, Eccles, Manchester, Moston, Chadderton, Royton, and Littleborough, thence over Rumbles Moor to Ilkley, where was located the temple of the goddess Verbeia. It is conjectured that these roads, which consisted for the most part of pavement and deep beds of gravel, were begun, or at least marked out, by Agricola during the time he was occupied in the subjugation of Lancashire, and if this very probable hypothesis be correct the course taken by that general in his exploration of the woods of the Fylde, and the estuaries of Morecambe and the Ribble is clearly indicated by the direction of the ancient path communicating with the mouth of Wyre and the Naze.

At the opening of the third century the Roman governor of Britain found it necessary to obtain the personal co-operation of Severus, in order to put an effectual check to the repeated outbreaks of the natives; in A.D. 207, that emperor having landed and established his head-quarters at York, a considerable force marched northwards under his leadership to punish the revolting tribes, and it is surmised that the curious road, running across the mosses of Rawcliffe, Stalmine, and Pilling, was constructed by the legionaries whilst on this tour. The pathway alluded to, and commonly known as Kate’s Pad, was deeply situated in the mosses, and had apparently been formed by fastening riven oak planks on to sleepers of the same material, secured and held stationary by means of pins or rivets driven into the marl a little above which they rested. Its width was about twenty inches, but in some places rather more.[6] Herodian, in describing the expedition of Severus to quell the insurrection of the Briton, says:—“He more especially endeavoured to render the marshy places stable by means of causeways, that his soldiers, treading with safety, might pass them, and having firm footing fight to advantage. In these the natives are accustomed to swim and traverse about, being immersed as high as their waists: for going naked as to the greater part of their bodies they contemn the mud. His army having passed beyond the rivers and fortresses which defended the Roman territory, there were frequent attacks and skirmishes, and retreats on the side of the barbarians. To these indeed flight was an easy matter, and they lay hidden in the thickets and marshes through their local knowledge; all which things being adverse to the Romans served to protract the war.” There can be no doubt that, when the path, which consisted in some parts of one huge tree and in others of two or more, was formed, timber must have been very plentiful in the vicinity, and at the present day numbers of tree trunks of large size are to be found in the mosses, further corroborating the conclusions arrived at by Leyland, whose words have already been quoted, and Holinshed, who wrote:—“The whole countrie of Lancaster has beene forests heretofore.” An iron fibula, a pewter wine-strainer, a wooden drinking bowl, hooped with two brass bands and having two handles, a brass stirrup, and other relics have been taken out of the moss fields; and in the same neighbourhood an anvil, several pieces of thin sheet-brass, and a pair of shears were discovered in a ditch.

About the year 416 the Romans finally removed themselves from our island, taking with them many of the brave youths of Britain, and leaving the country in the hands of a people whose inactive habits, acquired under their dominion, had rendered them ignorant of the art and unfit for the hardships of warfare. According to Ethelwerd’s Chronicle, in the year 418 those few of the Roman race who were left in Britain, not being able to put up with the manifold insults of the natives, buried their treasure in pits, hoping that at some future day, when all animosity had subsided, they would be able to recover it and live peaceably, but such a fortunate consummation never arrived, and weary at length of waiting, they assembled on the coasts and “spreading their canvass to the wind, sought an exile on the shores of Gaul.” The Saxon Chronicle says:—“This year, A.D. 418, the Romans collected all the treasures that were in Britain, and some they hid in the earth so that no one since has been able to find them; and some they carried with them into Gaul.” It is far from unlikely that the silver denarii, discovered in 1840 by some brickmakers near Rossall, and amounting to four hundred coins of Trajan, Hadrian, Titus, Vespasian, Domitian, Antonius, Severus, Sabina, etc., were deposited in that spot for security by one of those much harassed Romans, previous to his departure from our coast.

A prize so easily to be obtained as Britain in its practically unprotected state appeared, was not long in attracting the covetousness of the neighbouring Picts and Scots, who came down in thousands from the north, forced their way beyond the Roman Wall erected by Hadrian, occupied the fortresses and towns, and spread ruin and devastation in their track. The northern counties were the chief sufferers from these ruthless marauders. Cumberland, Yorkshire, and Lancashire, were ravaged and plundered to such an extent that had it not been for the seasonable assistance of the Saxons, the whole country they embrace would have been utterly devastated and almost depopulated. Gildas, the earliest British historian[7], born about 500, described our land before the incursions of the Picts and Scots as abounding in pleasant hills, spreading pastures, cultivated fields, silvery streams, and snow-white sands, and spoke of the roofs of the buildings in the twenty-eight cities of the kingdom as “raised aloft with threatening hugeness.” We may readily conceive how this picture of peace and prosperity was marred and ruined, as far as the three counties above-named were concerned, by the destroying hand of the northern nation. The British towns were still surrounded by the fortified walls and embattled towers, built by the Romans, but the unfortunate inhabitants, so long unaccustomed to

“The close-wedged battle and the din of war,”

and deprived of their armed soldiers and valiant youth, were panic stricken by the fierce onslaughts of the Scottish tribes, and fled before their advancing arms. Some idea of the critical and truly pitiable condition to which they were reduced may be gleaned from the tenor of an appeal for help sent by them to their old rulers, which the author last quoted has preserved as follows:—

The Lamentation of the Britons unto Agitius, thrice Consul.

“The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us back to the barbarians. Thus of two kinds of death, one or other must be our choice, either to be swallowed up by the waves or butchered by the sword.”

The Romans were fully occupied with enemies of their own, the Goths, and consequently were unprepared to offer any assistance to the Britons, whose position was shortly afterwards rendered additionally wretched by famine and its attendant evils. At that period both the state of Lancashire itself and of its inhabitants must have been exceedingly deplorable—the country ravaged and still exposed to the depredations and barbarities of the enemy, had now become a prey to a fearful dearth. Many of the descendants of the old Setantii, unable any further to support the double contest, yielded themselves up to the Picts and Scots in the hope of obtaining food to appease the fierce cravings of hunger, whilst others, more hardy, but outnumbered and weakened by long fasts, sought refuge in the woods and such other shelters as the neighbourhood afforded. Disappointed in the Romans, the Britons applied for aid to the Saxons, or Anglo-Saxons, a mixed and piratical tribe, dwelling on the banks of the German Ocean, and composed of Jutes, Angles, and pure Saxons. The men of this race are described as determined, fearless, and of great size, with blue eyes, ruddy complexions, and yellow streaming hair. They were well practised in warfare, and armed with battle-axes, swords, spears, and maces. Their chief god was Odin, or Woden, and their heaven Valhalla. About one thousand of these warriors, under the command of Hengist and Horsa, embarked in three vessels, built of hides, and called Cyulæ or Ceols. They landed on the coast of Kent, about the year 449, and by the direction of Vortigern, king of the Island, marched northwards until they arrived near York, where an encounter of great moment took place, terminating in the utter defeat of the Picts and Scots. Inspirited by so early and signal a success the Saxons followed up their advantage with alacrity, drove the baleful marauders out of the counties of Lancaster and York, and finally compelled them to retreat across the frontier into their own territory. After having rescued the kingdom from these invaders the Saxons settled at York and Manchester, and not only evinced no sign of returning to their own country, but even despatched messengers for fresh troops. This strange and suspicious conduct on the part of their allies excited considerable alarm and anxiety amongst the Britons, who practically expressed their disapproval by refusing to make any provision for the reinforcements. After a short interval a mandate was issued to the Saxon leader ordering him to withdraw his army from the soil of Britain. Incensed and stimulated by such decisive action Hengist determined at once to carry out the object he had cherished from the first—the subjugation of the people and the seizure of the island. Having procured a further supply of men under his son Octa, he established them in the country of the Brigantes, and almost immediately invited the native nobles to a friendly conference with his chiefs on Salisbury plain. The Britons, who were far from suspecting his treacherous design, attended the assembly unarmed, and in that defenceless state fell an easy prey to their Saxon hosts, who in the midst of feasting and revelry, brutally massacred the whole of their guests. Successful in his cowardly and murderous stratagem, Hengist took possession of the southern counties, whilst his son Octa maintained his sway over the Brigantine province of Northumbria, in which the Fylde was included, as intimated at the beginning of the chapter.

The ancient warlike spirit of the Setantii, which had lain almost dormant for centuries, was once more thoroughly aroused in the natives of Lancashire, and a determined and valiant opposition offered by them to Octa and his army. Overborough capitulated only when its inhabitants were worn out by fatigue and famine, whilst Warrington and Manchester sustained severe and protracted sieges before they fell into the hands of the enemy. Nennius, another early historian, who was born towards the end of the sixth century, informs us that the famous King Arthur and his sixty Knights of the Round Table worsted the Saxons in twelve successive battles, four of which were fought on the banks of the Douglas, near Wigan. In those conflicts our county was well and effectively represented in the person of Paulinus, the commander of the right wing of the army, who after many brave and sanguinary struggles overthrew the hitherto unconquered Octa, and for a time, at least, delivered the Fylde and other parts of Northumbria from the rule of the Saxons. This gallant soldier was the offspring of a union between a Roman warrior and a British maiden, who had established themselves in Manchester. The chieftain Ella, however, compelled the Britons to submission, and assumed the government over part of Northumbria. Clusters of Saxon huts, soon growing into villages, now sprang up on the soil of the Fylde, which under the wood-levelling and marsh-draining Romans had lost much of its swampy and forest characters and been transformed into a more habitable locality. We need have little hesitation in conjecturing that the valour displayed by the inhabitants of our county was greatly increased, and often rendered almost desperate, by the knowledge that if their land were subdued and occupied by the Saxons the key, if it may so be called, to their mountainous strongholds would be lost, and the line of communication between them impassably and irretrievably obstructed; for the venerable Bede[8] tells us that a portion of the Britons fled to the hills and fells of Furness, and we are aware that a much larger share sought refuge amongst the mountains of Wales, lying to the south-west, and visible from the shores of the Fylde. Others escaped over to Armorica in France, and from them it acquired the name of Brittany. Additional evidence that Furness was peopled by the Britons, even for more than two centuries after the arrival of the Saxons, is to be found in the writings of Camden, who says:—“The Britons in Furness lived securely for a long time, relying upon those fortifications, wherewith nature had guarded them; for that the Britons lived here in the 228th year after the coming of the Saxons, is plain from hence; that at that time Egfrid, the king of the Northumbrians, gave to St. Cuthbert the land called Cartmell, and all the Britons in it; for so it is related in his life.”

The Saxons were great idolaters, and soon crowded the country with their temples and images. The deities they worshipped have furnished us with names for the different days of the week, thus Sunday is derived from Sunan the sun, Monday from Monan the moon, Tuesday from Tuisco a German god, Wednesday from Woden, Thursday from Thor or Thur, Friday from Friga, and Saturday from Seater.

When the nation was once more at peace, all the towns and castles which had been damaged during the wars were repaired, and others, which had been destroyed, rebuilt. The Britons were brought by degrees to look with less disfavour on their conquerors, and as time progressed adopted their heathenish faith and offered up prayer at the shrines of the same idols, drifting back into darkness and forgetting or ignoring those true doctrines which, it is said, had been declared and expounded to them at the very commencement of the Christian era. According to Clemens Romanus and Theodoret, the Apostle Paul was one of the earliest preachers of the Gospel in Britain, but whatever amount of truth there may be in this statement, it is certain that at the Council of Arles in A.D. 314, and ten years later at that of Nicene, three British bishops were present. All traces of their former religion quickly vanished from amongst the native population of Lancashire under the pagan influence of their rulers; and it was during that unhallowed age that Gregory, surnamed the Great, and afterwards pontiff, being attracted by the handsome appearance of some youths exposed for sale in the market-place at Rome, and finding, on inquiry, that they came from the kingdom of Deira, in Britain, determined to send over Augustine and Paulinus to Christianise the inhabitants. In 596 Augustine landed with forty missionaries on the coast of Kent, the king became a convert, and the new faith spread rapidly throughout the island. Thousands were baptised by Paulinus in the river Swale, then called the Northumbrian Jordan, and the waters of Ribble were also resorted to for the performance of similar ceremonies.

The advent of the Roman mission initiated a fresh epoch in the ecclesiastical history of the county, monasteries and religious houses sprang up in different parts, and at the consecration of the church and monastery of Ripon, lands bordering on the Ribble, in Hacmundernesse (Amounderness), in Gedene, and in Duninge were presented amongst other gifts to that foundation. Paulinus was created bishop of Northumbria in 627, and it is to his ministrations and pious example that the conversion of the inhabitants of the Fylde and vicinal territory is generally attributed. The Saxon Chronicle records, however, that in 565 Columba “came from Scotia (Ireland) to preach to the Picts.” Columba was born at Garten, a village in county Donegal, and according to Selden and other learned writers, the religion professed by him and the Culdees, as the priests of his order were called, was strictly Presbyterian. Bede writes:—“They preached only such works of charity and piety as they could learn from prophetical, evangelical, and apostolic writings.” Columba established a monastery at Iona. Dr. Giles states that “the ancient name of Iona was I or Hi, or Aoi, which was Latinised into Hyona, or Iona; the common name of it now is I-colum-kill, the Island of Colum of the Cells.” Bishop Turner affirms that “the lands in Amounderness, on the Ribble,” were first presented to a Culdee abbot, named Eata, on the erection of a monastery at Ripon, but that before the building was finished he was dismissed and St. Wilfred made abbot of Ripon, sometime before 661. If the foregoing assertion be correct there is certain evidence that the Culdee doctrines were also promulgated in Lancashire, and doubtless in our own district, at that early date. Bede seems to support such an assumption when he states that the Ripon lands were originally granted to those who professed the creed of the Picts to build a monastery upon, and did not pass to St. Wilfred, bishop of Northumbria, until afterwards, in 705, when he re-edified the monastery. Whatever discrepancies may exist as to the exact period and manner in which Christianity was introduced or revived in the bosoms of our forefathers, there is ample and reliable proof that the majority of them had embraced the true faith about the middle of the seventh century, when churches were probably erected in the hamlets of Kirkham and St. Michael’s-on-Wyre.

About the year 936 the Hundred of Amounderness was granted by Athelstan to the See of York:—“I, Athelstan, king of the Angles, etc., freely give to the Omnipotent God, and to the blessed Apostle Peter, at his church in the diocese of York, a certain section of land, not small in extent, in the place which the inhabitants call Amounderness,” etc. The Hundred of Amounderness when this grant was made must have been pretty thickly peopled, for Athelstan states that he “purchased it at no small price,” and land at that date was valued chiefly by the number of its residents. Here it will be convenient to observe that in some instances, as in that of Amounderness, the Hundreds acquired the additional titles of Wapentakes, and, in explanation of the origin of the term, we learn from “Thoresby Ducat Leodiens,” that when a person received the government of a Wapentake, he was met, at the appointed time and usual place, by the elder portion of the inhabitants, and, after dismounting from his horse, he held up his spear and took a pledge of fealty from all according to the usual custom. Whoever came touched his spear with theirs, and by such contact of arms they were confirmed in one common interest. So from wœpnu, a weapon, and tac, a touch, or taccare, to confirm, the Hundreds were called Wapentakes. Traces of the above antique ceremony are still to be met with in the peculiar form of expression used when the tenantry and others are summoned by the manorial lords of Amounderness to attend their court-barons and court-leets.

The Heptarchy, established about 550, and consisting of seven sovereign states, was finally abolished in 830, and Egbert became king over the whole island. The province of Northumbria, more especially the Fylde and tracts of adjoining territory, had at that date been the scene of irregular and intermittent warfare during the previous forty years. Lancashire had suffered cruelly from the visitations of the Northmen, or Danes, who spared neither age, sex, nor condition in their furious sallies. In the years 787, 794, and 800, these pirates invaded the soil, ravaged the country, butchered the inhabitants, and on the last occasion shot Edmund, the king of the West Saxons, to death with arrows, because he refused to renounce the Christian faith and embrace the errors of heathenism. Egbert was no sooner seated on the throne than the Danes re-appeared off the coasts, and there can be little doubt that some of their bands made their way down the western shore of the island, entered the Bay of Morecambe, and, guided by the old Roman road near the mouth of the Wyre, pushed onwards into and through the heart of the Fylde, plundering and laying waste villages, hamlets, and every trace of agriculture in their path. “The name of the Danes’ Pad,” says Mr. Thornber, “given to the Roman agger is and ever will be an everlasting memorial of their ravages and atrocities in this quarter.”[9] In addition it may be stated that many warlike relics of the Danes have been found along the road here indicated, and that the names of the Great and Little Knots in the channel of Wyre, opposite Fleetwood, were of pure Scandinavian derivation, and signified “round heaps,” probably, of stones. These mounds were, during the formation of the harbour entrance, either destroyed or disfigured beyond recognition. Several localities, also, along the sea boundary of the Fylde bear Danish denominations, which will be treated of hereafter. In 869 Lancashire was again visited by a dreadful famine, and many of the people in every part of the county fell victims either to the dearth itself or the fatal disorders following in its train. Those who were fortunate enough to escape the wholesale destruction of the scourge suffered so severely from the merciless massacres of the Danes that at the accession of Alfred the Great, in 871, our Hundred was but sparsely populated. During the reign of that illustrious monarch England was divided into counties, which again were subdivided into Hundreds. Each Hundred was composed of ten Tithings, and each Tithing of ten Freeholders and their families. When this division of the kingdom was effected the south-western portion of the old province of Northumbria was separated from the remainder, and received the name of Lonceshire, from the capital Loncaster, the castle on the Lone, or Lune. Alfred, as we are told by his biographer Asser, did much to improve the condition of his subjects both for peace and war; referring to their illiterate state, on his accession the king himself says:—“When I took the kingdom there were very few on the south side of the river Humber, the most improved portion of England, who could understand their daily prayers in English, or translate a letter from the Latin. I think they were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few that I cannot, indeed, recollect one single instance on the south of the Thames.”[10] After suffering a defeat at Wilton almost at the outset of his career, Alfred surprised and overthrew the Danish camp at Eddington; Guthrum, their leader, and the whole of his followers were taken prisoners, but afterwards liberated and permitted to colonise East Anglia, and subsequently Northumbria, an act of clemency which entailed most disastrous consequences upon the different sections of the latter province. The Fylde now became the legalised abode of numbers of the northern race, between whom and the Saxon settlers perpetual strife was carried on; in addition the restless and covetous spirit of the new colonists constantly prompted them to raids beyond the legitimate limits of their territory, rebellions amongst themselves, and conspiracies against the king; insurrection followed insurrection, and it was not until Athelstan had inflicted a decisive blow upon the Danish forces, and brought the seditious province of Northumbria under his own more immediate dominion, that a short lull of peace was obtained. In the reign of his successor, however, they broke out again, and having been once more reduced to order, agreed to take the name of Christians, abjure their false gods, and live quietly henceforth. These promises, made to appease the anger of Edmund, were only temporarily observed, and their turbulent natures were never tranquilised until Canute, the first Danish king, ascended the throne of England in 1017. The Norse line of monarchs comprised only three, and terminated in 1041. Reverting to Athelstan and the Danes we find that about ten years after the subjugation of the latter in 926, as recorded in the Saxon Chronicle, Anlaf, a noted Danish chieftain, made a vigorous attempt to regain Northumbria. The site of the glorious battle where this ambitious project was overthrown and the army of Anlaf routed and driven to seek refuge in flight from the shore, on which they had but a short time previously landed exulting in a prospect of conquest and plunder, is a matter of dispute, and nothing authentic can be discovered concerning it beyond the fact that the name of the town or district where the forces met was Brunandune or Brunanburgh, and was situated in the province of Northumbria. The former orthography is used in Ethelwerd’s Chronicle:—“A fierce battle was fought against the barbarians at Brunandune, whereof that fight is called great even to the present day; then the barbarian tribes were defeated and domineer no longer; they are driven beyond the ocean.” Burn, in Thornton township, is one of the several rival localities which claim to have witnessed the sanguinary conflict. In the Domesday Survey, Burn was written Brune, and it also comprises a rising ground or Dune, which seem to imply some connection with Brunandune. From an ancient song or poem, bearing the date 937, it is clear that the battle lasted from sunrise to sunset, and that at night-fall Anlaf and the remnant of his followers, being utterly discomfited, escaped from the coast in the manner before described. This circumstance also upholds the pretentions of Burn, as it is situated close to the banks of the Wyre, and at a very short distance both from the Irish Sea and Morecambe Bay, as well as being in the direct line of the road called Danes’ Pad, the track usually taken by the Northmen in former incursions into the Fylde and county. In addition it may be mentioned that tradition affirms that a large quantity of human bones were ploughed up in a field between Burn and Poulton about a century ago. Sharon Turner says:—“It is singular that the position of this famous battle is not yet ascertained. The Saxon song says it was at Brunanburgh; Ethelwerd, a contemporary, names the place Brunandune. These of course are the same place, but where is it?”[11] Having done our best to suggest or rather renew an answer presenting several points worthy of consideration to Mr. Turner’s query, we will, before bidding farewell to the subject, give our readers a translated extract from the old song to which allusion has been made:—

Athelstan king,

Of earls the Lord,

Of Heroes the bracelet giver,

And his brother eke,

Edmund Atheling,

Life-long glory,

In battle won,

With edges of swords,

Near Brunanburgh.

The field was dyed

With warriors blood,

Since the sun, up

At morning tide,

Mighty planet,

Gilded o’er grounds,

God’s candle bright,

The eternal Lord’s,

Till the noble creature

Sank to her rest.

...

West Saxons onwards

Throughout the day,

In numerous bands

Pursued the footsteps

Of the loathed nations.

They hewed the fugitives,

Behind, amain,

With swords mill-sharp.

Mercians refused not

The hard-hand play

To any heroes,

Who with Anlaf,

Over the ocean,

In the ship’s bosom,

This land sought.

...

There was made to flee

The Northmens’ chieftain,

By need constrained,

To the ships prow

With a little band.

The bark drove afloat.

The king departed.

On the fallow flood

His life he preserved.

The Northmen departed

In their nailed barks

On roaring ocean.

Athelstan, in order to encourage commerce and agriculture, enacted that any of the humbler classes, called Ceorls, who had crossed the sea thrice with their own merchandise, or who, individually, possessed five hides of land, a bell-house, a church, a kitchen, and a separate office in the king’s hall, should be raised to the privileged rank of Thane. Sometime in the interval between the death of this monarch, in 941, and the arrival of William the Conqueror, the Hundred of Amounderness had been relinquished by the See of York, probably owing to frequent wars and disturbances having so ruined the country and thinned the inhabitants that the grant had ceased to be profitable.

During the earlier part of the Saxon era the clergy claimed one tenth or tithe of the produce of the soil, and exemption for their monasteries and churches from all taxations. These demands were resisted for a considerable period, but at length were conceded by Ethelwulf “for the honour of God, and for his own everlasting salvation.”[12] In 1002, it is recorded in the Saxon Chronicle, that “the king (Ethelred) ordered all the Danish men who were in England to be slain, because it was made known to him that they would treacherously bereave him of his life, and after that have his kingdom without any gainsaying.” In accordance with the royal mandate, which was circulated in secret, the Anglo-Saxon populace of the villages and farms of the Fylde, as elsewhere, rose at the appointed day upon the unprepared and unsuspecting Northmen, barbarously massacring old and young, male and female alike. Great must have been the slaughter in districts like our own, where from the Danes having been established for so many generations and its proximity to the coast and the estuaries of Wyre and Ribble, a safe landing and a friendly soil would be insured, and attract numbers of their countrymen from Scandinavia. The vengeance of Sweyn, king of Denmark, was speedy and complete; the country of Northumbria was laid waste, towns and hamlets were pillaged and destroyed, and for four years all that fire and sword, spurred on by hatred and revenge, could effect in depopulating and devastating a land was accomplished in Lancashire, and the neighbouring counties, by the enraged Dane. Half a century later than the events just narrated, earl Tosti, the brother of Harold, who forfeited his life and kingdom to the Norman invaders on the field of Hastings, was chosen duke of Northumbria. The seat of the new ruler has not been discovered, but as far as his personal association with the Fylde is concerned it will be sufficient to state that almost on its boundaries, in the township of Preston, he held six hundred acres of cultivated soil, to which all the lands and villages of Amounderness were tributary. As a governor Tosti proved himself both brutal and oppressive. In a very limited space of time his tyrannical and merciless conduct goaded his subjects to rebellion, and with one consent they ejected him from his dukedom and elected earl Morcar in his stead, a step commended and confirmed by Harold, when the unjust severity of his brother had been made known to him. Tosti embraced the Norman cause, and fell at the head of a Norwegian force in an engagement which took place at Standford a few months before the famous and eventful battle of Hastings.

We have now traced briefly the history of the Fylde through a period of eleven hundred years, and before entering on the era which dates from the accession of William the Conqueror, it will be well to review the traces and influences of the three dissimilar races, which have at different epochs usurped and settled on the territory of the old Setantii; our reference is, of course, to the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Danes. Under the first, great advances were made in civilisation; clearings were effected in the woods, the marshes were trenched, and lasting lines of communication were established between the various stations and encampments. The peaceful arts were cultivated, and agriculture made considerable progress, corn even, from some parts of Britain, being exported to the continent. Remains of the Roman occupation are to be observed in the names of a few towns, as Colne and Lincoln, from Colonia, a Colony, also Chester and Lancaster, from Castra, a Camp, as well as in relics like those enumerated earlier. The word “street” is derived from Stratum, a layer, covering, or pavement. Their festival of Flora originated our May-day celebrations, and the paraphernalia of marriage, including the ring, veil, gifts, bride-cake, bridesmaids, and groomsmen, are Roman; so also are the customs of strewing flowers upon graves, and wearing black in time of mourning. That the Romans had many stations in the Fylde is improbable, but that they certainly had one in the township of Kirkham is shown by the number and character of the relics found there. This settlement would seem to have been a fairly populous one, if an opinion may be formed from the quantity of cinereal urns discovered at various times, in which had been deposited the cremated remains of Romans, who had spent their days and done good service in levelling the forests and developing the resources of the Fylde. The traffic over the Roman road through the district must have been almost continuous, to judge from the abundance of horse-shoes and other matters picked up along its route, and whether the harbour of the Setantii was on Wyre, Ribble, or elsewhere, it is evident from the course taken by the well constructed path that something of importance, say a favourable spot for embarcation or debarcation, attracted the inhabitants across the soil of the Fylde towards its north-west boundary. Now arises the question what was the boundary here denoted, and in reply we venture to suggest that the extent of this district, in both a northerly and westerly direction, was much greater in ancient days than it is in our own, and that the Lune formed its highest boundary, whilst its seaward limits, opposite Rossall, were carried out to a distance of nearly eight miles beyond the existing coast, and comprised what is now denominated Shell Wharf, a bank so shallowly covered at low water spring tides that huge boulders become visible all over it. Novel as such a theory may at first sight appear, there is much that can be advanced in support of it. From about the point in Morecambe Bay, near the foot of Wyre Lighthouse, where the stream of Wyre meets that of Lune at right angles, there is the commencement of a long deep channel, apparently continuous with the bed of the latter river as defined by its sandbanks, which extends out into the Irish Sea for rather more than seven miles west of the mouth of Morecambe Bay, at Rossall Point. This channel, called “Lune Deep,” is described on the authorised charts as being in several places twenty-seven fathoms deep, in others rather less, and at its somewhat abrupt termination twenty-three fathoms. Throughout the entire length its boundaries are well and clearly marked, and its sudden declivity is described by the local mariners as being “steep as a house side.” Regarding this curious phenomenon from every available point of view, it seems more probable to us that so long and perfect a channel was formed at an early period, when the river Lune was, as we conjecture, continued from its present mouth, at Heysham Point, through green plains, now the Bay of Lancaster, in the direction and to the distance of “Lune Deep,” than that it was excavated by the current of Lune, as it exists to-day, after mingling with the waters of Morecambe and Wyre. The course and completeness of Wyre channel from Fleetwood, between the sandbanks called Bernard’s Wharf and North Wharf, to its point of junction with the stream from Lancaster, prove satisfactorily that at one time the former river was a tributary of the Lune. Other evidence can be brought forward of the theory we are wishful to establish—that the southern portion of Morecambe Bay, from about Heysham Point, bearing the name of Lancaster Bay, as well as “Shell Wharf” was about the era of the Romans, dry or, at least, marshy land watered by the Wyre and Lune, the latter of which would open on the west coast immediately into the Irish Sea. If the reader refer to a map of Lancashire he will see at once that the smaller bay has many appearances of having been added to the larger one, and that its floor is formed by a continuous line of banks, uncovered each ebb tide and intersected only by the channels of Wyre and Lune. The Land Mark, at Rossall Point, has been removed several times owing to the incursions of the sea, and within the memory of the living generation wide tracts of soil, amounting to more than a quarter of a mile westward, have been swallowed up on that part of the coast, as the strong currents of the rising tides have swept into the bay; and in such manner would the land about the estuary of “Lune Deep,” that is the original river of Lune, be washed away. As the encroachments of the sea progressed, the channel of the river would be gradually widened and deepened to the present dimensions of the “Deep”; the stream of Wyre would by degrees be brought more immediately under the tidal influence, and in proportion as the Lune was absorbed into the bay, so would its tributary lose its shallowness and insignificance, and become expanded to a more important and navigable size. About the time that “Lune Deep” had ceased to exist as a river, and become part of the bay, the overcharged banks of the Wyre would have yielded up their super-abundance of waters over the districts now marked by Bernard’s Wharf and North Wharf, and subsequently, as the waves continued their incursions, inundations would increase, until finally the whole territory, forming the site of Lancaster Bay, would be submerged and appropriated by the rapacious hosts of Neptune. The “Shell Wharf” would be covered in a manner exactly similar to the more recently lost fields off Rossall; and as illustrations of land carried away from the west coast in that neighbourhood, may be instanced a farm called Fenny, at Rossall, which was removed back from threatened destruction by the waves at least four times within the last fifty years, when its re-building was abandoned, and its site soon swept over by the billows; also the village of Singleton Thorp, which occupied the locality marked by “Singleton Skeer” off Cleveleys until 1555, when it was destroyed by an irruption of the sea. Numerous other instances in which the coast line has been altered and driven eastward, between Rossall Point and the mouth of Ribble, during both actually and comparatively modern days might be cited, but the above are sufficient to support our view of the former connection of “Shell Wharf” with the main-land, and its gradual submersion. If on the map, the Bay of Lancaster be detached from that of Morecambe, the latter still retains a most imposing aspect, and its identity with the Moricambe Æstuarium of Ptolemy is in no way interfered with or rendered less evident. The foregoing, as our antiquarian readers will doubtless have surmised, is but a prelude to something more, for it is our purpose to endeavour to disturb the forty years of quiet repose enjoyed by the Portus Setantiorum on the banks of the Wyre and hurl it far into the Irish Sea, to the very limits of the “Lune Deep,” where, on the original estuary of the river Lune, we believe to be its legitimate home. No locality, as yet claiming to be the site of the ancient harbour, accords so well with the distances given by Ptolemy. Assuming the Dee and the Ribble to represent respectively, as now generally admitted, the Seteia Æstuarium and the Belisama Æstuarium, the Portus Setantiorum should lie about seven miles[13] to the west and twenty-five to the north of the Belisama. The position of the “Lune Deep” termination is just about seven miles to the west of the estuary of the Ribble, but is, like most other places whose stations have been mentioned by Ptolemy, defective in its latitudinal measurement according to the record left by that geographer, being only fifteen instead of twenty-five miles north of the Belisama or Ribble estuary. Rigodunum, or Ribchester, is fully thirty miles to the east of the spot where it is wished to locate the Portus, and thus approaches very nearly to the forty-mile measurement of Ptolemy, whose distances, as just hinted, were universally excessive. As an instance of such error it may be stated that the longitude, east from Ferro, of Morecambe Bay or Estuary given by Ptolemy, is 3° 40´ in excess of that marked on modern maps of ancient Britannia, and if the same over-plus be allowed in the longitude of the Portus Setantiorum a line drawn in accordance, from north to south, would pass across the west extremity of the “Lune Deep,” showing that its distance from the Bay corresponds pretty accurately with that of the Portus from the Morecambe Æstuarium as geographically fixed by Ptolemy. In describing the extent and direction of the Roman road, or Danes’ Pad, in his “History of Blackpool and Neighbourhood,” Mr. Thornber writes:—“Commencing at the terminus, we trace its course from the Warren, near the spot named the ‘Abbot’s walk’;” but that the place thus indicated was not the terminus, in the sense of end or origin, is proved by the fact that shortly after the publication of this statement, the workmen engaged in excavating for a sea-wall foundation in that vicinity came upon the road in the sand on the very margin of the Warren. Hence it would seem that the path was continued onwards over the site of the North Wharf sand bank, either towards the foot of Wyre where its channel joins that of Lune, and where would be the original mouth of the former river, or, as we think more probable, towards the Lune itself, and along its banks westward to the estuary of the stream, as now marked by the termination of “Lune Deep.” The Wyre, during the period it existed simply as a tributary of the Lune, a name very possibly compounded from the Celtic al, chief, and aun, or un, contractions of afon, a river, must have been a stream of comparatively slight utility in a navigable point of view, and even to this day its seaward channel from Fleetwood is obstructed by two shallows, denominated from time out of mind the Great and Little Fords. The Lune, or “Chief River,” on the contrary, was evidently, from its very title, whether acquired from its relative position to its tributary, or from its favourable comparison with other rivers of the neighbourhood, which is less likely, regarded by the natives as a stream of no insignificant magnitude and importance. As far as its navigability was concerned the Portus may have been placed on its banks near to the junction of Wyre, but the distances of Ptolemy, which agree pretty fairly, as shown above, with the location of the Portus on the west extremity of the present “Lune Deep,” are incompatible with such a station as this one for the same harbour. The collection of coins discovered near Rossall may imply the existence in early days of a settlement west of that shore, and many remains of the Romans may yet be mingled with the sand and shingle for centuries submerged by the water of the still encroaching Irish Sea. Leaving this long-argued question of the real site of the Portus Setantiorum, in which perhaps the patience of our readers has been rather unduly tried, and soliciting others to test more thoroughly the merits of the ideas here thrown out, we will hasten to examine the traces of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes.

Many, in fact most, of the towns and villages of the Fylde were founded by the Anglo-Saxons, and have retained the names, generally in a modified form, bestowed upon them by that race, as instance Singleton, Lytham, Mythorp, all of which have Saxon terminals signifying a dwelling, village, or enclosure. The word hearb, genitive hearges, indicates in the vocabulary of the same people a heathen temple or place of sacrifice, and as it is to be traced in the endings of Goosnargh, and Kellamergh, there need be no hesitation in surmising that the barbarous and pagan rites of the Saxons were celebrated there, before their conversion to Christianity. Ley, or lay, whether at the beginning of a name, as in Layton, or at end, as in Boonley, signifies a field, and is from the Saxon leag; whilst Hawes and Holme imply, respectively, a group of thorps or hamlets, and a river island. Breck, Warbreck, and Larbreck, derive their final syllables from the Norse brecka, a gentle rise; and from that language comes also the terminal by, in Westby, Ribby, and other places, as well as the kirk in Kirkham, all of which point out the localities occupied by the Danes, or Norsemen. Lund was doubtless the site of a sacred grove of these colonists and the scene of many a dark and cruel ceremony, its derivation being from the ancient Norse lundr, a consecrated grove, where such rites were performed.

At the present time it is difficult, if indeed possible, to determine from what races our own native population has descended, and the subject is one which has provoked more than a little controversy. Palgrave, in his “History of the Anglo-Saxons,” says:—“From the Ribble in Lancashire, or thereabouts, up to the Clyde, there existed a dense population composed of Britons, who preserved their national language and customs, agreeing in all respects with the Welsh of the present day; so that even to the tenth century the ancient Britons still inhabited the greater part of the west coast of the island, however much they had been compelled to yield to the political supremacy of the Saxon invaders.” Mr. Thornber states that he has been “frequently told by those who were reputed judges” that the manners, customs, and dialect of the Fylde partook far more of the Welsh than of the Saxon, and that this was more perceptible half a century ago than now (1837). “The pronunciation,” he adds, “of the words—laughing, toffee, haughendo, etc., the Shibboleth of the Fylde—always reminds me of the deep gutterals of the Welsh,[14] and the frequent use of a particular oath is, alas! too common to both.” Another investigator, Dr. Robson, holds an entirely different opinion, and maintains in his paper on Lancashire and Cheshire, that there is no sufficient foundation for the common belief that the inhabitants of any portion of those counties have been at any time either Welsh, or Celtic; and that the Celtic tribes at the earliest known period were confined to certain districts, which may be traced, together with the extent of their dominions, by the Celtic names of places both in Wales and Cornwall. From another source we are informed that at the date of the Roman abdication the original Celtic population would have dwindled down to an insignificant number acting as serfs and tillers of the land, and not likely to have much influence upon future generations. Mr. Hardwick, in his History of Preston, writes:—“Few women would accompany the Roman colonists, auxiliaries, and soldiers into Britain; hence it is but rational to conclude, that during the long period of their dominion, numerous intermarriages with the native population would take place.” Admitting the force of reasoning brought forward by the last authority, it can readily be conceived that the purity of the aboriginal tribes would in a great measure be destroyed at an early epoch, and that subsequent alliances with the Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans, have rendered all conjectures as to the race of forefathers to which the inhabitants of the Fylde have most claim practically valueless.

The dense forests with which our district in the earliest historic periods abounded must have been well supplied with beasts of chase, whereon the Aborigines exercised their courage and craft, and from which their clothing and, in a great measure, their sustenance were derived. The large branching horns of the Wild Deer have been found in the ground at Larbrick, and during the excavations for the North Union and East Lancashire Railway Bridges over the Ribble, in 1838 and 1846 respectively, numerous remains of the huge ox, called the Bos primigenius, and the Bos longifrons, or long-faced ox, as well as of wild boars and bears, were raised from beneath the bed of the river, so that it is extremely likely that similar relics of the brute creation are lying deeply buried in our soil. Such a supposition is at least warranted by the discovery, half-a-century ago, of the skull and short upright horns of a stag and those of an ox, of a breed no longer known, at the bottom of a marl pit near Rossall. Bones and sculls, chiefly those of deer and oxen, have been taken from under the peat in all the mosses, and two osseous relics, consisting each of skull and horns, of immense specimens of the latter animal, have been dug up at Kirkham. In the “Reliquiæ Diluvianæ” of Mr. Buckland is a figure of the scull of a rhinoceros belonging to the antediluvian age, and stated to have been discovered beneath a moss in Lancashire.

CHAPTER II.
THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO JAMES THE FIRST.

When the battle of Hastings, in 1066, had terminated in favour of William the Conqueror, and placed him on the throne of England, he indulged his newly acquired power in many acts of tyranny towards the vanquished nation, subjecting the old nobility to frequent indignities, weakening the sway of the Church, and impoverishing the middle and lower classes of the community. This harsh policy spread dissatisfaction and indignation through all ranks of the people, and it was not long before rebellion broke out in the old province of Northumbria. The Lancastrians and others, under the earls Morcar and Edwin, rose up in revolt, slew the Norman Baron set over them, and were only reduced to order and submission when William appeared on the scene at the head of an overwhelming force. The two earls escaped across the frontier to Scotland, and for some inexplicable reason were permitted to retain their possessions in Lancashire and elsewhere, while the common insurgents were afterwards treated with great severity and cruelty by their Norman rulers. Numerous castles were now erected in the north of England to hold the Saxons in subjection, and guard against similar outbreaks in future. Those at Lancaster and Liverpool were built by a Norman Baron of high position, named Roger de Poictou, the third son of Robert de Montgomery, earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury. When William divided the conquered territory amongst his followers, the Honor[15] of Lancaster and the Hundred of Amounderness fell, amongst other gifts, amounting in all to three hundred and ninety-eight manors,[16] to that nobleman, and, as he resided during a large portion of his time at the castle erected on the banks of the Lune, our district would receive a greater share of attention than his more distant possessions.

After the country had been restored to peace, William determined to institute an inquiry into the condition and resources of his kingdom. The records of the survey were afterwards bound up in two volumes, which received the name of the Domesday Book, from Dome, a census, and Boc, a book.

The king’s commands to the investigators were, according to the Saxon Chronicle, to ascertain—“How many hundreds of hydes were in each shire, what lands the king himself had, and what stock there was upon the land; or what dues he ought to have by the year from each shire. Also he commissioned them to record in writing, how much land his archbishops had and his diocesan bishops, and his abbots and his earls; what or how much each man had, who was an occupier of land in England, either in land or stock, and how much money it was worth. So very narrowly, indeed, did he commission them to trace it out, that there was not one single hide, nor a yard of land; nay, moreover (it is shameful to tell, though he thought it no shame to do it), not even an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine, was there left that was not set down in his writ.” The examination was commenced in 1080, and six years afterwards the whole of the laborious task was accomplished. In this compilation the county of Lancaster is never once mentioned by name, but the northern portion is joined to the Yorkshire survey, and the southern to that of Cheshire.

The following is a translation of that part of Domesday Book relating to the Fylde:—

Agemundernesse under Evrvic—scire (Yorkshire).

Poltun (Poulton), two carucates;[17] Rushale (Rossall), two carucates; Brune (Burn), two carucates; Torentun (Thornton), six carucates; Carlentun (Carleton), four carucates; Meretun (Marton), six carucates; Staininghe (Staining), six carucates.

Biscopham (Bispham), eight carucates; Latun (Layton), six carucates.

Chicheham (Kirkham), four carucates; Salewic (Salwick), one carucate; Cliftun (Clifton), two carucates; Newtune (Newton-with-Scales), two carucates; Frecheltune (Freckleton), four carucates; Rigbi (Ribby-with-Wray), six carucates; Treueles (Treales), two carucates; Westbi (Westby), two carucates; Pluntun (Plumptons), two carucates; Widetun (Weeton), three carucates; Pres (Preese), two carucates; Midehope (Mythorp), one carucate; Wartun (Warton), four carucates; Singletun (Singleton), six carucates; Greneholf (Greenhalgh), three carucates; Hameltune (Hambleton), two carucates.

Lidun (Lytham), two carucates.

Michelescherche (St. Michael’s-on-Wyre), one carucate; Pluntun (Wood Plumpton) five carucates; Rodecliff (Upper Rawcliffe), two carucates; Rodecliff (Middle Rawcliffe), two carucates; a third Rodecliff (Out Rawcliffe), three carucates; Eglestun (Ecclestons), two carucates; Edeleswic (Elswick), three carucates; Inscip (Inskip), two carucates; Sorbi (Sowerby), one carucate.

All these vills belong to Prestune (Preston); and there are three churches (in Amounderness). In sixteen of these vills[18] there are but few inhabitants—but how many there are is not known.

The rest are waste. Roger de Poictou had [the whole].

When we read the concluding remark—“The rest are waste,” and observe the insignificant proportion of the many thousands of acres comprised in the Fylde at that time under cultivation, we are made forcibly cognizant of the truly deplorable condition to which the district had been reduced by ever-recurring warfare through a long succession of years. There is no guide to the number of the inhabitants, excepting, perhaps, the existence of only three churches in the whole Hundred of Amounderness, and this can scarcely be admitted as certain evidence of the paucity of the population, as in the harassed and unsettled state in which they lived it is not very probable that the people would be much concerned about the public observances of religious ceremonials or services. The churches alluded to were situated at Preston, Kirkham, and St. Michael’s-on-Wyre. The parish church at Poulton was the next one erected, and appears to have been standing less than ten years after the completion of the Survey, for Roger de Poictou, when he founded the priory of St. Mary, Lancaster, in 1094, endowed it with—“Pulton in Agmundernesia, and whatsoever belonged to it, and the church, with one carucate of land, and all other things belonging to it.”[19] The terminal paragraph of the foundation-charter of the monastery states that Geoffrey, the sheriff, having heard of the liberal grants of Roger de Poictou, also bestowed upon it—“the tithes of Biscopham, whatever he had in Lancaster, some houses, and an orchard.” It is difficult to determine whether a church existed in the township of Bispham at that date or not, but as no such edifice is included in the above list of benefactions, we are inclined to believe that it was not erected until later. The earliest mention of it occurs in the reign of Richard I., 1189 to 1199, when Theobald Walter quitclaimed to the abbot of Sees “all his right in the advowson of Pulton, with the church of Biscopham.”[20]

The rebellious and ungrateful conduct of Roger de Poictou ultimately led to his banishment out of the country, and the forfeiture of the whole of his extensive possessions to the crown. The Hundred of Amounderness was conveyed by the King on the 22nd of April, 1194, being the fifth year of his reign, to Theobald Walter, the son of Hervens, a Norman who had accompanied the Conqueror. “Be it known,” says the document, “that we give and confirm to Theobald Walter the whole of Amounderness with its appurtenances by the service of three Knights’ fees, namely, all the domain thereto belonging, all the services of the Knights who hold of the fee of Amounderness by Knight’s service, all the service of the Free-tenants of Amounderness, all the Forest of Amounderness, with all the Venison, and all the Pleas of the Forest.” His rights “are to be freely and quietly allowed,” continues the deed, “in wood and plain, in meadows and pastures, in highways and footpaths, in waters and mills, in mill-ponds, in fish-ponds and fishings, in peat-lands, moors and marshes, in wreck of the sea, in fairs and markets, in advowsons and chapelries, and in all liberties and free customs.” Amongst the barons of Lancashire given in the MSS. of Percival is—“Theobald Walter, baron of Weeton and Amounderness,” but, as Weeton never existed as a barony, it is clear that the former title is an error. The “Black Book of the Exchequer,” the oldest record after the “Domesday Book,” has entered in it the tenants and fees de veteri feoffamento[21] and de novo feoffamento,[22] and amongst others is a statement that Theobald Walter held Amounderness by the service of one Knight, thus the later charter, just quoted, must be regarded as a confirmation of a previous grant, and not as an original donation. He was an extensive founder of monastic houses, and amongst the abbeys established by him was that of Cockersand, which he endowed with the whole Hay of Pylin (Pilling) in Amounderness. He was appointed sheriff of the county of Lancaster by Richard I. in 1194, and retained the office until the death of that monarch five years afterwards. His son, Theobald, married Maud, sister to the celebrated Thomas à Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, and assumed the title of his office when created Chief Butler of Ireland. The family of the same name which inhabited Rawcliffe Hall until that property was confiscated through the treasonable part played by Henry Butler and his son Richard in the rebellion of 1715, was directly descended from Theobald Walter-Butler. The Butlers of Kirkland, the last of whom, Alexander Butler, died in 1811, and was succeeded by a great-nephew, were also representatives of the ancient race of Walter, and preserved the line unbroken. Theobald Walter, the elder, died in 1206, and Amounderness reverted to the crown.

Richard I. a few years before his death presented the Honor of Lancaster to his brother, the earl of Moreton, who subsequently became King John, and it is asserted that this nobleman, when residing at the castle of Lancaster, was occasionally a guest at Staining Hall, and that during one of his visits he so admired the strength and skill displayed by a person called Geoffrey, and surnamed the Crossbowman, that he induced him to join his retinue. How far truth has been embellished and disguised by fiction in this traditional statement we are unable to conjecture, but there are reasonable grounds for believing that the story is not entirely supposititious, for the earl of Moreton granted to Geoffrey l’Arbalistrier, or the Crossbowman, who is said to have been a younger brother of Theobald Walter, senior, six carucates of land in Hackinsall-with-Preesall, and a little later, the manor of Hambleton, most likely as rewards for military or other services rendered to that nobleman. John, as earl of Moreton, appears to have gained the affection and respect of the inhabitants of Lancashire by his liberal practices during his long sojourns in their midst. He granted a charter to the knights, thanes, and freeholders of the county, whereby they and their heirs, without challenge or interference from him and his heirs, were permitted to fell, sell, and give, at their pleasure, their forest woods, without being subject to the forest regulations, and to hunt and take hares, foxes, rabbits, and all kinds of wild beasts, excepting stags, hinds, roebucks, and wild hogs, in all parts within his forests beyond the desmesne hays of the county.[23] On ascending the throne, however, he soon aroused the indignation of all sections of his subjects by his meanness, pride, and utter inability to govern the kingdom. His indolent habits excited the disgust of a nobility, whose regular custom was to breakfast at five and dine at nine in the morning, as proclaimed by the following popular Norman proverb:—

Lever à cinque, dîner à neuf,

Souper à cinque, coucher à neuf,

Fait vivre d’ans nonante et neuf.[24]

Eventually his evil actions and foolish threats so incensed the nation, that the barons, headed by William, earl of Pembroke, compelled him, in 1215, to sign the Magna Charta, a code of laws embodying two important principles—the general rights of the freemen, and the limitation of the powers of both king and pope.

About that time it would have been almost, if not quite, impossible to have decided or described what was the national language of the country. The services at the churches were read in Latin, the aristocracy indulged only in Norman-French, whilst the great mass of the people spoke a language, usually denominated Saxon or English, but which had been so mutilated and altered by additions from various sources that the ancient “Settlers on the shores of the German Ocean” would scarcely have recognized it as their native tongue. Each division of the kingdom had its peculiar dialect, very much as now, and from the remarks of a southern writer, named Trevisa, it must be inferred that the patois of our own district, which he would include in the old province of Northumbria,[25] was far from either elegant or musical. “Some,” he says, “use strange gibbering, chattering, waffling, and grating; then the Northumbre’s tongue is so sharp, flitting, floyting, and unshape, that we Southron men may not understand that language.” Such a list of curious and uncomplimentary epithets inclines us at first sight to doubt the strict impartiality of their author, but when it is remembered that, in spite of the greatly increased opportunities for education and facilities for intercommunion amongst the different classes, the provincialisms of some of our own peasantry would be utterly unintelligible to many of us at the present day, we are constrained to admit that Trevisa may have had just reason for his remarks.

In 1268 the Honor of Lancaster, the Wapentake of Amounderness, and the manors of Preston, Ribby-with-Wray, and Singleton were given by Henry III. to his son Edmund Crouchback, and in addition the king published an edict forbidding the sheriffs of neighbouring counties to enter themselves, or send, or permit their bailiffs to enter or interfere with anything belonging to the Honor of Lancaster, or to the men of that Honor, unless required to do so by his son. Edmund was also created earl of Lancaster, and became the founder of that noble house, whose possessions and power afterwards attained to such magnitude as to place its representative, Henry IV., upon the throne, although nearer descendants of his grandfather Edward III. were still living.

We have now arrived at the unsettled era, comprising the reigns of the three Edwards and Richard II., and during the whole of the time these monarchs wore the crown, a period of one hundred and twenty-six years, the nation was engaged in continual wars—with the Welsh under Llewellyn, the Scotch under Bruce and Wallace, and the French under Philip. The reign of Richard II. was additionally agitated by the insurrection of Wat Tyler. Looking at that long uninterrupted season of excitement, we cease to wonder at the riotous and disorganized state into which society was thrown. The rulers, whether local and subordinate, or those of a higher grade, were too actively engaged in forwarding the efficiency of the army, to devote much attention to the welfare and proper government of the people. Crimes and disturbances were allowed to pass unpunished, and evil-doers, being thus encouraged to prosecute their unlawful purposes, carried their outrages to the very confines of open rebellion against all power and order. It was not until such a dangerous climax had been reached that a commission, consisting of the following judges, Peter de Bradbate, Edmund Deyncourt, William de Vavasour, John de Island, and Adam de Middleton, was appointed to deal summarily and severely with all offenders in the counties of Lancaster and Westmoreland. During those troublesome times Sir Adam Banastre and a number of others assaulted Ralph de Truno, prior of Lancaster, and his train of attendants at Poulton-le-Fylde, seized and carried him off to Thornton, where they brutally ill-used and finally imprisoned him. An inquiry into the disgraceful proceeding was instituted by order of Edward I., but the result has not been preserved, at least no record of it has as yet been discovered amongst any of the ancient documents concerning this county. Leyland, who was antiquary to Henry VIII., alluding to the death of the disorderly knight, says,—“Adam Banastre, a bachelar of Lancastershire, moved ryot agayne Thomas of Lancaster by kraft of kynge Edward II., but he was taken and behedid by the commandment of Thomas of Lancaster.” The first part of the quotation has reference to a quarrel between the earl of Lancaster and Sir Adam, who for his own aggrandizement and to curry favour with the king, as well as to divert the attention of that monarch from his own misdeeds, declared that Thomas of Lancaster wished to interfere with the royal prerogative in the choice of ministers; and, professedly, to punish such presumption he invaded the domains of that nobleman. An encounter took place in the valley of the Ribble, not far from Preston, in which the followers of Sir Adam were vanquished and put to flight. Their leader secreted himself in a barn on his own lands, but, being discovered by the soldiers of his opponent, was dragged forth and beheaded with a sword. Subjoined is an account of a disturbance which occurred at Kirkham during the same period, transcribed from the Vale Royal[26] register:—“A narrative of proceedings in a dispute between the abbot of Vale Royal, and Sir Will. de Clifton, knt., respecting the tithes in the manor of Clifton and Westby, in the parish of Kirkham, A.D. 1337, in the time of Peter’s abbacy. The charges alleged against Sir William state, that he had obtained twenty marks[27] due to the abbot; had forcibly obstructed the rector in the gathering of tithes within the manor of Clifton and Westby; seized his loaded wain, and brought ridicule on his palfrey: that he had also burst, with his armed retainers, into the parish church of Kirkham, and thereby deterred his clerks from the performance of divine service; had prevented the parishioners from resorting to the font for the rite of baptism; and that, having seized on Thomas, the clerk of the abbot of Vale Royal, he had inflicted on him a flagellation in the public streets of Preston. After a complaint, made to the abbot of Westminster, a conservator of the rights and privileges of the order to which Vale Royal belonged, Sir William confessed his fault and threw himself on the mercy of the abbot of the Cheshire convent, who contented himself, after receiving a compensation for his rector’s losses, with an oath from the refractory knight, that he would in future maintain and defend the privileges of the abbey, and would bind himself in forty shillings to offer no further violence to the unfortunate secretary of the abbot.”

During the reign of Edward III., Henry, earl of Lancaster, was created duke of the county with the consent of the prelates and peers assembled in parliament. This nobleman, whose pious and generous actions earned for him the title of the “Good duke of Lancaster,” received a mandate from the king during the war with France, when there were serious apprehensions of an invasion by that nation, to arm all the lancers on his estates, and to set a strict watch over the seacoasts of Lancashire. These precautions, however, proved unnecessary, as the French made no attempt to cross the channel. In his will, bearing the date 1361, (the year of his death), Duke Henry bequeathed the Wappentakes or Hundreds of Amounderness, Lonsdale, and Leyland, with other estates, to his daughter Blanche, who had married John of Gaunt, the earl of Richmond and fourth son of Edward III. John of Gaunt succeeded to the dukedom in right of his wife.

“In the ‘Testa de Nevill’,” a register extending from 1274 to 1327, and containing, amongst other matters, a list of the fees and serjeanties holden of the king and the churches in his gift, it is stated under the latter heading:—“St. Michael upon Wyre; the son of Count Salvata had it by gift of the present king, and he says, that he is elected into a bishoprick, and that the church is vacant, and worth 30 marks[28] per an. Kyrkeham; King John gave two parts of it to Simon Blundel, on account of his custody of the son and heir of Theobald Walter. Worth 80 marks[29] per an.” In another part of these records it is named that Richard de Frekelton held fees in chief in Freckleton, Newton, and Eccleston; Alan de Singilton, in Singleton, Freckleton, Newton, and Elswick; and Adam de Merton, in Marton; also that Fitz Richard held serjeanties in Singleton, by serjeanty of Amounderness.

The earliest intimation of members being returned to represent our own district, in conjunction with the other divisions of the county, is to the parliament of Edward I., assembled in 1295, when Matthew de Redmand and John de Ewyas were elected knights of the shire for Lancaster, and in his report the sheriff adds—“There is no city in the county of Lancaster.” The members of parliament in 1297 were Henricus de Kigheley and Henricus le Botyler; in 1302 Willielmus de Clifton and Gilbertus de Singleton; and in 1304 Willielmus de Clifton and Willielmus Banastre. Henricus le Botyler, or Butler, belonged to the family of the Butlers of Rawcliffe; Gilbertus de Singleton was probably connected with the Singletons whose descendants resided at Staining Hall; Willielmus de Clifton was an ancestor of the Cliftons of Lytham, and here it may be stated that Lancashire was represented in 1383 by Robt. de Clifton, of Westby, and Ric’us de Hoghton; and in 1844 by J. Wilson Patten, now Lord Winmarleigh, and Jno. Talbot Clifton, esq., of Lytham Hall. Thos. Henry Clifton, esq., son of the last gentleman, and the Hon. F. A. Stanley are the present members for North Lancashire.

During the Scottish wars of Edward III., John de Coupland, of Upper Rawcliffe, valiantly captured David II., king of Scotland, at the battle of Durham, and although that monarch dashed out Coupland’s teeth and used every means to incite the latter to slay him, the brave soldier restrained his wrath and delivered up his prisoner alive. For that signal service Edward rewarded him with a grant of £500 per annum, until he could receive an equivalent in land wherever he might choose, and created him a knight banneret.[30] “I have seen,” says Camden, “a charter of King Edward III., by which he advanced John Coupland to the state of a banneret in the following words, because in a battle fought at Durham he had taken prisoner David the Second, King of Scots:—‘Being willing to reward the said John, who took David de Bruis prisoner, and frankly delivered him unto us, for the deserts of his honest and valiant service, in such sort as others may take example by his precedent to do us faithful service in time to come, we have promoted the said John to the place and degree of a banneret; and, for the maintenance of the same state, we have granted, for us and our heirs, to the same John, five hundred pounds by the year, to be received by him and his heirs’,” etc.

For some time after a truce had been concluded with Scotland, the war, in which the incident narrated occurred, continued with little abatement, and in 1322 this county with others was called upon to raise fresh levies. These constant drains upon its resources, and the devastations committed by riotous companies of armed men, so impoverished our district that the inhabitants of Poulton forwarded a petition to the Pope, praying him to forego his claims upon their town on account of the deplorably distressed condition to which they had been reduced. The taxations of all churches in the Fylde were greatly lowered in consideration of the indigency of the people; that of Kirkham from 240 marks per annum to 120, and the others in like proportion. Further evidence of the poverty of this division may be gathered from a census taken in 1377, which states, amongst other things, that—“There is no town worthy of notice anywhere in the whole of the county”; and again, twenty years later, when a loan was raised to meet the enormous expenditure of the country, Lancashire furnished no contributors.

In 1389, during the reign of Richard II., it was enacted, with a view to the preservation and improvement of the salmon fisheries throughout the kingdom, “that no young salmon be taken or destroyed by nets, at mill-dams or other places, from the middle of April to the Nativity of St. John Baptist”; and special reference is made to this neighbourhood in the following sentence of the bill:—“It is ordained and assented, that the waters of Lone, Wyre, Mersee, Ribbyl, and all other waters in the county of Lancaster, be put in defence, as to the taking of Salmons, from Michaelmas Day to the Purification of our Lady (2nd of February), and in no other time of the year, because that salmons be not seasonable in the said waters in the time aforesaid; and in the parts where such rivers be, there shall be assigned and sworn good and sufficient conservators of this statute.” The foregoing is the earliest regulation of the kind, and the wisdom and utility of its provisions are evinced by the existence of similar measures at the present day.

From the annals of the Duchy may be learnt some interesting particulars relative to changes in ownership at that period of certain portions of the territory comprised in the Fylde. In 1380 John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, issued a “precept to the Escheator to give seisin of the Lands of William Botyler in Layton Magna, Layton Parva, Bispham, Warthebrek, and Great Merton,” etc.; and shortly afterwards gave orders to “seize the Lands of William Botyler.” In 1385 mandates were issued by the same nobleman to his Escheator to “seize into the Hands of the King and himself the Lands of Thomas Banastre, (deceased, 1384), in Ethelswyk, Frekculton, Claughton in Amoundernes, Syngleton Parva, Hamylton, Stalmyn,” etc.; also those of “Emund Banastre, (deceased, 1384), in Wodeplumpton, Preston,” etc. In the Rolls the subjoined entries also occur:—

1381.
Grantors.	Grantees.	Matters and Premises.
John Botyler, Knt.	Henry de Bispham, Richard de Carleton, Chaplains.	Enrolment of the Grant of the Manors of Great Layton, Little Layton, Bispham, and Wardebrek; lands in Great Merton, and the whole Lordship of Merton Town.
Henry de Bispham, Richard de Carleton.	John Botyler, Knt., and Alice his wife.	Enrolment of the Grant of the above Manors, Lands, and Lordship, in Fee Tail special.
1382.
Robert de Wasshyngton.	William de Hornby, Parson of St. Michael-upon-Wyre, and William le Ducton.	Enrolment of Grant of Lands, etc., in Carleton in Amounderness, for a Rose Rent per ann. 8 years, and increased rent £20 per ann.

There is nothing of interest or importance to recount affecting the Fylde from the death of Richard II. until the year 1455, when the battle of St. Albans, resulting in the defeat of Henry VI. and the royal forces by the Duke of York, initiated those lamentable struggles between the rival houses of York and Lancaster; and the inhabitants of our section shared, like the rest, in the ruin and bloodshed of civil war. Those contests, which lasted no less than thirty years, and included thirteen pitched battles, were finally terminated in 1485, by the union of Henry VII. with Catherine of York, daughter of Edward IV.

In 1485 a malady called the “Sweating Sickness” visited the different districts of Lancashire, and so rapid and fatal were the effects, that during the seven weeks it prevailed, large numbers of the populace fell victims to its virulence. Lord Verulam, describing the disease, says:—“The complaint was a pestilent fever, attended by a malign vapour, which flew to the heart and seized the vital spirits; which stirred nature to strive to send it forth by an extreme sweat.”

In 1487 the impostor Lambert Simnel, who personated Edward, earl of Warwick, the heir in rightful succession to Edward IV., landed at the Pile of Fouldrey, (Peel harbour) in Morecambe Bay, with an army raised chiefly by the aid of the Duchess of Burgundy, and marched into the country. At Stoke, near Newark, he was defeated and taken prisoner, and subsequently the adventurer was made a scullion in the king’s kitchen, from which humble sphere he rose by good conduct to the position of falconer. Henry VIII., soon after his accession in 1509, became embroiled in war with France, and whilst he was engaged in hostilities on the continent, James IV. of Scotland crossed the border, and invaded England with a force of fifty thousand men. To resist this aggression large levies were promptly raised in Lancashire and other northern counties, and on the field of Flodden, in Northumberland, a decisive battle took place in 1513, in which the Scottish monarch was slain, and his army routed. The Lancashire troops were led by Sir Edward Stanley, and their patriotism and valour are celebrated in an ancient song called the “Famous Historie or Songe of Floodan Field.” In the following extract certain localities in and near the Fylde are mentioned as having furnished their contingents of willing soldiers:—

“All Lancashire for the most parte

The lusty Standley stowte can lead,

A stock of striplings stronge of heart

Brought up from babes with beef and bread,

From Warton unto Warrington,

From Wiggen unto Wyresdale,

From Weddecon to Waddington,

From Ribchester to Rochdale,

From Poulton to Preston with pikes

They with ye Standley howte forthe went,

From Pemberton and Pilling Dikes

For Battell Billmen bould were bent

With fellowes fearce and fresh for feight

With Halton feilds did turne in foores,

With lusty ladds liver and light

From Blackborne and Bolton in ye moores.”

The office of High Sheriff is one of considerable antiquity, and in early times it was no uncommon thing for the elected person to retain the position for several years together. Annexed is a list of gentlemen connected with the Fylde who have been High Sheriffs of the county of Lancaster at different times, with their years of office:—

1194 to 1199.	Theobald Walter, of Amounderness.
1278.	Gilbert de Clifton, of Clifton and Westby.
1287.	Gilbert de Clifton, of Clifton and Westby.
1289.	Gilbert de Clifton, of Clifton and Westby.
1393.	Sir Johannes Butler, Knt., of Rawcliffe.
1394.	Sir Johannes Butler, Knt., of Rawcliffe.
1395.	Sir Johannes Butler, Knt., of Rawcliffe.
1397.	Sir Richard Molyneux, Knt., of Larbrick (for life).
1566.	Sir Richard Molyneux, Knt., of Larbrick.
1606.	Edmund Fleetwood, of Rossall.
1677.	Alexander Rigby, of Layton.
1678.	Alexander Rigby, of Layton.
1691.	Sir Alexander Rigby, Knt., of Layton.
1740.	Roger Hesketh, of Rossall.
1797.	Bold Fleetwood Hesketh, of Rossall.
1820.	Robert Hesketh, of Rossall.
1830.	Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, of Rossall.
1835.	Thomas Clifton, of Lytham.
1842.	Thomas Robert Wilson ffrance, of Rawcliffe.
1853.	John Talbot Clifton, of Lytham.

It may be here noticed that Edmund Dudley, so notorious in English history as the infamous agent of Henry VII. in the wholesale and scandalous extortions that monarch practised upon his subjects, held many and large territorial possessions in the county of Lancashire, the reward in all probability of his unscrupulous services to the king. After the death of his royal patron a loud outcry for the punishment of Dudley was raised by the nation, and in the first year of Henry VIII. a proclamation was issued inviting those subjects who had been injured by Dudley and his fellow commissioner, Sir Richard Empson, to come forward and state their complaints; the number of complainants who appeared was so great that it was found impossible to examine all their claims, so in order to pacify the universal indignation, the two obnoxious agents were thrown into prison on a charge of treason. From the Inquisition for the Escheat of the Duchy of Lancaster taken on the attainder of Edmund Dudley, in 1509, it is discovered that amongst his numerous estates, were lands in Elswick, Hambleton, Freckleton, Thornton, Little Singleton, Wood Plumpton, Whittingham, Goosnargh, and Claughton. Stow, writing about the circumstances alluded to, says:—“Thereupon was Sir Richard Empson, Knight, and Edmund Dudley, Esquire, by a politicke mean brought into the Tower, where they were accused of treason, and so remained there prisoners, thereby to quiet men’s minds, that made such suit to have their money restored. On the seventeenth of July Edmund Dudley was arraigned in the Guildhall of London, where he was condemned, and had judgement to be drawn, hanged, and quartered.... Henry VIII. sent commandment to the Constable of the Tower, charging him that Empson and Dudley should shortly after be put to execution. The Sheriffs of London were commanded by a special writ to see the said execution performed and done, whereupon they went to the Tower and received the prisoners on the 17th of August, 1510, and from thence brought them unto the scaffold on Tower Hill, where their heads were stricken off.”

The most conspicuous event which happened during the sovereignty of Henry VIII. was the Protestant Reformation. Henry, having quarrelled with the Supreme Head of the Church at Rome, determined to suppress all religious houses in his kingdom whose incomes amounted to less than £200 per annum. Doctors Thomas Leigh and Thomas Layton were appointed to inspect and report on those in Lancashire; and amongst the number condemned on their visit was a small Benedictine Cell at Lytham. This Cell owed its origin to Richard Fitz Roger, who towards the latter part of the reign of Richard I. granted lands at Lytham to the Durham Church, in order that a prior and Benedictine monks might be established there to the honour of St. Mary and St. Cuthbert. Its yearly revenue at the time of suppression was only £55. A little later, in 1540, the larger monastic institutions suffered the fate of the smaller ones; and amongst the chantries closed were two at St. Michael’s-on-Wyre. All Catholic places of worship were closed by a proclamation, bearing the date September 23rd, 1548, and issued by the lord protector Somerset on behalf of the young king Edward VI. On the death of that monarch in 1553 the crown descended to his sister Mary, only daughter of Catherine of Arragon; and one of her first acts was to re-establish the old faith and re-open the churches and chantries which her predecessors had closed. Mass was again celebrated in the churches of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre, Kirkham, and Singleton, as in former days, the officiating priests being:—

Kirkham	Thomas Primbet,	annual fee	£2	10s.	0d.
Singleton	Richard Goodson,	” ”	£2	9s.	0d.
St. Michael’s-on-Wyre,	Thomas Cross	” ”	£4	13s.	10d.

In the early part of this reign a grand military muster was ordered to be made in the county palatine of Lancaster, and towards the 300 men raised in the Hundred of Amounderness the Fylde townships contributed as follows:—

Warton	4	men.
Carleton	8	”
Hardhome with Newton	8	”
Much Eccleston	5	”
Clifton	6	”
Bispham and Norbreke	5	”
Freckleton	5	”
Thilston	8	”
Thornton	8	”
Out Rawcliffe	4	”
Upper Rawcliffe and Tornecard	1	”
Pulton	3	”
Weton	3	”
Threleyle	6	”
Little Eccleston and Larbreke	6	”
Little Singleton and Grange	5	”
Newton with Scales	3	”
Layton with Warbrick	8	”
Elliswicke	5	”
Kelmyne and Brininge	5	”
Kirkham	3	”
Westbye and Plumpton	8	”
Rigby with Wraye	8	”
Lithum	5	”
Much Singleton	7	”
Plumpton	11	”

The commanders of the regiment were—Sir Thomas Hesketh, Sir Richard Houghton, George Browne, John Kitchen, Richard Barton, William Westby (of Mowbreck), and William Barton, Esquires.

Dodsworth, who lived in the latter part of the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries, informs us that sometime during the year 1555 “a sudden irruption of the sea” took place near Rossall grange, and a whole village, called Singleton Thorp, was washed away by the fury of the waves. “The inhabitants were driven out of their ancient home, and erected their tents at a place called Singleton to this day.” It has been surmised that Singleton Thorp was the residence of Thomas de Singleton, who opposed Edward I. in a suit to recover from that king the manors of Singleton, Thornton, and Brughton. The site formerly occupied by the ancient village is now called Singleton Skeer. Dodsworth also declares that the Horse-bank lying off the shores of Lytham was, in 1612, during the reign of James I., a pasture for cattle, and that, in 1601, a village called Waddum Thorp existed between it and the present main-land.

In January, 1559, about two months after the accession of Elizabeth, another muster took place throughout the several counties of the kingdom, and subjoined are enumerated the bodies of soldiers furnished by the different Hundreds of Lancashire:—

Blackeburne Hundred—	407 harnessed men, 406 unharnessed men.
Amoundernes Hundred—	213 harnessed men, 369 unharnessed men.
Londesdall Hundred—	356 harnessed men, 114 unharnessed men.
Leylonde Hundred—	80 harnessed men, 22 unharnessed men.
Saleforde Hundred—	394 harnessed men, 649 unharnessed men.
West Derby Hundred—	459 harnessed men, 413 unharnessed men.
	Sum Total of harnessed men 1919.
	Sum Total of unharnessed men 2073.[31]

An epidemic, described by Hollinworth as a “sore sicknesse,” prevailed in this county during some months of 1565, and carried off many of the inhabitants.

Queen Elizabeth on her accession wrought another change in the national religion, but taking warning from the outcries and disturbances produced by the sudden and sweeping policies of Henry VIII. and Mary, proceeded to affect her purpose in a more deliberate manner. She retained some of her Catholic ministers, taking care, however, to have sufficient of the reformed faith to outvote them when occasion required, and appointed a commission to inquire into the persecutions of the last reign, with orders to liberate from prison all those who had been confined on account of their attachment to Protestant principles. In her own chapel she forbade several Popish practices, and commanded that certain portions of the services should be read in the English tongue. Shortly afterwards a proclamation was issued, ordering that all chantries should conduct their services after the model of her own chapel. This comparative moderation was succeeded at a later period of her sovereignty by sterner measures, and many Catholic recusants were placed in confinement, being subjected to heavy penalties and degradations. During the same reign the military strength of the nation was again ascertained by a general muster. The gathering took place in 1574, when six gentlemen of our neighbourhood were thus rated:—

Cuthbert Clifton, esq., to furnish:—Light horse 1, Plate-coate 1, Pyke 1, Long bows 2, Sheaves of arrows 2, Steel caps 2, Caliver 1, Morion 1.

James Massey, George Alane to furnish:—Plate-coat 1, Long bow 1, Sheaf of arrows 1, Steel cap 1, Caliver 1, Morion 1, Bill 1.

William Hesketh to furnish of good will:—Caliver 1, Morion 1.

William Singleton, John Veale to furnish:—The same as William Hesketh doth.

The whole complement raised in the Hundred of Amounderness consisted of—5 Light horse, 1 Demi-lance, 2 Corslets, 17 Plate-coats, 11 Pykes, 22 Long bows, 22 Sheaves of arrows, 27 Steel caps, 15 Calivers, 20 Morions, and 10 Bills.

Father Edmund Campion, the notorious Jesuit, was apprehended in 1581, immediately after travelling through Lancashire endeavouring to spread the doctrines of his faith, and imprisoned in the Tower. Under the cruel influence of the rack he divulged the names of several persons by whom he had been received and entertained whilst on his journey, and amongst them were Mrs. Allen of Rossall Hall, the widow of Richard Allen, and John Westby of Mowbreck and Burn Halls. Shortly before his execution Campion deplored his compulsory confession in a letter to a friend in these words:—“It grieved me much to have offended the Catholic cause so highly, as to confess the names of some gentlemen and friends in whose houses I have been entertained; yet in this I greatly cherish and comfort myself, that I never discovered any secrets there declared, and that I will not, come rack, come rope.”

The following extracts are taken from some manuscripts in the Harleian collection, and will explain themselves:—

“Names of such as are detected for receiptinge of Priests, Seminaries, etc., in the County of Lancashire.

“This appeareth by the presentment of the Vicar of Garstang.	One named little Richard receipted at Mr. Rigmaden’s of Weddicar by report.
“This appeareth by the presentment of the Vicar of Kirkham.	Ricard Cadocke, a seminary priest, also Deiv. Tytmouse conversant in the Company of two widows—viz. Mistress Alice Clyfton and Mistress Jane Clyfton, about the first of October last, 1580, by the report of James Burie.
“This also appeareth by the presentment of the Vicar of Kirkham.	Richard Brittain, a priest receipted in the house of William Bennett of Westby, about the beginning of June last, from whence young Mr. Norrice of Speke conveyed the said Brittain to the Speke, as the said Bennett hath reported.

“The said Brittain remayneth now at the house of Mr. Norrice of the Speke, as appeareth by the deposition of John Osbaldston.

“Diocese of Chester

“Amounderness Deanery

Cuthb. Clifton, Esq.	Obstinate.
Will. Hesketh, gent.	Obstinate.
John Singleton, gent.	Obstinate.”

At that period it was customary to levy a tax of live stock and different articles of food on each county, for the supply of the royal larder, and Sir Richard Sherburn, of Carleton and Hambleton, and Alexander Rigby, of Middleton, near Preston,[32] ratified an agreement with the treasurer and controller of Elizabeth’s household, that Lancashire should provide annually forty great oxen, to be delivered alive at her majesty’s pasture at Crestow. Afterwards the sums to be contributed by each Hundred for the purchase of these animals was arranged, and Amounderness rated at £16 10s. 0d. per year. The latter agreement was ratified by Sir Richard Sherburne and Edward Tyldesley, of Myerscough, amongst others. Grievous complaints were made in the Fylde and other parts of the county of the desecration of the Sabbath by “Wakes, fayres, markettes, bayrebaytes, bull baits, Ales, Maygames, Resortinge to Alehouses in tyme of devyne service, pypinge and dauncinge, huntinge and all manner of unlawfull gamynge.” A letter praying that these profanations might be reformed was signed by the magistrates of the several districts, amongst whom were Edmund Fleetwood of Rossall, and R. Sherburne of Carleton, etc., and forwarded to London. A commission of inquiry was appointed, and after an investigation, the commissioners charged all mayors, bailiffs, and constables, as well as other civil officers, churchwardens, etc., to suppress by all lawful means the said disorders of the Sabbath, and to present the offenders at the quarter sessions, that they might be dealt with for the same according to law. They also directed that the minstrels, bearwards, and all such disorderly persons, should be immediately apprehended and brought before the justices of the peace, and punished at their discretion; that the churchwardens should be enjoined to present at the sessions all those that neglected to attend divine service upon the Sabbath day, that they might be indicted and fined in the penalty of twelve pence for every offence; that the number of alehouses should be abridged, that the ale-sellers should utter a full quart of ale for one penny, and none of any less size, and that they should sell no ale or other victuals in time of divine service; that none should sell ale without a license; that the magistrates should be enjoined not to grant any ale-licenses except in public sessions; that they should examine the officers of the commonwealth to learn whether they made due presentment at the quarter sessions of all bastards born or remaining within their several precincts; and that thereupon a strict course should be taken for the due punishment of the reputed parents according to the statute, as also for the convenient keeping and relief of the infants.[33]

In 1588, the year following the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, Philip of Spain, urged on by an ambition to conquer the kingdom of England and re-establish the Romish religion, equipped an immense fleet, consisting of seventy-two galliasses and galleons, forty-seven second-class ships of war, and eleven pinnaces, to which he gave the name of the “Invincible Armada.” The rumour of this invasion spread great alarm throughout the country; and the magistrates, gentry, and freeholders of Lancashire were summoned to meet Lord Strange at Preston, to consider what steps should be taken for the defence of their coast, on which, at Peel in Morecambe Bay, it was deemed probable the Spaniards would attempt a landing. So doubtful does Elizabeth appear to have been of the loyalty of her Lancashire subjects that Lord Strange was commanded to append to his summonses the words,—“Fayle not at your uttermost peril.” Nor were these suspicions on the part of the queen without good reason, for the principal landed proprietors and gentry of the county were members of the Romish Church, and it was to be feared that they would be only lukewarm in repelling, if not, indeed, active in encouraging, an enemy whose professed object was the restoration of their religion. Baines, in reviewing the Reformation, says,—“In the county of Lancashire it was retrograde. The Catholics multiplied, priests were harboured, the book of common prayer and the service of the Church, established by law, were laid aside; many of the churches were shut up, and the cures unsupplied, unless by the ejected Catholics.” Numerous crosses on the highways, as well as the names of several places, as Low-cross, High-cross, Norcross, etc., also testify to the Romish tendency of the inhabitants. Cardinal Allen, who had for many years been living on the continent at Douai and elsewhere[34] was suspected of having, in conjunction with Parsons, the Jesuit, instigated Philip to this invasion. The harbour of “Pille,” (Peel) is described in the Lansdowne manuscripts as the “very best haven for landings with great shyppes in all the west coast of England, called St. George’s Channel,” and further in the same folio we read:—“What the Spanyerd means to do the Lord knows, for all the countrie being known to Doctor Allen, who was born harde by the pyle,” (Rossall Hall was the birth-place of Allen,) “and the inhabytentes ther aboutes all ynfected with the Romish poyson, it is not unlike that his directione will be used for some landinge there.... One Thomas Prestone (a papyshe atheiste) is deputye steward, and commandes the menrede, and lands ther, wch were sometyme appertayning to the Abbeye of Fornes.”

Whilst preparations for resisting the Spaniards were being pushed forward with as much expedition as possible, the “Invincibles” appeared in the English Channel, and arranged themselves for battle in the form of a crescent. The British fleet, numbering only thirty-four ships of war, and sundry private vessels equipped for the occasion, under the command of Lord Howard, sailed out to engage them. A series of actions took place, and although nothing decisive had been effected, the advantage seemed to be leaning towards the English fleet, when eight fire-ships drifted in amongst the Armada and threw them into utter confusion. This coup de maître took place on the 29th of July, 1588. The panic-stricken Spaniards, fearing that the whole of their ships would be destroyed in a general conflagration, severed their cables, and fled. A westerly gale, however, sprang up, and wrecked many of the vessels on the coast between Ostend and Calais; the shores of Scotland and Ireland were also covered with fragments of their ships and bodies of their mariners, while tradition asserts that one of the galleons was stranded on the Point of Rossall, where it was attacked by the country people, either for the sake of pillage or in the hope of capturing it. Whether one or both of these desires actuated the rustics they were doomed to disappointment, for the Spaniards successfully resisted their first attempt, and escaped on the returning tide, before further efforts could be made by the little band on shore. Two cannon balls were formerly to be seen at Rossall Hall, and it was stated that they were the identical ones fired by this vessel, as a parting salute, when she sailed away. They were found on removing some of the walls belonging to the old mansion.

The annexed is a list of free-tenants residing in the Fylde district about the year 1585, the 27th of the reign of Queen Elizabeth:—

• Molyneux, Sir Richard, of Larbrick, knight.
• Clifton, Thomas, of Westby, esq.
• Rigby, Edward, of Layton and Burgh, esq.
• Veale, John, of Mythorp, esq.
• Butler, Henry, of Out-Rawcliffe, esq.
• Parker, William, of Bradkirk, esq.
• Westby, John, of Mowbreck, esq.
• Kirkby, William, of Upper Rawcliffe, esq.
• Singleton, George, of Staining, esq.
• Hesketh, William, of Little Poulton, esq.
• Stanley, Thomas, of Great Eccleston, esq.
• Warren, ⸺, of Plumpton, esq.
• White, Nicholas, of Great Eccleston, gent.
• Rogerly, George, of Lytham, gent.
• Banister, William, of Carleton, gent.
• Sharples, John, of Freckleton, gent.

The dress of the priests previous to the Protestant Reformation is thus described by Harrison:—“They went either in divers colours like plaiers, or in garments of light hew, as yellow, red, greene, etc., with their shoes piked, their haire crisped, and their girdles armed with silver; their shoes, spurs, bridles, etc., buckled with like mettall; their apparell chiefly of silke, and richlie furred, their cappes laced and buttoned with gold; so that to meet a priest in those days, was to beholde a peacocke that spreadeth his taile when he danseth before the henne.” “The manners and customs of the inhabitants of Lancashire,” writes John de Brentford, “are similar to those of the neighbouring counties except that the people eat with two pronged forks[35]; the men are masculine, and in general well made, they ride and hunt the same as in the most southern parts, but not with that grace, owing to the whip being carried in the left hand; the women are most handsome, their eyes brown, black, hazel, blue, or grey; their noses, if not inclined to the aquiline, are mostly of the Grecian form, which gives a most beautiful archness to the countenance, such indeed as is not easy to be described, their fascinating manners have long procured them the name of Lancashire witches.” Leyland in his “Itinerary” says:—“The dress of the men chiefly consists of woollen garments, while the women wear those of silk, linen, or stuff. Their usual colours are those of green, blue, black, and sometimes brown. The military are dressed in red, which is vulgarly called scarlet.” In the time of Henry VIII. the custom of placing chimneys on the tops of the houses was first introduced amongst the English; before that period the smoke usually found its way through an opening in the roof or out of the doorway. The houses of the middle classes were for the most part formed of wood, whilst those of the peasantry were built of wattles plastered over with a thick coating of clay. The few stone mansions existing in Lancashire were the residences of the nobility or of the most opulent gentry. Harrison, referring to the improvements in accommodation gradually gaining ground, remarks:—“There was a great, although not general, amendment of lodging; for our fathers, yea, and we ourselves also, have lien full oft upon straw pallets, on rough mats, onelie covered with a sheet under coverlets made of dagswam or hopparlots, and a good round log under the head instead of a bolster or pillow, which was thought meet onelie for women in childbed; as for servants, if they had anie sheets above them, it was well, for seldome had they anie under their bodies to keep them from the prickly straws that ran oft through the canvas of the pallet, and raised their hardened hides.” Holinshed, also, notices the better style of entertainment at the inns of Lancaster, Preston, etc.; at which he tells us the guests were well provided with “napierie, bedding, and tapisserie,” and each was sure of resting “in cleane sheets wherein no man had been lodged since they came from the laundress.” Camden, writing of our more immediate neighbourhood a little later than the period we are now discussing, says:—“The goodly and fresh complexion of the natives does sufficiently evince the goodness of the county; nay and the cattle too, if you will; for in the oxen, which have huge horns and proportionate bodies, you will find nothing of that perfection wanting that Mago, the Carthagenian, in Columella required. This soil (Amounderness) bears oats pretty well, but is not so good for barley; it makes excellent pasture especially towards the sea, where it is partly Champain; whence a great part of it is called the File, probably for the Field. But being in other places Fenny ’tis reckoned less wholesome. In many places along the coast there are heaps of sand, upon which the natives now and then pour water, till it grows saltish, and then with turf boyl it into white salt.” Several of these salt manufacturies were located near Lytham, and it is very likely that the two brass pans and an ancient measure, discovered about forty years since deeply imbedded in the peat not far from Fox Hall, were used in the production of salt somewhere in that vicinity.

CHAPTER III.
JAMES THE FIRST TO QUEEN VICTORIA.

On the accession of James I., in 1603, the crowns of England and Scotland became legally united, although it was not until a considerable time afterwards that they could be regarded as practically so. This monarch was the first to assume the title of King of Great Britain.

A custom prevailed in former days of relieving the secular portion of the community by imposing exclusive taxes on the clergy, and hence it is seen, that in 1608 a rate was levied upon the latter by the Right Reverend George Lloyd, D.D., the eighth bishop of Chester. The following is a copy of the impost so far as the Hundred of Amounderness was concerned:—

“Archid. Decanatus Cestrie in Com. Lancastrie

A Rayte imposed by me George Bushoppe of Chestʳ upon the Clergie within the Countye of Chesshyre and Lancashyre within the Dyoces of Chest,ʳ By vertue of Ires from the lordes grace of Yorke grounded upon + from the lordes and others of his maᵗᵉˢ most honorable privye counsell for the fyndinge of horses, armes, and other furniture, the XXVIIIth of October 1608.

Amounderness Decanatus Archid. Richm.

Mr. Porter, vicar of Lancastʳ		a corslet furnished.
Mr. Paler, vicar of Preston	⎱	a musket furnished
Mr. Norcrosse, vicar of Ribchestʳ	⎰
Mr. Whyt, vicar of Poulton &	⎱	a musket furnished.
Mr. Greenacres, vicar of Kirkham	⎰
Mr. Aynsworth, vicar of Garstange	⎱	a musket furnished.
Mr. Woolfenden, vicar of St. Michael’s upon Wyre	⎰
Mr. Calver, vicar of Cockerham	⎱	a caliver furnished.
Mr. Parker, vicar of Chippin.	⎰

George Cestriensis.”[36]

Here it may be mentioned that, although about 636, Honorus, archbishop of Canterbury, attempted to divide the kingdom into parishes, it was not until many years later, in the reign of Henry VIII., that the diocese to which Lancashire belonged was clearly defined. At that date Chester was created a distinct bishopric, and the southern part of our county included in the archdeaconry of Chester, whilst the northern portion was attached to the archdeaconry of Richmond.

In 1617 James I., on his return journey from Scotland to London, was entertained at Myerscough Lodge, near Garstang, by Edward Tyldesley, the grandfather of the gentleman who erected Fox Hall, at Blackpool. Thomas Tyldesley, a cousin of the owner of Myerscough Lodge, and attorney-general of the county of Lancaster, had been knighted by the monarch at Wimbleton in the previous year. From Myerscough the King proceeded to Hoghton Tower, where a petition was presented to him by the agricultural labourers, petty tradesmen, and ordinary servants in this and other districts lying near Preston, praying that the edict of the late queen, whereby sports and games had been prohibited on the Sabbath, might be repealed. The prayer of the petitioners found favour with James, and shortly afterwards he caused it to be proclaimed—“that his majesty’s pleasure was, that the bishops of the diocese should take strict order with all the puritans and precisians within the county of Lancaster, and either constrain them to conform themselves, or to leave the countrie, according to the laws of this kingdom and the canons of the church; and for his good people’s recreation his pleasure was, that after the end of divine service, they be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recreation, such as dancing, either men or women; archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any such harmless recreation; nor having of May-games, Whitson-ales, and Morice-dances, and the setting up of May-poles, and other sports therewith used; so as the same be had in due and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of divine service; and that women should have leave to carry rushes to the church, for decorating of it according to the old custom; but withal his majesty did here account still as prohibited, all unlawful games to be used on Sundays only, as bear and bull-baitings, interludes, and, at all times, in the meaner sort of people, by law prohibited, bowling.” A few months after this concession to the wishes of a portion of his subjects, James issued a publication designated the “Book of Sports,” in which he explained what were to be considered lawful sports to be indulged in on “Sundays and Festivals.”

The gentlemen enumerated below were free-tenants, residing in the Fylde, during his reign:—

• Clifton, Sir Cuthbert, of Westby, knight.
• Banister, Sir Robert, of Plumpton, knight.
• Fleetwood, Edward, of Rossall, esq.
• Westby, Thomas, of Mowbreck, esq.
• Kirkby, William, of Upper Rawcliffe, esq.
• Veale, Edward, of Whinney Heys, esq.
• Burgh, Richard, of Larbrick, esq.
• Leckonby, John, of Great Eccleston, esq.
• Longworth, Richard, of St. Michael’s, esq.
• Parker, John, of Bradkirk, esq.
• Hesketh, William, of Mains, esq.
• Singleton, Thomas, of Staining, esq.
• Brown, James, of Singleton, gent.
• Leigh, Robert, of Plumpton, gent.
• Smith, John, of Kirkham, gent.
• Sharples, Henry, of Kirkham, gent,
• ffrance, John, of Eccleston, gent.
• Thompson Wm., of Little Eccleston, gent.
• Dobson, William, of Bispham, gent.
• Hornby, Henry, of Bankfield, gent.
• Bradley, James, of Bryning, gent.
• Taylor, James, of Poulton, gent.
• Bamber, Thomas, of Poulton, gent.
• Bailey, Lawrence, of Layton, gent.
• Bonny, Robert, of Kirkham, gent.
• Whiteside, Robt., of Thornton, gent.

In the Registers of Kirkham is the annexed statement, from which it appears that a few years from the death of James I. the Fylde, or at least a considerable tract of it, was visited by some fatal epidemic, but its peculiar nature cannot be ascertained:—“A.D. 1630. This year was a great plague in Kirkham, in which the more part of the people of the town died thereof. It began about the 25th of July and continued vehemently until Martinmas, but was not clear of it before Lent; and divers towns of the parish was infected with it, and many died thereof out of them, as Treales, Newton, Greenall, Estbrick, Thistleton. N.B.—The great mortality was in the year 1631; 304 died that year, and were buried at Kirkham, of whom 193 in the months of August and September”. Charles I. soon after ascending the throne in 1626, provoked a breach with his parliament by endeavouring to enforce subsidies, with which to carry on his foreign wars, and further, he alienated the affections and respect of the Puritan section of his subjects by confirming the regulations of the “Book of Sports.” Dissatisfaction and murmurings were quickly fermented into rebellion, and the closing of the gates of Hull against the king in 1642 initiated those fearful wars, which desolated and disorganised the country for so many years. In 1641, Alexander Rigby,[37] esq., of Layton Hall, Sir Gilbert de Hoghton, with eight other gentlemen, were removed from the commission of the peace, by order of parliament, on suspicion of being favourably disposed towards the royal party. The chief supporters of the king in the ensuing conflicts were the nobility, in great numbers; the higher orders of the gentry, and a considerable portion of their tenantry; all the High-churchmen; and a large majority of the Catholics. The parliamentarian army, on the other hand, was mainly composed of freeholders, traders, manufacturers, Puritans, Presbyterians, and Independents. An engagement near Wigan roused up the people in our vicinity to a sense of the dangers menacing them, and a public meeting of royalists was called at Preston under the presidency of the earl of Derby. Amongst other gentlemen who took a prominent part in the assembly were Thomas Clifton, esq., of Lytham, and Alexander Rigby, esq., of Layton. Several resolutions were adopted, the most important being that a sum of money, amounting to £8,700, should be raised and devoted to the payment of a regiment, consisting of 2,000 foot and 400 horse, in the following scale of remuneration:—

Dragooners.
Captain	12s.	0d.	per diem.
Lieutenant	6s.	0d.	” ”
Cornet	4s.	0d.	” ”
Sergeant	3s.	0d.	” ”
Corporal	2s.	0d.	” ”
Dragooner	1s.	6d.	” ”
Kettle-drum	2s.	0d.	” ”
Foot.
Captain	10s.	0d.	per diem.
Lieutenant	4s.	0d.	” ”
Sergeant	1s.	6d.	” ”
Drummer	1s.	3d.	” ”
Corporal	1s.	0d.	” ”
Private	0s.	9d.	” ”
Horse.
Captain	16s.	0d.	per diem.
Lieutenant	8s.	0d.	” ”
Cornet	6s.	0d.	” ”
Corporal	4s.	0d.	” ”
Trumpeter	5s.	0d.	” ”
Private	2s.	6d.	” ”
And to every Commissary	5s.	0d.	per diem.

Parliamentary commissioners were sent this year, 1642, into all parts of Lancashire to visit the churches and chapels and to remove therefrom all images, superstitious pictures, and idolatrous relics, which any of them might contain.

Preston and Lancaster were amongst the earliest towns to fall into the hands of the Roundheads, and about ten days after the surrender of the former place, when the people of this district were labouring under the excitement of war on their very frontier, Alexander Rigby, of Layton Hall, accompanied by Captain Thomas Singleton, of Staining, and other officers, appeared near Poulton at the head of a number of horsemen, and threw the inhabitants into a state of great consternation and alarm, fortunately proving unnecessary, for the cavalcade had other designs than that of bringing devastation and bloodshed to their own doors, and continued their journey peaceably northward. A few weeks later a Spanish vessel was seen at the entrance of Morecambe Bay, off Rossall Point, and as it evinced no signs of movement, either towards the harbour of Lancaster or out to sea, the yeomen and farm servants of that neighbourhood at once surmised that some sort of an invasive attack was meditated on their coast, nor were these fears in any way allayed by the constant firing of a piece of cannon from the deck of the ship, and it was not until the discharges had been repeated through several days that they realised that distress and not bombardment was intended to be indicated. On boarding the vessel they found that she contained a number of passengers, all of whom, together with the crew, were reduced to a pitiable and enfeebled condition through exposure and scarcity of provisions, for, having lost their way in the heavy weather which prevailed, they had been detained much over the time expected for the voyage, blindly cruising about in the hope of discovering some friendly haven or guide. The craft was piloted round into the mouth of the river Wyre, opposite the Warren, and relief afforded to the sufferers. Rumour of the presence of the ship was not long in reaching the ears of the earl of Derby, who, with promptitude determined to march down and seize it in the king’s name. On the Saturday he arrived at Lytham Hall with a small troop of cavalry, where he sojourned for the night, with the intention of completing his journey and effecting his purpose the following day before the parliamentarians had got word of the matter; but here his calculations were at fault, for the parliamentary leader had already dispatched four companies of infantry, under Major Sparrow, to take possession of the prize, and on the same Saturday evening they took up their quarters at Poulton and Singleton, having arrived by a different route to the earl, who had forded the river at Hesketh Bank. On the Sunday Major Sparrow, who throughout showed a lively horror of risking an encounter with the renowned nobleman, posted scouts with orders to watch the direction taken by the latter, and convey the information without delay to the chief station at Poulton, where the soldiers were in readiness, not for action, as it subsequently turned out, but to put a safe barrier between themselves and the enemy, for no sooner was it ascertained that the earl, “all his company having their swords drawn,” was marching along Layton Hawes towards Rossall, than Sparrow conducted his force across the Wyre, at the Shard, and followed the course of the stream towards its outlet “until he came over against where the shipp lay, being as feared of the earle as the earle was of him.”[38] The earl of Derby advanced along the shore line and across the Warren to the mouth of the river without the naked weapons of his followers being called into service, but finding when he boarded the ship that two parliamentary gentlemen had forestalled his intention by seizing her for the powers they recognized, he unhesitatingly took them prisoners, and set fire to the vessel, whilst Sparrow and his men stood helplessly by, on the opposite side of the water, where the gallant major perhaps congratulated himself on his caution in having avoided a collision with so prompt and vigorous a foe. Some of the Spaniards attached themselves to the train of the earl, whilst others were scattered over the neighbourhood, depending for subsistence upon the charity of the cottagers and farmers, but their final destiny is unknown. The noble general, enraged at the unlooked for frustration of the main object of his journey, determined that it should not be altogether fruitless, and on his return forced admittance into the mansion of the Fleetwoods, at Rossall, and bore off all the arms he could lay hands upon. Resuming his march he re-passed through Lytham, forded the Ribble, and finally made his way to Lathom House, his famous residence.

Inactivity, however temporary, was ill suited to the temperament of the earl, and on receiving the news that the solitary piece of artillery belonging to the luckless Spanish vessel had been appropriated by the parliamentary officials before he appeared upon the scene, and transferred to their stronghold at Lancaster, he conceived the idea of reducing the ancient castle on the Lune, and so taking vengeance on those who had anticipated him in the Wyre affair, as well as removing a formidable obstacle to the success of the royal arms. Before entering on an undertaking of such importance it was necessary that his small body of troops should be materially increased, and after exhausting the districts south of the Ribble, he crossed it, in search of recruits amongst the yeomanry and peasantry of the Fylde. The earl lodged his soldiers in and about Kirkham, and fixed his own quarters at Lytham Hall. Dreadful stories are related by the old historian, from whose work we have already quoted, of the doings of the troops for the short time they remained in the neighbourhood, but it is only fair to state that their rapacity was directed exclusively against the property of those whose sympathies were with their opponents, whose houses and farms they plundered most mercilessly, driving off their horses, and carrying away ornaments, bedding, and everything which could either be turned to immediate use or offered a prospect of future gain. Warrants were issued on the first day of their arrival, from the head quarters at Lytham, over the whole of our section, calling upon every male above sixteen years of age and under sixty, “upon payne of death to appear before his Honor at Kirkham the next morning by eight of the clock, in their best weapons, to attend the King’s service.”[39] The officers to whom fell the task of heralding the mandate over the large area in the brief interval allowed, fulfilled their duties with energy, and a goodly company responded to the arbitrary summons of the commander. After having seen that the fresh levies were as suitably equipped for warfare as means would permit, the earl appointed John Hoole, of Singleton, and John Ambrose, of Wood Plumpton, as captains over them, and gave the order to march. On reaching Lancaster Lord Derby summoned the mayor and burgesses to surrender the town and castle into his hands, to which the chief magistrate replied that the inhabitants had already been deprived of their arms and were unresisting, but that the fortress, now garrisoned by parliamentary troops, was out of his keeping, an answer so far unsatisfactory to the besieger that he set fire to the buildings, about one hundred and seventy of which were destroyed, and inflicted other injury on the place. Colonel Ashton, of Middleton, who had been sent to relieve the castle, arrived too late, when the earl was some distance on his return towards Preston, from which town he dislodged the enemy. A little later the tide of fortune turned against the royalists, and the earl of Derby was one of the earliest to suffer defeat. Colonel Thomas Tyldesley, a staunch partizan of the king, and the father of Edward Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, Blackpool, retreated before Colonel Ashton, from Wigan to Lathom, and afterwards to Liverpool, where he was besieged and forced again to fly by his indefatigable opponent. (Later he distinguished himself at Burton-on-Trent, by the desperate heroism with which he led a cavalry charge over a bridge of thirty-six arches, and for that display of valour as well as his faithful adherence to Charles, he received the honour of knighthood.) Driven from Liverpool, Tyldesley, in company with Lord Molyneux, withdrew the remnant of his regiment towards the Ribble, crossed that stream, and quartered his men in Kirkham, whilst Molyneux occupied the village of Clifton. In these places they rested a night and a day, keeping a vigilant look out for their pursuer, Ashton, from the old windmill, situated at the east end of Kirkham. About one o’clock on the day succeeding the evening of their arrival the soldiers, acting under orders, repaired to their several lodgings to further refresh themselves after their prolonged fatigues, but before four hours had elapsed, a report came from the outpost that the enemy was approaching. An alarm spread through the camp, and with difficulty Lord Molyneux and Colonel Tyldesley assembled their forces in the town of Kirkham, where they elected once more to make a stand against the victorious Ashton. Command was given that all the women and children should confine themselves within doors, and preparations were hurried forward to offer the parliamentarians a vigorous resistance; but as daylight waned and the besiegers were momentarily expected, the courage of the royal troops seems to have oozed away, and they precipitately vacated the town, fording the Wyre, and flying towards Stalmine, whence they continued their retreat to Cockerham, and so on northwards. When Colonel Ashton entered Kirkham he found the enemy gone and the inhabitants in a state of extreme trepidation, but their fears were soon dismissed by the action of the gallant soldier who, on learning the course taken by Tyldesley and Molyneux, pushed on without delay. Ashton followed up the pursuit as far as the boundaries of Lancashire, without overtaking any of the royalists, and then returned to Preston. The rear of his troops diverged from the main road at Garstang, unknown to their leader, and marched into the Fylde for plunder. They passed through St. Michael’s, and visiting the residence and estate of Christopher Parker, of Bradkirk, drove away many of his cattle, and stripped his house of everything of value. In Kirkham they laid the people under heavy toll, and even spared not those who were notoriously well affected towards parliament. At Clifton they found more herds of cattle, which were joined to those already with them; but at Preston they fell to quarrelling over the booty, and it is questionable whether their ill-gotten stores did not prove rather a curse than a blessing to them.

Towards the end of 1643, the year in which the events just narrated occurred, Thurland Castle, the seat of Sir John Girlington, was captured by the parliamentary colonel, Alexander Rigby, of Middleton, near Preston. In the engagement the Lancashire troops were under the command of Alexander Rigby, of Layton, who allowed his small regiment to be surprised and routed by his namesake. After his success at Thurland, Colonel Rigby, of Middleton, proceeded to raise fresh levies in Amounderness. Mr. Clayton, of Fulwood Moor, was appointed to superintend the whole of the recruiting and directed to place himself at the head of the new regiment. Mr. Patteson, of Ribby, and Mr. Wilding, of Kirkham, were each apportioned half of the parish bearing the latter name, in which they were respectively ordered to raise a company. In the parishes of Poulton and Bispham, Mr. Robert Jolly, of Warbreck, Mr. William Hull, of Bispham, Mr. Richard Davis, of Newton, and Mr. Rowland Amon, of Thornton, were made captains, and had similar duties imposed upon them. In Lytham parish, Mr. George Sharples, of Freckleton, received a commission, but was unable to muster more than a very few followers, as the people of that neighbourhood reflected the loyal sentiments of the lord of the manor, and could neither be coerced nor seduced from their allegiance to the king. Captains Richard Smith and George Carter, of Hambleton, raised companies in Stalmine, Hambleton, and the adjacent townships and villages. Mr. William Swarbrick recruited a company in his native parish of St. Michael’s, and Mr. Duddell obtained another in Wood Plumpton.

At the siege of Bolton, in May, 1644, when the town was stormed and surrendered after a valiant resistance, to Prince Rupert, with an army of over nine thousand royalists, Duddell and Davis were amongst the officers slain, whilst their companies were literally cut to pieces. Captain George Sharples, of Freckleton, was taken prisoner, and dragged, almost naked and barefooted, through the miry and blood-stained streets to the spot where Cuthbert, the eldest son of Thomas Clifton, of Lytham, was standing after the carnage, in which he had led a party of the besiegers. Captain Clifton and others near him were in a mood for a somewhat rude and ungenerous entertainment, and placed the hapless Sharples, in his dilapidated attire, in a prominent position and, thrusting a Psalter into his hand, compelled him to sing a Psalm for their delectation. After they had amused themselves in such fashion for some time the prisoner was handed over to the guard, from whom he ultimately made his escape. Captain Cuthbert Clifton was elevated to the rank of colonel as an acknowledgment of his gallant services at Bolton, after which he returned for a few days into the Fylde, where he engaged himself in procuring a fresh detachment of soldiers, who readily flocked to his standard. For their provision and comfort he did not hesitate or scruple to appropriate a number of cattle on Layton Hawes, and to relieve some of the Puritans of Kirkham, Bispham, and Poulton, of their bedding, etc. Having fully supplied his commissariat department by these means, he marched to Liverpool, and joining Prince Rupert, was present at the sacking of that town.

The Civil War had proved most disastrous to Lancashire, where the constant movements and frequent collisions of the contending parties had ruined the towns, destroyed almost all attempts at agriculture, and reduced the inhabitants to a state of wretchedness and poverty, in many instances to the verge of starvation; and notwithstanding the fact that in not one single instance had the Fylde been the scene of an encounter, the people of this section were in as lamentable a condition of penury and suffering as those of the less fortunate districts, a circumstance not to be wondered at when the incessant plunderings are taken into consideration, and when it is remembered that the youth and strength of the neighbourhood were serving as volunteers or recruits, either under the banner of parliament or that of the king. The 12th of September, 1644, was appointed by the Puritans as a day of solemn prayer and fasting throughout the country, and parliament decreed that half of the money collected “in all the churches within the cities of London and Westminster and within the lines of communication,” should be devoted to the relief of the distressed and impoverished in this county.

Sir Thomas Tyldesley accompanied the army of Prince Rupert to York, near to where the sanguinary and famous battle of Marston Moor, in which no less than sixty thousand men were engaged on both sides, was fought on the 2nd of July, 1644. Oliver Cromwell commanded the parliamentarians in person, and after a fierce struggle discomfited the troops of Prince Rupert and drove them in confusion from the field. Sir Thomas Tyldesley retreated with his shattered regiment in hot haste towards Amounderness, where he made diligent search for arms and ammunition, but hearing that the enemy, under Sir John Meldrum, was marching in quest of him he hurried to the banks of the Ribble, and crossed the ford into the Fylde. This latter incident happened towards the end of the week, and on Saturday he was joined in his ambush by the immense royalist force of Colonel Goring, so great indeed that “before the last companies had marched over the bridge at St. Michael’s Church the first company was judged to be at Kirkham.”[40] There is probably some little exaggeration in the quoted statement, but even allowing it to be verbally correct, there can be no doubt that it is unintentionally misleading, as the extreme length of road covered would be due more to the wide intervals between the companies and the straggling manner in which they proceeded than to their actual numerical strength. Nevertheless the detachment, chiefly composed of cavalry, was enormous, and completely inundated the towns and villages in the parishes of Poulton, Kirkham, and Lytham. The men were lodged twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and even sixty in a house, and on the Sunday morning they set out on an errand of pilfering without respect to persons, pillaging those who were friendly with as much eagerness and apparent satisfaction as others who were inimical to their cause, an impartiality so little appreciated by the inhabitants that they are said to have blessed the Roundheads by comparison with these insatiate freebooters. Horses, money, clothes, sheets, everything that was portable or could be driven, was greedily seized upon, and, in spite of threats and entreaties, remorselessly borne away. Hundreds of households were stripped not only of their ornaments, bedding, etc., but even of the very implements on which the family depended for subsistence. It is in truth no figure of speech to state that by far the larger share of the people were reduced to utter and seemingly hopeless destitution, and grateful indeed were they when their portion of the parliamentary grant of collections in the metropolis, before mentioned, was distributed amongst them, coming like manna from the heavens to comfort their desolated homes. To add insult to injury the graceless troopers compelled their entertainers to employ the Sabbath in winnowing corn in the fields for their chargers, and even refused to allow them to erect the usual curtains to protect the grain from being carried away by the high wind, so that the loss and waste amounted to barely less than the quantity utilised as fodder, and completely exhausted the fruits of their harvest. Sir Thomas Tyldesley, Lord Molyneux, and others of the leaders, fixed their lodgment near the residence of a gentleman named Richard Harrison, and were supplied with necessaries from Mowbreck Hall. Freckleton marsh was the rendezvous, and there the entire forces assembled on the morning of Monday, but were compelled to remain until one o’clock at noon before the Ribble was fordable, when they took their departure, to the intense joy of all those who had trembled for their lives and suffered ruin in their small properties during their brief sojourn. Sir John Meldrum appeared in the district only a few hours after the royalists had left, and thus the Fylde had again a narrow escape of adding one more to the long list of unnatural battles, most truly described as suicidal massacres of the nation, where men ignoring the ties of friendship or kinship imbrued their swords in the blood of each other with a relentless and inhuman savagery, reviving as it seemed the horrid butcheries of the dark ages. Sir John Meldrum hastened in the direction of the retreating foe, but failed to overtake them.

“In 1645,” writes Rushworth, “there remained of unreduced garrisons belonging to the king in Lancashire only Lathom House and Greenhalgh Castle.”[41] This castle was erected about half a mile eastward of Garstang, overlooking the Wyre, by Thomas, the first earl of Derby, in 1490, after the victory of Bosworth Field, as a protection from certain of the outlawed nobles, whose estates in that vicinity had rewarded the services of the earl to Henry VII. The castle was built in a rectangular form almost approaching to a square, with a tower at each angle. The edifice was surrounded and protected by a wide moat. The garrison occupying the small fortress at the date under consideration held out until the death of the governor, when a capitulation was made, and, about 1649, the castle was dismantled. In 1772 Penant spoke of the “poor remains of Greenhalgh Castle.”[42]

The fall of Lathom House and other strongholds of the king and the surrender of Charles himself to the Scotch army of Puritans, brought the contests for a time to a close in 1647, and Sir Thomas Tyldesley, with several more, received instructions to disband the troops under his command. During the foregoing struggles parliament, in order to provide the necessary funds for the increased expenditure, had allowed “delinquents, papists, spies, and intelligencers” to compound for their sequestered estates, and amongst those connected with this locality who had taken advantage of the permission were:—

Brown, Edward, of Plumpton,	compounded for	£127	8s.	0d.
Breres, Alexander, of Marton, gent.,	”	£82	4s.	5d.
Bate, John, of Warbreck,	”	£11	0s.	0d.
Leckonby, Richard, of Elswick, esq.,	”	£58	6s.	0d.
Nicholson, Francis, of Poulton, yeoman	”	£133	3s.	4d.
Rigby, Alexander, of Layton, esq.,	”	£381	3s.	4d.
Walker, William, of Kirkham, gent.,	”	£175	0s.	0d.
Westby, John, of Mowbreck, esq.,	”	£1,000	0s.	0d.

Presbyterianism became the national, or at least, the state religion, and for the regulation of ecclesiastical matters the Assembly of Divines, at Westminster, suggested that the country should be divided into provinces, whose representatives should hold annual conferences at the larger towns. The county of Lancaster was divided into nine Classical Presbyteries, and the seventh Classis, embracing the parishes of Preston, Kirkham, Garstang, and Poulton, consisted of—

• Mr. Isaac Ambrose, of Preston, minister.
• Mr. Robert Yates, of Preston, minister.
• Mr. Ed. Fleetwood, of Kirkham, minister.
• Mr. Thos. Cranage, of Goosnargh, minister.
• Mr. Chr. Edmondson, of Garstang, minister.
• Mr. John Sumner, of Poulton, minister.

Laymen.

• Alexander Rigby, of Preston, Esq.
• William Langton, Esq.
• Alderman Matt. Addison, of Preston, gent.
• Alderman Wm. Sudall, of Preston, gent.
• Alderman Wm. Cottam, of Preston, gent.
• Edward Downes, of Wesham, gent.
• Edmund Turner, of Goosnargh, yeoman.
• Thomas Nickson, of Plumpton, gent.
• Robt. Crane, of Layton, gent.
• Wm. Latewise, of Catterall, gent.
• Wm. Whitehead, of Garstang, gent.
• Edward Veale, of Layton, Esq.
• Rd. Wilkins, of Kirkham, yeoman.

One of the duties of these Classes was to examine, ordain, and appoint ministers, or presbyters, as they were called, whenever vacancies occurred in the district over which, respectively, they had jurisdiction; subjoined is the certificate given in the case of Cuthbert Harrison, B.A., when selected and appointed presbyter of Singleton chapel:—

“Whereas Cuthbert Harrison, B.A., aged 30 years, hath addressed himself to us, authorised by ordinance of parliament of 22 Aug. 1646, for ordination of ministers, desiring to be ordained a presbyter, being chosen by the inhabitants within the chapelry of Singleton to officiate there; and having been examined by us the ministers of the Seventh Classis, and found sufficiently qualified for the ministerial functions, according to the rules preserved in the said ordinance, and thereupon approved—we have this day solemnly set him apart to the office of presbyter and work of the ministry of the gospel, by laying on of hands by us present, with fasting and prayer, by virtue whereof we declare him to be a lawful and sufficiently authorised minister of Jesus Christ. In testimony whereof we have hereunto put our hands the 27th Nov., 1651.”

(Here follow the signatures.)

In 1648 General Langdale, a royalist officer, appealed to the loyalty of the northern counties to attempt a rescue of the imprisoned monarch from the hands of his enemies. Many rushed to his standard, and the parliamentarians of the Fylde shared the general consternation which pervaded Lancashire at the success of his effort to rekindle the still smouldering embers of civil war. There is no necessity to trace the steps of this ill-judged enterprise to its disastrous issue, but suffice it to say that the defeat and routing of the little army was followed at a very short interval by the execution of Charles I., after a formal trial in which he disclaimed the jurisdiction of the court.

On the 22nd of June, 1650, a meeting of Commissioners under the Great Seal of England was held at Preston—“for inquiring into and certeifying of the certeine numbers and true yearely value of all parsonages and vicariges presentative, of all and every the sp’uall and eccli’call benefices, livings, and donatives within the said countye”; and after examining the good and lawful men of Kirkham and Lytham, it was recommended by the assembly that Goosnargh and Whittingham should be formed into a separate parish on account of their great distance from the church at Kirkham. At this inquiry it was also stated that—“the inhabitants of Newsham desired to be annexed to Woodplumpton; the inhabitants of Clifton and Salwick, together with the inhabitants of Newton-cum-Scales, and the upper end of Treales, desired to be united in one parish. Singleton chappell, newly erected, desired that it might be made a parish. The inhabitants of Weeton-cum-Preese desired that that township might be made a parish, and the inhabitants of Rawcliffe desired to be annexed to it. The townships of Rigby-cum-Wraye, and of Warton, and of Kellamore-cum-Bryning, and Westbye-cum-Plumpton, all humbly desired to be made a parish. The several townships of Eccleston Parva-cum-Labrecke, and the inhabitants of Medlar and Thistleton, and the inhabitants of Rossaker-cum-Wharles, desired to be annexed to Elswick, and that it might be made a parish.” Although at that time these petitions failed in obtaining their objects, much the same thing has been accomplished in more recent years by Lord Blandford’s Act, by which separate parochial districts, as far as ecclesiastical matters are concerned, have been appropriated to each church, thus rendering it independent of the mother-church of the ancient parish in which it might happen to be situated.

In 1651 the son of the unfortunate monarch, who had been proclaimed king by the Scotch under the title of Charles II., crossed the frontier and invaded England with a force of fourteen thousand men. That year the earl of Derby, Sir Thomas Tyldesley, and several other officers, sailed from the Isle of Man, whither they had retired, in obedience to the call of the young prince, and landed either on the Warren, at the mouth of the river Wyre, or at Skippool higher up the stream, with a regiment of two hundred and fifty infantry and sixty cavalry. Two of the vessels grounded during the operation of disembarking the horses, and in the heavy winds that ensued were reduced to total wrecks. As soon as the news of the earl of Derby’s arrival on the banks of the Wyre was rumoured abroad, “all the ships,” says the Perfect Diurnall, “were wafted out of the rivers of Liverpool, and set sail with a fair wind fore Wirewater, where the Frigots rid that brought the Lord Derby over with his company, to surprise them and prevent his Lordship escaping any way by water.” The earl marched through the Fylde, but the martial ardour of the inhabitants was not so readily excited as on former occasions, for the recollection of their abusive and piratical treatment by the troopers of Colonel Goring, in 1644, was still fresh in their minds, and effectually checked any feelings of enthusiasm at seeing the royal banners once again unfurled in their midst. A scattered few, however, there were who were willing to forget the misdeeds of the agents in their eagerness for the success of the cause, and with such meagre additions to his strength the earl hastened on. At Preston he raised six hundred horse, and shortly afterwards encountered the parliamentarians, under Colonel Lilburne, at Wigan-lane, where the royalists were defeated with great slaughter. Sir Thomas Tyldesley was slain, and the gallant earl escaped from the field only to be taken prisoner in Cheshire and suffer the fate of his late regal master, Charles I. Alexander Rigby, the grandson of the Alexander Rigby, of Layton, before mentioned, and only seventeen years of age, also took part in this eventful engagement, and twenty-eight years subsequently, when High Sheriff of the county of Lancaster, erected a monument to the memory of Major-General Sir Thomas Tyldesley near the spot where he fell. So universally esteemed was the valiant knight for his bravery and honourable conduct that the title of “Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche” was conferred upon him alike by friends and enemies. Charles II., after the overthrow of his army by Cromwell, adopted the disguise of a peasant, and having narrowly escaped detection by hiding himself amidst the foliage of an oak tree, fled at the first opportunity over to France. Cromwell was now installed in the chief seat of authority and held the reins of government under the style of Lord Protector.

In 1660, two years after the death of Cromwell, Charles II. was recalled and placed upon the throne; and in 1662 a law was passed by which it was enacted that before St. Bartholomew’s Day of that year, all ministers should arrange their services according to the rules contained in the new book of Common Prayer, under pain of dismissal from their preferments. The following letter was received by the churchwardens of Garstang, ordering the ejectment of the Rev. Isaac Ambrose, who was a member of the family of Ambrose of Ambrose Hall, in Wood Plumpton, from his benefice on account of his refusal to conform to the arbitrary regulation:—

“Whereas in a late act of Parliament for uniformitie, it is enacted that every parson, vicar, curate, lecturer, or other ecclesiasticall person, neglecting or refusing, before the Feast Day of St. Bartholomew, 1662, to declare openly before their respective congregations, his assent and consent to all things contained in the book of common prayer established by the said act, ipso facto, be deposed, and that every person not being in holy orders by episcopall ordination, and every parson, vicar, curate, lecturer, or other ecclesiasticall person, failing in his subscription to a declaration mentioned in the said act to be subscribed before the Feast Day of St. Bartholomew, 1662, shall be utterly disabled, and ipso facto deprived, and his place be void, as if the person so failing be naturally dead. And whereas Isaac Ambrose, late Vicar of Garstang, in the county of Lancaster, hath neglected to declare and subscribe according to the tenor of the said act, I doe therefore declare the church of Garstang to be now void, and doe strictly charge the said Isaac Ambrose, late vicar of the said church, to forbear preaching, lecturing, or officiating in the said church, or elsewhere in the diocese of Chester. And the churchwardens of the said parish of Garstang are hereby required (as by duty they are bound) to secure and preserve the said parish church of Garstang from any invasion or intrusion of the said Isaac Ambrose, disabled and deprived as above said by the said act, and the churchwardens are also required upon sight hereof to show this order to the said Isaac Ambrose, and cause the same to be published next Sunday after in the Parish Church of Garstang, before the congregation, as they will answer the contrary.—Given under my hand this 29th day of August, 1662.

“Geo. Cestriens.

“To the Churchwardens of Garstang, in the County Palatine of Lancaster.”

In this county sixty-seven ministers refused to submit to the mandate, and were removed from their churches by the authority of documents similar to the above, and prohibited from officiating in their priestly capacity anywhere within the diocese. Amongst the number, so interdicted, were the Rev. W. Bullock, of Hambleton, the Rev. Joseph Harrison, of Lund chapel, and the Rev. Nathaniel Baxter, M.A., of St. Michael’s-on-Wyre. The Nonconformists were subsequently subjected to even greater harshness and injustice by an act which decreed that no clergyman, belonging to any of their sects, should reside within five miles of the town or place at which he had last preached, unless he took an oath as under:—

“I do swear that it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take arms against the king, and that I do abhor the traitorous position of taking arms against his authority; against his person; or against those that are commissioned by him, in pursuance of such commissions; and that I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of government either in church or state.”

The sufferings experienced by those ministers who had been deprived of their benefices are described as having been extreme, nay, almost intolerable, and it was doubtless owing to the great severity practised towards the body of Nonconformists that the old creed gained such little popularity for some time after its re-establishment.

Charles II., soon after the restoration of monarchy at his coronation, determined to create a new order of knighthood, to be called the “Royal Oak,” as a reward to some of the more distinguished of his faithful adherents, and amongst the number selected for the honour were Col. Kirkby, of Upper Rawcliffe, Richard Butler, of Out Rawcliffe, and Edward Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, Blackpool.[43] The design was shortly abandoned by the advice of the crown ministers, who foresaw that the necessarily limited distribution of the distinction would give rise to jealousy and animosity amongst those who had been active in the late wars.

In 30 Charles II. a statute was passed entitled “An act for lessening the importation of linen from beyond the seas, and the encouragement of the woollen and paper manufactories of the kingdom”; and by it was provided, under a penalty of £5, half of which was to be distributed to the poor of the parish, that at every interment throughout the country a certificate should be presented to the officiating minister stating that the winding sheet of the deceased person was composed of woollen material and not of linen, as heretofore. The certificate ordered to be used at every burial ran thus:—

“A, of the parish of B, in the county of C, maketh Oath that D, of the parish of B, in the county of C, lately deceased, was not put in, wrapt or wound up or Buried, in any Shirt, Shift, Sheet, or Shroud, made or mingled with Flax, Hemp, Silk, Hair, Gold, or Silver, or other than that which is made of Sheep’s Wool only. Nor in any Coffin lined or faced with any cloth, stuff, or anything whatsoever, made or mingled with Flax, Hemp, Silk, Hair, Gold, or Silver, or any other material but Sheep’s Wool only.

“Dated the ... day of ... in the xxxth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, Charles the second, king of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, etc.

“Sealed and Subscribed by us, who were present and witnesses to the Swearing of the above said affidavit

(Signatures of two witnesses.)

“I, ..., esq., one of the King’s Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County above said, do hereby certify that the day and year above said A came before me and made such affidavit as is above specified according to the late Act of Parliament, entitled An Act for burying in Woollen.

(Signature.)”

The foregoing statute was amended two years later, and the modified enactment continued in force for some time, when it was repealed. In the registers of old churches, such as Bispham, Poulton, Kirkham, and St. Michael’s-on-Wyre, where they have been preserved, notices of burials according to this regulation during the two years it was in operation, may be seen; and amongst the records of the Thirty-men, or governing body of Kirkham, is an entry of expenses incurred when they went “to justice Stanley” to obtain his authority to “demand 50s. for Tomlinson’s wife buried in linen,” contrary to the law.

Three years from the accession of James II., his repeated attempts to curtail the civil and religious liberties of his subjects had so far incensed them against him that William, Prince of Orange, was invited over to free them from his rule. In 1688 James abdicated the throne, and the following year William and Mary were crowned at Westminster. Annexed is a list of the gentry residing in the Fylde from the reign of Henry VIII., to their accession, as prepared from original records and private manuscripts:—

• Allen of Rossall Hall.
• Ambrose of Ambrose Hall.
• Bradley of Bryning.
• Bradshaw of Preese and Scales.
• Butler of Rawcliffe Hall.
• Butler of Layton and Hackensall.
• Clifton of Westby.
• Eccleston of Great Eccleston Hall.
• Fleetwood of Plumpton.
• Fleetwood of Rossall Hall.
• Hesketh of Mains Hall.
• Kirkby of Upper Rawcliffe.
• Kirkby of Mowbreck.
• Leigh of Singleton.
• Longworth of St. Michael’s Hall.
• Lowde of Kirkham.
• Massey of Carleton.
• Molyneux of Larbrick Hall.
• Parker of Bradkirk Hall.
• Rigby of Layton Hall.
• Sharples of Freckleton.
• Shuttleworth of Larbrick.
• Singleton of Singleton.
• Singleton of Staining Hall.
• Stanley of Great Eccleston Hall.
• Tyldesley of Fox Hall, Blackpool.
• Veale of Whinney Heys.
• Westby of Rawcliffe.
• Westby of Mowbreack and Burn Halls.

James II., when force of circumstances had driven him into exile, left a considerable number of supporters behind him, chiefly amongst the Roman Catholics, who were not dilatory in devising schemes for his re-establishment. On the 16th of May, 1690, Robert Dodsworth deposed upon oath, before Lord Chief Justice Holt, that the following Popish gentry of the Fylde, amongst others, had entered into a conspiracy to restore James, and that they had received commissions as indicated for the purpose of raising troops to carry out the enterprise:—Colonel Thomas Tyldesley, son of the late Sir Thomas; Captains Ralph Tyldesley, son of the late Sir Thomas; Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, nephew to the two preceding; Richard Butler, of Rawcliffe Hall, and Henry, his eldest son; Thomas Westby, of Mowbreck Hall, and William, his third son, who was designated a lieutenant; and Lieutenant Richard Stanley, of Great Eccleston Hall. Nothing is recorded as to the result of the above information, but in 1694 Sir Thomas Clifton, brother to Cuthbert Clifton, of Lytham, was arraigned, with several more, on a charge of treason in connection with a reported Jacobite plot, but was acquitted, as also were those with him. During the course of the trial, Thomas Patten, of Preston, as witness to the loyalty of Sir Thomas Clifton to the existing government, stated that “in 1689 he received orders from the Lord Lieutenant to secure several Popish gentlemen, and that amongst them Sir Thomas Clifton was one who was taken and brought prisoner to Preston upon the 16th day of June in that year; that Sir Thomas being a very infirm man and unfit to be carried so far as Manchester, which was the place where the rest of the Popish gentlemen then made prisoners were secured, he undertook for Sir Thomas, and prevailed to have him kept at his (Patten’s) own house in Preston, where he continued prisoner, and was not discharged until the January following, at which time all the gentlemen were set at liberty; that during Sir Thomas Clifton’s confinement he expressed to him much zeal and affection to the present government, saying how much the persons of his religion ought to be satisfied with their usage, as putting no difference betwixt them and other subjects save the public exercise of their religion, so long as they themselves would be quiet, and protested for himself that he could never endure to think of practising any change.” Further Mr. Patten affirmed “that he knew Sir Thomas’s disposition to have always been peaceful and quiet.” During the time that James II. was engaged in inciting the Irish nation to espouse his cause and furnish him with an army to invade England and regain his throne, Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, prepared a secret chamber in that mansion for his reception. The disastrous battle of the Boyne, however, in which James was vanquished by William, Prince of Orange, and King of England, crushed all hope of future success in the fallen monarch, and at the earliest opportunity he escaped to France. In 1715, during the reign of George I., his son, the Chevalier de St. George was proclaimed king in Scotland under the title of James III. The earl of Mar and several other influential supporters of the Stuarts assembled a large force and marched southwards; on arriving at the border five hundred of the Highlanders refused to proceed further, but the remainder passed through the northern counties as far as Preston. Here they were besieged by the loyal troops under Generals Carpenter and Wills, who stormed the town and forced the rebels to an unconditional surrender. Many of the leaders were executed, whilst others were incarcerated for various terms; the general treatment of their unfortunate followers may be gleaned from the journal of William Stout, of Lancaster, in which it is written:—“After the rebellion was suppressed about 400 of the rebels were brought to Lancaster Castle, and a regiment of Dragoons was quartered in the town to guard them. The king allowed them each 4d. a day for maintenance, viz., 2d. in bread, 1d. in cheese, and 1d. in small beer. And they laid on straw in stables most of them, and in a month’s time about 100 of them were conveyed to Liverpool to be tried, where they were convicted and near 40 of them hanged at Preston, Garstang, Lancaster, etc.; and about 200 of them continued a year, and about 50 of them died, and the rest were transported to America.” Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, died in 1715, just before the outbreak of the rebellion, but his son Edward, who succeeded him, joined the rebels. For this act of treason he was put on his trial, but escaped conviction and punishment through the favour of the jury, by whom he was acquitted in spite of clear and reliable evidence that he had entered Preston at the head of a company of insurgents with a drawn sword in his hand. After the capitulation, when the king’s troops had entered the town and were marching along the streets, many men from our district, who had congregated on Spiral’s Moss, armed with fowling pieces and implements of husbandry, joined their ranks, and a huge duck-gun belonging to a yeoman named Jolly, from Mythorp, near Blackpool, was instrumental in doing good service to the besiegers by slaying one Mayfield, of the Ashes, Goosnargh. The rebel had secreted himself behind a chimney on one of the houses, and was engaged in picking off the loyal soldiers as they made their way along the thoroughfare below. His murderous fire was at length put an end to by a charge from the famed gun of Jolly, whose keen eye had detected the assassin in his hiding place. Jolly himself appears to have had an aversion to causing the death of a fellow-creature in cold blood, even though a rebel, and the credit of the shot is due to a soldier, whose own weapon failed in reaching the object. The Rev. W. Thornber tells us in his History of Blackpool, that the family of the Jollys, for many years, treasured up the wonderful gun, and that the tale of its exploit was circulated far and wide in the neighbourhood of their home. From the remarks of the Rev.—Patten, who accompanied the army of the Chevalier, as chaplain to General Forster, we learn that those who joined the insurgents in Lancashire were chiefly Papists, and that the members of the High-church party held aloof, much to the disappointment and chagrin of General Forster, who, in his anger, declared “that for the time to come he would never again believe a drunken tory.” Edward Tyldesley, Henry Butler, of Rawcliffe Hall, and his son Richard Butler, were the most distinguished personages amongst the small body of men belonging to this section who openly espoused the cause of the Pretender. The paucity of the recruits attracted by the insurgent standard from our neighbourhood is easily to be accounted for, when it is remembered that for many years the county of Lancashire had enjoyed an immunity from strifes and disturbances, so that the inhabitants of the rural districts, such as the Fylde, had settled down to the cultivation of the soil, and would care little to assist in a work which as far as they were privately concerned, could only terminate in the devastation of their fields, and, probably, in the ruin of many of their households. Especially, in 1715, would the people be disinclined to take part in or encourage insurrectionary and warlike proceedings, for in that year extraordinarily bountiful harvests had rewarded their labours, and general prosperity had taught them the blessings of peace.[44] After the rebellion of 1715 many Papists registered their estates and the respective yearly values thereof, according to an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of George I., and amongst the number may be observed the names of sundry local personages as:—

			Annual Value.
Sherburne, Sir Nicholas,		of Carleton, Hambleton, and Stonyhurst	£1210	6	s.	3½	d.
Butler, Mary,	⎱	wife and only child of Rich. Butler, who died in gaol,	100	0		0
Butler, Catherine,	⎰		537	0		0
Butler, Elizabeth,		of Kirkland, afterwards the third wife of Henry Butler, of Rawcliffe,	11	10		0
Butler, Christopher,		second son of H. Butler, of Rawcliffe,	10	19		6
Brockholes, John,		of Claughton, etc.,	522	19		1
Clifton, Thomas,		of Lytham, Clifton, etc.,	1548	16		10½
Clifton, Bridget,			3	10		0
Blackburne, Thomas,		of Wood Plumpton,	1	6		0
Blackburne, Richard,		of Stockenbridge, near St. Michael’s,	21	2		0
Hesketh, William,		of Mains,	198	3		4½
Hesketh, George,		brother to W. Hesketh,	13	6		8
Hesketh, Margaret,		widow of Thos. Hesketh, of Mains,	57	0		0
Singleton, Anne,		of Staining and Bardsea,	76	15		10
Stanley, Anne,		widow of Richard Stanley of Great Eccleston,	118	15		0
Swartbreck, John,		of Little Eccleston,	23	15		0
Tyldesley, Edward,		of Fox Hall, and Myerscough,	720	9		2
Tyldesley, Agatha,		half-sister of Edward Tyldesley,	52	10		0
Threlfall, Cuthbert,		of Wood Plumpton,	31	12		6
Westby, John,		of White Hall, St. Michael’s,	119	11		1
Westby, John,		of Mowbreck,	230	5		1½
Westby, Thomas,	⎱	bros. of J. Westby, of Mowbreck,	20	0		0
Westby, Cuthbert,	⎰		20	0		0
Leckonby, William,		of Leckonby House, Elswick, etc.,	79	11		6
Walley, Thurstan,		of Kirkham,	12	0		8
Charnock, Anne,		of Salwick,	1	4		0
Knott, Thomas,		of Thistleton,	20	0		0

Prince Charles Edward, the son of the former Pretender, landed in the Hebrides, in 1745, with a well-officered force of two thousand men, and after defeating Sir John Cope, seized the city of Edinburgh and commenced his march southwards. Crossing the border, he passed through Lancashire, and arrived at Preston with an army barely six thousand strong. At Preston he met with an enthusiastic welcome, the church bells were rung, and loud cheers greeted the proclamation of his father, the Chevalier, as king of Great Britain and Ireland. His sojourn in the town was brief, and on the 27th of November the rebel troops set out for Manchester, inspirited by the lively strains of “The King shall have his own again.” Arriving at that city, they continued their march towards Derby, where, on receiving the news that the Duke of Cumberland was at Lichfield on his way to intercept them, Prince Charles Edward hastened to beat a retreat, and on the 12th of December re-passed through the streets of Preston, the wearied feet of his followers keeping time to the doleful but appropriate air of “Hie the Charlie home again.”

The battle on the moor of Culloden, in which the rebel army was defeated by the Duke of Cumberland, finally decided the fate of the House of Stuart, and after experiencing many hardships, Prince Charles Edward escaped across the channel into France. James, the son of Edward Tyldesley who took part in the insurrection of 1715, served in the army of the Young Pretender. During the excitement and alarm produced by these rebellions, silver spoons, tankards, and other household treasures, were deposited for safety in a farm house at Marton; cattle and other farm-stock were driven to Boonley, near Blackpool, whilst money and articles of jewelry were buried in the soil of Hound Hill in that town. The Scots who accompanied Prince Charles were so renowned for their voracious appetites that the householders of the Fylde prepared for their expected visit by laying in an abundant supply of eatables, hoping that a good repast, like a soft answer, would turn away wrath. Mr. Physic, of Poulton, was an exception to the general rule, and having barricaded his house, determined vigorously to resist any attack of the rebels either on his larder or his purse. Hotly pursued by the Duke of Cumberland in their retreat towards Scotland, the insurgents were quickly hurried through the country, but some of the stragglers found their way to Mains Hall, where they were liberally provided with food by Mrs. Hesketh. It is probable that these rebels formed part of the number of Highlanders, who were afterwards captured at Garstang, and that one of them was the bare-footed Scot who seized the boots of John Miller, of Layton, dragging them from his feet with the cool remark—“Hout mon, but I mon tak’ thy brogues.” William Hesketh, of Mains, had considered it prudent to secrete himself on the warren at Rossall until the excitement had subsided, as in some way or other he had been mixed up with the former outbreak, and wished to avoid any suspicion of having been implicated in this one also. At the sanguinary and decisive battle of Culloden, two notorious characters from Layton and Staining were present; one of them, named Leonard Warbreck, served in the capacity of hangman at the executions following the rebellion, whilst the other, James Kirkham, generally known as Black Kirkham, was a gallant soldier, remarkable for his giant-like size and immense strength. The country people near his home were wont to declare that, for a small wager, this warrior carried his horse and accoutrements round the cross at Wigan to the astonishment and admiration of the by-standers. One incident of these times, reflecting little credit on this neighbourhood, but which, as faithful recorders, we are bound to relate, was the journey of Henry Hardicar, of Little Poulton, to London, a distance of two hundred and thirty-three miles, all of which he travelled on foot, solely to gratify a morbid taste by witnessing the legal tragedies performed on Tower Hill. “I saw the lords heided” was his invariable answer to all inquiries as to the wonders he had seen in the metropolis. In this rising, as in the earlier one, the inhabitants of the Fylde evinced their prudence and good sense by remaining as nearly neutral as their allegiance to the reigning monarch would permit them. Those insurgents who found their way into the district were treated with kindness, but no encouragement was given them to prolong their stay, either by professions of sympathy or offers of assistance in their insurrectionary enterprise.

We have at last come to the end of the long chain of wars and disturbances which from the period of the struggles between the Houses of York and Lancaster, had exercised their baneful influence on the territory and population of the Fylde, and are now entering on an era of peace and unbroken prosperity. The small water-side hamlets of Blackpool and Lytham put forth their rival claims to the patronage of the inland residents,—

“And had their claims allow’d.”

In 1788, Mr. Hutton described the former place as consisting of about fifty houses and containing four hundred visitors in the height of the season. This historian also informs us, that the inhabitants were remarkable for their great longevity, and relates the anecdote of a woman who, forming one of a group of sympathising friends around the couch of a dying man, exclaimed—“Poor John! I knew him a clever young fellow four score years ago.” Lytham, also, attracted a considerable number of visitors during the summer, and for many years was a more popular resort than Blackpool. In Mr. Baines’s account of Lytham, published in 1825, we read as follows:—“This is one of the most popular sea-bathing places in the county of Lancashire; and if the company is less fashionable than at Blackpool, it is generally more numerous, and usually very respectable.”

A list of the Catholic Chapels and Chaplains, together with the number of their respective congregations, in the county of Lancaster, was collected in 1819, and subjoined are enumerated those situated in the Hundred of Amounderness:—

Place.	Chapels.	Priest.			No. of Congregation.
Preston	2	Revd.	⸺ Dunn	⎫	6,000
”		”	⸺ Morris	⎬
”		”	⸺ Gore	⎪
”		”	⸺ Bird	⎭
Alston Lane	1	”	⸺ Cowburne		400
Fernyhalgh	1	”	⸺ Blakoe		500
The Hill	1	”	⸺ Martin		450
Claughton	1	”	⸺ Gradwell		800
Scorton	1	”	⸺ Lawrenson		350
Garstang	1	”	⸺ Storey		600
New House	1	”	⸺ Marsh		600
Cottam	1	”	⸺ Caton		300
Lea	1	”	⸺ Anderton		400
Willows	1	”	⸺ Sherburne		600
Westby	1	”	⸺ Butler		300
Lytham	1	”	⸺ Dawson		500
Poulton	1	”	⸺ Platt		400
Great Eccleston	1	”	⸺ Parkinson		450
Total	16				[45]12,650

In 1836 the first house of Fleetwood was erected, and in a few years the desolate warren at the mouth of the Wyre was converted into a rising and prosperous town. The rapidity of its early growth may be inferred from the following paragraph, extracted from a volume on Lancashire, published during the infancy of this new offspring of the Fylde:—“As a bathing place, it possesses very superior attractions: hot water baths, inns, and habitations of all kinds have sprung as if by magic on one of the most agreeable sites it is possible to imagine, very superior to any other in Lancashire, admitting, as from a central point, excursions by land and water in all directions, amongst some of the most beautiful scenery in the empire. A couple of hours steaming takes the tourist across Morecambe Bay to the Furness capital, and into the heart of a district of surpassing interest. Charming indeed is Fleetwood in the height of the summer, with its cool sands, northern aspect, and delightful prospects. First there is a noble bay in front, an ocean of itself when the tide is in; and when it is out offering firm sands of vast extent, for riding or walking.” Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, bart., of Rossall Hall, lord of the manor, and founder of the town to which he gave his name, was returned on four occasions as one of the parliamentary representatives of Preston:—

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT FOR PRESTON.

• 1832.—Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, and the Hon. Henry Thos. Stanley.
• 1835.—Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, and the Hon. Henry Thos. Stanley.
• 1837.—Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, and Robert Townley Parker.
• 1841.—Sir Peter Hesketh Fleetwood, Bart., and Sir Geo. Strickland, Bart.

The year 1840 was an auspicious one in the history of the Fylde. On the 25th of July, the Preston and Wyre Railway, running through the heart of this district, was completed and declared open for traffic. By its means the farmer became enabled to convey his produce to the extensive market of Preston; and Kirkham, Poulton, and Garstang were no longer the only towns accessible to our agriculturists for the sale of their crops. The early appreciation of the utility and benefit of the line is apparent from the rapid increase of its traffic, as shown by the annexed tables, in which the official returns of passengers and goods for the week ending Dec. 14th, 1842, and the corresponding weeks of the four succeeding years are stated:—

Week ending Dec. 14th, 1842.	911	Passengers.	£65	10s.	5d.
		Goods.	62	8	1
			127	18	6
Corresponding week in 1843.	1105	Passengers.	88	1	6
		Goods.	140	11	9
			228	13	3
Corresponding week in 1844.	1601	Passengers.	139	4	6
		Goods.	163	18	11
			303	3	5
Corresponding week in 1845.	1997	Passengers.	144	12	1
		Goods.	234	13	4
			379	5	5
Corresponding week in 1846.	2820	Passengers.	243	19	0
		Goods.	308	18	5
			552	17	5

At the present date, 1876, the average weekly traffic on this railway and its branches to Lytham and Blackpool, amounts in round numbers to £1,200 for passengers, and £800 for goods.

The Preston and Wyre Railway was amongst the earliest formed, and the impression made on the natives of this district, who had been accustomed to the slow-going coaches, must have been one of no little amazement, when, for the first time, they beheld the “iron horse” steaming along the rails at a speed which their past experience of travelling would make them regard as impossible. The following lines were written by a gentleman named Henry Anderton, a resident in the Fylde, on the opening of the railway:

“Some fifty years since and a coach had no power,

To move faster forward than six miles an hour,

Till Sawney McAdam made highways as good,

As paving-stones crushed into little bits could.

The coachee quite proud of his horse-flesh and trip,

Cried, ‘Go it, ye cripples!’ and gave them the whip,

And ten miles an hour, by the help of the thong,

They put forth their mettle and scampered along.

The Present has taken great strides of the Past,

For carriages run without horses at last!

And what is more strange,—yet it’s truth I avow,

Hack-horses themselves have turned passengers now!

These coaches alive go in sixes and twelves,

And once set in motion they travel themselves!

They’ll run thirty miles while I’m cracking this joke,

And need no provisions but pump-milk and coke!

And with their long chimneys they skim o’er the rails,

With two thousand hundred-weight tied to their tails!

While Jarvey in stupid astonishment stands,

Upturning both eyes and uplifting both hands,

‘My nags,’ he exclaims, betwixt laughing and crying,

‘Are good ’uns to go, but yon devils are flying.’”

The fares on the Preston and Wyre Railway at its commencement were:—

	1st class.		2nd class.		3rd class.
Preston to Fleetwood or Blackpool	4s.	6d.	3s.	0d.	2s.	0d.
Preston to Poulton	3s.	6d.	2s.	6d.	1s.	6d.
Preston to Kirkham	2s.	0d.	1s.	3d.	0s.	9d.
Preston to Lytham	3s.	0d.	2s.	6d.	1s.	6d.

Until the opening of the branch lines to Lytham and Blackpool respectively, in 1846, passengers completed their journies from Kirkham and Poulton to those watering places by means of coaches. Three trains ran from the terminus at Fleetwood to Preston on each week-day, and one on Sunday, a similar number returning.

In consequence of the severe distress prevailing throughout the country, a proclamation was issued by Her Majesty for a General Fast to be held on Wednesday, the 24th of March, 1847; and from the public prints of that date it is evident that the occasion was observed with great solemnity in our division—the shops of the different towns were closed during the whole of the day, the streets were quiet, the hotels deserted, whilst the churches were crowded even to overflowing. This distress was caused by an almost complete failure in the potatoe harvests; and at that time these necessary articles of diet were sold at 26s. per load in the local markets, whilst meal, also scarce, rose to 52s. per load.

In September of the same year, the Fylde was honoured by a passing visit from Queen Victoria and the late Prince Consort, who arrived at Fleetwood in the Royal Yacht on their return journey from Scotland to London. An address was presented by Sir P. H. Fleetwood, bart., the Rev. St. Vincent Beechey, Frederick Kemp, esq., James Crombleholme, esq., and Daniel Elletson, esq., on behalf of the inhabitants of Fleetwood, and received by Lord Palmerston, who promised that it should be laid before the Queen. In the course of a few days an acknowledgment was received from the metropolis. In Her Majesty’s book, published in 1868, and entitled “Leaves from our Highland Journal,” these diarian entries relating to the above event appear:—

“Monday, September 20th, 1847.

“We anchored at seven in Fleetwood Harbour; the entrance was extremely narrow and difficult. We were lashed close to the pier, to prevent our being turned by the tide; and when I went on deck there was a great commotion, such running and calling, and pulling of ropes, etc. It was a cheerless evening, blowing hard.”

“Tuesday, September 21st, 1847.

“At ten o’clock we landed, and proceeded by rail to London.”

In 1860, a project was launched for a comprehensive scheme of water supply for the towns of this district; a company was established, and, in the session of 1861, an act of parliament was obtained “for incorporating the Fylde Waterworks Company, and for authorising them to make and maintain waterworks, and to supply water at Kirkham, Lytham, Blackpool, Fleetwood, Poulton, Rossall, Garstang, South-shore, and Bispham, in the county palatine of Lancaster, and to shipping at Fleetwood and Lytham.” The act granted power to take the water from Grizedale Brook, a tributary of the Wyre, which rises in Grizedale Fell, one of the Bleasdale range, and, flowing through the gorge or pass, called Nickey Nook, divides the township of Nether-Wyersdale and Barnacre-with-Bonds, and falls into the Wyre a mile or so before that river reaches Garstang. A dam or embankment, upwards of 20 feet high, 70 feet wide at the base, and 12 feet wide at the top, was raised across the valley, converting the upper portion of it into a reservoir. At the west end of the reservoir, below the embankment, is a culvert, through which the water passes to a guage, where a stipulated quantity is turned into the brook, and the rest enters the pipe for the Fylde. Twelve miles of twelve inch pipes carry the water to the service reservoir at Weeton. The course is down Grizedale, under the railway, through Greenhalgh Green, Bowgrave, leaving Garstang to the right, then past Catterall Mill, through the grounds of Catterall Hall, and onward to the east of St. Michael’s, through Elswick, to Weeton. The service reservoir, situated on the most elevated ground, called Whitprick Hill, in the township of Weeton, has a diameter at the base of 400 feet, and at the top 468 feet. The embankment is at the base 70 feet in diameter, and 12 feet at the top, with a puddle trench in it, varying from 8 feet 8 inches to 6 feet wide. To the south a 10 inch main takes the supply of water for Kirkham and Lytham; and from the west side a main of similar size takes the water for Fleetwood and Blackpool, the supply for the former place branching off near Great Marton, and going by Bispham and Rossall. The Weeton reservoir was formed capable of containing fifteen million gallons of water. An additional pipe, running from Weeton through Singleton, Skippool, and Thornton, to join the Fleetwood main at Flakefleet, near Rossall, was laid in 1875; and a new reservoir, to hold 190,000,000 gallons, is in course of formation at Barnacre, above Grizedale.

CHAPTER IV.
CONDITION, CUSTOMS, AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE PEOPLE.

There is little to be remarked, because little is known, respecting the social and moral aspects of the untutored race which, in the earliest historic age, sought a domicile or refuge amidst the forests of the Fylde, or invaded its glades in search of prey. The habits of the Setantii were simply those of other savage tribes who depended for their daily sustenance upon their skill and prowess in the chase, and whose intercommunion with the world beyond their own limited domains, was confined to hostile or friendly meetings with equally barbarous races whose frontiers adjoined their own. Certain disinterred roots were necessary adjuncts to their repasts, and indeed, on many occasions, when outwitted by the wild tenants of the woods, formed the sole item. Their Druidical faith and the supreme power of the priesthood over their almost every action, both secular and religious, have already been referred to in an earlier page. The remorseless sacrifice of fellow beings on their unhallowed altars, and the general spirit of cruelty and inhumanity which pervaded all their rites, are not to be regarded as disclosing a naturally callous and brutal disposition on the part of the Setantii, but as indications of the deplorable ignorance in which they existed, and the blind obedience which they yielded to the principles indoctrinated by the Druids. That the Setantii, however submissive to the dictates and requirements of their priests, were far from passively allowing the encroachments of others on their liberties is shown by the promptitude and fierceness with which they combatted the progress of the Roman legions through their territory. No portion of the British conquest cost the conquerors more trouble, time, and bloodshed, than did the land peopled by the hardy and valorous Brigantes with their comparatively small, but equally intrepid, neighbours and allies the Setantii. The two most striking characteristics of the aboriginal Fylde inhabitants were their ignorance and bravery, and whilst the former rivetted the chains which held them in subjection to the priesthood, the latter incited them to oppose to the death the usurpations of the stranger. There is nothing of local interest to recount during the period the Romans held the soil, but after their abdication, when the Anglo-Saxons violated their faith and traitorously seized a land which they had come professedly to protect, the Fylde began to evince symptoms of greater animation; villages sprang up in different spots on the open grounds or clearings in the woods; the solitary Roman settlement at Kirkham was appropriated and renamed by the new arrivals, and, perhaps, for the first time a population of numerical importance was established in the district.

During the earlier part of this era the inhabitants were graziers rather than agriculturists or ploughmen. Three quarters, even, of the entire kingdom were devoted to rearing and feeding cattle, so that the grain produce of the country must have been extremely small when compared with the superabundance of live stock, and as a consequence of such a condition of things, those animals which could forage for themselves and exist upon the wild herbage of the waste lands or the fallen fruits of the trees, as acorns and beech-mast, were to be purchased at prices almost nominal, whilst others which required the cultivated products of the fields, as corn and hay, for their sustenance, were disproportionately dear; thus about the end of the tenth century the values of the former were:—

One Ox	7s.	0½d.
” Cow	5s.	6d.
” Pig	1s.	10½d.
” Sheep	1s.	2d.
” Goat	0s.	5½d.

The latter commanded these comparatively high prices—

One Horse	£1	5s.	2d.
” Mare, or Colt	£1	3s.	5d.
” Ass, or Mule	£0	14s.	1d.

Trees were valued not by the circumference or magnitude of their trunks, but by the amount of shelter their branches would afford to the cattle, which seem to have lived almost entirely in the open pastures; and bearing that in mind we are not surprised to read in the Saxon Chronicle of periodical plagues or murrains breaking out amongst them. “In 1054,” says that journal, “there was so great loss of cattle as was not remembered for many winters before.” This, however, is only one extract from frequent entries referring to similar misfortunes in different years, both before and after the date quoted. Swine were kept in immense herds throughout the kingdom, and there is every probability that in a locality like the Fylde, where trees would still abound and provender be plentifully scattered from the oaks and beeches, hogs would be extensively bred. Indeed immediately after the close of the Saxon empire, Roger de Poictou conveyed his newly acquired right to pawnage (swine’s food) in the woods of Poulton, amongst other things, to the monastery of St. Mary, in Lancaster, a circumstance strongly favourable to the existence of swine there in considerable numbers. Kine, also, are usually reported to have been a favourite stock with the breeders of Lancashire, whilst sheep were rare in proportion, although in other places they were exceedingly popular and profitable, chiefly from the sale of their wool.

The Saxon inhabitants of the small villages in the Fylde who were engaged in agriculture had no knowledge of any manure beyond marl, which they mixed with lighter and finer soils; nor were their farm-lands cultivated all at one time, but a portion only of the estate was subjected to the action of the plough, and when its fertility had been thoroughly exhausted, the remainder was tilled and brought into service, the first plot being allowed to lie fallow for a few years until its productive powers had been renewed. Grain was not, as now, purchased from the growers by dealers and stored up in warehouses, but each of the neighbouring people, as soon as the crops had been gathered into the barns, bought whatever quantity he thought would suffice for his household wants until the ensuing harvest, and removed it to his own residence. The universal waste and improvident consumption of grain during this season of abundance, led frequently to famines in other parts of the year, and many instances of that punishment following such prodigality are related in the chronicle before named. One notice, bearing the date 1044, says:—“This year there was very great hunger all over England, and corn so dear as no man ever remembered before; so that a sester of wheat rose to sixty pence and even further.”

The ploughs of our forefathers were, as would naturally be supposed, somewhat rude and clumsy in construction, differing considerably in appearance, although not in their modus operandi, from those which may be seen furrowing the same land in the present day. Each plough was furnished with an iron share, in front of which, attached to the extremity of a beam projecting anteriorly, was a wheel of moderate diameter, its purpose being to relieve the labour of the oxen and to facilitate the guiding of the instrument, especially in turning. The oxen employed were ordinarily four, and yoked to the plough by means of twisted willow bands. Horses were prohibited by law from being used on the land, but there must have been little need, one would imagine, for a legal prohibition in the matter when it is remembered that horses were nearly four times as valuable as oxen, and that the latter were fully efficient at the task. The month of January commenced their season for preparing the ground, and during the period thus occupied the labours of the ploughman began each morning at sunrise, when the oxen were tethered and conducted to the fields, where the duty of the husbandman was lightened by the assistance of a boy, who superintended the cattle, driving or leading them whilst at work. In the inclement months of winter these oxen were fed and tended in sheds under the special care of the ploughman, but during summer they shared a common lot with the other cattle and were turned out to pasture in the fields, being transferred to the charge of the cowherd. Other implements of husbandry in use, in addition to the plough, were scythes, sickles, axes, spades, pruning-hooks, forks, and flails, besides which the farmers possessed carts and waggons of rather a cumbersome pattern. It is doubtful whether the harrow was known here so early, but opinion usually refers its introduction to a later date.

Of the moral tone of our Saxon settlers it is difficult to judge, but that their business transactions were not always governed by a very strict sense of honour is intimated by the following enactment, apparently framed to check repudiations of bargains and, perhaps, to insure fair dealing:—“No one shall buy either what is living or what is dead to the value of four pennies without four witnesses either of the borough or of the village.” William of Malmesbury, who wrote about a century after the Norman Conquest, informs us that “excessive eating and drinking were the common vices of the Saxons, in which they spent whole nights and days without intermission.” It may, however, with much probability be conjectured that not only is the statement in some degree exaggerated, but that its application was designed more particularly for the inhabitants of the larger towns than those of comparatively sparsely populated districts like our own. Nevertheless it cannot be claimed, with any show of reason, that the small section of the nation established in the Fylde was entirely uninfected by the vices which enervated and degraded the wealthier and more populous regions of the kingdom. The evil of intemperance in both food and drink, especially the latter, pervaded the whole community, but as its indulgence required both means and opportunity, its loathsome features were less prominently visible in localities where these were scarce than in others where they abounded. The Church used every effort to awaken a better feeling in the minds of her degenerate sons, and liberate them from the chains of a passion which had so thoroughly enslaved them. Canons were directed against the “sin of drunkenness,” and in order that no plea of ignorance could be urged by any who had overstepped the bounds of sobriety, a curious and minute description of the condition of body and brain which constituted inebriation was appended to one of them, as here quoted:—“This is drunkenness—when the state of the mind is changed, the tongue stammers, the eyes are disturbed, the head is giddy, the belly is swelled, and pain follows.” Ale and mead were the beverages on which these excesses were committed, and cow-horns the drinking cups. It would seem that there was yet another national blemish, that of gambling, which even invaded the cloister and threw its veil of fascination over the clergy themselves, for a canon of the reign of Edgar ordered—“That no priest be a hunter, or fowler, or player at tables, but let him play upon his books, as becometh his calling.”

Water-mills, planted on the banks of streams and consisting of square weather-boarded structures, usually open at the top, were the means possessed during the Saxon era for grinding the cereal products of the Fylde. The wheel which received the pressure of the current, and conveyed its motive power to the simple machinery within the fabric, differed little from those still in use in various parts of the country, one of which until recently was connected with a small mill on the brink of the brook which drains the mere at Marton into the river Wyre, and less than a century ago another mill, situated in the township of Marton and worked on a similar principle, was turned by a stream from the same mere. A water-mill is at present in use near Great Eccleston. After the grinding process had been completed the bran and flour were separated by hand-sieves. About seventy or eighty years after the Normans had settled in the district these primitive sheds were superseded by a fresh species of mill, in which sails supplied the place of the wheel, and another element was called into service. The new erections were of wood, and separated from the ground by a pivot of slight altitude, on which they turned bodily in order to be fixed in the most favourable position for their sails to reap a full harvest of wind. Solitary specimens of this early piece of mechanical ingenuity are still visible hereabouts, but most of the old mills were pulled down about a hundred years ago, or less, and rebuilt with more stable material, whilst the modern improvement of a revolving top only, did away with the necessity for the venerable pivot, and allowed the foundations of the edifices to be more intimately associated with mother earth than formerly.

Throughout the whole of the Saxon dynasty the mass of the inhabitants would be what were termed the “villani,” that is, a class forming a link between abject slavery and perfect independence. They were not bound to any master but to the soil on which they happened to be born, and on no plea were they permitted to leave such localities. To the lord of the manor each of the “villani” gave annually a certain portion of the produce of the ground he tilled, but beyond that they acknowledged no claim to the proceeds of their thrift by the large territorial proprietors. When a manor changed ownership the “villani” were transferred with it in exactly the same condition as before, so that really they seem to have occupied the position of small tenants paying rent in kind, with the important addition that they were forced to pass their lives in the district where they had first seen the light of day. It should be noted that any “villani” not having domiciles of their own were compelled to enter the service of others who were more fortunately situated in that respect.

During the twelfth century the house-wife’s plan of preparing bread for the table, in the absence of public bakehouses, common in some neighbourhoods, was to knead the dough into large flat cakes and lay them on the hearth in full glare of the fire, where they were permitted to remain until thoroughly baked. Bread from pure wheat of the best quality was a luxury unattainable except by those of high station or wealth, the bulk of the people having to content themselves with an inferior quality, brownish in colour and made from rye, oats, and barley. The amount of this indispensable commodity to be sold at a specified price was regulated by law, and the punishments for not supplying the proper measure, or for “lack of size” as it was termed, were—for the first offence, loss of the bread; for the second, imprisonment; and for the third, the pillory or tumbrel.[46] In 1185 the maximum charges to be made for certain provisions were settled by an act which decreed that the highest price for a hen should be ½d., a sheep 5½d., a ram 8d., a hog 1s., an ox 5s. 8d., and a cow 4s. 6d.

In the ensuing century no restrictions were placed upon the tenants of the Fylde as to the course of husbandry to be pursued, but each on renting his farm or parcel of ground cultivated it according to the dictates of his own inclination or experience, the only stipulation being that the soil should suffer no deterioration from any ignorant or imprudent action on the part of the holder. Oats and barley mixed, and a light description of wheat, very inferior to the best grain, were the favourite crops, the former being known as “draget,” and the latter as “siligo.” Arable land was let at 4d. per acre, and the annual yield of each acre sown with wheat, usually amounted to 12 bushels, the value of the grain itself averaging about 4s. 6d. per quarter. Demand notices were sent in two days after the rent had become due, and if not complied with in two weeks the landlord distrained without further ceremony; after an interval of another fortnight, if the money still remained unpaid, the tenant was summarily ejected, and the owner seized both farm and stock.

The meals consumed by the peasantry comprised only two during the twenty-four hours, one, called dinner, being eaten at nine in the morning, and the other, supper, at five in the afternoon. It is very possible, however, that during the summer those farm servants whose arduous duties were entered on at daybreak, partook of some slight repast at an early hour of the morning, but the only meals for which regular times were appointed were the two mentioned. During harvest the diet of the labourers consisted for the most part of herrings, bread, and an allowance of beer, whilst messes of pottage were far from uncommon objects on the rustic boards. Between the year 1314 and 1326 the prices of live stock were again arranged, as under:—

The best grass fed ox	16s.	0d.
The best cow (fat)	12s.	0d.
The best short-horn sheep	1s.	2d.
The best goose	0s.	3d.
The best hen	0s.	1½d.
The best chickens, per couple	0s.	1½d.
Eggs, twenty for	0s.	1d.

In 1338 no domestic or husbandry servant residing in the Hundred of Amounderness was allowed to pass beyond the boundaries of the Wapentake on profession of going to dwell or serve elsewhere, or of setting out on a pilgrimage, without bearing with him a letter patent stating the reason of his departure and the date of his return. This law, which applied to all Hundreds alike, was intended to prevent the threatened decay of agriculture from a dearth of labourers, who heretofore had been in the habit of deserting their employment and wandering away into other divisions of the country, where they supported an idle and frequently vicious existence by soliciting alms and by petty thefts.

It will scarcely surprise the reader to learn that superstition was rife amongst the populace during the periods so far noticed, and that nothing was too absurd to be accepted as an omen, either of good or evil, by our credulous forefathers. A timid hare encountered in their walks abroad announced the approach of some unforeseen calamity, as also did a blind or lame man, a woman with dishevelled hair, or even a monk; whilst the visions of a wolf crossing the path, St. Martin’s birds flying from left to right, a humpbacked man, or the sound of distant thunder, were welcomed as heralds of prosperity. All amusements were of an athletic kind, and consisted of archery, casting heavy stones, spear darting, wrestling, running, leaping, and sword and buckler playing. On festivals, and occasionally at other seasons, the barbarous and cruel sports of bull and bear-baiting were indulged in,[47] but cock-fighting was considered, until a later epoch, an entertainment only suitable for children, and on Shrove Tuesday each boy took his pet bird to the school-house, which was for that day converted into a cock-pit, superintended by the master.

In 1444, the wages received by different classes of agricultural servants were:—

A bailiff		£1 3s. 4d.	per year,	and 5s. for clothing,	with board.
A chief hind	⎫	£1 0s. 0d.	”	and 4s. for clothing,	”
” carter	⎬
” shepherd	⎭
A woman servant		£0 10s. 0d.	”	and 4s. for clothing,	”
A boy under 14		£0 6s. 0d.	”	and 3s. for clothing,	”
A common husbandman		£0 15s. 0d.	”	and 40d. for clothing,	”

At harvest time, when special labour was required, the scale of remuneration was:—

A mower	4d.	per day,	with	board.
”	6d.	”	without	”
A reaper or carter	3d.	”	with	”
”	5d.	”	without	”
A woman labourer, or other labourer	2½d.	”	with	”
”	4½d.	”	without	”

The statute which arranged the above rates of payment concluded by saying that “such as deserve less shall take less, and also in places where less is used to be given less shall be given from henceforth;” so that the table just completed would seem to represent the maximum rather than the ordinary scale of wages. This statute also enacted that farm servants who purposed leaving their employers, must engage themselves to other masters and give reasonable warning before leaving their present ones, by which idleness and mendicancy were effectually guarded against.

The common pastimes of the inhabitants during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in addition to some of those already enumerated which still held their sway, were club, and trap-ball, bowling, prisoners’-bars, hood-man blind, (a game similar to the modern blindman’s-buff, but entered into by adults alone,) battledore and shuttlecock, and during hard frosts skating, at first by means of the shank bone of a sheep fastened on to the sole of the boot and afterwards with iron-shod skates. Hawking and hunting were confined to the families of position who resided at the ancient Halls of the Fylde and to others of similar social standing, forming but a small proportion of the entire population. At Christmas the largest log obtainable was lighted on the hearth and denominated the yule log. If the mass burned throughout the night and the whole of the next day, it was regarded as an omen of good fortune by the members of the household, but if it were consumed or extinguished before that time had expired, it was looked upon as auguring adversely for their prosperity. The first Monday after Twelfth Day was called Plough Monday, a name still familiar to many an old Fylde man, and was observed as a general holiday by the men whose labours were associated with that instrument, who on this day went about the villages from house to house asking for plough-money to spend in ale. Their processions, if such they could be called, consisted of a plough, which was dragged along by a number of sword-dancers; a labourer, dressed to resemble an old woman; and another, who was clothed in skins, and wore the tail of some animal hanging down his back. These two oddly garbed individuals solicited small contributions from the people whilst the remainder were engaged in dancing, and if anyone refused to disburse some trifling sum when requested, they turned up the ground fronting his doorway with the plough. During Christmas week the country people blackened their faces, and thus disguised committed all sorts of frolics and absurdities amongst their neighbours. The chief rustic festival, however, was appointed for the first of May, on which day the May-pole was drawn to the village green by several oxen, whose horns were decorated with bunches of flowers, and accompanied by a joyous band of revellers, who after its erection on the accustomed site held their jubilee of feasting and dancing around it. The pole itself was covered with floral garlands, and streamed with flags and handkerchiefs from its summit. A Lord and Lady, or Queen, of May were elected by a general vote, and to them belonged the honour of presiding over the festivities. The costumes of these pseudo-regal personages were liberally adorned with scarfs and ribbons, so that their appearances should be in unison with the rest of the gay preparations. The morris-dance formed an important feature of the festival, and the performers in that somewhat vigorous exercise wore richly decorated habits on to which small bells, varying in tone, had been fastened. The new year was ushered in with feasting and joviality, whilst friendly interchanges of presents took place amongst all classes. In the evening, a huge wassail-bowl filled with spiced ale was carried to the different houses of the villages, and all who quaffed its exhilarating contents drank prosperity to the coming year, and rewarded the cup-bearers, usually female farm-servants, with some small donation; the following carol in a more antique form, or some similar one, was sung on the occasion:—

“Good Dame, here at your door,

Our Wassel we begin,

We are all maidens poor,

We pray now let us in,

With our Wassel.

“Our Wassel we do fill,

With apples and with spice,

Then grant us your good will

To taste here once or twice

Of our Wassel.

...

“Some bounty from your hands

Our Wassel to maintain.

We’ll buy no house nor lands

With that which we do gain,

With our Wassel.”

On Shrove Tuesday a barbarous custom prevailed of tying cocks to a stake driven into the ground, and throwing at them with sticks, until death ensued from repeated blows. St. Valentine’s day received a merry welcome from the country swains and maidens, who at that auspicious time made choice of, or more properly speaking were mated to, their true loves for the year. The all important selection was made by writing the names of an equal number of each sex on separate slips of paper, and then dividing them into two lots, one of which represented the males and the other the females. The women drew from the male heap, and the men from that of the females, so that each person became possessed of two sweethearts, and the final pairing was really the only element of real choice in the matter; in this the men usually claimed the girl whom each of them had drawn, and thus an amicable settlement was soon arrived at. After the mirthful ceremony had been completed and each happy couple duly united, the men gave treats and dances to their sweethearts, and wore their billets for several days pinned on to their breasts or coat sleeves. Another, and much simpler, plan of choosing a valentine was to look out of the door or window on the eventful morning, and the first person seen was regarded as the special selection of the patron Saint, provided always the individual was of the opposite sex, and unfettered by the silken bonds of Hymen. Whitsun-ales and Easter-ales were assemblies held within, or in the immediate neighbourhood of, the church-yards, at which the beverage, giving the title to these festivities, was sold by the clergy or their assistants, and consumed by the country people, the proceeds being devoted to ecclesiastical purposes and the relief of the poor. Wakes originated in an ancient custom of gathering together on the evening before the birthday of a Saint or the day appointed for the dedication of a church, and passing the night in devotion and prayer. These watches, however, were soon altered in character, and instead of religious exercises employing the period of vigil, feasting and debauchery became the recognized occupations.

The festival of Rush-bearing is of such antiquity that its origin has become in a great measure obscured, but there is a strong probability that the practice arose from a recommendation given by Pope Gregory IV. to Mellitus, who was associated with St. Augustine in christianising the inhabitants of England, to celebrate the anniversaries of the dedications of those places of worship, which they had rescued from Pagan influences, “by building themselves huts of the boughs of trees about such churches, and celebrating the solemnities with religious feastings.” The rush-cart, decorated with flowers and ribbons, was paraded through the village streets, accompanied by morris-dancers and others bearing flags or banners. One of the mummers, dressed in a motley suit, somewhat resembling that of a circus jester, jingled a horse-collar hung with bells, and kept up a constant succession of small jokes at the expense of the bystanders as the procession advanced. In early days before churches were flagged it was the annual custom to strew their floors with rushes on the day of the dedication of the sacred edifice, and in the parish register of Kirkham we find, as follows:—“1604. Rushes to strew the church cost this year 9s. 6d.” From the register at Poulton church we have also extracted an entry, at random, from similar ones occurring each year:—“Aug. 6th, 1784. To Edward Whiteside for rushes, 6s. 8d.” The practice appears to have arisen simply from a desire to promote warmth and comfort within the churches by providing a covering for the bare earth, and its connection with rush-bearing, when it existed, must be regarded as having been purely accidental. Brand has discovered another motive for rush-strewing, more especially in private houses, and one not very flattering to our forefathers:—“As our ancestors,” writes he, “rarely washed their floors, disguises of uncleanliness became very necessary.” Erasmus, also, a Greek Professor at Oxford in the time of Henry VIII., in describing the hovels in which the agricultural labourers and others of the lower classes lived, says:—“The floors are commonly of clay strewed with rushes; under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, and everything that is nasty.”

From 1589 to 1590 inclusive, the daily wages, without board, of a ditcher were 4d., a thresher 6d., a hedger 4d., a gardener 10d., and a master-mason 14d. In 1533 it was enacted that no tenant should hold more than two farms at once; and fifty-five years later sundry penalties were imposed upon any one erecting cottages for the agricultural population without attaching four acres of land to each, also for allowing more than one family to occupy a cottage at the same time.[48] A law was passed in 1597, directing that all houses of husbandry which had fallen into decay within a period of seven years should be rebuilt, and from twenty to forty acres of ground apportioned to each.[49] The average yields of grain per acre on well-cultivated soils during the latter half of the sixteenth century were—wheat 20 bushels, barley 32 bushels, and oats 40 bushels. The subjoined tables contain the average prices of some of the common articles of consumption:—

In 1500.		In 1541.		In 1590.		In 1597.
12 Pigeons	4d.	0s.	10d.	1s.	0d.	4s.	3d.
100 Eggs	7d.	1s.	6d.			3s.	6d.
1 Goose	4d.	0s.	8d.
1 Chicken	1d.					0s.	8d.
1 Lb. of Butter		0s.	3d.	0s.	4d.

In 1581, the charge for shoeing a horse was 10d., and sometimes 12d. Here it may be noticed, although perhaps rather digressive, that the herb tobacco was introduced into this country sometime during the summer of 1586, by a party of Englishmen, who for a short time colonised the island of Roanoak, near the coast of Virginia, but, having quarrelled with the aborigines, were removed home in the ships of Sir Francis Drake. Camden, writing of these men, says:—“They were the first that I know of that brought into England that Indian plant which they called tabacca and nicotia, or tobacco, which they used against crudities, being taught it by the Indians. Certainly, from that time forward, it began to grow into great request, and to be sold at a high rate; whilst in a short time many men, everywhere, some for wantonness, some for health sake, with insatiable desires and greediness, sucked in the stinking smoke thereof through an earthen pipe, which presently they blew out again at their nostrils; insomuch that tobacco-shops are now as ordinary in most towns as tap-houses and taverns.”

The following rhymes, descriptive of the games and recreations common in Lancashire amongst the youth of both sexes, were written in 1600, by Samuel Rowland:—

“Any they dare challenge for to throw the sledge,

To jump or leap over ditch or hedge;

To wrestle, play at stool-ball, or to run,

To pitch the bar or to shoot off a gun;

To play at loggats, nine-holes, or ten-pins,

To try it out at foot-ball by the shins;

At tick-tacke, seize-noddy, maw, and ruff;

At hot-cockles, leap-frog, or blindman’s buff;

To drink the halper-pots, or deal at the whole can;

To play at chess, or pue, and inkhorn;

To dance the morris, play at barley-brake;

At all exploits a man can think or speak:

At shove-groat, venter-point, or cross and pile;

At ‘beshrew him that’s last at any style’;

At leaping over a Christmas bonfire,

Or at ‘drawing the dame out of the mire’;

At shoot-cock, Gregory, stool-ball, and what-not;

Pick-point, top and scourge, to make him hot.”

Many of these games have long since become obsolete. Tick-tacke resembled backgammon, but was rather more complicated; seize-noddy, maw, and ruff were games of cards, the first being somewhat similar to cribbage, while the two latter have no modern representatives, although the expression to ruff is frequently used at the whist-table; ‘cross and pile’ is merely an earlier name of ‘pitch and toss’; and shoot-cock has been modernised into shuttlecock.

During the seventeenth century occasional village fairs were held in the Fylde, at which such uncouth games as “grinning through a horse-collar,” as well as trials in whistling, etc., were common amusements, while pedlars’ stalls, puppet shows, raffling tables, and drinking booths were well attended by the holidaymakers. At that period any damsel, wishing to learn something, be it ever so little, of her future mate, was directed to run until out of breath on hearing the first notes of the cuckoo, and on removing her shoe she would find a hair of the same colour as that of the husband whom fate had selected for her. On May-day a snail placed upon the ashes of the hearth would trace the initial letter, or letters, of the lover’s name; or the rind, peeled from an apple and thrown backwards over the head, would by its arrangement on falling to the ground effect a similar purpose:—

“Last May-day fair I search’d to find a snail

That might my secret lover’s name reveal:

Upon a gooseberry bush a snail I found,

For always snails near sweetest fruit abound.

I seiz’d the vermin; home I quickly sped,

And on the hearth the milk white embers spread,

Slow crawled the snail, and if I right can spell

In the soft ashes marked a curious L.”[50]

This couplet was recited by young maidens after capturing an insect called a Lady-bird, and on releasing it:—

“Fly, Lady-bird, fly south, east, or west;

Fly where the man is that I love best.”

The following extracts from an “inventarye of all the goods and chattels of Peter Birket, late of Borrands,” taken after his decease in 1661, will furnish a pretty accurate idea of the monetary worth of certain articles of farming stock at that time:—“One outshoote of hay, £1 6s. 8d.; one stack of hay without dores, 10s.; one scaffold of hay, 10s.; one mare and one colt, £3; five geese, 4s.; 13 sheepe, £3; one cock and five hens, 2s.; one calfe, 10s.; two heiffers, £3; one heiffer, £2; one cow, £2 10s.; another cow, £3 10s.” Whether this gentleman was a fair representative of his class or not we are unable to say, but if so, the small farmers of Lancashire, to whom he appears to have belonged, were not over indulgent in articles of dress or comfort, for the whole of his wearing apparel was valued at no more than £1, whilst his bedding realised only 5s.

In 1725 the Lancashire justices arranged and ordered that the rate of wages in all parts of this county should be:—

A bailiff in husbandry, or chief hind	£6	0s.	0d.	per year,	with board.
A chief servant in husbandry, able to mow or sow	5	0	0	”	”
A common servant in husbandry of 24 years of age and upwards	4	0	0	”	”
A man servant from 20 to 24 years of age	3	10	0	”	”
A man servant from 16 to 20 years of age	2	10	0	”	”
The best woman servant, able to cook	2	10	0	”	”
Dairy man, or lower servant	2	0	0	”	”
Woman servant under 16 years of age	1	10	0	”	”
The best of millers	5	0	0	”	”

They also appointed the hours of labour for those hired by the day to be, between the middle of March and the middle of September, from five in the morning until half-past seven in the evening, and during the remainder of the year from sunrise to sunset, resting half-an-hour at breakfast, an hour at dinner, and half-an-hour at “drinking,” as the meal corresponding to our “tea” was termed. “In the summer half,” added the magisterial mandate, “the labourers may sleep each day half-an-hour; else for every hour’s absence to defaulk a penny; and every Saturday afternoon or eve of a holiday, that they cease to work, is to be accounted but half a day.” The day wages, as fixed by the same authorities, were:—

The best kind of husbandry labourer	12d.	without,	and	6d.	with board.
An ordinary labourer	10d.	”	and	5d.	”
A male haymaker	10d.	”	and	6d.	”
A woman haymaker	7d.	”	and	3d.	”
A mower	15d.	”	and	9d.	”
A man shearer	12d.	”	and	6d.	”
A woman shearer	10d.	”	and	6d.	”
Hedgers, Ditchers, Threshers, and persons employed in task work	10d.	”	and	6d.	”
Masons, Joiners, Plumbers, Tilers, Slaters, Coopers, and Turners	12d.	”	and	6d.	”
Master workman, acting as foreman	14d.	without board.

From 1660 to 1690, the average price of mutton was 2d. per pound; from 1706 to 1730, 2½d.; and from 1730 to 1760, 3d. per pound. The prices of beef, veal, and lamb in 1710, were respectively 1⅒d., 2⅗d., and 2⁹⁄₁₀d., per pound.

During the eighteenth and earlier part of the nineteenth centuries there was perhaps no pastime more popular amongst the adult members of all classes than the callous sport of cock-fighting; every village and hamlet in the Fylde had its pit, where mains were held at all times and seasons. The following were the rules pretty generally adopted in this neighbourhood for the regulation of the contests:—

“1.—To begin the main by fighting the lighter pair of cocks which fall in match first, proceeding upwards towards the end, that every lighter pair may fight earlier than those that are heavier.

“2.—In matching, with relation to the battles, after the cocks of the main are weighed, the match bills are to be compared.

“3.—That every pair of equal weight are separated, and fight against others; provided it appears that the main can be enlarged by adding thereto.”

Skippool was one of the favourite resorts for the gentry of our district when wishful to indulge in their favourite amusement, and frequent allusions to the cockpit there are to be found in the journal of Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, as—“June 9, 1714, ... thence to Skipall, where at a cockin I meet with a deal of gentlemen. Gave Ned M⸺y 1s. for his expenses; spent 1s., and won 2s. 6d. of Dr. Hesketh’s cockes.” In 1790 a notice appeared in Liverpool that “The great main of cocks between John Clifton, Esq., of Lytham, and Thomas Townley Parker, Esq., of Cuerden, would be fought on Easter Monday, the 5th of April, and the three following days, at the new cockpit in Cockspur Street—to show forty-one cocks each. Ten guineas each battle, and two hundred guineas the main.” The great-grandfather of the present Lord Derby compelled each of his tenants to maintain a game-cock for his benefit, and many were the birds supplied from the Fylde to uphold his great reputation as a successful cock-fighter.

One of the most ancient punishments amongst our forefathers was that of the Brank or Scolds’ Bridle, a specimen of which was possessed by Kirkham, and doubtless many others existed in the Fylde. This instrument was but little removed in severity from those implements of torture in vogue at the time of the Inquisition, but differed from them in one important particular—it was intended to control or silence, and not to stimulate, the tongue of its victim. The Brank consisted of an iron framework, which was fitted on to the head of the offender, usually some woman whose intemperate language had incensed her husband; and a metal spike, attached to the front of it, was so inserted into the mouth that the slightest movement of the tongue brought that sensitive organ in contact with its sharp edge or point. Doctor Plott, who appears to have held the Brank in high estimation, and to have considered it greatly superior to another mode of correction, much in fashion during his day, says:—“This artifice is much to be preferred to the ducking-stool, which not only endangers the health of the party, but gives liberty of tongue betwixt every dip.”

The Ducking-stool or Cuck-stool consisted of a substantial chair, fastened to the extremity of a long pole, and suspended over a pool of water. The middle of the pole rested on an upright post near the edge of the pond, and was attached to it by means of a pivot-hinge, so that the chair could be swung round to the side to receive its victim, and, after being freighted and restored to its original position, plunged into the water by raising the other end of the shaft as often as those on the bank deemed it necessary to cool the anger of the unfortunate scold. Several pools in different parts of the Fylde still retain their names of Cucking-ponds, and the last person condemned to suffer the barbarous punishment was a young woman at Poulton, but she was happily rescued by the kindly intervention of Madam Hornby, who became surety for her good conduct in future.

In the belfry of Bispham church there formerly stood a plain-looking wooden frame, which in earlier times had done duty as a pennance-stool, but some years since the chair was removed, and probably destroyed, as no trace of its existence has since been discovered. The last to perform pennance in this church and sit upon the stool was a woman, who seems to have been living as recently as 1836. A public pennance was exacted by the Church from all frail maidens, who desired to obtain pardon for the sins into which they had fallen. The ceremony consisted of parading the aisles of the parish church with a candle in each hand, barefooted, and clothed in white. Jane Breckal, of Poulton, was the last to undergo the ceremony at that place, some time during the ministry of the Rev. Thos. Turner, 1770 to 1810. The sobs and cries of the unfortunate girl aroused the indignation of the inhabitants against the pennance, and the cruel and degrading exhibition was never repeated.

Riding Stang was another plan of punishment formerly inflicted on quarrelsome or adulterous persons, and a woman named Idle, of Great Layton, is mentioned as being the last of its victims in that locality, and very likely in the whole of the Fylde. There seem to have been two ways adopted of Riding Stang, one of which was to mount the offending party or parties on a ladder, supported at each end on the shoulders of one or sometimes two men, and carry them about the neighbourhood for several hours, accompanied by a band of men and boys beating tin kettles, frying-pans, etc.; the other mode, and perhaps the more antique one, was to place a youth astride a ladder, borne as in the previous case, and arm him with a hand-bell, so that he was fully equipped to undertake the duties of town crier. A procession was then formed, and, amidst the discordant sounds of the instruments just alluded to, paraded through the streets of the village, whilst the crier, who usually did his part with great gusto, shouted out the following doggrel rhymes, varying some portions of them when occasion required:—

“Ran a dan, ran a dan, dan, dan,

But for ... has been banging his good dame.

He banged her, he banged her, he banged her, indeed,

He banged her, poor woman, before she stood need;

For neither wasting his substance nor spending his brass,

But she was a woman, and he was an ass.

Now, all good people that live in this row,

I would have you take warning, for this is our law,

And if you do your good wives bang,

For you three nights we will ride this stang.

Hurrah! hurrah!”

When the offender happened to be some woman, who had inflicted chastisement on the person of her spouse, the rhyme was altered to suit her sex, and asserted that “he was a coward, and she was an ass.” The remains of stocks in various states of preservation, are still to be seen in many old villages, and their use is of too recent a date to require any elucidation in this volume.

On the fifth Sunday in Lent, Carling Sunday, the villagers prepared a feast, consisting chiefly of peas, first steeped in water, and afterwards fried in butter, which were eaten on the afternoon of that day. Small troops or companies of pace-egg mummers went from house to house in Passion week enacting a short dramatic piece, and afterwards soliciting money, or, in some cases, eggs, from their audience. The dramatis personæ usually represented St. George, the champion of England; a Turk, dressed in national costume; the Doctor, of the quack fraternity; the Fool; and one or two others. In the play, the Turk was wounded by St. George, and being left for dead upon the field, guarded by the Fool, was restored to health and strength by the Doctor, who opportunely arrived, and concluded his self-laudatory harangue over the body of the apparently defunct Turk, thus:—

“Here, Jack, take a little out of my bottle,

And let it run down thy throttle;

If thou be not quite slain,

Rise, Jack, and fight again.”

Easter mumming is now rapidly becoming obsolete, and at present amounts to nothing more entertaining than the recital of a few weak, almost meaningless, rhymes, by, usually, five young boys, decorated with ribbons and coloured paper, and supposed to represent Lord Nelson, a Jack-Tar, a Lovely Youth, Old Toss-pot, and Old Bessy Branbags.

“Lifting at Easter” was an old-established practice, existing in the villages, of hoisting individuals in the air, either in a chair or by any other means that might be convenient, until they purchased their release by payment of a forfeit, generally some small coin. On Ascension-day the parochial schoolmaster conducted his pupils, armed with peeled willow wands, round the limits of the parish, and each pupil struck the various boundary marks with his stick as he passed them. All-Hallows’ E’en was the time when the young people tested the durability of love or friendship by burning nuts:—

“Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame,

And to each nut I gave a sweetheart’s name:

This with the loudest bounce, me sore amazed,

That in a flame of brightest colour blazed;

As blazed the nut, so may thy passion grow,

For ’twas thy nut that did so brightly glow!”[51]

Other pastimes contributed to the evening’s amusement, such as “ducking for apples,” and “snatch apple”—a tub, in the former case, having been nearly filled with water, and the fruit placed in it, each in turn, with hands bound behind them, endeavoured to seize the prize with the teeth; in the latter game, an apple was fastened to one extremity of a rod and a lighted candle to the other, the whole being suspended by a string from the ceiling, and the players, bound as before, snapped at the apple, and avoided the flame as well as they were able.

Until within the last fifty or sixty years, the mosses of Marton and the hills in the vicinity of the Fylde were illuminated with bonfires on All-Hallows’ Eve, or Teanlay-night, as it was called, kindled by the country people with the avowed object of succouring their friends who were lingering in the imaginary regions of a middle state. A field near Poulton received the name of “Purgatory” from the mummery of the “Teanlays” having, on one occasion at least, been celebrated there.[52] This ceremony was simple in its performance, and consisted merely of a circle of men raising masses of blazing straw on high with pitch-forks. On All Souls’ Day our Catholic forefathers were accustomed to bake cakes of oatmeal and aromatic seeds, named Soul-cakes, and these, together with pasties and furmety, formed a feast invariably eaten at that season. Remnants of this custom existed even in late years amongst the youths of Marton and some other townships and villages, who on the day of ancient festival solicited money, under the name of Soul-pence, from their neighbours.

We will now enumerate some of the superstitions and beliefs that have prevailed in the Fylde more recently than those to which allusion has been made in the earlier part of the chapter.

The following adage, showing the signification of certain marks on the nails, will probably be familiar to many of our readers, and it is questionable whether, even yet, it is not regarded by a few of the less enlightened of the peasantry as something more than a mere saying:—

“Specks on the fingers,

Fortune often lingers;

Specks on the thumbs,

Fortune surely comes.”

No sick person could die if the bed or pillow upon which he lay contained a pigeon’s feather; and, at an earlier date, the dwellers near the coast firmly believed that life could only depart with the ebbing tide. A horse-shoe nailed against the stable or barn-door, or a broom-stick placed across the threshold of the dwelling, prevented the entrance of witches or evil persons; also a hot heater placed in the churn, and the mark of a cross, protected respectively the cream and baking of dough from their presence. The advent of guests was made known to the family circle by certain conditions of the fire-grate; thus, a flake of soot hanging from the topmost bar foretold a boy visitor, from the second a man, from the third a woman, and from the fourth a girl. Cats were popularly supposed to have the power of drawing the breath, and as a natural consequence the life, out of children when asleep, and for this reason great care was taken to exclude them from bedchambers. Should a dark complexioned person be the first to enter a dwelling on New Year’s morning, the household looked forward with confidence to a prosperous year; but if the person happened to be light, more especially if he had red hair, the omen was regarded as unpropitious. Moon-beams shining through the windows of bedrooms were considered injurious to the sleepers, and even capable of distorting their features, or rendering them imbecile. Children were taught to recite these simple lines whenever the moon shone into their chambers:—

“I see the moon,

The moon sees me;

God bless the priest

That christened me.”

A tooth, after extraction, was sprinkled with salt and thrown into the fire in order to insure peace and comfort to the person from whose mouth it had been removed. A pair of shoes placed under the bed so that the tips of the toes alone were visible, formed a certain remedy for cramp. Warts were removed by rubbing them with a piece of stolen beef, which was afterwards carefully and secretly buried to render the charm complete; a snail hung on to a thorn was equally efficacious in removing these excrescences, which gradually faded away as the snail itself melted and vanished. A bag, containing small stones of the same number as the warts, thrown over the left shoulder, transmitted them to the person who had the misfortune to pick up the pebbles. People labouring under attacks of ague, jaundice, or other ailments, applied for relief to the wise-men of the neighbourhood, who professed to cure them by incantations. The two following receipts are taken from an old medical work, published as early as 1612, and in its time a highly popular authority on matters of “Phisicke and Chirurgerie” amongst our rural populations:—

“A good Medicine to staunch the bleeding of the Nose, although it bleed never so freely.

“Take an egg and breake it on the top, in such sorte that all the white and yolke may issue cleane forthe of it; then fill the egg-shell with some of the bloud of the party which bleedeth, and put it in the fire, and there let it remaine until it be harde, and then burne it to ashes, and it will staunch the bleeding immediately without all doubt.”

“A very good Medicine to staunch bloud when nothing else will do it, by reason the veine is cut, or that the wound is greate.

“Take a Toade and dry him very well in the sunne, and then put him in a linen Bagge, and hang him about the necke of him that bleedeth with a stringe, and let it hange so low that it may touch his breaste on the left side neere unto his hart, and commonly this will stay all manner of bleeding at the mouth, nose, wound, or otherwise whatever. Probatum est.”

A woman named Bamber, living at Marton, attained to considerable celebrity amongst the peasantry and others by her skill in checking bleeding, which she is reported to have accomplished by the utterance of some mystic words.

The people of the Fylde were not exempt from the common belief in the miraculous power of the Royal touch in that particular form of disease known as king’s evil, for amongst the records of the Thirty-men of Kirkham is a notice that in 1632 a sum of money was “given to Ricd. Barnes’s child, that had the king’s evil, to help him up to London,” to be touched by Charles I.

The fairies of the Fylde were supposed, like those of other localities, to reside in the earth; the vicinity of a cold spring, situated between Hardhorn and Newton, was one of their legendary resorts, and from such reputation acquired the name of “Fairies’ well.” Many stories are told of the mischievous, or good-natured doings of these imaginary beings; one or two of which we will here narrate:—A poor woman when filling her pitcher at the above well, in order to bathe the weak eyes of her infant, was gently addressed by a handsome man, who gave her a small box of ointment, and told her at the same time that it would prove an infallible remedy for the ailment of her child. The woman, although grateful for the present, either overcome by that irresistible curiosity which is commonly, but perhaps erroneously, supposed to attach itself to her sex, or doubtful of the efficacy which the stranger had assigned to the drug, applied it to one of her own eyes. A few days afterwards she had occasion to go to Preston, and whilst there detected her benefactor in the act of stealing corn from the open mouths of some sacks exposed for sale, and, having accosted him, began to remonstrate with him on the wickedness of his proceedings, when he inquired with evident surprise, how she became enabled to observe him, as he was invisible to all else. She explained the use that had been made of his ointment, and pointed to the powerful eye; but hardly had the words been uttered and the organ of supernatural vision indicated, before he raised his clenched hand, and with one blow struck out the offending optic, or rather reduced it to a state of total and irrecoverable blindness. Another anecdote refers to a milkmaid, who, whilst engaged in her avocation, perceived a jug and sixpence placed near to her by some invisible means; but no way disconcerted by the singular event, and probably attributing it to the agency of one of the elvan tribes, she filled the pitcher with milk, and, having watched its mysterious disappearance and, with unerring commercial instinct, pocketed the silver coin, took her departure. This episode was repeated for many successive mornings, until the maiden, overjoyed at her good fortune, revealed the curious adventures to her lover, and from that hour the hobgoblins appear either to have grown less thirsty, or, annoyed at what they might consider the betrayal of their secret, to have removed their custom to some other dairy, for neither jug nor sixpence ever gladdened the morning labours of the milkmaid again. A ploughman had his good nature, in cheerfully repairing the broken “spittle” of a lady liberally rewarded. The fairy, for such she proved to be, made known her presence to the agriculturist by suddenly crying in a distressed tone—“I have broken my speet,” and then held out in her hands the useless instrument with a hammer and nails. No sooner had she received her property, restored to a state of utility, than she vanished into the earth, but not, however, without leaving a substantial acknowledgment of his skill and kindness in the palm of the astonished husbandman.

We can only discover a record of one witch in the Fylde; this person of unenviable notoriety is stated to have had her abode in Singleton, and to have been known to the villagers as Mag Shelton. Her food, according to local tradition, was composed of boiled groats mixed with thyme or parsley, and numerous are the anecdotes related of her evil machinations and doings in the neighbourhood—the cows of the country people were constantly milked by her, whilst the pitcher walked before her in the form of a goose; lives were blighted and prosperity checked by the influence of her evil eye. Once, however, she was foiled by a girl, who fastened her to a chair by sticking a bodkin, crossed with two weavers’ healds, about her dress when seated before a large fire.

Some idea of the spiritual condition of the peasantry may be obtained from the perusal of the following prayer, a common one amongst the children of the Fylde about one hundred years ago:—

“Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

Bless the bed that I lie on;

There are four corners to my bed,

And four angels overspread,

Two at the feet and two at the head.

If any ill thing me betide,

Beneath your wings my body hide.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

Bless the bed that I lie on.”

Bacon was considered to prove the finest and best if the hogs were slaughtered before the moon began to wane, and in some month whose name contained the letter R:—

“Unless your bacon you would mar

Kill not your pig without the R.”

The dumb-cake was made by unmarried women who wished to divine the selection of fate as to their future husbands. The cake was baked in strict silence by two maidens on Midsummer’s eve, and afterwards broken into three pieces by another, who placed one under each of their pillows; during sleep the expectant fair ones were rewarded with a vision of their lovers, but the charm was ruined if only a single word were spoken. Hemp-seed, also, was sown by young maidens, who whilst scattering it recited the words “Hemp-seed I sow, hemp-seed I hoe, and he that is my true-love come after me and mow.” After repeating the rhyme three times it was only necessary to look over the shoulder, and the apparition of the destined swain would never fail to appear:—

“At eve last Midsummer no sleep I sought,

But to the field a bag of hemp-seed brought;

I scattered round the seed on every side,

And three times, in a trembling accent cried:

‘This hemp-seed with my virgin hand I sow,

Who shall my true love be the crop shall mow.’

I straight looked back, and, if my eyes speak truth,

With his keen scythe behind me came a youth.”[53]

A spinster who fasted on Midsummer’s eve, and at midnight laid a clean cloth, with bread, cheese, and ale, and sat down to the table as though about to eat, would be gratified with a sight of the person to whom she would be married. This individual was supposed to pass through the doorway, left open for the purpose, as the clock struck twelve, and, approaching the table, to salute his future partner with a bow and a pretence of drinking her health, after which he vanished, and the maid retired to her couch to rejoice or mourn, according as she admired or contemned the prospect in store for her. Cuttings or combings from the hair were thrown into the fire, and upon their blazing brightly or smouldering away depended the duration of life likely to be enjoyed by the person from whose head they had been taken. Wishing-wells and gates were visited by credulous rustics, who were anxious to make use of their mysterious power in obtaining their desires in matters of love or business. The forefinger was deemed venomous, and on that account children were instructed not to spread salve or ointment with it.

About a century ago oats formed the chief production, and nearly, if indeed not quite, the only grain crop cultivated in the Fylde. When reaped, in harvest time, this commodity was carried on the backs of pack-horses to the markets of Poulton, Kirkham, Garstang, and Preston. The “horse bridge” between Carleton and Poulton was originally a narrow structure, capable only of affording passage to a single horse at once, and it was from the practice of the farmers, with their laden cattle, crossing the stream by its aid, when journeying to market, that the bridge derived its name. These horses followed a leader ornamented with a bell, and after they had arrived at their destination and been relieved of their burdens, returned home in the same order without a driver, leaving him to attend to his duties at the market. The old bridge in use at the period to which we allude, still exists, but is built over and hidden by the present erection. Later experience has taught the agriculturist that the soil of the Fylde is capable of producing, under proper tillage, other crops, equal in their abundance to the one to which it appears formerly to have been mainly devoted, and it would be difficult at the present day to enumerate with accuracy the many and varied fruits of the earth that have found a home in the Corn-field of Amounderness.

We mentioned about the commencement of the chapter that marl was in general use as a manure in the Anglo-Saxon era, and here it is perhaps hardly necessary to state that this substance, so rich in lime and so adapted for giving consistency to the sandy soils, is still occasionally had recourse to by the husbandman. Guano was first introduced into this country about the year 1842, but it is probable that it was not commonly used in our district until the beginning of 1845, when a cargo was imported from Ichaboe to Fleetwood by Messrs. Kemp and Co., and offered for sale to the farmers of the neighbourhood. Other cargoes followed. Subjoined are arranged some tables showing the average market values of certain productions of the Fylde in the two years given:—

	1847. Inclusive.				1867. Inclusive.
	Jan. to June.		July to Dec.		Jan. to June.		July to Dec.
Wheat, per windle	39s.	6d.	25s.	6d.	31s.	8d.	32s.	6d.
Meal, per load	52s.	6d.	41s.	6d.	37s.	0d.	37s.	6d.
Beans, per windle	25s.	6d.	22s.	6d.
Oats, per bushel	5s.	10½d.	4s.	8d.	4s.	5d.	4s.	6d.
Potatoes, per windle	21s.	6d.[54]	7s.	0d.	12s.	8d.	11s.	6d.
Butter, per pound	1s.	1d.	1s.	1½d.	1s.	5d.	1s.	3d.
Eggs, per dozen	0s.	10d.	0s.	10d.	0s.	11d.	1s.	0d.
Pork, per pound	0s.	6d.	0s.	6d.	0s.	5½d.	0s.	6d.
Beef ”	0s.	6½d.	0s.	7½d.	0s.	7¾d.	0s.	6¾d.
Mutton ”	0s.	6¾d.	0s.	8½d.	0s.	8d.	0s.	7d.
Geese ”	0s.	6¾d.[55]

CHAPTER V.
COSTUMES, COUNTRY, RIVERS, AND SEA.

The history of the dresses and costumes of the inhabitants of the Fylde is interesting not only on account of the multifarious changes and peculiarities which it exhibits, but also as a sure indication of the progress in civilisation, wealth, and taste, made in our section at different eras. To Julius Cæsar we are indebted for our earliest knowledge of the scanty dress worn by the aborigines of this district, and from that warrior it is learnt that a slight covering of roughly prepared skins, girded about the loins, and the liberal application of a blue dye, called woad, to the rest of the body constituted the sole requisites of their primitive toilets. Cæsar conjectures that the juice or dye of woad was employed by the people to give them a terror-striking aspect in battle, but here he seems to have fallen into error, for the wars engaged in by the Setantii would be confined to hostilities with neighbouring tribes, stained in a similar manner, and it is scarcely reasonable to suppose that either side would hope to intimidate the other by the use of a practice common to both. A more probable explanation of the custom is, that it was instituted for the ornamental qualities it possessed in the eyes of the natives. Such a view is supported by the remarks of Solinus, a Roman author, who informs us that the embellishments usually consisted of the figures of animals, “which grew with the growth of the body”; and from this it is evident that before the frame had arrived at maturity, in either youth or childhood, the skin was subjected to the painful and laborious process of tattooing, for such according to Isidore, appears to have been the nature of the operation. The latter asserts that the staining was accomplished by squeezing out the juice of the plant on to the skin, and puncturing it in with sharp needles. When the Romans established a station at Kirkham, and opened out the Fylde by means of a good road-way to the coast, the Setantii modified their wild uncultivated habits, and, taking pattern from the more civilised garb of their conquerors, adopted a covering for the lower limbs, called brachæ, hence the modern breeches, whilst many of the chiefs were not long before they strutted about in all the pride of a toga, or gown. About four hundred years later, when the Anglo-Saxons had taken possession of the soil of the Fylde, and had either appropriated the deserted settlements and renamed them, or reared small and scattered groups of dwellings of their own, a marked change became visible in the nationality, character, and costumes of the people. No longer the semi-civilised and half-clad Briton was lord of the domain, but the more refined Saxon with his linen shirt, drawers, and stockings, either of linen or woollen, and bandaged crosswise from the ankle to the knee with strips of leather; over these a tunic of the same material as the stockings was thrown, and reached as low as the knees, being plain or ornamented according to the means or rank of the wearer. This garment was open at the neck and for a short distance over the chest; the sleeves, extending to the wrists, were generally tight, and a girdle frequently, but not universally, confined the gown round the waist. In addition a small cloak was worn for out-door purposes over the tunic, and fastened on the breast or shoulder with brooches or clasps. The shoes of the Saxon settlers were open down the instep, where they were laced or tied with two thongs. Even the very lowest of the population, although poverty might reduce them to miserable straits, seldom, if ever, went barefooted. Caps, on the contrary, were not in great request, and rarely to be seen, unless on the heads of some of the more affluent. Our female ancestors at that era were habited in a close-fitting dress, falling to the feet and furnished with tight sleeves, reaching as far as the wrists, over which was placed a shorter gown with loose open sleeves. Their head-dress was simply a strip of linen of sufficient length to wrap round the temples and fall on the neck. Amongst the wealthiest of the nation a flowing mantle, ornaments of precious metal, and sable, beaver, and fox furs were common, but the inhabitants of the Fylde, being of less exalted social standing, were obliged to content themselves with the skins of lambs and cats by way of adornment. The inferior farm servants, called serfs, amongst whom many of the vanquished Britons would be classed, were seldom indulged by their masters with more than a coat, a pair of drawers, and sandals, the shirt, we presume, being deemed ill suited to their positions of servitude and dependence.

The colonisation of the Danes, whatever effect it may have had upon the habits and condition of the people, exercised no lasting influence upon their dress, and it was not until half a century after the Norman baron, Roger de Poictou, had parcelled out the land amongst his tenants, that the bulk of the males were induced, by the example of the new-comers, to display their taste in the choice of a head-covering. Many varieties were daily open to their inspection on the brows of the Norman landholders and servants, but the diffidence, let us hope, of the now humbled Saxons suggested the adoption of an exceedingly plain flat species of bonnet, which speedily became the common cap of the district. The ladies, however, with a greater aptitude for rising superior to disappointment and affliction, were not dilatory in benefitting by the superior style of the fair partners of their conquerors, and soon, putting aside all semblance of depression, appeared in long cuffs, hanging to the ground from their upper dress sleeves and tied in a large knot; their kerchiefs, also, whose modest proportions had formerly served only to encircle the forehead, were now extravagantly lengthened and fastened in a similar manner. As years rolled on and fashion began to assert her sway with a greater show of authority, the shoes of the men underwent certain changes, becoming more neat in workmanship and having the toes somewhat elongated and pointed, whilst the richer of the gentry, chiefly Normans, wore short boots reaching a little distance up the calf. In the early part of the thirteenth century the female head-dresses consisted of nets, made from various materials, in which the hair was confined; and the trains of the gowns were lengthened. Later in the same era cowls or hoods, twisted and pinned in fanciful shapes, adorned the heads of the ladies, and formed the main feature of their walking costumes. Aprons also came up at that period. The dress of the men underwent no alteration of any moment until the first half of the fourteenth century, when the manorial lords of the neighbourhood, and others of the inhabitants, discarded the cloaks and tunics of their forefathers, and substituted in their stead a close-fitting outer garment of costly and handsome material, scarcely covering the hips, immediately above which it was surrounded by a girdle. The sleeves usually terminated at the elbows, and from there long white streamers depended, whilst the sleeves of an under dress reached to the wrists, and were ornamented with rows of buttons. A long cape and cowl was the general overcoat. The most characteristic dress of the ladies was a habit cut away at the sides so as to expose the under skirt, which was invariably of rich and fine texture. The long white streamers, just alluded to, were part of the female as well as the male attire, and the borders of the habit were bound with fur or velvet. We may mention that an English beau of that era wore long pointed shoes, the toes of which were connected with the knees by gold or silver chains, a long stocking of different colour on each leg, short trowsers, barely extending to the middle of the thigh, a coat, half of which was white and the other blue or some equally bright colour, and a silken hood or bonnet, fastened under the chin, embroidered with grotesque figures of animals, and occasionally decked with gold and precious stones. Lest, however, the reputations of our ancestors should suffer in the eyes of the present generation from the existence in their age of the absurdity here pictured, it is our duty and pleasure to assure all readers that such parodies on manhood were strictly confined to the populous cities, and that there is no probability of even a solitary specimen ever having desecrated the modest soil of the Fylde.

During the greater portion of the succeeding cycle of a hundred years a species of cloth turban was much in favour amongst the male sex of the middle and upper classes, from one side of which a length of the same material hung down below the waist, and was either thrust between the girdle and the coat, or wrapped round the neck as a protection from cold. Faces were cleanly shaved, and hair cut as close to the scalp as possible; hitherto, from about the date of the first arrival of the Normans, the practice had been to allow the latter to grow long and to wear the beard. The hose were long and tight. The boots were either short, or reached half-way up the thighs, both kinds being long toed. Occasionally a single feather relieved the plainness of the turban-shaped cap. The ordinary dress of the gentlewomen was a full trained robe or gown, made high in the neck, and sometimes, with a fur or velvet turn-over collar, its folds at the short-waist being confined by means of a simple band and buckle. Coiffures were mostly heart-shaped, but in some rare instances horned. The sleeves of the above costume were, shortly after its institution, lengthened and widened to a ridiculous extent. Towards the end of the particular era of which we are writing trains were discontinued, and broad borders of fur substituted, whilst round tapering hats, two feet in height, with loose kerchiefs floating from the apex, came much into favour. The last few years of the fifteenth and the earliest ones of the sixteenth centuries were marked by great changes in the male attire; the Butlers, Cliftons, Carletons, Westbys, Allens, Molyneux, and many others of the gentry of the neighbourhood, figured at that period in fine shirts of long lawn, embroidered with silk round the collar and wristbands, a doublet with sleeves open at the elbows to allow the shirt to protrude, a stomacher, over which the doublet was laced; a long gown or cloak, with loose or hanging sleeves and broad turn-over collar of fur or velvet; long hose or stockings; broad-toed shoes for ordinary use, and high boots, reaching to the knees, for riding purposes; and broad felt hats, or variously shaped caps of fur or velvet, adorned with ostrich or other feathers. The hair was permitted to grow enormously long and fall down the back and over the shoulders, but the face was still cleanly shaved, with the exception of military and aged persons, who wore mustaches or beards. The wives and daughters, belonging to such families as those alluded to, were habited in upper garments, cut square at the neck, and stomachers, belts, and buckles, or costly girdles with long pendants in front. The sleeves were slit at the elbows in a manner similar to those of the men. High head-dresses were abandoned, and a cap or caul of gold net or embroidery, which allowed the hair to flow beneath it half way to the ground, took their place. Turbans, also, were fashionable for a brief season. The females of a humbler sphere wore plain grey cloth gowns, ornamented with lambs’ skin or wool, and cloaks of Lincoln green; the appearance of such an one upon a holiday is described by Skelton, the laureate of Henry VII., as under:—

“Her kirtle bristow red,

With cloths upon her head,

They weigh a ton of lead.

She hobbles as she goes,

With her blanket hose,

Her shoone smeared with tallow.”

In the following reign, the commonalty, in imitation of the example set by the resident squires in this and other parts of the kingdom, became so extravagant in their ideas of suitable habiliments that Henry VIII. issued an edict, prohibiting them from wearing ornaments of even the most simple description, and confining them to the use of cloth at a certain fixed price, and lambs’ fur only. At the same time, velvets of any colour, furs of martens, chains, bracelets, and collars of gold were allowed only to those who possessed an income of not less than two hundred marks per annum; but the sons and heirs of such were permitted to wear black velvet or damask, and tawny-coloured russet or camlet. None but those in the yearly receipt of one hundred marks could venture on satin or damask robes. The dress which may be taken as the most characteristic garb under the sovereignty of the last Henry and of his two immediate successors, comprised a doublet with long bases, or skirts, and extensive sleeves, over which was thrown a short cloak, provided with armholes for the passage of the doublet sleeves. The cloak had a wide rolling collar, made of velvet, fur, or satin, according to taste. The shirt was plaited, and embroidered with gold, silver, or silk. The hose were closely fitted to the limb, being in some cases long and entire, and in others divided, under the names of the upper and nether stocks. Slashed shoes, or buskins of velvet and satin, with broad toes, and a cap of one of sundry forms, either simply bordered, or laden with feathers, completed the costume of every male member of the numerous families inhabiting the ancient halls of this section. Sir Walter Scott, who is generally allowed to have been pretty correct in the costumes of his heroes and minor characters, has described the appearance of a yeoman of our county about the middle of the sixteenth century as follows:—

“He was an English yeoman good,

And born in Lancashire.

...

His coal-black hair, shorn round and close,

Set off his sun-burnt face;

Old England’s sign, St. George’s cross,

His barret-cap did grace;

His bugle horn hung from his side,

All in a wolf-skin baldric tied;

And his short falchion, sharp and clear,

Had pierced the throat of many a deer.

His kirtle, made of forest green,

Reached scantly to his knee;

And at his belt, of arrows keen

A furbished sheaf bore he.”

Shortly after the accession of Queen Elizabeth in 1558, remarkable alterations became evident in the fashions of the inhabitants. The skirts of the doublet were reduced to much smaller dimensions, so as thoroughly to expose the upper stocks, which, under the new title of trunk-hose, had risen to a very important place in the toilet. French trunk-hose were the first to render themselves conspicuous in our locality, and consisted of two varieties, the former of which were short, round, and full, becoming, in fact, in course of time, so swollen by padding that their use was abandoned by universal consent; and the second variety, going to the other extreme and fitting tightly to the limb, introduced. The next to arrive were the Gallic hose, very large and wide, and extending to the knee only; after which came the Venetian hose, reaching below the knee to the garter, where they were secured with silken bands. The trunk-hose, of every kind, were made of silk, velvet, satin, or damask. The nether stocks, or stockings, were of jarnsey, thread, fine yarn, and later, of silk, whilst the shoes partook more of the nature of slippers, and were variously decorated. Ruffs encircled the necks of the males as well as the females. Above the doublet was worn in the Spanish style a cloak of silk, velvet, or taffeta, and of a red, black, green, yellow, tawny, russet, or violet colour, many being bordered with long glass beads. Hats were conical and high, flat and broad, and flat and round, but in all cases were made of velvet or sarcenet, and ornamented with bunches of feathers. The robes of the ladies, made of bright-coloured velvet, silk, or fine cloth, had both tight and wide sleeves, and were branched or opened at the front of the skirt to expose the handsome petticoat beneath. The farthingale distended the dresses of our female ancestry from just below the bodice or stomacher, in a manner that few, we opine, of the fair sex would care to see revived at the present day. The ruff was of cambric or lawn, and when first introduced, moderate in its proportions, but like many other fashions of that epoch, became enlarged into an absurdity as years passed on. The hair of the ladies was curled, crisped, and arranged with most elaborate care; indeed, so curious and changeable were the coiffures that it would be tedious to our readers to offer more than this general description of them. Capes falling but a short way beyond the shoulders, and faced with fringe or velvet, were also worn. The costume of the gentlewomen during the seventeenth century, if the sombre garbs of the Roundhead families be excepted, consisted of an upper gown, which comprised a bodice and short skirt, the former being open over a laced stomacher, and the latter divided anteriorly, and its sides drawn back and looped up behind; a petticoat or under-dress, of expensive material, reaching to the ground; a yellow starched neckerchief, overspreading the shoulders and terminating on the bosom in two pointed ends; and a high crowned hat, beneath which long ringlets escaped and flowed down the back. The peasant girls or female farm servants had plain dresses, falling to the ankles, and usually tight sleeves and aprons. The bodices of some were open to the waist, but the stomachers, although laced, were of a very inferior kind, and the starched neckerchiefs were wanting. The gentlemen of the Fylde were influenced in their choice of garments according as their sympathies were with the King or Parliament, but there can be little question that in a locality so staunchly loyal as our own, the picturesque garb of the Cavaliers would predominate over the affectedly modest and plain attire of the partizans of Cromwell. The existence on the soil of such men as Sir Thomas Tyldesley, Thomas Singleton of Staining Hall, Thomas Hesketh of Mains Hall, who laid down their lives in the service of the crown, and numbers of others, who drew the sword in the cause of the throneless monarch, are fair evidence that the above conjecture is not hazarded without good reason. A doublet of silk, satin, or velvet, with large wide sleeves slashed up the front; a collar covered by a band of rich point lace, with Vandyke edging; a short cloak, thrown on one shoulder; short trousers, fringed and reaching to the wide tops of the high boots; a broad-leaved Flemish beaver hat, with a plume of feathers and band; and a sword belt and rapier, constituted the full costume of a Cavalier. Instead of the velvet doublet, a buff coat, richly laced, and encircled by a broad silk or satin scarf, fastened in a bow, was substituted when the inhabitants were under the excitement produced by actual war, in which so many took part. The hair, it should be mentioned, was worn long by the Cavaliers, and closely cropped by the Roundheads, whose dress offers no special features to our notice.

In the earlier part of last century the occupiers of Layton, Lytham, Fox, Burn, Mains, Rawcliffe, Rossall, Larbrick, etc., Halls, and others of equal social standing, who formed the gentry of the Fylde, and who consequently must be taken as our mirror of fashion, were clothed in straight square-cut waistcoats, extending to the knees, and of very gorgeous patterns; velvet breeches fastened below the knees; long silk stockings; buckled shoes, with high red heels; periwigs of monstrous size; hats, cocked on three sides; long lace neckerchiefs; and lastly, but far from the least important, a coat of rich material, having long stiff skirts and wide cuffs, turned back and adorned with gold or silver lace. The ladies had laced stomachers beneath a bodice with straight sleeves, ending at the elbow in moderately wide cuffs. The skirt of the dress was divided in front and looped up behind, disclosing a petticoat equalling or surpassing the richness of the upper garment, and trimmed with flounces and furbelows. The boots resembled those just described, but were more delicate in workmanship. The head-dress was composed of a species of cap, the lace material of which rose in three or four tiers, placed one above another, almost to a point, whilst the hair was brushed up and arranged in stiff curls, somewhat resembling a pyramid. This coiffure had only a brief reign, and was superseded by one less exalted, and of more elegant appearance. Hoops were introduced about 1720, and thirty years later silk aprons and gipsy straw hats, or small bonnets, were worn. In 1765 periwigs were discarded, and the natural hair was allowed to grow, being profusely sprinkled with powder, both by males and females. The country people were habited in long, double-breasted coats, made from frieze or homespun, and of a dark brown, grey, or other quiet shade; a light drugget waistcoat, red shag or plush breeches, and black stockings. There is no necessity to trace the costumes of our ancestors further than the point here reached, as their varieties present few phases of special interest, and probably the most striking are already sufficiently familiar to our readers. A sure, though somewhat unsteady, decline was shortly inaugurated in the sumptuous and elaborate dresses of the people, which continued its course of reform until the more economical and unostentatious dress of modern days had usurped the place of the showy habiliments of the eighteenth century.

The Country or district of the Fylde may be briefly described as broad and flat, for although in many places it is raised in gentle undulations, no hill of any altitude is to be seen upon its surface. The fertility of its soil has long been acknowledged, and a visit to its fruitful fields during the warm months of summer would disclose numbers of rich acres yellow with the ripening grain, while potatoe and bean-fields, meadow and pasture-lands, orchards and fruit gardens, are scattered over the wide area. Our design in the present instance is not, however, to enlarge upon these cultivated features, but to notice some of the more striking natural peculiarities, and to arrange in a classified list sundry of the rarer wild plants growing in the neighbourhood, enumerating also the different birds and sea-fowl, which are either natives or frequenters of the locality.

The features most calculated by their singularity to attract the attention of the stranger on surveying this division of the county are the moss-lands, the sand-hills, the mere at Marton, and the stunted appearance and inclination from the sea of those trees situated anywhere in the vicinity of the coast.

The great moss of the Fylde lies in the township of Marton, and extends six miles from north to south, and about one mile from east to west. On examining the structure of this moss, below the coarse herbage covering its surface, is discovered a substance called peat, brown and distinctly fibrous at its upper part, but becoming more and more compact as we descend, until at the bottom is presented a firm, dark-coloured, or even black mass, betraying less evidence, in some cases barely perceptible, of its fibrous formation. Beneath the peaty layer is a thick bed of clay, having imbedded in it, either partially or wholly, large trunks of trees—oak, yew, fir, etc., which, by their frequency and arrangement, show that at some period the extensive tract must have been a dense woodland, but at what particular era it is impossible, with any degree of exactness, to determine. The disinterment, however, of certain Celtic relics from the substance of the peat, which may be supposed to have belonged to the aboriginal Britons of the section, inclines us to the opinion that the lower layers of the moss were formed, and consequently the forest overthrown, anterior to the Roman occupation of our island, but how long before that time it was standing, must remain purely a matter of conjecture, unless some reliable proofs of its more precise antiquity are disclosed during operations in the turf. The manner in which the demolition of the forest was effected is also somewhat wrapt in obscurity, although it is probable that the noble trees of which it was composed were overturned and uprooted by the fury of some wide-spread inundation or the violence of some terrific hurricane. The fearful devastations, both or either of the elements here brought into action can accomplish, are too well marked in the histories of other countries for us to hesitate in ascribing to them the power of overthrowing, under similar turbulent conditions, even so substantial an obstruction as the forest must have been; but a careful study of the locality and of the several sudden incursions of the tide which have occurred during recent years, leads to the belief that the sea was the chief destructive agent, and that the gale which hurled the raging volumes of water over the low-lying lands at the south of Blackpool, and the then level wooded tract beyond, assisted only in the ruinous work. In support of such a hypothesis may be instanced the flood of 1833, when a tide, only estimated to rise to a height of sixteen feet, but greatly swollen by a furious storm from the south-west, burst over at that spot, swept away several dwelling-houses in its course, battered down the hedges, and laid waste the fields far into the surrounding country. Had this inundation occurred during the high spring tides, it is impossible to say to what extent its ravages might have been carried, but the incident as it stands, being within the recollection of many still living, and by no means a solitary example of the usual direction taken by the storm-driven waves, furnishes an apt illustration of the most natural way in which the downfall of the forest may have been accomplished. The Rev. W. Thornber, who has bestowed much time and labour on the subject, says:—“There are some facts that will go far to prove that these forests, once standing on Marton Moss, were overthrown by an inundation of the sea, viz., every tree on the Moss, as well as the Hawes, lies in a south-eastern direction from the shore; and the bank, which appears to have been the extent of this irruption, commencing at the Royal Hotel, runs exactly in the same direction. The shells, similar to those collected on the shore, intermixed with wrack of the sea, which are found in abundance under the peat, also corroborate this supposition. Moreover the tide is constantly depositing a marine silt similar to that which lies beneath the peat, and in some instances upon it.”

The wreck of such a vast number of trees would cause a great but gradual alteration in the surface of the ground. The masses of fallen timber, blocking up the streamlets and obstructing drainage, would create a more or less complete stagnation of water upon the land; the bark, branches, and leaves undergoing a process of decay would form the deepest layers of the peat; rank herbage and aquatic plants springing up and dying in endless succession, would form annual accumulations of matter, which in course of time would also be assimilated into peat, and in this manner the moss overlaying the original clayey surface and burying the ancient forest, would grow step by step to its present dimensions. Again, each layer of peat, as they were successively formed, would press upon those beneath, so that the weight of its own increase would give firmness and solidity to the substance of the moss. Thus we see that the whole secret of the creation or formation of the moss is simply a process of growth, decay, and accumulation of certain vegetable products annually repeated. The huge moss of Pilling and Rawcliffe owes its existence to similar phenomena.

The large mounds, or star-hills as they are called, which undulate the coast line from Lytham to South-Shore, are composed simply and purely of sand, covered over with a coarse species of herb, bearing the name of star-grass. Similar eminences at one time occupied the whole of the marine border of the Fylde, but in many places the encroaching tide has not only annihilated the hills themselves, but even usurped their sites. The town of Fleetwood is erected on a foundation of sand, and several extensive mounds of that nature exist in its vicinity. Below this light superficial substance, in some places very deep and thrown into its elevated forms by the long-continued action of the wind, is a subsoil resembling that found in other parts of the Fylde, and consisting of a clayey loam and alluvial matter. The diminutive size of those trees growing near the coast is due both to the openness and bleakness of the site, and the deleterious effects of the saline particles contained in the air; whilst the peculiar leaning from the water of their branches, and in many instances their trunks, is caused by the mechanical action or pressure of the strong winds and sea breezes prevailing from the west during three-fourths of the year.

Marton Mere, situated in the township indicated by its name, was formerly a lake of no inconsiderable extent, but drainage and the accumulation within its basin of sediment have reduced it to its present comparatively unimportant dimensions. Traces of the more extensive boundaries of the sheet of water in former days are still discernible along its banks, and at one time, it is stated, the wheel of a water-mill near to the village of Great Marton, was turned by a stream from the mere. The right of fishery in the lake, for such it was in the earlier periods, was the subject of legal contest in the reign of Edward III., and in 1590 John Singleton, of Staining Hall, held the privilege.

There are few districts of similar area which can boast so many and such interesting varieties of the feathered tribes, either natives or visitants, as the Fylde. Some of the rarest sea-fowl are occasionally seen along the coasts, while the fields and hedgerows abound with most of the melodious songsters of our island. Amongst the number of both land and sea birds which have been observed in the neighbourhood, either during the whole year or only in certain parts of it, may be mentioned the following:—

ORDER—RAPTORES OR RAPACIOUS BIRDS.
FALCONIDÆ OR FALCON FAMILY.
Tinnunculus Alaudarus	Kestrel	Common
Accipiter Nisus	Sparrow Hawk	Common
Circus ceruginosus	Moor Buzzard	Very rare
Strix flammea	Barn Owl	Common
Otus vulgaris	Long-eared Owl	Common
Otus brachyotus	Short-eared Owl	Common
ORDER—PASSERES OR PERCHERS.
HIRUNDINIDÆ OR SWALLOW FAMILY.
Hirundo rustica	Common Swallow	Common
Cotyle riparia	Sand Martin	Common
Chelidon urbica	House Martin	Common
LUSCINIDÆ OR WARBLER FAMILY.
Sylvia undata	Whitethroat	Common
Sylvia trochilus	Willow Warbler	Rare
Sylvia curruca	Lesser Whitethroat	Common
Sylvia sibilatrix	Wood Warbler	Rare
Calamodyta phragmitis	Sedge Warbler	Rare
Saxicola ænanthe	Wheatear	Common
Pratincola rubetra	Whinchat	Common
Pratincola rubicola	Stonechat	Rare
Ruticilla phœnicura	Redstart	Rare
Parus major	Great Titmouse	Common
Parus cæruleus	Blue Titmouse	Common
Parus caudatus	Long-tailed Titmouse	Rare
Parus ater	Cole Titmouse	Rare
Motacilla Yarrellii	Pied Wagtail	Common
Motacilla sulphurea	Yellow Wagtail	Common
Motacilla campestris	Grey Wagtail	Rather rare
Anthus pratensis	Meadow Titlark	Common
Anthus arboreus	Tree Titlark	Rare
Regulus cristatus	Golden-crested Wren	Rare
Regulus ignicapillus	Fire-crested Wren	Very rare
TURDIDÆ OR THRUSH FAMILY.
Turdus musicus	Song Thrush	Very common
Turdus viscivorus	Missel Thrush	Common
Turdus pilaris	Fieldfare	Common
Turdus iliacus	Redwing	Rather rare
Turdus merula	Blackbird	Common
Turdus torquatus	Ring Ousel	Rather rare
LANIIDÆ OR SHRIEK FAMILY.
Lanius collurio	Red-backed Shriek	Rare
CORVIDÆ OR CROW FAMILY.
Corvus Corone	Carrion Crow	Very common
Corvus cornix	Hooded Crow	Rare
Corvus frugilegus	Rook	Very common
Pica caudata	Magpie	Rather rare
STURNIDÆ OR STARLING FAMILY.
Sturnus vulgaris	Common Starling	Common
FRINGILLIDÆ OR FINCH FAMILY.
Fringilla carduelis	Goldfinch	Common
Fringilla cælebs	Chaffinch	Common
Fringilla spinus	Siskin	Rare
Fringilla chloris	Greenfinch	Common
Fringilla cannabina	Linnet	Common
Emberiza citrinella	Yellow Bunting	Common
Emberiza schæniculus	Reed Bunting	Common
Emberiza miliaris	Common Bunting	Common
Emberiza nivalis	Snow Bunting	Rare
Pyrrhula rubicilla	Bullfinch	Rare
Alauda arvensis	Skylark	Very common
Alauda arborea	Woodlark	Rare
ORDER—SCANSORES OR CLIMBERS.
CUCULIDÆ OR CUCKOO FAMILY.
Cuculus canorus	Cuckoo	Common
ORDER—COLUMBÆ OR DOVES.
COLUMBIDÆ OR DOVE FAMILY.
Columba palumbus	Ring Dove	Rare
Columba ænas	Stock Dove	Common
ORDER—GALLINÆ OR FOWLS.
PHASIANIDÆ OR PHEASANT FAMILY.
Phasianus Colchicus	Common Pheasant	Common
TETRAONIDÆ OR TETRAO FAMILY.
Perdix cinereus	Common Partridge	Common
Coturnix communis	Quail	Common
ORDER—GRALLATORES OR WADERS.
CHARADRIADÆ OR PLOVER FAMILY.
Charadrius pluvialis	Golden Plover	Common
Charadrius hiaticula	Ringed Plover or Dotterel	Common
Charadrius morinellus	Common Dotterel	Common
Vanellus griseus	Grey Plover	Common
Vanellus cristatus	Common crested Lapwing	Common
Hæmatopus ostralegus	Oyster-catcher	Very common
Cinclus interpres	Turnstone	Common
ARDEIDÆ OR HERON FAMILY.
Ardea cinerea	Common Heron	Common
Nycticorax Europæus	Common Night Heron	Rare
Botaurus stellaris	Bittern	Very rare indeed
SCOLOPACIDÆ OR WOODCOCK FAMILY.
Tringoides hypoleuca	Common Sandpiper	Common
Totanus ochropus	Green Sandpiper	Rare
Totanus Calidris	Redshank Sandpiper	Common
Numenius arquata	Curlew or Whaup	Common
Numenius phæopus	Whimbrel	Common
Limosa vulgaris	Common Godwit	Rare
Philomachus pugnax	Ruff	Rare
Tringa Canutus	Knot	Rare
Tringa Temminckii	Temminck’s Stint	Rare
Tringa minuta	Little Stint	Very rare
Tringa cinclus	Dunlin	Common
Phalaropus fulicarius	Grey Phalarope	Rare
Scolopax rusticola	Woodcock	Common
Gallinago media	Common Snipe	Common
Gallinago gallinula	Jack Snipe	Common
RALLIDÆ OR RAIL FAMILY.
Rallus aquaticus	Water Rail	Common
Ortygometra crex	Land Rail	Common
Gallinula chloropus	Water Hen	Common
Fulica atra	Common Coot	Common
ORDER—NATORES OR SWIMMERS.
ANATIDÆ OR DUCK FAMILY.
Anser ferus	Grey-lag Goose	Rare
Anser segetum	Bean Goose	Common
Bernicla leucopsis	Bernicle Goose	Common
Cygnus ferus	Whistling Swan	Rare
Tadorna vulpanser	Common Shieldrake	Common
Mergus Castor	Goosander	Rare
Anas boschas	Mallard	Common
Querquedula Crecca	Common Teal	Common
Spatula clypeata	Shoveller Duck	Rare
Moreca Penelope	Common Wigeon	Common
Myroca Terina	Common Pochard	Rather rare
Margellus albellus	Smew	Occasional visitor
Fuligula cristata	Tufted Duck or Pochard	Rather common
Fuligula marila	Scaup Duck or Pochard	Rather rare
Oidemia fusca	Velvet Scoter	Rare
Oidemia nigra	Black Scoter	Very rare
Clangula vulgaris	Golden-eye Duck or Garrot	Rather common
Clangula albeola	Buffel-headed Duck	Common
COLYMBIDÆ OR DIVER FAMILY.
Colymbus glacialis	Great Northern Diver	Very rare
Colymbus arcticus	Black-throated Diver	Rare
Colymbus septentrionalis	Red-throated Diver	Rather common
Chaulelasmus strepera	Gadwall	Very rare
Podiceps minor	Little Grebe	Common
ALCIDÆ OR AUK FAMILY.
Fratercula artica	Puffin	Common
Alca torda	Razor-bill	Rare
Uria Troile	Common Guillemot	Rare
PROCELLARIDÆ OR PETREL FAMILY.
Thalassidroma pelagica	Stormy Petrel	Common
Thalassidroma Leachii	Fork-tailed Petrel	Rather rare
LARIDÆ OR GULL FAMILY.
Larus canus	Common Gull	Very common
Larus ribibundus	Black-headed Gull	Very common
Larus fuscus	Little Black-headed Gull	Common
Larus tridactylus	Kittiwake Gull	Very common
Larus Glaucus	Glaucus Gull	Rare
Larus argentatus	Herring Gull	Very common
Sterna hirundo	Sea-swallow or Tern	Common
Sterna fuliginosa	Sooty Tern	Rare
Sterna minuta	Lesser Tern	Common
PELECANIDÆ OR PELICAN FAMILY.
Graculus Carbo	Common Cormorant	Common
Graculus Cristata	Crested Cormorant	Rather rare
Sula Bassanea	Gannet or Solan Goose	Common

The fertile fields and sunny lanes of the Fylde afford ample opportunity for the botanist to indulge in his favourite pursuit, and a short ramble over any portion of the pleasant country will unfold to his inquiring gaze many of Nature’s most beautiful and interesting offsprings. Specimens, especially of the maritime varieties of several of the floral families, unobtainable in the inland districts, may here be found lightly planted on the loose, sandy margins of the shore. In the context it is not intended to enter into a description of the different plants or of the localities in which they may most commonly be found, but merely to enumerate some of the more important ones; and in the following list all those inhabitants of the district, which are likely to interest the student of Botany or lover of Nature, are arranged in their various groups or orders:—

RANUNCULACEÆ OR BUTTERCUP ORDER.
Ranunculus aquatilis	Water Crowcroft
” Lingua	Spearwort
” acris	Meadow Crowfoot
” arvensis	Corn ”
Thalictrum minus	Lesser Meadow-rue
Delphinium consolida	Field Larkspur
NYMPHÆACEÆ OR LILY ORDER.
Nymphæa Alba	White Water-lily
PAPAVERACEÆ OR POPPY ORDER.
Papaver dubium	Long Smooth-headed Poppy
” Rhæas	Corn Poppy
Chelidonium majus	Common Celandine
CRUCIFERÆ OR CABBAGE ORDER.
Nasturtium officinale	Common Water-cress
Hesperis matronalis	Common Damewort
Cochlearia officinalis	Common Scurvy-grass
” Danica	Danish ”
Cakile maritima	Purple Sea Rocket
Crambe ”	Sea Kale
Sisymbrium Irio	Broad-leaved Hedge-mustard
” Sophia	Fine-leaved ”
VIOLACEÆ OR VIOLET ORDER.
Viola odorata	Sweet Violet
” tricolar	Heartsease
RESEDACEÆ OR MIGNONETTE ORDER.
Reseda Luteola	Yellow Weed
DROSERACEÆ OR SUNDEW ORDER.
Drosera rotundifolfa	Sundew
Parnassia pallustris	Grass of Parnassus
CARYOPHYLLACEÆ OR CLOVEWORT ORDER.
Saponaria officinalis	Common Soapwort
Lychnis Diocia	White Campion
” Floscuculi	Cuckoo-flower
Silene inflata	Bladder Catchfly
” maritima	Sea ”
Arenaria marina	Sea Sandwort
” serpyllifolia	Thyme-leaved Sandwort
Adenaria peploides	Sea Chickweed
LINACEÆ OR FLAX ORDER.
Linum usitatissimum	Common Flax
” catharticum	Purging ”
MALVACEÆ OR MALLOW ORDER.
Malva rotundifolia	Dwarf Mallow
Althæa officinalis	Marsh Mallow
GERANIACEÆ OR CRANESBILL ORDER.
Geranium sanguimeum	Bloody Crane’s-bill
Geranium pratense	Meadow Crane’s-bill
Geranium purpurea	Odoriferous Cranes-bill
Erodium cicutarium	Hemlock Stork’s-bill
LEGUMINOSÆ OR LEGUMINOUS ORDER.
Anthyllis vulneraria	Common Kidney-vetch
Vicia lathyroides	Spring Vetch
Ononis procurrens	Procurrent Restharrow
” spinosa	Spinous ”
Melilotus officinalis	Common Melilot
Trifolium arvense	Hare’s-foot Trefoil
ROSACEÆ OR ROSE ORDER.
Rosa canina	Dog rose
” spinosissima	Burnet-leaved Rose
” eglantaria	Sweet Briar
Agrimonia Eupatoria	Agrimony
Spiræa ulmaria	Meadow Sweet
Rubus fruticosus	Blackberry Brambles
ONAGRACEÆ OR ŒNOTHERA FAMILY.
Epilobium hirsutum	Great Willow-herb
” montanum	Small ”
LYTHRACEÆ OR LYTHRUM FAMILY.
Lythrum salicaria	Spiked purple Loosestrife
HALORAGEACEÆ OR THE MARE’S TAIL ORDER.
Hippuris vulgaris	Common Mare’s-tail
PORTULACACEÆ OR PURSLANE ORDER.
Montia foutana	Water Blinks
CRASSULACEÆ OR THE CRASSULA ORDER.
Sedum acre	Biting Stonecrop
” album	White ”
Sempervivum tectorum	Houseleek
SAXIFRAGACEÆ OR SAXIFRAGE ORDER.
Saxifraga granulata	White Saxifrage
” stellaris	Starry ”
” aizoides	Yellow ”
UMBELLIFERÆ OR UMBELLIFEROUS ORDER.
Crithmum maritimum	Samphire
Hydrocotyle vulgaris	Marsh Pennywort
Conium maculatum	Hemlock
Cicuta virosa	Cowbane
Eryngium maritimum	Sea-holly
Apium graveolens	Wild Celery
Bupleurum tenuissimum	Slender Hare’s-ear
Œnanthe Crocata	Dead-tongue
Peucedanum ostruthium	Master-wort
” officinale	Sea Sulphurwort
Daucus Carato	Wild Carrot
Anthriscus sylvestris	Wild beaked Parsley
Scandix Pecten-Veneris	Venus’ Comb
CAPRIFOLIACEÆ OR HONEYSUCKLE ORDER.
Louicera Periclymenum	Pretty piped Woodbine
” Caprifolium	Common Woodbine
Sambucus Nigra	Elder
RUBIACEÆ OR MADDER ORDER.
Galium verum	Yellow Bedstraw
” mollugo	Hedge ”
Sherardia arvensis	Little Spurwort
VALERIANACEÆ OR VALERIAN ORDER.
Valeriana officinalis	Common Valerian
Valerianella olitoria	Lamb’s Lettuce
DIPSACACEÆ OR TEAZEL ORDER.
Dipsacus sylvestris	Wild Teazel
COMPOSITÆ OR COMPOSITE ORDER.
Aster Tripolium	Sea Starwort
Apargia hispida	Rough Hawkbit
Hieracium pallidum	Hawkweed
” umbellatum	Narrow-leaved Hawkweed
Carduus tenuiflorus	Slender-flowered Thistle
” palustris	Marsh Thistle
Chrysanthemum maritimum	Sea Feverfew
Tanacetum vulgare	Common Tansey
Centaurea Cyanus	Corn Bluebottle
Pryethrum parthenium	Common Feverfew
” inodorum	Corn ”
Senecio vulgaris	Common Groundsell
” aquaticus	Marsh Groundsell
Silybum Marianum	Milk Thistle
Tragopogon pratense	Yellow Goatsbeard
Helminthia echioides	Bristly Oxtongue
VACCINIACEÆ OR CRANBERRY ORDER.
Oxycoccus palustris	Cranberry
CAMPANULACEÆ OR HAREBELL ORDER.
Campanula rotundifolia	Harebell
PYROLACEÆ OR WINTERGREEN ORDER.
Pyrola media	Intermediate Wintergreen
APOCYNACEÆ OR DOGBANE ORDER.
Vinca major	Greater Periwinkle
GENTIANACEÆ OR GENTIAN ORDER.
Gentiana Pneumonanthe	Marsh Gentian
” Campestris	Field ”
Chironia Centaurium, var.	White-flowered Centaury
” latifolia	Broad-leaved ”
” pulchella	Dwarf-branched ”
CONVOLVULACEÆ OR CONVOLVULUS ORDER.
Convolvulus Soldanella	Sea Bindweed
” Sepium, var.	Great Ditto, Pink-flowered
” arvensis	Small Bindweed
SCROPHULARIACEÆ OR FIGWORT ORDER.
Veronica Anagallis	Water Speedwell
” arvensis	Wall ”
” Beccabunga	Brooklime
” Serpyllifolia	Thyme-leaved Speedwell
Digitalis purpurea	Purple Foxglove
Linaria vulgaris	Yellow toadflax
Antirrhinum Cymbalaria	Ivy-leaved Snapdragon
Scrophularia vernalis	” figwort
LABIATÆ THE DEAD-NETTLE ORDER.
Thymus Serpyllum	Wild Thyme
Marrubium vulgare	White Horehound
Prunella vulgaris	Selfheal
Mentha viridis	Spearmint
” arvensis	Corn mint
Betonica officinalis	Wood Betony
Lamum album	White Dead-nettle
” purpureum	Red ”
Galeopsis ladanum	Red Hemp-nettle
Scutellaria galericulata	Skullcap
PLUMBAGINACEÆ OR LEADWORT FAMILY.
Armeria vagaris	Common Thrift
Statice Limonium	Lavender ”
BORAGINACEÆ OR BORAGE ORDER.
Myosotis palustris	Forget-me-not
” cæspitosa	Water Scorpion-grass
” arvensis	Field ”
” versicolor	Yellow and Blue ”
LENTIBULARIACEÆ OR BLADDERWORT ORDER.
Utricularia vulgaris	Greater Bladderwort
PRIMULACEÆ OR PRIMROSE ORDER.
Primula vulgaris	Primrose
” veris	Cowslip
Glaux maritima	Black Saltweed
Samolus Valerandi	Brookweed
Anagallis cærula	Blue Pimpernel
” tenella	Bog ”
Hottonia palustris	Water Featherfoil
Lysimachia vulgaris	Yellow Loosestrife
PLANTAGINACEÆ OR RIBGRASS ORDER.
Plantago major	Plantain
” media	Hoary Plantain
” maritima	Sea-side Plantain
Littorella lacustris	Plantain Shoreweed
POLYGONACEÆ OR BUCKWHEAT ORDER.
Rumex crispus	Curled Dock
” acetosa	Common Sorrel
EUPHORBIACEÆ OR SPURGEWORT ORDER.
Euphorbia paralias	Sea purge
URTICACEÆ OR NETTLE ORDER.
Humulus Lupulus	Hop
Urtica pilulifera	Roman nettle
Parietaria officinalis	Common Wall-pellitory
SALICACEÆ OR WILLOW ORDER.
Salix argentea	Silky Sand Willow
” repens	Dwarf Willow
Myrica Gale	Sweet Gale
IRIDACEÆ OR IRIS ORDER.
Iris Pseudacorus	Yellow water-iris
AMARYLLIDACEÆ OR THE AMYRILLIS ORDER.
Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus	Common Daffodil
Galanthus nivalis	Snowdrop
ALISMACEÆ OR WATER-PLANTAIN ORDER.
Butomus umbellatus	Flowering-rush
Alisma ranunculoides	Lesser Thrumwort
POTAMOGETONACEÆ OR PONDWEED ORDER.
Ruppia maritima	Sea Tasselgrass
Zannichellia palustris	Common Lakeweed
ORCHIDACEÆ OR ORCHID ORDER.
Orchis morio	Green-winged Orchis
” pyramidalis	Pyramidal ”
Epipactis latifolia	Broad-leaved Helleborine
” palustris	Marsh ”
JUNCACEÆ OR RUSH ORDER.
Juncus effesus	Soft Rush
” filiformis	Threadrush
” squarrosus	Heathrush
Narthecium ossifragrum	Bog Asphodel
ARACEÆ OR ARUM ORDER.
Lenna minor	Lesser Duckweed
CRONTIACEÆ OR SWEET-FLAG ORDER.
Acorus Calamus	Sweet-flag
CYPERACEÆ OR SEDGE ORDER.
Carex limosa	Mud Sedge
” flava	Yellow ”
” arenaria	Sea ”
Eriophorum polystachyon	Broad-leaved Cotton-grass
EQUISETACEÆ OR HORSETAIL ORDER.
Equisetum arvense	Corn Horsetail
” variegatum	Variegated Horsetail

The River Wyre rises in the hills of Wyersdale and Bleasdale; running in a south-westerly direction and passing the towns of Garstang and Church Town, it arrives at St. Michael’s, from which point its tortuous course is continued almost due west as far as Skippool. Thence winding past the ancient port of Wardleys, the stream, much widened, flows north and a little inclined towards the west, until it reaches the harbour of Fleetwood, situated at its mouth. From that seaport, the channel of the river, unaltered in direction, lies for a distance of nearly two miles between the sand-banks of North Wharf and Bernard’s Wharf, and finally terminates in Morecambe Bay, meeting the well-defined bed of the Lune at right angles. The origins of the Wyre in the hills consist of two small rivulets, and the stream formed by their union is joined near Scorton by the Grizedale Brook, whilst lower down, about two miles beyond the town of Garstang, it receives the Calder, rising on the slopes of Bleasdale. Before leaving the parish of Garstang, the Wyre is further increased by the brook springing from Fairsnape and Parlick Pike, which passes Claughton and Myerscough, not far from where it receives a small tributary from the south. At Skippool also a brook, the Skipton, which springs from the mere and marshy grounds of Marton Moss, pours its contents into the river.

The Wyre is crossed at Garstang by the aqueduct of the Preston, Lancaster, and Kendal canal, and at St. Michael’s, near the Church, it is spanned by a rather narrow but substantial stone bridge. For a distance of about six miles in the neighbourhood of the latter place the stream is enclosed within artificial banks, which in some parts have a descent of thirty feet. In spite of these precautions, however, high floods occasionally occur, when the swollen waters burst over the embankments and inundate the adjoining country. At Cart Ford there is a wooden structure of very limited width, connecting the opposing banks; and a few miles further down is the Shard Bridge, built of iron, and presenting a neat and elegant appearance. The river at that spot is 500 yards in breadth, and until the erection of the bridge in 1864, was crossed by means of a ferry-boat, or forded at low water by carts and conveyances. The ancient name of this ford was Ald-wath, and we learn from the following entry in the diary of Thomas Tyldesley, that in 1713 the charge for crossing by boat was 6d. each journey:—“September 14, 1713.—Went after dinr. to ffox Hall; pd. 6d. ffor boating att Sharde; saw ye ferry man carry out of ye boat a Scot and his pack, a sight I never saw beffor, beeing 56 years off age.”

About three hundred years since the venerable Harrison described the principal rivers of Lancashire, and from his writings at that time we quote as under:—

“The Wire ryseth eight or ten miles from Garstan, out of an hill in Wiresdale, from whence it runneth by Shireshed chappell, and then going by Wadland, Grenelaw Castle (which belongeth to the erle of Darbie), Garstan and Kyrkeland hall, it first receiveth the seconde Calder, that commeth down by Edmersey chappell, then another chanel increased with sundrie waters, the first water is called Plympton brooke. It riseth south of Gosner, and commeth by Craweforde hall, and eare long receyving the Barton becke, it proceedeth forward till it joyneth with the Brooke rill that commeth from Bowland Forest by Claughton hall, where M. Brokehales doth live, and so throw Mersco forest. After this confluence the Plime or Plimton water meeteth with the Calder, and then with the Wire, which passeth forth to Michael church and the Rawcliffes, and above Thorneton crosseth the Skipton, that goeth by Potton, then into the Wire rode, and finally into the sea, according to his nature.”

Drayton also has left the subjoined versified account of the Wyre, and as in addition to its poetic merit, it possesses the virtue of being a faithful description, we need not apologise for giving it unabridged:—

“Arising but a rill at first from Wyersdale’s lap,

Yet still receiving all her strength from her full mother’s pap,

As downe to seaward she her serious course doth ply,

Takes Calder coming in, to beare her company,

From Woolscrag’s cliffy foot, a hill to her at hand,

By that fayre forest knowne, within her Verge to stand.

So Bowland from her breast sends Brock her to attend,

As she a Forest is, so likewise doth she send

Her child, on Wyresdale Flood, the dainty Wyre to wayte,

With her assisting Rills, when Wyre is once repleat;

She in her crooked course to Seaward softly glides,

Where Pellin’s mighty Mosse, and Merton’s on her sides

Their boggy breasts outlay, and Skipton down doth crawle

To entertain this Wyre, attained to her fall.”[56]

White Hall, (formerly Upper Rawcliffe Hall,) Rawcliffe Hall, and Mains Hall, each of which will claim our attention more particularly hereafter, are seated on the banks of the Wyre, so also is the ancient house of Preesall-with-Hackensall, and although not properly comprised within the limits of this work, it has a right from its association with the river, to some description—a right the more readily conceded when it is known that in point of antiquity and interest, the hall and domain are well deserving of our consideration. The site of the mansion is a little removed from the brink of the stream, and almost directly opposite the southern extremity of Fleetwood. The present building is of considerable age, having been erected by Richard Fleetwood, of Rossall, in 1656, as indicated by an inscription over the main entrance, but there can be no question that the origin of its predecessor was co-eval, at least, with the grant of the manor by King John, when earl of Moreton, to Geoffrey, the Crossbowman, who, with his descendants, resided there. The whole of the large estate remained in the family of Geoffrey until the fifteenth century, when it was conveyed in marriage to James Pickering, of Layton, by Agnes, the sole offspring and heiress of the last male Hackensall, the title assumed, according to custom, by the Crossbowman. James Pickering left at his decease four daughters, co-heiresses, and married to Richard Butler, of Rawcliffe, Thomas Aglionby, Nicholas Aglionby, and James Leybourne, each of whom inherited one-fourth of the manor in right of his wife. In 1639 Sir Paul Fleetwood, of Rossall, held three-fourths of Hackensall, whilst the remaining quarter had descended to Henry Butler. Under the will of Richard Fleetwood, the re-erector of the hall, at that time occupied by his brother Francis, the three-fourths just named were sold by his trustees, being purchased, in part, for the Hornbys, of Poulton. Geoffrey Hornby, vicar of Winwick, and Robert Loxham, vicar of Poulton, held between them three-quarters of the manor in 1729, and William Elletson, of Parrox Hall, had possession of the other fourth, which is now the hereditary estate of Daniel Hope Elletson, esq., justice of the peace, residing at the same seat. At the end of the last century the Hornbys disposed of their share to John Bourne, gentleman, of Stalmine, from whom it descended to his second son, James Bourne, of Stalmine, and from him to his nephews, Thomas, James, and Peter, successively. The other portion of the manorial rights of the three-fourths was subsequently acquired by the last-surviving nephew, Peter Bourne, of Heathfield and Liverpool. Peter Bourne, esq., of Hackensall, married Margaret, the only daughter of James Drinkwater, esq., of Bent, in Lancashire, and left issue James, who is the present lord of three-quarters of the manor, and owner of the ancient Hall. James Bourne, esq., M.P., of Hackensall, and of Heathfield, near Liverpool, is Col.-Comdt. of the Royal Lancashire regiment of Militia Artillery, a deputy-lieutenant, and a justice of the peace of this county. Colonel Bourne has recently restored the old manor house, but in such a way as to preserve, and not obliterate, its links with a bygone age. The antique fire-places, one of which was protected by a massive arch of stone sweeping across the whole width of the room, have been renewed as before, and although the main doorway has been removed to another part of the building, the stone with the initials F. R. A., being those of Richard Fleetwood and Anne, his wife, has been reinstated in its original position above the newly-constructed lintel. Rumour affirms that during certain alterations two or three skeletons, supposed to be those of females, were found bricked up in a narrow chamber in one of the walls, and whilst confirming the discovery of a long secret recess, we dare not venture, for the evidence is somewhat contradictory, to hold ourselves responsible for the strict accuracy of the other part of the story, which suggests the enactment of a scene of revolting cruelty, similar to that introduced by Sir Walter Scott in the following lines:—

“Yet well the luckless wretch might shriek,

Well might her paleness terror speak!

For there was seen in that dark wall,

Two niches, narrow, deep, and tall.

Who enters at such grisly door

Shall ne’er I wean find exit more.

In each a slender meal was laid

Of roots, of water, and of bread.

...

Hewn stones and mortar were display’d,

And building tools in order laid.”

The moat has now been nearly filled up, but its extent and direction can still be pointed out. There are no indications of a chapel having formerly constituted part of the residential building, but several years since, when an outhouse was destroyed, at a short distance, about twenty yards, two gravestones were discovered, and it is probable that they were somewhere near, if not actually on the site of, the private chapel or oratory. One of the stones was broken up immediately, and the other is practically illegible, although three or four words, still preserved, prove that the inscription has not been in raised characters. The rights to wreckage, etc. on the foreshore of the manor have pertained to the lords of Hackensall from time immemorial, and still continue to be held and exercised as portion of the lordship.

Anterior to the establishment of a port at Fleetwood, or more correctly speaking, to the foundation of a town and the erection of wharfage, etc., on the warren forming the western boundary of Wyre estuary, Wardleys and Skippool, almost facing each other, were the harbours to which all commercial traffic on the river was directed. Ships of considerable size, freighted with cargoes of various sorts, found their way to those secluded havens, and even within the last few years, during high tides, vessels laden with grain have been berthed and unloaded in the narrow creek leading from Skippool bay, while bags of guano have often terminated their sea-voyages at Wardleys. A solitary warehouse, however, undated, but bearing on its battered exterior and decaying timbers the unmistakable stamp of time, is, at the present day, almost the only remaining witness to the former pretentions of the first named place. At Wardleys, three or four spacious warehouses, in a similarly dilapidated condition and now partially converted into shippons, the remainder being unused except as lumber-rooms or temporary storehouses for guano or some local agricultural produce, together with a stone wharf, are evidences of a fair amount of business having once been carried on at that little port.

In 1825 Baines described Wardleys as “a small seaport on the river Wyre, where vessels of 300 tons register may discharge their burdens, situated in the township of Stalmine with Stainall, in the hundred of Amounderness;” but in the year 1708 customs were established at Poulton in connection with Wardleys and Skippool. Nor should we be justified in limiting the antiquity of the ports to that date, for as early as 1590-1600, William and James Blackburne, of Thistleton, carried on an extensive trade with Russia, and there can be no doubt that their cargoes of merchandise, most likely flax and tallow, were landed on the banks of the Wyre at those ancient harbours. The father of the above merchants was the first of the family to take up his residence in this neighbourhood, and appears to have settled at Garstang, about 1550, from Yorkshire. That the commercial dealings of the partners were both large and successful is shown in the property acquired by William Blackburne, the elder brother, who purchased Newton, lands in Thistleton, and several other estates of considerable magnitude in the Fylde, all of which he bequeathed to his son and heir, Richard. Richard Blackburne married Jane, the daughter of John Aynesworth, of Newton, and had issue John of Eccleston; Richard, of Goosnargh; Thomas, of Orford and Newton; Edward, of Stockenbridge, near St. Michael’s-on-Wyre; Robert, who was suspected of being implicated in the Gunpowder Plot, but acquitted, the evidence being insufficient; Annie, who married—Nickson; and Elizabeth, the wife of William Standish. When the Singletons of Staining became extinct, the Hall and estate of that name passed to a William Blackburne, as heir-at-law, and there is great probability that he was a descendant of one of the sons of Richard Blackburne of Thistleton, Newton, etc.—most likely of John Blackburn, of Eccleston.

During the years more immediately previous to the opening of the new port at the mouth of the river, a great many large ships from America, laden with timber, and brigs from Russia, with flax and tallow, were discharged at Wardleys. A three masted vessel, for the foreign trade, was also constructed in the ship-yard attached to that place, but as far as can be learnt this was the only vessel of equal dimensions ever built there, repairs being the chief occupation of the workpeople.

Several of the officers connected with the Custom House at Poulton, were stationed at Knot End, opposite the Warren, living in the small cottage standing near the shore, in order to board the different craft as they entered the river, and pilot them up the stream to Wardleys. A large hotel is situated behind the site of the old ship-yard, and during the summer months is generally well patronised by visitors, to whom, as well as to the pleasure-parties arriving by water from Fleetwood, and by road from Blackpool, the hamlet is now mainly indebted for support. Some large mussels, the “Mytili angulosi,” but known amongst the natives of those parts as “Hambleton hookings,” were found formerly in large quantities a little lower down the river, but lately specimens of this fine shell-fish have been growing much scarcer. Dr. Leigh, in his Natural History of our county, informs us that pearls have frequently been discovered enclosed within the shells of these molluscs, and also that their popular name arises from the manner in which they are taken, the feat being accomplished “by plucking them from their Skeers, or Beds, with Hooks.” The tidal estuary of the Wyre embraces an area of three miles by two, and it is near to its termination that the port and town of Fleetwood are situated. Our purpose now is not to enter into a description of the harbour, which will be found in the chapter specially devoted to the seaport itself, but a few words as to the advantages derived from the nature of the river’s current and its bed, will not be out of place. Captain Denham, R.N., F.R.S., after inspecting the site of the proposed port on behalf of the promoters, issued a report in the month of January, 1840, and amongst other things, stated that during the first half of the ebb-tide, a reflux of backwater was produced which dipped with such a powerful under-scour as to preserve a natural basin, capable of riding ships of eighteen or twenty feet draught, at low water, spring tides; also that the anchorage ground, both within and without the harbour, was excellent. These facts alone seemed sufficient to warrant the gallant officer’s prediction that the undertaking would be successful and remunerative, but when in addition it is called to mind, that “as easy and safe as Wyre water” had for long been a proverb amongst the mariners of our coast, and that the harbour was, and is, perfectly sheltered from all winds, as well as connected with a railway terminus which communicates with Preston, Manchester, etc., we are astonished that comparatively so little encouragement has been given to it, and that now, thirty-five years from the date of this survey, the first dock is only approaching completion.

The river Wyre is plentifully supplied with fish of various sorts; in the higher parts of the stream trout and smelts may be found, whilst the lower portion and estuary contain codling, flounders, sea-perch, conger, sand eels, and occasionally salmon. The earliest enactments with regard to the fisheries connected with the last-named fish related to the Wyre, Ribble, and other rivers of Lancashire. In 1389, during the reign of Richard II., a law, which arranged the times and seasons when the fisheries in these rivers should be closed, and other matters affecting them, was passed and brought into force, being the first regulation of its kind.

The Ribble is associated with the Fylde only in so much as its tidal estuary is concerned, which forms the southern boundary of the district. Since 1837 great alterations have been effected in the channel of the river by the Ribble Navigation Improvement Company. The stream for the larger portion of its extent from Preston to the Naze Point has been confined within stone embankments, and its bed considerably deepened by dredging. During the progress of these improvements wide tracts of land have been reclaimed both north and south of the current. From Freckleton the river rapidly widens as it approaches the sea, so that a direct line drawn from Lytham to Southport across its mouth would pass over a distance of seven or eight miles. The channel here is shallow, while the sands on each side are flat and extensive, and midway in the estuary, at its lowest part, lies the far-famed Horse-bank, which divides the stream into a north and south current, scarcely discernible, however, after the tide has risen above the level of the bank. About one mile from the town of Lytham, in the direction of Preston, is a pool of moderate dimensions, having an open communication with the river, and formed into a small harbour or dock for yachts and vessels connected with the coasting trade. In the bed of the river, a little higher up than that locality, trunks of large trees are occasionally observed at low water, and many such remains of a once noble forest, which is believed to have extended from near the Welsh coast as far even as Morecambe, have been raised at different times during the operation of dredging.

The following descriptions of the Ribble, its source, course, and tributaries, were written, respectively, by the ancient topographer Harrison, and the poet Drayton, whose accounts of the Wyre have been previously quoted:—

“The Rybell, a river verie rich of Salmon and Lampreie, dooth in manner inviron Preston in Andernesse, and it riseth neere to Ribbesdale above Gisburne. It goeth from thence to Sawley or Salley, Chatburne, Woodington, Clitherow Castell, and beneath Mitton meeteth with the Odder, which ryseth not farre from the Cross of Grete in Yorkshire, and going thence to Shilburne, Newton, Radholme parke, and Stony hirst, it falleth ere long into Ribble water. From thence the Ribble hath not gone farre, but it meeteth with the Calder. Thys brooke ryseth above Holme Church, goeth by Townley and Burneley (where it receiveth a trifeling rill), thence to Higham, and ere long crossing one water that cometh from Wicoler, by Colne, and another by and by named Pidle brooke that runneth by Newechurch, in the Pidle: it meeteth with ye Calder, which passeth forth to Padiam, and thence (receyving a becke on the other side) it runneth on to Altham, and so to Martholme, where the Henburne brooke doth joyn with all, that goeth by Alkington chappell, Dunkinhalge, Rishton, and so into ye Calder as I have sayde before. The Calder therefore being thus inlarged, runneth forth to Reade (where M. Noell dwelleth), to Whalley, and soon after into Ribell, that goeth from this confluence to Salisbury hall, Ribchester, Osbaston, Sambury, Keuerden, Law, Ribles bridge, and then taketh in the Darwent, before it goeth by Pontwarth or Pentworth into the sea. The Darwent devideth Leland shire from Andernesse,[57] and it ryseth by east above Darwent Chappell, and soone after uniting it selfe with the Blackeburne, and Rodlesworthe water it goeth thorowe Howghton Parke, by Howghton towne, to Walton hall, and so into the Ribell. As for the Sannocke brooke, it ryseth somewhat above Longridge Chappell, goeth to Broughton towne, Cotham, Lee hall, and so into Ribell.”

“From Penigent’s proud foot as from my source I slide,

That mountain, my proud sire, in height of all his pride,

Takes pleasure in my course as in his first-born flood,

And Ingleborrough too, of that Olympian brood,

And Pendle, of the north, the highest hill that be,

Do wistly me behold, and are beheld of me.

These mountains make me proud, to gaze on me that stand,

So Longridge, once arrived on the Lancastrian strand,

Salutes me, and with smiles me to his soil invites,

So have I many a flood that forward me excites,

As Hodder that from Home attends me from my spring,

Then Calder, coming down from Blackstonedge doth bring

Me easily on my way to Preston, the greatest town

Wherewith my banks are blest, where, at my going down,

Clear Darwen on along me to the sea doth drive,

And in my spacious fall no sooner I arrive,

But Savock to the north from Longridge making way

To this my greatness adds, when in my ample bay,

Swart Dulas coming in from Wigan, with her aids,

Short Taud and Dartow small, two little country maids,

In these low watery lands and moory mosses bred,

Do see me safely laid in mighty Neptune’s bed,

And cutting in my course, even through the heart

Of this renowned shire, so equally it part,

As nature should have said, lo! thus I meant to do,

This flood divides this shire, thus equally in two.”

The beautiful scenery and historical associations of the Ribble render it the most interesting and charming of the several rivers which water the county of Lancaster. The quietude of its fair valley has on more than one occasion been rudely broken by the clash of arms, and students of our country’s history will readily call to mind that calamitous day to the Duke of Hamilton, when Cromwell routed the Highlanders under his command, near Preston,

“And Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued.”

Other instances of war-like doings along the banks of this river might be recounted, but as the neighbourhoods in which they occurred are not enclosed within the Fylde boundaries, we are perforce obliged to exclude them from this volume, and must refer those of our readers who are anxious to learn more both of them and of the river itself to other sources for the required information. The chief fish of the Ribble is of course its salmon, but in addition the estuary contains numbers of flounders and other varieties of the finny tribes similar to those found in the tidal portion of the Wyre. During the sixteenth century sturgeons seem to have been captured occasionally in the Ribble, and amongst the records of the duchy in 1536, there is a complaint that when “one certain sturgeon was found within the township of Warton and seized for the use of the King (who held the right of fishery there), and laid up in a house in Warton, one Christopher Bone, of Warton, and James Bradʳton, of the ley, with divers riotous persons, about the 6th of May last, did then and there take out of the said house the said sturgeon, and the said Bone hath at divers times and in like manner taken sturgeons and porpoises to his own use and the injury of his majesty.”[58]

As such a small part, and that far from the most important, of Ribble stream is really connected with the Fylde, and as it is not our intention to trespass beyond the limits of that district,—at least not knowingly, and the margin in the present instance is so clearly defined that no excuse could be offered for overstepping it,—we are compelled to content ourselves with this brief account, leaving much unsaid that is of considerable historical and general interest.

The Sea which washes over the westerly shore of the Fylde forms part of St. George’s Channel or the Irish Sea, whilst the narrow northern boundary of the same district is limited by the waters of Morecambe Bay. The main peculiarities to be noticed along the extensive line of this coast swept over by the billows of the Irish Sea, are the almost entire absence of seaweeds and the levelness of the sands; indeed, so gentle is the slope of the latter that its average declivity has been estimated at no more than one foot in every fifty yards, and to the flatness of this surface it is due that the beach is in a very great measure freed from putrifying heaps of fish and seaweed, for the rising tides glide with such swiftness over the level sandy beds that most driftmatters and impurities are left behind in the depths beyond low water mark. An analysis, made by Dr. Schweitzer, of the waters of the English coast, furnishes the following result:—

		No. of grains.
Water		964.74
Chloride of Sodium (Table salt)		27.06
Chloride of Magnesium		3.67
Sulphate of Magnesia (Epsom Salts)		2.30
Sulphate of Lime		1.40
Carbonate of Lime		0.03
Carbonate of Magnesia	⎫	Traces
Carbonic Acid	⎪
Potash	⎬
Iodine	⎪
Extractive matter	⎪
Bromide of Magnesium	⎭
		1,000

There are few, we imagine, who have not at one time or another admired the luminous appearance of the sea on certain evenings. This astonishing and beautiful phenomenon is brought about by the presence in the water of myriads of tiny beings, called Noctilucæ, which possess the power of emitting a phosphorescent light, and seemingly convert the bursting waves into masses of liquid fire. The immense expanse of sea spreading out from the westerly border of the Fylde has, independently of its association with the Gulph Stream, a marked influence in equalising the climate and averting those sudden and extreme degrees of heat and cold commonly experienced inland. The atmosphere over water does not undergo such rapid alterations in its temperature as that over land, and hence it happens that localities situated near the coast are cooler in summer and warmer in winter than others far removed from its vicinity. Most people will have observed that after a calm sunny day at the seaside, a breeze from the land invariably arises after sunset, due to the fact that the air over the earth being cooled and condensed much sooner than that over the sea, the heavier body of atmosphere endeavours to displace the warmer and lighter one. A gentle evaporation is daily taking place from the surface of the sea, by which the air becomes loaded with moisture, remaining suspended until the coolness of evening sets in, when it is deposited on the ground as dew. The water thus obtained from the deep is not pure brine, as might at first sight appear, but is freed from its salts by the process of natural distillation which has been undergone. Similar evaporation also goes on from the surfaces of the Ribble and Wyre, and it is doubtless chiefly owing to the Fylde being almost environed by water, constantly disseminating dew, that its fecundity is not only so great, but also so constant. The following is a list of the seaweeds to be found on the coast:—

MELANOSPERMEÆ OR OLIVE GREEN SEAWEEDS.
Tribe—fucaceæ.
Fucus nodosus	Knobbed Wrack
” serratus	Serrated ”
” canaliculatus	Channelled ”
” vesiculosus	Bladder ”
Tribe—sporochnaceæ.
Desmarestia aculeata	Spring Desmarestia
” viridis	Green ”
Tribe—laminarieæ.
Alaria esculenta	Edible Alaria
Laminaria digitata	Tangle
” saccharina	Sweet Laminaria
” bulbosa	Sea-furbelows
Chorda filum	Thread Ropeweed
Tribe—dictyoteæ.
Dictyosiphon fæniculaceus	Tubular Netweed
Asperococcus echinatus	Wooly Rough-weed
” compressus	Compressed ”
Tribe—chordarieæ.
Chordaria flagelliformis	Whiplash weed
Mesogloia virescens	Verdant Viscid-weed
” vermicularis	Wormy ”
Tribe—ectocarpeæ.
Cladostephus verticillatus	Whorled Cladostephus
” spongiosus	Spongy ”
Sphacellaria scoparia	Brown-like Sphacellaria
” plumosa	Feathered ”
” Cirrhosa	Nodular	”
Ectocarpus litoralis	Shore Ectocarpus
” siliculosus	Podded ”
” tomentosus	Feathered ”
RHODOSPERMEÆ OR RED SEAWEEDS.
Tribe—rhodomeleæ.
Polysiphonia fastigiata	Tufted Polysiphonia
” urceolata	Hair-like ”
” nigrescens	Dark ”
Tribe—laurencieæ.
Bonnemaisonia asparagoides	Asparagus-like Bonnemaisonia
Laurentia pinnatifida	Pinnatifid Pepper-dulse
” cæspitosa	Tufted ”
” dasyphylla	Sedum-leaved ”
Tribe—corrallineæ.
Corallina officinalis	Officinal Coralline
Jania	Jania
Melobesia	Melobesia
Tribe—delesserieæ.
Delesseria alata	Winged Delesseria
Tribe—rhodymenieæ.
Rhodymenia palmata	Dulse
” ciliata	Ciliated Rhodymenia
Hypnea purpurescens	Purple Hypnea
Tribe—cryptonemieæ.
Gelidium	Jellyweed
Gigartina mamillosa	Papillary Grape-stone
Chondrus crispus	Irish moss
Polyides rotundus	Round Polyides
Furcellaria fastigiata	Slippery Forkweed
Halymenia rubens	Red Sea-film
” membranifolia	Membranous Sea-film
” edulis	Edible ”
” palmata	Palmated ”
” lacerata	Lacerated ”
Catanella opuntia	Catanella opuntia
Tribe—ceramieæ.
Ceramium rubrum	Red Hornweed
” diaphanum	Diaphanous ”
” ciliatum	Hairy ”
” echionotum	Irregularly-spined Hornweed
” acanthonotum	Spined ”
” nodosum	Nodose ”
Callithamnion tetragonum	Square-branched Callithamnion
” plumula	Feathery ”
” polyspermum	Many-spermed ”
CHLOROSPERMEÆ OR GRASS GREEN SEAWEEDS.
Tribe—conferveæ.
Couferva rupestris	Rock Crowsilk
” lanosa	Woolly ”
” fucicola	Wrack ”
” tortuosa	Twisted ”
Tribe—ulveæ.
Ulva latissima	Oyster Green or Laver
” Lactuca	Lettuce Laver
Entermarpha intestinalis	Intestinal Entermorpha
” compressa	Branched ”

The subjoined table contains the names of some of the crustaceous animals and molluscs commonly met with in the neighbourhood:—

Arctopsis tetraodon	Four-horned Spider-crab
Hyas araneus	Great Spider-crab, or Sea-toad
Portunus puber	Velvet Fiddler-crab
Corystes dentata	Toothed Crab
Gonoplax angulata	Angular Crab
Pinnotheres pisum	Pea-crab
Porcellana platycheles	Broad-claw porcelain Crab
Cancer pagurus	Edible crab
Cancer mænas	Common Crab
Pagurus Bernhardus	Hermit-crab
Pilumnus hirtellus	Hairy-crab
Palæmon serratus	Common Prawn
Crangon vulgaris	Common Shrimp
Corophium longicorne	Long-horned Corophium
Orchestia littorea	Shore-hopper
Talitrus saltator	Sand-hopper
Sulcator arenarius	Sand-screw
Mytilus edulis	Edible Mussel
Cardium edule	Cockle
Buccinum undatum	Whelk
Litorina litorea	Periwinkle
Calyptra vulgaris	Common Limpet

CHAPTER VI.
THE PEDIGREES OF ANCIENT FAMILIES.