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:—