and a sacristry, with a library over it. The opposite side has. walls more than six feet thick, which are constructed with groutwork, and the windows are large, with square tops, &c.

Respecting the interior of this venerable mansion, it will be almost impossible to enter into particulars. In its former possessor, Charles Townley, Esq. was combined the man of acknowledged taste and virtu; and in the present proprietor is exemplified the patron and admirer of topography and English antiquity.

At Townley Hall is a regular series of family portraits, from John Townley, Esq. in the time of Elizabeth, to the parents of the late possessor. One apartment is completely filled, (besides a full length of Richard Townley, Esq. who died 1635,) with heads inserted in the pannels; and in another room is a fine picture of the first Lord Widdrington, who was killed in Wigan-lane.

The greatest ornaments of Townley are its fine ancient woods; the greater part of which consists of old oaks. These are dispersed over a large park, which, with the contiguous mountains and distant country, present various combinations of grand and highly picturesque scenery *. The license for inclosing the old park at Townley bears date as per inq. sixth of Henry the Seventh.

At the south-eastern extremity of Whalley parish is the township of CLIVIGER, where a large natural gorge, or apperture, has been formed through the mountain, and whence the streams descend both to the eastern and western seas. "This pass," says the historian of Whalley, "has been evidently formed in consequence of some great convulsion of nature, which, by rending asunder the strata of the earth to a vast depth, has left a ridge of very formidable rocks on the southern side, from which the town probably took its name." Cliviger abounds with coal and iron, and it afVOL. IX.

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* The accompanying print, engraved from a picture by Barrett, now be longing to John Towneley, Esq. gives a miniature representation of the scenery contiguous to this mansion.

fords a single vein of lead running along one of the great fissures in the crust of the earth, which is technically known to the miners by the name of walts. Some curious plants are found in this district; and the inaccessible rocks are the secure haunts of hawks, and some other birds of prey. Among these, one pair of far superior size and strength, popularly called Rock-Eagles, but probably the true Gyrfalcon of Ray and Pennant, have annually bred for time immemorial, in defiance of all the endeavours used by sportsmen, or shepherds, to exterminate so formidable a rival of one, and robber of the other. In the year 1696, a number of Roman coins, and other relics, were found near Mereclough, on the skirts of the wild moors bordering on Yorkshire; and some remains of a British character have been discovered in this neighbourhood at different periods.

HOLME. The country around this place, which belongs to the Rev. Dr. Whitaker, has been greatly improved in scenery and appearance, betwixt the years 1784 and 1799, during which period 422,000 trees of various species have been planted on the bare and rocky brows, also in the glens and gullies, of this estate. The house, like most of the ancient structures in the neighbourhood, was originally built of wood, and contained some private closets for the concealment of priests, as the family continued recusants to the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Appendant to this demesne was a chantry, founded after the dissolution of Whalley Abbey, by Tho's. Whitaker, of Holme, Gent.: but this appears to have been again dissolved in about ten years after its first endowment. The chantry was not, however, destroyed; and what is rather singular, it had a clergyman licenced to it by Bishop Peploe, in 1742. It now belongs to Dr. Whitaker, who was licenced on his own petition. "The first step towards a re-endowment of this poor neglected foundation, was a rent charge of 11. per annum, left upon the estate of Hane, by Mr. Henry Wood, a native of that place, who had been clerk of the works under Sir Christopher Wren, during the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral, and whose curious accounts of that great work are now in the author's

possession.

possession. This was followed by several successive benefactions from the excellent fund of Queen Anne's bounty, which, with a donation of 4001. from the present incumbent, making in the whole 16001. are all vested in lands, and produce a clear income of Sol. per annum *.? The old oratory being in a ruinous state, was pulled down in 1788, and a new one built on higher ground, at an expence of 8701. more than a moiety of which was defrayed by Dr. Whitaker. This building will hold about 400 persons.

Among the peculiarities of this district, the historian describes. the propensity of the inhabitants to believe in fairies, ghosts, &c; but remarks that the superstition of the lower class of people is singularly removed within the last thirty years. "One practical superstition, peculiar, so far as I know, to this place, deserves to be remembered. The hydrocephalus is a disease incident to adolescent animals, and is supposed by the shepherds and herdsmen to be contagious: but in order to prevent the progress of the disease, whenever a young beast had died of this complaint, it was usual, and I believe it has been practised by farmers, yet alive, to cut off the head, and convey it for interment into the nearest part of the adjoining county; Stiperden, a desert place upon the border of Yorkshire, was the place of skulls. Of so strange and fantastic a practice it is difficult to give any solution; yet it may have arisen from some confused and fanciful analogy to the case of the Azazel, (Numbers xvi. 22.) an analogy between the removal of sin, and of disease that as the transgressions of the people were laid upon the head of the scape-goat, the diseases of the herd should be laid upon the head of the deceased animal, and that as the one was driven into the wilderness, never to return, so the other should be conveyed to a desert place, beyond an imaginary line, which its contageous effects should not be able to pass†.”

WILLIAM WHITAKER, an eminent divine, was a native of Holme,

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* Whitaker's History of Whalley, p. 340.

+ Ibid p. 342.

Holme, where he was born in the third year of Edward the Sixth, A. D. 1550. He died in 1598, in the forty-eighth year of his age, and was interred at a vast expence, and with unusual demonstrations of sorrow, in the ante-chapel of St. John's college, at Cambridge, of which he had continued master above eight years. At the age of twelve he was sent to St. Paul's school, London, then one of the most flourishing seminaries in the kingdom: and thence he was soon afterwards conveyed to Trinity College, Cambridge. About the thirty-first year of his age, he was elected regius professor; and considering the period of his life," this elevation," says Dr. Whitaker, " must be regarded as an evidence of very extraordinary talents in the successful candidate. In 1585, he first became a controversial writer, and in the remaining ten years of his life, with many other avocations, produced that huge tome (fo. 1610) of polemical theology, which was printed some years after his death, a monument at, once of incredible industry, and great facility in composition*."

About two miles east of Burnley is ORMEROD HOUSE, which appears to have been built in, or near the year 1595, as that date, with the names of Lawrence Ormerod, and Elizabeth Barcroft, are inscribed on it. Behind the house is a grove of sycamores and elms, peopled by a numerous colony of rooks; and in this township is still preserved an instrument of ancient and approved efficacy in suppressing the licence of female tongues. It is called a Brank, and was placed on a woman's head, who was led, or drove through the streets, with this ignominious badge †.

BRIERCLIFFE

History of Whalley, p. 467.

+ For a representation of it, see Plot's History of Staffordshire, and Brand's History of Newcastle. The former Topographer, after giving a minute description of it, says it "is much to be preferred to the duckingstool, which not only endangers the health of the party, but also gives the tongue liberty 'twixt every dip; to neither of which this is at all liable."

BRIERCLIFFE is a township which constitutes a fourth part of the extensive parochial chapelry of Burnley. It is chiefly remark, able for some encampments, &c. On the middle of Worsthornmoor are the remains of a small angular fort, consisting of a foss, and fragments of a wall, which inclose an area of 48 yards by 42. Vacancies for the Prætorian and Decumen gates are distinctly visible. On the top of Twist-hill, near the gully of Swinden, is another fort, or encampment, exactly forty-two yards square, and known to the shepherds, &c. by the name of Twist-castle. On the high grounds, eastward of the latter, is a circular entrenchment about fifty-eight yards in diameter: connected with these forts, were different beacons; and these, with other similar works, constituted a series of military posts, which were planted along the western side of the great ridge of hills. Dr. Whitaker, and his namesake, the acute historian of Manchester, agree in supposing that a chain of military forts were constructed in this part of the country, to defend "the Western Setantii, and their early colonists, from the attacks of the Eastern Brigantes."

HASLINGDEN

A thriving manufacturing and market town, seated on a bold and bleak elevation, between Blackburn and Bury; has been greatly improved within the last twenty years. It formerly stood on the brow of a hill, where the church, which was rebuilt about thirty years ago, in a plain, but substantial manner, still continues. The influx of inhabitants, from the introduction of the cotton manufactures, and the extent of the woollen, has occasioned a large increase of buildings into the valley below the old town, which is skirted on the west by the river Swinnel. It doubtless received its name originally from the groves of hazels which abounded here, and overspread the deans or bottoms, great quantities of the roots of those trees being frequently raised in digging. Though cónsidered as a parish, it is only a parochial chapelry, subject to the patronage and jurisdiction of the vicar of Whalley; and within the church is a font, of the time of Henry the Eighth. There are tombs

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