Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 | Page 2

those who had faith to believe in its
efficacy," and, denying that Father Arrowsmith suffered on account of
religion, Mr Roby adds that "having been found guilty of a
misdemeanour, in all probability this story of his martyrdom and
miraculous attestation to the truth of the cause for which he suffered,
was contrived for the purpose of preventing any scandal that might
have come upon the Church through the delinquency of an unworthy
member."
What, then, are the facts, as far as they have been investigated? The
Father Edmund Arrowsmith who suffered death at Lancaster was born
at Haydock in Lancashire[2] in 1585, and he suffered death in August

1628 (4th Charles I.), sixty years before William III. ascended the
English throne. The mode of execution was not that of capital
punishment for the offence committed, but rather that imposed by the
laws for treason and for exercising the functions of a Roman Catholic
priest. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered, and his head and quarters
were fixed upon poles on Lancaster Castle. It was in this
dismemberment that the hand became separated, and it was secretly
carried away by some sorrowing member of his communion, and its
supposed curative power was afterwards discovered and made
known.[3] Mr Roby cites no authority for this contradiction of the
original tradition. The judge who presided at the trial was Sir Henry
Yelverton of the Common Pleas, who died on the 24th January 1629.
In the Tradition of "The Dule upo' Dun," Mr Roby states that a
public-house having that sign stood at the entrance of a small village on
the right of the highway to Gisburn, and barely three miles from
Clitheroe. When Mr Roby wrote the public-house had been long pulled
down; it had ceased to be an inn at a period beyond living memory;
though the ancient house, converted into two mean, thatched cottages,
stood until about forty years ago. But the site of the house is in
Clitheroe itself, little more than half a mile from the centre of the town,
and on the road, not to Gisburn, but to Waddington.[4]
It only remains to add that the illustrations to the present edition
comprise not only all the beautiful plates (engraved by Edward Finden,
from drawings by George Pickering) of the original edition, which have
been much admired as picturesque works of art, but also all the
wood-engravings (by Williams, after designs by Frank Howard) which
have appeared in any former edition, and which constituted the sole
embellishments of the three-volume editions. To these is now first
added the fine portrait of Mr Roby from the posthumous volume.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The First Series includes all the Traditions beginning with "Sir
Tarquin" and ending with "The Haunted Manor-House;" the Second
Series comprises all the Tales from "Clitheroe Castle" to "Rivington
Pike," both included; and the three Tales now first incorporated
are--"Mother Red-Cap, or the Rosicrucians;" "The Death Painter, or the
Skeleton's Bride;" and "The Crystal Goblet."
[2] His mother was a daughter of the old Lancashire family of Gerard

of Bryn.
[3] These dates and facts will be found in the Missionary Priests of
Bishop Challoner, who wrote about 1740 (2 vols. 8vo., Manchester,
1741-2), naming as his authority a manuscript history of the trial, and a
printed account of it published in 1629. His statements are confirmed
by independent testimony. See Henry More's _Historia-Provinciæ
Anglicaæ Societatis Jesu_, book x. (sm. fol. St Omer's, 1660). Also
Tanner's _Societas Jesu_, &c., p. 99 (sm. fol. Prague, 1675). Neither
Challoner nor the MS. account, nor either of the authors just quoted,
says one word of Father Arrowsmith's alleged speech about the hand.
[4] See Mr Wm. Dobson's _Rambles by the Ribble_, 1st Series, p. 137.

MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.[5]
The late John Roby was born at Wigan on the 5th January 1793. From
his father, Nehemiah Roby, who was for many years Master of the
Grammar-School at Haigh, near Wigan, he inherited a good
constitution and unbended principles of honour and integrity. From the
family of his mother, Mary Aspall, he derived the quick, impressible
temperament of genius, and the love of humour which so
conspicuously marks the Lancashire character. He was the youngest
child. His thirst for knowledge was early and strongly manifested.
Being once told in childhood not to be so inquisitive, his appeal ever
after was, "Inquisitive wants to know." As he grew up into boyhood,
surrounded by objects to which tradition had assigned her marvellous
stories, they sank silently but indelibly into his mind. In his immediate
vicinity were Haigh Hall and Mab's Cross, the scenes of Lady Mabel's
sufferings and penance--the subject of one of his earliest tales. Almost
within sight of the windows lay the fine range of hills of which
Rivington Pike is a spur. In