Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 | Page 6

subjects he has chosen to introduce.
To the local and to the general reader--to the antiquary and the
uninitiated--to the admirers of the fine arts and embellishments of our

literature, he hopes his labours will prove acceptable; and should the
plan succeed, not Lancashire alone, but the other counties, may in their
turn become the subject of similar illustrations. The tales are arranged
chronologically, forming a somewhat irregular series from the earliest
records to those of a comparatively modern date. They may in point of
style appear at the commencement stiff and stalwart, like the chiselled
warriors, whose deeds are generally enveloped in a rude narrative, hard
and ponderous as their gaunt and grisly effigies. The events, however,
as the author has found them, gradually assimilate with the familiar
aspects and everyday affections of our nature--subsiding from the stern
and repulsive character of a barbarous age into the usual forms and
modes of feeling incident to humanity--as some cold and barren region,
where one stunted blade of affection can scarce find shelter, gradually
opens Out into the quiet glades and lowly habitudes of ordinary
existence.
The author disclaims all pretensions to superior knowledge. He would
not even arrogate to himself the name of antiquary. Some of the
incidents are perhaps well known, being merely put into a novel and
more popular shape. The spectator is here placed upon an eminence
where the scenes assume a new aspect, new combinations of beauty
and grandeur being the result of the vantage ground he has obtained.
Nothing more is attempted than what others, with the same
opportunities, might have done as well--perhaps better. When
Columbus broke the egg--if we may be excused the arrogance of the
simile--all that were present could have done the same; and some, no
doubt, might have performed the operation more dexterously.
_1st October_ 1829.
* * * * *

PREFACE TO THE SECOND SERIES.
In presenting another and concluding series of Lancashire Traditions to
the public, the author has to express his thanks for the indulgence he
has received, and the spirit of candour and kindness with which this
attempt to illustrate in a novel manner the legends of his native county
has been viewed by the periodical press.
To his numerous readers, in the capacity of an author, he would say
Farewell, did not the "everlasting adieus," everlastingly repeated, warn

him that he might at some future time be subject to the same infirmity,
only rendered more conspicuous by weakness and irresolution.
Rochdale, October 1831.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND SERIES.
No method has yet been discovered for preserving the recollection of
human actions and events precisely as they have occurred, whole and
unimpaired, in all their truth and reality. Time is an able teacher of
causes and qualities, but he setteth little store by names and persons, or
the mould and fashion of their deeds. The pyramids have outlived the
very names of their builders. "Oblivion," says Sir Thomas Browne,
"blindly scatters her poppies. Time has spared the epitaph of Adrian's
horse--confounded that of himself!"
Few things are so durable as the memory of those mischiefs and
oppressions which Time has bequeathed to mankind. The names of
conquerors and tyrants have been faithfully preserved, while those from
whom have originated the most useful and beneficial discoveries are
entirely unknown, or left to perish in darkness and uncertainty. We
should not have known that Lucullus brought cherries from the banks
of the Phasis but through the details of massacre and spoliation--the
splendid barbarities of a Roman triumph. In some instances Time
displays a fondness and a caprice in which the gloomiest tyranny is
seen occasionally to indulge. The unlettered Arab cherishes the
memory of his line. He traces it unerringly to a remoter origin than
could be claimed or identified by the most ancient princes of Europe. In
many instances he could give a clearer and a higher genealogy to his
horse. But that which Time herself would spare, the critic and the
historian would demolish. The northern barbarians are accused of an
exterminating hostility to learning. It never was half so bitter as the
warfare which learning displays against everything of which she herself
is not the author. A living historian has denied that the poems of Ossian
had any existence save in the conceptions of Macpherson, because he
condescendingly informs us, "Before the invention or introduction of
letters, human memory is incapable of any faithful record which may
be transmitted from age to age."
The account which Macpherson gave may be a fiction, but it is
admitted by those who know the native Scotch and Irish tongues, and

have dwelt where no other language is spoken, that there are poems
which have been transmitted from generation to generation (orally it
must be, since letters are either entirely