THE COUNTRY OF THE

CHEERYBLE BROTHERS.

CHAPTER I.

F

TOPOGRAPHY.

a member of the race who roamed the East Lancashire

hills in prehistoric times-traces and remains of whom have been dug up now and then, in sequestered clough or on wild moorland-could revisit the scene, he would discover, in most respects,

some, he would find none. terranean,一

a

wonderful change; but, in What Byron said of the Medi

"Time writes no wrinkles on thine azure brow,"

is equally true of the great ethereal expanse. At night the planets would still be found glowing calmly in their orbits, and the stars pulsating with undiminished beauty in their spheres. The sun, on a summer morning, would still burst with its wonted splendour over these eastern hills, and set,

unshorn of its ancient glory, behind the western, bequeathing now, as then,

"Twilight and evening star.”

And although smiling fields had replaced the gloom and grace of virgin forests, and substantial homesteads and busy cities superseded wattled huts; yet the well-marked outlines of hill and stream and plain would be there to greet him substantially as he left them, say three or four millenniums ago.

Between two of these hills—the terminal eminences, in the Irwell Valley, of spurs thrust out from the central Pennine range-stands the town of Ramsbottom. Four miles north of Bury and twelve of Manchester, it has Accrington eight miles to the north, Rochdale seven miles to the south-east, and Bolton a like distance to the southwest. It is built mainly on the right bank of the river, where the land slopes up towards the Holcombe range. Above it, four hundred feet higher than the valley, and just under the wooded brow of the hill, nestles the ancient village of Holcombe; and higher still, by four hundred and fifty feet, up the steep face of the height, stands the square and massive monumental tower,1 with the simple inscription in bold relief-"PEEL." Its upper gallery is reached by successive flights of stairs. From its summit, where for the present we may take our stand, the view up the valley, northwards, by Cribden and Hameldon, towards Pendle Hill-for ever fragrant of Harrison Ainsworth's 'Lancashire

1 Built 1852, by public subscription, at a cost of about f1000. It is of millstone grit, quarried on the spot (1169 feet).

5

Witches' or across the hills and dales and bleak moorlands towards Rivington Pike on the west, or Blackstone Edge on the east, well rewards the climb. Nearer at hand, to the north-east, lie the Rossendale Hills;1 and to the east, flat-topped Knoll Hill, Rooley Moor, and the valleys beyond. In these regions, thanks to the genius of Edwin Waugh, fancy still can hear the cheery voice of Lobden Ben, singing by the way,

or

2

"Green grows the leaves on the hawthorn tree,"

"Robin Lilter's here again,
Wi' th' merry bit o' timber!"

-and his old friend, blind Dan o' Tootler's, with his wonderful
"bit o' timber," whose wail, in “the plaintive old forest
tune," "Remember the Poor," sent the tears rolling down
Ben's honest face, and “seemed to hush the wild birds,"
and subdue "the silvery tinklę
dribbling into the well hard by."
of the "rindle of water

"Listening hinds would drop the spade,
Forgetful of their hardy trade;
And peeping maidens raised the latch,
The minstrel's melting lay to catch;
And the lone brook that crept along,
Bore on its breast the fiddler's song."

From the base of Holcombe Hill, southwards, stretches out the great plain of Lancashire, studded with towns, and lit up here and there by the lake-like “lodges " 3 of modern

1 See Mr Newbigging's admirable History of the Forest of Rossendale,' and 'Rambles round Rossendale, by J. Marshall Mather. 2 Besom Ben: "Tufts of Heather "-vol. iv. of Waugh's Works. 3 Reservoirs of pure water stored for industrial purposes.

Chapel and School, is seen Grant's Tower, fronted and flanked by a grove of hardy trees, and visible from afar. Like the Peel Monument on the opposite hill, it is a favourite resort of excursionists. A little to the south of "the Hoof" is Bass Lane, where, after his ejectment from Holcombe in 1662, Henry Pendlebury found a home, and a chapel, and died in 1695. Near by is Walmersley House, with its heart

some and bracing demesne, now the Robinson-Kay Home for Incurables. It was the benign gift of the elegant family residence by a generous daughter to the memory of her honoured parents, whose name it now bears. A mile or so down the valley is Springside, where the Cheeryble Brothers lived for many years, and where both of them died. Farther south about two miles, on the confines of Bury, is Chamber Hall, where the Premier Peel was born; and down at the river, near by, "the Ground," where his father mainly achieved his singular industrial success. To the south