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At the dissolution of the monasteries, Holcombe was granted by letters patent, under seal of Henry VIII., to John Braddyll of Whalley, Gent.1

The disforesting, in the Irwell region, appears to have taken place in the sixteenth century, in the time of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.

"The said kings gave in commandment, and caused not only that the said deer should be killed and destroyed, but also that the ground within the said forrest should be letten out to such of the inhabitants as wod take the same, and had made thereof to the intent the same forrest might, for the great increase of God's glory and the commonwealth of this realme, be inhabited. So that where before that time was nothing else but deer and other savage and wild beasts, there is since then, by the industry and labour of the inhabitants, grown to be a very good and fertile ground, become very populous,

and replenished with a great number of people." 2

As in Rossendale, so also in the adjacent forests, the old order was changed. The words of Tennyson, descriptive of a much earlier period

"And so there grew great tracts of wilderness,
Wherein the beast was ever more and more,
But man was less and less," 3

might now once more be reversed. The man, henceforth, “ was ever more and more." And as time went on, pastoral and agricultural pursuits went hand in hand with spinning and weaving, in increasing homesteads and hamlets, and thus was laid the foundation of the great textile industry which, now for more than a century, has distinguished the locality.

1 Baines.

2 Decree of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 4 Edward VI., in Newbigging's History, pp. 113, 114. 3"The Coming of Arthur."

In the 17th century we find another royal bestowal of the territory. In the time of Charles II., Holcombe forest formed part of the reward bestowed on General Monk Duke of Albemarle for the part he had played in restoring the Stuart dynasty to the British throne. In 1664, Albemarle built a courthouse at Holcombe, which was also "sometimes used to teach a school in." This courthouse was demolished in 1864, and, since that time, the Halmot Court has sat in Ramsbottom.

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By the marriage, in 1767, of Henry, the third Duke 2 of Buccleuch, to Lady Elizabeth Montagu, only daughter of the Earl of Cardigan, the Albemarle possessions, and amongst them Holcombe Forest, passed to the Buccleuch family. On the death of the fifth Duke, in 1884, the Honor of Clitheroe, of which Holcombe, in the manor of Tottington, forms a part, went to his second son, Lord Henry Scott. He has since been created Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, the beautiful demesne in the New Forest, Hants, where he resides, thus reviving the old name and title held by the family of his great-grandmother, the duchess above-named.

1 Notitia Cestriensis.

2 This Duke was called by Sir Walter Scott "the good Duke." He

was one of the best administrators of large estates of his time. In youth he had as his travelling companion for three years (1763-1766) Dr Adam Smith, who at the time was collecting materials for his great work, The Wealth of Nations.' Dr Smith resigned his chair in Glasgow University to accompany the young Buccleuch. A lifelong friendship resulted. The Duke settled on him ₤300 a-year, and this no doubt helped him to accomplish his magnum opus, to which modern commerce owes SO much. - Upper Teviotdale and the Scotts of Buccleuch,' by J. Rutherford Oliver.

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CHAPTER IV.

NUTTALL VILLAGE.

FEW hundred yards down the valley from Ramsbottom, and at the lower extremity of the "S" which the sinuous course of the Irwell forms in crossing the holm below Nuttall Hall, stands the old village of Nuttall. On the higher ground overlooking it, on the west, is the old home of the De Notoghs,1 and about 450 yards up the eastern side of the holm-the river spanned by a bridge intervening-is the modern Nuttall Hall. The village is close to the point where, in the far remote past, the river

1 There are said to be many descendants of De Notogh living-some in Ireland, others in America, One of the latter-Dr Geo. H. F. Nuttall -visited Nuttall about 1886. "When at Kingstown, in Ireland, his luggage was found to contain several revolvers, and other weapons. He was arrested under the Irish Crimes Act, and taken before the local magistracy. Mr Nuttall stated his position, and showed that his purpose in visiting Europe was to collect materials for a history and genealogy of the Nuttalls of Nuttall Hall, Lancashire. He was closely questioned by the presiding magistrate, and after the two had had a conversation, which caused uncommon interest in court, the magistrate and prisoner shook hands warmly, and afterwards left the court together. Prisoner and the magistrate were cousins, both descendants of De Notogh, and both named Nuttall.''-T. H. Hayhurst in East Lancashire Review, October 1890.

has gradually ploughed its way through the superincumbent deposits, right down to its present rocky bed, and thus drained the holm and the ground on which the lower part of Ramsbottom is built. Before the ridge between Nuttall

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and Brooksbottom was thus penetrated, a lake must have extended from Crimble Wood, just below the village, well up the Ramsbottom valley.

In the time of Richard II. (1377-1399) Richard de Notogh is said to have resided in the old hall. It remained in the hands of the De Notoghs, or Nuttalls, as they came to be called, till 1698. Afterwards it passed, by marriage, to Mr Miles Lonsdale of Fieldhouse, and, subsequently, to the Rev. Richard Formby of Formby, by his marriage, about 1790, to Ann, only daughter of Mr Henry Lonsdale. From Mr Formby the estate was purchased by Messrs William Grant & Brothers. Inside Nuttall farmhouse, on the site of the old hall, may be seen portions of the original oak panelling; and over the front entrance, on a stone with armorial bearings, there is the date MCCCCXXIX.1 The high baronial tower over the gateway to the spacious farmyard-said to be a restoration of part of the original structure-was built by the late Mr John Grant.

In 1812, Messrs Grant purchased the factory which at that time existed at Nuttall. Referring to the event, Mr William Grant wrote, in 1839

"In consequence of the death of Mr Alsop, the workpeople had been long short of employment, and were very destitute. We ordered the manager to get new machinery of the first-rate construction, and greatly extended the building; and before we began to spin or manufacture, we clothed the whole of the hands at our own expense, prepared an entertainment for them, and observed that the interests of masters and servants are bound up together; that there are reciprocal duties to perform; that no general or admiral could be brave unless he was supported by his men; that we knew how to reward merit, and would give constant employment and liberal wages to all our faithful servants and I am happy to say that they, as well as those at our printing establishment,

1 May have been copied from the original.

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