will also appear how two partners in the firm who reared the Square, by their fine industrial and commercial instinct, marked individuality, and homely and genial generosity, furnished the great novelist with two of the most interesting characters in the picture-gallery of his genius. Of these remarkable men and other members of their family many illustrative incidents are here recorded, which were obtained mainly from octogenarian and nonagenarian friends with whom they had long been closely associated. A valuable sketch is also given of their coming to Lancashire, their progress and phenomenal success, written by the venerable elder Cheeryble, Mr William Grant, himself, and not hitherto published. The ancient village of Holcombe and some of its vanished customs and characters, and the palmy days of the old village of Nuttall, under the Grants "when it wur in it pomp"-do not escape attention, most of what relates to the latter village having been gathered in quaint vernacular from aged residenters, some of whom had lived far beyond the allotted span, and knew little outside the old village and its immediate environment. What relates to Holcombe Rushbearing came from persons who, in youthful days, witnessed what they narrated, and who, in after years, became distinguished and useful citizens, but have now, like the old-world scenes they described, passed for ever away. The Ramsbottom of the first two decades of the century is portrayed, and an original plan of the “Old Ground" of the Peels and the Grants is furnished; while a record is given of these noted pioneers' contemporaries and successors, whose energy and business capacity subsequently promoted the industrial expansion of the neighbourhood. We shall also note the birth of a new branch of industry quite recently cradled amongst us. But the locality has had an ecclesiastical history even more remarkable than its industrial. In Book II. of this volume, the singularly chequered history of the Puritan congregation of the district will be traced from the middle of the seventeenth century to the present time. The unique array of ejectments, extrusions, and usurpations which bestud its annals; its vicissitudes under the cruel prelatic Stuart dynasty; its struggle through the dreary decades of the eighteenth century, and peculiar perils at its close; the advent of the Grant family to "Dundee" chapel, and the rebuilding of the old sanctuary, followed by the violent expulsion of one minister and the cultured and consecrated pastorate of another, with its regrettable close, will claim our attention. The building of a new and costly church for the congregation by the senior "Cheeryble," one of its elders; its forcible seizure nearly thirty years after his decease; the death of the venerable minister three weeks after the untoward event; and, subsequently, the "consecration" of this Presbyterian sanctuary, and acceptance and appropriation of its cherished "Cheeryble" endowment to Episcopalian uses by a distinguished Anglican bishop and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, will likewise fall to be set forth. Within our scope will also come the erection of a new church by the congregation thus despoiled; the seizure by force, at a later date, of its “Old Dundee" chapel and manse; the introduction of such strange ecclesiastical embellishments as sledge-hammers, bludgeons, and other forms of intimidation; the quest for evidence of ownership, the remarkable recovery of trust-deeds and other documents from time to time, and, after obstinate resistance, the ultimate legał expulsion of the usurpers. The author has written this part of the work from a simple sense of duty, which, in the face of some reluctance, has proved persistent and imperious. He, therefore, ventures to hope that it will be found neither devoid of interest nor lacking in salutary influence. One of the more startling episodes embraced has, already, had one happy result. It has led ecclesiastical authorities, in various quarters, to see to the legal security of their possessions. This record may repeat and emphasise that lesson, and also lead congregations everywhere to see to it that their trust-deeds are safely deposited, and not lost sight of. It may also make plain the urgent need of a relationship between sister Churches, such as should render doings like some we shall have to narrate practically impossible. And it may serve to remind the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of their part in the consummation of a great wrong, with the consequent claim for righteous restitution which sleeplessly stands against them, and which, under the deep-running spirit of justice characteristic of modern democracy, must sooner or later be met. |