stream called Pendle Water, almost from its source amid the neighbouring
hills, and followed its windings through the leafless forest, until it
united its waters to those of the Calder, and swept on in swifter and
clearer current, to wash the base of Whalley Abbey. But the watcher's
survey did not stop here. Noting the sharp spire of Burnley Church,
relieved against the rounded masses of timber constituting Townley Park;
as well as the entrance of the gloomy mountain gorge, known as the
Grange of Cliviger; his far-reaching gaze passed over Todmorden, and
settled upon the distant summits of Blackstone Edge.

Dreary was the prospect on all sides. Black moor, bleak fell, straggling
forest, intersected with sullen streams as black as ink, with here and
there a small tarn, or moss-pool, with waters of the same hue--these
constituted the chief features of the scene. The whole district was
barren and thinly-populated. Of towns, only Clithero, Colne, and
Burnley--the latter little more than a village--were in view. In the
valleys there were a few hamlets and scattered cottages, and on the
uplands an occasional "booth," as the hut of the herdsman was termed;
but of more important mansions there were only six, as Merley,
Twistleton, Alcancoats, Saxfeld, Ightenhill, and Gawthorpe. The
"vaccaries" for the cattle, of which the herdsmen had the care, and the
"lawnds," or parks within the forest, appertaining to some of the halls
before mentioned, offered the only evidences of cultivation. All else
was heathy waste, morass, and wood.

Still, in the eye of the sportsman--and the Lancashire gentlemen of the
sixteenth century were keen lovers of sport--the country had a strong
interest. Pendle forest abounded with game. Grouse, plover, and bittern
were found upon its moors; woodcock and snipe on its marshes; mallard,
teal, and widgeon upon its pools. In its chases ranged herds of deer,