Restoration, and when his religious views had become sobered and
settled, he is said, in an eager desire to atone for the desecration
of which he had been guilty, to have purchased the crosses from the
person who was then in possession of them, and to have been at the
cost of re-erecting them on their present site, from which no
sacrilegious hand will, I trust, ever again remove them. It is further
said, that Webster's favourite and regular walk, in the latter part of
his life, till his infirmities rendered him unable to take exercise of
any kind, was to the remains of Whalley Abbey; and that a path along
the banks of the stream which glides by those most picturesque and
pleasing ruins, was long called "Webster's Walk." If this tradition be
founded in fact, and I give it as I received it, John Webster, of
Clitheroe, if not identical, as Mr. Collier has contended, with the
dramatic poet of that name, must have felt something assimilated in
spirit to the fine inspiration of those noble lines of the latter:--

"I do love these ancient ruins.
We never tread upon them but we set
Our foot upon some reverend history;
And, questionless, here in this open court,
Which now lies naked to the injuries
Of stormy weather, some men lie interred that
Lov'd the Church so well and gave so largely to't,
They thought it should have canopied their bones
Till doomsday: but all things have their end.
Churches and cities, which have diseases like to men,
Must have like death that we have."]

[Footnote 30: Webster's death took place on the 18th June, 1682. He
left an extensive library, composed principally of chemical,