ofore, _lawnds_, by which are meant parks within a
forest, were inclosed, in order to chase them with greater facility,
or, by confinement, to produce fatter venison. Of these lawnds Pendle
had new and old lawnd, with the contiguous park of Ightenhill."

In the early part of the seventeenth century, the inhabitants of this
district must have been, with few exceptions, a wretchedly poor and
uncultivated race, having little communication with the occupants of
the more fertile regions around them, and in whose minds superstition,
even yet unextinguished, must have had absolute and uncontrollable
domination. Under the disenchanting influence of steam, manufactures,
and projected rail-roads, still much of the old character of its
population remains. _Hodie manent vestigia ruris._ The "parting
genius" of superstition still clings to the hoary hill tops and rugged
slopes and mossy water sides, along which the old forest stretched its
length, and the voices of ancestral tradition are still heard to speak
from the depth of its quiet hollows, and along the course of its
gurgling streams. He who visits Pendle[31] will yet find that charms
are generally resorted to amongst the lower classes; that there are
hares which, in their persuasion, never can be caught, and which
survive only to baffle and confound the huntsman; that each small
hamlet has its peculiar and gifted personage, whom it is dangerous to
offend; that the wise man and wise woman (the white witches of our
ancestors) still continue their investigations of truth, undisturbed
by the rural police or the progress of the schoolmaster; that each
locality has its haunted house; that apparitions still walk their
ghostly rounds--and little would his reputation for piety avail that
clergyman in the eyes of his parishioners who should refuse to lay
those "extravagant and erring spirits," when requested, by those due
liturgic ceremonies which the orthodoxy of tradition requires.

[Footnote 31: It was my good fortune to visit this wizard-haunted spot
within the last few weeks, in company with the able and zealous
Archdeacon[A] within whose ecclesiastical cure it is comprized, and to
whose singularly accurate knowledge of this district, and courteous
communication of much valuable information regarding it, I hold myself
greatly indebted. Following, with unequal steps, such a guide,
accompanied, likewise, by an excellent Canon of the Church[B] with all
the "armamentaria coeli" at co