Page images
PDF
EPUB

come subject to a tax of three-pence halfpenny for every square yard; but this is withdrawn on exportation of the goods.

Perhaps there is no business which requires so much capital, ingenuity, and attention, as the printing of calicoes. As it is now carried on by some of the first printers in this county, it includes a variety of subordinate trades and arts. In the first place, the calicoe-printer buys the raw material; he afterwards spins it, weaves it, and bleaches it. These operations are often conducted separately, and give employment and bread to the merchant, the cotton-spinner, the manufacturer, and the bleacher: of which, the three former often employ very large capitals. After the calicoe has been bleached, and before it can be printed, the calicoeprinter must bring to his aid the chemist, the pattern-drawer, the block-cutter, and the engraver. Much time and experience are necessary to bring any one of these different arts to perfection. To erect buildings adapted to the various operations, to furnish them with all necessary implements and materials, and to regulate and keep in due motion the wheels of this vast and complicated machine, requires a purse of no common magnitude; and an attention which must be constant and indefatigable.

To such a state of perfection are the arts of spinning cotton, and printing calicoes, now brought in this county, that a pound of cotton can be spun into 300 hanks, each 640 yards in length, and sold for eighteen guineas; and a furniture pattern be printed, which in the execution requires 448 blocks, to produce the required figure and colors.

Little can be said in behalf of the state of agriculture in this parish. Estates are generally divided into small farms, for the purpose of supplying the farmer, who is generally a weaver or mechanic, with milk and butter for his family. It is by the loom chiefly, that rents for land are paid, in the neighbourhood of this town. There are few farms in the whole parish that exceed a hundred statute acres, and not many which approach nearly to that magnitude. The grain most commonly grown is oats. Neither the climate, nor the soil, are favorable to the cultivation of wheat, of which very little is grown, except in the more shelter

ed

ed parts of the parish, near the banks of the Ribble. Artificial grasses, turnips, and cabbages, are but little cultivated here; but much attention is now paid to the planting of the potatoe, which is found to be an excellent substitute for bread, and affords a pleasant and nutritious support for cattle. There is not a single sheep-farm in the parish, nor perhaps a single sheep which has been both bred and fed, in the whole district. The market is supplied with beef and mutton from the rich pastures of Craven.

A taste and spirit for building and agriculture have lately begun to shew themselves in the neighbourhood of this town. At WOOD-FOLD, in the township of Mellor, four miles west from Blackburn, a very magnificent house has been lately erected, of a bluish grey stone, having in the centre a flight of steps, with a portico supported by four massy columns of the Corinthian order. Henry Sudell, Esq. the proprietor, and lord of the manor, has spared no expence in improving the grounds about this noble mansion, and in embellishing them with considerable expanses, both of wood and water. The house stands near the northern boundary of the park, which is surrounded by a wall of hewn stone, four miles in circumference, nearly nine feet high, and mounted with a round coping at the top. The park contains some romantic glens, and fine plantations of old and young

trees.

There are two views from this house which merit particular notice. That to the south side, or from the principal front, is not of great extent. It is bounded by a hilly outline, in which a rock of considerable height and breadth forms a striking feature. This rock rests upon a bed of aluminous earth, and has been exposed to view, by the labour of man, in search of that substance. Fuller says, that a mine was worked here in his time, but had long been neglected, on account of the expence of removing the superincumbent strata. The last adventurer was Sir George Colebroke, whose speculations in this article terminated in his ruin. Since his time no attempt has been made to remove this immense rock, in order to procure the ore, and so enlarge this excavation, which must have been the work of many ages. The

ground

ground about the rock is wild and irregular, and forms a good contrast to the cultivated park which makes the foreground of the landscape. A little to the west of the rock, and a mile or two beyond it, stands on more elevated ground, and on the very summit of the precipice, the old mansion of HOGHTON-TOWER, belonging to the Hoghton family. Within the last few years the roof of the gallery, and some of its walls, have fallen prostrate; though some parts of this ancient and extensive building are inhabited by a few families of the lower class. The building is falling fast to decay, and presents to view an object at once picturesque, grand, melancholy, and venerable.

The west side of the house commands a soft and rich view of the vales of the Ribble and Darwen rivers, which mingle their streams below the village of Walton. The banks of both these streams are well clothed with woods, and adorned with several handsome buildings, some of which the eye catches in pursuing the course of the Ribble.

At WITTON, Something less than two miles from Blackburn, is the newly-erected mansion of Henry Feilden, Esq. It stands on rising ground, at a little distance from the Darwen, and is embosomed in wood. It is built of a cream-coloured free-stone, richly veined, and has in the centre of the eastern front a portico supported by Doric pillars. This chaste and elegant villa commands two pleasing views of the Darwen, whose banks are diversified with swelling knolls, well planted with thriving woods.

The

Less than a mile below Witton, and on the same side of the vale, is another new structure of stone, the seat of J. F. Butler, Esq. Both of these houses are screened from the north by the sombrous Hill of Billinge, the termination of that chain of hills which extend from Yorkshire into this part of Lancashire. elevation of this hill above the level of the sea is about 300 yards; and from its top may be distinctly seen, in clear weather, the mountains of Ingleborough and Pennigent, in Yorkshire, Blackcombe in Cumberland, the hills near Frodsham in Cheshire, and the whole coast of North Wales,

Still lower in the vale, at Molden-Water, three miles from Blackburn, the banks of the Darwen become more bold and craggy, and are well covered with wood. The river, in its course from this place to its junction with the Ribble, a space of about seven miles, presents to view some very interesting and romantic scenery, most of which, for want of a road, is lost to the traveller. Of the buildings which adorn the banks of this part of the river, stands first, proudly pre-eminent above all the rest, HoghtonTower, already mentioned; then DARWEN-BANK, the seat of Edward Pedder, Esq.; CUERDALE-LODGE, the seat of William Assheton, Esq.; Walton Church; Cooper Hill; and WALTONHALL, the mansion of Sir Henry Philip Hoghton, Bart. These four last edifices grace the banks of the Ribble, as well as those of the Darwen. Opposite to the last mansion, and on the north side of it, the Darwen falls into the Ribble, between the two handsome stone bridges thrown over the latter, at Walton and Penwortham. For several miles, above and below this junction, the vale of the Ribble has every charm and variety which fertile ground, a fine river, elegant villas, and hanging woods, can welk bestow.

There are two stations in the northern extremity of this parish which deserve to be noticed, as the views to be seen from them are extremely beautiful. One of these is in a farm called EggSyke, on the southern bank of the Calder, about a mile and half to the east of Whalley. At the foot of the eminence, whose steep side is covered with wood, the river makes a considerable winding. In the valley, to the east, the Bridge forms a very picturesque object; beyond which are seen the sloping woods of Read-Hall. Between the bridge and the station, the river flows down with a gently winding course, the green pastures of Egg-Syke in many places sloping to the edge of the stream, through the openings in the banks, that are fringed with wood. Towards Whalley the course of the river is much more winding, and its banks are diversified with many projecting points, richly covered with wood, of the greatest variety of foliage. The verdant holme land of Whalley

Whalley demesne terminates the valley in this direction, and is crowned by the noble woods of the Honorable Richard Penn Curzon and Robert Whalley, Esq. on one side, and of Sir Thomas D. Hesketh, Bart. on the other. Indeed, viewed from hence, they seem to form one continued forest, and exclude all objects beyond them, except the summit of Grindleton Fell, which is caught through an opening made by the Calder valley. Immediately in front is MARTON, a seat of James Taylor, Esq. the ́ grounds of which swell finely, and are capable of great embellishment. Beyond Marton, the park and mansion of CLERK-HILL appear to great advantage; and Pendle-hill, which forms a back ground, more grand than beautiful, closes the prospect.

The other station is on the margin of the Ribble, near BROCKHALL, the property of James Taylor, Esq. below its junctions with the Oder and Calder. To the east, near the banks of the Ribble, which here holds a winding course, stands HACKING-HALL, an old mansion, now the property of a branch of the Petre family. Beyond this, in the fertile vale of the Calder, and situated on its banks, is Whalley, so interesting to the antiquary for its ancient Church and Abbey. Above Whalley rise the fine woods and grounds, which were formerly a part of the Abbey domain, and terminate the prospect in this direction. Turning to the west, is seen, over the bend of the Ribble, the large pile of STONEYHURST, the ancient residence of the Sherburnes, with its turrets and cupolas, and surrounding woods: this view is terminated by the lofty grounds of Long-ridge. To the north a very rich and extensive view is obtained of the vale of Ribble, intersected by the finely wooded vales of Calder on the east, and Oder on the northwest. The objects which embellish this landscape are, the church and woods of Mitton, the church of Waddington, the beautifully swelling and woody grounds of Wadda, with the town, the castle, and the church of Clithero. That vast mountain, Pendle Hill, forms the right screen to this view: and Waddington and Grindleton hills form the left: in front it is terminated by the more distant hills in Yorkshire. As no public road passes near

« PreviousContinue »