spacious, particularly the hall, and two long galleries, all of which demonstrate that greatness, rather than convenience and comfort, were principally attended to at the time they were designed.

This place, with 7000l. a year, was left by a Duchess of Norfolk, who died in 1754, to her heirs at law, the Welds, who were. descended from the only sister of her father Sir Nicholas Sherburne, Bart.

WHALLEY,

AT the distance of seven miles from Blackburn, in the road to Clithero, though only a village, is remarkable for its ancient Abbey, and for the extent of its parish, which comprises a great part of Blackburn hundred, and contains fifteen, or as others state it, sixteen chapels within its limits, all of them possessing parochial rights. In the latter number, however, the chapel in Clithero Castle is considered as one, and the parochial chapel of St. Michael in Clithero, as another. This extent may be viewed as one of those large parishes which were formerly called Plebania, and deemed to be a benefice of a greater extent than even a rectory. The parish of Halifax, in Yorkshire, which joins it at one place, as appears from an ancient perambulation, may be considered as another of those, though perhaps not quite so extensive as this, has twelve chapels under it, many of which possess parochial rights. Before the dissolution, the parish of Whalley was under the jurisdiction of the Abbey, but is now a vicarage in the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury. "The endowment was anciently very considerable; but, on a complaint, so early as the year 1330, that the vicar had too large a share of the property, to the prejudice of the monastery, Roger Northborough, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in whose diocese it then was, ordered that he should receive only sixty-six marks, and four quarters of oats, and hay sufficient for his horse. This was confirmed by the Archdeacon of Chester in 1332, who, in those days, had great power delegated to him by the bishops; and the salary is at present only 801. per annum*." At the time of the Domesday Survey, the

* Pennant's Tour from Downing to Alston-Moor, p. 74.

church

church of St. Mary, in Whalley, had two ploughlands, about 260 statute acres, free from all customs and impositions, and it had at least a square mile of wood, or about 640 statute acres; the rest, nearly 660 acres more, making in all 1561 statute acres, were then in common. But though it had so large a proportion of wood at that time, it has now only enough to adorn, but not to encumber it; and may be deemed a tract of more than usual fertility and beauty.

"Augustine, the first missionary of christianity to this island, founded a church in these parts, which was long parochial to the wide tract of Backburnshire and all Bolland. As converts increased, more places of worship were erected. These had no particular patrons; but the lords of the soil, in which they lay, appointed their relations or friends to the cure, who were called rectors, and were generally married men and persons of property. The country at that time was very thinly peopled, and the bishops left the government of the newly erected churches to their owners, with the power of deans, an honourable appellation, for which they were long distinguished, the office being hereditary. In the reign of William Rufus, the last dean being prohibited marriage by a council, the presentation of Whalley and its chapels was granted to his relation, John, constable of Chester, and lord of Blackburn; and Henry Laci, earl of Lincoln, a successor of his, bestowed this church on the white monks of Stanlaw, in Wirral, with the proviso that if the number of monks should be augmented from forty to sixty, they should remove to Whalley. This was effected in 1296, when the new monastery was built by the munificence of the earl, who translated to it the bones of his ancestors, who had been interred at Stanlaw*. This abbey flou

rished

* " This removal soon gave umbrage to the neighbouring abbey of Salley, which complained that the new house was, contrary to the institutions of the order, placed too near to the other; that it raised the market; and, by the advanced prices of corn, salt, butter, cheese, and other articles, they suffered annually to the amount of twenty-six pounds ten shillings; but in 1305, by

the

rished till the year 1536, when the abbots and monks of several convents, who before had either surrendered their houses, or been driven from them, encouraged by Aske's rebellion, or the pilgrimage of grace, repossessed themselves, and resumed their functions. Amongst others were the religious of this house, as well as others in the north; but the earl of Shrewsbury, who commanded against the rebels, had them taken out, and martial law executed upon them. John Paslew, the 25th abbot, and one of his monks, were hanged at Lancaster*. After the dissolution it was granted, with the greatest part of the demesne, by Edward the Sixth, to Richard Ashton, of Darcy-Lever, a branch of the house of Middleton; the rest to John Braddyl, of Braddyl in this parish, whose ancestors were settled in these parts from the time of Edward the Second.+" The house and manor of Whalley came into the family of the Curzons during the last century, the late Sir Nathanael Curzon having married the co-heir of Sir Ralph Ashton, and is now possessed by the second son, Ashton Curzon, Esq.

A singular grant was made, amongst others, to this abbey by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, of two cottages, seven acres of land, one hundred and eighty-three acres of pasture, and two hundred acres

of

the mediation of the abbots of Revesby and Swineshed, the affair was compromised in a general chapter of the order."-See Pennant's Tour; from Dugd. Monas. Vol. I. fol. 897, 898.

* Dr. Whitaker (History of Whalley, p. 72) observes, that " he was arraigned and convicted of high treason, at the spring assizes at Lancaster, and sent to his own town for execution, which was performed March 1536-7, upon a gallows erected on a gentle elevation in the field called the Holehouses, and immediately facing the house of his birth. Out of respect to his order, he is supposed to have been interred in the north aisle of the parish church under a stone yet remaining. An oaken post, which was part of the fatal apparatus, is said to have remained within the memory of aged persons," and Speed tells us, (Book 9, c. 21), that “two monks were executed along with the principal."

+ Aikins' History of Manchester, p. 275, and Pennant's Tour to AlstonMoor, p. 70.

of wood, in Blackburn Chase. Another grant was made of the sar ✨ nature, in the neighbourhood, to support a female recluse, an wo women servants, within the parish church-yard of Whalley, who were perpetually to pray for the souls of the duke, and all his posterity. The convent was to repair their habitation, and to provide a chaplain and a clerk to sing mass to them in the chapel belonging to their retreat; to bestow on them weekly seventeen loaves, weighing fifty soudz de sterling apiece, of such bread as was used in the abbey; seven loaves of the second sort; eight gallons of the better sort of beer, and three-pence for their food. "All this must have been surely intended to enable them to keep hospitality. Besides, they had annually, on the feast of All Saints, ten large stock-fish, a bushel of oatmeal for pottage, a bushel of rye, two gallons of oil for their lamps, one pound of tallow for candles, six loads of turf and one of faggots, for their fuel. On the death of any of these recluses, the duke or his heirs were to appoint successors

* "

During the civil commotions, in the year 1643, this place suffered very considerably. Having been possessed by the Earl of Derby, he posted his men in the church and tower, where they remained for some time, until the country people, who were zealous partizans for the parliament, took up arms, and with great slaughter expelled them.

The name of Whalley is of Saxon origin, from a word which signifies the field of wells, a term peculiarly descriptive of its situation, on the skirts of Pendle Hill, where the land, if not drained, bleeds at every pore, besides six considerable springs within the immediate limits of the place. As a parish, it had seven chapels founded either on or before 1284, viz. "Cliderhow, Calne, Brunley, Elvetham, Downur, Church, and Haslingden; and after the year 1400, those of Padiham, Whitewell, Holme, Marsden, Newchurch in Rosendale, Goodshaw, Newchurch in Pendle, Accrington, and Bacop in Rossendale, ranked according to the priority of foundation, are met with, and the last as late

* Penuant's Tour from Downing to Alston-Moor, p. 68–75.

as

as 1788*" By the inquisition, or parliamentary survey of 1650, it was found that the parish of Whalley consisted of thirty-five townships.

Of the church it may be observed, that the columns of the north aisle, which are cylindrical, but not massy, are the oldest parts now remaining, and must have been erected considerably, later than the conquest; and the choir a little before or after 1235, when Dean Roger resigned, and Peter de Cestria succeeded as rector. The windows are lancet-shaped, the buttresses perpen-, dicular, with little projection, and bound by a filletting or string course to the wall, differing on the whole very little from the ge-, nuine Saxon pilaster, but in the termination, which approaches to the pinnacle form, though it takes place rather beneath the square. The east window, which undoubtedly occupies the place of the three original lights always seen in the east end of the genuine buildings of this period is comparatively modern, and filled with ramified tracery. Within and on the south side of the altar, are three seats for the officiating priests, supported on small cylindri cal columns. The hearth of the vestry is a very ancient gravestone, with a border of foliage, and an inscription, of which the letters remaining are of the form of Edward the First's time; probably for Peter de Cestria, who died in 1293, or Thurstan de Cestria, the first prior. Part of the stalls of the abbey have been removed into the choir, to which, however, they are so awkwardly adapted as sufficiently to prove that this was not their original situation. The pew in the church, formerly called St. Anton's Kage, belongs to the Townley family, in right of their manor of Hopton. A dispute arose on account of sittings in the church, and Sir John Townley, as the principal man of the parish, was sent for to decide it†; when it was remembered

* History of Whalley, p. 225, 226, 227, &c.

+ This must have been before the year, 1534, in which year the pew belonging to the manor of Read was made in consequence of this award : for the gentlewomen of Read before sate at a form next to the pillar below. Shuttleworth, of Hacking, was a person of property, and, perhaps, one of the knight's esquires, or probably his principal agent.