OLD HOLLINGS, a hamlet in the township of Cabus, parish of Garstang, hundred of Amounderness, 3 miles N. from Garstang.

OLD HUT. See Halewood.

OLD LAUND BOOTH, a township in the parish of Whalley, hundred of Blackburn, 3 miles N. from Burnley. Inhabitants 390. This was anciently a vaccary, or upland farm, in the forest of Rossendale.

erness,

OLD MARGERY's, a hamlet in the township of Great Marton, parish of Poulton in the Fylde, hundred of Amound1 mile S. W. from Blackpool. OLD SWAN, a hamlet in the township of West Derby, parish of Walton, hundred of West Derby, 3 miles E. from Liverpool.

OLIVE MOUNT. See Wavertree.

OLLERTON, a hamlet in the township of Withnel, parish of Leyland, hundred of Leyland, 5 miles S. W. from Blackburn.

Ooze Booth, a hamlet in the township and parish of Blackburn, hundred of Blackburn, 1 mile N. from Blackburn. OPENSHAW, a township in the parish of Manchester, hundred of Salford, 3 miles E. from Manchester. Inhabitants 497.

ORDSALL, a hamlet in the township of Salford, parish of Manchester, hundred of Salford, 2 miles W. from Manchester. Ordsall Hall, a moated mansion of great antiquity, was once a seat of the Ratcliffe family. It has been divided into separate tenements.

ORFORD, a hamlet in the township and parish of Warrington, hundred of West Derby, 1 mile N. from Warrington. Orford Hall, the seat of the Hon. Lucy Hornby, was formerly the residence of John Blackburne, esq., who died in 1796, at the patriarchal age of ninety-seven. He was distinguished by his love for horticulture and botany; and is said to have been the second gentleman in England who cultivated the pine apple. His daughter, Mrs. Anna Blackburne, inherited her father's taste

for botany, and a new genus of plants has been consecrated to her memory. ORMEROD HOUSE. See Cliviger. ORMSKIRK, a market town, parish, and township, in the hundred of West Derby, 13 miles N. N. E. from Liverpool, 208 from London. Inhabitants 3838. A discharged vicarage in the archdeaconry of Chester, value £10. Patron the earl of Derby. Market, Thursday; Fairs, Whit Monday, and September 8th and 9th, for horned cattle and horses; but recently altered to September 10th and 11th. These fairs, and market, were established by a grant from Edward I. to the canons of Burscough Priory, to whom the place formerly belonged. The church, seated on an eminence, is of considerable but uncertain antiquity; having a square tower, and at a small distance in the church yard a spire steeple. Tradition relates that the edifice was built by two sisters of the name of Orme, one of whom wished to have a tower, and the other a spire; but, as they could not agree, they erected both: it is however much more probable that the name is a corruption of Almskirk; and as Leland does not mention the circumstance of the two steeples, his account being merely," a paroche chirch in the towne, no river by yt, but mosses of eche side," it is not unlikely that the tower was added after the suppression of the monasteries, for the reception of the bells from Burscough Priory. The sisters, it would appear, differed too regarding the patronage of a saint, as the church is dedicated both to St. Peter and St. Paul. A chapel in this church was erected, according to the will of Edward, the third earl of Derby, which bears date 1572; in it is the cemetery of the Stanley family, whose remains have been buried here since the dissolution of the monasteries; and some of the monuments formerly at Burscough Priory have been removed to this place. Here is also a chancel belonging to the Scarisbrick family. The tower com

S

PADGATE, a hamlet in the township of Woolston, parish of Warrington, hundred of West Derby, 2 miles E. N. E. from Warrington.

PADIHAM, a chapelry in the parish of Whalley, hundred of Blackburn, 4 miles W. from Burnley. Inhabitants 3060. Patron L. G. Starkie, esq. Fairs May 8th, September 26th, for cooper's and other wooden ware. Padiham is a considerable village, advantageously situated on the elevated bank of the Calder, but ill built and of no very elegant appearance. It carries on a considerable cotton manufacture. The church was rebuilt in 1766; the tower, of the age of IIenry VIII., still remains.

PALACE HOUSE. See Ightonhill Park. PARBOLD, a township in the parish of Eccleston, hundred of Leyland, 4 miles W. from Standish. Inhabitants 339. In this place is a chapel of ease, sometimes called Douglas Chapel, from being situated near the bank of that river.

PARK, a hamlet in the township of Walmersley, parish of Bury, hundred of Salford, 4 miles N. from Bury.

PARKFIELD. See Didsbury. PARK HALL. See Charnock Richard. PARK HOUSE, a hamlet in the township of Burrow, parish of Tunstall, hundred of Lonsdale, south of the sands, 3 miles S. E. from Tunstall.

PARK HOUSES, a hamlet in the township of Musbury, parish of Bury, hundred of Blackburn, 2 miles S. W. from Haslingden.

PARK HOUSES, a hamlet in the township of Crompton, parish of Oldham cum Prestwich, hundred of Salford, 4 miles S. E. from Rochdale.

PARK SIDE, a hamlet in the township of Eccleston, parish of Prescot, hundred of West Derby, 1 mile N. F. from Pres

cot.

PARR, a township in the parish of Prescot, hundred of West Derby, 1 mile E. from St. Helens. Inhabitants 1523. This township abounds with coal and iron stone.

PARROX HALL. See Preesall.

PARRS, a hamlet in the township of Rainford, parish of Prescot, hundred of West Derby, 4 miles N. N. E. from

Prescot.

PARRS WOOD. See Didsbury.

PASTURES, a hamlet in the township of Longworth, parish of Bolton, hundred of Salford, 6 miles N. N. W. from Bolton.

PATRICROFT, a hamlet in the township of Barton, parish of Eccles, hundred of Salford, 5 miles W. from Manchester.

PEASE HOLMS, a hamlet in the township of Leece, parish of Aldingham, hundred of Lonsdale, north of the sands, 4 miles S. E. from Dalton.

PEASLEY CROSS, a hamlet in the township of Sutton, parish of Prescot, hundred of West Derby, 1 mile S. E. from St. Helens.

PEEL, a hamlet in the township of Martin, parish of Poulton in the Fylde, hundred of Amounderness, 4 miles W. from Kirkham.

PEEL CHAPEL, a hamlet in the township of Litttle Hulton, parish of Dean, hundred of Salford, 3 miles S. from Bolton. Patron lord Kenyon.

PEEL GREEN, a hamlet in the township of Barton, parish of Eccles, hundred of Salford, 5 miles W. from Manchester.

PEEL HALL. See Hulton, Little. PEEL OF FOULDREY. See Pile o Fouldrey.

PEMBERTON, a township in the parish of Wigan, hundred of West Derby, 2 miles W. S. W. from Wigan.

Inhabitants 3679. In this township is a very ancient half timbered hall, a specimen of a style of domestic architecture scarcely met with in the south of England. A church under the recent acts is now erecting in this township.

PENDLEBURY, a township in the parish of Eccles, hundred of Salford, 4 miles N. W. from Manchester. Inhabitants 1047. In this township is Spring Field, the seat of Thomas Entwistle, esq. PENDLE FOREST, a district in the parish of Whalley, hundred of Blackburn, anciently a part of the demesne of the great honour of Clitheroe. This tract, of which Pendle Hill and Colne may be considered as the west and eastern boundaries, bore the appellation of Forest, not from its abounding in wood, but from its originally wild and barren state, lying" ad foras," and being considered as unworthy of cultivation by its original feudal lord. The extent of Pendle Forest cannot be estimated at less than twenty-five square miles. Booths or mansions were erected at various periods in former times for the residence of the herdsmen; whilst lawnds, by which is meant parks within a forest, were enclosed in order to chase the wild deer with greater facility, or by confinement to produce fatter venison. In Pendle Forest were Old and New Lawnd Parks and Ightonhill Park. In the reign of Henry VII. it contained thirteen vaccaries or breeding farms, scattered through the wild and dreary parts, in each of which a house was erected for the labourers who superintended the cattle. Several of these vaccaries have become the nucleus of a modern township or village, of which Hey Houses was erected the first. Pendle Hill, the western boundary of the forest, is an enormous mass of matter, extending in a ridge of seven miles from north-east to south-west, its highest elevation being 1803 feet above the level of the sea. Its sides are verdant, but its summit moorish; it commands

an amazing extent of prospect. This hill has always been subject to sudden and vast discharges of water, and, like most other mountains, gives certain indication of rain when its summit is enveloped in clouds. The enthusiast George Fox professed to have received his first illuminations on the top of Pendle Hill. On its eastern declivity stood Malkin Tower, or Hoarstones, formerly a celebrated rendezvous of witches. In the year 1612 nineteen persons, dwelling in this neighbourhood, were committed to Lancaster gaol on the accusation of witchcraft, the chief of whom was Elizabeth Southerns, commonly called mother Demdike, who was a very old woman, and had been a witch for fifty years. She dwelt, says the relater, in the forest of Pendle, a vast place fit for her profession, where she brought up her own children, instructed her grandchildren, and was an infernal agent for the devil in those parts. She died in the castle before her trial. Mother Demdike seems to have been originally committed before the rest, as some of the others were accused of being present at Malkin Tower on Good Friday, 1612, at an assemblage of witches, for the purpose of delivering her from durance by blowing up Lancaster Castle and killing the gaoler. Ten of these unfortunate creatures were found guilty, and underwent the last penalty of the law. The daughter and grandaughter of dame Demdike suffered on the evidence of a child, nine years of age, daughter of the former, who thus became accessory to the death of her mother and sister. This miserable little wretch declared that she saw a spirit called Ball come to her mother in the shape of a brown dog, who promised to kill two persons that she doomed. The publisher of the trial, Thomas Potts, a clerk of the court, asserts that the mother impudently denied the accusation. His description of another of the witches is highly graphic:-Anne Chattox, says he,

was a very old, withered, spent, and decrepit creature; her sight almost gone; a dangerous witch of long continuance, always opposite to old Demdike; for whom one favoured the other hated deadly; in her witchcraft always more ready to do mischief to men's goods than to themselves; her lips ever chattering and talking, but no man knew what. She lived in the forest of Pendle. Another of the accused, on the evidence of the little girl, was Alice Nutter, a person of considerable estate, and the mother of a family. She too would never confess, but evinced the highest indignation. These proceedings took place before Sir James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley; the latter in passing sentence was touched with something of a compassionate feeling, but this evaporated on the consideration of the enormity of the crimes of the accused, and he made a long address in a style and manner not infrequently heara from the bench, but which from no other quarter would ever be suspected of wisdom. Three days after, eight persons from Samlesbury were accused; three of them, Jennet and Ellen Bierly, and Jane Southworth, on the evidence of a young girl named Grace Sowerbutts; but, it having been suspected that she was set on by a Jesuit in the neighbourhood, the spirit of religious party immediately opened the eyes of the same judge, and he could sift circumstances, cross question witnesses, and perceive at once the improbability of the evidence, which was not > whit more absurd than the former, and thus these parties fortunately escaped. Some twenty years after this event, Pendle Forest again became the scene of a similar visitation. In 1633 a boy, one Edmund Robinson, the son of a labourer, deposed, that one day whilst gathering bullace, two greyhounds approached him, a black and a brown one; he set them on a hare, but they would not run, whereupon he beat them, and

they were presently metamorphosed, the one into the wife of a neighbour named Dicconson, and the other into a little boy, and soon after, by the art of the woman, the little boy was transformed into a white horse, upon which Mrs. Dicconson took Edmund and carried him before her to a new house, called Hoarstones, where he saw sixty persons at a feast; divers of the company, however, going to a neighbouring barn, he had the curiosity to follow them, and there he saw six of them kneeling and pulling at six several ropes, by which pulling there came into sight, flesh smoking, lumps of butter, milk, cheese, and the like, which fell into basins placed under the said ropes; these six were relieved by six other witches, who made such foul faces that he was glad to steal off and run home. On another occasion, the wife of one Loynds sitting upon a cross piece of wood within the chimney of his father's house, he called to her and immediately she went up the chimney out of sight. On the evidence of this and similar stuff, no fewer than seventeen persons were committed to Lancaster Castle. This Edmund, being encouraged by the magistrates, was in the practice of going from church to church with his father at the time of service that the boy might discover and reveal witches. What must have been the state of society, what the apprehension and terror of individuals, when no caution could be safe, no innocence secure against these mysterious accusations! By this means the father soon obtained a good living, and in a short time purchased a cow or two. At the assizes the seventeen accused persons were capitally convicted, but the judge respited the execution, and four were sent to London to be examined by king Charles I. and his council. Suspicion of the truth of the case having been excited, the boy was imprisoned, and at length confessed the imposition. The accused were consequently set at liberty, some of whom,