Transcriber's Note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfullyas possible, including some inconsistencies of hyphenation. Somechanges of spelling and punctuation have been made. They are listedat the end of the text. The errors listed in the Errata have beenfixed.
ANCIENT BATTLE-FIELDS.
ON SOMEANCIENT
BATTLE-FIELDS IN LANCASHIRE
and their
Historical, Legendary, and Aesthetic Associations.
BY
CHARLES HARDWICK,
Author of a "History of Preston and its Environs," "Traditions, Superstitionsand Folk-Lore," "Manual for Patrons and Members ofFriendly Societies," &c.
MANCHESTER:
ABEL HEYWOOD & SON, OLDHAM STREET.
LONDON:
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & Co., STATIONERS' HALL COURT.
1882.
TO
GEORGE MILNER, Esq., President,
AND TO THE COUNCIL AND MEMBERS OF THE
MANCHESTER LITERARY CLUB,
THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY ONE OF ITS FOUNDERS.
CHARLES HARDWICK.
PREFACE.
To the transactions of the Manchester Literary Club (1875-8) Icontributed four papers on "Some Ancient Battle-fields in Lancashire."These essays form the nuclei of the four chapters of the presentvolume. Their original scope, however, has been much extended, and theevidences there adduced largely augmented. I have likewise endeavouredto still further fortify and illustrate my several positions, bycitations from well-known, and many recent, labourers in similar orcognate fields of enquiry.
I am aware that the precise locality of any given battle-field is ofrelatively little interest to the general historian, the causes of theconflict and its political results demanding the largest share of hisattention. Consequently, doubtful topographical features are ofteneither completely ignored, or but slightly referred to. Such a course,however, is not permissible to the local student. Scarcely anything canbe too trifling, in a[Pg viii] certain sense, to be unworthy of someinvestigation on his part. This is especially the case with respect tolegendary stories, and traditional beliefs. Their interest isintensified, it is true, to the local reader or student, but the lessonsthey teach, on patient enquiry, will often be found in harmony withlarger or more general truths, and of which truths they often form aptillustrations. "Alas!" truly exclaimed "Verax," in one of his recentletters in the Manchester Weekly Times, "it is hard to disengageourselves from inherited illusions. They become a part of our being, andfalsify the standard of comparison." Modern science may be able todemonstrate that many of the conceptions respecting physical phenomenadealt with in these legendary stories are utterly at variance with nowwell-known facts. This may be perfectly true, but human nature isinfluenced in its action, quite as much by its faiths, beliefs, andsuperstitions, as by the more exact knowledge it may have acquired.Subject