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large measure of simplicity and childish superstition. Now, 
however, in these later days, the schoolmaster is abroad in 
earnest. Surely if slowly, the march of intellect proceeds, and 
must proceed, and the hill tops themselves have got to be sealed 
in the end, no doubt; but in the meantime, did one read in the 
blazing light of our scientific halls a full and particular account 
of the superstitions still lingering in certain nooks of our borders, 
he would be heard with incredulity. 
Mr. Stansfield then read the story, ‘“‘ Old Langsettle and his 
Dupes,” an admirable sketch of Lancashire hillside life and 
character, taken from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Comic, 
Historic, and Poetic Almanack for 1874. It was given as an 
illustration of the superstitions and the dialect of the border 
region. The story was printed in the Manchester Quarterly for 
April, 1885. Its author was James Standing, who during his 
lifetime was but little known beyond the narrow valley, with its 
encompassing hills, which forms the picturesque scene of his 
sketches—sketches which for their grotesque humour, for the 
breathing, life-like character of the portraits they contain for 
fidelity, dramatic force and graphic power, have seldom been 
equalled by our best writers in the dialects. 
James Standing was a native of the Burnley Valley. He was 
born in the township of Cliviger, in June, 1848, his father being 
employed at the time in a coal pit. The township of Cliviger 
(Clivacher, rocky district) forms part of the romantic Burnley 
vale, which itself marks for a considerable distance the division 
between Lancashire and Yorkshire. It is remarkable for three 
different rivers which all take their rise here, viz., the Hast and 
West Calders, and the Irwell. It is as picturesque a region as 
is to be found within thirty miles of Manchester, and its natural 
charms have been much enhanced by the extensive plantings 
made during his lifetime by the late Dr. Whitaker, the learned 
historian of Whalley, whose patrimonial estate of ‘ Holme” 
forms part of the district, and who long resided here. Before 
attaining his eighth year, Standing was set to work at a bobbin 
manufactory, some time later he worked in a cotton factory, and 
subsequently his father having become a partner in a brick- 
making business, he went to assist in the brickyard. 
Standing was the author of a small collection of verse and 
prose pieces in the local dialect, under the title of ‘‘ Echoes from 
a Lancashire Vale.” This little brochure contains the poem 
(with a true picture of a Burnley Vailey interior), ‘‘ Wimmen’s 
Wark es Niver Done.” At the end of 1878, he issued his first 
Lancashire and Yorkshire, &c., Almanack ; in 1876 he published 
what he calls his Continental Run, comprising a glance at the 
chief cities of Europe. About the time that Standing commenced 
authorship he emerged from the brickyard, and established a 
