2 History of the 



Whilst that powerful race, the offspring of the imperial Mis- 

 tress of the world, remarkable for their proficiency alike in the 

 arts of war and peace, have left behind them in neighbouring 

 localities abundant memorials of their former presence and posses- 

 sion, it would seem as though Rossendale had held out no induce- 

 ments to tempt them to its fastnesses, or to lead any of them to 

 select it as their place of habitation. 



The Celtic Britons, who doubtless constituted its first inhabi- 

 tants, scant in number, and barbarous in their social and domestic 

 habits and in their religious customs, were probably permitted by 

 the Roman invaders of the island to remain unmolested in their 

 primitive fttre.it. 



Equally barren is Rossendale in early British relics. This, 

 however, is not matter for surprise, as monuments of the British 

 period are not abundant in any part of the kingdom. 



If the religious rites and ceremonies of our half-naked and 

 painted ancestors were ever performed within the glades of the 

 Forest, the monumental remains of their Drudical worship have 

 disappeared in the long centuries which have elapsed since their 

 occupation of the land. But it is safe to conclude that the 

 country adjacent to the Forest was too sparsely populated for the 

 latter ever to have been selected as the site of the imposing and 

 often cruel religious pageants of our barbarian forefathers. Their 

 dwellings, generally of the rudest construction, were not calcu- 

 lated to survive the storms of time, or even the less formidable 

 influences of the changeful seasons. These, therefore, have also 

 perished, leaving behind them no trace of their existence. 



The natural features of a country are usually its most per- 

 manent monuments ; and if we turn to the hills and other localities 

 comprised within or bordering on the district under consideration, 

 we find that many of their present names — as for example. Crag, 

 Cridden or Cribden, Cliviger, Hameldoo, &c. — are decidedly of 

 British origin. 



That the Forest of Rossendale was the resort, probably for 

 centuries, both before and after the Roman era, of wild animals 



