6 History of the 



across the country to the adjoining counties; being travelled not 

 only by the coramon people, but by the ecclesiastics and nobles of 

 the land, in all the pomp of ancient dignity, and with the train of 

 followers and retainers who, in bygone days more than at present, 

 constantly hovered near the footsteps of those born to high estate. 

 It is in the immediate vicinity of this ancient track, now so over- 

 grown with grass and brown heath as scarcely to be distinguished 

 from the other parts of the moor, that the river Irwell takes its rise; 

 and we may with propriety assume that its neighbourhood would 

 be a familiar and welcome halting-place for man and beast. 



With respect to the derivation of the name Rossendale, the 

 historian of Whalley remarks : " I was once inclined to deduce this 

 word from the E itish rhos, a bottom; but the following. etymology, 

 for which I am indebted to Baxter, (vide Gloss, in voc. Carnovaac,) 

 is much more appropriate : — '■Pagus iste, de Russeo puto graminum 

 colore, Rossen dicitur, nam ejusmodi ericcum pasatum Britannoriim 

 viilgo Rhos diciturJ If there was a circumstance about the place 

 which would strike the observation of the first colonists above 

 every other, it must have been the brown and dreary hue of its 

 native herbage, which the labours of three centuries have not been 

 able to overcome." (e) It may fairly be questioned whether the 

 labours of the last three centuries have not aggravated rather than 

 improved the hue of the native herbage. We are inclined to 

 believe that such is the fact ; but in any case the name Russet-dale 

 or Rossendale, is appropriate as describing the general appearance 

 of the district. Bailey has ' Ros-land, heathy land ; watery, moorish 

 land.' In a review of the first edition of this work, the late Mr. 

 H. Cunliffe remarks : " The origin and derivation of the name 

 Rossendale are wrapt in obscurity ; but we are inclined to accept 

 the explanation from Bailey. It is evident that at one time the 

 space between Bacup and Tunstead Thrutch, was one deep pool of 

 water; and so full of bogs was the distance between Waterfoot and 

 Hardsough, that Camden relates how prior to entering within those 

 limits, horsemen engaged in the chase dismounted and knelt in 

 ((?) Hist. Whalley, third edition, p. 220. 



