CHAPTER III. 



" The niislayer of a mere stone is to blame." — Baciin. 



" Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark. And all the 

 people shall say, Amen." — Deut. .\xvii. 17. 



" Men may come, and men may go, 

 But 1 go on for ever. — Tknnvson. 



rr^HE River Irwell takes its rise in Cliviger((?) in a large tract of 

 moorland, to the right of, and including Derplay Hill, the 

 whole of which originally constituted a part of the Forest. Owing, 

 however, to the carelessness or indifference of the proprietors 

 residing in Bacup Booth, which at one time embraced what is now 

 a portion of Cliviger, or probably to the superior cunning or 

 unscrupulousness of those of the latter, this e.xtensive tract was lost 

 to Rossendale and became a jjart of Cliviger. 



It would appear that in the earlier years of the reign of Edward 

 IV, the meres marking the boundary between Cliviger and the 

 Forest had been wrongfully extended into Bacup Booth ; and 

 although the proprietors of the latter during the reign of Elizabeth 

 instituted a suit for the recovery of this part of the common, a 

 prescriptive right was established against them. 



"The original boundary between Cliviger and the Forest of 

 Rossendale " (states Dr. Whitaker) " was unquestionably the old 

 dyke which traverses the ridge of the hill nearly from east to west 

 by Pikelaw. The freeholders of Cliviger, however, are now pos- 

 sessed of a large tract of moor ground on the other side ; a poor 



la) Formerly Clivacher 1 Anglo-Saxon 1, rocky field.— East Lancashire 

 Nomenclature by H. C. March, M.D., p. 21. 



