Forest of Rossendale. 23 



compensation for the loss of their freehold rights in all their ancient 

 commons, which the acquirement of this occasioned. 



"In the earlier part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a suit was 

 instituted by the proprietors of the vaccary of ITorelaw Head, 

 otherwise Bacop Booth, against those of Cliviger, to recover this, 

 parcel of common, on the following grounds : — 



" It appeared from the evidence of several ancient persons, who 

 remembered the boundaries before the disforesting of Rossendale, 

 that the meres (1^) lay from Tower Hill (near Bearnshaw Tower) to 

 Hag-gate, or the old road along the Haia Dominicalis, still called 

 Old Dyke, thence to Routandclough Head, thence to Pike Law, 

 and thence to Derplay Hill. And this division nature as well as 

 tradition pointed out. 



" But on the other hand, it was proved on the behalf of Cliviger, 

 that, about sixty years before, certain marked stones then remaining, 

 and including the disputed ground, had been laid as meres by Sir 

 John Townley, knight, in the presence of Sir Peter Legh, steward 

 of the Honor of Clitheroe, and Sir John Booth, receiver. 



" Secondly, it appeared from court rolls, that two acres of land, 

 parcel of the two hundred and forty acres in dispute, had been 

 granted to Robert Whitaker, of Holme, as part of the common of 

 Cliviger within Dirpley Graining, Anno 17 Edward IV., and two 

 acres more to Thomas, his son, Anno . . . Henry VII. 



" To all these things the people of the vaccary replied, that they 

 were done without their knowledge or privity. 



" On the whole, there can be no doubt that the Old Dyke had 

 been the original boundary of the forest, but that the meres of 

 Cliviger had been wrongfully extended at some indefinite period 

 before the 17th of Edward IV., in consequence of which a prescrip- 

 tion was established against the foresters. 



" Under this impression, therefore, they abandoned the suit, 

 and consented to enclose along the meres which Sir John 



(A) Meres or Meers : lakes or other waters ; but the term is often appUed 

 to dykes or stones set up to mark the bounds of property. 



