Forest of Rossendale. 25 



semi-Saxon dialect of this neighbourhood, is hoar, used as a sub- 

 stantive ; and very high grounds, which are often gray with sleet 

 or hoarfrost while the meadows and pastures beneath remain 

 unsprinkled, are said to be in the Ere. Now this remark is strikingly 

 verified in Derplay Hill, which, many times in winter, presents a 

 hoary head, while the lowlands of Rossendale retain their native 

 brown. Erewell, therefore, is the spring in the Ere. The neigh- 

 bouring Whitewell probably derives its name from the same 

 circumstance ; and the very next elevation north-west of Derplay 

 Hill in ancient charters (for the present coarse orthography of the 

 word rests on no authority) is styled Her, or Horelaw." (i) 



This is ingenious reasoning, but not altogether convincing. 

 The quality of whiteness in winter is by no means peculiar to 

 Derplay, but is probably more or less common to every lofty 

 elevation in the United Kingdom ; and that this occasional white 

 appearance of the hill top— which would surely be neither un- 

 usual nor unexpected in the winter season — should be the cause 

 of the origin of the name, is not satisfactorily demonstrated. Had 

 the crown or summit of Derplay Hill retained its white appearance 

 all the year round, the argument might have been indisputable ; 

 but the whiteness is by far the exception, and not the rule. The 

 names of the neighbouring stream, Whitewell, and Horelaw Hill 

 certainly give weight to the argument of the learned historian, but 

 the coincidence may be accidental, nevertheless. But further, in a 

 deed in the possession of Mr. Whitaker, late of Broadclough, of 

 the time of Henry VH., and to which reference is made by 

 Baines, in his " History of Lancashire," (e) the name of the adja- 

 cent hill is spelt Harlawhead, and not Horlawhead, thus : — 



" Harlawhead, alias vocat. Bacopboothe. Also there is another 

 vaccherye called Harleyhead, otherwise called Bacopboothe, late 

 in Ferme, at ;^8 13s. 4d. by yere, is now letten to Lawrence 

 Lorde, Alexander Lorde, John Whiteacr, and Christopher Tatter- 

 sall for ^i\ yere. Ex. per W. Tusser." 



(d) Hist. Whalley, third edition, p. 226. 

 (c) Vol iii. p. 275. 



