I 



CHAPTER II. 



" The Abbot he was a holy man, 



And eke he was an able ; 

 He ruled with gentlest master han' 



The monks that graced his table. 

 But woe betide th' unlucky wight 

 That dared bereave him of his right !" 



" I will carpe of kings that conquered full wide, 



That dwelled in this land .... 



Henry the Seventh, that sovereign lord." 



N the earlier stages of our enquiry we have been, as it were, 

 groping along in the mists of antiquity, with but few rays of 

 light to guide our path ; and with scarce a finger-post to direct us 

 on our way. But, leaving in our wake the times of the Ancient 

 Briton, the Roman, the Saxon, and the Dane, and reaching far into 

 the rule of later days, we draw near to a period in the history of the 

 district possessing more substantial records, over which we can 

 pace with firmer tread; we begin to detect the sound of footsteps, 

 and we descry in the hazy distance, " men as trees walking." 



The association of the Forest of Rossendale, in those early days, 

 with Whalley Abbey and the Monastery of Stanlaw in Cheshire — 

 the prior abode of the Cistertian monks— was so intimate as to call 

 for some notice of these by way of elucidation of the history of the 

 district. 



Before the erection of the religious edifice at Whalley, the 

 mouldering ruins of which add an additional charm to that 

 romantic and delightful locality, the abbot and his inferiors the 

 monks occupied the Cistertian Monastery of Stanlaw. This 



