6o • History of the 



Parks were extensive enclosures of pasture land, thinly planted 

 with trees, maintained for the purpose of fattening the larger ani- 

 mals for the table of the king and the nobles ; for better view of 

 the beasts of venery ; and occasionally for the enjoyment of the 

 pleasures of the hunt, with fewer of the risks and dangers which 

 necessarily attended its exercise in the depth of the Forest. 



In past times Musbury [the hill of moss] was the Park or 

 Laund of the Forest of Rossendale, and custody of the herbage 

 thereon was granted to James de Radcliffe, by John of Gaunt, in 

 the eighteenth year of the reign of Richard II. (1395.) A lease 

 was also granted of the same Park to Richard Radcliffe, of Rad- 

 cliffe, for twenty years, at the rent of ^8 6s. 8d., in the ninth of 

 Edward IV. (1470,) and, at the e.xpiration of the term, was re- 

 newed to him for the Hke period at the old rent. (/) 



Speaking of the same Park, Baines remarks : — " Of the 

 townships in the Parish of Bury, Musbury, at its north-western 

 extremity, is in the Hundred of Blackburn. The hill of Tor, in 

 this township, is remarkable for its oval form and extensive views 

 over the neighbouring wild and romantic region. From the act of 

 resumption of the Crown possessions, passed in the first of Henry 

 VII. (1485,) it appears that the patent office, then existing, of 

 park-keeper of Musbury, was held by Laurens Maderer, and that 

 his rights and privileges were secured by that Act." (</) 



(/) Tovvnley MSS., cited by Dr. Whitaker in Hist. Whalley, p. 222, 

 (y) Baines's Hist. Lancashire, vol. ii. p. 673. 



