go History of the 



Dr. Whitaker observes {b) that the vaccaries or large upland 

 pasture farms within the Lancashire Forests were under the super- 

 intendence of two Master Foresters, one for Blackburnshire, and 

 the other for Bowland ; and the former had under him an inferior 

 keeper in each, of which that of Rossendale inhabited the chamber 

 of the Forest, and had the direction of other still inferior officers, 

 termed graves or reeves of the Forest. This description would 

 seem to imply a less onerous and important position than is 

 assumed for the Greave ; but he was really the xVcting Officer " in 

 charge ;" the Constables and Bailiffs being responsible to him ; 

 and in earlier times when the facilities for intercourse were fewer 

 and more costly, the existence of higher authorities, to the rural 

 mind, was more mythical than real. Hence, when the Greave 

 chanced to be of a tyrannical disposition — 



" They were a-dread of him as of the death." 



Haines, in his history of the County, states that Rossendale is 

 governed by a Constable called "The Greave of the Forest," who 

 is nominated by the principal landowners ; and that the expenses 

 of this Officer are borne by four principal householders in each 

 Booth in rotation, a practice which has prevailed from 1557. {c) 



The Historian is surely at fault here. To have saddled any 

 four principal householders with the expenses of the Greave, 

 would certainly have been a summary and unjust proceeding. 

 The fact is, that, on receiving a Precept or Order from the High 

 Constable for the payment of a certain amount, the Greave im- 

 mediately laid a rate, or " Greave lay," {d) as it was called, over 

 the district, being generally careful that the amount to be collected 

 exceeded the sum of the Precept. When a deficiency occurred 



(A) Hist. Whalley, third edition, p. 206. 



(f) Hist. Lancashire, vol iii. p. 276. 



(rf) " The derivation of the word 'lay' or 'ley' seems doubtful. In the 

 expression ' to lay a lay ' may be found one origin, and the French word ley, 

 law, suggests another, a rate made by law." — Note by John Harland, 

 F.S.A., in " Manchester Court Leet Records," p. 124. 



