92 History of the 



trustworthy source, I am enabled to add a few more names, bringing 

 down the list of Officers to the year 1 8 1 8. 



This list is not to be viewed as a mere dry catalogue of names to 

 which little or no interest is attached. It is in truth an enumera- 

 tion of the oldest families of the district for a period of over three 

 hundred years, and as such is of great historical value. 



However disinclined we may be to render undue homage to the 

 accidental and adventitious circuiflstances of long descent, we are 

 all ready to allow that it is at least desirable, and in a sense hon- 

 ourable, to be able to trace our ancestors back through the cen- 

 turies which have elapsed, to recount their virtues, and their heroic 

 deeds, and to unravel the intricacies of the times in which their lot 

 was cast. 



What is true of the individual, is also true in respect to the 

 locality. Few among us but are proud to connect the occurences 

 of the particular district in which we feel an interest, with the more 

 important historical events and personages of our common country. 



No city, or town, or district can be said to possess a history 

 until the events which have occurred therein are recorded, and the 

 actors in its various scenes identified and described. Just as that 

 man is supposed to be without ancestors who is unable to trace his 

 descent through a series of generations. 



The most enchanting landscape which the painter can portray 

 upon his canvas lacks one of its greatest charms until it is made to 

 embrace within its ample area an image bearing the human form. 

 To sujjply this is, as it were, to infuse a living soul into the other- 

 wise inanimate clay. 



This is precisely the part which the present list of Greaves fulfils 

 in respect to Rossendale. They are the link which, more than 

 any other, connects the district with past events. 



Without this link we know, of course, that Rossendale had an 

 existence in the long past ; that its hills were as high, and its air as 

 bracing as at the present day. But there is a feeling of vagueness 

 in the mind when we try to summon up bygone circumstances, 



