Forest of Rossendale. 141 



we be justified in saying a higher ? — civilisation, in the guise of a 

 smoky factory chimney, dispelled the illusion. 



After all, it is only in a district like Rossendale that such an 

 interesting relic of the olden time could have survived. To me, 

 when I first knew them, the old people of Rossendale always 

 seemed to differ in many respects from the people of other districts. 

 This was not due to any single cause — there was a variety of 

 circumstances which contributed to the result ; but the chief cause, 

 in my opinion, is to be found in the natural character and formation 

 of the district. By reason of its hills and the wide-reaching moor- 

 lands that environ it on every side, it was in earlier days, before the 

 advent of the railway, removed to a large extent from contact with 

 the outer world and the changing fashions and tendencies of 

 wider social conditions. The older representatives of whom I 

 speak are fast dying out, and the younger generation has lost, or 

 is losing, the distinguishing characteristics of the race. 



At one time in his career Dick kept a beer-house, the sign over 

 the door being a representation of the globe, with the head and 

 shoulders of a man protruding through it, and underneath it the 

 legend, " Help me through this world !" By way of counteracting 

 any bad moral effects that arose from his vending of beer on week- 

 days, he taught a Bible class in a room over the beer-shop on 

 Sundays. He christened one of his sons " Gentleman," Gentleman 

 Taylor, being determined, as he said, to have one gentleman in the 

 family, whatever else. 



When in discharge of the functions of his curious calling of 

 Ale-taster, Dick carried in his coat pocket a pewter gill measure of 

 his own fashioning, of peculiar old-world shape, with a turned 

 ebony wood handle in the form of a cross that projected straight 

 from the middle of the side. This symbol of his office was secured 

 by a leathern thong about half a yard in length, one end being 

 round the handle, the other through a button-hole in his coat. 

 After a day's official work he might occasionally be seen, with 

 unsteady gait, wending his way up the lane to his domicile on the 

 hillside, with the gill measure dangling below his knee. 



