Forest of Rossendale. 225 



and familiar and family intercourse between the scattered inhabitants 

 of the Forest of Rossendale and those of the district where their 

 Parish Church was situated, and frequent meetings, visitings, and 

 junkettings would be the result. 



The Forest servants of the lord of the honor naturally came 

 from Clitheroe, and the herdsmen in charge of the cattle belong- 

 ing to VVhalley Abbey in the grazing lands in Rossendale that were 

 at that time the property of the Abbot and monks, were sent here 

 from the same district. The original chapel at Newchurch was 

 undoubtedly erected largely by contributions from Whalley Abbey, 

 to meet the spiritual wants of the then Catholic inhabitants. 



Further, nearly all the present characteristic Rossendale 

 surnames, notably the Howarths, Haworths, Holts, Rostrons, 

 Whittakers (spelt with both single and double t), are to be found 

 in the neighbourhood in question, and they are particularly 

 abundant in the Blackburn direction. 



The characteristics of the native inhabitants of both places or 

 districts are also very similar to this day, the chief of these being a 

 stolid exterior appearance, relieved and brightened by a rough and 

 ready, but not unkindly humour, expressed with a persistent 

 adherence to dialectical speech, even in cases where a certain 

 culture might be expected to eradicate the tendency. 



It will be understood that I am dealing only with the undoubted 

 Rossendalian. It is only by going back to, and making a study of, 

 the original stock in both districts, that the characteristics mentioned 

 are to be observed. The remarks do not apply to all the 

 inhabitants of Rossendale, or even the bulk of them, at the present 

 day. _ The continual influx and reflux of population, and even the 

 nature and vicissitudes of trade and occupation produce changes of 

 character and temperament, and modify the peculiarities of race 

 even in those instances where it is purest. 



The inhabitants of the Forest of Rossendale are proverbial for 

 their shrewd, enterprising character. Possessing largely the faculty 

 of acquiring and accumulating money, they combine therewith the 



