CHAPTER III. 



" Some call me witch, 

 And being ignorant of myself, they go 

 About to teach me how to be one : urging 

 That my bad tongue — by their bad usage made so, 

 Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn, 

 Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse. 

 This they enforce upon me ; and in part 



Make me to credit it 



'Tis all one 

 To be a witch as to be counted one." 



— The Witch of Edmonton. 



T N the present chapter I have jotted down a few fragmentary 

 -'- items of information, traditionary, and authenticated. 



Rossendale has on occasions been favoured with the visits of 

 several remarkable men. The Rev. John Wesley, as we have 

 already seen, (a) visited this district four times at least, and from 

 the hill-sides preached to the assembled population. On the 

 occasion of his visit on July 14th, 1761, he opened the first 

 Methodist Chapel in the Forest. 



The renowned Whitefield also, in the course of his peregrina- 

 tions, passed through Rossendale more than once. In a letter 

 addressed to Lady Huntingdon, and dated Leeds, October 30, 

 1749, he says, — " I have preached to many thousands at Rosindale, 

 Aywood, and Halifax." {l>) 



Tradition says that on one occasion he preached from the old 

 " Riding Steps " which formerly stood near to the " George and 



(a) See anti; p. 217. 



{b) Whitefield's Letters, Vol. ii. p. 288. 



