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THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



"The wealthy magnificent abbey of Whalley once stood 

 in this forest. It was founded about the twelfth century 

 by some Cistercian monks from Stanlaw in Cheshire, and 

 its erection cost 3000. This amount will give some idea 

 of its magnificence ; for though such a sum would not in 

 our day go far towards the erection even of a church, yet 

 when the wages of labour were only twopence per day, 

 when the adjoining forest supplied nearly all the timber, 

 and plenty of fine sandstone was to be had in the neigh- 

 bourhood, we can imagine the scale of splendour on which 

 the edifice could be reared. These old monks were almost 

 unerring judges of the places best fitted for residence, 

 where all the physical comforts of life could be had. The 

 situation was warm, and at the same time picturesque, the 

 soil was fertile, the neighbouring forests supplied deer, and 

 all kinds of game in great plenty, and the streams were 

 well stocked with delicious fish. The monastery was sup- 

 pressed by Henry VIII., and it is now in ruins ; but many 

 of the parts remain entire, and give a slight idea of the 

 fallen splendour whose memory they preserve. 



" The Forest of Pendle has acquired a considerable 

 degree of notoriety from some old traditions and stories 

 connected with the witches who at one time were sup- 

 posed, by the people in the neighbourhood, to inhabit it. 

 These stories have acquired a kind of historical interest 

 from their having been made the basis of the trial for 

 witchcraft of eighteen poor women at Lancaster in 1633. 



" At that period the people of England were infected by 

 a witch-mania, which caused the cruel suffering of many 

 innocent people. For a woman to be old and ugly, to live 

 alone, to keep a cat, and to have some peculiarity in her 

 manner, were sufficient to cause ignorant and senseless 

 people to set her down as a witch. If any calamity hap- 

 pened in the neighbourhood, the people immediately 

 attributed it to the so-called witch. The poor woman was 

 seized, and usually met her death either at the hands of a 

 fanatical mob or through the verdict of as fanatical a jury. 



