158 Country Rambles. 



more affrighting boggarts of to-day, masters, permittedly 

 by the authorities, of a place once another Kelvin Grove, 



Where the wild rose in its pride 

 Paints the hollow dingle side, 

 And the midnight fairies glide, 



Bonnie lassie, O ! 



We have spoken of Boggart-hole Clough in conformity 

 with the generally current idea, namely, that in the olden 

 time it was a haunt or habitation of "boggarts." Boggart- 

 hole is thought by some to be a mistaken and enlarged 

 spelling of Boggart Hall, the appellation of a house near 

 the head of the clough, once and for a long while of evil 

 repute as the home of an unclean spirit. Samuel Bamford 

 seems to favour the popular conception, probably because 

 unwilling to disturb it, though he himself never hints at 

 the existence in this clough of any particular uncanny 

 inmate. The boggart of the hall was no other, it is 

 further contended, than the "brownie" found in some 

 shape or other all the world over, superstitions of this 

 character being co-extensive with human nature, some- 

 times vulgarized, sometimes exquisitely etherialised, and 

 taking as many forms as there are powers of fancy in the 

 human mind. The pixies of Devonshire and Titania's 

 "Sweet Puck" belong to the poetical line of thought; 

 the ugly and mischievous " boggarts " to the rustic one. 

 The entire subject has been dealt with by Harland and 

 Wilkinson in the Lancashire Folk-lore. The legend is 

 also given in the Traditio?is of Lancashire, the compiler 

 of which would seem to have adopted an earlier version 



