32 A HISTORY OF LONGRIDGE. [Chap. 1. 



the country, intending to have gone to Eibchester with the letters, 

 expecting to have been pursued by the rebel hussars, but -without my 

 knowledge, the gentlemen of Preston had taken care of my safetj', 

 by planting a guard upon the bridge .... In the evening, I 

 met a countryman, of whom I asked the way, and told b'm ^'f he met 

 any rebels enquiring after me, to turn them a contrary way, which he 

 promised to do. He also told me it was not safe for me to go to Eib- 

 chester, but advised me to go to Clitheroe. Before I got into the 

 right road, I came to a deep brook,' over which there was a long 

 stone laid for foot travellers, and, in riding over it, one of my horse's 

 hinder feet slipped. We both fell backward into the water, where I 

 was well dipped, but I and my horse happily got out without receiving 

 any other damage. Having no time to lose, I immediately mounted, 

 the water running from my deaths, but my boots continued fuU, and 

 mj- firearms were likewise wet, so that, if I had been pursued, I could 

 have made little resistance. In this plight I was in on a cold frost}' 

 night, and knew not the road, till I came to a house, where I hired a 

 guide, who conducted me over Longridge Fell to Clitheroe, where I 

 arrived at ten that night, and had the letters opened by a justice of 

 the peace." 



Since 1 745, as I have observed before, Lancashire has shared pre- 

 eminently in the general prosperity of the country. 



The Eev. Fr. Gerrard, of Stonyhurst, has very kindly sent me the 

 following interesting statement about the Mill below Hodder : — 



"Testimony of George Eccles, Miller, Stonyhiu'st, aged 73 : — 



" He remembers an old woman, Ellen Coates, who told him she had 

 worked at this mill. The proprietor was Mr. Emmett, and he lived in 

 the house which has formed the nucleus of Hodder, and which now is 

 in the centre of its front. 



" The mill extended from the brook, which runs into the Hodder, 

 above the bo3's' bathing place (whore there are some cut stone steps, 

 relics of the old buildings), to below the bathing place, (where there 

 are some more traces of cut stone work). 



•Probalily the Savok. 



