Chap, r,.] TOPOGRAPHY AND AGRICULTUKE. 125 



" New house built tliis year at Oder [Hodder] Inn, intended for 

 Piiblick House. 



"1838. — Begun haytime on 21st July, done on 27th Aug. Very 

 bad hay-time this year j several floods. 



" 1839. — Done hay-time 13th Aug., being a month with it, but good 

 hay gotten in general. 



" 1840. — Jos. Corbridge and family set of from Thornley on 4th 

 Sept., to go to America, the place appointed for fanaticks and liars. 



■ < 1865. — Died on 18th Nov., David Nutter, Esq., of Preston, 

 formerly of Longridge, aged 90 years. 



" Died on 24th June, George Whittle, Cotton Manufacturer, Long- 

 ridge, aged 51 years. Buried at Longridge on 5th July." 



The Longridge Charities are neither numerous nor important, but 

 some account of their origin may be interesting: — 

 Township of Alston. 

 EiCHAED Houghton's charity. 

 The particulars of this charity, under which the poor of the town- 

 ship of Alston are entitled to one moiety of the rent of a close, called 

 Wood Crook, in Whittingham, will be found in our 11th report, p. 327. 

 Since that account was drawn up, the rent has been reduced from £10 

 to £5, the close having been let at this rent, by a verbal agreement, 

 for a term of seven years from 2nd February, 1825, to Eichard Dixon, 

 the tenant, who had previously held it at £10. The cause assigned for 

 this great reduction is that the land was very much impoverished by 

 having been too frequently ploughed. The trustees found that they 

 could not let the land to advantage to any other person, as there was no 

 road to it except through other gi-ounds belonging to Eichard Dixon, 

 and they therefore let the close to him again upon an engagement on 

 his part that he would lay it down in grass. It is stated that it will 

 be several years before the land can be brought into a good state of 

 cultivation. The Eev. Eobert Parkinson and William Buck, two of 

 the trustees residing in Alston, distribute one moiety of the rents on 

 St. Thomas's Day amongst the poor of this townshij), generally in sums 

 varying from 6d. to 2s. 6d., and of late years a regular account has been 

 kept. Previously to 1819, 10s. out of the sum of £1 10s., which was the 



