HALIFAX. 
3 75 
two perfons having at that time fuffered under its au¬ 
thority. This law, called the Halifax-law, was made in 
the reign of Henry VII. If the fadt was committed out 
of the vicarage, but within the liberties of the foreft of 
Hardwicke, the offender was firft carried befpre the bai¬ 
liff of Halifax, who immediately fummoned the frith- 
burghers of the feveral towns in the foreft, by whom he 
was either acquitted or condemned. If the latter, he 
was carried within a week to the fcaffold, and there be¬ 
headed in a very lingular manner, viz. by an axe drawn 
up by a pulley to the top of a wooden engine, and faf- 
tened fry a pin ; which when taken out, the axe dropped 
in an inftant, and did its work. This engine they called 
“maiden,” the balls of which ftill remains. The earl of 
Morton, regent of Scotland, feeing one of thefe execu¬ 
tions as he palled through Halifax, took a model of the 
machine, and carried it into his own country ; where, 
after having it ereCted to terrify the people, his lord- 
lhip’s head was the firft that was cut off w,ith it. This 
ancient inftru mentis the modern Gui llo tine of France; 
which fee defcribed at p. 87, of this volume. 
•Though there were, not above thirty houfes in Halifax 
in the year 1443, it was fo populous in queen Elizabeth’s 
time, that they lent out 12,000 men to join her forces 
againft the rebels; and fo induftrious were they, that, 
notwithftanding the barren foil of the adjacent country, 
they had then enriched themfelves by the manufactory 
of cloth. Since that, fo great has been the demand of 
kerfeys for clothing the troops abroad, that its trade has 
been wonderfully increaied, efpecially as they have en¬ 
tered largely into the manufadtory of lhalloons; fo that 
it has been calculated, that 100,000 pieces are made in 
a year in this parifli alone, at the fame time that almoft 
as many kerfeys are made here as ever, It has been af¬ 
firmed, that one houfe here has traded, by eommiifion, 
for 6oo,oooi. a year, to Hamburgh, in the tingle article 
of kerleys.. For the convenience of trade, the manufao- 
turers have eredted an elegant edifice, called the piece- ' 
hall, or manufaBuren-halL It is in the form of an oblong- 
fquafe, occupying ten thoufand fquare yards, and con¬ 
taining three hundred and fifteen diftindt rooms for the 
lodgment of goods, which are open for fale once a-week 
only, two hours on the market-day, from ten o’clock 
tiil twelve. The form of this building is well adapted 
to its ufe, and unites elegance, convenience, and fecu- 
rity. The declivity of the ground, though not great, 
yet forming a large fpace, obliged the architedl to raife 
pile-half of the building three, the other only two, ho¬ 
lies high ; but the avenues to the rooms being by a cor¬ 
ridor or piazza, fupported by columns or pillars of dif¬ 
ferent orders round the interior part of the building, 
(the exterior being for greater fecurity a plain blank 
wall,) a fpedlator, placed in the centre of the area, has 
a diftindt view of every room in the building, which 
forms altogether a ftriking coup d'ceil. The principal 
manufactures of this parifh, befides kerfeys and fhal- 
loons, (of which confiderable quantities are fent toTiir- 
key and the Levant,) are tammies, duroys, callamancoes, 
everlaftings, ruffels, figured and flowered amens, denims, 
fays, moreens, and lhags; alfo, half-thickfets, forges, 
lionlies, baizes, narrow and broad cloths, costings, and 
carpets. Here are alfo lately eredted, many rhills fof the: 
cotton manufadtory, which has been rapidly increkfing. 
This parifh is efteemed the largeft in England. 
The town ftands in the centre of the Yorkfhire woollen 
manufadtory, being fixteen miles from Rochdale, eight 
from Huddersfield, eight from Bradford, lixteen from 
Wakefield, and fixteen from Leeds, whence the mer¬ 
chants come on market-days to purchafe the various 
goods expofed to fale. It is diftant from London 197 
miles. The air of Halifax is very good. The winds 
which principally blow here come from the weft and 
fouth-weft, and are often attended with rain ; for fweep- 
ing in thefe diredtions over a large tradt of the fea, and 
bringing with them much vapour, they meet with little 
to obftruCt their courfe, till they come to the high chain, 
of hills, called Blackjlone-edge , (the fouth-weft boundary 
of this parifh,) which not being able to furniount, the 
greateft 'part in that cafe falls in Lancafliire ; at other 
times it is forced over, when the electrical fire, with 
which the clouds are charged, being attradled by thefe 
mountains, heavy fhowers of courfe fucceed. 
Halifax gave birth to John of Halifax, or de Sacro 
Bofco, the chief mathematician of his age, who was 
buried at the public expence of the univerfity of Paris; 
and to th.e late archbifhop Tillotfon, the model of the 
true Chriftian religion. The church is old, but ftately • 
and venerable, and has in it many curious monuments, 
mod of them of great-antiquity. 
Here are twelve chapels of eafe, the clergymen of 
which preach at Halifax on the firft Wednefday of every 
month, viz. A chapel in the Grove or the Briers, near 
Southauram, two miles' from Halifax.—Raftrick chapel, 
near Brig-houfe, four miles from Halifax.—Elland, a 
parochial chapelry, three miles from Halifax.—Rippon- 
den chapel, in Ripponden, fix miles from Halifax.— 
Sowerby chapel, in Sowerby, four miles from Halifax.— 
Luddenden chapel, inLiiddenden, three miles from Ha¬ 
lifax.—Heptonftall, a parochial chapelry, eight miles 
from Halifax.—Crosftone chapel, near T a dmorden, ele¬ 
ven miles from Halifax.—Tawerby-bridge, in the^own- 
ftiip of Warley, two miles from Halifax.— Illingworth ■v 
chapel, in Ovendon townlhip, two miles from Halifax.— 
Coley chapel, near Northaurum, two miles from Hali¬ 
fax.—And Lightcliffe chapel, near Hipperholme, three 
miles from Halifax.—The vicar of Halifax is a juftice of 
peace, in virtue of filling his office of vicar. Here is a 
good hofpital, endowed in 1642, for twelve old people, 
with a workhoufe for twenty children, and a free-fchool 
of queen Elizabeth’s endowment. 
In November 1797, as fome workmen employed by 
Thomas Stott of Raftrick, near this town, were remov¬ 
ing earth, in order to get ftone near his'houfe, a num¬ 
ber of urns, fuppofed to be Roman, were difcovered in 
the ground, containing afhes, and fragments of burnt 
human bones, fome of which are very diftindt. The 
urns are of various dimenfions; the largeft being about 
fifteen, and the fmalleft about four, inches in diameter, 
and curioufly ornamented. 
From Halifax to the ridge of mountains called Black- 
Jlone-edge, is eight miles; all the way up hill and down; 
fo that the traveller is mounted to the clouds, and funk 
to the water-level, about eight times in that fhort jour¬ 
ney ; and not only fo, but the fides of the hills, though 
very fteep, are moftly fpread with houfes; and the land 
being divided into fmall inclofures, from two acres to 
fix or feven each, every three or four pieces of land has 
a houfe appropriated to them. In fhort, the country 
here is one continued village, though every way moun¬ 
tainous, hardly a houfe Handing out of a (peaking .dis¬ 
tance from another. If you travel after fun-fet, the lights 
of candles and fires in thefe cottages, dilperfed thus up 
and down, form a fcene truly piCturefque, and full of 
life. The traveller is alfo agreeably ftruck with the di- 
verfified fcene that the party-coloured cloths exhibit, 
which are hung out before almoft every door. In the 
courfe of the road among the houfes, there is found at 
every one of them a little rill of running water ; if the 
houfe be above the road, it comes from it, and erodes 
the way to run to another; if the houfe be below the 
road, it erodes from fome other diftant houfe above it; 
and at every confiderable houfe there is a manufactory; 
which, not being able to be carried on without water, 
thefe little ftreams are fo guided by pipes or runs, that 
not one houfe is deftitute of the necedary appendage of 
a rivulet. Again, as the dying-houfes, fcouring-lhops, 
and places where they ufe this water, emit it tinged with 
the dregs of the dying-vat, and with the refufe of the 
oil, the foap, the tallow, and other ingredients, ufed by 
the clothiers in drefling and fcouring, the lands through 
a which 
