4799-4 
inftead of leaving the law of the land to 
operate againit any guilty individuals, a 
whole people were incapacitated from com- 
plaining in any court of, being maimed 
or opprefled, or of fuing for the recovery 
of any part of the property violently 
taken from them.—Perhaps fome of the 
advifers and inftruments of the elevation 
of William, needed prefcription to fanc- 
tify acquifitions—Nor was this fort of 
precaution ufelefs—for we have feen within 
thefe few years two eftates of other 
families recovered by the reprefentatives of 
the right owners, though the pofleffion of 
one of them had been loft as far back as 
the days of the ufurper Oliver.—-But fup- 
pofing, again, the uvtruth that the genera- 
tion of Mac Gregors, which exifted 200 
years ago, had been, in every inftance, 
-the aggreflors ; let me afk. what fort of 
man he mult be who would wifh to wound 
the feelings of the numerous generation of 
. the prefezt day ? Does your correfpondent 
diflike every thing allied-to relpectability 
of conduct, and is he vexed that the Mac 
Gregors vie with the moft loyal of their 
fellow-fubjeéts in fupporting the conftitu- 
tion, and in veneration for a beneficent 
and beloved fovereign? or feeks he te re- 
Kindle the animofities of families? If he 
does ; however amiable the intention, he 
will fail in the attempt—the defcendents 
of foes or rivals of old have long fince 
liberally and wifely configned to eternal 
oblivion and mutual amnefty the recipro- 
cal injuries of paft ages, no part of which 
could attach to themfelves; — and they 
muft regard, with equal execration, the 
charafter of an incendiary. 
I am, Sir, your obedient fervant, 
A Lover oF Jusrice. 
September 20) 1799- 
1 ——— ae 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
_AN ACCOUNT OF THE TOWN AND 
NEIGHBOURHOOD OF XROLTON IN 
THE MOORS, IN THE COUNTY OF 
LANCASTER; BY AN INHABITANT. 
SIR, ( 
) ieee the commencement of your ufe- 
ful and interefting publication I have 
underftood, that you have been particu- 
larly defirous of topographical or local in- 
formation, This confideration, along 
with the accounts which you have lately 
received of the environs of Norwich and 
Briftol, induces me to attempt fome de- 
’ feription of the town and neighbourhood 
of Bolton in the Moors, in the county of 
Lancatter; where, at different times, I 
have refided nearly 20 years. I do not 
_fuppofe, that an account of it will com. 
Account of Bolton in the Afoors. 
775 
mand fuch intereft, or fecure fuch atten- 
tion, as what has been written concerning 
the ancient cities already mentioned; but 
it appears to me, that antiquaries, gazet- 
teers, and geographers, have not yet done 
juftice to. the theme which I have chofen. 
Walker writes, that Bolton is noted for 
its medicinal waters ; but, excepting one 
found in a field, hence called the Spa-field, 
to the weft of the town, of which the fame 
fell as rapidly as it rofe, there are none 
which are not common to all coal coun- 
tries, in which waters iron is diffolved, 
-or from which it is precipitated, and which 
are therefore denominated chalybeates, 
more or lefs powerful according to the 
quantity in folution. They are difcovered 
by the ruft-coloured fediment which they 
leave in their feveral channels. 
_ It is only in the preient century, and 
p | 
in the memory of man, that Bolton has 
rifen to fuch confequence; that, in po-- 
pulation, if not in fize, it is become the 
third town in Lancafhire, 
verpool. Perhaps it is a confideration by 
no means favourable to the native pride of 
Englifhmen, that the original artifts in 
our feveral trades, like the fruits of our 
gardens, came from foreign countries. 
The. curious workmanfhip in painting 
and {culpture, which appears in many 
Englith cathedrals, was, it is recorded, 
moftly executed by Italians. Flemings, 
it is well known, were brought over into 
this country, in the reign of Edward the 
Third, to teach the inhabitants the art of 
manufacturing the wool of their own fheep, 
which they before fold to the fame inge- 
nious people in the raw ftate. In the days 
of Elizabeth, Proteftants from the Low 
Countries, who were cruelly perfecuted 
on account of their religion, by that merci- 
lefs bigot Philip the Second of Spain, 
were, with great policy, as well as juftice 
and humanity, offered an afylum in Eng- 
land. In the reign of Lewis the XIVth, 
French proteftant refugees were fettled as 
filk-weavers in Spitai-felds. In like man- 
ner, there is fome reafon to believe that 
Flemings were fome of the firft weavers of 
cotton in this part of the country: at Jeaft 
I have been informed by a very confider- 
able manufacturer in this town, now up- 
wards of 46 years of age, defcended from 
anceftors who, without doubt, from the 
reign of Elizabeth, have been engaged in 
the cotton trade, that he juft remembers 
feeing, at his grandfather’s in a neighbour- 
ing townfhip, feveral wooden fhoes, pro- 
perly fo called, which were conjectured to 
have belonged to fome ‘of thefe ingenious 
. G2 foreigners. 
inferior in — 
-thefe refpects only to Manchefter and Li- 
