網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版
[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed]

FOREST OF BOWLAND.

FROM DR. WHITAKER'S HISTORY OF WHALLEY,

"BOWLAND, though principally enclosed, is still ranged by herds of deer, under the jurisdiction of a master forester, here, in allusion to the name of the forest, called the Bowbearer, who has under him an inferior keeper the former office is now held by Tho. Lister Parker, Esq. as it has long been by his ancestors. Here have been two lawns or enclosures for the deer, Radholme Laund, and Lathgram Park.

"The beautiful river Hodder, famous for its umber, rising near the cross of Grete, and passing through the parish of Sladeburn (or Slaidburne), intersects the forest, and forms the only ornamental scenery of a tract otherwise bleak and barren, by its deep and fringed banks. On one of these is the little chapel of Whitewell, together with an inn, the courthouse of Bowland, and, undoubtedly, a very ancient resting-place for travellers journeying from Lancaster to Clitheroe or Whalley. The landscape here, is charming-the Hodder brawling at a great depth beneath the chapel, washes the foot of a tall conical knowl, covered with oaks to its top, and is soon lost in overshadowing woods beneath. But it is for the pencil and not the pen to do justice to this scene. On the opposite hill, and near the keeper's house, are the remains of a small encampment, which have been supposed to be Roman, but the remains are too inconsiderable to justify any conjecture about them. At no great distance a cairn of stones was opened, and found to contain a sort of kist vaen, and a skeleton: it is singular that neither of these remains have been noticed by Rauthmell, a diligent and accurate investigator of the Roman antiquities of his own neighbourhood: but as he was minister of Whitewell, he could scarcely be ignorant of this encampment, and may therefore be presumed not to have thought it Roman.

of

"On an adjoining height was discovered a quarry and manufactory querns or portable millstones, of which, though probably introduced by the Roman soldiers into Britain, the use appears to have continued among us till after the Norman conquest.

"The little chapel of Whitewell, from the style of its east window, and of the wood-work within, appears to have been erected in the reign of Henry VII. This is confirmed by the accounts of Whalley Abbey, for, in the computus of the 15th year of abbot Paslew, or 1521, a charge is made by the bursars of Xs. paid capellano de Whytewell, and in that of the 7th year of abbot Holden, or 1478, no mention is made of this payment;—after the demolition of the chapel of St. Michael in the castle, the remaining revenue of that chapel was settled upon Whitewell."

In this chapel the following inscription is on a marble monument to the memory of Mr. Edmund Butler.

To the memory of Mr. Edmund Butler,

younger son of Alexander Butler, of Kirkland, Esq.
and of Elizabeth his wife,

daughter of Thomas Parker, of Browsholme, Esq.
who being on a visit at Browsholme,

after a few days illness, died the 27th of Sept. 1757,
in the 58th year of his age,

and was at his own request buried in this chapel.

His nephew, Alex. Butler, Esq.

as a testimony of his respect and friendship,
and of that regard that his family must ever owe to his
memory, hath erected this monument,

in the year of our Lord 1767.

« 上一頁繼續 »