the lancashire witches by william harrison ainsworth

In the valleys there were a few hamlets and scattered cottages, and on the uplands an occasional booth, as the hut of the herdsman was termed but of more important mansions there were only six, as Merley, Twistleton, Alcancoats, Saxfeld, Ightenhill, and Gawthorpe. Of towns, only Clithero, Colne, and Burnley-the latter little more than a village-were in view. The whole district was barren and thinly-populated. Black moor, bleak fell, straggling forest, intersected with sullen streams as black as ink, with here and there a small tarn, or moss-pool, with waters of the same hue-these constituted the chief features of the scene. Noting the sharp spire of Burnley Church, relieved against the rounded masses of timber constituting Townley Park as well as the entrance of the gloomy mountain gorge, known as the Grange of Cliviger his far-reaching gaze passed over Todmorden, and settled upon the distant summits of Blackstone Edge.ĭreary was the prospect on all sides.

But the watcher’s survey did not stop here. The other tracked the stream called Pendle Water, almost from its source amid the neighbouring hills, and followed its windings through the leafless forest, until it united its waters to those of the Calder, and swept on in swifter and clearer current, to wash the base of Whalley Abbey.

One looked over the castled heights of Clithero the woody eminences of Bowland the bleak ridges of Thornley the broad moors of Bleasdale the Trough of Bolland, and Wolf Crag and even brought within his ken the black fells overhanging Lancaster. Two were stationed on either side of the north-eastern extremity of the mountain. THERE WERE EIGHT WATCHERS by the beacon on Pendle Hill in Lancashire.

The lancashire witches by william harrison ainsworth