of this and several of his other works, he spoke and wrote hopefully of completing his labours within a reasonable time. On my next visit I found he was seriously ill. His medical attendant durst not risk the excitement of an interview, and I left without seeing him. In two days more he had passed to his rest. He died on the 23d April 1868, and his remains were interred in Rusholme Road Cemetery the Tuesday following. Although the funeral was strictly private, the carriages of many private friends joined the procession. The Chetham Society, the Geological Society, the Literary Club, and several other public bodies were represented; and the venerable Samuel Bamford, although blind and upwards of eighty years of age, was also present to do honour to the memory of his old and valued friend. During the week, Mr Harland's career was sketched with appreciative and kindly hands in all the local journals, as also in the Reliquary; and the son of one of his early friends bore testimony to his worth in one of the Hull papers to which he had contributed in early life. He there states that Mr Harland "was a member of the Hull Mechanics' Institute in its early existence, and took considerable trouble to forward its success. He was also a musician of no mean ability, and in the summer season, before the business of the day commenced, he was wont, with one or two of his friends, and with an ordinary. hedge, tree, or bush, for a music stool, they would execute a duet, or a trio of some favourite theme, and return home with a sharpened appetite for breakfast." At the time of his death he was under engagements to edit Dr Whitaker's "Richmondshire," "Craven," and the "Whalley," the last of which has since been so ably accomplished by J. G. Nichols, Esq., F.S.A., for issue in two volumes. Mr Harland "was twice married; first in 1833 to

Mary, daughter of the late Samuel Whitfield of Birmingham, who died in 1849; secondly, in 1852, to Eliza, daughter of the late Joseph Pilkington of Manchester, who, together with four children by the first marriage, and five by the second, survives him. By a wide circle of friends he was warmly esteemed as a kind and genial friend; a sincere and single-minded Christian. Born a Churchman he became a Unitarian by conviction in 1828. In the busiest years of his newspaper life, when he might have claimed exemption from extra work, he found time to be teacher and superintendent in a Sundayschool; and throughout his life was as active as he was unobtrusive in doing good." Such is the just and welldeserved tribute paid to his memory by the Rev. Brooke Herford, who carried on and completed the "History of Lancashire" with competent ability and in the spirit of his predecessor. Mr Harland's collection of works on Shorthand was very extensive, ranging from the sixteenth century downwards. They are now in the Chetham Library as a permanent memorial of one whose literary life was so intimately associated with the varied stores contained in those quaint old rooms. It may be added that the frontispiece to this volume is engraved from a photograph taken by C. A. Du Val & Co., of Manchester, and is an excellent likeness of Mr Harland as he appeared just before he was seized with his fatal illness.

T. T. W.

OF THE

IN any endeavour to bring together the legends and traditions which form so striking a feature in the folk-lore of Lancashire, it is impossible to pass over unnoticed that collection which bears the name of the late Mr John Roby of Rochdale. In 1829 he published "The Traditions of Lancashire," in two volumes, containing twenty tales, more or less founded upon traditions current in their respective localities. During 1831 he published a second series of so-called "Traditions," likewise in two volumes, and also containing a score of tales. A posthumous volume, which appeared in 1854, contained three legends, but only one of these-" Mother Red Cap"-has its scene in Lancashire.

In the preface to the first series of his "Traditions of Lancashire," Mr Roby has the following passage :-" A native of Lancashire, and residing there during the greater part of his life, he has been enabled to collect a mass of local traditions, now fast dying from the memories of the

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inhabitants. It is his object to perpetuate these interesting relics of the past, and to present them in a form that may be generally acceptable, divested of the dust and dross in which the originals are but too often disfigured, so as to appear worthless and uninviting. . . . The tales are arranged chronologically, forming a somewhat irregular series from the earliest records to those of a comparatively modern date." This passage sufficiently indicates that the original legend was simply taken as the basis of a story of pure fiction. In short, the real character of the work would be better described by such a title as "Romantic Tales, suggested by Lancashire Traditions." Three of Mr Roby's traditions have no local habitation assigned to them, and are apparently pure fictions. A fourth, "The Luck of Muncaster," is not a Lancashire, but a Cumberland tradition. In the traditions to be found in the present volume, the popular legend in every case has been sought to be preserved, without any attempt to add the slightest embellishment, much less to rear a superstructure of invented fiction upon the crumbling foundations of a genuine tradition. In short, it is Lancashire folk-lore, and not the product of an editor's inventive imagination, that is recorded in the following pages. Where it is practicable, the traditions are arranged alphabetically, according to the names of their localities.