uld have left him in
the undisturbed possession of both wealth and patronage. But,
we are afraid, the unpardonable offence of preaching in the
church under the authority and protection of the Commonwealth,
and his leaving her pale and preaching to "crowded auditories,"
when the wicked decree of St Bartholomew went forth, is
ungrateful to the spirit of many, who ought not to stigmatise
as sectaries and malignants all who have dared to think for
themselves, and at anytime to oppose "spiritual wickedness" in
"high places." The very principles which made Bath an outcast
for conscience' sake are those which originated and led on the
work of our Protestant Reformation, and placed the historian of
Whalley where his sacred functions should have led him to
respect the rights and consciences even of those from whom he
might differ, and not hold them up to unmerited obloquy and
reprehension.

[13] This interesting and curious relic is now in
the possession of the Rev. J. Clowes of Broughton, whose
ancestor, Samuel Clowes, Esq., about the year 1690, married
Mary Cheetham, a descendant of Humphrey Cheetham, founder of
the Manchester Blue Coat School. In 1713, after the death of
James Holt, whose faithful rebuke from the Bishop of Chester we
have noticed in the introduction, Castleton came into
possession of the Cheethams until the death of Edward Cheetham,
in 1769.

The screen is now made into a side-board, and is most
fancifully and beautifully wrought with crests, ciphers, and
cognisances, belonging to the Holts and many of the
neighbouring families.

[14] Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, ii. 86-96.

[Illustration: THE MERMAID OF MARTIN MEER]

THE MERMAID OF MARTIN MEER.

"Now the dancing sunbeams play
O'er the green and glassy sea:
Come with me, and we will go
Where the rocks of coral grow."

Little needs to be said by way of introduction or explanation
of the following tale. Martin Meer is now in process of
cultivation; the plough and the harrow leave more enduring
furrows on its bosom. It is a fact, curious enough in
connection with our story, that some years ago, in digging and
draining, a canoe was found here. How far this may confirm our
tradition, we leave the reader to determine. It is scarcely two