"the only authentic tale of demoniacal possession the English
have."

In 1832, Mr Roby visited the English lakes, and recorded his impressions
in lively sketches both with pen and pencil. In the spring of 1837, he
made a rapid tour on the Continent, the notes and illustrative sketches
of which were published in two volumes, under the title of _Seven Weeks
in Belgium, Switzerland, Lombardy, Piedmont, Savoy, &c._ In 1840, Mr
Roby again visited the Continent by a different route, making notes and
sketches of what he saw. At the close of the year, he was engaged in
preparing a new edition of the "Traditions," in a less expensive form.
It was published in three volumes, as the first of a series of Popular
Traditions of England; his intention being to follow up those of
Lancashire with similar legends of Yorkshire, for which he wrote a few
tales, which appeared in Blackwood's and Eraser's Magazines.

The principal literary occupation of the next four years appears to have
been the preparation and delivery of lectures on various subjects in
connection with literary and mechanics' institutions. In 1844, his
health gave way, and for years he suffered severely. As a last resource
he tried the water-cure at Malvern in the spring of 1847, and with
complete success. In the summer of 1849, he again married--the lady who
survived him, and to whose "sketch of his life" we are largely indebted
in this brief memoir. In the two short years following this
marriage--the two last of his life--he was busily engaged in writing and
delivering lectures, visiting places which form the scenes of some of
his latest legends, and in the composition of a series of tales intended
to illustrate the influence of Christianity in successive periods, a
century apart. Deferring that for the fourth century, he wrote six,
bringing the series down to the close of the seventh century; when he
determined on visiting Scotland. With his wife and daughter he embarked
at Liverpool on board the steamer _Orion_ for Glasgow, which ill-fated
vessel struck on some rocks about one o'clock in the morning of the 18th
June 1850, and went down. Mrs and Miss Roby were rescued after having
been some time in the water, but of the husband and father only the
corpse was recovered, and his remains were laid in his family grave in
the burial-ground of the Independent Chapel, Rochdale, on Saturday, the
22d of that month.

Mr Roby was not more remarkable for his numerous and varied t