Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/92

 characters from Layton and Staining were present; one of them, named Leonard Warbreck, served in the capacity of hangman at the executions following the rebellion, whilst the other, James Kirkham, generally known as Black Kirkham, was a gallant soldier, remarkable for his giant-like size and immense strength. The country people near his home were wont to declare that, for a small wager, this warrior carried his horse and accoutrements round the cross at Wigan to the astonishment and admiration of the by-standers. One incident of these times, reflecting little credit on this neighbourhood, but which, as faithful recorders, we are bound to relate, was the journey of Henry Hardicar, of Little Poulton, to London, a distance of two hundred and thirty-three miles, all of which he travelled on foot, solely to gratify a morbid taste by witnessing the legal tragedies performed on Tower Hill. "I saw the lords heided" was his invariable answer to all inquiries as to the wonders he had seen in the metropolis. In this rising, as in the earlier one, the inhabitants of the Fylde evinced their prudence and good sense by remaining as nearly neutral as their allegiance to the reigning monarch would permit them. Those insurgents who found their way into the district were treated with kindness, but no encouragement was given them to prolong their stay, either by professions of sympathy or offers of assistance in their insurrectionary enterprise.

We have at last come to the end of the long chain of wars and disturbances which from the period of the struggles between the Houses of York and Lancaster, had exercised their baneful influence on the territory and population of the Fylde, and are now entering on an era of peace and unbroken prosperity. The small water-side hamlets of Blackpool and Lytham put forth their rival claims to the patronage of the inland residents,—

"And had their claims allow'd."

In 1788, Mr. Hutton described the former place as consisting of about fifty houses and containing four hundred visitors in the height of the season. This historian also informs us, that the inhabitants were remarkable for their great longevity, and relates the anecdote of a woman who, forming one of a group of sympathising friends around the couch of a dying man, exclaimed—"Poor John! I knew him a clever young fellow four score years ago." Lytham, also, attracted a considerable number of