Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/134

 the township [village] of Eccles." The pamphlet continues the story in an inflated style, as describing a war between two great nations but it may suffice to say that the marl-pit was alternately taken possession of by parties of guisers from Eccles and from Barton, and that the rivalry was displayed chiefly in the amount of subscriptions these places could respectively collect, and in the splendour of the display of flowers, ribbons, and especially of silver-plate, in the processions of each party. These "guisings" were continued throughout the summer and autumn of 1777, and the following brief account of the respective sums collected in succession from the two places will suffice to show the extent of the extravagance and folly of this "guising war":—

So that the two places contributed from motives of rivalry to pageants of idle display and folly, not to say disorder, nearly three thousand pounds! These sums, however, do not seem to have been spent, but only exhibited, or, as the writer says, "laid down on the drumhead," by way of vain display! They were probably lent for the hour, and returned to the pockets of the owners, except so much as may have been extended in horse-hire and other expenses, and in ale, &c., for the feast with which these pageants seem to have terminated. From the pamphlet, it appears that on the 14th July, the Eccles guisers (exceeding a hundred men and women), with spikes, swords, &c.;