Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/15

 three times are considered necessary when the authority of the sovereign is concerned. The origin of many of our pageants and pastimes is not difficult to trace. Most of them have degenerated from religious or civic festivals, some of which date from the very earliest colonisation of the county. Several might be noted that still retain marked characteristics of Pagan, early Christian, and mediæval times. With slight modifications, the same may be said of our punishments, whether legal or popular, and even of the games which are practised in nurseries and playgrounds by our children. The derivation of the great bulk, however, of all these, whether legend, pageant, or game, must for ever remain in a state of much uncertainty; and hence we have rarely ventured to enter upon a branch of the subject which is scarcely adapted for the general reader. The following pages are intended to preserve a few of the more important legends, traditions, pageants, &c., as well as a portion of the more miscellaneous folk-lore of the county. In the first part of the work we have given a series of legends and traditions mostly attaching to our ancient mansions, and these are usually introduced by short genealogical notices of the principal persons named, together with the present state of the houses they either erected or improved. In the case of the Old Hall at Samlesbury it may be considered that more detail ought to have been given of the recent extensive renovations, but this has been so ably done by Mr James Croston in his exhaustive account of "Samlesbury Hall and its owners," that nothing more than a reference to that sumptuous work is required. It may be hoped, however, that this praiseworthy example will be followed by other owners of our historic mansions. The second portion contains several curious accounts