Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/290



internal evidence, it maybe inferred that the author of the following rare tract probably lived in the early days of James I.; for although the Pendle Forest Witches form the burden of the story, they are nowhere alluded to as having suffered capital punishment at Lancaster, which many of them did in 1612. Another batch very narrowly escaped the same fate in 1633.—See Whitaker's Whalley; Potts's Discoverie, by Crossley; or Croston's Samlesbury Hall.