Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/36

 information valuable, it was decided to publish the more important portions. They selected Mr Harland as the most competent person to edit and illustrate the accounts. The result was that during 1856-7-8 four volumes were issued, which are probably unequalled for the variety and importance of the information they contain. The first volume includes the House and Farm Accounts up to September 1618. These are continued in the second volume up to October 1621, when they close; and then follows "Appendix I.," containing a genealogical and biographical account of the Shuttleworth family, and descriptions of their several residences. "Appendix II." contains an exhaustive comparison of prices, wages, &c., of great value and interest; and this is followed by "Notes," occupying 740 closely printed quarto pages, illustrating the productions, manufactures, weights, measures, manners, customs, persons, and families mentioned in the accounts. Mr Harland put forth his whole strength in this work; and these four volumes will ever remain a standing monument of his extensive acquirements, his unwearied industry, and patient research. Besides the documents relating to the house and farm accounts, the muniment chest at Gawthorpe contained three other series of documents relating to the "Lancashire Lieutenancy" under the Tudors and Stuarts. These seventy-eight papers were published by the Chetham Society, under the editorship of Mr Harland, as two of their volumes for 1853. He prefaced the documents by an introduction occupying one hundred and eleven pages, illustrating military and other matters during the Tudor and Stuart periods. The genealogical, and other matter, contained in numerous notes scattered throughout the two volumes, is extremely valuable, and fully sustain the