Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/37

 credit of the editor. Mr Mayer of Liverpool contributed seven plates illustrative of ancient armour to these volumes at Mr Harland's special request. One of the most valuable of his contributions to the Chetham Society is the "Mamecestre," in three volumes, issued during 1861-2. The first volume contains twelve chapters on the early history of Manchester, and including the Lancashire town charters. The second volume continues the charters, and enters fully into the transfer, survey, and extent of the manor; and in the third volume we have an account of the rental of the manor, its various owners, &c., with special notice of the Mosleys, commencing with Sir Nicholas Mosley, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1599. At the close of the work we have a most valuable "Glossarial Gazetter," in which the derivations of a vast number of local names are very ably and satisfactorily explained. This chapter is of the utmost value to every student of local history. "The Songs of the Wilsons" have long been popular in Lancashire. Mr Harland drew attention to their merits in a series of articles published in the Manchester Guardian, and in 1865 he was induced by Mr Gent "to edit a new revised and enlarged edition of the songs, with a brief memoir of the Wilson family." In the same year he issued a collection of the "Ballads and Songs of Lancashire," in which he included several which until then had only existed in broadsides. Each ballad or song is illustrated by judicious notes explaining its origin and connection with local family history. The edition was soon exhausted, and he next published the "Lancashire Lyrics;" a series of modern songs and ballads of the County Palatine. This work contains some of the best compositions of our local poets, arranged under six heads; and the selection bears ample testimony