Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/536

Rh LANCASHIRE. 528 LANCASTER. ton, and Lancaster, and quitting the county at Burton. Manchester is a centre from whence all lines radiate. The Manchester and Liverpool line runs to Liverpool ; another line joins Manchester with Preston. The Man- chester and Huddersfield line and the Manchester and Yorkshire connect Manchester with the towns in York- shire. The North- Western railway unites Lancashire with London. There are also other smaller lines, such as that from Manchester to Altringham, Liverpool to Southport, Liverpool to Preston, Preston to Blackpool, and the Whitehaven and Furness junction railway, running along Furness. There are numerous coach roads, of which the chief are the Carlisle and Man- chester road, passing Chorley, Preston, Lancaster, into Westmoreland ; the Liverpool road to Manchester ; the London and Liverpool road ; the Manchester road to Halifax and Leeds ; and various other smaller roads, too numerous to mention. The climate of Lancashire is mild and moist, being preserved from the cold easterly winds hy the high hills running along its eastern boundary. It is, however, very subject to rain, by the clouds from the Atlantic being arrested on their pro- gress. Owing to the moisture arising from this cause, Lancashire is an excellent grazing county. The land is well cultivated. Oats are the favourite crop, but wheat is sown along the shore. Potatoes are much cultivated. Meadows and pastures are much commoner however than arable fields. Sheep are not nearly so numerous as cattle ; the black-faced Cheviot and Leicester are the chief breeds. The oxen are some of the best in Eng- land. There is also a good breed of strong horses for farming and laborious purposes. The chief strata over- spreading the county is the New Red sandstone, in which is a deposit of rock-salt. This formation abounds in the valley of the Mersey, and extands inland as far as Man- chester. Near the coast it is covered with moss and peat. These peat mosses contain quantities of large timber trees, the remains of ancient forests. The coal- field, which crops out from under the red marl, is the great source of the prosperity attending the manufac- tures in this county. This field lies between the Ribble and the Mersey. The lino which bounds it extends from Colne to Upholland, near Wigan, and from thence to Ormskirk, and between Newton and Warrington. A small coal-field F. of Lancaster occupies a portion of the county and extends into Yorkshire. The coal pits are most numerous about Prescot, Newton, Wigan, Bolton, Oldham, Ashton-undcr-Lj-ne, and in the vicinity of Blackburn and Burnley. Those in the northern coal-field are mostly in the neighbourhood of Hornby. The millstone grit forms those hills which bound the eastern side of the county. North of the Lune is the carboniferous or mountain limestone. Of the mineral productions of Lancashire the chief is coal, which is of various kinds ; also lead, copper and ironstone, but these are obtained only in small quantities. The moun- tains of Furness furnish blue slate. Good freestone is quarried near Lancaster, and brick and pipe-clay are obtained in various parts. The chief manufacture in the county is that of cotton, which is principally carried on in Manchester and its neighbourhood ; but this source of industry in 1861 received a severe check from the scarcity of the raw material caused by the American civil war. There are also manufactures of woollen, worsted, stuffs, carpets, silk ribbons, beer- engines and machinery, shawls, hosiery, shipbuilding, soap, candles, leather, &c. The ecclesiastical distribu- tion of the county has undergone several changes. After the conversion of the Northumbrian Saxons to Chris- tianity it was included in the diocese and province of York. Upon the supremacy of the West Saxons the southern part of it was joined to the diocese of Lichfield and the province of Canterbury. In 1511 these dis- joined portions were re-united in the new diocese of Chester, formed by Henry VIII. and continued so to 1847. At that time, by an Act of Parliament which came into operation some years ago, the whole of the county, excepting the deanery of Furness and Cartmel, added to Carlisle, was formed into the diocese of Man- chester, in the province of York. The parishes in this county are most extensive ; that of Whalley contains 108,140 acres; Lancaster, 66,100; Oldham, 58,620; Blackburn, 45,620 ; and many others little inferior in extent. There are numerous dependent chapelries, and many new churches have been erected. The Indepen- dents and other Dissenters form a good portion of the manufacturing towns. Wesleyan Methodists are re- markably numerous. There is also a considerable mass of Roman Catholics. Lancashire has, in the colleges at Manchester and Liverpool, complete university institu- tions, representing the so-called University of London. The medical schools are held in good repute. College! are here of the Roman Catholics and other sects. This shire contains upwards of 50 public grammar and colle- giate schools, besides private schools of a like class. By the Poor-law Commissioners Lancashire is divided into 29 poor-law unions. These unions contain 475 parishes, with an area of 1,105,107 acres. Quarter sessions are held at Lancaster, and by successive adjournments at Salford, Preston, and Kirkdale. By the Reform Act this county was divided into two parts for parliamentary purposes. The election for the northern division takes place at Lancaster, and for the southern at Newton. Formerly 14 members were returned to parliament, viz. 2 for the county, and 2 each for the boroughs of Lancaster, Clitheroe, Liverpool, Newton, Preston, and Wigan. The Reform Act disinfranchised Newton, and reduced Clitheroe to 1 member, but created 4 new boroughs Manchester, Bolton, Blackburn, and Oldham, each returning 2 members; and 5, Ashton-under-Lyne, Bury, Rochdale, Salford, and Warrington, each return- ing 1 member, so that the whole number returned to parliament is 26. The history of Lancaster as a county palatine is curious. At an early date it was distinguished as an honour, or kind of superior feudal lordship. In the reign of Henry III. the honour was changed to an earldom in favour of Edmund, second son of that king. Edward III. erected the earldom into a duchy in favour of Henry Plantagenet, and afterwards of John of Gaunt, for whom the county was made a county palatine. Henry IV., by an Act of Parliament, caused that the title and revenues should remain to him and his heirs for ever, and the duchy has now for ages been annexed to the crown. The county palatine and the duchy of Lan- caster, with regard to extent, are quite distinct. The duchy has a separate chancery court, with a chancellor, attorney-general, and other officers, having an equity jurisdiction within the limits of the duchy. Lancashire contains many interesting objects of antiquity, including several Roman roads. Six of these radiate from Man- chester ; one runs to Blackrod, another to Ribclu slcr, the ancient Coccium, ' two others to Cheshire, one tu Stockport, and another to Stretford, supposed to be the Fines Flavian et Maxima mentioned by Richard of Cirencester. There are others also too numerous to: mention. All traces of the station at Mancmmim, now Manchester, have disappeared. There are but few castellated remains now left. The chief are the keeps , of Lancaster and Dalton castles, the ruins of the castle on the Island of Piel of Fouldrey, and Hornby castle, , those of the castles of Furness, Gleaston, Thurland, Greenhough, Hoghton, Turton, and Belfield. There are remains of old abbeys at Furness, Cockesai;'!, ami Whalley; of priories at Burscough and tipper Holland; of churches at Cartmel and Middleton. Amoru; th- chief seats are Knowsley Park, Earl of Derby ; ll"Ikn, Earl of Burlington ; La thorn, Lord Skelmersdale ; Athor- ton, Lord Lifford; Heaton, Earl of Wilton ; Worsley, Earl of Ellesmere ; Croxteth, Earl of Sefton. LANCASTER, a par., market town, municipal anJJ parliamentary borough, and county town of Lancashire, exercising separate jurisdiction, but locally situat^! in the bunds, of Lonsdale South of the Sands and Amoun- derness, 15 miles S.W. of Kirby Lonsdale, 60 N.V. of Manchester, and 240 N.N.W. of London by road, <r 23u by the London and North- Western railway, on which it is a first-class station. It is situated about 6 milos from Lancaster Bay, on the river Lune and Lancaster canal.