Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, &c./Part 1/Introduction
LANCASHIRE LEGENDS, &c.
PART I.
LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS.
INTRODUCTION.
In any endeavour to bring together the legends and traditions which form so striking a feature in the folk-lore of Lancashire, it is impossible to pass over unnoticed that collection which bears the name of the late Mr John Roby of Rochdale. In 1829 he published "The Traditions of Lancashire," in two volumes, containing twenty tales, more or less founded upon traditions current in their respective localities. During 1831 he published a second series of so-called "Traditions," likewise in two volumes, and also containing a score of tales. A posthumous volume, which appeared in 1854, contained three legends, but only one of these—"Mother Red Cap"—has its scene in Lancashire.
In the preface to the first series of his "Traditions of Lancashire," Mr Roby has the following passage:—"A native of Lancashire, and residing there during the greater part of his life, he has been enabled to collect a mass of local traditions, now fast dying from the memories of the inhabitants. It is his object to perpetuate these interesting relics of the past, and to present them in a form that may be generally acceptable, divested of the dust and dross in which the originals are but too often disfigured, so as to appear worthless and uninviting. ... The tales are arranged chronologically, forming a somewhat irregular series from the earliest records to those of a comparatively modern date." This passage sufficiently indicates that the original legend was simply taken as the basis of a story of pure fiction. In short, the real character of the work would be better described by such a title as "Romantic Tales, suggested by Lancashire Traditions." Three of Mr Roby's traditions have no local habitation assigned to them, and are apparently pure fictions. A fourth, "The Luck of Muncaster," is not a Lancashire, but a Cumberland tradition. In the traditions to be found in the present volume, the popular legend in every case has been sought to be preserved, without any attempt to add the slightest embellishment, much less to rear a superstructure of invented fiction upon the crumbling foundations of a genuine tradition. In short, it is Lancashire folk-lore, and not the product of an editor's inventive imagination, that is recorded in the following pages. Where it is practicable, the traditions are arranged alphabetically, according to the names of their localities.