out a home, and deserted by those friends who had assisted in wasting his family estates. He married Fleetwood, daughter of Nicholas Towneley, Esq., of Royle Hall, but their union was not a happy one. She bore with her husband's misconduct as long as possible; and on being deprived of her home, by the forfeiture of the Habergham estate, she went to reside with her friends, and dying in 1703, was buried at Padiham. Tradition states that Mrs Habergham soothed her sorrow by composing and singing the following stanzas, which are still held in remembrance, not only in the neighbourhood, but throughout Lancashire. They are here reprinted, with some verbal alterations, from Harland's "Lancashire Ballads:"—
Love's Evil Choice.
I sowed the seeds of love;
It was all in the spring,
In April, May, and June likewise,
When small birds they do sing.
My garden planted was with care,
With blooming wild-flowers everywhere;
Yet had I not the leave to choose
The flower I loved most dear.
The gardener standing by
Proffered to choose for me
The pink, the primrose, and the rose,
But I refused all three.
The primrose I forsook
Because it came too soon;
The violet I o'erlooked,
And vowed to wait till June.
In June the red rose sprang,
But 'twas no flower for me;
I plucked it up, lo! by the stalk,
And planted the willow-tree.
The willow I now must wear,
With sorrows twined among,
