Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, &c./Memoir of John Harland, F.S.A.
MEMOIR
OF
JOHN HARLAND, F.S.A.
The daily life of an antiquary is usually quiet and unobtrusive. His thoughts and actions relate more to the past than to the present; the common occurrences of the day are deemed of minor importance; he is most interested in things that were; and his special function is to rescue from oblivion that which the busy men of the world have had little inclination, or leisure, to preserve. He makes no conquests which absorb the attention, or elicit the applause of the public, for he is seldom either a general or a statesman; and yet his victories are frequently of greater importance than those which occur on the battle-field or in the senate. The actions of the former may affect the destinies of a nation—the measures of the latter may change the course of his country's policy; but the researches of the man of letters not unfrequently reverse the whole current of public opinion, and thus produce more permanent, and more widely extended effects than the arms of the one or the legislation of the other. Events occur at distant intervals which it would perhaps be impolitic, at the time, to illustrate in all their bearings. The secret causes which produced these events are therefore studiously concealed by the personages concerned; but after ages have passed away, some zealous antiquary carefully examines all the documents relating to such transactions; and then proceeds to assign to each his due meed of praise or blame, as in his opinion they deserve.
It is by such examinations into the public archives, or into the collections of private individuals, that modern generations have been led to reject many of the stereotyped assertions of our popular histories. Not a few of our kings, queens, and great personages, have suffered materially by the process; whilst others have regained their proper positions and legitimate characters, of which they ought never to have been deprived. National changes, both in religion and politics, have thus been assigned to their true causes; and even now we are beginning to learn that the political liberties which we are so rapidly acquiring involve nothing more than a return to those privileges which our ancestors enjoyed nine centuries ago under ancient Saxon rule.
When such results have followed from an examination of our national records; it is not too much to expect that similar modifications of opinion, in a less degree, must have been produced by an inspection of our local collections. Such is manifestly the case; and the many excellent local histories issued during the present century bear ample testimony to the fact. Local antiquaries have been silently, but effectually, at work, and the result is a mass of evidence with regard to local events and social polity which cannot be overlooked by any future historian. In the County of Lancaster the Chetham and Historic societies have issued numerous volumes, which lay open to our gaze both the public and the private lives of the principal personages who figure in our county history; and not a few of these volumes contain a fund of information relating to the domestic habits and family connections of our mediæval, and more recent ancestors.
It is here that the labours of the plodding, careful antiquary make themselves felt; and it is thus that the value of his collections becomes known. He may have to wait long before his objects are accomplished; he may even be removed from earth before his works are duly appreciated; but sooner or later he will obtain his reward. This thought was ever present to the mind of the subject of this brief memoir; he knew the value of the volumes which he so liberally contributed to the Chetham Society, and although he has so recently "gone to his rest," it is already acknowledged that no one can hereafter write the history of this great county without being deeply indebted to the "Mamecestre," "The Shuttleworth Accounts," and his other works, for most valuable materials respecting families, places, men, manners, occupations, and prices; which are so plentifully scattered throughout those valuable volumes.
John Harland, says the Rev. Brooke Herford, "whose great-grandfather was an enterprising farmer and grazier, living near Dunkeld in the middle of the last century, was born at Hull, May 27, 1806." He was the eldest child of John Harland and his wife Mary, daughter of John Breasley of Selby. His father followed the combined businesses of clock and watchmaker, and jeweller, in Scale Lane, Hull; and issued a medal in commemoration of the peace and end of the war in December 1813. "It was mainly to his mother" that their son "owed the elementary instruction which was the only foundation on which he built up his various and extensive knowledge. At the age of fourteen he went, on trial, into the office of Messrs Allanson and Sydney, the proprietors of the Hull Packet newspaper, and was apprenticed to them for seven years from January 1, 1821, to learn letterpress printing." The celebrated painter Etty was Mr Harland's predecessor as an apprentice; and when he removed from Hull to London he left a scrap-book, containing a series of early sketches, as a memento, in the hands of Mr George Walker, a journeyman printer in the same office. "From the beginning of his apprenticeship he gave all his energies to self-improvement; soon rose from compositor to reader; then was put into the office and, teaching himself short-hand, was advanced to reporting. With indomitable industry, he made for himself during 1825-6, a system of short-hand in which he embodied all the best points of several stenographic systems, and soon became the most expert short-hand writer in the kingdom." During his residence at Hull he was first the playmate and then the companion of Benjamin Boulter, Esq., surgeon; to whom he wrote a series of characteristic letters during his five years' stay at Glasgow as a medical student. Only two of these letters are now in existence; but the following extracts from them will show that he was making rapid progress in self-instruction.
My Dear Friend—I received and read your letter with pleasure. ... You mistook my meaning respecting Hogmanay night. I did not mean to censure the jovialities of a single night, but to express a wish that these festivities should not be too often indulged in, as they are peculiarly unfitting for study. I am happy to find that I have no need to give you any such hints, since I hear you apply with a zeal which is worthy of its reward. I need not here say that it will afford me the most sincere gratification to hear of your complete success, and well merited diploma. Our theatrical campaign is drawing near to a close; but I am ill qualified to give you any particulars, as I have been but seldom this season. ... I have broken my flute and have not yet replaced it with a new one, so that I am out of practice. There is nothing new in the musical world at present. You have seen by the newspapers the steps our aristocracy are taking in the Fine Arts and Architecture. ... I have not ten months longer to stay in "servile chains"—and then—huzza for liberty—I shall be free! I hear that your studies will soon be varied by the comparatively delightful one of Botany; and this exercise in the morning will better enable you to support the tedium of confinement during the long summer days. Should Fate have willed us to meet again, either here or elsewhere, I shall rejoice in the happy hours we shall again enjoy; and should it be otherwise, I can only say, that I sincerely wish Fame, Fortune, and Beauty, may crown the efforts of the truly Brave, the arduous aspirant for Honours. Meanwhile, I hope, when opportunity permits, he will not forget in his correspondence, his sincere friend,
Mr B. Boulter, Glasgow.
In the latter portion of the same year, Mr Boulter, who was still at Glasgow, is anxious to ascertain how he is progressing in his studies, and also what are his future prospects in life, now that his apprenticeship is drawing to a close. Mr Harland's reply fully proves that he was hard at work mentally and bodily, although suffering at times from an ailment which ultimately deprived him of the free use of his legs:—
My Dear Friend—You desire me to mention what books I have read, or am reading; with my critical judgment on the same. As, with some exceptions, they are principally light works which I now read, as novels, poetry, romances, &c., I am afraid they would afford you little gratification, either in the perusal of my critique, or of the works themselves. However, I will mention a few, requesting you to put your veto upon my not writing any more on this subject, if you find it at all tedious. I have lately waded through four out of six thick 8vo volumes of Dr. Franklin's "Life and Works." I would say of them that they are a bed of oysters from which the diligent searcher might collect many pearls; but a great portion of the work is interesting only to the statesman and the philosopher. "Babylon the Great" is a very fine picturesque portrait of London and its inhabitants in the present day. If you have commenced, or rather resumed, romance reading, I would recommend to your notice "Tales of the O'Hara Family," as possessing great interest. Lady Morgan's "Florence M'Carthy" I like very well. Miss Porter's "Village and Mariendorpt" is also a very amusing work. But if you want something in the grotesque style, read Hogg's "Winter Evening Tales," and, above all, Blackwood's Magazine. It is without exception the most delightful emollient I know for the gloom and dulness too often concomitants of severe study. I never miss reading it shortly after it makes its appearance, and there is inevitably some article, long or short, that proves a sure provocative of laughter and delight.
Your remarks on my progress in knowledge are, I think, more the effect of your good wishes than of your firm belief in my acquirements. However, I am obliged to you for the kindness and good wishes displayed by you in this respect, and will merely observe that I am nearer the summit of stenographical excellence than when I last wrote. I find you blame me for not giving you any idea what my proceedings will be after my apprenticeship expires. Though the time now draws so near, I must confess that I am more undetermined than when I parted from you. ... I spent most of my last Hull fair at your father's. I need not say that at times I felt the want of your presence as the enlivener of the social board, and the mainspring of joy and cheerfulness. My bodily health is in general better than I could have supposed it would have been at this season of the year. I may speak in the same terms of my leg. ... Hoping we may meet again soon, or if not, that we may congratulate each other on having reached wealth, honour, and fame; endeared by the recollection that it will be by our own industry, which alone will pave the way to these blessings. That such may be our future lot; that we and our children may be ever united in the bonds of friendship and companionship; and that you and I may enjoy many hours of delightful intercourse and retrospection is the sincere wish of
Yours sincerely,
Mr B. Boulter,
Student of Medicine, College, Glasgow.
The wish expressed by Mr Harland in the last clause of the preceding letter, was ultimately realised. His early friend died very suddenly in November 1867; but in January of the same year, his son, the present W. Consitt Boulter, Esq., F.S.A., was in correspondence with him on antiquarian subjects. In addition to the two letters already given, Mr Boulter has kindly communicated the following extracts from the letters which passed between them:—
"I am very glad to find that a son of one of my oldest friends is so early [age 19] applying himself to the study of antiquities and archæology. I began about the same age; but it is very rare to find young men caring about the history of the past" (30th January 1867).
"I annex a list of my volumes; besides which, I have printed many articles in The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society's Memoirs; in The Journal of the British Archæological Association; The Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society's Transactions; The Archæologia Cambrensis; Chambers's Book of Days; &c. &c. I am also the 'Monkbarns' and 'Jonathan Oldbuck' of Country Words" (30th January 1867).
Mr Boulter was then collecting materials for his Bibliography of Hull, and hence the necessity of the preceding enumeration and list, which includes a pamphlet entitled "Ten Days in Paris," privately printed by Mr Harland in 1854.
"Being only twenty-three when I left Hull altogether, I had not made much progress in local antiquities. I had acquired a smattering of Anglo-Saxon, and had copied and corrected the translation in Tickell of a monumental inscription, in short-hand, to a lady, on a marble tablet in Sculcotes Church. Also one or two Anglo-Saxon, or early English, inscriptions in churches in the Holderness; one, I think, at or near Swine. I have somewhere the copy of an old deed of Myton, which I could send you some day, if you are at all interested in old deeds. I have one or two silver pennies of Hull (temp. Edward I.), and a few copper tokens of the last and present century. These constitute my Hull reliques" (5th, February 1867.)
"Between 1820 and 1830 there was a low comedian at the Theatre in Humber Street, named George Bailey, who used to sing comic songs; perhaps of his own writing; one of which I remember was called 'Hull is a wonderful town, oh!' Its burden was—
'And Geordie Bailey, singing gaily,
Hey down, ho down, derry, deny down,
Oh! this Hull is a wonderful town oh!'
I know Peter Arnull and Gawtrees best of the Hull editors" (28th February 1867).
"With one apprentice between us in time I was a successor of Etty in apprenticeship at the Hull Packet office. Etty gave a book containing some of his early chalk sketches to George Walker, who is, or was, lately in one of the Leeds printing offices" (25th May 1867).
"Your last letter of 25th November is before me, unanswered; another proof of the uncertainty of all earthly things. Since I received it you have lost your beloved father, my dear old friend. Amongst my papers, I found the other day a copy of some verses written in a volume of Burns's Poems, which I gave him in 1826. If the volume is in the house you will find the verses on the first blank
The volume of Burns's Poems, however, could not be found, and on this being made known to Mr Harland, he copied the verses and enclosed them in his next letter. They are well worthy of preservation. {{center|"To B.B.
In thoughts of joyous scenes,
In memory's pleasing dreams,
In Friendship's brightest gleams,
Remember me!
By all our hours of gladness,
Of reason, mirth, and sadness,
Unmixed with aught of madness,
Remember me!
Through hours, and days, and years,
Through Fortune's smiles and tears,
Through all Life's hopes and fears,
Remember me!
Whate'er of good or ill
May yet befall me, till
The clutch of Death, I'll still
Remember thee!
November 1826.
Mr Harland always retained a fondness for poetry; and not unfrequently indulged in that species of composition. He had studied Shakespeare critically, and was well acquainted with the works of our leading authors, both ancient and modern. He proved his familiarity with our great dramatist in his contribution to our joint "Essay on Songs and Ballads," which appeared in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, and in 1843 he published a few of his own compositions as "Stray Leaves," under the signature "Iota." Five other fugitive pieces were printed in the
volume of "Lancashire Lyrics" which he edited in 1866; one more appeared in Country Words; and only a few weeks before his death he read the following simnel song to a meeting of the Manchester Literary Club, of which he was long a valued member.
"A SYMNELLE SONGE.
Ye Lovers of oure olde Folk-lore,
Come listen to ane Balade more,
And chorusse synge from youre hearte's core—
To 'The Goode olde Burye Symnelle!'
Mid-lenten faste yt makes ryche feaste,
For olde and yonge, lyttelle and leaste;
For waterynge mouthes, sure, ne'er have ceaste;
For 'The Goode olde Burye Symnelle!'
Confeccion's hyghest arte yt makes
This huge, rounde, sugarye Kynge of Cakes,
To figure for three F's yt takes,
This 'Goode olde Burye Symnelle!'
It speakes of deareste Familye tyes;
From Friend to Friend in Lent yt hyes;
To alle goode Felloweshippe yt cryes;
'I'm a ryghte trewe Burye Symnelle!'
Longe maye symbolique Symnelles send
Friende's everye lovynge wyshe to friend;
From 'Auld Lang Syne,' till tyme shalle ende,
The 'Goode olde Burye Symnelle!'
Chetham Hill, March 16, 1868.
When Mr Harland penned the preceding lines he had engaged to accompany the Literary Club in an excursion to Stratford-upon-Avon, on the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death. As the time drew near he felt unwell, and wrote to the President playfully requesting that he might "be scratched for that day." As will be seen his name was indeed withdrawn to join that "of the great shade" on the very day of the celebration.
Mr Harland continued as reporter and contributor to the Hull newspapers for several years after the expiration of his apprenticeship. During this period his reports were so remarkable for their fullness and accuracy, that they attracted the attention of every public speaker who visited the town. On one occasion he presented the Rev. Dr Beard with so accurate a report of his address in Bond Alley Lane Chapel, that "he mentioned the circumstance to the late John Edward Taylor, who was then conducting the Manchester Guardian with that energy and ability which placed it at the head of the provincial press. The consequence was an offer which induced Mr Harland to remove to Manchester in November 1830," in which city and its vicinity he resided till his death. He had here ample opportunities of proving the superiority of his method of writing short-hand; and so verbally accurate were his reports of trials, public meetings, &c., that they were even cited in courts of law as proof that certain expressions had been used. A gentleman connected with the Manchester Guardian, in an obituary notice, gives an interesting anecdote of this extreme accuracy. He says:—"A man was being tried at Lancaster for making a seditious speech, and Mr Harland had to produce and read his notes as evidence against him. These notes were read slowly to allow the Judge to write down the evidence. While this was going on, the counsel for the defence turned to a gentleman who sat near him, and said, "I'll turn this fellow inside out.' The cross-examination for the defence began. 'You profess to give the exact words?' 'Yes.' 'You say the prisoner said so and so; now read what immediately follows.' Mr Harland turned to the place in his notes, and read off without hesitation, and without waiting for his evidence to be taken down, a passage of one hundred words or more. Again he was required to turn to another part of the speech, and the second passage then read agreed perfectly with what the counsel knew the prisoner had said. The learned counsel desisted, and remarked to the gentleman to whom he had previously spoken, 'I don't think there is another man in England who could do that.'"
At first the Guardian was only a weekly paper; but it began to be published on Wednesdays and Saturdays in 1836; and became a daily paper in 1855. Mr Harland continued to occupy an important position on the staff through all these changes; conducting the literary department of the journal with rare skill and industry, until July 1, 1839, when he was admitted to a partnership in the paper, which he retained till his retirement in December 1860. "While thus busied with his own professional work, however, he found time for the cultivation of literary tastes in other and higher directions. Possessing a keen sense of humour; endowed with considerable poetic powers; skilled in mediæval Latin; and a loving student of early English history, he speedily made himself a reputation among local literary men, and, as his pursuits took more decidedly the direction of archæology, gradually became widely known as an antiquary." He published many of his early dissertations in the columns of the Guardian; some of which were afterwards included in the "Collectanea," issued by the Chetham Society, and other works. In December 1854 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was placed upon the Council of the Chetham Society in 1855; an office which he only vacated by death. He was also a member of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire; to whose Transactions he contributed some interesting papers, and presented to their library a valuable series of antiquarian cuttings from the Manchester Guardian. The Rosicrucians also enrolled him as one of their earliest members. For several years he acted as Secretary to the order, and edited for this society Edmonde Dudlay's "Tree of the Commonwealth," written by the author when under sentence of death for high treason. In a scrap-book entitled The Manchester Olio, now in the Chetham Library, Mr Harland included the transactions of this useful body, amongst a vast mass of other matter, but he has unfortunately omitted to particularise his own contributions. He was never a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, although he contributed an excellent biographical notice of his friend, the late John Just, of Bury, to volume xi. of their Memoirs. To Notes and Queries Mr Harland was an occasional contributor; he supplied most of the articles relating to Lancashire to Chambers's "Book of Days;" of which his accounts of "John Shaw's Club," and the "Rev. Joshua Brookes," may be particularised. He supplied an account of the "Find of six thousand silver pennies at Eccles" to the Reliquary; and amongst other papers contributed to that journal may be noticed "an admirable contribution under the signature 'Crux' on 'Local and other Names and Words.'" When Country Words was established he was ready with his help; he contributed several curious papers under the nom de plume of "Monkbarns," and his essays on our Folk-speech, under the signature "Jonathan Oldbuck," attest both the fluency of his pen, and the extent and accuracy of his information. In 1851 he published a series of "Ancient Charters and other Muniments of the Borough of Clithero;" several of which were afterwards included in his "Mamecestre," and in the same year he printed the "Autobiography of William Stout, of Lancaster, Wholesale and Retail Grocer and Ironmonger, a member of the Society of Friends, A.D. 1665-1732." This quaint and characteristic work was dedicated to his friend A. B. Rowley, Esq., the owner of the manuscript, and several curious notes were added by Mr Harland in illustration of portions of the text. Mr Harland published "An Historical Account of Salley Abbey," in Yorkshire, during 1853, illustrated by a series of lithographic sketches of the existing remains. This work was appropriately dedicated to Dixon Robinson, Esq., of Clitheroe Castle, who largely promoted the publication. It contains by far the most accurate and complete account of these interesting ruins; and the writer of this notice had the pleasure of re-examining all the principal details on the spot, in company with Mr Harland, when the Literary Club visited that locality. He had also the gratification of being present at a similar examination of the ruins of Whalley Abbey, on a later visit of the same club, when Mr Harland not only exhibited an amended plan of this Cistercian House, but read an exhaustive paper on the subject within the walls, which, in a condensed form, has since been issued as a guide-book to Whalley and the neighbourhood, under the editorship of the Rev. Brooke Herford, his literary executor.
During 1853 Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart, mentioned to the president of the Chetham Society that there were several books of accounts in the muniment chest at Gawthorpe Hall, which might furnish much useful information respecting the prices of labour, &c., between the years 1582 and 1621. These were examined in March 1854, and as the Council considered the 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 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 to the good taste and nice appreciation of the compiler. In 1862 Mr Harland assisted Mr William Dobson in compiling a "History of Preston Guilds;" to which he added a new translation of the "Custumal" of the ancient borough. He also contributed a paper containing the names of eight hundred inhabitants of Manchester, who took the oath of allegiance to Charles II. in 1679, to the second volume of the Chetham "Miscellanies;" and edited, for private circulation, an edition of Prestwick's "Respublica," to which he added a carefully prepared explanatory preface. On February 7, 1865, Mr Harland proposed to join the writer of the present notice in preparing and publishing a work on the "Folk-lore of Lancashire." In a letter dated April 30, 1866, he acknowledged the receipt of my "manuscript notes on twenty-six subjects" to be included in the volume; and on May 1st he wrote to say that "another packet of manuscript" had reached him that morning. The work was published in January 1867, when he congratulated me on our work being ended. Our intercourse during the whole of this period was cordial in the extreme; and at the close of every interview I was more and more deeply impressed with his upright manly worth, and his varied attainments. As the matter we had collected more than sufficed for the "Folk-lore," we re-arranged the remainder and began to prepare for a volume of "Lancashire Legends, Pageants, &c.;" but when he undertook the new edition of Baines's "Lancashire" this project was laid aside for a time, and on his lamented decease the manuscript was placed in my possession by his literary executor. It formed the germ of the present work.
In 1863 Mr Harland reprinted from "The Church of the People" a series of essays entitled "Some Account of Seats and Pews in old Parish Churches of the County-Palatine of Lancaster." It is a small pamphlet of sixteen pages, and contains much curious information respecting seats and pews in the Churches of Ashton-under-Lyne, Eccles and Whalley. During this and the early part of the following year he published several "Church Notes" in the Eccles Advertiser, which were afterwards issued in an octavo pamphlet of eighty-two pages, and entitled "The Ancient Parish Church of Eccles; its antiquity, alterations, and improvements. By Crux." Why he adopted this signature when publishing this very meritorious and exhaustive account of an ancient parish church is not known, but he also adopted the same nom de plume when writing to the Reliquary.
In 1864-5 he edited two volumes of "Court Leet Records" of the manor of Manchester. They contain many valuable accounts of the social and civil life of the inhabitants of that city during the sixteenth century. His introduction, preparatory chapter, notes and appendices, are especially curious and interesting. He closed his extracts at the date of the death of Queen Elizabeth; and expressed a hope that other extracts would be made commencing with the reign of James I. This hope was not realised. During Mr Harland's connection with the Manchester Guardian he published in that journal, and in the Weekly Express, a vast number of antiquarian articles of much local interest. A selection from these was issued in two volumes as "Collectanea relating to Manchester and its neighbourhood at various periods." We have here descriptions of Manchester from British to Saxon times; these are followed by accounts of Roman remains, relics, maps, plans, directories, local events, notices of notables, &c., of the highest importance to local history. The second volume more especially deals with places and institutions, genealogy and biography; and concludes with recollections of Manchester persons and places. The life-pictures in these volumes are sketched with a master-hand. The last work which Mr Harland edited for the Chetham Society was issued after his death. It contains "Three Lancashire Documents" of much interest. The first of these is the De Lacy Inquisition of 1311; the second is the survey of West Derby, Amounderness, and Lonsdale, 1330 to 1346; and the third is the Custom Roll and Rental of Ashton-under-Lyne for 1422. To all these he added introductions, indexes, and "after-words," explaining obscure points and giving the meaning of many personal and local names. In February 1868 he finished the third edition of Gregson's "Fragments," which had been revised, enlarged, and indexed by him when confined to bed by the affection in his knee. This edition is a great improvement upon the second issued by Gregson in 1824. The indexes alone occupy thirty-eight folio pages; and he added considerably from the Duchy Records.
The last and greatest work he undertook was a new edition of Baines's "History of Lancashire." It was originally issued in four volumes, and had long been out of print. When it was decided to republish the work it was deemed advisable to issue it in two volumes; and although the labour of verification and completion approached at times to a re-writing of large portions of the book, Mr Harland did not shrink from the task, and he did his work well. The writer visited him towards the close of 1867, and found him hard at work with the last sheets of the first volume. He was then looking haggard and careworn—the heavy work was evidently telling on his constitution; and yet both in conversation with myself, and in his letters to Mr Gent, joint publisher of this and several of his other works, he spoke and wrote hopefully of completing his labours within a reasonable time. On my next visit I found he was seriously ill. His medical attendant durst not risk the excitement of an interview, and I left without seeing him. In two days more he had passed to his rest. He died on the 23d April 1868, and his remains were interred in Rusholme Road Cemetery the Tuesday following. Although the funeral was strictly private, the carriages of many private friends joined the procession. The Chetham Society, the Geological Society, the Literary Club, and several other public bodies were represented; and the venerable Samuel Bamford, although blind and upwards of eighty years of age, was also present to do honour to the memory of his old and valued friend. During the week, Mr Harland's career was sketched with appreciative and kindly hands in all the local journals, as also in the Reliquary; and the son of one of his early friends bore testimony to his worth in one of the Hull papers to which he had contributed in early life. He there states that Mr Harland "was a member of the Hull Mechanics' Institute in its early existence, and took considerable trouble to forward its success. He was also a musician of no mean ability, and in the summer season, before the business of the day commenced, he was wont, with one or two of his friends, and with an ordinary hedge, tree, or bush, for a music stool, they would execute a duet, or a trio of some favourite theme, and return home with a sharpened appetite for breakfast." At the time of his death he was under engagements to edit Dr Whitaker's "Richmondshire," "Craven," and the "Whalley," the last of which has since been so ably accomplished by J. G. Nichols, Esq., F.S.A., for issue in two volumes.
Mr Harland "was twice married; first in 1833 to Mary, daughter of the late Samuel Whitfield of Birmingham, who died in 1849; secondly, in 1852, to Eliza, daughter of the late Joseph Pilkington of Manchester, who, together with four children by the first marriage, and five by the second, survives him. By a wide circle of friends he was warmly esteemed as a kind and genial friend; a sincere and single-minded Christian. Born a Churchman he became a Unitarian by conviction in 1828. In the busiest years of his newspaper life, when he might have claimed exemption from extra work, he found time to be teacher and superintendent in a Sunday-school; and throughout his life was as active as he was unobtrusive in doing good." Such is the just and well-deserved tribute paid to his memory by the Rev. Brooke Herford, who carried on and completed the "History of Lancashire" with competent ability and in the spirit of his predecessor. Mr Harland's collection of works on Shorthand was very extensive, ranging from the sixteenth century downwards. They are now in the Chetham Library as a permanent memorial of one whose literary life was so intimately associated with the varied stores contained in those quaint old rooms. It may be added that the frontispiece to this volume is engraved from a photograph taken by C. A. Du Val & Co., of Manchester, and is an excellent likeness of Mr Harland as he appeared just before he was seized with his fatal illness.