eBoowks
Most of the books listed here are out of copyright and are therefore available, free of charge, for reading aloud or whatever else you care to do with them. Some come in downloadable text, pdf or epub versions, from Project Gutenberg, but I have found that these are often uncorrected after going through the OCR and at times unreadable. Some come in scanned versions, most available on the Internet Archive, that can be read online and sometimes downloaded as pdf. Given the choice, I prefer the scanned versions, as you know you are really getting the original text. The books are listed here in the order I read them - the most recent first
The Manchester Man (1876)
Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks (1821-1897)
Though it has not survived as well as Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton, Mrs. Banks's The Manchester Man has a fair claim to the title of the Manchester novel. Set in the first 25 years of the 19th century, the novel interweaves historical fact and fiction. Essentially a family saga, it traces the fate of Jabez, who floats into the novel on the River Irk in flood, and his adopted families, the Cleggs and Ashtons. I am not giving too much away if I say that Jabez is the Manchester Man and that his rise in the textile trade mirrors the rise of the city. But Mrs. Banks began the book not with the story of Jabez, but with that of the Ashton's daughter Augusta. To tell what becomes of her would be giving too much away. But without her story the book would no doubt have been both overly sentimental and forgettable. As it is, the novel takes a modernist turn as its later chapters speed towards an uncomfortable resolution. Mrs. Banks (nee Isabella Varley) was born in Oldham Street, Manchester and published most of her work under her husband's name. Mrs. Banks wrote at least one other Lancashire novel - Caleb Booth's clerk: A Lancashire story (1878) - while her first novel was a romantic adventure set in Chester - God's Providence House: A story of 1791 (1875). (LibriVox recording)
A View of the Lancashire Dialect (1746)
John Collier (1708-1786)
John Collier (pen name Tim Bobbin) was born in Urmston and a long-time resident of Milnrow near Rochdale, where he was known as schoolmaster, caricaturist and occasional writer. His View of the Lancashire dialect, a comic story of the escapades of one Tummus (Thomas) as told to Meary (Mary), was the first substantial piece of Lancashire dialect writing. First published in 1746 together with a 628 word glossary, it was contemporary with the novels of Richardson and Fielding and quite possibly no less popular in the north of England. The text and its accompanying glossary were revised, expanded and republished many times and were staple reading for the Lancashire dialect writers of the 19th century. The text and glossary, together with a selection of writings on John Collier's life and work, were the subject of a marathon reading that occupied a good portion of my LibriVox reading for 2013. The version I read was a reprint from John Corry’s 1862 collection of Collier’s works (first published in 1819), which contains pretty much everything Collier wrote. For those who like to know more, I have created a page on Tim Bobbin to accompany the LibriVox recording, which includes a short summary of Tummus's story. (LibriVox recording)
The Great Civil War in Lancashire (1642-1651) (1910)
Ernest Broxap (1880-1963)
A short history of the English Civil War as it was fought out up and down the length of Lancashire. Beginning with the unsuccessful Royalist siege of Manchester in 1642, the book describes the conquest of Lancashire by the local forces of the Parliament, the siege of Lathom House, and Prince Rupert's march through the county which led to the end of the first war in his defeat at Marston Moor. The second war is described largely through the invasion from Scotland and the misjudged and ill-fated return of the Earl of Derby from his exile on the Isle of Man which ended with his execution at Bolton. Ernest Broxap was born in Salford and appears to have written only this book and a few other papers on the Civil War. His brother Henry Broxap was also an historian and author of A Biography of Thomas Deacon, the Manchester non-juror (1911) and The later non-jurors (1924). Both were graduates of Owen's College, which later became Manchester University and their books were among the early publications of the University Press.
Bob, Son of Battle (1898)
Alfred Ollivant (1874–1927)
A popular novel at the turn of the century that tells the tale of the deadly rivalry between two champion sheepdogs, Bob and Red Wull, and their masters. This is neither a Lancashire novel - it is set in Cumbria - nor a novel by a Lancashire author - Ollivant was born in Sussex. I was led to the book by what could be a mistaken entry for the author on the Pride of Manchester list of Manchester authors - possibly confusing him with an earlier Alfred Ollivant, who was a bishop but not an author. I am grateful for the suggestion, nevertheless, because it is fine read and situated not so far from the Lancashire border. There is a good deal of Cumbrian dialect in the dialogue, but the most compelling character by far is a Scotsman, Adam M'Adam, the owner of Red Wull, whose decline into alcoholism and despair mirrors the fall of his dog into a life of sheep-killing - the worst crime that a sheepdog can commit!
Her Benny (1879)
Silas Kitto Hocking (1850-1935)
Silas Kitto Hocking was a Cornishman who studied Methodism in Manchester and later lived and preached in Liverpool and Southport. A prolific author, he published 50 books, including the first British million-seller, Her Benny. I came across Her Benny in a search for the great Liverpool novel, which I am sadly yet to find. Written for young people, it is the tale of two street-children, Benny and his ill-fated sister Nell, and their very different fates. Though highly readable, Her Benny is a hopelessly pious and sentimental book, in which the good and the bad eventually get their just rewards both in heaven and on earth. Among Hocking's many books are several other Liverpool stories in the same vein, though other than Dick's Fairy: A Tale of the Streets, I am not sure what they are. There is also a LibriVox reading of the book by Larraine Paquette.
That Lass o' Lowries (1877)
Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924)
Born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester into a well-off family, Frances Hodgson Burnett moved to Pendleton following the death of her father, and then at the age of 16 to Tennessee, after the family business fell victim to the American Civil War. Although she later won international renown for children's books such as Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden, Burnett was also an author of two Lancashire books, which perhaps most remarkable for the fact that they were written and first published in the United States. That Lass o' Lowries was her first published novel. Set in a Lancashire mining town, it is a book with compelling characters, many of whom speak the local dialect, and a typically Dickensian approach to relations among the classes. In the end, love conquers all. Haworth's (1879), a longer novel that I have not yet read, is also set in Lancashire and uses dialect. Also published in 1879, Natalie and Other Stories included three Lancashire tales: 'The fire at Gurney Mills', 'Surly Tim's trouble', and 'One day at Arle'. Successful as these works were in the United States and Britain, Burnett did not return to the Lancashire dialect in her later work. The Secret Garden is said to have been written mainly during a visit to the estate house at Buile Hill Park, Salford, although the inspiration for the garden itself came from Kent.
Hard times. For these times (1854)
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Hard times, as it is now known, was Charles Dickens's Lancashire novel, published in Household Words between April and August 1854 (LibriVox recording). The fictional setting of Coketown, is based on Preston, which Dickens had visited and written about in Household Words in late 1853 ('Locked out') and early 1854 ('On strike'). There is also a secondary and more salubrious setting in the Lancashire countryside to the east of Preston, where factory owner Bounderby has his country seat. Though Dickens evidently intended Hard Times to be read as social commentary, its message is simple and now seems rather naive: a plea for kindness and humanity in a town dominated by political economy. Stephen Blackpool's character also makes little sense to me and his reasons for refusing to join the union are obscure. He claims that he needs his wages more than the other workers, yet he is effectively a single man and he is being asked only to join the union, not to go on strike. In the two Household Words articles, written during the employers' lock-out of Preston mill workers who were demanding the restoration of a 10% wage cut they had accepted several years, Dickens makes his stance more explicit. He is sympathetic to the working men and their right to organize and strike if need be, though he has a distaste for demagogues, and he has little sympathy with the employers responsible for the lock-out. What he hopes for, rather half-heartedly, is some kind of arbitration, and in the longer term education for the working man. Yet here again, his argument doesn't quite make sense. The factory owners can only gain by educating their workers, he tells us, yet at the same time the agitators turn out to be those who are already educated. Dickens's forays into Lancashire produced two other pieces, 'George Silverman's explanation' (a short story inspired by a walk up the hill to Hoghton Tower in 1854) and 'The lazy tour of two idle apprentices' (1854) (co-authored with Wilkie Collins and set partly in Lancaster).
Sketches of Lancashire life and localities (1855)
Waugh, Edwin (1817-1890)
Rochdale's Edwin Waugh (pronounced 'war', or perhaps 'woff') is the best known of the 19th-century Lancashire dialect writers and his name is justly embedded in the that of the Rochdale-based Edwin Waugh Dialect Society. Son of a shoemaker and a printer by trade, he eventually became a full-time writer, whose most successful works were his dialect poems (notably 'Come whoam to thy childer and me') and short stories. Like other dialect writers he also wrote a great deal of work in standard English, which is of less interest. As Thomas Newbigging says of him in his Lancashire characters and places, Waugh seems to have found his voice most effectively in his dialect writing. Sketches of Lancashire life and localities was Waugh's first book and consists of seven chapters on localities in and around Rochdale and Bury (with an excursion to Rostherne Mere in Cheshire). At this point Waugh was living in Manchester and his pieces often have the character of a nostalgic return to country spots that are rapidly being overtaken by industrial development. Waugh had a penchant for antiquarianism, nature writing, poetry quotation and comedy, which are all crammed into the the centrepiece of the book - an epic 78 page account of a 10 mile walk from Rochdale to Blackstone Edge. Waugh is at his worst when detailing local history, often quoting long passages from other writer's work, and at his best when recounting stories of local life, often in the form of dialect conversations held in public houses. In an entertaining chapter on a visit to Milnrow, Waugh pays tribute to his dialect writing predecessor, John Collier. Waugh continued to write in this vein throughout his life and by its third edition, Lancashire Sketches (1869) had grown from 7 to 15 chapters.
The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the Years 1535-1543, Part IX
John Leland (1503-1552)
John Leland's 'Itinerary' consists of edited notebooks on a series of journeys around England and Wales between 1538 and 1543. The notebooks were first published in the 18th century, and in the 20th century in an a 5 volume edition by Lucy Toulmin (1906-10). Part IX is of interest to this blog because it takes us from the south of England, county by county, through Lancashire to the borders of Scotland. As such it is one of the earliest texts to be published on the county. An early form of the 'gazetteer', this was quite a challenge to read aloud, with its numerous incomplete sections and spelling variations, and I have to admit that it might be best used as a cure for insomnia. Nevertheless, the text is compelling at times as we realize that Leland was not only describing England but also discovering and knitting together its separate parts for the first time. Documenting what he didn't know as much as what he did know, Leland's account of Lancashire is much sparser than those of other counties and we are left with a definite that civilisation takes another turn once we leave Cheshire. (LibriVox recording)
Hindle Wakes (1912)
Stanley Houghton (1881-1913)
I have written about the plot and history of Stanley Houghton's play Hindle Wakes on the blog. Stanley Houghton was the star of the so-called "Manchester school" of playwrights whose plays were performed at the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester, whose acquisition by Miss Annie Horniman in 1908 heralded a new era for regional repertory theatre. In his preface to Three Lancashire Plays, Harold Brighouse explains that the name came from the use of local settings and characteristics in several plays and not from the intention to form a school. Houghton and Brighouse were the best known exponents of the genre and Hindle Wakes and Brighouse's Hobson's Choice were its most successful exemplars. Houghton's plays were collected in three volumes (1, 2, 3) with an introduction by Brighouse, who includes an incomplete list of published plays at the end of his introduction to Three Lancashire Plays, most of which are to be found on the Internet Archive:
Helbeck of Bannisdale (Volume 1) (Volume 2) (1898)
Mrs. Humphry Ward (1851-1920)
An odd story that brings together Alan Helbeck, the robust Catholic owner of Bannisdale House, his agnostic young step-niece, Laura, and her rude Methodist cousins who farm higher up the valley. Fuelled by her distaste for his ascetic brand of Catholicism, Laura takes an instant dislike to Helbeck, but inevitably falls tragically in love with him. As an atheist, I found the religious side of the novel rather cloying and ultimately failed to understand its subtleties (and as a contemporary New York Times review testifies, I am not alone). But the characters are vividly drawn and there are some delightful descriptions of the countryside seen through Laura's eyes. F. A. Bruton's Lancashire places 'Browhead Chapel', which stands above Bannisdale House, on Cartmel Fell to the southeast of Lake Windermere, which places the novel in the valley of the River Winster. If my geography is correct, this means that the book is set in Westmoreland rather than Lancashire, although it moves briefly into the county for a pivotal scene in which Laura witnesses the death of an iron-worker in what was, presumably, the iron works at Carnforth. Mrs. Humphry (aka Mary Augusta) Ward was the granddaughter of Thomas Arnold and niece of Matthew Arnold. To the best of my knowledge, she did not live in the north-west and her reasons for setting the novel in the area are not clear. Mrs. Ward is also remembered as a president of the Anti-Suffrage and other of her novels were critical of the suffragettes. This is, perhaps, reflected in the rather hopeless character of Laura in Helbeck of Bannisdale.
Mervyn Clitheroe (1858)
William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882)
Inspired by The Lancashire Witches (scroll down), but with no great expectations, I decided to have a go at Ainsworth's second Lancashire novel, Mervyn Clitheroe. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was an excellent read. Narrower in scope than its predecessor, Mervyn Clitheroe is a more conventional 19th-century adventure pitting the almost impossibly virtuous Mervyn against Malpas, his evil nemesis, in a lifelong struggle over a missing will and stolen inheritance. Although I am counting this as a Lancashire book, the story is set mostly among the plains and meres of Cheshire. Mervyn ventures into the industrial smogs of Manchester only when he absolutely has to. This link is to a beautifully illustrated late 19th century edition published by Routledge.
Lancashire characters and places (1891)
Thomas Newbigging (1883-1914)
I was attracted to this book by the opening essay on the poet John Critchley Prince and also enjoyed those on Edwin Waugh and the psalmodist James Leach, whose life came to an unhappy end in a coach accident between Rochdale and Manchester. The other essays in the book are an odd but entertaining selection,and I was surprised to find myself reading a play and a poem about the River Irwell (an extract from Michael Drayton's strange epic of the English landscape, Polyolbion. Thomas Newbigging was born in Glasgow and died in Knutsford, Cheshire, living in between in Rossendale, Pernambuco, and Manchester. A gas manager by profession and writer-antiquarian by inclination, his two major works were the Handbook for Gas Engineers and Managers (1889) and the History of the Forest of Rossendale (1893). (LibriVox recording)
The masque of anarchy (1832) - Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Shelley, "Peterloo", and the Masque of anarchy (1877) - Harry Buxton Forman (1842-1917)
The Masque of Anarchy was Shelley's poetic response to the Peterloo massacre at St Peter's Fields, Manchester. Written in Italy in 1810, the poem was not published until 1832, ten years after Shelley's death. The 1832 edition was published by Leigh Hunt, who explains in his preface that he held it back because of its potentially subversive effects. Even then, some words were asterisked out of the text and only appeared in later versions ('Eldon' in Stanza IV and 'Bible' and 'Sidmouth' in Stanza VI). I am not a reader of Shelley's poems, but I imagine that this was not one of his best. It's advocacy of passive resistance to official violence are also rather suspect in retrospect. Nevertheless, the poem grew on me over successive readings. For LibriVox, I read the poem along with Leigh Hunt's preface to the first edition and a lecture to the Shelley Society by Shelley's biographer, Harry Buxton Forman. (LibriVox recording)
Mary Barton (1848)
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865)
Mrs. Gaskell's first novel, set in industrial revolution Manchester and Liverpool, and probably the best known Lancashire novel. I listened to Juliet Stevenson's BBC Audiobook, in spite of the excellent reading, found the story hard going. The first half of the book is a catalogue of the miseries of working class life and suffers from the lack of a plot. The story picks up in the second half, though, with an assassination and a dramatic trial. Charles Dickens is said to have commented on Gaskell's predeliction for prolonged and painful illnesses followed by death and there are a fair few of those here. In comparison to the working-class dialect literature of the time, Mary Barton is utterly lacking in humour. In fairness, though, much of the dialect literature was nostalgic for a lost pre-industrial era, while Mary Barton tackled the conditions of its times head on. It was one of the first novels to be built around working-class characters and to deal directly with the class struggle as it was developing at the time. (LibriVox recording)
Confessions of an English opium-eater, and kindred papers (1822)
Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859)
Confessions of an English opium-eater is not set in Lancashire, but it qualifies as a Lancashire book on two counts. Thomas de Quincey was born in Manchester, the son of a moderately prosperous merchant, and spent some time at the Manchester Grammar School. More importantly, the first half of the book recounts his experiences of flight from the school and the city as a young man, which preceded his addiction to opium. This was de Quincey's first book, published in 1822. On finishing it, I was left with the impression of a solitary and arrogant man, who despite titling the book a confession, had yet to come to terms with the psychology of his addiction. The Internet Archive text cited here is an edition of the first volume of de Quincey's collected works published by the Boston publisher Houghton & Mifflin. The additional texts are Suspiria de profundis and a collection of additional texts to the Confessions, which include reminiscences of de Quincey's days in Manchester. (LibriVox recording)
Mancuniensis, or an history of the towne of Manchester and what is most memorable concerning it (1839)
Richard Hollingworth (1607-1656)
A quick read, this is a fascinating and unfinished history of Manchester from Roman times up to the author's untimely death in 1656. The earlier history is delightful mix of fact and fantasy - one passage has Lancelot du Lac battling Tarquin on the banks of the of the Medlock. The later history tends to focus on matters concerning the Collegiate Church of which Hollingworth, a staunch and intolerant Presbyterian, was a fellow. The final entry for September 1656 is a list of fellows who had been imprisoned for their beliefs, which includes the author's own name! Hollingworth died two months later in Manchester.
Rush-bearing: an account of the old custom of strewing rushes; carrying rushes to church; the rush-cart; garlands in churches; morris-dancers; the wakes; the rush (1891)
Alfred Burton
If you read 19th-century Lancashire books, it will not be long before you come across references to rush-bearing, a holiday tradition that began with the use of strewn rushes as flooring material in homes and churches. By the 1800s the practice had died out but was remembered in the annual tradition of building a rush-cart and leading it in a procession to the local church during wakes week. Although rush-bearing was not specifically a Lancashire tradition, it seems to have survived there, and in western Yorkshire, longer than in other parts of the country. A precursor of the coffee-table book, Burton's account is designed to be browsed, rather than read from end to end, and appears to contain pretty much everything that had ever been written on the topic of rushes and rush-bearing, with informative chapters on morris-dancing and wakes thrown in for good measure. I have added some of the many illustrations in the book to the picture gallery. I know nothing of the author apart from his name.
The River Duddon: A Series of Sonnets, etc. (1827)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Though I am not really a lover of Wordsworth, or romantic poetry, or even poetry, a voice (perhaps the ghost of F. A. Bruton) is telling me I must read his River Duddon sonnets for LibriVox. And it is turning out to be fun. Let's not worry whether or not Wordsworth is a Lancashire poet, the River Duddon is in the northern bit of Lancashire that is disconnected from the rest and is now in Cumbria. There are 33 sonnets in this edition (later editions have 34) written over many years. The intriguing part is that they are chained together so that as we read we follow the 25 miles of the river from its source in the high fells to its disappearance in the sands. A clever idea - there are probably hundreds of poem series that follow rivers, but this is the only one I know. The fourth book (LibriVox recording).
In a North Country Village (1897)
M. E. Francis (1859-1930)
M. E. Francis was born Mary E. Sweetman in Dublin and moved to Lancashire on her marriage to Francis Nicholas Blundell, of the Blundell family who remain squires of Little Crosby to this day. Blundell died young (1884) and Mary remained in Little Crosby, where she wrote many novels and collections of short stories, using her husband's Christian name for a pen name. In a North Country Village is a collection of 12 independent stories set in Little Crosby (called Thornleigh in the book), which is described as a "sleepy little hamlet" that has "remained unchanged to all intents and purposes for several hundred years. According to Wikipedia, which tells us that Little Crosby may be the last remaining recusant Catholic village in England, this description may even be true today! We are told that the residents of the village have decided to do without street lights and although Protestants are now allowed to live in the village, they must first be vetted by the squire! Catholicism does not play a great part in In a North Country Village, though, which is an engaging collection of vignettes of the lives of the local peasantry seen from an upper-class point of view. Although M. E. Francis set much of her work in Ireland and Dorset, she published a number of Lancashire books, including A Daughter of the Soil (1895), Yeoman Fleetwood (1900) and Marjory o'th' Mill (1907). (LibriVox recording).
Crosby records : a cavalier's note book, being notes, anecdotes, & observations of William Blundell of Crosby, Lancashire, Esquire (1880)
William Blundell (1620-1698) (with an introduction by Thomas Ellison Gibson, 1822-1891)
Easily distracted when it comes to online reading, I found this fascinating book while looking for information on M. E. Francis, who married into the Blundell family in the late 19th century. Originally a Norman family, the Blundells remained staunchly Catholic throughout the Reformation and Civil War, and suffered a great deal for their 'recusancy', or refusal to swear an oath of allegiance and attend Church of England services. The author of these notes, despite being seriously wounded at Lancaster Castle while fighting on the King's side in the early days of the Civil War, suffered under both Cromwell and Charles II after the Restoration. For more than two centuries, he and other members of the Blundell family repeatedly lost their lands and suffered imprisonment. The Cavaliers notebook, however, doesn't really reflect this history of oppression, but is for the most part a entertaining journey through the life and concerns of a Catholic landowner of the times. The notebook is lovingly edited by Thomas Ellison Gibson, who also added a four chapter introduction describing the history of the Blundell family. Gibson served as parish priest at the Church of Our Lady, Lydiate, for 19 years from 1860, where he wrote a history of the parish, Lydiate Hall and its Associates (1876). In addition to the Cavalier's notebook, Gibson published papers by Blundell's grandfather, also William Blundell (1560-1638) (Crosby records: A chapter of Lancashire recusancy, 1887) and his grandson Nicholas (1669-1737) (Crosby records. Blundell's diary, comprising selections from the diary of Nicholas Blundell, esq., from 1702 to 1728, 1895). William Blundell was also the author of A history of the Isle of Man, a work that he wrote during a period of self-exile on the island from 1648-1656.
Thorstein of the Mere, A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland (1895)
William Gershom Collingwood (1854-1932)
W. G. Collingwood, whose two passions in life were art and the Norse settlement, was born in Liverpool but spent much of his life by Coniston Water in the Lake District as secretary to John Ruskin. Collingwood painted and wrote on Ruskin's life, the Lake District, the Scandinavians Britain and Northumbrian crosses. With Thorstein of the Mere he ventured into the novel, through a tale of the adventures of a 10th century Norse settler in the southern Lakes. Though it takes a while for Collingwood to sacrifice historical detail for storytelling, Thorstein of the Mere is a good read and is likely to appeal to anyone who enjoys Tolkien and the like. As a Norse warrior, Thorstein does not disappoint, but he also has his gentler side and his love for Raineach of the oversized 'fell folk', and the troubles that it brings, is one of the more engaging themes of the book. Thorstein of the Mere qualifies as a Lancashire book in being set mainly in Greenodd and around Coniston Water (called by its earlier name, Thurston Mere), which are now part of Cumbria, but fell into the Lancashire portion of the Lakes at the time the book was written. An accomplished artist, Collingwood provided his own illustrations for the book. I am currently reading this book for LibriVox.
Clog Shop Chronicles (1896)
John Ackworth (1854-1917)
John Ackworth was the pen name of the Rev. Frederick R. Smith, a Methodist minister who was born in Snaith, Yorkshire, but spent much of his career as a circuit preacher in Lancashire towns and villages. Clog Shop Chronicles was the most successful of Ackworth's works, with a print run of 21,000 for the first edition and numerous reprints. Set in the fictional village of Beckside (said to be somewhere between Manchester and Bolton), the book consists of 12 short tales of everyday life in a close Methodist community, which continue into Beckside Lights (1897) and Doxy Dent (1899).At first I thought such a book might have little of interest to a non-believer like myself, but it turned out to be one of the best short story collections I have read for some time. Clog Shop Chronicles is fairly light on religion and based on an entertaining group of characters who develop from story to story. Although his plots are sentimental at times, Ackworth has a nice sense of irony and refrains from proselytizing. He was also a student of the Lancashire dialect and the spoken passages in his books are mostly written in a phonetic version of late 19th-century Bolton speech. All of Ackworths' works, together with a good deal of biographical material, can be read online on the Minor Victorian Poets and Authors site. I read the epub version of Clog Shop Chronicles from Archive.org, which was fine at first, but turned out to have a couple of unreadable passages towards the end. (LibriVox recording).
The Lancashire Witches (1848)
William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882)
William Harrison Ainsworth was born in Manchester, but spent much of his life in London, where he wrote 40 novels and edited Ainsworth's Magazine. The Lancashire Witches was one of three Lancashire novels, the others being Mervyn Clitheroe and The Leaguer of Lathom (Volumes 1, 2, and 3). Loosely based on the Pendle witch trials of 1612, The Lancashire Witches is a fictionalized and largely comic account, with occasional moments of gothic horror. The main difference between Ainsworth's book and what really happened is that the Pendle witches were in all probability not witches at all, whereas Ainsworth's witches most certainly are. A rattling good read that I would have read aloud for LibriVox one day if Andy Minter had not got there before me. The link is to Project Gutenburg edition, published by Routledge in 1854. I read the epub version, which is in very good condition.
Passages in the Life of a Radical (1840-2) and Early Days (1859)
Samuel Bamford (1778-1872)
Samuel Bamford was born in Middleton, where he worked as a weaver, although he also lived in Manchester, where he was briefly a pupil at the Grammar School, and later in London. The best known of the Lancashire reformers, Bamford turned out to be far less radical than many of his contemporaries were, and his Passages in the Life of a Radical, which mainly deals with the Peterloo Massacre and the subsequent trials is largely an attempt to settle old scores, especially in regard to Henry Hunt. Though Passages is an important historical work with much to recommend it, I found that Early Days was a better read as an entertaining and occasionally harrowing account of life in Lancashire on the verge of industrialization. The two books have published in many different editions, but the only one I have found online is an 1893 edition, with an introduction by Henry Dunckley, posted as html on Ian Petticrew's excellent Minor Victorian Poets and Authors site.
A Short History of Manchester and Salford (1924)
Francis Archibald Bruton (1860-1929)
I am mentioning this book for the sake of completeness, as I haven't read it and can't find it online. Bruton's fourth and last book, published by Sherratt and Hughes in 1924, and in a second edition in 1927. I recently bought a facsimile copy published in 1970.
Lancashire
Francis Archibald Bruton (1860-1929)
In a very different vein to Bruton's Peterloo books, Lancashire is a delightfully rambling guide to the county with 32 paintings by the Preston artist, Albert Woods. Packed with historical detail and literary references, it is an essential guide for anyone would like to travel around the county as it was 100 years ago. This is definitely best read online if only for the sake of the illustrations. (LibriVox recording).
Three accounts of Peterloo by eye-witnesses: Bishop Stanley, Lord Hylton, John Benjamin Smith (1921)
Francis Archibald Bruton (1860-1929)
A companion volume to The Story of Peterloo, this book contains the original text of three eye-witness accounts of the Peterloo Massacre with the addition of a transcript of Bishop Stanley's evidence at the subsequent trial of the organizers of the rally at which the massacre took place. Again, I read the online version at the Internet Archive - the epub version was unreadable. (LibriVox recording).
The Story of Peterloo (1919)
Francis Archibald Bruton (1860-1929)
The first Lancashire book I read online and the first book I read for LibriVox. I know little about the author, except that he was evidently a master at the Manchester Grammar School, who had a wide range of interests in things Lancashire and a keen eye for fact and detail. This book was written for the centenary of the Peterloo Massacre, which took place in Manchester in 1919 and was a formative moment in the history of the British labour movement. An excellent account of the events leading up to the massacre and of the day itself based on a careful examination of the contemporary published documents. I read the online version at the the Internet Archive.
The Manchester Man (1876)
Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks (1821-1897)
Though it has not survived as well as Elizabeth Gaskell's Mary Barton, Mrs. Banks's The Manchester Man has a fair claim to the title of the Manchester novel. Set in the first 25 years of the 19th century, the novel interweaves historical fact and fiction. Essentially a family saga, it traces the fate of Jabez, who floats into the novel on the River Irk in flood, and his adopted families, the Cleggs and Ashtons. I am not giving too much away if I say that Jabez is the Manchester Man and that his rise in the textile trade mirrors the rise of the city. But Mrs. Banks began the book not with the story of Jabez, but with that of the Ashton's daughter Augusta. To tell what becomes of her would be giving too much away. But without her story the book would no doubt have been both overly sentimental and forgettable. As it is, the novel takes a modernist turn as its later chapters speed towards an uncomfortable resolution. Mrs. Banks (nee Isabella Varley) was born in Oldham Street, Manchester and published most of her work under her husband's name. Mrs. Banks wrote at least one other Lancashire novel - Caleb Booth's clerk: A Lancashire story (1878) - while her first novel was a romantic adventure set in Chester - God's Providence House: A story of 1791 (1875). (LibriVox recording)
A View of the Lancashire Dialect (1746)
John Collier (1708-1786)
John Collier (pen name Tim Bobbin) was born in Urmston and a long-time resident of Milnrow near Rochdale, where he was known as schoolmaster, caricaturist and occasional writer. His View of the Lancashire dialect, a comic story of the escapades of one Tummus (Thomas) as told to Meary (Mary), was the first substantial piece of Lancashire dialect writing. First published in 1746 together with a 628 word glossary, it was contemporary with the novels of Richardson and Fielding and quite possibly no less popular in the north of England. The text and its accompanying glossary were revised, expanded and republished many times and were staple reading for the Lancashire dialect writers of the 19th century. The text and glossary, together with a selection of writings on John Collier's life and work, were the subject of a marathon reading that occupied a good portion of my LibriVox reading for 2013. The version I read was a reprint from John Corry’s 1862 collection of Collier’s works (first published in 1819), which contains pretty much everything Collier wrote. For those who like to know more, I have created a page on Tim Bobbin to accompany the LibriVox recording, which includes a short summary of Tummus's story. (LibriVox recording)
The Great Civil War in Lancashire (1642-1651) (1910)
Ernest Broxap (1880-1963)
A short history of the English Civil War as it was fought out up and down the length of Lancashire. Beginning with the unsuccessful Royalist siege of Manchester in 1642, the book describes the conquest of Lancashire by the local forces of the Parliament, the siege of Lathom House, and Prince Rupert's march through the county which led to the end of the first war in his defeat at Marston Moor. The second war is described largely through the invasion from Scotland and the misjudged and ill-fated return of the Earl of Derby from his exile on the Isle of Man which ended with his execution at Bolton. Ernest Broxap was born in Salford and appears to have written only this book and a few other papers on the Civil War. His brother Henry Broxap was also an historian and author of A Biography of Thomas Deacon, the Manchester non-juror (1911) and The later non-jurors (1924). Both were graduates of Owen's College, which later became Manchester University and their books were among the early publications of the University Press.
Bob, Son of Battle (1898)
Alfred Ollivant (1874–1927)
A popular novel at the turn of the century that tells the tale of the deadly rivalry between two champion sheepdogs, Bob and Red Wull, and their masters. This is neither a Lancashire novel - it is set in Cumbria - nor a novel by a Lancashire author - Ollivant was born in Sussex. I was led to the book by what could be a mistaken entry for the author on the Pride of Manchester list of Manchester authors - possibly confusing him with an earlier Alfred Ollivant, who was a bishop but not an author. I am grateful for the suggestion, nevertheless, because it is fine read and situated not so far from the Lancashire border. There is a good deal of Cumbrian dialect in the dialogue, but the most compelling character by far is a Scotsman, Adam M'Adam, the owner of Red Wull, whose decline into alcoholism and despair mirrors the fall of his dog into a life of sheep-killing - the worst crime that a sheepdog can commit!
Her Benny (1879)
Silas Kitto Hocking (1850-1935)
Silas Kitto Hocking was a Cornishman who studied Methodism in Manchester and later lived and preached in Liverpool and Southport. A prolific author, he published 50 books, including the first British million-seller, Her Benny. I came across Her Benny in a search for the great Liverpool novel, which I am sadly yet to find. Written for young people, it is the tale of two street-children, Benny and his ill-fated sister Nell, and their very different fates. Though highly readable, Her Benny is a hopelessly pious and sentimental book, in which the good and the bad eventually get their just rewards both in heaven and on earth. Among Hocking's many books are several other Liverpool stories in the same vein, though other than Dick's Fairy: A Tale of the Streets, I am not sure what they are. There is also a LibriVox reading of the book by Larraine Paquette.
That Lass o' Lowries (1877)
Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924)
Born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester into a well-off family, Frances Hodgson Burnett moved to Pendleton following the death of her father, and then at the age of 16 to Tennessee, after the family business fell victim to the American Civil War. Although she later won international renown for children's books such as Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden, Burnett was also an author of two Lancashire books, which perhaps most remarkable for the fact that they were written and first published in the United States. That Lass o' Lowries was her first published novel. Set in a Lancashire mining town, it is a book with compelling characters, many of whom speak the local dialect, and a typically Dickensian approach to relations among the classes. In the end, love conquers all. Haworth's (1879), a longer novel that I have not yet read, is also set in Lancashire and uses dialect. Also published in 1879, Natalie and Other Stories included three Lancashire tales: 'The fire at Gurney Mills', 'Surly Tim's trouble', and 'One day at Arle'. Successful as these works were in the United States and Britain, Burnett did not return to the Lancashire dialect in her later work. The Secret Garden is said to have been written mainly during a visit to the estate house at Buile Hill Park, Salford, although the inspiration for the garden itself came from Kent.
Hard times. For these times (1854)
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Hard times, as it is now known, was Charles Dickens's Lancashire novel, published in Household Words between April and August 1854 (LibriVox recording). The fictional setting of Coketown, is based on Preston, which Dickens had visited and written about in Household Words in late 1853 ('Locked out') and early 1854 ('On strike'). There is also a secondary and more salubrious setting in the Lancashire countryside to the east of Preston, where factory owner Bounderby has his country seat. Though Dickens evidently intended Hard Times to be read as social commentary, its message is simple and now seems rather naive: a plea for kindness and humanity in a town dominated by political economy. Stephen Blackpool's character also makes little sense to me and his reasons for refusing to join the union are obscure. He claims that he needs his wages more than the other workers, yet he is effectively a single man and he is being asked only to join the union, not to go on strike. In the two Household Words articles, written during the employers' lock-out of Preston mill workers who were demanding the restoration of a 10% wage cut they had accepted several years, Dickens makes his stance more explicit. He is sympathetic to the working men and their right to organize and strike if need be, though he has a distaste for demagogues, and he has little sympathy with the employers responsible for the lock-out. What he hopes for, rather half-heartedly, is some kind of arbitration, and in the longer term education for the working man. Yet here again, his argument doesn't quite make sense. The factory owners can only gain by educating their workers, he tells us, yet at the same time the agitators turn out to be those who are already educated. Dickens's forays into Lancashire produced two other pieces, 'George Silverman's explanation' (a short story inspired by a walk up the hill to Hoghton Tower in 1854) and 'The lazy tour of two idle apprentices' (1854) (co-authored with Wilkie Collins and set partly in Lancaster).
Sketches of Lancashire life and localities (1855)
Waugh, Edwin (1817-1890)
Rochdale's Edwin Waugh (pronounced 'war', or perhaps 'woff') is the best known of the 19th-century Lancashire dialect writers and his name is justly embedded in the that of the Rochdale-based Edwin Waugh Dialect Society. Son of a shoemaker and a printer by trade, he eventually became a full-time writer, whose most successful works were his dialect poems (notably 'Come whoam to thy childer and me') and short stories. Like other dialect writers he also wrote a great deal of work in standard English, which is of less interest. As Thomas Newbigging says of him in his Lancashire characters and places, Waugh seems to have found his voice most effectively in his dialect writing. Sketches of Lancashire life and localities was Waugh's first book and consists of seven chapters on localities in and around Rochdale and Bury (with an excursion to Rostherne Mere in Cheshire). At this point Waugh was living in Manchester and his pieces often have the character of a nostalgic return to country spots that are rapidly being overtaken by industrial development. Waugh had a penchant for antiquarianism, nature writing, poetry quotation and comedy, which are all crammed into the the centrepiece of the book - an epic 78 page account of a 10 mile walk from Rochdale to Blackstone Edge. Waugh is at his worst when detailing local history, often quoting long passages from other writer's work, and at his best when recounting stories of local life, often in the form of dialect conversations held in public houses. In an entertaining chapter on a visit to Milnrow, Waugh pays tribute to his dialect writing predecessor, John Collier. Waugh continued to write in this vein throughout his life and by its third edition, Lancashire Sketches (1869) had grown from 7 to 15 chapters.
The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the Years 1535-1543, Part IX
John Leland (1503-1552)
John Leland's 'Itinerary' consists of edited notebooks on a series of journeys around England and Wales between 1538 and 1543. The notebooks were first published in the 18th century, and in the 20th century in an a 5 volume edition by Lucy Toulmin (1906-10). Part IX is of interest to this blog because it takes us from the south of England, county by county, through Lancashire to the borders of Scotland. As such it is one of the earliest texts to be published on the county. An early form of the 'gazetteer', this was quite a challenge to read aloud, with its numerous incomplete sections and spelling variations, and I have to admit that it might be best used as a cure for insomnia. Nevertheless, the text is compelling at times as we realize that Leland was not only describing England but also discovering and knitting together its separate parts for the first time. Documenting what he didn't know as much as what he did know, Leland's account of Lancashire is much sparser than those of other counties and we are left with a definite that civilisation takes another turn once we leave Cheshire. (LibriVox recording)
Hindle Wakes (1912)
Stanley Houghton (1881-1913)
I have written about the plot and history of Stanley Houghton's play Hindle Wakes on the blog. Stanley Houghton was the star of the so-called "Manchester school" of playwrights whose plays were performed at the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester, whose acquisition by Miss Annie Horniman in 1908 heralded a new era for regional repertory theatre. In his preface to Three Lancashire Plays, Harold Brighouse explains that the name came from the use of local settings and characteristics in several plays and not from the intention to form a school. Houghton and Brighouse were the best known exponents of the genre and Hindle Wakes and Brighouse's Hobson's Choice were its most successful exemplars. Houghton's plays were collected in three volumes (1, 2, 3) with an introduction by Brighouse, who includes an incomplete list of published plays at the end of his introduction to Three Lancashire Plays, most of which are to be found on the Internet Archive:
- Stanley Houghton: Hindle Wakes (LibriVox recording), The Younger Generation, Five Short Plays (The Dear Departed, Fancy Free, The Master of the House, Phipps, The Fifth Commandment), Independent Means;
- Allan Monkhouse: Mary Broome, The Education of Mr. Surrage, Four Tragedies (The Hayling Family, The Stricklands, Resentment, Reaping the Whirlwind), War Plays (Shamed Life, Night Watches, The Choice);
- Harold Brighouse: Hobson's Choice, Garside's Career, Dealing in Futures, Graft, Lonesome-like (LibriVox recording), The Price of Coal, Converts, Three Lancashire Plays (The Game, The Northerners, Zack)
- Judge E. A. Parry: The Tallyman and other Plays; J. Sackville Martin: Cupid and the Styx
Helbeck of Bannisdale (Volume 1) (Volume 2) (1898)
Mrs. Humphry Ward (1851-1920)
An odd story that brings together Alan Helbeck, the robust Catholic owner of Bannisdale House, his agnostic young step-niece, Laura, and her rude Methodist cousins who farm higher up the valley. Fuelled by her distaste for his ascetic brand of Catholicism, Laura takes an instant dislike to Helbeck, but inevitably falls tragically in love with him. As an atheist, I found the religious side of the novel rather cloying and ultimately failed to understand its subtleties (and as a contemporary New York Times review testifies, I am not alone). But the characters are vividly drawn and there are some delightful descriptions of the countryside seen through Laura's eyes. F. A. Bruton's Lancashire places 'Browhead Chapel', which stands above Bannisdale House, on Cartmel Fell to the southeast of Lake Windermere, which places the novel in the valley of the River Winster. If my geography is correct, this means that the book is set in Westmoreland rather than Lancashire, although it moves briefly into the county for a pivotal scene in which Laura witnesses the death of an iron-worker in what was, presumably, the iron works at Carnforth. Mrs. Humphry (aka Mary Augusta) Ward was the granddaughter of Thomas Arnold and niece of Matthew Arnold. To the best of my knowledge, she did not live in the north-west and her reasons for setting the novel in the area are not clear. Mrs. Ward is also remembered as a president of the Anti-Suffrage and other of her novels were critical of the suffragettes. This is, perhaps, reflected in the rather hopeless character of Laura in Helbeck of Bannisdale.
Mervyn Clitheroe (1858)
William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882)
Inspired by The Lancashire Witches (scroll down), but with no great expectations, I decided to have a go at Ainsworth's second Lancashire novel, Mervyn Clitheroe. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was an excellent read. Narrower in scope than its predecessor, Mervyn Clitheroe is a more conventional 19th-century adventure pitting the almost impossibly virtuous Mervyn against Malpas, his evil nemesis, in a lifelong struggle over a missing will and stolen inheritance. Although I am counting this as a Lancashire book, the story is set mostly among the plains and meres of Cheshire. Mervyn ventures into the industrial smogs of Manchester only when he absolutely has to. This link is to a beautifully illustrated late 19th century edition published by Routledge.
Lancashire characters and places (1891)
Thomas Newbigging (1883-1914)
I was attracted to this book by the opening essay on the poet John Critchley Prince and also enjoyed those on Edwin Waugh and the psalmodist James Leach, whose life came to an unhappy end in a coach accident between Rochdale and Manchester. The other essays in the book are an odd but entertaining selection,and I was surprised to find myself reading a play and a poem about the River Irwell (an extract from Michael Drayton's strange epic of the English landscape, Polyolbion. Thomas Newbigging was born in Glasgow and died in Knutsford, Cheshire, living in between in Rossendale, Pernambuco, and Manchester. A gas manager by profession and writer-antiquarian by inclination, his two major works were the Handbook for Gas Engineers and Managers (1889) and the History of the Forest of Rossendale (1893). (LibriVox recording)
The masque of anarchy (1832) - Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Shelley, "Peterloo", and the Masque of anarchy (1877) - Harry Buxton Forman (1842-1917)
The Masque of Anarchy was Shelley's poetic response to the Peterloo massacre at St Peter's Fields, Manchester. Written in Italy in 1810, the poem was not published until 1832, ten years after Shelley's death. The 1832 edition was published by Leigh Hunt, who explains in his preface that he held it back because of its potentially subversive effects. Even then, some words were asterisked out of the text and only appeared in later versions ('Eldon' in Stanza IV and 'Bible' and 'Sidmouth' in Stanza VI). I am not a reader of Shelley's poems, but I imagine that this was not one of his best. It's advocacy of passive resistance to official violence are also rather suspect in retrospect. Nevertheless, the poem grew on me over successive readings. For LibriVox, I read the poem along with Leigh Hunt's preface to the first edition and a lecture to the Shelley Society by Shelley's biographer, Harry Buxton Forman. (LibriVox recording)
Mary Barton (1848)
Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865)
Mrs. Gaskell's first novel, set in industrial revolution Manchester and Liverpool, and probably the best known Lancashire novel. I listened to Juliet Stevenson's BBC Audiobook, in spite of the excellent reading, found the story hard going. The first half of the book is a catalogue of the miseries of working class life and suffers from the lack of a plot. The story picks up in the second half, though, with an assassination and a dramatic trial. Charles Dickens is said to have commented on Gaskell's predeliction for prolonged and painful illnesses followed by death and there are a fair few of those here. In comparison to the working-class dialect literature of the time, Mary Barton is utterly lacking in humour. In fairness, though, much of the dialect literature was nostalgic for a lost pre-industrial era, while Mary Barton tackled the conditions of its times head on. It was one of the first novels to be built around working-class characters and to deal directly with the class struggle as it was developing at the time. (LibriVox recording)
Confessions of an English opium-eater, and kindred papers (1822)
Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859)
Confessions of an English opium-eater is not set in Lancashire, but it qualifies as a Lancashire book on two counts. Thomas de Quincey was born in Manchester, the son of a moderately prosperous merchant, and spent some time at the Manchester Grammar School. More importantly, the first half of the book recounts his experiences of flight from the school and the city as a young man, which preceded his addiction to opium. This was de Quincey's first book, published in 1822. On finishing it, I was left with the impression of a solitary and arrogant man, who despite titling the book a confession, had yet to come to terms with the psychology of his addiction. The Internet Archive text cited here is an edition of the first volume of de Quincey's collected works published by the Boston publisher Houghton & Mifflin. The additional texts are Suspiria de profundis and a collection of additional texts to the Confessions, which include reminiscences of de Quincey's days in Manchester. (LibriVox recording)
Mancuniensis, or an history of the towne of Manchester and what is most memorable concerning it (1839)
Richard Hollingworth (1607-1656)
A quick read, this is a fascinating and unfinished history of Manchester from Roman times up to the author's untimely death in 1656. The earlier history is delightful mix of fact and fantasy - one passage has Lancelot du Lac battling Tarquin on the banks of the of the Medlock. The later history tends to focus on matters concerning the Collegiate Church of which Hollingworth, a staunch and intolerant Presbyterian, was a fellow. The final entry for September 1656 is a list of fellows who had been imprisoned for their beliefs, which includes the author's own name! Hollingworth died two months later in Manchester.
Rush-bearing: an account of the old custom of strewing rushes; carrying rushes to church; the rush-cart; garlands in churches; morris-dancers; the wakes; the rush (1891)
Alfred Burton
If you read 19th-century Lancashire books, it will not be long before you come across references to rush-bearing, a holiday tradition that began with the use of strewn rushes as flooring material in homes and churches. By the 1800s the practice had died out but was remembered in the annual tradition of building a rush-cart and leading it in a procession to the local church during wakes week. Although rush-bearing was not specifically a Lancashire tradition, it seems to have survived there, and in western Yorkshire, longer than in other parts of the country. A precursor of the coffee-table book, Burton's account is designed to be browsed, rather than read from end to end, and appears to contain pretty much everything that had ever been written on the topic of rushes and rush-bearing, with informative chapters on morris-dancing and wakes thrown in for good measure. I have added some of the many illustrations in the book to the picture gallery. I know nothing of the author apart from his name.
The River Duddon: A Series of Sonnets, etc. (1827)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Though I am not really a lover of Wordsworth, or romantic poetry, or even poetry, a voice (perhaps the ghost of F. A. Bruton) is telling me I must read his River Duddon sonnets for LibriVox. And it is turning out to be fun. Let's not worry whether or not Wordsworth is a Lancashire poet, the River Duddon is in the northern bit of Lancashire that is disconnected from the rest and is now in Cumbria. There are 33 sonnets in this edition (later editions have 34) written over many years. The intriguing part is that they are chained together so that as we read we follow the 25 miles of the river from its source in the high fells to its disappearance in the sands. A clever idea - there are probably hundreds of poem series that follow rivers, but this is the only one I know. The fourth book (LibriVox recording).
In a North Country Village (1897)
M. E. Francis (1859-1930)
M. E. Francis was born Mary E. Sweetman in Dublin and moved to Lancashire on her marriage to Francis Nicholas Blundell, of the Blundell family who remain squires of Little Crosby to this day. Blundell died young (1884) and Mary remained in Little Crosby, where she wrote many novels and collections of short stories, using her husband's Christian name for a pen name. In a North Country Village is a collection of 12 independent stories set in Little Crosby (called Thornleigh in the book), which is described as a "sleepy little hamlet" that has "remained unchanged to all intents and purposes for several hundred years. According to Wikipedia, which tells us that Little Crosby may be the last remaining recusant Catholic village in England, this description may even be true today! We are told that the residents of the village have decided to do without street lights and although Protestants are now allowed to live in the village, they must first be vetted by the squire! Catholicism does not play a great part in In a North Country Village, though, which is an engaging collection of vignettes of the lives of the local peasantry seen from an upper-class point of view. Although M. E. Francis set much of her work in Ireland and Dorset, she published a number of Lancashire books, including A Daughter of the Soil (1895), Yeoman Fleetwood (1900) and Marjory o'th' Mill (1907). (LibriVox recording).
Crosby records : a cavalier's note book, being notes, anecdotes, & observations of William Blundell of Crosby, Lancashire, Esquire (1880)
William Blundell (1620-1698) (with an introduction by Thomas Ellison Gibson, 1822-1891)
Easily distracted when it comes to online reading, I found this fascinating book while looking for information on M. E. Francis, who married into the Blundell family in the late 19th century. Originally a Norman family, the Blundells remained staunchly Catholic throughout the Reformation and Civil War, and suffered a great deal for their 'recusancy', or refusal to swear an oath of allegiance and attend Church of England services. The author of these notes, despite being seriously wounded at Lancaster Castle while fighting on the King's side in the early days of the Civil War, suffered under both Cromwell and Charles II after the Restoration. For more than two centuries, he and other members of the Blundell family repeatedly lost their lands and suffered imprisonment. The Cavaliers notebook, however, doesn't really reflect this history of oppression, but is for the most part a entertaining journey through the life and concerns of a Catholic landowner of the times. The notebook is lovingly edited by Thomas Ellison Gibson, who also added a four chapter introduction describing the history of the Blundell family. Gibson served as parish priest at the Church of Our Lady, Lydiate, for 19 years from 1860, where he wrote a history of the parish, Lydiate Hall and its Associates (1876). In addition to the Cavalier's notebook, Gibson published papers by Blundell's grandfather, also William Blundell (1560-1638) (Crosby records: A chapter of Lancashire recusancy, 1887) and his grandson Nicholas (1669-1737) (Crosby records. Blundell's diary, comprising selections from the diary of Nicholas Blundell, esq., from 1702 to 1728, 1895). William Blundell was also the author of A history of the Isle of Man, a work that he wrote during a period of self-exile on the island from 1648-1656.
Thorstein of the Mere, A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland (1895)
William Gershom Collingwood (1854-1932)
W. G. Collingwood, whose two passions in life were art and the Norse settlement, was born in Liverpool but spent much of his life by Coniston Water in the Lake District as secretary to John Ruskin. Collingwood painted and wrote on Ruskin's life, the Lake District, the Scandinavians Britain and Northumbrian crosses. With Thorstein of the Mere he ventured into the novel, through a tale of the adventures of a 10th century Norse settler in the southern Lakes. Though it takes a while for Collingwood to sacrifice historical detail for storytelling, Thorstein of the Mere is a good read and is likely to appeal to anyone who enjoys Tolkien and the like. As a Norse warrior, Thorstein does not disappoint, but he also has his gentler side and his love for Raineach of the oversized 'fell folk', and the troubles that it brings, is one of the more engaging themes of the book. Thorstein of the Mere qualifies as a Lancashire book in being set mainly in Greenodd and around Coniston Water (called by its earlier name, Thurston Mere), which are now part of Cumbria, but fell into the Lancashire portion of the Lakes at the time the book was written. An accomplished artist, Collingwood provided his own illustrations for the book. I am currently reading this book for LibriVox.
Clog Shop Chronicles (1896)
John Ackworth (1854-1917)
John Ackworth was the pen name of the Rev. Frederick R. Smith, a Methodist minister who was born in Snaith, Yorkshire, but spent much of his career as a circuit preacher in Lancashire towns and villages. Clog Shop Chronicles was the most successful of Ackworth's works, with a print run of 21,000 for the first edition and numerous reprints. Set in the fictional village of Beckside (said to be somewhere between Manchester and Bolton), the book consists of 12 short tales of everyday life in a close Methodist community, which continue into Beckside Lights (1897) and Doxy Dent (1899).At first I thought such a book might have little of interest to a non-believer like myself, but it turned out to be one of the best short story collections I have read for some time. Clog Shop Chronicles is fairly light on religion and based on an entertaining group of characters who develop from story to story. Although his plots are sentimental at times, Ackworth has a nice sense of irony and refrains from proselytizing. He was also a student of the Lancashire dialect and the spoken passages in his books are mostly written in a phonetic version of late 19th-century Bolton speech. All of Ackworths' works, together with a good deal of biographical material, can be read online on the Minor Victorian Poets and Authors site. I read the epub version of Clog Shop Chronicles from Archive.org, which was fine at first, but turned out to have a couple of unreadable passages towards the end. (LibriVox recording).
The Lancashire Witches (1848)
William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882)
William Harrison Ainsworth was born in Manchester, but spent much of his life in London, where he wrote 40 novels and edited Ainsworth's Magazine. The Lancashire Witches was one of three Lancashire novels, the others being Mervyn Clitheroe and The Leaguer of Lathom (Volumes 1, 2, and 3). Loosely based on the Pendle witch trials of 1612, The Lancashire Witches is a fictionalized and largely comic account, with occasional moments of gothic horror. The main difference between Ainsworth's book and what really happened is that the Pendle witches were in all probability not witches at all, whereas Ainsworth's witches most certainly are. A rattling good read that I would have read aloud for LibriVox one day if Andy Minter had not got there before me. The link is to Project Gutenburg edition, published by Routledge in 1854. I read the epub version, which is in very good condition.
Passages in the Life of a Radical (1840-2) and Early Days (1859)
Samuel Bamford (1778-1872)
Samuel Bamford was born in Middleton, where he worked as a weaver, although he also lived in Manchester, where he was briefly a pupil at the Grammar School, and later in London. The best known of the Lancashire reformers, Bamford turned out to be far less radical than many of his contemporaries were, and his Passages in the Life of a Radical, which mainly deals with the Peterloo Massacre and the subsequent trials is largely an attempt to settle old scores, especially in regard to Henry Hunt. Though Passages is an important historical work with much to recommend it, I found that Early Days was a better read as an entertaining and occasionally harrowing account of life in Lancashire on the verge of industrialization. The two books have published in many different editions, but the only one I have found online is an 1893 edition, with an introduction by Henry Dunckley, posted as html on Ian Petticrew's excellent Minor Victorian Poets and Authors site.
A Short History of Manchester and Salford (1924)
Francis Archibald Bruton (1860-1929)
I am mentioning this book for the sake of completeness, as I haven't read it and can't find it online. Bruton's fourth and last book, published by Sherratt and Hughes in 1924, and in a second edition in 1927. I recently bought a facsimile copy published in 1970.
Lancashire
Francis Archibald Bruton (1860-1929)
In a very different vein to Bruton's Peterloo books, Lancashire is a delightfully rambling guide to the county with 32 paintings by the Preston artist, Albert Woods. Packed with historical detail and literary references, it is an essential guide for anyone would like to travel around the county as it was 100 years ago. This is definitely best read online if only for the sake of the illustrations. (LibriVox recording).
Three accounts of Peterloo by eye-witnesses: Bishop Stanley, Lord Hylton, John Benjamin Smith (1921)
Francis Archibald Bruton (1860-1929)
A companion volume to The Story of Peterloo, this book contains the original text of three eye-witness accounts of the Peterloo Massacre with the addition of a transcript of Bishop Stanley's evidence at the subsequent trial of the organizers of the rally at which the massacre took place. Again, I read the online version at the Internet Archive - the epub version was unreadable. (LibriVox recording).
The Story of Peterloo (1919)
Francis Archibald Bruton (1860-1929)
The first Lancashire book I read online and the first book I read for LibriVox. I know little about the author, except that he was evidently a master at the Manchester Grammar School, who had a wide range of interests in things Lancashire and a keen eye for fact and detail. This book was written for the centenary of the Peterloo Massacre, which took place in Manchester in 1919 and was a formative moment in the history of the British labour movement. An excellent account of the events leading up to the massacre and of the day itself based on a careful examination of the contemporary published documents. I read the online version at the the Internet Archive.