principles at Peterloo and known the inside of a gaol. The wave of Chartism which swept over the country took firm hold of South Lancashire; and the sight was seen, which English people do not love, of soldiers called out to put down local disturbances at the time of the so-called Plug Drawing Riots. As early as 1833 the Middleton Radicals had invaded the parish church and occupied some of the appropriated sittings, insisting on the principle, which the Rector long afterwards carried to its fullest conclusions, that they were in a parish church and that the parish church is free to all. Not a few of the people of Middleton might have sat for Owd Sammy Cradock' in Mrs. Hodgson Burnett's admirable story, and most of them before long would have been willing to make what Sammy called his 'pollygy' 'I was allus one as set more store by th' state than th' church, an parsons were na' i' my line an happen I ha' been a bit hard on yo' an ha' said things as carried weight agen yo' wi' them as valleyed my opinion o' things i' general. And I ha' made up my moind as I would na moind telling yo' as I were going to wi'draw ma oppysition sin' it seemed as if I'd made a bit o' mistake: theer now!' 'Thrutch him up,' shouted some noisy malcontents at a stormy vestry meeting during the first years of Mr. Durnford's incumbency before the people got to know the Rector as well as they afterwards did. 'Thrutch away, gentlemen,' replied the young Rector, jumping on to an oak chest which stood in the

8

8 Lancashire for 'crowd' or 'hustle.'

corner of the room, and now let us get to busi

ness.'

An interesting illustration of the hold which the Rector had gained over his parishioners even in the early years of his life in Lancashire was supplied by Bishop Abraham some fifty years later. Writing to the Guardian' in October 1895, shortly after Bishop Durnford's death, he says:

'In the appreciative notices of Richard Durnford's career and character that have appeared in the public press, I have seen no trace of what was really the most (in those days) unique feature of his pastoral work at Middleton fifty years ago. So far back as that, he had mastered the fundamental points of the disputes and strikes in the cotton manufacturing districts of Lancashire. I can well remember paying him a visit about the year 1843, just after the Stalybridge rioters had marched down to Middleton and urged the Middleton operatives to join the strike. I learnt from some of these men how the Rector had stood at midnight between the two parties and had argued the question for several hours in their own dialect, which he spoke like a native. He was a real ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, fearless and cool, sure of his facts and data, but kindly and able, as willing, to sympathise with the hard trials men had to bear in those days before the trade unions were legalised. When the question had been fairly threshed out, the Middleton men resolved not to join the Stalybridge party, and marched home, cheering the Rector; and subsequently (as I often heard them) acknowledging that it was all owing to "Mester" Durnford that they were all at work, and

not starving like many others. There are probably now to be found not a few clergymen who have studied and understand these labour questions to some extent; but then Richard Durnford stood out almost alone, as one who had carefully formed his opinions and 'had the courage of them.'

The principal industry of Middleton, until Mr. Gladstone's treaty with France in 1860 practically destroyed it, was silk-weaving. The silks woven were of the best and costliest kind, and the weaving was done for the most part by hand, in rooms. behind the houses. There the cumbrous looms were erected, and all day long whole familiesfathers, mothers, and grown-up children—worked at their trade in a fashion and with implements not very unlike those which Homer knew when he spoke of Circe 'going backwards and forwards at the loom.' The ceaseless clack of the shuttles in the cottages was then one of the most characteristic sounds in the district. Gradually, as the Lyons silks were introduced without duty, the industry died out, new mills arose, cotton manufactures largely took the place of silk, or the cheaper kinds of silk were woven by steam power, until 'handloom weaving 'became a thing of the past. is obvious that such a change must have affected greatly the habits of the people, and though it was inevitable, its effect on the family life is certainly to be lamented.

It

The church of St. Leonard at Middleton, standing on a lofty knoll and overlooking the town, was

a building of no small beauty and archæological interest. The building, as it now exists, shows clearly the work of three different periods. Fragments of the earliest church exist in the western arch of Norman work, dating from about the year 1120, an arch which in the later times was rebuilt in the pointed style, but which still contains the Norman mouldings put in almost at haphazard, and of which the pillars have suffered no violence. The tower, never apparently finished, and crowned since 1709 with a quaint four-gabled wooden structure, and the fine south porch, belong to the church erected about 1400 by Thomas Cardinal Langley, Bishop of Durham from 1406 to 1437, and Chancellor to Henry IV. He himself a Middleton boy, remodelled the ancient church and founded a chantry for the instruction of the youth of Middleton. The clerestory, the roof, and the greater part of the walls were rebuilt in a style of somewhat debased perpendicular in 1524 as a thank-offering for the victory of Flodden Field, in which the Lancashire lads had played a prominent part. In that famous fight of September 8, 1513, Richard Assheton-whose grandfather had, by marriage with Margaret Barton, become the lord of Middleton-led the Middleton archers, and was for his valour knighted upon the field of battle. On the south side of the chancel still exist the fragments of an interesting contemporary window designed to commemorate the part taken by the Middleton lads in an event which deeply stirred the people of the north of England.