WHAT WAS THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED IN MANCHESTER? 39 THOMAS LURTING: A LIVERPOOL WORTHY 44 KUFIC COINS FOUND IN LANCASHIRE 56 NEWSPAPERS IN 1738-39 61 A LANCASHIRE NATURALIST: THOMAS GARNETT 72 THE TRAFFORDS OF TRAFFORD 80 A MANCHESTER WILL OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 106 A VISITOR TO LANCASHIRE IN 1807 111 HOW THE FIRST SPINNING MACHINERY WAS TAKEN TO BELGIUM 119 MERRY ANDREW OF MANCHESTER 127 A MANCHESTER JEANIE DEANS 129 SOME LANCASHIRE GIANTS 130 A NOTE ON WILLIAM ROWLINSON 137 LITERARY TASTE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 143 HUGH OF MANCHESTER: A STATESMAN AND DIVINE OF THE THIRTEENTH 146 CENTURY MRS. FLETCHER IN LANCASHIRE 157 MANCHESTER AND THE FIRST REFORM AGITATION 165 THE FOLK-LORE OF LANCASHIRE 197 MANCHESTER GRAMMAR SCHOOL MILL 222 THE RISING OF 1715 231 THE FOOL OF LANCASTER 243 ALEXANDER BARCLAY AND MANCHESTER 245 INDEX 255 Echoes of Old Lancashire. The “Lancashire Plot.” The town of Manchester was in a state of indignant and feverish excitement on the 17th of October, 1694, being the sixth year of the reign of William the Deliverer. Everywhere groups of townspeople were discussing the all-absorbing topic of the “Lancashire Plot,” for on that day there came to the town four of their Majesties’ judges, with every circumstance of pomp and parade, to try for their lives gentlemen of the best blood of Lancashire and Cheshire; unfortunate prisoners who were accused of having conspired against the Deliverer, of having been guilty of the treason of remaining faithful to the old King, whom the rest of the nation had cast off. The prisoners were brought into town strongly guarded, amidst the sympathetic demonstrations of their neighbours, who were equally liberal of groans and hisses for the wretched informers who were about to do their endeavour to bring them to the scaffold.