land from Holbeckgate, in Alker, to a road in the village of Lydiate, in consideration of perpetual prayers on the part of the abbot and monks for the souls of him and his ancestors.

1365. Suit in the Consistory Court of Lichfield and Coventry, between the abbot and monks of Miravalle and the rector of Halsall, as to boundaries of Alker and Halsall, of which the contemporary copy record is at Croxteth. 1440. Grant, of which the original is at Croxteth, by Sir Richard Molyneux, to the abbot and monks of Miravalle, of the advowson of Sefton Church and four acres of land, in exchange for the reversion of the manor or lordship of Alker. It was at the same time agreed that the abbot should send a monk to reside at Sefton, and that Sir Richard should find him meat and drink and a chamber to live in.

1530. Suit brought in the Duchy Court by the abbot of Miravalle against Thomas Halsall, lord of the manor of Downholland, concerning the boundaries of, and rights of turbary in, Alker and Downholland. Contemporary copy record of proceedings is at Croxteth.

1539. By Act of Parliament (31 Henry VIII, c. 13), all monasteries in England were dissolved and granted to the king, when Alker, as part of the possessions of the abbot and monks of Miravalle, came into the possession of the Crown.

1558, May 4. Letters patent of King Philip and Queen Mary, granting, for valuable considerations, to Sir Richard Molyneux, Knight, the manor or lordship of Alker, late part of the possessions of the dissolved Abbey of Miravalle. The original is among the Molyneux muniments at Croxteth.

SOME HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE CHAPEL OF OUR BLESSED LADY, PARBOLD, LANCASHIRE.

By William Frederick Price.

Read 5th December, 1895.

THIS ancient and interesting ecclesiastical edifice, better known as "Douglas Chapel," was demolished in 1878. It was situated at the foot of Parbold Hill, in the township of Parbold, and lay hidden in a picturesque and sequestered valley.

Parbold Hill, with its extensive stone quarries, is a familiar object to travellers on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway between Southport and Wigan. It is the most prominent feature of a range consisting of Parbold, Hunters, and Harrock Hills; and on the opposite side of the valley is another range, comprising Ashurst, Upholland, and Billinge. Parbold and Ashurst Hills stand like sentinels at the neck of a beautiful and welltimbered valley, which is watered by the River Douglas, a sluggish stream, with high banks, veiled with alder, willows, and poplar. This river

I

A Celtic river-name. The word "dhu," black, appears in five rivers in Wales, three in Scotland, and one in Dorset, which are called Dulas. There are also two in Scotland and one in Lancashire called the Douglas; and we have the Dculas in Radnor, the Dowles in Shropshire, and the Diggles in Lancashire. Rev. I. Taylor, Words and Places, p. 143.

takes its source among the hills of Rivington, flows through the town of Wigan, past Gathurst, Appley Bridge, Parbold, Rufford, and Tarleton, and joins the Ribble estuary at Hesketh Bank.

"Swart Dulas coming in from Wigan, with her aids

Short Tawd and Dartow small two little country maids,
In these low watery lands and moory mosses bred." 3

The now fertile plain through which the Douglas meanders from Parbold to its estuary, appears to have been, even to a late date, a vast swamp, intersected with forests, where the Celt and his Saxon successors hunted for big game, plied their canoes among the broad lagoons, and built their pile dwellings on the margin of the Meer. The remains of forests at Hoscar and Bescar, the discovery of ancient canoes in Merton-also called "Marton" and "Martin "-Meer, and the local nomenclature, all supply us with these facts. We can now hardly realize that in this little-known corner of Lancashire there existed until late in the seventeenth century a lake twenty miles in circuit called Merton Meer, within which were three small islands, and this "Meer emptieth itself one way "into the River Douglas and by another Rivulet "falleth into the sea at North Meols." 4

The following extract from Lancashire Church Surveys in 16505 is useful in giving an idea of the state of the country at that time :

"And also for that there is a great river called Astlan over which the inhabitants of the said towns of Tarleton, Holmes, Sollom, Hesketh and Becconsall cannot pass unto Croston Church without a boat, neither can they pass with a boat in some

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"Dugles

2 Leland, the antiquary, 1536-1542, writing of Wigan, says :Ryver cumming by Wigan market goith into the se by hitself toward "Latham."

3 Drayton's Poiyolbion.

4 Blome's Britannia.

5 Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. i, p. 110.