B 4 b 2. “She had bewitched to death Richard Ashton, sonne of Richard Ashton, of Downeham, Esquire.”] Richard Assheton, (as the name is more properly spelled,) thus done to death by witchcraft, was the son of Richard Assheton, of Downham, an old manor house, the scite of which is now supplied by a modern structure, which Dr. Whitaker thinks, in point of situation, has no equal in the parish of Whalley.  Richard, the son, married Isabel, daughter and heiress of Mr. Hancock, of Pendleton Hall, and died without offspring.  The family estate accordingly descended to the younger brother, Nicholas Assheton, whose diary for part of the year 1617 and part of the year following is given, page 303 of Whitaker’s History of Whalley, edition 1818, and is a most valuable record of the habits, pursuits, and course of life of a Lancashire country gentleman of that period.  It well deserves detaching in a separate publication, and illustrating with a more expanded commentary.

C b. “Piggin full.”] Piggin is properly a sort of bowl, or pail, with one of the staves much longer than the rest, made for a handle, to lade water by, and used especially in brewhouses to measure out the liquor with.

C 2 a. “Nicholas Banister.”] Dr. Whitaker, in the pedigree of the Banisters, of Altham, (genealogy was, it is well known, one of the vulnerable parts of this Achilles of topography,) erroneously states this Nicholas Banister to have been buried at Altham, December 7, 1611.  It appears, however, from a deed, an inspection of which I owe to the kindness of my friend, Dr. Fleming, that his will was dated the 15th August, 1612.  In all probability he did not die for some years after that date.  He married, first, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Elston, of Brockall, Esq.; and, second, Catherine, daughter of Edmund Ashton, of Chaderton, Esq.  The manor house of Altham, for more than five centuries the residence of this ancient family, stands, to use Dr. Whitaker’s words, upon a gentle elevation on the western side of the river Calder, commanding a low and fertile domain.  It has been surrounded, according to the prudence or jealousy of the feudal times, with a very deep quadrangular moat, which must have included all the apparatus of the farm.

C 3 a. “At Malking Tower, in the forrest of Pendle.”] Malkin Tower was the habitation of Mother Demdike, the situation of which is preserved, for the structure no longer exists, by local tradition.  Malkin is the Scotch or north country word for hare, as this animal was one into which witches were supposed to be fond of transforming themselves.  Malkin Tower is, in fact, the Witches’ Tower.  The term is used in the following passage in Morison’s Poems, p. 7, which bears upon the above explanation:—­

    “Or tell the pranks o’ winter’s nights,
    How Satan blazes uncouth lights;
    Or how he does a core convene
    Upon a witch-frequented green,
    Wi’ spells and cauntrips hellish rantin’,
    Like mawkins thro’ the fields they’re janting.”