PREFACE

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A book without a preface, says an old author somewhere, is like a meal without a grace, meaning thereby that it is neither better nor worse for it, as he himself, if led into a meal where the guests were all begun before him would be at a loss to tell whether grace had been said or not. The reader will no doubt admit that a good repast may be somewhat damaged by a grace which exhausts the patience of the guests and allows the viands to cool, and many an author has been irretrievably ruined by error in preparing the preface to his book; for how often have we seen a dull fellow take up a laborious treatise, read over ten or a dozen pages of an introduction, and, yawning hideously, look out for land, but, discovering none, cast aside the book in disgust.

The Editor of this New Edition of "Butterworth's Sketches of Oldham" intends no such infliction on the patience of the reader; but he may be permitted to say that the favour with which the work was received at the time of its publication, and the limited number of copies which were then issued, have induced him to enter on the present undertaking.

Since Mr. Butterworth's death many important changes have taken place in the Borough, foremost amongst which may be named, the Charter of Incorporation, which was obtained in the year 1849. Under the operation of the system of local.