duction of the game laws the more wealthy part of the community allowed their more indigent brethren to enjoy the sports of the field for one day out of three hundred and sixty-five. Where the privilege was denied a custom obtained of shooting at a 'white' upon a barn door, for a tea kettle, or other trifling prize. Ale, brewed expressly for the season, and uncommonly strong, called 'Christmas drink,' was prepared for the holiday. Every visitor, whether friend or stranger, was invited to and treated with a pot of beer and a mince pie. Dances took place at the village inns, and public card parties for geese, buns, or pears, were held at the farm houses."

Before resuming the narrative of the progress of manufactures it will be desirable to notice the extent, population, &c., of the village of Oldham, and of other adjacent places, just previous to the introduction of the factory system.

A plan of Oldham without date, but apparently referring to the early part of the last century, preserved by the family of the late Mr. John Radley, represents the place as a small village of thirty or forty dwellings, surrounded by marshy moors, and approached by several crooked bridle roads and footpaths, the courses of which were marked out by small stone crosses, placed at short distances from each other. The centre of the village was denoted by one of these crosses, named "Crosse in the Towne," - there was another near Hargreaves, called " Pig Lee Style Crosse," - a third on Oldham edge, namely, "Grymbye Crosse," - a fourth near Horsedge hall, called "Crosse under the Edge," - another near Rhodes, called "Horsedge Style Crosse," - a sixth at Holebottom, named Shoote Crosse," - and a seventh at Greenacres moor, designated "Moore hill Crosse." On the outward border of the plan are the words, " The lande of Ovldham." As this early map seems to have been formed shortly after the

109