Excerpt from Papers, Vol. 44: Of the Manchester Literary Club Cock Hill a little distance above an ancient well now locked up from public use by some benevolent property-owner, and popularly supposed to commemorate Saint Thomas a Becket. Near by is the prosperous hamlet of Pecket Well; whether it derives its name from or bestows its title upon the well is quite uncertain, Some doubtful support is lent to the traditional etymology by the dedication of the ruined church of Heptonstall to the same undoubted martyr but somewhat questionable saint. That venerable structure stands, or attempts to stand, on a hill not far across the valley, with its younger descendant in the same not too tidy graveyard. The little town, for so it was once, is most ancient and had a dungeon of its own, which still survives though not used for its original purpose. It was also once possessed of an excellent grammar school, which in a degenerate and thrifty age has become the headquarters of a Penny Bank, whose ministrants use the fine old richly-carved desk, from which the pedagogues of many a generation have given the law, the birch, and a modicum of sound instruction to their wayward pupils. During the great Civil War a skirmish took place here, in which the royalists sufl'ered their accustomed evil fortune. To-day a clean and quaint village alone keeps green the memory of more stirring times in the past. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.