Lancashire

Lancashire is a northern county, lying along the western coast of England as Yorkshire does on the east. Nowadays we think of it as a place of industry and invention, the home of modern manufacture; and what were until lately merely prosperous villages (such as Liverpool and Manchester) have become enlarged into thriving towns almost overnight. The spinning of cotton is a particular source of income to the inhabitants, for the climate is notoriously moist, which both keeps the fibres from breaking as they are spun and also provides power for the water mills which drive the 'factory' looms.

We should bear in mind however that not so many years ago Lancashire was a dark, remote and if not wholly a barbarous, then at least a backward, place. It had few towns of note and only a poor and scattered populace. Slow to abandon the old faith, it was riven with superstition and was the natural home of witches and demoniacs. One of the spells mentioned in Watershippe is described as "a Lancashire spell".