While Edwin Waugh and Ben Brierley have done much to perpetuate the rude moorland and busy factory life of Lancashire, little has been done to perpetuate the stern Puritanism of the hill sects.

Among these sects there is a poetry and simplicity local in character, yet delightful in spirit; and to recall and record it is the aim of the following Idylls.

The provincialism of Lancashire varies with its valleys.  It is only necessary, therefore, to remark that as these Idylls are drawn from a once famous valley in the North-east division of the county, the provincialism is peculiar to that valley — indeed, it would be more correct to say, to that section, of the valley wherein Rehoboth lies.