“ Proud Preston, as the town has long been termed, was probably so called from its being the residence of genteel families in days of yore, before the introduction of the cotton trade; having been, as Dr Whitaker says, "the resort of well-born but ill-portioned and ill-endowed old maids and widows." The paschal lamb couchant, with the letters P.P. (for Princeps Pacis, Prince of Peace) , form the armorial bearings of the town. Hence, perhaps, the old lines—
"Proud Preston,
Poor people ”