_For the Table Book._
Denton-castle, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and on the north-west
side of Otley, was once the seat of the parliament’s general, Fairfax,
and came to the present family of Ibbetson by relationship. Prince
Rupert in passing by it on his march into Lancashire, in order to assist
the king’s troops in that quarter, was about to raze it, but going into
the house, he observed the pictures of the Manners and the Villiers,
Fairfax’s ancestors, and out of good will towards them he desisted. It,
however, was afterwards unfortunately destroyed by the carelessness of a
maid servant, who dropping asleep at the time she was picking feathers,
the candle fell into the feathers and burnt the house to the ground. In
a few years afterwards, it was rebuilt by the father of sir Henry
Ibbetson, bart. in the year 1721, and has this remarkable motto in the
pediment:--
“Quod nec Jovis ira nec ignis nec poterit ferrum.”