Although the few perfect remaining examples of the old timbered
Lancashire halls are preserved with the fondest reverence by their
owners, the number of those which have been allowed to fall into a
state of partial decay diminishes every year. They disappear, one by
one, perhaps inevitably, and of many, it is to be feared, not a trace
will soon be left. Repairs and restorations are expensive; to preserve
such buildings needs, moreover, a strong sense of duty, and a
profounder devotedness to "reliquism," as some author terms it, than
perhaps can ever be expected to be general. The duty to preserve is
plain. The wilful neglect, not to say the reckless destruction of
interesting old buildings that can be maintained, at no great cost, in
fair condition and as objects of picturesque beauty, is, to say the
least of it, unpatriotic. The possessors of fine old memorials of the
past are not more the possessors in their own right than trustees of
property belonging to the nation, and the nation is entitled to insist
upon their safe keeping and protection. The oaks of Sherwood,
festooned with stories of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, are not more a
ducal inheritance, than, as long as they may survive, every
Englishman's by birthright. Architectural remains, in particular, when
charged with historical interest, and that discourse of the manners
and customs of "the lang syne," are sacred. Let opulence and good
taste construct as much more as they please on modern lines. Every
addition to the architectural adornment of the country reflects honour
upon the person introducing it, and the donor deserves, though he may
not always receive, sincere gratitude. Let the builder go further,
pull down, and, if he so fancies, reconstruct his own particular work.
But no man who calls himself master of a romantic or sweet old place,
consecrated by time, has any right, by destroying, to steal it from
the people of England; he is bound not even to mutilate it. There are
occasions, no doubt, when to preserve is no longer practicable, and
when to alter may be legitimate; we refer not to these, but to
needless and wanton overthrow--such as unhappily has had examples only
too many. There was no need to destroy that immemorial mansion,
Reddish Old Hall, near the banks of the Tame, now known only through
the medium of a faithful picture;[43] nor was there excuse for the
merciless pulling to pieces of Radcliffe Old Hall, on the banks of the
Irwell, a building so massive in its under-structure that the utmost
labour was required to beat it down. We need not talk of Alaric, the
Goths, and the Vandals, when Englishmen are not ashamed to behave as
badly.
[43] In the Chetham Society's 42nd vol., p. 211.
[Illustration: DARCY LEVER, NEAR BOLTON]
Of the venerated and unmolested, Speke Hall is, perhaps, the oldest in
South Lancashire that remains as an example of the "magpie," or
black-and-white half-timbered style. It stands upon the margin of the
estuary of the Mersey, a few miles above Liverpool, with approach at
the rear by an avenue of trees from the water's edge. As with all the
rest of its class, the foundations are of solid masonry, the house
itself consisting of a framework of immensely strong vertical timbers,
connected by horizontal beams, with diagonal bracings, oak in every
instance, the interstices filled with laths upon which is laid a
peculiar composition of lime and clay. The complexion of the principal
front is represented in our drawing, but no pencil can give a perfect
idea of the repose, the tender hues, antique but not wasted, the
far-reaching though silent spell with which it catches and holds both
eye and fancy. Over the principal entrance, in quaint letters, "This
worke," it is said, "25 yards long, was wolly built by Edw. N., Esq.,
Anno 1598." The N. stands for Norreys, the surname of one of the
primitive Lancashire families, still represented in the county, though
not at Speke. A baronial mansion belonging to them existed here as
early as 1350, but of this not a stone that can be recognised remains.
A broad moat once surrounded the newer hall, but, as in most other
instances, the water has long since given way to green turf.
Sometimes, in Lancashire, the ancient moats have been converted into
orchards. Inside, Speke is distinguished by the beauty of the
corridors and of the great hall, which latter contains some carved
wainscoting brought from Holyrood by the Sir Wm. Norreys who, serving
his commander, Lord Stanley, well at Flodden, A.D. 1513, got leave to
despoil the palace of the unfortunate monarch there defeated. The
galleries look into a spacious and perfectly square central court of
the kind usually pertaining to these old halls, though now very seldom
found with all four of the enclosing blocks of building. The court at
Speke is remarkable for its pair of aged yew trees; one of each
sex, the female decked in autumn with its characteristic scarlet
berries--a place for trees so exceptional that it probably has no
counterpart. Everywhere and at all times the most imperturbable of
trees, yews never fail to give an impression of long inheritance and
of a history abreast of dynasties, and at Speke the association is
sustained perfectly.
[Illustration: SPEKE HALL]
[Illustration: HALE HALL]
Near Bolton there are several such buildings, all in a state of
praiseworthy preservation. In the time of the Stuarts and the
Republicans they must have been numerous. Smithills, or Smethells, a
most beautiful structure placed at the head of a little glen, occupies
the site of an ancient Saxon royal residence. After the Conquest, the
estate and the original hall passed through various successive hands,
those of the Ratcliffes included. At present it is possessed,
fortunately, by one of the Ainsworth family above mentioned (p. 125),
so that, although very extensive changes have been made from time to
time, including the erection of a new east front in stone, and the
substitution of modern windows for the primitive casements, the
permanency of all, as we have it to-day, is guaranteed. The interior
is rich in ancient wood-carving. Quaint but charmingly artistic
decoration prevails in all the chief apartments; some of the panels
are emblazoned in colours; everywhere, too, there is the sense of
strength and comfort. In the quadrangle, open on one side, and now a
rose-garden, amid the flower-borders, and in the neighbouring
shrubberies, it is interesting to observe once again how the botanical
aspect of old England is slowly but surely undergoing transformation,
through the liberal planting of decorative exotics.
Speke suggests the idea of botanical metamorphosis even more
powerfully than Smithills. At each place the ancient occupiers, full
of the native spirit of "never say die," the oak, the hawthorn, and
the silver birch,--trees that decked the soil in the days of
Caractacus,--wonder who are these new-comers, the rhododendrons and
the strange conifers from Japan and the antipodes. They bid them
welcome all the same. As at Clitheroe, they stand arm in arm; we are
reminded at every step of the good householder "which bringeth forth
out of his treasure things both new and old."
Hall i' th' Wood, not far off, so called because once hidden in the
heart of a forest containing wild boars, stands on the brow of a
precipitous cliff at the base of which flows the Eagley. Possessed of
a large bay window, Hall i' th' Wood may justly be pronounced one of
the best existing specimens of old English domestic architecture--that
of the franklins, or aboriginal country gentlemen, not only of
Lancashire, but of the soil in general, though some of the external
ornaments are of later date than the house itself. The oldest part
seems never to have suffered "improvements" of any kind; in any case,
Hall i' th' Wood is to the historian one of the most interesting spots
in England, since it was here, in the room with the remarkable
twenty-four-light window, that Crompton devised and constructed his
cotton-machine. The noble old trees have long since vanished. When
the oaks were put to death, so large were they that no cross-cut saw
long enough for the purpose could be procured, and the workmen were
obliged to begin with making deep incisions in the trunks, and
removing large masses of the ironlike timber. This was only a trifle
more than a century ago.
Turton Tower, near Bolton, an old turreted and embattled building,
partly stone, partly black-and-white, the latter portion gabled,
originally belonged to the Orrells, afterwards to the Chethams, the
most distinguished of whom, Humphrey Chetham, founder of the Chetham
Free Library, died here in 1653. The upper storeys, there being four
in all, successively project or overhang, after the manner of those of
many of the primitive Manchester houses. The square form of the
building gives it an aspect of great solidity; the ancient door is
oak, and passing this, we come once again upon abundance of elaborate
wood-carving, with enriched ceilings, as at Speke. Turton has, in
part, been restored, but with strict regard to the original style and
fashion, both within and without.
The neighbourhood also of Wigan is celebrated for its old halls,
pre-eminent among which is Ince, the ancient seat of the Gerards,
and the subject of another of our sketches. Ince stands about a mile
to the south-east of the comparatively modern building of the same
name, and in its many gables surmounting the front, and long ranges of
windows, is not more tasteful as a work of art than conspicuous to the
traveller who is so fortunate as to pass near enough to enjoy the
sight of it. Lostock Old Hall, black-and-white, and dated 1563,
possesses a handsome stone gateway, and has most of the rooms
wainscoted. Standish Hall, three and a half miles N.N.W., is also well
worth a visit; and after these time is well given to Pemberton Old
Hall, half timbered (two miles W.S.W.), Birchley Hall, Winstanley
Hall, and Haigh Hall. Winstanley, built of stone, though partly
modernised, retains the ancient transom windows, opposing a quiet and
successful resistance to the ravages of time and fashion. Haigh Hall,
for many ages the seat of the Bradshaigh family (from which, through
females, Lord Lindsay, the distinguished Lancashire author and
art-critic, descended), is a stately mansion of various periods--the
chapel as old apparently as the reign of Edward II. Placed upon the
brow of the hill above the town, it commands a prospect scarcely
surpassed by the view from Billinge.
[Illustration: HALL IN THE WOOD]
The old halls of Manchester and the immediate neighbourhood would a
hundred years ago have required many chapters to themselves. It has
already been mentioned that a great portion of the original town was
"black-and-white," and most of the halls belonging to the local
gentry, it would seem, were similar. Those which stood in the way of
the fast-striding bricks and mortar of the eighteenth century and the
beginning of the nineteenth, if not gone entirely, have been mutilated
beyond recognition. In the fields close to Garratt Hall partridges
were shot only seventy or eighty years ago: to-day there is scarcely a
fragment of it left! Hulme Hall, which stood upon a rise of the red
sandstone rock close to the Irwell, overlooking the ancient ford to
Ordsall,--once the seat of the loyal and generous Prestwich
family,--is remembered by plenty of the living as the point aimed for
in summer evenings by those who loved the sight of hedges covered with
the white bells of the convolvulus--Galatea's own pretty flower.
Workshops now cover the ground; and though Ordsall Hall, its neighbour
across the water, not long ago a mile from any public road, is still
extant, it is hall only in name. Ordsall, happily, is in the
possession of a firm of wealthy manufacturers, who have converted the
available portions into a sort of institute for their workpeople.[44]
Crumpsall Old Hall; Hough Hall, near Moston; Ancoats Old Hall, now the
Ancoats Art Gallery; Barton Old Hall, near Eccles; Urmston Old Hall,
and several others, may be named as examples of ancient beauty and
dignity now given over to the spirit of change. Leaving them to their
destiny, it is pleasant to note one here and there among the fields
still unspoiled, as in the case of "Hough End," a building of modest
proportions, but an excellent example of the style in brick which
prevailed at the close of the reign of Elizabeth; the windows
square-headed, with substantial stone mullions, and transomed. Hough
End was originally the home of the Mosleys, having been erected by Sir
Nicholas Mosley, Lord Mayor of London in 1600, "whom God," says the
old biographer, "from a small and low estate, raysed up to riches and
honour." One of the prettiest of the always pretty "magpie" style is
Kersall Cell, near the banks of the Irwell, at Agecroft, so named
because on the site of an ancient monkish retreat or hermitage, the
predecessor of which in turn was a little oratory among the rocks at
Ordsall, lower down the stream, founded temp. Henry II. Worsley Old
Hall, another example of "magpie," though less known to the general
public than the adjacent modern Worsley Hall, the seat of the Earl of
Ellesmere, is one of the most imposing edifices of its character in
South Lancashire. With the exception of Worsley Hall, Manchester
possesses no princely or really patrician residences. The Earl of
Wilton's, Heaton Park, though well placed, claims to be nothing more
than of the classical type so common to its class.
[44] Messrs. R. Howarth & Co., whose "weaving-shed," it may be
added, is the largest and most astonishing in the world.
When relics only exist, they in many cases become specially
interesting through containing some personal memorial. Barlow Hall,
for instance, originally black-and-white, with quadrangle, now so
changed by modernising and additions that we have only a hint of the
primitive aspect, is rich in the possession of an oriel with stained
glass devoted to heraldry. One of the shields--parted per pale,
apparently to provide a place for the Barlow arms, not inserted--shows
on the dexter side those of Edward Stanley, third Earl of Derby, in
seventeen quarterings--Stanley, Lathom, the Isle of Man, Harrington,
Whalley Abbey, Hooton, and eleven others. The date of this, as of the
sundial, is 1574.
The country immediately around Liverpool is deficient in old halls of
the kind so abundant near Bolton and Manchester. This perhaps is in no
degree surprising when we consider how thinly that part of Lancashire
was inhabited when the manufacturing south-east corner was already
populous. Speke is the only perfect example thereabouts of its
particular class, the black-and-white; and of a first-class
contemporaneous baronial mansion, the remains of the Hutte, near Hale,
furnish an almost solitary memorial. The transom of the lower window,
the upper smaller windows, the stack of kitchen chimneys, the antique
mantelpiece, the moat, still untouched, with its drawbridge, combine
to show how important this place must have been in the bygones, while
the residence of the Irelands. It was quitted in 1674, when the
comparatively new "Hale Hall" was erected, a solid and commodious
building of the indefinite style. Liverpool as a district is
correspondingly deficient in palatial modern residences, though there
are many of considerable magnitude. Knowsley, the seat of the Earl of
Derby, is eminently miscellaneous, a mixture of Gothic and classical,
and of various periods, beginning with temp. Henry VI. The front was
built in 1702, the back in 1805. Croxteth Hall, the Earl of Sefton's,
is a stone building of the negative character indicative of the time
of Queen Anne and George I. Childwall Abbey, a mansion belonging to
the Marquis of Salisbury, is Gothic of the kind which is recommended
neither by taste nor by fidelity to exact principles. Lathom, on the
other hand, is consistent, though opinions vary as to the amount of
genius displayed in the detail--the very part in which genius is
always declared. Would that there existed, were it ever so tiny, a
fragment of the original Lathom House, that noble first home of the
Stanleys, which had no fewer than eighteen towers, without reckoning
the lofty "Eagle" in the centre--its outer walls protected by a fosse
of eight yards in width, and its gateway one that in nobleness would
satisfy kings. Henry VII. came here in 1495, the occasion when "to the
women that songe before the Kinge and the Quene," as appears in the
entertaining Privy Purse Expenses of the royal progress that pleasant
summer, there was given "in reward, 6s. 8d." So thorough was the
demolition of the old place that now there is no certain knowledge
even of the site. The present mansion was built during the ten years
succeeding 1724. It has a rustic basement, with double flight of
steps, above which are rows of Ionic columns. The length of the
northern or principal front, including the wings, is 320 feet; the
south front overlooks the garden, and an abundantly wooded park. An
Italian architect, Giacomo Leoni, was entrusted with the decoration of
the interior, which upon the whole is deservedly admired.
Ince Blundell is distinguished, not so much for its architecture, as
for the collection of works of art contained in the entrance-hall, a
model, one-third size, of the Pantheon. The sculptures, of various
kinds, above 550 in number, are chiefly illustrative of the later
period of Roman art, though including some gems of ancient Greek
conception; the paintings include works of high repute in all the
principal continental schools, as well as English, the former
representing, among others, Paul Veronese, Andrea del Sarto, and Jan
Van Eyck. The Ince Blundell collection is certainly without equal in
Lancashire, and is pronounced by connoisseurs one of the finest of its
kind in the country.
The neighbourhood of Blackburn is enviable in the possession of
Hoghton Tower, five and a half miles to the W.S.W., a building
surpassed in its various interest only by Lancaster Castle and the
abbeys; in beauty of situation little inferior to Stirling Castle, and
as a specimen of old baronial architecture well worthy of comparison
with Haddon Hall. The estate was in the possession of the Hoghton
family as early as temp. Henry II., when the original manor-house,
superseded by the Tower, stood at the foot of the hill, by the
river-side. The existing edifice dates from the reign of Elizabeth,
having been erected by the Thomas Hoghton whose departure from "Merry
England" is the theme of the pathetic old ballad, "The Blessed
Conscience." He was one of the "obstinate" people who, having been
educated in the Catholic faith, refused to conform to the requirements
of the new Protestant powers, and was obliged in consequence to take
refuge in a foreign country, dying an exile at Liege, 3d June 1580.
"Oh! Hoghton high, which is a bower
Of sports and lordly pleasure,
I wept, and left that lordly tower
Which was my chiefest treasure.
To save my soul, and lose the rest,
It was my true pretence;
Like frighted bird, I left my nest,
To keep my consciènce.
"Fair England! now ten times adieu!
And friends that therein dwell;
Farewell, my brother Richard true,
Whom I did love so well--
Farewell, farewell, good people all,
And learn experiènce;
Love not too much the golden ball,
But keep your consciènce."
[Illustration: HOGHTON TOWER]
The "Tower," so called, occupies the summit of a lofty ridge, on its
eastern side bold and rugged, steep and difficult of access, though to
the north and west sloping gently. Below the declivity meanders the
Darwen, in parts smooth and noiseless; but in the "Orr," so named from
the sound, tumbling over huge heaps of rock loosened from the opposite
bank, where the wall of stone is almost vertical. In the time of its
pride the hill was almost entirely clothed with trees, but now it is
chiefly turf, and the extent of the prospect, which includes the
village of Walton-le-Dale, down in the valley of the Ribble, is
enjoyed perfectly. The ground-plan of the building presents two
capacious courts, the wall with three square towers in front, the
middle one protecting the gateway. The outer court is large enough for
the easy movement of 600 men; the inner one is approached by a noble
flight of steps. The portion designed for the abode of the family
contains noble staircases, branching out into long galleries, which
lead, in turn, to the many chambers. One of the rooms, called James
the First's, is wainscoted. The stay of his Majesty at Hoghton for a
few days in August, 1617, has already been referred to. It is this
which has been so admirably commemorated in Cattermole's best
painting. With a view to rendering his picture, containing some fifty
figures, as historically correct as might be possible, the artist was
assisted with all the records and portraits in existence, so that the
imagination has little place in it beyond the marshalling. Regarded as
a semi-ruin, Hoghton Tower is a national monument, a treasure which
belongs not more to the distinguished baronet by whom it has lately
been in some degree restored after the neglect of generations, than,
as said above, like all others of its kind, to the people of England,
who, in course of time, it is to be hoped, will rightly estimate the
value of their heirlooms.
Stonyhurst, now the principal English Jesuit College, was originally
the home of the Sherburne family, one of whom attended Queen Philippa
at Calais, while upon another, two centuries later, Elizabeth looked
so graciously that, although a Catholic, she allowed him to retain his
private chapel and domestic priest. It was under the latter that the
existing edifice took the place of one more ancient, though the
builder did not live to complete his work. The completion, in truth,
may be said to be yet barely effected, so many additions, all in
thorough keeping, have been projected. Not that they interfere with
the design of the stately original, its lofty and battlemented
centre, and noble cupolas. The new is in perfect harmony with the
old, and the general effect, we may be sure, is no less imposing to-day
than it was three hundred years ago. The interior corresponds; the
galleries and apartments leave nothing to be desired: they are stored,
moreover, with works of art, and with archæological and historical
curiosities; so richly, indeed, that whatever the value of the museums
in some of the Lancashire large towns, in the entire county there is
no collection of the kind that can take precedence of Stonyhurst. The
house was converted to its present purpose in 1794, when the founders
of the College, driven from Liege by the terrors of the French
Revolution, obtained possession of it. They brought with them all they
could that was specially valuable, and hence, in large measure, the
varied interest of what it contains. In the philosophical apparatus
room there is a _Descent from the Cross_, by Annibale Caracci.
Elsewhere there are some carvings in ivory, and a _Crucifixion_, by
Michel Angelo, with ancient missals, a copy of the Office of the
Virgin which belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots, and antiques of
miscellaneous character innumerable, those of the Christian ages
supplemented by a Roman altar from Ribchester. A curious circumstance
connected with Stonyhurst is, that the house and grounds occupy, as
nearly as possible, the same area as that of the famous city which
once adorned the banks of the Ribble.
[Illustration: STONYHURST]
A pilgrimage to the neighbourhood of Stonyhurst is rewarded by the
sight of old fashioned manor-houses scarcely inferior in manifold
interest to those left behind in the southern part of the county.
Little Mitton Hall (so named in order to distinguish it from Great
Mitton, on the Yorkshire side of the stream) supplies an example of
the architecture of the time of Henry VII. The basement is of stone,
the upper storey of wood; the presence-chamber, with its embayed
window-screen and gallery above, and the roof ceiled with oak in
wrought compartments, are alike curious and interesting. Salesbury
Hall, partly stone and partly wood, once possessed of a quadrangular
court, now a farmhouse, was originally the seat of the Talbots, one of
whom, in 1580, was Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London.
Salmesbury, monographed by Mr. James Croston, dates from the close of
the fourteenth century. This is a truly fascinating old place, the
inner doors all without either panel or lock, and opened, like those
of cottages, with a latch and a string. Townley Hall, near Burnley,
one of the most ancient seats in the county, is rich in personal
history. The banks of the Lune in turn supply examples of the ancient
mansion such as befit a valley picturesque in every winding, Hornby
Castle and Borwick Hall counting as chief among them.
The list of Lancashire remains of this character could be considerably
enlarged. Scarisbrick and Rufford, near Ormskirk; Yealand Redmayne,
nine miles north of Lancaster; Swarthmoor, Extwistle, and many others,
present features of various interest, and in the aggregate supply
materials for one of the most delightful chapters still to be written
for the history not only of Lancashire but of England. But here we
must desist.