About the latter end of the year 1732, one Saturday night, a stranger
sleeping alone in the Green Chamber was much terrified by an apparition.
He stated that about ten o'clock, as he was preparing for bed, there
appeared a person before him dressed like a minister, in a white robe
and bands, with a book in his hand. The stranger getting into bed, saw
it stand by his bedside for a short time. It then slowly retired out of
the door, as if going down-stairs, and he saw it no more. This person
invariably persisted in the same story; and the owner of the estate
immediately ordered divine service at the chapel on a Sunday, which had
long been discontinued.
The vaults seem to have been strongly walled and fortified, and were
most probably used as burying places, many bones having been found when
digging. There is a tradition that King Egbert founded this place, and
kept his court here; but no corresponding trace of it occurs in history:
and we may suppose, from the order of his conquests, that his residence
would be in the more southern parts of the kingdom.
The situation is secluded, and well calculated for concealment,
favouring the general opinion that it was the retreat of the famous
pirate, Sir Andrew Barton, whose exploits and defeat are so beautifully
told in the old ballad of that name in Percy's Reliques. It is
surprising that so little should be known of this great and bold man,
whose conduct had nearly occasioned a war between England and Scotland,
and whose death, it is supposed, was one of the grievances which led to
the battle of Flodden.
"Up to the time of Henry the Seventh, it appears, the Radcliffes were
lords of Smethells; but Joan, daughter and sole heir of Sir Ralph
Radcliffe, having married Robert Barton of Holme, he became in that
reign seised of the manor and lordship, where his posterity continued,
until Grace, sole daughter and heir of Thomas Barton, the last male
heir, was married to Henry, eldest son of the first Lord Fauconberg,
whose descendant Thomas, in the year 1721, sold the manor, which
afterwards passed into the hands of the Byrons of Manchester, by whom it
was sold to Mr Peter Ainsworth of Halliwell, a descendant of the
Ainsworths of Pleasington, in this county[15], the present owner.
"Smethells is dependent upon the superior manor of Sharpies, the lord of
which claims from the owner of this place a pair of gilt spurs annually;
and, by a very singular and inconvenient custom, the unlimited use of
the cellars at Smethells for a week in every year."[16]
At the close of a cold, keen day, about the early part of spring, in
the year 1554, there came two men across a bleak and barren tract of
land called Dean Moor, near to Bolton-in-the-Moors. When at some
distance from the main path, and far from the many by-roads intersecting
this dreary common, they--first looking cautiously around, as though
fearing intruders--fell on each other's neck and wept. The sun's light
beamed suddenly through a cleft in the heavy clouds near the horizon,
along the stunted grass and rushes, stretching far away to many a green
knoll in the distance, behind which the dark hills and lowering sky
looked in wild and terrific blackness over the scene. The sun,
descending fast below the hills towards Blackrode, beamed forth as if to
cast one short ray of gladness on the world of sorrow he was just
quitting. Rivington Pike, and the dark chill moors stretching from it
eastward, were bathed in a wide and stormy burst, of light, like the
wild and unnatural brightness that sometimes irradiates even the dim
shadows of despair. A heavy mist lay at their feet, hiding most of the
intermediate space from the eye of the observer, so that the long line
of barren hills seemed to start out at once from a sea of vapour, like
the grim barriers of some gigantic lake. The clouds were following hard
upon the sun's flight, so that by the time he had disappeared the sky
was covered with a dense and impervious curtain, rendered darker by the
rapidity of the change. Chill and eddying gusts rustled over the dreary
heath; the voice of nature only responding to the chords of sadness and
of sorrow. The hollow roar of the wind was like the moaning of a
troubled ocean; a few big drops from the hurrying scud seeming to
presage an approaching tempest.
The two friends had crept behind a stone wall, built up in a hollow, by
a stagnant pool, taking but little heed of the darkness and the storm,
so intent were they upon the subject which engrossed their thoughts.
"I might flee, Ralph, but it would straightway be said, not that I had
left my country and my kin alone, but rather that I had deserted the
faith and doctrine I profess, after having unworthily ministered
hereabout for a season, which might be an occasion of much scandal, a
weakening of the faith of my poor flock, and a grievous discouragement
to those that remain."
"'A living dog is better than a dead lion,' says the wise man. Besides,
it is apresumingon His providence, when He opens away for our escape,
and we, of our own wilfulness and folly, neglect the blessing. 'Do
thyself no harm.' Provide for thine own life, and run not as the horse
and mule, that have no understanding, into the very throat of thine
enemies, and them that seek thine hurt."
The first speaker was a man of plain but comely appearance, habited in a
coarse doublet buckled about the waist with a leathern girdle. A round
woollen cap, from beneath which a few straight-combed locks hung about
his face, gave a quaint and precise aspect to his figure. His features,
though slightly wrinkled, did not betoken either age or infirmity: but
his whole appearance indicated a robust and vigorous frame, capable both
of exertion and endurance. The other individual exhibited a more
ungainly form and deportment. He had not the same look of benevolence
and good-will to man which irradiated the features of the first, of whom
it might be truly said, that his inward affections did mould and
constrain his outward image into their resemblance, so that meekness and
benignity shone through his countenance from the ever-glowing spirit of
love and Christian charity within. There was a sharp and shrewd
intelligence in the eye of the latter speaker which showed that some
considerations of selfish and worldly wisdom might, by possibility,
mingle with his unerring notions of duty. Yet was he a man of great
piety and worth, and well fitted as a counsellor in times of peril and
distress.
"Ralph Bradshaw," replied the other, "thou hast been my tried friend and
my stay in this waste and howling wilderness, and I have found thy
counsel hitherto wholesome and pleasant; but," continued Marsh, with a
heavy sigh, "I have not told thee how Sir Roger Barton's servants have
made diligent search for me in Bolton, and have given strict charge to
my brother Robert that he should, by to-morrow at the latest, appear
with me at Smethells, else shall he and my poor mother answer before him
at their peril. By God's grace, I would not leave these weaklings of the
flock to suffer for my sake."
"Leave this matter until thou depart; I will devise some means for their
relief. I would not have thy life needlessly put in hazard, seeing how
few men have been raised up like unto thyself, privileged as thou art to
minister the bread of life to the hungry and famishing poor in this
barren corner of God's spiritual vineyard."
"And yet," replied Marsh, "I ought with all boldness to confess the
truth, fearing not to answer for the hope that is in me; and why should
I refuse to obey the commands of those who are in authority? for the
magistrate beareth not the sword in vain."
"Truly, obedience were his right, if so be this were some righteous
judge raised up of God for the punishment of evil-doers. But, as thou
well knowest, the justice thou shalt demand will not be rendered: the
summons thou hast received to answer on doctrinal and disputed points,
and to argue them before these wicked and crafty men, as touching thy
belief, are but manifest excuses to get thee into their power, from
which they mean not to liberate thee but by the fire that shall consume
thy body, and free it for ever from their murderous gripe. Thou knowest,
too, that Sir Roger beareth thee a malice, and hath used all subtlety
that he might have wherewith to seek occasion against thee. Didst thou
not rebuke him openly for his irreverence, when that he must needs play
with his puppy, that had its collar full of bells, during God's holy
service--that comfortable form of worship established and publicly
taught in the lifetime of our last good King Edward, and not this
papistical, idolatrous mass which they now use, to the eternal ruin of
both soul and body? No mercy shalt thou have at their hands. And doth
our blessed Master require of us that we give our bodies up to these
wicked and malignant deceivers, that their devilish pleasure may be
glutted in torturing and spitefully using us, while they go about
putting innocent men to cruel and shameful deaths? As soon would He
require that we should yield our bodies up to Satan and his angels."
"I know not how to answer thee, Bradshaw, in this matter; but my mind
misgives me in taking so hasty a departure from our suffering and
afflicted realm. Yet will we ask counsel of Him who guideth the weak,
and will not suffer us to be tempted beyond measure."
Whereat these persecuted disciples did unite in prayer to that throne
before which, having finished their earthly warfare, they now stand with
crowns of victory on their foreheads, purified from this gross
mortality. Marsh, much comforted by the exercise, doubted not that,
according to his faith, wisdom and direction would be granted in the way
he should take.