Manchester, March 8. 1851.
[The following advertisement of the missing MS. appeared in the
Catalogue (No. 33., 1848) of Mr. C. J. Hamilton, then of Castle Court,
Birchin Lane, now residing in the City Road, London:--"Thoresby's
(Ralph, antiquary of Leeds), _Diary_ from May 14, 1712, to September
23, 1714, an original unpublished MS., containing much highly
interesting literary information, with autograph on fly-leaf, thick
8vo., 436 {248} pages, vellum with tuck, closely written, price 2l.
12s. 6d." The purchaser was Mr. Wallbran, Fallcroft, Ripon, Yorkshire.]
_Closing of Rooms on account of Death_ (Vol. iii., p. 142.).--I am
acquainted with a remarkable instance of this custom. A respectable farmer
who resided in a parish in Bedfordshire, adjoining that in which I am
writing, died in 1844; leaving to his daughter the fine old manor-house in
which he had lived for many years, and in which he died, together with
about 300 acres of land. The lady, with her husband, was then residing in a
neighbouring village, where the latter rented a farm, which he has since
given up, retaining the house; but she positively refused to remove to the
manor-house, "because her father had died in it;" and as she still persists
in her refusal, it is unoccupied to this day. For Mr. ---- is not even
permitted to let it, except a part, now tenanted by a valued friend of
mine, which for many years has been let separately. The rooms and the
furniture in them remain exactly as in the lifetime of the late occupant.
The lady's husband, who farms the land attached to the house, is put to
great inconvenience by living at a distance from it, but nothing will
induce her to alter her determination. The facts I have related are
notorious in the neighbourhood.