Chapter VI (5)

Thomas Legh, who thus succeeded as tenant for life of the family estates, was only four years of age at the time of his father's decease. He entered at Oxford, but before he had completed his curriculum in that University, hearing that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was then at the head of a large army, he, like many other adventurous spirits, made his way to Belgium, and was at Brussels on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo where he offered himself as a volunteer, and served as an extra aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington during the whole of that memorable engagement. Shortly afterwards he went a voyage to Greece and Albania, whence he extended his researches to Egypt and Nubia. Early in his travels he was at Zante, where he witnessed the arrival of the celebrated frieze discovered in the Temple of Apollo, at Phigalia. In the excavation and removal of the beautiful sculptures composing that frieze, now one of the chief ornaments of the British Museum, Mr. Legh was largely instrumental, both by his purse and his active personal exertions, and he was fortunate enough to obtain a complete set of the casts of these sculptures, which, with the various other treasures of art and antiquity he collected in his travels, now adorn the corridor of the mansion at Lyme. He subsequently published an account of his journeyings in Egypt and the country beyond the Cataracts, in which he also drew attention to the slave trade, with its attendant horrors, as then existing in the country of the Pharaohs. In 1816, the year in which he attained his majority, he was returned to Parliament for the borough of Newton, and re-elected in 1818; but after the dissolution in 1820 he did not again seek Parliamentary honours, his tastes and inclinations leading him to prefer a more adventurous life in the exploration of distant and unknown lands.

He married, at Prestbury, January 14, 1828, Ellen, daughter and heiress of William Turner, M.P., of Shrigley Park, adjacent to Lyme, the innocent subject of the Wakefield abduction case,[64] and by her he had an only daughter, Ellen Jane Legh, who married in 1847 the Rev. Brabazon Lowther, since deceased, the brother of her father's second wife, and on whom the Shrigley estates were settled. Mrs. Legh died on the 17th January, 1831, at the early age of 19. Her remains are deposited in the family vault at Winwick, where Mr. Legh erected a handsome sculptured monument to her memory bearing the following inscription:--

In the vaults of this chapel are deposited the remains of Ellen, the dearly beloved wife of Thomas Legh, Esquire, of Lyme Hall, Cheshire, and daughter of William Turner, Esquire, of Shrigley Park, in the same county. Born 12 Feb. 1811. Died 17 Jany. 1831. Leaving an only surviving child, born 20 Feb. 1830.

Mr. Legh again entered the marriage state, his second wife being Maud, fourth daughter of George Lowther, of Hampton Hall, Somersetshire, descended from William, fifth son of Sir Christopher Lowther, of Lowther, who, surviving him, married, secondly, A. J. Deschamps De la Tour, Esq., of Milford, Hampshire, but by her he had no issue. Mr. Legh, who was a magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for the counties of Lancaster and Chester, LL. D. and F.R.S., died at Milford Lodge, Lymington, Hampshire, on the 8th May, 1857, in the 65th year of his age, and was buried at Disley, when the Cheshire estates, with the extensive properties in Lancashire, passed to his nephew, William John Legh, the fourth but eldest surviving son of his younger brother, William Legh, of Brymbo Hall, in Denbighshire, and of Hordle, Hampshire, by his wife, Mary Anne, eldest daughter of John Wilkinson, of Castlehead in Furness, the celebrated ironmaster.

William John Legh, the present owner of Lyme, was born in 1828, and at the time his uncle's decease placed him in possession of the family estates, was serving as captain of the 21st Fusiliers in the Crimea, where he greatly distinguished himself; he was in the trenches, and also shared in the glories of Inkermann. At the general election in 1859 he was returned as one of the members for South Lancashire, and in 1868 he was elected senior representative of the Eastern Division of the county of Chester, a constituency for which he has ever since sat. Mr. Legh married in 1856 Emily Jane, daughter of the Rev. Charles Nourse Wodehouse, canon of Norwich, by his wife Dulcibella Jane Hay, daughter of William, fifteenth Earl of Errol, by whom he has, with other issue, Thomas Wodehouse Legh, born March 18, 1857, his eldest son, and the heir-apparent of the ancestral home and the broad lands of the historic house of Lyme.

The old ancestral abode of the Leghs--the lordly House of Lyme, as it is often styled--ranks among the more important of the "stately homes" that glorify and give dignity to the county which claims to be the Vale Royal of England. "Stately" it is from its architectural merits and peculiarities, its picturesque surroundings, its stores of natural beauties and acquired treasures, its historical associations, and, more than all, as a perpetual reminder of the eventful past, its memories being indissolubly linked with those of the leading heroes and worthies of the shire.

No precise date can be fixed as that of its erection, but well nigh five centuries have passed since the progenitors of the present owner first held sway over its destinies. Tradition tells us that a house--a hunting lodge, as it would seem--existed here in the days of King John, at which time the domain of Lyme was included within the limits of the royal forest of Macclesfield. From a document we have previously quoted, we know that a Sir Peter Legh had his "fair hall with a high chamber" here more than four hundred years ago, and, though since his day the house has received many additions and undergone many changes, it still retains some of its more ancient rooms in a state of excellent preservation. Thanks to the generosity of its owner, not only is the park open to all comers, who are free to make holiday and seek health and pleasure upon the verdant sward and beneath the shadow of the "tall patrician trees," but under certain regulations the public are admitted to the hall and shown the more interesting and attractive of its apartments. And much that is curious and interesting do those apartments contain. They are literally full of treasures of art--costly examples of the artists of the middle ages, as well as of those who have earned renown in more modern times; the walls are covered with historical portraits of fair women and brave men, that look down with stately dignity, and carry the mind back into the mists of bygone centuries; "storied windows" there are that glow with the rich colourings of their heraldic blazonries, and dye the oaken flooring with their rainbow hues; tapestries on which the Gobelins have lavished their skill and taste, relating in embroidery the stories of the gods; marble treasures from Egypt and the East; carvings, rich and rare, that have been produced by the magic hand of Grinling Gibbons; and specimens of English handicraft, the work of bygone days, when unstinted labour was bestowed on even the most common-place articles of every day use. There are stately apartments, rich in the grandeur of their fittings, their upholstery and their decorations; and there are, too, old and dimly-lighted chambers--panelled, roofed, and floored with oak, containing specimens of antique furniture that might serve as models for æsthetic revivalists of the present day; chairs, presses, and seats of various kinds, and stately beds withal that have been honoured with the repose of royal personages, so tradition alleges, the ill-fated Mary of Scotland being among the number; and where is the house of ancient fame in which that hapless Queen has not at some time or other sought repose? Armorial blazonries are displayed on wall and window, on ceiling and corridor, and the much-prized hand and banner, commemorative of the great deed at Crescy, meets the eye at every turn. Here, too, are examples of ancient arms and armour, suits of mail, helmets, breast plates, and battle-axes, with pikes, and pistols, and petronels, and two-handed swords too ponderous for anyone in these degenerate days to wield, but which, in the grasp of a stalwart Legh, may have been

Bathed in gore
On the plains of Agincourt.

As we have before said, the mansion in all its antique stateliness comes unexpectedly upon the view, being hidden from sight on all sides by the high grounds of the park and the bleak moorlands beyond that stretch away in the direction of the Peak hills. It looks, indeed, as if, in selecting the situation for his building, the architect had sacrificed effect to protection from the weather, and the noble appearance it would have possessed if built upon an eminence is entirely lost. The plan is quadrangular, enclosing an extensive court, and the architecture like that of many other old mansions, of different periods, a portion dating from the time of the last of the Tudor sovereigns, whilst another part--the south front, with its noble Corinthian columned portion--is a fine specimen of Palladian architecture, erected by Leoni, a century and a half ago; though the effect is greatly marred by a modern square lantern, with stone balustrades, that was added by Wyatt in 1822.

The north front, which is first seen on approaching from the Disley side,--that by which visitors are generally admitted--is not particularly striking in appearance; it is approached through a square court enclosed by iron palisades, and entered by an arched gateway. The main entrance is in the centre of this front, which projects slightly from the main structure, and constitutes the oldest and most characteristic part of the building, having been left comparatively untouched by Leoni, his alterations having been restricted to the side wings, which are of more modern construction, and ornamented with Corinthian pilasters. A couple of hunting horns, relics of the old forestering days, depend from the wall, and over the rounded archway is a shield of eight quarterings, representing the principal heraldic achievements of the family, the arms being:--(1), Corona; (2), Legh, with an escutcheon over both representing the Crescy augmentation granted by Flower; (3), Boteler; (4), Croft; (5), Haydock; (6), Boydell of Poulscroft; (7), Boydell of Gropenhall; and (8), Ashton. The shield is encircled by a garter bearing the motto _En Dieu est ma Foi_, and over all is the ram's head, the crest of the family. A sun-dial is placed above the shield, and formerly the structure was surmounted by a lofty octagon lantern, which Leoni removed to an elevated part of the grounds, and replaced by a statue of Minerva.

A noble mastiff of the Lyme breed--a lion couchant in appearance--guards the entrance; a brief survey satisfies him, apparently, as to the harmlessness of our intentions, and we are permitted without molestation to pass through the archway, when we are handed over to the care of a prim and somewhat stately domestic, who obligingly condescends for the time to lionize us. The entrance communicates with a spacious quadrangle, round three sides of which a piazza is carried, the fourth, or east side, being occupied by a flight of stone stairs leading to the entrance hall, to which we are first conducted. It is a large and well proportioned room, fifty feet by forty-two, but much modernised, having been remodelled by Wyatt in 1822, the decorations being of the Ionic order. It is divided lengthways by lofty columns, and surrounded by a deep cornice, adorned with the horns of the red deer and other trophies of the chase. The stone chimneypiece was erected by Wyatt, but, though massive, it is poor in detail when compared with the one in the drawing-room, which dates from the time of Elizabeth. Over the fireplace, with one hand grasping his sword, and the other resting upon a helmet, is a portrait of Sir Peter Legh, the "founder" of the family, as our cicerone assures us, and the one who for his loyalty to King Richard, suffered decapitation at Chester in 1399, but which in reality represents Sir Peter, who was knighted at Leith in 1544, the friend of Flower, and the restorer and rebuilder of Lyme. We gaze upon the lineaments of the ancient worthy and think of the doughty deeds in which he bore a part, but our reverie is rudely dispelled when our garrulous guide informs us that the gorgeous frame in which the picture is placed belonged to the Duke of York, and was purchased at a sale of his Royal Highness's effects--a piece of information we would most willingly have dispensed with. A noteworthy feature in the room is an opening concealed by panelling near the centre of the north wall, that affords a glimpse of the drawing-room beyond; on one side of the panel which forms the door is a full length portrait of Edward III., armed cap-à-pie, and on the other a full-length of his gallant son, the Black Prince. In the same room we are shown some specimens of ancient armour, a pair of long-rowelled gilt spurs, said to have been presented by the Black Prince, and the famous two-handed sword--"the blade both true and trusty"--which credulous sightseers are gravely told is the veritable weapon with which Perkin a Legh cut down the standard-bearer of the King of France, and earned for himself the broad lands of Lyme; for here, as in many another "ancestral home," the attendants who undertake to enlighten you on the past fortunes of the house generally contrive to blend fable with fact in pretty equal proportions, so that the thoughtful enquirer is apt to become perplexed with the curious mosaic of history and romance that is put before him. The walls are hung with family portraits, some of them of considerable interest; two are believed to be those of the Sir Peter Legh before referred to, but taken at different periods of his life; on one side is a portrait of Richard Legh, who represented Cheshire in Parliament during the Commonwealth; there is also one of his wife's father, Sir Thomas Chicheley, of Wimpole, Charles the Second's master of ordnance; close by is a portrait of Richard Legh's son, Piers Legh, whose Jacobite leanings brought him into trouble, and occasioned his being charged with treason and imprisoned in the Tower; and there is another of the late Thomas Legh, the enterprising Eastern traveller, who is depicted in an Albanian costume, with one arm resting upon his horse's neck, and an Arab attendant reclining at his feet.

"Would you like to see the chapel?" inquires our guide. "Certainly," is the reply, and accordingly we descend from the entrance-hall by a flight of stairs to the domestic sanctuary of the lords of Lyme, which is situate immediately beneath the drawing-room, at the north-east angle of the building. The date of its erection is uncertain, but it was probably added at the time Sir Peter Legh re-edified and enlarged the hall, near the close of the sixteenth century. The font, in which for generations past the scions of the house have been baptised, is adorned with shields of arms, and is said to have been removed from the old home at Bradley; here are also preserved two ancient Runic crosses that were dug up on a farm at Disley about forty years ago; they are of sandstone, completely covered with the interlaced Saxon knot, and are exceedingly interesting, one remarkable feature being the Greek key, which is introduced as an ornament on the edge of each.

The drawing-room, to which we are next conducted, is a spacious apartment, forty-three feet by thirty, and remarkable for the richness of its decoration. The walls are covered with wainscot, elaborately carved, the lower stage being worked in a succession of intersecting arches. The mantel-piece, which reaches nearly to the ceiling, is a good example of renaissance work; duplicated columns of Ionic character support the entablature, and above that are caryatides bearing a pediment, the intervening compartment being occupied with the Royal arms of Elizabeth--France (modern), and England, quarterly--carved in high relief; the shield is encircled by the garter, and has the lion and dragon for supporters. Additional beauty is given to this room by a deeply-recessed oriel, lighted on three sides by long windows filled with stained glass that is said to have been brought from Disley Church in the beginning of the present century. In the upper part of the central light appear the Royal arms of the Tudor period in old glass, but by an unaccountable blunder some modern herald has added the lion and unicorn, which were not assumed as supporters by the English sovereigns until after the accession of James. Beneath is a small portrait of the Sir Peter Legh at whose instance, no doubt, these heraldic decorations were originally designed, with the favourite cognizance--the hand and banner--on one side, and the ram's head, the crest of the Lyme Leghs, on the other, and beneath are several shields representing the alliances of the family. The two side lights are also enriched with heraldic shields, the greater portion being those of Knights of the Garter living in Elizabeth's reign. There are three other windows in this room similarly decorated, and, taken altogether, they form perhaps the finest and most interesting collection of heraldic insignia in glass to be met with in any house in the kingdom. We have not space at our disposal to enumerate even the ancient worthies whose--

Devices blazoned on the shield
In their own tinct

are here displayed. They are, doubtless, the joint production of Sir Peter Legh and Flower about the time of that famous herald's visit to Lyme in the sixteenth century.[65]

The Stag Parlour--an ante-room between the drawing and dining rooms--next invites our attention. It retains much of its ancient character, and is so named from the decorations upon the frieze and cornice, representing in twelve compartments the various incidents of the chase worked in stucco. One of these compartments, the one over the fireplace, has a representation of the hall of Lyme, as it appeared three hundred years ago, with a gay company of horsemen engaged in the exciting pursuit of "driving the deer," a custom that must have been observed at Lyme from the golden days of the Virgin Queen. The custom was usually observed about the months of May and June; the deer were collected in a drove before the house called the Deer Clad, and then made to swim across a piece of water, with which the exhibition ended. There is an engraving at Lyme by Vivarres, after a painting by T. Smith, representing this custom. The same custom is traditionally said to have been observed at Townley Hall, in Lancashire, formerly the seat of a collateral line of the Leghs. The ceiling of the Stag Parlour is panelled and the walls are draped with tapestry, and hung with family portraits, and other pictures. The central compartment of the chimney-piece has a shield representing the coat of Legh quartering those of the family alliances, the Crescy cognizance occupying one of the side panels, and the ram's head the other, the whole being surmounted by the Royal arms of James I., with the garter and motto, between two allegorical figures of Peace and Plenty. In this room we were shown the dagger of Charles the First, on which the name "Carolus" may still be discerned, and the gloves he wore; and another memento of the ill-fated monarch--six antique chairs, the coverings of which are said to have been made from the cloak in which he appeared when on the scaffold.

In continuing our examination of the interior of Lyme, we pass from the Stag Parlour, as it is called, to the dining-room, which extends along a portion of the eastern front. The general characteristics of this room are of later date than of the one we have just left; the ceiling is highly ornamented, and the walls are divided into panelled compartments, the upper portions being adorned with scrolls carved in high relief, that form a kind of frieze. Over the fireplace is an exquisite carving in wood by Grinling Gibbons, the finest we remember to have seen, except, perhaps, that in Trinity Chapel, Oxford, which, by the way, is from the same hand. The group comprises fish, fishing tackle, and wild fowl, so truthfully rendered that we may almost fancy them to have been just brought in by the sportsman, and that the unyielding wood is even yet quivering with life. Well might Walpole say of Gibbons:--"There is no instance of a man before him who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with a free disorder natural to each species." And surely no finer examples of the artist's skill are to be found either at Burleigh or at Chatsworth. The furniture in this room calls for little note, but the portraits which adorn the walls have especial interest. The melancholy visage of Charles I., painted by Vandyke, looks down from the framed canvas; there are portraits, too, of successive owners of Lyme, and one by Housman of the Lady Anne, daughter of Lord Keeper Coventry--the mother of the last of the Savilles who held the marquisate of Halifax.

The ante-room through which we have to pass to the library is hung with tapestry of ancient date, illustrative of the rape of Europa, and we see--

The sweet Europa's mantle blue unclasp'd
From off her shoulder backward borne;
From one hand droop'd a crocus; one hand grasp'd
The wild bull's golden horn.

The library itself is a spacious apartment remodelled by Wyatt, and stored with--

Many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.

It contains some basso-relievos brought from Greece by the late Mr. Thomas Legh, rare antiques from the East, and an ancient urn from Pompeii, that once contained the ashes of a semi-illustrious hero, but which is now applied to less sacred uses, being filled with dried rose-leaves.

Imperial Cæsar, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.

On one side a deeply-recessed bay-window lures you to enjoy the quietude, and dream the hours away in the luxurious ease it offers. Delightful is the prospect from this window; in front are seen the smooth shaven lawns and terraces, with their richly-coloured parterres, and the water flashing in the bright sunlight; and, beyond, the natural landscape with its wooded slopes and the brown heathy wastes that shut out the view of the more distant hills.

But the time is passing rapidly, and we must not loiter, so we follow our conductress up flights of stairs, along galleries and corridors, and through interminable suites of rooms, where we have to look to our footing, the polished oak parquetrie being perilous to walk upon. The grand staircase, which leads to a corridor above, resting on six Corinthian columns, is of oak, with a handsome ceiling adorned with pendants and armorial ensigns of the family. It is hung with pictures, two of them being by Sir William Beechy, and representing George IV. and his brother the Duke of York. Facing us as we ascend the first flight is an interesting portrait, a full length, of John Watson, the famous keeper,--an ancient servitor, who died in 1753, at the age of 104 years. It bears this inscription:--

Io Watson, who in the 26th year of his age, Anno 1674, commenced keeper of Lime Park; in wch service he continued 70 years, and Anno 1750, in the 102nd year of his age. He hunted a Buck, a chase near Six hours, at wch Hunting one gentleman was present whose Ancesters he had hunted with for four Generations before, he being the fifth Generation he had hunted with.

Watson, who was grandfather of the celebrated Rev. John Watson, M.A., F.S.A., rector of Stockport, and author of "Memorials of the Earls of Warren and Surrey," lies buried at Disley, where, in the middle aisle of the church, is a tombstone with an inscription to his memory. Concerning this ancient worthy we have the following obituary notice:--

Mr. Joseph Watson died in the 105th year of his age, and was buried at Disley in Cheshire, the 3rd of June, 1753. He was born at Mossley Common, in the parish of Leigh, in Lancashire, and married his Wife from Eccles, near Manchester, in the same County. They lived a Happy Couple 72 years. She died in the 94th year of her age. He was Park Keeper to the late Peter Legh, Esqre., of Lyme and his Father 64 years. He drove and shewed the Red Deer to most of the Nobility and Gentry in that Part of the Kingdom to the Surprise and Satisfaction of them and all others that saw that Performance, as he could command them at his Pleasure the same as if they had been common Horned Cattle. In the reign of Queen Anne Sqr. Legh was in company with some Gentlemen at Macclesfield, in Cheshire, amongst which was Sir Roger Moston then one of the Members of Parliament for the same County. For their merry Conversation Sqr. Legh said his Keeper should drive 12 Brace of Stags to the Forest of Windsor a Present to the Queen. Sir Roger, thinking it impracticable, proposed a Wager of £500 that neither his Keeper nor no other Person could drive 12 Brace of Red Deer from Lyme Park to Windsor Forest on any account whatever. Sqr. Legh accepted the Wager and immediately sent for his Keeper, who directly came to his Master, who told him he must directly prepare to drive 12 Brace of Stags to Windsor Forest upon a Wager. He gave his Master for answer, that upon any Wager or upon his Command he would drive him 12 Brace of Stags to Windsor Forest or to any other part of the Kingdom when he pleased to direct, upon forfeiture of his Life and Fortune. He was a man of Low Stature, not Bulky, fresh complexion, and pleasant countenance. He believed he had drunk a Gallon of Malt Liquor a Day, one Day with another, for 60 years; he drank plentifully the latter part of his Life, but no more than was agreeable to his Constitution and a comfort to himself. He was of a mild Temper, engaging Company, and fine Behaviour, and allowed to be the Best Keeper in England, in his Time. In the 103rd year of his age he was at the Hunting and Killing a Buck with the Honble George Warren, in his Park at Pointon, whose activity gave pleasure and Surprize to all Spectators then present. Sir George was the 5th Generation of the Warren Family he had performed that Diversion with in Pointon Park.

As we pass along the corridor our attention is arrested by two marble busts, one of the massive head and rugged features of the late Thomas Legh, the famous traveller, and the other that of his second wife, Maud Lowther. We are next ushered into the long gallery, a noble chamber one hundred and twenty feet in length and twenty-eight feet wide, fronting the east, and exhibiting the architectural characteristics of the Elizabethan era--one of those long narrow galleries that are frequently met with in mansions of that period, and, like the one at Haddon, used as a ballroom and on occasions of special festivity. The walls are of dark oak, elaborately ornamented, the panels being wrought in intersecting arches and relieved at intervals with flat pilasters; in the centre a huge fireplace reaches from floor to ceiling, it is handsomely carved and bears the arms of Queen Elizabeth with the lion and dragon as supporters, an evidence that it dates from that sovereign's reign. On one side we noticed an antiquated spinet that has been doubtless played upon by many a fair daughter of the house of Lyme. A few portraits adorn the walls, among them one of the Lady Margaret Gerard, wife of Sir Peter Legh, holding in her arms her great-grandchild, Anne Legh, who afterwards married Richard Bold, of Bold. The picture bears the following inscription, apparently added at a later date:--"Sir Piers' lady ætatis suæ 90, A.D. 1595," and underneath the child--"ætatis suæ anno primo after marryed to Bold;" there is also a portrait of the Rev. John Dod, the decalogist, and another of the unfortunate divine Dr. John Hewitt, a son of Thomas Hewitt, of Eccles, who was chaplain to Charles I., and who for his loyalty to Charles II. was beheaded on Tower Hill, June 8th, 1658; here, too, are portraits after the style of Holbein, one of the warlike Henry IV., and another of Bluff King Hal, the first Defender of the Faith.

Continuing our tour of inspection, we are led from corridor to corridor and from room to room, pausing now and then, as a relief from the examination of the treasures within, to look upon the glad world without, where the sun is shining brightly on the green sward and the lush pastures. Then we are hurried on through tapestried chambers and state bedrooms with grotesquely-carved four-posters shadowed with a huge pomp of stiff brocade. In one of them we are shown the bed used by Mary Queen of Scots on the occasion of her visit to Lyme, with its original hangings of crimson silk, now, alas, much tarnished and dilapidated, and, if we are so disposed, we may refresh our memories with the tragic story of Hero and Leander as in part pourtrayed on the faded tapestry that adorns the walls of this and the adjoining dressing-room. There are other chambers on this floor that deserve inspection--the state bedroom, the mahogany, the velvet, and the yellow bedrooms, with their corresponding dressing-rooms, all hung with portraits more or less interesting. Then we pass to an oaken-panelled chamber called the Knight's Room, and to the stone parlour--two apartments that have remained untouched since Elizabeth's time--and so to the gallery which extends on the upper floor round the quadrangle, the walls of which are adorned with casts from the Phigalian marbles--antique friezes, representing the contest between the Centaurs and Lapithæ, and the Greeks and Amazons, which formerly ornamented the Cella of the Temple of Apollo Epicurus at Phigalia in Arcadia, and the originals of which are now in the British Museum, having been brought to England by the late Thomas Legh. Another chamber is pointed out which is said to be the oldest in the building, and on that account is called King John's Room, though we should be much inclined to doubt the fact of its having been in existence in that monarch's reign; then we are ushered into another apartment named after the Black Prince, which is also known as the Ghost Room, for Lyme, like every other old mansion of respectability, has its ghost story, as the talented author of "Lays and Legends of Cheshire," who, besides being laureate of Lyme, can claim kindred with its ancient lords, can tell us; and we are asked to believe that a secret passage leads from it to the "Cage," a mile away, though we cannot learn that anyone within the recollection of that respectable personage, the oldest inhabitant, has ever explored it, but such means of exit we are assured were necessary in the turbulent times when this part of the hall was built. Having completed our perambulation, we ascended to the gallery at the top of the house, from whence we can survey the country that lies spread like a rich panorama at our feet, looking more than usually fair and brilliant as the mellow sunlight brings out every inequality and brightens every object with its magical radiance. But we may not loiter, for there are yet other things to interest us, and so, having seen all that is usually shown to visitors, we take leave of our courteous attendant and wend our way across the park in a south-easterly direction and then mount the hill, on the summit of which is an ancient memorial that has long exercised the ingenuity of antiquaries to discover its age and purpose--the Bowstones, as it is called--two upright pillars, much worn with age, springing from a double-socketed base. They are believed to have been of Saxon or Danish origin, though some authorities incline to the opinion that they are of later date and were intended as boundary stones.

Half a mile westward of the Bowstones is a conical hill to which the name of "the Knight's Low" has been given, from a tradition that has floated down through long centuries of time that it was the burial place of one of the earlier lords of Lyme. The shaping power of the imagination has supplied the minor accessories of the story, and the dependents of the family delight to relate how that at midnight a muffled sound, as of a distant funeral peal, is often borne on the wind, and that at this time a shadowy procession of mourners may be seen wending its way towards the Knight's Low, bearing a coffin and pall, and followed by a lady arrayed in white and apparently in deep distress. To add to the mystery there is a tale that the shadowy form of the old knight's wife--the lady "draped in white and silver sheen"--issues forth at midnight from a field adjoining a stream that runs through the park, commonly known as "The Field of the White Lady," or "the Lady's Grave," and flits silently across the grass in the direction of the Knight's Low. Mr. Leigh has made the tradition the theme of one of his legendary ballads, "Sir Percy Legh," though to suit the purposes of his story he has dealt rather unceremoniously with history and dates, things the votaries of the Muses do not always stand much in awe of--

They buried him within the park
Which he had left so blithe of blee;
And followed in the mourners' track,
All gaily dressed, poor Agnes Legh.

They heaped a mound upon his corse--
A mound whereon the fir trees grow;
And many a wail is heard at night,
Coming from the good Knight's Low.

She rambled all the night forlorn,
She rambled forth all drearilie,
Till on the river's bank one morn
Was found the corse of Agnes Legh.

They buried her where she was found--
They buried her near the river's wave;
And ever since the land around
Is known but as the Lady's Grave.

At length our progress is ended. While the westering sun and the lengthening shadows remind us that evening is rapidly drawing on, we retrace our steps, passing by the north front of the hall, along the grassy slopes where the deer are crouching and the kine are ruminating at will, past Lyme Cage, through the gates by which we originally entered, and along the quiet tree-shaded road to Disley, and in a few minutes find ourselves in the cosy parlour of the "Ram's Head," with the mind laden with the lore of ancient days, and impressed with a succession of pictures of endless suites of rooms stored with carvings of cunning device, curious enamels, and cabinets of costly workmanship; with tapestry, pictures, and a wealth of natural and artistic treasures such as few, if any, of the "stately homes" of Cheshire can equal and none surpass.

We have not attempted in our notice of this old historic mansion to speak of every room, to notice every object of interest, and many details have been purposely omitted. In recounting the fortunes of the former lords we have endeavoured to call up visions of the past--to arrest momentarily the hand of Time, which is fast drawing the curtain of oblivion over bygone scenes, and, though our task has been but imperfectly performed, at least we may hope to have contributed something towards a better knowledge and appreciation of "Lyme Hall and the Leghs."