in 1724, by Sir Thomas Bootle, of Melling, Chancellor to Frederick, Prince of Wales. He died without issue, having bequeathed his property to his niece, Mary, only daughter and heir of his brother, Robert Bootle, Esq., and wife of Richard Wilbraham, Esq., of Rode, M.P. for Chester. By this devise, the ancient and historic seat of Lathom vested in the Wilbrahams, and is now possessed by Edward Bootle Wilbraham, Lord Skelmersdale, the son and successor of the heiress of Bootle. His lordship's daughter is married to Lord Stanley, and thus the name of its former possessors has become again associated with this ancient Manor House. While the Stanleys held it, Lathom, for magnificence and hospitality, surpassed all the residences of the North, assuming, in those respects, the attitude of a Royal Court, and its possessors were regarded with such veneration and esteem, that the following harmless inversion was familiar "as household words"-God save the Earl of Derby and the King. At the period of its memorable siege, Lathom was under the government of the famous Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess of Derby, whose husband had been commanded to leave the realm, and was then in the Isle of Man. This heroic lady, whose gallant daring in resisting the mighty power of the Parliament stands brightly forth amid all the brilliant achievements of the Royalists, was daughter of Claude, Duc de Tremouille, and, by her mother, Charlotte Brabanton de Nassau, was grand-daughter of William, Prince of Orange, and of Charlotte de Bourbon, of the Royal House of France. Thus highly born, and allied besides to the Kings of Spain and Naples, and the Dukes of Anjou, Charlotte de la Tremouille did not sully the renown acquired by so illustrious a descent. When the moment came for calling forth her energies and spirit, she rose equal to the occasion, and has left on the page of history an almost unparalleled example of female heroism. After the battle of Nantwich, the united forces of the Parliament under Sir Thomas Fairfax, accompanied by the regiments of Cols. Rigby, Egerton, Ashton, and Holcroft, marched to Lathom House, where they arrived 28th February. In the defence of this mansion, which the dangers of the times had converted into a fortress, her ladyship had the assistance of Major Farmer, and the Captains Farrington, Charnock, Chisenhall, Rawstorne, Ogle, and Molyneux. On his arrival before Lathom, Sir Thomas Fairfax obtained an audience with the Countess, who had disposed her soldiers in such array as to impress the Parliamentary general with a favourable opinion of their numbers and discipline. The offer made by Sir Thomas was, that on condition of her surrendering the house to the troops under his command, herself, her children and servants, with their property, should be safely conducted to Knowsley, there to remain, without molestation, in the enjoyment of one half of the Earl's estates. To this alluring proposal the Countess mildly but resolutely replied, that a double trust had been confided to her-faith to her lord and allegiance to her sovereign, and that without their permission she could not make the required surrender in less than a month, nor then without their approbation. The impetuous temper of the Parliamentary army could not brook this delay, and, after a short consultation, it was determined to besiege the fortress, rather than attempt to carry it by storm. At the end of fourteen days, while the works were constructing, Sir Thomas Fairfax sent a renewed summons to the Countess, but with no better success, the reply of the Countess being, that she had not forgotten her duty to the Church of Eng land, to her prince, and to her lord, and that she would defend her trust with her honour and with her life. Being ordered into Yorkshire, Sir Thomas confided the siege to Colonel Peter Egerton and Major Morgan, who, despairing of success from negotiation, proceeded to form their lines of circumvallation with all the formality of German tactics The progress of the besiegers was continually interrupted by sallies from the garrison, which beat the soldiers from their trenches and destroyed their works. At the end of three months a deep breach was cut near the moat, on which was raised a stong battery, where a mortar was planted for casting grenades. In one of these discharges, the ball fell close to the table where the Countess and her children were sitting, and broke part of the furniture to atoms. A gallant and successful sally under Major Farmer and Captains Molyneux, Radcliff, and Chisenhall, destroyed these works, killed a number of the besieging army, and captured the mortar. The Countess not only superintended the works and commanded the operations, but frequently accompanied her gallant troops to the margin of the enemy's trenches. The Parliament, dissatisfied with all this delay, superseded Colonel Egerton, and confided the command to Colonel Rigby. Fresh works were now erected, but they shared the fate of the former; and Colonel Rigby, on the approach of Prince Rupert into Lancashire, was obliged to raise the siege at the end of four months, and to seek shelter for himself and his army in Bolton. The capture of that town, which followed soon after, under the combined operations of Prince Rupert and the Earl of Derby, yielded numerous trophies to the victorious army; and all these were presented to the heroic defender of Lathom House, in testimony of the memorable triumph achieved, under her command, by a gallant band of three hundred soldiers, assailed, as they had been, by ten times their own number. After the siege, the Countess of Derby retired with her children, under the protection of the Earl, to the Isle of Man, leaving Lathom House to the care of Colonel Rawstorne. In July, in the following year, the siege was renewed by General Egerton, at the head of four thousand men, who took up their head quarters at Ormskirk. The garrison made a gallant and successful stand for some time, but, being at length reduced to extremities, for want of the munitions of war, and disappointed in the expectation of a reinforcement from the king, who was, in the month of September in that year, at Chester, the commander was obliged to surrender his charge into the hands of the Parliamentary forces, upon bare terms of mercy, on the 2nd of December. The besiegers soon converted the most valuable effects of the house into booty; the towers from whence so many fatal shots had been fired were thrown down; the military works were destroyed; and the sun of Lathom seemed for ever to have set. Of the old House of Lathom, that stood so stout a siege, not a vestige now remains. "The ramparts," says Mr. Heywood," along whose banks knights and ladies have a thousand times made resort, hearkening to stories as varied as those of Boccaccio; the Maudlin well, where the pilgrim and the lazar devoutly cooled their parched lips; the mewing house; the training ground; every appendage to antique baronial state; all now are changed, and a modern mansion and a new possessor fill the place. in 1724, by Sir Thomas Bootle, of Melling, Chancellor to Frederick, Prince of Wales. He died without issue, having bequeathed his property to his niece, Mary, only daughter and heir of his brother, Robert Bootle, Esq., and wife of Richard Wilbraham, Esq., of Rode, M.P. for Chester. By this devise, the ancient and historic seat of Lathom vested in the Wilbrahams, and is now possessed by Edward Bootle Wilbraham, Lord Skelmersdale, the son and successor of the heiress of Bootle. His lordship's daughter is married to Lord Stanley, and thus the name of its former possessors has become again associated with this ancient Manor House. While the Stanleys held it, Lathom, for magnificence and hospitality, surpassed all the residences of the North, assuming, in those respects, the attitude of a Royal Court, and its possessors were regarded with such veneration and esteem, that the following harmless inversion was familiar "as household words”—God save the Earl of Derby and the King. At the period of its memorable siege, Lathom was under the government of the famous Charlotte de la Tremonille, Countess of Derby, whose husband had been commanded to leave the realm, and was then in the Isle of Man. This heroic lady, whose gallant daring in resisting the mighty power of the Parliament stands brightly forth amid all the brilliant achievements of the Royalists, was daughter of Claude, Duc de Tremouille, and, by her mother, Charlotte Brabanton de Nassau, was grand-daughter of William, Prince of Orange, and of Charlotte de Bourbon, of the Royal House of France. Thus highly born, and allied besides to the Kings of Spain and Naples, and the Dukes of Anjou, Charlotte de la Tremouille did not sully the renown acquired by so illustrious a descent. When the moment came for calling forth her energies and spirit, she rose equal to the occasion, and has left on the page of history an almost unparalleled example of female heroism. After the battle of Nantwich, the united forces of the Parliament under Sir Thomas Fairfax, accompanied by the regiments of Cols. Rigby, Egerton, Ashton, and Holcroft, marched to Lathom House, where they arrived 28th February. In the defence of this mansion, which the dangers of the times had converted into a fortress, her ladyship had the assistance of Major Farmer, and the Captains Farrington, Charnock, Chisenhall, Rawstorne, Ogle, and Molyneux. On his arrival before Lathom, Sir Thomas Fairfax obtained an audience with the Countess, who had disposed her soldiers in such array as to impress the Parliamentary general with a favourable opinion of their numbers and discipline. The offer made by Sir Thomas was, that on condition of her surrendering the house to the troops under his command, herself, her children and servants, with their property, should be safely conducted to Knowsley, there to remain, without molestation, in the enjoyment of one half of the Earl's estates. To this alluring proposal the Countess mildly but resolutely replied, that a double trust had been confided to her-faith to her lord and allegiance to her sovereign, and that without their permission she could not make the required surrender in less than a month, nor then without their approbation. The impetuous temper of the Parliamentary army could not brook this delay, and, after a short consultation, it was determined to besiege the fortress, rather than attempt to carry it by storm. At the end of fourteen days, while the works were constructing, Sir Thomas Fairfax sent a renewed summons to the Countess, but with no better success, the reply of the Countess being, that she had not forgotten her duty to the Church of Eng manors of Irlam and Urmston, near Manchester, and some possessions in co. Chester, in which county he settled, and became the founder of the family of Lathom, of Astbury. Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire. "Now is there stillness in the vale, And long unspeaking sorrow; WORDSWORTH'S Force of Prayer. ON a green meadow, raised a little above the level of the river Wharfe, which curves half round it, stand the ruins of Bolton Abbey. Its situation combines the conflicting characteristics of beauty and grandeur. Opposite the eastern window of the church the river washes the foot of a rock nearly perpendicular, the mineral veins of which display an infinite variety of tints, forcibly reminding the tourist of the rich colouring of some portions of the Allum Bay cliffs, in the Isle of Wight. To the south, the eye reposes on the expanding mirror of the tranquil stream with its luxuriant pastures. While to the north, interrupted by jutting points of grey rock, appears an oak wood, through the bottom of which the Wharfe rushes. Beyond rises Bolton Park, the fitting resort of the stately red deer; and still further, the barren heights of Simon-seat and Barden-fell crown the prospect, and (suggesting the comparison of the feudal grandeur of the past and the commercial prosperity of the present age) proudly contrast themselves with the warmth and fertility of the vale below. At the time of the Norman conquest, Bolton formed a portion of the vast estates of Earl Edwin, the son of Leofwine, Earl of Mercia. For some years the Saxon owner was permitted to retain his lands: at length, however, they were confiscated; and the Skipton-fee, of which Bolton then seems to have been the chief seat, was granted to Robert de Romille, a Norman nobleman. Robert had an only child, Cicily, wife of William de Meschines. They had two sons, Ranulph, and Matthew who died young, and a daughter Alice, surnamed after her mother de Romily. She, the heiress of her family, was married to William Fitz Duncan, and had an only son, William, called from one of the baronies of his father's family the boy of Egremond. He died early, leaving two sisters, one of whom carried the Skipton-fee to her husband, William le Gross, Earl Albemarle, and transmitted them to her daughter, the wife of William de Fortibus, who succeeded his father-in-law in the title of Albemarle. Cicily, the wife of William de Meschines, had been the foundress of a Priory at Embsay, about four miles from Bolton, to which it was soon afterwards removed. Tradition ascribes this migration to the maternal piety of her daughter Alice, who was desirous to commemorate a fatal accident said to have occurred, in the grounds of Bolton, to her only son, the boy of Egremond, and to consecrate the sad neighbourhood, by the erection of a sacred edifice, where prayers should ever be offered for the soul so suddenly and prematurely removed. Yet this tradition is refuted by Dr. Whitaker, who, referring to "Dugdale's Monasticon," alleges that the youth, whose death is said to have occasioned the removal, is himself a party and witness to the charter of translation. The learned historian of the Deanery of Craven has, however, admitted that there is little doubt that the story is true in the main but considers that it refers to one of the sons of Cicily, the first foundress, both of whom have already been stated to have died in youth, instead of the son of her daughter. It is, perhaps, more fitting to permit Dr. Whitaker to narrate in his own language the legend which he has investigated; and he thus proceeds: "In the deep solitude of the woods betwixt Bolton and Barden, the Wharfe suddenly contracts itself to a rocky channel little more than four feet wide, and pours through the tremendous fissure with a rapidity proportioned to its confinement. This place was then, as it is yet, called the Strid, from a feat often exercised by persons of more agility than prudence, who stride from brink to brink, regardless of the destruction which awaits a faltering step. Such, according to tradition, was the fate of young Romille, who, inconsiderately bounding over the chasm with a greyhound in a leach, the animal hung back and drew his unfortunate master into the torrent. The forester who accompanied Romille, and beheld his fate, returned to the lady Aaliza, and, with despair in his countenance, inquired, 'What is good for a bootless Bene?' To which the mother, apprehending that some great calamity had befallen her son, instantly replied, endless sorrow.' " " "The language of this question, almost unintelligible at present, proves the antiquity of the story. But bootless bene,' is unavailing prayer; and the meaning, though imperfectly expressed, seems to have been, 'What remains when prayer is useless?' "This misfortune is said to have occasioned the translation of the Priory from Embsay to Bolton, which was the nearest eligible site to the place where it happened. The lady was now in a proper situation of mind to take any impression from her spiritual comforters; but the views of the two parties were different; they spoke, no doubt, and she thought, of the proximity to the scene of her son's death; but it was for the fields and woods of Bolton for which they secretly languished." The same topics of consolation that were offered to the shade of the drowned Palinurus, might have been afforded by a prophetic sybil to the young heir of the house of Romille :: "Sed cape dicta memor, duri solatia casus, Et statuent tumulum, et tumulo sollemnia mittent, And it might have been added that, many hundred years after his decease, rival poets should sing their dirges over his tomb. [ROGERS' POEM.] "Say what remains when hope is fled ? ' Who in his shroud was sleeping. |
