Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833/Hall i' th' Wood
64
HALL I' THE WOOD, NEAR BOLTON.
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HALL I' TH' WOOD.
HANGE, change, wondrous change,
Mighty is thy power, and strange;
Summer sleeps beneath the snow,
Fading follows autumn’s glow:
Time, what has its chronicle,
But of thee and thine to tell?
What can yonder house record?
First it had the feudal Lord,
He whose banner swept the land,
Which he held with red right hand;
He of ’scutcheon, shield, and plume,
Rule of iron, will of doom.
Next there came the Cavalier,
Light of word, and gay of cheer;
He who held the right divine,
Floated best in good red wine:
Reckless reveller died he,
In his exile o’er the sea.
Followed him, the Squire who found,
Chief delight in horse and hound:
Merry then was Christmas time,
Kept with carol, masque, and mime;
Glad the red hearth lit the hall,
There was welcome then for all.
Last there was the Man of skill,
Wind and wave were at his will:
Thought and industry combined,
One whose hand was taught by mind;
Toil and science, unto those,
Vast the debt that England owes.
Such the change yon House hath seen,
Surely best the last hath been:
Such the blessings brought by peace,
Patient toil and its increase.
Better far than broil and brand,
Art and labour in the land.
"Considerable obscurity invests the ancient history of this antiquated edifice: of several dates existing upon various parts of the building, the earliest is 1591."—"In 1770, part of this old mansion was inhabited by Mr. Samuel Crompton, an inhabitant of the parish of Bolton; and it was here that he invented and constructed a machine, which, from its combining the principles of the spinning-jenny and the water-frame, was named a mule." The progressive improvement in the manufacture of muslins and cambrics, that resulted from Mr. Crompton's scientific labours, occasioned the latter to be brought under the consideration of parliament, when a grant of £5000 was awarded to the inventor.—Fisher's Illustrations of Lancashire.
It is, therefore, no poetical fiction, to suppose that this house has had occupiers who would represent the various social changes in England.