240 Country Rambles. 



almost similar dimensions, and the library fifty feet by 

 twenty. When given over to decay, the original hall was 

 literally carried off stone by stone, the country people in 

 the vicinity being permitted to take whatever they liked 

 for private use, so that now, as has happened with many 

 an ancient abbey and castle, the building may be said to 

 be diffused over the whole district. In farmyard and 

 cottage walls it is not difficult to identify now and then, 

 on a very fair basis of conjecture, a fragment or two of 

 the ancestral home of the Stanleys, every atom suggestive, 

 as we contemplate it, of ancient dignity and heroism 

 almost unique. 



To recite, once again, the majestic old story of the 

 siege is not needful. Suffice it to say that in 1642, when 

 James, the seventh Earl of Derby, whose steadfast loyalty 

 so well fulfilled the family motto, Sans changer, was in the 

 Isle of Man, approach was made to Lathom House with 

 a view to capture by the Parliamentarians under Fairfax. 

 The countess, originally Charlotte de Tremouille, a high- 

 born lady whose kindred were connected with the blood- 

 royal of France, replied to the summons to surrender 

 that she had a double trust to sustain faith to her lord 

 the Earl, who had entrusted her with the safe keeping, 

 and allegiance to her king and that she was resolved 

 not to swerve from either honour or obedience. The 

 nature of the long defence, the discomfiture of the 

 assailants, and what happened subsequently, constitutes, 

 as well known, a chapter in the family history at once 

 consummately noble and profoundly sorrowful It reads 



