La thorn Hall. 241 



more touchingly than any romance or tale of fancy, and 

 would supply subjects for many a great picture. Plenty 

 of memorials of the siege have been preserved. A little 

 while ago, upon removal of a tree near the site of the 

 original hall, numbers of bullets were found in the earth 

 about the roots. Tradition also has plenty to say, and 

 apparently with more truth than is sometimes the case. 

 In the history of the siege, written shortly after its time, 

 seven of the defenders are said to have lost their lives, 

 and one of these, called on account of his great stature, 

 Long Jan, is said to have owed his death-wound to his 

 head rising above the wall or parapet. Very interesting 

 was it, therefore, a few years since, when during some alter- 

 ations in the level of the ground, there were discovered 

 seven skeletons, one of them indicating a frame little less 

 than gigantic. The bones, when uncovered, were seem- 

 ingly perfect, but all soon crumbled away, and not a trace 

 remained. Another circumstance mentioned in the old 

 history of the siege is that supplies of coal were obtained 

 by excavating in the courtyard. The Earl of Lathom 

 was so fortunate, a year or two ago, as to personally 

 prove the truthfulness of this statement by the discovery 

 of an outcrop below the turf, just in front of the drawing- 

 room windows of the modern mansion. 



The Lathom pleasure-grounds and gardens are not less 

 beautiful than the wood. In the former, among many 

 other rare and admirable trees, there is a plane, in Lan- 

 cashire quite a stranger; this one the very emblem of 

 health and nobleness, a sight, as Dame Quickly says, 



