House £sf Garden 
extending to a considerable distance on the 
far side of the lower path. 
The center of the old quadrangle is occu¬ 
pied by a sun-dial round which are grouped 
a number of flower beds of geometrical pat¬ 
terns. These are filled with old-fashioned 
flowers, in keeping with the ancient appear¬ 
ance of the building on three sides of them. 
The show of rhododendrons at Smithells 
Hall is very fine. They are planted on each 
side of the entrance drive, and generally along 
the north side of the house, and are a con¬ 
spicuous feature at the west end of the lawn. 
Smithells is a study in greens, grays, and yel¬ 
lows,—the green of grass, trees, shrubs, and 
foliage, the gray of stone walls and roofs, the 
yellow of gravel paths, plaster, and chimney¬ 
pots. It is a delightful place of quiet, artistic 
repose on the very border of an ugly pushing 
commercial town whose historic past is no 
longer visible except on the printed page. So 
many of the Lancashire halls have been swal¬ 
lowed up in the large towns, and have either 
disappeared altogether or have lost all their 
beauty owing to their changed surroundings, 
that one is all the more thankful that Smithells 
is situated just so far outside the town of Bolton 
as to insure its preserving all the characteris¬ 
tics of an old English residence. And these 
are not the less interesting in that they have 
been grafted on, so to speak, to the altered 
requirements of a modern country mansion. 
It is of special interest to Americans that 
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a guest at Smithells 
Hal! during the days of his Liverpool con¬ 
sulate. 11 was at Smithells, too, that he found 
the legend of the Bloody Footsteps which 
so profoundly impressed him, and which he 
introduced into that romance which he never 
finished : “ Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret.” “ T he 
peculiarity of this house,” wrote Hawthorne 
in his Journal, “is what is called the Bloody 
Footsteps. In the time of Bloody Mary, a 
Protestant clergyman—George Marsh by 
name—was examined before the proprietor of 
the Hall, Sir Roger Barton, and committed 
to prison for his heretical opinions, and was 
ultimately burned at the stake. As his guards 
were conducting him from the justice-room, he 
stamped his foot upon one of the flagstones in 
earnest protestation against the wrong which 
he was undergoing. The foot, as some say, 
left a bloody mark in the stone ; others have it 
that the stone yielded like wax under his foot, 
and that there has been a shallow cavity ever 
since. This miraculous footprint is still ex¬ 
tant. . . Of course it is all humbug—a 
darker vein cropping up through the gray 
flagstone, but—the legend is a good one.” 
This tradition is still carefully guarded at 
Smithells, and the footprint is shown to all 
interested visitors. The story of Marsh’s 
examination and martyrdom is true enough ; 
but as to the Bloody Footsteps most people 
will be inclined to agree with Hawthorne that 
it is “all humbug.” 
The Terrace at Smithells 
6 7 
