978 
svay ; unlefs by inviting vecetation by being 
planted with gorze, furze, or willows, they 
become in length of time better fecured. 
‘This remark refembles a prediction, 
When it had not been written many days, 
on the 17th of Augult, 1799, in conle- 
quenee of a rapid flood, the banks gave 
way in two places, and all navigation on 
this level was fufpended for a week: but 
even then paflengers had to walk a mile 
from Bolton beyond the place, where the 
very bed of the canal for more than 100 
yards,.confiiinge partly of gravel, was 
wathed into the fiream beneath. Yet from 
the public accounts jt appears, that by this 
wiolent and rapid food fill more mifchief 
has been done to other canals, particularly 
ito the Athton, and the Duke of Bridg-' 
wvater’s. 
In very dry feafons the canal has already 
isboured under fach a deficiency of water, 
that occafionally either paffengers have 
been obliged to walk three miles along its 
‘ banks by all the locks, or it has not been 
pofiible for boats to fail on the higher 
jevels. But thefe inconveniences have not 
‘occurred fince a larger fupply of water has 
been obtained from the river at Bury. 
Yet, in froliy weather, in confequence of 
its elevation, the line of the canal is fo 
muck expofed to the influence of cold, that 
a few fevere nights will put’a flop to the 
failing of the paffage-boat or packet. On 
account of the con{tant commmnication be- 
tween Bolton and Manchefter, the diftance 
between which is not even by water more 
than 12 miles, this boat, along with the 
coal-boats, which can {ail from Clifton to 
Manchefter, and from Bolton to Bury, 
without pafling through a lock, promifes 
to contribute moft towards the remunera- 
tion of the proprietors. During the Man- 
chefter race-week, the fam colle&ted for 
fares has amounted nearly to 1001. _More 
money 1s now wanted to complete the ca- 
nal. At firft it was propofed te make it 
communicate by locks with the navigation 
along the Irwell to Liverpool; but now it 
' 3s alfo intended to apply to Parliament for 
a bill to enable the proprietors to build an 
aqueduct over that river, and thus to con- 
nect it with the Duke of Bridgwater’s 
canal. 
About two miles to the north-welt of 
Bolton there is an ancient hail called 
Smithels, which might claim .the attention 
of the curious. It appears formerly to 
have been furrounded by a wall and moat. 
Its remains, which, in a quadrangular 
form, furround a large court, are compofed 
of houfes for farmers and poor people, of 
a chapel, and a large wainfcotted room, 
Account of Bolton in the Moors. 
-tered the town, 
[ November, 
‘It has been rumoured, that Sir Andrew 
Barton, the Scotch pirate, chole this place 
for his retreat. It is certain, that Sir 
Roger or Matthew Barton refided here in 
the reign of Queen Mary, fince, in the 
Martyrology written by Fox, it is record- 
ed, that George Marfh was examined here 
before him. The arms, confifting of a 
fun, with a bar acrofs, in punning allufion _ 
to the name, are found in one of the rooms, 
with the letters A and Bincyphers. Mr. 
Byrom, of Manchefler, purchaled the place 
from the Faucenberg family. tnt 
The pannels in the wainfcotted room 
prefent more than 50 heads, male and fe- 
male, with their arms underneath; confift- 
ing principally of a ftag’s head fer the 
former, and the leaf and fruit ef the oak 
for the latter. fy 
When George Marth, a celebrated mar- 
tyr, who was burned at Cheffer, “was ex- 
amined at this place, he prefled his feot to 
-the ground,:and prayed to God to render 
perfecution the means of f{preading the 
truth. The fimple believe, that the im- 
preffion of his foot remains to this day 
upon a flag in the paflage to the wainfcot- 
ted room; and that when it was once re- 
moved, the {pirits of the world unknown 
difturbed the manfion, till it was re- 
fiored to its place. Such is the tale of 
fuperftition: the fuppofed impreffion ig 
oniy a vein in,the ftone. ; 
In the civi} wars in the reign of Charleg 
the Firft, Bolton was fortified and de- 
fended by the Parliamentarians, particu- 
larly by thefe repulfed from Latham-houfe 
by the Cauntefs of Derby; but it was be- 
fieged and taken by the forces of Prince 
Rupert and the Earl of Derby. : 
The latter was the firft man who en- 
As it was thus taken by 
fform, bloody carnage enfued ; and many 
of the flain are faid to have been buried in 
the corner of a field in the townfhip of 
Little Bolton, about half a mile from the 
town, which corner is feparated frem the 
neighbouring grounds, and has never been 
ploughed in the memory of man. When 
the royal party were every where defeat- 
_ed, the Earl of Derby retired to the Ifle of 
Man, his paternal inheritance; whence 
returning to fecond the defigns of Charles 
the Second and the Scots, he was met and 
difcom&ted by a fuperior bedy of forces 
in the neighbourhocd of Wigan. He, 
however, efcaped, and was engaged in the 
battle of Worcefer; but im his fubfe- 
quent flight he was captured, and after- 
wards beheaded in the market-place at 
Bolton. ' To this day, it is faid, none of 
the Derby family wall 
; f central 
2 
frequent the mote ’ 
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