Any member of this order,
when travelling, is sure (says the handbill) to meet with a brother
member to lend him a helping hand, there being nearly three thousand
districts of this order, and more than a hundred and nine thousand
members in Great Britain, whence it has extended to Australia, America,
and other countries.
Looking up at the gateway of Tranmere Hall, I discovered an inscription
on the red freestone lintel, and, though much time-worn, I succeeded in
reading it. "Labor omnia vincit. 1614." There were likewise some
initials which I could not satisfactorily make out. The sense of this
motto would rather befit the present agricultural occupants of the house
than the idle gentlefolks who built and formerly inhabited it.
SMITHELL'S HALL.
August 25th.--On Thursday I went by invitation to Smithell's Hall in
Bolton le Moors to dine and spend the night. The Hall is two or three
miles from the town of Bolton, where I arrived by railway from Liverpool,
and which seems to be a pretty large town, though the houses are
generally modern, or with modernized fronts of brick or stucco. It is a
manufacturing town, and the tall brick chimneys rise numerously in the
neighborhood, and are so near Smithell's Hall that I suspect the
atmosphere is somewhat impregnated with their breath. Mr. ------ can
comfort himself with the rent which he receives from the factories
erected upon his own grounds; and I suppose the value of his estate has
greatly increased by the growth of manufactories; although, unless he
wish to sell it, I do not see what good this can do him.
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