Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/152

 Liverpool, is Col.-Comdt. of the Royal Lancashire regiment of Militia Artillery, a deputy-lieutenant, and a justice of the peace of this county. Colonel Bourne has recently restored the old manor house, but in such a way as to preserve, and not obliterate, its links with a bygone age. The antique fire-places, one of which was protected by a massive arch of stone sweeping across the whole width of the room, have been renewed as before, and although the main doorway has been removed to another part of the building, the stone with the initials F. R. A., being those of Richard Fleetwood and Anne, his wife, has been reinstated in its original position above the newly-constructed lintel. Rumour affirms that during certain alterations two or three skeletons, supposed to be those of females, were found bricked up in a narrow chamber in one of the walls, and whilst confirming the discovery of a long secret recess, we dare not venture, for the evidence is somewhat contradictory, to hold ourselves responsible for the strict accuracy of the other part of the story, which suggests the enactment of a scene of revolting cruelty, similar to that introduced by Sir Walter Scott in the following lines:—

"Yet well the luckless wretch might shriek, Well might her paleness terror speak! For there was seen in that dark wall, Two niches, narrow, deep, and tall. Who enters at such grisly door Shall ne'er I wean find exit more. In each a slender meal was laid Of roots, of water, and of bread.

Hewn stones and mortar were display'd, And building tools in order laid."

The moat has now been nearly filled up, but its extent and direction can still be pointed out. There are no indications of a chapel having formerly constituted part of the residential building, but several years since, when an outhouse was destroyed, at a short distance, about twenty yards, two gravestones were discovered, and it is probable that they were somewhere near, if not actually on the site of, the private chapel or oratory. One of the stones was broken up immediately, and the other is practically illegible, although three or four words, still preserved, prove that the inscription has not been in raised characters. The rights to wreckage, etc. on the foreshore of the manor have pertained to