Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/116

 of an ancient Irish family. The only issue by this marriage was a daughter named Penelope, wife of James, second surviving son of George, Earl of Cholmondeley, who died without issue in 1775. Wardley is now the property of the Earl of Ellesmere. The hall itself is an interesting structure, of the time of Edward VI.; partially surrounded by a moat, and constructed of ornamental timber and plaster, the interstices of the framework being filled with bricks. It is quadrangular in form, with a courtyard in the centre, the entrance being by a covered archway. The principal room has an ornamented wainscot, and a ceiling of fluted oak; in this room is also preserved a coat of arms of the Downes family—sable a hart lodged argent. Wardley Hall has been engraved in Philips's "Old Halls of Lancashire," and in other works.

THE CROSSES IN WHALLEY CHURCHYARD. parish church at Whalley is one of the most interesting structures in the county. Its foundation dates from the earlier Saxon times, when Northumbria was an independent kingdom, and when York, the ancient Eboracum, still retained its importance as the metropolis of the North. The curious old document entitled the Status de Blackburnshire, preserves an ancient traditional account that the parish of Whalley was little more than a wilderness at the close of the sixth century; that it was remote from the usual centres of population, and almost inaccessible, and that it was "entangled with woods, and overrun with wild beasts." Notwithstanding these difficulties, St Augustine is represented as penetrating into these wilds and converting the inhabitants to Christianity.