Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/304

 to cope with him; and, to make short protestation, his chance was to overthrow the challenger and obtain the victory.

Then the king made him knight, and gave him certain lands to live on.

After this foresaid Stanley came for marriage to the daughter of Oskell of Lathom, which was found in the eagle's nest, and obtained her favour, and espoused her. And then after the death of Oskell he was Lord Lathom, and enjoyed it many years. And for such service as he did afterwards the king made him Lord Stanley; and he was the first lord of the name; and so by that reason the Stanleys descended of Lathom give the eagle and child in their arms.

SAMLESBURY HALL AND THE LADY IN WHITE. between Blackburn and Preston, on a broad and rich plain of glacial drift, stands the famous old Hall of Samlesbury. The view towards the south comprehends the wooded heights of Hoghton;—on the east the background is filled in by the elevated ridges which run through Mellor, Ramsgreave, and Billington to Pendle;—the west is occupied by Preston and the broad estuary of the Ribble, the ancient Belisama;—and on the north the correctly-named Longridge leads on to the heights of Bowland;—thus enclosing a landscape which, for picturesque beauty, and historic interest, has few equals in the country.

It was here, in the early part of the reign of Henry II., that Gospatric de Samlesbury was seated in his ancestral home; surrounded by rich pastures and shut in by primeval forests of oak, from which the massive timbers