Page:Landon in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book 1833.pdf/65

Rh HALL I' TH' WOOD.

HANGE, change, wondrous change, Mighty is thy power, and strange; Summer sleeps beneath the snow, Fading follows autumn’s glow: Time, what has its chronicle, But of thee and thine to tell? What can yonder house record? First it had the feudal Lord, He whose banner swept the land, Which he held with red right hand; He of ’scutcheon, shield, and plume, Rule of iron, will of doom. Next there came the Cavalier, Light of word, and gay of cheer;

"Considerable obscurity invests the ancient history of this antiquated edifice: of several dates existing upon various parts of the building, the earliest is 1591."—"In 1770, part of this old mansion was inhabited by Mr. Samuel Crompton, an inhabitant of the parish of Bolton; and it was here that he invented and constructed a machine, which, from its combining the principles of the spinning-jenny and the water-frame, was named a mule." The progressive improvement in the manufacture of muslins and cambrics, that resulted from Mr. Crompton's scientific labours, occasioned the latter to be brought under the consideration of parliament, when a grant of £5000 was awarded to the inventor.—Fisher's Illustrations of Lancashire.

It is, therefore, no poetical fiction, to suppose that this house has had occupiers who would represent the various social changes in England. 41