Monmouth's progress through Cheshire was attended with considerable tumult, and he is said to have given countenance to riotous assemblies, whose violence was such that they forced open the doors of the Cathedral at Chester, destroyed most of the painted glass, and tore the surplices of the clergy into rags; they also broke the font to pieces, pulled down some of the monuments, attempted to demolish the organ, and committed other outrages. A memoir of his reception in the city mentions several arts to gain popularity not unworthy of notice. The infant of the Mayor was christened Henrietta, Monmouth acting as sponsor, and the following day (August 25, 1683,) it is said that he went to the horse races at Wallasey in Wirral, where he rode his own horse and won the plate, which he presented in the evening to his goddaughter.

While these events were transpiring Mr. Legh occupied himself with rebuilding the old Episcopal chapel of St. Peter on his Newton estate, and providing for the better maintenance of the incumbent. Two years later, on the accession of James II., he was reappointed Deputy-lieutenant of Cheshire, but he did not long retain the office, his death occurring at Lyme on the 31st August, 1687, at the age of 53. His body was removed to Winwick, and there interred in the family vault on the 6th of the following month, when a sermon, entitled "The Christian's Triumph over Death," was preached by the Rev. William Shippen, Rector of Stockport. This sermon, which was afterwards published, contains a brief sketch of his life and character, which Mr. Earwaker, in his "East Cheshire," thus summarises:—

The greatest Excellencies of his Ancestors seem'd to Concenter in his Person. The singular Piety of his Grandfather, Sir Peter; the extraordinary Charity and Benignity of his Uncle, Francis; the Constancy and Fixedness of Religion of his Father; the quickness and Gaiety of Spirit of his Mother. Educated at the University in his "Blooming Youth", and "refined and finished afterwards at City and Court," he was "rendered a most accomplished and useful gentleman both to his Prince and Country." He added "the Parliamentary Burrough and Barony of Newton" to his other estates, and his "Mansion House (Lyme Hall) he so far Rebuilt and Ennobled, partly in Effect, and partly in Design and preparations for its finishing." ... "There was such an Affluence of all things, so great a resort of Persons of Quality, ... that his house might very well be styled a Country Court, and Lime the Palace to the County Palatine of Chester."

He engaged in the Cheshire rising to restore his Exiled Sovereign, though being surprised by the Enemy, he was prevented from appearing in that successful Enterprise, of which both the Palatine Counties (the Stage of the Action) and York Castle (the place of his Imprisonment) are unquestionable Witnesses. "Although he was actually in every Parliament during his whole Reign (i.e., of Charles II.), yet he never joyn'd any Faction in the House." ... "His present Majesty (James II.) in his Royal Progress at Chester heard of his last fatal Indisposition." ... "He never fail'd of his Daily Service in his Domestick Chapel." ... "His Love and Zeal for the Church of England" are shown "in his Parish (Winwick) where he has at his own proper Charges built a Decent and Elegant Chapel, and taken care to Establish a Competent Maintenance for the constant Ministry therein for the Publick Worship of God."

In the church at Winwick there is a handsome monument to his memory with marble busts of himself and his wife, and in the hall at Lyme there are several portraits of both. By his wife, who survived him and retained her widowhood for the long period of forty-one years, he had a family of six sons and seven daughters, all of whom, with the exception of two daughters, Sarah and Anne, who died in infancy, were living at the time of his decease.

Peter Legh, the eldest son, who succeeded, though under age, had been married some few months at the time of his father's death, the lady being his own cousin, Frances, only surviving daughter of Piers Legh, of Bruche, and eventually heiress of her brother of the same name; the Bruche estates thus becoming reunited with the patrimonial lands. Peter Legh, like his father, was a staunch adherent of the Stuarts, and after the abdication of James II. and the "Peaceful Revolution" had placed the Prince and Princess of Orange upon the English throne, it is not surprising that he should have been suspected of entertaining opinions hostile to the reigning family, and of opening communications with the Irish supporters of King James, with a view to the restoration of the exiled monarch. Many Protestant Royalists, whose fathers had fought for Charles the First, although opposed to the designs of James upon the Church, avowed their attachment to his inviolable person and crown, and professed themselves bound by their oath of allegiance, from which, as they affirmed, no personal misconduct of the King could release them. Some of the more enthusiastic armed their tenantry in defence of the Stuarts, and began to prepare themselves, as they had done fifty years before, to unite in rallying round the standard of their legitimate King. Suspicion having been excited by the landing of several Irishmen on the coast, and by the discovery of arms in transit from London to Lancashire, Lord Delamere issued a proclamation summoning the friends of liberty, and the new Government to meet him on Bowdon Downs, a proceeding that served to quell the spirit of disaffection among the Jacobites, and preserve the tranquility of the two counties. At this time an attempt was made by a common informer, one John Lunt, to fix on Mr. Legh the charge of treason, in having, as was alleged, accepted a colonel's commission in King James's service. Mr. Beamont gives the following interesting particulars respecting his arrest and imprisonment:—

On the 19th of July, 1694, while Mr. Legh was still a very young man, a King's messenger, with Lunt, the informer, attended by fourteen Dutch troopers, each wearing a blue cloak, and armed with a case of pistols, arrived at Lyme, where Mr. Legh was living, between the hours of six and seven in the morning. The messenger, with one Oldham, their guide, and two or three of the troopers, immediately ascended the great staircase, and having found Mr. Legh, who was in his dressing-room and not yet dressed, they apprehended him under a Secretary of State's warrant, charging him with high treason. From his dressing-room they led him, attired only in his night gown, to his closet, where were Mr. Lunt and two or three more of the troopers. There the messenger and Mr. Lunt began to search his papers, and continued their search until noon, selecting and putting by from time to time, to be carried away, such of them as they thought fit. The alleged colonel's commission, had it been found, would have raised a damning presumption; and the only wonder is that, like the witness against Spratt, Bishop of Rochester, Lunt, who was evidently aware of this practice, had not so contrived as to hide where it should be found a forged commission somewhere in the house at Lyme. After being allowed to dress himself, Mr. Legh was taken downstairs into the parlour, and there left in charge of two of the troopers, while a search for arms was made in every part of the house; the result, however, must have disappointed the searchers, for, except a case of pistols and a carbine found in Mr. Legh's closet, which they seized and carried away, nothing whatever was found. Their quest being ended, Mr. Legh was taken from his house, and conveyed the same night, guarded by twelve troopers, to Knutsford, Lunt setting his own saddle on one of Mr. Legh's horses and riding away with it. From Knutsford Mr. Legh was conveyed by the troopers to Chester Castle, where he remained a prisoner until about the first of September following, when Lord Molyneux, Sir William Gerard, Sir Thomas Clifton, Philip Langton, Esq., William Blundell, Esq., and some others were conducted to London, guarded by four messengers, and an escort of twenty-one Dutch troopers, commanded by Captain Baker. On arriving at St. Giles's the prisoners were all committed to the custody of the messengers, who, at the end of three days, brought them, by command, before the Duke of Shrewsbury, his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State, when his Grace, having heard and considered the charge against Mr. Legh, remanded him for three days, and then committed him to the Tower on a warrant, of which the following is a copy:—'These are in their Majesty's names to authorise you to receive and take into your custody, the body of Peter Legh, of Lyme, Esquire, herewith sent you, being charged before me for high treason in levying warr against their Majestys, and adhering to their Majesty's enemies; and you are to keep him safe and close until he shall be delivered by due course of law, and for so doing this shall be your warrant. Given at the Court at Whitehall, the 12th September, 1694.—Shrewsbury. The Right Honourable Robert Lucas, Governor-in-Chief of the Tower, or his deputy.'"

The closing years of the seventeenth century were distinguished if not disgraced by a succession of intrigues and conspiracies for the overthrow of the reigning dynasty. The country was in a state of political ferment, and the public mind, ever eager for some new sensation, caught with avidity and believed every story of real or pretended attempts to involve the nation in bloodshed. Plots were innumerable, and plot-hunting became as gainful a trade among unscrupulous knaves as witch-finding had been with their great-grandfathers nearly a century previously. That Peter Legh entertained strong Jacobite sympathies and desired to see the return of King James there can scarcely be a doubt, but that he took up arms or engaged in any treasonable enterprise against the person and government of the "Dutch usurper," as the disaffected styled the Prince of Orange, is extremely improbable. John Lunt, who seems to have taken the leading part in attempting to fasten the charge of treason upon him, was a miscreant of the most infamous type and actuated by the basest of motives; he had been a highwayman, one of his accomplices was a convicted cattle lifter, and at the time of the trial he made such a ridiculous figure that the jury were compelled to treat his evidence as altogether unworthy of belief.

For some time after his committal to the Tower Mr. Legh was subjected to very harsh treatment, and denied all communication with his friends or counsel. At no time could the Tower be said to be an agreeable place of residence, but lodged as he was in its worst room, with the atmosphere poisoned by the polluted exhalations of the surrounding ditch and the ague-giving marshes which then stretched east and west, and without any opportunity for outdoor exercise, the confinement must have been exceedingly trying, and especially to a constitution such as his, accustomed to the breezy moors of Lyme. Happily the rigidity of his imprisonment was after a while relaxed, and at the instance of the Queen permission was given for Mrs. Legh and a maid-servant to be with him if they were willing to share his confinement; and subsequently a further order was given that he should be allowed "such liberty of walking within the Tower at convenient times" as might be consistent with his safe keeping—conversation, however, being strictly forbidden. This latter injunction seems to have been strictly enforced, for it is recorded that when Mr. Legh's mother, Madam Legh, who was busied in getting up the evidence for his defence, came under the window of the room in which he was confined to inquire how he was, the sentinel pointed his musket and declared he would shoot her if she spoke another word. At length the order came that he was to prepare for trial at Chester,[62] and, guarded by a party of horse, the gentleman porter, gentleman gaoler, and two warders of the Tower, he was reconducted to Chester Castle, when, without even being put on his trial, he was called to the bar and discharged, the evidence in support of the accusation which the informer Lunt had trumped up having, it would seem, been of so worthless and unsatisfactory a character as to leave no doubt of his innocence.

Barely eighteen months, however, elapsed before Mr. Legh was again arrested and lodged in Chester Gaol charged with similar treasonable offences, but no evidence was adduced, and when he was placed at the bar, no witnesses appearing, he was at once acquitted, and in accordance with the following order, dated June 2nd, 1696, and addressed to the High Sheriff directing his release, was discharged:—"Mr. Legh, charged with high treason and treasonable practices, in consequence of his Majesty's gracious directions."

The treatment Mr. Legh received at the hands of the State left upon his mind a sense of injustice that was never wholly removed, for in some directions respecting his burial, given nearly half a century after these occurrences, he wrote as follows:—

I would have no monument set over me, but a plain brass nailed to the wall to express my innocency in that wicked conspiracy (to ruin me) by false witnesses, imprisonments, and trials in 1694 and 1696, and that I die a member of the Church of England, looking on it to be the best and purest of churches; and that I do most sincerely wish it may continue for ever.

On the whole, however, it was perhaps not an unmixed evil that at so early a period of his career Mr. Legh should have had painful experience of the perils that political partizanship sometimes entails; for the remembrance of the dangers he had so narrowly escaped would necessarily have a salutary effect, and, on a later occasion, doubtless inspired that prudence which saved him from the ruin and destruction that befel so many of the partizans of the House of Stuart after the abortive rising in favour of the Chevalier de St. George in 1715. Certain it is that when in that year the members of the Cheshire Jacobite Club met to discuss the prospects of the rising in favour of the Stuarts, Mr. Legh's advice that they should abstain from taking any part in the revolt was acted upon, and, finding it difficult to harmonise their belief in the divine right of kings with their faith in the principles of the Reformation, they contented themselves with drinking the health of the King over a bowl of water, thus figuratively expressing their allegiance to the exiled monarch "over the water."[63]

Though Mr. Legh never entered Parliament and took but little interest in the conduct of public affairs, not being even upon the commission of the peace, he was by no means neglectful of the social duties that lay nearer home. In him the reputation of the ancient lords of Lyme was well sustained, and the old ancestral home continued to be the scene of munificence and hospitality, being accounted the centre of whatever there was of society and life in the county. John Byrom, the laureate of the Jacobites, as he has been sometimes styled, was frequently a guest at Lyme at this time, and Mr. Legh, who was one of his shorthand pupils, is often named in his letters to Mrs. Byrom. Another visitor was the eccentric genius, Samuel Johnson, better known by his sobriquet of Lord Flame, who, in the epistle dedicatory of his play of "Hurlothrumbo'" enumerates "the integrity of Leigh of Lime" among the many virtues possessed by his patroness, the Lady Delves. In 1699 Mr. Legh found employment for his time in founding and liberally endowing the school at Newton-in-Makerfield; and ten years later he was busied in erecting the Church of the Holy Trinity for the spiritual benefit of the tenantry on his Warrington estates, and, as the trust deeds recite, "upon trust and confidence, that the same might be used and employed for a chapel, for all the inhabitants of Warrington to resort unto and hear Divine service and sermons, according to the liturgy, rites and usage of the Church of England, as by law established."

In 1725 Mr. Legh had the misfortune to lose his son and heir, the only issue of his marriage, Piers Legh, who died unmarried, and was buried at Winwick on the 14th of June, and not long after (February 17, 1727-8) his fond and faithful wife, who had so cheerfully shared the privations of his prison life in the Tower, Madam Frances Legh, was called to her rest, her remains being laid beside those of her son on the 23rd February. Before the close of the year, having no direct heir, he made a settlement of Lyme and the other estates in favour of the four surviving sons of his younger brother, Thomas Legh, of Bank, who, in the event of his own death without issue, were to inherit in succession in tail male. These sons were Peter, who eventually succeeded; Piers, a merchant of Liverpool, engaged in the African trade, who died unmarried May, 1774; Ashburnham Legh, who became rector of Davenham, in Cheshire, and died at Golborne in 1775, and Henry, who died young.

Mr. Legh survived his wife several years, his death occurring in January, 1743-4, at the ripe age of 73, and on the 16th of that month his body was committed to its last resting place at Winwick.

Peter Legh, the second, but eldest surviving son of Thomas Legh, of Bank, who succeeded, was thirty-six years of age at the time of his uncle's decease, and had then been married several years, his wife being Martha, the only child of Thomas Bennet, of Salthrop, in Wiltshire. In November of the year following his accession to the estates the country was thrown into a state of ferment by the announcement that Charles Edward Stuart, the young Pretender, at the head of an army of Highlanders, had crossed the Borders, taken the city of Carlisle, and was then marching southwards—

In Cheshire the partizans of the exiled family were greatly excited, and a meeting of such of the members of the old Jacobite Club as still survived was held. Peter Legh was present, but, profiting by the experiences of his uncle, he counselled caution, and his counsel was acted upon, the more ardent spirits who had been anxious to don the white cockade having cause to rejoice that they had taken his advice. He subsequently entered Parliament as representative of the family borough of Newton, in November, 1747, and he was also returned to the Parliament which sat from May 31, 1754, to March 20, 1761, and in those which assembled in 1761, 1762, and 1768, the last-named continuing until 1774, the year which witnessed the beginning of the struggle between England and her Transatlantic colonies which culminated in American independence.

The year which followed Mr. Legh's second return to Parliament was a year of sorrow, for it was that in which he lost his only surviving son, Benet Legh, who died on the 8th July, aged eight years; his eldest son, Peter Benet Legh, who also died in childhood, he had buried a few years previously, and thus the lord of Lyme was again left without a direct heir to succeed him in the possession of the ancestral lands.

After his retirement from Parliament Mr. Legh took little part in public affairs, occupying his time chiefly in dispensing hospitalities and discharging those minor duties which devolved upon him as a country gentleman. In the later years of his life he began the work of remodelling the mansion at Lyme, under the direction of the then famous architect Giacomo Leoni; a great portion was rebuilt, and what of the original was left was so altered as to entirely change its appearance and give it the characteristics of an Italian building. After fifty years' enjoyment of married life he had the misfortune to lose his wife, Madam Martha Legh, who died at Lyme on the 21st June, 1787; shortly afterwards (October 9, 1787) he made his will, and on the 20th May, 1792, having reached the patriarchal age of eighty-five, he was removed by death. His remains were interred in the church at Disley, where on the south side of the nave is a tablet to his memory, with a shield quartering the arms of himself and his wife, and the following inscription:—

Having no male heir, the entailed estates passed in accordance with the terms of the settlement to his nephew, Thomas Peter, the eldest son of his younger brother, Ashburnham Legh, rector of Davenham, by his wife, Elizabeth Charlotte, daughter of Sir Holland Egerton, of Heaton Park, near Manchester. Mr. Legh was a bachelor of the mature age of forty at the time his uncle's death placed him in possession of the estates, and he had then sat in Parliament for several years as representative of the family borough of Newton, having been returned in 1783, in 1784, and again in 1790. He was a man of much public spirit, and on the breaking out of the war with France at the time of the Revolution in 1794, he raised a regiment of horse for the defence of the country. Reilly, the historian of Manchester, says, "He proposed to raise six troops of cavalry, and did so in fourteen days." Of this regiment, the Third Lancashire Light Dragoons, he had the colonelcy, and it is recorded that, in addition to the Government grant, he expended upon it no less a sum than £20,000 of his own money. He was again returned as representative of Newton, in the Parliament elected in 1796, but he did not long enjoy the dignity, his death occurring suddenly on the 7th August, in the following year, while serving with his regiment at Edinburgh. His body was removed to Winwick, and there buried in the family chapel. Colonel Legh, who was only forty-four years of age at the time of his death, had never married; having no legitimate issue, and his only brother having predeceased him, he bequeathed Lyme and the other possessions of the family, with the barony of Newton, to his eldest (natural) son, Thomas Legh, for life, with remainder to his issue in tail male, and on failure with like remainder to his second natural son, William Legh.

Thomas Legh, who thus succeeded as tenant for life of the family estates, was only four years of age at the time of his father's decease. He entered at Oxford, but before he had completed his curriculum in that University, hearing that Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was then at the head of a large army, he, like many other adventurous spirits, made his way to Belgium, and was at Brussels on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo where he offered himself as a volunteer, and served as an extra aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington during the whole of that memorable engagement. Shortly afterwards he went a voyage to Greece and Albania, whence he extended his researches to Egypt and Nubia. Early in his travels he was at Zante, where he witnessed the arrival of the celebrated frieze discovered in the Temple of Apollo, at Phigalia. In the excavation and removal of the beautiful sculptures composing that frieze, now one of the chief ornaments of the British Museum, Mr. Legh was largely instrumental, both by his purse and his active personal exertions, and he was fortunate enough to obtain a complete set of the casts of these sculptures, which, with the various other treasures of art and antiquity he collected in his travels, now adorn the corridor of the mansion at Lyme. He subsequently published an account of his journeyings in Egypt and the country beyond the Cataracts, in which he also drew attention to the slave trade, with its attendant horrors, as then existing in the country of the Pharaohs. In 1816, the year in which he attained his majority, he was returned to Parliament for the borough of Newton, and re-elected in 1818; but after the dissolution in 1820 he did not again seek Parliamentary honours, his tastes and inclinations leading him to prefer a more adventurous life in the exploration of distant and unknown lands.

He married, at Prestbury, January 14, 1828, Ellen, daughter and heiress of William Turner, M.P., of Shrigley Park, adjacent to Lyme, the innocent subject of the Wakefield abduction case,[64] and by her he had an only daughter, Ellen Jane Legh, who married in 1847 the Rev. Brabazon Lowther, since deceased, the brother of her father's second wife, and on whom the Shrigley estates were settled. Mrs. Legh died on the 17th January, 1831, at the early age of 19. Her remains are deposited in the family vault at Winwick, where Mr. Legh erected a handsome sculptured monument to her memory bearing the following inscription:—

In the vaults of this chapel are deposited the remains of Ellen, the dearly beloved wife of Thomas Legh, Esquire, of Lyme Hall, Cheshire, and daughter of William Turner, Esquire, of Shrigley Park, in the same county. Born 12 Feb. 1811. Died 17 Jany. 1831. Leaving an only surviving child, born 20 Feb. 1830.

Mr. Legh again entered the marriage state, his second wife being Maud, fourth daughter of George Lowther, of Hampton Hall, Somersetshire, descended from William, fifth son of Sir Christopher Lowther, of Lowther, who, surviving him, married, secondly, A. J. Deschamps De la Tour, Esq., of Milford, Hampshire, but by her he had no issue. Mr. Legh, who was a magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for the counties of Lancaster and Chester, LL. D. and F.R.S., died at Milford Lodge, Lymington, Hampshire, on the 8th May, 1857, in the 65th year of his age, and was buried at Disley, when the Cheshire estates, with the extensive properties in Lancashire, passed to his nephew, William John Legh, the fourth but eldest surviving son of his younger brother, William Legh, of Brymbo Hall, in Denbighshire, and of Hordle, Hampshire, by his wife, Mary Anne, eldest daughter of John Wilkinson, of Castlehead in Furness, the celebrated ironmaster.

William John Legh, the present owner of Lyme, was born in 1828, and at the time his uncle's decease placed him in possession of the family estates, was serving as captain of the 21st Fusiliers in the Crimea, where he greatly distinguished himself; he was in the trenches, and also shared in the glories of Inkermann. At the general election in 1859 he was returned as one of the members for South Lancashire, and in 1868 he was elected senior representative of the Eastern Division of the county of Chester, a constituency for which he has ever since sat. Mr. Legh married in 1856 Emily Jane, daughter of the Rev. Charles Nourse Wodehouse, canon of Norwich, by his wife Dulcibella Jane Hay, daughter of William, fifteenth Earl of Errol, by whom he has, with other issue, Thomas Wodehouse Legh, born March 18, 1857, his eldest son, and the heir-apparent of the ancestral home and the broad lands of the historic house of Lyme.

The old ancestral abode of the Leghs—the lordly House of Lyme, as it is often styled—ranks among the more important of the "stately homes" that glorify and give dignity to the county which claims to be the Vale Royal of England. "Stately" it is from its architectural merits and peculiarities, its picturesque surroundings, its stores of natural beauties and acquired treasures, its historical associations, and, more than all, as a perpetual reminder of the eventful past, its memories being indissolubly linked with those of the leading heroes and worthies of the shire.

No precise date can be fixed as that of its erection, but well nigh five centuries have passed since the progenitors of the present owner first held sway over its destinies. Tradition tells us that a house—a hunting lodge, as it would seem—existed here in the days of King John, at which time the domain of Lyme was included within the limits of the royal forest of Macclesfield. From a document we have previously quoted, we know that a Sir Peter Legh had his "fair hall with a high chamber" here more than four hundred years ago, and, though since his day the house has received many additions and undergone many changes, it still retains some of its more ancient rooms in a state of excellent preservation. Thanks to the generosity of its owner, not only is the park open to all comers, who are free to make holiday and seek health and pleasure upon the verdant sward and beneath the shadow of the "tall patrician trees," but under certain regulations the public are admitted to the hall and shown the more interesting and attractive of its apartments. And much that is curious and interesting do those apartments contain. They are literally full of treasures of art—costly examples of the artists of the middle ages, as well as of those who have earned renown in more modern times; the walls are covered with historical portraits of fair women and brave men, that look down with stately dignity, and carry the mind back into the mists of bygone centuries; "storied windows" there are that glow with the rich colourings of their heraldic blazonries, and dye the oaken flooring with their rainbow hues; tapestries on which the Gobelins have lavished their skill and taste, relating in embroidery the stories of the gods; marble treasures from Egypt and the East; carvings, rich and rare, that have been produced by the magic hand of Grinling Gibbons; and specimens of English handicraft, the work of bygone days, when unstinted labour was bestowed on even the most common-place articles of every day use. There are stately apartments, rich in the grandeur of their fittings, their upholstery and their decorations; and there are, too, old and dimly-lighted chambers—panelled, roofed, and floored with oak, containing specimens of antique furniture that might serve as models for æsthetic revivalists of the present day; chairs, presses, and seats of various kinds, and stately beds withal that have been honoured with the repose of royal personages, so tradition alleges, the ill-fated Mary of Scotland being among the number; and where is the house of ancient fame in which that hapless Queen has not at some time or other sought repose? Armorial blazonries are displayed on wall and window, on ceiling and corridor, and the much-prized hand and banner, commemorative of the great deed at Crescy, meets the eye at every turn. Here, too, are examples of ancient arms and armour, suits of mail, helmets, breast plates, and battle-axes, with pikes, and pistols, and petronels, and two-handed swords too ponderous for anyone in these degenerate days to wield, but which, in the grasp of a stalwart Legh, may have been

As we have before said, the mansion in all its antique stateliness comes unexpectedly upon the view, being hidden from sight on all sides by the high grounds of the park and the bleak moorlands beyond that stretch away in the direction of the Peak hills. It looks, indeed, as if, in selecting the situation for his building, the architect had sacrificed effect to protection from the weather, and the noble appearance it would have possessed if built upon an eminence is entirely lost. The plan is quadrangular, enclosing an extensive court, and the architecture like that of many other old mansions, of different periods, a portion dating from the time of the last of the Tudor sovereigns, whilst another part—the south front, with its noble Corinthian columned portion—is a fine specimen of Palladian architecture, erected by Leoni, a century and a half ago; though the effect is greatly marred by a modern square lantern, with stone balustrades, that was added by Wyatt in 1822.

The north front, which is first seen on approaching from the Disley side,—that by which visitors are generally admitted—is not particularly striking in appearance; it is approached through a square court enclosed by iron palisades, and entered by an arched gateway. The main entrance is in the centre of this front, which projects slightly from the main structure, and constitutes the oldest and most characteristic part of the building, having been left comparatively untouched by Leoni, his alterations having been restricted to the side wings, which are of more modern construction, and ornamented with Corinthian pilasters. A couple of hunting horns, relics of the old forestering days, depend from the wall, and over the rounded archway is a shield of eight quarterings, representing the principal heraldic achievements of the family, the arms being:—(1), Corona; (2), Legh, with an escutcheon over both representing the Crescy augmentation granted by Flower; (3), Boteler; (4), Croft; (5), Haydock; (6), Boydell of Poulscroft; (7), Boydell of Gropenhall; and (8), Ashton. The shield is encircled by a garter bearing the motto En Dieu est ma Foi, and over all is the ram's head, the crest of the family. A sun-dial is placed above the shield, and formerly the structure was surmounted by a lofty octagon lantern, which Leoni removed to an elevated part of the grounds, and replaced by a statue of Minerva.

A noble mastiff of the Lyme breed—a lion couchant in appearance—guards the entrance; a brief survey satisfies him, apparently, as to the harmlessness of our intentions, and we are permitted without molestation to pass through the archway, when we are handed over to the care of a prim and somewhat stately domestic, who obligingly condescends for the time to lionize us. The entrance communicates with a spacious quadrangle, round three sides of which a piazza is carried, the fourth, or east side, being occupied by a flight of stone stairs leading to the entrance hall, to which we are first conducted. It is a large and well proportioned room, fifty feet by forty-two, but much modernised, having been remodelled by Wyatt in 1822, the decorations being of the Ionic order. It is divided lengthways by lofty columns, and surrounded by a deep cornice, adorned with the horns of the red deer and other trophies of the chase. The stone chimneypiece was erected by Wyatt, but, though massive, it is poor in detail when compared with the one in the drawing-room, which dates from the time of Elizabeth. Over the fireplace, with one hand grasping his sword, and the other resting upon a helmet, is a portrait of Sir Peter Legh, the "founder" of the family, as our cicerone assures us, and the one who for his loyalty to King Richard, suffered decapitation at Chester in 1399, but which in reality represents Sir Peter, who was knighted at Leith in 1544, the friend of Flower, and the restorer and rebuilder of Lyme. We gaze upon the lineaments of the ancient worthy and think of the doughty deeds in which he bore a part, but our reverie is rudely dispelled when our garrulous guide informs us that the gorgeous frame in which the picture is placed belonged to the Duke of York, and was purchased at a sale of his Royal Highness's effects—a piece of information we would most willingly have dispensed with. A noteworthy feature in the room is an opening concealed by panelling near the centre of the north wall, that affords a glimpse of the drawing-room beyond; on one side of the panel which forms the door is a full length portrait of Edward III., armed cap-à-pie, and on the other a full-length of his gallant son, the Black Prince. In the same room we are shown some specimens of ancient armour, a pair of long-rowelled gilt spurs, said to have been presented by the Black Prince, and the famous two-handed sword—"the blade both true and trusty"—which credulous sightseers are gravely told is the veritable weapon with which Perkin a Legh cut down the standard-bearer of the King of France, and earned for himself the broad lands of Lyme; for here, as in many another "ancestral home," the attendants who undertake to enlighten you on the past fortunes of the house generally contrive to blend fable with fact in pretty equal proportions, so that the thoughtful enquirer is apt to become perplexed with the curious mosaic of history and romance that is put before him. The walls are hung with family portraits, some of them of considerable interest; two are believed to be those of the Sir Peter Legh before referred to, but taken at different periods of his life; on one side is a portrait of Richard Legh, who represented Cheshire in Parliament during the Commonwealth; there is also one of his wife's father, Sir Thomas Chicheley, of Wimpole, Charles the Second's master of ordnance; close by is a portrait of Richard Legh's son, Piers Legh, whose Jacobite leanings brought him into trouble, and occasioned his being charged with treason and imprisoned in the Tower; and there is another of the late Thomas Legh, the enterprising Eastern traveller, who is depicted in an Albanian costume, with one arm resting upon his horse's neck, and an Arab attendant reclining at his feet.

"Would you like to see the chapel?" inquires our guide. "Certainly," is the reply, and accordingly we descend from the entrance-hall by a flight of stairs to the domestic sanctuary of the lords of Lyme, which is situate immediately beneath the drawing-room, at the north-east angle of the building. The date of its erection is uncertain, but it was probably added at the time Sir Peter Legh re-edified and enlarged the hall, near the close of the sixteenth century. The font, in which for generations past the scions of the house have been baptised, is adorned with shields of arms, and is said to have been removed from the old home at Bradley; here are also preserved two ancient Runic crosses that were dug up on a farm at Disley about forty years ago; they are of sandstone, completely covered with the interlaced Saxon knot, and are exceedingly interesting, one remarkable feature being the Greek key, which is introduced as an ornament on the edge of each.

The drawing-room, to which we are next conducted, is a spacious apartment, forty-three feet by thirty, and remarkable for the richness of its decoration. The walls are covered with wainscot, elaborately carved, the lower stage being worked in a succession of intersecting arches. The mantel-piece, which reaches nearly to the ceiling, is a good example of renaissance work; duplicated columns of Ionic character support the entablature, and above that are caryatides bearing a pediment, the intervening compartment being occupied with the Royal arms of Elizabeth—France (modern), and England, quarterly—carved in high relief; the shield is encircled by the garter, and has the lion and dragon for supporters. Additional beauty is given to this room by a deeply-recessed oriel, lighted on three sides by long windows filled with stained glass that is said to have been brought from Disley Church in the beginning of the present century. In the upper part of the central light appear the Royal arms of the Tudor period in old glass, but by an unaccountable blunder some modern herald has added the lion and unicorn, which were not assumed as supporters by the English sovereigns until after the accession of James. Beneath is a small portrait of the Sir Peter Legh at whose instance, no doubt, these heraldic decorations were originally designed, with the favourite cognizance—the hand and banner—on one side, and the ram's head, the crest of the Lyme Leghs, on the other, and beneath are several shields representing the alliances of the family. The two side lights are also enriched with heraldic shields, the greater portion being those of Knights of the Garter living in Elizabeth's reign. There are three other windows in this room similarly decorated, and, taken altogether, they form perhaps the finest and most interesting collection of heraldic insignia in glass to be met with in any house in the kingdom. We have not space at our disposal to enumerate even the ancient worthies whose—

are here displayed. They are, doubtless, the joint production of Sir Peter Legh and Flower about the time of that famous herald's visit to Lyme in the sixteenth century.[65]

TStag Parlour—an ante-room between the drawing and dining rooms—next invites our attention. It retains much of its ancient character, and is so named from the decorations upon the frieze and cornice, representing in twelve compartments the various incidents of the chase worked in stucco. One of these compartments, the one over the fireplace, has a representation of the hall of Lyme, as it appeared three hundred years ago, with a gay company of horsemen engaged in the exciting pursuit of "driving the deer," a custom that must have been observed at Lyme from the golden days of the Virgin Queen. The custom was usually observed about the months of May and June; the deer were collected in a drove before the house called the Deer Clad, and then made to swim across a piece of water, with which the exhibition ended. There is an engraving at Lyme by Vivarres, after a painting by T. Smith, representing this custom. The same custom is traditionally said to have been observed at Townley Hall, in Lancashire, formerly the seat of a collateral line of the Leghs. The ceiling of the Stag Parlour is panelled and the walls are draped with tapestry, and hung with family portraits, and other pictures. The central compartment of the chimney-piece has a shield representing the coat of Legh quartering those of the family alliances, the Crescy cognizance occupying one of the side panels, and the ram's head the other, the whole being surmounted by the Royal arms of James I., with the garter and motto, between two allegorical figures of Peace and Plenty. In this room we were shown the dagger of Charles the First, on which the name "Carolus" may still be discerned, and the gloves he wore; and another memento of the ill-fated monarch—six antique chairs, the coverings of which are said to have been made from the cloak in which he appeared when on the scaffold.

In continuing our examination of the interior of Lyme, we pass from the Stag Parlour, as it is called, to the dining-room, which extends along a portion of the eastern front. The general characteristics of this room are of later date than of the one we have just left; the ceiling is highly ornamented, and the walls are divided into panelled compartments, the upper portions being adorned with scrolls carved in high relief, that form a kind of frieze. Over the fireplace is an exquisite carving in wood by Grinling Gibbons, the finest we remember to have seen, except, perhaps, that in Trinity Chapel, Oxford, which, by the way, is from the same hand. The group comprises fish, fishing tackle, and wild fowl, so truthfully rendered that we may almost fancy them to have been just brought in by the sportsman, and that the unyielding wood is even yet quivering with life. Well might Walpole say of Gibbons:—"There is no instance of a man before him who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with a free disorder natural to each species." And surely no finer examples of the artist's skill are to be found either at Burleigh or at Chatsworth. The furniture in this room calls for little note, but the portraits which adorn the walls have especial interest. The melancholy visage of Charles I., painted by Vandyke, looks down from the framed canvas; there are portraits, too, of successive owners of Lyme, and one by Housman of the Lady Anne, daughter of Lord Keeper Coventry—the mother of the last of the Savilles who held the marquisate of Halifax.

The ante-room through which we have to pass to the library is hung with tapestry of ancient date, illustrative of the rape of Europa, and we see—

The library itself is a spacious apartment remodelled by Wyatt, and stored with—

It contains some basso-relievos brought from Greece by the late Mr. Thomas Legh, rare antiques from the East, and an ancient urn from Pompeii, that once contained the ashes of a semi-illustrious hero, but which is now applied to less sacred uses, being filled with dried rose-leaves.