The Historic Lands of England (Volume 2)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1849. Excerpt: ... The mother of Dean Swift was also a Herrick, and the amiable and too early lost Lieut. John Herrick, left evidence that, had his life been spared, he would have held no common place among the poets of our country. With such a genius loci, such an array of noble, eminent and honoured possessors, with such sylvan scenery within it, and with such a noble mansion upon it, we think we are justified in giving high place among the Historic Lands of England, to the subject of these remarks--the beautiful demesne of Beau-manor. dfortotnton Kail, to. palatini of lanralttr. Foxdenton Hall, seat of the Radclyffes f How the very name of that historic family carries us back to far distant times, and a period antecedent to the Norman conquest; deducing their name and their lineage from Radclyffe, Radclffye tower was long the seat of their ancestors, from whom descended a stock of right loyal, gallant, and gifted scions, well worthy of their Saxon sires. It is a name which reflects more renown on its ancestral titles of Fitzwalter, Sussex, and Derwentwater, than ever title added honour to a name, while the proud, yet simple motto, Caen, Cressie, Calais, tells how the bold and chivalrous ancestor of the owners of Foxdenton fought for his sovereign, and acquired undying fame on those three stricken fields! On the eastern side of the Irwell, not far distant from Bury in Lancashire, rises a bold cliff of red rock, opposite to a village of decidedly Saxon origin, which, from thence was called Red or Radclyffe: and this parish, doubtless, before it was possessed by the Earls of Chester, gave its name to the family of which we are speaking. Indeed from a very remote period, we can trace the Radclyffes as resident in the Palatinate of Lancaster, and truly it were difficult t...