charge of the wardrobe and keeping the bedchamber and galleries clean,' the latter situation being connected with emolument rather than with honour.

The Diarist has furnished us not only with the names and offices of this vast labyrinth of domestics, but also with too brief an account of the numerous guests who daily resorted to the Earl during his residence in the country and partook of his munificent hospitality, as well as with a general statement of the provision for the whole establishment, at the time when the banner of gastronomy was gaily unfurled and Knowsley converted into a perfect eating palace, under the popular direction of Michael Doughtie and William Aspeinowle, the head cooks, and their dozen aides-de-camp of the kitchen and scullery.

Here were assembled knights and gentlemen who had green traditions of the battle of Bosworth, and who could proudly tell of their fathers' doings at Flodden Field; some who had been present at revels in the majestic Castle of Clithero rising above the little town and overlooking the country for miles around; and others who had partaken of banquets in the Norman Castle of "time-honoured Lancaster." And some were gathered there from South Lancashire, who fondly remembered the Locus Benedictus de Whalley reposing in quiet and stately grandeur on the banks of the Calder, and who had seen its noble refectory filled with guests speaking "more of the Baron than the Monk;" whilst others from the northern parts of the county could unweariedly descant from early and cherished recol

1 Rules for an Earl's Household in the time of James I. p. 27.

lections on the romantic scenes around S. Mary of Furness, its architectural order and inimitable statuary, the very relics of which are now viewed by the antiquary and man of taste with an enthusiasm almost equal to that which first created them. But it would not be a Preston who thus instinctively dwelt on the shattered fortunes of Furness Abbey, and who, amongst other desecrations, sadly deplored the loss of that "Mighty window

*

Shorn of its glass of thousand colourings,

Through which the deepened glories once could enter,
Streaming from off the sun like seraph's wings,

There were also ancient guests at Knowsley who had known Burscough before its troubles came, and who had been present when more than one member of the founder's family had found a final resting place within its hallowed precincts; and the fall of the Monastic system, with all its evils and advantages, the disastrous Pilgrimage of Grace, the fatal insurrection of the Northern Earls and its quick suppression, would be familiar topics of conversation and amply discussed by men who had been, in various ways, concerned and interested in them all. We could have spared much of what the Diarist has recorded to have enjoyed for a short time the table talk of the guests on these thrilling but gloomy

events.

During their residence in the country, and in the absence of literary pursuits, a constant succession of visitors dependant on them for counsel, or toiling after pleasure, engrossed the time of the heads of the family; and these occupations

were occasionally relieved by an exchange of friendly visits, by theatrical representations, by a diligent attendance upon the laborious and lengthened effusions of the pulpit, and, above all, by an incessant addiction to field sports.

The monotony of a lengthened residence in one place was pleasantly, although in some respects incommodiously, varied by a change of abode, albeit in the same neighbourhood, and this took place when the roads were in a state fit for travelling, as the Earl had to remove not only his domestic establishment, but also his furniture, arras, and beds, and this could only be done at particular seasons of the year.

transitory nature of indiAfter the lapse of almost

The Diary shews not only the viduals, but also of whole houses. three centuries we find few of the families named by the Diarist existing on their patrimonial estates, and some of them have even ceased to be remembered as once exercising great influence and liberal hospitality in their village halls. Nor were their "names ignoble, born to be forgotten," and for whom "a deathless lot" was never designed. They were men who appeared at the Visitations of the Heralds, who conducted the business of the county, and whose authority in some measure swayed the councils of the Sovereign.

Of the Lancashire families descended from the individuals here mentioned, rich in old associations, and familiarised to the county by their own worth and public services, now residing at their ancient homes, and of whom some sketches,— perhaps too diffuse, will be found in the Notes, are the Traffords of Trafford - the Molyneuxes of Sefton - the

Heskeths of Rufford the Gerards of Bryn and New Hall -the Hultons of Hulton-and the Towneleys of Towneley; whilst Hoghton Tower, Standish and Duxbury, Ince and Crosby, have been abandoned for fairer seats. It is somewhat remarkable that the families of Dicconson, Eccleston, and Wrightington are all represented through females by Mr. Scarisbrick of Scarisbrick, whilst heiresses of others mentioned by the Diarist have at various periods merged the name and transmitted the estates of their own family to other houses. It need scarcely be added that in some instances improvidence, misfortune, and sales have alienated wide lands and suppressed old families.

In Cheshire, the Grosvenors of Eaton, the Stanleys of Alderley, the Brookes of Norton, the Leghs of Lyme, and the Tattons of Withenshaw, still flourish in more than their pristine greatness, nor is there any prospect of its diminution, whilst the Savages, Viscounts Savage and Earls Rivers, are represented by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, and the Booths of Dunham by the Earl of Stamford and Warrington.

The two families whom the record principally concerns are fortunately still dwelling upon their ancestral estates and enjoying all the honours of their ancestors - the one exercising at Knowsley a wise and liberal hospitality which far distances that which obtained the approbation of England and England's Maiden Queen, but no longer, through the chances of war, the owner of Lathom and New Park in Lancashire, or of Bidston and Stanley House in Cheshire; and the other still in possession of Worden and of those broad acres which were regarded with no less complacency

by their Norman owner Roger de Busli than by his descendant William ffarington.

WILLIAM FFARINGTON of Worden was the only child of Sir Henry ffarington of ffarington in this county Knight by his second wife Dorothy, daughter of Humphrey Okeover1 of Okeover, and of his wife Isabel, daughter of John Aston of Tixall, both in the county of Stafford, Esquires. He was born in January 1537, and when only a few days old was included, with his youngest brother of the half-blood, in a lease from the Abbot and Convent of Evesham in the county of Worcester, of Longton Barns in Penwortham, dated 14th January, 29th Henry VIII.,2 his ancestors having been lessees of lands in Lancashire belonging to that Abbey from the time of Edward II."

Sir Henry ffarington was a zealous promoter of the views of Henry VIII. and affected to be a favourer of the Reformation, being selected as one of the Crown Commissioners for the suppression of the Monasteries, not less

1 The Okeovers were a family of equestrian rank descended from Orme de Acovere, to whom Nigel Abbot of Burton in his 20th year (1113) gave Acovere, the early descents of the family being proved by the Oakover Chartulary. Several members of the family were Knights of the Shire and

the County. The family is now represented by Charles Houghton Okeover Esq. and during his minority the Hall was the residence of his stepfather Robert Plumer Ward Esq. M.P. who has given a description of it in De Vere. 4 Wright's Letters, Camd. Soc.

2 Worden Evid.

3 Ibid.