Esholt Hall, Yorkshire;

THE SEAT OF

JOSHUA CROMPTON, ESQ.

THE parish of Otley, stretching over the high grounds which separate the valleys of Wharf and Are, descends to the bank of the latter, where it takes in one beautiful and interesting object. This is the nunnery of Esheholt, the Ashwood, founded by Simon de Ward in the middle of the 12th century, upon the fairest and most fruitful portion of his estate, and dedicated by him to God, St. Mary, and St. Leonard. Several other benefactors also contributed various lands in the adjoining manors of Yeadon and Idle, an ample endowment for six nuns. This Priory, at the dissolution, remained in the crown for nine years, to 1547, the 1st of Edward VI., when it was granted to Henry Thompson, Gent., one of the king's Gend'armes at Bologne. In this family, Esholt continued somewhat more than a century, when it was transferred to the neighbouring and more distinguished House of Calverley by marriage.

Sir Walter Calverley, Bart., built, on the site, in the earlier part of the last century, the present Mansion, and planted the fine avenue of Elms from Apperley Bridge, which have attained a noble growth. Along this approach, the House is seen to great advantage, with two fronts of handsome white stone, rather too little elevated above the Are, but charmingly backed by native Oak woods, with the more distant Hills of Upper Aredale beyond. It is not improbable that, till the general demolition of the buildings by Sir Walter Calverley, much of the Priory continued in its original state: now a few pointed arches, in some of the offices, alone remain, to attest that a religious House once occupied the site. Where the Priory Church stood, there remains also an inscription in very singular hieroglyphical characters, of Elizabeth Pudsay, Prioress, with the armorial bearing of the Wards, founders of the Priory. Vide Dr. Whitaker's Loidis and Elmete, p. 198.

The builder of the Mansion died in 1749, and, in 1755, Sir Walter, his son, who took the name of Blackett, sold the estate to Robert Stansfield, Esq.

The family of Stansfield trace their descent from Wyons Maryons, Lord of Stansfield, who came from Normandy with William the Conqueror, and were long proprietors of Stansfield Hall, in the once beautiful Vale of Todmorden near Halifax. In 1613, Richard Evelyn, Esq. of Wotton, in Surrey, the father of the well-known author of Sylva, &c. married the heiress of a branch of this family who had settled in Shropshire.

Robert Stansfield, Esq. dying without issue, this Estate descended to his sister Ann, wife of William Rookes, Esq., sprung from an ancient Family of that name, proprietors of Roydes Hall for four centuries, and prior to that, of Rookes Hall, in 1300. At their deaths this Estate again passed in the female line to their daughter, Anna Maria, who married Joshua Crompton, Esq. of York, third son of Samuel Crompton, Esq. of Derby, the present possessor, at whose death, by the will of his late wife, it descends to their eldest son, William Rookes Crompton, who is to take the name and bear the arms of Stansfield. The House, as well as the Grounds, has been modernized, and greatly improved by the late and the present proprietors. Several of the apartments are curiously pannelled with wainscot of sombre hue. The Dining Room, in particular, is carved by a masterly hand.

In front of the House the river Are winds through the vale, and is seen to great advantage; beyond it the hills, covered with hanging woods to their base, form the distant landscape. The drive in the Grounds, leading to Otley, from whence Esholt is distant five miles, through a fine wood, presents occasionally the most beautiful view, not inferior or unlike the highly praised scenery of the neighbourhood of Matlock in Derbyshire; about two miles and a half from Esholt is The Hawkstone, a remarkable projection of Rock very slightly supported at its extremity, and affording a romantic passage under it. From its elevated summit is obtained a very fine prospect of the valley.

In the Wood opposite to the House, a singular circumstance in natural history occurred in 1821: a brood of three young woodcocks were brought to maturity, a fact, seldom, if ever, ascertained; and in June the same year, Mr. Crompton, jun. caught with a hook and line, the largest trout yet found in the Are river, it weighed 7lbs.; a beautiful drawing, the exact size of the remarkable fish, has been made by Miss Crompton.

Esholt Hall is situated on the road from Halifax to Ripley, five miles from Bradford, and is distant ten from Leeds.

Hawksworth Hall, Yorkshire;

THE RESIDENCE OF

GEORGE CARROLL, ESQ.

THIS ancient Seat is situated in the parish of Guisely, and is distant four miles from Otley, and six from Bradford.

Though it cannot be exactly ascertained at what period Hawksworth Hall was built, a very curious old room exists there which was ornamented in stucco during the reign of James the First, and which still remains untouched. The Edifice, an irregular stone building, is in a most perfect state of repair; and notwithstanding its antiquity, is as convenient and comfortable a residence as the county affords. It possesses a southern aspect, commanding most extensive and beautiful views in Aredale; the House contains at present some portraits of the family of Carroll, two or three of which are good specimens by the hand of Sir Godfrey Kneller, and pictures of Mrs. Hall, Lady Ascough, and Sir R. Musgrove, connected with the family of the owner, Walter Ramsden Fawkes, Esq. of Farnley Hall, near Otley; some very fine and ancient painted glass, and most of the family pictures, were removed to Farnley Hall, when the father of the present Mr. Fawkes quitted Hawksworth for that Mansion in 1786.

Hawksworth is one of the instances in which property has descended in the possession of one family from the Conquest to the present moment; for it appears by a pedigree of the family of Hawksworth, preserved at Farnley, and attested by the "King of Armes, A. D. 1642," that John, the father of Walter de Hawksworth, the first possessor of this place, came over with William the First, and was killed at the Battle of Hastings, where he commanded under Richard Fitzpont, a Norman baron, surnamed Clifford, Lord Clifford of Clifford Castle.

A baronetage was conferred upon this family in the reign of Charles II. which became extinct by the death of Sir Walter Hawksworth, Bart. A. D. 1735, leaving no heirs male. Frances, his eldest daughter, and co-heiress, married Thomas Ramsden, Esq. of Cawthorne, in the county of York, whose son Walter assumed the name of Hawksworth, pursuant to the will of his grandfather.

His eldest son, Walter Ramsden Beaumont Hawksworth, Esq. in compliance with the request of his relation, Francis Fawkes, Esq., who left him the bulk of his estate, assumed the surname and arms of Fawkes, and also removed from this his family Seat to Farnley Hall, A. D. 1786, which Mansion he rebuilt; his eldest son and successor, Walter Fawkes, Esq., of Farnley, is the lineal descendant of the family and possessor of Hawksworth, at present occupied by George Carroll, Esq.

Thoresby states, that John de Hawksworth was incumbent of Guisely upwards of five hundred years since; and the Reverend Ascough Hawksworth, brother of the proprietor, and descendant of John, above named, is the present Rector of the parish.

Ledston Hall, Yorkshire;

THE RESIDENCE OF

CHRISTOPHER WILSON, ESQ.

ABOUT five miles from Pontefract, in a north-westerly direction, and about the same distance north-west from Ferrybridge, is situated the elevated ridge, upon whose brow stands Ledston Hall. It declines immediately to the rich lands on the banks of the river Are, here augmented by its sister stream, the Calder, and commands an extensive and diversified prospect of the wild mountains separating this county from Lancashire, and the northern extremity of the Derbyshire Peak.

The Mansion was erected about the time of king James I.: it is of stone, and occupied three sides of a quadrangle. The principal entrance is ascended by steps, under which is a passage leading to the offices.

The Estate was purchased towards the conclusion of the sixteenth century by Henry Witham Esq., and his grandson, of the same name, sold it to Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards the celebrated Earl of Strafford, by whom the old Hall was made a stately edifice. This highly-gifted unfortunate nobleman was the eldest son of Sir W. Wentworth, of Wentworth Woodhouse, in this county, Bart., of the very ancient family of Wentworth, by Anne, daughter of Robert Atkinson, of Stowell, county of Gloucester, Esq. He was born April 13, 1593, and received his first public employment, that of Custos Rotulorum for the West Riding, in 1614. After vigorously opposing the government in the House of Commons for several years, he as zealously, in 1628, began to promote its designs, and was, in consequence, advanced in succession to the titles of Baron and Viscount Wentworth. In 1631-2, he was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, and in 1639, was created Earl of Strafford, made Lord Lieutenant of that county, where, as Lord Clarendon acknowledges," he indulged some acts of power to his own appetite and passion ;" and these, in conjunction with his too manifest contempt of legal authority, led to his impeachment in 1640, subsequent attainder, and death. The magnanimity which he displayed at his execution, on the 12th of May, 1641, has always been a subject for melancholy admiration. His life seems to have been willingly sacrificed to defer the period of his sovereign's ruin, although the most fervent eulogists of that sovereign must condemn him for permitting the immolation.

Lord Strafford was thrice married; his last wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Edward Rhodes, survived him by his second lady, Arabella, daughter of the Earl of Clare, he had a son, who succeeded to the earldom. He had also several daughters.

The second Earl of Strafford sold the Ledston property to Sir John Lewys, of Marre, in Yorkshire, descended from a Welsh family. This gentleman, says Thoresby, "added much to the beauty of the House, Gardens, and Park, which he surrounded with a stone wall, and adorned with a stately Lodge." Sir John's elder daughter and co-heiress, Elizabeth, married Theophilus Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon; and their daughter, Lady Elizabeth Hastings, made fresh improvements at Ledston Hall, where she resided, and where, after an active life of piety and benevolence, she died unmarried, Dec. 22, 1739, at the age of 58. There is a monument to her memory in the adjacent parish church at Ledsham, where her remains were deposited, and where also, affixed to a column, is a table of injunctions addressed by her ladyship to the parochial minister. This contains excellent advice; but, as the late Vicar of Whalley smartly remarks, and with great truth, in his Loidis and Elmete, "it savours of a species of lay episcopacy, to which devout and honourable women are apt to addict themselves."