Hall-i'th'-Wood is in its associations one of the most interesting spots in England, since it was in the large upper chamber, the one with a window of no fewer than twenty-four compartments, that Samuel Crompton constructed the exquisitely skilful machine upon which the cotton industry of Lancashire arose to its present magnitude and importance. The way to it is from the little wayside station called the "Oaks," crossing the fields, a pleasant walk of about a mile. The hall stands upon the edge of a cliff, at the foot of which flows a little river called the Eagley, one of the early collectors for the Irwell, the scenery on every side just such as would recommend the site to that fine old race of country gentlemen, neither barons nor vassals, under whose authority marks so enduring as these old Lancashire halls were impressed upon the land. When Crompton lived at Hall-i'th'-Wood, it was embosomed in trees, many of them so mighty that when cut down it was like attacking granite columns. As at Turton, the material is twofold, a portion being magpie, believed to have been put together in 1483, while the remainder is grey stone, erected in 1648; the former, to appearance, wholly untouched, and the latter altered only by the introduction, at a little later period than that of the building of the walls, of some mouldings and other exterior ornaments. Altogether, the hall is unquestionably to be regarded as a first-rate specimen of the style it illustrates. This is proved by its having often been taken as a model for modern Elizabethan houses--we do not mean by copyists, but by the men of higher platform--those with whom knowledge and learning are never the limit of thought, but only the basis.[28]