There are some interesting old houses between Leeds and Otley, the "Low"
Halls of Rawdon and Yeadon, for instance. The former is a good
Elizabethan house, and contains some interesting rooms. Low Hall,
Yeadon, dates farther back, though its chief characteristics are of the
same period. The interior is rich in ancient furniture, and there are
some Knellers, which the artist is said to have painted on the spot. The
saturnine features of the Merry Monarch are to be seen on one side of
the huge Tudor fireplace, and near at hand Nell Gwyn, probably a more
correct likeness than a flattering one. There are ancient cabinets,
chests, and tables contemporary with the house; and what is more
interesting still, the cabinets and chests contain relics of Mary Queen
of Scots, and the ruffs and collars that were fashionable three
centuries ago. A gallery, wainscoted with large panels of a later
period, extends the length of the house; and at the western extremity of
it a bedroom, also panelled, possesses a hiding-place or secret cupboard
which it would baffle the most persevering to discover, but when the
panel is pushed aside, the trick of it looks so very simple. Of the
Stuart relics we shall speak presently in referring to Mary Queen of
Scots' imprisonment at Bolton Castle.
Passing through Guiseley, which is situated in the midst of worsted
mills, with the stocks by a lamp-post in the middle of the street as if
they were a present-day necessity, you climb a hill and then come
suddenly upon a lovely view, with Otley, "the Switzerland of Yorkshire,"
lying in the Wharfe valley below. The Chevin Hill is over nine hundred
feet in height, and from it you are supposed to see York Cathedral on
one side and the mountains of Westmoreland on the other. As the Chevin
is the lion of the place, it is the duty of visitors to go to the top.
Alpine climbers may enjoy this sort of task, but there are some people
who do not even wish to say that they have seen a city some
six-and-twenty miles away; but such as these who go to Otley and do not
inconvenience themselves would be looked upon by the Otleyites with
pity. But there is another thing which the town is proud of too, and
that is its lofty Maypole, which, standing in a firm socket of stone, is
guarded round by iron rails. There are far more Maypoles in Yorkshire
than in any other county, and it is pleasing to find the people are thus
conservative; though truly when they get blown down, they don't often
trouble themselves enough to put them up again. There are some
interesting monuments in the church, one on the right of the chancel to
General Fairfax's grandparents, two stately recumbent effigies of James
I.'s time. There are mural monuments to the Fawkeses of Farnley Hall (a
much altered Elizabethan mansion, containing Cromwellian relics: the
Lord Protector's hat, sword, and watch, and Fairfax's drum) and a
Vavasour of Weston Hall, who was a philanthropist in his way, for he was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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