[Illustration: H]ALL I’ THE WOOD.--This very ancient and venerable edifice--with which, far more than with many of greater magnitude and higher state among the old mansions of England, are associated ideas of permanent utility and universal good--is situate about a mile from Bolton, close to one of the admirably-managed cotton-mills of the Messrs. Ashworth. It is surrounded by indications of commerce; the smoke of many hundred factories impregnates the air, and renders even the herbage stunted and dark; while numerous steam-engines are busily at work drawing to the surface the coal, without which industry could avail little in a locality so far inland, and where the water barely suffices to aid the mighty machinery which supplies the world with the most essential article of dress. Yet the neighbourhood is full also of tokens of early Baronial splendour; and the “Halls” scattered in various directions afford unequivocal proofs of its former dignity and importance, ere the “‘Squirearchy” gave place to the “Manufacturers,” who now fill every part of Lancashire with long, tall, and broad houses, abounding in windows--grievously diminishing the picturesque, but cheering and animating to those who know that in the nineteenth century the pre-eminence of Great Britain must be secured by commerce and manufacture. Close at hand are “Smithells,” formerly a seat of the Ratcliffes, now the property of the Ainsworths; “Peel Hall,” still the inheritance of the Kenyons; “Turton Tower,” once the seat of Humphry Chetham; and “Worsley Old Hall,” the present residence of Lord Francis Egerton. The greater number of these old houses, however, have altogether changed owners;--many of them, as in the case of Hall i’ the Wood, having been deserted, or left to humbler occupants, who care only to keep the roofs above their heads, and attach small import to the interest they derive from antiquity. The house under especial notice at one time belonged to “the Norrises;” from them, it passed to “the Starkies;” and towards the close of the last century it obtained a celebrity--which must for ever render the neighbourhood famous--as the humble dwelling of a humble artisan, who largely contributed to the prosperity of his country. From him, indeed, Hall i’ the Wood derives historic interest; the old and somewhat dilapidated mansion, although divided and subdivided into tenements for “working men,” should be as a place of pilgrimage to those who date the modern supremacy of Great Britain from the improvements in manufactures, which have upheld the State and sustained her power during peace, as the courage, fortitude, and endurance of her sons had done during a protracted war. In no part of England does the memorable line receive stronger emphasis than in the small room of this comparatively deserted house:-- “Peace hath her victories as well as War!”