This mansion is stated by Ormerod to have originally formed a quadrangle, but I could not satisfy myself, by inspection, whether that had been the case, although it is clear that it was once much larger than it now is. Early in 1849, in digging a drain in front of the hall, in a place which had been part of a garden, some human bones were found, with some wood, possibly parts of coffins, conveying an impression as if there had once been a place of interment there; but the remains were inconsiderable, and the researches were not pursued by any further excavation. There were persons, who have not been very long dead, who used to say that there had been grave-stones existing as late as in the last century, close to the hall. Traces of foundations have also been formerly discovered at the hall, conjectured to have formed part of a chapel; of course such a conjecture must be received with caution; as the mansion was once considerably larger, it does not follow that they may not have formed part of the foundations of other parts of it. The hall has long been used as a farm-house, and belongs to the Rev. Henry Wright, of Mottram St. Andrew. The brook before mentioned is one of the tributaries of a small river, called the Dean, and flows upon part of an estate at Handford, called the Brooke Farm, belonging to my father, Richard Brooke, Esq., {274} and which has been for a very long period in my family. The brook separates that estate in part from the adjoining one held with the hall, belonging to the Rev. Henry Wright. Some indications of fishponds and terraces may be seen in part of the field, which slopes down from the hall, towards the brook, conveying strongly the idea of the spot having been the site of a garden or pleasure-ground. As a proof how indifferent and inattentive the families of high consideration in the county were, in comparatively recent times, to many of the conveniences and requisites which respectable families now consider indispensable, I may observe, that the only road from the highway and village to the hall, crossed the brook, and that there was not any bridge there until about 1846 or 1847. {275} The Breretons must consequently have been obliged to cross it on horseback, or on stepping-stones, or have waded through it; and though the brook is quiet, and very shallow in dry weather, it is liable to rise and become much swollen after heavy rains, as I have more than once seen; and the act of crossing it in the dark, and after a continuance of wet weather, must have been a feat frequently attended not merely with much inconvenience, but with some danger. That circumstance may be mentioned, as exhibiting a feature in the habits of the country gentry of consideration in Cheshire, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Breretons resided at the hall.