HOME OF THE STANLEYS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 82, 5 April 1924, Page 16

HOME OF THE STANLEYS

OLDL^THOM)TO BE SOLD,

: Early in'the"'Now Tear -the: famous Lathom estates in England, will be sold by auction, .states the Lon- , don>correspondent of the . "Christian Saence Monitor." ;,The event. will.; have more than a local interest,, ' Lathqm has associations with many, centuries of Eng-lish-.\history'and;the men who have made jit. V'TBe "estaies and the manor we're ori-■ginally'jiossessed'by-Orm the Saxon, the founder of OnnsMrk, where the sale is to take place. By various changes they passed into the hands of the Stanleys, ,who subsequently became earls of Derby, by whom: they were held for more than' ,300 .years.: , „ .. -■■. ,;... . . .'..'

These Stanleys were of no common order, of//men; they were kings on thenown land, and if it. pleased them they could defy the King in his Palace of Westminster. ."While,, the Stanleys held Lathom," it is.writtehV "it. surpassed for magnificence and hospitality all the rest dencesof the north, assuming in these respects'-the: attitude of a royal coart, and its: possessors were regarded with such .veneration and esteem, that the following harmless inversion was famil : ili'ar'as household words, save the ,Earl of. Derby and the. King."; '(.The" weekly consumption of food at Lathom in the sixteenth. century. consist,ed..cf_aii.ox and- 20! sheep, besides.large quantities of game from the woods, fish irpm.thelake, and venisonfrom the park. It'liad" a.'multitude'of servants, the last but;.-not -the. least- ; being /'"Henry fyo ffoole." '. ' . v ; f-lßut-tlifficult days ensued when Lathom. "the pride and glory of Lancashire," asi it had been, called since the visit of King ■Henry. VII.' ; .was. besieged by ; tlie • Parliamentary, army, and' heroically .defended, by the/Countess of Derby, Charlotte de la . Trempuille, a, grandilau'ghter of William the' : Silent. For four months she held out,,until>■ the siege was raised by. Prince Rupert, when the gallant lady retired to the Isle of Man. Her husband was, executed, in. the streets ofißolton,. -and if was remarked that the present Early of.-Derby, during 'a visit to that town during the recent election, refused to go-';iiearii,he' ; place of unhappy memories

After*!-the.departure, of the Countess, I.aihom v was figain beseiged, and when at last it' fell to.the Parliamentary army, the event, was considered of such importstance that an order/was issued by the House'of Commons "for the Ministers about .London to give public thanks to God, cjn the next' Lord's Day, for'its .surrender. / . . ' i -'

. .'.'Nothing of .the old Lathom now remains, but a magnificent house, two hundred; years old;, stands on its site. These are hard tini.es for ancient estates,' and "even the bes^t of them must come under the hammer. ••' , > ■