But we are wandering from our story, and more peaceful scenes await us. As we approached the Hodder the sun shone full and strong, and flashed and glittered upon its rippling surface, broken at the time into innumerable wavelets where the full-uddered kine were plunging and wading in the shallows to cool themselves after the heat of the bright summer day. Half a mile or so up the river, half hidden among the trees on the hillside, we catch sight of the Hodder Place, or Hodder House, as it is sometimes called—a kind of novitiate or preparatory school in connection with the seminary at Stonyhurst. After crossing the river, our road lay along a wild old wandering lane that winds away to the left, rising and failing in a succession of gentle eminences, filled with quiet nooks, whose vernal shade tempts you to relax your speed and while away the passing hours in listless contemplation of the wealth of beauty that Nature, with lavish hand, has spread around. Then a steep ascent occurs, and as we mount the stony and intricate path we look through the tangled vegetation to the green links of undulating woodland and the distant hills that swell gently into the blue of infinite space, and now and then get a glimpse of the tall towers and dome-crowned cupolas of Stonyhurst shooting above the rich umbrage that environs them. Then another climb, and we are in front of the old mansion of the Sherburns, though, in truth, it now presents a different aspect to that it must have done when Sir Nicholas “set his neighbourhood a spinning of Jersey wool,” and my Lady Sherburn—playing the part of Lady Bountiful—“kept an apothecary’s shop in the house,” and distributed her alms to her poorer neighbours “with her own hands.”
Before venturing upon a description of the building, let us refer for a moment to the account which Dr. Whitaker, in his “History of Whalley,” gives of the circumstances that led the disciples of Ignatius Loyola to establish a seminary in this picturesque corner of busy, practical Lancashire:—
On the north-west border of the county is the ancient seat of the Shireburn family. After the death of Sir Nicholas Shireburn, Bart., in 1720, it was possessed by his daughter Mary, Duchess of Norfolk, till 1754. It then became the property of Edward Weld, Esq., of Lullworth Castle, Dorset, whose son, the late Thomas Weld, Esq., converted it, in 1794, into a college, or house of education, for young pupils of the Roman Catholic religion. This gentleman’s benevolent view was to facilitate the means of religious and literary instruction for persons of his own persuasion, who had now lost all the resources which the British transmarine colleges and seminaries had afforded during two hundred years. He had received his education among the English Jesuits abroad, and he had witnessed the violent seizure and ejection of his old masters from their College of St. Omer, which was perpetrated by the French Parliament of Paris in 1762. This college was one of the principal houses of education which the British Catholics had formed on the continent, while the severity of the penal laws prohibited such institutions in their own country. The English fathers of the society, not disheartened by persecution, proceeded to form new establishments, for the same purpose of education, in the Austrian Netherlands, and again in the city of Liege; and they were dislodged, pillaged, and ejected, with similar injustice and violence, by the governments which admitted the suppression of their order, by Pope Clement XIV. in 1773, and finally, by the revolutionary armies of France in 1794. In their uttermost distress they took advantage of the humane lenity of our Government, which allowed them to settle and to open schools for pupils of their own religion, under security of the oath of civil allegiance which was prescribed by the Act of 1791. Under the immediate protection of Thomas Weld, Esq., the gentlemen expelled from Liege by the French conducted the small remnant of their flourishing seminary to Stonyhurst; and, in the course of twenty-one years, by unremitting industry, they have improved it into a distinguished seminary and house of education, of which they justly acknowledge Thomas Weld, Esq., as the founder and principal benefactor. It is filled at present (1816) by more than two hundred and fifty students of the Roman Catholic religion, sent thither from most parts of the world; and their established reputation for good order and regularity has justly procured for them the countenance and favour of their neighbours.
An amusing story is related of the eagerness of the students of Liege to get possession of their new quarters in Lancashire. Tradition says that the last person to quit the college at Liege was George Lambert Clifford, and that he was the first to enter the new institution at Stonyhurst. Another student, Charles Brooke, was equally anxious for the honour; and when they came in sight of the building both ran at their utmost speed down the avenue. Brooke reached the entrance first; but Clifford, arriving almost at the same moment, and seeing a window open, scrambled through it, and so entered the building while his competitor was waiting for admission by the ordinary way.
In addition to that from Mitton, there is another road by which Stonyhurst may be reached, leading up from Hurst Green—a little village near the bottom of the hill, half a mile away, and past the cemetery. The approach is by a broad avenue of spreading trees, a quarter of a mile in length, the vista being terminated by the principal front of the mansion, half revealed through the leafy screen, and which gains in importance and architectural effect by its natural surroundings. At the end of the avenue the road is flanked on each side by an ornamental sheet of water, part of the old pleasure grounds as laid out in the stiff and formal fashion prevalent in the time of the last Sherburn; and, beyond, a dwarf wall is carried across, forming the boundary of the court. In the centre is an ample gateway, with ornamental gateposts on each side; and from this point the entire front of the mansion, in all its stately proportions, appears in view.
STONYHURST.