Charles Legh is said to have been somewhat autocratic and austere in his bearing, and to have ruled his little kingdom with a strong hand, dispensing justice in a summary fashion, and not scrupling at times to administer correction to the refractory with his own hand. Many curious stories concerning him are related and still find credence in the cottage homes around Adlington. There is a tradition that it was his daily practice to perambulate the boundaries of his domain with the object of discovering and expelling any marauder or sturdy rogue who might be prowling about his lands. Notwithstanding these little peculiarities, he kept up a style of true old English hospitality, and was greatly esteemed and respected by his neighbours. With his fondness for heraldry, he united a love of music; and he had, moreover, some claim to rank as a poet, though his muse, it must be confessed, was at times a little halting. When Handel[38] was in the zenith of his popularity he was for some time a guest at Adlington, and there is a common belief that while there he composed his charming piece, “The Harmonious Blacksmith,” in response to a request made by his host for an original composition, the melody being suggested by the natural music of the smiths plying their vocation at Hollinworth smithy, close by the park gates.[39] The original score is said to have been preserved at Adlington until the sale of the library in 1846, but the music is undoubtedly a variation of an old French air. There is also preserved in the drawing-room at Adlington a hunting song written by Charles Legh, and set to music by Handel, which may find a fitting place in the anthology of the county:—
HUNTING SONG.
The words by Charles Legh, Esq. Set by Mr. Handel.
The morning is charming, all Nature is gay!
Away, my brave boys, to your horses, away;
For the prime of our pleasure and questing the hare,
We have not so much as a moment to spare.
Chorus of the Hunters.
Hark! the merry loud horn, how melodious it sounds
To the musical song of the merry-mouth’d hounds!