In the 12th Henry VIII. Sir W. Brereton made an award between Mr. Wm. Moreton and Mr. Thos. Rode, of Rode, in a dispute “which should sit highest in the churche, and foremost goo in procession:” when he very judiciously awarded between these two sticklers for precedence “That whyther of the said gentylmen may dispende in landes by title of enheritaunce 10 marks or above more than the other, that he shall have the pre-eminence in sitting in the churche, and in gooing in procession, with all other lyke causes in that behalf.”
We fear we must ascribe the rumoured subterranean passages of Moreton Hall, running under the moat to chambers hid in the mound, to no higher authority than that wild fancy which thus gilds, to its own delight, antique and curious buildings in all parts of our country—that native spirit of poetry,—
“One with our feelings and our powers,
And rather part of us, than ours,”
without a sprinkling of which, this world in all its teeming beauty might be too much of a dull reality.
F W Hulme Delᵗ. on Stone by W Walton M & N Hanhart Lithogʳˢ