ife as early as the reign
of Stephen. Not a vestige of it remains. The present comparatively
modern erection was built by Theophilus Ashton of Rochdale, a lawyer,
and one of the Ashtons of Little Clegg, about the year 1620.

Stubley Hall, mentioned in our tale, was built by Robert Holt in the
reign of Henry VIII. The decay of our native woods had then occasioned
a pretty general disuse of timber for the framework of dwelling-houses
belonging to this class of our domestic architecture. Dr Whitaker
says--"It is the first specimen in the parish of a stone or brick
hall-house of the second order--that is, with a centre and two wings
only. Long before the Holts, appear at this place a Nicholas and a
John de Stubley, in the years 1322 and 1332; then follow in succession
John, Geoffrey, Robert, and Christopher Holt; from whom descended,
though not in a direct line, Robert Holt of Castleton and Stubley,
whose daughter, Dorothy, married in the year 1649, John Entwisle of
Foxholes. Robert, who built Stubley, and who was grandson of
Christopher Holt before mentioned, was a justice of the peace in the
year 1528. In an old visitation of Lancashire by Thomas Tong, Norroy,
30 Hen. VIII., is this singular entry:--"Robarde Holte of Stubley,
hase mar. an ould woman, by whom he hase none issewe, and therefore he
wolde not have her name entryed." Yet it appears he had a daughter,
Mary, who married Charles Holt, her cousin, descended from the first
Robert. Her grandson was the Robert Holt, father to Dorothy Entwisle
before-named, at whose marriage the events took place which, if the
following tradition is to be credited, were the forerunners of a more
strange and unexpected development.

In the year 1640, nine years before the date of our story, Robert Holt
abandoned Stubley for the warmer and more fertile situation of
Castleton, about a mile south from Rochdale. It was so named from the
_castellum de Recedham_, wherein dwelt Gamel, the Saxon Thane; which
place and personage are described in our first series of _Traditions_.
Castleton was principally abbey-land belonging to the house of
Stanlaw. Part of this township, the hamlet of Marland or Mereland,
was, at the dissolution of monasteries, granted to the Radcliffs of
Langley, and sold by Henry Radcliff to Charles Holt, who married his
cousin, Mary Holt of Stubley, and was grandfather to Robert, who left
Stubley for this place, which we have noticed above.

Stubley, with its neighbourho