and her heirs, revealing at the same time the fraud which he had
practised, and extinguishing for ever the hopes and expectations of Sir
Oskatell. Yet was he not left entirely destitute: to him and to his
descendants were reserved, by due process of law, the manors of Irlam
and Urmston, near Manchester, with divers other valuable inheritances.
At the same time was given to him the signet of his arms, with the crest
assumed for his sake, _an eagle regardant, proper_. It was only
subsequent to the supplanting of Sir Oskatell that his rivals took the
present crest, "_The Eagle and Child_" where the eagle is represented as
having secured his prey, in token of their triumph over the foundling,
whom he is preparing to devour. This crest, with the motto "SANS
CHANGER," the descendants of Sir John Stanley, the present Earls of
Derby, continue to hold: the foregoing narrative showing faithfully the
origin of that singular device.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] "Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Man, was a cadet of the noble family of
the Stanleys, Earls of Derby; and, after he had spent some time in this
and another university abroad, returned to his native country
(Lancashire), became rector of Winwick and Wigan therein; as also of
Badsworth, in the diocese of York, and dignified in the church. At
length, upon the vacancy of the see of the Isle of Man, he was made
bishop thereof, but when, I cannot justly say; because he seems to have
been bishop in the beginning of King Edward VI., and was really bishop
of that place before the death of Dr Man, whom I have before mentioned
under the year 1556. This Thomas Stanley paid his last debt to nature in
the latter end of 1570, having had the character when young of a
tolerable poet of his time."--Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_.

[13] This extract is from an interesting pamphlet, printed for private
circulation only, by Thomas Heywood, Esq. of Manchester, entitled, "The
Earls of Derby, and the Verse Writers and Poets of the 16th and 17th
Centuries." 1825.

[Illustration: THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON.]

THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON.

"O Jesu I for Thy mercies' sake,
And for Thy bitter passion,
Save us from the axe of the Tower,
And from Sir Ralph of Assheton!"

It would be a curious inquiry to trace the origin of services and other
customs, paid by tenants to their feudal sovereign. Connected as the
subject is with the following tradition, it may be worth while if we
attempt to