fully
replaced; after which, according to common report, the noises ceased.

Another story current in _the_ neighbourhood is as follows:--

About the latter end of the year 1732, one Saturday night, a stranger
sleeping alone in the Green Chamber was much terrified by an apparition.
He stated that about ten o'clock, as he was preparing for bed, there
appeared a person before him dressed like a minister, in a white robe
and bands, with a book in his hand. The stranger getting into bed, saw
it stand by his bedside for a short time. It then slowly retired out of
the door, as if going down-stairs, and he saw it no more. This person
invariably persisted in the same story; and the owner of the estate
immediately ordered divine service at the chapel on a Sunday, which had
long been discontinued.

The vaults seem to have been strongly walled and fortified, and were
most probably used as burying places, many bones having been found when
digging. There is a tradition that King Egbert founded this place, and
kept his court here; but no corresponding trace of it occurs in history:
and we may suppose, from the order of his conquests, that his residence
would be in the more southern parts of the kingdom.

The situation is secluded, and well calculated for concealment,
favouring the general opinion that it was the retreat of the famous
pirate, Sir Andrew Barton, whose exploits and defeat are so beautifully
told in the old ballad of that name in Percy's Reliques. It is
surprising that so little should be known of this great and bold man,
whose conduct had nearly occasioned a war between England and Scotland,
and whose death, it is supposed, was one of the grievances which led to
the battle of Flodden.

"Up to the time of Henry the Seventh, it appears, the Radcliffes were
lords of Smethells; but Joan, daughter and sole heir of Sir Ralph
Radcliffe, having married Robert Barton of Holme, he became in that
reign seised of the manor and lordship, where his posterity continued,
until Grace, sole daughter and heir of Thomas Barton, the last male
heir, was married to Henry, eldest son of the first Lord Fauconberg,
whose descendant Thomas, in the year 1721, sold the manor, which
afterwards passed into the hands of the Byrons of Manchester, by whom it
was sold to Mr Peter Ainsworth of Halliwell, a descendant of the
Ainsworths of Pleasington, in this county[15], the present owner.

"Smethells is dependent upon the superior manor of Sharpies,