Boggart torments us soa, we can
neither rest neet nor day for't. It seems loike to have a malice again't
young ans,--an' it ommost kills my poor dame here at thoughts on't, and
soa thou sees we're forc'd to flitt like."

He had got thus far in his complaint, when, behold, a shrill voice from
a deep upright churn, the topmost utensil on the cart, called out--"Ay,
ay, neighbour, we're flitting, you see."

"'Od rot thee!" exclaimed George: "if I'd known thou'd been flitting
too I wadn't ha' stirred a peg. Nay, nay,--it's to no use, Mally," he
continued, turning to his wife, "we may as weel turn back again to th'
owd house as be tormented in another not so convenient."

They did return; but the Boggart, having from the occurrence ascertained
the insecurity of his tenure, became less outrageous, and was never more
guilty of disturbing, in any extraordinary degree, the quiet of the
family.

[Illustration: INCE HALL, NEAR WIGAN.

_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]

THE HAUNTED MANOR-HOUSE.

"But he was wary wise in all his way,
And well perceived his deceitful sleight;
No suffered lust his safety to hetray;
So goodly did beguile the _guiler_ of the prey."

--SPENSER.

Ince-hall, the subject of our view, stands about a mile from Wigan, on
the left hand of the high road to Bolton. It is a very conspicuous
object, its ancient and well-preserved front generally attracting the
notice and inquiry of travellers.

About a mile to the south-east stands another place of the same name
once belonging to the Gerards of Bryn. The manor is now the property of
Charles Walmsley, Esq., of Westwood, near Wigan.

The two mansions are sometimes confounded together in topographical
inquiries; and the following story, though told of some former
proprietor of the Ince to which our plate refers, yet, by its title of
the "Manor-house," would seem as though intended for the other and
comparatively less known mansion, the old "Manor-house of Ince," once
inhabited by a family of that name. But the same traditions are often
found connected with localities widely asunder, so that we need not be
surprised at the mistake which gossips have made in this particular
instance.

It is, after all, quite uncertain whether the event occurred here or
not, story-tellers being very apt to fix upon any spot near at hand on
which to fasten their marvellous narratives, and to give them a stronger
hold on the li