The
pavement is made of mosaic tiles, and has a beautiful effect.
April 7th.--I dined at Mr. J. P. Heywood's on Thursday, and met there Mr.
and Mrs. ------ of Smithell's Hall. The Hall is an old edifice of some
five hundred years, and Mrs. ------ says there is a bloody footstep at
the foot of the great staircase. The tradition is that a certain martyr,
in Bloody Mary's time, being examined before the occupant of the Hall,
and committed to prison, stamped his foot, in earnest protest against the
injustice with which he was treated. Blood issued from his foot, which
slid along the stone pavement, leaving a long footmark, printed in blood.
And there it has remained ever since, in spite of the scrubbings of all
succeeding generations. Mrs. ------ spoke of it with much solemnity,
real or affected. She says that they now cover the bloody impress with a
carpet, being unable to remove it. In the History of Lancashire, which I
looked at last night, there is quite a different account,--according to
which the footstep is not a bloody one, but is a slight cavity or
inequality in the surface of the stone, somewhat in the shape of a man's
foot with a peaked shoe. The martyr's name was George Marsh. He was a
curate, and was afterwards burnt. Mrs. ------ asked me to go and see the
Hall and the footmark; and as it is in Lancashire, and not a great way
off, and a curious old place, perhaps I may.
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