the nineteenth century. The last Delaval, a very learned man, was buried
in Westminster Abbey in 1814. The Hall was built for Admiral Delaval in
1707 to the design of Sir J. Vanbrugh, who also designed Blenheim
Palace, given by the nation to the great Duke of Marlborough about the
same time.

Hartley Colliery, about half a mile away, has a sad interest as being
the scene of the terrible accident in 1862, when a number of men and
boys were imprisoned in the workings owing to the blocking up of the
only shaft by a mass of débris, caused by the fall of an iron beam
belonging to the pumping engine at the pit-head. Before the shaft could
be cleared and a way opened to the workings, all the poor fellows had
died, overcome by the deadly "choke-damp." Joseph Skipsey, the pitman
poet, in a simple ballad, tells the pathetic story.

"Oh, father! till the shaft is rid,
Close, close beside me keep;
My eyelids are together glued,
And I,--and I,--must sleep."

"Sleep, darling, sleep, and I will keep
Close by--heigh ho."--To keep
Himself awake the father strives.
But he--he, too--must sleep.

"Oh mother dear! wert, wert thou near
Whilst--sleep!" The orphan slept;
And all night long, by the black pit-heap
The mother a dumb watch kept.