The fine old halls scattered so freely about Bolton have counterparts in the neighbourhood of Wigan, all this part of the county having been in the hands of wealthy men during the time of the Stuarts and of the Commonwealth. Ince Hall, black and white, with its five gables, though of late much disfigured; Lostock Old Hall, Standish, Pemberton, Birchley, and Winstanley, are all very interesting; and if Haigh Hall, the Lancashire seat of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, be less curious, archæologically, there is not one that will compare with it in respect of gardens or romantic approach. The walk through the wood, beginning at a mile from the Wigan market-place, is in its way, for so near a coal and factory centre, without a rival.
For a charming bit of wild nature thereabouts, commend us, however, to Dean Wood. Nothing, as regards landscape and prospects of sylvan solitude, can be more unpromising than the approach thereto through Hindley and Wigan. Two or three miles beyond the latter, where the ground begins to rise, and trees and streams of water make their appearance, it seems possible, after all, that something picturesque may lie concealed; and leaving the line at Gathurst, sure enough, we are by no means disappointed. Turning up on the left, after a few minutes along field-paths, the way changes into a beautiful clough, in many respects not unlike Bamford Wood, and which goes on improving to the end. Of course it is not to be confounded with the Dean Wood upon the slopes of Rivington; nor is the river below to be confounded with the Rivington "Douglas." This one, in truth, is the Lancashire Douglas pre-eminently: a stream of fifteen miles' flow before entering the Ribble, and the same with which tradition connects bloody conflicts in the time of the Danes. A tributary comes down the wood, after rain often so much swollen as to drown the path beside, when we may take an upper one, every bit as enjoyable, especially in autumn, since it gives a charming view of the trees below, among which there is unusual plenty of the kinds that bear red berries. Ferns and mosses grow in equal abundance; wild-flowers also, and flowering shrubs. The Gueldres-rose is especially abundant, and upon one occasion--October 10th, 1868--the ground was strewed in certain spots with the fallen fruit of the wild apple. In the upper part of the wood there are some curious varieties of the common oak, the leaves so small that they might be thought to belong to a different species. Emerging near the green lane, the homeward path lies first through Up-Holland, then either by the lanes to Wigan--four miles distant--or more speedily to Orrel station on the Bolton and Liverpool line.