Note 40 — Chapter VIII · ADLINGTON AND ITS EARLIER LORDS—THE LEGHS—THE LEGEND OF THE SPANISH LADY’S LOVE—THE HALL. (continued 2)

Gibbons, of whom Horace Walpole said “there was no instance of a man before who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with a freer disorder natural to each species,” died in 1721, and, while there is good reason for supposing that the reconstruction of the dining and drawing rooms was affected at a later date, Sephton was certainly employed by Charles Legh, and it is more than probable that the carvings at Adlington were his work. Possibly, the close resemblance which these productions of the chisel bear to the well-known works of the great artist led to their being attributed to Gibbons.