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 C HESHIR 
 
 Gleanings 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 CHESHIRE GLEANINGS.
 
 
 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM E. A. AXON. 
 
 MANCHESTER : 
 TUBES, BROOK, & CHRYSTAL, ii, MARKET ST. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT. 
 
 1884. 
 
 /
 
 DA 
 
 TO 
 
 JOSEPH MAYER, Esq., F.S.A., 
 
 WHO GAVE TO THE VILLAGE OF BeBBINGTON ITS 
 
 interesting public library, and to the 
 City of Liverpool the contents of its 
 
 MAGNIFICENT MaYER MuSEUM, THIS VOLUME IS 
 
 DEDICATED IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF HIS 
 
 ACQUIREMENTS AS AN ANTIQUARY, AND OF HIS PUBLIC SPIRIT 
 
 AS A CITIZEN. 
 
 803S13
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 pHESHIRE has been styled the "seed plot of gentility," « 
 
 and one of its homely proverbs claims, that its hardy 
 sons are " chief of men." The county abounds in memorials 
 of the past, and yet is fall of the vigour of the present day. 
 Around its old halls and picturesque villages linger the 
 memories of stern battles on hard-fought fields, of gallant 
 struggles, of spendthrift folly, and of heroic endeavour, and 
 the bright legends of bravery and courtly grace have too 
 often had their shadow in stories of tyranny and crime. 
 
 The volume of "Cheshire Gleanings," whilst making no 
 pretence to be a systematic history of the county, is an effort 
 to present some of its most salient characteristics. It 
 contains notices of Cheshire men and women, notable for 
 their talents or their eccentricities, memorials of byegone 
 modes of life and thought, and of the associations, proverbs.
 
 Vlll. 
 
 Preface. 
 
 folk-lore, and dialect of various localities of the county. 
 The articles, some of which have already appeared in Notes 
 and Queries., Chambers's Journal, the Palatine Note-Book, 
 the Academy, the Manchester Guardian, the British Architect., 
 and various other periodical publications, are in general brief 
 and are always independent of each other. All they have in 
 common is their relation to the county palatine of Chester.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 rage 
 
 Preface vii. 
 
 Dean Stanley and Alderley i 
 
 The Northwich Demoniac 9 
 
 "Warning for Fair Women" 13 
 
 John Critchley Prince 21 
 
 Richard Ramsey 28 
 
 William Hornby's Scourge of Drunkenness 37 
 
 Did Harold Die at Chester? 39 
 
 The Word Bachelor in Cheshire 42 
 
 Was Marat a Teacher at Warrington? 45 
 
 The Botanist's Funeral 48 
 
 The Cheshire Man called Evelyn 54 
 
 The Wizard of Alderley Edge 56 
 
 Was John Smith a Cheshire Man? 69 
 
 Sir John Chesshyre's Library at Halton 75
 
 X. Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Brereton Death Omen 84 
 
 The Fool of Chester 88 
 
 The Thin Red Line 95 
 
 A Birkenhead Newspaper in 1642 loi 
 
 J. C. Prince and K. T. Korner 103 
 
 Joseph Rayner Stephens 108 
 
 On the Stalk as a Sign of Contract 114 
 
 The Genius of Avernus 122 
 
 Tennyson's "Northern Cobbler": a Cheshire Man 133 
 
 The King of the Cats i39 
 
 Mary of Buttermere 142 
 
 Old Easter Customs of Cheshire iS5 
 
 The Chester Plays 167 
 
 Sunday Observance in Cheshire i77 
 
 Early References to the Jews in Cheshire 184 
 
 Dr. Moffat as a Cheshire Gardener 190 
 
 Joseph Mowbray Hawcroft. In Memoriam i97 
 
 A Fragment of the Chester Plays 210 
 
 SiON Y BoDDiAU 213 
 
 Mark Yarwood 219 
 
 The Fight of the Thirty 226 
 
 Old Mynshull of Erdeswick 230 
 
 Nixon, the "Cheshire Prophet" 235
 
 Contents. xi. 
 
 Page 
 
 Cheshire Marling 239 
 
 Cheshire Proverbs 243 
 
 The Earthquake of 1777 251 
 
 The Suspected Spy 257 
 
 Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight 261 
 
 Book Rarities of the Warrington Museum 262 
 
 The Undutiful Child Punished 279 
 
 Dr. John Ferriar 2S0 
 
 Cheshire and Lancashire Dialects in the Earlier Part 
 
 of the Nineteenth Century 2S7 
 
 Samuel Hibbert-Ware 291 
 
 A Cheshire Chesterfield 295 
 
 Riding the Stang 300 
 
 William Broome, LL.D 302 
 
 Dean Arderne 306 
 
 Sir Thomas Aston 310 
 
 A Cheshire Lord Chief Justice 315 
 
 Cheshire Ballad 321 
 
 Index 323
 
 CHESHIRE GLEANINGS. 
 
 DEAN STANLEY AND ALDERLEY. 
 
 And indeed he seems to me 
 Scarce other than my own ideal knight, 
 " Who reverenced his conscience as his king; 
 Whose glory was, redressing human wrong; 
 Who spake no slander, no, nor listen'd to it ; 
 1, Who loved one only, and clave to her." 
 
 Tennyson. Idylls of the King. (Dedication.) 
 
 THE Stanley family have long been connected with 
 Alderley, and claim descent from William de 
 Aldithley, of Thalk, in Staffordshire, who assumed the 
 name of Stanley, and settled at Stoneley, in that county. 
 From him descended a family which, in several generations, 
 produced men of mark, and from which the lines of the lords 
 of Derby and Montcagle have branched off. Sir Thomas 
 Stanley, of Alderley, was knighted by James I., and his son, 
 Sir Thomas, was created a baronet by Charles II. The sixth 
 baronet was Sir John Thomas Stanley, whose eldest son, 
 
 B
 
 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 the seventh baronet, bore the same names, and was a man 
 of literary and scientific tastes. In 1839 ^^ ^'^s created 
 Baron Stanley of Alderley. The second son of the sixth 
 baronet was Edward Stanley, rector of Alderley, Bishop of 
 Norwich, and father of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, dean of 
 Westminster. Edward Stanley had a passionate desire for 
 the life of a sailor. This wish was not gratified, but many 
 of the best qualities of our great English sailors were 
 exhibited in his life. As the incumbent of the family living 
 of Alderley and as Bishop of Norwich he showed great 
 power of organisation, devotion to duty, and a capacity for 
 governing men. He was far in advance of many of his 
 more timid clerical brethren in a desire for the spread of 
 education amongst all classes, not excluding even the 
 poorest, and in place of the distrust which many of them 
 showed of the increasing energies of science he was himself 
 an ardent student of nature. When some dignitaries of the 
 Church were denouncing the British Association, he was one 
 of its vice presidents, and he is believed to have been one 
 of the first clergymen who attempted to popularise the study 
 of geology by a public lecture, which he delivered in 
 Macclesfield. "The perversions of men," he used to say, 
 " would have made an infidel of me but for the counteract- 
 ing impressions of Divine Providence in the works of 
 nature." His scientific studies were chiefly in the direction 
 of ornithology, and his " Familiar History of Birds," which 
 contains many observations made at Alderley, is second 
 only in interest to White's "Selborne." The staircase of the 
 rectory at Alderley was hung with the engravings from
 
 Dean Stanley and Alder ley. 
 
 Bewick's " British Birds," which was mounted in panels, and 
 varnished over. It was at the rectory of Alderley that Arthur 
 Penrhyn Stanley was born on the 13th of December, 18 15. 
 
 When it was proposed to erect Manchester into an epis- 
 copal see the Rev. Edward Stanley declined to become its 
 first bishop, but he accepted, in 1837, a nomination to the 
 see of Norwich. The parting from Alderley was a source of 
 great grief, for a man of his character could not have held such 
 a charge for thirty-two years without feeling and exciting the 
 strongest affection and sympathy. He had emphatically the 
 courage of his opinions. When the name of Arnold of Rugby 
 was a reproach instead of a glory he invited him to preach his 
 consecration sermon, and later obtained for him the offer 
 of the wardenship of Manchester. Dean Stanley's own 
 estimate of his father's work as a bishop may be fittingly 
 quoted :— " The general principle of his conduct has been 
 exemplified in the prelate who of all in our later days most 
 nearly recalls his courageous independence, and his width of 
 sympathy — Bishop Fraser, of Manchester." 
 
 The mother of Dean Stanley was Catherine, daughter of 
 the Rev. Oswald Teycester, another of whose daughters 
 married Augustus Hare. Of Mrs. Stanley's life at Alderley, 
 from 1 8 10 to 1837, some interesting memorials have been 
 preserved by her son, and show her to have been a woman 
 of keen perceptive powers, of carefully cultivated mind, and 
 with a genial sense of humour. Readers of the " Memorials 
 of a Quiet Life" will remember how pleasantly her per- 
 sonality is felt in that charming record of English domestic 
 life. Mrs. Stanley was one of the spectators at the opening
 
 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, and has left a 
 vivid account of that event, and of the death of Huskisson, 
 which gave it so mournful an interest. Another of her 
 sketches is of the pleasant home of the Gregs at Quarry 
 Bank, with whom the Stanleys held pleasant intercourse. 
 When Samuel Greg's " Layman's Legacy " appeared, the 
 Dean prefaced it with some appropriate words. " I have 
 still," he says, " a vivid recollection of being told how the 
 aged mother of the family was carried in the evenings by 
 her sons up the steep hills that surrounded the deep hollow 
 in which their house was situated, in order that she might 
 witness from time to time the sunset, which, in the close 
 seclusion of Quarry Bank itself, she could never have seen. 
 The story lingered in my memory as a modern likeness to 
 that which Herodotus tells us with so much emotion of the 
 two Grecian youths harnessing themselves to the chariot of 
 their mother, the priestess of Juno, to enable her to reach 
 the temple of the Goddess in the plain of Mycenae." In 
 later life the Dean and Mr. Greg became personally 
 acquainted, chiefly through a sympathetic letter from the 
 layman, which brightened some of the stormy days that 
 marked Dean Stanley's advent to Westminster. When Mr. 
 Greg was on his deathbed the Dean wrote : — " Few have 
 cheered me more in my troubled course than he has. 
 Would that any words of mine in return could cheer him, 
 ^ where, as in the words of the Psalmist, he has himself said, 
 the darkness shall be, we may trust, as clear as the light." 
 
 The parish church of Alderley contains several memorials 
 of the Stanleys. One of them records the memory of
 
 Dean Stanley and Alderley. 5 
 
 Bishop Stanley, " thirty-two years rector of Alderley, twelve 
 years Bishop of Norwich, where, in the Cathedral Church, 
 his mortal remains repose. To his beloved parishioners, 
 with whom when absent in the body he was ever present in 
 the spirit, so now being dead yet speaketh." Another is to 
 the memory of Captain Charles Edward Stanley, " who died 
 August 13, 1849, aged 30, at Hobart Town, Van Diemen's 
 Land. First of his family called to rest by a sudden and 
 early death, which removed from evil to come the loving 
 child of a most loving father, before either could mourn the 
 other's loss." A third is to Captain Owen Stanley, who 
 died March 13, 1850, aged 38, at Sydney, New South 
 Wales, " at the close of his successful survey of the 
 unknown coast of New Guinea, and after 23 years' arduous 
 
 I service in every clime. They were lovely and pleasant in 
 their lives, and in their deaths they were not divided. 
 From the ends of the earth gathered together unto Christ." 
 The love which her children bore to Catherine Stanley is 
 witnessed by an inscription "to the dear memory of her 
 whose firm faith, calm wisdom, and tender sympathy, 
 speaking the truth in love, counselled, encouraged, com- 
 forted all who knew her, this tablet is inscribed by her three 
 surviving children, in whose happiness she found her own." 
 
 / The mother of Dean Stanley is buried in Alderley church- 
 yard, and her grave, which stands beneath a funereal yew, 
 is marked by a white marble cross, on whicli her son 
 inscribed those words of the Apostle James, so often quoted 
 as the sum of a good life, " The wisdom that is from above 
 is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
 
 6 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without 
 hypocrisy." Dean Stanley's mother died on the Ash 
 Wednesday of 1862, when her surviving son was absent 
 in attendance on the Prince of Wales on a journey through 
 Egypt and Palestine. He adds : — " On another Ash 
 Wednesday, ist March, 1876, he stood by the deathbed of 
 her by whose supporting love he had been comforted after 
 his mother's death, and whose character, although cast in a 
 different mould, remains to him, with that of his mother, the 
 brightest and most sacred vision of his earthly experience." 
 This was no overwrought picture of Lady Augusta Stanley. 
 The good qualities which ensured her the friendship and 
 esteem of the highest in the land gained her the affectionate 
 regard of the poor of Westminster. If a wife was never so 
 mourned, a widower never had such universal sympathy in 
 his sorrow. That sorrow found expression in many forms, 
 and when in the dead of night those more closely associated 
 with the sacred fane saw a flickering light amidst the dark- 
 ness of the Abbey they knew that the husband was seeking the 
 grave of his wife for prayer and communion with the dead. 
 
 The churchyard of Alderley contains one more memorial 
 of this gifted family. Here on 2nd December, 1879, was 
 buried Mary Stanley, the eldest daughter of the Bishop. 
 The following inscription was wTritten by the Dean for the 
 tablet in the church : — 
 
 Mary Stanley, 
 Born December 19th, 181 3. 
 Died November 26th, 1879.
 
 Dean Stanley and Alderlcy. 
 
 " By patient continuance in well doing 
 
 Endeared to many, old and young. 
 
 She cheered the friendless, 
 
 Raised the poor. 
 
 Nursed the sick and wounded 
 
 At Norwich, in Westminster, 
 
 And on the shores of the Bosphorus ; 
 
 Through all changes, outward and inward, 
 
 She clung to the home of her early years. 
 
 Where, by her desire. 
 
 She rests in her mother's grave." 
 
 She joined the Church of Rome in 1856, but at her own 
 earnest desire was laid in the same grave as the mother 
 whom she had loved so well. Dean Stanley took a share 
 in the funeral service, and in a voice marked by deep 
 emotion committed to God "the soul of our dear sister 
 here departed." Amongst the wTeaths which covered her 
 coffin was one from the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, with an 
 inscription which summed up in fitting words the story of 
 her life : — " In tender remembrance of the gentle Christian 
 lady, who was in life a 'good Samaritan.' May we do as 
 Mary Stanley." 
 
 Dean Stanley's early days were passed in his father's 
 rectory, and he retained to the last a keen interest in the 
 place and the people. His nurse, Ellen Baskerville, who / 
 died only a few years ago, was regularly visited by him, and 
 when, at a ripe old age, she died, he came from Westminster 
 to conduct the funeral service. In this he showed himself
 
 8 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 a true son of his father, who erected a memorial to Sarah 
 Burgess, a faithful servant of the family. 
 
 To the many memorials which Alderley already possesses 
 there will doubtless ere long be added another to the 
 memory of Dean Stanley, the profound scholar, the earnest 
 and fearless thinker, whose death will be sincerely lamented 
 in the New World, as in the Old. 
 
 Many interesting particulars of the home life of the 
 Stanleys are given in an article by Augustus J. C. Hare, in 
 the number for September, 1881, of Macmillan's Magazine 
 (vol. xliv., p. 353). The Dean's own "Memoirs of Edward 
 and Catharine Stanley" (London, 1879), and Dean 
 Bradley's " Recollections of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley " 
 (London, 1883), also contain many details.
 
 THE NORTHWICH DEMONIAC. 
 
 The last kind of madness or melancholy, is that demoniacal (if I may 
 so call it) obsession or possession of devils, which Platerus and others 
 would have to be preternatural ; stupend things are said of them, their 
 actions, gestures, contortions, fasting, prophesying, speaking languages 
 they were never taught, &c. 
 
 Burton. Anatomy of Melancholy, 
 
 Ft. I, section i, DicDibcr i, subsection 4. 
 
 IN 1602 the case of a supposed demoniac at Northwich 
 attracted some attention. The signs of his " possession " 
 were the wagging of the head without intermission, super- 
 natural strength, senselessness during his fits, utterance of 
 wonderful speech, &c. John Darrell, in his "Survey" of 
 Deacon and Walker's " Dialogicall Discourses," 1602, men- 
 tions Thomas Harrison, of North Wych, in Cheshire, as 
 being " at this present very greuously vexed by Sathan, so 
 as he that will may be an eye witness thereof" (p. 54)- I" 
 his "Replie" to Deacon and Walker's "Answer," 1602, 
 (p. 21-2) he says: — 
 
 "Concerning the strange and present affliction of the boy 
 of Northwitch I will say nothing. I never sawe him. How-
 
 lo Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 soever, you descant on the matter after your lying and paltry 
 manner. Yet I think it not amiss to offer to thy view (good 
 reader) the iudgement of the Bishop of Chester in his direc- 
 tion to his parents, and of three other commissioners for 
 causes ecclesiasticall, according with him therein. 
 
 First we thinke it fit and doe require the parents of the 
 said childe, that they suffer not any repaire to their house 
 to visite him sauing such as are in authority and other per- 
 sons of speciall regard and knowne discretion, and to have 
 speciall care that the number always be very smal. Further, 
 having seen the bodily affliction of the said childe, and 
 observed in sundry fits very strange effects and operations 
 either proceeding of naturall vnknowne causes or of some 
 diabolical practise, we thinke it convenient and fit for the 
 ease and deliverance of the said childe from his grieuous 
 afflictions, that prayer be made for him publikely by the 
 minister of the parish, or any other preacher repairing 
 thither, before the congregation, so oft as the same assem- 
 bleth. And that certaine preachers, namely, M. Gerrard, 
 M. Massey, M. Collier, M. Haruey, M. Eaton, M. Pierson, 
 and M. Brownhill, these onely and none other to repaire 
 unto the saide childe by turnes, as their leisures will serve, 
 and to vse their discretions by priuate prayer and fastings, 
 for the ease and comfort of the afflicted with all requiring 
 them to abstaine from all solemne meetings, because the 
 calamatie is particular, and the authoritie of the allowing 
 and prescribing such meetings resteth neither in them nor 
 in vs, but in our superiours, whose pleasure it is fit we
 
 The Northwich Demoniac. ii 
 
 should expect. Moreover, because it is by some held that 
 the childe is really possessed of an uncleane spirit, for that 
 there appeareth to us no certaintie, nor yet any great pro- 
 babilitie thereof, wee thinke it also conuenient, and require 
 the preachers aforesaid to forbeare all forms of exorcisme, 
 which always imply and presuppose a real and actuall 
 possession. 
 
 Richard [Vaughan] Cestriensis. 
 
 David Yale, Chancel. 
 
 Griff. Sangham. 
 
 Hughes Burghes. 
 
 Hereunto I will adde a fewe lines which M. Haruey afore- 
 said, a man of great learning and godliness, writ in his life 
 time to a friend of his : — 
 
 Grace and mercie from our only Sauior, there is such a 
 boy as your report signifieth, whose estate from the begin- 
 ning of February till this present hath beene so strange and 
 extraordinarie in regard to his passions, behauiour, and 
 speeches, as I for my part never heard nor read of the like. 
 Few that have seene the variety of his fits, but they thinke 
 the diuell hath the disposing of his body. Myselfe have 
 diuers times seene him, and such things in him as are im- 
 possible to proceed from any humane creature. The matter 
 hath affected our whole countrey. The diuines with us 
 generally hold that the childe is really possessed. And so 
 much for him." 
 
 It is to the credit of the bishop and his advisers that they 
 hesitated to endorse the common belief as to the demoniacal
 
 12 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 nature of the disease of this unhappy boy. The physicians 
 attributed his derangement to " an excess of some Melan- 
 choUa." 
 
 This, or a later case of witchcraft at Northwich, was the 
 occasion of a treatise by Thomas Cooper, entitled " The 
 Mystery of Witchcraft. Discovering the Truth, Nature, 
 Occasions, Growth, and Power thereof." Lond. 8vo. 1617. 
 It is dedicated to the Right Worshipful the Mayor and 
 Corporation of the Ancient Citie of Chester, and the worthy 
 Justices of Peace of that County Palatine, and the following 
 passage occurs : — " I have thought it good to leave this 
 testimony unto you of my thankful remembrance, who were 
 many of you acquainted with the good hand of my God 
 upon me in this behalf, especially seeing by an especial 
 occasion at the North-wich, by a child afflicted with the 
 power of Sathan, and (as it was conceived) through the 
 
 confederacy of some witches thereabout Shall not 
 
 this be a perpetual memorial of my thankfulness to those 
 worthy magistrates, Mr. Warburton of Arley, Mr. Marbury 
 of the Mere, and others of that parish, to quicken and 
 encourage them in their zeal and love unto the gospel ? " 
 (From a scarce copy of the volume in possession of Mr. J. 
 E. Bailey.)
 
 "WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN.' 
 
 For I must talk of murdei'. 
 Shakespere, 
 
 Tihis Androjticus. 
 
 IN the drawing-room of the fine old hall of Bramhall 
 there formerly hung a jDortrait of one who, in his day, 
 was a great magnate alike in Cheshire and Lancashire. It 
 was a representation dated 1583, and, therefore, taken in 
 his fifty-first year of the Earl of Derby, with his shield of 
 twenty-eight quarters, surrounded by the Garter and the 
 following inscription : — " Henry, Earle of Derbie, Viscount 
 Kinton, Lord Standley, Strange, Basset, and Burnell, Lord 
 of Man and the lies, Knight of the noble order of the 
 garter, one of the Lordcs of hyr Matli most Honourable 
 Priuie Councell, Lord hyghe Stewarde of hyr Math Hows- 
 hould, Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Lancaster and 
 Chester, and of the Citee of Chester and Chambcrlaine 
 of the Countic Palatyne of Chester." (Earwakcr's East 
 Cheshire i., 447). 
 
 We have now to mention a slight but hitherto unnoticed 
 incident in the life of this nobleman. AVhcn Alexander 
 
 /
 
 14 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Nowell was Dean of St. Paul's he took an interest in the fate 
 of the perpetrators of a murder that has been celebrated both 
 in prose and verse. Mr. George Sanders, or Sandars, was a 
 wealthy city merchant, living near Billingsgate, and his house 
 was visited by Captain George Browne, an Irish officer, who 
 fell in love with the citizen's wife, and obtained the aid of 
 Mrs. Drury, a widow, who gained a not very reputable living 
 by fortune telling and other devices. The foolish wife was 
 easily induced to believe that fate had ordained that she 
 should soon be a widow, and then the bride of the gay 
 captain. The intrigue proceeded until Browne decided to 
 anticipate fate by having Sanders murdered. After two 
 ineffectual attempts Sanders was slain by " Trusty Roger," a 
 servant of the fortune teller, and by Browne, who sent a 
 bloody handkerchief to the wife as a token that her husband 
 had been murdered. She was, however, now filled with remorse 
 and repulsed Browne, who fled, but was arrested at Rochester 
 and recognised by John Blane (a servant of Sanders), who 
 had been mortally wounded in the affray that ended his 
 master's life. Browne, whilst acknowledging his own guilt, 
 sought to save the life of his mistress whom he declared to 
 be innocent. Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Drury, and "Trusty" 
 Roger Clement were all tried, condemned, and executed 
 after confession. Browne was sentenced on Saturday, i8th 
 April, 1573, and executed at Smithfield on the Monday 
 following. At the time of her husband's death Mrs. 
 Sanders was daily expecting to be confined, and after the 
 birth of the child and the ceremony of "churching" she 
 was arraigned at Guildhall on May 6th of the same year
 
 " Warjiing for Fair Women." 15 
 
 along with Mrs. Drury. They were found guilty, as was 
 " Trusty " Roger on the 8th. The protestations of in- 
 nocence on the part of Mrs. Sanders had a curious effect 
 upon an inmate of the prison, a broken and suspended 
 minister, named Mell, who began by thinking her in- 
 nocent, then fell in love with her, and tried to induce 
 Mrs. Drury to take the whole burden of the crime upon her, 
 so that he might sue for a pardon for the merchant's wife. 
 She maintained this " before the Deane of Paules and 
 others — taking the whole blame thereof to hir self." The 
 fair sinner also grasped at the chance of life. " Mistresse 
 Saunders also, after the laying of this platte, stoode so 
 stoutely to hir tackling, that when the Deane of Paules gave 
 hir godly exhortation for the clearing of hir conscience, and 
 for the reconciling of hir self to God, as the time and case 
 most needefuUy required (as other had done before), he 
 coulde obtayne nothing at her hande. By meanes whereof 
 he was fayne to leave hir that time, which was the Friday, 
 not without great griefe and indignation of mind to see hir 
 stubborn unrepentauntnese." Mell's plans miscarried, for 
 the Lords of the Council, to whom he ajjplied for the 
 woman's pardon, had information of his plot, and it was 
 decided that the unhappy woman must die. There was a short 
 reprieve, and by " the advice of Master Cole (who laboured 
 very earnestly with hir to bring hir to repentance, and was come 
 to hir verye early that [Saturday] morning, because it was 
 thought that they should have bene executed presently) sent 
 for the Deane of Paules agayne, and bcwayling her former 
 stubborness, declared unto him and Master Cole, Master
 
 1 6 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Clarke, and Master Yong, that shee had given her consent 
 and procurement to hir husband's death." She had an 
 interview with her husband's relatives, and sought and 
 received their forgiveness. She saw also " hir owne kindred 
 and her children, " whom she had not only berefte bothe of 
 father and mother, but also lefte them a coarsie and shame." 
 After a pious exhortation " she gave eche of those a 
 booke of Maister Bradforde's meditations, wherein she 
 desired the foresayd three preachers to write some admoni- 
 tions as they thought good, whiche done she subscribed 
 them with these wordes, Youre sorrozvfull tnofher, Atine 
 Saunders^'' and so dismissed them. Mrs. Drury was like- 
 wise in a pious frame of mind. The day of execution was 
 fixed for the 6th of May, and by a refinement of cruelty the 
 luckless preacher Mell was placed in the pillory at the same 
 place. A paper was pinned on his breast with the words, 
 For practising to colour the detestable factes of George 
 Saunder's ivife. Mrs. Saunders, Mrs. Drury, and " Trusty " 
 Roger were in the cart together, and each prayed with the 
 ministers in attendance. They each confessed their guilt, 
 and the fortune teller " kneeling doune towards the Earle of 
 Bedforde, and other noble men that were on horssbacke on 
 each side of the stage, tooke it upon hir death that whereas 
 it had bin reported of hir that she had poysoned hir late 
 husbande. Master Drewrie, and dealt with witchcraft and 
 sorcerie, and also appeached divers merchantes wives of 
 dissolute and unchast living, she had done none of all 
 
 '&) 
 
 those things, but was utterlie cleare bothe to God and the 
 
 '&'^> 
 
 worlde of all such manner of dealing. And then with lyke
 
 " Warnifig for Fair Wo7uen." 17 
 
 obeysance, turning hir self to the Earle of Darbie, who was 
 in a chamber behind hir, she protested unto him before 
 God, that whereas she had bene reported to have bene the 
 cause of separation betwixte him and my Lady his wyfe ; 
 she neither procured nor assented to any such thing. But 
 otherwise, wheras in the time of hir service in his 
 house she had offended him in neglecting or contemning 
 hir duetie, she acknowledged his fault, and besoughte 
 him for God's sake to forgive hir : who very honorably 
 and even with teares accepted hir submission, and openly 
 protested himselfe to pray hartily to God for hir." After 
 further prayer with the preachers the two women and the 
 servantman "were all put in a readinesse by the Execu- 
 tioner, and at one instant (by drawing away the cart wheron 
 they stoode) were sent togither out of this worlde unto 
 God." 
 
 The pamphlet, from which we have quoted, contains the 
 prayer and confession of Anne Saunders, and the following 
 pious memorandum, which was found in the study of the 
 murdered man, "Christ shall be magnified in my body, 
 whether it be (Philip, i.) thorough hfe, or else death. For 
 Christ is to me life, death is to me advantage. These 
 words were M. Nowels Theamc, which he preached at the 
 buriall of my brother Haddon upon Thursday, being ye 
 XXV. day of Januarie, Anno do., 1570, Anno Regina; 
 Elizabeth 13. Among other things which he preached this 
 saying of his is to be had alwayes in remembrance, that is, 
 that we must all (when we come to pray) first accuse and 
 condemnc ourselves for our sinncs committed against God
 
 1 8 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 before the seat of his justice, and then after cleave unto 
 Him by faythe in the mercy and merites of our Savioure 
 and Redeemer Jesus Christ, whereby we are assured of 
 eternall Salvation." 
 
 The account, from which we have quoted, has the 
 appearance of being the compilation of the ministers who 
 attended the criminals, and is by no means of the ordinary 
 catchpenny description. It is entitled, "A briefe discourse of 
 the late murther of Master George Saunders, a worshipfull 
 Citizen of London, and of the apprehension, arraignment, 
 and execution of the principall and accessaries of the same. 
 Imprinted at London by Henry Bynnemann, dwelling in 
 Knightrider Streete, at the Signe of the Mermayde, Anno 
 1573." It is reprinted in Mr. Richard Simpson's School of 
 Shakspere (London, 1878, ii., 220). 
 
 The murder is alluded to in Stowe's Chronicle, and in 
 Anthony Munday's " View of Sundry Examples," which was 
 reprinted by the Shakespeare Society. This tract contains 
 also the following quaint passage, " Then look heer into 
 England, at Manchester, a childe borne without ever a hed, yet 
 soon after was the mother delivered of a goodly and sweet 
 infant." It was also the subject of a drama entitled, " A 
 Warning for Faire Women. . . . As it hath beene 
 lately diuerse times acted by the right Honorable the Lord 
 Chamberlaine his Seruantes" (London, 1599). This has 
 been reprinted in Simpson's "School of Shakspere" (ii., 
 230), and follows very closely the account from which we 
 have already quoted. Dean Nowell is probably intended to 
 be represented in the character of the reverend " Doctor."
 
 " Warning for Fair Women'' 19 
 
 As a specimen we may quote the farewell of the con- 
 demned mother to her children. 
 
 Home. Behold my children, I will not bequeath 
 Or gold or silver to you, you are left 
 Sufficiently provided in that point ; 
 But here I give to each of you a booke 
 Of holy meditations, Bradford's workes, 
 • That vertuous chosen servant of the Lord. 
 Therein you shal be richer than with gred ; 
 Safer than in faire buildings ; happier 
 Than al the pleasures of this world can make you. 
 Sleepe not without them, when you go to bed, 
 And rise a morning with them in your hands. 
 So God send downe his blessing on you al. 
 Farewel, farewel, farewel, farewel, farewel ! 
 
 She kisses them one after another. 
 
 Nay, stay not to disturbe me with your teares ; 
 The time is come, sweete hearts, and we must part. 
 That way you go, this way my heavy heart. 
 
 John Bradford's " Meditations " were first printed in 
 .1562, and frequently reissued. The book is a favourable 
 specimen of the peculiar vein of piety that was born of the 
 English reformation. The allusion made by Mrs. Drury to 
 her doings as a servant in the Stanley household is obscure. 
 In 1572, "with Edward, Earl of Derby's death, the glory 
 of hospitality seemed to fall asleep." His successor, Henry, 
 fourth Earl of Derby, was born in 1531, and in 1554 
 married Margaret, the daughter of Henry, Earl of Cumber- 
 land, and of Eleanor, the daughter of Charles Brandon,
 
 J 
 
 20 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Duke of Suffolk, and Mary, Queen Dowager of France. 
 In 1588 he was appointed for five years Lord Chamberlain 
 of Chester. He died in 1593, and his funeral sermon was 
 preached by Dr. Chaderton, Bishop of Chester, who did 
 not fail to do justice to the virtues and good qualities of the 
 dead nobleman. Then turning to the son — the new earl — 
 Ferdinando, he said, "You, noble Earl, that not only 
 inherit, but exceed your father's virtues, learn to keep the 
 love of your country, as your father did. You have in your 
 arms three legs, signifying three counties, Cheshire, Derby- 
 shire, and Lancashire ; stand fast on these legs, and you 
 need fear none of their arms." The much lauded Earl, 
 Henry, left behind him, in addition to four sons and a 
 daughter born in lawful matrimony, three children, whose 
 mother was Jane Halsall, of Knowsley. One of these three 
 was Thomas Stanley, of Eccleshall, Esq. ; and there was 
 also Dorothy, who married Sir Cuthbert Halsall, of Halsall ; 
 and Ursula, who married Sir John Salusbury, and was the 
 mother of Sir Henry Salusbury, the ancestor of Lord 
 Combermere. It is possible that the existence of this 
 second family may give point to Mrs. Drury's reference to 
 some domestic trouble in the Stanley household.
 
 JOHN CRITCHLEY PRINCE. 
 
 In the middle leaps a fountain 
 
 Like sheet lightning, 
 
 Ever brightening 
 With a low melodious thunder. 
 
 Tennyson. The Poet's Mind. 
 
 THE churchyard of Hyde in Cheshire contains a simple 
 memorial recording the last resting place of John 
 Critchley Prince, who, although a native of Lancashire, was, 
 after the foolish fashion of his time, frequently styled the 
 »/ " Bard of Hyde," from his long residence there. 
 
 The fame of John Critchley Prince has always been 
 distinctly provincial, though some of his verses have enjoyed 
 fragmentary popularity from their frequent quotation in 
 newspapers and periodicals all over the English-speaking 
 world. Thirteen years after his death the publication of a 
 definitive edition of his poems brought his claims to remem- 
 brance formerly before the Hterary pubHc. ("The Life of 
 John Critchley Prince." By R. A. Douglas Lithgow, LL.D. ;
 
 22 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 "The Poetical Works of John Critchley Prince." Edited 
 by R. A. Douglas Lithgow. Manchester : Messrs. A. 
 Hey wood and Son. 1882.) The editor, Dr. Lithgow, 
 has done his work well. He has used diligence in 
 collecting ; and, if there is little that has hitherto been un- 
 published, the reason is that Prince utilised as far as possible 
 every scrap of his own composition. The difficult task of 
 writing the biography of Prince has also been successfully 
 achieved. The poet was a thorough Bohemian of the 
 shabbiest type. That vague and shadowy land is not always 
 a gay country, as Henri Murger has already told us ; and if 
 any further proofs were needed of the statement, Dr. Lithgow 
 has furnished them in abundance. It is, however, only fair 
 to say that Prince had far more excuse for his sad misuse of 
 talent than the Schaunhards, who were his contemporaries in 
 the capital of France. 
 
 John Critchley Prince was born at Wigan in 1808, in the 
 midst of the deepest poverty. His father's trade was that of 
 a reed-maker — a trade which had the double disadvantage of 
 being extremely precarious and very badly paid. The elder 
 Prince was a drunken brute, who thrashed his boy for reading, 
 and brought him up to his own uncertain occupation. The 
 paternal admonitions did not prevent young Prince from 
 being an ardent reader of such scanty literature as fell into 
 his way. Of the course of his intellectual progress there are 
 singularly few memoranda ; but we know that he nourished 
 his own poetic fancy by the food he found in Byron, Keats, 
 Southey, and Wordsworth, and traces of their influence are 
 not infrequent in his works. These studies doubtless im-
 
 Jo Jul CritcJdey Prince. 23 
 
 proved the native gift of melody which is the most striking 
 characteristic of his compositions. Although he certainly 
 wrote bad verses at times, his manner is generally captivating, 
 even when the matter is but of small account. Before he 
 was nineteen he had married, and had the usual struggles of 
 a poor and improvident artisan with a young wife and child- 
 1 ren. A somewhat unusual incident in such a life was a visit 
 I to France in 1830 in a fruitless search for employment. He 
 may thus have gained a knowledge of French, to which his 
 biographer, on very slight evidence, we think, adds some 
 acquaintance with German. (See on this point the article 
 on Prince and Korner, in the present volume). Although he 
 began to write verses in 1827, he did not publish a volume 
 until 1841, when "Hours with the Muses" appeared. Mr. 
 R. W. Procter wTOte of this period : — " In the winter of 
 1 840- 1 was paid my first friendly visit to Mr. Prince at Hyde. 
 The ' Bard of Hyde,' as Mr. Prince was styled, was then a 
 factory operative, wearing the Cheadle swinger usually worn 
 by his class in county towns and villages. At that early time, 
 and in that substantial garment, there was about the poet an 
 air of sturdiness, of homely comfort, which shortly afterwards 
 disappeared when broad cloth came to supplant velveteen. 
 I found him engaged in the pleasant task of revising his 
 manuscript for the press, being on the eve of publishing 
 his maiden volume, ' Hours with the Muses.' " This brought 
 him a troop of friends, and some of these were not over- 
 judicious. Their admiration of the poet often took a fluid 
 form; and the intemperance which blighted nearly all his after- 
 life, though it did not originate in, was certainly strengthened
 
 24 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 by, their well-meant attentions. The remainder of his career is 
 not a pleasant one to tell in detail. Sometimes he worked at 
 his old trade, and frequently he " tramped " about the country 
 in search of employment, but his chief dependence appears 
 to have been the sale of the five successive volumes which 
 issued from his pen. To this must be added, especially in 
 the latter period of his life, when a deepening gloom of pov- 
 erty and disease overshadowed him, a dependence upon the 
 produce of begging letters, which he addressed with great 
 pertinacity to all whom he thought likely to befriend him. 
 An attempt was made to obtain for him a pension, but this 
 was refused, although he received a grant from the royal 
 bounty. Occasional windfalls appear to have had no other 
 effect than Bohemian revelry; and, when Prince died at Hyde 
 / in 1866, the poverty in which he lived was only saved from 
 being abject by the exertions of his second wife, who laboured 
 for the comfort of the poor broken-down paralytic with heroic 
 devotion and assiduity. 
 
 Turning from the record of so unsatisfactory a life to its 
 literary results, we must frankly admit that Prince's reputation 
 is not one that is likely to widen or endure. He came at a 
 time when a warm welcome was certain. The English cotton 
 kingdom was in almost the first flush of a new-born literary 
 enthusiasm. The factory bard was as phenomenal to the mer- 
 chants and manufacturers in the streets of Wigan and Man- 
 chester as the ploughman poet had been amid the fields of 
 Ayr to the farmers and squires who were his contemporaries. 
 We do not suggest any further parallel, for Burns and Prince 
 were essentially different.
 
 JoJin CritcJdcy Prince. 25 
 
 No tribute needs the granite well, 
 No food the planet-flame. 
 
 That which Burns uttered in song came from the depth of 
 his own consciousness, while Prince often merely embodied 
 that which was floating in the air, or which he had assimila- 
 ted from those greater masters in whose writings he found 
 the solace of a life too often wanting in the first elements of 
 self-respect and content. His remarkable gift of versification 
 became in itself a danger. In pieces such as the " Artisan's 
 Song," "A Book for Home Fireside," and others, he has 
 done little more than crystallise the commonplaces of his 
 day ; but the fact that the verses did give expression to the 
 common thought was an occasion of momentary, however 
 little it may contribute to permanent, success. In his tem- 
 perance poems he deals with the fruit of bitter personal 
 experience, and these lyrics are among the finest that have 
 yet been written on that topic. From the " Songs of the 
 People " we quote a verse : — 
 
 The artisan, wending full early to toil, 
 
 Sings a snatch of old song by the way ; 
 The ploughman, who sturdily furrows the soil, 
 
 Cheers the morn with the words of his lay ; 
 The man at the stithy, the maid at the wheel, 
 
 The mother with babe on her knee, 
 Chant simple old rhymes which they tenderly feel ; 
 
 Oh ! the songs of the people for me. 
 
 / 
 
 In nearly all his poetry there is a distinct literary flavour, 
 which is all the more remarkable in a writer whose surround- 
 ings were never favourable to study. This is very conspicu-
 
 26 Cheshire Glcajiings. 
 
 ous in the fine sonnet in which he describes in honied words, 
 recalling the greater singer, the delight he felt on first reading 
 Keats. Among many other notable poems, we may name 
 "Weeds and Flowers," "One Angel More," and "The 
 Golden Land of Poesy." The last-named, if we may read it 
 as Prince's opinion upon his own powers, shows far more 
 accurate judgment than that of his more enthusiastic 
 admirers. He describes his long voyage in " the bark Hope, 
 all gaily dight": — 
 
 At length, oh, joy ! the enchanted shore 
 
 Loomed up in far-off loveliness, 
 And I grew eager to explore 
 The wondrous realm ; my tears ran o'er 
 
 With very gladness of success. 
 Odours of spices and of flowers 
 
 Came on the breezes flowing free ; 
 Rich branches reft from gorgeous bowers 
 Bestrewed the wave ; — the land was ours, — 
 
 The golden land of Poesy ! — 
 
 Not yet ! a barrier crossed my way, — 
 
 My shrinking vessel back recoiled ; 
 I could not reach the sheltering bay, 
 For rocks and shoals about me lay, 
 
 And winds opposed, and waters boiled. 
 Thus baffled by the Poet-god, 
 
 I only brought — alas for me ! — 
 Some waifs and strays from that bright sod 
 Which I have seen, but have not trod, — 
 
 The golden land of Poesy ! 
 
 This, we think, will be the verdict of impartial critics on
 
 John Critchley Prince. 27 
 
 Prince's claims as a poet. The current aspirations after / 
 "progress," temperance, and peace which surrounded his 
 youth and manhood he imbibed and gave forth again, ex- 
 pressing in musical language the dumb thoughts which, in a 
 vague form, existed in many minds. Hence his poems 
 became at once a platform, if not a pulpit, power. There is 
 neither intense passion nor dramatic force in his works ; but 
 there is a deeply reverential spirit, a genuine love of Nature, 
 and especially of the mighty hills amid whose fastnesses he 
 might feel secure from the sin and turmoil of city life, a 
 tender pity for the sorrows of daily existence, an appreciation 
 of the domestic virtues strikingly in contrast with some por- 
 tions of his own career, and a sincere sympathy with efforts 
 made for the ameUoration of the working class to which he 
 belonged.
 
 RICHARD RAMSEY. 
 
 / I would the gods had made thee poetical. 
 
 Shakspere. As You Like It. 
 
 IN 1 8 1 6 appeared a volume of poems by a then resident 
 in Macclesfield. Although there were above 500 
 subscribers the book is now seldom met with, and a brief 
 notice of it may not be without interest. The title page 
 reads : — " Poems on Various Subjects. By Richard Ramsey. 
 Self-taught I sing — Homer. Macclesfield : Printed by J. 
 Wilson, at the Courier Office, and sold by Longman, Hurst, 
 Rees, Orme, and Browne ; and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 
 Paternoster Row, London, 1816." i2mo., pp. viii., 215. 
 The frontispiece of the volume is a very good silhouette of 
 the author who, in reply to the expected charge of vanity, 
 observes : — " Among the subscribers to these poems (whose 
 number exceeds five hundred) no doubt there may be some 
 admirers of the celebrated Lavater, who, perhaps, will 
 devote a leisure hour to the pleasing task of comparing the 
 outlines of Physiognomy with those of Intellect, and of 
 judging with scientific precision whether Nature has or has
 
 Richard Ramsey. 29 
 
 not departed from her old custom of making the face an 
 Index to the Mind — such readers will exculpate the Author 
 from the charge of vanity." The biographical indicia arc 
 not numerous. Ramsey was a native of Ireland, and thus 
 expresses his views : — " And as to the principle of the 
 Author — whose little volume embraces many subjects — he 
 can assure the Reader that he is a lover of his Country and 
 King, whom he hath had the honour to serve by sea and 
 land (as a volunteer) — but he is no zealot, either in Religion 
 or Politics — (save that he denies the supremacy of the 
 Pope and the legendary tales of his miracle-working 
 Apostles) — all he wishes is Truth from the Pulpit, Justice 
 from the Bench, and Constitutional Liberty from the 
 Throne." To which admirable platitude we may all say, 
 Amen. 
 
 The Macclesfield poet cannot claim to have drunk very 
 deep of the Pierian spring, and yet there are several of his 
 pieces that are worth naming. There is an epigram on tlie 
 " Fall of Eve " (p. 14):— 
 
 The Rev, Dr. Adam Clarke asserts 
 
 It could not be a serpent tempted Eve, 
 But a gay Monkey ! whose fine mimic arts 
 
 And fopp'ries were more likely to deceive ! 
 Dogmatic Commentators still hold out 
 
 A Serpent, not a Monkey, tempted Madam ; 
 And which shall we believe? Without a doubt, 
 
 None knew so well what tempted Eve as Adam. 
 
 Another is a humorous address to the Prince Regent on 
 "Fat and Lean Subjects," in which, as a means of reforming
 
 30 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 " each class that's prone to riot," he advises the Government 
 to send supplies of food, so that 
 
 . . their well-nourished Frames, 
 In time becoming Fat, shall so chain down 
 Their factious spirits, that the Luddite host 
 "Will grow submissive, loyal, meek, and mild. 
 As e'en the sleekest Bishop in the land. 
 
 There is an anecdote of " Broadbrim and the Wag," which 
 shows that "Simpson" was not unknown fifty years ago. The 
 ingenious, if not ingenuous, milk-dealer thus explains : — 
 
 "Nay, friend," said Broadbrim, "folks I never bilk, 
 Tho' I outwit them — thou mistak'st the matter ; 
 I never do put water in the milk — 
 I only — put the milk into the water." 
 
 Amongst the reminiscences of Ramsey's sailor-life may be 
 mentioned the tale of a sailor who had a pearl on his eye, which 
 prevented him from closing " the visual orb." Sailor Tom was 
 left to protect the rum on shore from the Indians at Cuba. 
 He was soon drunk and asleep ; but when the felonious 
 Indian approached he was frightened at the appearance of 
 " the strange white-man," thus explaining the cause of his 
 awe-struck alarm : — 
 
 But when I in his face did peep, 
 I found he had — one eye to sleep, 
 And one to watch the kegs ! 
 
 There is an old story of a lazy porter at Manchester (p. 62). 
 The Lazy Porters. 
 A gentleman, late, travelling through the town 
 Of Manchester, for commerce famous once ;
 
 RicJiard Ramsey. 31 
 
 Beheld a group of Porters squatted down 
 Upon the flags, and basking in the sun, 
 As still as Indian Brahmins in a trance : 
 
 He slacken 'd step, upon the squad look'd down; 
 And thought of an expedient to arouse them ; 
 " Here, my fine lads, if you're not in a swoon, 
 •' The laziest of you shall have this half crown — " 
 When most upon their bottoms bump did souse them ! 
 
 They reach'd their hands ;— but, lo ! the man of fun 
 Withheld the proffer'd gift to their surprise ! 
 And hailing one, who still bask'd in the sun, 
 Said, " My fine fellow, you the prize have won. 
 Who neither mov'd your limbs, nor op'd your eyes." 
 
 He op'd his eyes to show he was awake. 
 And gave them a half-roll within their socket, 
 Yet mov'd not, nor put forth his hand to take 
 The gift — but whisper'd soft, " for goodness sake, 
 ^ Sir, if it's good, do put it in my pocket ! " 
 
 It appears that a Mr. Grundy has been preaching against 
 the existence of the Devil. Since then, the poet says : — 
 
 Our modern gownmen, to secure their bread, 
 
 And guard against decay of trade. 
 
 Use all their skill to preach the Devil up ! 
 
 There is a poem on the death of that strange fanatic Joanna 
 Southcott ; another is addressed to Mrs. Jane Davies, of 
 Macclesfield, on reading her " Letters from a Mother to her 
 Son on his going to Sea;" whilst a third, entitled "The 
 Dumb Cottagers," is on a couple of deaf mutes who lived 
 near Nantwich. These were sister and brother, and they 
 were unable to understand or make themselves understood :
 
 32 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 In vain I ask'd my way — all was grimace, 
 Dumb elocution and unmeaning sound ; 
 Devoid of speech they could not tell the place, 
 And much it seemed their feeling hearts to wound. 
 
 How hard their lot ! descended from one womb, 
 And from that womb the joys of speech deny'd ! 
 What pleasures can they have, thus deaf and dumb, 
 Save heaven some mystic language hath supply'd ? 
 
 Lost to the tale of love, the song of praise. 
 The converse that endears the social hour. 
 To music dead, slow pass their cheerless days, 
 To speech a stranger, and its soothing povv'r. 
 
 This description of the condition of deaf mutes, though 
 creditable to Ramsey's benevolence, is not quite accurate, 
 for as a rule they are neither morose nor unhappy, Man 
 / has a blessed faculty of accommodation, and even in the 
 cases where every avenue seems closed, some method of 
 communication between the imprisoned soul and the outer 
 world is established. The life of Laura Bridgman, blind, 
 deaf and dumb, and yet educated and even accomplished, 
 is a striking proof of this. Nearly two centuries earlier than 
 Ramsey, the learned author of several curious books, left a 
 note of two Cheshire mutes whose condition was apparently 
 more desperate than the Nantwich cottagers, but who were 
 seemingly better able to make themselves understood. John 
 Bulwer says: "A Husbandman living at Tilstone in Cheshire, 
 about seven mile from Chester, had two daughters, Twins, 
 that were borne deafe and dumbe, having but two eyes 
 betweene them ; one of the eyes of each of them being 
 originally blinde ; they lived both to be old women. Some
 
 RicJiard Ramsey. 33 
 
 Cheshire men of my acquaintance, who knew them both, 
 affirme, that they had a very strange and admirable nimble- 
 nesse of perception, both to understand others, and to dehver 
 their owne mindes by signes, which happened, without doubt, 
 unto them through the marvelous recompence that nature 
 affordeth in such cases ; For, having but one eye, the sight 
 of that was certainely very accurate." ("Philocophus," 1648, 
 
 P- 47-) 
 
 One of the most interesting of his pieces is one in blank 
 verse referring to the Indian weed, and to one of the many 
 controversies it has excited. With this we conclude: — 
 
 Tobacco. 
 
 To sage experience we owe 
 The Indian weed unknown to ancient times, 
 
 / Nature's kind Gift, whose acrimonious fume 
 Extracts superfluous juices, and refines 
 The Blood distemper'd from its noxious salts ; 
 
 / Friend to the spirits, which with vapours bland 
 It gently mitigates ; Companion fit 
 Of pleasantry and wine ; nor to the bards 
 Unfriendly, when they to the vocal shell 
 Warble melodious their well labour'd songs. 
 
 PlIILl.II'S. 
 
 The poor man struggles with an ill whose sting 
 Is felt, alas ! full oft on sea and land. 
 Privation of a fascinating plant 
 
 • ' Yclept Tobacco— total want of which, 
 In onewho us'd it for a length of time, 
 Will sour the sweetest temper, whether he 
 Take snuff, or chew, or smoke the reeking tube. 
 
 D
 
 / 
 
 34 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Happy the man who, free from want and pain, 
 
 In sealskin pouch, or shining box contains 
 
 A quid of fresh Tobacco ! he nor rolls 
 
 In vain the restless tongue thro' tasteless mouth 
 
 Nor substitutes weak liquorice, spungy root, 
 
 Nor wooden pegs that bound Tobacco roll ; 
 
 But when old men and wives the empty box 
 
 Indignant view, and shatter on hearth stone 
 
 Their useless pipes, at rates and taxes rail. 
 
 And curse good Governments, he in his cheek 
 
 With heart uplift the lusty quid doth cram. 
 
 And feast his palate on the savoury juice. 
 
 Or if transform'd to sherroot or segar, 
 
 (That us'd in India, in Columbia this) 
 
 Or minc'd in milk-white tube, by fire he sits 
 
 And smokes, pleas'd with the taste and fragrant smell. 
 
 And ev'ry whiff wafts odorous clouds on high ; 
 
 While ever and anon the flowing can 
 
 Of English stingo, and the jocund tale 
 
 Of other days goes round the festive board. 
 
 Last, tho' not least, the snuff-box, richly set 
 
 With costly diamonds (such as Castlereagh, 
 
 From public purse, on foreign courts late shower'd 
 
 In vast profusion, and at vast expense), 
 
 Opes on the golden hinge, and the huge pinch 
 
 To nostril, wide expanded, close apply 'd, 
 
 Infusing wisdom, clears the muddy brain 
 
 Of deep-wig'd Judge, or mitred Prelate grave, 
 
 Dispensing law and Gospel to mankind. 
 
 ^ 
 
 To thee, O Raleigh ! Europe's sons, who use 
 
 The Indian Weed, can never half repay 
 
 Their debt of gratitude. Of daring soul, 
 
 He plough'd thro' unknown seas, scann'd distant realms.
 
 RicJiard Ramsey. . 35 
 
 And on his safe return first introduced 
 / This soother of our woes — this pasture sweet, 
 I That heightens friendship and the social hour, 
 Tho' James condemned Tobacco — and a Bard, 
 More learn'd and popular, with him took part — 
 The famous Cowper ; though in latter days 
 Clarke join'd their standard, and dull Combro strove 
 To hobble in the rear ; yet greater he 
 In sense and song who sung its deathless praise — 
 Immortal Phillips — "splendid " son of fame. 
 
 Such and so strong the force of haljit is, 
 That Cambro's lectures, tho' in various tongues 
 Wide spread, can never make real proselytes 
 Of those who use Tobacco. Cambro says, 
 " A needle dipp'd in its strong juice will kill 
 An animal ; " but may not arrows slay 
 And needles kill whose points were never daub'd 
 With 'Bacco juice or poison ? but, again, 
 " It can't guard off contagion," it hath been 
 The second mean ; due honor to the first. 
 In Philadelphia, when the raging plague 
 Dealt Death around ; The Negroes, and the French, 
 Still us'd Tobacco, and remained in Town, 
 Yet died not ! but a vain misguided race, 
 Who thought that smoking was quite ungenteel, 
 And would not stain their breath, nor singe their beards 
 With pipe, or roU'd Segar, in Hundreds fell, 
 And choak'd up doors and Halls, and strcw'd the streets ! 
 But mark how well this Cambro can describe 
 , The ways men use this bless'd Virginian weed. 
 Which helps to crush rebellion in the Stale 
 And feuds in families — when mildly Tax'd. 
 First, as a " sternutatory," — now who
 
 o 
 
 6 Cheshire Gleajiings. 
 
 Could think this sounding phrase implied— to sneeze? 
 
 Next — " Goes in form of vapour to the Lungs" — 
 
 What form has vapour ? vapour here means Smoke ! 
 
 Then as a " Masticatory " — in this 
 
 Dark phrase we dimly recognize the — quid ! 
 
 Clarke calls this precious weed a " God," our " hope " 
 
 In " sorrow," and in " trouble " our "support ; " 
 
 Ador'd as "pipe," as " snuff-box," or as "twist !" 
 
 But Clarke and Cambro both may chew the cud 
 
 Of Disappointment ; their fanatic zeal 
 
 Shall make few proselytes. Heaven for the good 
 
 Of man bestow'd this plant, and why not use 
 
 With moderation what it freely gave ? 
 
 All things were made for use of man or beast ; 
 
 Beasts touch it not ! Hence Clarke and Cambro keep 
 
 Your Ideal "Gods " and "potions " to yourselves, 
 
 And leave us to enjoy — snuff, pipe, and quid.
 
 WILLIAM HORNBY'S SCOURGE 
 OF DRUNKENNESS. 
 
 and when 
 
 You wake with head ache you shall see what then. 
 
 Byron. Don Juan. 
 
 OF that rare and curious work Hornby's "Scourge of 
 Drunkenness" the earliest known copy, dated 1 6 19, is / 
 in the British Museum, but a transcript exists of an earlier 
 one, dated 16 14. This was reprinted in 1859 for private 
 circulation. "The Scourge of Drunkenness; a Poem by 
 William Hornby, a.d. 16 14. Edited by James O. Halli- 
 well, Esq., F.R.S." London. 1859. 4to. The author, who 
 was a reformed drunkard, dedicates his book thus : — " To 
 his loving kinsman and approved friend, Mr. Henry 
 Cholmely, Esquire, William Hornby wisheth all health 
 and happiness." From this it would appear probable that 
 Hornby was a Cheshire man. The quality of his poetry 
 may be judged by these two verses : —
 
 38 C lies J lire Gleanings. 
 
 'Tis great impeachment to a generous mind, 
 
 A base and paltry alehouse to frequent, 
 It best befits a tinker in his kinde, 
 
 Than any man of virtues eminent : 
 Go to an alehouse to quaffe and carouse 
 
 'Tis cousin-germane to a baudy-house. 
 It is the receptacle of al vices, 
 
 Where tinkers and their tibs doe oft repaire, 
 Where theeves and iugglers with their slight devises, 
 
 Their false-got booties, at a night doe share, 
 Where rogues and runagates doe still resort, 
 
 And every knave which is of evil report. 
 
 The "Scourge" was not Hornby's only production. Mr. 
 Halliwell mentions, amongst others, " Hornby's Hornbook," 
 1622. This he says "is a still rarer poem, for as far as I 
 have been able to discover only one copy of it is preserved, 
 and it is altogether unnoticed in the various bibliographical 
 dictionaries."
 
 DID HAROLD DIE AT CHESTER? 
 
 May 22, 1832. — We got such a treat on Friday evening, in Arthur's 
 parcel of prizes. One copy he had iUustrated in answer to my ques- 
 tions, with all his authorities, to show how he came by various bits of 
 information. In this parcel he sent an Ancient Ballad, showing how 
 Harold the King died at Chester, the result of a diligent collation of 
 old chronicles he and Mary had made together in winter. Arthur put 
 all the facts together from memory. [An extract from Mrs. Stanley's 
 Diary.] 
 
 Augustus J. C. Hare. 
 Maaitillaii' s Magazine, xliv., 360, October, 188 1. 
 
 THAT Harold, the last of the Saxons, died on the 
 battlefield that brought destruction to his kingdom 
 and power is the general, and, in all probability, the correct 
 opinion. It is, however, to be noted that a tradition of some 
 antiquity states that he lived for many years after the battle 
 of Senlac, and died at last in a hermitage near Chester. 
 According to this legend those who were seeking for their 
 friends amongst the slain found his body with life not yet 
 extinct. He was removed to Winchester, and there 
 recovered chiefly by the aid of the medical skill of a woman 
 of oriental extraction. On his recovery the moody king saw
 
 40 CJieshire Gleanings. 
 
 that the recovery of his throne was impossible without 
 foreign aid, and with the hope of obtaining it he proceeded 
 first to Saxony, and then to Denmark. Disappointed in his 
 ambitious hopes he donned the Pahiier's garb, and pro- 
 ceeded on a pilgrimage to Palestine, and thence, when an 
 old man, returned to England. From Dover he journeyed 
 through Kent, and settled in a place in Shropshire, called 
 CeswTthin, where he built a cell, and stayed for ten years. 
 Then the wandering spirit impelled him to leave, and in 
 obedience to a dream he took possession of a cell in the 
 chapel of St. James', in the churchyard of St. John the 
 Baptist, a little beyond the walls of Chester. The previous 
 occupant of this hermitage had died immediately before 
 Harold received his supernatural intimation of the new 
 home that had been prepared for him. The recluse lived 
 here for seven years, and though it was shrewdly conjectured 
 that he was one of the chiefs defeated at Hastings it was not 
 until he lay upon his deathbed that he revealed the secret 
 of his identity. 
 
 Such is the story told in the " Vita Haroldi," to be found 
 in the " Chroniques Anglo-Normandes." Mr. E. A. Freeman 
 has examined the tradition with great care, but only to reject 
 it as baseless. (History of the Norman Conquest, iii., 516). 
 The conquered in all ages have based their hopes upon a 
 deliverer, and have refused to believe that Death had 
 vanquished the hero in whom centred the aspirations of the 
 nation or of the race. The return of Arthur, of Marco, of 
 Sebastian, to give victory and liberty were thus expected. 
 As Harold did not return to fight for the throne of his
 
 Did Harold Die at Chester? 
 
 41 
 
 father the explanation would, in that age, be natural that 
 he had abandoned the world for what was then regarded 
 as the higher life of an ascetic. Hence, as Mr. Freeman 
 points out, the very disappointment and falsification of the 
 original hope might give rise to the later story of his adven- 
 tures in the holy land, and his seclusion in the hermit's cell. 
 Nor was Chester an unlikely place to be associated with 
 such a tradition. The Minster had seen the glory of Edgar 
 the Peaceful, when all the tributary princes rendered him 
 homage, and it was not unfit, therefore, that in its mighty 
 but peaceful shadow the last representative of his race and 
 power should hide the last years of a long and unfortunate 
 life.
 
 THE WORD BACHELOR IN CHESHIRE. 
 
 When I said I would die a bachelor I did not think I should live till 
 I were married. 
 
 Shakespere. Mucli Ado About Nothing. 
 
 THE increase of "girl graduates" has naturally led to 
 a discussion as to the designation for them, especially 
 in the earlier stages of academic distinction. " A Female 
 Educationist " writing to the Madras Mail in February, 
 1883, says : — " I was agreeably surprised to learn from your 
 journal of yesterday that two Bengalee ladies have success- 
 fully passed the B.A. Degree Examination at the Calcutta 
 University. This is, of course, highly satisfactory, so far as 
 it goes, but I have a doubt as to the propriety of calling 
 girls ' Bachelors of Arts.' It may possibly be urged that 
 ' B.A.' indicates only the degree of proficiency ; but I am of 
 opinion that ' B. A.' is more personal than ' F.A.' (for in- 
 stance), which assuredly refers only to the degree of merit. 
 I should like to see if at the next meeting of the Senate 
 some Fellow will not stand up and move for the institution 
 of a ' Maid of Arts degree.'" 
 
 One obvious objection to such a designation would be
 
 TJie Word BacJieloj' in ChcsJdre. 43 
 
 the confusion between Maid and Master of Arts. Spinster 
 appears to be the technical designation of an unmarried 
 lady, and S.A. might therefore suit some cases. But the 
 Universities that have opened their doors to women would 
 scarcely refuse admission to a married woman who is not, 
 even by a legal fiction, now regarded as a spinster. But 
 where is the need for any change ? xA.pparently those 
 who suggest some alternative designation imagine that 
 "bachelor" is a word solely of masculine import. This 
 is by no means the case. There has been a great deal 
 of ingenious speculation as to its origin, which is con- 
 fessedly obscure. The Rev. "Walter W. Skeat derives it 
 / from the Low-Latin baccalarius^ a farm servant, originall)- 
 a cowherd. The root of the word, he thinks, is probabl)- 
 the Sanskrit vasa, the "lowing animal," or cow. This 
 etymology does not appear to throw much light upon the 
 subject, and that which suggests the derivation of the word 
 from bacillus or bacuhini is more suggestive, for then the 
 foundation of the word would be the idea of a shoot, push- 
 ing forward from one stage to another of its existence. 
 Whatever the derivation, the word has had several distinct 
 I meanings. Thus it meant in c liivalry a person in the first 
 I or probationary condition of knighthood. Analogously it 
 indicated one who had taken the first degree in one of the 
 faculties of a university. It meant in the London com- 
 panies a person not yet admitted to the livery. In all these 
 cases the common idea is that of ]:)robation, which is also 
 evident in the commonest meaning of the word when it is 
 applied to an unmarried man, — one of those who like Shy-
 
 44 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 lock "when he was a bachelor" would not have given the 
 
 turquoise ring he had from his sweetheart Leah, not " for 
 
 a wilderness of monkeys." But "bachelor" was formerly 
 
 a term applied to young women as well as to young men. 
 
 Of this we have an instance in the following epitaph from 
 
 Prestbury churchyard : — 
 
 " Here Lyeth the body of James Pickford, of Mottram, 
 
 who departed this life the first day of January a.d. 1691. 
 
 Alsoe Sarah Pickford sister to the above-said James Pickford, 
 
 was here interred August ye 17 Anno Domini 1705, and 
 
 died a Bachelour in the 48 yeare of her age." 
 
 ' This is noteworthy as the word has escaped the attention 
 
 . of the compilers of Cheshire Glossaries. For a time, it 
 
 must be admitted, the use of the word bachelor to denote an 
 
 unmarried woman was not at all general, and yet it was used 
 
 in this sense by so great a master of English as Ben Jonson, 
 
 for in the " Magnetic Lady," Polish, addressing the heroine, 
 
 Placentia, says : — 
 
 Your lady-aunt has choice in the house for you : 
 We do not trust your uncle ; he would keep you 
 A bachelor still, by keeping of your portion. 
 
 A partial restoration of its meaning may be further justi- 
 fied by the custom of Berry where the style of bachelicre 
 was given to the bridesmaid at a wedding. These con- 
 siderations, and the Cheshire instance cited, may relieve the 
 minds of those purists who are alarmed at the proposal to 
 call young men and women who have shown equal intellect 
 and good memory by the common title of Bachelor of 
 Arts. .
 
 WAS MARAT A TEACHER AT WARRINGTON? 
 
 Necessity, 
 The tyrant's plea, excused his devilisli deeds. 
 
 Milton. Paradise Lost, iv. 393. 
 
 IT has frequently been said that Jean Paul Marat during a 
 portion of his stay in England, was a master at Warring- 
 ton Academy, and that he was afterwards condemned to five 
 years penal servitude for a theft committed in the Ashmo- 
 lean Museum at Oxford. The story appears to have been 
 first mentioned in a series of articles that appeared in the 
 Monthly Repository, and are known to have been contributed 
 by the Rev. William Turner. Mr. H. Morse Stephens having 
 investigated this calumny has stated the result. The 
 Academy, 23rd September, 1882, contains an account by 
 Mr. H. Morse Stephens, of the last medical treatise by 
 Marat; the issue of 23rd December, 1882, contains Mr. 
 Stephens' letter on the theft from the Ashmolean Museum, 
 and the number of 27th Jan., 1883, has some further comment 
 by the present wTiter. The essential points are here repro- 
 duced. From some "odd pajicrs " in the Ashmolean
 
 4^ Cheshire Gleaniners 
 
 Museum, it appears that a Norwich silversmith wrote to the 
 authorities to say that he had bought some medals from a 
 foreigner, who wore a gold chain "formerly belonging to 
 Elias Ashmole." This person gave his name as Mara, and 
 was accompanied by Mr. Rigby, who had known him at 
 Warrington. This man, Jean Paul Le Maitre, alais Matra, 
 alais Mara, was arrested at Dublin, convicted of the theft, 
 and sentenced at the Oxford Assizes March 6, 1777, to five 
 years hard labour in the hulks. This man's identity with 
 Marat has been assumed, but is quite untenable. Mr. 
 Stephens has shown that Marat, who had for some years 
 been practising as a physician in London, received the degree 
 of M.D. at St. xA.ndrews, June 30th, 1775, published a medical 
 pamphlet dated Church Street, Soho, ist Jan., 1776, and was 
 appointed physician to the Gardes du Corps of the Comte 
 d'Artois, 24th June, 1777. It is clear therefore that he cannot 
 be identical with the thief sent to the hulks three months 
 earlier. To Mr. Stephens' satisfactory demolition it may be 
 added that in 1858 Mr. H. A. Bright wrote "A Historical 
 Sketch of the Warrington Academy," which may be found 
 in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and 
 Cheshire, vol. xi. He had, of course, to form an opinion as 
 to the correctness of the arguments originally adduced by 
 the Rev. William Turner in the Monthly Repository for 
 identifying the felonious Frenchman with the great revolu- 
 tionary. Mr. Bright could not find the name of either 
 Lemaitre or Mara in the minutes at all. " Lastly," he says, 
 " Miss Aikin, to whom I applied, informs me there was an 
 alarm about Marat, but investigation set the matter at rest :
 
 Was Marat a Teacher at IVarriiigton. 47 
 
 they were certainly different men." It thus appears that the 
 imputation on Marat's honesty is a slander based on a mis- 
 take. The sojourn as a teacher at the Warrington Academy 
 must also henceforth be omitted from the biography of the 
 "Ami du Peuple" who played so strange a part in the 
 sanguinary epoch of the French revolution.
 
 THE BOTANIST'S FUNERAL. 
 
 For I love and prize you one and all, 
 From the least low bloom of spring 
 To the lily fair, whose clothes outshine 
 The raiment of a King. 
 
 Phcebe Gary. Spring Floivcrs. 
 
 Er Abram studies plants, — 
 
 He caps the dule for moss an' ferns, 
 
 An growin' polyants ; 
 
 Edwin Waugh. Eaur Fowk. ^ 
 
 "TTAPPY is the bride that the sun shines on, and happy 
 AJl is the corpse that the rain rains on." We thought 
 of the quaint old north country proverb as with the wind 
 howHng in our ears and the rain dashing in blinding_ torrents 
 against our face we struggled up the steep hill street of 
 Mossley on 13th November, 1875. Many a hill side village, 
 and many a hamlet in the doughs sent representatives to 
 join in the last tribute of respect to one who for many years 
 had exercised a potent influence for good upon the members 
 of his own class. 
 
 The late Mr. James Walker, of Mossley, was well-known
 
 TJie Botajiisfs Funeral. 49 
 
 to many scientific men as a notable member of the remark- 
 able group of artisans who have been distinguished by a 
 love of science, and by success in its pursuit. Originally 
 employed as a mill-hand, he had afterwards been a postman, 
 and at his death was an emigration agent. His quiet genial 
 presence had been so constant a feature at the meetings and 
 field rambles of the artisan naturalist societies that the news 
 of his unexpected death caused something like a feeling of 
 consternation. He was only sixty, an age within the three- 
 score years and ten allotted by the Psalmist, and at which 
 many typical Englishmen — Lord Palmerston, for instance — 
 can only be said to be blossoming into maturity. We were 
 not surprised, then, on reaching the rooms of the Natural 
 History Society of Mossley, to find a goodly number assem- 
 bled to do honour to the dead comrade who had so long 
 marched in the van. There we met with old friends, and 
 heard simple but heartfelt expressions of grief and regret. 
 Many of these were not only his friends, but pupils and 
 disciples — men whom he had drawn from more ignoble aims 
 to the love of nature and the study of her works and laws. 
 One, in his own rough phrase, would tell how patient the 
 teacher had been. " Eh, heaw patient he wur ! Aw're a 
 poor scholar, and had to ax th' same question o'er and o'er 
 agen enough to tire a wayter wheel. Thoose jaw-breaking 
 words would'n stop i' my mind. It took me months to larn 
 one on 'em. But it didno matter heaw often I axd the same 
 question ; he'd alius the same quiet gentle way o' tellin' me. 
 Why, there's some, if I axt hauf as often, ud ha' coed eawt, 
 ' Neaw then, blethcr-yed, heaw often does ta want tellin' ? ' "
 
 50 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Gentleness was a very noticeable trait of Mr. Walker's 
 character. He was not one of the genus irritabile, was 
 tender to animals, and loved plants and flowers with some- 
 thing of the love that is usually reserved for living creatures ; 
 had an infinity of patience as a teacher, and an absolute 
 delight in imparting knowledge, especially if in so doing he 
 were stimulating the recipient to further research and the 
 acquisition of greater knowledge. Living all his life in the 
 midst of the artisan class, he knew their virtues and their 
 failings and the potentiality for moral culture and for 
 intellectual expansion dormant amongst them, and so far 
 as his personal influence extended — and it was great — 
 he sought to bring them into closer communion with our 
 bountiful Mother Nature. And to whom should this be of 
 greater importance than to those who, during no inconsider- 
 able portion of their lives, must listen to the whirr of wheels 
 and not to the song of birds ? So he enticed his companions 
 into the open to study flowers, and ferns, and rocks; en- 
 couraged the timid, stimulated the strong, and put fresh 
 heart into those discouraged. Sometimes one would say, 
 " Aw've nobbut my warty cloas ; aw'm noan fit for a Sunday 
 ramble." In reply to this Mr. Walker would keep the man 
 by his side, and say, " I'll answer anyone that cares about 
 that." Another would plead, " Aw canno larn ; aw'st ha' t' 
 give up." To this the reply would be, " Thee keep on, I'll 
 give thee the sack when thou can't learn." It was this much 
 enduring patience that gave Mr. Walker his deep hold on 
 the affections of his peers. He was in the first rank by 
 reason of his knowledge; but scientific attainments alone.
 
 The Botanisfs Funeral. 51 
 
 unaccompanied by this child-like gentleness of spirit, would 
 
 not have given him the place he held in the hearts of his 
 
 many friends. The only thing that seemed to move him to 
 
 anger was bigotry and intolerance. Against these, displayed 
 
 by whatever sect or party, he made vigorous protest. The 
 
 fact that the naturalist societies hold their meetings and 
 
 have their excursions on the Sunday, has excited a prejudice 
 
 against them in some minds. The Sunday is the only clear 
 
 day a man has to himself in England, and it is within the 
 
 memory of many when even the fraction of the Saturday 
 
 could not be spared by Mammon. Mr. Walker held strong 
 
 views on the subject; and in July of 1875 he wrote to the 
 
 Manchester Examiner and Twies, in vindication of them, in 
 
 reply to a clergyman who had been wrongly reported to 
 
 have described the Sunday naturalists in a manner at once 
 
 inaccurate and uncharitable. 
 
 r-' A true lover of nature was James Walker. After some 
 
 correspondence between us on scientific topics, we made an 
 
 appointment to meet each other, and that there might be no 
 
 delay in recognition, he carried in his hands a small green 
 
 fern. It was not an unfitting cognisance for one who loved 
 
 the beautiful. One of his Mossley friends encountered at 
 
 the Isle of Man some rare ferns, and sent a slight specimen 
 
 in a letter. Walker was so delighted that he could hardly 
 
 sleep for thinking of the more bounteous store that would be 
 
 brought back by his correspondent. During the dark days of 
 
 the Cotton Famine he and one of his friends found themselves 
 
 happily possessed of an unlimited amount of enforced leisure 
 
 and two superfluous five shilling pieces. The purchase of
 
 52 Cheshire Gleajimgs. 
 
 cheap trip tickets for Rhyl left each of them with is. 6d. in 
 his pocket. Arrived at that not very lively watering-place 
 they determined to see something of Wales, and cast away 
 the return half of their excursion tickets. Having thus 
 crossed the Rubicon and burnt the boats, they proceeded on 
 their way rejoicing. How the adventurous pair succeeded 
 the survivor alone could adequately relate, but aided by the 
 freemasonry which a love of science implies, they managed 
 to examine the coast from Rhyl to Conway, to see Llan- 
 dudno, to examine the Vale of Clwyd up to Denbigh, and 
 to return home almost as rich as they left, in a pecuniary 
 sense, and richer in knowledge and in pleasant memories. 
 
 Another proof of his love of Nature was afforded by his 
 expressed wish — reverently complied with — that those who 
 came to follow him to his last resting-place should each 
 receive a small flower and fern. With this natural regalia 
 displayed the members of the botanical societies led off the 
 funeral procession. The storm of wind and rain was terrible, 
 and the cold intense, but notwithstanding this elemental 
 strife some two hundred persons accompanied their dead 
 friend to his last resting-place. The church of Mossley is 
 barren of decoration and so dimly lighted that the figure of 
 the clergyman and the bowed heads of the congregation 
 were scarcely perceptible. Then out into the cold church- 
 yard and with bared heads we gathered round the grave, and 
 as the voice of the white-robed priest uttered those words 
 which fall upon the heart like the stroke of a sword, there 
 arose the wail of women and the sobs of men who had 
 known and revered that which was now only earth to be
 
 The Botanist's Funeral. 53 
 
 restored to earth. " Dust to dust and ashes to ashes " — and 
 some stepped forward and cast within the grave the floral 
 emblems they had carried on their breasts, and others only 
 refrained because they wished to keep them as the bequest 
 and memento of the dead. From the churchyard the 
 botanists wended their way to the village inn where tea had 
 been provided for them by the local society. This done a 
 chairman was elected and brief unpretentious speeches made 
 by various persons from Oldham, Ashton, Manchester, and 
 other places. 
 
 A life like this reflects honour alike upon the class and 
 the nation that produces it. Here was a man who, in spite 
 of adverse circumstances, struggled and attained a mastery 
 over a branch of science as difficult as it is fascinating ; who 
 made no pretensions to learning, but had a mind eclectic in <> 
 tone, and sympathetic to varied forms of culture. It was a 
 life of simplicity in an age of luxury ; a life devoted to the 
 acquisition and the diffusion of knowledge at a time when 
 many are sacrificing mind and soul in order to " get on in 
 the world," and when more are unhappily without aim or 
 object of any kind. As an example of plain living and high 
 thinking, how much such a life is worth !
 
 THE CHESHIRE MAN CALLED EVELYN. 
 
 A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it. 
 
 Shakspere. Lovers Labour Lost. 
 
 THERE is an odd anecdote in the " Mery Tales, Wittie 
 Questions and Quicke Answeres," 1567, (usually re- 
 garded as one of the Shaksperian Jest-books and as such 
 re-printed) which has more local favour than is common in 
 these tales. It is as follows : — 
 
 "Ther dwelled a man in Chesshyre called Eulyn, which 
 vsed to go to the towne many tymes, and there he wolde 
 sytte drynkyng tyl XII. of the clocke at nyghte, and than 
 go home. So on a tyme he caryed a lyttel boye his sonne 
 on his shulder with him, and whan the chylde fell a slepe 
 about IX. of the clocke, the ale wyfe brought him to bed 
 with her chyldren. At mydnyghte Eulyn went home, and 
 thought no more on his chylde. Assone as he came home 
 his wyfe asked for her chyld, whan she spake of the chylde 
 he looked on his shulder, and whan he saw he was not ther, 
 he said he wist nat where he was. Out vpon the horson 
 (quod she) thou hast let mi child fal in to the water (for he
 
 55 
 
 The Cheshire Man Called Evelyn. 
 
 passed ouer the water of Dee at a brige). Thou Hst here 
 (quod he) for if he had fallen in to the water, I shuld haue 
 hard him plump." 
 
 Such were the to us pointless stories which set the table 
 in a roar in the good old times.
 
 THE WIZARD OF ALDERLEY EDGE. 
 
 Whom he reports to be a great magician. 
 
 Shakspere. As Vou Like It. 
 
 CONNECTED with Alderley Edge there is a curious 
 tradition which preserves a very ancient fragment of 
 mythological belief, and is, therefore, worthy of notice. 
 
 The legend of the wizard of Alderley Edge first appeared 
 in print in the Manchester Mail of 1805, by a correspondent 
 who obtained it from the narration of a servant of the 
 Stanleys, whose proper name was Thomas Broadhurst, but 
 who was better known as " Old Daddy." According to 
 this veteran the tradition says that once upon a time a 
 farmer from Mobberley, mounted on a milk-white horse, 
 was crossing the Edge on his way to Macclesfield to sell 
 the animal. He had reached a spot known as the Thieves' 
 Hole, and, as he slowly rode along thinking of the 
 profitable bargain which he hoped to make, was startled 
 by the sudden appearance of an old man, tall and strangely 
 clad in a deep flowing garment. The old man ordered
 
 The Wizard of Alder ley Edge. 57 
 
 him to stop, told him that he knew the errand upon which 
 the rider was bent, and offered a sum of money for 
 the horse. The farmer, however, refused the offer, not 
 thinking it sufficient. " Go, then, to Macclesfield," said 
 the old man, "but mark my words, you will }iot sell the 
 horse. Should you find my words come true, meet me this 
 evening, and I will buy your horse." The farmer laughed 
 at such a prophecy, and went on his way. To his great 
 surprise, and greater disappointment, nobody would buy, 
 though all admired his beautiful horse. He was, therefore, 
 compelled to return. On approaching the Edge he saw the 
 old man again. Checking his horse's pace, he began to 
 consider how far it might be prudent to deal with a perfect 
 stranger in so lonely a place. However, while he was con- 
 sidering what to do, the old man commanded him, 
 " Follow me ! " Silently the old man led him by the Seven 
 Firs, the Golden Stone, by Stormy Point, and Saddle Boll. 
 Just as the farmer was beginning to think he had gone far 
 enough he fancied that he heard a horse neighing under- 
 ground. Again he heard it. Stretching forth his arm the 
 old man touched a rock with a wand, and immediately the 
 farmer saw a ponderous pair of iron gates, which, with a 
 sound like thunder, flew open. The horse reared bolt 
 upright, and the terrified farmer fell on his knees praying 
 that his life might be spared. " Fear nothing," spoke the 
 Wizard, " and behold a sight which no mortal eye has ever 
 looked upon." They went into the cave. In a long succes- 
 sion of caverns the farmer saw a countless number of men 
 and horses, the latter milk-white, and all fast asleep. In
 
 58 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 the innermost cavern heaps of treasure were piled up on the 
 ground. From these glittering heaps the old man bade the 
 farmer take the price he desired for his horse, and thus 
 addressed him : " You see these men and horses ; the num- 
 ber was not complete. Your horse was wanted to make it 
 complete. Remember my words, there will come a day 
 when these men and these horses, awakening from their 
 enchanted slumber, will descend into the plain, decide the 
 fate of a great battle, and save their country. This shall 
 be when George the son of George shall reign. Go home 
 in safety. Leave your horse with me. No harm will befal 
 you ; but henceforward no mortal eye will ever look upon 
 the iron gates. Begone ! " The farmer lost no time in 
 obeying. He heard the iron gates close with the same fear- 
 ful sounds with which they were opened, and made the best 
 of his way to Mobberley. 
 
 This tradition found a place in the Hon. Miss L. D. 
 Stanley's " Alderley and its neighbourhood," and has since 
 been often quoted. Colonel Egerton Leigh has printed 
 two rhyming versions, the one by Mr, James Roscoe, 
 which is the most modern, and from a literary point of 
 view the best, names the wondrous sleepers as King Arthur 
 and his knights. 
 
 The antiquity of the tradition is not easily ascertainable, 
 the story used to be told by Parson Shrigley, and he placed 
 the meeting of the Mobberley Farmer and the Enchanter at 
 about eighty years before his time. Shrigley was curate of 
 Alderley in 1753. He died in 1776. 
 
 It will be seen how closely this tradition resembles the
 
 The Wizard of Alderley Edge. 59 
 
 tales told by the peasantry of the famous Rymour of Ercil- 
 doun, who is supposed to inhabit the interior of the Eildon 
 Hills. 
 
 "A shepherd was once conducted into the interior 
 recesses of Eildon Hills by a venerable personage, whom 
 he discovered to be the famous Rymour, and who showed 
 him an immense number of steeds in their caparisons, and 
 at the bridle of each a knight sleeping in sable armour with 
 a sword and a bugle horn by his side. These he was told 
 were the hosts of King Arthur, waiting till the appointed 
 return of that monarch from fairyland." ("Poetical 
 Remains of Dr. John Leyden," 1S19, p. 358.) Scott has 
 printed a legend very similar to our Cheshire one. The 
 colour of the horses in the Border tale is coal black, and a 
 sword and a horn are pointed out to the rustic as the means 
 of dissolving the spell. He chooses the horn. No sooner 
 has he put it to his mouth than a dreadful tumult arises, 
 and a whirlwind carries the unfortunate horse dealer out of 
 the cavern, whilst loud over all the uproar he hears the stern 
 voice of the Rymour exclaiming : — 
 
 Woe to the coward that ever he was born, 
 
 That did not draw the sword before he blew the horn. 
 
 " This legend," says Scott, " is found in many parts of 
 Scotland and England — the scene is sometimes laid in 
 some favourite glen of the Highlands, sometimes in the 
 deep coal mines of Northumberland and Cumberland, which 
 run so far beneath the ocean. It is also to be found in 
 Reginald Scott's book on Witchcraft, which was written in
 
 6o Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 the i6th century." ("Waverley Novels," General Preface. 
 See also Scott's " Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft," 
 Letter 5.) 
 
 The ballad of " Sir Guy the Seeker," by Monk Lewis, a 
 ballad in every way superior to some others of his which 
 have had a larger share of popularity, is founded upon a 
 legend of Dunstanburgh Castle. According to this legend, 
 Sir Guy was taken by a man of supernatural appearance into 
 a large and lofty hall, where stood a hundred coal black 
 steeds, and sleeping by their sides a hundred marble knights ; 
 at the far end of the hall, bound in magic bonds, he sees a 
 J maid of beauty rare and strange. 
 
 A form more fair than that prisoner's ne'er 
 
 Since tlie days of Eve was known, 
 Every glance that flew from her eyes of blue, 
 
 Was worth an Emj^eror's throne ; 
 And one sweet kiss from her roseate lips, 
 
 Would have melted a heart of stone. 
 The warrior felt his stout heart melt. 
 
 When he saw those fountains run. 
 Oh ! what can I do ? he cried, for you ? 
 
 What mortal can do shall be done. 
 
 After the knight had thus expressed his determination the 
 ancient wizard speaks : — 
 
 See'st yonder sword, with jewels rare, 
 < Its dudgeon crusted o'er ? 
 See' St yonder horn of ivory fair ? 
 
 'Twas Merlin's horn of yore ! 
 That horn to sound, or sword to draw, 
 
 Now youth, your choice explain.
 
 The Wizard of Alder ley Edge. 6 1 
 
 After much hesitation the knight seizes the horn, and 
 blows upon it a blast which goes echoing through the hall 
 like the sound of thunder ; knights and steeds awake to life 
 and motion and rush upon Sir Guy, who startled at his 
 assailants, throws down the horn, and draws his sword to 
 defend himself. 
 
 And straight each light was extinguished quite 
 
 Save the flame so lurid blue 
 On the wizard's brow (whose flashing now 
 
 Assumed a bloody hue), 
 And those sparks of fire, which grief and ire 
 
 From his glaring eyeballs drew ! 
 And he stampt in rage, and he laughed in scorn, 
 
 While in thundering tone he roared, 
 Now shame on the coward who sounded a horn, 
 
 When he might have unsheatht a sword. 
 
 Lewis says of this ballad, " It is founded upon a tradition 
 current in Northumberland. Indeed, an adventure nearly 
 similar to Sir Guy's is said to have taken place in various 
 parts of Great Britain, particularly on the Pentland Hills in 
 Scotland (where the prisoners are supposed to be King 
 Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table), and in 
 Lancashire, where an alehouse, near Chorley, still exhibits 
 the sign of a Sir John Stanley following an old man with a 
 torch, while his horse starts back with terror at the objects 
 which are discovered through two immense iron gates — the 
 alehouse is known by the name of the Iron Gates, which 
 are supposed to protect the entrance of an enchanted 
 cavern in the neighbourhood. The. female captive, I
 
 62 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 believe, is peculiar to Dunstanburgh Castle; and certain 
 shining stones which are occasionally found in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and which are called Dunstanburgh Diamonds, 
 are supposed by the peasantry to form part of that immense 
 treasure with which the lady will reward her deliverer." 
 (" Lewis's Romantic Tales," quoted in the " Pictorial Book 
 of Ballads," edited by J. S. Moore, London, 1847, p. 161. 
 Lewis refers to Alderley in the above passage.) 
 
 In Richardson's " Borderer's Table Book " (Vol. VII., p. 
 66), the ballad of " Guy the Seeker " is reprinted, with an 
 introduction by Mr. J. H. Dixon, followed by an account of 
 the castle and its former possessors. In the same volume is 
 a paper by Mr. J. Hardy, giving legends current at Sewing- 
 shields, of the wondrous cavern where King Arthur sleeps. 
 The Dunstanburgh tradition stands alone in having a female 
 for its subject, the others, it will be seen, relate to Arthur, 
 whose reappearance was at one time an article of popular 
 faith very devoutly believed in. Geoffrey of Monmouth's 
 account of the hero's death is somewhat peculiar : " And 
 even the renowned King Arthur himself was mortally 
 wounded ; and being carried thence to the Isle of Avallon, 
 to be cured of his wounds, he gave up the crown," &c. Of 
 this belief in Arthur's return a writer of the 17 th century 
 thus speaks : — 
 
 " But finding of the body of Arthur, such as believed he 
 was not dead, but carried away by fairies into some pleasant 
 place, where he should remain a time, and then to return 
 again and reign in as great authority as he did before, 
 might well perceive themselves deceived in crediting so vain
 
 The Wizard of Alder ley Edge. 63 
 
 a fable." (Enderbie, "Cambria Triumphant," 1661, p. 
 191.) 
 
 There is a Welsh legend, that in a cavern under the roots 
 of the hazel-tree on Craig y Ddinas, King Arthur and all his 
 knights are lying asleep in a circle : " their heads outward, 
 every one in his armour, his sword, and shield, and spear by 
 him ; ready to be taken up whenever the Black Eagle and 
 the Golden Eagle shall go to war, and make the earth 
 tremble with their affray, so that the cavern shall be shaken 
 and the bell ring and the sleepers be awakened." 
 
 Arthur is not the only Welsh hero of whom this fable has 
 been related. Of Owen Glendower we are told that the 
 prevalent opinion was that he died in a wood in Glamorgan, 
 but occult chronicles assert that he and his men still live, 
 and are asleep on their arms in a cave called Ogof y Ddinas, 
 in the vale of Gwent, where they will continue until England 
 becomes self-abased ; but that then they will sally forth and 
 reconquer their country, privileges, and crown for the Welsh, 
 who shall be dispossessed of them no more until the day of 
 judgment, when the world shall be consumed with fire, and 
 so reconstructed that neither oppression nor devastation 
 shall take place any more. {Notes and Queries, IV., 120.) 
 " And blessed will be he who shall see the time." 
 
 In Ireland the hero of the legend is one of the Geraldines, 
 who with his warriors are now sleeping in a long cavern 
 under the Rath of Mullaghmast. There is a table running 
 along through the middle of the cave. The earl is sitting 
 at the head, and his troopers down along in complete 
 armour on both sides of the table, and their heads resting
 
 64 Cheshire Gleanmgs. 
 
 on it. Their horses saddled and bridled, are standing 
 behind their masters in their stalls at each side ; and when 
 the day comes the miller's son that's to be born with six 
 , fingers on his hand will blow the trumpet, and the horses 
 will stamp and whinny, and the knights go forth to battle." 
 
 Once in seven years the entrance of this wondrous cavern 
 is visible to mortal eyes. A century ago a drunken horse 
 dealer ventured in. Sobered by what he saw, he trembled 
 so that " he let fall a bridle on the pavement. The sound 
 of the bit echoed through the long cave, and one of the 
 warriors that sat next to him, lifted his head a little, and said 
 in a deep hoarse voice, ' Is it time yet ? ' He had the wit 
 to say, ' Not yet, but soon will be,' and the heavy helmet 
 sank down on the table." (Kennedy's "Legends of the Irish 
 Celts," p. 173-4.) 
 
 There are various versions of this Irish legend. Thus at 
 Innishowen Hugh O'Neill and his warriors lie in magic 
 sleep under the hill of AUeach, and according to Thomas 
 Davis, the fervid Nationalist poet : — 
 
 And still it is the peasant's hope upon the Cuirreach's mere, 
 They live, who'll see ten thousand men with good Lord Edward here. 
 So let them dream till brighter days, when not by Edward's shade, 
 But by some leader true as he their lines shall be array' d. 
 
 Maxwell's song, " The Triumph of O'Neill," also alludes to 
 this superstition. There is a spirited ballad on this legend 
 by Charles Gavan Duffy, printed in Barry's "Songs of 
 Ireland;" Dublin, 1869, p. 150. 
 
 Similar legends probably exist in all nations : thus
 
 The Wizard of Aldcrley Edge. 65 
 
 Mohammed was believed to be alive in his tomb, where the 
 prayers made for him by the faithful were repeated to him 
 by an angel posted there for that purpose. The Mohamme- 
 dans believe that the twelfth Imaum, i.e. Hassan al Asker, the 
 descendant of the Prophet's daughter Fatima, is still alive, and 
 will reappear at the second coming of Jesus Christ. ("Tales of 
 Four Durweesh," n. 9.) Olearius relates a Persian tradition, 
 which says that a certain tyrant named Suhak having been 
 deposed from the throne, was hung by the heels in a cavern 
 of the mountains near Teheran, and is still living in that 
 uncomfortable posture. ("Voyages and Travels," &c., by 
 Olearius, 1672, p. 258.) At Carthage the peasantry believe 
 that the " Hafasa, the ancient kings of the country," will 
 again rule over them at the second coming of the Lord 
 Jesus. " Only very lately, a porter was desired to carry a 
 measure of wheat by a very respectable looking man, which 
 he did. He followed his employer a long way out of the 
 town, and coming to a kind of cave the man took the wheat 
 from the porter, and presenting him a handful of gold, sud- 
 denly vanished ; and what is more remarkable is, that the 
 very cave too disappeared, not a trace of it was left. When 
 the porter — who is from Gabcs, and is still alive to recount 
 this remarkable circumstance — came to change his gold it 
 was found to belong to the reign of the Hafasa." (Davis's 
 "Carthage," 1861, p. 181.) So of Marko the Servian, 
 some narrate that he was miraculously conveyed away from 
 the field of battle to a mountain cavern, where his wounds 
 were healed, and where he still lives. (Bowring's " Servian 
 Popular Poetry," 1827, p. 106.)
 
 66 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Similar is the legend of Holger Danske. Noises like the 
 clashing of arms are frequently heard beneath the Castle of 
 Kronberg. A slave, condemned to death, was induced by a 
 promise of pardon and liberty to make an attempt at un- 
 ravelling the mystery. Threading the deepest passages of 
 the castle he came at length to a large iron door, which on 
 his knocking opened of itself, and he found himself in a deep 
 vault. In the centre was an immense stone table, around 
 which sat steel clad warriors, bending down, and resting 
 their heads on their crossed'arms. 
 
 " He who sat at the end of the table arose. It was 
 Holger, the Dane, but in lifting his head from his arm the 
 stone table was burst in sunder, for his beard had grown 
 into it. ' Reach me thy hand,' said he to the slave, but the 
 latter not venturing to give his hand held out an iron bar 
 instead, which Holger so squeezed that the marks remained 
 visible. At length letting it go he exclaimed, ' It gladdens 
 me that there are still men left in Denmark.'" (Thorpe's 
 "Northern Mythology," II., 222.) This story of the iron 
 bar, like most popular tales, has repeated itself; a Scotch 
 version may be found in the " Poetical Remains of John 
 Leyden," 1819, p. 321. The story of Holger is the subject 
 of the well known mediaeval romance of Ogier le Danois, a 
 notice of which is given in Dunlop's History of Fiction. L. 
 Pio has published an essay upon the hero, which is reviewed 
 in the Gotting gel. Aftz., 1870, s. 1290. 
 
 The Germans have the same legend of Frederick Barba- 
 rossa : — " In the Kyffhauser, in Thuringia, according to the 
 popular tradition, sits Frederick Barbarossa in a charmed
 
 The Wizard of Alder ley Edge. 6y 
 
 sleep, surrounded by his knights and squires. His beard 
 has grown twice around the stone table before him, when it 
 shall reach three times round he will awake ; of a shepherd 
 who had played him a pleasing tune he inquired, ' Do the 
 ravens still fly round the mountain?' and on the shepherd 
 answering in the affirmative, he said, ' Then I must sleep 
 an hundred years longer." In Hartley Coleridge's Essays, 
 1850, II. 252, there are some remarks on Barbarossa and 
 the other legends of miraculous sleepers. Mr. Thorpe con- 
 siders that the original sleeper of northern tradition is Odin, 
 and instances this inquiry after the ravens in support of his 
 view. " The heroes in the cave," says Mr. Kelly, " under 
 whatever name they are known, and wherever they repose, 
 are all representatives of Odin and his host. The great 
 battle to which they will at last awake is that wliich will be 
 fought before the end of the world, when heaven and earth 
 shall be destroyed, and the ^sir gods themselves shall 
 perish, and their places shall be filled by a new creation, 
 and new and brighter gods. The sword concealed in the 
 heart of the Eildon hill is that of Heimdallr, the Sverdas or 
 sword-god, and warder of Bifrost bridge, and his is the 
 Gjaller horn, with which he will warn the gods that the frost 
 giants are advancing to storm Valhalla." ("Indo-European 
 Traditions," 1863, p. 289.) 
 
 In Washington Irving's charming " Tales of the Alhambra " 
 is one entitled, " Governor Manco and tlie old Soldier ; " 
 and the story which the old soldier relates to the governor 
 appears to be founded upon a Spanish legend, that Bobadil 
 instead of being dead was with his warriors and courtiers 
 
 /
 
 6S ChesJiire Gleanings. 
 
 enclosed in the interior of a mountain in a state of charmed 
 sleep. 
 
 Similar legends were once current among the peasantry 
 of Harold, the last of the Saxons ; of Charlemagne, of the 
 unfortunate Duke of Monmouth, Don Sebastian, and many 
 more of bygone ages. 
 
 Dr. William Bell, of Niirnberg, connects the Alderley 
 Legend with the German tradition of the duerrer bau?n, 
 which he holds to be alluded by Shakspere in Cymbeline, 
 act v., scene 4. (Shakspere's Puck, iii. 125.) This is the 
 tree that Sir John Mandeville mentions as in the valley of 
 of Mambre. It had been there since the creation of the 
 world, but withered at the crucifixion. " And summe seyn 
 be here Prophecyes that a Lord, a Prynce of the west syde 
 of the World, shall wynnen the Land of Promyssioun, that 
 is the Holy Land, with helpe of Cristene Men ; and he 
 shalle do synge a masse undir that drye Tree, and than the 
 Tree shall wexen grene and bene both Fruyt and Leves." 
 (Travailes, Edited by Halliwell, chap, vi.) 
 
 In most of the varying forms of this antique tradition we 
 can see that the root idea is that of a deliverer. The people 
 groaning in misery console their present bitterness by the 
 hope of better times. Their affections are centred upon 
 some typical hero of the race, who becomes the represen- 
 tative of the national aspirations. Sometimes in place of 
 social we have theological and moral considerations. Here 
 the lesson is one that we can all appreciate, for the ravens 
 are still flying round the mountains, and the Deliverer that 
 is to be still slumbers in the heart of the Kyffhauser.
 
 WAS JOHN SMITH A CHESHIRE MAN? 
 
 The tomb that guards the great one's name 
 Shall yield to time its sacred trust ; 
 
 The laurel of imperial fame 
 
 Shall wither in unvvatered dust. 
 
 Thomas Love Peacock. 
 
 Pahnyra. 
 
 THE name of Captain John Smith is indissolubly bound up 
 with the early history of greater Britain beyond the sea, and 
 the figure of the sometime "Governor of Virginia and Admiral 
 of New England," as he styled himself, is still a picturesque 
 one, although the cynical critics of the present generation 
 have given us good reason to think that if the strength of 
 his valour was great, it was fully equalled by the fire of his 
 imagination. Certainly, his narrative seems to grow with 
 each repetition and the most melo-dramatic incident of a 
 melo-dramatic career, his rescue from death by Pocahontas, 
 must be received with great caution. He was a typical 
 soldier of fortune of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. 
 His latest biographer is Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, whose 
 ^' study" of the life and writings of Captain John Smith 
 appeared in 1881 (New York : Henry Holt & Co.). This
 
 70 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 work may be safely recommended to all interested. John 
 Smith ran away whilst a prentice lad at Lynn, and became a 
 mercenary in the wars of France and the Low Countries. 
 After a time spent in England he went to Hungary, and 
 there, according to his own account, performed many won- 
 drous feats. He was, however, he acknowledges, taken 
 prisoner and sold as a slave by the Turks, but escaped by 
 murdering his master and dressing himself up in the clothes 
 of the dead man. His next attempt for fame and fortune 
 was in connection with the attempt to colonise Virginia in 
 1606. He was imprisoned for a supposed conspiracy, but 
 afterwards became a Member of the Council and President, 
 and took part in various exploring expeditions. The best 
 known incident of his career in Virginia is that which con- 
 nects his name with Pocahontas. That during the Chicka- 
 hominy expedition in 1608 he was taken prisoner by the 
 natives is probable enough, but it was not until eight years 
 later that he mentions the share of Pocahontas in his rescue, 
 and it was not until 1624 that the incident was told in the 
 manner in which it has since delighted so many lovers of the 
 marvellous. At a great assembly of the natives " a long con- 
 sultation was held, but the conclusion was two great stones 
 were brought before Powhatan, then, as many as could, layd 
 him hands on him [the narrator. Captain John Smith], dragged 
 to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their 
 clubs to beate out his braines. Pocahontas, the king's dearest 
 daughter, when no entreaty could prevaile, got his head in 
 her armes, and laide her arme upon his to save him from 
 death : whereat the Emperor [Powhatan] was contented he
 
 Was JoJin Sjiiith a Cheshire Man ? 71 
 
 should live to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and 
 copper." Pocahontas, at this time, would be a girl of twelve 
 or thirteen, and however greatly John Smith may have 
 exaggerated the circumstances of his rescue, it is certain 
 that she was very friendly to the colonists, and used to turn 
 cart-wheels in their fort ! They abducted her in 16 13, and 
 held her as hostage for some white men who had been 
 enslaved. Whilst thus in friendly captivity she made capture 
 of the heart of Mr. John Rolfe. They were married in 16 14, 
 and in 16 16 came to England, where the Lady Rebecca, as 
 she was now styled, excited both interest and curiosity. She 
 died at Gravesend in 161 7, and was buried in the chancel 
 of the parish church. 
 
 Smith returned to England in 1608, somewhat under a 
 cloud from charges brought against him by his fellow 
 colonists, who were all quarrelling, and appear to have 
 hated each other with great zest. He published a number 
 of works, in which self-glorification was shown on a gigantic 
 scale. He died in 1631, and his later years, passed in 
 continual struggle with adverse fortune, were devoted to an 
 ardent advocacy of a plan of colonisation. Memory and 
 Imagination stood by his side as he wrote in his latter years, 
 and it may be added that tlie last-named was not the least 
 in furnishing him with inspiration. He was buried in St. 
 Sepulchre's Church, and Stow gives a copy of a long tablet 
 to his memory in the choir, but this memorial has long 
 since disappeared. 
 
 After all deductions have been made John Smith was a 
 remarkable man, and of the thousands who have borne his
 
 72 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 name none have achieved greater fame. He has remained 
 the John Smith for two centuries and a half. That he was 
 of " Cheshire, chief of men," would have seemed natural, 
 and the testimony of Fuller would, in most cases, have 
 warranted his inclusion amongst the palatine worthies. 
 The notice of him in the "Worthies of England" is so 
 characteristic that it must be quoted. It is under the county 
 of Cheshire, and is as follows : — 
 
 " John Smith, Captain, was born in this county, as Master 
 Arthur Smith, his kinsman and my schoolmaster, did inform 
 me. But whether or no related unto the worshipful family 
 of the Smiths at Hatherton (Camden's Britannia, in this 
 county), I know not. 
 
 He spent the most of his life in foreign parts. First in 
 Hungary, under the emperor, fighting against the Turks ; 
 three of which he himself killed in single duels ; and, there- 
 fore, was authorised by Sigismund king of Hungary to bear 
 three Turks' heads, as an augmentation to his arms. (So it 
 is writ in the table over his tomb.) Here he gave intelli- 
 gence to a besieged city in the night, by significant fire- 
 works formed in the air, in legible characters, with many 
 strange performances, the scene whereof is laid at such a 
 distance, they are cheaper credited than confuted. 
 
 From the Turks in Europe he passed to the pagans in 
 America, where, towards the latter end of queen Elizabeth, 
 such his perils, preservations, dangers, deliverances, they 
 seem to most men above belief, to some beyond truth. Yet 
 have we two witnesses to attest them, the prose and the 
 pictures, both in his own book ; and it soundeth much to
 
 Was John Smith a Cheshire Alan ? y^, 
 
 the diminution of his deeds, that he alone is the herald to 
 publish and proclaim them. 
 
 Two captains being at dinner, one of them fell into a large 
 relation of his own achievements, concluding his discourse 
 with this question to his fellow, ' And pray. Sir,' said he, 
 ' what service have you done ? ' To whom he answered, 
 ' Other men can tell that.' And surely such reports from 
 strangers carry with them the greater reputation. However, 
 moderate men must allow Captain Smith to have been very 
 instrumental in settling the plantation in Virginia, whereof 
 he was governor, as also admiral, of New England. 
 
 He led his old age in London, where his having a prince's 
 mind imprisoned in a poor man's purse rendered him to 
 the contempt of such who were not ingenuous. Yet he 
 / etforted his spirits with the remembrance and relation of 
 what formerly he had been, and what he had done. He 
 was buried in Sepulchre's Church choir, on the south side 
 thereof, having a ranting epitaph inscribed in a table over 
 him, too long to transcribe. Only we will insert the first 
 and last lines, the rather because the one may fit Alexander's 
 life for his valour, the other his death for his religion : — 
 
 ' Here lies one conquer'd that hath concjuer'd kings ! ' 
 ' Oh, may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep.' 
 
 The orthography, poetry, history, and divinity in this 
 epitaph, are much alike. He died on the 21st June, 1631." 
 
 This passage has been strangely misread by the latest 
 biographer of the Virginian hero, who says that Arthur told 
 Fuller "that John was born in Lincolnshire." (p. 297.) The 
 Rev. Arthur Smith, who from tliis casual mention would
 
 74 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 — — \ 
 
 appear to have been a Cheshire man, is now only re- 
 membered, if remembered at all, as the schoolmaster of 
 the witty and wise Thomas Fuller. He was of the Emanuel 
 College, of Cambridge, and took the B.A. degree in 1608, 
 and the M.A. in 161 2. Mr. J. E. Bailey, F.S.A., conjectures, 
 and with great probability, that he is " the raw and unskilful 
 schoolmaster " under whom Fuller " lost some time." 
 Arthur Smith was successively curate of Achurch (where 
 the incumbent was the noted founder of the Brownists 
 or Independents), and Vicar of Oundle, in Northampton- 
 shire. Whether Arthur Smith sympathised with the colonising 
 spirit that was then laying the foundation of a great empire, or 
 whether he had a boastful satisfaction in proclaiming himself 
 a kinsman of one who, like Captain John Smith, was so 
 persistently and with such large claims before the public, 
 must remain unknown. 
 
 The testimony of Arthur Smith must, however, be set 
 aside. A man's own statement as to the place of his birth is 
 not always the best evidence, and there might be but little 
 hesitation in not accepting John Smith's declaration that he 
 was born atWilloughby in Lincolnshire if it were unconfirmed. 
 He does not name the year, but allows it to be inferred 
 from a portrait issued in 1616, when he was aged 37 years. 
 Accordingly, in the Willoughby registers, there is an entry : 
 that John, son of George Smith, was baptised Jan. 9th, 1579. 
 And thus we are compelled to discard from our Cheshire 
 notables this man who represented so curiously some of the 
 highest and some of the basest characteristics of the age 
 in which he lived.
 
 SIR JOHN CHESSHYRE'S LIBRARY AT HALTON. 
 
 •' The monuments of vanished minds. 
 
 Sir Wiixiam Davenant. 
 
 Gondibcrt. 
 
 THE little village of Halton, near Runcorn, in Cheshire, 
 is notable for the ruins of an ancient castle and for a 
 tiny endowed library. It is difficult to say whether the 
 castle stands in the grounds of the hotel, or whether the 
 hotel is built in the grounds of the castle. The feudal 
 fortress, first built by Robert Nigel, the stout baron of Hugh 
 Lupus, who won for his lord the Castle of Rhuddlan, in 
 Wales, has passed almost entirely away. Amongst its lords 
 was John of Gaunt, "time-honoured Lancaster," whose son, 
 Henry of Bolingbroke, was the last Baron of Halton. In 
 1579 that once proud castle, long the head of a barony and 
 the chief abode of the Constables of Chester which had 
 given thrones to its possessors, declined from its palmy state, 
 and was transformed into a prison for recusants, under Sir 
 John Savage. Halton was visited by James I., and was 
 captured by the Parliamentarians in July, 1644, and shortly 
 afterwards dismantled.
 
 76 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 The sylvan beauty of the landscape, and the " Arcadian 
 zephyrs" that played around the hill, when Lewes, in 181 1, 
 composed his poem, entitled "Halton Hill," have utterly 
 disappeared under the breath of the chemical manufactories. 
 Then, the poet's muse essayed to "paint this heavenly 
 view ;" now, the vegetation of the stunted trees, denuded of 
 foliage, are like "hairs on a lep'rous skin." 
 
 Not far from the castle stands a plain, square building, 
 with a tablet over the entrance, on which we read : — 
 
 Hanc bibliothecam 
 
 Pro communi literatorum usu 
 
 Sub cura curati capellae de Halton 
 
 Proventibus ter feliciter augmentatae 
 
 Johannes Chesshyre Miles 
 
 D. D. D. 
 
 Anno MDCCXXXni. 
 
 This John Chesshyre was probably born at Hallwood, 
 near Runcorn, nth November, 1662, and entered the Inner 
 Temple in 1696. He received the coif in 1 705, was Queen's 
 Serjeant in 171 1, and in 1727 became His Majesty's Premier 
 Serjeant-at-Law. As such he was counsel for the crown 
 against John Matthews, a youth of nineteen, who, after 
 sundry reprieves, was finally hung for his share in the print- 
 ing of a Jacobite pamphlet. He was also engaged in the 
 trial of the Warden of the Fleet. (See State Trials, 8vo. ed., 
 V. 15, p. 1383; V. 16, p. 8; v. 17, p. 311.) From 1719 to 
 1725 his fee book shows receipts of over ^3,000 each year. 
 At the age of sixty-three he confined himself to the Court of
 
 Sir John CJiesshyres Library at Halton. yj 
 
 Common Pleas, "contenting," he says, "to amuse myself 
 with lesser business and smaller gain," and in 1732 he gave 
 up regular attendance at the court. Chesterfield is said to 
 have borrowed ;^2 0,000 from the successful lawyer. He 
 died as he was getting into his coach, 15th May, 1738, and 
 is buried in Runcorn Church, and on his tomb are two 
 characteristic lines from Pope : — 
 
 A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod ; 
 »' An honest man's the noblest work of God. 
 
 His widow survived him until 1756. His portrait was 
 painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. There is a notice of 
 Chesshyre in Woolrych's "Lives of eminent Serjeants-at- 
 law," 1869, V. 2, page 504 ct seqq., and in Beamont's 
 "History of the Castle of Halton," 1873, p. 138. Mr. 
 J. E. Bailey writes to me that Le Neve gives the arms of 
 Chesshire, of Shropshire : gu. 2 lion's paws in chevron arg. 
 between 3 lures with strings upper part or, lower arg. ; and 
 he adds " S Jo. Chesshire bears this coat Serjeant q^c his 
 right." 
 
 The custodian of Sir John Chesshyre's foundation is the 
 Rev. John Lockwood, the present Vicar of Halton. He 
 recognised our claim to inspect books designed " pro com- 
 muni literatorum usu," and although it was neither Tuesday 
 nor Thursday we were welcomed into the quaint library 
 room, which is furnished all round with book presses, each 
 having closed doors. The first question that occurs on 
 visiting a strange library relates to the catalogue. An inquiry 
 on this head led to the production of a volume of ample
 
 yS ChesJiire Gleanings. 
 
 proportions, which would have had additional attractions for 
 bibliographers of the Dibdin type, from being printed on 
 vellum and being absolutely unique. That this almost in- 
 destructible material should have been selected is not sur- 
 prising, but why the edition should have been restricted to 
 one copy is not so obvious. The title reads : — 
 
 A 
 
 Catalogue 
 
 of Books in the Library 
 
 lately built and erected by 
 
 Sir John Chesshyre, Knight 
 
 His Majesty's Serjeant-at-law 
 
 at Halton 
 
 in the 
 
 Parish of Runcorne 
 
 in the 
 
 County and Diocese of Chester 
 
 London. Printed in the year MDCCXXXIIL 
 
 This volume contains not only a list of the contents of 
 the library, but also the rules and orders made by the 
 founder : — 
 
 "To be observed for the use, service and preservation of 
 the books." It is set forth that the Curate of Halton is to 
 be Library-Keeper and to have free use and reading of the 
 books, and (2) to enter into a bond of ;^5oo to the Bishop 
 of Chester for the safe-keeping of the library and observance 
 of the rules. The room was to be "separated to and for 
 the use and service of a study . . . and not prostituted
 
 Sir JoJui CJiessJiyrc s Library at Hal ton. 79 
 
 to any other common or inconvenient use. However it 
 were to be wished that the Curate . . . would make 
 use of the said room as his study and in the winter seasons 
 especially, use a fire therein, whereby he may air the room 
 and closer attend to his reading and meditation, and be 
 better freed from the interruptions of a family, or a tempta- 
 tion to esloigne or carry any book or books out of the said 
 library for how little time soever." The books were strictly 
 forbidden to be read out of the library (4). The fifth rule is 
 that of greatest importance and reads thus : — " That for the 
 improvement of learning and that learned men may be 
 encouraged to advance their knowledge by a friendly com- 
 munication in their studies and labours, it is desired and 
 intended that any divine or divines of the Church of England, 
 or other gentlemen, or persons of letters, desiring the same, 
 and particularly that William Chesshyre, of Halwood, near 
 Halton, and his heirs, and the owner and inheritor of Hal- 
 wood, for the time being, in memory of his benefaction, the 
 Vicar of Runcorne for the time being and his successors, 
 may, on application to, and with the consent of the Curate 
 for the time being at any reasonable and convenient time or 
 times, on every Tuesday and Thursday in the year, in the 
 daytime, have access and resort into the said library, and in 
 the presence of the Curate for the time being, have liberty 
 to read any book or books in the said library and to take 
 note or notes out of the same for the better security of 
 such person or person's memory, or for his, her, or their 
 future service or recollection ; the Curate for the time being 
 from time to time taking care to see that the book or
 
 8o Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 books used or read by any person or persons, be again 
 re-placed in such manner as is above directed to be done 
 in the Curate's own use or reading of the said books." 
 The sixth and last rule provides that each incoming Curate 
 is to take stock of the books and to obtain the return or 
 value of any that may be missing. 
 
 A glance at the catalogue will show the character of the 
 collection. It reflects the sober erudition of the age in 
 which it was instituted, and would be a fit library for a 
 young clergyman who in the eighteenth century desired to 
 become a godly and learned minister. There is a long array 
 of the fathers of the Church in goodly tomes. Now-a-days 
 fathers and folios are almost equally out of the fashion, The 
 biblical apparatus includes Walton's Polyglot, Crabbe's Sep- 
 tuagint, Mill's Greek Testament, the Critical Synopsis of 
 Poole, and some minor works. In modern divinity there 
 are the names of Seldon, Cudworth, Laud, Locke, Huet, 
 Prideaux, Stackhouse, Scot, Fiddes, Sherlock, Beveridge, 
 Wheatley, Leslie, Chillingworth, Bingham, Jeremy Taylor, 
 Hall, Burnet, Usher, Pearson, Bramhall, Barrow, Tillotson, 
 Hooker, Smalridge, Comber, Bentley, Stanhope, Fleetwood, 
 Atterbury, Blackball, Trapp, Hammond, Wake, Andrews, 
 Stillingfleet, Sanderson, and others. The historians, chiefly 
 ecclesiastical, include Baronius, Sleidan, Usher, Thuanus, 
 Spotswood, Du Pin, Father Paul, Clarendon, Collier, Strype, 
 Speed, and Burnet. 
 
 There are the Statutes at large, and a few other books on 
 ecclesiastical law, including Wilkins' Leges Anglo-Saxonici. 
 Amongst profane classics are Seneca, Cicero, Plutarch,
 
 Sir John Chess Jiy re's Library at Halton. 8i 
 
 Sophocles, Photius, and a Corpus Poetarum, in two folio 
 volumes. 
 
 The fine copy of the Monasticon of Sir William Dugdale 
 deserves special mention, and also that vast, f^rago, the ^ 
 Foedera of Thomas Rymer, v/hose twenty folio volumes 
 must often have been provocative of unmitigated despair to 
 the hurried seeker for the needle in this literary bundle of 
 hay. Polite literature in the vernacular is represented by 
 sundry volumes of the British essayists, and the much 
 debated question as to the use and demand for fiction is 
 suggested by a well-worn folio edition of Don Quixote bear- 
 ing evident marks of having ministered to the amusement of 
 some hours of ease. 
 
 The first thought that occurs on an inspection of this 
 
 curious and, in some respects, valuable collection is that the 
 
 shrewd old lawyer who founded it made an egregious mistake 
 
 in placing such a library in the heart of a Cheshire village 
 
 which at the commencement of the last century must have 
 
 been remote indeed from the busy haunts of men. It is 
 
 very likely that this library is now but seldom resorted to by 
 
 divines of the Church of England or other gentlemen or 
 
 persons of letters " for the advancement of their knowledge 
 
 by a friendly communication in their studies and labours," 
 
 and it would probably be difficult to select five hundred 
 
 volumes that would present fewer attractions to the villagers 
 
 of Halton. It does not appear, however, that Sir John 
 
 Chesshyre's primary motive was that of founding a public 
 
 library, but rather that of providing the curate of Halton 
 
 with a pleasant and well-filled study, whose literary attrac- 
 G
 
 82 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 tions might bring him the acquaintance of those among the 
 neighbouring gentry and clergy possessing a tincture of 
 learning. It is not difficult to imagine a clergyman who 
 had stumbled over some felicitous reference to a book absent 
 from his own shelves, saddling his Rosinante and riding forth 
 through the pure air as yet unpolluted by manufactures, and 
 up the hill to Halton. There his rummage through the 
 ponderous tomes of Basil, Cyril, or Augustine would be en- 
 livened by learned chat or local gossip with the curate of 
 Halton, and having taken such notes as seemed needful for 
 " future service or recollection," he would ride home again 
 not a sadder but a wiser man. In this fashion we can im- 
 agine this quaint out-of-the-world little library to have 
 exercised a real and a beneficial influence. 
 
 Chesshyre's will provides that "the patron of the chapel 
 for the time being should ever have visitation and oversight 
 of the said library and the survey and inspection of the 
 books, and should apply to the Lord Bishop of Chester for 
 the time being to signify any inconvenience arisen or arising, 
 and to crave his assistance, in order to rectify abuse, mis- 
 carriage, or defect." He gave ;^ioo for purchase of land 
 for the repairs of the library. In 1837 the Charity Com- 
 missioners reported that "the library does not appear to 
 have been of that use which was contemplated by the 
 founder, for it was stated by a very respectable person that 
 the inhabitants were desirous that the library should be of 
 available utility, it being at present not of the slightest ad- 
 vantage to any one except the librarian. The books 
 generally are of a description not likely to be of use in the
 
 Sir John Chesshyre's Library at Halton. 83 
 
 situation in which the library is placed, though many of 
 them are of considerable value. How far the Bishop of 
 Chester, as visitor, may have the power of making any change 
 may be worthy of consideration, and it has been recom- 
 mended that the matter should be submitted to him by the 
 parties interested." (Reports xxxi. 749.) This advice does 
 not seem to have been followed. 
 
 The library was mentioned by Mr. J. F. Marsh, in his 
 evidence before the Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons on Public Libraries, in 1849. The library then 
 / contained 422 volumes, chiefly in folio. Very few additions 
 have been made since that date, or, indeed, since the day of 
 its foundation. The trustee is Sir Richard Brooke, and the 
 annual income ;^i2. The library has long ceased to be 
 even a good working collection for a theological student 
 The income is certainly small, but, if judiciously expended, 
 would place on the shelves many of those modern books 
 which are essential for the study of a divine who wishes to 
 keep his mind open to the latest results of theological in- 
 vestigation. Sir John Chesshyre's library will always be 
 / caviare to the multitude ; but it might easily become, what 
 it can scarcely claim to be at present, a place where learned 
 men might advance their knowledge.
 
 THE BRERETON DEATH OMEN. 
 
 When any Heir in the Worshipful Family of the Breertons in 
 Cheshire is neer his Death there are seen in the Pool adjoyning Bodies 
 of Trees swimming for certain days together. 
 
 Increase Matter. 
 Cases of conscience concerning Evil Spirits. 1693. 
 
 THE learned William Camden, in his famous Britannia, 
 mentions the little river Croke, which, rising out of 
 Bagmere lake, runs by Brereton, which gave name to the 
 knightly family of Brereton. " I have heard," says the 
 judicious antiquary, deviating into folk-lore, " an extra- 
 ordinary circumstance attested by many persons of credit, 
 and generally believed, that before the death of any heir of 
 this family trunks of trees are seen to swim on the surface 
 of the adjoining lake." (Gough's edition, vol. iii. p. 44.) 
 
 This is one of the most characteristic pieces of Cheshire 
 folk-lore, and its picturesque aspect was seen by Felicia 
 Hemans, who has made good use of it in her poem of " The 
 Vassal's Lament for the Fallen Tree " : —
 
 The Brereton Death Omen. 85 
 
 Yes ! I have seen the ancient oak 
 
 On the dark deep water cast, 
 And it was not felled by the woodman's stroke, 
 Or the rush of the sweeping blast ; 
 For the axe might never touch that tree, 
 And the air was still as a summer sea. 
 
 I saw it fall, as falls a chief 
 By an arrow in the fight, 
 And the old woods shook, to their loftiest leaf, 
 At the crashing of its might ; 
 And the startled deer to their coverts drew, 
 And the spray of the lake as a fountain's flew ! 
 
 'Tis fallen ! But think thou not I weep 
 
 For the forest's pride o'erthrown, — 
 An old man's tears lie far too deep 
 To be poured for this alone : 
 But by that sign too well I know 
 That a youthful head must soon be low ! 
 
 A youthful head, with its shining hair, 
 
 And its bright quick-flashing eye ; 
 Well may I weep ! for the boy is fair, 
 Too fair a thing to die ! 
 But on his brow the mark is set, — 
 O, could my life redeem him yet ! 
 
 He bounded by me as I gazed 
 
 Alone on the fatal sign, 
 And it seemed like sunshine when he raised 
 His joyous glance to mine. 
 With a stag's fleet step he bounded by. 
 So full of life, — but he must die !
 
 86 Cheshire Glea7iings. 
 
 He must, he must ! in that deep dell, 
 
 By that dark water's side, 
 'Tis known that ne'er a proud tree fell 
 But an heir of his fatliers died. 
 And he, — there's laughter in his eye, 
 Joy in his voice, — yet he must die ! 
 
 I've borne him in these arms, that now 
 
 Are nerveless and unstrung ; 
 And must I see, on that fair brow, 
 The dust untimely flung? 
 I must ! — yon green oak, branch and crest. 
 Lies floating on the dark lake's breast ! 
 
 The noble boy ! — how proudly sprung 
 
 The falcon from his hand ! 
 It seemed like youth to see him young, 
 A flower in his father's land ! 
 But the hour of the knell and the dirge is nigh, 
 For the tree hath fallen, and the flower must die. 
 
 Say not 'tis vain ! I tell thee, some 
 
 Are warned by a meteor's light. 
 Or a pale bird, flitting, calls them home. 
 Or a voice on the winds by night ; 
 And they must go ! And he too, he ! 
 Woe for the fall of the glorious tree ! 
 
 The Brereton family have now passed away. The death 
 omen is alluded to in Sir Philip Sidney's " Seven Wonders 
 of England," and the late Major Egerton Leigh made it the 
 subject of a poem which will be found in his "Cheshire 
 Ballads." 
 
 Camden points to a partially analogous story of the abbey
 
 The Brereton Death Omen. ^y 
 
 of St. Maurice, in Burgundy, where the pond contained as 
 many fishes as there were monks in the monastery. There 
 was a close sympathy between the two communities, and 
 when a monk was ill a fish would be seen languidly floating 
 on the surface, and if the monk was fated to die the fish 
 would precede him by a few days. Aubrey tells us that 
 there was a common report that before the death of each 
 heir of the Cliftons, of Clifton, in Nottinghamshire, "a 
 sturgeon is taken in the river Trent by that place." Surely 
 not an unlikely circumstance, since we are not told sturgeons 
 were taken at no other time. Camden was too much a man 
 of his time to laugh at these notions, but is content to say 
 that " supposing them true," they may be the work of 
 " the holy angels that guard our persons, or of devils who, 
 by divine permission, have powerful influence on this lower 
 world." 
 
 Perhaps a nearer analogy is that of the Warning Pool, of 
 North Taunton, of which John Collet, writing in the seven- 
 teenth century, says : — " Of this pool it hath been observed 
 that before the death or change of any prince, or some 
 strange accident of great importance, or any invasion or 
 insurrection, though in an hot and dry season, it will, without 
 any rain, overflow its banks, and so continue till that bee past 
 which it i)rognosticated. It overflowed four times between 
 1618 and 1648." (Thoms' "Anecdotes and Traditions," 
 p. 122.) Mr. Thoms refers to a passage in Jacob Grimm's 
 " Deutsche Mythologie" (s. 333), where the prophetical office 
 of springs and rivers is further illustrated. To follow the 
 subject would be beyond the scope of the present inquiry.
 
 THE FOOL OF CHESTER. 
 
 Answer a fool according to his folly. 
 
 Proverbs xxvi. 5. 
 
 Fools are the game which knaves pursue. 
 
 John Gay. Fables. 
 
 A CURIOUS folk-tale has had a local habitation given 
 to it by the author of the book entitled "Jack of 
 Dover," which appeared in 1604. It is narrated in the 
 following terms : — 
 
 " Upon a time (quoth another of the jury) there was a 
 widow woman dweling in Westchester that had taken a 
 certaine sum of mony of two coney-catchers, to keepe upon 
 this condition that she should not deliver it againe to one 
 without the other : but it so hapned that, within a while 
 after, one of these coney-catchers fayned his fellow to be 
 dead, and came in mourning cloathes to the woman, and 
 demaunded the money. The simple woman, thinking his 
 words to be true, beleeved that this fellow was dead indeed, 
 and there [u] pon delivered him the money. Now, within 
 few dayes after commeth the other conicatcher, and of the
 
 The Fool of Chester. 89 
 
 woman likewise demaundeth the same money ; but under- 
 standing of the dehvery thereof before to his fellow without 
 his consent (as the bargaine was made), he arrested the 
 poore woman to London, and brought her to great trouble ; 
 but, being at last brought to tryall before the judges of the 
 court, she sodainely slipt to the barre, and in this manner 
 pleaded her owne cause. My good Lordes (quoth she), 
 here is a fellow that troubles me without cause, and puts me 
 to a needles charge. What need he seeke for triall, when I 
 confesse the debt, and stand heere to deliver his money? 
 Why, that is all, quoth the conicatcher, that I demaund. I 
 but (quoth the woman) do you remember your condition : 
 which is, that I must not deliver it to the one without the 
 other ? therefore, go fetch thy fellow, and thou shalt have 
 thy money. Hereupon the conicatcher was so astonished 
 that he knew not what to say : for his fellow was gone, and 
 he could not tell where to find him ; by which meanes he 
 was constrained to let his action fall, and by the law was 
 condemned to pay her charges, and withall great dammages 
 for troubling her without cause. Well, quoth Jacke of 
 Dover, this, in my minde, was pretty foolery ; but yet the 
 foole of all fooles is not heare found, that I looke for." 
 
 The story has been told in more than one fashion, but, 
 perhaps, the best known is that which has been given by 
 Samuel Rogers. The quotation, although somewhat 
 lengthy, is an interesting contrast to the quaint story just 
 cited. "There lived," says Rogers, "in the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, near Bologna, a widow lady of the Lambertini family, 
 called Madonna Lucrezia, who in a revolution of the state
 
 90 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 had known the bitterness of poverty, and had even begged 
 her bread, kneehng day after day Hke a statue at the gate of 
 the cathedral, her rosary in her left hand, and her right held 
 out for charity, her long black veil conceaUng a face that 
 had once adorned a court, and had received the homage of 
 as many sonnets as Petrarch has written on Laura. 
 
 But fortune had at last relented. A legacy from a distant 
 relation had come to her relief ; and she was now the mis- 
 tress of a small inn at the foot of the Apennines, where she 
 entertained as well as she could, and where those only 
 stopped who were contented with a little. The house was 
 still standing when in my youth I passed that way, though 
 the sign of the White Cross, the Cross of the Hospitallers, 
 was no longer to be seen over the door — a sign which she 
 had taken up, if we may believe the tradition there, in 
 honour of a maternal uncle, a grand master of that order, 
 whose achievements in Palestine she would sometimes 
 relate. A mountain stream ran through the garden ; and at 
 no great distance, where the road turned on its way to 
 Bologna, stood a little chapel, in which a lamp was always 
 burning before a picture of the Virgin — a picture of great 
 antiquity, the work of some Greek artist. 
 
 Here she was dwelling, respected by all who knew her, 
 when an event took place which threw her into the deepest 
 affliction. It was at noonday in September that three foot- 
 travellers arrived, and seating themselves on a bench under 
 her vine-trellis, were supplied with a flagon of Aleatico by a 
 lovely girl, her only child, the image of her former self. 
 The eldest spoke like a Venetian, and his beard was short
 
 The Fool of Chester. 91 
 
 and pointed after the fashion of Venice. In his demeanour 
 he affected great courtesy, but his look inspired little con- 
 fidence, for when he smiled, which he did continually, it was 
 with his lips only, not with his eyes ; and they were always 
 turned from yours. His companions were bluff and frank 
 in their manner, and on their tongues had many a soldier's 
 oath. In their hats they wore a medal; such as in that age 
 was often distributed in war ; and they were evidently 
 subalterns in one of those Free Bands which were always 
 ready to serve in any quarrel, if a service it could be called, 
 where a battle was little more than a mockery, and the slain, 
 as on an opera-stage, were up and fighting to-morrow. 
 Overcome with the heat, they threw aside their cloaks, and 
 with their gloves tucked under their belts, continued for 
 some time in earnest conversation. 
 
 At length they rose to go. And the Venetian thus 
 addressed their hostess : — ' Excellent lady, may we leave 
 under }'Our roof for a day or two this bag of gold ? ' ' You 
 may,' she replied gaily. ' But remember, we fasten only 
 with a latch. Bars and bolts we have none in our village ; 
 and if we had, where would be your security ?' 
 
 ' In your word, lady.' 
 
 'But what if I died to-night? Where would it be then?' 
 said she, laughing. ' The money would go to the church, for 
 none could claim it.' 
 
 ' Perhaps you will favour us with an acknowledgment ? ' 
 
 * If you will write it.' 
 
 An acknowledgment was written accordingly, and she 
 signed it before Master Bartolo, the village physician, who
 
 92 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 had just called by chance to learn the news of the day ; the 
 gold to be delivered when applied for, but to be delivered 
 (these were the words) not to one, nor to two, but to the three 
 — words wisely introduced by those to whom it belonged, 
 knowing of what they knew of each other. The gold they 
 had just released from a miser's chest in Perugia ; and they 
 were now on a scent that promised more. 
 
 They and their shadows were no sooner departed than 
 the Venetian returned, saying, ' Give me leave to set my 
 seal on the bag, as the others have done ;' and she placed it 
 on a table before him. But in that moment she was called 
 away to receive a cavalier, who had just dismounted from 
 his horse ; and when she came back it was gone. The 
 temptation had proved irresistible ; and the man and the 
 money had vanished together. 
 
 ' Wretched woman that I am ! ' she cried, as in an agony 
 of grief she fell on her daughter's neck, ' what will become 
 of us ? Are we again to be cast out into the wide world ? 
 Unhappy child, would that thou hadst never been born ! ' 
 and all day long she lamented ; but her tears availed her 
 little. The others were not slow in returning to claim their 
 due, and there were no tidings of the thief. He had fled 
 away with his plunder. A process against her was instantly 
 begun in Bologna ; and what defence could she make ; how 
 release herself from the obligation of the bond ? Wilfully or 
 in negligence she had parted with it to one when she should 
 have kept it for all ; and inevitable ruin awaited her ! 
 
 ' Go, Gianetta,' said she to her daughter, ' take this veil 
 which your mother has worn and wept under so often, and
 
 The Fool of Chester. 93 
 
 implore the counsellor Calderino to plead for us on the day 
 of trial. He is generous, and will listen to the unfortunate. 
 But if he will not, go from door to door ; Monaldi cannot 
 refuse us. Make haste, my child ; but remember the chapel 
 / as you pass by it. Nothing prospers without a prayer.' 
 
 Alas ! she went, but in vain. These were retained against 
 them ; those demanded more than they had to give ; and all 
 bade them despair. What was to be done ? No advocate, 
 and the cause to come on to-morrow. 
 
 Now Gianetta had a lover ; and he was a student of the 
 law, a young man of great promise, Lorenzo Martelli. He 
 had studied long and diligently under that learned lawyer 
 Giovanni Andreas, who, though little of stature, was great 
 in renown, and by his contemporaries was called the Arch- 
 doctor, the Rabbi of Doctors, the Light of the World. 
 Under him he had studied, sitting on the same bench with 
 Petrarch, and also under his daughter Novella, who would 
 often lecture to the scholars when her father was otherwise 
 engaged, placing herself behind a small curtain, lest her 
 beauty should divert their thoughts— a precaution in this 
 instance at least unnecessary, Lorenzo having lost his heart 
 to another. 
 
 To him she flies in her necessity ; but of what assistance 
 can he be ? He has just taken his place at the bar, but he 
 has never spoken; and how stand up alone, unpractised 
 and unprepared as he is, against an array that would alarm 
 the most experienced ? ' Were I as mighty as I am weak,' 
 said he, ' my fears for you would make me as nothing. But 
 I will be there, Gianetta ; and may the Friend of the friend-
 
 94 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 less give me strength in that hour. Even now my heart fails 
 me ; but, come what will, while I have a loaf to share, you 
 and your mother shall never want. I will beg through the 
 world for you.' 
 
 The day arrives, and the court assembles. The claim is 
 stated, and the evidence given. And now the defence is 
 called for, but none is made; not a syllable is uttered. 
 And after a short pause and a consultation of some minutes, 
 the judges are proceeding to give judgment, silence having 
 been proclaimed in the court, when Lorenzo rises, and thus 
 addresses them : — 
 
 'Reverend signors. Young as I am, may I venture to 
 speak before you ? I would speak in behalf of one who has 
 none else to help her ; and I will not keep you long. Much 
 has been said; much on the sacred nature of the obligation — 
 and we acknowledge it in its full force. Let it be fulfilled, 
 and to the last letter. It is what we solicit, what we require. 
 But to whom is the bag of gold to be delivered ? What says 
 the bond ? Not to one, not to two, but to the three. Let 
 the three stand forth and claim it.' 
 
 From that day (for who can doubt the issue?) none were 
 sought, none employed, but the subde, the eloquent Lorenzo. 
 Wealth followed fame ; nor need I say how soon he sat at 
 his marriage feast, or who sat beside him." 
 
 This incident has been dramatised • in a book with the 
 following title, "The Bag of Gold. A true tale of Bologna." 
 By L M. L. W. London (Wyman and Sons), 1881.
 
 THE THIN RED LINE.' 
 
 The red-coat bully in his boots, 
 That hides the march of men from us. 
 
 Thackeray, Chronicle of the Drum. 
 
 Of all the world's brave heroes, 
 
 There's none can compare 
 With a tow, row, row, tow, row, row, 
 
 To the British grenadier. 
 
 Old Song. 
 
 WE are so accustomed to the red costume of our British 
 army that it would probably surprise many, if not 
 most people, to be told that during the greater part of the 
 military history of this nation there was neither uniform 
 nor uniformity in the clothing of the army, and that one of 
 the earliest instances of its use was by some troops raised by 
 a Bishop of Chester of days when episcopal functions were 
 apparently even more varied than at present. Yet such is 
 the case. Red, as a soldiers' colour, can, however, claim 
 great antiquity, and is even said to have been the choice of 
 Lycurgus for the Lacedaemonians. One reason for its 
 adoption may have been that it did not so readily reveal the
 
 96 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 stains of blood; but probably the chief motive was its 
 brilliant appearance. 
 
 In our own country, in earlier times, uniformity of dress 
 or colour was an impossibility. The barons and great men 
 who led their retainers to battle would each have an 
 individual preference or colour, traditionally associated with 
 the fortunes of his house. There would, of course, be 
 certain fashions in the armour then worn ; but even in this 
 matter, uniformity was so rare as to be remarkable. Thus, 
 we are told that when Richard of Gloucester travelled 
 through France to Rome in 1250, he had in his retinue forty 
 knights all equipped alike. These cavaliers, their glittering 
 harness shining with golden ornament, "presented a won- 
 derful and honourable show to the sight of the astonished 
 French beholders." For the common soldiers, there was 
 little care. The Welsh who fought at Bannockburn were 
 conspicuous for the paucity of their clothing ; " for they well 
 near all naked were," is the declaration of Barbour. The 
 Welshmen were ordered to be clothed uniformly in 1338. 
 " Naked foot " is the designation applied to some soldiers a 
 little earlier. Some of the modern uses of uniform were 
 attained by the adoption of badges and cognisances. In 
 the second Crusade, the Frenchmen wore red crosses, whilst 
 the Englishmen wore white crosses. Yet, at the battle of 
 Barnet, the Earl of Oxford was taken for a Yorkist, and his 
 men were beaten from the field with much slaughter by their 
 own friends! In 15 13, Henry VIII., at the siege of 
 Terouenne, had with him "six hundred archers of the 
 garde" all in white gaberdines and caps. In 1526, the
 
 " The Thin Red Liner 
 
 97 
 
 yeomen of the household were clothed in red cloth. This 
 is said by Sir Sibbald Scott — in whose work on the British 
 Army most of these facts are recorded — to be the first time 
 that this colour appears in the military annals of England ; 
 but it had previously been adopted for his household by 
 Henry V. There was an order made in the thirty-sixth year 
 of Henry VHI. for "every man sowdyer to haue a cote of 
 blew clothe, after suche fashion as all fotemen's cotes be 
 made here at London, to serve His Majestic in this jorney, 
 and that the same be garded [that is, decked or ornamented] 
 with redde clothe, after such sorte as others be made here." 
 The distinguishing badge, however, was the cross of St. 
 George ; and if a soldier neglected to bear this, and was 
 slain, " he that so woundeth or slaycth him shall bear no 
 pane therefore." 
 
 The great slaughter of the Scots at the battle of Pinkie 
 Cleuch is said to have been due to the uniformity of dress, 
 "wherein the Lurdein was in a manner all one with the 
 Lord, and the Loun with the Laird ; " so that, as there was 
 apparently little chance of ransom, tliey all suffered a com- 
 mon death. 
 
 In 1576, when some artificers were sent from Lancashire 
 to Ireland, they were dressed in white cloth, ornamented 
 with two laces of crewel, one of red, and the other of green. 
 The next year there was a levy of three hundred men in 
 that county, and their coat was a pale-blue Yorkshire broad- 
 cloth with two stripes of yellow or red cloth, a vest of white 
 Holmes fustian, pale-blue kersey skirts with two stripes of 
 yellow or red. They had garters or points at the knees, 
 
 H
 
 98 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 stockings of white kersey, and shoes with large ties. Over 
 this dress were worn the breastplate, gorget, and headpiece 
 that still remained of defensive armour. In 1584, sad green 
 colour or russet is prescribed for soldiers going to Ireland. 
 In 1585, the city of London equipped a body of red-coated 
 soldiers for service in the Low Countries. A few years 
 earlier, in 1580, the Bishop of Chester, in conjunction with 
 the dean and chapter, furnished some cavalry for Irish 
 service, and these were furnished with red cloaks. The 
 buff coat, made of tough leather, from its hue gave rise to 
 the name, and was much worn in the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries. 
 
 In the Civil War, various colours were in use. Sir John 
 Suckling's men wore a white doublet, a scarlet coat, and a 
 hat with a scarlet feather. John Hampden's men wore green 
 coats ; and so did those of Lord Northampton, who belonged 
 to the same county. Lord Robarts' red coats, Colonel 
 Meyrick's gray coats. Lord Saye's blue coats, may all be 
 cited. A red regiment of the Parliamentary army was 
 surprised by the king at Brentford, and then the gray coats 
 showed themselves "most exquisite plunderers." King 
 Charles and Prince Rupert had each a body-guard in red 
 coats. 
 
 In a letter written by Lawrence Oliphant, laird of Gask, 
 6th November, 1777, he describes a relic of the old costume 
 of the Royal Scotch Archers : " It is pretty odd if my coat 
 be the only one left, especially as it was taken in the '46 by 
 the Duke of Cumberland's plunderers; and Miss Annie 
 Graeme, Inchbrackie, thinking it would be regretted by me.
 
 ^^The Thin Red Lme." 99 
 
 went boldly out among the soldiers and recovered it from 
 one of them, insisting with him that it was a lady's riding- 
 habit ; but, putting her hand to the breeches to take them 
 too, he, with an anathema, asked if the lady wore breeches. 
 They had no fringe, only green lace, as the coat ; the knee 
 buttons were worn open, to show the white silk puffed out 
 as the coat-sleeves ; the garters green. The officers' coats 
 had silver lace in place of the green silk, with the silver fringe 
 considerably deeper ; white thread stockings, as fine as could 
 be got. All wore blue bonnets (the officers, velvet), tucked 
 up before, on which was placed a cockade of, I think, a 
 green and white ribbon by turns, the bughts kept out with 
 wire, and in the middle a white iron plate with the St. 
 Andrew's cross painted on it." 
 
 The great Duke of ^Vellington was interested in this 
 branch of miUtary antiquities. Lord Mahon wrote to 
 Macaulay, asking : " Pray, when was the British army for 
 the first time clothed in red? That was the inquiry 
 addressed to me yesterday by no less a person than the 
 Duke of Wellington. I answered that I did not know 
 exactly, but imagined it to be in the reign of Charles II. 
 The Duke seemed to think that it was earlier, and that 
 Monk's troops, for example, were redcoats. AV' hat say )ou ? " 
 Macaulay replied in tlie following brief but characteristic 
 note : — 
 
 Albany, May 19, 185 1. 
 
 Dear Mahon, — The Duke is certainly right. The army 
 of the Commonwealth was clothed in red. Remember 
 Hudibras : —
 
 lOO Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 So Cromwell with deep oaths and vows 
 Swore all the Commons out of th' House; 
 Vowed that the redcoats would disband, 
 Ay, marry, would they, at command ! 
 And trolled them on, and swore, and swore, 
 Till the army turned them out of door. 
 
 Ever truly yours, T. B. Macaulay. 
 
 The correspondence is printed in Earl Stanhope's " Mis- 
 cellanies." 
 
 Macaulay scarcely makes out his case, for, as we have 
 seen, in the Civil War the regiments varied in the colour of 
 their costume. There was a "red royalist" regiment, as 
 well as one of "red republicans." Red, it is clear, was not 
 regarded either as a royal or national colour in any exclusive 
 sense. Red appears to have been definitely adopted both 
 for the guards and the line in the reign of Queen Anne. 
 The black cockade was added under George II. The red 
 stripe on the sides of the trousers dates only from 1834. 
 
 As late as 1693, the infantry were clothed in gray, and the 
 drummers in scarlet. Hence, the change now proposed to 
 be made in the colour of the regimental uniforms, and 
 which has lately been the subject of much discussion, is, 
 after all, only reverting to an older fashion. Another proof 
 is thus afforded of the fact that there is nothing new under 
 the sun.
 
 A BIRKENHEAD NEWSPAPER IN 1642 
 
 Bring me no more reports. 
 
 Shakspere. Macbeth. 
 
 MR. James Grant's History of the Newspaper Press 
 was the subject of some unfavourable comments on 
 its appearance. Perhaps its most extraordinary mistake 
 escaped the notice of its critics. At p. 193 of vol. 3 we 
 read : — " The next newspaper which has any claims to 
 belong to the category of provincial journalism was called 
 Menurius Aulicus. Those who know what an obscure and 
 insignificant place Birkenhead was at that time will be 
 surprised when informed that this newspaper, brought out 
 in 1642, was printed in that locality. But, though printed 
 in Birkenhead, the Mcrcurius Aulicus was not published 
 there. It was avowedly printed for a bookseller near 
 Queen's College, Oxford, and published by him in the latter 
 town." The notion of scholarly Oxford being unable to 
 print a news pamphlet like the Mercurius Aulicus^ and 
 sending it to Birkenhead, 169 miles away, to be put in type, 
 is a rich one. Probably every one interested in the fourth
 
 I02 
 
 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 estate, with the solitary exception of the historian of the 
 newspaper press, knows that the Mercurius Aulicus was 
 both printed and published at Oxford once a week, and 
 sometimes oftener, from 1642 to 1645. Its chief author 
 was John Birkenhead, a Cheshire man, who for this and 
 similar services was knighted in 1642 by Charles II.
 
 J. C. PRINCE AND K. T. KORNER. 
 
 Now's the day, and now's the hour, 
 See the front of battle lour. 
 
 Burns. Bannockbum. 
 
 DR. DOUGLAS LITHCxOW says that John Critchley 
 Prince had a knowledge of French, and also some 
 acquaintance with German. In support of the latter state- 
 ment, he refers to Prince's paraphrases from the German. 
 Two of these claim to be from Schiller. The first is a version 
 of his well-known poem on the Partition of the Earth. The 
 other, which may be quoted in full, is entitled "The 
 Patriot's Battle Prayer, paraphrased from the German of 
 Schiller : " 
 
 Father of Life ! to Thee, to Thee I call — 
 
 The cannon sends its thunders to the sky ; ^ 
 
 The wingW fires of slaughter round me fall ; 
 Great God of Battles ! let thy watchful eye 
 
 Look o'er and guard me in this perilous hour, 
 
 And in my cause be just, oh ! arm me with Thy power ! 
 
 Oh ! lead me, Father, to a glorious end, 
 To well-won freedom, or a martyr's death ;
 
 104 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 I bow submissive to Thy will, and send 
 
 A soul-felt prayer to Thee in every breath : 
 Do with me as beseems Thy wisdom, Lord, 
 But let not guiltless blood defile my maiden sword ! 
 
 God, I acknowledge Thee, and hear Thy tongue 
 
 In the soft whisper of the falling leaves, 
 As well as in the tumult of the throng 
 
 Arrayed for fight — this human mass that heaves 
 Like the vexed ocean, I adore Thy name. 
 Oh, bless me, God of grace, and lead me unto fame ! 
 
 Oh ! bless me, Father ! in Thy mighty hand 
 I place what Thou hast lent — my mortal life ; 
 
 I know it will depart at Thy command. 
 
 Yet will I praise Thee, God, in peace or strife ; 
 
 Living or dying, God, my voice shall raise 
 
 To Thee, Eternal Power, the words of prayer and praise ! 
 
 I glorify Thee, God, I come not here 
 
 To fight for false ambition, vainly brave ; 
 I wield my patriot sword for things more dear, — 
 
 Home and my fatherland ; the name of slave 
 My sons shall not inherit. God of Heaven ! 
 For Thee and Freedom's cause my sacred vow is given ! 
 
 God, I am dedicate to Thee for ever ; 
 
 Death, which is legion here, may hem me round ; 
 Within my heart the invader's steel may quiver. 
 
 And spill my life-blood on the crimson ground : 
 Still am I Thine, and unto Thee I call, — 
 Father, I seek the foe — forgive me if I fall ! 
 
 Now, a very slight acquaintance with German literature 
 will suffice to show that this is not translated from Schiller
 
 y. C. Prince and K. T. Korner. 105 
 
 at all, but is based upon the famous " Gebet wahrend der 
 Schlacht" of the patriot-poet Theodor Korner. This we 
 give :— 
 
 Vater, ich rufe dich ! 
 Briillend umwolkt mich der Dampf der Geschiisze, 
 Spriihend umzucken mich rasselnde Blisze. 
 Lenker der Schlachten, ich rufe dich ! 
 
 Vater du, fiihre mich ! 
 
 Vater du, fiihre mich ! 
 Fiihr' mich zum Siege, fiihr' mich zum Tode : 
 Herr, ich erkenne diene Gebote ; 
 
 Herr, wie du willst, so fiihre mich, 
 
 Cott, icli erkenne dicli ! 
 
 Gott, icli erl'Lcnne dicli ! 
 So im herbstlichen Rauschen der Blatter, 
 Als im Schlachtendonnerwetter, 
 
 Urquell der Gnade, erkenn' ich dich ! 
 Vater du, segne mich ! 
 
 Vater du, segne mich ! 
 In deine Hand befehl' ich mein Leben 
 Du kannst es nehmen, du hast es gegeben ; 
 Zum Leben, zum Sterben segne micli. 
 
 Vater, ich preise dich ! 
 
 Vater, ich preise dich ! 
 'S ist ja kein Kampf fiir die Gliter der Erde ; 
 Das rieiligste schliszen wir mit dem Schwerte, 
 Drum, fallend, und sicgcnd, prcis, ich dich. 
 Gott, dir ergeb' ich mich !
 
 io6 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Gott, dir ergeb' ich mich ! 
 Wenn mich die Donner des Todes begriiszen, 
 Wenn meine Adern geoffnet flieszen, 
 Dir mein Gott, dir ergeb' ich mich ! 
 
 Vater, ich rufe dich ! 
 
 The best translation of this glowing poem is that which, in 
 the same metre as the original, was contributed by F. C. H. 
 to "Notes and Queries" for August 27, 1870 (4th Ser. vi. 
 167):- 
 
 Father, I call on thee ! 
 Where the deep cannon i-oars dreadful around me, 
 Where the red lightning of battle has found me ; 
 Ruler of armies, I call on thee ! 
 
 Father, O guide thou me ! 
 
 Father, O guide thou me ! 
 Lead me to triumph, or lead me to perish, 
 Teach me thy will in submission to cherish ; 
 Lord, as thou wilt, so guide thou me ! 
 
 God, I bow down to thee ! 
 
 God, I bow down to thee ! 
 As when the oaks part in tempests asunder, 
 So 'mid the roar of the cannon's dread thunder, 
 
 Fountain of Mercy, I call on thee ! ' 
 
 Father, look down on me ! 
 
 Father, look down on me ! 
 Thine is my being, O thou best can shield it ; 
 Thou didst bestow it, and freely I yield it ; 
 Living or dying, look down on me ! 
 
 Father, I trust in thee !
 
 y. C. Prince and K. T. Korner. 107 
 
 Father, I trust in thee ! 
 Not for earth's treasures our blood are we spending ; 
 All that is sacred our swords are defending ; 
 Falling or conquering, I hope in thee — 
 
 All I resign to thee ! 
 
 All I resign to thee ! 
 When all around me in mist shall be clouded, 
 When in the dark robe of death I am shrouded, 
 Father, I yield my soul to thee ! 
 Father, look down on me ! 
 
 It is instructive to compare the spirited and yet almost 
 literal version of Dr. Husenbeth with the diffuser paraphrase 
 of Critchley Prince, whose linked sweetness long drawn out 
 certainly misses the fire and intensity of Korner's poem.
 
 JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS. 
 
 Skilful alike with tongue and pen, 
 He preached to all men everywhere 
 The Gospel of the Golden Rule, 
 The new commandment given to man, 
 Thinking the deed and not the creed, 
 Would help us in our utmost need. 
 
 Longfellow. Tales of the Wayside Inn. 
 
 IN the quiet churchyard of Dukinfield, the busy Cheshire 
 sister of Ashton-under-Lyne, and yet rich with many 
 memories of the olden time, peacefully rests the mortal 
 remains of Joseph Rayner Stephens, once a leader in the 
 lost cause of Chartism. 
 
 Chartism, once a terror to the middle classes and a hope 
 to the masses of the poor, is now but a memory, and awaits 
 an impartial historian and a measured verdict, uninfluenced 
 by the passions and prejudices which gave it the rosy tint 
 seen by disciples and the sable hue visible to its opponents. 
 The materials for such a chronicle are accumulating, for, as 
 the actors in the stormy scene pass off the stage, memorials 
 of them are issued which enable us to see the events as they
 
 jfoseph Rayncr Stephens. 109 
 
 appeared to those most actively concerned. It is a matter 
 for regret that no biography of Ernest Jones has yet appeared ; 
 but of William Lovett, Joseph Barker, and Thomas Cooper 
 — still hale and active — there are notices biographical and 
 autobiographical ; and in 1881 Mr. Holyoake added a fine 
 sketch of another of the old Chartist leaders. (" Life of 
 Joseph Rayner Stephens, Preacher and Political Orator." 
 By George Jacob Holyoake. London : Williams and Nor- 
 gate.) The portrait, in some respects a difficult one for the 
 biographer, is drawn with skill and good taste. It is least 
 successful where it deals, or fails to deal, with Stephens as a 
 student, and most successful where it portrays him as 
 political leader and orator. This is, doubtless, part of the 
 eternal fitness of things, since for one who thought of 
 Stephens as a scholar a thousand probably knew him as 
 gifted with a facile eloquence that sways the stormy democ- 
 racy. 
 
 Joseph Rayner Stephens was born in Edinburgh in 1805, 
 where his father was then resident as a Wesleyan minister, 
 in which capacity he afterwards came to Manchester. This 
 led to the boy being placed at the Grammar School of that 
 town. He made the acquaintance of Mr. Llarrison Ains- 
 worth, and took part in some private theatricals set on foot 
 by a number of clever youths at the home of the future 
 novelist. The late Mr. James Crossley, F.S.A. (one of the 
 band), in an article which escaped Mr. Holyoake's notice, 
 says that Ainsworth was well supported by his companions, 
 among whom he signalises Stephens — who was styled 
 " Fainwell " in the playbill — as having wTitten the prologue
 
 no Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 and " enacted three characters, two of which were Fusbos 
 and a Bandit." {Manchester Guardian^ June 5, 1876). 
 
 His love of literature and of acting did not prevent him 
 from following in his father's steps ; and at the age of twenty 
 he became a Wesleyan minister at Beverley, but next year 
 was sent to the mission-station at Stockholm. Here he 
 applied himself to the study of the Scandinavian languages 
 and literature, and was probably the first Wesleyan who 
 preached in Swedish. His abilities attracted the interest of 
 Lord Bloomfield, then the representative of England, who 
 appointed him chaplain to the embassy. He also became a 
 friend of Montalembert. Mr. Holyoake prints a very curious 
 letter from the last-named. Stephens returned to England 
 in 1830, and began to speak in favour of the separation of 
 Church and State. For this dreadful heresy in a dissenting 
 preacher he was, in 1834, suspended by the wiseacres of the 
 Wesleyan Conference ! They might have left him alone, 
 for he died a fervent advocate of the Establishment. He 
 had already begun to take part in the factory agitation which 
 led to the passage of the Ten Hours Bill. Many real friends 
 of the working classes opposed this measure as an interfer- 
 ence with matters beyond the sphere of Government, and 
 which could properly be dealt with only by individual action. 
 The necessity for such a measure is a startling proof of the 
 tyranny of one class and of the abjectness of another. 
 There is no room left to contest the evil. The factory 
 ' children were worked for twelve, fourteen, eighteen hours, 
 and even longer a-day. They had no regular meal-times, 
 and they were brutally flogged and ill-treated by their task-
 
 Joseph Rayner Stephens. Ill 
 
 masters. Those who hved grew up through a childhood of 
 despair to a maturity of disease, ignorance, and poverty. 
 But, whenever a tiny victim sank into the merciful tomb, 
 parents were ready to offer fresh children to take the empty 
 place. Yet even the basest of the working people desired 
 to be protected against themselves, and in this, at all events, 
 they were wiser than their social superiors. Stephens had a 
 passionate sense of justice, and the sights and scenes around 
 him moved him to the sternest indignation. It was a time 
 of wild excitement, and he was not the man to use stinted 
 phrases. He would echo and intensify the cry of the 
 children : — 
 
 " ' How long,' they say, ' how long, O cruel nation, 
 
 Will you stand, to move the world on a child's heart, — 
 Stifle down with mailed heel its palpitation, 
 
 And tread onward to your throne amid the mart ? ' " 
 
 This strong human sympathy gave a vital force to his words 
 where the most ornate eloquence would have failed to im- 
 press. As a speaker, he had that impalpable quality which 
 marks the orator born not made ; and the native endowment 
 had been rendered more opulent by long study, by foreign 
 experience, and by familiarity with the language and litera- 
 ture of many lands. It may be doubted if an)- men ever 
 wielded more powerful personal influence over tlie workfolk 
 of the North tlian l-Yngus O'Connor, Richard Oastler, and 
 the Rev. J. R. Stephens : and it might be a matter of difficulty 
 to decide which of them was the most perfervid denouncer 
 of those in authority. Stephens, who was a " little giant,"
 
 112 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 with a voice that could reach — and influence — a crowd of 
 20,000 persons, was arrested in December, 1838, for sedi- 
 tious language. He was not tried until August, 1839 ; and 
 his speech in defence, which for five hours held the attention 
 of a crowded court, did not avail to save him from a sentence 
 of eighteen months' imprisonment, and the further necessity 
 of finding sureties for his good behaviour in the five following 
 years. The prosecution appears to have been a somewhat 
 mean affair ; and Stephens did not fail to show that between 
 his own language and that of his political prosecutors there 
 was not much to choose. In reality, he was less a Radical 
 than a Tory-Democrat, and the " Tribune of the Poor," when 
 the factory laws were amended, allied himself chiefly with 
 the Conservative party. He never lost his hold upon the 
 affections of the factory population, and during the Cotton 
 Famine he came into prominence again, and was the stormy 
 petrel of that troublous time. He cared but Httle for the 
 machinery of politics ; the passion of his life was for social 
 justice. The people, among whom he laboured, loved and 
 respected him ; and in February, 1879, there were thou- 
 sands of mourners in the Ashton district because this man 
 was going to his long home. 
 
 As we have already hinted the scholarly aspect of 
 Stephens' many-sided character is not shown in Mr. 
 Holyoake's biography, and the loss or destruction of his 
 extensive correspondence will prevent any adequate estimate 
 of the variety and extent of his literary sympathies. It must 
 not be forgotten that it was Joseph Rayner Stephens who 
 inspired his younger brother with that love of Northern
 
 Joseph Rayner Stephens. 113 
 
 literature which has borne such solid results in the great 
 labours and enduring renown of Professor George Stephens, 
 of Copenhagen. 
 
 It is proposed to erect a statue to Stephens in the park 
 of Stalybridge. We have no wish to discourage the free 
 expression of gratitude or respect ; but surely to a man like 
 Stephens, whose memory, if it lives at all, must live in the 
 affections of those for whom he laboured, we may apply the 
 words of Leopardi : — 
 
 Che saldi men che cera e men ch' arena 
 Verso la fama die di te lasciasti 
 Son bronzi e marmi.
 
 ON THE STALK AS A SIGN OF CONTRACT. 
 
 La, la paille docile 
 Prend mille aspects nouveaux sous un main agile. 
 
 "— ' Delille. Imannation. 
 
 AMONGST the ancient deeds belonging to Captain 
 Egerton Leigh, of the West Hall, High Leigh, which 
 are being arranged by Mr. J. P. Earwaker, M.A., and some 
 of which were exhibited at a meeting of the Manchester 
 Literary Club in April, 1883, there is one dated 1413, of 
 which this description is given : — " The seal attached to a 
 deed dated 141 3 is curious in this respect, that it is not 
 heraldic, but seems to represent a sort of primitive beacon 
 or iron cage mounted on a stand to hold a fire in, and 
 round the seal, embedded in the wax, is twisted a portion 
 of a reed. This," adds Mr. Earwaker, "is an example I 
 have not previously met with, and I do not know the object 
 for which this was done. I find, however, in the Arley 
 charters that Mr. Beamont has met with one example of 
 what he calls 'a straw seal,' which he states is number six 
 in box nine, but unfortunately in his calendar of the deeds, 
 this particular deed is not mentioned, so that the date
 
 Oji the Stalk as a Sign of Contract. 115 
 
 cannot be given. In the 'Eighth Report of the Royal 
 Commission on Historical Manuscripts,' p. 638, I see that 
 Mr. J. H. Bennett, writing of the deeds, &c., belonging to 
 Bishop Bubwith's Almshouses at Wells, in Somersetshire, 
 says, ' several of the seals of the fifteenth century have the 
 peculiarity of a ring or twist of grass impressed into the wax 
 around the edge of the impression.' The only explanation 
 I have hitherto met with is that this piece of grass or weed 
 was placed there to protect the seal, which is obviously 
 incorrect, because it would be placed on all seals, which is 
 not the case. The deed to which this curious seal is 
 attached is a grant from William de Venables of Kynderton 
 to Geoffrey de Mascy of Wymyncham (Wincham) of an 
 annual rent of twenty shillings, payable during his life out of 
 the lands of the grantor in Lacheford, dated 3rd July, 
 I Henry V. [141 3]." 
 
 It seems probable that this stalk or reed has some con-
 
 ii6 Cheshire Gleanhigs. 
 
 nection with the old use of the stipula as a sign of sale or 
 agreement. There has been some doubt and speculation as 
 to the origin of the word "stipulation," but folk-lore has 
 come to the aid of etymology, and offered a reasonable 
 solution. The word stip2ilatio is used to signify a contract by 
 question and answer. From an article in the New York Nation 
 (Nov. 23, 1882) it appears that some of the Roman writers 
 regarded it as derived from stips^ a piece of money, although 
 that certainly formed no necessary part of the contract. 
 Justinian and Julius Paulus trace it to an adjective stipuhis, 
 meaning firm — a word of which there appears to be no other 
 evidence. Isidorus, however, says that the Romans, when 
 they made a solemn promise, broke a stipula (straw, or corn- 
 stalk), and by joining the pieces together acknowledged the 
 bargain. "How often," asks Canon Farrar, "do people, 
 when they 'make a stipulation,' recall the fact that the origin 
 of the expression is a custom, dead for centuries, of giving 
 a straw (stipula) in sign of a completed bargain ? " The 
 custom of using a stalk as a sign of sale is wide-spread. It 
 is found, says the writer in the Nation^ " preserved amongst 
 the Franks, Bavarians, and Alemanni in the phrases : ' Mit 
 mund und halm,' ' mit mund, hand und halm ! ' Where 
 halm corresponds to the breaking of the stipula, hand points 
 to a Frankish ' There's my hand upon it,' and mund corre- 
 sponds to the ifiterrogatio et responsis, '■ Spotidesne ? spondeoj' 
 which was all that in Justinian's time was left of the early 
 ceremony." The authority for these statements is Grimm's 
 " Worterbuch." The same fact is evidently alluded to in the 
 phrase, " Rompre le festu." To " break a straw " had the
 
 On the Stalk as a Sign of Contract. Wj 
 
 meaning of a quarrel in England formerly. Thus in Udal's 
 translation of the apophthegms of Erasmus we read : — " I 
 prophecie (quoth he) that Plato and Dionysius wil erre many 
 daies to an end break a strawe between them." (Davies : 
 "Supplementary English Glossary," 1881, p. 629.) Dr. J. S. 
 Warren, in an essay published at Dordrecht in 1881, has 
 pointed out the former, if not the present, existence of the 
 custom in India. 
 
 Harijkandra, when he had lost everything, is represented 
 as selling himself ; and in offering himself for sale he places 
 a stalk on his head (j'irasi \.ri?iam dattva). This can hardly 
 be taken in the sense of tr/z/ikar, vilipendcre, for he asks a 
 lakh of gold pieces as his price. Dr. Warren thinks it is 
 simply a sign that the king is a bond fide article of sale. This 
 essay was noticed in the Academy, whence the above is taken. 
 Haris/C'andra's adventures are told in their fullest form in the 
 Marka«deya Purawa (Dowson's "Classical Dictionary of 
 Hindu Mythology," 1879, p. 11 8). 
 
 A correspondent of the Nation has pointed out an inter- 
 esting passage in Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" which seems to 
 imply the existence of a similar custom here in quite recent 
 times. " The French ecclesiastic, in suggesting to Crusoe to 
 marry the English sailors left on the island to the Indian 
 women they were living with, is made to say ' yet a formal 
 contract before witnesses and confirmed by any token they 
 had all agreed to be bound by, though it had been but the 
 breaking of a stick between them, engaging the men to own 
 these women as their wives.' " The writer further adds : — 
 " In a picture of Raphael's (I believe), of which engraved
 
 Ii8 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 copies are common enough, representing the marriage of the 
 Virgin and St. Joseph, a young man who assists at the cere- 
 mony is represented as breaking a stick across his knee. I 
 remember when a boy, fifty years ago, being told in explana- 
 tion of this act that the breaking of a stick was an ancient 
 form of attesting a contract, and the introduction of it into 
 the picture points pretty clearly to such a custom in use, or 
 at least well known in the painter's time and country." 
 {Nation, No. 914, January 14, 1883.) 
 
 There are still traces of the survival of a form of the old 
 stipulation, for Mr. Robert Brown says " that in the manor 
 of Winteringham, North Lincolnshire, this custom, far from 
 being dead, obtains at the present time. A straw is always 
 inserted, ' according to the custom of the manor,' in the top 
 of every surrender (a paper document) of copyhold lands 
 there ; and the absence of this straw would render the whole 
 transaction null and void" (Academy, No. 498, November 
 19, 1881). 
 
 Dr. Augustus Jessop communicates the following curious 
 document to Notes and Queries (6th S., vi., 534) : — 
 
 " The Bill of Surrender made the Thirtieth day of April 
 in the twentieth yeare of the raigne of our soveraigne Lord 
 James by the grace of God King of England France and 
 Ireland defender of the fayth &c., and of Scotland the five 
 and fiftieth Witnesseth that Gilbert Nunnes of Leeds in the 
 countie of Yorke Shomaker hath by the hands of George 
 Cockill customarie tenant of the Mannor of Altoft surren- 
 dered and given up with a strawe into the hands of the Lord 
 one rode of Arrable land more or lesse lyinge in a certain
 
 On the Stalk as a Sign of Contract. 119 
 
 feild called Twenetownes with all and singular the appur- 
 tenances in Altoft aforesayd being of the yeerly rent of two 
 pence halfepenny of intent to make courting thereof To the 
 use and behoofe of W^ of Freson of Altoft in the sayd 
 countie of Yorke Esq''^ and Margaret his wife and to theire 
 heires and assignes for ever." 
 
 This has been supplemented by another correspondent, 
 who says that " this is the custom to this day in the manor of 
 Tupoates-with-Myton, which comprises much of the western 
 part of the town of Kingston-upon-Hull, and belongs to the 
 corporation of that town. The straw is affixed to the top of 
 the paper on which the form of surrender is written, and the 
 tenant surrendering holds the straw by the natural knot in 
 the middle of it, for a straw having such a knot is always 
 chosen. The new tenant receives possession by taking hold 
 of one end of a rod offered to him by the deputy steward. 
 In practice this rod is an office ruler." (6th S., vii., 218). 
 The straw as a sign of surrender is shewn in this extract 
 from Caxton's "Reynard the Fox": — "Then the King 
 taking a strawe from the ground, pardoned the Fox of all 
 his trespasses which cither hee or his Father had euer com- 
 mitted : If the Fox now began to smile it was no wonder, 
 the sweetness of life required it : yet he fell downe before 
 the King and Queene, and humbly thanked them for mercy, 
 protesting that for that fauour he would make them the 
 richest Princes in the world. And at these words the Fox 
 took up a straw, and profferred it to the King, and said to 
 him : — My dread Lord, I beseech your Maiesty receive this 
 pledge, as a surrender vnto your Maiesty of all the Treasure
 
 I20 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 that the great King Ermerike was maister of, with which I 
 freely infeofe you, out of my meare voluntary and free 
 motion. At these words the King received the straw., and 
 smiling, gaue the Fox great thankes for the same." {Notes 
 and Queries., 6th, s. vii., p. 253.) 
 
 An unpleasant reminiscence of the same form of contract 
 is probably the origin of the phrase a " man of straw," which 
 now denotes merely a worthless individual, either in a moral 
 or a pecuniary sense, but at no very distant date indicated 
 one who had descended to the lowest deeps of degradation. 
 A man of straw was one who stood in the vicinity of the 
 law courts ready to be bought sometimes as bail, some- 
 times as a witness, and to perjure himself by swearing 
 whatever he was instructed to say. As a sign that he was 
 on sale he wore a straw in his boot — not quite so prominent 
 a symbol as that borne by Hariskanda, and yet equally 
 significant ; and, indeed, the mark of a baser slavery. A 
 writer in the Quarterly Review says: — "We have all heard 
 of a race of men who used in former days to ply about our 
 own courts of law, and who, from their manner of making 
 known their occupation, were recognised by the name of 
 " straw shoes." An advocate or lawyer who wanted a con- 
 venient witness, knew by these signs where to find one, and 
 the colloquy between the parties was brief, 'Don't you 
 remember ! ' said the advocate (the party looked at the fee 
 and gave no sign ; but the fee increased, and the powers of 
 memory increased with it), ' To be sure I do.' ' Then come 
 into court and swear it.' And Straw Shoes went into court 
 and swore it. Athens abounded in straw shoes " (vol. xxxiii..
 
 On the Stalk as a Sig7i of Contract. 
 
 121 
 
 p. 344). Men waiting to be hired for farm service at statute 
 fairs displayed a straw as a sign that their labour was on 
 sale. 
 
 It seems possible, then, that the reed in the seal to this 
 Cheshire document of four centuries ago may be connected 
 with the ancient and widespread use of the stalk as a symbol 
 of contract between two persons.
 
 THE GENIUS OF AVERNUS. 
 
 Al Sirat, the bridge, of breadth less than the thread of a famished 
 spider, over which the Mussuhnans must skate unto Paradise, to which 
 it is the only entrance ; but this is not the worst, the river beneath 
 being hell itself, into which, as may be expected, the unskilful and 
 tender of foot contrive to tumble with a facilis descensus Avcrni, not 
 very pleasing in prospect to the next passenger. 
 
 Byron. Giaoiir. 
 
 ABOUT 1850 a small domestic altar was found in 
 digging for sand at Great Boughton, Chester. The 
 inscription was deciphered by Mr. C. Roach Smith, and is 
 " Genio Averni Ivl Qvintilianvs." Of this Julius Quinti- 
 lianus, who, by the side of British Dee, dedicated an altar 
 to the Genius of Avernus, a lake far-off in Italian Campania, 
 there is no other record. The name he bore is that of a 
 patrician gens, whose memories went back to the earliest 
 days of Rome. 
 
 Curiously enough, although" dedications to the genii and 
 local deities are amongst the commonest, no other instance 
 is known of one inscribed to the presiding spirit of Avernus. 
 Close by the place where this altar was found was another
 
 / 
 
 The Genhis of Avernus. 123 
 
 offered by the valiant and victorious twentieth legion to the 
 nymphs and fountains. The gods of the fields, and of the 
 roads and ways, are invoked in other inscriptions found else- 
 where. Near a clear spring, at the ancient Habitancum, an 
 altar was found with a poetic dedication, which showed that 
 its erection was due to a soldier's dream. 
 
 Somnio praemonitus miles banc ponere jussit, 
 Aram quae Fabio nupta est nymphis venerandis. 
 
 There are altars at Chester and elsewhere to the genio loci. J 
 The genius of Rome, of the land of Britain, of the Prae- 
 torium, &c., &c., have also been invoked, and there is one 
 inscription dedicated " to the good of the human race." 
 
 Notwithstanding the facility with which the Romans 
 adopted and manufactured divinities, the Genius of Avernus 
 is known, as we have said, only by this solitary inscription. 
 What would be the nature of this demi-god or supernatural 
 being ? 
 
 The Genius of the Classical world was a protecting spirit 
 — not unlike the guardian angel familiar not only to the 
 Christian, but to the Mohammedan world. Spencer has 
 described the two forms of the Genius (Faerie Queen, II., 
 xii., 47, and III., vi., 31):— 
 
 xlxvii. 
 They in that place him .Genius did call : 
 Not that celestial power to whom the care 
 Of life, and generation of all 
 That lives, perteines in charge paiticularc, 
 Who wondrous things concerninge our welfare,
 
 124 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 And straunges phantomes doth leit us ofte forsee, 
 And ofte of secret ill bids us beware : 
 That is our Selfe, whom though we do not see, 
 Yet each in him selfe it will perceive to bee. 
 
 xlviii. 
 Therefore a God him sage Antiquity 
 Did wisely make, and good Agdistes call ; 
 But this same was to that quite contraiy, 
 The foe of life, that good envoyes to all, 
 That secretly doth us procure to fall 
 Through guileful! semblants which he makes us see : 
 He of this Gardin had the governall, 
 And pleasures Porter was devized to bee, 
 Holding a staffe in hand for mere formalitee. 
 
 They seem, however, to have been associated vaguely with 
 ancestral spirits, watching over the fortunes of their des- 
 cendants. Every man had his attendant genius, or perhaps 
 even a good and bad genius. The birthday festivities 
 included the worship of the personal genius. The Genius 
 of the Roman People is portrayed on the coins of Trajan. 
 / Places, as well as persons, had their genii. The genius of 
 a place, when he made his appearance, took the form of a 
 serpent. This is a relic of a very old form of symbolic 
 worship. 
 
 The dedication — Genio Averni — would, therefore, be to 
 the ancient Lacus Avernus, now known as Lago d' Averno. 
 It is a small lake in the Campagna, occupying the crater of 
 a now silent volcano. Its sides rise steeply above the 
 waters, and in bygone ages were covered with dark and 
 gloomy trees. This dismal and funereal aspect may have
 
 TJie Genius of Avermis. 125 
 
 helped the fancy that caused it to be regarded as the 
 
 entrance to the infernal regions. The legend may have 
 
 been localised by the Greeks, who settled at Cumae. It is 
 
 first mentioned in a fragment of Ephorus that is cited by 
 
 Strabo. The sulphureous vapours arising from the lake 
 
 were said to be destructive of all animal life, even the birds 
 
 as they flew over its surface were killed by the fumes. 
 
 Hence the fanciful derivation of the name, "Aopvos — as 
 
 indicative of its influence upon bird life. " The surface of 
 
 the lake," as Daubeny has observed, " screened from the 
 
 access of the winds in every quarter, must have been 
 
 covered with a thick stratum of unrespirable gas, which 
 
 would be very slowly dissipated." (Description of Volcanoes, 
 
 I 2nd edition, 1848, p. 199). "There are now," he adds, "no 
 
 ( mephitic exhalations, and the birds resort freely to the lake." 
 
 "** The ancient inhabitants of the lake are said to have been 
 
 the Cimmerians of Homer, and the statement that they 
 
 never saw the light of the sun is somewhat lamely explained 
 
 as meaning that they lived in caves made in the rocks. 
 
 Such habitations would be easily made out of the volcanic 
 
 tufa. The road from the lake to Cumae was through a 
 
 tunnel or grotto carved out of the tufa hill. On the 
 
 southern side of the lake is a cave known as the Grotta 
 
 della Sibilla. This will recall the passage in Virgil, which 
 
 Conington has rendered thus : — 
 
 There when you land at Cumae's town, 
 Where forests o'er Avernus frown, 
 Your eyes shall see the frenzied maid 
 Who spells the future in the shade
 
 126 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Of her deep cavern, and consigns 
 
 To scattered leaves her mystic lines. 
 
 These, when the words of fate are traced, 
 
 She leaves within her cavern placed : 
 
 Awhile they rest in order ranged, 
 
 The sequence and the place unchanged. 
 
 But should the breeze through chance-ope'd door, 
 
 Whirl them in air 'twixt roof and floor, 
 
 She lets them flutter, nor takes pain 
 
 To set them in their rank again : 
 
 The pilgrims unresolved return, 
 
 And her prophetic threshold spurn. 
 
 So do not you : nor count too dear 
 
 The hours you lavish on the seer. 
 
 But, though your comrades chide your stay, 
 
 And breezes whisper hence away. 
 
 Approach her humbly, and entreat 
 
 Herself the presage to repeat, 
 
 And open of her own free choice 
 
 The prisoned flow of tongue and voice. 
 
 The martial tribes of Italy, 
 
 The story of your wars to be. 
 
 And how to face, or how to fly 
 
 Each cloud that darkens on your sky, 
 
 Her lips shall tell, and with success 
 
 The remnant of your journey bless. 
 
 When -^neas saw the Cumean Sibyl, he entreated her to 
 aid him in his desire to see his father in the world of shades. 
 She replies in a passage which either embalms or has given 
 rise to a proverb : — 
 
 Sate sanguine Divum, 
 Tros Anchisiada, facilis descensus Averno ;
 
 The Genii IS of Avernus. 127 
 
 Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis ; 
 
 Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad aures, 
 
 Hoc opus, hie labor est. 
 
 (^neid vi., 201.) 
 
 The Sibyl, however, gives him directions that he may 
 succeed if he can pluck the golden branch that is concealed 
 in the wood : — 
 
 For so has Proserpine decreed 
 That this should be her beauty's meed. 
 One plucked, another fills its room, 
 And burgeons with like precious bloom. 
 
 The mystic tree is pointed out to the hero by his mother's 
 mystic birds — two snow-white doves, and he hastens with 
 the spray to the sibyl. Offerings of bulls, rams, and lambs 
 are made to Hecate, Earth, Night, Proserpine, and Pluto, 
 and as the morning dawns they hear the baying of the hell- 
 hounds. The Sibyl now leads the way, and they enter the 
 Nether World. He sees the disembodied ghosts waiting 
 for the century that must elapse before Charon ferries them 
 to the further shore, ^neas and his companion are taken 
 over the river Styx, and he sees many of the heroes of the 
 past in the Lugentes Campi, or Fields of Tears, a sort of 
 purgatorial preface to the Elysian plains. He sees Dido, 
 whom his faithless love had killed. Tartarus he did not 
 enter, but the Sibyl gave him a vivid picture of the 
 punishment inflicted by Rhadamanthus : — 
 
 Discite justitiam moniti ct non tcmnere Divos. 
 Thence he is taken to the more genial regions of the
 
 128 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Elysian Fields, where the flowers bloom, and the trees give 
 I fruit, and a grateful odour fills the air. Here the immortals 
 j amuse themselves according to their several fancies. This 
 
 is the home of the righteous dead. 
 
 Here sees he the illustrious dead 
 Who, fighting for their country bled ; 
 Priests, who while earthly life remained 
 Preserved that life unsoiled, unstained ; 
 Blest bards, transparent souls and clear, 
 Whose song was worthy Phoebus' ear ; 
 Inventors, who by arts refined 
 The common life of human kind, 
 With all who grateful memory won 
 By services to others done ; 
 A goodly brotherhood, bedight 
 With coronals of Virgin white. 
 
 (^neid, Book vi.) 
 
 |! 
 
 ■j Fmally, the pious son sees his father Anchises, and from 
 
 !, him hears in prophetic vision the fate of his descendants. 
 
 '' It is needless to give further details of the Sixth Book of 
 the ^neid, for common consent has declared it to be the 
 
 ,^ masterpiece of Virgil's cunning hand. 
 
 Warburton regarded the narrative of the descent of Aver- 
 nus as a figurative account of an initiation into the Eleusinian 
 mysteries, a view rightly opposed by Gibbon. M. Eugene 
 Leveque compares it with the descent of Youdhichthira into 
 the kingdom of Yama, as described in the Mahabharata, and 
 some of the parallel incidents are certainly striking. (" Les 
 Mythes de I'lnde." Paris, 1880. P. 382.) Their considera- 
 tion would however lead us too far afield.
 
 The Genius of Avcnuis. 129 
 
 The Sixth Book of the ^neid is sufficient to show that 
 
 the name of Avernus was a word of deep significance to a 
 
 1 Roman mind. It was the seat of an oracle, and the lake 
 
 I itself was sacred to Proserpine or Hecate, to whom sacrifices 
 
 I* were offered. Livy has recorded the visit of Hannibal to 
 
 Avernus, the pretence, as he seems to think, being sacrifice, 
 
 and the real object a descent upon Puteoli. (xxiv. 12-13.) 
 
 Of the Oracle, we are told that the inhabitants had 
 
 underground dwellings communicating with each other by 
 
 subterranean passages through which they conducted the 
 
 strangers who came to consult the Oracle, which was built 
 
 far below the surface of the earth. These servants of the 
 
 Oracle were all slain by a king whom its vaticinations had 
 
 deceived or disappointed. (Strabo.) 
 
 The fact that the lake was sacred to Hecate and Proser- 
 pine would not prevent it from having a local genius. This 
 may be illustrated by an extract from that elegant writer, 
 the Rev. John Eustace, who says :— " At length, in the reign 
 of Augustus, the formation of the Portus Julius dispelled the 
 few horrors that continued to brood over the infernal lake ; 
 the sacred groves that still shaded its banks and hung over 
 its margin were cut down ; the barrier that separated it from 
 the Lucrinus was removed, and not only the waters of the. 
 latter but the waves of the neighbouring sea were admitted into 
 the stagnant gulph of Avernus. This enterprise, however, 
 was contemplated with some awe and apprehension : and the 
 agitation of the waters of the lake, occasioned possibly by 
 the descent of those of the former lake into the lower basin 
 of the latter, was magnified into a tempest, and ascribed to 
 J
 
 130 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 the anger of the infernal deities; The statue of one showed 
 by a profuse sweat either its fear or its indignation ; that of 
 another leaped, it was said, from its pedestal ; and recourse 
 was had, as usual, to sacrifices in order to appease the Manes. 
 In the meantime the port was finished, and Avernus was 
 stripped of its infernal horrors, and ever afterwards ranked 
 among ordinary lakes. 
 
 Stagna inter celebrem nunc mitia." 
 
 Sil. Ital. 
 
 On the southern bank stands a large and lofty octagonal 
 edifice, with niches in the walls, and with halls adjoining. 
 It is vaulted, and of brick, and is supposed by some to be the 
 temple of Proserpine, by others that of Avernus itself, whose 
 statue, as appears from the circumstance mentioned above, 
 stood in the immediate vicinity of the lake." (" Classical 
 Tour," ii., 399.)* 
 
 To the Roman soldier or settler, far away from his southern 
 home, the name of Avernus would recall many of the most 
 characteristic features of his religion. He would see again 
 in imagination the grim and terrible lake, over whose bosom 
 no bright winged bird could fly, the steep, stern hillsides with 
 their burden of funereal trees, whose gloomy boughs hid in 
 their luxuriant growth the golden branch of Proserpine, and 
 
 * Mr. W. Thompson Watkin, the learned author of " Roman 
 Lancashire," writes to me that the inscription to the genius of Avernus 
 indicates that "the dedicator seems to have had a dread of impending 
 doom, and has been highly anxious to avert it." Dr. J. C. Bruce 
 concurs in this idea.
 
 TJie Genius of Avermts. 131 
 
 secluded the mighty ehii that marked and yet concealed the 
 entrance to the under-world. 
 
 At Orcus' portals hold their lair 
 Wild Sorrow and avenging Care ; 
 And pale Diseases cluster there, 
 ■J And pleasureless Decay, 
 Foul Penury, and Fears that kill, 
 And Hunger, counsellor of ill, 
 
 A ghastly presence they ; 
 Suffering and Death the threshold keep. 
 And with them Death's blood-brother. Sleep : 
 111 Joys with their seducing spells, 
 
 And deadly War are at the door ; 
 The Furies crouch in iron cells. 
 And Discord maddens and rebels. 
 
 Her snake-locks hiss, her wreaths drip gore. 
 
 Nor would his quick thoughts linger at this fearful gate, but 
 rather would he the more earnestly follow the eager steps 
 of ^neas into the land of pale and bloodless ghosts and 
 the further regions beyond the parting of the ways, the one 
 that skirts the walls of Dis, and leads to the Blissful Fields 
 where dwell those favoured by the gods, and the other 
 that conducts the sinners to Tartarus, the kingdom of pain. 
 J In the worship offered at the humble domestic altar of the 
 Genius of Avernus there was a recognition of a supernatural 
 influence in the affairs of the world ; of the moral responsi- 
 bility of human nature for the evil and for the good of its 
 actions. There was also some hope of immortality and 
 peaceful rest in the asphodel valleys beyond the dark river 
 
 of Death. 
 /
 
 132 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 " To the Roman," says Mr. W. R. Alger, " death was a 
 grim reality. To meet it himself he girded up his loins 
 with artificial firmness. But at its ravages among his friends 
 he wailed in anguished abandonment. To his dying vision 
 there was indeed a future, but shapes of distrust and shadow 
 stood upon its disconsolate borders ; and when the prospect 
 had no horror, he still shrank from its poppied gloom." 
 (" History of the Doctrine of a Future Life." loth ed. New 
 York, 1878. P. 196.) Whatever we may believe as to this 
 our Cestrian Julius Quintilianus all these centuries ago seems 
 to have recognized that — 
 
 There is no death ; what seems so is transition. 
 
 This life of mortal breath 
 Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 
 
 Whose portal we call death.
 
 TENNYSON'S "NORTHERN COBBLER": A 
 CHESHIRE MAN. 
 
 / 
 f It's what they call the dileck as is spoke hereabout, sir. 
 
 George Eliot. Adam Bede. 
 
 THERE are still a few superfine critics who disapprove of 
 any representation of the common colloquial talk of the 
 people, and who would restrict all literary representation of 
 conversation to the most conventional book-English. For- 
 tunately, our great writers have often, if not always, been 
 disobedient to such pedantic regulations, and have felt as 
 George Eliot puts it, that they were " not bound to respect 
 the snobbish ignorance of those who do not care to know 
 more of their native tongue than the vocabulary of the 
 drawing-room and the newspaper." 
 
 The dialect-writers have found a powerful ally in the 
 Poet Laureate. It is an evidence of Mr. Tennyson's 
 superiority to vulgar prejudice that he, whose ordinary diction 
 is marked by a curious felicity of expression, should have 
 resolved also upon displaying the rough diamonds of provin-
 
 134 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 cial talk. There are gems in the folk-speech, and Mr. 
 Tennyson has placed some of them in a setting of fine gold. 
 Amongst the dialect poems of the Poet Laureate the 
 most dramatic in form and the most intense in human 
 interest is the "Northern Cobbler." The Methodist Shoe- 
 maker, who after a sad lapse into intemperance has found 
 safety in total abstinence, is a fine and not altogether un- 
 familiar figure. The very energy of such a nature, when 
 not wisely directed, is a source of temptation and weakness. 
 After courtship and marriage he neglects his wife and child 
 for the public-house, and his drunken habits are intensified 
 by the reproaches of his sharp-tongued wife, who has 
 developed into a scolding sMtern, whilst he has been 
 degenerating into a sot. As a matter of course, he loses 
 custom by his drinking and fighting ways, and one night 
 goes home in an alcoholic fury, and after smashing the 
 furniture of his cottage kicks his wife, and then falls into 
 maudlin slumbers. 
 
 An' when I waaked i' the murnin' I seead that our Sally went laamed 
 Cos' o' the kick as I gied 'cr, an' I wur dreadful ashaamed ; 
 An' Sally wur sloomy an' draggle-taail'd in an owd turn gown, 
 An' the babby's faace wurn't wesh'd an' the 'ole 'ouse hupside down. 
 
 An' then I minded our Sally sa pratty an' neat an' sweeat, 
 </ Stra'at as a pole an' clean as a flower fro' 'ead to feeiit : 
 
 An' then I minded the fust kiss I gied 'er by Thursby thurn ; 
 Theer wur a lark a-singin' 'is best of a Sunday at mum, 
 Couldn't see 'im, we 'card im a-mountin' oop 'igher an' 'igher, 
 An' then 'e turn'd to the sun, an' 'e shined like a sparkle o' fire. 
 ' Doesn't tha see 'im,' she axes, ' fur I can see 'im ? ' an I 
 Seead nobbut the smile o' the sun as danced in 'er pratty blue eye ;
 
 Tennysoii s '^Northern Cobbler ^ 135 
 
 An' I says ' I mun gie tha a kiss,' an' Sally says ' Noa, thou moant,' 
 But I gied 'er a kiss, an' then anoother, an' Sally says ' doant ! ' 
 
 An' when we coom'd into Meeatin', at fust she wur all in a tew, i 
 But, arter, we sing'd the 'ymn togither like birds on a beugh ; 
 An' Muggins 'e preach'd o' Hell-fire an' the loov o' God fur men, 
 An' then upo' coomin' awaay Sally gied me a kiss ov 'ersen. 
 
 Heer wur a fall fro' a kiss to a kick like Saatan as fell 
 
 Down out o' Heaven i' Hell- fire — thaw theer's naw drinkin' i' Hell ; 
 
 Mea fur to kick our Sally as kep the wolf fro' the door, 
 
 All along o' the drink, for I loov'd 'er as well as afoor. 
 
 He resolves to reform, and brings a bottle of gin from the 
 public-house and places it in the window by his stall, so that 
 he may " face his enemy," and thenceforth successfully avoids 
 the subtle cause that had blighted his happiness. Once more 
 a sober and industrious workman his lost trade returns to 
 him, and as his wife tells the story of the bottle of gin, the 
 curiosity of the bucolic mind is excited and a general sense 
 of respect is felt for the determined shoemaker who is 
 so emphatically master of himself The accidental differences 
 of creed and rank do not prevent or hinder the recognition 
 of his true manhood. 
 
 'Thou'rt but a Methody-man,' says Parson, an' laays down 'is 'at, 
 An 'e points to the bottle o' gin, ' but I respecks tha for that ; ' 
 An' Squire, his oan very sen, walks down fro the 'All to see, 
 An' 'e spanks 'is 'and into mine, 'fur I respecks tha,' says 'e. 
 
 The cure is effectual and permanent, and the reformed 
 inebriate begins to have another sort of liking for the bottle 
 of gin and to rejoice in it as the evidence of a crowning 
 mercy.
 
 13^ Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 An' once I said to the Missis, ' My lass, when I cooms to die, 
 Smash the bottle to smitheis, the Divil's in 'im,' said I. 
 But arter I chaanged my mind, an' if Sally be left aloan, 
 I'll hev 'im a-buried wi'mma an' taake 'im afoor the Throan. 
 
 This may be daring symbolism, but there is essential 
 truth behind. Since all must work out their salvation, what 
 could be more fitting than that the Northern Cobler should 
 desire to take with him the evidence of his struggle and 
 conquest over the degrading sin that had nearly wrecked 
 his life ? The cobbler with his black bottle would, perhaps, 
 pass through the narrow gate that might not open to a 
 builder of churches, or even a wearer of lawn-sleeves. 
 
 We must not linger, however, over the ethical or literary 
 aspects of the poem. The " Northern Cobbler," who would 
 be out of place here but for the circumstance that the 
 incident, on which Mr. Tennyson's Lincolnshire dialect poem 
 is founded, is said to have actually happened in Cheshire. 
 In some collections, and amongst others, in the Rev. E. 
 Paxton Hood's " World of Moral Anecdote," there is an 
 extract from a " Chester Gazette," of which the date is un- 
 fortunately not given. The story is thus told : — 
 
 "Henry Parker, at the age of seventeen, was, by the 
 death of his Master, left alone in the world to gain a liveli- 
 hood as a Shoemaker. He shouldered his kit, and went 
 from house to house, making up the farmer's leather, and 
 mending the children's shoes. 
 
 " At length a good old man, pleased with Henry's industry 
 and steady habits, offered him a small building as a shop. 
 Here Henry applied himself to work with persevering
 
 Tennyson s "Northern Cobbler!' 137 
 
 industry and untiring ardour. Early in the morning he was 
 whistling over his work, and his hammer was often heard 
 / till the " noon of night." He thus obtained a good reputa- 
 tion, and some of this world's goods. He soon married a 
 virtuous female, whose kind disposition added new joys to 
 his existence, and whose busy neatness rendered pleasant 
 and comfortable their little tenement. Time passed 
 smoothly on ; they were blessed with the smiling pledges / 
 of their affection, and in a few years Henry was the 
 possessor of a neat little cottage and a piece of land. This 
 they improved, and it soon became the abode of plenty and 
 joy. But Henry began to relax in his conduct, and would 
 occasionally walk down to an alehouse in the neighbour- 
 hood. This soon became a habit, and the habit imper- 
 ceptibly grew upon him until (to the grief of all who knew 
 him) he became a constant lounger about the alehouse and 
 skittle-ground, and going on from bad to worse he became 
 a habitual drunkard. The inevitable consequences soon 
 followed. He got into debt, and his creditors soon took 
 possession of all he had. 
 
 " His poor wife used all the arts of persuasion to reclaim 
 him, and she could not think of using him harshly. She 
 loved him even in his degradation — for he had always been 
 kind to her. Many an earnest petition did she prefer to 
 heaven for his reformation, and often did she endeavour to 
 work upon his paternal feelings. Over and over again he 
 promised to reform, and at last was as good as his word — 
 for he was induced to stay away from the alehouse for 
 three days together. His anxious wife began to cherish a
 
 138 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 hope of returning happiness ; but a sudden cloud one day 
 for a moment damped her joy. 'Betsey,' said he, 'give 
 me that bottle.' These words pierced her very heart, and 
 seemed to sound the knell of all her cherished hopes ; but 
 she could not disobey him. He went out with his bottle — 
 had it filled at the alehouse, and, on returning home, placed 
 
 I it in the window immediately before him. ' Now,' said he, 
 
 ! ' I can face an enemy.' 
 
 "With a resolution fixed upon correcting his pernicious 
 habits, he went earnestly to work, always having the bottle 
 before him, but never again touched it. Again he began 
 to thrive, and in a few years he was once more the owner of 
 his former delightful residence. His children grew up, and 
 are now respectable members of society. Old age came 
 upon Henry, and he always kept the bottle in the window 
 where he had first put it ; and often, when his head was 
 silvered over with age, he would refer to his bottle, and 
 thank God that he had been able to overcome the vice of 
 drunkenness. He never permitted it to be removed from 
 the window while he lived, and there it remained until after 
 he had been consigned to his narrow home." 
 
 The Poet Laureate informs me that the story of the 
 " Northern Cobbler " was current in Lincolnshire during his 
 boyhood. It is one of those stories that would impress 
 the imagination and thus acquire popularity. Tennyson 
 found it an obscure village anecdote, and he has transformed 
 it into a poem that has commanded a world-wide fame.
 
 THE KING OF THE CATS. 
 
 Care will kill a cat. 
 
 Geokge Wither. Christmas. 
 
 AS Cheshire is proverbially distinguished for the risible 
 powers of its feline inhabitants it would have been 
 strange indeed if the legend of the King of the Cats had 
 been unknown within its borders. 
 
 The earliest English form of the story is in a very curious 
 work entitled, " Beware the Cat," first printed in 155 1. The 
 edition of 1570 was reprinted by Mr. J. O. Halliwell in 
 1864, and there is a copy in the British Museum — 12316 
 C 29. According to this, a man riding through Kankwood, 
 in Shropshire, heard his name called by a cat. He made 
 no reply, when pussy " spake to him plainly twice or thrice 
 these words following : — ' Commend me to Titten Tatten 
 and to pus thy cattan, and tell her that Grimalkin is dead.' " 
 When he got home and told his wife, "his cat, which had 
 hearkened unto the tale, looked upon him sadly, and at last 
 said, 'And is Grimalkin dead? then farewell, dame!' and 
 therewith went her way, and was never seen after."
 
 140 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 The regal estate of the cat monarch is described in a 
 legend told to Gubernatis by a Tuscan story teller, who 
 said that a mother had a number of children and no money; 
 a fairy told her to go to the summit of the mountain, where 
 she would find many enchanted cats in a beautiful palace, 
 who gave alms. The woman went, and a kitten let her iii ; 
 she swept the rooms, lighted the fire, washed the dishes, 
 drew water, made the beds, and baked bread for the cats ; 
 at last she came before the king of cats, who was seated with 
 a crown on his head, and asked for alms. The great cat 
 rang the golden bell with a golden chain, and called the 
 cats. He learned that the woman had treated them well, 
 and ordered them to fill her apron with gold coins (rusponi). 
 The wicked sister of the poor woman also went to visit the 
 cats, but she maltreated them, and returned home all 
 scratched, and more dead than alive from pain and terror. 
 (See "Zoological Mythology," II vol., p. 62.) 
 
 Reverting to the story of the King of the Cats, Southey 
 gives a version of the story at the end of the seventh volume 
 / of "The Doctor." It is one of the Troll stories. A peasant 
 on his way home met a troll who thus addressed him : — 
 
 • " Hor, Du Piatt 
 Sag til din Katt, 
 Das Knurre — Murre Er dod." 
 
 He told his wife, when the cat, sitting up on his hind legs, 
 
 exclaimed, " What is Knurre — Murre, dead ? then I may go 
 
 home again" — and so vanished. {Academy, No. 587, 
 
 » August 4th, 1883.) The story is told of a troll by Thorpe.
 
 The Kmg of the Cats. 
 
 141 
 
 ("Northern Mythology," 1851, vol. ii., p. 133.) In this 
 Scandinavian form the tale is called King Pippe is dead. 
 M. Paul Sebillot has given a Breton variant of this curious 
 story. {Academy, No. 586, July 23rd, 1883.) The version 
 current in South Lancashire and Cheshire has been several 
 times printed. (Cf. Harland and Wilkinson's " Lancashire 
 Legends," p. 13; Notes and Queries^ 2nd series, vol. x., 
 p. 463; Dyer's "English Folk-Lore," 1878, p. no.) The 
 name of the dead cat is Doldrum, and that of the animal 
 to whom the news is conveyed is Dildrum — two names 
 irresistibly suggestive of Byrom's wonder that — 
 
 Such difference should be 
 Twixt twiddle-de-dum and twiddle-de-dee.
 
 MARY OF BUTTERMERE. 
 
 No damsel so lovely, no damsel so gay, 
 As Mary the Maid of the Inn. 
 
 Robert Southey. Alary the Maid of the Inn, 
 
 THE celebrated "Beauty of Buttermere " was not a 
 Cheshire damsel, but she linked her fate with a native 
 of the county palatine, and the remarkable circumstances of 
 that unhappy union give her a claim upon our attention. 
 
 Somewhere about the year 1759 there was born of poor 
 parents at Mottram-in-Longendale, John Hatfield, who, 
 under that and other names, acquired uneneviable notoriety 
 in after years. His ability was greater than his honesty, and 
 in early youth he left home somewhat under a cloud. He 
 is next heard of as a "rider" for a linen-draper, and as the 
 successful suitor for the hand of a natural daughter of Lord 
 Robert Manners. With this young woman, who, until her 
 sixteenth year, had supposed herself to be the daughter of 
 the farmer at whose house she was brought up, he had a 
 dowry of ;^i,5oo. Under this golden shower he blossomed
 
 Mary of Btitterniere. 143 
 
 into a well-known habitue of a coffee-house in Covent 
 Garden, where he talked by the hour of his noble relatives 
 of the House of Rutland, and his estates in Yorkshire and 
 elsewhere. These fabrications were soon seen through, and 
 " lying Hatfield " eventually found his way into the King's 
 Bench Prison for a debt of ;^i6o. One of his fellow- 
 prisoners, Valentine Morris, an ex-Governor of the Island of 
 St. Vincent, had as a visitor a clergyman whom Hatfield 
 made use of in an ingenious manner. He assured the 
 worthy parson that he saw before him a relative of the Duke 
 of Rutland, and induced him to take a message to his grace 
 asking that his debt might be discharged. The kind- 
 hearted clergyman undertook this delicate mission, and was 
 thunderstruck to find that the Duke had no knowledge of 
 any such relative. After some trouble he remembered 
 having heard Lord Robert Manners mention the marriage of 
 his illegitimate daughter to a tradesman of the name of 
 Hatfield. The ruse was, however, successful, for the Duke 
 made some inquiries, and finally sent ^200 for the release 
 of the prisoner. When the Duke went to Ireland as 
 Viceroy, Hatfield went over to Dublin, and imposed upon 
 the innkeeper with whom he stayed, and others from whom 
 he obtained goods by his pretensions of being a near relation 
 of the Lord Lieutenant. Even when in the Marshalsea, he / 
 managed to have the best apartment there was, and to share 
 the table of the keeper and his wife. The Duke paid his 
 debts on condition he left Ireland, and sent a servant to see 
 him safe off to Holyhead. Once more in England, he 
 pursued his old courses, and was rescued from a debtor's
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 144 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 prison by a Miss Nation whom he married. His first wife 
 and his three children he had deserted. In the interval he 
 is thought to have been in America. He had the prospect 
 of doing well in business in Devonshire, but fraudulent 
 practices brought him into the bankruptcy court. A short 
 time before, he had canvassed the borough of Queen- 
 borough as a parliamentary candidate ! He evaded the 
 impending trouble by deserting his wife and two children, 
 who were at Tiverton, and continued an adventurous career 
 of fraud and imposture. 
 
 In July, 1802, he made his appearance at the Queen's 
 Head, Keswick, and announced himself as the Hon. 
 Alexander Angus Hope, M.P., brother to the Earl of Hope- 
 town. He scraped an acquaintance with the family of an 
 Irish M.P., and paid assiduous court to his ward, a young 
 lady who united a solid fortune to considerable personal 
 beauty. She was not insensible to the charm of Colonel 
 Hope's manner, but she had the good sense to insist that 
 his proposals should be made openly to her family, and as 
 he could not hope to satisfactorily answer their inevitable 
 questions, he turned his attention to a lowlier victim. This 
 was Mary Robinson, the " Beauty of Buttermere." 
 
 One of the earliest of the lake tourists was Lieutenant 
 Joseph Budworth, of Manchester, one of the gallant heroes 
 of the siege of Gibralter, whose martial ardour was equalled 
 by his love of the picturesque. In 1792 he published 
 anonymously, "A Fortnight's Ramble to the Lakes in 
 Westmoreland, Lancashire, and Cumberland," which went 
 through three editions. This little book, which gives a
 
 Mary of Buttermere. 145 
 
 curious account of the then ahiiost unknown lake district, 
 gives an interesting pen portrait of Mary Robinson. Her 
 parents kept a small alehouse, the father in addition being 
 one of the head quarrymen. Under the name of Sally of 
 Buttermere, Mr. Budworth thus describes Mary at the age 
 of fifteen : — " Her hair was thick and long, of a dark brown, 
 and though unadorned with ringlets, did not seem to want 
 them ; her face was a fine contour, with full eyes, and lips 
 as red as vermilion ; her cheeks had more of the lily than of 
 the rose; and although she had never been out of the 
 village (and I hope will have no ambition to wish it), she 
 had a manner about her which seemed better calculated to 
 set off dress, than dress her. She was a very Lavinia, — 
 
 / Seeming when unadorned, adorned most." 
 
 When Budworth revisited the inn in 1797, he was again 
 waited upon by Mary, and told her that the inscriptions on 
 the walls which celebrated her beauty in Greek, Latin, 
 French, and English were "the probable reasons of the 
 walls not having been lately whitewashed. Her denial too 
 much crimsoned her face for me to believe her ; and the next 
 morning I saw that compliments in English were rubbed 
 out." Before leaving he acknowledged that he was the 
 writer of the " Fortnight's Ramble," and gave her some very 
 good advice. 
 
 " Mary," he represents himself as saying, with phenomenal 
 
 candour, "I wrote it, and rejoice at having had such an 
 
 opportunity of minutely observing the propriety of your 
 
 behaviour. You may remember I advised you in that book 
 
 K
 
 146 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 never to leave your native valley. Your age and situation 
 require the strictest care ; strangers will come, and have 
 come purposely to see you, and some of them with very bad 
 intentions. I hope you will never suffer from them ; but 
 never cease to be on your guard. You really are not so 
 handsome as you promised to be : and I have long intended, 
 by conversation like this, to do away with what mischief the 
 flattering character I gave of you may expose you to. Be 
 merry and wise." 
 
 She thanked him, and with no foreboding of her coming 
 misfortune added, " I hope, sir, I ever have, and trust 
 always shall, take care of myself."* 
 
 When Hatfield first saw this lovely girl she was acting as 
 a waitress in this little public house kept by her parents at 
 the side of Buttermere Lake. In this humble fashion the 
 old couple had accumulated some property, which though 
 small was sufficient, unfortunately, to tempt the unprincipled 
 impostor. The rashness of these worthy people was only 
 equalled by their credulity, and they committed, apparently 
 without any inquiry, the happiness and the fortune of their 
 
 * Joseph Budworth, F.S.A., was the son of a Manchester innkeeper, 
 and distinguished himself at the siege of Gibraltar (about which he 
 afterwards wrote a poem), and whilst on military duty in Ireland he 
 married the heiress of Palmerstown, and assumed the name of Palmer. 
 He had only one daughter, who was the mother of Mr. W. A. 
 Mackinnon, M.P., the Duchesse de Grammont and the Countess of 
 Dundonald. (See "Manchester Grammar School Register," i., 148; 
 and Nichols' "Literary Anecdotes," vol. iii., p. 334; vol. vii., p. 644.) 
 Nichols said of him that "a braver soldier or a Christian of truer 
 benevolence is rarely to be found."
 
 Mary of Buttermere. 147 
 
 daughter into the hands of the self-styled Colonel Hope. 
 The ill-fated marriage was publicly celebrated at Lorton 
 church October 2nd, 1802. It is to be remembered that the 
 pretensions of "Colonel Hope" were generally admitted and 
 that the error of these humble people was one that was 
 shared by their wealthier and better informed neighbours. 
 He received and franked letters in the name of Hope. The 
 day before the marriage Hatfield obtained some money by a 
 forged draft. The bride and bridegroom set off for a jour- 
 ney to Scotland, in order, as she supposed, to be presented 
 to his aristocratic relations, but he found an excuse for 
 returning to Buttermere after but three days' absence. A 
 few days later he was arrested, but found means to escape on 
 board a sloop off Ravenglass, and after a short stay in this 
 refuge he took coach to Ulverston and was next seen at 
 Chester. Soon after his evasion Mary of Buttermere made 
 a discovery of a momentous kind. In the dressing case of 
 her absent husband she found a secret drawer, and in it 
 many letters, some of them addressed to him in the name of 
 Hatfield by his wife and children. Later, a mass of corres- 
 pondence was found in an old trunk. The advertisement 
 which appeared in the public papers gives a graphic account 
 of the Keswick Impostor. 
 
 " Notorious Impostor, Swindler, and Felon ! — 
 
 John Hatfield, who lately married a young woman, com- 
 monly called the Beauty of Buttermere, under an assumed 
 name : height about five feet ten inches ; aged about forty- 
 four ; full face, bright eyes, thick eyebrows, strong but light
 
 14^ Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 beard, good complexion, with some colour ; thick, but not 
 very prominent nose, smiling countenance, fine teeth, a scar 
 on one of his cheeks near the chin, very long thick light hair, 
 and a deal of it grey, done up in a club ; stiff square 
 shouldered, full breast and chest, rather corpulent, and 
 strong limbed, but very active : and has rather a spring in 
 his gait, with apparently a little hitch in bringing up one leg; 
 the two middle fingers of his left hand are stiff from an old 
 wound : he has something of the Irish brogue in his speech; 
 fluent and elegant in his language, great command of words, 
 frequently puts his hand to his heart ; very fond of compli- 
 ments, and generally addressing himself to persons most 
 distinguished by rank or situation, attentive in the extreme 
 to females, and likely to insinuate himself where there are 
 young ladies. He was in America during the war, is fond 
 of talking of his wounds and exploits there, and of military 
 subjects, as well as of Hatfield Hall, and his estates in 
 Derbyshire and Cheshire ; of the antiquity of his family, 
 whom he pretends to trace to the Plantagenets. He makes 
 a boast of having often been engaged in duels ; he has been 
 a great traveller also, by his own account, and talks of 
 Egypt, Turkey, and Italy : and, in short, has a general know- 
 ledge of subjects, which, together with his engaging manners, 
 is well calculated to impose on the credulous. He had art 
 enough to connect himself with some very respectable 
 merchants in Devonshire, as a partner in business, but 
 having swindled them out of large sums, he was made a 
 separate bankrupt in June, 1802. He cloaks his deception 
 under the mask of religion, appears fond of religious conver-
 
 Mary of Buttermere. 149 
 
 sation, and makes a point of attending divine service and 
 popular preachers." 
 
 From Chester he went unrecognised to Builth, and was 
 finally apprehended at some distance from Swansea, and com- 
 mitted to Brecon jail. Here he professed to be a descendant 
 of an ancient Welsh family, and gave himself the name of 
 Tudor Henry. Bow-street officers conveyed him to London, 
 where he was examined as an absconding bankrupt, and also 
 for forging post-office franks. On a second charge of forgery 
 and bigamy he was committed to Carlisle assizes. There 
 was great curiosity as to the man, and amongst those in 
 court was the Duke of Cumberland. He was tried at 
 Carlisle before Sir Alexander Thompson, August 15th, 1803, 
 and the proceedings lasted from eleven in the forenoon until 
 seven at night. The court was densely crowded, and the 
 greatest interest was shown in the prisoner, whose coolness 
 did not desert him even at this trying moment. Scarlett, 
 who was the prosecuting counsel, opened in a manner that 
 was studiously moderate, and indeed the evidence was so 
 strong that there was no need of advocacy. It was proved 
 beyond dispute that he had assumed the name of Hope, 
 passed himself off as a Member of Parliament, and in that 
 assumed character had forged franks to letters as well as a 
 bill of exchange. The verdict of the jury was "guilty of 
 forgery," and on the following day he was brought up for 
 judgment. In the then state of the English law the punish- 
 ment of forgery was death. The poet Wordsworth had an 
 interview with him on the day of his condemnation, but 
 Coleridge he emphatically declined to see. He had previ-
 
 150 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 ously avoided Coleridge, probably thinking from the Devon- 
 shire name that he might have some previous knowledge of 
 the life of fraud that had preceded "Colonel Hope's " visit to 
 the lakes. To Coleridge, however, fell the task of examining 
 the papers of the malefactor. They were chiefly letters from 
 women whom he had victimised. Coleridge often said, 
 "that the man who, when pursued by these heartrending 
 apostrophes, and with this litany of anguish sounding in his 
 ears, from despairing women and from famishing children, 
 could yet find it possible to enjoy the calm pleasures of a 
 Lake tourist and deliberately to hunt for the picturesque, 
 must have been a fiend of the order which fortunately does 
 not often emerge amongst men." (De Quincey : "Recollec- 
 tions of the Lakes," p. 87.) 
 
 In accordance with his sentence Hatfield was hung at the 
 usual place of execution, an island formed by the river Eden 
 at the north side of the town and between the two bridges. 
 The precise annalist of the period is careful to inform us 
 that Hatfield on his last morning read the Carlisle Journal, 
 next breakfasted with two clergymen who afterwards prayed 
 with him, then finished his correspondence, enclosing his 
 penknife in one letter which he addressed to London. 
 Guarded by the Yeomanry Cavalry he was taken in a carriage 
 to the gallows, and with unconquerable coolness assisted the 
 executioner in the final preparations. The words, "May the 
 Almighty bless you all," were his last. Owing to his great 
 weight when he fell his feet almost touched the ground, but 
 he expired without a struggle. In his last moments he 
 showed a courage and resignation worthy of a better prelude.
 
 Mary of Bitttermere. 151 
 
 He had his preferences, and gave minute directions as to 
 his cofifin, which he desired to be large. He also expressed 
 a desire to be buried at Burgh, but as the parishioners did 
 not desire such a guest in the place where the rude fore- *^ 
 fathers of their hamlet slept, his grave was made in St. Mary's 
 churchyard, "the usual place," says the polite annalist, "for 
 those who come to an untimely end." 
 
 Was the "Beauty of Buttermere" beautiful? Opinions 
 have varied. There is a portrait by Gillray which was pro- 
 fessedly sketched from life in July, 1800, and therefore 
 before sorrow and misfortune had affected her. ("Works of 
 Gillray," No. 522.) The commentator on that artist observes, 
 "Her beauty, it is said, has been very much overrated; but 
 that her gracefulness, expression and accomplishments, were 
 more than equivalent for any deficiency in form or feature." 
 De Quincey allowed that she was good looking, but declared 
 '■'■beautiful in any emphatic sense she was not." He tells a 
 curious story : "One lady, not very scrupulous in her embel- 
 lishment of facts, used to tell an anecdote of her which I 
 hope was exaggerated. Some friend of hers (as she affirmed), 
 in company with a large party, visited Buttermere, within one 
 day after that on which Hatfield suffered .; and she protested 
 that Mary threw on the table, with an emphatic gesture, the 
 Carlisle paper containing an elaborate account of his execu- 
 tion." Against this may be placed the fact that neither 
 Mary nor that other victim of Hatfield's villainy — the wife 
 whom he had deserted at her greatest hour of need, could 
 be induced to prosecute him for bigamy. The subsequent 
 life of Mary of Buttermere is also a sufficient answer to the
 
 152 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 slander. She resumed her former Hfe, and had some help 
 from those who pitied her misfortunes. "It was fortunate," 
 says De Quincey, "for a person in her distressing situation 
 that her home was not in a town : the few and simple neigh- 
 bours who had witnessed her imaginary elevation, having 
 little knowledge of worldly feelings, never for an instant con- 
 nected with her disappointment any sense of the ludicrous, 
 or spoke of it as a calamity to which her vanity might have 
 cooperated. They treated it as an unmixed injury, reflecting 
 shame upon nobody but the wicked perpetrator." Canon 
 Parkinson, writing about 1842, says, "Mary died not long 
 since, the mother of a large family, in a good old age, a 
 subject of notoriety and curiosity to her dying day." ("Old 
 Church Clock," 5th edit., 1880, p. 231.) In a happy second 
 union, it may be hoped, she forgot the misery of her first 
 matrimonial adventure. Her second husband was Richard 
 Harrison, and some of her descendants are still in the Lake 
 / district. She died of cancer about 1844. {Notes a?id 
 Queries, 5th, s. ii., 177.) We have also the fine testimony 
 of Wordsworth, who in a passage of the "Prelude" ad- 
 dressed to Coleridge says, — 
 
 Here, too, were "forms and pressures of the time," 
 ■Rough, bold, as Grecian comedy displayed 
 When Art was young ; dramas of living men, 
 And recent things yet warm with life ; a sea-fight, 
 Shipwreck, or some domestic incident 
 Divulged by Truth and magnified by Fame ; 
 Such as the daring brotherhood of late 
 Set forth, too serious theme for that light place —
 
 Mary of Biittermcre. 153 
 
 I mean, O distant Friend ! a story drawn 
 
 From our own ground, — the Maid of Buttermere, — 
 
 And how, unfaithful to a virtuous wife 
 
 Deserted and deceived, the Spoiler came 
 ^And wooed the artless daughter of the hills, 
 ! And wedded her, in cruel mockery 
 .i Of love and marriage bonds. These words to thee 
 
 Must needs bring back the moment when we first, 
 
 Ere the broad world rang with the maiden's name. 
 
 Beheld her serving at the cottage inn, 
 
 Both stricken, as she entered or withdrew. 
 
 With admiration of her modest mien 
 
 And carriage, marked by unexampled grace. 
 
 We since that time, not unfamiliarly, 
 
 Have seen her, — her discretion have observed. 
 
 Her just opinions, delicate reserve. 
 
 Her patience, and humility of mind 
 
 Unspoiled by commendation and the excess 
 
 Of public notice — an offensive light 
 
 To a meek spirit suffering inwardly. 
 
 From this memorial tribute to my theme 
 
 I was returning, when, with sundry forms 
 
 Commingled shapes which met me in the way 
 
 That we must tread — thy image rose again, 
 
 Maiden of Buttermere ! She lives in peace 
 
 Upon the spot where she was born and reared; 
 
 Without contamination doth she live 
 
 In quietness, without anxiety : 
 
 Beside the mountain chapel, sleeps in earth 
 
 Her new-born infant, fearless as a lamb 
 
 That, thither driven from some unsheltered place, 
 
 Rests underneath the little rock-like pile 
 
 When storms are raging. Happy arc they both — 
 
 Mother and child ! —
 
 154 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 The material for the biography of Mary of Buttermere and 
 her scoundrel husband are the following : — i. "The Life of 
 Mary Robinson the celebrated Beauty of Buttermere." Second 
 edition. London, 1803. This has a portrait, which may be 
 compared with that in the "-Works of James Gillray." 2. 
 "Trial of John Hatfield for Forgery." London, 1803. 3. 
 " Recollections of the Lakes, by Thomas de Quincey." Edin- 
 burgh, 1863. Some inaccuracies in De Quincey's account 
 are pointed out in an article in Notes and Queries, ist, s. 
 viii., 27. Cf5th, s. ii., 114. 4. "The Mysterious Visitor ; 
 or, Mary the Rose of Cumberland." A Novel, by Henry 
 Montague Cecil. London, 1805. 2 vols. A stupid novel, 
 with some passages of doubtful morality.
 
 OLD EASTER CUSTOMS OF CHESHIRE. 
 
 Sport that wrinkled care derides, 
 And laughter holding both his sides. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 E Allegro. 
 
 M 
 
 ANY curious customs marked the Easter season in 
 former times. Some are now entirely obsolete, whilst 
 others survive only in the remoter districts. These usages 
 die hard, and it would, perhaps, be rash to say of any of 
 them that they are entirely extinct. Some instances recorded 
 are from Lancashire, and they refer to matters common of 
 the two counties. Easter eggs are still in vogue. Formerly 
 in Ashton-under-Lyne and Dukinfield, and other parts, 
 the children went round holding in their hand a real or 
 imitation bird's nest, and chanting in a monotonous tone : — 
 
 Pace-egg ! pace-egg ! 
 Other egg or haup'ny. 
 
 This is evidently but an abbreviated form of a longer petition 
 for an egg, bacon, cheese, or an apple, " or any good thing 
 that will make us merry, and pray you, good dame, an 
 Easter egg." At Blackburn, fifty years ago, the juvenile
 
 156 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 prayer, if briefer, was more emphatic, — " God's sake, a pace- 
 egg," which was repeated from morn until night by a con- 
 stant succession of young visitors. The pace-egg is, indeed, 
 common throughout the north. The eggs are boiled very 
 hard and coloured by infusion of herbs. A resident of 
 Liverpool told William Hone that his servant, in 1824, 
 presented his child with a beautifully mottled brown egg, 
 and that this appearance had been imparted to it by being 
 hard boiled within the coat of an onion. To some needy 
 individuals the gift of a pace-egg would be a welcome 
 addition to their dietary, but, as a rule, the lads and lasses 
 valued them, not as articles of food, but as playthings, and 
 rolling pace-eggs down hill is still one of the recognised 
 amusements of childhood on Easter Monday at Preston and 
 other places. At Blackburn the great point was to roll eggs 
 against each other until they were broken. The word 
 " pace " is of course derived from the name of the Paschal 
 feast. The Christian festival and the Jewish Fascha, or 
 Passover, were originally kept at the same time. 
 
 The name of "pace-egg" is also given to a species of 
 rustic drama, once an invariable accompaniment of this 
 season, and very popular in all parts of Cheshire and the 
 adjoining counties. The construction was one that readily 
 admitted of the interpolation of any new character that 
 happened to come before the public. Thus, the spectators 
 were treated to the somewhat anomalous appearance of Lord 
 Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, or any other popular hero, 
 along with St. George of England and his redoubtable 
 antagonist the Soldan of Babylon. Sometimes girls were
 
 Old Easter Customs of Cheshire. 157 
 
 dressed up to enact male parts, whilst usually the "Bessy" 
 — a very low comedy character — was undertaken by a youth. 
 The " Fool," in addition to his other vocation, acted as a 
 sort of master of the ceremonies, and in that capacity 
 announced St. George in a lofty strain of appreciative names 
 — some marking his valorous deeds — after which "enter 
 Slasher," who is even more boastful than the patron saint, 
 and, the two having fought. Slasher is wounded, but recovers 
 by the care of a miraculous doctor. St. George next fights 
 with the Black Prince of Paradine, whom he slays, and then 
 the King of Egypt, the father of the dead Prince, brings 
 forward Hector, who is also wounded. The Fool next 
 challenges the Saint, and an appointment is made for a 
 combat. They leave, and then the finale appears in the 
 person of a diabolical personage, who firmly but respectfully 
 remarks — 
 
 Here come I, little Devil Doubt ; 
 If you do not give me money, 
 I'll sweep you all out. 
 Money I want, and money I crave : 
 If you do not give me money, 
 I'll sweep you to the grave. 
 
 The appeal for money was not made in vain, as the sweeping 
 out demonstration was far too realistic to be pleasant. The 
 libretto of the astounding drama of the " Pace Egg " appears 
 to be some two centuries old, and many thousand copies of 
 it have been sold as a chapbook from the press of a Man- 
 chester printer who dealt largely in such wares. 
 
 The clergy in the Middle Ages were frequent actors in
 
 158 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 the performance both of miracle plays and mysteries, and it 
 is possible that in St. George and Slasher we may have a 
 degraded type of some mediaeval drama intended to com- 
 memorate the heroic virtues of England's patron saint. 
 Rude dialogues of this kind, plentifully interspersed with 
 single coiTibats, were common in many parts of England and 
 Scotland. Several of them have been printed by different 
 antiquaries, but they have not been collected or compared 
 in detail. 
 
 Easter was one of the great seasons of the religious drama 
 in the pre-Reformation period. Amongst the matters men- 
 tioned by the Commissioners of Henry VIII. , as belonging 
 to the Collegiate Church of Manchester, were "certain 
 ornaments for the sepulchre." These were intended for use 
 in the representation of the Easter Mysteries, in which the 
 Resurrection was brought before the assembled people in a 
 play wherein the actors were the priests and singing men of 
 the church. In the Fylde of Lancashire the rustic drama 
 was known as " Ignagning," a word of unknown meaning, 
 which Thornber supposes to be Ignis Agnae, " a virgin and 
 martyr who suffered at the stake about this time of the year." 
 
 Where the formal play was not acted it was still customary 
 to have " Old Ball " or other Easter mummings. The 
 young men were decorated with ribbons, and whatever could 
 add to the supposed splendour of their appearance was lent 
 by proud sisters, appreciative sweethearts, or indulgent 
 parents. In the Fylde these youths were known as the 
 "jolly boys." An important person in the crew was the old 
 Tosspot, whose business it was to excite hilarity by his
 
 Old Easter Ctistoms of Cheshire. 159 
 
 fantastic fooling. " Old Ball " was supposed to be the 
 representation of a horse. It was a rude hobby-horse, with 
 a hideous head and jaws that could be moved about. The 
 fantastic gambols of this weird figure not unfrequently 
 excited terrified screams from the women and children. 
 Sometimes the skull of a horse was procured and covered 
 with calf-skin. In its ruder form, at all events, " Old Ball," 
 though once well known in Swinton, Blackburn, Manchester, 
 and elsewhere, has now disappeared. 
 
 " Lifting " survived until a few years ago. It was neither 
 very pleasant nor particularly decent, and was retained as a 
 means of annoyance or merely as a species of horse-play 
 long after its original dogmatic significance was forgotten. 
 In the year 1225 seven of the ladies of honour and other 
 attendants of the Queen lifted King Edward I. whilst he was 
 in bed on the morrow of Easter, and they extracted from 
 him a gift of ;^i4. An inhabitant, writing of Manchester in 
 1784, says: — "Lifting was originally designed to represent 
 our Saviour's resurrection. The men lift the women on 
 Easter Monday, and the women lift the men on Tuesday." 
 The magistrates, he said, had in vain forbidden it by the 
 bellman, " and the women have of late years converted it 
 into a money job." Sometimes, and perhaps more com- 
 monly, the lifters joined hands across each other's wrists, 
 and thus made a sort of throne on which was placed the 
 person to be lifted. He was then elevated two or three times, 
 and sometimes carried for a little distance. His descent 
 was much less ceremonious. It will be seen that the high- 
 born damsels of Eleanor of Castillc in the thirteenth century,
 
 i6o CJiesJiire Gleanings. 
 
 and the plebeian girls of Manchester in the eighteenth century, 
 with an equal eye to the main chance, saw the financial 
 possibilities of the custom of lifting. Latterly, anyone by 
 the payment of a small money fine escaped the indignity, 
 but if this bribe were not forthcoming lifting proceeded, and 
 the tormentors were not very particular as to the cleanliness 
 of the ground on which the victim was finally desposited. 
 Sometimes the lifting or heaving was done with the subject 
 seated in a chair. The reward claimed from the girls was a 
 kiss or a shilling. One or other form was common not only 
 in Lancashire but in Cheshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, 
 &c. It is now universally discouraged, but occasionally re- 
 appears. Thus the magistrates at Neston had a case before 
 them at Easter of 1883, in which the old customs of lifting 
 was in question. It would appear that on Easter Monday 
 three men presented themselves at the house of the prose- 
 cutor, at Leswall, and told him that they had come to "lift" 
 his wife. The prosecutor told the defendant to go away or 
 he would kick him out, as he would not allow anyone to 
 take such liberties. The defendant, by way of excuse, 
 informed the bench that he was only endeavouring to carry 
 out an old Cheshire custom. The men, he said, " lifted " 
 the women on Easter Monday, and the women the men 
 on Easter Tuesday. The magistrates replied that he had 
 acted most improperly, and must apologise and pay the 
 costs. 
 
 At Padiham and other parts of Whalley parish the game 
 of the ring was common. A stick was used for tapping. 
 The game of ring, usually without the stick, is, however,
 
 Old Easter Customs of CliesJih-e. i6i 
 
 a favourite amusement all over Cheshire and Lancashire at 
 every holiday season. At Poulton fair, held on Easter 
 Monday, the great ambition of the damsels was to show 
 their power of endurance by long continuance at the dance. 
 
 I The dancing pair that simply sought renown 
 ' By holding out to tire each other down 
 
 had many imitators, and the bystanders were not slow in 
 showing their preferences, so that the lasses were encouraged 
 by applauding voices. The humours of Knot Mill Fair will 
 still be fresh in many memories. They formed no small part of 
 the attractions of the season for the Cheshire and Lancashire 
 folk of a past generation. After all, the chief glories of Easter 
 Monday in old Manchester were the weddings at the Old 
 Church, to which the candidates from various parts of Cheshire 
 and Lancashire came in shoals. The wholesale marriage 
 ceremony has often been described. The lads and lasses 
 stood by dozens at a time, to be united in holy wedlock ; nor 
 was the admonition of the eccentric Joshua Brooks — that they 
 should pair as they went out — a quite superfluous injunction 
 in the confusion that sometimes ensued. It was perhaps by 
 way of remembrance of that momentous event in their lives 
 that the married ladies were in the habit of going to the 
 communion, on Easter Sunday in their wedding dresses. It 
 was, however, regarded as essential to the good fortune of 
 the year that each person should wear something new on 
 Easter Sunday. The marriages at the Old Church arc 
 greatly reduced now, owing to the increased facilities afforded 
 by the various churches in new parishes and the curtailment
 
 1 62 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 of some of its old privileges. The Rev. Robert Lambe — 
 the "Manchester Man" of Fraser — was once watching a 
 wedding party at the Old Church. "Ay, but hoo's vast fou," 
 (she is very plain) said a factory lass to her companion, 
 pointing to the bride. "Hod thy din, wench," was the 
 1 answer, "what's the odds ? There never was a fou face but 
 ' there was a fou fancy." This, as he points out, is the true 
 Platonic theory that everything is double. A curious Easter 
 Sunday belief is mentioned in the Manchester City News 
 (31 March, 1881) by Mr. J. F. Robinson, who says : — "On 
 Easter Sunday, when taking tea at a farmhouse at Alvanley, 
 a lady remarked upon the fact that no rain had fallen during 
 the day, and she regarded it as an excellent sign. So saying, 
 she quoted the couplet — 
 
 When rain falls on Easter Day 
 We get no grass and little hay." 
 
 At Easter, the churches were in some instances decked 
 with spring flowers, probably symbolical both of the physical 
 and spiritual resurrection. But the ecclesiastical associations 
 of Easter were not all of a pleasant nature. The freewill 
 offerings made by the faithful in earlier ages acquired in time 
 a coercive sanction, and "dues," "mortuaries," and other 
 oblations were sometimes exacted in a manner that led to 
 much bitterness. This was often the case where the right to 
 levy these dues was leased, when the uttermost was likely to 
 be exacted without mercy or consideration. The payment 
 of Easter dues was an important feature of the season, at 
 least for the ecclesiastics. The rolls for the parish of
 
 Old Easter Customs of Cheshire. 163 
 
 Whalley in the years 1552 and 1553 have been printed. The 
 jurisdiction of the convent extended over the Royal forests 
 of Pendle, Trawden, Rossendale, Rowland, and Rlackburn- 
 shire. The offences of the substraction of tithe, the with- 
 holding of Easter dues, and various other delinquencies were 
 brought before a jury of laymen who were summoned from 
 time to time. The Abbey had the dues from 1395, if not 
 earlier, until the dissolution, when they became vested in the 
 Crown. In 1688 Sir Ralph Assheton, who leased them, 
 estimated their value at ^120 yearly. In 1595 the Easter 
 roll of Bolton produced ^^24 9s. 3^d. Thomas Battye, at 
 the close of the last century, was in Manchester a vigorous 
 opponent of Easter dues, which he declared to be illegal by 
 the charter of the Collegiate Church. Some of the cases he 
 narrates are sufficiently distressing, and argue a great want 
 of charity in the person — a pawnbroker — who then farmed 
 the tithes and oblations. A poor woman in Back Queen 
 Street, who rented a garret at 9d. a week, was called upon 
 for 5j^d., and being in a distressed situation — having three 
 small children, the youngest not a month old, — she pawned 
 a gown for is. to pay him. 
 
 Archdeacon Rogers has left an interesting account of the 
 Sheriff's breakfast at Chester in Easter week : — 
 
 "Being a most anchant custome there, on the said Monday 
 in Ester weeke, the 2 sherifes of the cittie to shoote for a 
 breakefast or dinner, of calves heads and bacon, the Mayor, 
 Recorder, and Aldermen, takinge parte with on sherife or 
 the other, and all other gent, yeomen, or good fellowes, that 
 will there shoote on either side being chosen, doc shote
 
 / 
 
 v 
 
 164 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 there 3 shootes, being bettered still by the winer's side ; 
 which 3 shootes being so wonne, they all take parte togeather 
 of the same dinner or breakefast, the winner's side payeinge 
 I id. apeice, and the loser's side 4d. apeice, the originall 
 whereof no man's memorie can remember. Of which 
 anchant custome, the time being very fitting, the game being 
 most lawfull, and the end being the comforte, societie, and 
 recreation of the cittizens, it deserves not onlye greate praise 
 and commendation, but also perpetuall continuance and 
 manteynance." 
 
 The breakfast consisted chiefly of calves' head and bacon. 
 The bacon was eaten in token of protest against Judaism. 
 Another customary Easter dish was tansy made from the 
 herb whose bitter properties were regarded as the fitting 
 corrective of the fish diet then almost exclusively used in 
 Lent. On Shrove Tuesday, and according to some on 
 Easter Monday also, the Mayor of Chester, in great state, 
 went to the Roodee, where the guild of shoemakers presented 
 him with a ball, and then the game of football was entered 
 upon with right good will. Nor were the ladies excluded 
 from this somewhat unfeminine game. True they did not 
 take part in the wilder sport on the Roodee, but they had a 
 quieter game by themselves in another part of the city, and 
 thereby hangs a good old love story. The Mayor's daughter 
 was playing at ball in the Pepper-gate when her lover — no 
 doubt a proper young man — made his appearance, and tak- 
 ing advantage of the detention of the city elders, carried off 
 the young lady, whose resistance is not described as having 
 been of a very strenuous character. When the angry father
 
 Old Easter Customs of Cheshire. 165 
 
 heard of the elopement he ordered the Pepper-gate to be 
 closed. This injunction is one of those touches of nature 
 that make us all kin, and gave rise to the proverb, " When / 
 the daughter is stolen shut the pepper-gate." Football was 
 a favourite game in Cheshire. In the fourteenth year of 
 Edward II. John Budworth, a servant of the Abbot of Vale 
 Royal, was killed "per fratres de Oldynton," and the 
 murderers played football with his head. Archery was an 
 important feature in the old-fashioned holidays, and long 
 after shooting with the bow had ceased to be a matter of 
 importance the memory of the bowmen of Lancashire and 
 Cheshire remained as a tradition with their children. 
 
 At the Manchester Grammar School, Easter Monday was 
 a festal day, and the school-room was decorated with banners 
 and enlivened by merry strains from a band of music. The 
 chief feature of the day was, however, what was called 
 " artillery practice," which was really shooting with bows and 
 arrows. The chief prize was a silver buckle ; the second a 
 dunghill cock. The procession from the school was headed 
 by some of the clergy of the Collegiate Church, the masters 
 of the school, and the churchwardens, and the contest was 
 / held in the vicinity of Tinker's Gardens, once a famous holi- 
 day resort, but now forgotten and unknown to the merry- 
 makers of the present generation. On the return from the 
 field of victory the younger boys were regaled with " furmity " 
 at the Bull's Head, in tlie Market Place, whilst the same 
 famous hostelry furnished more genteel though jirobably 
 less nutritious "entertainment" to the elder boys and 
 the official personages. This method of marking Easter
 
 1 66 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Monday is said to have been the work of the Rev. Jeremiah 
 Smith, D.D. 
 
 At Preston, until the seventeenth century, the Corporation 
 were expected to exercise a somewhat profuse hospitaUty. 
 On August 26, 16 1 2, they resolved upon a reform. The 
 minute made on this occasion says that "heretofore of 
 ancient tyme yt hath beene used and accustumed within this 
 towne of Preston, that the Bailives thereof for the time being 
 att the Feast of Easter yearlie, should to their greate and 
 excessive charge, provide wine, beare, breade, cheese, ayle, 
 and other bankettinge stuff and provisions, as well for the 
 Maior of the said towne, and his brethren, the comon coun- 
 sell of the same, and all other the burgesses for the time 
 beinge, as also for all strangers, passengers, and neighbours 
 repairing to the same towne, by reason whereof the con- 
 course and assemblie of people att the same tymes did grow 
 greater, very Turbulent, and unruhe." It was therefore 
 ordained that in place of this miscellaneous festivity the 
 bailiffs should jointly provide twenty marks for the payment 
 of the schoolmaster. The example of the curtailment of 
 municipal revels for the advancement of education is one 
 that may still be commended to the notice of London, and, 
 it may be, other corporations.
 
 THE CHESTER PLAYS. 
 
 The play's the thing. 
 
 Shakspere. 
 
 IN the middle ages dramatic performances were often 
 given on the Sunday. The church and the stage were 
 in much closer union then than now, and the mystery and 
 miracle plays were distinctly theological in their motive and 
 teaching. Several collections of these dramas have come 
 down to us. The performance of those played at Chester 
 by the various trade companies usually began on Monday, 
 and continued during the two following days of Whit-week. 
 The mysteries were dramatic representations of scenes of 
 Biblical history, or of matters intended to symbolise one or 
 I other mysteries of the Christian faith, whilst the miracle 
 I plays were founded on the legends of the wonder-working 
 li^ powers of the saints of the Church of Rome. The dis- 
 tinction between the two was not always very nicely 
 observed. In their earlier and simpler form they were 
 intended to impress religious ideas upon the minds of the 
 monks, as they were performed in the open church, and
 
 1 68 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 chiefly by the younger brethren. The dialogue was in Latin, 
 but the chief points of the story were probably made in- 
 telligible by dumb show, and to that extent were capable of 
 being understood and enjoyed by the lay folk who were 
 allowed to witness the performance. The Englishman 
 Hilarius, who was a disciple of Abelard, A\Tote in the twelfth 
 century plays on the Raising of Lazarus, the History 
 of St. Daniel, and the Miracle of St. Nicholas. As early 
 as in the thirteenth century plays in the French vernacular 
 occur, and in the next century we find that in England 
 also it had been discovered that if anything were to be 
 taught they must be spoken in a tongue that " was under- 
 stanted of the common people." The performers were for 
 the most part clerics, but in the fifteenth century laymen 
 took part, and probably the greater share, in the representa- 
 tion. Chaucer, in describing Absolon, the parish clerk, 
 tells us. 
 
 Sometime to show his lightnesse and maistrie 
 He plaietia Herod on a skaffold hie. 
 
 The last line points to a still further development of the 
 Indus. The church was probably found to be inconvenient 
 for such displays, alike for spectators and actors, and stages 
 were erected for the purpose in the open air. Here in some 
 green field, stretching by the side of a clear river, still 
 unfouled by manufactures, the Thespians erected their 
 scaffolds, or placed them upon carts, and constructed their 
 sometimes elaborate arrangements for the separation of the 
 scenes in heaven, earth, and hell. Amongst the payments
 
 TJie Chester Plays. 169 
 
 recorded at Coventry (Sharp, pp. 57, 73, 74) is that of 2d. 
 "for mending the mouth of hell," and 5d. "for setting the 
 world on fire." Amongst the stage properties at Coventry 
 we find recorded a " girdle for God," a " seldall " or seat 
 for God, which cost i2d., and a new " sudere " for God, 
 bought for 7d. The latter was a veronica or handkerchief, 
 upon which the portrait of Jesus was supposed to be 
 imprinted by his bloody sweat. The faces of the performers 
 were also disguised by masks and visors. The classical 
 student will recall more than one analogy between these 
 mediaeval performances and the Thespian comedy of Greece. 
 The Chester plays belong to the later age of the mediaeval 
 drama, for although they were perhaps originally composed 
 in the fourteenth century, they were not entirely discontinued 
 until the commencement of the seventeenth century. The 
 proclamation made by William Newall, " clarkc of the 
 Pendice," in 24 Hen. VIII., gives, in an argumentative 
 form, the motives and justification of those who adopted 
 this method of edifying the common people. " For as much 
 as ould tyme, not only for the augmentation and increase of 
 the body and catholik faith of our Saviour Jesu Christ, and 
 to exort the mindcs of comon people to good devotion 
 and holsome doctrine thereof, but also for the comcnwelth 
 and prosperity of this citty, a play and declaration of divers 
 storyes of the Bible, beginning with the creation and fall of 
 Lucifer, and ending with the generall judgment of the 
 world, to be declared and played in the Whitsome weeke, 
 was devised and made by one Sr. Henry Frances, somtyme 
 moonck of this monastrey disolved, who obtayning and gat
 
 / 
 
 I/O Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 of Clemant, then bushop of Rome, a looo clayes of pardon, 
 and of the bushop of Chester at that tyme 40 dayes of 
 pardon, granted from thensforth to every person resorting, 
 in peaceble maner with good devotion, to heare and see the 
 sayd playes from tyme to tyme, as oft as they shall be played 
 within the sayed citty (and that every person or persons 
 disturbing the sayd playes in any maner wise to be accused 
 by the authority of the sayd pope Clemant's bulls, untill 
 such tyme as he or they be absolved thereof) which playes 
 were divised to the honor of God by John Arnway, then 
 maior of this citty of Chester, his bretheren, and whole 
 cominalty thereof, to be brought forth, declared, and played, 
 at the cost and charges of the craftsmen and occupations of 
 the sayd citty, which hitherunto have from tyme to tyme 
 used and performed the same accordingly. 
 
 "Wherfore Mr. maior, in the king's name, stratly chargeth 
 and comandeth that every person and persons, of what 
 estate, degree, or condition so ever he or they be resorting 
 to the sayd playes, do use themselves peacible, without 
 making any assault, affray, or other disturbance, wherby the 
 same playes shall be disturbed, and that no maner of person 
 or persons, which so ever he or they be, do use or weare 
 any unlawfull weapons within the precinct of the sayd citty 
 during the tyme of the sayd playes (not only upon payn of 
 cursing by authority of the sayd Pope Clemant's bulls, but 
 also) upon payne of enprisonment of their bodyes, and 
 making fine to the king at Mr. maior's pleasure." 
 X The selection of plays by the different trades must have 
 
 been in many cases purely arbitrary, though occasionally
 
 TJie Chester Plays. 171 
 
 the eternal fitness of things is manifest in a quaint congruity. 
 The tanners showed the Fall of Lucifer ; the drapers the 
 Creation and Murder of Abel ; " the good symple water- 
 leaders and drawers of Deey " told the story of the Flood ; 
 the barbers and wax-chandlers played the Sacrifice of 
 Abraham ; the cappers and linen drapers performed Balaam 
 and his Asse, " and set it out lively ; " the wrights had for 
 topic the Legend of Octavian; the slaters exhibited the 
 Birth of Christ ; the painters and glaziers showed the Herald 
 Angels appearing to the Shepherds ; the vintners acted the 
 part of the Wise Men of the East ; the mercers showed the 
 Babe in the Manger ; the goldsmiths made " comely 
 shewe" of the Slaughter of the Innocents ; the smiths played 
 Christ in the Temple ; the butchers exhibited the story of 
 the Temptation ; the glovers had as subject the Raising of 
 
 / Lazarus ; the corvisors showed the Entry of Christ into 
 Jerusalem ; the bakers set forth the Last Supper ; to the 
 fletchers, bowyers, coopers, stringers, and ironmongers was 
 assigned the Representation of the Sufferings and Death of 
 Jesus ; to the cooks fell the Harrowing of Hell; the skinners 
 performed the Resurrection ; the saddlers and fusterers *' 
 showed the Appearance at Emmaus ; the tailors showed 
 forth the mystery of the Ascension ; the fishmongers had 
 the pageant of the Holy Ghost to perform ; after which the 
 shearmen acted the Coming of Antichrist, whose overthrow 
 was shown by the dyers and " hewsters," after which the 
 weavers came on in the last scene of all the world's history, 
 
 /' when good and bad alike should come to Doomsday. 
 
 These plays, it" will l)c seen, present a sort of comi)endium
 
 1/2 ChesJdre Gleanings. 
 
 , of the theological ideas then in vogue. How intensely 
 anthropomorphic were the ideas entertained of the Deity in 
 the middle ages can only be realised by the scenes in which 
 the actor, assuming the character of God, rehearsing the 
 works of the six days, says :— 
 
 Tomorrow the seventhe day I will solempe, 
 And of worke take my reste, 
 
 and proceeding to where Adam is supposed to have been 
 created, and leading him, amidst the playing of the min- 
 strels, into Paradise and to the tree of knowledge. 
 
 The purists of to-day are accustomed, and not always with- 
 out reason, to lament the scanty dresses of the ballet, but 
 what would they say to a " stage direction " like this ? 
 " Then Adam and Eve shall stande nakede and shall not be 
 ashamed." Mr. Wright was inclined to think that this is 
 " merely figurative," but there is no ground in the text for 
 his charitable view. One of the incidents in the sixth play 
 is even coarser. The language of the mothers of the 
 Innocents slaughtered by the knights of Herod would now 
 be thought vulgar in the lowest slum. The ranting speeches 
 of the king gave rise to Shakspere's phrase of one who " out- 
 herods Herod." There are other indications of the coarse 
 manners of the times, when the comic element in the 
 dramas had to be supplied by rude pictures of domestic 
 strife, or by grotesque diablerie. The wife of Noah figures 
 as a comic " old woman ; " she flouts her husband; joins in 
 singing a " good gossip's song " with her neighbours ; will 
 not enter the ark until she has drunk a quart of " Malmsine,
 
 TJie Chester Plays. i 
 
 /o 
 
 good, and strong," and administers a blow on Noah's " nut " 
 as soon as she is in the ship of refuge. In the history of 
 Abraham the post of Chorus is occupied by an " expositor 
 equitando," who explains to the " unlearned standing 
 hereby " the significance of the scene. This function is 
 sometimes discharged by a " godly doctor." The shepherds 
 make a cooperative supper, consisting of new-baked bread, 
 onions, garlic, leeks, butter that was " bought in Blackon," 
 green cheese, Halton ale, hot jiieat, " a jannacke of Lancas- / 
 tershire," a sheep's head " sawscd in ale," a "grayne to laye 
 on the greene," sour milk, " a gigges foote from puddinge 
 purye," and other ingredients, making a 7iicnu not to have 
 been expected on the green hill side, away from house and 
 home. This scene, with its homely supper and stiff wrest- 
 ling bout, must have been one of the earliest attempts at 
 a reahstic presentation of English common life. In the 
 " harrowing of hell " the popular sentiment as to drunkenness 
 is expressed by a "dear darling" of Satan, a woman who 
 has been " of wyne and ale a trustie brewer." 
 
 Mysspendynge 
 moche maulte brewinge so theyne 
 Selling small cujjpes moneyc to wyn. 
 
 It is curious to hear her accusing her master, "mighty 
 Mahounde," of complicity in the dilution and adulteration 
 of ale. Mahomet had another method of dealing with the 
 troublesome problem of intemperance. It is probably an 
 insular prejudice that causes the lady to denounce " newc 
 made clarytte " as a cause of sickness and disease. The
 
 1/4 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 lady's evil deeds win her the commendation of Satan, and 
 an offer of marriage from the second demon, who says : — 
 
 Welckome, dear ladye, I shall thee wedd, 
 For manye a heavye and droncken head. 
 Cause of thy ale were brouglite to bead, 
 Farre worse than anye beaste. 
 
 There is a certain rough vigour in the portrayal of the 
 day of judgment, with the embodiment therein of the pope, 
 the emperor, the king, the justice, and the merchant con- 
 demned to the fires of the hell. It must have required 
 some courage on the part of the monastic dramatist to 
 place a sovereign pontiff of Christendom amongst those who 
 were suffering — and eternally — the penal fires. Mr. Ruskin's 
 disciples may notice that one of the merchant's offences is 
 thus described :— 
 
 Occure [usary] I used wllfullye, 
 Wanne I never so moche theirby. 
 
 In 1529 there was played at Chester a play founded on 
 the story of King Robert of Sicily. In 1577 the Shepherds' 
 Play was performed at the High Cross, and other triumphs 
 at the Roodee, before the Earl of Derby and Lord Strange. 
 In 1589 the play was the life of King Ebranke, an early 
 British king, who is fabled to have had twenty wives, twenty 
 sons, and thirty daughters. 
 
 On the Sunday after Midsummer, in the year 1563, the 
 play of " Robert Cicell " was played at the High Cross, and 
 on the corresponding festival in 1564 the story of ^neas 
 and Dido was played on the Roodee, with much spectacular
 
 TJie Chester Plays. 175 
 
 display. ("Chester's Triumph," Chetham Soc. iii., p. vi., vii.) 
 Sir La^vrence Smith was mayor in 1558, 1563, and 1570, 
 and there is still extant an agreement between him and two 
 artists who covenanted to paint and have in readiness, with all 
 the furniture thereto belonging, " four gyants, one unicorne, 
 
 / one dromedarye, one luce, one camell, one asse, one dragon, 
 six hobbye horses, and sixteen naked boys, and the same 
 being in readiness, shall bear or carry, or cause to be borne 
 and carried during the Watche" on St. John's Eve, &c. 
 (Sharp, p. 204.) The giants appear to have been enormous 
 figures made of hoops, deal boards, nails, pasteboard, and 
 similar materials, fastened together partly by nails and partly 
 by paste, in which it was necessary to put arsenic, to prevent 
 the giants from being eaten by rats ! The figures were 
 covered with cloth, buckram, &c., and decorated with 
 tinsel, gold and silver leaf, and similar ornaments. Arch- 
 deacon Rogers has left the following description of a per- 
 
 I formance, which took place in 1595. "The time of the 
 yeare they were played was on Monday, Tuesday, and 
 Wensedaye in Whitson weeke. The maner of these weare 
 every company had his pajiant or parte, which pajiants weare 
 a high scafolde with 2 rowmes, a higher and a lower, upon 
 four wheclcs. In the lower they apparelled them selves, 
 and in the higher rowme they played, beinge all open on 
 the tope, that all behoulders mighte heare and see them. 
 The places where they played then was in every streete. 
 They began first at the abay gates, and when the firste 
 pajiante was played, it was wheeled to the highe crosse 
 before the mayor, and so to every streete ; and soe every
 
 176 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 streete had a pajiant playinge before them at one time, till 
 all the pajiantes for the day appoynted were played ; and 
 when one pajiant was neere ended, worde was broughte 
 from streete to streete, that soe the mighte come in place 
 thereof, excedinge orderlye, and all the streetes have theire 
 pajiantes afore them all at one time playeinge togeather ; to 
 se which playes was greate resorte, and also scafoldes and 
 stages made in the streetes in those places where they deter- 
 mined to play theire pajiantes." 
 
 In 1599 the Mayor of Chester, being "a godly and 
 zealous man," broke the civic monsters that they could " not 
 goe." They were set out again in 1601, but suffered sad 
 ecHpse in the civil war period. With the Restoration they 
 were revived, but finally abolished in 1678.
 
 SUNDAY OBSERVANCE IN CHESHIRE. 
 
 . . . And you, when you have spent one clay in idleness, think you 
 have discharged tlie duties of religion. 
 
 Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho, 
 
 THE performance of the mystery and miracle plays on the 
 Sunday was not the only instance of dramatic perform- 
 ances on the first day of the week. Plays were not only acted 
 in the theatres of London, but companies of actors went forth 
 into the country, and performed at the great houses of 
 the gentry for the entertainment of the host and guests, 
 ) The first royal license was to the Globe Theatre, on the 
 Bankside, in 1574, the actors being under the protection 
 of the Earl of Leicester, and bearing his name. Other 
 noblemen gave permission to these small itinerant guilds 
 to wear their badge. The accounts of the Shuttleworths 
 of Gawthorp, contain entries of gratuities paid to players 
 and wandering minstrels between 1586 and 161 7. There 
 were players from Nantwich, Chester, &c. The piper of 
 Padiham, the musicians of Chester, the waits of Halifax, 
 are also mentioned as receiving gratuities. In the early 
 
 M
 
 1/8 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 history of the drama the plays appear to have been acted 
 upon Sundays only; after 1579 "they were acted on 
 Sundays and other days indiscriminately." 
 
 Thomas Newton, of Chester, in a treatise touching dice 
 play and profane gaming, remarks : — " Augustine forbiddeth 
 us to bestowe any money for the seeing of stage plays and 
 enterludes, or to give any thing unto players therein ; and 
 yet these kind of persons doe, after a sorte, let out their 
 labour unto us, and their Industrie many times is laudable." 
 
 Mr. John Bruen, of Bruen Stapleford, was a typical 
 Puritan. Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Done and his wife 
 were placed by her father as boarders with Bruen, whose 
 house seems to have been a Protestant monastery. Young 
 Done and his bride did not relish the dulness of the Bruen 
 Stapleford Sunday, whereupon the Bruens " did conspire to 
 do him good ; " and ten of the family — the host being the 
 last — enlarged upon the sanctification of the Lord's day. 
 This must have been as terrible as the fate which Sidney 
 Smith described as being talked to death by wild curates. 
 Another of Bruen's guests was his cousin Dutton, "who 
 being pressed and charged," says Bruen, " by some of 
 great place to maintain his royalty of minstrelsy for piping 
 and dancing on the Sabbath day, — my minister, my selfe, 
 and my family were against it." They prevailed upon him 
 to have the Sunday omitted. Done entertained King James 
 in 1 6 1 7, and was knighted by him. Mr. Bruen had a great 
 horror of wakes and rushbearings ; and to counteract " all 
 riot and excesse of eating and drinking, dalliance and 
 dancing, sporting and gaming, and other abominable im-
 
 Sunday Observance in Cheshire. 179 
 
 pieties and idolatries," was in the habit of inviting the 
 best affected preachers in the diocese, who spent the greater 
 part of the three days of Tarvin wakes in preaching, " so as 
 the pipers, and fiddlers, and bearwards, and players, and 
 gamesters had no time left them for their varieties." 
 
 Sir William Brereton, when travelling in Holland, entered 
 Amsterdam on Whitsunday afternoon, 1634-5, and observes : 
 " Here is little respect had to the sanctity of the Sabbath : 
 the young children girls walked all the Sabbath in the after- 
 noon with cups or tuns in their hands ; they were about five 
 or six years of age ; other elder, about ten and thirteen and 
 fourteen years of age, guided these little ones, and sung, 
 screaming and squeaking and straining their voices. Such 
 as they met gave them money, which they put into the cups, 
 which was intended to buy a wassail-cup or carouse : this 
 they continued all Monday." 
 
 Amongst the ejected ministers was Sabbath Clark, 
 Minister of Tarvin in Cheshire. Dr. Cosin, at a visitation 
 held at Warrington in 1643, had him "rebaptized, took's 
 marke and call'd him Saturday." (Bardsley : " Curiosities of 
 Puritan Nomenclature," p. 180.) In 1634 Edward Burghal, 
 Puritan Vicar of Acton, notes that a woman in Chester, 
 " going upon the walls to get plums on the Lord's day fell 
 down and broke her neck." 
 
 Samuel Clarke, in his " Mirror for Saints," says, " \\hcn 
 I lived in Cheshire there was one Sir T. S., a Paptist, and 
 at that time in favour in the Court, who, coming into his 
 Country, was much feasted and followed by the Gentry, 
 and upon a Sabbath day was entertained and feasted at a
 
 l8o Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Knight's house, where many others were present : Towards 
 evening they went to dancing, and in the middest of their 
 sports there was one Sir_/ D. that had a great blow given 
 him on his leg, whereupon he quarrelled with another 
 Knight for striking him on the leg with a joint stool : but 
 the Knight denied it, and the others that were present 
 testified that nobody struck him : but the blow given by an 
 invisible hand made him lame for some time after. 
 Not many years before, at a village in Tarvin Parish, in 
 Cheshire^ there fell out a great and sudden tempest of 
 thunder and lightning : In which the bolt fell upon the 
 chimney of an house in the said Town, there being an 
 old man sitting in the chimney corner, and the woman 
 of the house, with a child on her lap, sitting before the 
 fire, and a dog sleeping at her feet : with the violent 
 motion of the bolt the old man's head was so knocked 
 against the wall that he fell into a swoon : the dog at the 
 woman's feet was stricken dead : But to my remembrance 
 neither woman nor child had any hurt, and the old man 
 after a while recovered again : The bolt also breaking through 
 the chimney strake a broad axe out of a Carpenter's hand 
 that was squaring a piece of timber in the yard, yet hurt 
 not the man : upon which mercifull deliverance the people 
 kept an anniversary of Thanksgiving upon the same day 
 for many years after: at which Master y^/^« Bnien, oi Bruen- 
 Stapleford, being their neighbour, used to be present." 
 ("Mirror," pp. 501, 572.) 
 
 To Adam Martindale, when at Rostherne, fell the duty 
 of seeing the execution of a stringent Lord's Day Act, made
 
 Sunday Observance in CJiesJdre. i8l 
 
 ivL 1656. As there was a penalty of five pounds for any 
 neglect to enforce their ordinance, worldly wisdom seconded 
 puritanical rigour. One, whose name is not mentioned, did 
 some action, not named, which Martindale thought to be 
 within the meaning of the statute. The offender, wlien 
 expostulated with, " roundly " retorted by a slanderous 
 statement, that his Puritan reprover had robbed the poor 
 box ! This is probably a fair specimen of the difficulties 
 that would occur in the carrying out of the law. (" Auto- 
 biography of Martindale," Chetham Soc, p. 123.) In the 
 Sunday controversy, which now raged for several years, John 
 Ley, pastor of Great Budworth, in Cheshire, took no un- 
 worthy part, presenting the Puritan view with candour and 
 ability. He had the advice of Archbishop Usher in the 
 compilation of his work, entidcd " Sunday a Sabbath," pub- 
 lished in 1 64 1. 
 
 The Quakers had no special reverence for the first day 
 of the week. On the 9th June, 1634, two Quakers came 
 into the church at Acton, with a lantern and candles, whilst 
 the Puritan vicar was preaching. Their design was to light 
 the sheet of paper as a sign of God's anger burning against 
 the nation. (Barlow's "Cheshire," p. 188.) 
 
 It was by the zeal of Bcilby Porteous, then Bishop of 
 Chester, that the celebrated Lord's Day Act of 1781 was 
 passed. It did not arise out of the circumstances of his 
 great diocese in Lancashire and Cheshire, but from a desire 
 to free London of some novel institutions, which to the 
 episcopal mind appeared alarming. Several meeting-places 
 had been opened in the metropolis, where theological and
 
 1 82 Cheshire Gleanmgs. 
 
 moral questions were open for debate by the company 
 assembled. Admission was obtained by payment at the 
 door, and very probably a good deal of nonsense was 
 spouted at these Sunday debating societies; but it has 
 never been shown that they had the slightest injurious 
 tendency. An attempt to have put them down would pro- 
 bably have been unsuccessful if the bishop had not hit upon 
 */ the device — more ingenious than candid — of coupling them 
 with an institution of a very different character. This was 
 the Carlisle House Promenade, which was also open on 
 Sunday evenings, — nominally for refreshments, walking 
 about, and conversation — but really as a gathering ground 
 for improper persons of both sexes. This clever episcopal 
 device was successful, and notwithstanding opposition in 
 both Houses of Parliament, all places used for " public 
 entertainment or amusement, or for publicly debating upon 
 any subject whatsoever upon any part of the Lord's Day 
 called Sunday, and to which persons shall be admitted by 
 payment of money, or by tickets sold for money, shall be 
 deemed a disorderly house or place. The keeper was 
 subject to a fine of ;^2oo for every day it was open, the 
 managers to a penalty of ;^ioo, and the doorkeepers to a 
 mulct of ;^5o. The chief opponents of this stupid piece of 
 legislation were John Wilkes and the Duke of Manchester. 
 It is still on the statute book, and, though generally a dead 
 letter, is occasionally revived for the hindrance of some 
 educational institution. Porteous, in a sermon preached 
 before the king, lamented the existence of gaming houses 
 visited on the Sunday, the "numerous and splendid
 
 Sunday Observance in Chcsliii'e. 183 
 
 assemblies " on that day in the mansions of the aristoc- 
 racy, and the " pernicious amusements " admitted even 
 into private famiUes. He lacked the courage and honesty 
 to attack the excesses of the rich, but was valiant enough 
 against what he styled " strange extravagances in the 
 lower classes of the people." It is only just to Porteous 
 to say, that if he did not, with equal-handed justice, invoke 
 the law against the rich as well as the poor, he expostulated 
 with them on the profanation of the day. In 1805, when 
 Bishop of London, he wTote letters of expostulation to three 
 ladies of rank who had given musical entertainments on the 
 evening of the first day. A lady at Bath, who used to give 
 Sunday Concerts, one evening put off her entertainment 
 because Sunday happened to fall on the 30th January — she 
 was too genteel to regard the breach of the Lord's Day ; 
 but she could not think of being deficient in respect to the 
 State Fast. ("Account of the English Stage," p. 549.) 
 
 The excesses of the French Revolution produced a great 
 impression in England, and the abrogation of the Sunday 
 gave a handle to the Sabbatarians, of which they were not 
 slow to avail themselves. Southey has pointed out the 
 curious fact that William Tindal, the translator of the Bible, 
 had written these words : — " As for the Sabbath, we be lords 
 of the Sabbath, and may yet change it into Monday, or any 
 other day as we see need ; or we make every tenth day holy 
 day only, if we see cause why." Thus the French National 
 Convention, who substituted a tenth for a seventh day of 
 rest, might have quoted a precedent in the words of a 
 founder of the English reformed church.
 
 EARLY REFERENCES TO THE JEWS 
 IN CHESHIRE. 
 
 Well versed was he in Hebrew books, 
 Talmud and Targum and the lore 
 Of Kabala; and evermore 
 There was a mystery in his looks ; 
 His eyes seemed gazing far away, 
 As if in vision or in trance 
 He heard the solemn sackbut play. 
 And saw the Jewish maidens dance. 
 
 Longfellow. Tales of a Wayside Inn. 
 
 THE early references to the Jews in Cheshire are very 
 scanty. There does not appear to have been a 
 permanent colony of them in Chester as there was at York, 
 but, doubtless, before 1290, the date of their supposed 
 banishment from the kingdom, there would be a few in the 
 district. There is a curious anecdote in Giraldus Cam- 
 brensis relating to the locality : — " In our time," he 
 says, "a certain Jew, having the honour to travel towards 
 Shrewsbury, in company with Richard Pech^, (Sin) Arch- 
 deacon of Malpas, (Bad-Steps) in Cheshire ; and a reverend 
 dean, whose name was Deville : amongst other discourse.
 
 Early References to the Jezvs in Cheshire. 185 
 
 which they condescended to entertain him with, tlie arch- 
 deacon told him that his jurisdiction was so large as to 
 reach from a place called Ill-street, all along till they came 
 to Malpas, and took in a very wide circumference of the 
 country. To which, being more witty than wise, he im- 
 mediately replied, "Say you so, sir? God grant me then 
 a good deliverance ! for it seems I am riding in a country 
 where Sin is the Archbishop, and the Devil himself the 
 dean ; where the entrance into the arch-deanery is Ill-street, 
 and the going forth from it Bad-Steps : alluding to the 
 French words, Peche and Mal-pas." (" Itineracy of Abp. 
 Baldwin in 1283.") 
 
 Henry III. began his reign with an indulgence to the 
 Jews. The Earl of Pembroke, who was guardian during 
 the king's minority, issued orders for the liberation of all 
 imprisoned Jews, and, in the succeeding year, it was directed 
 that in all the towns where the Jews chiefly resided, twenty- 
 four burgesses should be elected for the especial purpose of 
 protecting their interests, and securing their safety ; a 
 measure which very significantly intimates the danger of the 
 objects, whose necessities demanded that they should be 
 thus defended. In the writs sent for this purpose to the 
 respective sheriffs the pilgrims to Jerusalem are mentioned 
 by name, as a class whose insults are to be particularly 
 guarded against : for it seems these meritorious individuals 
 conceived they had a right to pay themselves the expenses 
 of so long and arduous a journey out of the funds of the 
 obnoxious Jews ; to whose ancient land they were proceed- 
 ing, and whose ancestors had originally been the cause of
 
 1 86 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 pilgrimage. One of these Cheshire pilgrims was Thomas 
 of Budworth, who executed a legal document that is still in 
 existence. In this, Thomas, son of William, " Cruce signatt" 
 of Budworth, co. Chester, quit claims all his land in Budde- 
 worth, with appurtenances, to Geoffrey, son of Geoffrey de 
 Button, lord of Buddeworth. The witnesses to this deed 
 are Sir (dho) Reginald de Grey, then justiciary of Chester, 
 Sir (dho) Thomas de Orreby, Sir (dho) Richard de Wyb'- 
 than, then Sheriff of Cheshire, Sir (dno) Geoffrey de Chedle, 
 Geoffrey de Burn, Robert de Hoxley', Alan de Li'me, Peter 
 the clerk of the same, and many other persons. Of these 
 persons Reginald de Grey was Justice of Chester from 1270 
 to 1273, and from 1282 to 1300, and Richard Wilbraham 
 was sheriff of Cheshire in 1270 and 1271, which thus 
 give 1 27 1 as the date of this interesting Charter. 
 
 An earlier crusader was Randle Blundeville, who made 
 the voyage to Jerusalem in 1 2 1 8, but before going granted a 
 charter in which he styles himself Ranulfus Comes Cestriae, 
 and continues "Sciatis me Cruce Signatum." These 
 deeds have been annotated by Mr. J. P. Earwaker, F.S.A, 
 (Manchester Quarterly, ii. 180.) In the time of Henry III. 
 a certain Robert Salemon had the vill of Withington, in 
 East Cheshire, and he granted half of it with his daughter 
 Mary on her marrying Roger, son of Vivian de Davenport. 
 This charter is not dated. The seal to it was a rude cross 
 fleury, and the inscription " Sigillum Robti Salemonis" or 
 Salomonis. It is probable from his name that he was a 
 Jew, but there is no other evidence. It is usually supposed 
 that between 1290 and the Commonwealth, or later, there
 
 Early References to the Jews in Cheshire. 187 
 
 were no Jews in the kingdom. That there were no casual 
 visitors seems very improbable. Dr. S. R. Gardiner has 
 pointed out a curious passage in a despatch of Agostini, the 
 Venetian agent in England, of March j^^j 1643. He says 
 that many persons in London having refused to pay the 
 parliamentary taxation, their goods were seized, but when 
 these were put up for sale purchasers could not be found, as 
 those who had money to spend were afraid lest its produc- 
 tion should call attention to their possession of it, so as to 
 draw down on them fresh taxation. Accordingly the wTiter 
 says : — " Si t per cio trovato espediente di far venire alcuni 
 Hebrei da Amsterdam, i quali vanne provedendo di denaro 
 et estrahendo la mercantia a parte a parte." {Academy, 
 March 4th, 1882.) 
 
 The late Mr. Richard Simpson included Jack Drum's 
 Entertainment in his " School of Shakspere " (London, 
 1878, vol. ii.), which was not printed until the death of its 
 lamented author, and in a note Mr. J. W. M. Gibbs argues 
 that the character of Mamon was intended for a Jew. Jack 
 Drum says of this extortionate personage : — 
 Let the lebusite depart in peace. 
 
 On this Mr. Gibbs remarks, " By Jebusite, or native of 
 Jerusalem, Jack Drum makes Mamon a Jew," and he 
 strengthens his position by a further reference to another 
 speech of Jack's : — 
 
 " I, for any Christian, but for a yawning Vsurer, 'tis but 
 a bit," and to the three facts that Mamon lends at thirty in 
 the hundred, is endowed " with a great nose," and in the 
 treatment he gets at the hands of the dramatist bears some
 
 1 88 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 resemblance to the " Merchant of Venice." An allusion to 
 a wealthy Jew wooing the daughter of a City Knight in 
 1600 or 1616 would be an interesting addition to the scanty 
 references we have on this subject. There is a speech of 
 Mamon's later on that prevents us from accepting it as such. 
 When he has had his bonds destroyed, and hears of the 
 loss of his ships he cries " Villaines, Rogues, lewes, Turkes, 
 Infidels ! My nose will rot off with griefe ! O the Gowt, 
 the Gowt, the Gowt ! I shall runne mad, runne mad, runne 
 mad ! " (" School of Shakspere," ii. 181.) 
 
 There is one of the Cheshire place names that is strongly 
 suggestive of the former presence of the Jews, though it 
 may possibly be due to some fantastic transformation of a 
 very different designation, or may be poetic fancy of quite 
 modern days. The legend of " The Synagogue Well " 
 has been told in some elegant verses by the late Mr. James 
 Crossley, F.S.A., with which this note may fittingly end. 
 
 The Synagogue Well. 
 
 The Roman in his toilsome march, 
 Disdainful viewed this humble spot, 
 And thought not of Egeria's fount, 
 
 And Numa's grot. 
 
 No altar crowned the margin green, 
 No dedication marked the stone, 
 The warrior quaffed the living stream. 
 And hastened on. 
 
 Then was upreared the Norman keep, 
 Where from the vale the uplands swell, 
 But unobserved, in crystal jets. 
 
 The waters fell.
 
 Early References to the Jeivs in CJiesJiirc. 189 
 
 In conquering Edward's reign of pride, 
 
 Gay streamed his flag from Frodsliam's tower, 
 
 And saw no step approach the wild 
 
 And sylvan bower. 
 
 Till once when Mersey's silvery tides 
 Were reddening with the beams of morn, 
 There stood beside the fountain clear 
 A man forlorn. 
 
 And as his weary limbs he laid 
 In its cool waters, you might trace 
 That he was of the wandering tribe 
 Of Israel's race. 
 
 With pious care to guard the spring 
 A masonry compact he made, 
 And all around its glistening verge 
 
 Fresh flowers he laid. 
 
 " God of my fathers ! " he exclaimed, 
 " Beheld of old in Horeb's mount, 
 Who gav'st my sires Bethesda's pool 
 
 And Siloa's fount ; 
 
 Whose welcome streams, as erst of yore, 
 To Judah pilgrims never fail, 
 Though exiled far from Jordan's banks 
 And Kedron's vale. 
 
 Grant that when yonder frowning walls, 
 With tower and keep, are crushed and gone. 
 The stones the Hebrew raised may last. 
 And from his well the strengthening spring 
 May still flow on."
 
 DR. MOFFAT AS A CHESHIRE GARDENER. 
 
 With reverent feet the earth he trod, 
 Nor banished Nature from his plan, 
 But studied still with deep research 
 To build the Universal Church, 
 Lofty as is the love of God, 
 And ample as the wants of man, 
 
 Longfellow. Talcs of the Wayside Inn. 
 
 I 
 
 THE announcement of the death of the venerable Dr. 
 Moffat would not recall to the younger generation 
 that sense of awe and wonder that clung in past years to the 
 name of " Moffat the missionary," whose labours amongst 
 the Bechuanas made him something of a hero nearly forty 
 years ago. Dr. Moffat died at Leigh Kent, at half-past 
 seven on Thursday evening, August yth, 1883, after an 
 illness which, though of a month's duration, had not pre- 
 vented him from taking outdoor exercise during the previous 
 week. 
 
 Robert Moffat was born at Inverkeithing, N.B., in 1795, 
 but in his youth he was employed in the gardens at High 
 Leigh. The story of the Cheshire period of his life is told
 
 Dr. UToffat as a Cheshire Gardener. 191 
 
 by a writer in the Warrington Guardian, who says, 
 "Coming from Scotland about 181 3, an educated working 
 gardener, he found employment with the then family of 
 High Leigh, and they were so charmed with the ability and 
 attention of their young servant that they built him a 
 cottage, young and unmarried as he was. He soon became 
 a general favourite with all the household, and even at this 
 long distance he is remembered for his efforts to make their 
 evenings happy. About 18 14, on visiting Warrington for 
 such shopping as he needed, he observed a placard on the 
 walls announcing a mission meeting. He stood and read 
 it and re-read, he said, in telling the story to the present 
 writer, until he was ashamed, for the meeting had been held 
 three weeks before. He did his shopping, returned and 
 read the placard, and commenced his walk of eight miles to 
 High Leigh. On the way his mother's talk about missions 
 and missionaries came vividly to his mind, and by the time 
 he arrived at home he determined to be a missionary. He 
 left High Leigh and was received into a missionary college 
 at Manchester, then under Dr. Roby, working part of the 
 day with his future father-in-law, who had nursery gardens 
 near. \\\ due time he was accepted at the missionary college 
 at Gosport, and about 18 16 he and the well-known John 
 Williams, the " martyr of Erromanga," were solemnly set 
 apart for the mission work, but not allowed to go to the 
 same country, because, said the then well-known Dr. 
 Waugh, "they are but laddies." 
 \ He was one of nine who were sent out in 18 16 to convert 
 1 the heathen of Africa and Polynesia. There was a meetmg 
 
 /
 
 192 Cheshire Gleanhigs. 
 
 of the London Missionary Society at the Surrey Chapel — a 
 solemn dedication of the men to the difficult task they had 
 undertaken. They were questioned in the face of the con- 
 gregation as to their beliefs and intentions, and, after satis- 
 factory answers, John Angell James, then at the height of 
 his great Evangelical fame, presented each of them with a 
 Bible. The youngest of the group of nine was John 
 Williams, a man of pure but narrow piety, whose tragic 
 death made him the martyr of Erromanga, and gave him a 
 place in the annals of Samoa. 
 
 Moffat's sphere of action was in Namaqualand, and after- 
 wards in the country of the Bechuanas. It was amongst 
 these wild people that he spent his life, and there are few 
 narratives more interesting than the story of his work there. 
 This he has partly told in his " History of Missionary 
 Labours in South Africa," which appeared as long ago as 
 1842. The Bechuanas were an ingenious race, being espe- 
 cially skilful in dressing skins, and showing some artistic 
 taste in the manner of adorning their weapons and utensils. 
 Their moral code was not highly developed, and their 
 notions of the rights of property, especially when belonging 
 to missionaries, were somewhat crude. Once some of the 
 natives stole a cast-iron pot, which was warm and cracked in 
 consequence of falling upon a stone. They resolved to 
 break it up, and make it into knives and spears. When the 
 hue and cry was over they took it to a native smith, who 
 had provided a stock of charcoal. " The native Vulcan, 
 unacquainted with cast iron, having, with his small bellows, 
 one in each hand, produced a good heat, drew a piece from
 
 Dr. Moffat as a Cheshire Gardener. 193 
 
 the fire. To his utter amazement it flew into pieces at the 
 first stroke of his httle hammer." The repetition of this 
 occurrence led to the conclusion that the iron pot had been 
 bewitched. Like the Namaquas, the Bechuanas had little 
 regard for human life, and the aged, the wounded, and the 
 infirm were carried out of the camp, and left to live or die 
 as it might happen. They had, however, good qualities ; 
 were industrious, persevering, and had a certain talent for 
 the arts of peace. Their form of government is monarchical, 
 but they have a sort of parliament or great council in which 
 everything and everybody, including the King himself, are 
 very freely criticised. Moffat has drawn a vivid picture of 
 these primitive constitutional assemblies. " There is but 
 little cheering," he says, " and still less hissing, while every 
 speaker fearlessly states his own sentiments. The audience 
 is seated on the ground, each man having before him his 
 shield, to which is attached a number of spears. A quiver 
 containing poisoned arrows is hung from the shoulders, and 
 a battle axe is held in the right hand. Many were adorned 
 with tiger skins and tails, and had plumes of feathers on 
 their head. In the centre a sufficient space was left for the 
 privileged — those who had killed an enemy in battle — to 
 dance and sing, in which they exhibited the most violent 
 and fantastic gestures conceivable, which drew from the 
 spectators the most frantic applause." Silence was com- 
 manded to each tribe separately, and the King having intro- 
 duced the business, exhorted each one to speak his mind. 
 When they had done this with great freedom the King 
 replied, urging them to war, and ending with an admonition 
 
 N
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 194 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 to the women : " Prevent not the warrior from going out to 
 battle by your cunning insinuations. No ; rouse the 
 warrior to glory, and he will return with honourable scars, 
 fresh marks of valour will cover his thighs, and we shall 
 then renew the war song, and dance and relate the story of 
 our conquest." This speech suited the temper of the 
 Bechuana Chauvins, and the air was filled with the applause 
 of those who regarded it as a model of patriotic kingcraft. 
 
 Dr. Moffat reduced the dialect of these tribes to a written 
 language. His first effort was with the Gospel of St. Luke 
 in the Sitlapi, a western idiom of the Bechuana tongue. 
 This appeared at Cape Town in 1831, and the printing of it 
 was personally superintended by the missionary translator. 
 His next effort was a selection from the Scriptures arranged 
 under the headings of doctrines, miracles, history, &c. A 
 large edition was printed of this, and it remained for many 
 years the chief school book. In 1841 the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society printed Moffat's version of the New 
 Testament and Psalms. No less than 5,050 copies of this 
 version were printed. The preparation of this work neces- 
 sitated a visit in 1837 to this country, which he had not 
 seen since 181 6. The visit was utilised by a series of 
 addresses, in which the adventurous life of the African 
 missionaries was displayed in a manner that excited vivid 
 interest. It was one of Moffat's addresses that gave the 
 weaver lad Livingstone the impulse that sent him out as a 
 pioneer of Christianity. During this visit, amongst many 
 other places, he re-visited Warrington. The "Farewell 
 Services," which marked his departure from England, form
 
 Dr. Moffat as a Cheshire Gardener. 195 
 
 an interesting contribution to missionary literature. Not 
 content with anything but the complete fulfilment of his 
 work Moffat laboured at a Bechuana version of the 
 remainder of the Old Testament, portions being printed 
 from time to time at the Kuruman Mission Press. It was 
 completed in 1867, when the entire Bible was made available 
 for those of the Bechuanas who could read. Naturally, in 
 this translation, the English authorised version was chiefly 
 used, but it varies in some particulars, chiefly where Moffat 
 had preferred the readings to be found in the Dutch ver- 
 sion. It may be asked. What has been the result of this 
 dissemination of the Bible ? Moffat, even when only the 
 imperfect version of Luke was available, had no doubts, and 
 said, " I know that Gospel of Luke has been the means of 
 leading many a wanderer to the fold of God." 
 
 Robert Moffat's daughter was the heroic wife of another 
 famous Scotch missionary and traveller. Dr. David Living- 
 \ stone, whose career was even more remarkable than that of 
 his father-in-law. Dr. Moffat's missionary labours ended in 
 1870, when he returned to his native land. In 1873 the 
 sum of ;^5,3oo was presented to him in recognition of his 
 South African services, and as a means of providing for his 
 old age. In the following year he came to Warrington 
 again, and stayed with Dr. Mackie, of the Warrington 
 Guardian. He went to see the old cottage at High Leigh, 
 saying, as the tears rolled down his face, " It was here the 
 Lord revealed himself to my soul five and fifty years ago." 
 Amongst the distinguished men who were his friends was 
 the late Dean Stanley, at whose request he gave an address.
 
 196 
 
 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 30th November, 1875, in the nave of Westminster Abbey, 
 on the subject of African Missions. He apologised, in 
 beginning, for any possible rustiness in his English, on the 
 ground that for the last 50 years he had spoken little else 
 than the language of the Bechuanas. His old age was 
 passed in the peaceful retirement earned by a Hfe-time of 
 arduous labour, and sweetened by the love and affection of 
 those who know and valued the courage and sincerity of 
 the venerable missionary who had taken the light of Chris- 
 tian civilisation into the dark places of the dark continent.
 
 JOSEPH MOWBRAY HAWCROFT, 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, 
 And burned is Apollo's laurel bough. 
 
 Marlowe. Faustus. 
 
 IT is difficult at all times for the hand of friendship to hold 
 the critical balance with rigid severity, and, perhaps, 
 most difficult of all to do so when the life under review is 
 one that has run out so quickly that the consideration of 
 that which " might have been " must have a large share even 
 in the coldest judgment. Mr. Joseph Mowbray Hawcroft 
 t/ died at the age of thirty-six, and I who write cannot pretend 
 to be uninfluenced in what I may say by the friendship that 
 subsisted between us for more than twenty years, and by the 
 ties of sympathy that bound us together during the whole 
 period of his literary career. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Hawcroft, although in the later years of his 
 life resided at Heaviley near Stockport, and other parts of 
 Cheshire, was born at No. 22, Cheapside, Barnsley, on the
 
 198 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 nth day of January, 1845, ^"d was the eldest of nine 
 brothers, of whom only one survived him. It was only on 
 the death of one of these that he began to use the second 
 name of Mowbray. In later years he frequently adopted 
 the signature of Dalton Mowbray in his contributions to 
 periodical literature. He was the son of Mr. Joseph Haw- 
 croft, and of Mary, his wife, and grandson of the late Mr. 
 Richard Mowbray, of Aldham, near Barnsley. He was 
 educated at the Church Field Academy, then under the 
 care of Mr. George Senior, and received the ordinary 
 elements of an English commercial education. In his 
 fifteenth year he was taken to Manchester, where he became 
 an apprentice in the warehouse of Mr. John Bowden, after- 
 wards Messrs. Kay, Lockyer, and Co., of Fountain-street. 
 He was introduced to the firm by Mr. Clegg, of Patricroft, 
 who took a kindly interest in the son of an old friend thus 
 brought into the solitude of a great city. He found him 
 suitable lodgings, and introduced him to Mr. J. C. Jones, 
 the superintendent of Cavendish Sunday School, The 
 business was afterwards transferred to Mr. Adolph Schwabe, 
 and again to Messrs. Ramsbottom, Hopwood, and Co. In 
 this house he continued until 1S74, when there occurred a 
 break in his commercial career. Some private speculations 
 into which he had entered about this time also turned out 
 unsuccessful, and caused him considerable trouble and 
 embarrassment. In 1875 he entered the service of Messrs. 
 Abel Heywood and Son, publishers, of Manchester, where 
 he found a channel for the literary and commercial ability 
 which he certainly possessed. His health, never strong, was
 
 Joseph Mowbray Hazvcroft. 199 
 
 for the last six or seven years of his Hfe very indifferent, and 
 frequent journeys, in which he saw much beautiful scenery in 
 England and France, did not appear to improve it. It was 
 painfully evident that he was a doomed man, and his social 
 qualities and conversational ability sometimes tempted him 
 to jovial company and late hours, and formed a greater tax 
 upon his energies than his strength could safely bear. His 
 temperament was not equable. Sometimes the racking 
 cough and other physical ills could not restrain exuberant 
 spirits and conversational felicities, but at others it was 
 painfully evident that the Horatian spectre — the black care 
 which rides even behind the horseman — weighed heavily 
 upon him. His mood, however, changed very quickly, and 
 a trilling circumstance would be sufficient to recall him from 
 his prison house of gloom back into the bright sunshine. 
 / There can be no doubt that the severity of the winter of 1880 
 greatly taxed his decreasing strength, and the disease which 
 preyed upon his liver gained greater and greater power. In 
 the following April he was advised by his friendly doctor that 
 the end could not be far off, and warned against the peril of 
 a long journey. He had, however, conceived the hope that a 
 sojourn at Barmouth would help him to a renewal of strength, 
 and so, in spite of the medical presage, he proceeded to 
 that place, which was one of his favourite localities. But 
 the hand of death was on him. He went to Barmouth on 
 the fourth of May, 1881 3 on the sixth he burst a blood 
 vessel and lost consciousness, and died on the seventh. 
 
 Such may seem a brief and uneventful personal history, 
 and yet it had in it many lights of good and evil fortune, of
 
 200 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 the hope of endeavour and the bitterness of failure. Diim 
 vivam vtvatmis is capable of many interpretations, and into 
 these years which fell short of two score were crowded the 
 passion and fervour, the despair, sorrow, affection, and 
 disease of more than half a century. 
 
 It is as a writer only that Mr. Hawcroft claims this 
 memorial tribute, and unfortunately for his reputation his 
 verses and essays lie buried, without an epitaph, in the huge 
 grave of periodical literature. When he began to write it would 
 be difficult to say, but his first verses were printed when he 
 was seventeen. They were some lines on the "Advent of 
 Spring," and were sent to the Rev. Joseph Parker, D.D., now 
 of the City Temple, London, for insertion in a small magazine 
 printed in connection with Cavendish Chapel, Manchester. 
 Dr. Parker at once recognised their quality and the promise 
 they gave of future excellence, and delighted the young poet 
 by a kindly letter of judicious and encouraging praise. 
 
 In his nineteenth and twentieth year he was contributing 
 verse of high quality to Once a Week and others of the best 
 known periodicals of that day. One of his earliest poems 
 was "In the Beck" (29th Oct., 1864), which furnished the 
 theme of a charming drawing by Mr. R. T. Pritchett. The 
 "Mill Stream" (23rd Feb., 1867) was illustrated by Mr. E. 
 M. Wimpriss, and "At the Gate" (19th May, 1866) was the 
 subject of one of Mr. Robert Bruce Wallace's well-defined 
 pictures. It would be a needless task to chronicle his many 
 appearances in print. His articles in Once a Week stretch 
 over a period of at least seven years. Many of them were 
 anonymous. Thus, in taking down some of the old volumes
 
 Joseph Mozvbray Haivcroft. 201 
 
 we chance on "Janet, a North Country Idyll" (July i6th, 
 1870). There is no signature to this pathetic and tragic 
 story, yet there is on it the absolute impress of his in- 
 dividuality, and we know it to be his. 
 
 In the 'early flush of the poetical enthusiasm that thus 
 found expression he became a member, or rather was one 
 of the founders of a small literary and artistic coterie known 
 as the Manchester Crichton Club. It was formed of a 
 group of young men of more than average ability, who 
 have since'^pursued varied careers, and some of whom are 
 achieving a certain distinction in literature and in art. 
 These youngsters in 1865 and 1866 pubHshed Annuals 
 containing, in spite of obvious juvenility, some notable work 
 in prose and verse. To these two volumes Mr. Hawcroft 
 was one of the chief contributors, and gave much editorial 
 help in bringing them before the world. The first volume 
 was printed at the Barnsley Chronicle Office. Mr. Ernest 
 Jones, who had always a kind word for literary aspirants, 
 became the president of the club, and several of his fine 
 poems are printed in the annuals. They contain also some 
 of the best work done by Mr. Hawcroft. Several of his 
 happiest inspirations were due to his memory of the bleak 
 hills and romantic dales of Yorkshire. One of these is 
 
 TROW GILL. 
 
 [At the head of Clapdalc, a pretty glen nestling amid the 
 
 hills round Ingleborough, North Yorkshire, is a precipitous 
 
 V ravine called Trow Gill. He who would venture to cross 
 
 these hills on a dark and stormy niglit must be, indeed, a 
 
 daring man.]
 
 202 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 I. 
 
 " Thy bridal morn will brightly dawn," 
 
 The good man said, and smiled, 
 " Across the hills the clouds are blown — 
 
 The clouds are blown by the north wind wild ; 
 The moon is up, and the stars are shining, 
 And over the hills he comes — thy lover." 
 
 *' Ah me ! " she said, "the clouds o'erhead 
 Are heavy with rain, and black with snow ; 
 
 The night is dark, down the river's bed 
 
 Madly the swollen streams wreathe and flow ; 
 
 From the marsh on the moorland a mist arises. 
 
 And over the moors he comes — my lover." 
 
 O'er Simon Fell, round Bruntscar Hill, 
 
 The mist and the snow came slowly on ; 
 The sad winds wailed across Trow Gill 
 
 And swept through the valley with deathly moan. 
 And the rain and the snow whirled over the moorlands. 
 While over the hills he came — her lover. 
 
 Down the bridle-road he firmly strode, 
 
 Laughing at wind, and hail, and snow ; 
 Down the path which leads through the dark pine wood 
 
 Skirting the ravine that hangs below. 
 Unheeding the flapping of wings around him, 
 Down the path through the pine wood he came — her lover. 
 
 II. 
 
 The sun uprose o'er a waste of snows, 
 
 And it shone round the mist-encircled hill ': 
 
 From the grey valley the sun uprose, 
 
 Brightening the cliffs that breast Trow Gill, 
 
 Through the dark ravine quietly stealing, 
 
 To where 'neath the crags he lay — her lover.
 
 Joseph Mowbray Hawcroft. 203 
 
 There is in this poem not only a melody of verse, but a 
 power of compressed narrative that is very notable. The 
 tragic story — one of those dark legends dear to gossips of 
 the country side — is told without a waste word, and with a 
 graphic power that brings up the final scene, and shows the 
 glow and grandeur of nature in mocking contrast to human 
 sorrow and despair. 
 
 'Mr. Hawcroft contributed about this period to CasselPs 
 Magazme, The Broadzaay, The London Magazine, The 
 Shilling Magazine, The People's Magazine, The Churchman^s 
 Shilling Magazine, TJie Sixpetiny Magazine, The St. Jameses 
 Magazine, The Day of Rest, and other periodicals. He 
 wrote also in some of the Manchester journals, and was 
 on the staff of the Sphinx and the Shadow. His articles 
 do not show any great range of subject matter, but are 
 chiefly connected with English literature either in a critical 
 or creative sense. For the Social Reformer he ^\TOte 
 eight essays on " Literature and its Professors," and his 
 critical essays on John Clare and Alexander Smith show not 
 only insight but a fluent and yet restrained power of expres- 
 sion. Among these prose essays are several efforts of minor 
 fiction, but this was apparently an uncongenial field, and, 
 with the exception of one or two bright sketches, they are not 
 of much importance. 
 
 Towards the end of 1870 Messrs. Abel Hey wood and 
 Son issued a small " Christmas Budget," and to this Mr. 
 Hawcroft was a most valued contributor. He not only 
 joined at the introduction, but wrote " King Christmas," a 
 song of the season; "The Ghost of Fern Hollow," and
 
 204 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 "Eawr Kesmus Spree," which was his only attempt at 
 writing in the Lancashire dialect. This annual was suc- 
 ceeded by "The Old Sparrow Hawk and its Christmas 
 Guests," to which he contributed several pieces. He was also 
 a contributor to the series of annuals issued under the con- 
 ductorship of Mr. Ben Brierley, scarcely one of them being 
 without something from his practised pen. " At the Seven 
 Stars," in the volume for 1876, is a reverie calling up some 
 old scenes of Manchester history. The " Seaside Annual " 
 of 1878 contains a charming example of his lighter poems — 
 one of those rare occasions in which he has given the rein 
 to the playful fancy which often added a tinge of humour to 
 his conversation, but is seldom reflected in his writings : — 
 
 IN A MANX GLEN. 
 
 Here, once more seated, where the dewy leaves 
 
 And sunbeams mingle, 
 I, musing, fancy every ripple grieves, 
 
 That I'm still single. 
 
 They murmur of the joys of years ago, 
 
 When I, poor dreamer, 
 The dice of fate would venture not to throw, 
 
 On board the steamer. 
 
 / The dimpled sea, soft air, and bonny sky — 
 They might have aided ; 
 My friends have taken that course — why did I 
 Not do as they did ? 
 
 Nor yet, through many a happy moonlight walk. 
 
 Comes the suggestion, 
 Through the sweet current of our " spoony " talk. 
 
 To pop the question.
 
 Joseph Mowbray Haivcroft. 205 
 
 " The happy ' Yes ' her sweet lips shall not pass, 
 Nor kiss exquisite," 
 I said, "Until the glen at Ballaglass 
 We chance to visit." 
 
 And soon we rambled there one glorious morn — 
 
 I, Tom, and Harry ; 
 Buoyed up with hope how could I feel forlorn ? 
 
 With me was Carry ! 
 
 We gathered flowers, sang songs, and filled the glen 
 
 With joyous laughter ; 
 I lived on love, and could not foresee, then, 
 
 The dread hereafter. 
 
 By Fate beguiled, I took the river side ; 
 
 Deeds piscatorial 
 Induced me to forget my longed-for bride. 
 
 Ah ! sad memorial 
 
 Of that sad time is this loud mountain stream ; 
 
 For when I wended 
 My way back to my friends I found my dream 
 
 Too rudely ended. 
 
 ^/ Dire was the blow : my darling, blithe and fair, 
 Engaged to Harry ! 
 I sighed aloud, and said, with anguished air, 
 "Deceitful Carry!" 
 
 To which, in playful mood, she then replied, 
 
 " I knew your wishes ; 
 But, when next time you want to win a bride, 
 Neglect the fishes ! " 
 
 For the Christmas number of the same year he \\TOte 
 "Our Little Church," and a graceful version of the old
 
 2o6 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 German legend of the "Rose Garden." To the fifth issue — 
 that of 1880 — he contributed two pieces of verse : " My 
 Cousin Kitty," and "Bill's Day Out," the latter hardly 
 worthy of his powers, but the former still evincing his old 
 skill in song-craft. 
 
 To the readers of Brierley's Journal he was perhaps best 
 known as Dalton Mowbray. He began to write for that 
 periodical in 1876, and continued on the staff until the last. 
 His contributions were especially numerous in 1879, ^'^ 
 which year appeared the following verses, which are full of 
 the spirit of the sweet spring time : — 
 
 "cuckoo ! " 
 
 Just inland from the waste of sea 
 Which languishes upon the shore, 
 
 In moments full of quiet glee, 
 
 I've loitered 'neath the greenwood tree, 
 And the fair meadows wandered o'er, 
 From whence the breeze this cry has bore, 
 " Cuckoo ! " 
 
 , i/ "Oh ! haunting bird," I oft have cried, 
 
 " Whose monotone breaks on my dream. 
 Why nestle by the country-side, 
 And, like the moaning of the tide, 
 Prattle to me the self-same theme ?" 
 A voice replies, by wood and stream," 
 " Cuckoo ! " 
 
 Tell me, will fortune be my lot — 
 
 Will riches fall like golden leaves — 
 Will all past sorrow be forgot ? 
 I question, still you answer not.
 
 Joseph Mowbray Hazvcroft. 207 
 
 Embowered, amidst the bloom and leaves, 
 Your silence my sad heart deceives — 
 "Cuckoo!" 
 
 Will Love reward me with his smiles, 
 
 And fill my heart with memories dim, 
 As Beauty all my care beguiles. 
 And shortens life's long desert miles. 
 
 With many a joyous hymn? 
 
 There comes nought but the echo dim — 
 " Cuckoo ! " 
 
 Ah, well-a-day, it needs must be. 
 
 From you no comfort can be heard ; 
 Yet fail I not for lack of glee, 
 There's some one else to comfort me, 
 %^ Most mocking, melancholy bird, 
 
 Behold, the dewy branches stirred, — 
 " Cuckoo ! " 
 
 •/ And o'er the daisied meadows sweet, 
 
 There comes, on this fair eve of spring, 
 My darling, with unwearied feet. 
 Alone her own true love to meet. 
 What care I now, you foolish thing, 
 If all night long you idly sing — 
 " Cuckoo ! " 
 
 And here we close this brief record of one whose life 
 ended too soon to redeem the bright promise of his youth. 
 The harvest was not reached, and the summer grain did not 
 fulfil the presage of the bloom of spring. Amongst the 
 saddest of human laments are those which mourn for that 
 which " might have been." A longer lease of life might
 
 2o8 Cheshire Gleajtings. 
 
 have brought a riper fruit and golden grain, but disease 
 fettered the powers of the singer. Sufficient, however, 
 remains to justify the admiration of his friends for what he 
 accompUshed, and their regret that an untimely death 
 removed him before he had done full justice to his own 
 talents. He had a keen eye for natural beauty, and an ear 
 that was sensitive to melody. The subject matter of his 
 verses was varied. Some of them recorded the impressions 
 received amidst the wild grandeur of Yorkshire hills, or of 
 the gentler beauty of brighter skies. At other times the 
 annals of the past inspired him, and the storm and passion 
 of Teutonic and Scandinavian love and hatred throbbed in 
 his verse. A few of his rhymes reflect more playful moods, 
 though several of these pleasant vers de societie were written 
 as a relief from the inroads of " loathed melancholy." 
 
 His personal characteristics are easily summed up. With 
 a mind naturally open and unsuspicious he did not always 
 discriminate between the true aud the false of actual life, 
 and sometimes had to regret misplaced confidence. His 
 impressionable nature was too open to influences that left 
 a sting of bitterness behind. His mind was carefully 
 cultivated by familiarity with the best that English literature 
 contains. This was the solid basis of his culture, for he had 
 little or no acquaintance with the writers of other lands. 
 His conversation was often enlivened by playful sallies, and 
 even in the midst of pain he would " jest at scars." I, who 
 write these words, which can give to others so faint an 
 impression of his individuality, look back over a friendship 
 of more than twenty years. I recall long winter evenings
 
 Joseph Mowbray Hazvcroft. 209 
 
 made bright by flashes of wit, and by keen and kindly judg- 
 ments of men and books. I recall the rambles of summer 
 time when the sunlight and the starlight were an inspiration. 
 I recall many wanderings together in the stony-hearted 
 streets of the great metropolis, where every house has its 
 told and untold stories of hope and of heartbreak. I recall 
 many gentle offices of a friendship that was unfalteringly 
 constant and true. I leave, then, to other hands the duty of 
 criticism, and am content to place on the grave of the 
 departed this tribute of affectionate appreciation. He sleeps 
 amid strangers, away from those who were near and dear to 
 him, away from the place of his birth and the home of his 
 adoption ; but his memory will remain a sacred trust to 
 those who knew him, and who will ever think of him as he 
 was at his brightest and best. He had his share of the 
 storm and trouble of life, its passions, its follies, its dis- 
 appointments, its high hopes and endeavours, and now — the 
 skilful brain has grown weary, the kindly heart is stilled, the 
 voice of the singer is silent, and life-weary and death- 
 smitten, " After life's fitful fever he sleeps well."
 
 A FRAGMENT OF THE CHESTER PLAYS. 
 
 Seek, and ye shall find. 
 
 Matthew vii. 7. 
 
 THE importance of examining the covers of old books is 
 now generally acknowledged by all bibliographers, and 
 many curious finds have from time to time resulted. A 
 fragment of parchment which once formed part of a binding 
 was submitted by Mr. C. W. Sutton, the chief librarian of 
 the Manchester Free Library, to Mr. F. J. Furnivall, M.A., 
 who found it to be a fragment of a late fifteenth century 
 MS. of the Chester Plays. It reads as follows : — 
 
 Heare Peegynneth the Pagent which mencyoneth of the 
 Resurrectyon of Chryste. 
 
 Pylate : 
 
 Per uous, Sir Cayphas, 
 
 Et uous, e uous, Syr Annas, 
 
 Et syn Disciple Judas, 
 
 Quale treason fuyt, 
 
 Et graunde licyes de lucyte, 
 
 A moy par fite delyvere
 
 A Fragment of the Chester Plays. 211 
 
 Nostre dame fuit lugge 
 Per lore roy escrete. 
 
 [I] 
 Yee Lordes and Ladyes, so lufle and lere, 
 Yee Kempes, yee known Knyghtes of Kynde (?), 
 Harcken all hetharwardes my hestes to here ; 
 For I am most fayrest and fresshest to fynde. 
 And most hyghest I am of estate. 
 
 [Eight lines missing, four of stanza i and four of stanza 2.] 
 
 They cryden on mee all with one voyce, 
 These Jewes on mee made pyteous noyse ; 
 I gave leave to hange hym on croyse ; 
 This was through Jewes redde. 
 
 [3] 
 I dreade yet least hee will hus greive. 
 For that I sawe, I may well leeue, 
 I saw the stones beegyn to cleeue, 
 And dead men vp ryse. 
 In this Cytty all abowte. 
 Was none so sturne nyfe so stowte 
 That durst once looke vp for dowbte ; 
 They balde so sore agryse. 
 
 [4] 
 And therefore, ser Cayphos, yet I dreade 
 Least theare were peryll in that deede ; 
 I saw him hange on roode and bleede 
 Tyl all his blood was shed. 
 And when hee should his dealhe take, 
 The weddar waxed wondcrous l)lake, 
 [Leate] thonder and earth beegon to quake ; 
 Thereof I an a-dred.
 
 212 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 [5] 
 Cayphus : 
 
 And this was yesterday abowte none. 
 
 It will be seen that it is the speech in which Pilate accuses 
 and excuses himself for having sentenced Christ at the re- 
 quest of his enemies. The Chester plays are described 
 elsewhere in this volume. They were representations of 
 scriptural subjects, and were acted by members of the trade 
 guilds in that city on Whitsuntide. The "mysteries" were 
 originally acted in churches, but afterwards stages — usually 
 of three floors — were erected for the performance. The 
 Chester plays were acted upon "a high scafolde with 2 
 rowmes, a higer and a lower upon 4 wheeles." The author 
 of the plays, according to a late, tradition, was " Randall 
 Higgenett, a monk of Chester Abby." The late Mr. Thomas 
 Wright edited these plays for the old "Shakspere Society" in 
 1847. The play of the "Resurrection" was enacted by the 
 skinners. The fragment of only part of a leaf, now in the 
 Manchester Free Library, nevertheless furnishes, as the 
 Academy points out, " a few better readings than the printed 
 text."
 
 SION Y BODDIAU. 
 
 Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace 
 to them, if they bear it, 
 
 Shakspere. 
 
 SOME years ago, in the course of a delightful summer 
 ramble through the beautiful vale of Clwyd, I came 
 across a relative of St. George, whose name is little known 
 outside the principality. Denbigh is a place to which 
 a good deal of interest, both legendary and historical, 
 attaches. The castle is the last place which held out for 
 King Charles I. in the Civil Wars, and those who know the 
 proverbial ingratitude of the worthless Stuarts, will readily 
 understand that it was dismantled by order of his son. 
 Inside the castle walls are the ruins of a chapel which was 
 commenced by Robert, Earl of Leicester ; but according to 
 tradition, that which the mortals built up in the day, the 
 fairies pulled down in the night. Whether these sprites 
 were teetotallers the story does not say, but on what other 
 theory can we account for the existence of a Goblin Well ? 
 There is also a Goblin Tower. From this it will be seen
 
 214 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 that there is no lack of legendary lore connected with Castell 
 Dynbych. Although there are two chapels within the castle 
 walls the parish church is some distance from them. As it 
 glimmers in the sunshine one can feel the appropriateness of 
 its Welsh name, Eglwyseg Wen, or the White Church. It 
 is a plain unornamented structure, internally, of late per- 
 pendicular Gothic. In the porch is a brass, representing 
 Richard Myddelton and his wife, with their sixteen children, 
 amongst them William, the gallant seamen, and Sir Hugh, 
 the celebrated engineer : — 
 
 " Who, to quench the thirst of thousands in the populous 
 city of London, fetcht water on his own cost more than 24 
 miles, encountermg all the way an army of oppositions, 
 grappling with hills, struggling with rocks, fighting with 
 forests, till, in defiance of difficulties, he had brought his 
 project to perfection." This brass is engraved in "The Lives 
 of the Engineers," by Samuel Smiles, 1861, i. 96. There is a 
 y view of Whitchurch, p. 166, with Moel Fammau (Mother 
 of the Hills), surmounted by the Jubilee Tower, since blown 
 down. 
 
 Whitchurch is, however, chiefly interesting as being the 
 last resting-place of three Welsh worthies, Humphry Llwyd, 
 of Foxhall, the antiquary ; Twm o'r Nant (Thomas of the 
 Valley), the only dramatist whom Cambria has produced, 
 and who has, probably on that account, been called the 
 Welsh Shakespere ; and Sion y Boddiau. Leaving Llwyd 
 and Edwards, let us devote a few minutes to John of the 
 Thumbs. A large altar tomb at the far end of the church 
 is ornamented with the recumbent effigies of Sir John
 
 Sion y Boddiau. 215 
 
 Salusbury and his wife ; he is clad in armour, and her neck 
 is ornamented with a great ruff. Sir John died in 1578, and 
 ten years after, his widow erected this monument, and left a 
 blank space for the insertion of the year and day of her own 
 going over to the majority. This date has never been filled 
 in. Sir John's feet rest upon a nondescript animal, which 
 the unskilfulness of the artist and the ravages of time have 
 combined to make indescribable, and an examination gives 
 one the impression that he was endowed with two thumbs 
 on each hand. 
 
 Upon these slender foundations a legend has arisen, 
 which sets forth that in some remote age the district in 
 which Denbigh now stands was infected by a monstrous 
 animal, which worked unutterable woe upon the peaceful 
 dwellers in Dyffryn Clwyd. Like the laidly worm of / 
 Lambton, it spared neither life nor property, and the fair 
 vale would soon have become a howling wilderness if the 
 good knight with the superfluous thumbs had not resolved 
 upon the hazardous undertaking of destroying the byc/i. In 
 this, after much hard fighting, he was successful, and 
 emerging triumphant from the deadly conflict, he called out 
 exultingly, " Dyn bych, dyn bych " (No bych). The 
 people, grateful for their deliverance, immediately named 
 the place Dynbych, the Wchh form of Denbigh. Unfortu- 
 nately for this very probable etymology, although the present 
 name is not the original one, it is some centuries older tlian 
 the time of Sion y Boddiau, and tlie legend can only be 
 regarded as another example of the identification of myths 
 with particular localities. It would better fit the founder of
 
 2i6 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 the Lleweni race. John Salusbury was a native of Chester, 
 although his boyhood is thought to have been spent at 
 Denbigh. He married Katharine Seymour, and was the 
 father of Hari Ddu, the builder of Lleweni, and the ancestor 
 of the family which gave so many worthies, soldiers, poets, 
 and statesmen to Wales. 
 
 St. George must look to his laurels, for he has many 
 competitors in the trade and mystery of dragon slaying. 
 Mr. Baring-Gould mentions : — 
 
 " S. Secundus of Asti, Gozo of Rhodes, Raimond of S. 
 Sulpice, Struth von Winkelfreid, the Count Aymon, Moor 
 of Moorhall, ' who slew the dragon of Wantley,' Conyers 
 of Sockburn, and the Knight of Lambton, ' John that slew 
 ye Worme.' Ariosto adapted it in his 'Orlando Furioso,' and 
 made his hero deliver Angelica from Orca in the true mythic 
 style of George, and it appears again in the tale of 'Chederles.'" 
 
 The same writer mentions Perseus, Cenchrius, Mene- 
 stratus, Pherecydes, Pythagoras, Heracles, Apollo, Sigurd, 
 Siegfried, Boewulf, Indra, Mithra, Thraetana, Feridun, 
 Grettir, amongst the goodly company of dragon-slayers. 
 ("Curious Myths of Middle Ages," second series, 1868, 
 
 P- 55-) 
 
 " It seems then," says Mr. Baring-Gould, " that the fight 
 with the dragon is a myth common to all the Aryan nations. 
 Its signification is this : the maiden which the dragon 
 attempts to devour is the earth. The monster is the 
 storm-cloud. The hero who fights it is the sun, with his 
 glorious sword the lightning flash. By his victory the earth 
 is relieved from her peril. The fable has been varied to
 
 Sioii y Boddiaji. 217 
 
 suit the atmospheric pecuUarities of different chmes in which 
 the Aryans found themselves." 
 
 The fight with the dragon is by no means an exclusively 
 Aryan myth. One of its most curious forms is in a Chinese 
 story which is given in JVotes and Queries upon China and 
 Japan, vol. i. p. 148. In this legend we have the usual dragon 
 with its petichant for young ladies. Nine maidens having 
 been sacrificed to the cannibal tastes of the serpent, K'i, 
 daughter of Li Tan, a magistrate, volunteered, and after 
 some demur, was allowed to proceed to the monster's cave. 
 She took with her a good sword, a dog that would bite at 
 snakes, and several measures of boiled rice and honey, 
 which she placed at the mouth of the cave. At nightfall 
 the dragon came forth, " its head as large as a rice stack, and 
 its eyes like mirrors two feet across." The savoury mess 
 attracted its attention, and whilst it was eating, the dog 
 attacked it in the front, and K'i hacked at it from behind, 
 until it was wounded to death. " The maiden entered the 
 cavern, and recovered the skeletons of the nine previous 
 victims, w'hose untimely fate she bewailed. After this she 
 leisurely returned home, and the Prince of Yueh, hearing of 
 her exploit, raised her to be his queen." 
 
 Dupuis and Lenoir take the myth as emblematic of the 
 victory of virtue over vice, and " when divested of every 
 allegorical veil, as intimating the victory of the spring sun 
 over the winter sun, and of light over darkness." 
 
 Salverte cautiously allows more than one origin for these 
 mythical relations. He thinks that exaggerated reports of 
 reptiles, which have attained uncommon growth, has given
 
 2i8 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 rise to many of the dragon stories, and that others may be 
 emblematic of ravages produced by inundations. In con- 
 firmation of this view he mentions various rivers to which 
 the name Draco is apphed. Dr. Brinton suppHes a curious 
 confirmation of this view : — 
 
 " Kennebec, a stream in Maine, in the Algonkin means 
 snake, and Antietam, the creek in Maryland of tragic 
 celebrity, in an Iroquois dialect has the same significance. 
 How easily would savages, construing the figure literally, 
 make the serpent a river or water-god ! " 
 
 And he notes the Indian belief in an irascible serpent 
 dwelling in the great lakes, and destroying men unless 
 appeased by suitable offerings. ("Myths of the New 
 World," by D. G. Brinton, 1868, p. 107.) 
 
 Salverte gives the dragon-myth an origin in an astronomical 
 picture, to which an erroneous literal meaning became 
 generally attached. (" Occult Sciences," from the French 
 of Eusebe Salverte, 1846, ii. 272.) 
 
 It is evident that a little ingenuity will accommodate the 
 history of most of the dragon-slayers to any of these theories. 
 Still, when I stood in Whitchurch, I must confess that the 
 bych trampled beneath the feet of the stalwart Knight did 
 not remind me very forcibly of a storm-cloud, and if Sion y 
 Boddiau cannot claim the shining beauty of the sun god, he 
 certainly looked stout and substantial for a mere myth of 
 the dawn.
 
 MARK YARWOOD. 
 
 /. 
 
 Tis the mind that makes the body rich. 
 
 Shakspere. 
 
 THE case of Mark Yarwood is one of those Avhich show 
 the remarkable power of adaptation possessed by 
 man, so that the defects of the body are to a great extent 
 obviated by the ingenuity of the mind. There is what 
 appears to be a compensating law at work, and the 
 absence of one power is repaired by the greater activity of 
 those that remain. In fact it is merely necessity that has 
 stimulated attempts to perform ordinary functions by un- 
 usual methods. Such cases have a certain philosophical 
 value quite apart from the pathetic interest that must always 
 attach to efforts to overcome disabilities imposed by nature, 
 who, in some cases, seems rather a harsh step-mother than 
 the bounteous mother of whom the poets sing. 
 
 Mark Yarkwood was a native of Ashley, in the parish of 
 Bowdon, where his parents, poor but respectable, resided. 
 He was born in tlie year iSi 2 without forearms or hands, but 
 notwithstanding this managed to acquire considerable skill
 
 220 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 in many operations that are usually supposed to involve a 
 great amount of manual dexterity. When he was about twelve 
 years old he was noticed by Dr. S. Hibbert-Ware, who was 
 rojtonished to see him playing at marbles with great dexterity. 
 It will be best to quote at some length the description then 
 given of his physical peculiarities. " On each of the ossa 
 humeri there are prominences which bear a faint resem- 
 blance in their appearance and situation to those of the 
 external condyles, whence two prolongations, one on each 
 arm, may be observed, is much more than an inch in length, 
 while that of the limb is perhaps about a quarter of an inch 
 longer than the one which terminates the right os humeri. 
 As the bones of these prolongations feel as if they were bifid 
 at their extremities they might possibly be each considered 
 as the scanty rudiments, or even relics, of an ulna and 
 radius, while their firm and immovable junction with the 
 ossa huvieri might be interpreted as the result of the process 
 of anchylosis. But this view, though calculated to serve 
 the purpose of anatomical description, irieets with little 
 countenance from physiology ; there is not the least indica- 
 tion that a joint ever existed, nor are there any signs of 
 demarcation between the ossa humeri and the short pro- 
 cesses which form their respective terminations." 
 
 When Dr. Hibbert-Ware first saw him Mark was engaged 
 in a game of marbles — at which he was a proficient, and had 
 acquired the reputation of being the best player m the 
 school. The two stumps, by a united effort, were made to 
 do the work of a hand. All sorts of devices were employed 
 by him to overcome the disadvantages imposed by nature.
 
 Mark Yarwood. 221 
 
 When asked to thread a small needle he stuck it into a felt 
 hat, and rubbed the thread with his stumps in housewifely 
 fashion before insinuating it into the eye of the needle. 
 Where an ordinary boy would use both hands Mark had to 
 make much use of his mouth. In tying a common bow the 
 tongue was made to do some work of a finger. In stirring 
 the fire he held the poker between the defective stumps, 
 and used his chin as a fulcrum. Things too big to be seized 
 by the teeth were frequently held by the agency of the 
 knees. His feet also were called into frequent service. He 
 was sent to the National School at Bowdon, and the teachers, 
 interested in his ingenious methods, made a successful 
 attempt to teach him the art of writing. The paper was 
 fixed to the table by a small weight, and the boy taking hold 
 of the pen with his teeth fixed it between the stumps, and 
 then, chiefly by the guidance of the left arm, was drawn easily 
 along in the act of making the various characters used in 
 WTiting. He made much progress in this manner. For 
 some time he had great difficulty in pen-making — a very im- 
 portant art in the days that preceded the steel pen, and when 
 the cutting of the quill needed much dexterity. His after 
 life was not happy. For a time he is said to have gone 
 about the country in a show. Afterwards he found employ- 
 ment as a clerk, but gave way to habits of intemperance, 
 which he is said to have contracted from the many occasions 
 when he was asked to drink by those who wished to see his 
 dexterous fashion of holding the glass. In 1856 he was an 
 inmate of Prestwich Lunatic Asylum, but died in Knutsford 
 Workhouse about 1864.
 
 222 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 The case of Mark Yarwood is not unparalleled, and some 
 who have had to conquer even greater difficulties have 
 attained still greater proficiency. Alexander Benedictus 
 speaks of a woman born without arms, who could spin and 
 sew with her feet. William Kingston, who had neither 
 arms nor hands, is described by a writer in the Calcutta 
 Journal {or 182 1. He was a farmer, and made his feet do 
 the office of hands. With them he wrote, conveyed food to 
 his mouth, milked the cows, cut his own hay, saddled and 
 bridled his horse, and could do nearly anything with his 
 feet that other men could do with their hands. His teeth 
 were so strong that he could lift ten pecks of beans with 
 them, and he could throw a great sledge hammer a con- 
 siderable distance with his feet. 
 
 Roger Branagh, resident at Belfast in 1822, was born 
 without arms, and yet could write rapidly and distinctly, 
 thread needles, tie a knot, sew, play at marbles, drive a cart 
 or carriage, and row a boat. 
 
 Of M. Charles Grandmagne there was a curious account 
 in the Daily News, i6th September, 1868. He was born 
 at Epenal in 1834 without arms or legs, and his father 
 intended to keep him in utter ignorance, and to exhibit him 
 as a wonder, but the boy had a passion for learning, and 
 managed to acquire the arts of reading and writing, and to 
 develop an extraordinary power of arithmetical calculation. 
 He gave lectures on mathematics and similar subjects, and 
 was the author of small treatises. His quickness in mental 
 calculation was a frequent source of astonishment to those 
 who saw him.
 
 Mark Yarwood. 223 
 
 Matthew Buckinger, who was born without hands or feet 
 in 1674, attained great repute as a caUgrapher. Some 
 specimens of his fine and minute writing are in the Bodleian, 
 and in private collections. One of the best known is a 
 portrait which he made of himself. The wig is made up of 
 lines of writing, and contains Psalms cxxi., cxxvii., cxviii., 
 cxx., cxlvi., cxlix., and cl., and the Lord's Prayer, which 
 extends over four curls, beginning at the left shoulder. A 
 reproduction of this portrait may be seen in Stoke's " Rapid 
 Writing." (London, 1873, p. 113.) He was an expert 
 draught player, and a skilful performer on several musical 
 instruments. 
 
 An armless woman was married at Jevington, Sussex, in 
 1874, and a generation earlier the espousal of the "bride of 
 Bury " was the subject of 2^jeii cVesprit. The lady, whilst 
 one of the attractions of the fair, was married at St. James's 
 Church, Bury, and as she had no arms the ring was placed 
 on one of her toes ! 
 
 How the deuce this Benedict court, 
 
 Is what I would fain understand ? 
 For the lady had thought it but sport 
 
 If told that he looked for her hand. 
 And some men would think it unkind, 
 
 Nay queer and indecent to boot, 
 If on saying, " To wed I'm inclined," 
 
 The fair, in return, gave \\&r foot ! 
 
 (Local Notes and Queries from Manchester Guardian^ 
 1874, No. 394.) 
 
 Miss Sarah Biffin was born without hands or arms in
 
 224 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 1754, at East Quantoxhead, near Bridgewater, and acquired 
 some reputation as a miniature painter. She was taught by 
 Mr. Dukes — ^with whom she remained for sixteen years at a 
 salary of ^5 per annum. In 182 1 the Society of Arts 
 awarded her a medal for one of her pictures. By the kind- 
 ness of the Earl of Morton she received further instruction 
 from Mr. W. M. Craig, and supported herself for a number 
 of years by painting miniatures. She finally settled in 
 Liverpool, and when the advance of age prevented her from 
 the prosecution of her profession an annuity was bought for 
 her by the exertions of Mr. Richard Rathbone. She died 
 2nd October, 1850, and there is a good account of her in 
 the Gentleinan ''s Magazine of that day. 
 
 Perhaps the most extraordinary case on record is that of 
 Cesar Ducornet, who was born without arms, and with half 
 legs only, the upper part, by a freak of nature, having been 
 omitted. He had two feet, but only four toes to each of 
 them. He was born at Lille in 1806. He distinguished 
 himself by the quickness of his talent, and learned to write 
 in a remarkably elegant fashion. The first project of making 
 him a writing master was abandoned in consequence of his 
 decided taste for art. His copy books began to fill with 
 sketches, and on these being shown to Mr. Watteau, then 
 director of the School of Art at Lille, obtained for " Four 
 Toes" admission to the drawing class, and in eighteen 
 months he had carried off all the prizes but one. He removed 
 to Paris, and became the pupil of Gerard, obtained several 
 medals, and a civil list pension. In 1829, at the age of 23, he 
 obtained an equivalent to the second place in the Grand
 
 Mark Yarwood. 225 
 
 Prix de Rome. In 1832 he painted the portrait of Louis 
 PhiHppe. The physique of Ducornet was peculiar. He had 
 a grandly formed head placed on a slender body not four 
 feet high. He used his feet for holding the palette, brush, 
 &c., and with the right would grasp the hand outstretched 
 to greet him. His voice was powerful, his conversation 
 pleasant and somewhat humorous in its turn. In order to 
 retain his delicacy of touch he had to abstain from walking, 
 and his father, who attended him with a great devotion, 
 was in the habit of carrying him to and fro. There is an 
 interesting notice of Ducornet in the " Nouvelle Biographie 
 Generale " of Harper. (Paris, 1856, t. 15, 26.) 
 
 The/ojimalde Geneve oi October, 1883, announced the 
 death of Mr. Jean Trottet at Arare, in the canton of 
 Geneva. He was born in 1831 without hands and without 
 feet. His short arms were pointed, and his legs were not 
 available for progression. He was only able to move by twist- 
 ing his body from side to side. Many offers from showmen 
 were rejected by his parents, and when Jean was old enough 
 he was sent to chool. In writing he held the pen at the 
 elbow, and as he grew older he took great interest in hus- 
 bandry, became an active haymaker, used the reins with 
 dexterity, and was so good a shot that he more than once 
 carried off the first prize at the village iirs. He has left 
 behind him a widow and four children amply provided for. 
 
 Another armless man, James Irving Johnston, was the 
 schoolmaster of his native place, Annan, where he died at 
 the age of 26 in 1848. He shaved and dressed his own 
 hair by the dexterous use of his toes.
 
 THE FIGHT OF THE THIRTY. 
 
 Let the gull'd fool the toils of war pursue, 
 Where bleed the many to enrich the few. 
 
 Shenstone. Judgment of Hercules. 
 
 THE "Combat of the Thirty" is an incident that, 
 although not of any great historical importance, 
 impressed the age in which it occurred, and was for cen- 
 turies traditionally remembered by the Breton peasant as 
 one of the glories of his fatherland. Indeed it would 
 probably be inaccurate to say that even now Brittany has 
 forgotten the memory of the warlike deeds of her children 
 who joined in this strange battle. The battle was fought 
 on the vigil of Sunday, Laetare Jerusalem, 27 March, 135 1, 
 and it has not lacked enthusiastic historians. First, there is 
 the sober narrative of Froissart, which remained unknown 
 until it was rescued by M. J. A. C. Buchon, who pubUshed 
 it in 1824, and also included it in his edition of the 
 " Chroniques." (Paris, 1853, tome i., p. 293.) The same 
 learned antiquary published in his collection of chronicles
 
 The Fight of the Thirty. 227 
 
 a Breton Lai of the fourteenth century, giving a very 
 detailed account of the combat. This song attracted the 
 notice of the late William Harrison Ainsworth, who made a 
 very spirited translation of it, which is included in his 
 " Ballads." 
 
 ' The circumstances of the battle are sufficiently simple. 
 There was a war of succession between the partisans of the 
 widow of Jean de Montfort, and the wife of Charles de 
 Blois. The struggle lasted from 1341 to 1364, when 
 Charles de Blois was killed at the battle of Auray. In 
 135 1 he was a prisoner, and his wife, Jeanne de Penthievre, 
 led his adherents against the troops, headed by the Comtesse 
 de Montfort. In 1351 Robert de Beaumanoir was in 
 garrison at Chatel Josselin, whence he sallied with a large 
 array of men and arms to the town and castle of Ploermel, 
 which was held for the lady of Montfort by Sir Robert 
 Bamborough. On his arrival he was disgusted to find 
 that the English commander and his friends did not come 
 out of their strong walls. He therefore suggested that they 
 should have a joust of two or three with sword and spears. 
 Sir Robert did not care for such play, but was willing that 
 each should select from his fellowship twenty or thirty men 
 who should fight in earnest on the open plain. This was 
 readily agreed to, and the place selected was a level tract, near 
 which stood a Mid-Way Oak. Hence the struggle is some- 
 «^ times called the Bataille de Mi-Voie. The sixty, having 
 dismounted, were drawn up in front of each other, and at a 
 given signal the combat began, and the combatants fought 
 until they were quite exhausted. When a rest was called,
 
 228 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 four Frenchmen and two Englishmen were dead. The fight 
 was renewed, and the issue of it would probably have been 
 a victory for the English but for the conduct which, though 
 crowned by success, appears to have been somewhat unfair. 
 The knights were fighting on foot, and the English kept a 
 steady unbroken phalanx, when one of the French Knights 
 remounted his horse, and first drawing some distance 
 away, rushed the steed with great force and impetuosity 
 against them. Their ranks were thus broken, and those 
 overthrown by this terrific charge were trampled under foot 
 as a result of this manoeuvre. Sir Robert and eight of his 
 men were killed, and the remainder taken prisoners. 
 Froissart himself saw one of the French combatants, and 
 he testifies that his gashed and hacked visage showed plainly 
 how stern had been the fight. The Oak of Mi-Voie has 
 long disappeared, and so has a stone cross that formerly 
 marked the spot, but in the present century a memorial of 
 the fight was renewed. Amongst the English Thirty were 
 two Cheshire knights. Sir Robert Knolles, who is some- 
 times described as of poor parentage in the county, but whose 
 valour raised him from the position of a common soldier to 
 that of a great commander. The other was Sir Hugh 
 j Calverley, of Lea, who, after a brilliant military career, 
 V founded a college at Bunbury, where he is buried. 
 
 Sir Hugh Calveley, for that is the form of the name pre- 
 ferred by Ormerod, was one of the soldiers of fortune of the 
 fourteenth century. After his share in the battle of the 
 thirty he had a pardon from Edward HI. for all felonies 
 committed by him and others, who are enumerated, in the
 
 The Fight of the Thirty. 229 
 
 city of Chester. At the battle of Auray he consented, 
 against his will, to take command of the rear-guard, and 
 there did good service by his steady reception of a desperate 
 charge from the foe. He was afterwards the leader of a 
 horde of free lances and banditti, who first took arms for 
 Henry of Trastamare, and then joined the opposite party 
 of Pedro the Cruel. Sir Hugh distinguished himself at the 
 battle of Navarete in 1367. His name occurs frequently in 
 connection with the scenes of more than half predatory 
 warfare. From the storm which wTecked the expedition to 
 Brittany in 1380 he escaped with seven men only. The 
 outrages committed by the men under his command and 
 that of Sir John are a disgraceful characteristic of the age. 
 Perhaps it was a sign of repentance for these ill deeds that 
 led him in connection with two other English free lances, 
 Sir John Hawkwood and Sir Robert Knolles (who is some- 
 times conjectured to have been his brother), to found a 
 college at Rome. He died in 1394 at the college he had 
 founded at Bunbury, where, says Dr. Ormerod, " his 
 armed effigies still reposes in one of the most sumptuous 
 altar tombs which his county can boast." There was a 
 tradition, long faithfully believed, that he married a Queen 
 of Arragon, but it seems more probable that the grim 
 warrior remained unmated to the end of his days.
 
 OLD MYNSHULL OF ERDESWICK. 
 
 Sir Fretful Plagiary : Besides — I can tell you it is not always safe to 
 leave a play in the hands of those who write themselves. 
 
 Sneer : What they may steal from them — hey, my dear Plagiary ? 
 
 Sir Fretful : Steal, to be sure they may ; and egad, serve your best 
 thoughts as gypsies do stolen children, disfigure them to make 'em pass 
 for their own. 
 
 Sheridan. The Critic. 
 
 IN Major Leigh's collection of " Cheshire Ballads " there 
 is one which professes to have been "found amongst 
 the family papers in an old oak chest at Erdeswick Hall, 
 one of the seats of the Mynshull family." This ballad has, 
 however, no real claim either to antiquity or to Cestrian 
 origin. The plagiarism or mystification' — whichever it may 
 have been — is a curious one. When Major Leigh's book 
 appeared it was reviewed by the present writer in the St. 
 James's Magazine., and this ballad, accepted as what it pro- 
 fessed to be, was praised for its vivid portraiture of that 
 chivalrous loyalty for which Cheshire — the seed plot of 
 gentility — has always been remarkable. A copy of the 
 magazine was sent to the Rev. Robert Stephen Hawker,
 
 Old MynsJmll of Erdesivick. 231 
 
 one of the writer's literary correspondents. Hawker was 
 then busily preparing for publication the collection of his 
 poems which, under the title of "Cornish Ballads and other 
 Poems," he issued in 1869. He recognised in "Old Myn- 
 shull" one of his own productions. From his characteristic 
 letter some extracts may be given : — 
 
 " Morwenstow, February 16, 1868. 
 " My dear Sir, — I thank you sincerely for your Paper and 
 Letter just now received, and most of all for your Photograph. 
 When I can get one of myself I shall be happy to transmit 
 it to you, but I have now not one copy. Our corres- 
 pondence is, I fear, likely to be discordant if I may augur 
 from one leaf of your Review of Major Leigh's Ballads. It 
 reveals one of the most audacious deeds of plagiarism ever 
 perpetrated even on myself, and I have been a painful 
 sufferer from literary theft. The alleged MynshuU Ballad is 
 a clumsy copy of one of my own on Sir Beville Granville, 
 which I wrote many years ago, and which has been set to 
 march music, and sung in the west of England for a long 
 while. I enclose a copy, which I sent to Notes and Queries 
 seven years ago, and by which you will perceive that all that 
 is good in the Cheshire parody is mine, and all that is vapid 
 is Major Leigh's. I have copied it into my MSS. for 
 publication, and I shall add the date in my own defence. 
 Luckily a friend of mine, Mr. Maskell, the well-known 
 ecclesiastical writer, was aware of my composition verse by 
 verse (he lived then near me at Bude), and he can attest my 
 original writing if attestation be required. Only a year or
 
 232 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 two ago I stopped a Mr. from publishing in the Royal 
 
 Cornwall Gazette a series of my ballads as his own. From 
 my remote and solitary abode I have been a more than 
 usual victim to fraudulent writers. I shall be glad to hear 
 what you say as to the case, wherein you have been uncon- 
 sciously led to abet a dishonourable proceeding. I am 
 receiving additions to my list every day, and my friends will 
 soon be at the work of negociating with a publisher. I 
 shall be very glad to see any criticism on my book, which 
 you may publish ; but there is one literary blotch which you 
 will not be able to fix on me. One thing there is which 
 cannot be fixed on me, and that is plagiarism. — I am, yours 
 faithfully, 
 
 "R. S. Hawker." 
 
 The resemblance between the two pieces is too great 
 to be explained by any other theory than that of deliberate 
 copying. We give first Mr. Hawker's poem, and then the 
 imitation : — 
 
 SIR SEVILLE. — THE GATE-SONG OF STOWE. 
 
 Arise ! and away ! for the King and the land ; 
 
 Farewell to the couch and the pillow : 
 With spear in the rest, and with rein in the hand, 
 
 Let us rush on the foe like a billow. 
 
 Call the hind from the plough, and the herd from the fold, 
 
 Bid the Wassailer cease from his revel : 
 And ride for old Stowe, where the banner's unrolled, 
 
 For the cause of King Charles and Sir Beville.
 
 Old My ns hull of Erdeswick. 233 
 
 Trevanion is up, and Godolphin is nigh : 
 
 And Harris of Hayne's o'er the river ; 
 From Lundy to Looe, " One and all " is the cry, 
 
 And the King and Sir Beville for ever. 
 
 Aye ! by Tre, Pol, and Pen, ye may know Cornish men, 
 
 'Mid the names and the nobles of Devon ; — 
 But if truth to the King be a signal, why then 
 
 Ye can find out the Granville in heaven. 
 
 Ride ! ride ! with red spur, there is death in delay, 
 J 'Tis a race for dear life with the devil ; 
 
 If dark Cromwell prevail, and the King must give way. 
 This earth is no place for Sir Beville. 
 
 So at Stamford he fought, and at Lansdoune he fell. 
 
 But vain were the visions he cherished : 
 For the great Cornish heart, that the King loved so well, 
 
 In the grave of the Granville it perished. 
 
 Of the Cheshire version we may quote the following : — 
 
 OLD MYNSHULL OE ERDESWICK. 
 
 [A Royalist song found amongst the family papers in an old chest at 
 Erdeswick Hall, one of the seats of the MynshuU family.] 
 
 Arise ! and away for the king and y"* land ! 
 
 Farewell to y" couch and y pillow, 
 With spear in its rest, and with rein in hand. 
 
 Let us rush on y"* foe like a Ijillow. 
 
 Call the hind from y"^ plough, and y^ herd from the fold, 
 
 Bid y" wassiles to take a long pull ; 
 Then ride for Old Erdeswick, whose banner's unrolled, 
 
 For the cause of King Charles and Mynshull.
 
 234 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Ride, ride with red spur — there is deatli in delay, 
 'Tis a race for dear life with y^ devil ; 
 
 For if Cromwell prevail, and y« King now gives way, 
 Our land must in slavery revel. 
 
 There was death in each stroke, while old MynshuU thus spake, 
 
 And Roundheads fell off in a cluster ; 
 Such havoc he made, that his trusty old blade 
 
 Told a tale next day at the muster. 
 
 At Edgehill he fought, and at Worcester he fell, 
 
 But vain were the visions he cherished ; 
 For the brave Cheshire heart that our king loved so well, 
 
 In the grave of y« Mynshull's lies perished. 
 
 May his sons prove as true to their church and their king, 
 
 And act like their sire with decision. 
 And firmness whenever the foe's on the wing ; 
 
 For from heaven they get their commission. 
 
 Mr. Hawker was a man of singular habits, but of remark- 
 able poetical power. His ballads are simple, direct, 
 vigorous, and full of dramatic force, whilst his religious 
 poems are full of strange mysteries — expressed in very 
 highly ornate verse. There is a good account of his 
 writings in Notes and Queries^ 5 th s. v.
 
 NIXON, THE "CHESHIRE PROPHET." 
 
 like a red-faced Nixon. 
 
 Dickens. Pickivick. 
 
 THE fame of Nixon has spread far and wide, but like 
 other modern prophets, the real foundation is very 
 slight for the reputation reared upon it. The mysterious 
 figure eludes the grasp, and the keener the search the 
 greater is the disappointment. It would be a mistake to 
 suppose that the belief in his vaticinations is extinct. Few 
 events of an unusual character occur without it being 
 supposed that they "fulfil" some vague words attributed to 
 Nixon. Sometimes a waggish antiquary writes some 
 doggerel darkly anticipating the modern wonder. 
 
 When sober inquiry is made as to Nixon we are met with 
 the preliminary difficulty that there is absolutely no evidence 
 that he existed at all ! His first biographer was John 
 Oldmixon, the historian, who published, in 17 14, "The 
 Cheshire Prophecy, with historical and political remarks." 
 There was another account by W. E., issued in 17 19.
 
 236 CliesJiire Gleanings. 
 
 There was also an anonymous "Life and Prophecies of 
 Robert Nixon, of Bridge House." He has been noticed 
 by Ormerod, Halliwell-Phillips, Egerton Leigh, Mr. 
 Worthington Barlow, and Mrs. Wilbraham. The present 
 writer has collected and edited the varying versions of the 
 prophecies. An examination of the data shows that his 
 birth is variously stated as having occurred in the reign of 
 Edward IV. and James I. It is Oldmixon who placed 
 him under the Stuarts, and yet we have a circumstantial 
 account of the manner in which he foretold the result of the 
 battle of Bosworth-field. This should be compared with 
 the passage in which Aubrey tells us that when he was at 
 school, he heard a tradition that when the battle of Bos- 
 worth-field was being fought, a man of the parish of 
 Warminster in Wiltshire, took two sheaves in one of the 
 great fields, " crying (with some intervals) now for Richard, 
 now for Henry ; at last lets fall the sheaf that did represent 
 Richard ; and cried, now for King Henry, Richard is slain." 
 As no manuscript copy of any antiquity exists of the pro- 
 phecy, and the first printed edition only dates from 17 14, it 
 might occur to the sceptical that they were dealing with a 
 modern forgery or jeu d'esprif. This however does not 
 appear at all likely. Oldmixon's pamphlet refers to many 
 instances in which the sayings of the prophet were held to 
 have been realised, and although some of these are of a 
 very trifling character they are stated with exact circum- 
 stance as to the persons and places indicated. The pam- 
 phlet was frequently reprinted, not only in London, but in 
 various parts of the country, and it is very improbable that
 
 Nixon, the "Cheshire Prophet." 237 
 
 it would have remained uncriticised and uncontradicted 
 unless it had embodied substantially the floating traditions 
 then current in Cheshire. 
 
 When the prophecies are examined it is seen that they 
 consist of rhymes and jingle, such as in former ages were 
 current in England. Such doggerel lines are now either a 
 matter of lingering superstition or of purely antiquarian 
 curiosity, but there was a time when prophecy was a power- 
 ful political engine. Mysterious rhymes, usually breathing 
 of death or slaughter, were constantly in circulation amongst 
 our ancestors. The "Whole Prophesie of Scotland, 
 England, and some parts of France and Denmark," which 
 was printed by Waldegrave in 1603, contains forebodings, 
 to which the names of Merlin, Bede, Thomas the Rhymer, 
 and others are attached. The collection was one in which 
 a number of the popular prophecies then floating about 
 were combined into one narrative, which was continuous if 
 not intelligible. In this we find some of the most charac- 
 teristic portions of the Cheshire prophecy. 
 
 We may smile at these fancies now, but even in the reign 
 of Elizabeth it was found desirable to prohibit by law any 
 " fond, fantastical, or false prophecy." 
 
 Vaticinations were industriously circulated by the con- 
 tending parties in the State, and a prophet must have been 
 at least as important as a poet laureate. When the event 
 had falsified the prediction it could easily be altered so as 
 to meet the new exigencies of the case. Some of these 
 dusky rhymes found more than one local habitation. The 
 same or similar sayings arc attributed to Thomas the
 
 238 
 
 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Rhymer, to Mother Shipton, and to Robert Nixon. For 
 this reason, whatever be the truth or falsity of the details as 
 to his life, the rhymes of the Cheshire Prophet will remain 
 as curious and interesting documents in the history of the 
 county.
 
 CHESHIRE MARLING. 
 
 • 
 
 . Where grows ? where grows it not ? If vain our toil, 
 1 We ought to blame the culture, not the soil. 
 
 Pope. Essay on Alan. 
 
 THE use of the peculiar natural manure called marl 
 appears to have been known in Cheshire as early as 
 the time of Edward I., in whose reign leases granted con- 
 tained clauses obliging the tenants to make use of it. An 
 early description of the method in which it was employed 
 was contributed by " the ingenious Mr. Adam Martindule " 
 to the well-known " Collection of Letters for the Improve- 
 ment of Husbandry and Trade," published by John 
 Houghton, F.R.S. These letters are referred to in the 
 autobiography of Martindale, published by the Chetham 
 Society in 1845. He also communicated to Mr. Houghton's 
 periodical a note on the improvement of " mossie land by 
 burning and liming," with which we are not now con- 
 cerned, Mr. Martindale's first letter appears in the number 
 published May 18, 1682. He mentions "these old bald 
 verses : —
 
 240 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 He that marks sand may buy land, 
 
 He that marles moss shall suffer no loss ; 
 
 But he that marles clay flings all away. 
 
 But these general rules are not so universally true as to 
 hold without exceptions," &c. Mr. Martindale was an 
 enthusiastic advocate of marling, and returned to the charge 
 in the number published November 9, 1682, in which he 
 gives a minute account of the system of marling. There 
 are five kinds of this fertiliser: — i. "Cowshut marl, so 
 called, as I suppose, for its resemblance in colour to stock- 
 doves, or queoca, which the vulgar in this country call 
 Cowshuts." 2. Stone, or shale marl. 3. Peat, or delving 
 marl. 4. Clay marl. 5. Steel marl. He then describes 
 the characteristics of the localities in which it is usually 
 found, the method of removing the stratum of soil that 
 usually covers the marl, " for which purposes labourers make 
 use of pixes, spades, shovels, wheel-barrows, and sometimes 
 / carts, if the pit be broad. This is "■/eying the marie." 
 That which is to be removed is, " by a general name, called 
 feigh." After the preparation of the ground comes " getting 
 the marie from the pit to the field." "First the workmen 
 must always be four fillers, and so many howers as will get 
 them work enough ready for filling, which are ordinarily 
 three. * * In Peate-Marle, instead of Howers, there 
 must be Diggers, or, as they are usually called, Delvers. 
 * * These sorts of workmen have usually i4d. per 
 diem, finding themselves necessaries." If the marl was 
 spread immediately it required " two to set and spread," at 
 about IS. a day. If deferred until winter, "as heretofore
 
 Cheshire Marling. 241 
 
 was usual, one man, at 8d. per diem, might suffice very 
 well." The cost of cartage was next examined. " In some 
 places of Lancashire they have used, and possibly may still 
 use, a sort of single carts called tombrellis, whereof each is 
 drawn by one horse." * * Then follows a paragraph 
 upon the arrangement and rotation of crops : — " First year 
 with Pease or Oats upon one Furrow, then three years 
 together with Barley upon three Furrows (or thrice Plowing), 
 yearly ; after these years (wherein we expect our greatest 
 profit), we use to sow it with Pease (or Beans if the ground 
 be not over dry for them), and sometimes Oats for one 
 year, and Barley another by turns ; or, if it grow weedy or 
 grassie, we sometimes fallow or sianmer-work it." Some, 
 when " the strength of marie is worn out by long tillage, 
 strengthen it with a new supply, but then they ordinarily set 
 it thin, which they call skittenifig." This letter of Mr. 
 Martindale's is interesting, not only as an early description 
 of Cheshire agriculture, but from the number of dialectal 
 words it contains. These are italicised in the foregoing 
 extracts. They all escaped the notice of Mr. Roger Wil- 
 braham when compiling his "Cheshire Glossary." The 
 description by the old Cheshire farmer may be compared 
 with that given by Colonel Leigh in his Marler's Song. 
 (Ballads and Songs of Cheshire, p. 217.) This song is 
 supposed to be sung by a band of labourers : — 
 
 For them who grow a good tuniiit, / 
 We are the boys to fey a pit, 
 And then yoe good marl out of it.
 
 242 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Various processes are described, concluding with — 
 
 When shut the pit the labour o'er, 
 He whom we work for opes his door, 
 And gees to us of drink galore. 
 For this was always Marler's law, 
 Chorus : Who-whoop, who-whoop wo-o-o-o-o. 
 (Three times repeated.) 
 
 Colonel Leigh says : — " I read the above lines to an old 
 tenant, a marler of former days, as a marling song ; and he 
 said, ' It's all reet, it's all reet, but I wonder au never heard 
 that song before.' " This reply would lead one to conclude 
 that he had heard other marling songs, but, alas, they have 
 escaped the recording quill.
 
 CHESHIRE PROVERBS. 
 
 No hay refran que no sea verdadera. 
 
 Cervantes. Don Quixote. 
 
 THE interest in proverbs is not confined to those who 
 share the somewhat exaggerated estimate of their 
 veracity expressed by Cervantes. Most of the Cheshire 
 proverbs gathered by Wilbraham, Higson, and others, are to 
 be found in Mr. W. Carew Hazhtt's "EngHsh Proverbs 
 and Proverbial Phrases" (second edition: London, 1882), 
 and are sufficiently curious. Some of them may be true, 
 but have their truth hidden in mystery. Why should the 
 Cheshire cat be specially addicted to the vulgarity of grin- 
 ning? The picturesque brevity of this word portrait is 
 extended in another version to " Grinning like a Cheshire 
 cat chewing gravel." ("Lancashire Legends," 1873, p. 194.) 
 The explanation usually given is, that the phrase takes its 
 origin from the unsuccessful efforts of some wandering artist 
 whose rampant lions were humorously suggestive of the 
 more domestic animal. The crest of the Egertons when 
 placed over the door of a public-house as in some places
 
 244 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 causes the inn to be better known by the design of " The 
 Romping Kitling " than by the title of the signboard. The 
 " Cat at Charlton " is another hostelry whose name has come 
 from a popular misconception of sign-painters' heraldry. 
 
 Another county phrase, "A Stockport chaise" is explained 
 to mean but two women riding sideways. 
 
 Congleton rare, Congleton rare, 
 Sold the Bible to pay for a bear. 
 
 This charge has also been brought against another place : — 
 
 Clifton-npon-Dunsmore, in Warwickshire, 
 Sold the Church-Bible to buy a bear. 
 
 Fashion has so much to do with " sport " that we are hardly 
 fair judges of the past. It may well be that our descendants 
 will regard some popular diversions of both high and low in 
 the present day as being not less brutal than the bear-baitings 
 that in the past gave a fierce joy to the Congletonians and 
 earned for them the grotesque appelation of " Congleton 
 bears." Even this designation is not more satirical in its 
 intention than the title of " Holt lions," formerly given to 
 the people of Holt, for their frequent quarrels. The village 
 satirist who invented the phrase manages at the same time 
 to impute to them a want of real courage. 
 
 Hoole is one of the merry triad celebrated in the rhyme — 
 
 Hulton an' Huyton, 
 
 Ditton and Hoc', 
 Are thi'ee of the merriest towns 
 That ever a man rode through.
 
 Cheshire Proverbs. 245 
 
 Mirth is not always provident, and to those who lead a 
 merry life may sometimes be applied that warning against 
 extravagance conveyed in the words : — " If thou hadst the 
 rent of Dee mills, thou wouldst spend it." The mills for the 
 city of Chester might well convey to the rustic mind an idea 
 of " wealth beyond the dreams of avarice." The Miller of 
 the Dee has been celebrated by rhymesters old and new, 
 and may be contrasted in his fine bourgeois prosperity with 
 the unlucky person of whom it is said : — He feeds like a 
 freeholder of Macclesfield, who hath neither corn nor hay at 
 Michaelmas. "Maxfield," observes John Ray, "is a 
 market-town and borough of good account in this county 
 [Cheshire] where they drive a great trade of making and 
 selling buttons. When this came to be a proverb, it should 
 seem the inhabitants were poorer, or worse husbandmen, 
 than now they are." Those who are disposed to be stingy 
 may attribute this evil case to "Maxfield [Macclesfield] 
 measure, heap and thrutch." 
 
 Nor are these proverbs about places all depreciatory. 
 Thus there is "To lick it up like Lymon hay," which refers 
 to the village of Lymm, on the river Mersey, and which had 
 acquired a great reputation for the excellence of its hay. 
 "To tear Lymm from Warburton," is a phrase relating 
 to the past ecclesiastical relations of these two places. 
 "Through the pass of Halton, poverty might pass without 
 peril of robbing," is a phrase in "Piers Ploughman," and 
 probably refers to Halton, in Hampshire, which "is on the 
 direct route from London to the great Wcyhill Fair, near 
 Winchester." Halton in Cheshire can hardly be intended
 
 246 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 for Halton Castle, which stands on a rock in the midst of a 
 long, marshy district, and could never have afforded shelter 
 for robbers in the manner and extent named. 
 
 There is one Cheshire proverb that pleasantly illustrates 
 the Shaksperian adage that love will find out a way, and is 
 at the same time illustrative of the boasted wisdom of our 
 ancestors. "When the daughter is stolen, shut Pepper- 
 gate." Pepper-gate was a postern on the east side of the 
 city of Chester. The mayor of the city having his daughter 
 abducted by her lover through that gate, while she was 
 playing at ball with the other maidens, " his worship, out of 
 revenge, caused it to be closed up." 
 
 The power to see ourselves as others see us is not always 
 conducive to happiness. The people of the neighbouring 
 counties declare — 
 
 Cheshire bred : 
 Strong i' th' arm, 
 Weak i' th' head. 
 
 The same uncharitable statement has been made of 
 Derbyshire men, and by one of their writers indignantly 
 denied. Perhaps the better plan is to oppose to such scorn 
 the magnificent self-consciousness shown in the phrase, 
 "Cheshire, chief of men." "Say not," remarks quaint 
 Thomas Fuller, " that this proverb carries a challenge in it, 
 and our men of Kent will undertake these chief of men, for 
 engrossing manhood to themselves. And some will oppose 
 to this narrow county proverb, an English one of greater 
 latitude, viz., ' No man so good, but another may be as good
 
 Cheshire Proverbs. 247 
 
 as he.' For rather than any difference shall arise, by wise 
 and peaceable men, many chiefs will be allowed." Fuller 
 goes on to pay a tribute to the valour shown by Cheshire 
 men on the battlefield, and ends with a curious reference to 
 the failure of the Cheshire rising of Sir George Booth, and 
 the subsequent restoration of Charles II. : — "And to shew 
 that this should not be man's work, God suffered both the 
 men of Kent, and Cheshire chief of men, to fail in their 
 loyal endeavours, that it might only be God's work, justly 
 marvellous to our eyes." 
 
 " Neither in Cheshire nor Chowbent " is an emphatic form 
 of proclaiming the absence of person or thing. The tend- 
 ency to equalization in the affairs of" life takes form in the 
 statement that "There is more than one yew-bow in 
 Chester." There is perhaps a recondite meaning in "To 
 look a strained hair in a can." There is some picturesque 
 force in the picture of a messenger who is " Good to fetch a 
 sick man sorrow and a dead man woe." 
 
 The most Terentian motto finds an opposite in the care- 
 less exclamation : — " For my peck of malt set the kiln on 
 fire." "This," says Ray, "is used in Cheshire and the 
 neighbouring counties. They mean by it, I am little con- 
 cerned in the thing mentioned. I care not much, come on 
 it what will." 
 
 Agriculturists will be able to test the validity of the 
 assertion that " Hanged hay never does cattle." 
 
 A proverb, dealing with a Cheshire speciality, declares : — 
 
 If you will liave good cheese, and have old, 
 You must turn him seven times before he is cold.
 
 248 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Mr. Hazlitt states that in the Cheshire-cheese dairies it is 
 always usual to continue turning the cheeses while they are 
 maturing, so that one side may not remain too long down ; 
 and the same practice may prevail perhaps in the Gloucester- 
 shire and other farms. 
 
 The genius of the proverb is usually satirical. "You 
 been like Smithwick, either clemmed or brossten," is a / 
 picture of alternating extravagance and poverty. With him 
 may be contrasted " Peter of Wood, church and mills are 
 all his." Such a position is no doubt to be desired, but 
 it is well for aspiring persons to remember that "Every 
 man cannot be vicar of Bowdon," and therefore some 
 must be content with lesser dignities and smaller emolu- 
 ments. 
 
 Those clothed with a brief authority are not spared by the 
 rustic rhymer : — 
 
 The mayor of Altringham and the mayor of Over, 
 The one is a thatcher and the other a dauber. 
 
 Nay, it is even said that "The mayor of Altringham lies in 
 bed while his breeches are mending." The proverb is 
 mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in a characteristic passage 
 which has been annotated by Mr. Alfred Ingham in his 
 History of Bowdon and Altrincham. The corporation of 
 Altrincham is one that survived the reforming zeal of fifty 
 years ago, and though never possessed of executive functions, 
 it has maintained some social usefulness, whilst its chief officers 
 have been very different persons from what a believer in 
 proverbial philosophy might suppose. Of the slanderer it
 
 Cheshire Proverbs. 249 
 
 could not be truthfully said, " He stands like Mumphazard, 
 who was hanged for saying nothing." 
 
 The rustic muse is not always depreciatory, and the 
 Cheshire folk have proverbially celebrated the pretty face 
 and pure heart of one of their famous women. " As fair as 
 
 ^ Lady Done," and "O, there's Lady Done for you," was the 
 furthest limit of commendation for man or wife. Nurses, as 
 they dangled their charges, called the girl, " Lady Done," 
 and the boy, " Earl of Derby." Sir John Done, knight, 
 hereditary forester and keeper of the forest of Delamere, 
 entertained James the First in the progress of 1607, at 
 Utkinton, etc. He married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas 
 Wilbraham, Esq., of Woodhey, who left behind her the fame 
 for housewifely virtues that still clings to her name. How 
 different from the wife of whom it is said, " She hath broken >' 
 her elbow at the church-door," which, says Ray, is "spoken 
 of a housewifely maid who grows idle after marriage." 
 Different in other fashion from the dame of whom we arc told, 
 " She hath been to London to call a strea a straw, and a 
 waw a wall." The country folk are — or were — conservative 
 of their folk-speech, and resent the pretensions of those who, 
 although " to the manner born," profess to despise it. Lady 
 Done, too, was an example of the good result of following 
 the Cheshire proverb that bids lads and lasses to marry at 
 
 / home, "rather over the ipixon than over the mire." This 
 advice has been largely followed, so that the Cheshire 
 gentry are all akin. " Marry come up, my dirty cousin," 
 we are told is " spoken by way of taunt to tliose who boast 
 themselves of their birth, parentage, or the like." A
 
 250 
 
 CJicsJiire Gleanings. 
 
 Cheshire aUiance has given rise to a Welsh proverb : — " Efe 
 a aeth ya Glough " ; i.e., He is become a Clough, a very 
 rich Cheshire family descended from Sir Richard Clough, 
 a merchant in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and a friend of 
 Sir Thomas Gresham. Lady Done was as virtuous as she 
 was beautiful, and would, we may suppose, avoid all scandal, 
 and " Well, well, word of malice." As a thrifty house-wife 
 she would not in her well ordered household have " Nichils 
 [nothing] in nine pokes, or nooks."
 
 THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1777. 
 
 An earthquake reeled unheededly away. 
 
 Byron. Don Juan. 
 
 ON Sunday, 14th Sept.,- 1777, the worshippers at various 
 churches and chapels in the two counties of Lancaster 
 and Chester were disturbed from their devotions by the 
 unwonted experience of a shock of earthquake. The 
 vibration of the earth was sufficiently strong to set the bells 
 ringing at the parish church of Manchester, and at St. Mary's 
 in the same town. In the Manchester Mercury it is stated to 
 have been felt, not only in Manchester, but "at Preston, 
 Warrington, Wigan, Chapel-le-frith, Macclesfield, Stockport, 
 Chawesworth, Mottram, Staley-Bridge, Knutsford, Middle- 
 ton, and Ashton-under-Lyne. At all these places the shocks 
 were equally violent and attended with nearly the same 
 effect." Mr. John Poole, a farmer whose MS. journal, 
 extending from 1774 to 1778, is now in the Manchester 
 Free Library, writes under the date of Sept. 14th: — "Fair 
 and very fine wind cast, but very mild and hot. At a few 
 minutes before eleven I was attending divine service in
 
 252 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Middleton Church, just as the Rev. Mr. Ashton was making 
 prayer in the pulpit prior to the text, when a most sudden 
 and violent trembling of the floor, which encreasing shooke 
 the whole fabrick in a terrable manner, so that the church 
 was expected to fall upon and burie us all in the ruins. 
 Most of the congregation ran into the church-yard. It lasted 
 10 [?] seconds, half [deleted] a minute. Thank God, Httle 
 or no damage was done. This was the most terrable earth- 
 quake that can be remembered. Betwixt nine and ten there 
 was seen in the element streamers darting and clashing in a 
 most surprising manner to the great astonishment of the 
 beholders. The element was very serene at after this dismal 
 catastrophe ; such dismal looks appeared in every one's 
 countenance attended with a stupifaction." 
 
 The interest excited was great, and the opportunity was 
 too striking to be allowed to pass by " unimproved." Both 
 lay and clerical exhortations appeared. The lay voice took 
 form in a pamphlet whose title page is here transcribed : — 
 " Observations and Reflections on the late Earthquake ; or, 
 more properly called, an Airquake ; which happened in this 
 Town and Neighbourhood, on Sunday, the 14th day of 
 September, 1777, and an attempt to investigate the Causes 
 of these dreadful Harbingers of divine Vengeance to Man- 
 kind. By a Gentleman of this Town. Manchester : 
 Printed by Charles Wheeler, 1777. Price Six-pence." 
 
 From this essay we may quote the following passage : — 
 " The dismal Catastrophe which happened here on Sunday 
 the 14th Inst, during the Time of divine Service impressed 
 the Minds of all Ranks of People with the most awful
 
 The Earthquake of I'j'j'j. 253 
 
 Anxiety and Distress, and presented a Scene truly deplor- 
 able and affecting ! But while Humanity contemplates the 
 remembrance of this terrible Day, let us not forget to be 
 thankful to the Almighty for his kind Care and Protection 
 over us, who so little deserve this partial Deliverance in the 
 Hour of Distress. Agitated with the gloomy idea of im- 
 mediate Dissolution, every one sought safety from Flight by 
 which many Accidents happened. The Churches being 
 much crowded, increased the Confusion, and for a while the 
 Mind seemed depressed by an insensible Surprise, and to be 
 lost in the dreadful Apprehension of a general ruin. Words 
 can but faintly describe the Feelings of the Heart in such 
 Distress, and very few can recollect their disordered sensi- 
 bility in this critical Moment. The Soul eclipsed with 
 horror had lost the Power of Thought, and for awhile shrunk 
 back on herself, and startled at the secret Dread of falling 
 into nought ! 
 
 Earth felt the wound, and Nature, from her Seat, 
 Sighing, thro' all her works, gave Signs of Woe. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Let not the Father forget his Feelings on this Occasion, nor 
 the fond Mother her anxious Solicitude and Distress : and 
 while Children remember it with every Idea of Terror, let the 
 Sinner begin an early Repentance and Virtue. So severe a 
 Shock of an Earthquake was never before remembered in 
 this Town and Neighbourhood, and though wc have escaped 
 the present Calamity, who can insure his future Safety ; or 
 from former Examples not feel every Emotion of Pity for
 
 254 Cheshire Gleariings. 
 
 the ruin of some distant Part of the Globe ? Whether the 
 late Convulsion was local, and confined to this Town and 
 Neighbourhood, is not yet ascertained, though from all 
 Enquiries it seems to have extended to no great Distance 
 from us. Easterly it was not felt at Liverpool, and to the 
 West, Sheffield prescribed its limits. To the North, Halifax 
 and Leeds felt the Shock more slightly, though at Preston 
 it was severe, and Southerly beyond Derby they were scarce 
 sensible of it. Still this is no Proof that the effect was 
 confined to this Neighbourhood, since we find that the 
 dreadful Earthquake, which destroyed the City of Lisbon in 
 the Year 1755, and buried in Ruins so many other Cities 
 and Villages in Europe and Africa, was but slightly felt at 
 London, and not at all in this Neighbourhood, though they 
 were sensible of the Shock in several other Parts of England 
 and Ireland." 
 
 The clerical utterance was of a higher order, for the 
 earthquake was followed by a communication from the 
 Bishop of Chester, who addressed "A Letter to the Inhabit- 
 ants of Manchester, Macclesfield, and adjacent parts, on 
 occasion of the late earthquake in those places." This 
 epistle general is dated loth October, 1777, and was printed 
 at Chester by J. Poole, Foregate-street, in an octavo pamphlet 
 of twenty-four pages. Naturally enough this tract was 
 bought with avidity and read with curiosity and interest. It 
 f ran through eight editions, and is included in the collected 
 */ "Tracts on various Subjects" of Bishop Beilby Porteous. 
 In this epistle he endeavours to "improve" the unwonted 
 occurrence. After arguing that the earthquake was a direct
 
 TJie EartJiquakc of 1777. 255 
 
 interposition of the " Great Governor of the World," he 
 proceeds : — " Let me not, however, be understood to infer 
 from hence, that, because the earthquake was principally felt 
 in your towns and neighbourhood, you are therefore more 
 wicked than the rest of your countrymen ; such a conclusion 
 would be equally rash and unchristian. We are told, that 
 even those ' upon whom the tower in Siloam fell,' were not 
 sinners above all others. But we are all of us, God knows, 
 sinners great enough to stand in need of frequent warnings 
 and corrections ; and whether your present situation may 
 not peculiarly require such dreadful monitors as you have 
 lately had, it behoves you very seriously to consider. By 
 the flourishing state of your trade and manufactures, you 
 have for many years been advancing rapidly in wealth and 
 population. Your towns are every day growing in size and 
 splendour, many of the higher ranks among you live in no 
 small degree of opulence ; their inferiors, in ease and plenty. 
 What the usual fruits of such affluence as this are, is but too 
 \ well known. Intemperance and licentiousness of manners, 
 a wanton and foolish extravagance in dress, in equipage, in 
 houses, in furniture, in entertainments ; a passion for luxur- 
 ious indulgences and frivolous amusements ; a gay, thought- 
 less indifference about a future life, and everything connected 
 with it ; a neglect of divine worship, a profanation of the 
 day peculiarly set apart for it, and, perhaps, to crown all, a 
 disbelief and contempt of the gospel ; these are the vices 
 and the follies which riches too often engender, and which, 
 I am sorry to add, they have with a fatal profession dissemi- 
 / nated over this kingdom. What proportion of these may
 
 256 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 have fallen to your share, I have hitherto had no opportunity 
 of knowing ; and it would therefore be as unjust, as I am 
 sure it would be painful, for me to become your accuser. 
 Let me rather, with the sincerity of a friend, and the tender- 
 ness of a guardian over you, entreat you to be your own 
 judges in this important question. You have had a loud 
 call to recollection. ' Judge therefore yourselves, brethren, 
 that ye be not judged of the Lord.' Examine your own 
 hearts thoroughly, look well, extremely well, if there be any 
 wickedness in you, that if there be you may turn from it into 
 the way everlasting." 
 
 The literature of the earthquake of 1777 however credit- 
 able to the piety of the writers says but little for their 
 scientific knowledge.
 
 THE SUSPECTED SPY. 
 
 / 'Tis pleasant sure to see one's name in print ; 
 
 j A book's a book although there's nothing in't. 
 
 Byron . English Bards. 
 
 AMONGST the minor rarities of Cheshire literature may 
 be classed the " Suspected Spy," a little volume of 
 which a brief retrospective review may not be without 
 nterest.* 
 
 The story opens with the address beneath the village 
 oak of the schoolmaster, who shared and expressed the 
 discontent of the time with the ruling powers. One of the 
 auditors, a stranger to the place, reproved him for the man- 
 ner in which he had spoken of the army, and the complacent 
 pedagogue immediately begged pardon, having a shrewd 
 suspicion that the unexpected hearer was a spy, such as the 
 government was then known to send from time to time 
 to such assemblies of the people. He, however, gladly 
 
 * The Suspected Spy, or, The Mysterious Stranger. By William 
 Axon. Chester : Printed by E. Bellis, Newgate Street, and may be 
 
 had of all Booksellers. 1844. i2mo, pp. 132. 
 R
 
 258 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 accepted the stranger's invitation to drink, and the 
 pair adjourned to the Trotters Arms, where they drank 
 each other's health in champagne. After the schoolmaster 
 has gone home, and narrowly escaped being thrashed by his 
 termagant wife, the story takes a step backwards for ten 
 years, when the village was electrified by a fire at the vicar- 
 age. The minister had escaped from death by the somewhat 
 hazardous expedient of leaping from the bedroom window, 
 but his son was still inside, and for a time no one would 
 risk life and limb in an endeavour to rescue him ; but at last 
 this was accomplished by Joseph Welter, the future school- 
 master, who was dreadfully scorched in accomplishing his 
 heroic act. The fire was believed to be the work of an incendi- 
 ary, and suspicion fell on Frederick HopefuU; and the general 
 opinion of his guilt was confirmed by his abrupt departure 
 from the place. A reward was offered for his apprehension, 
 but without avail. Some years later, an old man on his 
 death-bed confessed that he, and not Hopefull, was the per- 
 petrator of the crime. Meanwhile the persecuted youth had 
 enlisted, and by good conduct had gained the sergeant's 
 stripes, and was afterwards presented with a lieutenant's com- 
 mission by the colonel of the regiment, whom he saved 
 from drowning. Whilst serving in the Peninsular war he 
 rescued a Spanish lady from a French assailant. This 
 damsel, Donna Estifania de Bonilla, he afterwards marries, 
 and his bride brings both beauty and wealth as her dower. His 
 possessions were further increased at the death of the Colonel, 
 who, having no near relatives, left his money to the lucky 
 Hopefull. Anxious to see again the home of his infancy he
 
 The Suspected Spy. 259 
 
 returned to England with his wife and child, and was in fact 
 the stranger who had interrupted the schoolmaster's treason- 
 able oration, and whom the foolish villagers regarded as a 
 spy. He learned from the gossip of the pedagogue that the 
 real origin of the fire had been brought to light, and that the 
 cloud formerly resting on his good name had, in his absence, 
 been dissipated. He rescued his parents from the poor- 
 house, bought an estate in the neighbourhood, and became 
 the model Squire of the district. 
 
 Such is a rough outline of " The Suspected Spy," and it 
 may at once be admitted that many of the volumes to be 
 found at Mr. Mudie's are not much nearer the modesty of 
 nature in the structure of their plots. The chief peculiarity 
 of this novelette, however, is the extraordinary style in which 
 it is written. From the preface we learn that it was the work 
 of a boy of sixteen, and he appears to have industriously 
 rummaged the dictionary for words of portentous length 
 and unfamiliar sound. The following long-winded sentence 
 is a favourable example of th^s sesquipedalian genius : — ■ 
 
 " Now, since preface writing is considered by some as an 
 indispensable duty on a young author, and by others, as an 
 obligation he is under to his kind patrons and subscribers, 
 I, a mere scribbler, have been induced to write this preface 
 with the intention of informing my readers a few data con- 
 nected with the work, and, if possible, to prove the incon- 
 gruity of certain animadversions, which have, so unfeelingly, 
 been propagated throughout this city, by several ill-natured 
 and malicious youths, who grieved that they are not compe- 
 tent to undertake even a work of this kind, have mutually
 
 26o Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 resolved to tarnish my fair fame, and do all in their power to 
 impede its circulation, by stating that it is not of my com- 
 position, but is merely a compilation, or a series of extracts, 
 taken from the writings of various authors, and by me 
 analytically described ; after which, they say, I conglobated 
 the analects into a readable form, and hence, kind reader, the 
 strange, and, I may truly add, wonderful manner in which a 
 few doltish youths of common place abilities, alledge the 
 'Suspected Spy' was written." 
 
 This charge of plagiarism is indignantly denied and was 
 doubtless baseless. The book is unique in its style, and 
 cannot have been copied from any other. Amongst the 
 words and phrases which the author uses with a conscious 
 delight, are " stultiloquence," "serine," "brown peepers," 
 " pearl-like masticators," " obstropulous," " cognomination," 
 "opiparous," and so forth. The moon behind a cloud is 
 thus described : — 
 
 " This discovery was attended with fresh evils ; for the 
 storm had before considerably abated, and the ' pale orb of 
 night' had once more appeared in the spangled Heavens, 
 and with reflected light illumined the path our weary tra- 
 veller was plodding. 
 
 " But this refulgence, like most terrene things, was but 
 transitory ; for soon, alas ! it was hid beneath the film of a 
 passing cloud, and instantly all was dark and dreary. Now, 
 the rain descended with redoubled violence, and then the 
 storm burst out afresh, and with devastating powers, vented 
 its fury on the unsheltered head of our belated friend — 
 HopefuU."
 
 SIR GAWAYNE AND THE GREEN KNIGHT. 
 
 The gentle Gawain's courteous lore. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott. Bridal of Triermain, 
 
 IT has not been noticed by local antiquaries that the 
 "Grene Knight," the doughty adversary of Sir Gawayne, 
 was a Cheshire man. In Sir F. Madden's " Sir Gawayne " 
 he prints a text in which this verse occurs after a description 
 of the arming of the " Greene Knight " before his quest of 
 Gawayne at Arthur's Court : — 
 
 Yt time at Cavleile lay our K[ing] : 
 Alt a castle of Flatting was his dwelling 
 In the forrcst of Delamore ; 
 For sooth he rode, the sooth to say. 
 To Carleile he came on Christmas day 
 Into yt fayre countrye. 
 
 Dr. Ormerod has nothing to say of the castle of Flatting. 
 Probably it is a chaiitea en Espagne.
 
 BOOK RARITIES 
 OF THE WARRINGTON MUSEUM. 
 
 Every library should try to be complete on something if it were only 
 the history of pinheads. 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes. The Poet at the Breakfast Table. 
 
 THERE are few provincial libraries of the same limited 
 extent which possess so many notabilities as the 
 Warrington Museum. It has been fortunate in the addition 
 to its stores of the interesting collections made by the late 
 Mr. John Jackson and Dr. Kendrick, but the general library 
 is, itself, well worthy of examination. The following 
 rough notes are the result of an opportunity afforded by the 
 librarian, Mr. Charles Madeley, of seeing many of its more 
 note-worthy possessions. First, as to the books relating to 
 Warrington itself. " Let every man adorn his own Sparta " 
 is the significant admonition of one of the first of living 
 bibliographers. He would be pleased to see how faithfully 
 the injunction has been acted upon at Warrington. It 
 seems appropriate and fitting that each library should mirror 
 the intellectual activity of the locality to which it ministers.
 
 Book Rarities of the Warriitgto7i Mtiseiim. 263 
 
 should conserve the fame of its great men, should preserve 
 the high strains of the real poets, and the wayside songs of 
 the humbler bards. Yet in very few cases has this been 
 done in any systematic fashion. The founders of the noble 
 Chetham Library in Manchester missed the opportunity of 
 making it the repository of all the local literature of Lanca- 
 shire, and some modern foundations show an equal careless- 
 ness which future generations and students will lament. It 
 is therefore gratifying to see that Warrington is mindful of 
 the names that have given it lustre, and has a corner of its 
 library devoted to the literary history of the town. It has a 
 history which justifies honourable pride in the past, and 
 should be provocative of excellence in future. The interval 
 between Friar Penketh and Mr. Beamont is filled by the 
 names of the Aikins, Belsham, Carpenter, Ferriar, Percival, 
 Mrs. Gaskell, Owen, Gilbert Wakefield, Priestley, Kendrick, 
 Robson, Marsh, and many others. Few persons will care to 
 test now Penketh's claim to understand the writings of Duns 
 Scotus better than the writer himself. Those adventurous 
 spirits will find something "craggy to break their minds 
 upon" in the fine old folio, which leads off the show of 
 the Warrington books : " Duns Scoti Qu^stiones Quodlibe- 
 tales, purgatas per Thomam Penketh." — (Venetis?) 1474. ■^ 
 Penketh is the only Warrington man named by the " im- 
 mortal bard," who has preserved his infam)^ by naming him 
 in conjunction with Dr. Shaw, another tool of the wily, 
 and ambitious Richard III. Equally interesting and more 
 intelligible is a Warrington book of much later date, in 
 which John Howard exposed the state of our English
 
 264 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 prisons when the last century was waxing elderly, and 
 when the votaries of social science, who take an aesthetic 
 delight in testing treadmills and taste prison fare as an 
 experimental addition to a luxurious dinner, were as yet 
 unheard of. It needed courage then to enter the abodes of 
 darkness, into which laws singularly harsh and sanguinary 
 thrust poor wretches who were as often sinned against as 
 sinning. There are many works relating to the history of 
 the district generally. Here, for instance, is an interesting 
 volume for the local antiquary :— 
 
 " The Difference of Hearers ; or an Exposition of certaine 
 Sermons, at Hyton, in Lancashire. By William Harrison, 
 His Majesties preacher there. Together with a postscript to 
 the Papists in Lancashire." London, 1614. His Majesty's 
 preacher shows us that ever as one goes further back the 
 "good old times " still recede. He grows eloquent over the 
 degeneracy of the times, groans with Puritan fervour over 
 the singing and piping then to be heard on the " Sabbath," 
 and laments — "That it is not consecrated as holy to the 
 Lord, but kept as a feast of Bacchus and Venus." 
 
 There is also the "Castra BoreaHa" of Beamont, the 
 "Characteristic Strictures" of Seddon (1779), the English 
 edition of Abbadie's account of the Lancashire Plot (1696), 
 the books on Furness, by Beck and West, the publications 
 of the Chetham Society ; the publications of the Historic 
 Society of Lancashire and Cheshire ; Hardy's " Charters of 
 the duchy of Lancaster"; the " Ducatus Lancastrise " ; 
 Aikin's " Country round Manchester." The Cheshire His- 
 tory of Dr. Ormerod, should also be named. There is also
 
 Book Rarities of the Warrington Museum. 265 
 
 the original edition of one of the rare Amicia tracts of Sir 
 Thos. Mainwaring. 
 
 The works relating to art are not specially numerous. 
 First among them we should name the "Galeria Giustiniana," 
 two splendid folios of plates showing the glories of that 
 ancient collection. There are Bewick's ever delightful 
 volumes in which the British Birds and Quadrupeds are 
 delineated with the spirit of an artist and the fidelity of a 
 naturalist. Here we may name the " Picturae Virgiliani 
 Codicis Vaticani," (Romae 1782.) Fergusson's remarkable 
 work on " Tree and Serpent Worship " is notable. Mr. 
 Ruskin's " Modern Painters," an uncut copy of the original 
 issue, and "Stones of Venice," should not be omitted. 
 Hamerton's " Etching and Etchers " (first edition) and 
 " Graphic Arts " claim mention. 
 
 Amongst the scientific books are the publications of the 
 Ray Society and of the British Museum. There are many 
 books which may be claimed equally by Science and Art. 
 Thus we have Sowerby's " Botany," Baxter's " British 
 Flowering Plants " ; the " Flora Londinensis," of Curtis ; 
 the "Flora Peruviana," of Ruiz and Pavon ; the "Thesaurus 
 Imaginum Testaceorum," of Rumphius, and other works. 
 
 The only shorthand book is the following: — "The New 
 Testament, with Dr. Guyse's Recollections, &c., written in 
 Dr. Byrom's shorthand, by John Lloyd, Bath, 1782." This 
 is a small but curious MS. showing that there were students 
 of Stenography long ago in Bath, which, now the residence 
 of Mr. Isaac Pitman, may be looked upon as the Mecca of 
 that labour saving art. " There is no Shorthand but Phono-
 
 266 CJicsJiire Gleanings. 
 
 graphy and Isaac Pitman is its prophet." The warm praise 
 which is due to Byrom can be given without disparagement 
 of Pitman's great service in giving philosophical accuracy 
 and simplicity to vStenography. An enthusiastic notice of 
 Byrom, in which justice is done to his piety, literary abilities, 
 and genial temper, has been written by Mr. J. E. Bailey, 
 F.S.A., and appears in the second volume of the Papers of 
 the Manchester Literary Club. 
 
 The antiquary and the historical student will find an ex- 
 tensive series of the works of Graevius and Gronovius, the 
 " Harleian Miscellany," the Rolls and Record publications, 
 and the books of the Surtees Society. There is also a 
 series of interesting publications relating to the trials of 
 Coleman, Ireland, Pickering, and Grove (1679) ; of Sir J. 
 Fenwick for high treason (1606) ; of Father Garnett, (1606); 
 of Green, Berry, and Hill, for the murder of Sir Edmond- 
 bury Godfrey (1679) and of the Earl of Strafford (1640). 
 
 Perhaps a completer notion of the riches of the library 
 will be afforded by a brief list of the books it possesses 
 which were printed before the beginning of the last century. 
 
 ^fredi Magni Vita \ Spelman, 1678. 
 
 Allot (R.) England's Parnassus, 1600. This is a memora- 
 ble volume of elegant extracts from Chapman, Churchyard, 
 and other Elizabethan poets, amongst them Shakespere. 
 
 Ammianus Marcellinus a M. Accursio mendis quinque 
 millibus purgatus. — Augsburg, 1533. The first complete 
 edition of this author. 
 
 Angler's Vade Mecum, n.d., and 1689. 
 
 Arcana Aulica, or Walsingham's Manual, 1652.
 
 Book Rarities of the Warrington Museum. 267 
 
 Argumentum Anti-Normanicum, 1682. The author seeks 
 to prove that WilHam the Norman's title was not by con- 
 quest, but from the election of the people. This, when the 
 book was written, had more than a speculative interest, for 
 the right divine of Kings to govern wrong was strenuously 
 asserted. 
 
 Aristoteles de Poetica, 1696. 
 
 Art of Contentment, 1694. 
 
 Bacon (Lord). Essays, 1639. Essays and Wisdom of 
 the Ancients, 1696; History of Henry VII., 1641 ; Speeches, 
 1657 ; Sylva Sylvarum, 1635 and 1658. 
 
 Bacon (Nicholas). Uniformity of the Government, 1647. 
 
 Baron (R). Mirza, a tragedie. 
 
 Bate (John). Mysteries of Nature and Art, 1654. This 
 work was first printed in 1634, and, being popular, was 
 re-issued in 1635, 1638, and 1654. In some limping verses 
 addressed to the " ingenious J. B.," by Jas. Bernard, we are 
 told that the book served a seven years' apprenticeship, in 
 which the author's " wrong " blasted the buds of his " rathe- 
 ripe nature," — a Shakespearian word. J. B. leads off with 
 water works, and tells us how the ingenious artist may con- 
 struct a " conceited pot out of which, being just filled with 
 wine and water, you may drink pure wine apart, or pure 
 water, or else both together," and if none of these " three 
 courses " suit, then must you be hard to please. He teaches, 
 moreover, a device " whereby several voyces of birds cherp- 
 ing may be heard," and another, " wliereby the figure of a 
 man, standing on a basis, shall be made to sound a trumpet." 
 There are directions for making a "conceited" lamp.
 
 268 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 weather glasses, a water clock with a skeleton pointing to the 
 hour with a dart, water mills, windmills, and " calls " for 
 imitating various birds and animals. These " calls " were 
 then imported from France, and usually sold in " long 
 white boxes," each box containing instruments for imitating 
 the sounds made by a " cuckoo, a peacock, a bittern, a 
 levrat, a stag, a quail, a small bird, a hare, a drake, a hedge- 
 hog, and a fox." J. B., fired with a patriotic ardour, tells 
 how each of these may be made. " An Irishman I have 
 seen, which I much wonder at, imitate with his mouth the 
 whistling of a blackbird, a nightingale, and lark, yea, almost 
 every small bird as exquisitely almost as the very birds 
 themselves ; and all by his cunning holding the artificial 
 blade of an onyon in his mouth." Escaping from the watery 
 division of his book we are next invited to behold J. B.'s 
 fireworks, and wheels, drakes, balloons, &c., are seen fizzing 
 away. Then taking us into his studio, he shows ingenious 
 persons the art of " drawing, limning, colouring, painting, 
 and graving." The tools for the last were to be made of 
 "good crossebow Steele." The work is illustrated with 
 woodcuts, some of them poor enough, but others vigorous 
 alike in design and execution. We turn to see what J. B. 
 has to say on wood engraving. He complains that it is 
 tedious, and has many difficulties, but " for those incon- 
 veniences an artist may finde in the practice thereof, this 
 one commodity he shall gaine : he shall be private in his 
 designes ; for he himself may print them when they are 
 cut ; nor shall they be exposed to the view of every stationer 
 that frequent upon all occasions the housen of common
 
 Book Rarities of the Warrijigton Museum. 269 
 
 workmen, whereby one receiveth much injury and vexation." 
 The last section, teaching the "manner of printing your 
 wooden pieces " looks as though it were addressed not to 
 artists, but to amateur poets or dramatists. The fourth part 
 is called the " Booke of Extravagants." These are recipes 
 and suggestions of every sort. One recommends a candle 
 fixed in a glass vase and sunk under water. The effect of 
 this is supposed to be that "all the fishes neere unto it will 
 resort about it, as amazed at so glorious a sight," and so are 
 easily taken with "a cast net or other." Another tells "how 
 to make birds drunk so that you may take them with your 
 hands." For bleeding at the nose a live toad may be hung 
 about the patient's neck : he will then (not unnaturally) 
 " be in a sodain fear." If you happen to wear a felt hat, 
 and also happen to cut yourselves, the remedy is easy ; a 
 piece of your hat burnt to a coal and beaten to a powder 
 will staunch the bleed, if we may credit J. B. For rupture 
 he recommends powder made from nine snails baked alive. 
 J Ignorance and quackery are always cruel. 
 
 Bede. History of the Church of Englande. Antwerp, 
 
 1565- 
 
 Biondi (Sir Francis — i.e., Gio Fr. Biondi) History of the 
 Civill Warres of England between the two Houses of Lan- 
 caster and Yorke, WTitten in Italian in three volumes. 
 Englished by the Right Honourable Henry Earl of Mon- 
 mouth. Lond., 1 64 1, folio. The author was a Dalmatian 
 prot^gt^ of James I., and came into England with Marc 
 Antonio de Dominis. Biondi was the author of other works 
 which were thought worthy of being Englished. Like their
 
 2/0 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 author, whose conversion was rewarded by a pension, they 
 have passed out of the sight of the busy world. 
 
 Blondel (David), Pindar and Horace compared, 1696. 
 This is the translation by Sir Edward Sherburne. 
 
 Blount, (Sir T. P.) Remarks upon Poetry, 1694. 
 
 Boate, (G.) Ireland's Natural History, 1652. 
 
 Boethius. Consolations of Philosophy, 1695. 
 
 Boyle (Hon. R.) Motives to the Love of God, 1661 ; 
 Style of the Holy Scriptures, 1663. 
 
 Burnet (Gilbert). Four Discourses, 1694. 
 
 Burnet (T.) Theory of the Earth, 1691. 
 
 Casaubon (M.) De Quatuor Linguis, Part I., 1650. 
 
 Casimir's Odes. Translated by G. H. Hils, 1646. Few 
 readers will now obey the injunction : — 
 
 " List then to the all quickening lyre 
 Of Horace and of Casimire." 
 
 So far as the last-named is concerned, Horace lives, but the 
 name of Casimir, as his equal in poetry, will not occur to 
 many. Matthias Cassimir Sarbiewski was a Jesuit of the 
 sixteenth century, whose " Odes " led Urban VIII. to select 
 him for the task of correcting the hymns in the new Breviary. 
 He became a professor at Wilna, and at his reception as 
 doctor, Ladislas V., who was there, took a ring from his 
 finger and presented it to the poet, who soon after became 
 the King's preacher. His conversational powers made him 
 a great favourite with the prince. His poems are sometimes 
 ridiculous, and his epigrams appear pointless. He died in 
 1640, fortunately before completing a projected epic in twelve
 
 Book Rarities of the Warrington Museitm. 271 
 
 books. The former reputation of an indifferent versifier 
 like Casimir, and the utter forgetfulness of posterity regard- 
 ing him are suggestive. How many of the popular literary 
 idols of the present day will escape for two centuries from 
 the surging waves of oblivion ? 
 
 Charles I. Eikon Basilike, n.d., Pious Politician, 1684. 
 
 Chaucer (G.) Works, 1602. This is the second issue of 
 the edition put forth by Thomas Speight. 
 
 Clarke (S.) Lives of eminent persons, 1683. fo. 
 
 Coke (Sir E.) Institutes, pt. 3., 1660. 
 
 Cressy (H. P. S. de) Church History of Brittany, 1668. 
 
 Dennis (John) Remarks on Blackmore's "Prince 
 Arthur," 1694. An equal fate has come upon the stupid 
 epic poetaster and his irate critic. 
 
 Drake (Thomas). Bibliotheca Scholastica Instructissima, 
 or a treasury of ancient adagies and sentatious proverbs, 
 selected out of the English, Greeke, Latine, French, Italian, 
 and Spanish, 1654. It was first issued in 1633, and though 
 not of such value as the work of Florio is still a very interest- 
 ing collection. 
 
 Drayton (Michael). Poems, 1630. Polyolbion, 161 3. 
 
 Dryden (J.), of Dramatick Posie, 1688. 
 
 Duns Scotus. Questiones Quodlibetales purgatse per T. 
 Penketh, 1474. This has already been mentioned. 
 
 Euclid. Elements. Rudd, 165 1. 
 
 Eusebius. Chronicon, latine, Venetiis, 1483. 
 
 Fairfax (E.) Godfrey of Bulloigne. 1600. — This is the 
 first edition of the finest translation of Tasso. 
 
 Fanshaw (Sir R.) II Pastor Fido of Guarini. 1647.
 
 2/2 C he s J lire Gleanings. 
 
 Fenwick (Sir J.) Proceedings against, 1698. 
 
 Fer (N. de) Introduction a la Fortification, fo. [1691.] 
 
 Florio Second Frutes, London. 1591- — Good John 
 Florio is said to figure in Shakspere's Love's Labours Lost 
 as Holoferness, the delightful pedantic Dominie ingenuously 
 boasting that he has " simple, simple ; a foolish extravagant 
 spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehen- 
 sions, motions, revolutions ; these are begot on the ventricle 
 of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and 
 delivered upon the mellowing of occasion." There must in 
 the conversation of that golden age have been many "mel- 
 lowing of occasions " for some of the six thousand Italian 
 proverbs of this volume. One of the very few authentic 
 autographs of Shakspere is on a copy of Florio's translation 
 of Montaigne : from which the great dramatist, it is supposed, 
 took one of the passages in the " Tempest." Florio was 
 also the author of a dictionary notable for its copiousness. 
 
 Foord (Emanuel.) Famous History of Montelion, 1695. 
 
 Ford (J.) Broken Heart, 1633. — This is the first edition 
 of this famous play. 
 
 Gazophylacium Anglicanum, 1689. — This has been the 
 autograph of Narcissus Luttrell, who was its owner in 1691. 
 The book is one of the earliest of our English Etymological 
 Dictionaries. 
 
 Gerarde (J.) Herball, 1636. — This fine work, although 
 belonging to an age when scientific botany scarcely existed, 
 will always have an enduring interest. It contains careful 
 woodcuts and striking word paintings of many of the plants, 
 and all kinds of information respecting their folk lore and uses.
 
 Book Rarities of the Warrington Miisenm. 273 
 
 Glanvil (R.) Tractatus de Legibus et Consuetudinibus 
 regni Anglie, n.d, 
 
 Gr^vius (J. G.) Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanorum, 
 1694-9. — With the companion work of Gronovius on Greek 
 Antiquities and continuations respecting Italy and Sicily, 
 making altogether 47 volumes in folio. 
 
 Greene (R.) Never too late, [16 16.] 
 
 Grotius (H.) Rights of Peace and War, 1682. Truth of 
 Christian Religion, 1686. This famous treatise 'done' 
 into verse ! 
 
 Harrison (W.) Difference of Hearers, 16 14. Already 
 named. 
 
 Harvey (G.) Anatomy of Consumptions, 1666. 
 
 Head (R.) Proteus Redivivus : or the Art of Wheedling, 
 1765 — The subject matter of this work has by no means 
 passed, as my Lord Verulum phrases it, from the bosoms 
 and businesses of men. De Quincey wrote a suggestive 
 essay on murder as one of the fine arts, but how much more 
 striking are the claims of wheedling to that distinguished 
 position. Who has not recognised the fact when the subject 
 of some skilful operation of a master hand ? 
 
 Heinsius (D.) Histoire du Siege de Bolduc, 163 1. — 
 This is one of the few examples of the Elzevir press in the 
 library. In place of being one of the pretty little books 
 which they delighted in printing it is a folio. 
 
 Herle (C.) Wisdomes Tripos, 1655. 
 
 Herrick (R.) Hesperides, 1648. 
 
 Historians Guide, [circa, 1690.] 
 
 Hollar's (W.) Ornatus Muliebris Anglicanus, or the
 
 2/4 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Severall Habits of English Women, from the Nobilitie to 
 Country Woman, as they are in these times, 1640. — This is 
 Sayer's re-issue of Wenceslaus Hollar's famous plates. Like 
 all the work of the engraver it is full of character, and apart 
 from its artistic interest it shows us our great-great-great 
 grandmothers in their habit as they lived. The persistent 
 attempts of the daughters of Eve to disguise their beauty by 
 unbecoming dress are not more conspicuous than the 
 manner in which Nature defeats their efforts. The plates 
 show us the use of the mask as a not unusual article of 
 costume. These black vizards call up fair Hero or Rosalind, 
 and the Princess of France, wittily flouting their disguised 
 lovers. 
 
 Homer. — Chapman's translation, 161 6; Hobbes' transla- 
 tion, 1686. 
 
 Hooke (R.) Microgaphia, 1665. 
 
 Horace. — Poems, 1666; translated by Fanshaw, 1652. 
 
 Howel (W.) History of the World, 1680-5. 
 
 Hugo de S. Victore de Sacramentis. Argentine, 1483. 
 
 James I. Works, 1620 (?) 
 
 Jenkin (D.) Works, 1648. 
 
 Juvenal and Persius — translated by Holyday, 1673. 
 
 Keepe (H.) Monumenta Westmonasteriensia, 1682. 
 
 Kyd (T.) Spanish Tragedy, 1633. 
 
 Lucan. Pharsalia — translated by May, 1631. 
 
 Luther on Galatians, 1602. 
 
 Mainwaring (Sir T.) Reply to an Answer to the Defence 
 of Amicia, 1673. 
 
 Marzioli (F.) Precetti Militari, n.d.
 
 Book Rarities of the Warrington Musenm. 275 
 
 May (T.) Reign of Edward III, 1635. 
 
 Meres (F.) Wits Commonwealth, n.d. 
 
 Miege (G.) Great French Dictionary, 1687. 
 
 Milton (J.) Paradise Lost, 1678; Poems, ^^-j/ edition 
 1645, 1673; Defence of the People of England, 1692; 
 History of England, 1670. The library has also some 
 interesting works relating to Milton. There are the fine 
 edition printed by Baskerville, the impudent publication in 
 which Lauder, on the evidence of forged documents, 
 brought a ridiculous charge of plagiarism against the dead 
 poet, and the books by Toland. 
 
 Monro (R.) Expedition with the Scots Regiment, 1637. 
 
 Nalson (I.) State Affairs, 1682-3. 
 
 Negociation de la Paix, Avril et Mai, 1575. Paris, 1576. 
 
 Nuntius a Mortuis : or a Messenger from the dead. That 
 is a stupendious [sic] and dreadfull colloquie distinctly and 
 alternately heard by divers, betwixt the ghosts of Henry the 
 Eighth and Charles the First, both kings of England, who 
 lye entombed in the Church of Windsor. Wherein (as with 
 a pencill from heaven) is liquidly from head to foot set 
 forth, the whole series of the judgment of God upon the 
 Sinnes of these unfortunate Islands. Translated out of the 
 Latin copie by G. T., and printed at Paris MDCLVIL— 
 This curious title may bring to mind the ample promise to 
 be seen outside the dramatic booth of a country fair. The 
 tract is one however of considerable interest, and has been 
 reprinted in the quarto edition of the Harleian Miscellany. 
 The imprint is fictitious. 
 
 Novum Tcstamentum Bczac, 16S6,
 
 2/6 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Osborne (F.) Works, 1683. 
 
 Otway (T.) Venice Preserved, 1681. 
 
 Ovid. Metamorphosis, translated by G. Sandys, 1656. 
 
 Paul. Historic of the Council of Trent, 1620. 
 
 Plautus. Comedies, translated by Echard, 1694. 
 
 Pliny. Historic of the World, 1601, 
 
 Poole (J.) English Parnassus, 1677. 
 
 Quarles (F.) Enchiridion, n.d. 
 
 Raleigh (Sir W.) Arts of Empire, 1692. History of the 
 World, 1 62 1, 1666. 
 
 Ross (A.) History of the World, 1652. Muse's Inter- 
 preter, 1648. View of all Religions, 1653. 
 
 Rushworth's Historical Collections, 1689. 
 
 Rymer (T.) Short View of Tragedy, 1693. 
 
 Sadeur (J.) New Discovery of the Southern World, 1693. 
 
 Sandys (G.) Travels, 1673. 
 
 Scobell (H.) Acts and Ordinances of Parliament, 1658. 
 
 Selden (J.) Table Talk, 1689. 
 
 Seneca. Morals, translated by L'Estrange, 1688. 
 
 Shakspere. Poems, 1640. 
 
 Shirley (J.) Poems, 1646. 
 
 Sheppard (W.) Office and Duties of Constables (circa 
 1650.) 
 
 Speed (J.) Historie of Great Britain, 1623. 
 
 Whole Practice of Chirurgery, 1687. 
 
 Tacitus. Opera, 1629. Annales, translated by Greene- 
 way, 1598. End of Nero, &c., by Savile, 1598. 
 
 Tamerlane the Great, Life of, 1653. 
 
 Taylor (J.) Holy Dying, 165 1.
 
 Book Rarities of the Warrington Mnseuin. 277 
 
 Talor (T.) Works, 1659. 
 
 The Way to Make all People Rich ; or Wisdom's Call to 
 Temperance and Frugality.— By Philotheus Physiologus. 
 London, 1685. — We may well ask is Saul among the 
 prophets when we find the value of the book has received a 
 glowing testimonial ft-om Mrs. Aphra Behu, who is not 
 usually reckoned as one of the Wise Virgins. Her Muse 
 declares regret for 
 
 That happy golden age when man was young, 
 When the whole race was vigorous and strong; 
 When nature did her wondrous dictates give, 
 And taught the noble salvage how to live. 
 
 The " noble salvage " we have come in this Iron Age to 
 regard as an impostor, nor are we much more charitable to 
 Mrs. Aphra, whose books, it is credibly asserted, were once 
 read by ladies without blushing. Very different was tlie 
 character of the enthusiast whom the " fair moralist " com- 
 mends. Thomas Tryon was almost as great a puzzle to his 
 contemporaries as Roger Crab, the English Hermit, and like 
 him, was a modern Pythagorean of the vegetarian school. 
 Of course the destructive critics assert that the great Greek 
 did not avoid flesh meat. At all events, Tryon did, and 
 wrote many books, most of them wise according to the 
 wisdom of the time, and some of them beyond it. 
 
 Ussher (J.) Body of Divinitie, 1647. 
 
 Venables (R.) Experienced Angler, 1638. 
 
 Vindication of the Friendly Conference against Ellwood, 
 1678.
 
 2/8 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Virgil's Eclogues Translated into English. By W. L. 
 Gent, 1628. — This version is attributed to William LTsle, 
 who avers that he kept it in MS for three times the Horatian 
 period. This would place its execution at the commence- 
 ment of the 17th century. 
 
 Waller (E.) Poems, 1668. 
 
 Walton (I.) Life of Sanderson, 1678. 
 
 Warrington (Earl of) Works, 1694. 
 
 Winstanley (W.) Lives of English Poets, 1687. 
 
 Wither's Motto, 1650. 
 
 Wotton (Sir H.) Reliquiae Wottonianae, 165 1. 
 
 The oldest relic of the typographic art in the Museum 
 dates from 1461, and consists of two leaves from the Bible, 
 supposed to have been printed in that year. 
 
 The list is one which will be read with varying interest. 
 Some of these books are pure ephemerals, and are now of 
 value only so far as they indicate the manner in which our 
 forefathers thought and expressed their thoughts. Others 
 have an abiding interest for all lovers of our mother tongue, 
 and the glories of literature which it contains. The least 
 imaginative may find something to move the great deeps of 
 thought when holding in his hands a volume which Milton 
 or Shakspere may have held in the same manner. It is well 
 then that libraries should aim at possessing books in those 
 forms in which they are the living voices of the age, but also 
 in their original dress. Some of these children of the brain 
 have survived their creators four hundred years. Being 
 dead they yet speak.
 
 THE UNDUTIFUL CHILD PUNISHED. 
 
 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon 
 the land. 
 
 Exodus xx. 12. 
 
 HERE is a greatly promising title, given in Mr. Halliwell's 
 "Notices of Fugitive Tracts," p. 52 :— "The Afflicted 
 Parents, or the Undutiful Child Punished, showing how a 
 gentleman living in the city of Chester had two children, a 
 son, and a daughter who was about two years younger than 
 the son ; how the girl gave good advice to her brother, how 
 he rejected it, and knocked her down, left her for dead, and 
 then went away; how an angel appeared to him, and how 
 he discovered the murder, was taken up, tried, cast, and 
 condemned to die ; showing how he was executed with two 
 highwaymen, hung, cut down, put into his coffin, carried 
 home, and, preparing for his funeral, how he came to life 
 again ; how he sent for a minister, and discovered to him 
 several strange things, which, after he had related, was 
 executed a second time for a warning to all disobedient 
 children." Let us hope they all took warning by his sad fate. 
 The prospect of two hangings must have been the strongest 
 form of the " deterring influence " of capital punishment.
 
 DR. JOHN FERRIAR. 
 
 By medicine life may be prolonged, yet Death will seize the doctor 
 too. 
 
 Shakespere. 
 
 AMONGST those born or adopted sons of the cotton 
 metropolis who have shed lustre upon Manchester, and 
 redeemed it from the guilt of an utter Philistine pursuit of 
 gold, we may give an honourable place to Dr. John Ferriar. 
 He was born at Chester in 1764, and died at Manchester in 
 18 1 5, annus mirabilis. When we add that he was for 
 many years physician to the Manchester Infirmary, the 
 biographical details remaining to us of his busy career are 
 almost exhausted. The real life of our author must be 
 sought for, and will be found in his books. From these we 
 may picture him to have been a man of well-balanced mind, 
 with a keen practical intellect, and a memory well stored 
 with learning, much of which was of a recondite nature. 
 
 He was the author of a drama published or printed about 
 1788. This we have never seen ; but, as it was merely an 
 adaptation of " Oronooko," it cannot have had any very 
 great importance.
 
 Dr. John Ferriar. 281 
 
 His "Theory of Apparitions" appeared in 1813, and is a 
 sensible essay on a subject which, by its obscurity, has been 
 an El Dorado to designing individuals who have traded 
 upon the credulity of mankind. The illusions of "pro- 
 phets," visionaries, and seers ; " of calling shapes, and 
 beck'ning shadows dire," are intelligently and intelligibly 
 explained. 
 
 His "Essay on Foxglove" (Manchester, 1799) has only a 
 medical interest. His "Medical Histories" (i 792-1 798, 3 
 vols.) were of course chiefly intended for the members of his 
 own profession, but incidentally they are valuable as showing 
 the commencements of sanitary science. The epidemic 
 fevers arising from the wretched manner in which the poor 
 were housed at a time when cellar dwellings were the 
 refuge of improvidence and impecuniosity, and when 
 factories were managed with little or no attention to the 
 physical well-being of those employed in them. The kind- 
 hearted doctor saw and deplored the evils around him, and 
 some of his suggestions have since been advantageously 
 carried out. His essay on the treatment of the dying 
 (vol. iii., p. 191) may well be epitomised in the words he 
 has selected as its motto : — " Disturb him not — let him pass '' 
 peaceably." Like Montaigne, he doubts the terrors of 
 death, and thinks that with many dissolution is preluded by 
 a wish for absolute rest. 
 
 Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, 
 
 Ease after war, death after life doth greatly please. 
 
 There is an odd opinion of the vulgar that it is necessary for
 
 282 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 the happy despatch of a lingering patient " to drag the bed 
 away, and to place him on the mattrass." The " Medical 
 Histories" were reprinted in 1810, 
 
 Ferriar courted the muse, and is one of the first amongst 
 the poets of the Bibliomania. The epistle which he 
 addressed to Richard Heber, the famous collector, will 
 long retain a warm corner in the hearts of collectors. The 
 quality of his verse, on a theme so dear to bookish men, 
 may be judged from the following lines ; — 
 
 Ye towers of Julius, ye alone remain 
 Of all the piles that saw our nation's stain, 
 When Harry's sway opprest the groaning realm, 
 And Lust and Rapine seiz'd the wav'ring helm. 
 Then ruffian bands defaced the sacred fanes, 
 Their saintly statues and their storied panes. 
 Then from the chest, with ancient art embost, 
 The Penman's pious scrolls were rudely tost ; 
 Then richest manuscripts, profusely spread. 
 The brawny churl's devouring oven fed ; 
 And thence collectors date the heavenly ire, 
 That wrapt Augusta's domes in sheets of fire. 
 
 (The Bibliomania. An epistle to Richard Heber, Esq. 
 London, 18 10. 4to.) The book by which he is best known 
 is the " Illustrations of Sterne," which originated in a series 
 of papers read before the Literary and Philosophical 
 Society. (Several interesting papers of his, relating to 
 Science and Archaeology, are printed in the early volumes of 
 the Memoirs of that Society.) The Sterne papers were ex- 
 panded, ^^and form agreeable reading, even for those who are 
 not specially interested in tracking the thefts of Sterne, and
 
 Dr. John Ferriar. 28; 
 
 restoring to their rightful owners the gems and the inde- 
 cencies he appropriated with so Uberal a hand. They were 
 printed in 1768, and again in 1812. We have used here the 
 earUer edition. 
 
 The essays which follow the illustrations to Sterne illus- 
 trate the depth and variety of the author's acquirements. 
 They unite the knowledge of the pedant to the ease of the 
 man of the world. The paper on " Certain Varieties of 
 Men " relates to the stories of pigmies, monsters, and tailed 
 men, which have been the property of the Munchausens alike 
 of ancient and modern times. The Church having affirmed 
 or implied the existence of these human horrors it may be 
 thought wrong to doubt. The learned Bishop Majolus 
 determines the important question, An monstra salidis 
 cRtertKZ capacia ? in the affirmative, on the strength of an 
 assertion of St. Augustine, that he had "preached to a 
 nation without heads, and with eyes in their breasts." This 
 reference to the Acephali, Dr. Ferriar says, has been re- 
 trenched in the modern editions of the great Latin father. 
 On Monboddo's tail theory he has some sensible remarks, and 
 keenly asks : " Do we not want good observers rather than 
 new facts ? " His Menippean essay on the English histo- 
 rians, and his short disquisition on genius, show the same 
 measure of acuteness and learning. The volume closes 
 with two poems, one of which claims a place in the literature 
 of Tobacco. It is an elegy on Knaster, and is thus intro- 
 duced : — 
 
 "The following elegy was written to rally a particular 
 friend on his attachment to German Tobacco and German
 
 284 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 literature. It is well known to the learned that the 
 Tobacco chiefly smoked by philosophers in Germany is 
 denominated Knaster ; but it may be necessary to apprise 
 the reader that when this poem was composed the fragrant 
 weed was sold in covers, marked as low-priced tea, for the 
 purpose of evading the excise laws. The subject did not 
 appear considerable enough to excite the sympathy of the 
 public, till I found that Professor Kotzebue had founded 
 the distress of a serious comedy on a similar incident. In 
 his " Indians in England " (see the German Miscellany, by 
 Mr. Benjamin Thompson) he represents an amiable baronet 
 overwhelmed with affliction from the want of a pot of porter 
 and a pipe of Tobacco. Convinced of my error by the 
 approbation with which his work has been received I have 
 ventured to draw my elegy from the heap of my papers, and 
 to produce it, with some slight alterations, and with the sup- 
 pression of all personal allusions. 
 
 / 
 
 Deep in a den, conceal'd from Phoebus' beams. 
 
 Where neighb'ring Irwell leads his sable streams, 
 
 Where misty dye-rooms fragrant scents bestow, 
 
 And fires more fierce than love for ever glow, 
 
 Damsetas sate ; his drooping head opprest 
 
 By heavy care, hung sullen on his breast : 
 
 His idle pipe was thrown neglected by. 
 
 His books were tumbled, and his curls awry. 
 
 Beneath, the furnace sighed in thicker smoke, 
 
 Each loom return'd his gi'oans with double stroke ; 
 
 In mournful heaps around his fossils lay, 
 
 And each sad crystal shot a wat'ry ray. 
 
 "Ah, what," he cry'd, "avails an honoured place. 
 
 Or what the praise of learning's hectic race.
 
 Dr. John Ferriar. 285 
 
 In vain, to boast my well-instructed eyes, 
 
 I dip in buckets, or in baskets rise ; 
 
 Now plung'd, like Hob, to sprawl in dirty wells, 
 
 Now bent, with demon forms, in murky cells. 
 
 Or where columnar salts enchant the soul. 
 
 Or starry roofs enrich the northern pole. 
 
 Not me th' adjacent furnace can delight 
 
 That cheers, with chemic gleam, the languid night ; 
 
 In vain my crystals boast their angles true, 
 
 In vain my port presents the genuine hue ; 
 
 Nor spars nor wine my spirits can restore, 
 
 ^/My Knaster's out, and pleasure is no more. 
 To German books for refuge shall I fly ? 
 
 •/ Without my Knaster these no bliss supply. 
 
 Here in light tomes grave Meinirs, prone to pore. 
 Like thin bank-notes, confines a weighty store ; 
 Here Burgher's muse, with ghostly terrors pale, 
 Runs " hurry-skurry " thro' her nursery tale ; 
 Here Huon loves, while wizard thunders roll, 
 Here Gorgon-Schiller petrifies the soul. 
 Crell's sooty chemists here their lights impart ; 
 Here Tallas, skilled in every barbarous art. 
 In vain to me each shining page is spread, 
 Without Tobacco ne'er composed, nor read ; 
 Who Knaster loves not, be he doomed to feed 
 With Caffres foul, or suck Virginia's weed. 
 At morn I love segars, at noon admire 
 The British compound, pearly from the fire ; 
 / But Knaster, always Knaster, is my song. 
 
 In studious gloom, or 'mid th' assembly's throng. 
 Let pompous Bruce describe in boastful style, 
 The wondrous springs of fertilising Nile. 
 Fool ! for so many restless years to roam. 
 To drink such water as we find at home.
 
 286 Cheshire Gleanmgs. 
 
 And know, to end his long, romantic dreams, 
 
 That Nile arises— much like other streams. 
 
 Far other streams let me discover here, 
 
 Of yellow grog, or briskly-sparkling beer ! 
 
 But more my glory, more my pride, to see 
 
 My Knaster cas'd, with pious fraud, like tea ; 
 
 Glad soars the muse, and crowing claps her wings, 
 
 At my discovery, hid, like his, from kings. 
 
 Some chase the fair, some dirty grubs employ, 
 
 And some the ball, and some the race enjoy. 
 
 Cooper the courting sciences denies. 
 
 And from their envied love to bleaching flies. 
 
 Let serious fiddling nobler mind engage, 
 
 Or dark black-letter charm the studious sage ; 
 
 I'd envy none their rattles, could I sit 
 
 To feast on Knaster and Teutonic wz7." 
 
 Lo, while I speak the furnace red decays, 
 
 And coy by fits the modest moonbeam plays, 
 
 Which thro' yond' threat'ning clouds that bode a shower, 
 
 Just tips with tender light the old church tower; 
 
 Now wlieels the doubtful bat in blund'ring rings, 
 
 Now "half-past" ten the doleful watchman sings. 
 
 To-morrow Bower supplies my fav'rite store — 
 
 My Knaster's out, and I can watch no more. 
 
 Farewell, good doctor ! If we may not admire him as a 
 great poet, we can at least reverence him as one who did the 
 duty nearest hand, and was earnest in his endeavour to take 
 from the life of the poor man some of its dreariness and 
 danger.
 
 CHESHIRE AND LANCASHIRE DIALECTS IN 
 THE EARLIER PART OF THE NINETEENTH 
 CENTURY. 
 
 Rude am I in my speech. 
 
 Shakespere. 
 
 WHEN engaged in the compilation of a bibliography of 
 works in the Lancashire dialect I was not aware of 
 the existence of some remarks on the differences between 
 the folk speech of the county of Tim Bobbin, and that of 
 Cheshire, in one of the many publications of Charles 
 Hulbert. As his " Cheshire Antiquities " (Shrewsbury 
 and Providence Grove, 1838) is not very common now 
 it may be worth while to transfer his observations. " Of 
 the Cheshire and Lancashire dialects the editor of 
 the present work can speak experimentally, having from 
 many years' residence in each county, a practical know- 
 ledge of their respective peculiarities; the chief distinc- 
 tion in the dialects of the two counties which he had 
 observed are, viz., in the former county, Cheshire — the 
 Hou in House is pronounced Aye very hard, as in the
 
 288 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 adverb Aye, being Aye-ce. In Lancashire the same is pro- 
 nounced Heawse, the Hou being pronounced Heaw. The 
 same difference occurs in Coiv, Now., House, &c. In the 
 vicinity of Halton, Cows are called Keigh, or, Keye, 
 
 ^ whereas they are Keaws in Lancashire ; in pronouncing 
 Calves, Kawves, they both agree ; so in Head, Yed; Hand, 
 Hond ; Belly, Bally ; Rightly, Gratheley ; aching, Wartch- 
 ing ; Water, Weyter ; Father, Fey i her, &c., &c. 
 
 "Their customs at Easter, Christmas, marling-time, 
 wakes, &c., very nearly resemble each other, exhibiting 
 much of the Saxon character, notwithstanding the great 
 Norman influence, which for ages existed, especially in the 
 county of Chester. 
 
 " The following short dialogue between a farmer's servant 
 maid, a native of Cheshire, and a young man, her fellow 
 servant, but a native of Lancashire, will more particularly 
 illustrate the distinction which exists, and also the very 
 considerable distance each particular dialect appears to be 
 from the present English language. But all these Provin- 
 cialisms, and remains of Antiquity, are fast hastening to 
 
 ' oblivion; education will eventually destroy the ancient 
 distinctive character in the dialects and habits of the two 
 
 I. counties. All who have seen or known but little of the 
 lower orders in each, must have observed that a consider- 
 able degree of archness, or rustic wit is prevalent among 
 the labouring classes in Cheshire and Lancashire, and 
 also in all the adjoining counties : seldom is conversation 
 continued without some joking, or quizzing, relative to 
 courtship and marriage.
 
 Cheshire and Lancashire Dialects. 289 
 
 Dialogue. 
 
 Servatit Maid. — Hey, hey, Dick, where arr e gooink e 
 sitch o hurry, wot connot e stop a minnit? Aye, yone bin 
 aye-t oth Haye-ce au neet, cooarting Meg Midgley, I con see 
 beh yor een. 
 
 Servant Man. — Neaw, I anno bin eawt oth Heawse afore 
 neaw, — aum gooink after the Keaws and Kauves, that an 
 brocken into eawer messter's kurn feelt. Theau may cut 
 my yed off, if e ha put my hond on Meg o Midgley, sin au 
 dipt thee. 
 
 Servant Maid. — That's lung sin — au seen o better mon 
 than thee, — thaygh thinks Meg's feythur has Keigh and 
 Kawves, so tha shannet tutch me ogen, goo after the Keigh. 
 
 Translation. 
 
 Servant Maid. — Ah, ah, Dick, where are you going in 
 such a hurry, what, cannot you stop a minute ? Yes, you 
 have been out of the House all night, courting Margaret 
 Midgley, I can see by your eyes. 
 
 Servant Man. — No, I have not been out of the House 
 before now, — I am going after the Cows and Calves which 
 have broken into my master's corn fields. You may cut my 
 head off if I have put my hand on Margaret Midgley, since 
 I put my arms around you. 
 
 Servant Maid. — That is long since — I have seen a better 
 man than you — and you think Margaret's father has Cows 
 and Calves, — so you shall not touch me again — go after the 
 Cattle:' 
 
 T
 
 290 
 
 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 It will be noticed that the girl alludes to an old custom — 
 now thought to be more honoured in the breach than in the 
 observance, of courting by night. This had considerable 
 analogy with the "bundling" formerly in vogue alike in 
 Wales and New England. 
 
 r%^
 
 SAMUEL HIBBERT-WARE. 
 
 With sharpened sight pale antiquaries pore, 
 Th' inscription value, but the rust adore. 
 
 Pope. Aloral Essay. 
 
 Ep. V. 
 
 AMONGST those connected by residence, though not by 
 birth, with the county of Chester, we must include the 
 name of Dr. Samuel Hibbert-Ware. Although his name is 
 not familiar to the present generation he was a man whose 
 substantial work alike in archaeology and in science deserved 
 a memorial. He was a native of Manchester (where he was 
 born 2ist April, 1782), but passed many years of his life 
 in Edinburgh, when the intellectual brilliance of its social 
 coteries earned for it the title of the Modern Athens. In 
 the course of a long and busy life he did much — very 
 much — to elucidate the history and archaeology of his 
 native county; he made some important discoveries in 
 geology, one of which proved to have commercial as well 
 as scientific interest; and he put forth a carefully con- 
 sidered theory of apparitions. As a wTiter he was con-
 
 292 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 scientious and painstaking ; and, perhaps as a consequence, 
 much of his work has not suffered by the lapse of time, 
 which sometimes makes such cruel havoc of that which once 
 was highly valued. It is, therefore, satisfactory to find that 
 a notice of his life has been undertaken by reverent and 
 loving hands. ( " The Life and Correspondence of the late 
 Samuel Hibbert-Ware." By Mrs. Hibbert-Ware. Man- 
 chester : Cornish, 1882.) 
 
 The first part of Mrs. Hibbert- Ware's book will be chiefly 
 interesting to her readers in Lancashire and Cheshire. 
 Thus she gives so much information as to the social con- 
 dition of Manchester and its district from the close of the 
 rebellion of 1745 to the beginning of the present century, 
 that the birth of the hero is not recorded until we reach the 
 ninety-third page. This is not a subject for complaint, as 
 the matter is good and well stated. While at school, Samuel 
 Hibbert formed the acquaintance of a man who to the 
 visible occupation of a handloom weaver added the unstated 
 but probably more lucrative practice of poaching. The old 
 fellow told the boy wonderful stories, of which he had an 
 ample store, and in return listened with intense interest to his 
 boyish companion as he read chapter by chapter the en- 
 trancing narrative of the " The Pilgrim's Progress." When a 
 young man, Hibbert had thoughts of the army, and served 
 for some years in the militia. Then he studied medicine at 
 Edinburgh, and, after graduating, discovered the presence 
 of chromate of iron in the Shetland Islands, which gained 
 him the gold medal of the Society of Arts, and involved him 
 in some unpleasant disputes. He became secretary of the
 
 Samuel Hibhcrt- Ware. 293 
 
 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and engaged in a great 
 variety of archaeological and scientific investigations. He 
 was thrice married ; and in his second wife found an intelli- 
 gent and enthusiastic fellow student, especially in his 
 favourite science of geology. His latter years were spent at 
 Hale Barns, in Cheshire. It was there that he had the 
 misfortune to read in the Times of the dreadful death of his 
 son, a young and promising surgeon in the Bombay Army. 
 Dr. Hibbert, who assumed his mother's name of Ware, died 
 at Hale Barns on December 30, 1848, in the sixty-seventh 
 year of his age. 
 
 Mrs. Ware's narrative is easy, flowing, and eminently 
 readable. She succeeds in impressing the reader with the 
 individuality of the subject of her work, so that we know 
 him not only as the grave historian and the penetrating man 
 of science, but as the absorbed scholar, usually as careless 
 of the external world as Dominie Sampson himself. Of this 
 some ludicrous examples are given. 
 
 " One day he had been working very hard, quite uninter- 
 ruptedly except at meal-times — for literary men, like all other 
 men, must eat— and, when supper-time arrived, he was 
 called down. Mr. Golland's family were already seated 
 round the table when he walked into the room and took the 
 seat left vacant for him. Mrs. Golland helped him to what 
 he liked, and his plate was placed before him; but, instead of 
 taking up his knife and fork, he sat gazing wistfully at the 
 smoking viands. Mr. and Mrs. Golland looked wonderingly at 
 him for a few moments. At last Mr. Golland said, ' Doctor, 
 won't you put down those books and papers and take your
 
 294 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 supper ? ' The spell that bound him was at once broken. 
 He had come down from his room with a lot of books and 
 papers under his arm, and thus encumbered had sat down to 
 supper, but so absorbed in his work was he that he could not 
 tell what prevented him handling his knife and fork" (p. 285). 
 
 Beyond his scientific papers, Dr. Hibbert-Ware's most 
 important writings were his " Description of the Shetland 
 Islands" (Edinburgh, 1822); "Sketches of the Philosophy of 
 Apparitions" (Edinburgh, 1824) ; "Customs of a Manor in 
 the North of England" (Edinburgh, 1822); " History of the 
 Foundations of Manchester" (Manchester, 1828-48, 4 vols.); 
 " Memorials of the Rebellion of Lancashire in 17 15." 
 
 Considering that Dr. Hibbert was the friend of Sir Walter 
 Scott, of the other great lights of the Northern capital, and 
 of many men eminent in literature and science, the corres- 
 pondence now printed is hardly so important as might have 
 been expected. The letters relating to scientific subjects 
 should have been submitted to some friendly revision. As 
 the impression has been limited to 250 copies, the work is 
 one that must always be, in a certain sense, rare, and it will 
 be sought for by those who are interested in the social 
 history of Manchester and of Edinburgh. 
 
 After all critical deductions have been made, Mrs. Hibbert- 
 Ware's book is a pleasant record of a man whose strong 
 individuality sometimes verged on eccentricity, whose ability 
 was shown by important work in very diverse fields, and 
 whose life— which nearly reached the span of three score 
 years and ten— was devoted to the advancement of science 
 and learning.
 
 A CHESHIRE CHESTERFIELD. 
 
 A moral, sensible and well-bred man 
 Will not affront me, and no other can. 
 
 CowPER, Conversation. 
 
 THE inner life of society in all ages is governed by a code 
 not less real because often impalpable and unex- 
 pressed. New-comers and those not to the manner born 
 inevitably betray themselves. There are common principles 
 which must govern the intercourse of all classes from the 
 lowest to the highest, but when the claims of courtesy and 
 consideration have been satisfied there remain many things 
 which in one circle are permitted and in others tabooed. 
 The anxiety to know the " manners of good society " is 
 sufficiently attested by the publication of numerous manuals 
 intended to initiate the neophyte into all the niceties of the 
 methods of that narrow section of humanity, which styles 
 itself, and is styled, the world. 
 
 Whether such publications, from Chesterfield downwards, 
 do prevent infractions of the " social law " may perhaps be
 
 296 CJiesJdre Gleanings. 
 
 open to doubt, but they form curious documents in the 
 history of manners. For this reason it is worth while to call 
 attention to some hints written by a Cheshire nobleman of 
 the last generation. 
 
 It appears that some fifty years ago, Mrs. Patterson- 
 Bonaparte, with a view to obtaining the best guidance 
 possible, induced Lord Cholmondeley to draw up a series of 
 rules for the guidance of those who wished to avoid what- 
 ever was then thought, in the best English society, to be 
 vulgarity. The document has been carefully preserved, and 
 was printed in the New York Nation (June 28, 1883). It 
 is as follows : — 
 
 Say shooting, and not gunning ; coachman, not driver. 
 Say drive, not ride, if it be in a carriage. Say drawing-room, 
 not parlour. Say glass of water. Say he doesn't, not he 
 don't ; apple tart, not apple pie. You must not say, "I have 
 dined off ham," or off anything. Say give me some Madeira 
 or sherry," but never add wine. It is not vulgar to say 
 " port wine." Never utter the word victuals. Avoid the 
 word elegant on all occasions. No one ever says genteel, 
 dashing, or elegant — words entirely excluded from good com- 
 pany. Be sure you never send your knife and fork when 
 you send your plate to be served a second time. Do not 
 put your knife into your mouth. Do not carve with your 
 own knife. Do not put your knife into the butter or salt, or 
 anything which is destined for another. Do not ask for a 
 piece or slice or cut of anything ; say, " May I trouble you 
 for some of the beef, ham, turkey," etc. Hunting means
 
 A ChesJiire Chesterfield. 297 
 
 riding after hounds ; shooting, kiUing with a gun. Never 
 say "people of quality," but "persons or people of rank." 
 Never say "My Lady," it is never used except by footmen. 
 Avoid saying Sir, Ma'am, or Madam — you may say it in a 
 public coach or in the street. Do not call a surgeon " Doc- 
 tor," but " Mr." in speaking to him or of him ; you may call 
 a physician "Doctor." You must not say "send for a 
 doctor," but "send for a physician." 
 
 Eat fish, fruit, and vegetables with a fork. Break your 
 bread at dinner ; never cut it. Say a fortnight, not two 
 / iveeks. Say autumn not fall. Say " I shall get cold," not I 
 will, etc. Say a lady-like or gentleman-like, or nice, or 
 agreeable person, but never use the expression genteel person. 
 Say clergyman, never parson. Parson is never used but as 
 a term of ridicule when applied to Methodists, etc. Say 
 lilac, not laylock. Say a pain in the chest, not a pain in the 
 breast. Say ill, unwell, indisposed, never sick. Direct your 
 letters to Thomas Brown, Esq., never to Mr. Brown, unless 
 he is a tradesman. If you do not know his Christian name 
 
 make a dash, thus : Brown, Esq. Seal with wax, never 
 
 with wafer, unless you are writing to low people. Use 
 blotting-paper, never sand. Do not ask people how their 
 brother, father, mother, son, sister, daughter is. Speak of 
 them by their names or titles. Say hall, not passage, unless 
 it be a back one. Say street door, not front door. Do not 
 laugh loud or rub your hands or show turbulent symptoms 
 of any kind. Never use the word God ; do not say devil or 
 devilish. Do not spit on the floor or in the chimney ; if 
 obliged to spit let it be in your pocket-handkerchief. Do
 
 298 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 not pick your nose. Do not sit dose to or touch any one 
 in any way. " May I trouble you ? " or " I will trouble you " 
 for the salt. Never say " Please help me " to anything. 
 Never say " I guess," or " I expect," for believe or suppose. 
 Do not empty your egg into a glass. Do not crowd different 
 things on to your plate. Expression of wonder or any great 
 show of emotion is ungentlemanlike. Never pour your tea 
 or coffee into the saucer. Do not put your spoon mto your 
 tea-cup to signify you have done. Say James not Jeames. 
 Never say old Mr. or old Mrs. Anybody. Do not speak 
 through your nose, as most Americans do. 
 
 The WTiter in the Nation very pertinently observes, that 
 " Many of these instructions cannot have been of much use 
 to Mrs. Bonaparte or her friends ; and most of them relate 
 to such minute points that no one could possibly remember 
 them all, unless they came to him as part of an inherited 
 tradition. Some have no meaning out of England, as the 
 distinction between physician and surgeon, and the instance 
 upon apple " tart." Such rules could not have been applied 
 as practical tests of good manners here, and cannot now. 
 Most of them would not be recognised in England as 
 furnishing infallible criteria. No Lord Cholmondeley of the 
 present day would ever dream of sketching out such hard- 
 and-fast tests as to details of behaviour. Refined people 
 clearly perceive that vulgarians have rights in society which 
 should be respected, and one of these is that their lives shall 
 not be made miserable over such contemptible trifles as the 
 trick of asking for 'a drink of water,' confusing ' will ' with
 
 A CJiesJiire Chesterfield. 
 
 299 
 
 ' shall,' or of putting their spoon in their tea-cup to show 
 that they are 'through.' " 
 
 There is happily less disposition now to insist upon unim- 
 portant matters as the criteria of good manners, and greater 
 play of individuality is tolerated, if not encouraged. The 
 root of the matter lies in that fine saying of Emerson's, " good </ 
 manners are made up of petty sacrifices."
 
 RIDING THE STANG. 
 
 I love everything that's old. 
 
 Goldsmith. Sh& Stoops to Conquer. 
 
 SOME fashions of the past would be deprecated by even 
 the most enthusiastic antiquary if they were current 
 now. Amongst these we may class the form of lynch law 
 known as " Riding the Skimmington " in some districts of 
 England, but in Cheshire and the northern counties better 
 known as "Riding the Stang." Hulbert, in his "Memoirs," 
 p. 42, gives the following account of the observance of this 
 custom at Northenden, about 1790 : — "This custom I only 
 once witnessed in the parish of Northen, and that was in 
 consequence of Alice Evans, my deliverer from drowning, 
 having chastised her own lord and master for some act of 
 intemperance and neglect of work. This conduct (of hers) 
 the neighbouring lords of the creation were determined to 
 punish, fearing their own spouses might assume the same 
 authority. They therefore mounted one of their body, 
 dressed in female apparel, on the back of an old donkey.
 
 Riding the Stang. 301 
 
 the man holding a spinning wheel on his lap, and his back 
 towards the donkey's head. Two men led the animal 
 through the neighbourhood, followed by scores of boys and 
 idle men, tinkling kettles and frying pans, roaring with cows' 
 horns, and making a most hideous hullabaloo, stopping 
 every now and then while the exhibitioner on the donkey 
 made the following proclamation : — 
 
 Ran a dan, ran a dan, ran a dan, 
 
 Mrs. Alice Evans has beat her good man ; 
 
 It was neither with sword, spear, pistol, or knife. 
 
 But with a pair of tongs she vowed to take his life. 
 
 If she'll be a good wife and do so no more. 
 
 We will not ride stang from door to door. 
 
 Readers of Samuel Butler will remember the description of 
 this folk-ceremony in "Hudibras." The custom is said to 
 have prevailed in places as far distant as Spain and Scandi- 
 navia.
 
 WILLIAM BROOME, LL.D. 
 
 The poet must be alike polished by an intercourse with the world 
 as with the studies of taste ; one to whom labour is negligence, refine- 
 ment a science, and art a nature. 
 
 D'ISRAELI. Literary Character, 
 
 POPE'S "^Horner" is almost as widely known as the 
 English language itself ; but few think of the name of 
 William Broome in connection with it. He was, however, 
 a coadjutor with Pope in the translation of the " Odyssey," 
 and it is on his fine rendering of the eight books entrusted 
 to him that his fame as a poet chiefly rests. 
 
 William Broome was born of poor parents, at Haslington, 
 in Cheshire, 3rd May, 1689. They, however, succeeded in 
 sending him to Eton, and afterwards to St. John's, Cambridge, 
 where he matriculated as a sizar in 1708. He received the 
 degree of LL.D. in 1728, on the occasion of the visit of 
 George II. to the University. 
 
 He soon made his appearance in the literary world as the 
 translator of Homer's "Iliad" into prose, in conjunction 
 with Ozell and Oldisworth. Ozell boasted that this transla-
 
 William Broome, LL.D. 303 
 
 tion was, in Toland's opinion, superior to that of Pope, and 
 soon gained his confidence and esteem. When the success 
 of the "Ihad" gave encouragement to a version of the 
 " Odyssey," Pope, weary of the toil, called Fenton and 
 Broome to his assistance, and gave four books to Fenton 
 for translation, and eight to Broome. These were the 2nd, 6th, 
 8th, nth, 12th, i6th, i8th, and 23rd, together with the task 
 of writing all the notes. The price at which Pope purchased 
 this assistance was three hundred pounds paid to Fenton, 
 and five hundred pounds to Broome, with as many copies 
 as he wanted for his friends. Broome, however, considered 
 himself unfairly treated by this arrangement, and a coldness 
 sprang up between him and his employer. Some little 
 mutual recrimination was the result, but it was not of a very 
 rancorous nature, Pope being the most bitter of the two, 
 calling Broome a "proficient in the art of sinking," and 
 "a parrot who repeats another's words in such a hoarse, odd 
 tone, as to make them seem his own." They were, however, 
 afterwards reconciled. 
 
 In 1728 Broome was presented to the rectory of Pulham, 
 which he held for about seventeen years, and at the same 
 time had the living of Oakley Magna, in Suffolk. He 
 married a "wealthy widow" and had two sons and two 
 daughters. 
 
 Johnson, in his " Lives of the Poets," thus speaks : — 
 " Though it cannot be said that he was a great poet, it would 
 be unjust to deny that he was an excellent versifier; his 
 lines are smooth and sonorous, and his diction is select and 
 elegant. "What he takes he seldom makes worse, and he
 
 304 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 cannot be justly thought a mean man whom Pope chose for 
 an associate, and whose co-operation was considered by 
 Pope's enemies as so important that he was attacked by 
 Henley with this ludicrous distich : — 
 
 Pope came clean off with Homer, but they say 
 Broome went before, and kindly swept the way." 
 
 The following is a fair specimen of Broome's powers as a 
 poet : — 
 
 THE ROSEBUD. 
 
 Queen of Fragrance, lovely Rose ! 
 The beauties of thy leaves disclose ; 
 The winter's past, the tempests fly. 
 Soft gales breathe gently thro' the sky ; 
 The lark, sweet warbling on the wing. 
 Salutes the gay return of spring ; 
 The silver dews, the vernal show'rs, 
 Call forth a blooming waste of flow'rs ; 
 The joyous fields, the shady woods, 
 Are cloth'd with green, or swell with buds ; 
 Then haste thy beauties to disclose, 
 Queen of Fragrance, lovely Rose ! 
 
 Thou beauteous flow'r ! a welcome guest, 
 Shalt flourish on the fair one's breast, 
 Shalt grace her hand or deck her hair. 
 The flower most sweet ! the nymph most fair ! 
 Breathe soft, ye winds ! be calm, ye skies ! 
 Arise, ye flow'ry race ! arise, 
 And haste thy beauties to disclose, 
 Queen of Fragrance, lovely Rose ! 
 
 But thou, fair nymph ! thyself survey 
 In this sweet offspring of a day ;
 
 William Broome, LL.D. 305 
 
 , Thy charms are sweet, but charms are frail ; 
 Swift as the short-lived flower they fly ; 
 At morn they bloom, at evening die, 
 Tho' sickness yet awhile forbears, 
 Yet time destroys what sickness spares. 
 Now Helen lives alone in fame, 
 And Cleopatra's but a name; 
 Time must indent that heavenly brow. 
 And thou must be what they are now. 
 
 This moral to the fair disclose. 
 Queen of Fragrance, lovely Rose. 
 
 Later in life he was a contributor to the Gentleman's 
 Magazine, in which appeared his translation of the Odes of 
 Anacreon. These had the signature of "Chester." He 
 died of asthma, at Bath, and was buried in the Abbey church 
 there, i6th November, 1745. 
 
 His poems are included in the collected editions of the 
 poets by Johnson (who wrote his Hfe) ; Chalmers, Anderson, 
 and others. His " Poems on several occasions " appeared 
 in 1727, and there have been several later editions. The 
 first complete notice of his life is a Memoir of William 
 Broome, LL.D., by T. Worthington Barlow. Manchester : 
 J. G. Bell, 1855. 
 
 u
 
 DEAN ARDERNE. 
 
 Piety, whose soul sincere 
 
 Fears God, and knows no other fear. 
 
 William Symth. 
 
 Cambridge Installation Ode. 
 
 THE family of Arderne is one of great antiquity in 
 Cheshire, and forty-five quarterings are sufficiently 
 indicative of estate and consideration. The seat of the 
 family was at Harden Hall, near Stockport, and at that 
 mansion, now a ruin, James, son of Ralph Arderne, of 
 Harden, was baptised 12th October, 1636. He entered 
 Christ's College, Cambridge, on the 9th July, 1653, but 
 afterwards removed to St. John's, and took his B.A. in 
 1656, and afterwards M.A. Two years later he went to 
 Oxford, and became M.A. in 1658. He was apparently 
 afterwards resident in London, for he is stated to have been 
 a member, in 1659, of a coterie that met nightly at the 
 Turk's Head, New Palace Yard, Westminster, under the 
 chairmanship of Harrington, the author of " Oceana." The 
 Restoration brought him within sight of preferment. In
 
 Dean Arderne. 307 
 
 April, 1666, he was curate of St. Botolph, Aldersgate, and 
 held that post until 1682. Another of his preferments was 
 Thornton-le-Moors. From the double inducement, we are 
 told, of the public library and the society, he became a 
 fellow commoner of Brasenose, and in 1673 was elected 
 D.D. This degree he is also said to have had from his first 
 alma mater. He was chaplain to Charles II., and his 
 ministrations to that monarch procured him the rectory of 
 Davenham in 1681, and the deanery of Chester in 1682. 
 He is said to have had the promise of succession to the 
 Bishopric of Chester, but the events of the Revolution 
 prevented James II. from giving him any further promotion. 
 His wTitings are the following : — 
 
 " Directions concerning the matter and Stile of Sermons, 
 written to W. S., a young deacon." By J. A., D.D. London, 
 167 1. [British Museum.] 
 
 " True Christian's Character and Crown " : a Sermon. 
 London, 167 1. 
 
 "A Sermon preached at the Visitation of John [Wilkins] 
 Lord Bishop of Chester." London, 1677. [British Museum.] 
 
 "Conjectura circa 'Eijtvo/xlv D. dementis Romanio Cui 
 subjiciuntur Castigationes in Epiphanium et Petavium de 
 Eucharistica, de Coelibatu Clericorum et de Orationibus pro 
 vita functis." Autore Jacobo de Ardenna. 1683. [Bodleian.] 
 
 " Dean of Chester's Speech to His Majesty." August 2 7th, 
 1687. London, 1687, folio, one leaf. [Bodleian.] 
 
 Arderne, if a courtier, was of the better type, and although 
 the exile of the Stuarts precluded him from further ambi- 
 tion, it did not lessen his attachment to the Jacobite cause.
 
 3o8 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Indeed his devotion to the King is said to have brought 
 him affronts in his own district so vexatious as to have 
 shortened his life. He died in 1691, but the date of his 
 death is variously given as August 18, September 15, and 
 September 18. He was buried in the choir of his Cathedral 
 with a monument, on which, in accordance with his will, 
 was inscribed : — "Here hes the body of Dr. James 
 Arderne, brother of Sir John Arderne, awhile Dean of 
 this church ; who, though he bore a more than common 
 affection to his private relations, yet gave the substance 
 of his bequeathable estate to the Cathedral, which gift 
 his will was, should be mentioned, that clergymen may 
 consider whether it be not a sort of sacrilege to sweep away 
 all from the church and charity into the possession o*f their 
 lay kindred who are not needy }" The particular intention 
 of Arderne in this bequest was the foundation of a public 
 library. The property was not then large but was increased 
 by the reversion to the younger branch of the Ardernes of 
 the property of Mrs. Jane Done. Ormerod, in printing the 
 Dean's will, observes that it is one "which the dean would 
 certainly never have executed if he could have imagined 
 that, from subsequent contingencies, it would have been the 
 means of wresting from his family a very large share of one 
 of the most ancient estates in the county, and have involved 
 the representatives of two of his brothers in a series of law 
 expenses which compelled them to alienate a considerable 
 portion of Mrs. Jane Done's bequest, the successive terms 
 of presentation to the rectory of Tarporley." 
 
 In the will he desires that the maps of Ortelius should be
 
 Dean Ardeme. 
 
 309 
 
 returned to Sir John Arderne, who had only lent the book 
 for his life-time. He mentions his collection of the fathers 
 of the first three hundred years, and the common-place book 
 which he had made from them of controversies. This he 
 desired to be placed in the Chapter-house for the use of 
 the dean and prebends. A portrait of him is preserved in 
 the deanery.
 
 SIR THOMAS ASTON. 
 
 The King commands, and we'll obey, 
 Over the hills, and far away. 
 
 Farquhar. Recruitiftg Officer. 
 
 SIR THOMAS ASTON, a good type of the Cheshire 
 cavaHers, was the heir of an ancient family which had 
 been settled at Aston in the county for many generations, 
 and showed undoubted descent from the time of Henry 11. 
 Several of these early Astons were knighted, and one of them 
 was treasurer to Philippa, the wife of Edward III., and joined 
 in the wars in Spain. Thomas Aston was born 29th Sept., 
 1600. His father, John Aston, who had been sewer to 
 the wife of James I., died in 1615, and presumably his 
 children remained under the care of his widow. Thomas 
 was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. 
 
 There was nothing to indicate that his life would be dif- 
 ferent from that of an ordinary prosperous country gentle- 
 man. He was made a baronet by Charles I. in July, 1628, 
 and served as High Sheriff of Cheshire in 1635. In this
 
 Sir Thomas Aston. 311 
 
 year died his first wife, Magdalene, daughter of Sir John 
 Poulteney, but their four children all died young. She lies 
 buried in the family chapel at Aston Hall, with an epitaph 
 which may have been the work of her husband, and is cer- 
 tainly characteristic of the period. 
 
 Heere reader, in this sad but glorious cell 
 Of death lyes shrind a double miracle, 
 Of woman and of wife, and each soe best, 
 Shee may be fame's fayre coppy to the rest ; 
 The virgin heere a blush so chaste might learne, 
 Till through the blood shee virtue did discerne ; 
 Heere might the bride upon her wedding day 
 At once both knowe to love and to obey, 
 Till she grewe wife so perfect and refynd, 
 To be but body to her husband's mynd ; 
 The tender mother here might learn such love. 
 And care as shames the pelicane and dove. 
 But fame and truth, no more, for should you fynd 
 And bring each grace and beauty of her mynd. 
 Wonder and envy both would make this grave 
 Theyr court, and blast that peace her ashes have. 
 
 In 1639, Sir Thomas took as his second wife, Anne, the 
 heiress of Sir Henry Willoughby, and his only son, Wil- 
 loughby Aston, who became the second baronet, was named 
 after his maternal grandfather. 
 
 He was a staunch churchman, and 'loyally attached to 
 the monarchy, and in the civil and ecclesiastical troubles he 
 took his part. The portentous rise of Nonconformist 
 sentiment excited alike fear and anger. When what was 
 known as the Cheshire petition against Episcopacy was in
 
 312 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 circulation, Sir Thomas and his friends set about the pre- 
 paration of a counter petition of remonstrance. Sir Thomas 
 was attacked as the framer of the document in an "answer" 
 which he denounces as the work of " some brain-sick Ana- 
 baptist," and this appears to have provoked him to the hasty 
 compilation of a quarto, which will be sufiEiciently described 
 by a transcript of the title-page : — " A Remonstrance against 
 Presbytery, exhibited by divers of the nobilitie, gentrie, 
 ministers, and inhabitants of the County Palatine of Chester, 
 with the motives of the Remonstrance, together with a short 
 survey of the Presbyterian discipline, showing the incon- 
 veniences of it ; and the inconsistency thereof with the 
 constitution of the state, being in its principles destructive 
 to the laws and liberties of the people, with a brief review 
 of the institution, succession, jurisdiction of the ancient 
 and venerable order of Bishops, found to be instituted by 
 the Apostles, continued ever since, grounded on the lawes 
 of God, and most agreeable to the law of the land. By Sir 
 Thomas Aston, Baronet, &c., &c. Printed for John Aston, 
 1641. [British Museum 4to.]" Sir Thomas includes in his 
 book the petition to which it is an answer, and also " certain 
 positions " maintained by Samuel Eaton, in his sermons at 
 Chester and Knutsford. Eaton had been resident in New 
 England, and had brought from thence a keen appreciation 
 of the Congregational discipline form of church government. 
 Sir Thomas argues against the popular element. He also 
 argues against the popular element in church, and declares 
 that those who opposed episcopacy would also oppose 
 the monarchy. He makes merry over the notion of ruling
 
 Sir Thomas Aston. 313 
 
 elders— mechanics interpreting the laws and traditions 
 of the church — and fortifies himself by numerous citations 
 from the works of his opponents and from the fathers and 
 other ecclesiastical writers. He also made " a collection of 
 sundry Petitions presented to the King's most excellent 
 Majesty, as also to the two Houses now assembled in Parlia- 
 ment, and others already signed by most of the gentry, 
 ministers, and freeholders of several counties." 1642. 
 [Bodleian.] 
 
 When the war broke out between the king and parliament, 
 Sir Thomas took part with the royalists, and was in com- 
 mand at Middlewich in March, 1642-3, when he was de- 
 feated by Sir William Brereton. The royalists lost their two 
 canons and five hundred stand of arms. Few were slain, 
 but the prisoners included many of the principal cavaliers 
 engaged, and the town suffered at the hands of the round- 
 heads, who made free with the property of burgesses and 
 the plate of the church. Sir Thomas escaped, but when, a 
 few days later, he returned to Chester, he was placed under 
 arrest at Pulford, where he wrote a defence of his conduct 
 which furnishes a very minute account of the affair, and is 
 an interesting picture of the civil war. Sir Thomas appar- 
 ently freed himself from censure and rejoined the king's 
 army, and, indeed, is said to have suffered a second defeat 
 from Brereton at Macclesfield in 1643. He was afterwards 
 captured in a skirmish in Staffordshire. When in prison at 
 Stafford he endeavoured to escape, but the attempted evasion 
 was discovered by a soldier who struck him on the head. 
 This, and other wounds received in the war, brought on a
 
 314 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 fever of which he died at Stafford, 24th March, 1645. He 
 was buried at Aston Chapel, and is fairly entitled, as Wood 
 says, "to the character of a stout and learned man." 
 
 The authorities for Aston's life are, Ormerod's History of 
 Cheshire, ed. by Helsby, 1882, vol. ii., 82-3; Earwaker's 
 East Cheshire, 1880, vol. i., p. 470, vol. ii. 657 ; Wood's 
 Athenae Oxoniensis.
 
 A CHESHIRE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE. 
 
 Discrete he was, and of grete reverence, 
 He seemed suche, his words were so wise. 
 Chaucer. Descripiion of the Man of Lazv in Canterbury Talcs. 
 
 RICHARD PEPPER ARDEN was born in 1745, and 
 was the son of John Arden, of Stockport, and was 
 educated at the Manchester Grammar School. His two 
 brothers received their earUer instruction at the same 
 institution. The eldest, John, became a country squire, 
 and was resident at Harden and Utkinton halls, in Cheshire, 
 and at Pepper Hall, in Yorkshire, and was a feoffee of the 
 Grammar School and of the Chetham Hospital. The other, 
 Crewe Arden, A.M., of Trinity College, in 1776, became 
 rector of Tarporley, and died there in 1787. Richard 
 Pepper Arden entered the Manchester Grammar School in 
 1752, and remained there until 1763. The elder boys 
 acted the play of " Cato " in 1759, and it is remarkable that 
 of the ten scholars one became lord chief justice of common 
 pleas (Arden) ; one vice principal of Brasenose (Rev. James
 
 3i6 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 Heap) ; two archdeacons of Richmond (Travis and Bower); 
 one senior wrangler (William Arnald) ; and one recorder of 
 Chester (Foster Bower). It is further noteworthy that the 
 prologue declaimed by Arden in 1760 dealt with the topic 
 of English Elocution, and the career of the lawyer and 
 politician : 
 
 To shun the rock on which so many split, 
 
 Which renders learning dull, and tasteless wit ; 
 
 We thus presume to tread the buskined stage, 
 
 And risk attempts so far beyond our age. 
 
 The motive sure is good ; excuse it then, 
 
 If boys who hope in time to act like men, 
 
 Leave for awhile their Latin, and their Greek, 
 I And their own native English learn to speak ; 
 
 Learn to speak well what well they hope to write, 
 
 And manly eloquence with truth unite. 
 
 Each act his part in his respective place. 
 With just decorum and becoming grace : 
 Teach with success fair virtue's sacred laws, 
 Speak at the bar with honour and applause, 
 And in the senate plead our country's cause. 
 
 Arden entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and soon 
 distinguished himself by his command of classical literature, 
 and by the elegance of his elocution. The year, when he came 
 out as twelfth wrangler, was one remarkable for the number of 
 young men of ability, who took part in the contest. Arnald, 
 the senior wrangler, was another " Manchester School " boy, 
 and the second wrangler. Bishop Law, the brother of Lord 
 Ellenborough, is said to have remembered with bitterness 
 the defeat he then sustained in the struggle for the highest
 
 A Cheshire Lord Chief Justice. 317 
 
 academical distinction. Arden took his M.A. in 1769, and 
 soon after was elected to a Fellowship at Trinity College. His 
 legal studies were pursued in the Middle Temple, and when 
 he took chambers in Lincoln's Inn he lived on terms of 
 friendly intimacy with William Pitt, who was on the same 
 staircase. In 1782 he became M.P. for Newton, entering 
 the House of Commons a year later than his friend, the 
 future Prime Minister, who was, however, fourteen years his 
 junior. When Pitt formed his government in 1783, Arden 
 took office as Solicitor-General, and in the following year 
 Attorney-General and Chief Justice of Chester. He suc- 
 ceeded Kenyon as Master of the Rolls in 1788, when he 
 was knighted. He sat successively for Aldborough, Hast- 
 ings, and Bath, and was M.P. for the last-named place from 
 1774 to 1 80 1, when Pitt resigned. On the formation of the 
 Addington administration Lord Eldon became Chancellor, 
 and Sir R. P. Arden succeeded him as Lord Chief Justice 
 of the Common Pleas. He was called to the House of 
 Lords as Baron Alvanley, in the county of Chester, the title 
 being derived from his brother's estate. He was not a man 
 of great oratorical powers, but possessed the qualities of 
 intelligence, readiness, and wit, which are so important to the 
 debater. Mr. James Crossley says of his legal acquirements, 
 " That time works wonders in elevating depressing reputa- 
 tions was perhaps never more strikingly shown than in the 
 respective positions now awarded in their judicial capacities 
 to Lord Alvanley and Lord Thurlow. It could scarcely 
 have entered into the contemplation of him who looked 
 wiser than any man ever was when he
 
 3i8 Cheshire Gleanings, 
 
 Bent his black brows, that kept the peers in awe, 
 Shook his full-bottomed wig, and gave the nod of law, 
 
 that ' Little Peppy,' the man he most contemned, and 
 against whom he constantly growled and fulminated, might 
 ultimately be considered as a better equity judge than him- 
 self. And yet the fact has been, that almost in proportion as 
 Lord Thurlow's authority has decreased Lord Alvanley's has 
 risen ; and judging of the two as we now do simply by their 
 reported decisions, we have seen grounds for awarding a 
 higher place to the latter. If we may also form an opinion 
 from some of his occasional verses with which he amused 
 his friends, he who was industriously represented, and for a 
 long time believed to be a very dull man, could have retorted 
 the keen shafts of the Rolliad with counter missives of equal 
 brilliancy, point, and severity." Lord Alvanley's poetical 
 trifles were never collected. The best known of them is an 
 epigram which appeared in the Cambridge Verses of 1763, 
 and was suggested by the circumstance of Dr. Samuel Ogden 
 having written three copies of verses, one in Latin, one in 
 English, and one in Arabic, on the accession of George IIL 
 
 When Ogden his prosaic verse 
 
 In Latin numbers drest, 
 The Roman language proved too weak 
 
 To stand the critic's test. 
 
 In English verse he ventured next 
 
 With rhyme for his defence ; 
 But ah ! rhyme only would not do, 
 
 They still expected sense.
 
 A Cheshire Lord Chief Justice. 319 
 
 Enraged the doctor swore he'd place 
 
 On critics no reliance ; 
 Involved his thoughts in Arabic, 
 
 And bid them all defiance. 
 
 Another of his shghter pieces, the "Buxton Beggar's 
 Petition," has been annotated by Mr. J. E. Bailey, and 
 appears in the Palatine Note Book, vol. iii. p. 255, together 
 with the effusions by Foster Bower, and by H. Leycester, 
 who pokes some fun at the wry nose, appetite, and im- 
 patience of Pepper Arden. He married Anne Dorothea, 
 the daughter of Richard Wilbraham, M.P., and died March 
 19th, 1804. He is buried in the Rolls Chapel. His widow 
 died in 1825. He left two sons, who in turn succeeded to 
 the title. William Arden, second Baron Alvanley, who was 
 born on the loth February, 1783, adopted the military pro- 
 fession, but after reaching the grade of Lieutenant-Colonel 
 he retired, and died unmarried in 1849. Richard Pepper 
 Arden, third baron Alvanley, was born 8th December, 1792, 
 and married in 1831, Arabella, the youngest daughter of 
 the first Duke of Cleveland, but died without issue 24th 
 June, 1857. He, like his elder brother, had been in the 
 army, and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. With 
 him the peerage became extinct. 
 
 The only portrait of the first Lord Alvanley is a caricature 
 by Dcighton. 
 
 It would be vain to claim any great distinction for Lord 
 Alvanley. He was a learned lawyer, and a successful 
 politician, who doubtless owed much to the friendship of 
 Pitt, without whose patronage his career would have been
 
 320 
 
 Cheshire Gleanings. 
 
 far more arduous. He retained a keen interest in the 
 fortunes of the school where he had received his early 
 training. If his legal decisions show his learning and sound 
 judgment the few productions that remain from his pen 
 evince refinement and facility of expression. 
 
 The authorities for Lord Alvanley's life are Smith ; 
 Manchester Grammar School Register (Chetham Society, 
 vol. lix.) ; Ormerod's Cheshire ; Palatine Note Book, 
 November, 1883; Earwaker's Local Gleanings; Brydges' 
 Peerage ; Burke's Peerage.
 
 CHESHIRE BALLAD 
 
 / I have a passion for ballads. 
 
 Longfellow, Hyperion. 
 
 MAJOR LEIGH'S collection of Cheshire ballads does 
 not include the following, which appears in the 
 Universal Songster, vol. I. page 23. This work contains a 
 very extensive collection, and is illustrated by the facile 
 pencils of George and Robert Cruikshank. 
 
 In Chester town there lived a lad, 
 
 As many lads there be ; 
 He was a buxom boy, adad, 
 
 And loved a fair lady. 
 
 He was a servingman by trade, 
 
 But luckless was his doom ; 
 He loved the mistress, not the maid, 
 
 Which brought him to his tomb. 
 
 You might have heard this lover's groans, 
 
 Full sorely did he smart ; 
 Her cruel hands they broke his bones, 
 
 Her cruel eyes his heart.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Absence of mind, 293 
 
 Acephali, 283 
 
 Acton church entered by two 
 quakers, 181 
 
 Eneas' descent into the under- 
 world, 126 
 
 "Afflicted parents," 279 
 
 Aikin, Miss, 46 
 
 Ains worth, W. IL, The Combat 
 of the Thirty, 227 
 
 Alderley and Dean Stanley, i ; 
 Church, 4 ; Wizard, 56 
 
 Altarfound at Great Boughton, 122 
 
 Altoft manorial custom, 118 
 
 Altrincham Mayor, 248 
 
 Alvanley peerage, 317 — 320 
 
 Archers, Royal Scotch, 98 
 
 Archery, 165 
 
 Arden, Crewe, 315 
 
 Arden, John, 315 
 
 Arden, Richard Pepper, biogra- 
 phical notice, 315 
 
 Arderne, James, Dean of Chester, 
 biographical sketch, 306 
 
 Arley charters, 114 
 
 Arms, persons born without, 219 
 
 Army, colour of clothing, 99 
 
 Arnald, William, 316 
 
 Arragon Queen of, said to have 
 married Sir Hugh Calveley, 
 229 
 
 Arthur and his knights at Aider- 
 ley, 58 ; his return long ex- 
 pected, 40 
 
 Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, 45 
 
 Aston family, 310 
 
 Aston, Sir Thomas, biographical 
 notice, 310 
 
 Augustine quoted, 178 
 
 Avernus, genius of, 122 
 
 Axon, William, 257 
 
 " Bachelor," Use of the word in 
 
 Cheshire 42 
 Bag of gold, 94 
 Bailey,;. E., 12, 74, 77, 319 
 Ballad, " In Chester town there 
 
 lived a lad," 321; MynshuU of 
 
 Erdeswick, 230 ; Sir Beville, 
 
 232 
 Bamborough, Sir Robert, 227 
 Barbarossa, Frederick, 66 
 Baskerville, Ellen, and Dean 
 
 Stanley, 7 
 Bate, John, notice of his book, 267 
 Bcaumanoir, R.obert de, 227 
 Beauty of Buttermere, 142 
 Bechuanaland, Moffat's missionary 
 
 labours, 192 
 Bell, Dr. William, 68 
 Bengalee ladies and the B.A. 
 
 degree, 42
 
 324 
 
 Index. 
 
 Bible of 1461, 278 
 
 Biffin, Sarah, an artist without 
 arms, 223 
 
 Birds' voices imitated, 267, 268 
 
 Birkenhead newspaper in 1642, 
 loi 
 
 Birkenhead, Sir John, 102 
 
 Blane, John, 14 
 
 Blundeville Randle, 186 
 
 BoUngbroke, Henry, last Baron of 
 Halton, 75 
 
 Bonaparte, Mrs. Patterson and 
 Lord Cholmondeley, 296 
 
 Book-rarities of the Warrington 
 Museum, 262 
 
 Bosworth field tradition, 236 
 
 Botanist's funeral, 48 
 
 Bower, Archdeacon, 316 
 
 Bower, Foster, 316, 319 
 
 Bradford, John, " Meditations," 19 
 
 Bramhall Hall, 13 
 
 Brandon, Eleanor, 19 
 
 Branagh, Roger, born without 
 arms, 222 
 
 Breaking sticks and straws, 117 
 
 Brereton Death Omen, 84 
 
 Brereton, Sir William, defeats 
 Aston, 313 ; on the Sabbath 
 at Amsterdam, 179 
 
 Bride of Bury, 223 
 
 Bridgman, Laura, 32 
 
 Bright, H. A., 46 
 
 British army costume, 95 
 
 Broadbrim and the wag, 30 
 
 Broadhurst, Thomas, 56 
 
 Brooke, Sir Richard, 83 
 
 Broome, William, LL.D., bio- 
 graphical notice, 302 
 
 Browne, Captain George, 14 
 
 Bruen, John, of Stapleford, and 
 Sabbath observance, 178 
 
 Bubwith's alms houses, 1 15 
 
 Buchon, J. A. C, on the Com- 
 bat of the Thirty, 226 
 
 Buckinger, Matthew, born with- 
 out arms, 223 
 
 Budworth, John, murdered, 165 
 
 Budworth, Joseph, of Manchester, 
 
 144 
 Budworth, Thomas de, 186 
 Bulwer, John, 32 
 Bunbury College, 229 
 " Bundling," 290 
 Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" 
 
 read to a poacher, 292 
 Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, and 
 
 Mary Stanley, 7 
 Burghes, Hughes, il 
 Burns, Robert, 24 ; quoted, 103 
 Burton, Robert, 9 quoted 
 Butler, Samuel, Hudibras, 301 
 Buttermere, Mary, the Beauty of, 
 
 142 
 Buxton Beggar's Petition, 319 
 Bych of Denbigh, 215 
 Byrom's shorthand, 266 
 Byron, Lord, 22, 37, 122, 251 
 
 Calveley, or Calverley, Sir Hugh, 
 
 228 
 Calves'-head breakfast, 163 
 Camden, William, 84 
 Carlisle House Promenade, 182 
 Cary, Phoebe, quoted, 48 
 Casimir's poems, 270 
 Cat grinning, 243 
 Catalogue of the Chesshyre library, 
 
 Cats, King of, 139 
 Caxton's Reynard the Fox, 119 
 Cervantes quoted, 243 
 Ceswrthin, Harold in, 40 
 Chaderton, Dr., Bishop of Chester, 
 
 20 
 Charlemagne legend, 68 
 Charles de Blois, 227 
 Chartism, 108 
 Chaucer quoted, 168, 315 
 Cheese, Cheshire, 247 
 Cheshire and Lancashire dialects 
 
 compared, 287, 241 
 "Cheshire bred," 246 
 " Cheshire, chief of men," 246 
 Cheshire, Easter customs, 155
 
 Index. 
 
 325 
 
 Cheshire man called Evelyn, 54 
 
 Cheshire petition against epis- 
 copacy, 311 
 
 Chesshyre, Sir John, libraiy at 
 Halton, 75 
 
 Chester. Did Harold die at Ches- 
 ter ? 39 
 
 Chester Fool, 88 
 
 Chester, Lord Chamberlain of, 20 
 
 Chester plays, 167; a fragment of, 
 2 10 J players and musicians, 
 177 
 
 Chester, bishop of, raises troops, 
 
 95.98 
 Chesterfield, A Cheshire, 295 
 Chickahominy expedition, 70 
 Chinese George and the Dragon, 
 
 217 
 Cholmely, Henry, 37 
 Cholmondeley, Lord, instructions 
 
 as to the manners of good 
 
 society, 296 
 Chowbent, 247 
 Claret denounced, 1 73 
 Clark, "Sabbath," 179 
 Clarke, Dr. Adam, 29 
 Clemens Romanus, 307 
 Clement, Roger, 14 
 " Clemmed or brossten," 248 
 Cleveland, Lady Arabella, 319 
 Cliftons of Clifton, 87 
 Clough, a Welsh proverb about, 
 
 250 
 Coleridge, Hartley, 67 
 Collet, John, 87 
 Combermere, Lord, 20 
 Congleton bears, 244 
 Cooper, Thomas, 12 
 Cotton Famine, 51 
 Courtship by night, 288 
 Coventry plays, 169 
 Crossley, James, 317; Poem of 
 
 the Synagogue Well, 188 
 Crucesignati, 185, 186 
 Cruikshank, G. and R., 321 
 Cuckoo, 206 
 Cumberland, Henry, Earl of, 19 
 
 Darrell, John, 9 
 
 Davenant, Sir William, 75 quoted 
 
 Davies, Mrs. Jane, 31 
 
 Davis, Thomas, 64 
 
 Deacon's " Dialogicall Dis- 
 courses," 9 
 
 Deaf-mutes, 31 
 
 Death-beds, 281 ; Folk-lore, 282 
 
 Dee Mills rent, 245 
 
 Defoe, Daniel, allusion in Robin- 
 son Crusoe, 117 
 
 Delamere forest, 249 
 
 Delille quoted, 114 
 
 Demoniac of Northwich, 9 
 
 Denbigh traditions, 214 
 
 Denmark, Harold in, 40 
 
 Derby, Earl of, 13, 19 
 
 Deville, Dean, 184 
 
 Dialects of Cheshire and Lanca- 
 shire compared, 287, 241 
 
 Dickens quoted, 235 
 
 D' Israeli, Isaac, quoted, 302 
 
 "Done, Lady," 249 
 
 Done, Mrs. Jane, and the Deanery 
 of Chester, 308 
 
 Done, Sir John, 249 ; and John 
 Bruen, 178 
 
 Don Sebastian, legend, 68 
 
 Dover, Harold at, 40 
 
 Dragon slayers, 216 
 
 Drunkenness, Scourge of, 37 
 
 Drury, Mrs., 14 
 
 Ducornet Cesar, an artist with- 
 out arms, 224 
 
 Duffy, Charles Gavan, 64 
 
 Dutton family, and their jurisdic- 
 tion over minstrels, 178 
 
 Earthquake of 1777, 251 
 Earwaker, J. P., 13. 114 
 Easter customs of Cheshire, 155 '■> 
 
 dues, 162 ; festivities and 
 
 education, 166 
 Eaton, Samuel, his sermons on 
 
 church government answered 
 
 by Sir Thomas Aston, 312 
 Ebranke, King of Britain, 174
 
 326 
 
 Index. 
 
 Edgar, the Peaceful, 41 
 
 Edward I. lifted, 159 
 
 Egerton crest, 243 
 
 Elbows broken at church, 249 
 
 Elysian fields, 128 
 
 Epigram on Dr. Ogden, 318 
 
 Episcopacy, Cheshire petition 
 
 against, 312 
 Epitaph on Dame Magdalene 
 
 Aston, 311; on Sir John 
 
 Chesshyre, 76 ; on Dean Ar- 
 
 derne, 308 
 Evelyn, a Cheshire name, 54 
 
 Factory system, no 
 Farquhar, George, quoted, 310 
 Ferriar, Dr. John, biographical 
 
 notice, 280 
 Fight of the Thirty, 226 
 Fishing with a candle, 269 
 Florio and Shakspere, 272 
 Fool of Chester, 88 
 Football in Cheshire, 164, 165 
 " Fou faces and fancies," 162 
 Frances, Sir Henry, 169 
 Eraser, Dr., Bishop of Manchester, 
 
 3 
 
 Freeman, E. A., 40 
 
 French national convention, 183; 
 
 revolution, 47 
 Fuller's account of Capt. Smith, 72 
 Furnivall, F. J., 210 
 
 Gambling houses open on Sunday, 
 182 
 
 Gardener who became a mission- 
 ary, 190 
 
 Gaunt, John of, 75 
 
 Gawayne and the Green Knight, 
 261 
 
 Gay, John, quoted, 88 
 
 Genii of the classical world, 122 
 
 Genius of Avernus, 122 
 
 George and the Dragon stories, 
 216 
 
 Gerai-de's Herball, 272 
 
 Geraldines, legend of, 63 
 
 Giraldus Cambrensis' anecdote of 
 a Jew, 184 
 
 Girl graduates, 42 
 
 Glendower, Owen, 63 
 
 Goldsmith quoted, 300 
 
 Grandmagne, Charles, born with- 
 out arms, 222 
 
 Grant, James, curious mistake in 
 his " Newspaper Press," loi 
 
 Green Knight and Sir Gawayne, 
 261 
 
 Greg, Samuel, " Layman's Le- 
 . gacy," 4 
 
 Grimm's "Deutsche Mythologie," 
 
 87 
 Hades and the lake of Avernus, 
 
 Halifax waits, 177 
 
 Halliwell, James O., 37, 38, 68 
 
 Hallwood, birthplace of John 
 
 Chesshyre, 76 
 Halsall, Dorothy, 20 
 Halsall, Jane, of Knowsley, 20 
 Halsall, Sir Cuthbert, 20 
 Halton ale, 173 
 Halton Library founded by Sir 
 
 John Chesshyre, 75 
 Halton pass, 245 
 Hands, persons born without, 219 
 Hare, Augustus J. C , 3, 8, 39 
 Hariskandra selling himself, 1 17 
 Harold, Did he die at Chester? 
 
 39 
 Harold Legend, 68 
 Harrington's coterie, 306 
 Harrison, Thomas, 9 
 Harrison, William, of Hyton, 
 
 264 
 Hatfield, John, and the Beauty of 
 
 Kuttermere, 142 
 Hawcroft, Joseph Mowbray. In 
 
 Memoriam, 197 
 Hawker, Rev. R. S., plagiarism 
 
 from his ballad of " Sir 
 
 Beville," 230 
 Hay hanged, 247 ,
 
 Index. 
 
 2>27 
 
 Heap, Rev. James, 315 
 
 Hemans, Felicia, 84 
 
 Hibbert-Ware, see Ware. 
 
 Higgenett, Randall, and the Ches- 
 ter plays, 212 
 
 Hilarius, the dramatist, 168 
 
 Holger, Danske legend, 66 
 
 Holmes, O. W., quoted, 262 
 
 Holt lions, 244 
 
 Holyoake, G. J., 109 
 
 Hornby's, William, scourge of 
 drunkenness, 37; hornbook, 
 
 38 
 "Hudibras," 301 
 Hulbert, Charles, on Cheshire 
 
 and Lancashire dialect, 287 ; 
 
 on riding the stang, 300 
 Hull manorial custom, 119 
 Husenbeth, F. L., translation of 
 
 Korner's Battle prayer, 106 
 Huskisson, W., death of, 4 
 Hyde, Bard of. J. C. Prince, 21 
 
 Iron, chromate of, 292 
 Irving, Washington, 67 
 
 "Jack of Dover," 88 
 Jacobites in Chester, 307-8 
 James I. entertained by Sir John 
 
 Done, 178 
 " Jannacke of Lancashire," 173 
 Jews, early references, 1 84 
 John of the thumbs, 214 
 Johnson, Dr., on Broome's poetry, 
 
 303 
 Johnson, Ben, 44 
 Johnston, James Irving, born 
 
 without arms, 225 
 Judgments for Sabbath-breaking, 
 
 Julius Quintilianus, 122 
 Justin Martyr quoted, 177 
 
 Keats, John, 22, 26 
 
 Kingston, William, born without 
 
 arms, 222 
 Knaster elegy, 283 
 
 Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 77 
 KnoUes, Sir Robert, 228 
 Korner, K. T., and J. C. Prince, 
 
 103, 23 
 Kotzebue : Curious subjects of 
 
 one of his plays, 284 
 Kronberg Castle, legend, 66 
 
 Lambertini, Madonna Lucrezia, 89 
 Lancashire and Cheshire dialects 
 
 compared, 287 
 Lancashire soldiers, 97 
 Law, Bishop, 316 
 Lawyer's career, 316 
 Leigh deeds, 114 
 Leigh, Colonel Egerton, 58 
 Leigh, Major Egerton, 86 
 Leveque, Eugene, on the descent 
 
 of Avernus, 128 
 Lewis, Monk, 60 
 Leycester, H., 319 
 Leycester, Rev. Oswald, 3 
 Leyden, Dr. John, 59 
 Ley, John, takes part in the 
 
 Sunday controversy, 181 
 Library founded byDean Arderne, 
 
 308 ; founded by Sir John 
 
 Cheshyre, 75 ; of Warrington 
 
 Museum, 262 
 Lifting in Cheshire, 159 
 Lithgow, R. A. Douglas, 21, 22 
 Livingstone marries a daughter of 
 
 Dr. Moffat, 195 
 Llwyd, Humphry, 214 
 Lockwood, Rev. John, vicar of 
 
 Halton, 77 
 Longfellow quoted, 108, 1S4, 
 
 190, 321 
 Lupus, Hugh, 75 
 Lymm from Warburton, 245 
 Lymon hay, 245 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, and the colour 
 
 of the army's clothing, 99 
 Macclesfield, 28, 31 ; figlit, 313 
 Mackie, Dr., 195 
 Madeley, C, 262
 
 328 
 
 Index. 
 
 Mahabharata, 128 
 Mahomet, 173 ; legend, 65 
 Mahon, Lord, on colour of the 
 
 army's clothing, 99 
 Maid of Arts degree, 42 
 Malpas, a Jewish joke, 185 
 Manchester, Bishop of, 3 
 Manchester Crichton Club, 201 
 Manchester, Duke of, and the 
 
 Lord's Day Act, 182 
 Manchester Free Library, frag- 
 ment of Chester plays, 210 
 Manchester Grammar School, 
 some distinguished scholars, 
 
 315 
 
 Mandeville, Sir John, 68 
 
 Man of straw, 120 
 
 Manx glen, 204 
 
 Marat. Was he a teacher at 
 
 Warrington ? 45 
 Marco's return, 40, 65 
 Marling customs, 239 
 Marlowe quoted, 197 
 Marriages in Cheshire, 249 
 Marsh, J. F., 83 
 Martindale, Adam, and Sabbath 
 
 observance, 180 
 Mary of Buttermere, 142 
 Mary, Queen Dowager of France, 
 
 20 
 Matthews, John, 76 
 Maxfield measure, 245 
 Medical practices, strange, 269 
 Middlewich fight, 313 
 Miller of the Dee, 245 
 Milton, John, quoted, 45, 155 
 Miracle plays, 158 
 Mi-Voie battle, 227 
 Moffat, Dr. Robert, a Cheshire 
 
 gardener, 190 
 Monmouth, Duke of, legend, 68 
 Montfort, Jean de, 227 
 Mossley, a botanist's funeral at, 
 
 48 
 Mumphazard, 249 
 Munday, Anthony, 18 
 Murger, Henri, 22 
 
 Myddeltons, of Whitchurch, 214 
 MynshuU of Erdeswick, 230 
 Mysteries, 167 
 
 Namaqualand mission, 192 
 
 Nantwich players, 177 ; deaf 
 mutes, 31 
 
 Nation, Miss, marries Hatfield, 
 144 
 
 Natural History Society of Moss- 
 ley, 49 
 
 Newall, William, ' clarke of the 
 Pendice,' 169 
 
 Newspaper, curious mistake, loi 
 
 Newton, Thomas, ' Cestrienses,' 
 ?78 
 
 Nichils in nine pokes, 250 
 
 Nigel, Robert, 75 
 
 Nixon the Cheshire prophet, 235 
 
 Nonconformist principles in Che- 
 shire, 311-313 
 
 Northern Cobbler, Tennyson's, 
 
 133 
 
 Northenden, riding the stang, 300 
 Northwich demoniac, 9 
 Norwich, Bishop of, 2 
 Nowell, Alexander, 13, 14, 18 
 
 Oak of Mi-Voie, 228 
 
 Oldmixon, John, and Nixon's 
 
 prophecies, 235 
 Ogden, Dr. Samuel, epigram on 
 
 him, 318 
 O'Neil, Hugh, 64 
 Ortelius, maps lent for a lifetime, 
 
 308 
 Over, Mayor of, 248 
 Oxford, Earl of, at the battle of 
 
 Barnet, 96 
 
 Pace eggs, 155 
 
 Padiham piper, 177 
 
 Parker, Henry, the northern cob- 
 bler, 136 
 
 Peacock, Thomas Love, 69 
 
 Peche, Richard, archdeacon of 
 Malpas, 184
 
 Index. 
 
 329 
 
 Penketh, Friar Thomas, of War- 
 rington and Richard III., 
 263 
 
 Pepper-gate legend, 164, 246 
 
 Peter of Wood, 248 
 
 Petitions, a collection of, by Aston, 
 
 313 
 
 Pilgrims and Jews, 185, 186 
 
 Piper of Padiham, 177 
 
 Pitt, William, friendship with 
 Arden, 317 
 
 Plays acted on Sunday, 177 ; at 
 Chester, 167 
 
 Poacher and the ' Pilgrim's Pro- 
 gress,' 292 
 
 Pocahontas and Captain John 
 Smith, 70 
 
 Politician's career, 316 
 
 Poole, John, account of the earth- 
 quake of 1777, 252 
 
 Pope, Alexander, 77, 239, 291 ; 
 and Broome, 303 
 
 Porteous, Bishop B., and the 
 Lord's Day Act, 181 ; on the 
 earthquake of 1777, 254 
 
 Porters, lazy, 30 
 
 Poulteney, Magdalene, epitaph on 
 her, 311 
 
 Presbytery, remonstrance against, 
 312 
 
 Prince, J. C, and biographical 
 notice, 21 ; and Korner, 103 
 
 Procter, R. W., 23 
 
 Prophet of Cheshire — Nixon, 235 
 
 Proverbs, Cheshire, 243 
 
 Pulford, 313 
 
 Quakers and Sabbath observance, 
 181 
 
 Rain at Easter, 162 
 
 Ramsey, Richard, notice of his 
 
 poems. 28 
 Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin, 
 
 118 
 Remonstrance against Presbytery, 
 
 312 
 
 Reynard the Fox, 119 
 Rhuddlan castle, 75 
 Richard of Gloucester, 96 
 Richard III. and Friar Penketh, 
 
 263 
 Riding the stang, 300 
 Ring game, 160 
 Rivers and dragon myths, 2l8 
 Robert of Sicily, 174 
 Roby, Dr., 191 
 Rogers, Samuel, 89 
 Rolfe, John, and Pocahontas, 71 
 Rosebud, 304 
 Rushbearing, 178 
 
 Sabbath desecration, 264 — see also 
 
 Sunday 
 Salemon, Robert, 186 
 Salusbury, Sir Henry, 20 ; Sir 
 
 John, 20, 215,216; Ursula, 
 
 20 
 Sandnrs, George, murdered, 14 
 Sandars, Mrs., trial and execution, 
 
 Sarbiewski, Cassimir, 270 
 
 Savage, Sir John, 75 
 
 Scots at battle of Pinkie Cleuch, 
 
 97 
 
 Scott, Reginald, book on witch- 
 craft, 59 
 
 Scott, Sir Sibald, 97 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 59, 261 quoted 
 
 Seal with a reed, 114 
 
 Sebastian's return, 40 
 
 Senlac, battle of, 39 
 
 Sermons, 307 
 
 Shakespere, 13, 28, 42, 54, 56, 68, 
 loi, 167, 213, 219, 280, 287 
 
 Shakespere and Florio, 272 
 
 Shenstone quoted, 226 
 
 Sherivlan, R. B., quoted, 230 
 
 Sheriff's Easter breakfast at Ches- 
 ter, 163 
 
 Shooting for the Sheriff's break- 
 fast, 163 
 
 Shorthand MS., 265 
 
 Shrove Tuesday football, 164
 
 330 
 
 Index. 
 
 Sibyls, 126 
 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 86 
 
 Sion y Boddiau, 213 
 
 'Sir Beville,'23i 
 
 Skeat, Rev. Walter W., 43 
 
 Skimmington riding, 300 
 
 Smith, C. Roach, reading of the 
 Boughton altar, 122 
 
 Smith, Capt. John, Was he a 
 Cheshire man ? 69 
 
 Smith, George, 74 
 
 Smith, Rev. Arthur, 73 
 
 Smith, Sir Lawrence, mayor of 
 Chester, 175 
 
 Smyth, William, quoted, 306 
 
 Society and its laws, 295 
 
 Southey, Robert, quoted, 22, 142 
 
 Stalk as a sign of contract, 1 14 
 
 Stalybridge park, 1 13 
 
 Stang-riding, 300 
 
 Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, and 
 Alderley, 2 
 
 Stanley, Lady Augusta, 6 
 
 Stanley, Catherine, 3 
 
 Stanley, Captain Charles Ed- 
 ward, 5 
 
 Stanley, Rev. Ed., Bishop of Nor- 
 vi'ich, 3; and tlie see of 
 Manchester, 3 ; British As- 
 sociation, 2 
 
 Stanley, Sir John, 61 
 
 Stanley, Sir John Thomas, I 
 
 Stanley, Hon. Miss L. D., 58 
 
 Stanley, Mary, 6, 7 
 
 Stanley, Captain Owen, 5 
 
 Stanley, Thomas, 20 
 
 Stanley, Sir Thomas, I 
 
 Stanley of Alderley, Baron, 2 
 
 Stanley family at Alderley, 2 
 
 Stephens, W. Morse, 45 
 
 Stephens, Professor George, 1 13 
 
 Stephens, Rev. Joseph Rayner, 
 biographical notice, 108 
 
 Sterne's plagiarisms, 283 
 
 Stipula as a ^^ign of sale, 116 
 
 ' Stipulation,' etymology of the 
 word, 116 
 
 Stockport chaise, 244 
 Straw seals, 114 
 Straw shoes, 120 
 Suffolk, Duke of, 20 
 Sunday observance, 177 
 ' Suspected Spy,' 257 
 Sutton, C. W., 210 
 Synagogue Well, 188 
 
 Tailed men, 283 
 Turner, Rev. William, 45 
 Tarvin wakes and the preachers, 
 
 179 
 Tennyson, Alfred, i quoted, 21; 
 
 Northern cobbler, 133 
 Thackeray, W. M., 95 
 " Thin Red Line," 95 quoted 
 Thirty : " Fight of the Thirty," 
 
 226 
 Thurlow, Lord, and Lord Alvan- 
 
 ley, 318 
 Tindal, William, and Sabbath 
 
 observance, 183 
 Tobacco, 33, 283 
 Travis, Archdeacon, 316 
 Trottet, Jean, born without hands 
 
 or feet, 225 
 Trow Gill, 201 
 Tryon, 1 homas, 277 
 Turk's Head coterie, 306 
 Twm o'r Nant, 214 
 
 Undutiful Child punished, 279 
 Universal Songster, 321 
 Usury denounced, 174 
 
 Venables, William de, 115 
 Virgil's description of the descent 
 of rEneas into the under- 
 world, 125 
 Virginia, attempt to colonise, 70 
 
 Wag and Broadbrim, 30 
 Waits, 177 
 Wakes, 178 
 
 Wales, Prince of, journey through 
 Egypt and Palestine, 6
 
 Index. 
 
 331 
 
 Walker's "Dialogicall discourses," 
 
 9 
 
 Walker, James, the botanist, bio- 
 graphical notice of, 48 
 
 Warburton on the descent of 
 Avernus, 128 
 
 Ware, Samuel Hibbert, bio- 
 graphical notice, 291 
 
 Ware, Hibbert S., his account of 
 Mark Yarwood, 220 
 
 Warner, Charles Dudley, 69 
 
 "Warning fur fair women," 13 
 
 Warning, pool of Taunton, 87 
 
 Warren, Dr. J. S., 117 
 
 Warrington Academy, 45 ; Mu- 
 seum book-rarities, 262 
 
 Waugh, Edwin quoted, 48 
 
 Wedding dresses worn on Easter 
 Sunday, 161 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, on the 
 colours worn in the army, 99 
 
 Welsh Army costume, 96 
 
 Welsh legend of King Arthur, 63 
 
 Westminster, Dean of, 2 
 
 Wheedling art, 273 
 
 Wilbraham, Anne, 319; Dorothy, 
 
 249 
 Wilkes, John, 182 
 Wilkins, John, Bishop of Chester, 
 
 307 
 
 Willoughby, Anne, 31 1 
 
 Wincham deed, 1 15 
 
 Winchester, Harold's body at, 39 
 
 Wmteringham manorial custom, 
 118 
 
 Wither, George, quoted, 139 
 
 Wizard of Alderley Edge, 56 
 
 Womens' costume, 274 
 
 Women, warning for fair, 13 
 
 Wood engraving, 268 
 
 Words, curious, 260 
 
 Wordsworth, William, 22 ; des- 
 cription of Mary of Butter- 
 mere, 152 
 
 Yale, David, 11 
 
 Yama and Avernus, 128 
 
 Yarwood, Mark, a boy without 
 
 hands, 219 
 Yew-bow, 247 
 Youdhichthira, 128
 
 LIST CDF -^Aroi^-Kis 
 
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 Nanny Cutler, i 
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 Ann Lee, the Manchester Pro- 
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 Lancashire Congregationalism at Farnworth 
 
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 Cliurch Goods in 1552 
 
 The Estates of Sir Andrew Chad- 
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 Westhoughton Factory Fire 
 
 Peter Annet 
 
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 George Fox's First Entry into 
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 Lancashire Proverbs 
 
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