CHESHIRE, a county (maritime and palatine),
bounded on the north by the estuary of the
Mersey, the county palatine of Lancaster, and a small
part of the county of York; on the east by the counties
of Derby and Stafford; on the south by the county
of Salop, and a detached portion of the county of Flint;
on the west by the counties of Denbigh and Flint, and
the sestuary of the Dee; and on the north-west by the
Irish sea. 'It extends from 53° to 53° 36' (N.Lat.),
and from 1° 46' to 3° 22' (W. Long.); and includes,
according to Holland's survey, six hundred and
seventy-six thousand six hundred acres, or about one
thousand and fifty-seven square miles. The population,
in 1821, amounted to 270,098. The name is a contraction
of Chestershire. At the time of the Roman invasion,
this county formed part of the territory occupied
by the Cornavii, In the first division of Britain by the
Romans, it was included in Britannia Superior; and, in
their subsequent subdivision, it became part of Flavia
Ccesariensis. After the establishment of the Saxon dominion,
this portion of the British territory remained
free from it until the year 607, -when the defeat of the
Britons, by Ethelfred, King of Northumberland, rendered
so memorable by the subsequent massacre of the
monks of Bangor, took place here: several British
princes, however, having assembled an army, marched
towards Chester, defeated Ethelfred with great slaughter,
and drove him away: nor was this district again
subjected to the Anglo-Saxon power until the year 828,
when Chester was taken by King Egbert, and made part
of the kingdom of Mercia. About the close of the year
894, according to the Saxon Chronicle, an army of Danes,
advancing from Northumberland by forced marches,
took possession of Chester. Thither King Alfred
marched with his forces, but arrived too late to prevent
the Danes seizing the fortress: the Saxons, however,
by destroying all the cattle and corn in the neighbourhood,
and intercepting the provisions, drove the
Danes to such extremities, that they quitted the city,
and retreated into North Wales. Upon the division of
England into three great districts by Alfred, Cheshire
was included in that called Mercenlege, or the Mercian
jurisdiction. From this period, except the rebuilding
of Chester, which had been destroyed by the Danes,
and the erection of several fortresses, nothing remarkable
occurred until the year 981, when the coast was
laid waste by pirates. In the reign of William the
Conqueror, Cheshire acquired the privileges of a county
palatine; that sovereign having granted to his nephew,
Hugh d'Averenches, or d'Avranches, commonly called
Hugh Lupus, the whole county, to hold as freely by the
sword as he himself held the kingdom of England by
the crown.
The next two centuries after the Norman Conquest
are chiefly distinguished by the inroads of the
Welch, and the preparations made by the English sovereigns
to resist them, or to make irruptions into their
country. During this time the city of Chester was the
usual place of rendezvous for the English army; and
all that part of the county bordering on Wales suffered
extremely, not only from the ravages of the enemy,
but from the destruction caused at intervals by the
command of the English sovereigns, to prevent the
Welch being benefited by plunder. From such a series
of inroads and retaliations the county endured all the
evils of a border warfare, until the final subjection ot
Wales to the English crown -. the barony of Halton was
held under the Earl of Chester, by the service of leading
the vanguard of the earl's army, whenever he should
march into Wales. The only event worthy of notice
that occurred in the baronial wars, during the reigns of
John and Henry III., is the capture of Chester, in 1264,
by the Earl of Derby. Soon after, Henry, Earl of. Lancaster,
appeared in arms against Richard II.; having
received encouragement from the inhabitants of the
city and the county, he came to Chester, and stayed
there several days, mustering his army within sight of
the city. At Chester, also, the Duke of Lancaster and
the king remained one night, on their way towards,
London, after the conference at Flint. A few years afterwards
the inhabitants of Cheshire took part in the
rebellion of the Percies, the event of which was particularly
disastrous to them; the greater part of the knights
and esquires of the whole county, to the number of two
hundred, with a great many of their retainers, being,
slain in the decisive battle of Shrewsbury, July 22nd,
1403. With the exception of Chester having been for
a short time the head-quarters of the Duke of Lancas-
ter's army, the county does not appear to have been the
scene of any military transactions, from the reign of
Henry III. to that of Charles I.; but the warlike
prowess of the Cheshire heroes during that period has
been highly extolled in the English annals. Soon after
the commencement of the parliamentary war, an attempt
was made by the principal persons of this county,
who were nearly equally divided between the king and
the; parliament, to preserve its internal peace; and a
treaty of pacification was entered into at Bunbury, on
the 23rd of December, by Robert, Lord Kilmorey, and
others, under the sanction of the commissioners of
array; but the articles then agreed upon were rendered
nugatory by an ordinance of parliament, which required
the inhabitants to maintain and assist the common
cause, pursuant to their former resolutions; and for
their better encouragement, Sir William Brereton, a gentleman
of the county, and one of its representatives in
parliament, was sent down with a troop of horse and a
regiment of dragoons for their protection; the king, on
the other hand, sent Sir Nicholas Byron, with a commission,
by which he was appointed Colonel-General of
Cheshire and Shropshire, and governor of Chester, which
was made the head-quarters of the royal party. Sir
Nicholas, on his arrival in Cheshire, soon raised a considerable
force, and had frequent skirmishes with the
parliamentarian troops. Sir William Brereton, on the
other hand, having taken possession of Nantwich for
the parliament, fortified it, and fixed his head-quarters
in that town. About the end of November 1643, a
considerable body of troops arrived from Ireland, for
the king's service, and were ordered to remain at Chester,
under the command of Lord Byron, the governor's nephew,
who employed them on various services, and with
their assistance reduced several parliamentarian garrisons.
In the month of December, Lord Byron, with
his Irish regiments, defeated the whole of theparliament's
forces, under the command of Sir William Brereton, at
Middlewich. Nantwich being now the only garrison in
Cheshire in possession of the parliament, was besieged
dimng the greater part of January 1644, but was relieved
by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Sir William Brereton,
whose united forces defeated Lord Byron's army, the
remains of which, with their commander, retreated to
Chester on the 25th. Stockport was taken by Prince
Rupert, without any resistance, oil the 25th of May.
On the 25th of August, a severe action was fought at
Old Castle-heath, near Malpas, in which the royalists
were defeated. The king advancing towards Chester
with a large force, about the middle of May 1645, the
parliament abandoned all their garrisons except Tarvin
and Nantwich. On the 27th of September the battle of
Rowton and Hoole-heath, near Chester, was fonght, in
which the king's army, commanded by Sir Marmaduke
Langdale, being overpowered by the joint forces of General
Poyntz and Colonel Jones, the latter of whom had
hastened from the siege of Chester to the general's assistance,
was defeated and put to flight, the event having
been witnessed by the king himself from the walls of
Chester. On the 3rd of February, 1646, the garrison of
Chester, after a vigorous and obstinate defence under
Lord Byron, surrendered on honourable terms; and
upon this the parliament became masters of the whole
county.
When the royalists in the north made an attempt
to restore the king, in May 1648, the gentlemen of
Cheshire in the interest of the parliament fortified the
castle and city of Chester, for which they received the
thanks of that body; they engaged also to raise three
regiments of foot and one of horse, if they should be
wanted, for the defence of the county. After the de-,
feat of the Duke of Hamilton, at Preston, that nobleman
retreating with about three thousand horse, the remains
of the Scottish army, through Nantwich towards Uttoxeter,
in August 1648, the gentlemen of the county took
about five hundred of them. In August 1651, the
Scottish army, under Charles II., was quartered for a
short time at Nantwich, previously to the battle of Worcester;
after which decisive action, a party of the king's
cavalry, on their retreat northward, passing through
Sandbach, it being the fair day, were attacked by the
country people, and a hundred of them taken prisoners,
During the months of June and July, 1655, many of
the principal gentry were sent prisoners to the castle at
Chester, on suspicion of being disaffected to Cromwell's
government. In August 1659, Sir George Booth, who,
as it was afterwards known, had a commission from
Charles II., appointing him commander-in-chief of all
his forces in Cheshire, Lancashire, and North Wales,
here appeared in arms at the head of an army of upwards
of three thousand men; he was accompanied by
the Earl of Derby, Lord Cholmondeley, Lord Kilmorey,
and several of the principal gentlemen of the county:
they mustered upon Rowton heath, and there read and
published a declaration, setting forth, that they took up
arms for a free parliament, and to deliver the nation
from the slavery of its oppressors. But General Lambert
being sent by the parliament with an army against
Sir George Booth, the hostile parties met at Winnington
bridge, near Northwich, on the 16th of August,
when an action ensued, in which Booth's forces were
soon defeated. After the engagement Lambert marched
to Chester, which was then held by Col. Croxton,
who immediately surrendered it. To punish the revolters,
the parliament passed a vote on the 17th of September,
dissolving the corporation of the city of Chester,
and depriving it of its independent jurisdiction. On
the eve of the Revolution, Henry, Lord Delamere, having
heard of the landing of the prince of Orange, raised
a great force in Cheshire and Lancashire, declared
in his favour, and immediately set forwards on his
inarch to join him; meanwhile Lord Molineux and
Lord Aston seized Chester for King James. In the
rebellion of 1745, the young Pretender led his followers
through Cheshire, on his way to Derby; and, on the approach
of the Duke of Cumberland, retreated by the
same route.
This county is within the diocese of Chester, and
province of York: it forms an archdeaconry, and comprises
the seven deaneries of Chester, Frodsham, Macclesfield,
Nantwich, Malpas, Middlewich, and Wirrall,
containing eighty-seven parishes, of which forty-six are
rectories, twenty-three vicarages, and eighteen perpetual
curacies. For civil purposes it is divided into the seven
hundreds of Broxton, Bucklow, Eddisbury, Macelesfield,
Nantwich, Northwich, and Wirrall. It contains the city
and port of Chester (which, however, is a county within
itself), and the market-towns of Altrincham, Congleton,
Frodsham, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Malpas, Middlewich,
Nantwich, Northwich, Sandbach, Stockport, and
Tarporley. The grant of this county, made by the
Conqueror to his nephew Hugh Lupus, constituted the
representative of the latter the first hereditary earl in
England: by the terms of this grant he acquired jura
regalia within the county, in the exercise of which he
created eight parliamentary barons, one of whom was
hereditary constable, and another hereditary steward;
he assembled parliaments, and established courts of law.
His descendants continued to enjoy this sovereignty
until the death of John, Earl of Chester, in 1237, who
having no male issue, Henry III. seized on the county
of Chester, gave other lands in lieu of it to the sisters
of the deceased earl, and bestowed the earldom on his
son, Prince Edward. Richard II., having erected it into
a principality, amongst his other titles, styled himself
Princeps Cestrice: this act was abrogated by his successor,
and Cheshire again became a county palatine,
and continued, under the king's eldest sons, as earls of
Chester, to be governed, as in the time of its ancient
earls, by a jurisdiction separate from, and independent
of, the parliament of England. The city of Chester
was separated from the county and erected into a county
of itself by Henry VII., in the 21st year of his reign.
The ancient privileges of the county palatine were much
abridged in the 27th of Henry VIII., prior to which
time the Lord High Chancellor of England did not
appoint justices of peace, justices of quorum, or of
gaol delivery, within the county. The authority of the
earl in the palatinate was as absolute as that of the
king throughout the realm: he had power to pardon for
treason and felony, and to rescind outlawries; to make
justices of eyre, assize, gaol delivery, and of the peace;
and all original and judicial writs, and indictments for
treason and felony, with the process thereupon, were
made in his name. In consequence of this curtailment
of its privileges, the county petitioned that it might
send knights and burgesses to the parliament of the
realm, in accordance with which an act was passed in
the year 1542, enacting that thenceforward two knights
should be returned to parliament for the county palatine,
and two burgesses for the city of Chester. The
authority of the judges and officers of the great session
of the county palatine, which, says Lord Coke, is the
most ancient and honourable remaining in England,
extends over the counties of Chester and Flint, for both
which one seal is used: the king's writ does not run
in the county palatine, all writs issuing from the
superior courts being directed to the chamberlain of
Chester, who issues his mandate to the sheriff. The
chamberlain has, within the county palatine and the
county of the city of Chester, the jurisdiction of chancellor;
and the court of Exchequer at Chester is the
Chancery court, whereof the chamberlain, or his deputy,
is the sole judge in equity; he is also judge at the
common law within the said limits: the other officers
of the court are, the vice-chamberlain, baron, seal-keeper,
filizer, examiner, six clerks or attorneys of the court,
and some inferior officers. There is also within the
county palatine " the Justice of Chester," who has jurisdiction
of all pleas of the crown and common pleas
of all matters arising therein, as also of fines and recoveries
levied and suffered, as well within the county
palatine as the city of Chester; and no inhabitant of
the county can be compelled by any writ or process
to answer elsewhere to any matter or cause, except in
cases of treason, and on writ of error. The assizes, and
the Epiphany and Easter quarter sessions for the county
palatine, are held at Chester; the Midsummer and
Michaelmas quarter sessions take place at Knutsford.
The county gaol is at Chester, and the house of correction
at Knutsford. There are sixty-nine acting magistrates.
The rates raised in the county for the year
ending March 25th, 1829, amounted to £137,886, and
the expenditure to £136,772, of which £98,105 was
applied to the relief of the poor.
The cotton manufacture is carried on to a considerable
extent in several parts of the county, especially in
Stockport and its vicinity, Macclesfield, Marple, and
Congleton. There are numerous silk-mills at Congleton,
Macclesfield, Stockport, and Sandbach. The weaving
of ribands is carried on at Congleton, and that of
silk handkerchiefs at Macclesfield, where silk ferret
also is made: at Knutsford is a considerable manufacture
of thread. The manufacture of hats for exportation
at Stockport, Macclesfield, and Nantwich, and of
shoes at Sandbach is considerable. Some woollen cloths
are made at the north-eastern extremity of the county,
in the parish of Mottram: tanning is extensively carried
on throughout the county, more especially in the middle
and northern parts.
The surface of the county being almost uniformly
level, and not abounding in wood, has little picturesque
beauty. The principal hills are those on the borders of
Derbyshire, which extend along the eastern side of the
parishes of Astbury, Prestbury, and Mottram; a range
of hills in the hundred of Broxton; Bucklow hills;
Frodsham hills; and Alderley-Edge, a singular isolated
hill, in the hundred of Macclesfield. According to
Mr. Holland, there are six hundred and twenty thousand
acres in cultivation, including parks and pleasuregrounds;
twenty-eight thousand in waste lands, commons,
and woods; eighteen thousand in marshes and
mosses; and ten thousand in sea-sands, within the
sestuaries of the Mersey and the Dee. The prevailing
soil is a mixture of clay and sand, the clay for the most
part predominating. There is a considerable extent or
black moor, or peat-moss land, chiefly in that part of
the hundred of Macclesfield which borders on Derbyshire
and Yorkshire; there are some mosses of smaller
extent in the neighbourhood of Coppenhall and Warmingham,
but Coppenhall moss has beenagreatly improved.
In former times Cheshire contained some very
extensive forests; the forests of Delamere and Macclesfield
are now large dreary tracts of waste land; the
former contained ten thousand acres, but about two
thousand have been enclosed. The largest tract of
waste land, exclusively of the peat-mosses already described,
is Rud heath, in the parishes of Great Budworth,
Davenham, Middlewich, and Sandbach. Though there
are now but few extensive woods,, the quantity of timber
growing in the county in hedge-rows and coppices
greatly exceeds that in the majority of counties: the
estates of the Earl of Stamford and Warrington, the
Marquis of Cholmondeley, and Earl Grosvenor, in particular,
abound with fine timber. Vale Royal received
its distinguishing epithet from Edward I., who founded
a Cistercian monastery within its limits, which was
fifty-three years in building, having been begun in 1277,
and completed in 1330, at an expense of £32,000.
There are several small lakes, called meres, or pools.
Combermere is a fine piece of water, nearly three quarters
of a mile in length, close to the site of Combermere
Abbey. Bar-mere, in the parish of Malpas, is
nearly of the same extent: the other principal ones
are, the Mere, which gives name to a township in the
parish of Rosthern, Comberbach-mere, Oakhangerjnere,
Pick-mere, Rosthern-mere, and Chapel-mere
and Moss-mere, two beautiful sheets of water in the
front of Cholmondeley castle. The richest and most
extensive views are those from Alderley-Edge, Halton
and Beeston castles, Mowcop and Shuttingslow hills,
Carden Cliff, and Overton Sear, and from the western
edge of Delamere Forest: in most of these views
Beeston castle, situated on a precipitous and isolated
rock of sand-stone, is a prominent object.
The staple productions of the county are cheese and
salt, both having, from a very early period, been among
its principal articles of exportation. The richest and
best cheese is produced from land of an inferior
quality; but the greatest quantity from the richest land.
Among the districts most celebrated for making the
prime cheese are, the neighbourhood of Nantwich for a
circuit of five miles, the parish of Over, the greater
part of the banks of the river Weever, and several
farms near Congleton and Middlewich. It is calculated
by Mr. Holland, in his survey, that the number of cows
kept for the dairy in this county is about thirty-two
thousand; and that the quantity of cheese annually
made is about eleven thousand five hundred tons.
The greater part of the cheese, particularly that made
in the southern part of the county, is sold to the London
cheesemongers, through, the medium of factors who
reside in the neighbourhood: some is sent by the
Mersey to Liverpool, some inland by the Staffordshire
canal, and a considerable quantity by other canals, to
the markets at Stockport and Manchester. The manufacture
of salt yielded a considerable revenue to the
crown before the Norman Conquest. About a century
ago the salt made here was not more than adequate to
the consumption of this and a few adjoining counties;
but partly in consequence of improvements in the art of
making it, and partly from other causes, the manufacture
of white salt has greatly increased. From May
1805 to May 1806, the quantity produced at the
brine-pits, exclusively of that made at Nantwich and
Frodsham, which was disposed of for home consump-
tion, amounted to sixteen thousand five hundred and
ninety tons and seventy-seven bushels. The annual
average of white salt sent down the Weever from
Winsford and Northwich, for ten years prior to 1814,
was one hundred and thirty-nine thousand three hundred
and seventeen tons, principally for the supply
of the fisheries of Scotland, Ireland, the ports on the
Baltic, the United States of America, Newfoundland,
and the British Colonies. The discovery of the rocksalt
in 1670 forms an important era in the history of
this staple commodity. There are now ten or twelve pits
of rock-salt worked in the neighbourhood of Northwich,
in the townships of Witton,Marston, and Wincham, from
some of which one hundred tons are raised in a day: some
of the mines are worked in a circular form, and are three
hundred yards in diameter. The rock-salt is sent down
the Weever from Northwich: about a third of it is
refined at the salt-works at Frodsham and on the Lancashire
side of the Mersey; but the greater part is carried
to Liverpool, whence it is exported to Ireland and
the ports on the Baltic. The average quantity annually
sent down the Weever from Northwich, for ten years
prior to 1814, was fifty-one thousand one hundred and
nine tons. In 1805 there were two thousand nine hundred
and fifty persons employed in the salt manufacture.
Potatoes are cultivated to a great extent in the neighbourhoods
of Altrincham and Frodsham, and in the hundred
of Wirrall; in the parish of Frodsham alone, it is
calculated that one hundred thousand bushels have been
raised annually. They are chiefly sent to the Lancashire
markets by the river Mersey, and by the Duke of Bridgewater's
canal: the town of Manchester is supplied with
an abundance of potatoes and other vegetables from the
neighbourhood of Altrincham, and that of Liverpool
both from Frodsham and the hundred of Wirrall; a
great quantity of early potatoes is raised in Wirrall by
a peculiar mode of cultivation, and carried to market
early in May.
Among the mineral products, coal is found abundant
and of good quality in a district in the north-eastern
part of the county, extending about ten miles from north
to south, in which, especially in the townships of Poynton
and Worth, are very extensive collieries that supply the
populous town of Stockport. At Denwall, in the hundred
of Wirrall, is a colliery, first opened about the year
1750, which extends a mile and three-quarters from
high water mark under the river Dee, having two
canals under the river, one of which is carried to the
extremity of the works: the coal is chiefly exported to
Ireland. There are lead-works at Alderley-Edge; where
also a considerable quantity of cobalt has been procured,
and conveyed to Ferrybridge, in Yorkshire, having been
there manufactured into smalt little inferior in colour to
that imported from Saxony. There are several quarries
of excellent freestone, of which those of Runcorn, Manley,
and Great Bebington, are the chief; the quarries
at Runcorn being situated near the Duke of Bridgcwater's
canal, a considerable quantity of stone is sent
from them to Manchester, Liverpool, and Chester.
Marl exists in almost every part of the county, and is
extensively used for manure. A quantity of oak and fir
timber has been dug out of some of the mosses, and used
for fuel, and sometimes for the interior of buildings.
The principal rivers are the Dee, the Mersey, the
Weever, the Dane, the Bollin, the Peover, the Wheelook
and the Tame. The Dee rises in Merionethshire, runs
through Bala Pool, and, after skirting the counties of
Denbigh and Flint, becomes a boundary to Cheshire
near Shocklach, passing by Farndon to Aldford, where
it enters the county. It then flows past Eaton Hall and
Eccleston to Chester, where it is received into an artificial
channel, the first sod of which was dug on the 20th
of April, 1733, and carried along the marshes, under
Hawarden castle, to its sestuary, where it spreads over
an extent of sands in some parts seven miles in breadth.
The navigation of this river, by which, in former times,
vessels were brought up to the walls of Chester, became
so much obstructed by sands, from the frequent changing
of the channel, as to occasion the total ruin of the haven
of Chester, before the year 1449: to remedy this, a new
quay, or haven, was made, nearly six miles from Chester,
about the middle of the following century. In
1560, a pecuniary collection for the new haven at
Chester was made in all churches throughout the kingdom;
and, in 1567, there was an assessment for the
same purpose in the city: it was at length completed,
and for many years all goods and merchandise brought
to, and conveyed from, the port of Chester, were there
loaded and unloaded. In the year 1700, an act passed
to enable the mayor and citizens of Chester to recover
and preserve the navigation upon the river Dee. The projectors
of this work were incorporated by the name of the
River Dee Company; a subsequent act passed, in 1732,
empowering them to enclose a large tract on the banks of
the river, called the White Sands, on the condition of
their making a navigable line from the sea to Chester:
this new cut was begun the next year, and completed in
1754. In the year 1763, one thousand four hundred
and eleven acres of land were recovered from the sea;
six hundred and sixty-four acres in 1769, and three
hundred and forty-eight in 1795; forming, by means of
these and subsequent works, an extensive tract of
reclaimed land. The new channel was at first intended
only for vessels of two hundred tons' burden, but
it is now navigable for ships of six hundred tons:
the Dee is navigable for barges up to Bangor bridge.
The Mersey is formed by the junction of the Etherow
and Goyt rivers, between Compstall bridge and Marple
bridge, whence it passes to Stockport from which
place to Liverpool it forms the boundary between
Cheshire and Lancashire: opposite Warrington, where
it meets the tide, it is only forty yards wide: at Runcorn-
gap, where it communicates with the Trent and
Mersey, or Grand Trunk canal, and with the Duke of
Bridgewater's canal, its breadth is three hundred yards;
below the gap it immediately spreads into a grand
sestuary three miles in width, receiving in its course the
navigable river Weever, from Northwich and Frodsham.
As it proceeds northward from Runcorn, it gradually
diminishes for six miles, and opposite Liverpool its width
is only three quarters of a mile; but it forms a fine
channel, at least ten fathoms deep, at low water, very
commodious for shipping: at the distance of about five
miles, measuring by the Cheshire coast, it falls into the
Irish sea, by two or three different channels, much
obstructed by sands, but the passage is rendered secure
by means of various land-marks, buoys, and lighthouses,
and the good system of pilotage established by the
Liverpool merchants; the whole course of this river is
forty-four miles in length. The Weever rises on Bulkeley
heath, and never quits the county; it passes by
NantwichtoWinsford bridge, and thence to Northwich,
where it joins the Dane, and soon afterwards the Peover;
after this junction it passes by Frodsham to Weston,
where it empties itself into the Mersey, after a course of
about thirty-three miles: this river, in its natural state,
having been navigable only at high tides, and for six
miles above Frodsham bridge, a company of Cheshire
gentlemen, in the year 1720, entered into a subscription,
for the purpose of procuring an act of parliament to
make it navigable from Frodsham bridge to Winsford
bridge, a distance of about twenty miles. All incumbrances
brought on by the undertaking were discharged
in the year 1778, since which time a considerable sur-;
plus, arising from tonnage, &c., has been annually paid
into the county treasury, in aid of the rate, as provided
by the act, after payment of the interest to the shareholders.
The expense of erecting the public buildings
on the site of Chester castle has been wholly defrayed
out of the revenue of the Weever navigation. In
consequence of the great increase of the salt trade, an
additional cut, about four miles long, has been made
from the Weir, near Frodsham bridge, to Weston-point,
to prevent the delays formerly occasioned by the shallowness
of the river at neap-tides. The Dane rises in
Macclesfield Forest, near the Three Shire Mere, and
after forming for some distance a boundary between
Staffordshire and Cheshire, enters the latter county
within two miles of Congleton, from which town it
passes near Middlewich to Northwich, where it falls
into the Weever, after a course of about twenty-two
miles. The Bollin rises also in Macclesfield Forest,
from several sources, and passes by Macclesfield to
Rixton, where it falls into the Mersey, after a course of
about twenty miles. The Peover is formed by the junction
of two streams that meet at Chelford, and falls
into the Weever near Northwich, after a course of
about fifteen miles. The Weelock is formed by the
union of three streams near Sandbach, and falls into the
Dane at Croxton, after a course of about twelve miles.
The Tame rises in Yorkshire, and during almost the
whole of its course, which is about ten miles, forms a
boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire, falling into
the Mersey near Stockport.
The canals that intersect various parts of the county
are, the Duke of Bridgewater's, the Trent and Mersey,
or Grand Trunk canal, the Ellesmere canal, the Chester
and Nantwich and the Peak Forest canals. The Duke of
Bridgewater's canal was begun in 1761; the communication
betwen Manchester and Liverpool was opened in
1772, and the whole of the works at first projected were
finished in 1776: this canal, which commences on the
Duke of Bridgewater's estate, at Worsley, in Lancashire,
enters Cheshire near Ashton on the Mersey, and passes
near Altrincham to Runcorn, where it joins the Mersey,
being conducted through a chain of ten locks: at this
place is arise of ninety-five feet, the only deviation from
the level in the course of the canal, except at the vale of
the Bollin, between Lymm and Altrincham, where an embankment
has been made for the purpose of preserving it.
The first act for making the Trent and Mersey, or Grand
Trunk, canal passed in 1766: this canal communicates
with the Duke of Bridgewater's at Preston-brook, and
passes by Northwich and Middlewich, not far from Sandbach,
to Lawton, a little beyond which it enters Staffordshire:
in its course through Cheshire there are four tun-
nels; one at Preston on the Hill, one thousand two hundred
and forty-one yards in length; another at Barnton,
in 'the parish of Great Bud worth, five hundred and seventy-
two yards long; another at Saltersfield, in the same
parish, three hundred and fifty yards; and another at
Hermitage, one hundred and thirty yards. The Ellesmere
canal communicates with the Mersey at Whitby,at
a place now called Ellesmere port; it passes through the
eastern extremity of the hundred of Wirrall, and the
southeast part of that of Broxton, to Chester, where
it joins the Dee and the Chester canal: a branch
from Whitchurch, completed in 1806, enters Cheshire
at Grindley brook, and forms a junction with the Chester
and Nantwich canal in the township of Hurleston,
after a course in this county of eleven miles. The act
for making the Chester and Nantwich canal passed in
1772, and the work was completed in 1778. The Peak
Forest canal, the first act for which passed in 1794, enters
Cheshire from Lancashire, crossing the river Tame
atDuckenfield, and quits the'county near Whalley bridge:
it is carried over the river Mersey, near Marple, by an
aqueduct of three arches, of sixty feet in the span, and
seventy-eight feet high, the whole height being one
hundred feet.
One of the great roads from London to Holyhead
enters Cheshire in the township of Bridgemere, and
passes through Nantwich, Tarporley, and Chester, three
miles and a half beyond which it enters Flintshire, its
course through this county being about thirty miles
in extent. All the roads from London to Manchester
pass through Cheshire j one of them enters it near
Church-Lawton, passes through Knutsford and Altrincham,
and quits the county a little beyond Cross-
Street in the parish of Ashton: the road by way of
Leek enters near Bosley mills, and passes through
Macclesfield and Stockport: that through Buxton and
Matlock enters at Whalley bridge, and passes through
Stockport. The road from London to Liverpool enters
Cheshire at Lawton, and passes through Congleton and
Knutsford to Warrington: at Monk's heath, another
road branches off through Alderley, Chorley, &c., towards
Manchester. A road from London to Warrington enters
near Lawton, and passes through Sandbach, Middlewich,
and Northwich, to Latchford, opposite Warrington.
Few Roman antiquities have been discovered except
^ithin the walls of the city of Chester, which was for
more than two hundred years the station of the twentieth
legion, it being the only Roman station in the
county the situation of which has been clearly ascertained.
The Romans having placed one of their principal
towns in Cheshire, and, from its convenience as
a military port, fixed there the head-quarters of one of
the three legions, which formed the standing army of
Britain, many detached remains of their roads are
discernible within the limits of the county. There is also
a road, which, from its name and course, is considered
of British origin; this is the northern Watling-street:
it enters the county from the north at Stretford, and
passes through Northwich, over Delamere Forest, to
Chester, proceeding to the coast of Caernarvonshire.
The principal Roman roads, of which there are various
traces, are, the great Roman way from Manchester to
Worcester, and a road from Kinderton to the station
of Chesterton, near- Newcastle under Line. Other Roman
roads of considerable importance cross the county
from various quarters towards Chester.
The richest specimens of church architecture are
Chester cathedral and Nantwich church. Within the
limits of the county, before the dissolution, were thirteen
religious houses, including one preceptory of the
Knights Hospitallers; there were, besides, two colleges
and nine ancient hospitals: there are considerable
monastic remains, especially of the abbey of St. Werburgh,
at Chester. The most remarkable of the ancient
mansion-houses is Little Moreton Hall; many others
remain either wholly or in part, most of them having
been converted into farm-houses. There are several
customs peculiar to the county, but many of them are
falling into non-observance; the most prevalent are the
following:- On the first of May, the young men place
large birchen boughs over the doors of the houses where
the young women to whom they are paying their addresses
reside, and an alder bough is often placed over the door
of a scold. On Easter-Monday the young men deck
out a chair with flowers and ribands, and carry it about,
compelling every young woman they meet to get into it,
and suffer herself to be lifted as high as they can reach
into the air, or to be kissed, or pay a forfeit; this they
call "heaving." On Easter-Tuesday, the women deck
out a chair, and lift the men, or make them pay a fine:
a similar custom prevails in some of the neighbouring
counties. The most general custom peculiar to this
county is the shouting, accompanied by particular
ceremonies, of the marlers, or marl diggers, when any
money has been given them.