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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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Archseoloy
rapliy,
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Nanny Cutler, i
" Dinah Bede "
The Mosley Family
The Extraordinary Memory of the
Rev. Thomas Threlkeld
Sunday in the Olden Time
Tim Bobbin as an Artist
Ann Lee, the Manchester Pro-
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Master John Shawe
Traditions Collected by Thomas
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Did Shakspere Visit Lancashire ?
The Lancashire Plot
Sherburnes in America
Curiosities of .Street Literature
Thomas and John Ferriar
Turton Fair in 17S9
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Lancashire Beyond the Sea
Murders Detected by Dreams
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Robert Tannahdl in Lancashire
Population of Manchester
A Sermon of the Sixteenth Century
Prince Charles Edward Stuart's
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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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Early Art in Liverpool
The Story of Burger's " Lenore"
Manchester in 1791
Early References to the Jews in
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Whittington and his Cat
"Fair Em"
The Father of Thomas de Quincey
Origin of the Word "Teetotal "
Robert Wilson and the Invention
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Ralph Sandiford
Eli.is, the Manchester Prophet
Westhoughton Factory Fire
Peter Annet
Some old Lancashire Ballads,
Broadsides and Chap-books
George Fox's First Entry into
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The Legend of Mab's Cross
The Lintlsays in Lancashire
The Liverpool Tragedy
Lancashire Proverbs
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