Chester to Bunbury

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THE

JOURNEY

TO

LONDON.

IN March 1780, I began my annual journey to London. At Chester some improvements had taken place since my last account of the city. A very commodious building has been erected in the Yatchfield, near the Watergate street, for the sale of Irish linen at the two fairs. It surrounds a large square area; on each side of which are piazzas, with numbers of shops well adapted for the purpose.

IN digging the foundation for certain houses near the street, were discovered some Roman buildings, and a large Hypocanst with its several conveniences; and some other antiquities, particularly a beautiful altar,¹ dedicated Fortunae Reduci et AEsculapio. Much of its inscription is defaced; but the rudder, cornucopia, rod, serpent, and various sacrificial instruments, are in good preservation.

ON leaving the city, I passed under the fine arch of the East Gate: a work owing to the munificence of Lord Grosvenor .

Boughton, a suburb in the parish of St. Oswald, a little disjoined from this part of the city, had before the dissolution an hospital² for poor lepers, as early as the beginning of Edward II. From an eminence, the retreat of the unfortunate brave³ , is a view of very uncommon beauty. It commands two fine reaches of the Dee, one bounded by meadows and hanging woods, the other terminated by part of the city, the antient bridge, and over it a distant view of the Cambrian hills.

ADJOINING to that part of Boughton which is within the liberties of the city, is the township of Boughton, in the county of Chester; the inhabitants of which appear at the court of the dean and chapter of Chester, and pay there a chief rent: but usually clame and dispose of the wastes.

NEAR the two miles stone I crossed the canal to Christleton, a pretty village, seated, as is usual with those of Cheshire, on the freestone rock. Cristetone, as it is called in Doomsday book, was held before the Conquest by Earl Edwin. At that event, probably, it had a chapel, or very soon after. This manor had been bestowed by Hugh Lupus on Robert Fitz Hugh, one of his followers, who gave the chapel of Cristentune, with the land belonging to it, and the land of a certain peasant, with the peasant himself, to the abbey of Chester .⁴ His great great granddaughter Isabel, wife of Sir Philip Burnet, joined with her husband in suing the abbey for this, and some other contiguous manors. It is probable that the monks might have taken advantage of a fit of remorse for some crime, or the weakness of an illness, to obtain this gift from her ancestor. They thought fit to compromise the matter with her; and on payment of two hundred pounds received, in 1280, the ninth of Edward I. a confirmation of the grant: and at the same time full liberty was given to the abbot to make a reservoir of water, and to convey it to the abbey.

IN the year 1282, William de Birmingham had free warren given him of all his demesne lands in this village; but it is apprehended he was only an inferior lord to the paramount privileges of the abbey. In the Saxon times, every man was allowed to kill game on his own estate, but on the Conquest the king vested the property of all the game in himself, so that no one could sport, even on his own land, under most cruel penalties, without permission from the king, by grant of a chase or free warren. By this, the grantee had an exclusive power of killing game on his own estate, but it was on condition that he prevented every one else; so that, as our learned commentator⁵ observes, this seeming favour was intended for the preservation of the beasts and fowls of warren; which were roes, hares, and rabbits, partridge, rails, and quails, woodcocks and pheasants, mallards, and herons, for the sport of our savage monarchs. This liberty, which they allowed to a few individuals, being designed merely to prevent a general destruction.

Christleton passed from the Birminghams, in Richard II.'s time, to Sir Hugh Brower: Sir Hugh lost it by his attachment to the house of York; and Henry the IVth, in the fourth year of his reign, bestowed it on John Manwaring, of Over Peover, an attendant on his son, afterwards Henry V.⁶ Manwaring having no lawful issue, bestowed this place on Sir Thomas le Grosvenor, lord of Hulme; but it passed immediately from him to John de Macclesfield, in the 10th of Henry V. One of his descendants alienated it, in 1442, or the 21st of Henry VI. to Humphrey (afterward Duke) of Buckingham. Henry Lord Stafford, son to Edward Duke of Buckingham, sold it to Sir William Sneyde, of Keel; and Sir Ralph Sneyde, to Sir John Harpur, of Swerston, in Derbyshire; one of whose descendants sold it to Thomas Brock ,⁷ Esquire, the present lord of the manor. The living is a rectory, in the disposal of Sir Roger Mostyn: the church is dedicated to St. James.

FROM hence I took the horse-road across Brownheath, by Hockenhall, formerly the seat of a family of the same name. The rising country to the left of this road appears to great advantage, opposing to the traveller a fair front, beautifully clumped with self-planted groves.

PASSED over a brook, and reached the small town of Tarvin, which still retains nearly its British name Terfyn, or the Boundary, being so to the forest of Delamere. In Doomsday book it is stiled Terve: the bishop at that time held it. It then contained six taxable hides of land. The bishop kept on it six cowmen, three radmen, seven villeyns, seven boors, and six ploughlands. The first were to keep his cattle; the second to attend his person in his travels, or to go wheresoever he pleased to send them; the third, by their tenure, to cultivate his lands; and the fourth, to supply his table with poultry, eggs, and other small matters. The ploughland, or carnca, was as much as one plough could work in the year. This shews the establishment of a manor in those early times; which I mention now to prevent repetition.

IN Henry VI.'s time the village and manor were estimated at 2,31. a year, and were held by Reginald, bishop of Lichfield, in the same manner as they were held by his predecessors, under the Prince of Wales, as earl of Chester. They continued possessed by them till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when they were alienated to Sir John Savage, who procured for the town the privilege of a market. The church is a rectory, and still continues part of the see of Lichfield; being a prebendary, originally founded about the year 1226, by Alexander de Stwcenby, bishop of that diocese. It is valued at 26l. 13s. 4d. the highest endowment of any prebend in that cathedral. It is called the prebend of Tarvin, which presents to the living.

THE same prelate also bestowed this church on the vice-prebendal church of Burton, in Wiral ;⁸ and formed out of its revenues an hospital for shipwrecked persons. This hospital was probably at Burton, Tarvin being too remote from the sea for so humane a design.

AGAINST the church-wall is a monument, in memory of Mr. John Thomasine, thirty-six years master of the grammar-school. The epitaph deservedly celebrates the performances of this exquisite penman, as

"highly excelling in all the varieties of writing, and wonderfully so in the Greek characters. Specimens of his ingenuity are treasured up, not only in the cabinets of the curious, but in public libraries throughout the kingdom. He had the honour to transcribe, for her Majesty Queen Anne, the Icon Basilike of her royal grandfather. Invaluable copies also of Pindar, Anacreon, Theocritus, Epictetus, Hippocrates's Aphorisms, and that finished piece the Shield of Achilles, as described by Homer, are among the productions of his celebrated pen.

As his incomparable performances acquired him the esteem and patronage of the great and learned; so his affability and humanity gained him the good-will of all his acquaintance; and the decease of so much private worth is regretted as a public loss."

FROM Tarvin I travel on the great road, and at about two miles distance, leave on the right Stapleford, which retains the name it had at the Conquest, when it was held by Radulpus Venator, from Hugh Lupus. After a long interval, it fell to the Breretons. In 1378, or the second of Richard II. it was held by Sir William Brereton of the king, as earl of Chester. From that family it passed to the Bruyns, and was purchased by the late Randle Wilbraham, Esquire.

Two miles farther, on the left, stood Utkinton Hall: the manor, with Kingsley, and the baileywick of the forest of Delamere, was given by Randle Meschines, earl of Chester, to Randle de Kingsley; whose great grand-daughter Joan, about the year 1233, conveyed it to the Dones. Richard Done was possessed of it in 1311, the sixth of Edward II. He held it by a quarter part of a knight's fee, and the master forestership of Mere (Delamere) and Mottram, by himself, and a horseman, and eight footmen under him, to keep that forest, then valued at 10l. 10s. 3d.

UPON the failure of issue male of Sir John Done, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, the manor of Utkinton came to his daughters, and has been since held by them, or persons claming under them. Mary, the second daughter, married, in 1636, John, second son of Sir Randle Crew, of Crew; and Elinor, the younger, Ralph Arderne, Esquire.

THE Dones of Flaxyard, in this neighborhood, were another considerable family, at constant feud with the former, till the houses were united by the nuptials of the heir of Flaxyard with the heiress of Utkinton. But at this time both those antient seats are demolished, or turned into farm-houses.

FROM hence I soon reached Torporley, a small town, seated on a gentle descent. It had once been a borough town, of which Richard Francis was mayor in the twentieth of Edward I. In the tenth of the same reign, Hugh de Tarpoley had licence to hold a market here every Tuesday, and a fair on the vigil, the feast day, and the day after the exaltation of the Holy Cross; but he alienated this privilege, with this property, to Reginald de Grey, chief justice of Chester .

IN the eighth of Richard II. this manor was divided into two moieties; one of which was held by John Done, the other by Reginald Grey, of the family of Lord Grey, of Ruthin .

THE manor and rectory of Torporley are now divided into six shares: four belong to the Ardens; one to the dean and chapter of Chester; and another to Philip Egerton ,⁹ Esquire, of Oulton .

THE living is a rectory, the advowson of which is divided into the same portions as the manor. The church is dedicated to St. Helen, the Empress of Constantius, the daughter of Coel, a British prince, a popular saint among us, if we may judge from the number of churches under her protection. That in question is of no great antiquity, in respect to the building; nor has it any beauty. Within is much waste of good marble, in monumental vanity.

THE best are two monuments in the chancel, seemingly copied from half-length portraits. Two figures in mezzo relievo are included in carved borders of marble, in imitation of frames: that of Sir John Done, Knight, hereditary forester and keeper of the forest of Delamere, who died in 1629, is picturesque. He is represented in a laced jacket, and with a horn in his hand, the badge of his office: which horn descended to the different owners of the estate, and is now in the possession of John Arden, Esquire.

WHEN that Nimrod, James I. made a progress in 1617, he was entertained by this gentleman at Utkinton; "who ordered so wisely and contentfully," says King ,¹⁰ "his Highness's sports, that James conferred on him the honor of knighthood." He married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Wilbraham, Esquire, of Woodhey; who left behind her so admirable a character, that, to this day, when a Cheshire man would express some excellency in one of the fair sex, he would say, "There is Lady DONE for you."

THE other figure is of John Crew, Esquire, second son of Sir Randle Crew, of Crew, Knight, married to Mary, daughter of Sir John Done. His face is represented in profile, with long hair. He died 1670.

His lady, and her elder sister Jane Done, an antient virgin, lie at full length in the Utkinton chapel, with long and excellent characters. One lies recumbent; the other reclined and strait laced, which gives little grace in statuary. Jane died in 1662; Mrs. Crew, in 1690, aged 86.

SIR John Crew, Knight, son of Mr. John Crew, lies reclined on an altar-tomb, with a vast perriwig, and a Roman dress, with a whimpering genius at his head and feet. Sir John manned, first, Mary, daughter of Thomas Wagstaff, of Tachbrook, in Warwickshire, Esquire; and secondly, Mary, daughter of Sir Willughby Aston, ofAston, Baronet. He died in 1711, aged 71.

I MUST not quit this place without letting fall a few tears, as a tribute to the memory of its honest rector John Allen; whose antiquarian knowlege and hospitality, I have often experienced on this great thoroughfare to the capital. From the antient rectorial house, at the bottom of the town, is an aweful view of the great rock of Beeston, backed by the Peckfreton hills, tempting me to take a nearer survey.

THE distance is about two miles. In my way I crossed the canal at Beeston Bridge, and called at the poor remains of Beeston Hall, the manor-house, inhabited by the agent for the estate. This place was burnt by prince Rupert, during the civil wars. There is a tradition, that he had dined that day with the lady of the house. After dinner, he told her, that he was sorry that he was obliged to make so bad a return for her hospitality; advised her to secure any valuable effects she had, for he must order the house to be burnt that night, lest it should be garrisoned by the enemy.

THIS manor had been part of the barony of Malpas, and was held under the lords, by the family of De Bunbury; who changed their Norman name, St. Pierre, and assumed that of the place where they first settled.

IN 1271, or the fifty-sixth of Henry III. Henry de Bunbury, and Margery his wife, gave it to their nephew Richard, who made the place his residence, and assumed its name. It continued in his family for many generations. Sir George Beeston possessed it in the forty-fourth of Queen Elizabeth. At length, by the marriage of Margaret, daughter of Sir Hugh Beeston, with William Whitemore, of Leighton, it was conveyed into that house; and as suddenly transferred, by Bridget, heiress of Mr. Whitemore, to Darcie Savage, second son to Thomas Viscount Savage, of Rock Savage; whose grand-daughter, another Bridget, brought it by marriage to Sir Thomas Mostyn, Baronet, with the lordships of Peckfreton, Leighton, and Thornton; in whose house they still remain. This lady was a Roman Catholic. Tradition is warm in her praise, and full of her domestic virtues, and the particular attention that she shewed in obliging her domestics, of each religion, to attend their respective churches. Her husband and she 'were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided': they died within a day or two of each other, at Gloddaeth, in Caernarvonshire, and were interred in the neighboring church of Eglwys Rhos .

AT a small distance from the hall, is the great insulated rock of Beeston, composed of sand-stone, very lofty and precipitous at one end, and sloped down into the flat country at the other. Its height, from Beeston Bridge to the summit, is three hundred and sixty-six feet. From the summit is a most extensive view on every side, except where interrupted by the Peckfreton hills. The land appears deeply indented by the estuaries of the Dee and Mersey, and the canal from Chester appears a continued slender line of water from that city to almost the base of this eminence. To this place its utility has been proved to all the market-women of the neighboring farmers, who have the benefit of Trech-schuyts to convey their merchandize to their capital: a few coals also come up, and a little timber; and these form the sum of their present commerce.

THIS rock is crowned with the ruins of a strong fortress, which rose in the year 1220; founded by Randle Blondeville, earl of Chester, on his return out of the Holy Land; for which purpose, and for the building of Chartley Castle, he raised a tax upon all his estates'.¹¹ At that time it belonged to the lords of the manor of Beeston; from whom he obtained leave to erect his castle. It devolved afterwards to the crown; for, according to Erdeswick ,¹² Sir Hugh Beeston purchased it from Queen Elizabeth, and restored it to his lordship.

IT had been a place of very great strength. The access, about midway of the slope, was defended by a great gateway, and a strong wall fortified with round towers, which ran from one edge of the precipice to the other, across the slope; but never surrounded the hill, as is most erroneously represented in the old print. Some of the walls, and about six or seven rounders, still exist. A square tower, part of the gateway, is also standing. Within this cincture is a large area, perhaps four or five acres in extent. Near the top is the castle, defended, on this side, by an amazing ditch, cut out of the live rock; on the other, by the abrupt precipice that hangs over the vale of Cheshire .

THE entrance is through a noble gateway, guarded on each side by a great rounder, whose walls are of a prodigious thickness. Within the yard is a rectangular building, the chapel of the place. The draw-well was of a most surprising depth; being sunk through the higher part of the rock, to the level of Beeston brook, that runs beneath! In the area just mentioned, was another well: both at this time are filled up; but King remembered the first to have been eighty, the other ninety-one, yards deep, although the last is said to have been half filled with stones and rubbish.¹³

WE are quite unacquainted with the events that befel this strong hold, for several centuries after its foundation. Stow ¹⁴ says, that Richard II. lodged here his great treasures during his expedition into Ireland, and garrisoned it with an hundred men of arms, chosen and able; who, on the approach of Henry duke of Lancaster, yielded it to the usurper. But other historians assert, that his treasures were placed in the castle of Holt .

THE fortress certainly fell into decay soon after this reign; for Leland, in his poem on the birth of Edward VI. speaks of it as in ruin, when he makes Fame to alight on its summit, and foretell its restoration.—

Explicuit dehinc FAMA suas perniciter alas,
Altaque fulminei petiit Jovis atria victrix,
Circuiens liquidi spatiosa volumina coeli.
Turn quoque despexit terram, sublimis, ocellos
Sidereos figens Bisduni in moenia castri, &c.
Thence to Jore's palace she prepar'd to fly
With out-stretch'd pinions through the yielding sky;
Wide o'er the circuit of the ample space,
Survey'd the subject earth and human race.
Sublime in air she cast her radiant eyes,
Where far-fam'd Beeston's airy turrets rise:
High on a rock it stood, whence all around
Each fruitful valley, and each rising ground,
In beauteous prospect lay; these scenes to view.
Descending swift, the wondering goddess flew.
Perch'd on the topmost pinnacle, she shook
Her sounding plumes, and thus in rapture spoke:
"From Syrian climes the conquering Randolph came,
"Whose well-fought fields bear record of his name.
"To guard his country, and to check his foes,
"By Randolph's hands this glorious fabric rose:
"Though now in ruin'd heaps thy bulwarks lie,
"Revolving time shall raise those bulwarks high,
"If faith to antient prophecies be due;
"Then Edward shall thy pristine state renew."     R. W.

The castle was restored to its former strength, between the days of Leland and the sad contentions betwixt the king and parlement, in the time of Charles I. It was first possessed by the parlement; but on the 13th of September 1643, was taken by the royalists, under the famous partizan Captain Sandford; who scaled the steep sides of the rock, and took it by surprize.¹⁵ Steel, the governor, was suspected of treachery, tried, and shot to death.

THE parlement made a vigorous attempt to recover a place of such importance, and besieged it for seventeen weeks: during which time it was gallantly defended by Captain Valet. At length, on the approach of prince Rupert, the enemy abandoned the attack, on the 18th of March 1644.¹⁶

IN the following year it was taken, after a most vigorous defence of eighteen weeks. The defendants were reduced to the necessity of eating cats, &c. when the brave Colonel Ballard, out of mere compassion to the poor remains of his garrison, consented to beat a parley, and obtained the most honorable conditions, far beyond what would be expected in such extremity; viz. to march out, the governor and officers with their horses and arms, and their own proper goods (which loaded two waggons); the common soldiers with colors flying, drums beating, matches alight, a proportion of cannon and ball, and a convoy to guard them to Flint Castle. On Sunday, the 16th of March, he surrendered the castle to Sir William Brereton, and, according to articles, marched out with his men, now reduced to about sixty.¹⁷ The fortress soon after underwent the fate of the other seats of loyalty.

FROM Beeston Castle I continued my journey about two miles to Bunbury; a village, and the seat of the parish church. This was the Boliberie of Doomsday Book; which, with several neighboring places in the antient hundred of Riseton, now comprehended in that of Ledesbury, were possessed by Robert Fitzhugh. The family who assumed the name of the place, held it under him and his successors, till, Humphrey dying without issue, his sisters, Ameria and Joan, became co-heiresses. Ameria's share came to the Patricks, and from them to the St. Piers. At length, Isabel, daughter and heiress of Uriam St. Pier, brought it by marriage to Sir Walter Cokesey; who sold his share of the advowson of the church to the famous Sir Hugh de Calvely. Joan's moiety came to her son Alexander, who still continued the name De Bunbury. Sir Hugh de Calvely obtaining likewise the other share of the church, erected here a college for a master and six chaplains; for which purpose he obtained licence, dated March 12th, 1386, from Richard II. on paying to the king the sum of forty pounds. It was instituted for the good state of the King and of Sir Hugh, as long as they lived; and on their death, for the souls of them and their progenitors, and those of all the faithful.¹⁸ Its revenue was an hundred marks, but at the dissolution, was 48l. 2s. 8d. when the foundation consisted of a dean, five vicars, and two choristers.

IN the fourteenth of Queen Elizabeth it was purchased of the crown by Thomas Aldersey, of London, merchant-taylor, a second son of the house of Spurstow, in this parish. Here he founded a preacher's place, of 100 marks a year, with a good house and glebe; an assistant or curate, with 20l. a year; the other for an usher,¹⁹ with 10l.; ten pounds a year to the poor; and several other charitable gifts. The disposal of the places here are in the haberdashers' company, London .²⁰

IN respect to the succession of the manor, Sir Thomas Cokesey, in the latter end of the reign of Henry VII. having no issue, alienated his share to the Bunburies, In the thirty-second of Henry VIII. Richard Bunbury was lord of the manor; from whom the family of the Bunburies of Stanny, in Wirral, and the present Sir Charles, is lineally descended.

THE church is a handsome building, embattled, and the tower ornamented with pinnacles. The architecture seems of the time of Henry VII. It is dedicated to St. Boniface; from whom the place takes its name. Whether the patron was Boniface, an Englishman, first archbishop of Mentz, who died in 754, or Pope Boniface the First, who died in 423, I cannot determine; for both received their apotheosis .

THE church is distinguished by the magnificent tomb of Sir Hugh de Calvely, whose effigies in white marble lies on it recumbent. He is armed in the fashion of the times; and, to give an idea of his vast prowess, his figure is represented seven feet and a half long. He was the Arthur of Cheshire; the glory of the county: accordingly the most prodigious feats are recorded of him. Whether, like Milo, he could kill a bull with a blow of his fist, is not said; but our ballads give Sir Hugh no more than the honor of devouring a calf at a meal. His head rests on a helmet, with a calf's head for the crest, allusive to his name; yet probably gave rise to the fable.

SIR Hugh sprung from a neighboring hamlet (of which I shall have occasion to speak) from whence he took his surname. According to the cast of the times, he sought adventures in the military line; and, like a soldier of fortune, first appeared a principal commander of the Grandes Compagnies, Tard venus, or Malandrins, a species of banditti, formed out of the disbanded soldiery of different nations. On the captivity of king John, at the battle of Poitiers, they amounted at least to above forty thousand veteran troops. They lived upon plunder; yet were ready to join the side most adverse to France. At the battle of Auray, in 1364, Sir Hugh ²¹ served with a considerable body of them, under the English general, Lord Chandos; and had the honor of turning the fortune of the day, in which was taken the great De Gueselin .

IN 1366, Sir Hugh was won over by that illustrious general (again at the head of the armies of France), to join him in an expedition into Spain, to dethrone Peter the Cruel, king of Castile. The enterprize was successful; but, on the express command of Edward III. to Lord Chandos, Sir Hugh de Calvely, and others of his subjects, leaders of the companies, to forbear hostilities²² against Peter, they deserted the quarrel they had espoused; and, on the appearance of the Black Prince in Spain, who, to his disgrace, took part with the tyrant, Sir Hugh, and a great body of the companies, joined him. The prince reinstated Peter on the throne, after the great victory of Najara over his rival Henry of Trastamare; to which the bravery of Sir Hugh and his troops highly contributed. On the recall of the Black Prince, by his father, in 1367, Sir Hugh was left commander of the companies. History gives him a royal consort, in reward of his valour, and marries him to the queen of Arragon. If at this period, he took a most antiquated piece of royalty; for I can find no other dowager of that kingdom, unless Leonora, relict of Alonso IV. who became a widow in 1335, was then alive. There was no issue by this match;²³ but by his second wife,²⁴ heiress to Mottram Lord of Mottram, his line was continued.

IN 1376, the last year of Edward III. he was appointed to the important government of Calais .²⁵ In 1378, he plundered and burnt Boulogne, with several vessels which lay in the harbour: he also retook the castle of Mark, lost before by neglect. In 1379, he resigned the place to the earl of Salusbury, and was appointed by Richard II. admiral of his fleet.²⁶

IN 1382, we find him governor of Guernsey, and the adjacent isles. The last mention we find of him, is in a cause that was to be determined in 1388;²⁷ after which, history is silent in respect to this hero. Fuller remarks,"It was as impossible for such a spirit not to be, as not to be active." Probably old-age might subdue his enterprizing soul; for I find that he lived to the reign of Henry IV;²⁸ but mention is made of the weak state of his body in Rymer's record of the cause.²⁹

THIS tomb is kept always very neat; which is owing to the piety of Dame Mary Calvely, of Lea, who, in 1705, left the interest of an hundred pounds, to be distributed annually among certain poor of this parish, on condition they attended divine service while they were able, and swept the chancel, and cleaned the monument.

THE Ridley chapel, founded in 1527, belonging to the Egertons of Ridley, is separated from the church by a wood-work skreen, painted. This had been their place of interment; but nothing monumental remains, except the impression of a plate of a kneeling man, against one of the walls.

IN the chancel is a recumbent figure of Sir George Beeston, who died in 1600. This monument was erected by his son Sir Hugh, the last male of this antient line; who for some time survived his only son George .³⁰

AT a small distance from Bunbury, I fell into the great road, opposite to Alpram, a hamlet, whose name is corrupted from the Saxon Alburgham, in the Doomsday Book. In after-times it was the seat of the Pages, now extinct.

A LITTLE farther lies Calvely, long the property of that illustrious family, now likewise lost. The place was bestowed on a Hugh, by Richard Vernon, Baron of Shipbrook, about the time of Richard I. In Edward the III.'s time, it came to the Davenports, by the marriage of Arthur to Catharine, daughter and heiress of Robert de Calvely: in which family it has continued till the present time.³¹

MY road lay along the low unpleasant lane that led towards Nantwich; the prospect frequently deformed by the great fosses of the unfortunate canal,³² falling in on each side of the road; for it crosses at Barbridge, and is finished from thence to Nantwich. This was only a secondary consideration, executed on the hopes of considerable profit in the carriage of salt and cheese. The original and principal object was, to continue the main trunk by Church Minshul to the great Staffordshire canal, near Middlewich, and by that means share in the freight of the goods of the opposite side of the kingdom: but various causes have frustrated all hopes of that benefit; and this part of the plan remains unattempted.

---

¹ Engraven in Moses Griffith's Supplemental Plates to the Tours in Wales, tab. X.

² Tanner, 65.

³ Criminals are now executed by the new city gaol, which has been erected near the infirmary.

⁴ Dugdale, Mon. i. 201.

⁵ Judge BLACKSTONE.

⁶ Leicester, 333.

⁷ On Mr. Brock's decease, the manor devolved on his nephew John Brock Wood, Esq. ED.

⁸ Anglia Sacra, i. 446.

⁹ His son John Egerton, Esquire, is the present proprietor. ED.

¹⁰ Vale Royal, ii. 106.

¹¹ Polychronicon, cccvi.

¹² Polychronicon, cccvi.

¹³ Vale Royal, iii.

¹⁴ Annals, 321.

¹⁵ Genethliacon Eaduardi Pr. Walliae, L. 749.

¹⁶ MS. account. Mr. Grose, article Beeston.

¹⁷ Rushworth, vol. i. part 4. p. 136.

¹⁸ Dugdale Monast. iii. part 2, p. 107.

¹⁹ A schoolmaster, with 20l. a year.

²⁰ King's Vale Royal, ii. 104, 105.

²¹ Froissart, i. ch. ccxxvi.

²² Rymer, vi. 480.

²³ Salusbury Pedigrees, 72.

²⁴ Mess^rs Lysons, in their account of Cheshire, p. 544, produce arguments to shew that Sir Hugh Calvely was never married, and that the line was continued from his brother David, who espoused the heiress of Mottram. ED.

²⁵ Hist. Calais, ii. 55.

²⁶ Rymer, vii. 223.

²⁷ Rymer, vii. 576.

²⁸ Two visitations of Cheshire, &c. MSS. in my possession: one in 1566; the other in 1580.

²⁹ This satisfies me that his royal consort was not Sybilla Portia, relict of Pedro, fourth king of Arragon, who lost her spouse in 1388; as was suggested to me by a most ingenious friend.

³⁰ He died in 1640.

³¹ Calvely is now vested in John Bromley, Esq. who married the eldest daughter, and co-heiress, of Richard Davenport, Esq. deceased in 1771. ED.

³² A branch of the Ellesmere canal, which unites the Severn and the Dee, now falls into it between Tarporley and Nantwich, and occasions some commercial intercourse. ED.

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