Besides the Weaver navigation, the county of Cheshire is intersected by portions of four canals, which afford the means of a very constant and cheap intercourse of traffic between the towns of Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, the north of England, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and other counties. For forming the Chester canal, after a previous unsuccessful application, an act of parliament was obtained in 1772, with this singular restriction, that the intended canal should not unite or communicate with the Staffordshire canal at liddlewich. It commences at the river Dee, on the north side of Chester, and passing Christi ton, Waverton, Hargrave, and the north of Bees ton castle, proceeds thence to Nantwich. The branch of the Duke of Bridgewater's canal, which runs through about 20 miles of this county, enters it to the east of Ashton, leaving it again at Runcorn Gap, where it flows into the Mersey. The act for forming this navigation was obtained in 1761 ; and the whole of it, to the extent of 29 miles, was completed in five years. It has been carried across the Mersey, near Ashton, by an aqueduct bridge ; and farther to the west it crosses the Boffin, which running in a tract of low meadows, a mound of earth was raised over this valley to a length, breadth, and height truly stupendous. By these means the water is kept on a level to its egress at Runcorn, where it is pre cipitately lowered 95 feet by a series of locks of admira ble construction. Previously to the formation of this canal, the river navigation from Manchester to Liver pool was 12 shillings per ton, and land carriage 40 shil lings ; but the rate of conveyance by the canal is only six shillings per ton. Besides the numerous barges which ply here for the carriage of commercial articles, boats on the model of the Dutch treckschuyts have been con structed for the accommodation of passengers, which afford the means of a very cheap and pleasant intercourse between Liverpool and Manchester, and the intervening places. The Grand Trunk canal branches off from the Duke of Bridgewater's at Preston-Brook, and passing Northwich and Middlewich, leaves the county on the south side at Church Lawton. At Preston-on-the-Hill it passes through a tunnel 1241 yards long, 17 feet 4 inches in height, and 13 feet 6 inches wide. A portion of the Ellesmere canal also crosses the western corner of this county, entering it at Pafford ; and after uniting with the Dee at Chester, crosses the hundred of Wit ral for about 9 miles, and then joins the Mersey, thus open ing a short and easy passage between Chester and Liver pool.
Besides the several rivers, more or less considerable, which flow through the county of Cheshire, and the canals formed in it, it abounds also with broad sheets of water, denominated metes, lakes, and pools. The prin cipal of these are Oak-mere. Rosthern-mere, Mere-mere, Tatton-mcrc, Comber-mere, Broad-mere, and Bag-mere, Petty-pool, Rookery-pool, and Ridley-pooi. Most of these waters abound with fish. There occurs a!so with in the county a sprinp. of mineral water. This is situat ed in the vicinity of Stockport, and seems to flow il0311 a coal-mine or a bed of iron-stone. Some years ago, when it was first discovered, it was much frequented, as being supposed to afford a remedy for weak eyes some other disorders. In consequence, however, of au ill founded prejudice which has since arisen against it, that it occasioned jaundice, it has now been in a great mea sure altogether abandoned, and has been not less cried down and reviled than it had previously been held in esti mation.
In the county of Cheshire there occur various exam ples of the most sublime and splendid scenery, as well as numerous brilliant prospects. About two miles south ward of Tarporlev, a small but pleasant town in this dis trict, rises the great insulated rock of Beeston, which is composed of sandstone, is very precipitous on the one side, and on the other slopes gradually downward to the general level of the country. It is nearly 366 feet in height, and commands a very extensive and pleasing view of Chester, and of a great portion of the surrounding country. On the west of this rock are the stately ruins of the far-famed Beesten castle, erected in 1220, by Randle Biundeville, Earl of Chester, w hich enclosed a space of from four to five acres, and was once proverbial for its almost impregnable strength. The Car Tor, in the vicinity of Mettram, is a very singular precipice of the perpendicular height of about 80 feet, and covered over the summit and sides with oak trees. From its top vast rocks arc pendant, which seem to threaten every thing beneath with destruction. The face of the preci pice exhibits various strata of rock, coal, or slaty matter, and free-stone, all disposed with considerable regularity, while between it and the opposite and well-wooded hills of Derbyshire, the Mersey, hurrying along its craggy bed, contributes greatly to the grandeur of the contigu ous scenery. Weston, in the neighbourhood of the same river, where it joins with the Weaver, is a retired and consequently little noticed, yet really a very beautiful village, environed with several of the most striking fea tures of a luxuriant and highly pleasing natural combina tion of images and prospects. The Dee, the ether great river of this county, is not less without its share of similar embellishment ; and it may have been owing, not less perhaps to this circumstance, than to the opinion enter tained as to the sacred and purify ing nature of its waters, that this river was held in so great veneration as we know it to have been by our British ancestors.
Cheshire contains a great number of considerable towns and villages.* It is also agreeably diversified by the occurrence here and there of a fair proportion of gentle men's seats, of every degree of antiquity, as well as con nected with every variety, as to degrees of wealth and disposition of mind in the proprietors, and consequently varying themselves in an equal degree as to magnifi cence, taste, and decorations. The county may also claim to its full share in the vestiges of an ancient con sequence, whether more recent or more remote, foreign or domestic, as well as both of a more general and of a more local nature. While it continued subject to the Romans, this county was included by that people in the dixision of the country which they yarned Phyla C caoari enois. Kinderton, in the vicinity of Middlewich, accord ing to the investigation cf Mr Whitaker, appears to have been the Condate of that people; and various other mo numents occur in different parts of the county, indicative of its being held in possession at one period by this race of conquerors. OA the tiara! departure of that people from the island, it. with the rest of the country, reverted of course to the Britons, xyho continued to possess it till about the year 607, when it was conquered by Ethelfrcth the Saxon king of Bernicia, who defeated the army of Brochmael Yocithroc, king of Powys, near Chester. On
this occasion, Ethelfreth is said to have slain 1200 de fenceless monks, whom Brochmael had called from the neighbouring monastery of Bangor, and stationed on a hill in the vicinity, that they might assist him with their prayers. It was afterwards wrested from Bernicia by the Mcrcians, and continued a part of their kingdom till the reign of Egbcrt, who united it with the other Saxon states under one government. Alfred divided the coun ty into seven hundreds, exclusive of Chester, which is a county in itself. Canute the Dane, who obtained this division of the kingdom by his famous partition treaty with Edmund Ironside, invested the administration of this county in the earls of Chester, three of whom en joyed that dignity prior to the conquest ; Leofric the son of Leofwin ; Algal- his son; and Edwin son of the latter, in whom ended the race of the Cheshire earls of Saxon blood. On the conquest, the provinces of Britain, which had hitherto been governed by a few great men, were divided into lesser portions, and distributed as rewards among the followers of the Norman king. Cheshire was bestowed on Gherbot, a valiant Fleming, and after him on Hugh de Aurange, Letter known by the name of Hugh Lupus. To him the monarch delegated a ful ness of power, made this a county palatine, and gave it such a sovereign jurisdiction, that the ancient earls kept their own parliaments, and had their own courts of law, in which any offence against the dignity of the sword of Chester, was as cognizable as the like offence would have been at Westminster against the dignity of the royal crown ; for William allowed Lupus to hold this county tarn !there ad eadium, sicut ifise rex tenebat .4nglianz ad coronam. The sword with which he was invested for this purpose, is still to be seen in the British Museum, inscribed, Hugo conies Cestrix. As soon as Lupus was firmly established, he began to exert his regal preroga tives, forming his parliament by the creation of 8 barons, who were obliged to pay him attendance, and, with a view to giving it greater dignity, to repair to his court. They were bound, in all wars between this county and 'ales, to find, for every knight's fee, a horse with ca parison and furniture, or two without furniture, for the division of Cheshire. Their knights and freeholders were to have corselets and habcrgeons, and were to defend their lands with their own bodies. Every baron had also four esquires, every esquire one gentleman, and every gentleman one valet. Each of these barons had moreover his free court of all pleas and suits, and all plaints, ex cept what belonged to the earl's sword. They had even the power of life and death ; the last instance of the ex ertion of which was in the person of Hugh Stringer, who was tried for murder in the baron of Kinderton's court, and executed in 1597. This species of government con tinued from the conquest till the reign of Henry III., a period of 171 years, when in 1237, on the death of John Scot, the seventh earl of the Norman line, without male issue, Henry took the earldom into his own hands, and gave the daughters of the late earl other lands in room of them, being unwilling, as he said, that so great an inheri tance should be parcelled out among distaffs. The king bestowed the county on his own son Edward, who did not assume the title, but afterwards conferred it on his son Edward of Caernarvon. Since that time, the eldest suns of the kings of England have always been earls of Chester, as well as princes of Wales. The palatinate was governed by the earls of Chester as fully and inde pendently, for nearly three centuries after this period, as it had ever been by the Norman earls ; but Henry VIII., by authority of parliament, made it subordinate to the crown of England. Yet notwithstanding this restraint, all pleas of lands and tenements, and all contracts within the county, are to be heard and determined in it ; and all determinations out of it are deemed void, et coram non judice, except in case of errer, foreign plea, and foreign voucher ; and for no crime but treason can an inhabitant of this county be compelled to he tried out of it. Thus being solely under the jurisdiction of its own earls, and considered in a certain degree as a separate kingdom, representatives to the national parliament were never sent, either for the shire or city, till the year 1549, the third of Edward VI., when, upon the petition of the in habitants, two members were summoned from each. This practice has accordingly been continued, and Cheshire returns four members to parliament, viz. two for the shire, and two for the city of Chester. It pays 7 parts of the land tax, and furnishes the militia with 560 men. Within the diocese of Chester are comprehended not only all Cheshire and Lancashire, but various parts also of Westmoreland, Cumberland, Yorkshire, Den bighshire, and Flintshire. This diocese is divided into two archdeaconries.
Cheshire contains various curiosities in the depart ments both of nature and of art. In the library of Vale Royal Abbey, the residence of an ancient family, situated near the centre of the county, there is preserved a very choice rarity, viz. a collection of writings called the Pro phecies of Nixon, the famous Cheshire prophet, with respect to whom a pamphlet was published some time ago at Chester, purporting to contain his original predic tions, and giving some account of his life. In the regis ter of the church of Frodsham, there occur two remarka ble instances of longevity : On March 13th 1592, Tho mas Hough was buried at the great age of 141 ; and, on the succeeding day, Randle Wall, aged 103. What is more deserving of notice, is a singular instance that is on record of the versatility of nature, as displayed in the per son of a native of this county named Mai y Davis, who was born at Great Anglian near Chester, about the year 1598. At the age of 28, a wen-like excrescence appeared above her ear on the right side of the head, and after 32 years continuance grew into 2 horns, which remained for 5 years, and were then shed. These were succeeded by 2 new ones, which, about 4 years from their first appear ance, were also cast, and their places occupied by two others. Several portraits were made of this woman when upwards of 70 years of age, one of which is now in the British, and another in the Ashmolean museum. In the latter collection one of her horns is preserved. In 1679, when more than 80 years old, she was exhibited in London.
The following statistical abstract for Cheshire is taken from the recent population return for 1811.
See Gower's Sketches towards a History of Cheshire. Leigh's .Natural History of Lancashire and Cheshire. Holland's Survey of Cheshire. Beauties of England and Wales, vol. ii. p. 183 ; and Transactions of the Geological Socrety, vol. i. (K)