Preston, can purchase any article exposed for sale; from nine, every thing is sold indiscriminately till one o'clock, when the market time closes, and before which hour, nothing must be withdrawn from the stalls unsold, except fish, which may be carried away in panniers as soon as the town is supplied. These regulations, so easily adopted at any other place, render Preston market the best in England. The chief manufacture is that of

cotton,

Every step that we proceeded from hence to Chorley, reminded us we were approaching the great focal point which gives life and extension to this most important branch of British manufactories, and which has thrown such wealth and population into this part of England, as to fill it for many miles round Manchester with palaces and population. Chorley itself has some great cotton works, and is rapidly increasing in riches and inhabitants. It is agreeably situated on the declivity of a hill whose foot is washed by the waters of the Yarrow, which wanders through banks extremely picturesque. As we proceeded to the south, we were reminded of our entrance upon the coal country by the frequent loads of this fossil which passed us upon the road. These consisted of various kinds of coal, but the species called the

Kennel or Cannel was entirely new to us. It is found in large quantities a little to the north of Wigan, and sold at the pit's mouth for 5d. per hundred weight, and at the canal quay at 7d. per hundred. Its colour is a jet black; and its solidity and consistence such as to endure the action of the lathe and the polishing wheel, which convert it into snuff-boxes and various toys. It is highly inflammable, and splits in any direction, always preserving a smooth surface, not marking the fingers; when stirred in the fire, it crackles violently and produces a bright flame; but if left to itself, consolidates and preserves a smothering combustion for many hours. The frequent carriage of coals, though the greater part be floated along the canals, assists in rendering the roads (paved with large cobblestones) about this country the worst in England. I say assists, because, the want of judgment in those who direct their repair, may be considered as the chief cause of their state; which is so execrable, as well to deserve Mr. Arthur Young's description of them: "I know not," says he, "in the whole range of language, terms sufficiently "expressive to describe their infernal roads. Any person would imagine the boobies of the coun

66

try had made them with a view to immediate "destruction; for the breadth is only sufficient

а

"for one carriage; consequently they are cut at "once into ruts, and you will easily conceive what "a breakdown, dislocating road, ruts cut through "a pavement must be. The pretence of wanting "materials, is but a mere pretence; for I remarked "several quarries of rock, sufficient to make miles "of excellent road. If they will pave, the breadth

ought to be such as will admit several carriages "abreast, or the inevitable consequence must be "the immediate cutting up. Tolls had better be "doubled, and even quadrupled, than such a nui66 sance to remain." An idea of the immense population of the country in the environs of Manchester burst upon our minds on a sudden, when we reached the summit of a hill about two miles without the town, where a prodigious champaign of country, was opened to us, watered by the river Irwell, filled with works of art; mansions, villages, manufactories, and that gigantic parent of the whole, the widely-spreading town of Manchester.

With a good fortune almost peculiar to itself, Manchester has had two historians both calculated to make the different accounts which they have given of it, perfect in their respective lines. In Mr. Whitaker's work we find all that erudition could effect towards rendering its ancient history, its origin and early revolutions, clear and consist

ent; and in Dr. Aikin's admirable "Description "of the Country from thirty to forty miles round "Manchester," we are presented with a still more interesting view of its modern state; the rise and progress of its trade and manufactures; its riches, and population. To these mines of information on this subject, you must have recourse, if dissatisfied with that very slight mention of Manchester, which the limits of my correspondence will allow. ginally a British town, it afterwards received a body of Roman legionaries, and had the name of

Ori

*The above passage had been written and sent to the printer, when by very accident, (for party libels and political abuse make no branch of my reading) the Anti-Jacobin Review for December 1801 came into my hands. It contains the last part of a long criticism upon my History of Bath, written (as I learn from indisputable authority) by this reverend gentleman. The petulant language, the indecent personalities, and, above all, the unsupported calumny of the work being tainted with Jacobinical principles, which disgrace these strictures, might perhaps, in the opinion of many, have justified me, had I withdrawn the humble tribute of praise bestowed above on the History of Manchester, and dwelt only on the obvious faults of this almost forgotten work; but the honours due to learning must not be witheld, because it is unaccompanied by good manners. Besides, I have been taught to return good for evil; and can respect and applaud the great extent of Mr. Whitaker's literary acquirements, at the same time that I lament his profession of Minister of the Gospel has not inspired him with evangelical charity; nor his intimate acquaintance with the elegant writings of polished antiquity taught him the language and behaviour of a gentleman.

Mancunium imposed upon it, which, in Saxon times, was changed for that of Mancastle. A removal of the inhabitants to a short distance from the first town taking place in 627, the new town was called Manchester; and increased in population and wealth till the Danish times, when it shared the fate of this part of the kingdom, and was nearly destroyed by the fierce and senseless conquerors. In the year 920, it was fortified, and shortly afterwards gifted with many feudal privileges; but though constantly increasing in dimensions and consideration, it never has been incorporated, and still continues with respect to political rights, in the confined sense of the word, nothing more than an immense village. Its streets are, for the most part, spacious and healthy, its houses large, handsome, and uniform; and its manufactories upon a scale of grandeur, which no other place can excel, or perhaps equal. The chief architectural beauty of the town is a Gothic one, the noble pile called the Old or Christ's Church, built in the reign of Henry V. decorated with the most florid ornaments of that style of building, both within and without. Adjoining to this pile is the College, founded originally by Thomas Lord Delawar, in 1422, for a warden and eight fellows, two clerks and six choristers. This, however, was dissolved by the act of Edward VI.