Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/602

 

Oats. Wheat. bailey, Beans &c. Turnips vetches. Gl!lss Potatoes. and CMTOto,*C under Mangolds. t - anots ^ lotation 10,072 20,921 10,001 2,501 64,769 9,325 18,770 11,054 1,862 57,400 1872.. 46,446 34,195 1875. ..44,908 30,745

Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Tigs. 1872.. .18,818 155,654 108,377 67,379 18/5 20,499 162,466 111,330 61,209

In the latter year there were 84,981 acres under corn crops, and 31,686 under green crops, both showing a de crease as compared with 1872.

The county is intersected by railways in every direction. At Crewe the London and North-Western Railway divides into three sections, and takes its passengers or goods to Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, and the North. From Stockport and Manchester the Cheshire lines run into the centre of the county and across Delamere Forest to Chester ; and there are lines from Chester to Birkenhead, to Manchester, to Shrewsbury, and into the different parts of North and South "Wales.

The canals, too, still convey goods from Runcorn and Ellesmere-port to the Staffordshire potteries, and afford means of communication between Manchester, Liverpool, and the interior of the county.

The principal towns are Chester, Birkenhead, Maccles- field, Stockport, Northwich, Crewe, and Congleton. At Stockport the manufacture of hats and cotton is carried on, and Macclestield and Congleton are the seats of the silk manufacture. At Crewe are situated the great work shops of the London and North Western Railway, and round the station, where in 1841 there was a wooden box to take the tickets and one solitary farmhouse, there is now crowded a population of nearly 30,000 inhabitants. The trade of Northwich and Winsford is the manufacture of salt, by the evaporation of the water from the brine. During the year 1875 it is calculated that 1,500,000 tons of salt were produced, of which 1,000,000 were for export, 350,000 for chemical works, 100,000 for agricultural purposes, and 50,000 for domestic use. In that year there were in Cheshire 1261 salt-pans, employing over 3000 men. About 150 men are engaged in rock-salt mining, and the carriage of salt on the Mersey and Weaver employs at least 1000 men and 500 boys. Steamers are now largely employed in the inland navigation, between thirty and forty being engaged in the carrying trade.

Besides being in part a manufacturing and in part a purely agricultural county, Cheshire, more perhaps than any place except the districts round the metropolis, is the home of business men. The manufacturers of Manchester, the merchants of Liverpool, the gentlemen employed in the pottery trade, all have their villas here. At Alderley and Bowdon near Manchester, in the Wirrall hundred on the banks of the Mersey, at Alsager on the Staffordshire border, are to be found congeries of the dwellings of rich men, which vie in their appointments and surroundings with the houses of the great landowners of the county. Perhaps no stronger proof can be given of this fact than that, in the return lately furnished to the House of Commons of a summary of the returns of owners of land, the number of properties between 1 acre and 10 is reported to be 3166 out of a total number of 23,720, add the average rental per acre is ,24, 13s. These proportions are in the whole return for England and Wales exceeded only in the ex-metropolitan parts of Surrey and Middlesex, and in the mining and manufacturing counties of Lancashire and Glamorganshire.

Cheshire is emphatically a county full of large estates. In the return just quoted may be found the fact that the rental of estates between 5000 and 10,000 acres amount to 20 4 of the total value of the county, a larger percentage than in any English county save one. Of the owners of more than 10,000 acres Lord Tollemache of Helmingham owns 25,380; the marquis of Cholmondeley, 16,842; the duke of Westminster, 15,001 ; Sir Henry Delves Broughton, 13,832 ; the Rev. T. France Hayhurst, 10,650; and Lord Crewe, 10,148 ; whilst Lord Egerton of Tatton, Lord Harrington, Lord Stamford and Warrington, Lord Derby, Sir P. D. M. Grey Egtrton, Lord Haddington, Lord De Tabley, Lord Delamere, Lord Stanley of Alderley, Lord Kilmorey, Lord Shrewsbury, Mr Legh of Lyme, Mr Leigh of Adlington, Mr R. E. Warburton, Sir Charles Shakerley, and Mr Bromley Davenport make up the seventeen who are returned as owning between 5000 and 10,000 acres each. This list of landowners is composed of men whose names, with one exception, are historic in Cheshire, so small, spite of the neighbourhood of Liverpool and Manchester, have been the transfers of the large estates from their original owners to the capitalists of the present day.

For parliamentary representation the county is divided into East, West, and Mid Cheshire, each of the three sections returning two members to the House of Commons. In East Cheshire the registered electors in 1876 were 6,587 ; in Mid Cheshire, 8241 ; and in West Cheshire, 10,178. There are besides represented within the county the boroughs of Macclesfield and Birkenhead, part of the city of Chester, the limits of which extend into Wales, and parts of the boroughs of Warrington, Stockport, Ashton-under-Lyne, and Stalybridge, all of which extend more or less into Lancashire. There is one court of quarter sessions in the county, which holds its meetings alternately at Chester and Knutsford, and is adjourned from one place to the other for the trial of prisoners at intermediate sessions, The rateable value of the county as assessed to the county rates is 2,690,701.

Perhaps no county has advanced more in material prosperity than Cheshire has in the last half-century. In none have more places of public worship, both of the Church of England and of the various Nonconformist bodies, been erected. In none have more schools been built. The wages of the agricultural labourers are high ; and from the ranks of that body has the army of engineers, porters, and high-class artificers, who are employed in the manufacturing districts and at Crewe, been largely recruited. Yet still the county is cursed with the sin of drunkenness, and with the evil consequences of that sin, in a fearful degree. Whilst serious crime has decreased steadily there has been an increase of all the light offences.

The history of Cheshire is intimately connected with that of the city of Chester. In the time of King Alfred the pre sent county formed part of the province of Mercia, but it was afterwards separated, and by William the Conqueror it was constituted a county-palatine. William bestowed the earldom on his nephew Hugo Lupus, and the title has belonged since then to the heir-apparent of the English Crown. The palatinate privileges existed intact until the reign of Henry VIII., when they were much curtailed in favour of the Crown, and after the Civil War of the Com monwealth they were almost wholly removed. The county was first represented in Parliament during the reign of Edward VI.

Two Roman roads traversed Cheshire, the north-west branch of Watling Street, running from Chester through Northwicb to Stratford, where it crossed the Mersey into Lancashire, and the Via Devana which entered from Salop and extended to Chester. Many handsome and interesting mansions exist in the county, some of them being admirable specimens of Elizabethan architecture. Among the most noteworthy may be mentioned Bramall Hall near Stock- port, Brereton Hall near Sandbach, Crewe Hall, the seat of Lord Crewe, and Eaton Hall, the seat of the duke of Westminster.

(g. w. l.)

CHESNE, André du. See Duchesne.