The favourable reception accorded both by the Public and the Press to a former work—Nooks and Corners of Lancashire and Cheshire—has encouraged the Author to prepare the present volume, which is issued with the hope that it may be found not less worthy of acceptance. Like the one which preceded it, it illustrates, in a certain degree, the history and romance of the two Palatine counties, the Author's aim having been to give to particular localities an individuality and freshness, by presenting in an entertaining and popular form the "sites" of remarkable scenes and incidents of bygone days. "England," says a well-known writer, "is pre-eminently the country (compared with the rest of Europe) in which the monuments that embody historical associations, and link the present with a far-reaching past are most thickly strewn;" and in Lancashire and Cheshire the soil is plentifully studded with the memorials of ancient days, that stand out in refreshing and instructive relief among the crowding evidences of modern power and civilisation—places hallowed by associations and as the homes of those whose memories we would not willingly let die, and scenes that are identified with much of the history, tradition and romance of the centuries that are gone. No pretention is made to what is commonly called the dignity of history, which usually means the placing of important personages and great events in prominent relief without regard to minor incidents or the relations the figures in the background bear to the occurrences recorded, the Author's purpose having been rather to combine with well-attested facts, topographical description, personal narrative and local legend, and to snatch from Oblivion's spoils the shadowy fragments of tradition that have floated down through centuries of time—things that the ordinary historian casts aside as unworthy of his notice, but which, though oftentimes inexact in detail, are generally founded upon a substratum of fact, and tend therefore to throw additional light on human thought and action in the past.

The agreeable duty remains for the Author to express his obligations to those friends who, by information communicated and in other ways, have aided him in his enterprise. His thanks are due to Miss Abraham, of Grassendale Park, Liverpool; the Rev. Edward J. Bell, M.A., Rector of Alderley; John Leigh, Esq., The Manor House, Hale; Thomas Helsby, Esq., Lincoln's Inn, the learned Editor of "Ormerod's Cheshire;" J. P. Earwaker, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., Pensarn, Abergele, the historian of East Cheshire; Thomas Middleton, Esq., Springfield, Adlington; Edward T. Cunliffe, Esq., the Parsonage, Handforth; Mr. John Owen, Mile End, Stockport; and Mr. D. Bennett, Shakspeare Terrace, Ardwick.

Upton Hall, Prestbury, Cheshire,
September, 1883.