that an appropriation to the uses of war, either traditional, or demonstrated by relics, occasioned the attraction of the edi fices of the lords of the places to their present sites.

A remark, upon the application of the name of the Mersey to the river in this district, is necessary here to be introduced. Common repute does not give it this distinction, until its confluence with the Tame, near Stockport. Thus the plain between Marple and Stockport, near Bredbury, is called Goit vale. The authority of a deed, transcribed into Mr. Watson's Memoirs of the ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey, and said to be in the possession of Thomas Isherwood Esq., of Marple hall, warrants, however, the adoption of this title in the present tract, at the æstuary of the Etherow and Goit. A subordinate dismemberment of a part of Marple, by an ancient grantee, is thus defined "scilicet infra has divisas de Hederlektop in "Mersee ascendendo usque Guit et sic Guit ascendendo usque "Wibberlektop, et sic Wibberlektop ascendendo usque magnum Cheminum, et sic magnum Cheminum descendendo usque Kartelache, et sic Kartelache descendendo usque "Huiderlektop, et sic Huiderlektop descendendo usque Mersee, Sc., &c. A translation of this, as no ways material to the subject, may be spared by the eye of the reader selecting the word Mersey in italics, and connecting it with the word Guit, as evidently combined together in the district of Marphul or Marple. Mr. Whitaker, indeed, gives the stream this mother epithet, immediately from its fountain head. After styling it "the important current of the Mersey," he speaks of it as--

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Rambling a lively rill amid the wastes of Wodhead and the "moors of Mottram, and successively receiving the Goit, the "Tame and the Irwell."* Hist. Man. vol. 1. page 222. This, however, is but a collective, if not a confused view of the subject. The author has, consequently, followed an authentic, ancient document, in preference both to Mr. Whitaker's plan, and the authority of common fame.

In common with the destruction of every military vestige, all sepulchral relics in this division have, likewise, been obliterated. Analogy with the contents of the districts already particularized, as well as of others contiguous and yet to be inspected, seems, however, a plea for the past existence of such constructions in its area. The part, which they occupied, may have been the northerly point of the ridge, on which the episcopal chapel is placed. It is a supposition which will gather strength with further investigations, that all the ancient churches in the Bow-stone districts, as well as the mansions of the lords, are founded, for the most part, on the sites of barrows, encampments, or of both conjoined. In ancient superstition, as well as in general religious sentiment, a reverence for the dead, and their deeds, is of indelible force. Amidst the shock of the change, from Pagan to Christian.

*Every author has a charter for consideration to the lapses, inseparable from compositions so varied and perplexing, as those of topography. Even this very correct writer, though, two pages before, he says, the Tame " issues into the Mersey below Portwood bridge," omits this tributary river in his present enumeration.

rites, page 91 of the dissertation, this principle prevailed over the inculcations of the new faith; and caused the rise of the Christian sanctuary or holy place upon the spot, which the remains of their fathers and their heroes still consecrated to respect, though the mode of their inhumation had come to be now abjured. In confirmation of this argument, a very ancient urn was found, Anno 1808, in sinking the foundation of the present new church; but was either demolished by the workmen in the finding of it, or went to pieces, upon exposure to the air.

STOCKPORT, page 38, presents a face modified and modernized in a surprizing manner, within the space of twenty years. The structures of an industrious generation, an infinity of manufactories and the abodes of the people employed in them, overspread its area. Long and complete obliteration. must, consequently, have passed over all relics of martial antiquity. A chain of traditions, however, is attached in this sense to the place; and the survey of its site, supposing it to be denuded of all its superstructures, as represented in the engraving, will justify the propriety of them.

The ancient fortifications of Manchester, the key of Lancashire, were said in page 174 to be placed upon the Irwell, in the rear of the Mersey. Consequently, as an outpost to them, or rather, perhaps, as a marginal barrier of ancient Cheshire against an irruption from them, one or more positions would be established upon the immediate line of the Mersey. The advantages of Stockport for this end are too obvious, not to be embraced.