ΤΟ

THOMAS LEGH, ESQ.

LORD OF THE MANOR, IN SUCCESSION, OF LYME AND LYME HANDLEY, &c.

SIR,

ANCIENT reading is a pursuit, indis

pensible to every one, who would understand the true structure of the machine of society. Barred up, however, from vulgar access by the obstacle of dead and difficult languages, and treating of modes long cancelled or varied, its cultivation is too laborious to be general, and its discoveries too remote from life to be classed amongst the common necessaries of the generation. Hence the majority of men admire, that it should be either retained or valued.

This depreciation of the study of the languages attacks the very essence of all social constitutions. In the ancient tongues are vested the code of our laws, the titles

of our estates, the prescriptions of our morals and our faith. From the same, likewise, a solution is derived for the interesting relics of our forefathers, which form the materials of the present Treatise.

Existing, in a large proportion, within the bounds of those demesnes to the inheritance of which Providence has destined you, it is natural to presume that their proprietor will feel some share of that interest in them, which has so long and so ardently operated upon their investigator. Hence he conceives that, whilst he discharges his mind of a due act of respect by inscribing this production of his pen to your name, he offers to you both useful information and a gratifying compliment.

With every respect,

I remain, Sir,

DISLEY, 4th JUNE, 1810.

Your obedient Servant,

Wm. Marriott.

To speak of the channels, by which the author has become

acquainted with the respective authors adduced in the ensuing work, he has to state, that the principal classics were familiar to him in the course of his education.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

To the Rev. Mr. TRIMBLE, of Halton, in Cheshire, for the polite attentions by which, five years since, he had access to the valuable library of the languages and antiquities in that place. It is from a series of notes, made during the period mentioned, that he has been able to avail himself of Du. Pin, Bede, Divus Cyprianus, Sir Peter Leycester, &c. He can only regret that his time did not permit him to adopt a similar mode of transcription from Camden, Dugdale, and other worthies which occupy the shelves of Halton.

To J. A. NEWTON, Esq. of Cheadle, Cheshire, for the use of his manuscript extracts from the Memoirs of the ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey, by the late Rev. Mr. Watson, a Rector of Stockport; and likewise of the work De Literis inventis by the late Gul. Nicholls, a previous Rector of the same place.

To the Rev. Mr. OLLERENSHAW of Mellor, county of Derby, for his mention of the barrows upon Ludworth, Broadhurst Edge, and Shaw Marsh, and the favour of his company to their site: and also for the perusal of the View of Derbyshire.

To MATTHEW ELLISON, Esq. of Glossop hall, Derbyshire, for his permission of exploration in Ludworth, Charlesworth, and Chisworth.

To the Rev. Mr. SWAIN, Rector of Taxal, Cheshire, for his society and information in perambulating his parish.

To the Rev. Mr. PRESCOT, Rector of Stockport, county of Chester, for the very useful loan of the History of Manchester.

*The Map of the Country, promised at the end of the present volume, will be affixed to the beginning of the second: a delay of two or three weeks being inevitable, if annexed to the present, to give time for the engraving.