It seemed puzzling, but we could learn no more, and would evidently need all our wits to find the place, when actually X wanted more cider.

We did find Trewern Hall, and were told we had gone over Offa's Dyke without knowing it. I wondered whose fault that was. This beautiful old black-andwhite hall is at the foot of the majestic Breidden Hills, and near by the Severn. It is dated 1610, with the initials R. F. over the porch. The carved posts at the entrance must have been about two feet square. The large hall has had many alterations. Formerly it had seven doors, and a window containing 542 panes of glass, for a piece of it has been kept as a specimen. There is now plain glass put into the old oak mullions. The kitchen is also a big room, with a pillar in the middle, and large fireplace and oven. After "siding" the things, a photograph of this came out fairly well. We were trying to earn our tea, which was kindly provided. No one seems to know whose initials are over the porch. Two hundred years ago some Gerards owned the small estate of Trewern Hall. Then it changed hands continually, and there were many years of litigation about it. Now, we were told, it is owned by some one who lives in Canada.

The weather, that had been wet for some days, gradually cleared, and for our evening's ride to Shrewsbury we had the perfection of cycling. Sun and wind behind us, good roads below us, fine air and scenery. The precipitous crags of the Breiddens were alongside, but when clear of them we looked back to the setting sun, five or seven ranges of hills were ablaze with golden light to the north of west--the stormy hills of Wales. What a scene was that, over those old battlefields and that rich country, to the dazzling glory which crowned and veiled the Cymry's stronghold, Snowdon.

ARLEY HALL

T

HERE is a bit of Cheshire known as the land of the rhyming signposts. A stranger travelling through the country lanes round Arley sees signposts which have blossomed into poetry, and if he does not smile aloud he wonders what has been to do with the surveyor of the district or the County Council. Do the highways committee in solemn conclave assembled compose poetry, or is that the work of a "fresh" surveyor? The lines are really the product of the late Squire of Arley, who amused himself with making rhymes and fixing them up in all sorts of places, or composing huntingsongs for evening convivalities.

The home of the Warburtons for many centuries of unbroken male descent has been Arley Hall. Before that they were Duttons, who settled at Warburton, assuming the local name, and now, according to the common rule they should be Egertons. Without guessing too far into the unknown past, or writing the usual rubbish about "coming over with the Conqueror," for all these names are thoroughly Saxon, it may be noted that in Domesday mention is twice made of Warburgetone, the name being evidently derived from St. Werburge, who was one of the holy virgins we hear of in olden times, and to whom the great abbey of Chester was dedicated. In very early days there was a church at Warburton and a priory of Premonstratensians: there is a nice long name for folks when the whole parish for ages afterwards was only rated at twelve shillings a year.

There is an ancient timber-built church there now

which is worth seeing and photographing. It stands on the bank of the Mersey, for well I knew the sight and smell of that sweet stream again. Some years ago, when writing of Didsbury, and trying to learn if the tide ever came up so far in the days of salmon-fishing, I was told by men likely to know, that before the Ship Canal was made a high tide would reach Warburton. This old

church-of timber, stone, and brick; the timber being the oldest, the stone dated 1645, the brick the newest is well kept, and the graveyard is still used; but service is held in a new church, a handsome stone one built by the Squire out of the rents his tenants paid for shooting rights. This is as it should be. Keep the old where it is, and as it is. Build anew near by. If others had done the same, what a wealth of fine old buildings there would be about the land that have been utterly ruined.

There was another peculiarity about this church or rectory that should be noted. An old Cheshire saying,

where anything was very difficult to tear asunder or to separate, was, "It is like tearing Lymm from Warburton." From the time of the Conquest the rectorship of Lymm was held in two halves. More than two hundred years since the historian Leycester wrote, "One parson has one Sunday, the other parson the next Sunday, and so by course," the tithes being divided. One of these half parsons was nominated by the Warburtons, who always nominated the same man to be rector of Warburton, a very inconvenient arrangement as any one with any knowledge of parsons would know, but it existed until 1869, and now Lymm is torn from Warburton. I have heard

of a Warburton being unseated at a fence when hunting, and as his leg was on one side the fence and his body on the other, still entangled with the horse, it was feared the limb would be torn from Warburton.

Arley Hall is about six miles to the south of the place whence the family take their name. By the lane side at High Legh are ancient stocks where for the first time X tries what he might have had to try if he had lived in the olden time, and had not always been so good. Behind the fence, embowered in splendid trees, on the margin of a wide-spreading lawn, where wave the plumes of pampas grass, there stands another curious old chapel. This has been restored recklessly, not in the cheap and ugly manner that is common, but reckless as to cost and magnificence. Wonderfully carved oak all around, with choir stalls, rood screen and cross, many-tinted glass both old and new, and fount inlaid with showy marbles. One old window, or part of it, does commemorate the founder, Thomas Legh, of High Legh, and his wife Isabella, the heir of Trafford of "Garet" (Manchester). with their arms emblazoned on their mantles, the date being 1581. The whole place is very small but very grand. It is virtually in the garden of the East Hall. Some one has evidently very high and ornate tastes and the means to gratify them. A priest in the garb of a monk even to