althoughe not att the Gates nor by any knowledge of theim in the Towne; But weire bold to hold ytt.

Upon takinge of Shrowesbury the Kinge's ptie burned and quytt Lea Hall and Tonge Castle. Morton Corbett deserted alsoe and burned by the p'liamt ptie."

In the coming summer (1645) many of the halls or castles mentioned in these pilgrimages went up in flames. The strife between Cavalier and Roundhead, Royalist or Puritan, waxed bitterer and savager. Any foreigner or Irish caught by the Namptwiche Puritans was hanged at once. The massacre in Barthomley Church on the Christmas Eve of 1643, when the schoolmaster and twelve villagers (whose names I have given in “Folk Lore and Tales") were butchered by the Royalist Connaught, was never forgotten; nor the treachery and long siege of Beeston.

"Command was gyven and warrants sente to the places neerest adioyning ffor the pullinge downe and utter defacinge of Beeston Castle, wch before Whitsunweeke, 1646, was p'formed. Onelie the Gatehowse in the lower warde and pte of some Towers in the heigher warde weir lefte standinge, wch scythens are pulled downe and utterlie defaced."

Carden, being easily taken, escaped destruction; but the savage ruin that fell on all the homes in this fair country during that cruel war, when families fell out among themselves, should make us trebly thankful for the great blessings of peace.

The country from Carden homewards is some of the best in Cheshire. There is a long climb up Bickerton Hill, and then a beautiful road with woods and rounded knolls or little hills ablaze with gorse on one side and the rich dairyland on the other. For a mile or two we go under the great trees alongside the domain of Peckforton, passing its grand castellated gateway, where a giant oak stretches far and wide. The castle perched

aloft is seen above the trees on our left, and just beyond it is the grand old ruin of Beeston. Circling through the little village, we come to the railway station, where there is a choice of routes for home. If the cyclist has time and strength for the farther journey, he may go through Tarporley, or leave it on the left, going by Eaton and nearer to Oulton, but by either road crossing Delamere Forest, where the going, air, and scenery are excellent until he nears Northwich, when the smoke and the stinks of the chemicals and saltworks will soon make him wish he was home.

BARLOW HALL

I

T does not seem right to pass over any old homes in my own neighbourhood if historically interesting, simply because we have not to make a journey or go on pilgrimage to find them. This old parsonage is the oldest home near to the ancient church of Didsbury. It is probably the house referred to in an agreement that was drawn up by the parishioners of Didesbury at the time of the Civil War. "Item. That the mesuage and tenemt assigned to the use of the minister of the said church for the tyme beinge, shall bee valued and acompted at the rate of tenne pounds p annu (towards the said xl £ p. a.), considringe the tymes, and that Mr. Clayton is a single man, and soe cannot husband it to advantage." Here was the parson "passing rich on forty pounds a year," for they stopped ten of it for the house, as the poor man was a bachelor; what they would stop if he got wed is not stated.

As I have elsewhere referred to the legends, folklore, and ghosts of the place, we can now go a little farther afield to the time-honoured but little known hall of Barlow. Even with my life-long knowledge of Didsbury, its history, and its public life and records, it is somewhat of a puzzle to say which is or which has been Didsbury and which is or was Barlow.

Strictly speaking, Barlow seems never to have been anything but a hall and a moor. It was neither parish nor township, and yet there are several records where

mention is made of the lordship and manor of Barlow. The hall was the home of one eminent family for four hundred years. An intensely conservative family; more than one of whose members sacrificed everything, even to life itself, for their faith. The moor that extended for two miles from near the hall to Didsbury seems to have been named Diddesbury Moor a long time ago, but in later years Barlow Moor. Where the moor lane joined the main road at Didsbury there grew up a colony of shops and small houses which we called Barlow Moor. But a railway was made there, and the station labelled Didsbury. Then houses sprang up from the ground as the mushrooms suddenly come with the warm dews of autumn. Miles of streets soon covered the site of the moor; the "bare low" of Barlow. There are now about 10,000 people, where fifty years ago were 1449. At the beginning of the last century there were 619, and now we have more than that number in the workhouse, so greatly have we advanced. The names of the districts or places have been changed. The residuary parish of Didsbury is small and select, the church has been thoroughly restored" several times in my life, and the Barlow Chapel has as utterly vanished as though it ne'er had been, so complete has been the restoration.

It is a wonder that Barlow Hall has not vanished also, but it is in a secluded, lonesome part of the old moor, and near to the river Mersey. It is now two or three hundred yards outside the boundary of Didsbury township, being included in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. Just three hundred years ago there were lawsuits about the manorial rights and encroachments on the waste grounds of the moors of Didisburye and Chollerton or Chowreton, the Barlows of Barlow Hall being complained of.

The oldest deed of which I can find any record about