172 houses, and 1,455 inhabitants. About midway between this town and Warrington, is WINWICK, remarkable as being one of the richest Rectories in England, the presentation to which is in the gift of the Earl of Derby. The rector is lord of the manor, and the whole township, excepting one estate, is glebe land. The living is estimated at 3,000l. per annum. The church is an ancient pile of building, with a lofty spire, and on the south side of the former is a Latin inscription in old characters *, intimating that this place was a favourite seat of Oswald, king of Northumberland, who, according to Camden and several other writers, was slain at Oswestry, in Shropshire. But this is not very probable, for if it be recollected that Oswald was a peaceable and religious king of Northumbria, which only extended to the river Mersey southward, and as Penda, the Pagan king of Mercia, was at war with him, and pursuing his conquests through the kingdom of the former monarch, it is not very likely that Oswald would have penetrated his enemies' territories so far as Oswestry. Indeed there is more probability in supposing that he might have sustained a defeat, and met his death on the borders of his own kingdom. Bede says, that the place where he was killed is called in the English tongue Maserfeth; but neither has he, nor any of his annotators, satisfactorily designated the fatal spot. Archbishop Usher, in his notes on Gildas, expresses an opinion, that Cair-Guintguic, one of the twenty-eight British cities, mentioned by that ancient writer, was at Winwick †; besides, *This inscription, according to Pennant, is in the following terms: "Hic locus, Oswalde quondam tibi placuit valde; Sclator pest Christum murum renovaverat istum : + Gale's Hist. Angl. Script. Vol. I, p. 136. besides, this parish appears to have borne formerly the name of Macrefeld; and the church here is dedicated to St. Oswald, king and martyr. These circumstances, jointly considered, tend to support the opinion, that Winwick, and not St. Oswestry, was the place where this good king was slain and barbarously mangled in the thirtyeighth year of his age*. In the church at Winwick is a chantry belonging to the Legh family of Lyme-Hall, Cheshire, in whose possession are some original papers concerning the same. Amoug the monuments is one with a brass plate, effigies, &c. to Sir Peter Legh and his lady. WARRINGTON, A large, populous, thriving manufacturing town, occupies the northern bank of the river Mersey, about midway between the two great towns of Manchester and Liverpool. Some authors have contended that a Roman Station was formerly established at this place, as a guard to the ford; but no particular remains or discoveries have been made to justify this opinion t. That a Roman Q 3 road * See Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, 4to. Vol. I. p. 146. Though this respectable historian, coinciding in the common opinion, fixes on Oswestry as the place of Oswald's death, + Mr. Whitaker, with his usual ingenuity of argument, asserts, that "the title of Warrington to the character of a Roman station, is proved by the concurrence of three roads at it: one from Condate, another from Coccium,' (this, however, is only the continuation of the first road)" and a third from Mancunium." He next endeavours to define and trace the courses of those military-ways, and then unequivocally asserts, that "just upon the ford of the Mersey, was a Roman station, though equally overlooked by antiquarians, and forgotten by tradition." In support of this assertion he adduces many ingenious arguments; but failing in proofs, he adverts to a discovery of some oblong pieces of lead, which were found a "few miles from this place, but on the southern bank of the Mersey." However plausible the arguments, or imposing the assertions of this learned writer, we must hesitate before we admit all his deductions; for in order to secure the mind against error and falsehood, we road entered Lancashire from Condate, in Cheshire, is extremely probable, and traces of it have been satisfactorily defined in some places. The bridge already referred to, built by the Earl of Derby for the passage of Henry VII. crosses the river at this place. Leland describes Warrington as " a paved town of pretty bigness,” with a church" at the tail end" of it, and having a " better market than Manchester." Here was an Augustine Friary, founded before 1379; but the building is entirely obliterated. A charter for a market and fairs was obtained in the reign of Edward the First, by a Sir Thomas Boteler, of Bewsey, near this town, where an ancient moated mansion still remains *. The we must never allow any statements to be truly historical that are not proved by demonstrative evidence, or justified by the most rational and conclusive arguments. This maxim is of peculiar importance in all antiquarian enquiries, and ought to be forcibly impressed on the attention of the juvenile topographer and historian. * The first person on record of this family was Robert, who held the office of Butler, or Boteler, (and thereby obtained this surname), under Ranulph de Gernons, Earl of Chester, in 1158. William, a son of the above Robert, certified in the time of King John, that he held eight knight's fees of the king in capite in this county. To him succeeded another William, who, in the forty-third of Henry the Third, was high sheriff of this county, and governor of the castle of Lancaster, whose lands were all seized, on his taking part with the Barons of that age. After the battle of Evesham, forty-ninth of Henry the Third, the Sheriff of Lancashire was commanded to restore his lands. In the fifth of Edward the First, he obtained the king's charter for a market every Friday at his manor of Warrington, and for a fair annually on the eve, day, and morrow after the feast of St. Andrew, and the five days ensuing. In the thirteenth of the same king he obtained another grant to change the market to Wednesday, on which day it still continues, and for another fair to continue eight days from the eve of St. Thomas the Martyr's translation. From the twenty-second to the twenty-fifth of that reign, he had summons to parliament among the Barons. The family flourished at Bewsey till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when that estate is found to be in the possession of Robert, Earl of Leicester, by whose Will, dated the 1st of August, 1587, his executors were directed to sell all his lands, &c. in Lanca The town of Warrington consists of four principal streets, which are mostly narrow, inconvenient to passengers, and unpleasant to the inhabitants; and though these are chiefly composed of shops and small houses, yet a few handsome modern buildings are interspersed. "The entrance into the town," says Mr. Pennant," is unpromising, the streets long, narrow, ill-built, and crowded with carts and passengers; but farther on are airy, and of a good width, yet afford a striking mixture of mean buildings and handsome houses, as is the case with most trading towns that experience a sudden rise*." The principal trade of the place consists in the manufacture and sale of sail-cloth, or poldavy; but some coarse linens and checks are made in the town and its vicinity. The former is chiefly composed of hemp and flax mixed, and some sorts are manufactured with flax alone. The raw materials are mostly brought from Russia, and imported into the town of Liverpool, whence to Warrington is a cheap and expeditious water carriage. Among other manufactures of this place, may be specified pin-making, glass-making, and iron-founding. “Warrington may, in some measure, be considered as a port town, the Mersey admitting, by the help of the tide, vessels of seventy or eighty tons burthen to Bank-Quay, a little below the town, where warehouses, cranes, and other conveniences for landing goods are erected. The spring-tides rise at the bridge to the height of nine feet. Upwards, the river communication extends to Manchester. Besides the parish church, here is a chapel of ease, and another chapel of the establishment in the suburb over the bridge, belonging to the parish of Groppenhall. There are also places of worship for the Roman catholics, presbyterians, anabaptists, methodists, and quakers. There is a very well endowed free-school in the Q 4 shire, which had been the lands of Sir Thomas Butler, and of Edward, his son, who is said to have been the last heir male of the Butlers of Bewsey. *Tour in Scotland, 4to. pt. I. p. 9. the town; and a charity for educating and maintaining poor children of both sexes *." There being no other bridge over the Mersey between this place and Liverpool, and for many miles East of it towards Manchester, has occasioned the pass here to be a place of repeated conflict in the civil commotions of this kingdom. The most memorable event of this kind occurred in 1648, when a large body of the fugitive Scotch army, under the Duke of Hamilton, was pursued from Ribbleton-Moor; and though they made an obstinate resistance, for some hours, at this bridge, yet above 1000 were killed, and their Lieutenant-general Bayley, with 2000 soldiers, were taken prisoners. Again in 1651, General Lambert, who had commanded on the former occasion, fixed on this spot to oppose and resist the Scotch army under the young King, who was here repulsed. In the year 1745 also, the middle arches of the bridge were broken down, to check the progress of the rebels, and again restored on the termination of the insurrection. A short distance north of Warrington is OXFORD-HALL, a seat of the Blackburne family, of whom was John Blackburne, Esq. father of the present member of parliament for this county. He died at the advanced age of ninety-six, and was much respected while living, for his many good qualities. His garden was considered an object of curiosity, and was visited by some of the most eminent botanists in the country. A catalogue of its botanical products, was published by Mr. Neal, his gardener, in 1779. Here, as Mr. Pennant observes in his tour to Scotland, the venerable owner, like another Evelyn, spent the calm evening of his life, under the flourishing plantations of his own culture. The town of Warrington, in 1801, contained 2,296 houses, and 10,567 inhabitants. The Warrington-Academy, established by some respectable Dissenters, has been justly celebrated for the literary eminence of its masters and tutors; among whom the names of Enfield and Wakefield, Description of the country round Manchester, 4to. p. 306, |