shire; Knyvett's Project for the Defence of England. At a short distance south of the college is the COLLEGIATE CHURCH, a large pile of building, which occupies the site of the old parish church of Manchester, and is described in the following terms by the Rev. Dr. Whitaker, in a communication to this work.

The outside being constructed of red crumbling stone, has suffered

traces of which are still easily perceived. George, his elder brother, resided at Turton, near Bolton, at the house called Turton-Tower t.

Fuller briefly mentions Mr. Humphrey Chetham among his "Worthies of England," (and assuredly he deserves to rank high among them) having received his information from Mr. Johnson, preacher of the Temple, and one of the feoffees named in Mr. Chetham's will. From this authority we are told that he was "a diligent reader of the scriptures, and of the works of sound divines, a respecter of such ministers as he accounted truly godly, upright, sober, discreet, and sincere. He was High Sheriff of the county of Lancaster, A. D. 1635, discharging that office with great honour, insomuch that very good gentlemen of birth and estate did wear his cloth at the assize, to testify their unfeigned affection to him, and two of them (John Hartley, of Strangeways-Hall, and H. Wrigley, esquires), of the same profession with himself, were afterwards sheriffs of the county."

The charity of Mr. Chetham was not to appear only after his death; the chief institution provided for in his will was but a completion of one which he had formed long before. The unassuming manner in which this is alluded to in his will shews him to have been free from all pride and ostentation. During his life he had “ taken up and maintained fourteen poor boys of the town of Manchester, six of the town of Salford, and two of the town of Droylsden; in all twenty-two." Having never married, he thus became a father to the fatherless and destitute; and doubtless many were the children of adversity, that, during the life-time of this good man, successively found protection in his fostering and paternal benevolence. Were it not superflous here, it might perhaps with confidence be asserted, that of all the channels in which

* In Whitaker's History of Manchester is some account of these MSS.

✦ Camden says that he saw (about 1603,) “ Turton-Tower, and Entwissel, neat and elegant houses, the former once the seat of the famous family of the Orrells, then of the Chethams."

Britannia Illustrat. Vol. II. p. 143. Fol. 1772.

suffered extremely from the operations of fire and smoke. The church-yard, from the multitude of interments, its exposure to every annoyance of a crowded town, and the neglect of railing off the

R 4

which charity delights to pour its streams, in none do they flow so extensively, and as it were vitally efficacious, as in that in which Mr. Chetham chose to direct these the more public overflowings of his benevolence; though at the same time it is very probable that the charity of such a man, while he lived, was not confined to this alone. By his will, bearing date December 16th, 1651, he directs that the before-mentioned number of twenty-two boys be increased to forty, by the election of another boy from the township of Droylsden, ten from Bolton-in-the-Moors, and five from Turton: bequeathing the sum of 7,000l. for the purchase of a fee-simple estate, the profits of which are to be applied to the support of this institution. The boys are to be elected, in the proportion specified, and from the six townships mentioned in the will, the children of poor, but honest parents, not illegitimate, nor diseased, lame, or blind when chosen. They are to be cloathed, fed, and instructed from the age of about six to fourteen (since limited to thirteen) when they are to be bound out at the expense of the institution to some honest and useful trade.

Nearly one fourth of the boys are annually discharged at Easter, and others elected in their stead, by the feoffees, twenty-four in number, and who have invariably been gentlemen of the first respectability in the neighbourhood. The feoffees are a body corporate by charter, dated November 20th, 17th of Charles II. (A. D. 1665.)

Perhaps no institution of the kind has been more indebted to its guardians for their judicious management of its resources, and attention to its interests, than this; and they have found an ample reward for the anxiety which they have evinced for these objects, by having been enabled to enlarge the sphere of this benevolent institution, and to augment the number of boys upon the foundation to eighty.

Mr. Chetham, by his will, bequeathed also the sums of 1,000l. for the purchase of books; and 1001. for a building, as the foundation of a public library; for the augmentation of which he devises the residue of his personal estate, after the payment of certain legacies, and this is said to have amounted to more than 2,0001.

He further bequeathed the sum of 2001. to purchase godly English books, to be chained upon desks in the churches of Manchester and Bolton, and the chapels of Turton, Walmsley, and Gorton.

The founder departed this life October 12th, in the 74th year of his age.

the different footpaths and projections of the building, is in a very disgusting and offensive state. Within, and on the south side, are several large chantries, one of which is the property and burial place of the Traffords of Trafford. At the east end, and behind the altar, is the chapel of the Chethams, where the munificent founder of the hospital has a tomb. There are also some later monuments of the family, of which the marble retains very little either of its original whiteness or polish, incessant showers of corrosive soot penetrating every chink and cranny. On the north side of the north ale is a very spacious chapel, built by Bishop Stanley, and now the property of the Earl of Derby, which, being let out for interments at a stated price, is become little better than a charnel. Beyond this is a small projecting chantry, under the founder's arch of which, and within a plain altar tomb, lies the same JAMES STANLEY, Bishop of Ely and Warden of Manchester, who died in the college. There is a small figure of him in brass, and an inscription in old English, which has been given by Mr. Bentham in his History of Ely. But the great ornaments of this church are the stalls, screens, and lattice work of the choir, finished in a great measure at the expence of this prelate*, who, though little of a scholar or an ecclesiastic, seems to have had a munificent spirit not unworthy of his birth. His family connexion induced him to reside much at Manchester, to which he seems to have been greatly attached; for nothing less than the powerful influence of the Stanleys could have obtained for him peonission to hold a commendam with the rich See of Ely, and the value of the wardenship must have been a very inconsiderable addition to his income. In richness and delicacy of execution, the canopies of these stalls exceed any thing I have seen, though perhaps in paint of lightness, they lose something from the want of those tall spiring front

* The annexed view, from a drawing by George Ormerod, Esq. who kindly presents the plate to this work, displays some of these stalls, the character of the arches and upper windows on the north side of the choir, also the flattened eastern window, with the flat wooden roof, &c.

front pinnacles, which marked the stails of the two former ceuturies, and a flat horizontal cornice (though much enriched) which surmounts the whole.

The town (probably the church) of Manchester was originally a place of sanctuary, and one of the eight places to which this privilege was confirmed by the statute of 32 Henry the Eighth, in 1540-1. But the privilege was transferred to Chester in the fol lowing year, as it had been found to operate to the prejudice of the wealth, credit, and good order of the place.

On the alarm created by the Spanish armada, when every town in the kingdom, or at least of the maritime counties, was called to contribute its quota of defence, Manchester furnished only thirtyeight men for barquebusiers, the same number for archers, and 144 men for bits and pikes; and in 1599, on raising men to suppress the rebellion in Ireland, the magistrates were cautioned not to send any vagabonds or disorderly persons, but men of good character, and particularly young men, who were skilled in the use of the hand-gua. In 1605, a pestilence liere carried off 1000 persons; and we know little more of the general history of Manchester until 1642, when, in the dispute between Charles the First and his parliament, it took side with the latter, and the town was occupied by the county militia. In September of that year the Earl of Derby besieged it in vain, retiring, after several days, with considerable loss: the ends of the streets were then only fortified; but it was better garrisoned and defended in the course of the next year. A violent pestilence broke out here in 1645, when collections were made in all the churches of London and Westminster. The fortifications of the town were dismantled in 1652. Notwithstanding the resolute opposition of this town to King Charles the First, the coronation of Charles the Second, on the 23d of April, 1661, appears to have been honoured with particular distinction. In 1708, an act was obtained for building St. Ann's church, the site of which, with the square, was formerly a cornfield, and so remembered to be, by the name of Acre's Field, by an old man who died in or about the year 1780. St. Mary's church

was

was built by act of parliament in 1753; and in 1757, an act was obtained to exonerate the town from the obligation of grinding corn at the free-school mills. In 1776, another act was passed for widening the streets. In 1791, an act was obtained for lighting, watching, and cleansing the town, on which occasion a watchhouse was established; and in 1792, the centre of the town was farther improved by taking down the Exchange.

In this account of Manchester, it will be expected that some of the public buildings be noticed; but this must necessarily be concise.

The INFIRMARY, DISPENSARY, LUNATIC HOSPITAL, and ASYLUM, are all included in one spacious building, in the highest part of the town. The foundation for the first edifice was laid in 1753, when only 2501. had been subscribed towards it. The plan for receiving forty patients, was afterwards extended to eighty; but 160 beds are now appropriated for the use of patients; and in 1792, a Dispensary was added, and a suitable building annexed, collections for which were made at the different places of religious worship, to the amount of more than 4,000l. Perhaps it should be added, that benefactions and legacies for the support of the Infirmary and Dispensary, prior to the 24th of June, 1803, amounted to more than 32,6001. and the annual subscriptions to more than 68,5001.-The Lunatic Hospital and Asylum was opened in 1766*.

A poor-house also was opened in 1792, and another at Salford in 1793; in both the paupers are employed, according to their respective ages, ability, and capacities, in the various parts of the cotton manufactures, such as warping, weaving, &c. and in such other branches of business as they are respectively qualified for. The Sunday-Schools also form a distinguishing feature of this town; one of these for children whose parents belong to the established church, and the other for those of other denominations. At first, both were under one direction; but a division, which afterwards,

* The regulations for governing these institutions are peculiarly judicious. See Manchester Guide.