their excellent periodical publications; and Arbuthnot, who wrote on medical subjects. So prompt and energetic were the arrangements adopted for securing the Protestant succession, that the friends of the Pretender were entirely thrown off their guard; and before they could recover their consternation at the suddenness of Queen Anne's death and the fall of Bolingbroke, Prince George of Hanover had landed in England, and been acknowledged by most of the Continental princes. His first care was to dissolve Parliament and to form a new Ministry almost entirely Whig. The new Parliament coincided entirely in the views of the Ministry. From Cheshire were returned: 1 GEORGE I. Met March 12, 1715. Dissolved March 10, 1722. CHESHIRE-Sir George Warburton, of Arley, bart. Hon. Langham Booth. CHESTER Sir Henry Bunbury, bart. Sir Richard Grosvenor, bart. In both Houses warm debates arose on the addresses, that in the Commons condemning in strong language the shameful peace which had been made at Utrecht after a war carried on at such vast expense, and attended with such unparalleled successes, but expresseed a hope that, as this dishonour could not with justice be imputed to the nation, through his Majesty's wisdom and the faithful endeavours of the Commoners, the reputation of the kingdom might in due time be vindicated and restored. In the address reference was made to the machinations of the Pretender and his friends, and went on to say: "It shall be our business to trace out those measures whereon he placed his hopes, and to bring the authors of them to condign punishment." This was the first direct announcement of the Ministers' intention to call their predecessors to account, and papers were at once laid before the House bearing on these important subjects, resulting in the impeachment of Lords Bolingbroke, Oxford, and Ormonde. No sooner had the King taken possession of the throne than the partisans of the Chevalier de St. George, better known as the Old Pretender, set to work in their feeble endeavour to overthrow him. The clergy, especially, fanned the flame of discontent by their political sermons, and the Scotch, who were dissatisfied at the Union, ardently joined in the general outcry. Thus encouraged, the heir of the Stuarts determined on a descent in the Highlands where the Earl of Mar had (September 6, 1713) erected the Standard of the Chevalier, and had assembled an army of 10,000 men; but the death at this time of Louis XIV. of France, who had promised aid, and the decisive measures of the English Government, entirely blasted the hopes of the Pretender. His partisans were defeated on the same day (November 13) at Preston in Lancashire and Sheriffmiur in Scotland, and he himself, landing at Peterhead on December 22, with a retinne of six persons, was only in time to witness the total discomfiture of his party, and was forced finally to take shelter on beard a French vessel going to Gravelines. In the midst of this excitement the time fixed by the Triennial Act for the dissolution of Parliament drew near; but the Ministers, fearing the effects of a general election in so unsettled a state of the public mind, determined to bring in a bill for repealing the Triennial Act (passed in 1694), and extending the duration of Parliament to seven years, it being alleged that frequent elections tended to promote party strife and greatly weakened the efficiency of that branch of the legislature, besides giving occasion to the intrigues of foreign potentates. This measure, known as the Septennial Act, was strenuously opposed by the Tories and the Ultra-Liberals in both Houses of Parliament, but it was finally carried in the Lords by a majority of 96 to 61, and in the Commons by 264 to 121, May 7, 1716. One of the most prominent men in this Parliament was Mr William Shippen, member for Newton, near Warrington. He was the second son of the Rev. William Shippen, D.D., rector of Stockport from 1678 to 1693, and was born at Prestbury, near Macclesfield, July 30, 1673, of which parish his father was then rector. Educated at Stockport Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was returned for Bramber, in Sussex, in 1707, and was a strenuous advocate of the Jacobite party. In this, the first Hanoverian Parliament, he was looked upon as the rising leader of the Tories, and is described by various writers as "The English Cato" and "The Inflexible Patriot," whilst Pope thus speaks of him : I love to pour out all myself as plain, As honest Shippen or downright Montigne. He published several political pamphlets, now of great interest, one being entitled "Three Speeches Against Continuing the Army," published in 1718. One of these, delivered in the House of Commons, December 4, 1717, resulted in Mr Soippen being committed to the Tower for some passages in it, and which will be found later on. "Another Speech Against Sir R[obert] W[alpole]'s Proposal for Increasing the Civil List Revenues," -delivered July 3, 1727, and published the same yearwent through three editions. He was also auther of two political poems, entitled "Faction Displayed" and "Moderation Displayed," in which he satirised the Whig party at that time. He died May 1, 1743, and was interred at St. Andrew's, Holborn. This session witnessed the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole, as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he joined the Opposition, and he was as violent in Opposition as he was able and zealous in office. Not content with that he joined him self to Shippes, Wyndham, Bromley, and the other violent opponents of the reigning family; so that Shippen, we are told, himself ere long ultimately said that he was glad to see that Walpole was no longer afraid of being styled a Jacobite. This session was closed very popularly with the act of grace. By it a whole crowd of political prisoners were liberated from their long confinement. The Lords Carnwath Widdrington, and Nairn came out of the Tower; seventeen gentlemen lying under sentence of death in Newgate, and twenty-six in Carlisle Castle were liberated, and many others from the Leet, the Marshalsea, and from the custody of messengers. About two hundred of the prisoners taken at the battle of Preston were set free from Chester Castle, and all those in the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling. In the third session of King George's hrst Parliament, application was made for an addition of 18,000 troops in consequence of the aspect of affairs abroad, and for the renewal of the Military Bill. On both these occasions Walpole and Shippen made a determined opposition, the former contending that 12,000 was enough, whilst Shippen became extremely eloquent against standing armies, and observed that the proposed augmentation of the army seemed "rather calculated for the meridian of Germany than of Great Britain; but it is the infelicity of His Majesty's reign that he is unacquainted with our language and constition; and it is, therefore, the more incumbent upon the British ministers to inform him that our government does not stand upon the same foundation as that which is established in his German dominions." For these words, such was the loyalty of the House Shippen was committed to the Tower. It was during this time that the mania for speculation was at its height, and the South Sea Bubble at the height of its popularity. This company in return for certain grants agreed to redeem the Government annuities and so pay off the National Debt. By one of those unaccountable manias which so frequently disturb the equilibrium of the money market, the stock of this company instantaneously rose to almost fabulous value. The shares which at the Christmas of 1716 had been at £126, by the end of August in the year following reached £1000. The consequence was, that when, four years later (1720) the fraud was discovered, a violent reaction took place, which almost produced a national bankruptcy, and only for the judicious policy of Walpole, Shippen, and others, which restored public confidence, no estimate can be formed of the evils which might have resulted to the Government and the nation. The rest of the time of this Parliament was taken up in the arrangement of the difficult business in connection therewith when it was finally prorogued and dissolved March 10, 1722. In the new Parliament the Cheshire representatives were 8 GEORGE I. Met October 22, 1722. Dissolved August 7, 1727. CHESHIRE-Charles Cholmondeley, of Vale Royal, esq John Crewe, of Crewe, esq. CHESTER -Sir Henry Bunbury, bart. Sir Richard Grosvenor, bart. The Cheshire election for this Parliament took place April 4, 1722, when three candidates presented themselves, the third being the Hon. Langham Booth, who had sat in the last Parliament for the county. In the early days of this Parliament one of the chief members of the Government and one intimately connected with this county of Chester came in for a large share of public notice. This was none other than Thomas Parker, Earl of Macclesfield, the Lord Chancellor. The Court of Chancery, in all ages a sink of iniquity, was at this time in its worst condition. The offices of masters in chancery were regularly sold to the highest bidder, and the masters as regularly took care to indemnify themselves by all manner of peculation. The estates of widows and orphans and the money of suitors were unscrupulously plundered. There was a loud outcry against these legal robberies, and especially against the Lord Chancellor, for his not only tolerating, but partaking in them. As the history of his life is a most interesting one, we make no apology for briefly recounting it in this place. Thomas Parker, Earl of Macclesfield, was born at Leek, July 23. 1666, where his father practised as an attorney. His mother was of a respectable Cheshire family, being the daughter of Colonel Robert Venables, of Wincham. He was educated at Newport Free Grammar School, and after a brief sojourn at the Inner Temple and Cambridge, was placed on the roll of attorneys, and began his professional career at Derby at the age of twenty. This he relinguished in order to resume his studies at the Inner Temple. Having been called to the bar in 1691, he was made serjeant and knighted in 1704. In the following year he became recorder cf Derby, and represented that constituency in Parliament. His further progress was equally rapid; in 1710 he was made chief justice, and seven years later was raised to the peerage by the title of Baton Parker of Macclesfield. In 1718, he succeeded to the woolsack, and was created Earl of Macclesfield. Soon after the bursting of the South Sea Bubble, it was whispered that great frauds had been committed on suitors in the Court of Chancery, and that with the connivance of the Lord Chancellor. Under these circumstances, Lord Macclesfield was compelled to resign. He was formerly impeached in the House of Commons, and on May 6, 1725, his trial began. After a long and careful hearing he was found guilty, and was sentenced to pay a fine of £30,000, and to have his name erased from the list of Privy Councillors. Until the fine was paid, Lord Macclesfield was confined to the Tower, where he remained a prisoner for six weeks, at the end of which time he had made arrangements for the payment of the fine. The King privately remitted a portion of fine, and had promised that he would repay the whole amount, but had only refunded a very small portion when his (the King's) death took place. Lord Macclesfield lived seven years afterwards, but mixed no more public in affairs. According to Foss he spent his time between Sherburn Castle, in Oxfordshire, and London, where at the time of his death he was building a house in St. James's square, afterwards inhabitated by his son. According to Campbell, however, he is said to have retired to Derby, selecting in fact the very house where he commenced his professional career. The latter would almost appear as the most trustworthy, considering that he had been forced to part with nearly all he had in consequence of his speculations and consequent heavy losses on the discovery of the South Sea fraud. As a politicianne deserves unqualified praise, for he was the steady, zealous, and consistent friend of civil and religious liberty. By Campbell he is characterised as one of the greatest equity judges that ever sat in the Court of Chancery. He married Janet, daugher of Charles Carrier, Esq., of Wirksworth, in Derbyshire, who brought him two children only, a son and a daughter. The son, George, as second earl, was a celebrated mathematician, and becmae president of the Ryal Society. He it was that, in the year 1751, so ably assisted in carrying through Parliament the bill for reforming the calendar. The remaining sessions of this the second and last Parliament of George I. passed on with little interruption, and call for no more remark until the King's death, which took place June 11, 1727, at Osnabruck, whilst on his way to visit his Hanoverian Kingdom, when he was succeeded by his son George, the Prince of Wales, then in his forty-fourth year. FAIRY RINGS. ED. As many persons in this district are giving their attention to fungi, and as the subject of "Fairy Rings" is comparatively little understood, the following extract from a paper read by a high authority-Mr Worthington G. Smith-before the Essex Field Club, will be interesting to many : Every person who has walked in the summer over grassy hills, and through fields and woods, must have noticed fairy rings. Sometimes th y present themselves in circles and curves of bare ground, at other the barren circle of ground has a rim of luxuriant grass outside; in some instances this circle or curve of dark rank grass has a third circle of fungi beyond its outer line. In a perfect fairy ring we have, then, starting from the centre, a ring of barren ground, a he ring of rank grass, and a ring of fungi. In some in- In Britain's isle, in Arthur's days, We could ill spare any of them, but in these times when even the youngest men are teaching us about the origin and evolution of the phenomena of nature, there is scant room for the fairies. The best known fungus ocuupant of fairy rings is the fairy king agario or champignon (marasmius oreades), termed in the older botanical books agaricus oreades. It was termed marasmius from the habit possessed by all the species of drying up and shrivelling in decay, as distinguished from agaricus proper, which all speedily putrify. It has derived its name of oreades from the Oreads, the playful nymphs of the hills and mountains. The Oreads were the companions of Pan or Hylæs, the forest god, and they danced and circled to his piping. The feeling of loneliness belonging to hilly places was attributed to the presence of Pan, and from this old belief has arisen our modern word "panic," which means fear without a visible cause. Pan is said to have terrified people by sudden loud shouts, and to have sometimes il-treated the inoffensive dancing fairy ring Oreads. If the botanist who walks over grassy hills happens to be an archæ ›logist as well as a fungologist, he will possibly light on arrowheads of flint in country places, and especially in Ireland. These arrow-heads are termed fairy darts and elfin shots, and they are associated with the sports and quarrels of the nymphs and fairies. Fairy rings are common in Ireland, but moles do not occur there this is a difficult point for the mole theorist. Fairy darts of flint were at one time common in Ireland, but of late they bave nearly all been bought up by Irish cow doctors, who lend them to rustics to boil in the same pot with hot mashes prepared for ailing cows and pigs, for these fairy darts are supposed to have a mystic and potent power for curing the diseases peculiar to oxen. Queries. G. K. A FAMOUS CHESHIRE DWARF.-In his Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, published in 1859 by Mr Henry Morley, is the following respecting a famous Cheshire dwarf that was exhibited at Bartholomew's Fair the year after the great Fire: At Mr Croome's, at the sign of the Shoe and Slap, near the Hospital Gate in West Smithfield, a girl abɔve sixteen years of age, born in Cheshire, and not above eighteen inches long; having shed her teeth several times, and not a perfect bone in her body, only the head; yet she hath all her senses to admiration, and discourses, reads very well, sings whistles, and all very pleasant to hear. Sixteen years later she was in Leeds, but on comparing the above with the following extract from Ralph Thoresby's Diary it is remarkable to note that although she has gained six inches in height she was but six years older! 1683, June 12.-Went to see a most wonderful woman, but about two feet long, though twentyone years old. She was born in Bowdon parish, in Cheshire, near the Lord Delamere's, and is said to have no bone in her but the head, though I suppose a mistake. Can any reader of "Notes and Queries" say who this Thomasina Thumb was? Perhaps one of your Altrin cham readers could furnish the information. F.R.H.S. THE FAMILYS ACTON OF SNELSON AND PARKFR OF WARMINCHAM.-It has been a great pleasure to me to read of the rise and progress of different Cheshire family worthies in your paper issued weekly, and I seize this opportunity of asking you if you could kindly give an account of the old, very old family named William Acton, of Saelson, near Knutsford and Ch lford, and also the old family of Ralph Parker, of Warmincham, near Sandbach, as I think such portions of family history as you have issued of late are very co: ducive to the healthful spread of your valuable paper, and if any. thing can be brought to light respecting these very old familiar families in these remote villages, who on looking through Higher Peover Churchyard and Warmincham Churchyard have died at a good old age, it will be of interest. E. GOODWIN. is to have what is called a ploughing day. He goes round to all his new neighbours, generally accompanied by an old inhabitant, and requests them to send him a team of horses and a ploughman on some particular day. The favour is never refused, and sufficient teams assemble to get through a fair amount of work in the day; and it is a substantial help to the new farmer. Dinner is provided for the men, and it is a pleasant out for them; but they consider it rather infra dig if they are asked to do anything but ley ploughing, that is, ploughing up grass land, which, of course, shows off the skill of the ploughman better than the ploughing of broken land does. The custom in hiring servants was, and no doubt still is in many places, for the servant to call at the farm selected a few weeks before Christmas, and generally at night; and if a bargain was struck the farmer gave the man or woman a shilling; and this was understood to fasten the servant for a year. If anything occurred to break the arrangement the shilling would be sent back, and if accepted there was an end to the engagement. Servants always left their old places the day after Christmas Day, and went home" to play them," as it was called, for a week before going to the new place. They always entered their new place the day after, or the day but one after, New Year's Day. To enter service on New Year's Day would have been considered very unlucky. About Mobberley it was usual for the farmer to ask his servants during wakes' week whether they wished to "stop on," that is, take service for another year. If he did not ask them at the wakes the servant understood that his master did not wish him to stay, and he considered himself at liberty to look out for a new place. All this is a good deal changed, for many more day labourers are employed, and fewer servants live in the house than was formerly the case. It was always the custom in Cheshire farmhouses to have pudding before meat at dinner. On Shrove Tuesday the servants were very liberally supplied with pancakes, respecting which a curious custom prevails, I think, in all parts of Cheshire. Everyone tries to eat as many pancakes as possible, and the one who is "stawed" first, that is, first satiated, is carried off by his fellow-servants and deposited upon the midden. Cheshire weights and measures are interesting. rood, as it is called (i.e.. rod), of eight leneal yards is the foundation of all measurement. Such piece-work as hedging and ditching, draining, putting up rails, &c., is done at so much per rood. Square or land measure is as follows:-64 square yards, that is 8 by 8,1 square rood; 40 square roods, or 2560 yards, 1 quarter; 4 quarters, or 10,240 yards, 1 acre. This Cheshire acre is in constant use throughout the county; and also in South Lancashire. Farmers cannot understand statute acres at all, but always reckon their fields by the Cheshire acre. Mowing, reaping, spreading manure, &c., are always "set," that The is let, at so much per Cheshire acre. I feel very sure that a good many mistakes are made every year in filling up the agricultural returns by farmers putting down Cheshire instead of statute acres. Practically the Cheshire acre is very convenient, and labourers can reckon their work to a nicety, for 101 yards stridden each way is quite near enough to an acre for the payment of piece-work. Then the score of 20 is also in very general use both as a measurement of length and of weight-such piece-work as getting up rows of potatoes, and fashing rows of turnips is done at so much per score yards. A Cheshire farmer thinks in scores, if I may be allowed such an expression. He knows nothing of stones, but he values his pig by estimating how many score pounds it will weigh. He counts his money by twenties. If a hundred pounds have to be counted, he makes five piles of twenty sovereigns each, not ten of ten each. The score is an intregal part of the long hundredweight, or 120lbs., and this long cwt. is a much more convenient weight to use than the standard cwt. of 112lbs., because it is assimilated to duodecimal coinage. ΔΗ calculations founded on it become extremely easy. Thus 6d per lb. is 60s per cwt., and £60 per ton; 61d per lb. is 628 6d per cwt., and £62 10s per ton; 64d per lb. is 653 per cwt., and £65 per ton, and so on. Formerly, in Cheshire, I presume, everything was sold by the long cwt.; and in my younger days the sets of weights at a farm used to be 1 2 4 6 10 30, and 60lbs. respectively. Cheese is I think now the only article which is sold by the long cwt.; though we still use very commonly the load, or pack of 240lbs., which is in reality two long hundredweights, in weighing certain kinds of corn. Up to thirty or forty years ago a very curious and ingenious method of weighing cheese was in use. It was no doubt invented in consequence of the impossibility in those days of weighing more than one or two hundredweight at once upon an ordinary pair of scales; for farmers had not the weighing machines then which are tolerably common now; and also, no doubt, because farmers were not very good scholars, and to work a long compound addition sum involving many lines of cwts., qrs., and lbs. would have been a difficult task. But I have known at least one cheese-factor who always adopted the system as being simple and very trustworthy. Accordingly, the scales, large wooden ones, hung by strong chains, were fixed up in some convenient place, and two 60lb. weights were put into one scale-representing a hundredweight. Cheeses to equal this as nearly as possible were placed in the other scale, and "1" was scratched upon the wall, or chalked up on the door, to show that the 1 cwt. of cheese had been weighed. Of course the cheeses might be a few pounds over or under the cwt., and to ascertain the difference small paving stones were used instead of small weights. If the cheeses, weighed more than one cwt., stones were |