CHESHIRE is divided from Lancashire by the rivers Mersey and Tame; from Derbyshire and Staffordshire by the rivers Goyt and Dane, and a range of hills; and from Flintshire and Denbighshire in a great measure by the river Dee and its estuary, a small portion of the hundred of Broxton lying to the west of this general boundary. The form of this county is singular, being distinguished by two points projecting, the one into the Irish Sea, between the Mersey and the Dee, which constitutes the hundred of Wirral; and the other running up towards Yorkshire, between Lancashire and Derbyshire, forming the extremity of the Macclesfield hundred. If these points were cut off, the figure of Cheshire would approach nearly to that of an oval. The greatest breadth of this county from north to south is about thirty miles; its greatest length, from the extremity of the hundred of Wirral, at Kiddington Green, to Britland Edge, on the borders of Yorkshire, is fifty-eight miles; across the middle part of [7:6:509] the county, however, the length is not forty milcs. The projection between the Dce and Mersey is about twenty miles long and six broad; and that towards Yorkshire about fifteen miles long, and seldom above three miles broad.

Cheshire contains one city, which is also the county town, Chester; seven hundreds; thirteen market-towns, including Chester, namely, Stockport, Knutsford, Altringham, Conglcton, Frodsham, Macclesfield, Malpos, Middlewich, Nantwich, Ncston, Northwich, Sandbach, and Tar-porley; and eighty-six parishes. As, however, many of these parishes are of great extent, and comprise numerous townships, and more than one chapelry having the privilege of baptism and sepulture, the number of parishes and places assessed to the poor’s rates, and other county and parochial rates, is about 500. This county is in the province of Canterbury, and diocese of Chester; within which diocese are comprehended Cheshire, Lancashire, and part of Yorkshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. It is a county palatine, and is not included in any of the circuits, having a chief justice of its own.

The area of Cheshire comprises about 1200 square miles, or 676,600 acres, of which a much larger proportion is in cultivation than in most other English counties; there being only 28,600 acres of waste land, commons, and woods, 18,000 in peat bogs and mosses, and 10,000 in sea-sands, between the estuaries of the Dee and Mersey: the remainder, 620,000’acres, is in cultivation. The general character of the surface is flatness; the principal hills are on the borders of Derbyshire, which are connected with those of that county and of Staffordshire, and stretch along the eastern side of the parishes of Astbury, Prestbury, and Motbram, about twenty-five miles. Near Frodsham there is a bold promontory overlooking the Mersey, which is the first of an interrupted ridge of hills that crosses the county from north to south on its western side as far as Malpos. This high ground, after crossing the elevated district of Delamere Forest, appears again in the insulated rock of Beeston, which is nearly three hundred and eighty-six feet in height. The last link on this chain of hills is that of Broxton. The ground near Macclesfield is also elevated. With these exceptions, and that of a low chain of hills stretching from north to south through the hundred of Wirral, Cheshire is more uniformly flat than any other county in this part of England.

There is not much variety of soil: sand and clay, with the one or the other predominating in various proportions, constitute the soil of nearly the whole of Cheshire. That part of the county which stretches towards Yorkshire consists principally of peat-moss, a soil which also prevails to a less considerable extent near Coppenhall and Warmincham, and in some parts of the Forest of Delamere; the greater part of the forest, however, consists of sterile white sand or gravel. The most prevalent subsoils are marl, clay, and rcdgrit rock, or sandstone.

Cheshire, viewed from a height, appears covered with wood; but this appearance arises from the smallness of the enclosures, and the great number of large trees in the hedge-rows; otherwise it is not a well-wooded county. Its forests, which were formerly extensive, consisted of those of Delamere, Macclesfield, and Wirral; and the first contained ten thousand acres, two thousand of which have been inclosed. The quantity of timber in the hedge-rows and coppices exceeds the general average of the kingdom; the best, as well as the most common, is oak. In Dunham Park, near Altringham, the scat of the Earl of Warrington, there are some remarkably large old oaks. Alderlcy Park is equally celebrated for its beech trees.

The principal rivers are the Dee, the Weaver, the Dane, and the Tame; the Mersey, though frequently ' described as a Cheshire river, seems to us more properly to belong to Lancashire. The Dee, which rises in Wales, enters this county near Aldford; from Bangor Bridge it is navigable for barges; at Chester Bridge it meets the tide; at Chester a ledge of rocks runs across the bed of the river; from this place to the sea its natural course forms a broad sandy cstuary; but an artificial channel has been formed at great expense on the south side of the river, nearly half way to the sea, which is navigable for ships of six hundred tons burden. It falls into the Irish Sea, about fourteen miles north-west of Chester. At the time when the artificial channel was made, much land was gained from the tide by embankments, and much has been subsequently recovered. The Weaver rises in Cheshire, on Bulklcy Heath, and flows entirely through the county, till it joins the Mersey at Wyton; from Frodsham Bridge to Winsford Bridge, a distance of twenty miles, it is rendered navigable by means of locks and wears; the fall is forty-five feet ten inches, and there are ten locks; the course of this river is about thirty-three miles. The Dane rises in Macclesfield Forest. During the first part of its course it divides Staffordshire and Cheshire; at Congleton it enters the latter, and falls into the Weaver at Northwich. Its course is about twenty-two miles. The character of these rivers differs much. The Weaver is narrow, deep, and slow; the Dane is broad, shallow, and swift. The Tame rises in Yorkshire. During the greater part of its course, which is only ten miles, it forms the boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire, and falls into the Mersey near Stockport.

Cheshire is intersected by the Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal, the Grand Trunk, the Ellesmere, the Chester and Nantwich, and the Peake Forest. The first runs through about twenty miles of the county, entering it to the east of Ashton, and joining the Mersey at Runcorn. The Grand Trunk Canal communicates with the Duke of Bridgewater’s at Preston Brook, and passing by Northŵich and Middlewich, enters Staffordshire near Lawton. There arc four tunnels in the course of this canal through Cheshire, one of which, near Preston-on-the-Hill, is twelve hundred and forty-one yards in length, seventeen fleet four inches in height, and thirteen feet six inches in width. The Ellesmere Canal joins the Mersey at "Whitby, and after passing the east end of the hundred of Wirral, and the southeast of Broxton, it connects with the Dee and Chester Canal at Chester. Another branch forms ajunction with the Chester Canal at Hurleston. The Chester Canal begins at the Dee on the north of Chester, and passing through Christleton, Warriton, Hargrave, and to the north of Beeston Castle, terminates at Nantwich. The Peake Forest Canal joins the Ashton and Oldham Canal at Ashton-under-Line; it crosses the Tame near Duckinfield, and passing through Hydc, Marple, and Disley, enters Derbyshire near Whaley Bridge. Near Marple it is carried over the Mersey by an aqueduct of three arches, and a hundred feet in height. In the northern parts of Cheshire there are several small lakes called meres.

The mineral productions of this county are coal, copper, lead, cobalt, and rock-salt. Coal abounds in the northeastern parts, in a district of about ten miles from north to south. There are also some collieries in the hundred of Wirral, one of which extends a mile and three fourths from high-water mark under the river Dee. Copper, lead, and cobalt, are found at Alderby Edge, and copper in the Peckforton Hills; but none of these ores arc by any means abundant.

As the rock-salt and the brine-springs of Cheshire are naturally connected, and are found in the same districts, [7:6:510]we shall consider them together. The brine-springs are principally met with in the valley through which the Weaver and the Wheelock flow; and those from which salt is at present manufactured are at Lawton, Wheelock, Roughwood, in the townships of Anderton, Bechton, Leftwich, Middlewich, and in the neighbourhood of Northwich and Winsford. The brine-springs at Wheelock are at the depth of sixty yards. The brine is rich, but varies in strength; the strongest brine-springs are those of Anderton, while those at Leftwich are the weakest.

The brine-springs of Cheshire were probably known to the ancient Britons. It is certain that salt made from them was one of the principal articles of the commerce of this county before the Norman conquest. The discovery of the rock-salt, on the other hand, is very recent, not having been made till 1670, during a search for coal near Northwich. Since that period it has been found abundantly in the townships of Witton, Wincham, and Marston. The rock-salt is met with at various depths bclow the surface, from twenty-eight to forty-eight yards; some of the strata are only four feet thick, and others forty yards. In the mines near Northwich there are only two beds of rock-salt; but in other parts three beds have been found. These beds are divided from one another by strata of indurated clay or hard flag-stone, in which there are frequently found pieces of rock-salt. The muriate of soda, in the great body of the rock-salt, is mixed with a considerable portion of clay, oxide of iron, and sulphate of limei In the lower strata the rock-salt is a purer muriate of soda. The rock-salt is extremely hard, and in many cases requires to be blasted with gunpowder. The largest mine at present worked is that of Wilton; its depth is 330 feet, and its area nearly two acres; the ceiling, which is about twenty feet high, is supported by pillars fifteen feet thick, each containing 294 solid yards of rock-salt. Fifty or sixty thousand tons of rock-salt are obtained annually from the pits in the neighbourhood of Northwich, which is the great seat of the salt trade in this county. One third of the rock-salC is dissolved in water, and crystallized by evaporation; and.two thirds are exported in its native state.

By the report of the committee of the House of Commons on the use of rock-salt in the fisheries, printed May 1817, it appears that the capital embarked in the salt trade of Lancashire and Cheshire is about L.600,000; that on an average of five years previously to the 5th of April 1817, 240,000 tons of white salt had been made annually in these counties; that from 300 to 330 flats and barges arc employed in conveying the salt; that 267 people are employed in the salt mines; that 6500 are employed in the manufacture of salt; and that 400 tons of iron are consumed annually in this manufactory.

Quarries of excellent freestone are found at Rumcorn, Manley, and Great Bebington; limestone occurs only at Newbold Astbury, millstones at Mowcop Hill, and sandstone fit for glass near Macclesfield. Marl abounds in almost every part of the county.

Landed property is in general very little divided in this county, there being, according to Mr Holland, fifty noblemen and gentlemen who possess in it property of the annual value of from L.3000 to L.10,000 a year, and at least as many others with estates of from L.1Q00 to L.3000 a year.

With respect to agriculture, Cheshire is almost entirely a dairy county; and its arable husbandry is neither extensive nor of superior character. The principal dairies are about Nantwich, and in the district between the Dane and the Weaver; they are found, however, in every part of the county where the soil consists of clay. The number of cows kept for the dairy is about 32,000, and the quantity of cheese annually made is about 11,500 tons. The average quantity of cheese from each cow annually is estimated at 300 lbs.; eight quarts of milk, the average daily quantity yielded by each cow, producing one pound of cheese. In Lyme Park there is a herd of cattle of the same wild breed as those at Chillingham, in Northumberland.

The ground in the vicinity of Frodsham and Altringham produces abundant crops of excellent potatoes; and in the latter parish, where sea mud is used, 100,000 bushels are generally grown annually.

The cotton manufactures of Lancashire have extended into the contiguous parts of Cheshire, particularly at Stockport. Silk is manufactured at Macclesfield and Congleton, where there are large silk-mills; hats are made at Stockport, white and red lead at Chester, and gunpowder at Tholwall. Tanneries are very numerous, and on a large scale, in the middle and north of the county.

In 1803 the poor-rates levied amounted to L.84,99l. In 1815,434 parishes and places paid the sum of L.125,630. There were no returns from fifty-seven places. In 1829 the poor-rates levied amounted to L.137,886. 19s. The following is a table of the population, &c. for 1811, 1821, and 183Í.
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