20 HISTORY OF . . empties itself into the Well.ver. The BIRKIN springs near Chelford, and passing Mobberley, falls into the Bollin. The Cnoco runs from Bagmere, passes by Brereton Hall, Kinderton Park, and through , falls into the Dane at Croxton. The GRIII£SDITCR passes bv - Preston, , , and joins the l\Iersey at Norton Marsh. The Walwern passes by Hall, and forms a JUnction with the LEA, which comes from Lea and Wistaston;: they afterwards fall into the Mersey. The FLooKERSBROOK, a small stream, rises close to , near which it joins another rivulet, and they conjointly fall into the Dee below Chester. LAKES, or ME RES AND PooLs, as they are usually in Cheshire, are very numerous. Combermere is a magnificent sheet of water, considerably more than a mile in length, which gives name to Combermere Abbey. Chapel Mere and Moss Mere are two fine sheets of water in front of Cholmondeley Castle. Bar Mere is a large pool of water in Malpas parish. The other principal meres are Quoisley Mere, Rostherne Mere, Hagmere, Pickmere, Oakmere, and M o.rbury, or Bud worth Mere. Ridley Pool, noticed by Le land as being one of tb" largest in the county, has long since been drained and in tillage. In addition to the Meres already noticed, most of the parks surrounding the seats of the nobility and gentry of the county are finely adorned with sheets of water. Upwarc1s of sixty acres are covered with water in Ta.tton Park. C.&.NALs.-Eefore the introduction of railroads had diminished the utility, and checked he progress of inland navigation; the Cheshire canals afforded a very constant economical channel of commercial intercourse, and general communication between Chester, Liverpool, and , the north of , Staffordshire, and Shropshire, &c- Few countiea derived, or still indeed derive, so many advantages from the internal intercourse produced by artificial navigation as Cheshire. The principal canals which intersect various parts of the eounty, are the Duke of Bridgewater's, the Trent and Mersey, the Ellesmere, the Chester and Nantwicb, and the MacclesfielJ and Peak Forest canals. The ERIDGEWATER canal from Maitchester enters Cheshire near Ashton on the 1\Iersey, and traverses about 20 miles of this shire, passing near Altrincham, Dunham Massey, , ., Groppenball. , to , where it is precipitately lowered 95 feet, by a series. of locks into the Mersey; it was begun in 1761, and the whole of the wo1·ks at first projected were finished in l 776. This was the first canal projected by the celebrated Brindley, at the expense of the Duke of Bridgewatert to whose magnificent undertakings the inland naviga­ tion of England in general, is so much indebted. The TBEN'l' AND MERSEY CANAL.-The act for making the Trent and Mersey, or as ii is called, the Grand Junction canal, passed in 1766. This canal cernmunicates with the Duke

of Bridgewater's at Preston Brook, and passes by Dutton, Barnton, Little Leigh, Northwich10 Shipbrooke, and Middlewich, not far from to Lawton, a little beyond which it enters Staffordshire. In the course of this canal through Cheshire, there are four tunnels; one at Preston-on-the-hill, 1,241 yards in length; at Barn ton, 572 yards long; at Saltesford. 865 yards long, and another at Hermitage 130 yards long. The ELLEsMERE CANAL communicates with the Mersey at Whitby; at a place called . It passes th& east end of the Hundred of Wirral, and the south-east part of Broxton, having a course of about nine miles, passing through Whitby, Great Stanney, Stoke, Crowton. Chorlton, Ca.ughall, Moston, and Upton to Chester, where it joins the Dee, and the Chester and Canal. 'Ihe Chester and Nantwicb Canal was completed in 1788. At Chester it forms a junction with the Dee, and with the Dee and Mersey, or Elles~ mere C3Dal; and passing Christleton, Waverton, Hargrave, and the north of Beeston Castle, proeeeds to Nantwich, where it is continued into tl1e Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal, which runs south past Audlem into Shropshire. Four miles north of Nantwich a branch, from the Chester and Nantwicb Canal ruus in a north-eilSterly direction, to Middle~ wich, and is called the Middlewich Branch, which here meets the Trent an(l Mersey Canal, between Nantwich and the point where this branch joins the Chester and Nantwich Canal, on the other hand, a branch pmceeds in a south-westwardly direction to the neighbourhood of Whitchuroh. 'Ihe Canal leaves the , at Church Lawton, on the borders of this county. It runs northward past and Macclesfield, to Disley and Marple, where it joins the Peak Forest Canal. The entire length is t\ litil• •