(as already stated) there is a precipitous descent to the river. Here is the one Mile Stone from Manchester. There can be little doubt that a cross of white stone at one time stood on this spot.

THE SALFORD CROSS.-This structure-demolished in the year 1824-was probably the successor of many which, in the course of centuries, were erected one after the other on this site. It stood on the westerly side of the Salford Court House and is clearly marked on the 1650 map. No uncertainty as to its design exists, for an excellent drawing of it was made by Ralston about the year 1812. The design consisted of a tall classical column standing on three steps and surmounted by a crown. At its base were the stocks, the criminal sitting on one of the steps of the cross. Near it was the pump. The design resembled in many respects some of those illustrated in the chapter on the hundred of Amounderness.

Here John Wesley preached to a wild assembly in the year 1747.* Procter thus describes the event: "The earliest historical notice we meet touching Salford Cross takes date from the origin of Methodism in this town. John Wesley, preaching on the steps of the cross, received no kindly welcome from the bystanders. In language quaintly descriptive we are informed that one of the 'unbroken spirits' around him, more unruly than the rest, threatened to bring out the engine and play it upon the zealous itinerant preacher. 'I walked,' observes Mr. Wesley in his journal dated May, 1747, 'straight to Salford Cross. A numberless crowd of people partly ran before, partly followed after me. I thought it best not to sing, but, looking round, asked abruptly, "Why do you

*Memorials of Manchester Streets.

look as if you had never seen me before? Many of you have seen me in the neighbouring church both preaching and administering the sacrament.” I then began As I was drawing to a conclusion, a big man thrust in with three or four more, and bade them bring out the engine.' Salford Cross was the scene of tumultuous rejoicing in July, 1821, when the coronation of George IV. was celebrated with exceeding magnificence throughout Manchester and Salford.”

As the Portmote and other Records make no mention of markets, we must conclude that the Salford Cross was used mainly as a Proclamation Cross, and that no markets of any importance were held here, but only across the water in Manchester.

Such

In more than one preceding chapter, attention has been drawn to the fact that a series of crosses once stood on the principal roads leading out of some of the ancient towns of the county, as at Preston and Ulverston. a series apparently once existed on the old road from Manchester through Pendleton to Eccles, Patricroft, and beyond. It is not improbable that several of them were erected for devotional purposes. In mediæval times, and especially after the Wars of the Roses, ruffianly robbers filled the country districts, bent on the plunder of merchants, who it is well known often prayed for a safe journey at wayside crosses.

I assume that the first cross stood, as already mentioned, on White Cross Bank, one mile west of the Manchester market place. The next would be at the end of Cross Lane, half a mile west from the preceding. Another half mile would bring the traveller to Pendleton Green, on which a cross stood before the present church

was built.

Eccles is two miles beyond Pendleton, and here, as we shall see, were two crosses in the market place. There may have been others between these villages. Patricroft is a mile west from Eccles. In all probability a cross, dedicated to S. Patrick, once stood here. Proceeding from Patricroft, on the ancient road to Warrington, Barton Old Hall is reached at a distance of a full half mile. The ancient cross discovered here by Mr. Rowbotham is described later in these pages. The site of another cross is probably recorded by the words "Cross Field," which we find on the ordnance map on the north side of this road-two miles south-west from Barton Cross-and about half a mile short of the village of Higher Irlam. This road skirts the vast morass called Chat Moss, a dangerous place for travellers in the old times, and this cross (and possibly others of which there is now no record) may have been placed here as guides to travellers.

LADY PEARLE.-In the Salford Portmote Records the editor refers to the various entries in these volumes which show that miraculous powers were supposed to belong to the waters of this spring. The site was on the northerly side of the Irwell, half a mile in a southwesterly direction from the Salford Cross, a little to the west of the present New Bailey Street bridge.

Mr. J. G. de T. Mandley writes: "Among such items there appear several sums paid for 'Carrying a Creple (cripple) to the powl.' In some cases the 'creples' were carried on horseback, in others on a barrow-probably a hand, not a wheel barrow. By the 'powl' or pool I take it that the 'Pirle' or 'Lady Pearle' spring is meant. all probability this spring was the one that gave the name to the spaw or spa house (shown in the engraving,

In

'South West Prospect of Manchester and Salford,' 17101730), supposed to have been on the river bank where Stanley Street now is and where the Lying-in Hospital used to be, and credited, like Holywell in North Wales, and other such places, with miraculous healing property.”

Halliwell Lane, Cheetham Hill, about one and a half miles to the north of Manchester, may have been the site of a mediæval holy well, although these words do not necessarily prove that such a well ever existed here.

KERSAL CELL is thus described in Dugdale's Monasticon: "At Kershall or Kyrkshawe, a Cluniac cell. King Henry II. granted and King John, anno reg. 1, confirmed, to the monastery of Lenton, in Nottinghamshire, the hermitage here, which thereupon became a small house of Cluniac Monks, and a cell to that priory was granted, 32 Henry VIII., to Baldwin Willoughby."

Kersal Cell is now an interesting old-fashioned house. It contains an ancient domestic chapel on the first floor. The house is two and a half miles north-west from Manchester Cathedral.

PENDLETON CROSS.-A record of this structure is to be found in the Binns Collection at Liverpool, on a map of Pendleton Green-a triangular piece of ground on which S. Thomas's Church now stands. A small church, Baines states, was built here in 1776. It was rebuilt in 1831. The plan is undated, but on it is drawn a Latin cross on steps, similar to those shown on Saxton's map of LanClose to the cross are some lines, which, I think, are intended to represent the stocks. These structures are shown on the southerly side of the green.

caster.