with stalactites, which have a beautiful appearance when lighted up by Roman
candles or other fireworks. As Buxton is only twenty-two miles from
Manchester, travellers who have the time to spare should on no account omit
to visit one of the most romantic and remarkable scenes of England.

* * * * *

MACCLESFIELD.--From Buxton it will not be a bad plan to proceed to
Macclesfield, and again in Cheshire, on the borders of Derbyshire, take
advantage of the rail. The turnpike road to that improving seat of the silk
manufacture is across one of the highest hills in the district, from the
summit of which an extensive view into the "Vale Royal" of Cheshire is had.
The hills and valleys in the vicinity of Whaley and Chapel-en-le-Frith are
equally delightful. Macclesfield has one matter of attraction--its important
silk manufactories. In other respects it is externally perfectly
uninteresting. The Earl of Chester, son of Henry III., made Macclesfield a
free borough, consisting of a hundred and twenty burgesses, and various
privileges were conferred by Edward III., Richard II., Edward IV., Elizabeth,
and Charles II.

One of the churches, St. Michael's, was founded by Eleanor, Queen of Edward
I., in 1278. It has been partly rebuilt, but there are two chapels, one the
property of the Marquis of Cholmondeley, which was built by Thomas Savage,
Archbishop of York, whose heart was buried there in 1508. The other belongs
to the Leghs of Lyme. A brass plate shows that the estate of Lyme was
bestowed upon an ancestor for recovering a standard at the battle of Cressy.
He was afterwards beheaded at Chester as a supporter of Richard II. Another
ancestor, Sir Piers Legh, fell fighting at the battle of Agincourt. We do
not know what manner of men the Leghs of Lyme of the present generation are,
but certainly pride is pardonable in a family with an ancestry which took
part in deeds not only recorded by history, but immortalized by Shakspeare.

There is a grammar school, of the foundation of Edward VI., with an income of
1500 pounds a-year, free to all residents, with two exhibitions of 50 pounds
per annum, tenable for four years. But there must be some mismanagement, as
it appears from Parker's useful Educational Register, that in 1850 only
twenty-two scholars availed themselves of these privileges; yet Macclesfield
has a population exceeding thirty thousand.

The education of the working classes is above average, and music is much