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the North Staffordshire Railway, even this humble | attractions for the tourist; while its manufactures are communication has been stopped,-the only regular confined to a little shoe-making, brewing, and cornconnection being now with Stoke. Such are the 'ups grinding. In early times, however, it was of more and downs' occasioned by railway enterprize. If a line runs through a purely agricultural district, like that from Stafford to Crewe, avoiding such towns as those in the Potteries, a new line is almost inevitable, sooner or later. A branch of the North Staffordshire Railway is, however, to be made from Stoke to Newcastle.

Having thus rapidly glanced round the northern half of the circle which surrounds the Potteries, we come to the southern half; and here, at a distance of about four miles from Stoke, stands the palatial mansion of Trentham, the seat of the Duke of Sutherland (Cut, No. 9). Trentham House is one of those mansions which the genius of Mr. Barry has transformed within the last few years. The estate belonged to the Leveson family in the seventeenth century, from whom it passed to the Gowers, of whom the chief representative was the Marquis of Stafford, afterwards Duke of Sutherland. The mansion itself is large, and has been erected upwards of a century; it was afterwards extended, under the designs of the architect Holland; but its exterior has put on a totally new aspect within the last ten years. Mr. Barry has converted a comparatively plain building into one of a very sumptuous character, the façade presenting a highly enriched Italian composition. The grounds were laid out by Capability Brown,' and have at a later period been brought to a high degree of beauty. There is one very conspicuous object visible for miles on every side of Trentham. This is an obelisk, or mausoleum, to the memory of the late duke, built on the summit of a hill in the midst of the grounds. The house is beautifully situated. The most ornamental side is turned towards a magnificent terrace of flowers, beyond which is a handsome piece of water, and beyond that the picturesque wilderness of the upper valley of the Trent. The garden terrace is adorned by some beautiful bronze statues of stags, tastefully grouped, with other sculptures, among the flower-beds. The interior of the house is splendidly fitted up; but all these are things so frequently to be seen in England, "that," says Mr. Kohl, "I found nothing sufficiently eminent to deserve a detailed mention in a country which has its Warwick Castle to boast of. I saw nothing at all unique in its kind, in all the 'fuschia bed-rooms,' 'butterfly dressingrooms,' 'bird drawing-rooms,' 'bird sitting-rooms, 'honeysuckle rooms,' 'rose-bud rooms,' or his Grace's private rooms." Any one who has seen a considerable number of our patrician country mansions-such as Warwick, Burleigh, Stowe (as it has been), Chatsworth, Belvoir, Wilton, Hatfield, &c.,-does indeed find it difficult to see anything unique in them: there are such splendours in all.

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There was a very ancient monastery at this place, founded, it is said, by Wulfhere, king of Mercia, or his queen, Ermenilda, in honour of his two sons, whom, before his own conversion, he had murdered for embracing Christianity. Secular canons were placed here by the founder; but these being dispersed, some nuns occupied the place; these, in their turn, were removed in the time of Henry I., to make room for some regular canons of St. Austin, from Kenilworth Priory, to which this house was for some time a cell, but afterwards became independent. We are not aware that there are any existing remains of this monastic building.

CHEADLE CHURCH AND ALTON TOWERS.

Passing round towards the south-east we arrive at Uttoxeter; but as this town lies too far distant from the Potteries to come within the limits which we have marked out for ourselves, we will leave it, and pass on to Cheadle. This town lies on the road from the Potteries to Ashborne, at eight or ten miles distance from the former. It has sufficient in it and near it to make it an interesting spot; for in addition to its features as a town, and its gorgeous new Catholic church, it is within three or four miles of Alton Towers, the very remarkable seat of the Earl of Shrewsbury, on the banks of the Churnet. Cheadle is situated just within the moorland district of North Staffordshire, in the midst of hills, whose former bareness has been covered by recent plantations of timber-trees. The hills on the west and south-west command tolerably extensive prospects; and one of them, Monkhouse, is a favourite walk for the townspeople. The church is a fine old structure; but it has been much disfigured by decay, and almost as much by injudicious restorations.

The new Roman Catholic church is by far the most striking building in Cheadle. It was built almost wholly at the expense of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and has cost an enormous sum of money. It is dedicated to St. Giles, and was opened in 1846. The whole character of the building evinces a determination to revert to the middle ages for every particle of the design; as if the age we live in were unworthy even of an humble share in the work. The western front has a tower which becomes octagonal in its upper part, and is surmounted by a spire,-making the entire altitude from the ground about two hundred feet. Here is the principal entrance, a deeply-recessed, richly-moulded and adorned doorway; of which the doors themselves are of oak. There are indications of what will, to many, appear a strange taste; for the The town of Stone lies southward of the Potteries, doors are painted red, and have gilt hinges, fashioned on the line of the Grand Trunk Canal, and at a point into the shape of rampant lions, and spreading over of junction of two portions of the North Staffordshire their entire surface. The nave, which is 60 feet in Railway. It is not a place which presents many length, consists of five compartments, or has five

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on each side; the chancel, 27 feet to take part in the proceedings assembled in the churchlong, is divided from the nave by an oak-screen and yard: "Two policemen sufficed to restrain the crowd rood-loft, surmounted by the great rood or crucifix, on the outside, and protect those who had to enter: with the images of the Virgin Mary and St. John. in France a whole company of municipals would have The east end of the north aisle is enclosed by a low been required." screen, and forms the Lady Chapel; the corresponding The minute description given by M. Didron of the end of the south aisle is also enclosed, and set apart building itself we need not follow; but the procession as the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament; and the west may detain us for a while. The officers of the church extremity of the same aisle is similarly screened off as-deacons, priests, bishops, and archbishops,-were a Baptistery. One of the most remarkable examples all arrayed in the greatest magnificence which their of medieval taste is exhibited in the exterior, above respective dignities would permit. First in order, the principal entrance, where there are several canopied though lowest in importance, came some of the inferior niches, containing figures; one of which represents attendants of the church; then boy and men choristers. the present Earl of Shrewsbury, kneeling, with a model After these followed fourteen minor-clerks, eight subof the church in his hands, as the founder, with his deacons, and eight deacons, all in their respective patron, John the Baptist, standing behind him. An costumes. Then, rising higher and higher in rank, architectural critic, in the Companion to the Almanac,' came forty priests; thirteen other priests, who were speaking of the structure as a whole, says; "Though either curés of cathedrals or grand vicars; and, closing by no means a particularly large, it is an exceedingly the whole, thirteen Catholic bishops and archbishops, costly and highly elaborated structure, for which each attended by his chaplain. Among the bishops. nothing has been spared that can contribute to the was Jacob Heliani, bishop of Lebanon, who had lately pomp of devotion. Heraldic emblazonments and reli- returned from the east, with the scars and injuries gious emblems, painting and gilding, stained glass, and which had resulted from a persecution by the Druses: curiously-wrought metal work, imageries and inscrip- "All eyes," we are told, "were directed towards the tions, rood-loft and reredos, stone altar and sedilia, old man with the white beard and the oriental costume." metal screen-work, encaustic paving, go to make up The heir presumptive of the proud Talbots walked the gorgeous spectacle, and render the building most among the acolytes; the brother of the Earl was one literally and emphatically a specimen of the Decorated of the priests; and Messrs. Newman and Oakley, whose style." names were at that period connected with a very exciting theological controversy, were two of the clerks-minor. It is said that these two were not the only clerks-minor furnished by Oxford University. A Benedictine monk, in his plain and sombre vestment, walked among the priests. The Austrian and Sardinian ambassadors, and numerous Roman Catholic gentry from different parts of England, were among the assembled company.

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The details of the services of the day are then noticed; but, strange to say, M. Didron found the music so intolerably bad, that he abuses it in right earnest terms. He found the organ doing that which he would rather have had the singers do; and the organ itself, as well as its mode of being played, failed to reconcile him to the matter.

We have encountered a Frenchman's description of the grand ceremony at the opening of this splendid church, in a work where it would perhaps scarcely be An architectural and antiquarian publication of rather a superior kind, was commenced at Paris, in 1844, under the name of 'Annales Archæologiques;' and in the volume for 1846 is a paper by M. Didron, designated Promenade en Angleterre.' In this 'promenade,' M. Didron visited and noticed the new Missionary College at Canterbury, the new Catholic Cathedral at Birmingham, and other architectural objects; and he was afforded an opportunity for being present at the opening of the new church at Cheadle. He went from Birmingham by rail to Stafford, at which town the station was one of the most "charmante" he had ever seen, in the Elizabethan style. From Stafford he went to Longton by coach. "These coaches," he says, "are fiacres with two or four horses, which run with the rapidity of the mail. The passengers are mostly outside; the inside is reserved for children and women, who are afraid to venture on the roof. We were upon the imperial, eight before and eight behind, and one upon the coach-box; four other persons filled the interior; the whole drawn by two horses alone, who, however, went along very easily." We imagine that M. Didron must have made some mistake in his picture of an English stage-coach: the "eight before and eight behind" are not quite intelligible. After is in every way a remarkable place. Its proprietor, resting one night at Longton, M. Didron proceeded to Cheadle, where he arrived on the morning of the 1st of September, the day of the ceremony. All who were

This new church, erected, as we have said, at the expense of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and the new church at Wilton, near Salisbury, constructed at the expense of Mr. Sydney Herbert, are certainly remarkable examples of a new spirit which pervades the age: each has cost sixty or seventy thousand pounds, and each is an elaborate specimen of art, in which the resources of architecture, sculpture, painting, gilding, glassstaining, inlaying, and carving, are brought to bear upon one object. Each, too, is situated in a comparatively small town; and each is within a small distance of the palatial residence of the founder.

Alton Towers, three or four miles east of Cheadle,

the Earl of Shrewsbury,-one of the most influential. and distinguished Roman Catholics in this country,has made many munificent gifts to his church, in respect

to the buildings for sacred and educational purposes | language of Mr. Loudon, who paid a second visit to connected with it: of these, the structure just described the gardens in 1831. "The first objects that met our is a notable example. But for our present purpose we shall only speak of this nobleman in respect to the extraordinary park with which he has surrounded his residence. The manor came to the first Earl of Shrewsbury early in the fifteenth century. There was anciently a castle at Alton; but it was destroyed in the civil wars of the Commonwealth, and only a few ruins of it now remain on the banks of the river Churnet. The mansion itself is modern: it is a very irregular building, in the details of which the Decorated style has been brought to bear upon domestic construction. The interior contains many splendid apartments and galleries; but the exterior bears a greater resemblance to the abbatial structures of the middle ages than to a private mansion of the nineteenth century.

But the gardens are the main object of attraction. The late Mr. Loudon had opportunities of minutely inspecting the whole arrangement; and from the woodcuts which are given in his 'Encyclopædia of Gardening,' it is evident that the whole place is as singular as a cursory glance indicates it to be. The mansion stands on a piece of table land, fifty or sixty acres in extent, and bounded on three sides by two valleys, which commence in a gentle hollow near the mansion, and lose themselves in a third deep valley, in the opposite direction. The surrounding country is similarly diversified, and both hills and valleys are usually pasture-land, with very few inhabitants. Down to the year 1814, the site of the present mansion was occupied by a farm-house; but in that year the late Earl commenced a series of buildings and improvements, which have been continued with little interruption ever since. The Earl was an amateur architect, and an amateur gardener: he wished to produce something which should differ from everything else; and he seems to have realised that wish. He solicited advice from all quarters, but generally decided on some plan of his Mr. Loudon visited the place about the time of the Earl's death, in 1827; and he speaks of it as being one of the most singular anomalies to be met with among the country residences of Britain, or perhaps of any other part of the world. An immense pile of building, by way of house, with a magnificent conservatory and chapel, but with scarcely a habitable room; a lofty prospect tower, not built on the highest part of the ground; bridges without water underneath; ponds and lakes on the tops of the hills; a quadrangular pile of stabling in the midst of the pleasure-ground; and what may be said to have eclipsed, and still to eclipse, everything else—a valley, naturally in a high degree romantic with wood, water, and rocks, filled with works of the highest degree of art in architecture and gardening."

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The private approach-roads to Alton Towers, either from Cheadle or from Uttoxeter, are several miles in length, conducted along the bottoms and sides of winding rocky valleys. The description of the approach from the Uttoxeter road may as well be given in the

view were the dry Gothic bridge, and the embankment leading to it, with a huge imitation of Stonehenge beyond, and a pool above the level of the bridge alongside of it, backed by a mass of castellated stabling. Farther along the side of the valley, to the right of the bridge, is a range of architectural conservatories, with seven elegant glass domes, designed by Mr. Abraham, and richly gilt. Farther on still, to the right, and placed on a high and bold naked rock, is a lofty Gothic tower or temple, on what is called 'Thomson's Rock,' consisting of several tiers of balconies, round a central staircase and rooms: the exterior ornaments numerous and resplendent with gilding. Near the base of the rock is a corkscrew fountain, of a peculiar description, which is amply supplied from an adjoining pond. Behind, above, and beyond the range of conservatories, are two lakes; and beyond them is another conservatory, curiously ornamented. Below the main range of conservatories is a paved terrace walk, with a Grecian temple at one end, and a second terrace, containing a second range of conservatories. The remainder of the valley, to the bottom, and on the opposite side, displays such a labyrinth of terraces, curious architectural walls, trellis-work arbours, vases, statues, stone stairs, wooden stairs, turf-stairs, pavements, gravel and grass walks, ornamental buildings, bridges, porticos, temples, pagodas, gates, iron railings, parterres, jets, ponds, streams, seats, fountains, caves, flower-baskets, waterfalls, rocks, cottages, trees, shrubs, beds of flowers, ivied walls, rock-work, shell-work, root-work, moss-houses, old trunks of trees, entire dead trees, &c., that it is utterly impossible for words to give any idea of the effect. There is one stair of a hundred steps; a cottage for a blind harper, as large as a farm-house; and an imitation cottage roof, formed by sticking dormer windows and two chimneys, accompanied by patches of heath to imitate thatch, on the sloping surface of a large gray mass of solid rock."

The sandstone rock, too, which protrudes in many places, has been formed into caves, grottoes, caverns, and covered seats. "It has even been carved into figures: in one place we have Indian temples excavated in it, covered with hieroglyphics; and in another a projecting rock is formed into a huge serpent, with a spear-shaped iron tongue, and glass eyes! There is a rustic prospect-tower over an Indian temple, cut out of the solid rock, on the highest point of the north bank; and in the lowest part of the valley there are the foundation and two stories of an octagon pagoda. The pagoda was intended to be 88 feet high: it is placed on an island, in the centre of a small pond, and was to have been approached by a Chinese bridge, richly ornamented.”

Here we conclude. We began with homely pottery, and terminate with fantastic landscape-gardening; but it is only one among many instances of extremes being at a mere visiting distance from each other.

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