637 



ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD. 



ASIA. 



553 



tion of mining operations, and the decay of weaving, Ashover has 

 become a very poor place. The market has ceased for sixty years. 



There are remains of Eastwood Hall, once the residence of the 

 Reresby family, and a structure of some importance, as appears from 

 its massive masonry. It is a gloomy building, with a modern 

 dwelling attached to its shattered walls, standing at the foot of a high 

 hill which is covered with huge masses of sandstone rock and 

 crowned with a pine forest. This, with considerable property around 

 it, one-third share of the manor, and the benefice of Ashover, was 

 bought of the Reresby family in 1623 by Immanuel Bourne, 

 then rector of Ashover, and has descended from him to the present 

 rector. 



At Lea in the parish of Ashover are the ruins of an ancient 

 chapel ; also a Unitarian chapel, a cotton mill, and a hat manufactory 

 (I.,. i Wood). 



On the declivity of a hill on Ashover common is a rocking stone 26 

 feet in circumference, called by the country people ' Robin Hood's 

 Mark ' : and near it there is a singularly-shaped rock, supposed to be 

 a rock idol. 



ons's Mayna Britannia; Rhodes's Peak Scenery; Bateman's 

 ilies of Derbyshire; Correspondent at Ashover.) 



ASHTON 1N-MAKKRFIELD, or ASHTON-LE-WILLOWS, Lan- 

 cashire, a manufacturing village in the parish of Ashton and hundred 

 of West Derby, lies on the road between Warrington and Wigan, 

 about 15 miles E. from Liverpool, and 24 miles N.W. by N. from 

 Newton, which is 1 87 miles from London by the North- Western rail- 

 way : the population in 1851 was 5679. 



Formerly Ashton township with the adjoining township of Haydock 

 formed a chapelry within the extensive and ancient parish of Winwick. 

 By an Act of Parliament, passed in 1845, for the division of the 

 Rectory of Winwick, Ashton was constituted a separate parish 

 and rectory, and endowed with the tithes of the whole township, 

 amounting to 6001. per annum. A portion of the township called 

 the Town End is annexed to the township of Haydock, forming 

 together 'the parish and vicarage of St. Thomas in Ashton.' The 

 church of the rectory parish is situated near to the hamlet of Down- 

 hall Green ; adjoining it stand a handsome rectory-house and 

 school-house, all built principally at the cost of the Rev. .James J. 

 Hornby, rector of Winwick. There are places of worship belonging 

 to the Roman Catholics, Independents, Quakers, and Unitarians. 

 Within the township are an endowed Grammar-school, founded in 

 1588, and situated at Seneley Green ; a National school, and schools 

 belonging to some of the denominations of Dissenters. The township 

 is especially noted for its manufactures of hinges and locks : and for 

 the possession of extensive and valuable coal mines. Nearly five- 

 sixths of the township belong to Sir John Gerard, Bart., who is lord 

 of the manor, and holds a court-leet yearly in September. 



{Correspondent at Ashton-in-Makerfield.) 



ASHTOX-UNDEH-LINE, Lancashire, a parliamentary borough, 

 market-town, and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish of 

 Ashton and hundred of Salford, is situated on the right bank of the 

 river Tame, in 53 30' N. lat., 2 6' W. long., 6J miles E. from 

 Manchester, 1864 miles from London by road, and 195 miles 

 by the London and North-Western railway : the population 

 of the parliamentary borough in 1851 was 29,791; that of the 

 municipal borough was 30,676. The borough is governed by eight 

 aldermen, and twenty-four councillors, one of whom is mayor ; and 

 returns one member to the Imperial Parliament. The living is a 

 rectory in the archdeaconry and diocese of Manchester ; besides the 

 rectory there are ten perpetual curacies. Ashton Poor-Law Union 

 contains thirteen parishes and townships, with an area of 41,410 

 acres, and a population in 1851 of 119,182. 



Ashton is a thriving place ; and it is on the whole well laid out and 

 well built The streets are paved and the town is lighted with gas. 

 When the Health of Towns' Commissioners reported on the state of 

 Ashton in 1844, the drainage was tolerably efficient; the street 

 sweepings were taken to a receptacle at the west end of the town, and 

 sold to farmers as manure. The town was supplied with water by the 

 Ashton Waterworks Company, which had a reservoir at Knott Hill 

 capable of containing 100,000,000 gallons. An act of parliament 

 wa obtained in 1849 for effecting further improvements in the 

 town. 



The church is a large ancient structure ; in the tower is a fine peal 

 of ten bells. The original character of the architecture has been much 

 altered by subsequent repairs ; and the edifice sustained considerable 

 injury from an accidental fire in 1821. Several new chapels have 

 been recently built, both within and beyond the limits of the town. 

 The Independents, Baptists, Wesleyan, Primitive and New Connexion 

 Methixlists, Roman Catholic*, BwMflnbotgittlB, and Jews, have places 

 of worship. Near the parish church is ' The Old Hall,' supposed to 

 have been built in the 15th century ; and adjacent to it are the remains 

 of a prison, the appearance of which indicates still greater antiquity. 

 This prison is known by the name of ' The Dungeons,' and was used 

 as a place of confinement till a rompiirutively recent period. A new 

 town-hall, a spacious ami li.-mi]s,.rne building, was erected in 1841. 

 There is a couri UK- t.iMnwtM.n ,,!' public affairs, with 



a theatre and a concert-room over it. The ancient Cross is still 

 .:ug in the market-place, in which al^u are < ,,,arket 



buildings. There is an ancient Foundation school ; also National and 

 other schools, an athenasum, a mechanics institute, several news 

 rooms, and a savings bank. A new Union workhouse has been 

 recently erected on Chamber Hill, near the Mossley road, about a 

 mile from the town. A county court is held in Ashton. A general 

 market is held weekly on Saturday, and one for cattle and pigs on 

 Tuesday ; there are also fairs or markets for cattle and pigs on the 

 second Thursday in every month. 



Ashtou is one of the great seats of the cotton manufacture. In 

 1843 in Ashtou and the surrounding neighbourhood, the cotton 

 manufacture employed nearly 35,000 hands ; the weekly consumption 

 of cotton was l,063,5151bs. weight. Bleacning, dyeing, and calico 

 printing are also carried on. Hats, woollens, and silks are manufac- 

 tured. Iron and brass founding, machine-making, brick-making, and 

 basket-making are carried on. There are more than 20 collieries in 

 the immediate vicinity, which employ upwards of 1000 hands. Ashton 

 is connected with various districts by the Ashton and Manchester, 

 the Ashton and Huddersfield, and the Peak Forest canals ; also by 

 the Sheffield and Manchester, the Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the 

 Huddersfield and Manchester railways. 



The parish of Ashton is very extensive, comprehending about 

 1 square miles. In it are several large manufacturing villages ; but 

 except in these and in the town itself the population is not dense. 

 The principal villages in the parish are as follows : STALEYBRIDGE. 

 Mossley, population 1081 in 1841, about 2| miles N.E. from Ashton, 

 contains several factories. Lees is situated about 5 miles N. by E. from 

 Ashton. ffooley Hill, population 1772, the populous part of Audeushaw, 

 is 1 mile S.W. from Ashtou. Fairfdd, on the road from Manchester 

 to Ashton, is a settlement of the Moravians. All these villages are 

 increasing rapidlv, and becoming gradually incorporated with Ashtou 

 itself. 



On the west side of the town, and on the north side of the road from 

 Manchester, is a large moss, or shaking bog, from the edges of which 

 turf is cut for fuel. At the depth of about ten feet lies a tolerable loam, 

 which with improvement is rendered good meadow-land. The moss 

 may be crossed at all seasons. Fir-trees, fresh and full of turpentine, 

 have been found in it ; likewise oaks quite sound, and as black as 

 ebony. Much of this moss was drained by the late Earl of Stamford 

 and Warriugton (lord of the manor) ; and the present earl is con- 

 tinuing the drainage works, and laying down the reclaimed laud in 

 corn and grass. 



(Aikin's Description of the Country round Manchester ; Parliamen- 

 tary Papers ; Communication from Ashton.) 



ASIA, a great division of the earth, which comprehends all the 

 countries that extend eastward from Europe and Northern Africa to 

 the Pacific Ocean. It is usually stated that the name was originally 

 applied to a small district on the west coast of Asia Minor, and that 

 as the Greeks pushed their settlements or geographical discoveries 

 eastward the name proportionally extended, till at length it was 

 customary to designate by it one of the great divisions of the globe. 

 In support of this view a passage in Homer (' II.' ii. 461) is often relied 

 upon to show that the poet was acquainted with the geographical 

 designation Asia; but the proper interpretation of the passage in 

 question is not ' Asian meadow,' but ' meadow of (or sacred to) 

 Asias,' an ancient hero or king of the Lydians, whose chapel existed 

 in Strabo's time, in the very locality mentioned by Homer, namely, 

 ' by the Ciiyster.' There is nothing in Homer to warrant the suppo- 

 sition that he knew anything of Asia as one of the divisions of the 

 earth A mythical origin of the name from the nymph Asia, a 

 daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and the mother or wife of 

 Prometheus, is given by Hesiod ('Theog.' 359) and Herodotus (iv. 45), 

 to both of whom the geographical term was well known. Herodotus in 

 the section just referred to, also gives a Lydian tradition deriving the 

 name from Asias, one of their ancient kings, after whom it is added, a 

 ward of the city of Sardis was called 4>uA}/ Auiiii ; and Strabo (xiii.) 

 preserves an old statement that Asia was the original name of Lydia. 

 Even from these fragmentary notices it is clear that the name 

 already existed among the Lydians themselves (there are strong 

 grounds for believing that it was not confined to them), and that 

 therefore we ought to look beyond the Greek language and Greek 

 traditions for a clue to its meaning. Hitter, Pott, and other orienta- 

 lists, discussing the origin of the name in this wider view, have 

 arrived at the conclusion that the root-syllable in Asia means the 

 ' Sun,' especially as an object of religious worship ; that the Asians are 

 ' the people of the Sun,' or ' the people from the east ' ; and that Asia 

 is thus the correlative term of Europa, which is now admitted 

 by philologists to be derived from the Phoenician or Hebrew 

 word ' Ereb,' or ' Oreb,' signifying ' evening,' ' sunset,' and hence 

 the 'West.' 



I. Asia as known to tfte Greeks and Romans. From the earliest 

 records of European history, the Homeric poems, we learn that an 

 intercourse existed before the war of Troy between the inhabitants 

 of Europe and Asia. But as far as we can infer from our authorities, 

 it was more of a hostile than a pacific nature. Commercial exchange 

 seems to have been nearly confined to a few Phoenician vessels which 

 visited the islands of the Archipelago and some ports of Greco 

 even with them piracy appears to have been as important an object aa 

 commerce. Thoirjh the Phoenician.-) visited the ports of Greece, th<! 



