Vale Royal. 147 



amend him, then God be mercifull to him ! The people 

 there live till they be very old : some are Grandfathers, 

 their fathers yet living, and some are Grandfathers before 



they be married They be very gentle and 



courteous, ready to help and further one another ; in 

 Religion very zealous, howbeit somewhat addicted to 

 Superstition : otherwise stout, bold, and hardy : withal 

 impatient of wrong, and ready to resist the Enemy or 

 Stranger that shall invade their Countrey Like- 

 wise be the women very friendly and loving, in all kind 

 of Housewifery expert, fruitful in bearing Children after 

 they be married, and sometimes before. *....! know 

 divers men which are but Farmers that may compare 

 therein with a Lord or Baron in some Countreys beyond 

 the Seas." t 



Vale Royal Abbey (adapted to the purposes of a 

 modern mansion in the reign of James I.) is the seat 

 of the Cholmondeleys, the head of which family was 

 in 1821 created Lord Delamere. It lies about -z\ miles 



* In this allusion our facetious author not improbably had his 

 eye upon the origin of the celebrated Lord Chancellor Egerton 

 above spoken of, who was natural son of Sir Richard Egerton of 

 Doddlestone Hall, by the beautiful and fascinating Mary Sparks, 

 A.D. 1540. 



t " The Vale Royall of England, or the County Palatine of 

 Chester, Illustrated ; wherein is contained a Geographical and 

 Historical Description of that famous County, with all its Hundreds 

 and Seats of the Nobility, Gentry, and Freeholders, its Rivers, 

 Towns, Castles, and Buildings, Ancient and Modern. Performed 

 by William Smith and William Webb, Gentlemen) and published 

 by Mr Daniel King. 1656." 



