(illoWTII or MANCHKSTKi;. 



423 



stocks, pillory, and Old Market Cross, were removed from 

 the Market Place in 181(1. The public whipping of 

 culprits on the pillory staire is within the recollection of 

 the elder portion of the present inhabitants. Another 

 "social institution," of a somewhat different character, 

 was extinguished much more recently, by the construc- 

 tion of the splendid piece of terrace-road in front of 

 the cathedral, known as the Hunt's Bank improvement. 

 This road swept away a number of buildings, shown on 

 the old plans of Manchester as standing on the water's 

 edge, close to the confluence of the Irk with the Irwell. 

 They were reached by a flight of some thirty steps, and 

 consisted of a dye-work, employing three or four hands, 

 two public-houses, and about a dozen cottages and other 

 buildings. The public-houses, the ' Ring o' Bells' and 

 the ' Blackamoor,' particularly the former, were famous 

 places in their day. On Mondays, wedding-parties 

 r'r< >ni the country, consisting sometimes of from twenty to 

 thirty couples, accompanied by fiddlers, visited " t' Owd 

 Church " to get married. The ' Ring o' Bells ' was the 

 rendezvous until the parties were duly married and ready 

 to form and depart homewards, in a more or less orderly 

 manner, headed by their fiddlers as they had come. The 

 4 Ring o' Bells ' was also a favourite resort of the recruit- 

 ing-serjeant, and more recruits, it is said, were enlisted 

 the iv than at any other public-house in the kingdom. 

 But these, and many other curious characteristics of old 

 .Manchester, have long since passed away; and not only 

 the town but its population have become entirely new. 





