262 



THE BRITISH ISLES. 



by !i bridge, the same dialect is heard on both banks ; but where they constitute a 

 serious obstacle to free intercourse the dialects differ.* 



Cheshire consists in the main of a broad plain, which extends from the river 

 Dee to the ^Mersey, and is intersected by the Weaver and its tributaries. The soil 

 of this plain is for the most part loam; it is of exceeding fertility, and it is 

 impossible to imagine a finer grazing district. The grass retains its verdure 

 throughout the year, and the dairy husbandry is consequently attended to with 

 great success. A broken ridge of hills divides this plain into a western and an eastern 

 portion. It passes into the county from the south, and extends northward as far 

 as the Lower Mersey. Its most remarkable feature is the insulated rock of Beeston, 

 crowned with the ruins of a castle. In the east the plain is bounded by a range of 

 uplands, known as Congleton Edge and Macclesfield Forest. These uplands are 

 a southern extension of the Pennine chain ; they separate Cheshire from StafFord- 



Mg. 128.— Chester. 

 Scale 1 : 500,000. 



3' 20 W.Of G. 



2°40- 



^riles. 



shire and Derbyshire, and contain coal, iron, and lead. Far more important than 

 either of these are, however, the salt mines and brine springs in the valley of the 

 Weaver. In the north-west the plain of Cheshire runs into the peninsula of 

 Wirral, which juts out to the Irish Sea between the estuaries of the Dee and 

 Mersey. Cotton and silk spinning and weaving are the principal branches of 

 manufacture carried on. 



Chester, the ancient capital of the county, is seated upon the river Dee, which a 

 iev,' miles below the city broadens out into a wide and shallow estuary close to the 

 Welsh frontier. It is of great antiquity, as is proved by its very name, a corrup- 

 tion of the Roman castnnn, and a great Homan highway, now known as Watling 

 Street, connected it with London and Dover. The foundations of Roman buildings 

 and antiquities of every description have been discovered. The Romans called 



* James Pearson ; Xodal and ililner, " Glosran- of the Lancashire Dialect." 



