102 
Cheshire Cheese. 
emigrate annually to seek a livelihood in foreign climes and far 
distant colonies, driven through dire compulsion to rend asunder 
the strongest ties of affection, and abandon for ever their native 
land, cannot be viewed without feelings of regret by all right- 
thinking men : and yet how much of this might be obviated if our 
wealthy landowners would set about improving their estates by 
drainage and the reclaiming of extensive heaths, (instead of squan- 
dering their time and capital on the Continent,) thereby enhancing 
the value of our country by increasing its produce and general 
fertility — providing additional supplies of home-grown food for the 
millions — diffusing peace and plenty around the cottage hearth by 
furthering and extending the happy means of employment here 
pointed out, and searching out the hidden ti'easures of the soil ! 
Such objects as these are well worthy the highest ambition of 
every true patriot, who will ever regret to see those who on all 
occasions have been found as ready and well qualified to wield the 
sword in war as the ploughshare in peace, thus reluctantly estranged 
from the land of their birth. 
February 22, 1845. 
VIII. — A detailed Account of the Making of Cheshire Cheese. By 
Henry White, Land Agent and Surveyor, Warrington. 
Pkize Essay. 
It has sometimes been a matter of dispute amongst Englishmen 
which particular county or district is the most famous for the 
making of cheese. I think, if quantity is to be taken into account 
as well as quality, the decision must be in favour of Cheshire, as 
there cannot be less, upon a moderate calculation, than 12,000 
tons made in that county annually ; a considerable portion of 
which is of excellent quality. 
There is reason for believing that cheese has been made in 
Cheshire for at least 700 years:* and, from allusions made to 
* " The fame of the cheeses of Cheshire is of very ancient date : at least 
as old as the reign of Henry I. (a.d. 1100). The Countess Constance of 
Chester, though the wife of Hugh Lupus, the king's first cousin, kept a 
herd of kine, and made good cheeses, three of which she presented to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury. Giraldus Cambrciisis bears lionourable testi- 
mony to the excellence of the Cheshire cheeses of the day."' (JJel/'s Weekly 
Messenger, Feb. 22, 1841.) "Poor men eat cheese for hunger, rich for 
digestion. It seems that the ancieut British had no skill in the making 
thereof, till taught by the Romans, and now the Romans may even learn 
of us more exactness therein. The county of Chester doth aii'ord the best 
for quantity and quality; and yet their cows are not (as in other shires) 
housed in the winter; so that it mav seem strange, that the hardiest kine" 
should yield the tenderest cheese. Some essayed in vain to make the like 
