ANCIENT STREETS AND HOMESTEADS OF ENGLAND [Illustration] [Illustration: WREXHAM TOWER.] ANCIENT STREETS AND HOMESTEADS OF ENGLAND BY ALFRED RIMMER AND AN INTRODUCTION BY THE VERY REV. J. S. HOWSON, D.D. DEAN OF CHESTER [Illustration] _WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR_ ENGRAVED BY J. D. COOPER London MACMILLAN AND CO. 1877 PREFACE. It cannot with truth be said that monumental history is treated in our day with scanty regard. Never, perhaps, were such permanent and forcible memorials of the past as the Arch of Titus in Rome, the _Pont du Gard_ in the south of France, and the _Porta Nigra_ of Trèves, visited and gazed upon with warmer interest or a deeper sense of their value. We all feel the power that is exerted over us by the ruins of great Castles and great Abbeys. And in another way is this strong feeling of our times very widely manifested. I refer to the restoration of Cathedrals and Churches--not only in our own country now for many years--but, more recently, in France. This restorative work may not always have been conducted with faultless taste or perfect judgment, but (to say nothing of religious motives) it testifies to a high appreciation of the importance of history written in stone. There is, however, what may be termed a minor monumental history, which has not by any means always received its due attention. Our country is full of historic scenes, where the past is visibly recorded, and where, a few years ago, it was more visibly recorded than at present. Old states of society, old modes of living, obsolete habits of the people, are commemorated in many a small building which attracts little notice from the ordinary passer by. The lives of eminent persons, public events of high significance, have left their mark in villages, and market towns, and wayside places, where these recollections ought to be cherished, and where, if possible, the hand of the destroyer ought to be arrested. It should be added that nearly all such scenes and such fragments are pleasing in their aspect and worthy of the artist’s pencil as well as of the historian’s pen.