THE RULE OF THE STUARTS 150 XXIV. CIVIL WAR: (1) THE BATTLES OF MIDDLEWICH AND NANTWICH 153 XXV. CIVIL WAR: (2) A MEMORABLE SIEGE 158 XXVI. CIVIL WAR: (3) THE PROTECTORATE AND THE RESTORATION 163 XXVII. THE FALL OF THE STUARTS 167 XXVIII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (1) 173 XXIX. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (2) 180 XXX. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1) 183 XXXI. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (2) 188 XXXII. THE RAILWAYS OF CHESHIRE 192 XXXIII. PROGRESS AND REFORM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 198 XXXIV. THE REIGN OF A GREAT QUEEN 204 XXXV. FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN OF CHESHIRE 211 XXXVI. CONCLUSION 216 INDEX 220 CHAPTER I POSITION AND NATURAL FEATURES OF CHESHIRE Few English counties owe more of their history to their geographical position and surroundings, and to the character of their natural features, than Cheshire. Not only in the past have the rocks and rivers of Cheshire helped to make history, but even to-day they have a very direct bearing upon the fortunes of Cheshire men and women. How many of us reflect, as our eyes travel over the plain to the distant hills, that on the wise and orderly arrangement of mountain and valley, forest and winding stream, our very existence and means of livelihood depend? Truly Nature has other work to do than merely create picturesque landscapes. Cheshire is situated in the north-west of England, washed partly by the Irish Sea, and guarded as it were on its eastern and western sides by two great ramparts of hill country, that on the east formed by the southern spurs of the Pennine Chain, while the Welsh hills of Flint and Denbigh are the natural frontier on the west. The western boundary, however, which has been frequently changed, now follows roughly the Valley of the Dee. A semicircle of hills of lesser height fringes the county on the south, and the river Mersey divides it from its northern neighbour, Lancashire. In the north-west of the county a rectangular stretch of country known as Wirral is washed by two great estuaries and by the Irish Sea, and a wedge of moorland in the north-east penetrates into the heart of the Pennines. Here the hills reach their greatest height, Black Hill the highest point in Cheshire being just under 2,000 feet above sea-level. The low-lying lands enclosed by this amphitheatre of hills form the Cheshire Plain, broken only by ridges or terraces of low sandstone hills running north and south.