VICKERSTAFF, T. J., Esq., 6, Mill Street, Macclesfield. VILES, EDWARD, Esq., Pendryl Hall, Codsall Wood, Wolverhampton. WESTON, JOHN, Esq., The Heysoms, Hartford. WILSON, Rev. Canon, Prestbury Vicarage. WILSON, J., Esq., LL.D., Town Clerk of Congleton. HISTORIC SITES OF LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE. CHAPTER I. SWARTHMOOR HALL AND THE FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. The traveller who, by chance, finds himself in the quaint old town of Ulverston with a few hours at his disposal will find no difficulty in occupying them pleasantly and profitably. In the busy capital of Furness he is on the very threshold of that great storehouse of English scenic beauty, the Lake Country; almost at his feet is the broad estuary of the Leven, and beyond, spreads Morecambe Bay with its green indented shores, presenting alternately a flood of waters and a trackless waste of shifting sand. In that pleasant region there is many a picturesque corner, many a place of historic note, and many an ancient building that wakes the memories of bygone days. One of the historic sites, and certainly not the least interesting, is within the compass of a short half hour's walk--Swarthmoor Hall, for years the resort, and, for a time, the home of George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends; and scarcely less interesting is the primitive-looking little structure that stands within a few hundred yards of it, the first regularly constituted meeting-house in which Fox's disciples, the "Friends of Truth," or the "Children of Light," as they were indifferently called, worshipped. The locality is one he always loved. Here he gained his most enthusiastic converts, achieved his greatest triumphs, and suffered his severest persecutions; it was here, too, he won his faithful wife, and here, also, in the later years of his life, he loved to retire to recruit his weakened energies and prepare himself for a renewal of his arduous work.