That such a place can ever have been the site of a castle wherein dwelt the glittering creatures of chivalry is scarce thinkable: and yet there was such a stronghold. But the very ruins of it were cleared away so long ago as 1775. They were very scanty, and no sort of use to Prince Charles, when he passed here, going and returning in the ’45. His Highlanders, we learn from one of the diarists of that time, “were very rough as they went through Stockport, and took Mr. Elcock and 2 or 3 more with ’em, with Halters about their necks.” [Illustration: OLD TOWN HOUSE OF THE ARDERNES, STOCKPORT.] Those good old times again, when England was Merry England. What fun! But these good Stockport people were not strung up, after all, and returned later in the day to the bosom of their families. A relic of an older Stockport that knew nothing of cotton-mills or other factories is to be found in the street called Great Underbank. This is the old timbered town house of the Ardernes of Harden and Tarporley. This ancient family resorted hither in the long ago from their various country seats, and called it “coming to town.” The Manchester and Liverpool District Bank now occupies the fine old place. The “White Lion” was an interesting old inn, but it has gone down before Stockport’s growing commercial greatness. It was the house, according to usually received accounts, where the following tribute to the management was to be seen, inscribed on a window-pane by some dissatisfied guest of nearly a century and a half ago: If traveller, good treatment be thy care, A comfortable bed, and wholesome fare, A Modest bill, and a diverting host, Neat maid, and ready waiter,--quit this coast. If dirty doings please, at Stockport lie; The girls, O frowzy frights, here with their mothers vie. I think this is all the historian who is merely a gossip can say about Stockport. But stay! One very prominent feature has been passed over, and as I have no wish to incur the wrath of the burgesses, I hasten to repair the omission. Stockport is intensely proud of possessing the largest Sunday School in the world: proud, that is to say, of the large roll-call of its scholars, and possibly also of the mere bulk of the great building. Of its appearance, which is that of any large factory, there could not possibly be any pride. But in these days of secular advances and of a growing godless Socialism in great industrial centres, it is at once surprising and hopeful to see the like of Stockport’s great Sunday School: and in Manchester itself to witness the really wonderful Whitsuntide sight of the Sunday Schools’ processions through the chief streets of the great city. FOOTNOTES. [1] _Viâ_ Boroughbridge, Greta Bridge, and Catterick. [2] Died April 27th, 1905. Will proved, October, 1905, for £1,562,500. [3] Wesley is wrong in his measurement. The length is 550 feet. END OF VOL. I _Printed and bound by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._