It is no part of our present business to assume the herald’s place, by painting the genealogy of the noble house of GROSVENOR; else might we show that the family trace back, in the direct male line, to the Norman Conquest,—how that Gilbert le _Grosveneur_ (or the _Great Hunter_), nephew of Hugh Lupus, first Norman Earl of Chester, came over with his uncle in the train of King William,—that Robert le Grosvenor, a “red-cross knight,” fought with much distinction under Richard I. in the great Crusade,—how that another Robert covered himself with honour at the battle of Cresy,—that his grandson Robert was defendant in the famous “Scroope and Grosvenor suit,” concerning the ancient arms of those two great families. All this we could show,—and that later still, in the Great Rebellion, when other magnates joined the traitorous band, the “House of Eaton” remained steadfast in its loyalty, and, in the person of Sir Richard Grosvenor and his son Roger, raised the _posse comitatus_ of Cheshire, and gallantly therewith did battle for the King. But we must forbear,—for see, we are now approaching the entrance porch at the West Front of the HALL. The EATON estate passed to the GROSVENORS in the fifteenth century, by the marriage of Raufe le Grosvenor with Joan, daughter of John de Eaton; previously to which, for two centuries, the family had been settled at Hulme, near Northwich. A mansion of considerable importance existed here long prior to the seventeenth century, being then usually known as EATON BOAT, from its proximity to the ancient ferry of that name, across the river Dee. Sir Thomas Grosvenor, however, son and grandson of the two ardent royalists already mentioned, took unto himself a wife, in the person of Mary Davies, of Ebury, county Middlesex; through whom he acquired her father’s valuable estates in Westminster. The lady, it would seem, admired not the humble palace at EATON BOAT; for Sir Thomas soon after erected in its stead a nobler mansion, from designs furnished by Sir John Vanbrugh, the celebrated architect and dramatist, who is confidently affirmed to have been a native of Chester. This Hall, which was of brick, with a heavy lanthorn roof, was pulled down, in 1803, by the late Lord Westminster, who at once set to work with the magnificent fabric we see now before us. It is built of white freestone from the Manley quarry; Porden being the architect originally consulted. Nine tedious years and a mint of money were exhausted in its erection; and in 1823–5, two new wings were added, so as almost to double its original length. Critics now began to complain that its height was wholly dis-proportioned to its length, and impertinent scribes picked all manner of holes even in the architecture itself.