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"Altogether, what with the beautiful weather, it was a most gratifying sight; and I am sure that no Queen Dowager, or otherwise, ever experienced a better reception than what awaited good Queen Adelaide at Alton Towers.

"I have written you all this, by way of paying horse hire for Bobby.

"And am, &c.,

"J. B."

BLACKPOOL JOURNAL.

1846.

WEDNESDAY, 19TH AUGUST.-FINE DAY. AT a quarter before six, a.m., left, in the carriage, with my wife, our three children, governess, and nurse, to proceed to Blackpool, except the governess, whose destination was Manchester. We reached Leek about a quarter to eight, and were greeted by our good friend Miss Ferriar, with a right hearty welcome. At eight, we set off in an omnibus, I had engaged specially for the occasion, to Macclesfield, which we reached at ten. Here we proceeded by railway, for the first time in our lives, from that town to Manchester, where we arrived at half-past eleven, and whence, taking leave of Miss M—, who proceeded to her parent's house, in Burlington-street, we went in an omnibus, which conveyed us, and a

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vast quantity of luggage, to Hunt's Bank Station. Here, finding that a delay of a couple of hours awaited us, we bent our steps towards Cheetham College, adjoining, in order to shew the children the singular and unique museum it contains (a catalogue of which will be found in the appendix), but were told, by the usual and accustomed blue-coated urchin of the day, that we could not see it, owing to it being founder's day; we therefore crossed over to the old church adjacent, to shew the children the place where their parents were married, and were somewhat surprised to find that full service had been going on, that a clergyman was about to enter the pulpit; we therefore took possession of a pew, and heard an excellent discourse, of twenty minutes' duration, from the text of the "parable of the unjust steward," shewing, that while in a worldly sense, he shewed wisdom, in making unto himself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, Humphrey Cheetham had shewn himself infinitely wiser, in so managing his worldly concerns, as to prefer the things of eternity to those of time. That name, coupled with the facts of the presence of the Blue Coat Boys, in their gallery, and of the feoffees of his charity, in their's, opposite, was

proof positive, to my mind, that the discourse was in honour of founder's day.

When the congregation had dispersed, we wandered up to the altar, and over many other parts of this ancient and interesting edifice, hallowed to my mind, memory and understanding, by ten thousand recollections, extending themselves to the shadowy confines of the merest infancy; and by the sight of the sepultures, of innumerable individuals (including those of two schoolmasters of the Free Grammar School, adjacent, who had often proved to me, by actual demonstration, that I am a fugitive and a vagabond upon earth, a child of cane, and therefore justly obnoxious to punishment), with whom I had been more or less acquainted; some, by sight only; others, by speech also. I should not omit to record also, that although this was the first time that Charley had ever been to church, except when he was christened at Alton, when he could hardly be said to be "wide awake," he seemed all attention; and may possibly, at some future time, profit by the discourse; for as Sir W. Scott, in his autobiography, says, "He (George Constable) was the first person who told me about Falstaff, Hotspur, and other characters in

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