Knutsford
THE HOME OF MRS. GASKELL
=How to get there.=–Train from Euston via Crewe. L. and N.W. Rly.
=Nearest Station.=–Knutsford.
=Distance from London.=–180 miles.
=Average Time.=–Varies between 4 to 5-1/2 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=–Single 24s. 6d. 16s. 6d. 14s. 3-1/2d.
Return 49s. 0d. 31s. 6d. 28s. 7d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=–"Royal George Hotel,” etc.
Knutsford still retains the air of old-world quaintness which Mrs.
Gaskell has made so familiar in her delightful Cranford. The whole of
Knutsford breathes the fresh and bright tidiness one always
involuntarily associates with such ladies as “Miss Jenkyns,” and every
house rejoices in a beautifully neat garden. The Royal George Hotel, in
the High Street, is a perfect feast to the eye of panelled wainscotting,
oak settles, and Chippendale cabinets. The richness, all over the town,
of ancient carvings, staircases, and chimney-pieces, is due to the
prosperity which the coach traffic between Liverpool and Manchester
brought to the place for many years.
Mrs. Gaskell was born in Chelsea in 1810, but her mother dying soon
after, she went to live under the care of her mother’s sister, who lived
at Knutsford in Cheshire. Mrs. Gaskell, as a child, was brought up in a
tall red house, standing alone in the midst of peaceful fields and
trees, on the Heath, with a wide view reaching to the distant hills. In
a green hollow near this house there stand an old forge and mill, the
former having existed for more than two hundred years. Mrs. Gaskell had
a lonely childhood, occasionally relieved by a visit to her cousins at
the old family house of Sandlebridge. This old house is now dismantled,
but contains many interesting features. A shuffle-board, or extremely
long table, with drawers and cupboards underneath, of which there now
exist scarcely any specimens, a cradle of great antiquity, and the fine
old wooden chimney-pieces in the front parlour, still remain.
A few places in Knutsford claim association with Cranford. One house
is pointed out as being Miss Matty’s tea-shop. The Knutsford ladies
still gossip over toasted cheese and bezique. Mrs. Gaskell spent her
married life in Manchester, where most of her books were written, but
she used often to return and stay with her cousins, from whom she learnt
many of the quaint stories still told in Knutsford.
[Illustration: F. Frith & Co.
KNUTSFORD.
The village described by Mrs. Gaskell in Cranford.]
Continue...
Preface •
Ham House and Petersham •
Walton-On-Thames (scold’s Bridle) •
Harrow •
Holwood House, Keston •
Chigwell, Essex •
Waltham Abbey and Cross •
Downe •
Epsom: Its Races and Its Salts •
Epping Forest •
Hampton Court •
Rye House, Broxbourne •
Hatfield House, Herts •
Runnymead, the Signing of Magna Charta •
The Oldest Brass in England •
St. Albans •
Stoke Poges Church, Bucks •
Windsor •
Jordans and William Penn •
Knole House and Sevenoaks •
Greenstead Church •
Chalfont St. Giles •
Westerham •
Guildford, Surrey •
Gad’s Hill •
Ightham Mote, Kent •
Penshurst •
St. Michael’s Mount and Marazion •
Rochester Cathedral •
Tunbridge Wells •
The Quintain Post At Offham and Malling Abbey •
Eversley •
Farnham, Surrey •
Hindhead, Surrey •
Shottermill •
Penn’s Chapel At Thakeham, Sussex •
Chawton the Home of Jane Austen •
Selborne •
Elstow •
Lewes, Sussex •
Bodiam Castle, Sussex •
Colchester, Essex •
Layer Marney •
Battle Abbey •
Cambridge •
Arundel Castle •
Olney, Bucks •
Wantage and the Country of Alfred the Great •
Canterbury and Its Cathedral •
Reculvers •
Oxford •
Midhurst •
Pevensey Castle •
Savernake Forest •
Ely Cathedral •
St. Ives, Huntingdonshire •
Winchelsea and Rye •
Blenheim Palace •
Peterborough Cathedral and Crowland •
Peterborough •
Southampton •
Helmingham Hall •
Stonehenge, Wiltshire •
Netley Abbey •
Salisbury and Its Cathedral •
Sandwich, Kent •
New Forest, Hampshire •
Osborne House •
Carisbrooke Castle •
Lutterworth •
Compton Wynyates •
Kenilworth Castle •
Belvoir Castle •
Bath •
Boston and the Pilgrim Fathers •
Warwick •
Gloucester and Its Cathedral •
Norfolk Broads •
Norwich Cathedral •
Lichfield •
Sherborne and Its Abbey Church •
Newark •
Wells and Its Cathedral •
Stratford-On-Avon •
Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk •
Lulworth Cove, Dorsetshire •
Corfe Castle •
Lincoln and Its Cathedral •
Somerset, the Birthplace of Tennyson •
Glastonbury Abbey •
Walsingham, Norfolk •
Cheddar Caves, Cheddar, Somerset •
Newstead Abbey •
The Wessex of Thomas Hardy’s Romances •
Tintern Abbey •
Chesterfield, Derbyshire •
Dukeries •
Haddon Hall, Derbyshire •
The Isle of Athelney, and Sedgemoor •
Raglan Castle •
Dovedale •
Wellington and the Wrekin, Shropshire •
Wroxeter and the Roman City of Uriconium, Salop •
Buildwas Abbey, Shropshire •
Ludlow and Its Castle •
Shrewsbury •
Buxton and the Peak District •
Tewkesbury •
Exeter and Its Cathedral •
Market Drayton, Salop •
Chester •
Exmoor •
Knutsford •
Torr Steps On the Barle, Somerset •
Cleeve Abbey, Somerset •
Hawarden •
York Minster •
Coxwold, Yorkshire •
Llangollen and Valle Crucis Abbey •
Knaresborough, Dripping Well •
Fountains Abbey •
Ripon Cathedral •
Dartmoor •
Haworth •
Rievaulx Abbey •
Brixham, Devon •
Conway Castle •
The Doone Valley, Exmoor •
Llandovery, South Wales •
Dartmouth, Devon •
Richmond, Yorkshire •
Tintagel •
Whitby •
Carnarvon Castle •
Plymouth •
Durham and Its Cathedral •
Raby Castle, Durham •
Snowdon •
Harlech Castle •
Grasmere and Rydal Mount •
The Lake District •
St. Davids Cathedral •
Furness Abbey, Lancashire •
Monkwearmouth, Near Jarrow •
The Isle of Man •
Brantwood •
Fowey •
Hexham and Hadrian’s Wall •
The Lake District •
Keswick •
Alnwick Castle •
Lanercost Priory, Cumberland •
Lanercost Priory and Stepping-Stones.] •
St. Ives, Cornwall •
Bamborough Castle, Northumberland
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