of Higher- moor, of whom was Mr. Samuel Scholes, father of Mr. John Scholes, of Manchester, author of the "Bridal of Naworth," and other poems. Crowley, an old house, on the eminence to the north of Waterhead-mill, was formerly the dwelling of the Byroms. Benjamin Byrom, yeoman, died 1750,and in 1752 we find named a Mr. John Byrom. Poden, a venerable mansion near Crowley, is remarkable as having been the abode of a most eccentric rustic wit named John Brierley, a carrier, who from his long connexion with this place, was called "Old Poden," and who was buried March 17, 1688. The estate had become the property of Mr. Sidebottom, of Hathershaw, in 1725. Welli Hole is a well known ancient farm, in the vicinity of Greenacres, which in 1716 belonged to Miles Mayall, yeoman, and in 1747 to John Mayall, but in the following year this and adjacent properties were possessed by Captain Edmund Ogden.

The description of the ancient dwellings and families of the township, from the earliest times to the period when the modern importance of the place took its rise, (1780,) being now completed, it will not be out of place to notice the ecclesiastical affairs of the district.

It is probable the original Saxon parishes of Lancashire were formed in the interval from A.D. 670. to 690. Manchester seems to have been the mother church of Prestwich-cum-Oldham, Eccles, Bury, Middleton, Dean, Bolton-le-moors, Ashton-under-Lyne, Radcliffe, and Flixton. During the Saxon era and at no very distant subsequent period, Prestwich appears to have been erected into an independent parish, and to have comprehended, in addition to Oldham, (which is even yet associated with it), the more modern parishes of Bury, Middleton, and Radcliffe. Bury and Middleton were seperated from Prestwich previous to 1291, doubtless owing to the powerful influence of the Lacies, the superior lords. I once held the opinion of Middleton

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