cifixion, and various images, but these are now removed.
Congleton is a market-town and chapelry, in the parish of Astbury, and hundred of Northwich, county of Chester, it is situated on the river Dean, near the borders of Staffordshire; Pop. 9,352; An. As. Val. £11,189. Market on Saturday; fairs. Thursday before Shrovetide. May 12. July 5. November 22, for cattle and pedlars' ware. The principal manufactures are leather, cotton, silk, and ribbon. The church is dedicated to St. Peter; the living is a curacy, subordinate to the rectory of Astbury, in the diocese of Chester; K.B. £41 15s. 0d.; P.R. £140; it is endowed with £800 by private benefaction, the crown, and a parliamentary grant; patrons, the Corporation of Congleton. The town is governed by a mayor and six aldermen: it is healthily situated, and the houses are neat and clean. Lime-stone of very excellent quality is obtained in its neighbourhood. We cannot but record an instance of the singular taste of this town in days of yore. It would appear that, in 1622, they had so great a predilection for bear-baiting, that upon the town-bear dying, when the corporate funds were exceedingly low, the townsmen appropriated the funds which had been saved for the purchase of a new Bible, to the purchase of a new Bear!—and it is yet a bye-word in the mouths of the enemies of the good people of Congleton, that "they prefer their Bear to their Bible."
Macclesfield is a market and cor-
