Page:The Grand junction railway companion to Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham; (IA grandjunctionrai00free).pdf/92

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Grand Junction Line.

lars' ware; Wednesday before old Candlemas, and November 13, for cattle and pedlars' ware. A branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal passes near the town. The church, dedicated to St. Edward, is an ancient Gothic structure, with a square tower; K.B. £7 1s. 9½d., endowed with £1,000 by the Crown, private benefaction, and Parliamentary grant.. In the church-yard is a curious pyramidal cross, decorated with fretwork and various imagery: antiquarians state that it is of Danish origin. Here are places of worship for various denominations of Dissenters, and one belonging to the Society of Friends; a free endowed Grammar School; Almshouses for eight widows, endowed by Mrs. Ashe; several Sunday Schools, one of which has from 1,000 to 1,500 regular attendants; and a Savings Bank. The hills in the neighbourhood (some of which have a very remarkable appearance, and present certain indications of volcanic origin abound with coal, and in many places are deeply impregnated with lead strata; from this portion of them issues a saline spring, which forms a chemical experiment by the addition of gauls, which immediately turns it as black as ink. A curious phenomena is seen in this neighbourhood at certain seasons of the year—which is, that the sun sets twice in the same evening; this is caused by the intervention of one of those remarkable hills above alluded to: for, after it has sunk, or apparently set behind the summit of the mountain, it again appears on its northern side, when it will of course at even-tide exhibit its usual disappearance below the horizon.