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.]
TORR STEPS ON THE BARLE, SOMERSET
=How to get there.=—Train from Paddington Station. Great Western
Railway.
=Nearest Station.=—Dulverton.
=Distance from London.=—180 miles to Dulverton.
=Average Time.=—To Dulverton varies between 5 and 6-1/2 hours.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=—Single 30s. 9d. 19s. 3d. 15s. 4-1/2d.
Return 53s. 10d. 33s. 9d. 30s. 9d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=—Dulverton—"Carnarvon Arms,"
"Lamb," etc.