The County Families of Lancashire and Cheshire. By James Croston.
(J. Heywood, Manchester and London.)—" The Palatine Counties of Lancashire and Cheshire," says Mr. Croston, "have been aptly described as seed-plots of gentility.'" Of some of the families which have flourished or still flourish in these parts he gives us an account, illustrated and enlivened by many social and historical details. Mr. Crooton is of that sterner school of genealogists which disapproves of the imaginary pedigrees to which some of the " Peerages " give an undeserved authority. He requires proof before he credits his "county families" with a genuine antiquity. His volume, therefore, may be considered a veritable pedigree-book for the two counties. The Stanleys, of course, stand in the front, and have a chapter to themselves. Next to them come the Egerton% with their three, and the Traffords and Warburton% with their two branches each. Among the gentes minores, as far as antiquity of nobility is concerned, comes the House of Grosvenor. Mr. erosion's book is furnished with appropriate illustrations, fac-similes of handwriting, armorial bearings, sketches of mansions, aro.
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