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the energetic and outspoken member of our Borough Council. It may not perhaps be quite so well-known that the Alderman is an author, having written a work on "Quintus Hortensius," political pamphlets, and occasional poems. Mr. Mandley has also delivered a lecture and published a number of letters on the subiect of the Conquest of Mexico, which, besides showing a wide range of reading, were re. markable for their trenchant criticism of Prescott's popular history. I have great pleasure, therefore, in including Alderman Mandley among the list of Salford Authors. I have to also mention Mr. George H. Larmuth, a member of the well-known and highly-respected Salford family. So far as I am aware, he has not attempted to scale the heights of Parnassus, but some years ago he wrote a most useful and valuable little work under the title of "Landlord and Tenant," which went through three editions, and two plays, a burlesque called "Alonzo the Brave,' and *" Advertising for a Wife." Mr. Larmuth was a pupil of the well-known Salford schoolmaster, John Hampson who educated seven Mayors of Manchester and Salford, Sir James Potter and Thomas Goadsby and Sir James Watts among others. It has been said that "at one time most of the magistrates on the bench in Manchester, as well as Salford, had been his scholars." Finally, Mr. Alexander Somers, the famous "amateur tramp," who was born in Chapel-street, Salford, published in 1887, a volume of Shakespearian ballads :

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They strew her tomb with flowers sweet,

Meet emblem of a maid;

Like her, they bloom at sunny morn,

Night follows, and they fade."

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"

Three years later he issued his Lays of a Lazy Lawyer," from which I take the following :

"ON COMMENCING PRACTICE."

"In a dark and dismal office at the top of sixty stairs, The furniture a table and two auction-purchased chairs,

I sit waiting for the clients, and I'm growing pale and thin,

For ev'ry thing is going out and nothing coming in.
I nearly have exhausted all my little worldly store,
The only brass I now possess the plate upon the
door.

On the table lie some papers which are very neatly tied,

So that callers may imagine I am fully occupied. On the wall there hangs a calendar in gold and red and blue:

"Star Life Assurance Company-Head Office, Timbuctoo."

It states I am the agent; but I very greatly fear
If all the agents are like me, it cannot live a year.
On arriving in the morning, first the letter-box I scan,
Like Hamlet, then, I strut away, a melancholy man ;
For circulars in wrappers are things that meet my
view,

I must confess I read them, for I've nothing else to do." Thus, I'm sitting at my table, in my wooden office chair,

When I hear the distant creaking af a foot upon the

stair;

The owner of the foot, I know, is making for my door, Because I am the only one upon the highest floor. Very soon the stranger enters, and he stands upon the mat,

In a very seedy frock-coat, and a rather battered hat; And my heart is wildly beating, expectation's running high:

He's a client, for a parcel underneath his arm I spy, They are deeds or legal documents-'tis some important case

I am sure he's come on business, I can see it by his face.

He then unties the parcel on the table, whilst I watch, When finished, he addresses me, in accents very Scotch:

"We are publishing a life, sir, of the Devil-splendid work

His ancestors and pedigree, prepared by Bernard Burke."

I nearly lose my temper, and I feel inclined to short, "Go to the mansion of the man whose life you're bringing out."

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One of the wittiest and most striking passages in the " Lays occurs in a dispute between a lawyer and a doctor as to which of them did the most good in the world, and they agreed to take the opinion of the first countryman they met, upon the point :

"Good morrow, Hodge!" the lawyer said, "just listen now to me,

My friend's a doctor-clever man-whilst I a lawyer be. Now answer this, but ere you do, pray turn it in your mind,

Which of the two professions does most benefit mankind?"

Thereupon Hodge opened wide his mouth, and slowly scratched his head,

He gave a look at each, and then in language broad he said:

"The doctor robs you of your life, the lawyer of your purse,

I'd hang you both as highwaymen, you're each of you a curse!"

I could easily have extended the catalogue, but I think I have said quite enough to show that Salford can boast amongst her sons not a few who have possessed literary abilities, if not of the highest, yet of a very high order.

Salford's Almost Forgotten

Worthies.

The Salford Cross and Court House, which stood on the open space of ground at the top of Greengate, nearly opposite the end of Gravel Lane, were taken down in the summer of 1824. At Stanyhurst the land is no longer vacant, many years having elapsed since it was used for the purposes of a folly fair.

The earliest historical notice we meet touching Salford Cross takes date from the origin of Methodism in this town. John Wesley, preaching on the steps of the cross, received no kindly welcome from the bystanders. In language quaintly descriptive we are informed that one of the "unbroken spirits" around him, more unruly than the rest, threatened to bring out the engine and play it upon the zealous itinerant preacher. "I walked," observes Mr. Wesley in his "Journal," dated May, 1747, "straight to Salford Cross. A numberless crowd of people partly ran before, partly followed after me. I thought it best not to sing, but, looking round, asked abruptly, 'Why do you look as if you had never seen me before? Many of you have seen me in the neighbouring church both preaching and administering the sacrament.' I then began As I was drawing to a conclusion, a big man thrust in with three or four more, and bade them bring out the engine. Our friends desired me to remove into a yard just by, which I did, and concluded in peace."

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