The two end-papers in this book symbolize the changes which Cheshire experienced between 1660 and 1780. At the front, the plan of Eaton Hall, the home of the Grosvenor family, typifies the kind of residence which landed families desired to own in the late seventeenth century, when the main issues were political and religious and when men regarded real estate as the sole badge of power and wealth. At the back of the book, the panorama of Stockport in its industrial youth acknowledges, the arrival of a new age, in which industry and commerce were beginning to create a different economy and a rival aristocracy. By, 1780, such towns as Macclesfield, Stockport, Congleton, North wich and Wilmslow were challenging the traditional dominance of Chester and Nantwich.