But, whereivver do ye belang to, as ye're so bowd wi' me ?" said she, smiling, and turning over a cake which was baking upon the oven.

I told her that I was born a few miles from Manchester.
"Manchester! never, sewer;" said she, resting her ladle again; "why, I lived ever so long i' Manchester when I was young.

I was cook at th' Swan i' Shudehill, aboon forty year sin." She said that, in those days, the Swan, in Shudehill, was much frequented by the commercial men of Manchester.

It was a favourite dining house for them.

Many of them even brought their own beefsteak on a skewer; and paid a penny for the cooking of it.