War's mad havoc has swept over it in many a troubled period of our history.
Plague, pestilence, and famine have afflicted it sorely; and it has suffered from trade riots, "plug-drawings," panics, and strikes of most disastrous kinds.

Proud Preston--the town of the Stanleys and the Hoghtons, and of "many a crest that is famous in story"-- the town where silly King Jamie disported himself a little, with his knights and nobles, during the time of his ruinous visit to Hoghton Tower,--Proud Preston has seen many a black day.

But, from the time when Roman sentinels kept watch and ward in their old camp at Walton, down by the Ribble side, it has never seen so much wealth and so much bitter poverty together as now.

The streets do not show this poverty; but it is there.

Looking from Avenham Walks, that glorious landscape smiles in all the splendour of a rich spring- tide.