The popular image of Cheshire is of a flat green landscape dotted with cows, of black and white houses, a county remote from the great events that have shaped the nation's history. This reflects the endurance of the old manorial class that maintained its hold on the land and ensured the survival of the county's agrarian character. It derives too from the quiet and continued profitability of agriculture over a long period. For Cheshire is a county of manor houses, not power houses, of minor gentry rather than dukes and statesmen. They managed and improved their estates, tended to the needs of their tenants, rode with the hounds, and attended the social season in Chester. Local families constantly inter-married, sometimes assuming the names of the manor they acquired; when the direct line failed, the indirect heir would take the old name in order to inherit. 'As many Leghs as fleas; Massies as asses; Crewes as crowes; and Davenports as dogs' tails' is an old saying recalling how many of the families had been resident on their estates since the Middle Ages.1