I hail this interchange of sentiments, therefore, as an augury that, whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual." Abraham Lincoln 01/19/1863 Letters to the people of Manchester.

And as the wheels turned once more, I think of what I left back there, yet the horizon beckons to another town called Manchester, out in the world, somewhere.
Pete Johnson . May 2009

The United States of AM-anchester.
"For Manchester is the place where people do things.... 'Don't talk about what you are going to do, do it.' That is the Manchester habit. And in the past through the manifestation of this quality the word Manchester became a synonym for energy and freedom and the right to do and to think without shackles."From "What the Judge Saw" by Judge Parry, 1912.

"I arrived in a shower, in the wet now set off,Eight days in the place I remained:Seven days, seven nights and a quarter, I vow,By Jove! it incessantly rained.What then? not a day nor an hour was I dull:The Lancashire lads played their part:I found every friend of politeness brim full,And myself in the midst of the arts.May Manchester flourish! and if once againBy chance I should ere be brought hither,I hope that from weeping the clouds may refrain,And grant me a peep at fine weather."From anonymous poem written at the coach-office and appearing in the Manchester Chronicle, 1821.

"If I should be so blessed as to revisit again my own country, but more especially Manchester, all that I could hope or desire would be presented before in one view."From the letters of Robert Clive (Clive of India).

"Certainly Manchester is the most wonderful city of modem times."(From "Coningsby" by Benjamin Disraeli, 1844.)

Our charity for fresh drinking water throughout the world. Poem competition. Aug 2009.

Counch pennies, Pocket pennies, Top Draw pennies too,
Ash Tray pennies, Mucky pennies, Any Penny 'ill do.
Under the bed pennies lost in't fluff, YOU can't buy now't with a pee
But send your pee's to us my friends, And we can buy a sea.

B Morton. (12)