246 BOTANICAL SKETCHES FROM CHESHIRE, [AugUSt, 



painter's art would be required. Word-painting is inadequate to 

 give any idea of the effect of colours harmoniously blended by 

 Nature's own art. We should not^ however, forget that we are 

 botanists, not artists ; and " every man should stick to his trade/' 

 as the boy said to the bishop. 



On the stiff clay soil turned up and poached by the treading 

 of the cattle, and now as hard as a heap of bricks, and not much 

 flatter, grow the pretty yellow Wood Loosestrife {Lysimachia ne- 

 morum), also the Wood Mouse-ear [Myosotis sylvatica). Of the 

 latter I am not quite certain, having lost the specimens, but I am 

 quite certain that this productive glen yielded Vei'onica montana 

 in great plenty. The Viburnum Opulus was then almost past 

 flowering, but is by this time (the end of July) beginning to re- 

 open its ruddy, glistening berries. 



The rough walking along a plane that dipped into the dell on 

 our right at a larger angle than was agreeable, and the impedi- 

 ments from the trailing E,ose, the Bramble, and some thorny 

 plants destructive to the apparel and not conducive to good tem- 

 per, admonished us to get out of this Cheshire Vallombrosa. 

 This we accomplished with some difficulty, and then wended our 

 way across some pleasant-enough fields till we came to another 

 tangled ravine, exactly like the one we had left. Neither the 

 coaxing of my companion nor the hope of finding Paris quadri- 

 folia could tempt me to venture into this second treacherous de- 

 file. These ravines all look easy of access. The entrances are 

 inviting enough. The beginnings of the paths, like many other 

 beginnings, are hopeful ; but, alas ! soon — too soon — the path is 

 lost in a blind track, and the track in a thicket of Blackthorns 

 and Rosetrees with stems like broomsticks. Woe to the unhappy 

 cockney in his bran-new hat, as black as a sloe and as sleek as 

 beaver-pile ! He now knows experimentally the feelings of the 

 mayor of a certain town in this county who had to lie in bed till 

 the continuations to his coat and waistcoat were mended."^ In 

 the ponds on these fields we saw both the common kinds of 

 Alisma, A. Plantago and A. ranunculoides, and in a stiff, wettish 



* It is a local proverb, that " the mayor of Altrincham lay in bed while his 

 breeches were mended." Kay remarks that the mayor of any other town must have 

 done the same if he had only one pan'. But he is a poor mayor who is not better 

 supphed with vestments, and a poor mayor imphes a poor popidation. This is 

 probably still characteristic of some Cheshhe towns. 



