2O Bramhall Brook. 



that looks like rolls of green velvet beneath the clear 

 water, give note of its treasures botanical. Birds are 

 there for the ornithologist ; and not infrequently, in some 

 parts, may be seen the common snake, moving, as a 

 matter of course, to shelter. For snakes, like wasps, 

 never molest man until they are themselves annoyed, 

 nor do they ever bite except in self-defence. Both ideas 

 as to their habits are quite as erroneous as the fancy 

 which represents them as climbing trees by spiral coiling, 

 when in truth, their movement, whether on the ground 

 or upwards, is always by simple gliding. 



The lower portion of the Middlewood stream bears 

 the name of BRAMHALL BROOK. Shortly after issuing 

 from Middlewood, it flows past the tree-covered slope 

 called "Great Reddish wood;" then in front of Bram- 

 hall Hall, where it is rich, no doubt, in unwritten story; 

 then it passes under Lady Bridge, making its way at 

 last, as said above, to Cheadle. Here it acquires con- 

 siderable historic interest, the point of junction with the 

 Mersey being close to the spot where that celebrated 

 river was crossed by Prince Charles Edward, in 1745, on 

 his march towards a vainly-expected throne. Poor man, 

 he had secretly visited some time previously at Ancoats 

 Hall, the principal seat of the Mosleys, the lords of the 

 manor of Manchester. Full of hope, he came again on 

 the 2Qth November, and took up his abode at the residence 

 of a friend and adherent in what was then "Market-street 



