PREFACE. 



'TpHE opening of various new lines of railway has 

 given access, within the last few years, to por- 

 tions of the neighbourhood of Manchester rarely visited 

 before, even by naturalists, and totally unknown to 

 the majority of our townspeople. Such, for example, 

 are the districts about Mobberley, Marple, and Wha- 

 ley Bridge. The new railways have given access 

 also to places of well-known and celebrated beauty 

 which were previously quite beyond the limits of a 

 day's excursion. 



These considerations, and the kind reception given- 

 to the original " Walks and Wild Fowers," published 

 in 1858, have induced the author to prepare a more 

 extended account of the neighbourhood. The places 

 described and referred to are seldom less than seven 

 miles distant, and very many lie at a distance of 



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