Cheshire. 7 1 



inclemencies there is no withstanding, still put a good 

 face upon their fallen fortunes, and, like Caesar, die 

 royally ; and at Christmas, when the wind seems to 

 mourn amid the denuded boughs, here again we feel how 

 grand is the contrasted life of the great, green, shining, 

 scarlet-beaded hollies that in summer we took no note 

 of. Cheshire, in a word, though destitute of waterfalls, 

 and, comparatively speaking, flat, is in its trees second 

 to few counties, and there is not a county in England 

 that possesses so many meres. Between Chester and 

 Macclesfield on the west and east, and between Bowdon 

 and Wrenbury on the north and south, an area of forty 

 by twenty-five miles in length and breadth, there are 

 thirty-six sheets of water, sufficiently spacious and im- 

 portant to be marked in the maps, and of these no 

 less than twenty are in noblemen's and gentlemen's 

 parks,* the latter provided also with noble mansions, 

 ancient or modern, and often both. Add to the meres 

 innumerable sequestered lanes, where honeysuckle and 

 wild-roses make airy garlands; vall'ombrosas, wherein 

 grow the goldilocks t and the pencilled wood-vetch ; 



* The largest of the Cheshire meres are Combermere, 132 acres ; 

 Rostherne, 115 acres; Marbury, near Northwich, nearly 80 acres; 

 Tatton, 79 acres ; Crewe, 62 acres. Bolesworth, Oakmere, Bar- 

 mere, Pickmere, Rode, Reedsmere, Doddington, &c., are also very 

 considerable. Formerly there were several others, but they have 

 been drained. Such was " Ridley pool," noticed by Leland in his 

 "Itinerary" as one of the most extensive. (Vol. v., p. 76. Ed. 

 1711. Chetham Library. ) 



t The Ranunculus auricomus. 



