76 Ashley Hall Lymm. 



chief of the Cheshire gentry, to debate the propriety of 

 espousing his cause. " The decision was in the nega- 

 tive, by the casting-vote of the owner of the mansion ; 

 and owing to the influence in Cheshire and Lancashire 

 of the gentlemen who formed the party, this decision 

 is thought by some to have been the main cause of the 

 defeat of the enterprise." Tradition says that among 

 the eleven was the head of the Daniels of Dukinfield 

 Hall, between Mobberley and Knutsford, (now a farm- 

 house,) who, quarrelling with his brother-in-law, Captain 

 Ratcliffe, went out with him into a neighbouring field, 

 where the captain was slain. The field in which the 

 fight took place is near the " Bleeding Wolf," and 

 to this day is called the " Bloody." A century be- 

 fore, says the same authority, (tradition,) in the same 

 parlour had assembled the Cheshire squirearchy, to 

 consider whether they should support Charles I. or 

 the Parliament. After a long and angry debate, the 

 decision was in favour of the king. 



For Lymm, we diverge from the Bowdon line at Tim- 

 perley, bearing away to the right, and going thus far 

 towards Liverpool. The neighbourhood ranks with 

 the prettiest in Cheshire, and supplies, on every hand, 

 agreeable walks, though visitors ordinarily content them- 

 selves with the dell above the village, and the pathway 

 by the water, reached by mounting the steps therefrom, 

 and crossing the road. This beautiful $wrt.r/-lake is not 



