Lymm. 77 



like almost every other piece of water found in Cheshire, 

 a nature-made mere, but owes its origin, like the Todd- 

 brook reservoir at Whaley, to the damming-up of a little 

 river. Formerly a brook along the bottom, the Dane now 

 fills an immense basin formed by the rising grounds on 

 either side, and which suddenly narrows at the extremity 

 next the village. The turnpike-road passes over the 

 embankment, and the latter having been planted with 

 trees, we scarcely suspect at first that the water is an 

 artificial one. At one end the embankment is traversed 

 interiorly by an aqueduct for the overflow, the latter 

 descending into the pretty and tree-crowded dell along 

 which the river still moves intact. As a rule, the mossy 

 stone-work of the waterfall is little more than splashed, 

 but after heavy rain, when the " dam," as it is locally 

 called, is well supplied, the white tumble, coming down 

 in great sheaves and waving veils, is really fine. The 

 uppermost portion of the dam is embosomed in trees, 

 and with most of the contiguous ground is not acces- 

 sible to the public, except by the courtesy of the 

 proprietor. Permission to enter is generally obtain- 

 able, and then we are able to reach one of the chief 

 curiosities of the place the dropping and " petrifying" 

 cave. This singular recess has been formed in the 

 course of ages by the gradual undermining of the steep 

 bank of a field by a little stream that parts it from 

 another field, also with a steep bank, the water running 

 into what is now the "dam." The bank that once 



