Mobberley. 99 



"Italian black." Like the last named, the common 

 spire - like tree (by planters distinguished * as the 

 "Lombardy") is only a variety of the old English 

 Black Poplar, as may be seen at once by comparing the 

 leaves. In its well-known outline and unsociable habit 

 for Lombardy poplars never interlace their branches 

 as other trees do it is simply remarkable, without being 

 specifically distinct. Five kinds of poplars are to be 

 seen accordingly about Manchester the Black, with its 

 two varieties ; the White ; and the Aspen ; and of these 

 the true Black is the uncommon one. In gardens and 

 plantations there is also the American or Balsam poplar. 



Another route to Mobberley village is through the 

 fields entered by a white gate upon the left, close to the 

 station-yard. Going this way, we cross a brook at a point 

 where the water has made a deep cleft in some shaly 

 rocks, among which may be seen plenty of ripple-marked 

 stones. These shale-rocks are probably seams in the 

 Keuper marls, and a portion of the same beds that form 

 the picturesque escarpments on the banks of the Bollin, 

 known in the neighbourhood as "plaster-hills," from 

 the circumstance of the material they consist of having 

 formerly been used for barn and cheese-room floors, one 

 of its properties being to harden into a solid mass.* 



At Mobberley, in the beginning of the reign of King 

 John, or about A.D. 1206, there was a small Augustine 

 Priory. It had, however, but a brief existence. 

 * Mr Robert Holland, Mobberley. 



