A Iderley Edge. 127 



truly magnificent view of the great Cheshire plain, and 

 from the rear we look also over Lyme and Macclesfield. 

 The best position for this purpose is Stormy Point, or 

 the Holywell Rock, that noted crag which calls to mind 

 the famous Tarpeian rock of old Rome, so grand is it, 

 and withal so perilous. Surveyed from this spot, the 

 landscape includes, upon the horizon, the wooded 

 eminence of Bucklow - hill ; a curious and remote 

 flat, bearing in the centre a dark mass, tilted at one 

 end, inquiry shows to be Delamere forest; Beeston 

 also is there, and Frodsham, to say nothing of such 

 comparatively near objects as Dunham spire, while far 

 away upon the right, or eastwards, are the picturesque 

 hills of Derbyshire and Yorkshire. 



To reach the Edge it is better not to go up the great 

 carriage-road, (leading over the hill to Macclesfield,) 

 but to take one of the narrower paths that lie to the 

 left, and so along the top of the " hough." Best of all, 

 perhaps, is it to go a short distance along the Congleton 

 road, and then ascend by a lane, that winds after a while 

 amid trees, and enters the Macclesfield road near the 

 "Wizard." Thence we soon reach the summit, and 

 come at once upon the grandeurs of the prospect, which 

 is preferable to learning them piecemeal and during the 

 climb. The " Wizard " is an inn a little way upon the 

 Macclesfield side of the Beacon, and preserves in its 

 name an allusion to a legend more generally known than 

 it is worthy of knowing. Once upon a time, it is re- 



