1 94 Blackstone Edge. 



may be plainly discerned from the opposite side of the 

 valley, appearing on the steep slope of the hill as a 

 regular and well-defined streak of green, that mounts 

 steadily towards the top. Arrived at the summit, a few 

 yards over the level brow, we find the boundary-stone be- 

 tween the counties, and from this point may trace the 

 road onwards for a considerable distance. The projecting 

 rocks should by all means be visited. Legend connects 

 with them the name of Robin Hood, who, if ever here, 

 beheld one of the grandest prospects in Lancashire. 

 Hollingworth Lake dwindles to a tarn, and Brown-wardle 

 seems only a hillock. For we are now upon the top of 

 BLACKSTONE-EDGE the Lancashire portion of that great 

 vertebral mountain-chain already made acquaintance with 

 on more than one occasion, and it seems as if we were 

 pacing the walls of a kingdom. The crown of the Edge, 

 here so well displayed, is huge and desolate moorland, 

 and in these lonesome mountain-wastes yet abides the 

 old magnificent stillness that was first invaded by the 

 clash of the Roman arms. The flanks, on the other 

 hand, as elsewhere in the range, abound in the pictur- 

 esque, precipitous crags, swelling knolls, and tufts of 

 wood, with pretty little receding vales and cloughs, the 

 chief of which have been long since rendered populous 

 by the hearty and comely race whose daughters are 

 " Lancashire witches," and which in this neighbourhood 

 is better illustrated than in any other portion of the 

 county. Why " Lancashire witches ? " Lancashire has 



