Primroses at Cotterill. 27 



the males being comparatively small, though noticeable 

 from their immense abundance. In the firs, on the other 

 hand, we are attracted rather by the male flowers, which 

 are of a beautiful reddish buff, and on the slightest blow 

 being given to the branch, shed clouds of their fertilising 

 dust. 



The Cotterill portion of the Bollin valley, while the 

 primroses are in bloom, has no parallel in our district. 

 Certain distant places, no doubt, are equally rich in this 

 general favourite the Isle of Wight, for instance, and 

 the same is said of the Isle of Man, but for Manchester 

 lovers of primroses, Cotterill is a very paradise. All the 

 woods and lanes are full, every bank and sheltered slope 

 is yellow with them, everywhere primroses, primroses, 

 primroses, great handfuls, and bunches, a score every 

 time we pluck, till wonder is exhausted and out of 

 breath, and primroses and nature seem to mean 

 the same thing. Such was the spectacle on the 

 8th of May when this was written the glow of bloom, 

 which lasts in the whole perhaps for a month, being 

 then at its height. On one occasion it was as early as 

 April 27th. We now come to 1882. So great has been 

 the havoc made by collectors of roots for gardens, and 

 for sale in the market-place, that except in forbidden 

 parts, and somewhat higher up the valley, the primrose 

 is now almost as scarce as at the time referred to it was 

 plentiful. Great havoc has also been wrought during the 

 last quarter of a century by the mattock of the farm- 

 labourer, which has likewise diminished very considerably 



