Preface. ix. 



life there is pleasure, since it signifies human welfare and 

 enjoyment. In other directions, unhappily, the change 

 has been for the worse, as indicated in the notes to the 

 original portraiture of Boggart-hole Ciough, Mere Clough, 

 and the Reddish Valley. Before deciding to visit any 

 particular place in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 town it will be prudent, accordingly, to read to the end. 

 Never mind. Few things ever go absolutely. Against 

 the losses we are able to put the opportunities for enjoy- 

 ment in localities opened up by recent railway extensions, 

 places quite as charming as the extinguished ones it 

 is simply a question now of a little longer travel. 



The present volume, be it remembered, is neither a 

 gazetteer nor an itinerary. The limits are too narrow for 

 its making pretensions even to be a Guide-book, though 

 the style, often, I am aware, too swift and abbreviated, 

 may give it the semblance of one; it proposes only to 

 supply hints as to where and how to secure country 

 pastimes. While constrained to leave many places with 

 only a touch, others have been treated so admirably by 

 Mr. Earwaker, Mr. Croston, and Mr. Waugh, that to 

 tread the same ground would, on my own part, be alike 

 needless and ungraceful. Others again I have described 

 only within these few months in the "Lancashire," 



