viii. Preface. 



gentlest of sisters; and finally, that I and they were 

 dutiful and loving members of a pure, and holy, and 

 magnificent church.' And now mark where lay this 

 ' rustic solitude.' He is describing the expected return 

 of his father: 'It was a summer evening of unusual 

 solemnity. The servants and four of us children were 

 gathered for hours on the lawn before the house, listening 

 for the sound of wheels. Sunset came, nine, ten, eleven 

 o'clock, and nearly another hour had passed without a 

 warning sound, for Greenhay, being so solitary a house, 

 formed a "terminus ad quern," beyond which was nothing 

 but a cluster of cottages, composing the little hamlet of 

 Greenhill; so that any sound of wheels coming from the 

 country lane which then connected us with the Rusholme 

 Road, carried with it of necessity, a warning summons to 

 prepare for visitors at Greenhay.' 'Greenhay' was the 

 centre of the modern Greenheys, and the 'hamlet of 

 GreenhilP the predecessor of the present Greenhill 

 Terrace." 



The changes foreboded have to an extent not unim- 

 portant, already come to pass. Almost the whole of the 

 great suburb which includes the Alexandra Park has 

 grown up since about 1860, effacing meadows and corn- 

 fields. In the contemplation of this new scene of busy 



