vi. Preface. 



the pursuit of practical natural history. It is in the hope 

 that similar results may ensue among the present genera- 

 tion that the book is now partially republished. It has 

 long been unprocurable, and is constantly enquired for. 

 The reprinting presents also a curious and interesting 

 picture of many local conditions now effaced. 



The preface to the original work of 1858 contained 

 the following passages : " No grown-up person who has 

 resided in Manchester even twenty years, is unacquainted 

 with the mighty changes that have passed over its 

 suburbs during that period; while those who have lived 

 here thirty, forty, and fifty years tell us of circumstances 

 and conditions almost incredible. Neighbourhoods once 

 familiar as delightful rural solitudes, are now covered 

 with houses, and densely crowded with population; the 

 pleasant field-paths we trod in our youth have dis- 

 appeared, and in their stead are long lines of pavement, 

 lighted with gas, and paced by the policeman. In a few 

 years it is not improbable that places described in the 

 following pages as rustic and sylvan will have shared the 

 same fate, and be as purely historical as Garratt Wood 

 and Ordsall Clough. The Botany of the district will to 

 a certain extent be similarly affected. No longer than 

 fifteen years ago (i.e. in 1840) the fields by St. George's 



