44 Country Rambles. 



what the sites of Nineveh and Palmyra are to the world. 

 Standing upon their greensward, the memory of great 

 things and greater people passes before the mind in long 

 and animating procession. The once so great and 

 powerful "Queen of the East," proud, chaste, literary 

 Zenobia, was not nobler in her way than Saxon Ethel- 

 fleda. Thinking of her, pleasant it is to note how the 

 little wild-flowers, the milk-wort and the eyebright, the 

 unchanged heritors of the ground, are virtually just as 

 she left them. Upon these, in such a spot, Time lays no 

 "effacing ringer." "States fall, arts fade, but Nature 

 doth not die." Not without interest, either, is the fact 

 that from the name of the people or kingdom she ruled 

 so well, comes that of our chief local river. The Mersey 

 was the dividing line between Mercia and Northumbria, 

 and of the former it preserves memorable tradition. All 

 the way up the stream till we get to the hill country, the 

 topographical names further illustrate the ancient Saxon 

 presence. The view from storied Eddisbury is of course 

 very extensive and delightful, including, to-day, the 

 venerable Cathedral of Chester, Halton Castle, and the 

 broad bosom of the river, not to mention the boundless 

 champaign to the south and east, and afar off, in the 

 quiet west, grey mountains that seem to lean against the 

 sky. 



The "Delamere Hotel," to which all visitors to these 

 regions very naturally bend their steps, is the place to 

 enquire at for the exact way to the borders of Oakmere ; 

 most pleasing, after Rostherne, of the Cheshire waters. 



