Lymm. 63 



the roadway now is, to throw a barricade across was easy. 

 The construction of this gave distinctiveness also to the 

 "dell," the pretty hollow, full of trees, into which, when 

 the water is high, the overplus, creeping under the road 

 by a concealed channel, springs so cheerily. Ordinarily, 

 it must be confessed, there is little more than a thin 

 trickle, but after a day or two's heavy rain, down it 

 comes, with a joyous double leap, in great sheaves and 

 waving veils, the more delectable since the cascade in 

 question is the only one in this part of Cheshire, or 

 anywhere upon the Cheshire side of the town. 



The pleasantest time to visit this beautiful neighbour- 

 hood is the very end of July. The wild cherries are 

 then ripe, and glisten like coral amid the green leaves ; 

 and in the water there is a rosy archipelago of persicaria 

 blossom. Beyond the plantation, at the upper extremity, 

 the surface is often so still and placid that every flower 

 and leaf upon the banks finds its image beneath, the 

 inverted foxgloves changing, as the calm gives way to 

 ripples, into softly twining spirals of crimson light. 

 When the shores are laid unusually bare through drought, 

 they furnish abundance of the beautiful shells of the 

 fresh-water mussel, Anodonta cygnea, often four inches in 

 length, externally olive-green, and possessed inside of 

 the pearly iridescence so much admired in sea-shells. 

 Many, however, are broken, the swans being fond of the 

 contents. To see the water to its full extent, visitors 

 should continue along the hillside, opposite the church, 

 and as far as the grove of trees. With permission of the 



