64 Country Rambles. 



proprietor, it is a great gain, on arrival there, to cross 

 by the rustic bridge, and, turning to the left, ascend the 

 little valley called " Ridding's Brook." The botany of 

 this part is truly rich, in March the slopes are yellow 

 with the wild daffodil, and in late summer the bank is 

 gay with purple lythrum. The special interest of the 

 valley lies, after all, in its curious dropping and petrifying 

 spring. At the further extremity, upon the right, the 

 steep clay bank, instead of receding, is hollowed 

 underneath for the length of a hundred yards or so, the 

 upper edge projecting to a considerable distance beyond 

 the base, so as to overhang the stream, and form a 

 sloping roof to it. The surface is completely covered 

 with luxuriant moss, and from the land overhead comes 

 an incessant filter of water, which at once nourishing the 

 moss and entangled in it, causes it to hang down in long 

 vegetable ringlets. At a distance they seem soft, but 

 examination shows that every drop has brought along 

 with it a particle of earth, which being deposited in the 

 very substance of the moss, is gradually converting it 

 into stone. Every cluster, externally so green and living, 

 is in its heart a petrifaction. 



Very pleasant walks, of entirely different character, 

 are to be found also, when at Lymm, along the great 

 alluvial flat bordered by the river, and which reaches to 

 Thelwall. Thelwall was once a port for ships ! When 

 founded by Edward the elder, about the year 923, the 

 stream was so much wider and deeper that, according to 

 tradition, the Danish invaders came this way in vessels, 



