N ore life. 85 



ness soon became decked with mansions and gardens ; it 

 blossomed as the rose; and "Alderley Edge" is now 

 little less than a suburb of Manchester. 



The old carriage-way being superseded by the rail, 

 and much that is delightful being reached by train long 

 before getting to Alderley, we will now accordingly make 

 new departure for fair Cheshire by way of Stockport. 

 Arrived at Wilmslow the old-fashioned, the Bollin re- 

 appears, this particular point being in truth the head of 

 the valley through which the stream, as before mentioned, 

 pursues its sinuous and rapid course to Ashley. The 

 country upon the right is full of quiet lanes and pretty 

 meadows, none of which are more pleasing than those 

 containing the path to the margin of Norcliffe. If 

 permission can be obtained to visit the glen ipsissima, 

 they are like the vestibule of a temple. Norcliffe was 

 laid out in 1830 by the late Mr. R. H. Greg. Selecting 

 everything that he planted with consummate taste and 

 judgment, the slopes are rich with trees which in point of 

 value and variety have no equal in this part of England . 

 Beautiful from the first, the scene at the present moment 

 is more charming than ever before; for tree-planting is 

 one of those essentially noble and generous works the 

 glory of which a man can rarely expect to see unfolded 

 in his own lifetime : like a great poem, it reaches afar, 

 and covers the generations that succeed. The very 

 striking feature of Norcliffe, the main and characteristic 

 one, consists in the profusion of the Conifers. The 

 pine, the fir, the cedar, in their many and always princely 



