9O Country Rambles. 



foot for about a mile, then turning up through a field. 

 Green shades and leafy labyrinths here tempt to a never- 

 slackening onward movement, especially in that part 

 where a great curve in the mountain-mass gives rise to a 

 kind of bay, grassy always, and that in spring teems with 

 anemones. The prospect from the Hough is everywhere 

 magnificent, extending to Delamere Forest and the 

 Overton hills, which, like Coniston " alt maen," have a 

 profile never doubtful. The intermediate broad, flat 

 space is the now familiar North Cheshire plain. Should 

 a canopy of smoke be distinguishable, it will indicate 

 Manchester. To enjoy this wonderful prospect perfectly, 

 it is best to adventure to the edge of " Stormy Point," or 

 the Holywell Rock that noted crag which, in case of 

 need, would serve well for a new Tarpeian. Another 

 quite different way to the top of the Edge is to proceed 

 a short distance along the Congleton road, or that which 

 leads, in the first instance, towards old Alderley village; 

 then to turn up. a lane upon the left, which, passing 

 through a grove of fir-trees, terminates in the Maccles- 

 field road, near the "Wizard." It is behind this noted 

 hostelry, commemorative in its name of the local legend, 

 that the sylvan loveliness of Alderley Edge is felt most 

 exquisitely, nature seeming here to have been left more 

 to her own sweet wantonness; while the views, extending 

 now over a totally different country, hills instead of a 

 plain, add to our previous enjoyments the always welcome 

 one of surprise. Curling round this glorious promontory, 

 we gradually progress towards the "Beacon," the highest 



