Arden Hall. 101 



aurora of the Reformation, is Whalley Abbey, also more 

 than thirty miles away. Excepting a few old houses of 

 little significance, everything about us is intact, occupied 

 usefully, and a fine testimony to the intelligence and the 

 energy of the province. Let a stranger visit any part of 

 the country within the radius indicated, and he will feel 

 that he is in a place where life is concentrated: every- 

 thing bespeaks nerve; whatever has died seems to have 

 been succeeded on the instant by a more powerful thing. 

 Like a laurel-tree, we are dressed in this district in the 

 foliage of perennial and vehement vitality; while there 

 is plenty of solid stem to mark honourable antiquity, 

 the leaves that have gone have but made way for new 

 and larger ones. 



These reflections have been suggested by a visit to 

 Arden Hall, the solitary exception to the strong, unyield- 

 ing life of the vicinity. Upon this account alone it is a 

 place of interest. The situation, also, is one of the most 

 delightful ever selected for a country residence. The 

 locality may be described, in general terms, as on the 

 Cheshire bank of the river Tame, about half-way between 

 Stockport and Hyde. The Tame separates Lancashire 

 from that odd bit of Cheshire which, running up in a 

 kind of peninsula at its north-east corner, terminates 

 with Mossley and Tintwisle, the Etherowe forming its 

 boundary on the opposite side, and dividing it from 

 Derbyshire. Few would suppose it possible, but the 

 county of Cheshire is at this point scarcely more than 

 two miles across! The ruin itself is easily found, the 



