io6 Country Rambles. 



and tired. Tea disposed of, we have a walk homewards 

 even more pleasing than the first, by taking, that is, the 

 contrary or Lancashire side of the river, and thus passing 

 through the very woods admired an hour previously from 

 the hall and the crest of the hill. The way is first over 

 the stone bridge, then for a little distance up the hill, 

 descending thence into the field-path, found by means of 

 a large circular brick structure in one of the meadows, 

 seemingly the ventilation mouth of a coal-mine. There 

 is a path quite close to the river, if preferred, entered 

 almost immediately after crossing the bridge, but the 

 water after wet weather is apt to be disagreeable, and in 

 autumn there is a thick and laborious jungle of butter- 

 bur leaves. The hill-side at this point is decidedly the 

 best place for viewing the hall, which crowns the tall cliff 

 immediately in front of it. It is hard to think, as we 

 contemplate its lovely adjuncts, how so romantic a site 

 could have been deserted. The woods hanging the hill- 

 sides with their beautiful tapestry, the river creeping 

 quietly in the bottom, but seen only in shining lakelets 

 where the branches of the trees disentangle themselves, 

 and make a green lacework of light twig and leaf, just 

 dense enough to serve as a thin veil, and just open enough 

 to let the eye pierce it and be delighted; the perfect 

 calm of the whole scene, and the sweet allurement of the 

 path with every additional step, how came they to be 

 ignored? Approaching Reddish the woods are unfenced, 

 and the path lies almost beneath the trees. At the end 

 of May these woods are suffused with the brightest blue 



