1 1 2 Country Rambles. 



beauty, and that before the time of railways were scarcely 

 known. Alighting at Bramhall, we secure the added 

 pleasure of a visit to the very celebrated old hall of that 

 name the most admirable example in our district of the 

 "magpie" style of architecture, and not more charming 

 in its external features than rich in interest within. The 

 oldest portions date from soon after the middle of the 

 fourteenth century, and are thus as nearly as possible 

 contemporaneous as to period of building with the choir 

 of York Minster. These very aged portions are found 

 chiefly in connection with the entrance to the chapel. 

 Massive beams and supports, hard as iron, refusing the 

 least dint of the knife, and presenting the peculiar surface 

 characteristic of the work of their time, attest very plainly 

 the profound significance of "heart of oak." Everything, 

 moreover, in this grand old place is so solidly laid 

 together, so compactly and impregnably knit, that it 

 seems as if it would serve pretty nearly for the base of 

 another Eddystone or Cleopatra's needle. In the most 

 tempestuous of winter nights, Bramhall has never been 

 known to flinch a hair's breadth so, at least, the late 

 Colonel Davenport used to assure his friends, the writer 

 of these lines included. No portions of the building 

 appear to be of later date than the time of Elizabeth, 

 the domestic architecture of whose reign is nowhere in 

 England better interpreted. The situation of Bramhall 

 is on a par with its artistic qualities. No dull soul was 

 it who more than five hundred years ago selected for his 

 abode the crest of that gentle declivity, trees far and 



