Taxal. 1 2 7 



is one of several similar storages prepared for the Peak 

 Forest Canal, and supplies an admirable illustration of 

 the service rendered to scenery by business enterprise, 

 which if it sometimes destroys or mutilates, as in the case 

 of Gatley Carrs, compensates in the gift of broad and 

 shining lakes. An excellent characteristic of the great 

 Lancashire and Cheshire reservoirs is that ordinarily, when 

 in the country, like this one at Taxal, they resemble, as 

 nearly as possible, natural meres. Established, as at 

 Lymm, by damming up the narrow outlet of some little 

 valley through which a stream descends, the water, as it 

 accumulates, is allowed, as far as practicable, to determine 

 its own boundaries ; hence, excepting the one inevitable 

 straight line required for the dam, though this can some- 

 times be dispensed with, the margin winds, the banks 

 become shore-like, and the landscape is exquisitely 

 enriched. No landscape is perfectly beautiful without 

 water, and nowhere has so much been done undesignedly 

 for scenic beauty than in our two adjacent counties. The 

 same is true of the addition given by noble railway-arches 

 to hollows filled with trees. Scenery impregnated with 

 the outcome of human intelligence and human skill must 

 needs, in the long run, always take deepest hold of our 

 admiration, for the simple reason that human nature is 

 there; just as the most precious and delightful part of 

 home is that which is superadded by human affection. 

 From the high grounds above the water the outlook 

 is wonderfully romantic ; when upon the crest of the 

 hill there is an inviting walk also under the trees. For 



