130 Country Rambles. 



day "St. Chad's well." The earliest ecclesiastical notice 

 of the place does not occur till temp. Henry VIII. The 

 hill itself, Werneth Low, is one of the highest in Cheshire, 

 and the first of several such in that odd piece of the 

 county which runs away to the north-east, stretched forth, 

 as an old topographer says, "like the wing of an eagle." 

 Like all the other eminences hereabouts, it commands 

 very noble and extensive views. So complete, in truth, 

 is the look-out in all directions from the summit, that to 

 walk from end to end, is like pacing a watch-tower. The 

 plains of Cheshire and South Lancashire lie to the west; 

 Lyme, Marple, and Disley are seen to the south; and 

 eastwards there are inviting bits of Derbyshire, here 

 separated from Cheshire by the Etherowe, the opposite 

 side charmingly clothed by the Ernocroft woods, while in 

 the distance rise the vast moorlands of Charlesworth and 

 Glossop. If bound for Werneth Low it is best, perhaps, 

 after all, to quit the train at Woodley, or to make our 

 way to that place from Parkwood. In any case, until 

 Werneth Low has been ascended, knowledge of our local 

 scenery is decidedly immature. 



The long and beautifully wooded glen extending from 

 Romiley to Marple is Chadkirk Vale, and the stream, 

 not as some suppose, the Mersey, but the above-named 

 Goyt. That it is marked as the Mersey in Speed, and 

 again in the Ordnance map, no doubt is true. White 

 also calls it the Mersey, all who do this considering that 

 the Mersey begins with the confluence of the Etherowe 

 with the Goyt, about half-a-mile below Compstall bridge. 



