146 Country Rambles. 



however, which should never be used heedlessly. The 

 prospects are never wide-extended, for the track is 

 entirely through deep valleys : it is the slopes ascending 

 from these which are in many parts picturesque; if we 

 think ever so slightly of what they lead up to, they 

 possess the still better quality of significance. 



In the bygones the "Brushes," briefly so designated, 

 were almost as noted with the old Lancashire naturalists 

 as Cotterill. The ravine so called, grey crags guarding 

 the entrance, and a stream, with innumerable little mossy 

 waterfalls descending from some undiscovered fount 

 above, was renowned not more for its wild grandeur than 

 for its botany and ornithology. Now it is only historical, 

 the adaptation of the best part to the purposes of a 

 waterworks company having effaced all the leading 

 characteristics. The wheel-path remains much as it was, 

 at least above the dam, and by pursuing this, a somewhat 

 long ascent, we find ourselves once again upon the 

 moors, here called "North Britain." Two courses 

 present themselves now. One is to bend to the right, 

 returning by way of Hollingworth; the other to strike off 

 sharply to the left, and after a while, descend to the 

 railway. The first-named supplies views of extraordinary 

 breadth and changefulness, extending up and across the 

 Tintwistle valley, and covering the hills above Dinting 

 and Glossop; the Hollingworth reservoirs (supplementary 

 to those of Woodhead, and well set-off with trees,) 

 contributing in the best manner to the power of the 

 landscape as a whole. The Holyngworthe family (for 



