CHAPTER XIII. 



BAMFORD WOOD. 



So rich a shade, so green a sod, 



Our English fairies never trod ; 



Yet who in Indian bower has stood, 



But thought on England's "good green wood?" 



And bless'd, beneath the palmy shade, 



Her hazel and her hawthorn glade, 



And breath 'd a prayer (how oft in vain ! ) 



To gaze upon her oaks again? 



HEBER. 



ORTY years ago no part of our neighbourhood 

 more abounded in natural attractions than 

 the district which comprises Moston, Black- 

 ley, Boggart-hole Clough, Middleton, Bamford 

 Wood, and the upper portions generally of 

 the valleys of the Medlock and the Irk, the 

 latter including that pretty little cup amid the grassy and 

 tree-clad slopes still known as "Daisy Nook." How 

 charmingly many of these places have been introduced 

 into our local literature needs no telling. Samuel 

 Bamford was not the man to misapprehend the beauty 

 of nature. Throstle Glen was one of his favourite resorts. 



