152 Country Rambles. 



Edwin Waugh, happily, is still with us, not alone in 

 perfect story, but ready with the always welcome living 

 voice. The spread of building and of manufacturing has 

 induced heavy changes in almost every portion of the 

 district mentioned, changes partaking, only too often, of 

 the nature of havoc, especially in the immediate vicinity 

 of the streams. So long, however, as it holds centres 

 of social and intellectual culture and refinement Mr. 

 George Milner lives at Moston the mind does not care 

 to contrast the present with the past, accepting the 

 record, and in that quite willing to rest. The district 

 in question is peculiarly interesting also from the fact of 

 its having been one of the principal scenes of the work 

 done by the old Lancashire "naturalists in humble life" 

 during the time that they earned their reputation. A 

 noted locality for hand-loom silk weaving, it was long 

 distinguished in particular for its resident entomologists, 

 the delicacy of touch demanded by that elegant art being 

 just that which is needed when one's play-hours are spent 

 with Psyche; upon the same occupation would seem 

 indeed to have arisen yet another of the old characteristic 

 local tastes that for the cultivation of dainty flowers, 

 such as the auricula and the polyanthus. Floriculture is 

 still pursued with fair success, though on a smaller scale; 

 entomology, we fear, is like the hand-loom, almost for- 

 gotten. We should remember, also, that Alkrington 

 Hall, near Middleton, was the residence of the celebrated 

 Sir Ashton Lever, gentleman, scholar, and naturalist, and 

 that it was by him that the innumerable objects of the 



