The Agecroft Valley. 1 8 1 



which are white as those of the anemone itself. Anemone, 

 translated, signifies "wind-flower," a name intended to 

 denote fugacity of the petals, or fall at the first touch. 

 But such is not the fate of the anemone-petals of to-day. 

 The original application of the name would appear to 

 have been to the cistus. It was into this last that the 

 frail goddess transformed her love, her tears represented 

 in the disappearance in a moment. 



Emerging from the clough, the difficulty is not which 

 way to get home again, but which pleasant way to give 

 the preference to. We may go past the dyeworks, and 

 through the park to Agecroft Bridge ; or turn up the lane 

 that curls back towards Prestwich; or, best of all, make 

 our way under the magnificent viaduct of the East 

 Lancashire Railway, and then across the river to Clifton 

 Aqueduct. Arrived here, there is another ample choice; 

 either to ride home from the adjacent station (Clifton 

 Junction); to descend to the Irwell bank, and walk 

 through the meadows bordering the river to Agecroft 

 Bridge; or to take the fields and canal bank, the latter 

 in some parts very pretty, and so to Pendleton, where 

 Mr. Greenwood will be glad to see us, and the feeling 

 probably be reciprocal. To invigorate ourselves, if 

 purposing to walk, it is prudent, and not difficult, to 

 procure tea at one of the cottages near the station. At 

 one in particular, standing back a little from the road, 

 upon the left, with at the bottom of the garden a 

 nice, cool, face-refreshing well, that we have seen give 

 challenge on fair cheeks to the morning dew upon the 



