1 88 Country Rambles. 



of pleasant remembrance, lying calm perhaps in the 

 golden light of lang syne, is one of the profoundest 

 secrets of happiness, and one of the most useful habits 

 we can cultivate. Every one may acquire the art, and 

 it strengthens every day and year that we live. Happi- 

 ness is not a wonderful diamond, to be sought afar off, 

 but, rightly understood, a thing to be reaped every day 

 out of the ordinary facts of life, even out of the sight 

 of a railway train steaming across the fields. 



The plants of the woods and hills bordering the Age- 

 croft valley are mostly the same that are found in Mere 

 Clough. In addition to those above enumerated, may 

 be mentioned the pretty round-leaved marsh-violet, the 

 whortleberry, and the wild cherry, one of the gayest 

 ornaments of the month of May. The whortleberry 

 seldom ripens its fruit at Prestwich, or anywhere so near 

 the town: it seems to require the bracing air of the 

 moors and mountains. It is one of the shrubs which 

 rival the trees in brilliancy of tint, assumed as in the sky, 

 when the hour of departure is at hand. Along with the 

 Canadian medlar, the bramble, and some kinds of azalea, 

 the leaves change not infrequently to vivid crimson. 

 People are apt to call these changes the "fading" of 

 the leaf; it would be better to say the painting. 

 Primroses are exceedingly scarce, both on the Agecroft 

 hills and in the Irwell valley, and their place is un- 

 occupied by any other vernal flower as fair and popular. 

 The wild pansy is there, on the higher and drier ground, 

 and often with remarkably large and handsome flowers, 



