234 Country Rambles. 



obtained from the Anglezark end of the hill, a rough 

 and broken eminence reached by a zigzag path from the 

 base, which leads eventually to a soft and turfy brow. 

 Upon the opposite side of the field, a trifle higher, there 

 is a wall with a narrow iron gate in it, and here we take 

 our stand. Now and then, on fine and perfectly tranquil 

 evenings towards sunset, Lancaster Castle may be distin- 

 guished; if the tide be in, Morecambe Bay, and even 

 Coniston. 



Quite as interesting, every way, as the Pike, and more 

 so in some respects, are the great reservoirs belonging to 

 the Liverpool Waterworks, altogether out of sight from 

 the railway, but as a spectacle from the hill-side undeni- 

 ably one of the most charming in the county. The area 

 of the entire water-surface is five hundred acres ; the 

 supply comes from ten thousand acres of moorland 

 above, brought down chiefly by the little rivers called the 

 Douglas, the Yarrow, and the Roddlesworth. The Act 

 of Parliament authorising the construction of these great 

 reservoirs was obtained in 1847. Water was first 

 delivered from them in Liverpool January 2nd, 1857. 

 Rivington Pike, after all, is not the highest point of the 

 range. Winter Hill, well named, so wild and cold and 

 dreary is the complexion, and so often is it beaten by 

 storms, claims a considerably greater altitude. 



By this same line we go also to Chorley for Whittle- 

 le-Woods, distant only four miles from Hoghton Tower, a 

 romantic and secluded spot, noted for its historical 

 associations, its " Springs," and, if we care to pursue a 



