150 ABSENCE OF WATERFALLS 



in South Wales, and to Lodore, Ara Force, and Scale 

 Force in Cumberland, and many others equally well known. 

 The foot of the largest fall in our island (as regards volume 

 of water) the lower Fall of the Clyde, is only a few 

 feet above the line of high water. In North Staffordshire 

 we have, as I need not remind you, an extensive area of 

 from 500 to upwards of 1,700 feet, with springs and streams 

 issuing from a few feet of the summit. 



The question therefore is not so idle when put in refe- 

 rence to the existing physical geography of North Stafford- 

 shire, as it would apparently be if asked in reference to 

 the plain of Cheshire or of North Shropshire. If a fellow- 

 passenger by railway in passing from Crewe to Warrington 

 or from Crewe to Shrewsbury asked us if there were any 

 waterfalls to be seen between those spots, we should smile 

 at the notion. We should no more look out for falls 

 there than when looking down from the summit of Antwerp 

 Cathedral on " the lazy Scheldt." Not so with the traveller 

 in North Staffordshire. If a passenger by the Churnet 

 Valley Railway asked me, in passing between Alton and 

 Cheddleton, if there were any waterfalls in the neighbour- 

 hood worth visiting, I should rather infer that he was a 

 person of observation, although of not much local know- 

 ledge. With the rapid stream, deep gorge, and peeps of 

 distant hills he might naturally expect to receive an affirma- 

 tive answer. If he had the Ordnance survey spread out 

 before him, he might even reasonably express surprise at 

 my reply in the negative, for he might point on the map 

 to the village of " Waterfall" on the one hand and to 

 "Waterfall Cottage" near Endon on the other. I could 

 however assure him with truth that North Staffordshire 

 cannot boast of a Lilliputian fall equivalent even to 

 those pretty toys of dame Nature's baby-house - 



