COUNTRY RAMBLES.
Country Rambles,
AND
Manchester Walks and Wild flowers:
BEING RURAL WANDERINGS IN
CHESHIRE, LANCASHIRE, DERBYSHIRE, & YORKSHIRE.
BY
LEO H. GRINDON,
Author of “The Manchester Flora,” “Manchester Banks and Bankers,”
“Lancashire: Historical and Descriptive Notes,” and other works.
If thou art worn, and hard beset
With sorrows that thou wouldst forget;
If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep
Thy heart from fainting, and thy soul from sleep,
Go to the woods and hills! No tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.
LONGFELLOW.
MANCHESTER:
PALMER & HOWE, 73, 75, AND 77, PRINCESS ST.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO.
1882.
MANCHESTER:
PALMER AND HOWE, PRINTERS, 73, 75, AND 77, PRINCESS STREET
PREFACE.
THE following pages consist, in part, of a reprintof the little volume published in 1858 underthe title of Manchester Walks and Wild–Flowers;—inpart, of brief excerpta from theauthor’s accounts of trips made by the FieldNaturalists’ Society, as given in their Annual Reports,1860–1881. A very considerable amount of new matterwill also be found.
Giving descriptions in a novel and welcome manner,of pretty places in the neighbourhood previously unknownto people in general, and indicating in various ways thepleasure to be derived from rambles in the country, thelittle volume spoken of is believed to have assisted, in noslight measure, to awaken and foster the present widespreadlocal taste for rural scenes, and for recreation in[vi]the pursuit of practical natural history. It is in the hopethat similar results may ensue among the present generationthat the book is now partially republished. It haslong been unprocurable, and is constantly enquired for.The reprinting presents also a curious and interestingpicture of many local conditions now effaced.
The preface to the original work of 1858 containedthe following passages:—“No grown–up person who hasresided in Manchester even twenty years, is unacquaintedwith the mighty changes that have passed over itssuburbs during that period; while those who have livedhere thirty, forty, and fifty years tell us of circumstancesand conditions almost incredible. Neighbou