Transcriber's Notes: Italic text is marked _thus_. Apparent typographical errors have been corrected and hyphenation standardised. COUNTRY RAMBLES. [Illustration: _Rostherne Mere._] 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 [Illustration] PREFACE. The following pages consist, in part, of a reprint of the little volume published in 1858 under the title of _Manchester Walks and Wild-Flowers_;--in part, of brief _excerpta_ from the author's accounts of trips made by the Field Naturalists' Society, as given in their Annual Reports, 1860-1881. A very considerable amount of new matter will also be found. Giving descriptions in a novel and welcome manner, of pretty places in the neighbourhood previously unknown to people in general, and indicating in various ways the pleasure to be derived from rambles in the country, the little volume spoken of is believed to have assisted, in no slight measure, to awaken and foster the present widespread local taste for rural scenes, and for recreation in the pursuit of practical natural history. It is in the hope that similar results may ensue among the present generation that the book is now partially republished. It has long been unprocurable, and is constantly enquired for. The reprinting presents also a curious and interesting picture of many local conditions now effaced.