Norcliffe is equally remarkable in respect of its rhododendrons, the purple splendour, early in June, tossed up like a floral surf. These last, being like the conifers, evergreens, Norcliffe, if nothing else, is a place of perennial verdure. Almost, as on the banks of old Clitumnus-- Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus æstas! The walk through the sylvan part of the glen, tortuous, and rarely on level ground, brings many beautiful wild-flowers into view. Here, in the month of May, is the wood-millet--lightest and daintiest, after the Briza, of our native grasses--and yet more plentifully the sweet woodruff, holding up in every corner its little handfuls of snow-white crosses. Access to Norcliffe,--the grounds being strictly and in every portion private,--is, of course, only by favour. But the honoured name of Greg has always been a synonym for liberality, and leave to enter when properly sought is not likely to be refused. The same may be said of the picturesque and delightful grounds, a mile further down the valley, which appertain to Oversley Lodge, the residence of Mr. Arthur Greg. The treat here is the wilderness-walk, a portion of which was cut only in 1881, along the side of the principal cliff. During the progress of the clearing a new locality was found for the true-love.[14] So certain is the reward, not only in important shape, but in little and unexpected ways, of every man who first makes a path through the forest, whether with the axe or with the more subtle tools that are not wrought upon human forges. Spring is the time, above all others, if it can be managed, for these beautiful Oversley woods; for then we have the opening green leaves in a thousand artistic forms, and in endless shades; the violets also, and the satin-flower; and, full of promise, the so-comfortably-wrapped-up ferns that in September will show how nature revels in transformations. The Oversley woods abut very closely upon Cotterill, approaching which place there is scenery not inferior in its modest and singular sweetness to that of the vicinity of Castle Mill. The public approach is from Wilmslow, treading first the western margin of Lindow Common, then going through various lanes, and in front of "Dooley's farm." The greensward portion of the country now soon entered is generally distinguished by the name of the Morley Meadows, and the sylvan part by the somewhat odd title of "Hanging-banks Wood." The phrase is designed, it would seem, to convey an idea analogous to that involved in the name of the famous "Hanging-gardens" of ancient Babylon, signifying terraces of wood and blossom disposed in parallel order upon some gentle slope. This is the part of the Bollin valley referred to in an early chapter (p. 27) as the asylum, it is to be hoped indefinitely, of the primrose. Here, too, Ophelia's "long-purples" live again, while under the shadow of the trees we descry her "nettles," those beautiful golden yellow ones