LOCAL ACCOUNT OF THE BOWSTONE HILLS,

And Country adjacent.

The spectator is entertained with a grand map of country from any of the eminences, which have been particularized; but the most advanced, and at the same time the most elevated in the scale, are Werneth Low to the north west, and Park's Moor to the south east, distant from each other about seven miles.

From Werneth the eye ranges along a stupendous mass of hills, which separates the counties of Lancaster aud York, commencing above Ashton under Line, and terminating in Blackstone Edge beyond Rochdale. Hence stretching westerly towards Ormskirk and Preston, the sight is once more arrested by the Bispham Hill, approaching to the mouth of the Ribble and the Irish channel. And beyond reach of ken lies a tract of elevations, gradually ascending to the height of mountains in the northernmost counties of England.

The view from the highest point of Lyme, or Park's Moor, is reciprocally extensive in a contrary circuit. The fore-ground is occupied by a contiguous chain of eminences, running, past the town of Macclesfield, to the projecting tongue of Alderley

Edge. Over this are seen the fine champagne districts of Cheshire, bounded and enclosed by the hills at the verge of Staffordshire and Shropshire. In the survey hence towards Chester, the far horizon is darkened by the massive line of the Welch mountains. The æstuaries of the Mersey and Dee next succeed, the former of which is seen in the azure distance glittering like a star of the west, under the rays of the setting sun. From this part all is vacant horizon along the Lancashire coast, until the circuit is terminated by the renewal of the previous range of objects at the Bispham Hill.

This view then may be briefly recapitulated, as almost a circle of level space encompassed and protected on all sides by mountains and rising ground. It comprises above one third part of the shire of Lancaster, and nearly the whole of that of Chester. In Carey's English Atlas, the former is calculated to contain 1700 square miles; the latter 1050. Hence the compass of area submitted to the present inspection may be said far to exceed the number of 1000 square miles, exhibiting the sites of nearly thirty market towns. The riches of this, in respect of modern produce, are various and inestimable; and must have been proportionably beneficial from all antiquity, according to the nature of subsistence required from it; whether it was in any measure converted into husbandry, or left waste to be a store of forest animals.

In addition to the advantages arising to this fine space in a military view from the wall of hills around its confines, on which any entrance into it could be ably contested, or to which a safe

flight could be directed in case of its usurpation by a successful foe, it has moreover the assistance of other natural defences, the intersection of numerous waters. The Lancashire division is traversed diagonally by a first line nearest to the coast, consisting of the Douglas, which runs north westerly, past Bispham Hill, from Wigan into the Ribble, which is here navi. gable, and another stream passing south easterly from the same neighbourhood, past Leigh, into the Mersey at Cadishead. A second and grand diagonal stretches from the Channel of the Ribble above Preston, into the Mersey, past Manchester, at Flixton; composed of the continuous, but contrary courses of the Derwent and the Irwell: which last receives several tributary waters, the Rock, the Irk, and the Medlock, forming so many sections of defences from its line to that of the boundary hills of Yorkshire.

Between this division and the Cheshire one, the formidable barrier of the Mersey occurs, which is navigable by small craft to Manchester, and indents the whole breadth of the shire almost in a right line from the Irish sea to the Derbyshire hills. These extend from north to south along the margins of the two counties; and parallel with them run three other rivers, two from the higher point and one from the lower, the Tame, the Etherow, and the Goyt, skirting their feet with deep vales, and issuing into the Mersey at and near Stockport. From the environs of these hills at Macclesfield, the Bollin cuts the eastern neck of the county north westerly, past Wilmslow and Altringham, to the Mersey between Lymn and Warburton.

More to the west is the course of the Dane, crossing the shire from the Staffordshire boundary, past Congleton and Hulme's Chapel, as likewise that of the Wheelock still further on again, past Sandbach and Middlewich, into the Weaver at Northwich. This river bisects the very heart of Cheshire, proceeding from the confines of Salop, past Nantwich and Northwich, into the Mersey at Frodsham. And parallel with the Weaver, the wide channel of the Dee passes along the base of the mountains of Wales into the ocean below Chester at Park-gate. These two last streams are likewise each of them navigable.

Such are the checks to progress, and the means of resistance, caused by the interlineation of waters through the surface of this large area. They however are but secondary to the diffi culties of the mountainous rampart, which must be surmounted on all sides in order to arrive at them. But to enter into its intricacies is the province of the present work, no further than relates to the department of the Bow Stones. This alone with its more immediate appurtenances is consequently the tract explored in the ensuing description; the natural positions of the ground being the chief thing kept in view. And of the perspective of the whole let it be here observed; that from the low lands at foot it appears as an amphitheatre for their command.

ALDERLEY

Is a long projection of lofty ground, with its extremity, called the Edge, in the level space towards Knutsford. It ranges

eastward, past Prestbury, to the elevated plain upon which Macclesfield is built, having its crown covered with trees, through which appear for large intervals its sides of red sandy rock. On approaching however towards the town, a general cultivation reigns over it, and inclosures for arable and grazing uses appear. Considered in a view with the whole of the Bow Stone hills, it looks like a wing pushed out to defend and flank them on the south west, as Werneth Low bears the same resemblance on the north east. It has too a legitimate rank amongst them, being pointed out by tradition as the site of an ancient erection of Stones.

KERRIDGE, &c.

Beyond Macclesfield, whilst the country swells into a chain of mountain in the direction of Staffordshire, it stretches with the same aspect towards the county of Derby. The fore part runs at a moderate distance in a line with the turnpike road leading to Stockport. Hindermost in this mass, a very high pointed eminence, called the Great Low, with sides of steep and broken ascent, towers in the horizon. Separated from this by a deep and long valley, and continued from the lofty environs of Macclesfield, Kerridge, of black and abrupt appearance, occupies the front, with the sweeping range of ground towards Alderley at its foot. From this a transverse valley runs under the northerly brow of Kerridge into the districts of the Great Low, separating them both from the hills approaching to the village of Pott.