Page:A Prospect of Manchester and Its Neighbourhood.djvu/10

vi Had the writer visited the country only occasionally, he might, perhaps, have stopped to admire the appearance of so noble a landscape; so completely circumscribed, except to the westward, that it can be compared to nothing, so much as an immense amphitheatre. But, riding over the high ground so constantly, at all times and seasons, it has led him frequently to wonder, that whilst numberless obscure spots have furnished subjects for descriptive poetry, so rich, populous, beautiful, and variegated a plain as that in which Manchester is placed, should have escaped observation.

The grandeur of this view consists in the magnitude of the plain, and the completeness of the hilly barrier encompassing it. The beauties consist rather in objects of art than of nature; for, whenever a country becomes populous, nature is always compelled to give way to the convenience or the caprice of man. Travellers contemplating this prospect, are struck with the number of large towns and villages brought into view at one time, and from one point. Manchester, Stockport, Ashton-under-lineLyne [sic], Oldham, Bolton, Bury, and Middleton,