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SECTION XI.

Approach to Matlock.---Visit to Lums-Dale.---Lime Tree Lane.---Entrance into Matlock Dale.---Approach to Matlock Bath.---General Character of the Scenery of the Dale.---Walk to Stonnis---View from thence.---Evening Scene from Masson.---Morning in Matlock Dale.--Heights of Abraham.---Museum.---Inns and Lodging Houses.

WE

E were now nearly three miles from Matlock Bridge; and as the sun declined, we had a pleasant walk down Darley Dale. The shadows gradually became broader, and the scenery improved, as evening advanced. In our way to Matlock, we passed on our right the shaft of a lead mine, which was discovered a few years ago, when the new road to Bakewell was made. This mine has been the sub

ject of much litigation, and it is highly probable that more money has been expended upon it than the concern will produce for many years. On examining the ore, I found it accompanied with more than an usual quantity of martial pyrites, many beautiful specimens of which may be found in the fences by the road-side. Remarking to one of the workmen that pyrites appeared to be very abundant in this mine, he very earnestly wished it was less so; for, added he, "if the lead ore do not eat out the pyrites, the pyrites will soon eat out the lead ore." The miner's mode of expression brought forcibly to my recollection a remark which I had many years before heard made in a sermon on the utility of prayer, by the celebrated Rowland

PART III.

98

Approach to Matlock Bridge.

66

Hill, when preaching in a theatre on a stage, publicly devoted to profane purposes---" If," said the reverend preacher, praying do not make you give over sinning, sinning will soon make you give over praying."

Though we had not much leisure for botanizing during our evening walk, yet the luxuriant growth of the plants and flowers amongst the rocks on the left of the road, attracted our attention. The mallow, the wild marjoram, the yarrow, and particularly the meadow geranium, were more beautiful here than I recollect to have seen them in any other situation; and our steps were delayed in gathering them, until the sun, sinking behind the huge hill of Masson, left the whole valley in shade, while Riber Top alone was suffused with splendour. As we approached Matlock Bridge, a view replete with beauty lay before us. The river, the bridge, the rocky scenery behind, the tower of the church rising gracefully over the trees, and the rugged bank on our left, formed an assemblage of objects strikingly picturesque.

We were now within a mile and a half of Matlock Bath, a place which has been long and deservedly celebrated for the beauty of its scenery, and the salutary influence of its waters: but, as it was our intention to explore the vicinity of the village before we passed through the dale, we took up our lodgings at an inn near the bridge, and spent the remaining part of the evening in recalling to recollection the incidents of the day.

The following morning we rambled through the village, and along the road leading to Alfreton and Mansfield, leaving Riber on our

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right. About a mile from Matlock, a picturesque glen on our left attracted our notice, and a rapid descent led us into its deepest recesses; it is covered with wood, and watered by a brilliant stream, that, leaping from one rocky fragment to another, plays and sparkles amongst the closely-interwoven branches of the trees that overshadow its descent. From this romantic glen we soon emerged ; and, passing the corner of a mill, which is situated at its upper extremity, we came suddenly upon a natural cascade, to which Bray has given a particular direction in his "Sketch of a Tour into Derbyshire," and he describes the scene here presented as "fit for the pencil of a Salvator Rosa." When he beheld it, it had a wilder and more savage character than it now possesses: no artificial object was then obtruded on the eye, excepting the old mill at the top of the rock, and even that was in a state of ruin, which happily harmonized with every thing around it. The wild scene of which Bray was so enamoured, is now an uninteresting combination of rocks and houses, mills, wheels, and waterfalls. Fearn, fox-glove, heath, and a little underwood, cover the lower part of the right bank of this singular dell. The fall of water includes the whole of the little river Lums; and when the stream is swollen with rain, the river rushes over the top of the rock through a narrow cleft in a contracted stream: interrupted in its fall by craggy projections, it is dashed into foam, and fills the midway air with a shower of watery particles, through which the rays of a bright sun sometimes play beauteously, throwing a transparent bow of many colours on the adjacent rocks. The water falls about eighty feet. The river Lums, however, is in general but a penurious stream, which is dammed up a little above the cascade, and let out sparingly for the use of the mills: hence it is but rarely a good subject for the pencil.

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Entrance into Matlock Dale.

At the mills near there is a manufacture of oxygenated muriatic acid, where from three to four tons of linen yarn are bleached weekly.

From this place we returned through some fields to Matlock Bank, where we observed a venerable lime-tree, that gives a name to the place where it stands. The trunk of the tree is decayed within, but the branches, which are healthy and vigorous, ramify to a great distance, and cover an area of considerable extent. This old tree appears to be renovating in every part, and flourishing with new life. In some writings now in existence, which are six hundred years old, and in possession of a gentleman who resides at Doncaster, this tree is particularly mentioned and its scite pointed out.

From Matlock Bank many picturesque views are presented, in which the church, most romantically situated amongst groupes of trees on the verge of a rock, is a beautiful feature. The undulation of the limestone strata from the Church Rock to Pig Tor, which may be regarded as the entrance into Matlock Dale, is extremely curious, and highly worthy the observation of geologists.

Having crossed the Derwent at Matlock Bridge, we entered the dale that leads to the baths. Near the Boat House, the first grand burst of the sublime scenery of Matlock Dale is presented. A morning light is peculiarly favourable to this view. I once saw it about half an hour after sun-rise, and the impression it then made is still fresh in my recollection. The rich foliage that crests the high crags on the left of the Derwent, leads the eye into a beautiful meadow ; beyond, the line of rock gradually ascends from a comparatively low

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