FRIENDLY SOCIETIES IN DERBYSHIRE.

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tower is ascended from within, and from the top of it a view is obtained of a wide extent of country, intersected with roads, rivers, and canals, studded with villages and houses, vales and eminences in some places bright with fields sunny in others, dark with masses of intervening wood; the whole presenting to the eye of the spectator an immense panorama of interesting objects.

As we entered the village, we found the inhabitants in the full enjoyment of one of their most important festivities, and as merry as high spirits and good cheer could make them.

Friendly Societies, or, as they are called here, Sick Clubs, are established in every village and hamlet in the Peak of Derbyshire that are sufficiently populous for the purpose; and where they are not, they have a more enlarged operation, and the vicinity is included. The object and the constitution of these societies are so generally understood, that it is useless in these pages to enter into detail on the subject; but in Derbyshire they appear to excite a peculiar interest, and all their annual festivals are held on the same day. When we left Ashover, in the morning, preparations were making for this general holiday. The villagers were collecting together in their best apparel, and decorating their hats and wands of office with ribbons: such was the scene at Ashover. At Crich, where we arrived a little after mid-day, the inhabitants had formed themselves into a regular procession, and were parading the village, accompanied with a band of music. On these occasions each man carries a wand in his hand, which is usually painted with different colours, and adorned at the top with ribbons. The wands of the officers of the society are tipt with gold, and otherwise ornamented, by way of distinction. The people of Crich seemed delighted with the bustle, and all was frolic and hilarity. This was our noonday exhibition: in the evening, as we entered Cromford, every house and cottage were emptied of their inmates, and dancing, and music, and laughter, were heard through the village.

"And all the village train, from labour free,
Led up their sports beneath the spreading tree;
While many a pastime circled in the shade,
The young contending as the old survey'd ;
And many a gambol frolick'd o'er the ground,

And sleights of art, and feats of strength went round;

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VIEW NEAR CRICH.

And still, as each repeated pleasure tir'd,
Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspir'd;
The dancing pair, that simply sought renown
By holding out to tire each other down;
The swain, mistrustless of his smutted face,
While secret laughter titter'd round the place."
GOLDSMITH'S Deserted Village.

I have no recollection of ever having seen on any one day, so great a proportion of happy faces as we met with in our circuitous ramble on Whit-Monday from Ashover to Crich, Cromford, and Matlock.

During the short time we remained at Crich, we walked over some fields to a high point of ground that overlooks the rich vale through which the Derwent runs. Directly before us, were the magnificent woods of Alderwesly. Looking towards Cromford, we had a fine view of Lea Woods, Wellersley Castle, and the scenery about Matlock. In the contrary direction, the eye wanders over hills and dales clothed with foliage, until, in remote distance, it rests upon the tower of All-Saint's Church, at Derby; dimly seen, it is true, but yet the most important object that can be discerned in the far-off landscape. The hills in this part of Derbyshire, on both sides of the Derwent, rise, majestically from the valley; they present a pleasing variety of outline, and their steep sides are adorned with some of the most beautiful woods that ever waved their branches to the winds. The river, with here and there a bridge thrown across the stream, courses through the depths of the vale, and its margin is enriched with almost every object that can delight in landscape scenery.

The road from Crich to Cromford is carried along the side of a steep hill, by a gradual descent. It first passes through Halloway, along a kind of mountain terrace that overlooks a long series of miles of beautiful country; it then sinks rapidly amongst the thick woods that border Lea Mill. Every step along this road varies the prospect, and the traveller is sometimes delighted with the beauty, and at others, elevated by the magnificence of the views it presents. The hills, the water, and the woods about Lea Mill form altogether one of the most picturesque seclusions in the vicinity of Matlock.

Within little more than a mile of Lea Woods, is Dethick, a village which from a very early period of history, belonged to a family of the same name until the reign of the sixth Henry, when it became the property of the Babingtons, in

ANTHONY BABINGTON.

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whose possession it remained until about the year 1586, when it passed into other hands. Anthony Babington, during his residence at Dethick, is said to have organized a plan for releasing Mary Queen of Scots from her confinement at South Winfield; but the design being suspected by the agents of Elizabeth, the royal captive was more strictly watched, and shortly afterwards removed to Fotheringay Castle, in Northamptonshire, where she was freed from her long imprisonment by the axe of the executioner.

That Babington should have plotted the release of Mary is not improbable: he had a daring and romantic spirit, and the prospect of a successful issue to such a project, would be to a mind like his, a powerful stimulant, and make him reckless of consequences. Certain it is, that he entered into a treasonable conspiracy against Elizabeth. John Ballard, a priest of the English seminary at Rheims, was his principal associate, and several Catholic gentlemen, with a number of others, were connected with them in this desperate attempt. The vigilance of Elizabeth's government soon detected the designs of the conspirators, who, being alarmed at their danger, separated and fled in different directions. Babington is reported to have stained his face with the juice of walnuts, and to have taken refuge at a cottage in the neighbourhood of Harrow on the Hill, but he was soon discovered in his hiding-place, and conveyed to London with some of his associates, who had been previously taken. Their trial and condemnation immediately succeeded- and Babington and his confederates, fourteen in number, expiated their offences at the gallows or on the scaffold. The dreadful sentence of the law, accompanied with all its horrors of hanging, quartering, and burning, was put in execution; and thus ended this ill-concerted and foolish attempt to destroy the government of Elizabeth. This conspiracy hurried on the fate of Mary: she was charged with being an accomplice in the plot, and after an irregular trial before an incompetent tribunal, she was condemned, and beheaded on the 7th of February 1587, in the forty-fourth year of her age and the nineteenth of her captivity. Hume, an historian whose authority cannot be lightly regarded, and others of more modern date, profess to believe this foul imputation on the fair fame of the Scottish queen; but the elegant historian of Scotland, the eloquent and argumentative Robertson, has satisfactorily proved that

she was not privy to the conspiracy of Babington and his

associates.

From Lea Mill, a pleasant walk by the side of the Derwent, beneath the shadow of overhanging trees, brought us to Cromford, and to the busy evening-scene that distinguished the close of the day on Whit-Monday, which has been previously noticed.

:

SECTION V.

Morning at Matlock.- Via Gellia.-Hopton.-Sir John Gell. Carsington. Rocks in the Vicinity of Brassington. — Derbyshire Trossacks. Tissington. - Ancient Custom of Dressing Wells with Flowers. - Night Walk to Ashborne.

WE spent the night at Matlock, and the following morning proceeded on our excursion. When we left this romantic place, the woods that lie embosoned within the deep hollow of the Dale were vocal with the song of birds, every where warbling forth their matin orisons to the new-born day. The rush of the Derwent was accompanied with a prolonged and softened sound, that, mingled with the lively strains of these feathered choristers, gave a richer and mellower tone to their wild but harmonious chantings. We quitted Matlock with regret passed through the artificial opening that has been made in Scarthing Rock - left the greyhound-inn at Cromford, on our right and entered into a deep but narrow dale that leads to Bonsal and Via Gellia. A scene near the mill, at the entrance into Bonsal Dale, particularly attracted our attention : rocks, and hills, and wood, and water, are here most happily combined. I once heard the younger Reinagle observe," that he never met with a more picturesque compo sition in nature than is here presented.”

Following the route we had prescribed to ourselves, we left the road to Bonsal on our right, and passed along Via Gellia, on our way to Hopton. I entered on this classically denominated road without any pleasurable anticipations. The recollections of a former journey obtruded upon me, and I experienced a tediousness of feeling, that could only be ascribed to disappointed expectations on a former occasion. It was then the first week in September, but the weather was as hot as in July; not a cloud was seen in the heavens, and a mid-day sun poured a flood of light and heat into the dales>