Richard Warner

“ But to see this magic spot to the greatest advantage, (which runs nearly north and south for two miles) the entreé into it should be made from the Chesterfield road, at the northern extremity, where its beauties would succeed each other in proper gradation; increasing, as we follow the valley, in grandeur and effect. Making our approach this way, we should first be surprised with a vast abrupt wall of limestone rock, lifting itself before us, whose awful head is shaded by yew-trees, elms, and limes, from the recesses of which the humble church of Matlock shews its turrets. ”

“ I should only, indeed, be ringing tiresome changes upon waving woods, fine expanses of water, grand slopes, swelling hills, temples, towers, pyramids, and obelisks; without conveying to your mind one adequate idea of the happy combinations of those different objects, which afford such pleasure to the eye, whilst contemplating them in nature. Let it be sufficient for me, then, to lead you to the chief artificial decoration of Wentworth park, the Mausoleum, (of fine free-stone) built by the present Earl Fitzwilliam, in honour of his glorious predecessor, the late Marquis of Rockingham. ”

“ The imposition of a double toll at the turnpike-gate on entering Worcester from Tewksbury is recompensed in the improvement lately made in the city at this quarter, by which the traveller escapes the dangers of a narrow street and a sharp turning, and is led into the heart of Worcester through the Close, under the walls of its venerable cathedral.
We could not but allow that Worcester well deserved the praise of elegance which has been bestowed upon it; for no city has a greater appearance of comfort and neatness, owing to its uncommonly-large proportion of good private houses. ”

“ Pursuing the winding walk from the bath, we catch the head of the upper canal, a grotto shrouded with shrubs, within whose dark recess we see a cataract, the effect of which would be very good, were not the figure too formal, and the other contemptible fall of water visible. A vista now occurs, discovering the canal lengthwise, the other pools cut into a variety of mathematical forms; and three antique statues—a jumble of puerilities that we are hardly recompensed for by the lofty wood that hems in the whole scene, with its elegant Gothic tower. ”

“ Through the middle of this valley flowed the Derwent, partially discovered amid the trees which adorn its banks; before us, on the eastern side of the river, stood the elegant stone mansion of Sir Richard Arkwright, backed by the rising grounds of his park; to the right lay a broad vale, with the picturesque concomitants of a village, a church, and a stone bridge bestriding the Derwent. Whilst the huge mural banks of Matlock vale stretched themselves to the left, the white face of the rocks which compose them occasionally shewing itself through the wooded clothing of their sides and head ”

“ Our curiosity led us to Poole's-Hole, one mile from Buxton, a vast cavern formed by nature in the lime-stone rock to the eastward of the town, at the foot of the lime-pits above-mentioned. It belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, and is kindly granted by him to nine old women, resembling the Muses indeed in number, but hardly approaching to the appearance of the female race in any thing else; dried with age, and as rugged as the rocks amongst which they dwell. ”

“ On our return, the eye, having had time to accommodate itself to the darkness around, embraced several objects; the roof, sides, and crags in many places, which had before escaped it. Our entertainment also was varied by a blast, as it is termed—the discharge of a small quantity of gunpowder thrust into the rock, occasioning an explosion only to be compared to that sound which the imagination would conceive might be produced, if universal nature were at once to tumble into ruins. ”

“ The promise of a picturesque ruin led us to Kirkstall-Abbey, about three miles from Leeds— a little deviation from our road, which amply repaid our trouble. Ascending to the summit of Kirkstall hill, the rich vale in which these remains are situated, watered by the winding river Aire, darkened by deep and lofty woods, and grandly backed by distant hills, opened to us at once a scene of uncommon beauty. ”

“ But we had seen only the tamest feature of Dove-Dale; as we proceeded, the scenery gradually increased in majesty and rudeness. Now the rocks to the right hand forced themselves into the clouds, their scathed and uncovered heads beetling over the narrow path that wound through the dark recesses of the dale; on the opposite side, grand isolated masses, ornamented with ivy network, shot out occasionally from the shrubby declivity; whilst in front the precipices, approaching each other, appeared to preclude all further progress. ”

“ To these we descended by a path from the church-yard, and here entered upon the celebrated walks opened and kept in repair by the dean and chapter, which accompany the bending of the stream, and command several singular and interesting peeps at the city and its august ornaments, the castle and cathedral. The banks, rocky and abrupt, on one hand, and sloping gently to the river on the other, darkened by a solemn depth of shade, sequestered and retired, in the immediate neighbourhood of a busy scene of society, afford a retreat of the most beautiful and agreeable nature imaginable. ”

“ Descending to the banqueting-house, we find ourselves in an elegant stone building with emblematical sculptures on its face, and a pretty carpet of lawn before us. From hence the object has been to unite all the artificial ornaments of the place into one view; the Gothic tower, the pantheon, the temple, and the seat; which, crouding upon the eye all together, satiate and disgust, instead of affording pleasure. ”

“ Here the entertainment is concluded; the walk pursuing its darkling course through a shady wood for a quarter of a mile, reaches the little wicket which admitted us into this enchanted region; a place of which it may be said, that Art has gone hand in hand with Nature, to unfold her beauties and heighten her attractions. ”

“ From this point we first caught a view of the city of Glocester, or rather of its rich ecclesiastical architecture, the summits of which shoot out from the surrounding wood, and present a beautiful and magnificent groupe of towers and spires; whilst the rising hills to the right (amongst which that of Robin-Hood is most conspicuous) cultivated to their tops, present a scene of uncommon splendour and variety. Under the shelter of these elevations Glocester is situated in the long extended vale called by its name, and washed by the majestic Severn, who rolls his waters to the left of the city. ”

“ We did not enter Lichfield, nine miles from Walsall, without impressions of great respect for a city that gave birth to one of the first characters which this kingdom can boast. We regarded with reverence the house where Dr. Johnson had first drawn his breath, and the great willow-tree planted by the hand of a man who united every moral excellence with every intellectual endowment; the rarest gifts of the mind with the noblest virtues of the heart ”

“ It is of white marble, and approaches to life not only in size but in strength of expression: the accuracy of the anatomy, the grandness of the heads, and the force of the limbs, are not to be excelled.
Ascending to the hall, we found ourselves in a room superlatively fine, from the grandeur of its dimensions, the justness of its proportions, the taste of its decorations, and the beauty of its contents. The architect has chosen the square figure, sixty feet everyway, relieved by an height of thirty-eight feet; and a gallery, which runs round the whole, and projects ten feet. ”

“ A deep and narrow valley lay now before us, into whose recesses our eye was prevented from penetrating, by the winding course it pursues, and the shutting in of its precipices, which fold into each other, and preclude all distant view. Through this magic feature of country the river Dove leads his stream, murmuring innocently and agreeably over his stony bed in the halcyon days of summer, but swelling into rage during the winter months ”

“ Here a singular combination is produced human habitations and manufacturing machines (the appendages of some twine-makers, who have fixed their residence within this cavern) blending with the sublime features of the natural scenery. After penetrating about thirty yards into the rock, the roof becomes lower, and a turning to the right obliged us to follow a descent for the distance of one hundred and twenty feet more, to a spot where the light of day disappears, and candles were put into our hands to illuminate our farther progress through the Stygian darkness of the cavern. ”

“ I do not, however, think the singular beauties of the place are caught in such good order, or to so much advantage, as on the western bank of the river; since those magnificent features the eastern rock, its precipices, and underwood, are in a great measure lost to the eye.
Many visitors are of course attracted to the recesses of Matlock, by the extraordinary grandeur of its scenery; and many also come to its baths and medicinal springs in search of health. ”

“ Directing itself to the left', the eye catches another wooded hill, whose sides suddenly forming themselves into precipices present a long line of perpendicular rock; and at length uniting with the valley, are washed by the river Oure, who forces his impetuous course through it in a broad and winding stream, confined on both sides to his rocky bed by abrupt banks, clothed with venerable woods. ”

“ An agreeable ride of three miles carried us from this place to his lordship's house, built of brick the beginning of the last century, situated on the eastern bank of the river Aire, in a fertile flat, surrounded by most agreeable pastoral and sylvan scenery. All without the house, the walks, and shrubberies, and avenues, are of a piece and congruous; and shew the correctness of that taste which is again discovered on a less scale, but in an equal degree, within the house, in die nature and arrangement of its ornaments. ”

“ As our object was to see every thing that Art or Nature presented worth observation within the limits of our tour, we were led to visit Harewood-House, nine miles from Leeds, the seat of Edward Lord Harewood, a magnificent stone mansion, built by the late lord, in 1760; judiciously situated on the slope of a hill, which gives it a view over a park rather pleasing than grand. But nothing within interests the mind; no productions of the arts, unless indeed the labours of the gilder and upholsterer may be considered as deserving that character. ”

“ They are now ready to be introduced into the world, and are sent forth, to gratify vanity, decorate splendour, or accommodate luxury; to ornament the tea-table of high-life, the dressing-room of fashion, and the boards of the great; for the Worcester manufactory soars above the humbler articles in use amongst the happier tribes of common life. It would surprize a modern fine lady, were I to tell her, that the cup from which she sips her tea had been through the hands of at least twenty-three dirty workmen, before it met her lips ”

“ But this character alters as we approach Durham, six miles from which, on the summit of Fairy-hill, a fine view of that city and a vast tract, of circumjacent country, bounded on each side by hills, are at once unfolded. But the detail of the scenery in the neighbourhood of Durham is not made out till we get near its walls, when the singularity and beauty of it at once surprise and delight. A lofty circular hill, rising abruptly from the river Wear, which leads his waters round its rocky banks, has been chosen for the proud and secure situation of the castle and cathedral. ”

“ The greatest object of curiosity in Sunderland is its iron bridge thrown across the river Wear, forming an arch so lofty as to allow large ships to pass under it with only their top-gallant masts lowered. ”

“ Here, amongst many other monuments, is that of the venerable Bede, (who died in 734) the most learned man in Europe of his time, a meteor in an age of darkness; a plain flat stone, without any inscription. Proceeding up the great nave, venerable from the awful vista of "long-drawn ailes and fretted vaults," we leave on the south side the monument of Ralph Lord Neville, the gallant and the rich, who took David Bruce prisoner; and whose influence, when alive, procured him honours after death which laymen had not hitherto attained to sepulture within the walls of the cathedral of Durham. ”

“ The house, handsome and substantial, of modern architecture, is placed with judgment on a spot at once sheltered and commanding, taking in from one of its fronts a beautiful home-Scene (in which the factitious piece of water and its banks make elegant ornaments) and a diversified distant prospect. It rose, phoenix-like, from the ruins of a more ancient edifice, begun probably by its original lords, the Norman family of St. Lo, or De Sancto Laudo, who in the latter end of Henry Illd.'s reign numbered this manor on the list of their possessions. ”

“ Upon this occasion a great number of the Cyclopes attend with shovels, to stop the passage of the iron where it comes too fast, as well as to prevent any great quantity of dross from making its way into the mould. The splendid streams of melted fluid, with the burning light they throw on the number of workmen assembled round the spot, contrasted with the darkness of the place, and the occasional cries of the workmen when they pass the signals to stop or open the distant furnaces, together with the roaring of the metal as it falls into the mould, form altogether a terrific scene ”

“ In after times Keynsham became again, for some centuries, the theatre of lying miracles and gross superstition; William Earl of Gloucester founding an abbey of Black Canons in the year 1170, which, being enriched by several earls of that family, disgorged its wealth into the coffers of Henry VIII, in the year 1539. No vestige of it remains at present, but the fine broad flat meadow in which it stood, washed by the waters of the Avon, evinces that it enjoyed a pleasing and judicious situation. ”

“ We tread not upon one another."
Another cross road, difficult to find, but sufficiently good, led us to Lumley-Castle, three miles and a half from Cocken; a noble mansion belonging to the Earl of Scarborough, seen before it is approached, proudly lifting its battlements above the woods around it. The road, dipping into this shade, follows the brow of a deep ravine, through whose bottom is heard the roaring of the river Wear; the waters of which are hidden from the sight by intervening trees. ”