106 SIR WILLIAM BASSETT'S LETTER TO LORD CROMWELL.

Lordship better at large than I can write, for he was with me at the doing of all this, and in all places, as knoweth good Jesus, whom ever have your Lordship in his precious keeping.

"Written at Langley with the rude and simple hand of your assured and faithful orator, and as one and ever at your commandment, next unto the King's, to the uttermost of his little power. “WILLIAM BASSETT, Knight.

"To Lord Cromwell."

ley.-Wormhill-Dale.-View from Diamond Hill.-Miller's

Dale. - Raven Tor. -Litton Mill-Dale.

Cressbrook-Mill.

Wm. Newton. Difficult Passage from Litton-Mill to Cressbrook. Scenery there.

AFTER spending a few days at Buxton, rambling about its vicinity, and sharing in the gaieties and the pleasures of the place, we left it early on a fine morning, and took the road to Fairfield. From Cheedale we had passed along the brink of the river Wye, on our way to Buxton; instead, therefore, of retracing our steps, we crossed the fields by a bye path in the direction of Great-Rocks, leaving the farm-house called Water Swallows at a short distance on our left. At this place a stream that flows through the adjacent meadows suddenly loses itself in a chasm in the earth; then pursuing its way along a subterranean passage for several miles, it again emerges into day at the base of a steep hill near Wormhill. It was our intention to regain the channel of the Wye at this particular place, for the purpose of passing along the margin of the river, from thence to Haddon and Rowsley. We therefore took the most direct path, through verdant meadows and lanes but little used, leaving the village of Tunstead about half a mile on our left. Here we paused for a short time to look at the birthplace of Brindley, the celebrated engineer who was employed by the Duke of Bridgewater in the improvement of that system of inland navigation now so widely extended through every part of the kingdom, and which the talents of this obscure and humble individual contributed so essentially to promote.

Few men have done more to benefit society than James Brindley: he was a man of an extraordinary and independent genius: he thought, comprehended, and decided for himself; and his invincible perseverance surmounted every obstacle interposed in his way. In the prosecution of his plans the mountains may be said to have sunk before him, and the hills

108

JAMES BRINDLEY.

WALKS TO WORMHILL.

and valleys were to him as plain places: he perforated the one, and he bridged the other, with apparent facility, while his contemporaries, who were astonished at the vastness of his daring, confidently predicted his failure, and anticipated his disgrace. The Duke of Bridgewater was fortunate in confiding to this self-taught engineer the execution of his designs, and Brindley found a patron in the Duke, whose wealth was commensurate with his public spirit, and who entrusted to this humble individual the entire management of those works, which, in their results, might have involved the whole of his immense estates.

It

In the execution of the various canal establishments in which Brindley was employed, it appears to have been his primary object to avoid all interference with natural rivers, and to maintain the same undeviating level to the greatest possible extent. On this principle his designs invariably move, in bold defiance of every obstruction which nature had thrown in his way. is a curious fact, and not unworthy of remark, that this man planned and executed the most complicated mechanism without the assistance of either drawing or model. When employed on any new undertaking, or when difficulties obtruded upon him, he would lie in bed for several successive days and nights, until he clearly comprehended the whole detail of his operations, and his mind had become familiarized to the most minute parts and the most complex movements. He then commenced his work with all the confidence of success, and he was but rarely disappointed in his calculations. The little village of Tunstead was the birth-place of Brindley: he was born in the year 1716, and died in 1772, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.

From this place a short walk brought us into a narrow dale, that became gradually wider, deeper, and more picturesque, as we proceeded through it in our way to Wormhill. The lower part of this dale opens to the river Wye. Where it terminates, two beautiful streams emerge from under a limestone rock, about twenty yards apart, and, meandering amongst the long tufts of grass, form a thousand little rivulets, that flow into the Wye near the foot of Chee Tor. The course of one of the principal branches of these streams is extremely precipitous, and the water is divided into many currents by rocky fragments, covered over with mosses and lichens, and the banks are adorned with every flower that haunts the brook or dips the leaf in water. The brilliant hues here displayed

were as harmoniously combined, and as various and as beautiful, as the tints of the rainbow; amongst these the water rushing and bounding along, and leaping from one huge stone to another, sparkled with light: altogether this little scene presented one of the most richly diversified specimens of splendid colouring that I ever beheld. Another season of the year might be less propitious; too much or too little water would injure, if not spoil, the picture.

Before we left this dell, we again clambered to the top of the rocky mound that bars up the entrance into Chee-dale, from which we had a view down the river, full of beauty and agreeably diversified. Chee-dale, and its magnificent Tor, combined with the romantic scenery with which it is adorned, so entirely abstract the attention of the traveller from other objects, that the dale of Wormhill is frequently passed unnoticed yet how abundant is it in materials, and how happily disposed are all the parts! The foliage that covers one side of the dale, under whose branches the river, rich with reflected hues, sweeps gracefully along, presents a picturesque contrast to the grey rock and heathy verdure, which are the distinguishing features of the other. In the off-scape, a rude wooden bridge spans the river; and where the sides of the dale approximate in distance, they are well wooded, and the direction of the Wye, which is now no longer seen, is distinctly marked by the different character and colour of the trees that decorate its banks. It was our intention to follow the course of the river through all its windings, and therefore leaving the sublime Chee Tor with regret, we passed, by a fisherman's path, through the contracted part of Wormhilldale. The right bank of the Wye, which is made up of rock and wood, rises almost perpendicularly from the water's edge to a considerable height. The left affords a difficult passage amongst trees and underwood, brambles, and colt's foot, which is continued to within a few hundred yards of the bridge in Miller's-dale. At this bridge we crossed the river, for the purpose of exploring a contracted dell which leads from Diamond-hill to the village of Blackwell.

While my companion was employed in sketching, from a jutting eminence at the base of Priestcliff, one of the finest scenes on the banks of the Wye, I amused myself in searching, amongst a stratum of loose toad-stone, near the road side, for Derbyshire diamonds. These crystals are here found in

abundance, and they sometimes glitter in the pathway of the traveller and attract his attention: they are often defective in form, and generally they are of a dirty colour, slightly tinged with yellow, red, and purple. The dell that had allured us from the margin of the river below, is full of studies for the artist; every where the rocks are finely broken, and their sides are adorned with coppice wood, elm, ash, and hazel. On our return into Miller's-dale we again stopped to look at the lovely scene with which my companion had just enriched his sketch-book. The river Wye rushing through the dell beneath the lofty hills that form its channel the luxuriant foliage with which they are covered -- the craggy knolls that crest their summits the glimpse of verdant pasturage between the shadowy outline of the distant mountains — all unite to form a landscape exquisitely beautiful in all its parts and combinations.

In Miller's-dale, the river, which had been pent up within a narrow chasm, appears to rejoice at its release, as it quietly spreads into a more ample stream and glides leisurely away. This is a delightful dale, and it abounds with scenes, that, as they are beheld, sooth and tranquillize the mind. The stream is never turbulent never still; and though in some places the huge branch of a gnarled oak or a weather-beaten elm shoots from a cleft or fissure in the rock above, in a manner that suggests a recollection of the pictures of Salvator, yet the light and elegant foliage with which it is accompanied, subdues every feature of wildness, and softens down the whole to beauty: the mills-the leapings that are thrown across the river-the cottages embosomed in trees, or overhung with rock - every object in the dale is fraught with beauty.

Passing the lower mill the rocks on the left assume a bolder feature, and progressively rise to a considerable altitude. Neither tree nor shrub flourishes at their base, and their sides and their summits are naked and unadorned, and yet, with the exception of Raven Tor, they are so broken into deep recesses and jutting crags, that they have more of a romantic than a wild or a savage character. The incumbent stratum of this range of rocks is calcareous, and it rests on a bed of toad-stone of a deep brown colour, which is intermixed with particles of spar, and has the appearance of volcanic lava. This intimation is only useful so far as it may direct the attention of the traveller to some of the best specimens of this