186

APPROACH TO PEAK'S HOLE.

rarely been directed by able hands. Where failure is common, and where, with very few exceptions, it has been almost uniformly the same, a want of success can hardly be attended with disgrace.

Peak's Hole is situated at the extremity of a deep and narrow rocky chasm, whose craggy projections hide it from the traveller until he is near enough to measure with his eye the whole of its dimensions, and feel the full force of its effect on his imagination: it then suddenly bursts upon him in all the wildness of its character, obscurely grand and terrific. Such a heavy mass of unsupported rock,

By its own weight made stedfast and immoveable,"

when first beheld produces an involuntary shuddering; from this the mind soon recovers, and forgetting the selfish apprehension of danger, reposes with an awful sublimity of feeling amidst the vastness of this stupendous cavern. The light at the entrance is generally favourable, and it sometimes falls sharply on the rocky projections in the foreground of the picture, then suddenly fades away, and gradually loses itself in impenetrable gloom and utter darkness.

The dubious twilight that pervades the interior of the first cavern of Peak's Hole, especially when viewed from without, eminently serves the purposes of grandeur: dark, confused, and uncertain objects float before the mind, which, not limited in its operations by any obvious or defined boundary, gives extent to space, and contemplates with profound complacency the indistinct and mysterious images of its own creation. This train of thought and tone of feeling are sometimes interrupted by a human being passing in distance athwart the gloom; his haggard figure, as he stalks along, wrapped in an uncouth garb, and his umbered face, brightly illumined with the torch he bears. This is not the portraiture of imagination -it is what almost every day presents, and it is an appendage admirably in character with the scene. The banditti figures with which Salvator peopled his landscapes could alone make the picture more terrible.

Other occurrences, still more adventitious, occasionally conspire to improve the effects of this stupendous cavern, and exalt the imagination of the beholder, amidst the loneliness and horrors of a place never visited by the cheering rays of the sun. Here" there is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen." During my last ex

PARTY IN THE CAVERN.

187

cursion to Castleton I observed a party of twelve or fifteen persons entering Peak's Hole, and being anxious to mark the appearance which the cavern presented when irradiated with their torches, I accompanied them to a situation favourable for my purpose. They had prepared themselves with proper habiliments for the occasion-loose gowns were thrown over their travelling dresses, and the ladies had covered their heads with a species of shawl, that came over the shoulders, and was fastened across the bosom. Monks with cowls, and nuns with hoods, seemed to make up the whole party. They followed their guide along a rude path in a winding direction, each carrying a lighted torch. Portions of the roof of the cavern were thus successively exhibited in flitting gleams and shadows; and as they moved onwards, the spars and stalactites that hung over their heads glittered with evanescent splendour. As they receded slowly through surrounding darkness, each individual in the procession appeared invested with a mild halo of light, for the distance and the intervening gloom subdued and softened the glare of the torches, and the whole was solemn and impressive beyond conception. The strange

emotions of delight awakened by this novel scene were favoured by the breathless silence that prevailed, which was only occasionally interrupted by a drop of water falling at intervals from the roof of the cave upon the floor beneath, with a dead and leaden sound, that was more felt than heard.

Within the far extended ribs and layers of rock which form the roof and sides of Peak's Hole are several huts or dwellings, humble, indeed, but yet inhabited, and men, women, and children, rudely clad, and employed in the manufacture of twine, give life and animation to this singular scene. When a few only of the many individuals engaged in this business are at work, there is something picturesque in their appearance; but peopled as the place generally is, its solemnity is interrupted by noise and clamour, and an effect is produced not altogether in unison with its natural character. Those who wish to feel how very impressive Peak's Hole can occasionally be, should contrive to visit it alone, when the spinners are absent, and silence and solitude prevail.

At the extremity of the spacious cavern that may be regarded as the vestibule of Peak's Hole, it suddenly contracts, and becomes, in many places, only a narrow aperture, which is continued, through various windings, to the extent of two thousand two hundred and fifty feet. In traversing this damp

188

INTERIOR CAVERNS.

and dreary wilderness, several capacious openings or interior caverns occur, which are known by the different appellations of the Bell House Roger Rain's House the Chancel the Devil's Cellar the Half-Way House and Great Tom of Lincoln, &c. &c. and a current of water is occasionally forded in exploring this subterranean passage. This stream buries itself in the earth at a place called Perry Foot, nearly three miles from Castleton, on the road to Chapel-en-le-frith, and, after running through Peak's Hole, re-issues into day at the entrance into this sublime orifice. Formerly an assumed ignorance threw an air of mystery over the origin of this little rivulet: no one could conjecture from whence it came: its source is now, however, no longer doubtful.

An intelligent foreigner, in his Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain, observes, "that he was struck on approaching Peak's Hole with its strong resemblance to the rock of the Fontaine de Vaucluse."

Cave Dale.

SECTION III.

View from the Hills above. - Juvenile Beggars

at Castleton. Fluor Mines. Odin Mine.

Winnats.

Mam Tor.

Speedwell Mine. - Faujas St. Fond.

Mawe and Whitehurst.

PEAK'S HOLE is commonly the first object of those who visit Castleton, and they generally proceed immediately from one subterranean excursion to another. We, however, preferred traversing for a while the surface of terra firma, before we again "left the warm precincts of the cheerful day” to explore the gloomy recesses of Speedwell Mine; passing, therefore, through a part of the village between the church and Castle Hill, we entered a narrow dell, called the Cave, into which we were admitted through a rocky portal, about six feet wide. This deep ravine is closely hemmed in with rock on every side; and, with one solitary exception, neither shrub nor tree is to be seen within it. Rude weather-beaten crags, with occasionally a stripe of thin mossy verdure inserted between, constitute the two sides of this dell, which, in some places, is from eighty to one hundred paces wide, and in others not more than twenty or thirty. About two-thirds up the dell, the view towards Castleton has a wildness about it that no other landscape in the same neighbourhood possesses. The castle, seated on the extreme verge of a narrow ridge of rock, looks fearfully tremendous, borrowing importance from the, situation it occupies amongst the rocks and precipices that are thrown around it. Near the village, where the two sides of the dell approximate, a pleasing view is admitted of distant hills, whose shadowy summits and cultivated slopes give a character of loveliness to the remote parts of the scene. At the upper extremity of Cave Dale a contracted pass, similar in dimensions and appearance to the one by which we had entered, dismissed us into a more open valley. The path, though still slippery

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190

VIEW FROM THE HILLS ABOVE CAVE Dale.

and rugged, became less precipitous as we proceeded, and we followed its windings until we attained the top of an extensive eminence, where we joined the road that leads from Castleton to Tideswell. Here we were amply rewarded for the toil we had sustained, by one of the most delightful landscapes in any part of the Peak. We stood on an immense sweep of hill extending on our right beyond High-low to the river Derwent, where it meets that part of the East Moor called Millstone Edge, in the vicinity of Hathersage; from whence another chain of mountains, of greater altitude, is continued in a westerly direction by Win-Hill, Lose-Hill, and Mam Tor; thence, turning to the south and south-east by the Winnats and Long-Cliff, the circuit terminates at the place where we stood, forming, altogether, a continued range of eighteen or twenty miles of lofty hills, within whose capacious circle lie the dales of Hathersage, Brough, Hope, and Castleton, rich in beauteous meadows, and adorned with woods and cottages and winding streams.

Following the road to Castleton, we re-entered the village nearly at the same place where we had left it: here again we were assailed by boys and girls, begging with unceasing clamour for halfpence, or whatever their importunity can obtain. This is one of the intolerable evils of Castleton; every visitor condemns the practice, which he contributes to perpetuate, by rewarding the perseverance of the half-clad rogues by whom he is pestered. Here the child, as soon as he can articulate, is taught to beg; educated in the practice, all his actions and feelings are mendicant, and he begs mechanically through life, without a sensation of either shame or meanness. Nothing but a determination not to give can ever cure this degrading propensity.

We now took a short excursion along the new road to Mam Tor, intending to return down the Winnats to Speedwell Mine. This was a loitering ramble, as we were frequently detained by the road side, hunting for crystallized fluors and marine impressions. Here we found many specimens of shells, beautifully and distinctly marked. The limestone strata are full of them; and they are so perfectly and accurately formed, that one cannot but conclude that they once existed in another state. The correctness of Dr. Leigh's theory, "that these representations of creatures and their parts, and also the other modifications of matter which are found in Poole's Hole and the mines of this country, are purely the wanton sportings or