TWILIGHT VIEW OF GLOSSOP DALE.

201

with water by this mountain stream. Glossop is therefore rapidly becoming a manufacturing district; its population is increasing, and a new road, which is now making through it from Sheffield to Manchester, will furnish a readier communication with the neighbouring places, and greatly facilitate its improvement.

We arrived at Glossop too late in the evening to explore its scenery; and as twilight withdrew, and night closed upon us, all but the dim and feeble outline of objects became obliterated darkness crept over the face of the mountains, and they lay in imposing masses around us.

We regretted that we had not an opportunity of seeing Glossop Dale by moonlight: the lofty eminences by which it is environed, the many swelling hills that lie below, the dark woods that cover them, and all the variety of objects that it contains, when presented to the eye in unintelligible masses, must at such a time, and under the effect of so bewitching a light, be strongly impressed with grandeur.

Our residence during our short stay in this part of Derbyshire was at Glossop Hall, a mansion belonging to the Duke of Norfolk, and occupied by M. Ellison, Esq. his grace's agent. The prospect from the front of the house is singularly beautiful. On the right hand and on the left a thicklyplanted screen of ash, oak, chesnut, elm, and sycamore, prevents the eye from wandering over a great variety of desultory parts, and confines it to the lovely scenery that lies between. A verdant declivity slopes from the house to a little grove of trees at the foot of the hill, where a busy rivulet is seen in occasional glimpses through the overhanging branches; beyond another grove occurs, which is connected with some plantations nearer the foreground; the distance is composed of magnificent eminences, clothed with wood and heath and intervening verdure. From the middle of the picture here beheld, a hill finely covered with wood rises out of the valley. When the whole of this eminence is included within the view, the outline it presents is too regularly round to be strictly beautiful; but from the front of Gossop Hall this regularity is agreeably broken by the intervention of some tall larches, that cut the line of the hill, and lift their feathered branches and spiral tops into the sky: these graceful trees are so situated and connected with the more massy foliage near, as to be objects of considerable beauty.

202

CHAPEL IN GLOSSOP HALL.

A plantation entirely composed of larches is not a pleasant object to contemplate: there is a tiresome monotony in the recurrence of the same lines and forms, a thousand and a thousand times repeated, where the wild playfulness of nature should alone prevail. A plantation is a wood of a humbler description. With such an object nothing absolutely formal or constrained should be associated; and though they. are generally made on too small a scale to admit of all the noble varieties of a wood, the trees of which they are composed should nevertheless be so diversified in form, station, and colour, as to produce a pleasing impression; but a contrary practice too much prevails: a straight line of Scotch firs, placed with geometrical precision, and so closely thrust together as to render all beyond impervious to the cheering light of the sun, generally forms the boundary of new plantations. Larches are sometimes introduced, and at a certain season of the year they have a cheerful effect; but the spiraltopped trees should always be liberally intermixed with others. The beach, the oak, and the Spanish chesnut, should not be omitted, and the boundary line should be varied and irregular. The light must be admitted to play freely between the trunks, and amongst the branches of the trees, that intelligible shadows, and not gloom, may prevail.

Glossop Hall is occupied by a Catholic family, and a chapel for religious worship is included within its walls. The neat and clean appearance of this chapel sufficiently denotes that it is not a neglected part of the mansion. With the exception of the altar, it is an unadorned apartment; there it is rich and imposing. A recess, formed by four Ionic columns, contains the altar, which is surmounted with a wellsculptured figure of our Saviour on the Cross: the space behind is occupied with a picture of the Crucifixion, of a large size, and admirably painted. I could not learn the artist's name, but I understood it had been presented to this retired dwelling by the Duke of Norfolk, from his collection at Arundel Castle.

Previously to our leaving Glossop we visited the village church, a plain and lowly structure, and as little ornamented in the interior as it is without. Here we observed the remains of some garlands hung up near the entrance into the chancel. They were the mementos of a custom of rather a singular nature, that lingers about this part of Derbyshire, after having been lost in nearly every other. It is denominated "Rush

bearing," and the ceremonies of this truly rural fête take place annually, on one of the days appropriated to the wake or village festival. A car or waggon is on this occasion decorated with rushes. A pyramid of rushes, ornamented with wreaths of flowers, and surmounted with a garland, occupies the centre of the car, which is usually bestrewed with the choicest flowers that the meadows of Glossop Dale can produce, and liberally furnished with flags and streamers. Thus prepared, it is drawn through the different parts of the village, preceded by groups of dancers and a band of music. All the ribbons in the place may be said to be in requisition on this festive day, and he who is the greatest favourite amongst the lasses is generally the gayest personage in the cavalcade. After parading the village, the car stops at the church gates, where it is dismantled of its honours. The rushes and flowers are then taken into the church, and strewed amongst the pews and along the floors, and the garlands are hung up near the entrance into the chancel, in remembrance of the day. The ceremony ended, the various parties who made up the procession retire, amidst music and dancing, to the village inn, where they spend the remainder of the day in joyous festivity.

In Glossop church there is a monument to the memory of Joseph Hague, Esq. a benevolent-hearted man, who resided at Park Hall, near Hayfield, and who left the interest of one thousand pounds annually for ever towards clothing forty poor men and women belonging to the township of Glossop, and not receiving parochial relief. The monument consists of a white marble tablet, surmounted with a bust of the deceased, which was executed by Bacon, and in his happiest style. We but little expected to find so good a specimen of sculpture in this remote part of Derbyshire. The bust alone is said to have cost four hundred guineas; but its price is no doubt greatly exaggerated, probably to increase its value in the estimation of the. vulgar, who judge of the excellence of works of art by what they cost, and not by what they are.

Mr. Hague was born of very humble parents at Chunal, a small village between Hayfield and Glossop, and he was turned upon the world at a very early period of life, to provide for his own subsistence. When quite When quite a boy he travelled about the country and sold small articles, which he carried with him in a basket; afterwards, as his stock increased, he purchased an ass, and finally he became a very respectable

merchant. He had several children, who died early in life; but, having acquired considerable wealth, he adopted a family of relations of the name of Doxon. These he educated; and, that he might witness the effects of his farther benevolence, he divided the chief part of his property amongst them while he was yet capable of enjoying life and all the luxuries that wealth can purchase, and retired to Park Hall, where he spent the remainder of his days in a frugal but happy retire

ment.

SECTION V.

The river Etherow. Broad Bottom Bridge.- Compstall Bridge.- View from Compstall House.- Cotton Printing. -Junction of the Etherow and the Goyt.- Marple Bridge. -Mellor Mill.-S. Oldknow, Esq.-Scenery of the Goyt.

We left Glossop the morning after our arrival there, intending to visit the banks of the Etherow, one of the boundary rivers of Derbyshire, which rises at the northern extremity of the county, and, after running to the vicinity of Motram in a western direction, gradually inclines towards the south, and separates Derbyshire from Cheshire. Hitherto this river has attracted but little attention from tourists, who have generally confined their observations to the Derwent, the Dove, and the Wye; it is, therefore, but little known.

About three miles from Glossop we passed the village of Charlsworth, which is situated on the side of a steep hill: the houses are built with a cold grey-coloured stone; and, as there is scarcely a single tree amongst them, the place has altogether a very cheerless appearance. Near this village we had the first view of the Etherow, which was seen, in occasional glimpses, winding through a deep valley, amongst overhanging

trees.

Lady Mary Wortley Montague has somewhere remarked, that the most beautiful scenery is always found along the channels of rivers; and, as far as the observation applies to the Peak of Derbyshire, it is peculiarly correct: nature indeed hides her most romantic scenes in deep recesses and sequestered dells, amongst rocks and woods, and streams of living water.

As we deviated from the road that leads to Marple Bridge, we had a rich diversity of landscape before us; and, at a short distance on our right, the choicest beauties of the Etherow appeared to be combined. Our path was narrow, steep, and rugged, and but ill adapted for travelling in a tilbury; we however moved cautiously, and came upon the margin of the river at Broad Bottom Bridge.