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ter, being incapable of inheriting the title, in consequence of being an alien.

The Eyres, as I have before observed, is one of the oldest families in Derbyshire, where they have continued to reside through the long lapse of more than seven hundred years, as appears from the following curious extract from an old pedigree, which is still preserved at Hassop: "The first of the Eyres came in with King William the Conqueror, and his name was Truelove; but, in the Battle of Hastings (14 Oct. 1066) this Truelove, seeing the King unhorsed, and his helmet beat so close to his face that he could not breathe, pulled off his helmet, and horsed him again. The King said, Thou shalt hereafter from Truelove be called Air or Eyre, because thou hast given me the air I breathe.' After the battle, the King called for him, and being found with his thigh cut off, he ordered him to be taken care of; and being recovered, he gave him lands in the county of Derby, in reward for his services; and the seat he lived at he called Hope, because he had hope in the greatest extremity; and the King gave the Leg and Thigh cut off in armour for his crest, and which is still the crest of all the Eyres in England."

In the year 1643, Hassop Hall had a military character; it was then garrisoned for the King by Colonel Eyre, who distinguished himself in an eminent manner at the siege of Newark. A good portrait of this gallant loyalist adorns one of the rooms at Hassop. The gardens around the house, though rather trim and formal, are kept in excellent condition, and the plantations are ornamented with a rich diversity of the noblest

trees.

"Here towers erect in sable spire

The pine-tree, scathed by lightning fire;
The drooping ash, and birch between,
Hang their fair tresses o'er the green;
And all beneath at random grow
Each coppice dwarf of varied show,
Or, round the stems profusely twined,
Fling summer odours on the wind."

Rokeby.

Hassop is one of the pleasantest little villages in the Peak of Derbyshire. A chain of hills that screen it from the north rises high above it, and the gentle slope on which it stands declines into some well-cultivated vales, and overlooks a variety of rich and beautiful prospect. The cottages are neat and clean; and an appearance of comfort pervades the whole place.

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A walk through Hassop is like a walk through a garden: libernums and laurels, roses and evergreens, adorn the wayside; and the air is perfumed with the fragrance of a thousand flowers.

From this village we proceeded along a pleasant road to Longstone or Longsdon, where, in the fourteenth century, a family of the name of Rowland possessed considerable property: their residence was the Old Hall, a place now occupied by Major Carleill. In the rolls of Parliament, volume the third, page 518., there is a copy of a petition, dated the 4th of Henry the Sixth, from Godfrey Rowland, who there calls himself" a simple Esquyer, praying for a hasty remedy against Sir Thomas Wendesley, John Dean, vicar of Hope, and others, who are stated to have come to the petitioner's house at Longsdon with force and arms-to have carried off goods and stock to the value of two hundred marks-to have taken the petitioner prisoner, and carried him to the Castle of the High Peak, where he was kept in custody six days without victuals or drink, after which they cut off his right hand, and then released him." It is difficult to conceive how such a cruel and intolerable outrage could have been committed on a private gentleman, at a time when something like law and justice prevailed in the country.

Longstone is a small but pleasant village: the cottages are mostly elevated above the carriage-road, and the lofty trees that grow near them and around the hall give the whole place a very rural appearance. At Little Longstone, about a quarter of a mile farther, we found some charming subjects for the pencil; a spreading elm, which stands by the road-side, amongst trees of a lighter and more elegant foliage, that screen but do not hide some cottages near, is of itself a noble object, and the picturesque materials that surround it form a very pleasing composition.

SECTION VIII.

Money-Ash.-Marble Quarries.-Source of the Lathkil. — Scene near Conksbury Bridge. Youlgrave.- Arber- Low. Bradford River. -Alport.-Tufa Rocks.

THE Marble Quarries near Money-Ash were the next objects of our excursion: we therefore retraced a part of our steps, and leaving Longstone, took the route of a newly-made road, which led us, by a very gentle descent, to Ashford; from whence we clambered over some high hills, and were repaid for the toil of ascending them by the beautiful variety of landscape we beheld from their summits.

MONEY-ASH, though but a small place of about sixty houses, was raised to the dignity of a market-town in the year 1340 a grant for an annual fair for three days was likewise bestowed upon it at the same time; but both fair and market have been long discontinued. Money-Ash is not however entirely deprived of its former consequence; it still remains the seat of the mineral court for the High Peak district in every other respect it is an insignificant village.

From Money-Ash, a ramble of about a mile brought us into the dell, where the principal part of the grey marble of Derbyshire is procured. Here we found a scene far more rude and savage than we had anticipated. We were aware that the rocks had been blasted and rent to pieces with gunpowder, and their natural features defaced; but we nevertheless supposed we should find some little spot yet unprofaned by avarice, where rock and foliage intermixed compose a beauteous picture:-we were mistaken;-neither tree nor shrub find a home in Ricklow Dale: naked crags fence it in on every side, and huge fragments torn from the cliffs above lie in disordered masses along the ground, where scarce a blade of verdure intervenes to soften the general wildness of the scene; yet even in this strange place some half-starved sheep were scrambling amongst the rocks, and endeavouring to

THE LATHKIL RIVER.

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pick out a scanty subsistence from the narrow spaces between. The marble quarries are at the upper extremity of Ricklow Dale; they appear only to be worked occasionally, and when we saw them they were utterly deserted. Blocks of marble of different dimensions had been detached from the rocks, and lay in heaps at their base, ready to be carted to the mills at Ashford and Bakewell, where they are cut into form and polished for use.

In a continuation of this dale, about a mile and a half nearer Over Haddon, is the source of the LATHKIL, one of the most brilliant streams amongst the dells of Derbyshire. The cradle of this rivulet is pleasingly romantic: from a cavern in a mass of broken rock, whose sides and summit are adorned with branches of trees, the Lathkil issues into day; and running down a gentle declivity amongst huge stones, by which it is divided into separate currents, it is sometimes an object of considerable beauty.

We followed the margin of this little river for several miles, and were every where delighted with its clearness, play, and spirit. About half a mile below the village of Over Haddon, where the old Ashbourne road crosses the dale, some very beautiful scenery occurs both above and below the bridge. The rocks on the two sides of the stream, though not lofty, are broken into pleasing forms, and fringed with trees; but the Lathkil is every where the finest feature in the scene: where it glides smoothly along it is so perfectly translucid, that every object over which it flows is not only distinctly seen, but seen in fresher colours: the flowers and herbage on its banks are but faded resemblances of those over which it runs.

It was a clear sunny day, and, anxious to enjoy the beauty of the scene, we seated ourselves on a rocky knoll covered with mountain thyme, that filled the air with fragrance. Here we passed an hour of real happiness, and every thing that had life seemed equally happy around us. The trout, with which the Lathkil abounds, lay quietly in the river at our feet, and the bright blue dragon-fly and the kingfisher displayed their gaudy plumage to the sun as they flitted along the stream. Near the bridge we observed a number of flies rest awhile upon the water, and then take wing, yet none appeared to settle there: approaching nearer, a part of the stream, where it was stillest, was almost covered with them; and their thin transparent wings trembled with many an unavailing

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effort before they bore them aloft in the air. This little insect was just changing its form and mode of being, and we watched the transition from one state of existence to another with considerable interest. Innumerable rushy tubes rose in succession from the bottom to the surface of the water; from these the fly, with a very feeble struggle, soon emerged, and then rested motionless for a moment on that element where it had been nurtured into life; after which it tried its feeble wing — then with an elastic impetus sprung upwards, and flew along the meadows in search of new enjoyments.

As we ascended the hill by Conksbury, on our way to Youlgrave, we had several pleasing views of that village, in which the tower of the church, environed with trees, was always a principal object. YOULGRAVE is situated on the side of a hill, which declines gently into an open little vale, that is watered by a brilliant stream, called the Bradford. The church is a handsome building, with a finely-proportioned tower, surmounted with eight ornamented pinnacles; and it stands in the midst of a spacious burialground, nearly surrounded with a plantation of lime-trees.

The church contains several monuments of rather a costly description, one of which is dedicated to the memory of Sir John Rossington, who was a crusader; and another of a more recent date to John Eley, Esq. of Alport, major-commandant of the artillery in the East India Company's service. The parish register contains some curious entries, amongst which there is a memoriall of the great snow," which began in January 1615, and continued, with very little intermission, to the 12th of March. The entry states, that “it covered the earth five quarters deepe upon the playne;" that "it was the fear and admiration of all the land, for it came from the four parts of the world, so that all countrys were full, yea, the south parts as well as the mountaynes." We were also informed by the parish clerk, that the register contains the entries of the births of twenty-two children of Mrs. Thornhill, the grandmother of the present proprietor of Stanton; the whole of whom were baptized at Youlgrave church.

From Youlgrave, a rough and ill-made carriage road conducted us to Middleton, a small village, which, by way of distinction, is called Middleton by Youlgrave. Near this place we found the celebrated Druidical monument of ArberLow, one of the most striking remains of antiquity in any part of Derbyshire. This circle includes an area of from

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