MATLOCK,

via Ambergate, and arrived of the former place late in the afternoon.

The village of Matlock is situated on the banks of the Derwent, in a

delightful little nook among the hills, which rise above it in steeps,

and in precipitous crags, and shut out the world so effectually that I

wonder how the railway ever found it out. Indeed, it does make its

approach to this region through a long tunnel. It was a beautiful, sunny

afternoon when we arrived, and my present impressions are, that I have

never seen anywhere else such exquisite scenery as that which surrounds

the village. The street itself, to be sure, is commonplace enough, and

hot, dusty, and disagreeable; but if you look above it, or on either

side, there are green hills descending abruptly down, and softened with

woods, amid which are seen villas, cottages, castles; and beyond the

river is a line of crags, perhaps three hundred feet high, clothed with

shrubbery in some parts from top to bottom, but in other places

presenting a sheer precipice of rock, over which tumbles, as it were, a

cascade of ivy and creeping plants. It is very beautiful, and, I might

almost say, very wild; but it has those characteristics of finish, and of

being redeemed from nature, and converted into a portion of the adornment

of a great garden, which I find in all English scenery. Not that I

complain of this; on the contrary, there is nothing that delights an

American more, in contrast with the roughness and ruggedness of his

native scenes,--to which, also, he might be glad to return after a while.

We put up at the old Bath Hotel,--an immense house, with passages of such

extent that at first it seemed almost a day's journey from parlor to

bedroom. The house stands on a declivity, and after ascending one pair

of stairs, we came, in travelling along the passageway, to a door that

opened upon a beautifully arranged garden, with arbors and grottos, and

the hillside rising steep above. During all the time of our stay at

Matlock there was brilliant sunshine, and, the grass and foliage being in

their freshest and most luxuriant phase, the place has left as bright a

picture as I have anywhere in my memory.

The morning after our arrival we took a walk, and, following the sound of

a church-bell, entered what appeared to be a park, and, passing along a

road at the base of a line of crags, soon came in sight of a beautiful

church. I rather imagine it to be the place of worship of the Arkwright

family, whose seat is in this vicinity,--the descendants of the famous

Arkwright who contributed so much towards turning England into a cotton

manufactory. We did not enter the church, but passed beyond it, and over

a bridge, and along a road that ascended among the hills and finally

brought us out by a circuit to the other end of Matlock village, after a

walk of three or four miles. In the afternoon we took a boat across the

Derwent,--a passage which half a dozen strokes of the oars accomplished,

--and reached a very pleasant seclusion called "The Lovers' Walk." A

ferriage of twopence pays for the transit across the river, and gives the

freedom of these grounds, which are threaded with paths that meander and

zigzag to the top of the precipitous ridge, amid trees and shrubbery, and

the occasional ease of rustic seats. It is a sweet walk for lovers, and

was so for us; although J-----, with his scramblings and disappearances,

and shouts from above, and headlong scamperings down the precipitous

paths, occasionally frightened his mother. After gaining the heights,

the path skirts along the precipice, allowing us to see down into the

village street, and, nearer, the Derwent winding through the valley so

close beneath us that we might have flung a stone into it. These crags

would be very rude and harsh if left to themselves, but they are quite

softened and made sweet and tender by the great deal of foliage that

clothes their sides, and creeps and clambers over them, only letting a

stern face of rock be seen here and there, and with a smile rather than a

frown.

The next day, Monday, we went to see the grand cavern. The entrance is

high up on the hillside, whither we were led by a guide, of whom there

are many, and they all pay tribute to the proprietor of the cavern.

There is a small shed by the side of the cavern mouth, where the guide

provided himself and us with tallow candles, and then led us into the

darksome and ugly pit, the entrance of which is not very imposing, for it

has a door of rough pine boards, and is kept under lock and key. This is

the disagreeable phase-one of the disagreeable phases--of man's conquest

over nature in England,--cavern mouths shut up with cellar doors,

cataracts under lock and key, precipitous crags compelled to figure in

ornamented gardens,--and all accessible at a fixed amount of shillings or

pence. It is not possible to draw a full free breath under such

circumstances. When you think of it, it makes the wildest scenery look

like the artificial rock-work which Englishmen are so fond of displaying

in the little bit of grass-plot under their suburban parlor windows.

However, the cavern was dreary enough and wild enough, though in a mean

sort of way; for it is but a long series of passages and crevices,

generally so narrow that you scrape your elbows, and so low that you hit

your head. It has nowhere a lofty height, though sometimes it broadens

out into ample space, but not into grandeur, the roof being always within

reach, and in most places smoky with the tallow candles that have been

held up to it. A very dirty, sordid, disagreeable burrow, more like a

cellar gone mad than anything else; but it served to show us how the

crust of the earth is moulded. This cavern was known to the Romans, and

used to be worked by them as a lead-mine. Derbyshire spar is now taken

from it; and in some of its crevices the gleam of the tallow candles is

faintly reflected from the crystallizations; but, on the whole, I felt

like a mole, as I went creeping along, and was glad when we came into the

sunshine again. I rather think my idea of a cavern is taken from the one

in the Forty Thieves, or in Gil Blas,--a vast, hollow womb, roofed and

curtained with obscurity. This reality is very mean.

Leaving the cavern, we went to the guide's cottage, situated high above

the village, where he showed us specimens of ornaments and toys

manufactured by himself from Derbyshire spar and other materials. There

was very pretty mosaic work, flowers of spar, and leaves of malachite,

and miniature copies of Cleopatra's Needle, and other Egyptian monuments,

and vases of graceful pattern, brooches, too, and many other things. The

most valuable spar is called Blue John, and is only to be found in one

spot, where, also, the supply is said to be growing scant. We bought a

number of articles, and then came homeward, still with our guide, who

showed us, on the way, the Romantic Rocks. These are some crags which

have been rent away and stand insulated from the hillside, affording a

pathway between it and then; while the places can yet be seen where the

sundered rocks would fit into the craggy hill if there were but a Titan

strong enough to adjust them again. It is a very picturesque spot, and

the price for seeing it is twopence; though in our case it was included

in the four shillings which we had paid for seeing the cavern. The

representative men of England are the showmen and the policemen; both

very good people in their way.

Returning to the hotel, J----- and his mother went through the village to

the river, near the railway, where J----- set himself to fishing, and

caught three minnows. I followed, after a while, to fetch them back, and

we called into one or two of the many shops in the village, which have

articles manufactured of the spar for sale. Some of these are nothing

short of magnificent. There was an inlaid table, valued at sixty

guineas, and a splendid ornament for any drawing-room; another, inlaid

with the squares of a chess-board. We heard of a table in the possession

of the Marquis of Westminster, the value of which is three hundred

guineas. It would be easy and pleasant to spend a great deal of money in

such things as we saw there; but all our purchases in Matlock did not

amount to more than twenty shillings, invested in brooches, shawl-pins,

little vases and toys, which will be valuable to us as memorials on the

other side of the water. After this, we visited a petrifying cave, of

which there are several hereabouts. The process of petrifaction requires

some months, or perhaps a year or two, varying with the size of the

article to be operated upon. The articles are placed in the cave, under

the drippings from the roof, and a hard deposit is formed upon them, and

sometimes, as in the case of a bird's-nest, causes a curious result,--

every straw and hair being immortalized and stiffened into stone. A

horse's head was in process of petrifaction; and J----- bought a broken

eggshell for a penny, though larger articles are expensive. The process

would appear to be entirely superficial,--a mere crust on the outside of

things,--but we saw some specimens of petrified oak, where the stony

substance seemed to be intimately incorporated with the wood, and to have

really changed it into stone. These specimens were immensely ponderous,

and capable of a high polish, which brought out beautiful streaks and

shades.

One might spend a very pleasant summer in Matlock, and I think there can

be no more beautiful place in the world; but we left it that afternoon,

and railed to Manchester, where we arrived between ten and eleven at

night. The next day I left S----- to go to the Art Exhibition, and took

J----- with me to Liverpool, where I had an engagement that admitted of

no delay. Thus ended our tour, in which we had seen but a little bit of

England, yet rich with variety and interest. What a wonderful land! It

is our forefathers' land; our land, for I will not give up such a

precious inheritance. We are now back again in flat and sandy Southport,

which, during the past week, has been thronged with Whitsuntide people,

who crowd the streets, and pass to and fro along the promenade, with a

universal and monotonous air of nothing to do, and very little enjoyment.

It is a pity that poor folks cannot employ their little hour of leisure

to better advantage, in a country where the soil is so veined with gold.

These are delightfully long days. Last night, at half past nine, I could

read with perfect ease in parts of the room remote from the window; and

at nearly half past eleven there was a broad sheet of daylight in the

west, gleaming brightly over the plashy sands. I question whether there

be any total night at this season.

June 21st.--Southport, I presume, is now in its most vivid aspect; there

being a multitude of visitors here, principally of the middling classes,

and a frequent crowd, whom I take to be working-people from Manchester

and other factory towns. It is the strangest place to come to for the

pleasures of the sea, of which we scarcely have a glimpse from month's

end to mouth's end, nor any fresh, exhilarating breath from it, but a

lazy, languid atmosphere, brooding over the waste of sands; or even if

there be a sulky and bitter wind blowing along the promenade, it still

brings no salt elixir. I never was more weary of a place in all my life,

and never felt such a disinterested pity as for the people who come here

for pleasure. Nevertheless, the town has its amusements; in the first

place, the daylong and perennial one of donkey-riding along the sands,

large parties of men and girls pottering along together; the Flying

Dutchman trundles hither and thither when there is breeze enough; an arch

cry-man sets up his targets on the beach; the bathing-houses stand by

scores and fifties along the shore, and likewise on the banks of the

Ribble, a mile seaward; the hotels have their billiard-rooms; there is a

theatre every evening; from morning till night comes a succession of

organ-grinders, playing interminably under your window; and a man with a

bassoon and a monkey, who takes your pennies and pulls off his cap in

acknowledgment; and wandering minstrels, with guitar and voice; and a

Highland bagpipe, squealing out a tangled skein of discord, together with

a Highland maid, who dances a hornpipe; and Punch and Judy,--in a word,

we have specimens of all manner of vagrancy that infests England. In

these long days, and long and pleasant ones, the promenade is at its

liveliest about nine o'clock, which is but just after sundown; and our

little R----- finds it difficult to go to sleep amid so much music as

comes to her ears from bassoon, bagpipe, organ, guitar, and now and then

a military band. One feature of the place is the sick and infirm people,

whom we see dragged along in bath-chairs, or dragging their own limbs

languidly; or sitting on benches; or meeting in the streets, and making

acquaintance on the strength of mutual maladies,--pale men leaning on

their ruddy wives; cripples, three or four together in a ring, and

planting their crutches in the centre. I don't remember whether I have

ever mentioned among the notabilities of Southport the Town Crier,--a

meek-looking old man, who sings out his messages in a most doleful tone,

as if he took his title in a literal sense, and were really going to cry,

or crying in the world's behalf; one other stroller, a foreigner with a

dog, shaggy round the head and shoulders, and closely shaven behind. The

poor little beast jumped through hoops, ran about on two legs of one

side, danced on its hind legs, or on its fore paws, with its hind ones

straight up in the air,--all the time keeping a watch on his master's

eye, and evidently mindful of many a beating.

June 25th.--The war-steamer Niagara came up the Mersey a few days since,

and day before yesterday Captain Hudson called at my office,--a somewhat

meagre, elderly gentleman, of simple and hearty manners and address,

having his purser, Mr. Eldredge, with him, who, I think, rather prides

himself upon having a Napoleonic profile. The captain is an old

acquaintance of Mrs. Blodgett, and has cone ashore principally with a

view to calling on her; so, after we had left our cards for the Mayor, I

showed these naval gentlemen the way to her house. Mrs. Blodgett and

Miss W------ were prodigiously glad to see him and they all three began

to talk of old times and old acquaintances; for when Mrs. Blodgett was a

rich lady at Gibraltar, she used to have the whole navy-list at her

table,--young midshipmen and lieutenants then perhaps, but old, gouty,

paralytic commodores now, if still even partly alive. It was arranged

that Mrs. Blodgett, with as many of the ladies of her family as she chose

to bring, should accompany me on my official visit to the ship the next

day; and yesterday we went accordingly, Mrs. Blodgett, Miss W------, and

six or seven American captains' wives, their husbands following in

another boat. I know too little of ships to describe one, or even to

feel any great interest in the details of this or of any other ship; but

the nautical people seemed to see much to admire. She lay in the Sloyne,

in the midst of a broad basin of the Mersey, with a pleasant landscape of

green England, now warm with summer sunshine, on either side, with

churches and villa residences, and suburban and rural beauty. The

officers of the ship are gentlemanly men, externally very well mannered,

although not polished and refined to any considerable extent. At least,

I have not found naval men so, in general; but still it is pleasant to

see Americans who are not stirred by such motives as usually interest our

countrymen,--no hope nor desire of growing rich, but planting their

claims to respectability on other grounds, and therefore acquiring a

certain nobleness, whether it be inherent in their nature or no. It

always seems to me they look down upon civilians with quiet and not

ill-natured scorn, which one has the choice of smiling or being provoked

at. It is not a true life which they lead, but shallow and aimless; and

unsatisfactory it must be to the better minds among them; nor do they

appear to profit by what would seem the advantages presented to them in

their world-wide, though not world-deep experience. They get to be very

clannish too.

After seeing the ship, we landed, all of us, ladies and captain, and went

to the gardens of the Rock Ferry Hotel, where J----- and I stayed behind

the rest.