The river Mersey takes its sources--for it is formed by the union of
several smaller streams--in the ranges of high limestone hills east of
Liverpool, in North Derbyshire. These hills are an extension of the
Pennine range that makes the backbone of England, and in Derbyshire they
rise to a height of nearly two thousand feet, giving most picturesque
scenery. The broad top of the range at its highest part is called the
Kinderscout, or, more familiarly, "The Peak." The mountain-top is a vast
moor, abounding in deep holes and water-pools, uninhabited excepting by
the stray sportsman or tourist, and dangerous and difficult to cross.
Yet, once mounted to the top, there are good views of the wild scenery
of the Derbyshire hills, with the villages nestling in the glens, and of
the "Kinder Fall," where much of the water from the summit pours down a
cataract of some five hundred feet height, while not far away is the
"Mermaid's Pool," where, if you go at the midnight hour that ushers in
Easter Sunday, and look steadily into the water, you will see a mermaid.
The man who ventures upon that treacherous bogland by night certainly
deserves to see the best mermaid the Peak can produce. This limestone
region is a famous place. In the sheltered valley to the westward of the
Kinderscout is the village of Castleton, almost covered in by high hills
on all sides. It was here upon a bold cliff to the southward of the
village that "Peveril of the Peak" built his renowned castle at the time
of the Norman Conquest, of which only the ruins of the keep and part of
the outer walls remain. Almost inaccessible, it possessed the
extraordinary powers of defence that were necessary in those troublous
times, and here its founder gave a grand tournament, to which young
knights came from far and near, the successful knight of Lorraine being
rewarded by his daughter's hand. In the time of Edward III. this "Castle
of the Peak" reverted to the Crown, but now it is held by the Duke of
Devonshire. Under the hill on which the ruins stand is the "Cavern of
the Peak," with a fine entrance in a gloomy recess formed by a chasm in
the rocks. This entrance makes a Gothic arch over one thousand feet
wide, above which the rock towers nearly three hundred feet, and it is
chequered with colored stones. Within is a vast flat-roofed cavern, at
the farther side being a lake over which the visitors are ferried in a
boat. Other caverns are within, the entire cave extending nearly a half
mile, a little river traversing its full length. There are more and
similar caverns in the neighborhood.
[Illustration: PEVERIL CASTLE, CASTLETON.]