[Illustration: THE CRESCENT, BUXTON.]
These two noted rivers take their rise in the Derbyshire hills, and,
coming together at Rowsley near the pretty Peacock Inn, flow down to the
sea through the valleys of the Wye, the Trent, and the Humber. Rising in
the limestone hills to the north of Buxton, the Wye flows past that
celebrated bath, where the Romans first set the example of seeking its
healing waters, both hot and cold springs gushing from the rocks in
close proximity. It stands nine hundred feet above the sea, its nucleus,
"The Crescent," having been built by the Duke of Devonshire; and the
miraculous cures wrought by St. Mary's Well are noted by Charles Cotton
among the _Wonders of the Peak_. From Buxton the Wye follows a romantic
glen to Bakewell, the winding valley being availed of, by frequent
tunnels, viaducts, and embankments, as a route for the Midland Railway.
In this romantic glen is the remarkable limestone crag known as Chee
Tor, where the curving valley contracts into a narrow gorge. The gray
limestone cliffs are in many places overgrown with ivy, while trees find
rooting-places in their fissures. Tributary brooks fall into the Wye,
all flowing through miniature dales that disclose successive beauties,
and then at a point where the limestone hills recede from the river,
expanding the valley, Bakewell is reached. Here are also mineral
springs, but the most important place in the town is the parish church,
parts of which are seven hundred years old. It is a picturesque
building, cruciform, with a spire, and is rich in sepulchral remains,
containing the ancestors of the Duke of Rutland--who owns the town--in
the tombs of a long line of Vernons and Manners. In the churchyard are
several curious epitaphs, among them that of John Dale and his two
wives, the inscription concluding,
"A period's come to all their toylsome lives;
The good man's quiet--still are both his wives."
In this churchyard is also the well-known epitaph often quoted:
"Beneath a sleeping infant lies, to earth whose body lent,
More glorious shall hereafter rise, tho' not more innocent.
When the archangels trump shall blow, and souls to bodies join,
Millions will wish their lives below had been as short as thine."
[Illustration: BAKEWELL CHURCH.]