1774.] Dovedale. JULY 16. 491 At Dovedale, with Mr. Langley' and Mr. Flint. It is a place that deserves a visit; but did not answer my expectation. The river is small, the rocks are grand. Reynard's Hall is a cave very high in the rock; it goes backward several yards, perhaps eight. To the left is a small opening, through which I crept, and found another cavern, perhaps four yards square; at the back was a breach yet smaller, which I could not easily have entered, and, wanting light, did not inspect. I was in a cave yet higher, called Reynard's Kitchen. There is a rock called the Church, in which I saw no resemblance that could justify the name. Dovedale is about two miles long. We walked towards the head of the Dove, which is said to rise about five miles above two caves called the Dog-holes, at the end of Dovedale. In one place, where the rocks approached, I proposed to build an arch from rock to rock over the stream, with a summer-house upon it. The water murmured pleasantly among the stones. I thought that the heat and exercise mended my hearing. I bore the fatigue of the walk, which was very laborious, without inconvenience. There were with us Gilpin' and Parker. Having heard of this place before, I had formed some imperfect idea, to which it did not answer. Brown' says he was disappointed. I zer, en Latin Micyllus. Ce surnom lui fut donné le jour où il remplissait avec le plus grand succès le rôle de Micyllus dans Le Songe de Lucien qui, arrangé en drame, fut représenté au collège de Francfort. Né en 1503, mort en 1558.' Nouv. Biog. Gén. xXXV. 922. 'See ante, ii. 370, note 3, and iii. 156. Mr. Gilpin was an undergraduate at Oxford. DUPPA. ร John Parker, of Brownsholme, in Lancashire [Browsholme, in Yorkshire], Esq. DUPPA. Mrs. Piozzi' rather thought' that this was Capability Brown [ante, iii. 455]. CROker. certainly 492 Kedleston. [1774. certainly expected a larger river where I found only a clear quick brook. I believe I had imagined a valley enclosed by rocks, and terminated by a broad expanse of water. He that has seen Dovedale has no need to visit the Highlands. In the afternoon we visited old Mrs. Dale. JULY 17. Sunday morning, at church. Afternoon, at Mr. Diot's. JULY 18. Dined at Mr. Gell's'. JULY 19. We went to Kedleston' to see Lord Scarsdale's new house, which is very costly, but ill contrived. The hall is very stately, lighted by three skylights; it has two rows of marble pillars, dug, as I hear from Langley, in a quarry of Northamptonshire; the pillars are very large and massy, and take up too much room; they were better away. Behind the hall is a circular saloon, useless, and therefore ill contrived. The corridors that join the wings to the body are mere passages through segments of circles. The state bed-chamber was very richly furnished. The dining parlour was more splendid with gilt plate than any that I have seen. There were many pictures. The grandeur was all below. The bed-chambers were small, low, dark, and fitter for a prison than a house of splendour. The kitchen has an opening into the gallery, by which its heat and its fumes are dispersed over the house. There seemed in the whole more cost than judgment. We went then to the silk mill at Derby', where I remarked 'Mr. Gell, of Hopton Hall, father of Sir William Gell, well known for his topography of Troy. DUPPA. ' See ante, iii. 181, for a visit paid by Johnson and Boswell to Kedleston in 1777. 'See ante, iii. 186. a particular 1774.] Buxton. 493 a particular manner of propagating motion from a horizontal to a vertical wheel. We were desired to leave the men only two shillings. Mr. Thrale's bill at the inn for dinner was eighteen shillings and tenpence. At night I went to Mr. Langley's, Mrs. Wood's, Captain Astle, &c. JULY 20. We left Ashbourn and went to Buxton, thence to Pool's Hole, which is narrow at first, but then rises into a high arch; but is so obstructed with crags, that it is difficult to walk in it. There are two ways to the end, which is, they say, six hundred and fifty yards from the mouth. They take passengers up the higher way, and bring them back the lower. The higher way was so difficult and dangerous, that, having tried it, I desisted. I found no level part. At night we came to Macclesfield, a very large town in Cheshire, little known. It has a silk mill: it has a handsome church, which, however, is but a chapel, for the town belongs to some parish of another name', as Stourbridge lately did to Old Swinford. Macclesfield has a town-hall, and is, I suppose, a corporate town. JULY 21. We came to Congleton, where there is likewise a silk mill. Then to Middlewich, a mean old town, without any manufacture, but, I think, a Corporation. Thence we proceeded to Namptwich, an old town: from the inn, I saw scarcely any but black timber houses. I tasted the brine water, which contains much more salt than the sea water. By slow evaporation, they make large crystals of salt; by quick boiling, small granulations. It seemed to have no other preparation. At evening we came to Combermere', so called from a wide lake. The parish of Prestbury. DUPPA. 'At this time the seat of Sir Lynch Salusbury Cotton [Mrs. Thrale's JULY 22. 494 Hawkestone. JULY 22. [1774. We went upon the Mere. I pulled a bulrush of about ten feet. I saw no convenient boats upon the Mere. JULY 23. We visited Lord Kilmorey's house'. It is large and convenient, with many rooms, none of which are magnificently spacious. The furniture was not splendid. The bed-curtains were guarded'. Lord Kilmorey shewed the place with too much exultation. He has no park, and little water'. JULY 24. We went to a chapel, built by Sir Lynch Cotton for his tenants. It is consecrated, and therefore, I suppose, endowed. It is neat and plain. The Communion plate is handsome. It has iron pales and gates of great elegance, brought from Lleweney, 'for Robert has laid all open'.' We saw Hawkestone, the seat of Sir Rowland Hill, and were conducted by Miss Hill over a large tract of rocks and woods; a region abounding with striking scenes and terrif ick grandeur. We were always on the brink of a precipice, or at the foot of a lofty rock; but the steeps were seldom naked in many places, oaks of uncommon magnitude shot up from the crannies of stone; and where there were not tall trees, there were underwoods and bushes. relation], now, of Lord Combermere, his grandson, from which place he takes his title. DUPPA. 'Shavington Hall, in Shropshire. DUPPA. To guard. To adorn with lists, laces or ornamental borders. Obsolete.' Johnson's Dictionary. 'Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Nov. 13, 1783-You seem to mention Lord Kilmurrey (sic) as a stranger. We were at his house in Cheshire [Shropshire]. . . . Do not you remember how he rejoiced in having no park? He could not disoblige his neighbours by sending them no venison.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 326. Robert was • This remark has reference to family conversation. the eldest son of Sir L. S. Cotton, and lived at Lleweney. DUPPA. Round 1774.] Hawkestone. 495 Round the rocks is a narrow patch cut upon the stone, which is very frequently hewn into steps; but art has proceeded no further than to make the succession of wonders safely accessible. The whole circuit is somewhat laborious; it is terminated by a grotto cut in a rock to a great extent, with many windings, and supported by pillars, not hewn into regularity, but such as imitate the sports of nature, by asperities and protuberances. The place is without any dampness, and would afford an habitation not uncomfortable. There were from space to space seats in the rock. Though it wants water, it excels Dovedale by the extent of its prospects, the awfulness of its shades, the horrors of its precipices, the verdure of its hollows, and the loftiness of its rocks: the ideas which it forces upon the mind are, the sublime, the dreadful, and the vast. Above is inaccessible altitude, below is horrible profundity. But it excels the garden of Ilam only in extent. Ilam has grandeur, tempered with softness; the walker congratulates his own arrival at the place, and is grieved to think that he must ever leave it. As he looks up to the rocks, his thoughts are elevated; as he turns his eyes on the vallies, he is composed and soothed. He that mounts the precipices at Hawkestone, wonders how he came thither, and doubts how he shall return. His walk is an adventure, and his departure an escape. He has not the tranquillity, but the horror, of solitude; a kind of turbulent pleasure, between fright and admiration. Ilam is the fit abode of pastoral virtue, and might properly diffuse its shades over Nymphs and Swains. Hawkestone can have no fitter inhabitants than giants of mighty bone and bold emprise'; men of lawless courage and heroic violence. Hawkestone should be described by Milton, and Ilam by Parnel. Miss Hill shewed the whole succession of wonders with great civility. The house was magnificent, compared with the rank of the owner. 1 Paradise Lost, book xi. v. 642. DUPPA. JULY 26. |