TO TOURISTS. The Editor of BLACK'S GUIDE BOOKS will esteem it a great favour to be furnished with notes of any Corrections, Omissions, or Improvements that may be discovered by those making use of these works. Communications founded on the most recent personal knowledge, and attested by the name of the writer, will be especially welcome. Travellers willing to make such communications, are requested to forward them addressed to Messrs. Black, Edinburgh; and in the event of their being made on a copy of one of the Guides, another will be sent in exchange, free of expense. CONTENTS. Description of the County of Derby Derby, its History, Buildings, and Institutions Chesterfield, its Parish Church, etc. Hardwick Hall and Bolsover Castle Matlock Bath, its Springs, Church, Caverns, Hotels, and Museums; Matlock Village; High Tor; Heights of Abraham; Lovers' Walks; Willersley Castle; Baslow; Stoney Middleton; Eyam Village; Cucklet Church; Eyam Church; the Plague at Eyam. Buxton, its Crescent, Baths, Bath Charity. Diamond Hill; Poole's Hole; Serpentine Walks; Chee Tor Castleton, its ruined Castle; Caverns; Mines; Eldonhole; DERBYSHIRE Covers an area of 1029 square miles, or 658,803 statute acres. Population in 1851-Males, 147,737; Females, 148,347 ; total, 296,084. Increase per cent in 50 years, 83. Inhabited houses, 59,371. Persons to a square mile, 288; acres to a person, 2.2; persons to a house, 5. Greatest length, 56 miles; greatest breadth, 33 miles; average breadth, 20 miles. About 500,000 acres are arable or pasture. THE HE County of Derby has an entirely inland position, no portion being less than about forty miles from the sea; while the absence of rivers of any magnitude, and the dry warmth of the limestone rock which chiefly abounds, tend to render it a desirable residence for such as cannot with impunity risk the moist atmosphere of the coast. To the north, the county is bounded by the west Riding of Yorkshire; to the west, by Cheshire and Staffordshire; to the south, by Leicestershire; and to the east, by the county of Nottingham. The principal rivers are the Derwent, Trent, and Dove, the latter of which forms the boundary between this and the county of Stafford. The greatest length of the county (i. e. from north to south) is 56 miles; while the greatest breadth is about 33. In form it is very irregular, somewhat resembling a parallelogram, with excrescences on the north-west and north-east corners, and a pointed prolongation on the south. Like Scotland, Derbyshire is naturally divided into two portions, the northern and southern divisions; the Highlands and Lowlands—the region of hills, rocks, dales, and moors; and the seat of busy industry and successful agriculture. Long before the Roman invasion, Derbyshire formed part of the nation of Coritani. The Cornavii are said by the Welsh to have invaded Britain immediately before the Romans-in fact, to have been 66 one of the three molestations that came into our island, and never went away again." To the Celtic period the stone circles B of Arbor-Low; the "Nine Ladies" on Stanton Moor; and those on Harthill Moor, Abney Moor, Eyam Moor near the Wet Withens, Riley, Froggatt Edge, and Hathersage Moor, are to be ascribed; as are also the Rocking Stones on Stanton Moor, on the Roo-tor rocks, and "Robin Hood's Mark" on Ashover Common; the fortifications and earth-works of Carlswark at Hathersage, at Staden-low near Buxton, at Pilsbury, on Great Finn, by Taddington, and on Combe Moss; the remains of habitations near Crich, at Harthill Moor, at Middleton by Youlgrave, and other places; the numberless tumuli, and the other remains which are spread over the Peak district in great abundance. The Romans, when they first partitioned England, put Derbyshire into that part denominated Britannia Prima, and subsequently, when a new division was made by Severus, the whole district, which included the Coritani, formed the eastern part of the province called Flavia Cæsariensis. Among the relics left by these warlike people may be noticed the station of Derventio or Little Chester, by Derby, where many important relics of the period have been from time to time discovered; the remains of Roman roads; a camp near Pentrich; remains discovered at the station of Buxton; the settlement at Brough near Castleton; vestiges of a station called Melandra Castle, in the township of Gamesley; a camp at Parwich; and a large number of sepulchral remains, personal and domestic ornaments and utensils, armour, pottery, and coins, found at different periods throughout the county. Evident remains of the working of various lead-mines in Derbyshire by the Romans also still exist, and some pigs of lead bearing inscriptions have been found in the county-one of these having the words IMP. CAES. HADRIANI. AVG. MET. LVT.; another, L. ARVCONI. VERECVND. METAL. LVTVD.; and a third, TI. CL. TR. LVT. BR. EX. ARG. In the Heptarchy, Derbyshire formed part of the kingdom of Mercia, Rependune, now Repton, being the capital of the kingdom, and the burial-place of the Mercian kings. Of this period considerable remains are to be found in ecclesiastical and other buildings, and numerous discoveries of burial-places, containing interesting and curious objects, have from time to time been made. Derby itself appears to have been a place of considerable importance at this period, and coins of Ethelwulf, Athelstan, Eadwig, and Eadgar, were struck in that town. From their situation on the River Trent, this county, with that of Notts, received the distinctive appellation Mercia Aquilonares. Saxon coins have frequently been found. William the Conqueror gave a great part of the county to his natural son William Peveril, whose fortress gives the name to Castleton. |