the county
should endeavour to see it, as it will teach them that we have a Switzerland
in England of which they knew not.

One charm of this part of Derbyshire is the intermixture of cultivation and
wild nature, or woods so planted as to well emulate nature. On bits of level
space you meet a cottage neatly built of stone, all covered with roses and
woodbines, which flourish wonderfully on the loose soil in the showery
atmosphere. The cottages of Derbyshire are so pretty that you are at first
inclined to imagine that they are for show,--mere fancy buildings. But no;
the cheapness of good building stone, the suitability of the soil for
flowering shrubs, and perhaps something in the force of example, create
cottage after cottage fit for the dwellings of Arcadian lovers. And every
now and then the landscape opens on a villa or mansion so placed that there
is nothing left for the landscape gardener to do.

The farm buildings, and corn mills, and silk mills, are equally picturesque:
game abounds. Early in the morning and in the evening you may often see the
pheasants feeding close to the roadside, and, in the middle of the day, the
sudden sharp noise of a detonating ball will set them crowing in the woods
all around.

We cannot say that the streams now swarm with trout and grayling as they did
when honest Isaac Walton sung their praises in quaint poetical prose,
although they still twine and foam along their rocky beds all overhung with
willows and tufted shrubs; but, where the waters are preserved, there good
sport is to be had.

The roadside inns are not bad. The half-mining, half-farming people are
quaint and amusing. The caverns of the Peak and the lead mines, afford
something strange and new. Altogether we can warmly commend a trip through
Derbyshire, as one affording great variety of hill and dale, wood and stream,
barren moors, and rich cultivation, fine parks and mansions, and beautiful
hamlets, cottages, and roadside gardens, where English peasant life is to be
seen under most favourable aspects.

* * * * *

HARDWICKE.--Supposing that we proceed from Sheffield, we would take the
railway to Chesterfield, which is not a place of any interest. Thence make
our way to Hardwicke, on the road to Mansfield.

Hardwicke Hall is a good specimen of the style of domestic architecture in
the time of Queen Elizabeth, which has remained unaltered since that period.
Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here, and some