The chapel at Oakover. The wood of the pews grossly painted. I could not read the epitaph. Would learn the old hands.
JULY 15.
At Ashbourn. Mrs. Diot and her daughters came in the morning. Mr. Diot dined with us. We visited Mr. Flint.
[Greek: To proton Moros, to de deuteron ei en Erasmos,
To triton ek Mouson stemma Mikullos echei.]
JULY 16.
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 certainly expected a larger river where I found only a clear quick brook. I believe I had imaged 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 bedchambers 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 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.
JULY 22.
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 terrifick 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.
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.
JULY 26.
We left Combermere, where we have been treated with great civility. Sir L. is gross, the lady weak and ignorant. The house is spacious, but not magnificent; built at different times, with different materials; part is of timber, part of stone or brick, plastered and painted to look like timber. It is the best house that I ever saw of that kind.
The Mere, or Lake, is l
arge, with a small island, on which there is a summer-house, shaded with great trees; some were hollow, and have seats in their trunks.
In the afternoon we came to West-Chester; (my father went to the fair, when I had the small-pox). We walked round the walls, which are compleat, and contain one mile three quarters, and one hundred and one yards; within them are many gardens: they are very high, and two may walk very commodiously side by side. On the inside is a rail. There are towers from space to space, not very frequent, and, I think, not all compleat.
JULY 27.
We staid at Chester and saw the Cathedral, which is not of the first rank. The Castle. In one of the rooms the Assizes are held, and the refectory of the Old Abbey, of which part is a grammar school. The master seemed glad to see me. The cloister is very solemn; over it are chambers in which the singing men live.
In one part of the street was a subterranean arch, very strongly built; in another, what they called, I believe rightly, a Roman hypocaust.
Chester has many curiosities.
JULY 28.
We entered Wales, dined at Mold, and came to Lleweney.
JULY 29.
We were at Lleweney.
In the lawn at Lleweney is a spring of fine water, which rises above the surface into a stone basin, from which it runs to waste, in a continual stream, through a pipe.
There are very large trees.
The Hall at Lleweney is forty feet long, and twenty-eight broad. The gallery one hundred and twenty feet long, (all paved.) The Library forty-two feet long, and twenty-eight broad. The Dining-parlours thirty-six feet long, and twenty-six broad.
It is partly sashed, and partly has casements.
JULY 30.
We went to Bâch y Graig, where we found an old house, built 1567, in an uncommon and incommodious form. My Mistress chattered about tiring, but I prevailed on her to go to the top. The floors have been stolen: the windows are stopped.
The house was less than I seemed to expect; the river Clwyd is a brook with a bridge of one arch, about one third of a mile.
The woods have many trees, generally young; but some which seem to decay. They have been lopped. The house never had a garden. The addition of another story would make an useful house, but it cannot be great. Some buildings which Clough, the founder, intended for warehouses, would make store-chambers and servants’ rooms. The ground seems to be good. I wish it well.
JULY 31. We went to church at St. Asaph. The Cathedral, though not large, has something of dignity and grandeur. The cross aisle is very short. It has scarcely any monuments. The Quire has, I think, thirty-two stalls of antique workmanship. On the backs were CANONICUS, PREBEND, CANCELLARIUS, THESAURARIUS, PRAECENTOR. The constitution I do not know, but it has all the usual titles and dignities. The service was sung only in the Psalms and Hymns.
The Bishop was very civil. We went to his palace, which is but mean. They have a library, and design a room. There lived Lloyd and Dodwell.
AUGUST 1.
We visited Denbigh, and the remains of its Castle.
The town consists of one main street, and some that cross it, which I have not seen. The chief street ascends with a quick rise for a great length: the houses are built, some with rough stone, some with brick, and a few are of timber.
The Castle, with its whole enclosure, has been a prodigious pile; it is now so ruined, that the form of the inhabited part cannot easily be traced.
There are, as in all old buildings, said to be extensive vaults, which the ruins of the upper works cover and conceal, but into which boys sometimes find a way. To clear all passages, and trace the whole of what remains, would require much labour and expense. We saw a Church, which was once the Chapel of the Castle, but is used by the town: it is dedicated to St. Hilary, and has an income of about —
At a small distance is the ruin of a Church said to have been begun by the great Earl of Leicester, and left unfinished at his death. One side, and I think the east end, are yet standing. There was a stone in the wall, over the door-way, which it was said would fall and crush the best scholar in the diocese. One Price would not pass under it. They have taken it down.
We then saw the Chapel of Lleweney, founded by one of the Salusburies: it is very compleat: the monumental stones lie in the ground. A chimney has been added to it, but it is otherwise not much injured, and might be easily repaired.
We went to the parish Church of Denbigh, which, being near a mile from the town, is only used when the parish officers are chosen.
In the Chapel, on Sundays, the service is read thrice, the second time only in English, the first and third in Welsh. The Bishop came to survey the Castle, and visited likewise St. Hilary’s Chapel, which is that which the town uses. The hay-barn, built with brick pillars from space to space, and covered with a roof. A more elegant and lofty Hovel.
The rivers here, are mere torrents which are suddenly swelled by the rain to great breadth and great violence, but have very little constant stream; such are the Clwyd and the Elwy. There are yet no mountains. The ground is beautifully embellished with woods, and diversified by inequalities.
In the parish church of Denbigh is a bas relief of Lloyd the antiquary, who was before Camden. He is kneeling at his prayers.
AUGUST 2.
We rode to a summer-house of Mr. Cotton, which has a very extensive prospect; it is meanly built, and unskilfully disposed.
We went to Dymerchion Church, where the old clerk acknowledged his Mistress. It is the parish church of Bâch y Graig. A mean fabrick: Mr. Salusbury was buried in it. Bâch y Graig has fourteen seats in it.
As we rode by, I looked at the house again. We saw Llannerch, a house not mean, with a small park very well watered. There was an avenue of oaks, which, in a foolish compliance with the present mode, has been cut down. A few are yet standing. The owner’s name is Davies.
The way lay through pleasant lanes, and overlooked a region beautifully diversified with trees and grass.
At Dymerchion Church there is English service only once a month. This is about twenty miles from the English border.
The old clerk had great appearance of joy at the sight of his Mistress, and foolishly said, that he was now willing to die. He had only a crown given him by my Mistress.
At Dymerchion Church the texts on the walls are in Welsh.
AUGUST 3.
We went in the coach to Holywell.
Talk with Mistress about flattery.
Holywell is a market town, neither very small nor mean. The spring called Winifred’s Well is very clear, and so copious, that it yields one hundred tuns of water in a minute. It is all at once a very great stream, which, within perhaps thirty yards of its eruption, turns a mill, and in a course of two miles, eighteen mills more. In descent, it is very quick. It then falls into the sea. The well is covered by a lofty circular arch, supported by pillars; and over this arch is an old chapel, now a school. The chancel is separated by a wall. The bath is completely and indecently open. A woman bathed while we all looked on.
In the Church, which makes a good appearance, and is surrounded by galleries to receive a numerous congregation, we were present while a child was christened in Welsh.
We went down by the stream to see a prospect, in which I had no part. We then saw a brass work, where the lapis calaminaris is gathered, broken, washed from the earth and the lead, though how the lead was separated I did not see; then calcined, afterwards ground fine, and then mixed by fire with the copper.
We saw several strong fires with melting pots, but the construction of the fire-places I did not learn.
At a copper-work which receives its pigs of copper, I think, from Warrington, we saw a plate of copper put hot between steel rollers, and spread thin; I know not whether the upper roller was set to a certain distance, as I suppose, or acted only by its weight.
At an iron-work I saw round bars formed by a knotched hammer and anvil. There I saw a bar of about half an inch, or more, square cut with shears worked by water, and then
beaten hot into a thinner bar. The hammers all worked, as they were, by water, acting upon small bodies, moved very quick, as quick as by the hand.
I then saw wire drawn, and gave a shilling. I have enlarged my notions, though not being able to see the movements, and having not time to peep closely, I know less than I might. I was less weary, and had better breath, as I walked farther.
AUGUST 4.
Ruthin Castle is still a very noble ruin; all the walls still remain, so that a compleat platform, and elevations, not very imperfect, may be taken. It encloses a square of about thirty yards. The middle space was always open.
The wall is, I believe, about thirty feet high, very thick, flanked with six round towers, each about eighteen feet, or less, in diameter. Only one tower had a chimney, so that there was commodity of living. It was only a place of strength. The garrison had, perhaps, tents in the area.
Stapylton’s house is pretty: there are pleasing shades about it, with a constant spring that supplies a cold bath. We then went to see a Cascade.
I trudged unwillingly, and was not sorry to find it dry. The water was, however, turned on, and produced a very striking cataract. They are paid an hundred pounds a year for permission to divert the stream to the mines. The river, for such it may be termed, rises from a single spring, which, like that of Winifred’s, is covered with a building.
We called then at another house belonging to Mr. Lloyd, which made a handsome appearance. This country seems full of very splendid houses.
Mrs. Thrale lost her purse. She expressed so much uneasiness, that I concluded the sum to be very great; but when I heard of only seven guineas, I was glad to find that she had so much sensibility of money.
I could not drink this day either coffee or tea after dinner. I know not when I missed before.
AUGUST 5.
Last night my sleep was remarkably quiet. I know not whether by fatigue in walking, or by forbearance of tea.
I gave the ipecacuanha. Vin. emet. had failed; so had tartar emet.
I dined at Mr. Myddleton’s, of Gwaynynog. The house was a gentleman’s house, below the second rate, perhaps below the third, built of stone roughly cut. The rooms were low, and the passage above stairs gloomy, but the furniture was good. The table was well supplied, except that the fruit was bad. It was truly the dinner of a country gentleman. Two tables were filled with company, not inelegant.
Complete Works of Samuel Johnson Page 860