116 RAMBLE OVER DERBYSHIRE HILLS AND DALES. 
passers-by. The other side of the Dale is not so abrupt, but rises 
with a steep ascent to a greater height, covered with scanty 
herbage and numberless wild flowers, amongst which I gathered 
the wild thyme, marjoram, ladies’ bed-straw, scabious, cranesbill, 
etc. ; some large thistles, too, spread their tufted flowers of bright 
crimson in the warm rays of the sun, which was shining down the 
valley most charmingly, lighting up the gray rocks with fine effect. 
We had promised ourselves several nice pictures here, including 
the bold rock at the rear of the ‘‘ Golden Ball,” an old-fashioned 
wayside inn at the junction of Eyam Dale, but the smoke beat us; 
so we consoled ourselves by taking a small view of the hole, or 
cavern, close by the roadside, known by the name of Carl’s-work, 
in which the skeleton and clothes of a pedlar were found some 
fifty years ago, about half-a-mile from the entrance. Mr. Wood 
can remember some of the clothes lying in Eyam church, where the 
unfortunate man’s remains were left many years for identification. 
It is supposed by some that this opening communicates with a 
string of caverns reaching as far as Castleton !—but this can only 
be conjecture. 
Passing by the end of Eyam Dale on our right, and one of the 
smoking kilns on our left, we presently came to the entrance of 
the Delf, Delve, or Cussy Dell, as it is variously called, branching 
off to the right, and guarded by rocky turrets on either side. A 
little further on we were clear of the smoke, and were enabled to 
take a couple of views looking down the Dale. There it was 
very pleasant, lying on a grassy knoll, to watch the white clouds 
chasing each other along the azure sky, while listening to the music 
of the water that babbled by in its artificial bed on the roadside, 
as though it rejoiced at its escape from the Watergroove Mine 
further up the valley ; pleasant it was to watch the jackdaws and 
listen to their cawing as they hovered about the tree-crowned 
rocks that jutted out from the steep grassy slopes ; the sun was 
getting low, and his level rays struck the bold prominences with a 
golden glow of light, which brought out their forms most clearly, 
and showed the glistening leaves of the creeping ivy in minutest 
