—s- 
RAMBLE OVER DERBYSHIRE HILLS AND DALES, 137 
Regretting again and again there was no light by which to take 
some views of this magnificent temple of Nature, this City of 
God as it has been called,* the gloom of the place still clinging to 
us, we reluctantly descended on the north side to make the best 
of our way to Hathersage. The number of grouse we disturbed 
was wonderful, the place hereabouts seemed to swarm with them, 
and on after consideration it seemed strange we were allowed to 
pursue our way unmolested by the keepers, especially as it was so 
near the time of grouse shooting.t However, we had accom- 
plished our heart’s desire of crossing a real Derbyshire moor, and 
did not then care for all the keepers in creation. Down, down, 
down we went, plunging and perspiring, through the bilberries ; 
now sinking in deep moss, now treading on a stone, till we came 
HIGGAR TOR, 
to a rough road which seemed to be used by Dame Nature for a 
watercourse when necessity required. We crossed the road, 
jumped the wall; then down again, steeper still, another piece of 
moorland, amongst the whirring grouse, till, panting with exertion, 
* “Tt is called by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood ‘ Higgar,’ which I 
take to be a corruption of ‘ Hu Gaer’, z.2., the city of God.—D7, S. 7. Hall. 
+ Sir Gardner Wilkinson, speaking of Caelswark, says, “I regret not having 
been allowed to make a plan of it ; but researches among:ancient remains on 
these moors, whether camps, or sacred circles, are greatly interfered with by 
the importance of the still more ‘sacred grouse,’ and the keepers ruthlessly 
prohibit any examination of the antiquities within their beats.”—Aelequary, 
Vol. 1, p. 163. 
