RAMBLE OVER DERBYSHIRE HILLS AND DALES. I4I 
presently returned with a large shepherd’s dog, who also com- 
menced growling and barking, showing a menacing front ; but we 
sent them both off with stones. That the little dog fetched the 
larger one, we had not the least doubt, but by what language or 
signs he procured his friend’s assistance I know not. 
We took two small views of the fine old Elizabethan house 
of North Lees, and were very kindly received by Miss Eyre, 
her brother and sisters being in the hay-field. I believe they are 
descendants of the Eyre who built this house, and whose 
monument I noticed in Hathersage Church. We were shown 
over the house, and hospitably invited to some capital bread and 
cheese and porter. What a jolly old room we sat in! Great 
mullioned windows with Latin sentences over them in the plaster- 
work, an ornamental frieze filling up the remainder ; the furniture 
all of dark oak, quaintly carved. One piece, I remember, had the 
emblems of the crucifixion, etc., cut in a very rude fashion.* 
There was an old mezzotint after Morland, and a date over the 
west window, 1594. We went up the spiral staircase, formed out 
of solid oak blocks running round a great pole or newel, right to 
the top of the house, and on to the flat lead roof, from the battle- 
mented parapet of which we had an extensive and beautiful view 
over the valley of the Derwent to the heights of Sir William in the 
distance. I forgot to name a fine carved bedstead on the first 
floor from Derwent Hall. This house is said to be one of those 
built by Robert Eyre for one of his eleven sons. The kitchens 
and back part of the house are comparatively new, and this view 
we took from near the beehives in the garden. 
Thanking our kind hostess for her hospitality, we enquired the 
way to the ruins of the old Chapel, which we found after crossing 
three fields to the north-west. Rank nettles and ash trees of 
considerable growth occupy the area of the ruin, which is about 
forty feet in length. The west end has a low round-headed door- 
way, and the east end is shown in the accompanying illustration. 
This chapel stands on the hill side between North Lees Hall and 
* This is now at Fox House on Hathersage Moor. 
