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RAMBLE OVER DERBYSHIRE HILLS AND DALES. 153 
Retracing our steps to Tideswell, we purposed making our 
homeward journey through Monsal Dale, but instead of consulting 
the Ordnance Map, we asked our way of a native and were mis- 
directed, going out of our way a mile or more, and retracing our 
steps up-hill. It was a dreary and uninteresting road near Litton, 
and all the way to Cressbrook, and the descent into Monsal Dale, 
just behind Mr. McConnell’s mills, required our united strength 
to get the cart down the steep, smooth slope. 
Monsal Dale is a most charming place to spend a day in, but 
we were tired and jaded, and only took one view of “ the Arcadia 
of the Peak,” as it has been called. The best way of seeing this 
famed valley is to come suddenly upon it from Edgestone Head, 
from whence the greater part is seen lying at your feet in sylvan 
beauty, the bright and sparkling river Wye winding along the 
whole length, through meadows of the richest green. Groups of 
fine ash-trees and a few farm-houses and cottages, with a rustic 
bridge and a row of stepping-stones, add much to the beauty and 
interest of this picture, closed in on every side by high hills and 
waving woods. Perhaps the most picturesque part of this pretty 
dale is near the ‘“‘lepping-stones ;” but, lower down the river, 
after its sudden turn westward, in its more secluded part, between 
the giant hills of High Field and Fin Cop, the scenery is very 
fine. On Fin Cop the Romans had an encampment, and at 
its foot stands the curious assemblage of rocks called Hob’s 
House. * 
I must not dwell any longer on the beauties of Monsal Dale ; 
our holiday ramble draws near to its end. We left the Dale by 
the steep road up to Edgestone Head, where we rested awhile, 
and refreshed ourselves at the “ Bull’s Head.” In the house- 
place of this old inn is a curious arrangement for training up 
children in the way they should walk ; neither the old-fashioned 
go-cart nor the modern baby-jumper, but a strange-looking piece 
of mechanism fixed to one of the rafters in the ceiling, a little 
distance from the fire-place, which at first sight I took to be 
* Tlobgoblin, Puck, or Robin Goodfellow. 
