34 THE AUTOinOGKAI'HV OF LEONARD WHEATCROFT. 



" Great Monement for my content 

 I'le rest me heare a while ; 

 Had'st thou not beene, for me to've seene, 

 I'de wandred many a mile." 



" After I had rested awhile, the mists cleared up, and it ceased 

 from snowing." [The track over the moors was clearly obliterated 

 by the snow storm, and hence our traveller missed his way. 

 This will form the key to an otherwise unaccountable proceeding 

 of Leonard's further on.] 



" Then I set forwards againe, and after I had travelled about 

 4 or 5 miles, I arrived at that famous house called Chatsworth, 

 where for a certaine time I stayed to behould the Beauty and 

 rare Work-man-ship of it. And from thence I went to Stoney 

 Middleton where I stayed for a certaine time to refreshe myself 

 and ease my weary limbes : and from thence to Padley where I 

 met with some freinds y' I had long sought. My business with 

 them was to borrow money, but none would they lend unless I 

 would mortgage land to them for it. So finding noe good to be 

 dun, I returned home againe. That jorney was about 30 miles. 

 Then did my son Leo and I go to Winster, and accoynted my 

 mother Hawley with it, and she paid y" debt : it was 5 poundes ; 

 so we cum merrily hom, and for a memoriall we erected by the 

 way 4 heapes of stones betwixt Matlock and Ashover which we 

 judged would stand to many generations : this was done Oct. 5, 

 1670." 



[The first impression this apparently romantic act naturally 

 causes is, its manifest absurdity. Leonard, however, had only 

 just been lost in a snowstorm on a bleak and desolate moor, 

 and was only reminded of his exact locality by some familiar 

 stone ; and anyone who is acquainted with the way (then an 

 almost unbeaten track) across Tansley Moor, between Matlock 

 and Ashover, must be struck with the almost patriotic spirit 

 shewn by Leonard in the erection of these Wiiifer land marks, 

 to guide the traveller along the snow-hidden tracks. It was 

 done as an act of thanksgiving,, and for the good of the general 

 fithlic. Whatever may have been his faults and his improvidence 



