2 Lyme Hall. 



To Disley, accordingly, let every one turn attention 

 who desires a cyclopaedia of the charms of nature. The 

 Sea alone is wanting. Were a glimpse of that to be 

 gained, as an everyday and matter-of-course spectacle, 

 from one of the glorious ridges that here form the out- 

 works of Derbyshire, Disley, in its possessions, would be 

 perfect. A curious and beautiful sort of mirage of the 

 distant sea is not infrequently given among the Derby- 

 shire hills, by those prosaic things, the telegraph wires, 

 which, viewed at certain distances, cut off from the 

 horizon great fields of sky, that need little imagination 

 to be tfcought salt-water. 



Visitors to Disley unacquainted with the picturesque 

 localities there to be found, and inquiring for its speci- 

 ality, are naturally directed to LYME HALL. It is well to 

 commence explorations with this far-famed place, alike for 

 the capital introduction to the general character of the 

 Disley scenery that is supplied as we tread the path ; and 

 for the magnificent structure at the end, which pleases,, 

 so much the more from the circumstance of our coming 

 upon its antique stateliness almost unawares. The ground- 

 plan of the building is quadrangular, a piazza running 

 round three sides of the court within ; the architecture, 

 like that of many other old halls, is in several different 

 styles, one portion being of the time of Elizabeth or James 

 the First, with Corinthian wings ; while the south front, in- 

 cluding the noble portico, is Ionic. From a date upon 

 the outside, it would seem that the principal part of the 



