64 " Well-Dressing? 



knolls of crimson, or trails in tiny flower-cataract from 

 miniature cliffs ; if we go in June, the hills are dap- 

 pled with the snow of hawthorns ; and whenever it may 

 be, so that the sun shine, the stream glides calm and 

 bright, circling in quiet pools, or quickening in ripples 

 that seem to speak, and on its surface, and on the pebbles 

 it keeps so clean, falls lace-work of leaf-shadows. Well 

 may the angler leave its borders with reluctance. 



The front of the Tor is reached by means of a path 

 through the little wood on the opposite side, to which we 

 find access by a gate. Close to this are the celebrated 

 " Wormhill Springs," the water welling out of the ground 

 just as happens in the streets of a city when some 

 great conduit underneath has given way. Formerly these 

 springs were once a year adorned with flowers, as the 

 wells upon St Anne's Mount at Buxton are at present 

 every summer, though at Wormhill it was less elaborately. 

 For " well-dressing " did not, as many suppose, begin at 

 Buxton, nor yet at Tissington, though at the latter 

 village it has been practised from time immemorial. 

 Very much has been made of it at Buxton, of recent 

 years, in acknowledgment of the liberality of the late 

 Duke of Devonshire, in constructing fountains, and 

 establishing a regular water-supply for the town. As 

 a usage, it dates, nevertheless, from the remotest anti- 

 quity. A memorial of that most ancient reverence for 

 springs and rivers which caused many to be consecrated, 

 the first intent had reference to the idea of pure water 



