134 MEMOIRS OP 



temperature of the air alone that the 

 feafons can be afcertained ; fmce there 

 are no trees, to mark by their foliage the 

 reign of fylvan beauty; no grafs, to 

 denote it by its lively hue. Nothing but 

 the grey, the barren, and lonely rock?, 

 with, perhaps, a few ftraggling Scotch firs 

 waving on the tops of the cliffs above ; 

 and their dufky fprays neither winter ftrips 

 nor fpring enlivens. 



This dale is, indeed, " Peak's rudeft 

 " child." Of late years, injury has been 

 done to the towery and fantaftic forms 

 of many of the rocks, from their having 

 been broken in pieces by gunpowder ex- 

 plofion, for the fake of mending the turn- 

 pike roads. The mills, for fmelting the 

 lead-ore in this dale, blot the fummer 

 noon, and increafe its fultrinefs by thofe 

 volumes of black fmoke which pour out 

 from their chimnies ; but in the night 

 they have a grand effecl:, from the flare 



of 



