In the Peak Country. 129 



Buxton over the elevated permanent way above Chapel-en- 

 le-Frith to Stockport. 



I have known travellers compassing this route declare 

 afterwards the glories of the Peak country in the language 

 of venerable experience. Now, if our friends can prove 

 to you by affidavit that they have halted at Chapel-en-le- 

 Frith, and pushed up into the high country thereabouts, you 

 may grant them a certificate of knowledge on the subject, 

 though you should withhold a medal in addition, unless 

 they know something of Castleton and the country on the 

 Ashopton side. 



" Chapel " — the topographical designation is too long for 

 frequent use — is not incorrectly described as "a market- 

 town of some considerable importance in the High Peak." 

 If not " in," it is not far from the Peak. At Hayfield, a few 

 miles north, begins the range of hills of which Kinder 

 Scout is the chief summit, and Kinder Scout must be honestly 

 climbed by your own feet if you would gain that splendid 

 look-out which, they say, sometimes includes the sea beyond 

 , Liverpool. Castleton is pretty well known to tourists, since 

 it monopolises the most wonderful of the wonders of 

 Derbyshire, such as the Ebbing and Flowing Well, the 

 castle" of which Sir Walter Scott had somewhat to observe 

 in his " Peveril of the Peak " (the flower, as many think, of 

 the Waverley flock), and the mines and caves where the 

 Bengal lights reveal stalactite and crystal spar, and less 

 showy illuminations intensify the gloom of awe-inspiring 

 cavernous recesses. These are the show places of the dis- 

 trict, and naturally they attract all the tourists who pass that 

 way. Still the traveller who stops short of Mam Tor has 

 but an imperfect acquaintance with the High Peak. 



Let us traverse the mountain through the lovely vale of 

 Edale until we stand once more upon that bridge which 



K 



