Farming of Derby shire. 



19 



this a great breadtli of the barren tracks of the Peak will have 

 been passed over, which has made farming in the North a 

 different trade from what farming is in the South, not so much 

 from its altitude as from the steep, rugged, and nearly soilless 

 sides and crags of the limestone, and the equally steep and 

 rugged ascents of the millstone grit, and from its bogs and moor- 

 lands covered with heath and boulder stones of every size. The 

 road from Matlock to Wirks worth leads through a district of 

 mineral wealth, where mining, and not farming, is the great 

 staple. The matrix of lead ore is the mountain-lime, known to 

 the Romans of old as well as the Saxons, and now more success- 

 fully worked by their descendants with improved means and 

 machinery. Not the least of the difficulties of the ancient lead 

 miners would be the bad state of the roads, and absence of means 

 of transport except that which was tedious and difficult. These 

 difficulties have been removed by improved roads in the first in- 

 stance, and by the opening of the Cromford Canal and High 

 Peak Railway early in the commencement of the present century. 

 But before this, towards the close of the last century, a new 

 element was introduced amongst the wilds of the Peak, which 

 exerted a mighty influence on the character of North Derby- 

 shire : Arkwright had realized his great invention, and intro- 

 duced the cotton-trade. Taking advantage of its streams and 

 waterfalls, cotton-mills began to occupy the most sequestered 

 places, and the Wye and Derwent put thousands of spindles in 

 motion. These factories brought a population ; wealth increased, 

 both agricultural and manufacturing, and gave a stimulant to 

 improvements of every kind. Progress became the rule, more 

 especially in those parts within reach of these influences : agri- 

 culture and manufactures joined hands. 



The foregoing remarks refer chiefly to the northern division, 

 I must now travel south^ and briefly point out some of the 

 geological features in that favoured region. Beginning at Ash- 

 bourne, and tracing a line by Mugginton, Kedleston, Allestree, 

 Dale Abbey, to Sandiacre, the northern boundary of the red 

 marl or new red sandstone will be pretty accurately pointed 

 out. Thence this extensive formation continues to the coun- 

 ties of Nottingham, Leicester, and Stafford, presenting the same 

 or similar features in common. In South Derbyshire it consists 

 of what geologists term saliferous and gypseous shales and 

 sandstones ; conglomerates and clays. These claj s and sand- 

 stones are sometimes interstratified, or alternate with each 

 other, and form beds of immense thickness, as the gypsum or 

 alabaster pits, so extensively used for plaster and ornaments. 

 These measures, wherever they appear, produce the finest arable 

 land, especially where the soil consists of a fair portion of calca- 



