81 
Ordinary Meeting, January 26tli, 1875. 
Edward Schunck, Ph.D., F.KS., &c., President, in the 
Chair. 
John Dixon Maun, M.D., M.RC.S., was elected an Ordinary 
Member of the Society. 
“A Descent into Elden Hole, Derbyshire,” by RoOKE 
Pennington, LL.B. 
Near the road from Buxton to CastJeton, and about four 
miles from the latter place, stands Elden Hill. It is a 
bleak, bare, mountain, one of the highest of the grassy emi- 
nences of the Derbyshire limestone district, and, though 
uninviting itself, commanding a most extensive and fine view. 
Its summit was long ago in the prehistoric past chosen as a 
resting place for the bones of some savage chief, and in its 
side is Elden Hole. 
Elden Hole is a perpendicular chasm in the rock, and 
like many such apertures is reputed to be bottomless ; and 
indeed the sound of a stone falling into the gulf is almost 
enough to justify the reputation, for, bounding from side to 
side and smashing as it bounds, the noise of each leap 
gradually diminishes, but the stone is never heard to stop. 
Though still famous, it is not so famous as it once was. It 
was once reckoned one of the seven wonders of the Peak. 
In the time of Queen Elizabeth the Earl of Leicester is said 
to have let a man down into it who was drawn out speech- 
less and who shortly afterwards died. A cat subsequently 
lowered a considerable distance was also brought out dead. 
A hundred years later. Cotton, the poet of the Peak, tried 
unsuccessfully to fathom it ; he has recorded his experiment 
in verse. At length, just a hundred years ago, Mr. Lloyd, 
E.R.S., went to the bottom himself and returned safely. 
His account of what he saw is printed in the Philosophical 
Transactions. But Mr. Lloyd was a man before his time, 
PEOCEEDixas—LiT. & Phil. Soc.— Yol. XIY.— No. 7.™ Sessio:?? 1874-5. 
