the roof fupported by rows of pillars, about two yards thick, and several in height; the whole was illuminated with numbers of candles, and made a moft magnificent and glittering appearance. Above the falt is a bed of whitish clay, ufed in making the Liverpool earthen-ware; and in the fame place is alfo dug a good deal of the Gypfum, or plaister ftone. The foffil falt is generally yellow, and femipellucid, fometimes debased with a dull greenifh earth, and is often found, but in fmall quantities, quite clear and color-less.

The road from this place to Macclesfield is thro a flat; rich, but unpleasant country. That town is in a very flourishing state, is poffeffed of a great. manufacture of mohair and twift buttons; has between twenty and thirty filk mills, and a very confiderable copper fmelting houfe, and brass work.

After leaving this place the country almost inftantly changes and becomes very mountanous and barren, at left on the furface; but the bowels compensate for the external fterility, by yielding fufficient quantity of coal for the use of the neighboring parts of Cheshire, and for the burning of lime; vast quantity is made near Buxton, and being carried to all parts for the purposes of agriculture, is become a confiderable article of commerce.

The celebrated warm bath of BUXTON † is BUXTONA

Argilla cærula-cinerea Da Cofta foffils. 1. 48.

+ The Romans, who were remarkably fond of warm baths, did not over-look thefe agreeable waters; they had a bath, inclosed with a brick wall, adjacent to the prefent St. Anne's well, which Dr. Short, in his effay on mineral waters, fays was razed in 1709.

feated in a bottom, amidst these hills, in a moft chearless spot, and would be little frequented, did not Hygeia often refide here, and dispense to her votaries the chief bleffings of life, ease and health: with joy and gratitude I this moment reflect on the efficacious qualities of the waters; I recollect with rapture the return of fpirits, the flight of pain, and re-animation of my long, long crippled rheumatic limbs. But how unfortunate is it, that what Providence defigned for the general good, fhould be rendered only a partial one, and denied to all, except the opulent; or I may fay to the (comparatively) few that can get admittance into the house where these waters are imprisoned. There are other springs (Cambden fays nine) very near that in the Hall, and in all probability of equal virtue. I was informed that the late Duke of Devonshire, not long before his death, had ordered some of these to be inclofed and formed into baths. It is to be hoped that his fucceffor will not fail adopting so useful and humane a plan; that he will form it on the most enlarged fyftem, that they may open not folely to those whom mifufed wealth hath rendered invalids, but to the poor cripple, whom honeft labor hath made a burden to himself and his country; and to the foldier and failor, who by hard service have lost the use of thofe very limbs which once were active in our defence. The honor refulting from such a foundation would be as great, as the fatisfaction arifing from a consciousness of fo benevolent a work would be unfpeakable; the charms of diffipation would then lofe their force, and dull and taftelefs

would

1

would every human luxury appear to him, who had it in his power thus to lay open these fountains of health, and to be able to exult in fuch pathetic and comfortable ftrains as thefe: When the ear heard me, then it bleffed me, and when the eye faw me it gave witness to me;

Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

The bleffing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caufed the widow's heart to fing for joy.

I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. After leaving Buxton, paffed thro' Middleton dale, a deep narrow chaẩm between two vaft cliffs, which extend on each fide near a mile in length: this road is very fingular, but the rocks in general are too naked to be beautiful. At the end is the small village of Stoney Middleton; here the prospect opens, and at Barfly Bridge exhibits a pretty view of a small but fertile vale, watered by the Derwent, and terminated by Chatsworth, and its plantations. Arrived and lay at

Chesterfield; an ugly town. In this place is a great manufacture of worsted stockings, and another of a brown earthen-ware, much of which is fent into Holland, the country which, within lefs than half a century ago, fupplied not only these kingdoms but half Europe with that commodity; the clay is found near the town, over the bass or cherty* ftratum, above the coal. The steeple of Chesterfield church is a fpire, covered with lead,

JUNI 27.

but by a violent wind ftrangely bent, in which ftate it remains.

In the road fide, about three miles from the town, are feveral pits of iron stone, about nine or ten feet deep. The ftratum lies above the coal, and is two feet thick. I was informed that the adventurers pay ten pounds per annum to the Lord of the Soil, for liberty of raifing it; that the laborers have fix fhillings per load for getting it; each load is about twenty strikes or bufhels, which yields a tun of metal. Coal, in these parts, is very cheap, a tun and a half being fold for five fhillings.

Changed horfes at Workfop and Tuxford; croffed the Trent at Dunham-Ferry, where it is broad but fhallow; the spring tides flow here, and rife about two feet, but the common tides never reach this place. Pafs along the Fofs-Dyke, or the canal opened by Henry I. to form a communication between the Trent and the Witham; it was opened t the year 1121, and extends from Lincoln to Torkefey; its length is eleven miles three quarters, the breadth between dike and dike at the top is about fixty feet, at bottom twenty-two; veffels from fifteen to thirty-five tuns navigate this canal, and by its means a confiderable trade in coals, timber, corn and wool, is carried on. In former times, the

Dugdale on embanking, 167.

I make use of this word, as Doctor Stukely conjectures this canal to have been originally a Roman work; and that another of the fame kind (called the Carf dike) communicated with it, by means of the Witham, which began a little below Wafhentro', three miles from Lincoln, and was continued thro' the fens as far as Peterborough. Stukely's Caraufus. 129. feqq. Ejufd. Account of Richard of Cirencester. 50.

perfons

perfons who had landed property on either fide were obliged to fcower it whenever it was choaked up, and accordingly we find presentments were made by juries in feveral fucceeding reigns for that purpose. Reach

LINCOLN, an antient but ill-built city, much fallen away from its former extent. It lies partly on a plain, partly on a very steep hill, on whofe fummit are the cathedral and the ruins of the caftle. The firft is a vaft pile of gothic architecture; has nothing remarkable on the outside, but within is of matchlefs beauty and magnificence: the ornaments are excessively rich, and in the finest gothic tafte; the pillars light, the centre lofty, and of a furprifing grandeur. The windows at the N. and S. ends very antient, but very elegant; one represents a leaf with its fibres, the other confifts of a number of small circles. There are two other antient windows on each fide the great ifle: the others, as I recollect, are modern. This church was, till of late years, much out of repair, but has just been restored in a manner that does credit to the Chapter. There is indeed a fort of arch near the W. end, that seems placed there (for the fame end as Bayes tells us he wrote one of his fcenes) meerly to fet off the rest.

The prospect from this eminence is very extenfive, but very barren of objects, a vast flat as far as the eye can reach, confifting of plains not the moft fertile, or of fens and moors: the last are

far

• The fens, naked as they now appear, were once well wooded; oaks have been found buried in them, which were fixteen