BEAUTIFUL TOMB. 229 to the memory of his only daughter, a child of six years of age. It has inscriptions upon it in English, Latin, French, and Italian. The lines under the pedestal are:— TO PENELOPE, Only child of Sir Brooke and Dame Susannah Boothby, She was, in form and intellect, most exquisite. The unfortunate Parents ventured their all on this frail bark, and the wreck was total. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, and the trouble came. A tourist has so happily delineated this monument, that I cannot help transcribing his words: "Nobody ought ever to overlook this tomb, as it is perhaps the most interesting and pathetic object in England. Simplicity and elegance appear in the workmanship; tenderness and innocence in the image. On a marble pedestal and slab, like a low table, is a mattress, with the CHILD lying on it, both likewise in white marble. Her cheek, expressive of suffering mildness, reclines on the pillow, and her little fevered hands gently rest on each other near to her head. The plain and only drapery is a frock, the skirt flowing easily out before, and a ribbon-sash, the knot twisted forward, as it were, by the restlessness of pain, and the two ends spread out in the same direction with the frock. The delicate naked feet are carelessly folded over each other, and the whole appearance is as if she had just turned in the tossings of her illness to seek a cooler or an easier place of rest. The man whom this does not affect need not proceed any farther in his tour; his heart is not formed to relish the beauties either of nature or of art! This writer then adds, alluding to the inscriptions, "To all these expressions of grief might not one be added-Weep not; the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth!" Surely in such cases it is our duty, as well as privilege, to have recourse to the consolations of Christianity. In the vicinity of Ashbourne lies Dovedale, a spot known far and near for its romantic scenery. A foot-path winds along its side, and sometimes presents a tremendous declivity. At one of these places, a few years ago, an Irish Dean on horseback, with a lady behind him, was by accident thrown down a precipice and dashed to pieces! The lady was saved by catching hold of a twig: the shattered remains of the unfortunate clergyman were interred in Ashbourne church, where I saw a plain stone dedicated to his memory. Not far from this dale, Hume procured a place of retreat for that ingenious novelist, Rousseau; it was suited to his genius, affording him scope for his favourite study, botany; and securing to him an asylum from the bustle of the world. From this abode, however, he, with an eccentricity allied to insanity, soon issued, inflamed by some imaginary affront, and heaping reproaches on the persons to whom he stood most indebted for an attention to his welfare and felicity. After breakfast we mounted our horses, and set SEAT OF LORD SCARSDALE. 231 out for Keddleston, close to which is the seat of Lord Scarsdale, the glory of Derbyshire! This is a noble mansion, of modern erection, and is thought to have cost two hundred thousand pounds! The house-keeper, a polite old lady, conducted us through the apartments. The front, built of white stone, is extensive. In the centre is a flight of steps, over which is a pediment supported by four lofty pillars of the Corinthian order. On each side a corridore connects a pavilion with the body of the house, and, forming the two wings of the steps, leads into a magnificent hall, behind which is a circular saloon. On the left are a music-room, drawing-room, and a library, and at the end of the corridore, the private apartments of Lord and Lady Scarsdale, and their young family. On the right of the hall are the diningroom, state dressing-room, a bed-chamber, and another dressing-room, the kitchen, and offices. In the hall are eight fluted pillars, of the variegated marble of the county! They are twenty-five feet high and two feet six inches in diameter. The room itself is sixty feet by thirty, decorated with designs from HOMER, the revered father of poetry ! In the library, over the chimney, is a piece of Rembrandt. It is the story of Daniel brought before Nebuchadnezzar to interpret his dream, and contains eight or nine small whole length figures. We marked the composed majesty of the king, who is seated in a chair of state; the astonishment and terror of his great men sitting near him; the earnestness of Daniel kneeling before him; in 1 232 JUVENILE TOURIST. short, the whole piece, is striking beyond expression. The kitchen also, which is spacious, has this motto, which ought to be written up in all kitchens, and attended to by all servants-waste not! want not! From the principal front of the house, the eye is conducted by a beautiful slope to water, which is seen tumbling down a cascade, encircling an island planted with firs at the edge, falling over rough rocks; and then forming a large sheet of water, on which is a yacht. Below is a small rustic building, over the well and bath, used for scorbutic cases by persons who are accommodated at the inn built by his lordship in the road, and from which an avenue through the park leads to the bath. In the back front of the house, on the edge of the rising ground, is a plantation, beginning to shew itself in great beauty. Derby, at the distance of three miles, we reached to dinner. This town is large, populous, and on the whole well built, containing five parish churches. All-saints is a noble structure, erected in the reign of Queen Mary, and its Gothic tower possesses uncommon beauty. It is said to have been built at the sole expence of the bachelors and maidens in the town; hence it was formerly the custom, when a young woman, a native of the place, was married, for the bachelors to ring the bells! A proper tribute this of respect to the holy state of matrimony. The town was an ancient borough by prescription, and in the reign of Charles the First, received a charter of incorpora tion. It has a weekly market on Fridays, is 126 miles from London, and stands on the Derwent, nearly in the centre of the kingdom. Derby has a silk mill on the river erected by Sir Thomas Loombe, who, at an immense expense and great hazard, brought the model from Italy. It is fixed in a large house, six stories high, and consists of 26,586 wheels, with 97,746 movements, all driven by one large water wheel, fixed on the outside of the house. It goes round three times in one minute, and each time works 73,726 yards of silk thread, so that in twenty-four hours, it works 318,496,320 yards of silk thread, under the management of only one regulator. It has been of such service to the silk trade, that Sir Thomas had the benefit of it during his life; but the parliament having allowed him fourteen thousand pounds, as a further reward for his services, he suffered a model of it to be taken. This model now lies in the Record Office at the Tower, for the benefit of the public, any person being allowed to inspect it, so that there are at present several mills of the kind erected in different parts of the kingdom. Its China manufactory also does honour to human ingenuity. Nor must I omit to mention the skill displayed in the formation of spars, marbles, and petrifactions, with which the country abounds, into vases, urns, pillars, and columns, of exquisite beauty! They are, however, exceedingly brittle, as I found by experience; the purchaser, therefore, must be careful to secure them from injury. |