I Was Thus Obliged For A
Time To Serve The Farmers As A Laughing-Stock, Till At Length One Of
Them compassionately said, "Nay, nay, we must do him no harm, for he
is a stranger." The landlord, I suppose,
To excuse himself, as if
he thought he had perhaps before gone too far said, "Ay, God forbid
we should hurt any stranger," and ceased his ridicule; but when I
was going to drink his health, he slighted and refused my attention,
and told me, with a sneer, all I had to do was to seat myself in the
chimney-corner, and not trouble myself about the rest of the world.
The landlady seemed to pity me, and so she led me into another room
where I could be alone, saying, "What wicked people!"
I left this unfriendly roof early the next morning, and now quickly
proceeded to Matlock.
The extent of my journey I had now resolved should be the great
cavern near Castleton, in the high Peak of Derbyshire. It was about
twenty miles beyond Matlock.
The country here had quite a different appearance from that at
Windsor and Richmond. Instead of green meadows and pleasant hills,
I now saw barren mountains and lofty rocks; instead of fine living
hedges, the fields and pasture lands here were fenced with a wall of
grey stone; and of this very same stone, which is here everywhere to
be found in plenty, all the houses are built in a very uniform and
patriarchal manner, inasmuch as the rough stones are almost without
any preparation placed one upon another, and compose four walls, so
that in case of necessity, a man might here without much trouble
build himself a house.
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