Not Far From Hence Is Elden Hole, A Cavity Or Pit, Or Hole In The
Earth, Of Such A Monstrous Depth, That If You Throw In A Pebble
Stone, And Lay Your Ear To The Edge Of The Hole, You Hear It Falling
For A Long Time.
As soon as it comes to the bottom it emits a sound as if some one
were uttering a loud sigh.
The first noise it makes on its being
first parted with affects the ear like a subterranean thunder. This
rumbling or thundering noise continues for some time, and then
decreases as the stone falls against first one hard rock and then
another at a greater and a greater depth, and at length, when it has
for some time been falling, the noise stops with a kind of whizzing
or a hissing murmur. The people have also a world of superstitious
stories relating to this place, one of which is that some person
once threw into it a goose, which appeared again at two miles'
distance in the great cavern I have already mentioned, quite
stripped of its feathers. But I will not stuff my letters with many
of these fabulous histories.
They reckon that they have in Derbyshire seven wonders of nature, of
which this Elden Hole, the hill of Mam Tor, and the great cavern I
have been at are the principal.
The remaining four wonders are Pool's Hole, which has some
resemblance to this that I have seen, as I am told, for I did not
see it; next St. Anne's Well, where there are two springs which rise
close to each other, the one of which is boiling hot, the other as
cold as ice; the next is Tide's Well, not far from the town of that
name through which I passed.
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