Master, who lives
very comfortably on the revenue he derives from this cavern, and is
able to keep a man to show it to strangers.
When I came home I sent for a shoemaker. There was one who lived
just opposite; and he immediately came to examine my shoes. He told
me he could not sufficiently wonder at the badness of the work, for
they were shoes I had brought from Germany. Notwithstanding this,
he undertook, as he had no new ones ready, to mend them for me as
well as he could. This led me to make a very agreeable acquaintance
with this shoemaker; for when I expressed to him my admiration of
the cavern, it pleased him greatly that in so insignificant a place
as Castleton there should be anything which could inspire people
with astonishment, who came from such distant countries; and
thereupon offered to take a walk with me, to show me, at no great
distance, the famous mountain called Mam Tor, which is reckoned
among the things of most note in Derbyshire.
This mountain is covered with verdure on its summit and sides; but
at the end it is a steep precipice. The middle part does not, like
other mountains, consist of rock, but of a loose earth, which gives
way, and either rolls from the top of the precipice in little
pieces, or tears itself loose in large masses, and falls with a
thundering crash, thus forming a hill on its side which is
continually increasing.
From these circumstances probably is derived the name of Mam Tor,
which literally signifies Mother Hill; for Tor is either an
abbreviation of, or the old word for, Tower, and means not only a
lofty building, but any eminence. Mam is a familiar term, that
obtains in all languages, for Mother; and this mountain, like a
mother, produces several other small hills.
The inhabitants here have a superstitious notion that this mountain,
notwithstanding its daily loss, never decreases, but always keeps
its own, and remains the same.
My companion told me a shocking history of an inhabitant of
Castleton who laid a wager that he would ascend this steep
precipice.
As the lower part is not quite so steep, but rather slanting
upwards, he could get good hold in this soft loose earth, and
clambered up, without looking round. At length he had gained more
than half the ascent, and was just at the part where it projects and
overlooks its basis. From this astonishing height the unfortunate
man cast down his eyes, whilst the threatening point of the rock
hung over him, with tottering masses of earth.
He trembled all over, and was just going to relinquish his hold, not
daring to move backwards or forwards; in this manner he hung for
some time between heaven and earth, surrounded by despair. However,
his sinews would bear it no longer, and therefore, in an effort of
despair, he once more collected all his strength and got hold of
first one loose stone, and then another, all of which would have
failed him had he not immediately caught hold of another. By these
means, however, at length, to his own, as well as to the
astonishment of all the spectators, he avoided almost instant and
certain death, safely gained the summit of the hill, and won his
wager.
I trembled as I heard this relation, seeing the mountain and the
precipice in question so near to me, I could not help figuring to
myself the man clambering up it.
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. It is a spring or well, which in
general flows or runs underground imperceptibly, and then all at
once rushes forth with a mighty rumbling or subterranean noise,
which is said to have something musical in it, and overflows its
banks; lastly Chatsworth, a palace or seat belonging to the Dukes of
Devonshire, at the foot of a mountain whose summit is covered with
eternal snow, and therefore always gives one the idea of winter, at
the same time that the most delightful spring blooms at its foot.
