At its summit are the decayed wall and
towers of an ancient castle which formerly stood on this rock, and
at its foot the monstrous aperture or mouth to the entrance of the
cavern, where it is pitch dark when one looks down even at mid-day.
As I was standing here full of admiration, I perceived, at the
entrance of the cavern, a man of a rude and rough appearance, who
asked me if I wished to see the Peak, and the echo strongly
reverberated his coarse voice.
Answering as I did in the affirmative, he next further asked me if I
should want to be carried to the other side of the stream, telling
me at the same time what the sum would be which I must pay for it.
This man had, along with his black stringy hair and his dirty and
tattered clothes, such a singularly wild and infernal look, that he
actually struck me as a real Charon. His voice, and the questions
he asked me, were not of a kind to remove this notion, so that, far
from its requiring any effort of imagination, I found it not easy to
avoid believing that, at length, I had actually reached Avernus, was
about to cross Acheron, and to be ferried by Charon.
I had no sooner agreed to his demand, than he told me all I had to
do was boldly to follow him, and thus we entered the cavern.
To the left, in the entrance of the cavern, lay the trunk of a tree
that had been cut down, on which several of the boys of the town
were playing.
Our way seemed to be altogether on a descent, though not steep, so
that the light which came in at the mouth of the cavern near the
entrance gradually forsook us, and when we had gone forward a few
steps farther, I was astonished by a sight which, of all other, I
here the least expected. I perceived to the right, in the hollow of
the cavern, a whole subterranean village, where the inhabitants, on
account of its being Sunday, were resting from their work, and with
happy and cheerful looks were sitting at the doors of their huts
along with their children.
We had scarcely passed these small subterranean houses when I
perceived a number of large wheels, on which on week days these
human moles, the inhabitants of the cavern, make ropes.
I fancied I here saw the wheel of Ixion, and the incessant labour of
the Danaides.
The opening through which the light came seemed, as we descended,
every moment to become less and less, and the darkness at every step
to increase, till at length only a few rays appeared, as if darting
through a crevice, and just tinging the small clouds of smoke which,
at dusk, raised themselves to the mouth of the cavern.
