At noon I got to Litchfield; an old fashioned town with narrow dirty streets, where for the first time, I faw round panes of glafs in the windows. The place, to me, wore an unfriendly appearance; I therefore made no ufe of my recommendation, but went straight through, and only bought some bread at a baker's, which I took along with me.

At night I reached Burton, where the famous Burton Ale is brewed. By this time I felt myself pretty well tired; and therefore proposed to stay the night here. But my courage failed me, and I dropped the refolution immediately on my entering the town. The houses and every thing else, feemed to wear as grand an appearance, almoft, as if I had been still in London. And yet the manners of fome of its inhabitants were fo thoroughly rustic and rude, that I faw them actually pointing at me with their fingers, as a foreigner. And now, to complete my chagrin and mortification, I came to a long street, where every body, on both fides of the way, were at their doors, and actually made me run the gauntlet through their enquiring looks. Some even hiffed at me as I paffed along. All my arguments to induce me to pluck up my courage, fuch as the certainty that I fhould never fee these people again, nor they me, were of no use: Burton beca.ne odious and almost infupportable to me; and the street appeared as long, and tired me as much, as if I had walked a mile. This strongly marked contemptuous treatment of a stranger, who was travelling through their country merely from the refpect he bore it, I experienced no where but at Burton.

How happy did I feel when I again found myfelf out of their town; although at that moment I did not know where I should find a lodging for the night, and was, befides, exceffively tired. But I purfued my journey, and still kept in the road to Derby, along a foot-path which I knew to be right. It led acrofs a very pleasant mead, the hedges of which were separated by ftiles, over which I was often obliged to clamber. When I had walked fome distance without meeting with an inn on the road, and it had already begun to be dark, I at last fat me down, near a small toll-house, or a turnpike-gate, in order to rest myself, and alfo to fee whether the man at the turnpike could and would lodge me.

After I had fat here a confiderable time, a farmer came riding by, and afked me where I wanted to go? I told him I was fo tired that I could go no farther. On this the good natured and truly hofpitable man, of his own accord, and without the least distrust, offered to take me behind him on his horfe, and carry me to a neighbouring inn, where, he faid, I might stay all night.

The horse was a tall one, and I could not eafily get up. The turnpike-man, who appeared to be quite decrepid and infirm, on this came out. I took it for granted, however, that he who appeared to have hardly fufficient ftrength to fupport himself, could not help me. This poor looking, feeble, old man, however, took hold of me with one arm, and lifted me with a fingle jirk upon the horse, fo quick and fo alertly, that it quite astonished me.

And now I trotted on with my charming farmer, who did not ask me one fingle impertinent queftion, but fet me down quietly at the inn, and immediately rode away to his own village, which lay to the left.

This inn was called the Bear, and not improperly; for the landlord went about, and growled at his people juft like a bear, fo that at first I expected no favourable reception. I endeavoured to gentle him a little by afking for a mug of ale, and once or twice drink ing to him. This fucceeded; he foon became fo very civil and converfable, that I began to think him quite a pleafant fellow. This device I had learnt of the Vicar of Wakefield,

7

field, who always made his hofts affable, by inviting them to drink with him. It was an expedient that fuited me alfo in another point of view, as the ftrong ale of England did not at all agree with me.

This inn keeper called me fir; and he made his people lay a feparate table for himfelf and me; for, he faid, he could fee plainly I was a gentleman.

In our chat, we talked much of George the fecond, who appeared to be his favourite king; much more fo than George the third. And among other things, we talked of the battle at Dettingen, of which he knew many particulars. I was obliged alfo, in my turn, to tell him flories of our great king of Pruflia, and his numerous armies; and alfo what fheep fold for in Pruffia. After we had been thus talking fome time chiefly on political matters, he all at once afked me if I could blow the French horn? This he fuppofed I could do, only because I came from Germany; for, he faid, he remembered, when he was a boy, a German had once stopped at the inn with his parents, who blew the French horn extremely well. He therefore fancied this was a talent peculiar to the Germans.

I removed this error, and we refumed our political topics; while his children and fervants, at some distance, listened with great respect to our conversation.

Thus I again fpent a very agreeable evening; and when I had breakfasted in the morning, my bill was not more than it had been at Sutton. I at length reached the common before Derby on Friday morning. The air was mild, and I feemed to feel myfelf uncommonly cheerful and happy. About noon, the romantic part of the country began to open upon me. I came to a lofty eminence, where, all at once, I saw a boundless prospect of hills before me; behind which fresh hills seemed always to arise, and to be infinite.

The ground now feemed undulatory, and to rife and fall like waves; when at the fummit of the rife, I feemed to be first raised aloft, and had an extensive view all around me; and the next moment, when I went down the hill, I loft it.

In the afternoon I faw Derby in the vale before me; and I was now an hundred and twenty-fix miles from London. Derby is but a small, and not very confiderable town. It was market-day when I got there; and I was obliged to pass through a crowd of people; but there was here no fuch odious curiofity, nor offenfive staring as at Burton. At this place too, I took notice, that I began to be always civilly bowed to by the chil dren of the villages through which I paffed.

From Derby to the baths of Matlock, which is one of the most romantic fituations, it was ftill fifteen miles. On my way thither, I came to a long and extensive village, which I believe was called Duffield. They here at least did not fhew me into the kitchen, but into the parlour; and I dined on cold victuals.

The prints and pictures which I have generally feen at these inns, are, I think, almoft always prints of the royal family, oftentimes in a group, where the king, as the father of the family, affembles his children around him; or elfe I have found a map of London, and not seldom the portrait of the king of Pruffia; I have met with it feveral times. You alfo fometimes fee fome of the droll prints of Hogarth. The heat being now very great, I feveral times in this village heard the commiferating exclamation of "good God Almighty!" by which the people expreffed their pity for me, as being a poor foot paffenger.

At night I again stopped at at inn on the road, about five miles from Matlock. I could easily have reached Matlock, but I wished rather to reserve the first view of the country till the next day, than to get there when it was dark.

But

But I was not equally fortunate in this inn, as in the two former. The kitchen was full of farmers, among whom, I could not distinguish the landlord, whose health I fhould otherwife immediately have drank. It is true I heard a country girl, who was alfo in the kitchen, as often as fhe drank, fay, " your health, gentleman all!" But I do not know how it was, I forgot to drink any one's health; which I afterwards found, was taken much a-mifs. The landlord drank twice to my health, fneeringly, as if to reprimand me for my incivility; and then began to join the rest in ridiculing me; who almoft pointed at me with their fingers. I was thus obliged for a time, to serve the farmers as a laughing stock, till at length one of them compaffionately faid, "nay, nay, we must do him no harm, for he is a ftranger." The landlord, I fuppofe, to excufe himself, as if he thought he had perhaps before gone too far, faid, "ay, God forbid we fhould hurt any ftranger," and ceafed his ridicule: but when I was going to drink his health, he flighted and refufed my attention, and told me with a fneer, all I had to do, was to feat myself in the chimney corner, and not trouble myfelf about the rest of the world. The landlady seemed to pity më; and fo fhe led me into another room where I could be alone, faying: "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 refolved fhould be the great cavern near Caftleton, in the high Peake of Derbyshire. It was about twenty miles beyond Matlock.

The country here had quite a different appearance, from that at Windfor and Richmond. Instead of green meadows and pleasant hills, I now faw barren mountains and lofty rocks; inftead of fine living hedges, the fields and pasture lands, here, were fenced with a wall of grey ftone; and of this very fame ftone, which is here every where to be found in plenty, all the houses are built in a very uniform and patriarchal manner, inasmuch as the rough ftones are almost without any preparation, placed one upon another, and compofe four walls; fo that in cafe of neceffity, a man might here, without much trouble, build himself an house. At Derby the houses seemed to be built of the fame stone.

The fituation of Matlock itself furpaffed every idea I had formed of it. On the right were fome elegant houses for the bathing company; and leffer cottages fufpended like bird's nests in a high rock. To the left, deep in the bottom, there was a fine, bold river, which was almost hid from the eye, by a majestic arch, formed by high trees, which hung over it. A prodigious stone-wall extended itself above a mile along its border; and all along, there is a fingularly romantic and beautiful, fecret walk, fheltered and adorned by many beautiful shrubs.

The fteep rock was covered at the top with green bushes; and now and then a fheep, or a cow, feparated from the grazing flock, came to the edge of the precipice, and peeped over it.

I have got in Milton's Paradife Loft, which I am reading regularly through, just to the part where he defcribes Paradife, when I arrived here; and the following paffage, which I read at the brink of the river, had a moft ftriking and pleasing effect on me. The landscape here described, was as exactly fimilar to that I faw before me, as if the poet had taken it from hence:

As with a rural mound, the champain head

Of a steep wilderness, whofe hairy fides

With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
Accefs denied.",
Book IV. V. 132.

From Matlock baths, you go over Matlock bridge, to the little town of Matlock itself, which, in reality, fcarcely deferves the name of a village, as it confifts of but. a few and miferable houses. There is here, on account of the baths, a number of horses and carriages, and a great thoroughfare. From hence I came through fome villages to a fmall town of the name of Bakewell. The whole country in this part is hilly and romantic. Often my way led me by fmall paffes, over aftonishing eminences, where, in the deep below me, I faw a few huts or cottages lying. The fencing of the fields with grey ftone, gave the whole, a wild, and not very promifing appearance. The hills were in general not wooded, but naked and barren; and you saw the flocks at a distance grazing on their fummit.

As I was coming through one of the villages, I heard a great farmer's boy eagerly afk another, if he did not think I was a Frenchman. It feemed as if he had been waiting fometime, to fee the wonder; for, he spoke as though his wifh was now accomplished.

When I was paft Bakewell, a place far inferior to Derby, I came by the fide of a broad river, to a fmall eminence, where a fine cultivated field lay before me.

This

field, all at once, made an indefcribable and very pleafing impreffion on me, which at first, I could not account for; till I recollected having feen, in my childhood, near the village where I was educated, a fituation strikingly fimilar to that now before me, here in England.

This field, as if it had been in Germany, was not enclosed with hedges; but every fpot in it was uninterruptedly diversified with all kinds of crops and growths of different green and yellowifh colours, which gave the whole a moft pleafing effect: but befides this large field, the general view of the country, and a thousand other little circumftances, which I cannot now particularly enumerate, ferved to bring back to my recollection the years of my youth.

Here I refted myself a-while; and when I was going on again, I thought of the place of my refidence; on all my acquaintances, and not a little on you, my dearest friend, and imagined what you would think and fay, if you were to see your friend thus wandering here all alone, totally unknown, and in a foreign land. And at that moment I first seriously felt the idea of distance: and the thought that I was now in England, so very far from all I loved, or who loved me, produced in me fuch fenfations, as I have not often felt.

It was perhaps the fame with you, my dearest friend, when on our journey to Hamburgh, we drove from Perlibeg, to your birth-place, the village of Boberow; where, among the farmers, you again found your own playmates; one of whom was now become the bailiff of the place. On your asking them, whether they knew you, one and all of them answered fo heartily. "O, yes, yes - why, you are Mafter Frederic." The pedantic schoolmafter, you will remember, was not fo frank. He expreffed himself in the stiff town phrafe of," he had not the honour of knowing you; as during your refidence in that village, when a child, he had not been in loco.

I now came through a little place of the name of Afhford, and wished to reach the small village of Wardlow, which was only three miles diftant; when two men came after me, at a distance, whom I had already feen at Matlock, who called to me to wait VOL. II. 4 B for

for them. These were the only foot paffengers, fince Mr Maud, who had offered to walk with me.

The one was a fadler, and wore a fhort brown jacket, and an apron, with a round hat. The other was very decently dreffed, but a very filent man; whereas the fadler was quite talkative.

I listened with aftonishment, when I heard him begin to speak of Homer, of Horace and of Virgil; and still more when he quoted feveral paffages, by memory, from cach of these authors; pronouncing the words, and laying his emphafis, with as much propriety as I could poffibly have expected, had he been educated at Cambridge, or at Oxford. He advifed me not to go to Wardlow, where I fhould find bad accommodations, but rather a few miles farther to Tidefwell, where he lived. This name is, by a fingular abbreviation, pronounced Tidfel, the fame as Birmingham, is called by the common people Brummidgeham.

We halted at a small ale house on the road-fide, where the fadler ftopped to drink, and talk; and from whence he was in no hafte to depart. He had the generofity and honour, however, to pay my fhare of the reckoning, becaufe, as he faid, he had brought me hither.

At no great diftance from the house, we came to a rifing ground, where my phi lofophical fadler made me obferve a profpect, which was perhaps the only one of the kind, in England. Below us was an hollow, not unlike an huge kettle, hollowed out of the furrounding mass of earth; and at the bottom of it, a little valley, where the green meadow was divided by a small rivulet that ran in ferpentine windings, its banks graced with the most inviting walks; behind a fmall winding, there is just seen an house where one of the most distinguished inhabitants of this happy vale, a great philofopher, lives retired, dedicating almost all his time to his favourite ftudies. He has tranfplanted a number of foreign plants into his grounds. My guide fell into al most a poetic rapture, as he pointed out to me the beauties of this vale, while our third companion, who grew tired, became impatient at our tediousness.

We were now led by a steep road to the vale, through which we passed; and then afcended again among the hills on the other fide.

Not far from Tidefwell, our third companion left us, as he lived in a neighbouring place. As we now at length faw Tidefwell lying before us in the vale, the fadler began to give me an account of his family; adding, by way of epifode, that he never quarrelled with his wife; nor had ever once threatened her with his fift, much lefs, ever lifted it against her. For his own fake, he faid, he never called her names; nor gave her the lie. I must here obferve, that it is the greatest offence you can give any one in England, to fay to him, you lie. To be called a liar, is a still greater affront; and you are a damned liar, is the very acme of vulgar abuse.

Just as in Germany, no one will bear the name of a scoundrel, or knave; or as in all quarrels, the bestowing fuch epithets on our adversary is the fignal for fighting; fo the term of a liar in England, is the most offenfive, and is always refented by blows. A man would never forgive himself, nor be forgiven, who could bear to be called a liar. Our Jackey in London once looked at me with aftonishment, on nay happening to fay to him in a joke, you are a liar. I affure you I had much to do, before I could pacify him.

If one may form a judgment of the character of the whole nation, from fuch little circumstances as this, I muft fay this rooted hatred of the word liar, appears to me to be no bad trait in the English.