We put up at the old Bath Hotel,--an immense house, with passages of such
extent that at first it seemed almost a day's journey from parlor to
bedroom. The house stands on a declivity, and after ascending one pair
of stairs, we came, in travelling along the passageway, to a door that
opened upon a beautifully arranged garden, with arbors and grottos, and
the hillside rising steep above. During all the time of our stay at
Matlock there was brilliant sunshine, and, the grass and foliage being in
their freshest and most luxuriant phase, the place has left as bright a
picture as I have anywhere in my memory.
The morning after our arrival we took a walk, and, following the sound of
a church-bell, entered what appeared to be a park, and, passing along a
road at the base of a line of crags, soon came in sight of a beautiful
church. I rather imagine it to be the place of worship of the Arkwright
family, whose seat is in this vicinity,--the descendants of the famous
Arkwright who contributed so much towards turning England into a cotton
manufactory. We did not enter the church, but passed beyond it, and over
a bridge, and along a road that ascended among the hills and finally
brought us out by a circuit to the other end of Matlock village, after a
walk of three or four miles. In the afternoon we took a boat across the
Derwent,--a passage which half a dozen strokes of the oars accomplished,
--and reached a very pleasant seclusion called "The Lovers' Walk.
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