DERBYSHIRE

The Itinerant.

Engraved by J. Stockwell from an Original Drawing by W. Turner.

Published Oct. 1795 by J. Stockwell N.B. Newmans Street.

MATLOCK.

MATLOCK.

THE village of MATLOCK occupies a moft romantic situation in Derbyshire, in the neighbourhood of that flupendous pile of rocks called the Torr, on the banks of the Derwent, which is here a limpid stream wandering among broken fragments of earth in a very fantastic manner, forming a scenery altogether picturefque and delightful. The foil is, however, wild and barren; but that for which this place is moft celebrated, is the unufual petrifying property of its warm springs, and the vaft maffes of petrifications that every where interrupt their courfe, such as are not to be found in any other part of the kingdom; thefe are manufactured for ornamental furniture, into vafes, obelifs, &c. and may be confidered as a flaple commodity of the neighbourhood.

The medicinal virtues of the waters of MATLOCK were firft noticed about the year 1698, when a bath was built, and the original poſſeffor only erected a ſmall suite of rooms for the uſe of occafional bathers; ſince that period, however, the town has rapidly continued to rife in celebrity, and is now diſtinguifhed by every elegance of accommodation peculiar to other places of a ſimilar deſcription, viz. public rooms, a theatre, &c. The waters of MATLOCK are chiefly commended both for drinking and bathing in all impurities of the blood, relaxations, rheumatifms, want of appetite, and indigeflion. The company who refort here during the ſummer months are more ſelect than numerous, inafmuch as the place, on account of its fituation, is better ſuited to a contemplative than a diffipated temper of mind.

Notwithstanding the ſterility of the foil, the hills about MATLOCK are much enriched with wood, which render the land-ſcape on every ſide beautiful. The town itſelf has a very ſingular appearance from the houſes being neceffarily ſituated one overlooking the other, on account of the irregularity of the rocky ſurfaces on which they are erected. It is long and ſtraggling, and from the bridge to the bath near a mile; its diſtance from London is about 142 miles, and from Derby 16.