Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INTRODUCTION THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS WORK. The Peak of Derbyshire has been often visited by the British tourist, and the pencil and the pen have occasionally been employed to illustrate its most frequented scenery; hitherto, however, it has not been regarded as a place of primary consideration. Gilpin, whose mind was sensibly alive to all that is grand and picturesque in landscape, and who may deservedly be held in the highest estimation as an intelligent and entertaining traveller, has treated Derbyshire with apparent indifference. After passing hastily through several of its valleys, and spending an hour or two on the tops of some of its mountains, he has devoted a few pages only, in one of his works, to a brief detail of its beauties. His accurate and elegant descriptions of Dove-dale and Matlock, leave his readers to regret that he travelled over so small a portion of this remote part of the kingdom, and gave so little of his time and talents to the investigation of those romantic dells with which it abounds. The wild scenery on the banks of the Wye, which every where presents a rich variety of picturesque beauty, occasionally marked with great grandeur, is scarcely noticed by him. Even the magnificent mansion of Haddon, that venerable record of the hospitable manners and Xll INTRODUCTION. customs of our old English baronage, occupies only a few short sentences. This veteran tourist passed through the Peak of Derbyshire immediately on his return from a journey to the Lakes, at a time when probably nothing less stupendous than the objects which he had left behind, could have attracted his attention. Derbyshire, however, notwithstanding the neglect it has experienced, is richly stored with the most valuable materials for picturesque purposes. The wildness of its...