"In that species of beauty which in landscape scenery approaches to grandeur, it is unequalled in Derbyshire. The parts of which it is composed are of the first order of fine things, and they are combined with a felicity that but rarely occurs in nature. Scarthing Rock, the woods of Willersley Castle, Matlock High Tor, the hills of Masson, Crich, and Riber are all noble objects; and the rude masses that constitute the foreground of the picture are thrown together, and grouped and coloured in a manner strikingly picturesque. I have scaled the highest eminences in the mountainous districts of Derbyshire—seen from their summits the lovely dales that repose in H tranquil beauty at their base—marked the multitude of hills included within the wide horizon they command, and my heart has thrilled with emotion at the sight; but not an eminence that I ever before ascended—not a prospect, however rich, and varied, which I thence beheld—is at all comparable with the view from Stonnis."[814]
[814] Derbyshire Tourist’s Guide, p. 42.
Every one possessed of taste and feeling who gazes upon this glorious landscape will partake, in a greater or lesser degree, of the emotions thus finely expressed by the ardent lover of the sublime and beautiful in nature; but to the natural philosopher the physical characters of this enchanting region are fraught with a deeper interest, and present subjects for the most profound contemplation. To him the rocks and the mountains are the grand monuments of nature, on which are inscribed the history of the physical revolutions of the globe which took place in periods incalculably remote and long antecedent to the creation of the human race. They present to his mind a succession of events, each so vast as to be beyond his finite comprehension; ages of tranquillity, with lands and seas teeming with life and happiness, succeeded by periods in which the earthquake and the volcano spread universal ruin and destruction—and they teach him that all these awful changes bear the impress of the Almighty’s hand, and were subservient to the eternal purpose of rendering this planet the fit abode of man, during his mortal pilgrimage.
[CHAPTER XXV.]
NOTES FOR A GEOLOGICAL EXCURSION TO CHARNWOOD FOREST, TO EXAMINE THE CENTRAL GROUP OF PLUTONIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND; AND THE CARBONIFEROUS AND CAMBRIAN STRATA, THROUGH WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN ERUPTED.
In the central county of our Island, within a hundred miles of the Tertiary deposits of the South-east of England, a group of plutonic rocks emerges from beneath the strata of limestone, coal, and red marl which constitute the principal geological features of the midland provinces, and rises up into the bold and picturesque range of hills of Charnwood Forest. Almost the entire series of British rocks is now brought by the railroads within a few hours distance of the metropolis; and the geological inquirer may, in the course of a fortnight, examine in their natural situations the Eocene deposits of the London and Hampshire basins—the Cretaceous and Wealden strata of Sussex, Kent, and Surrey—the Oolitic, Liassic, Triassic, Permian, and Carboniferous systems—the Mountain limestone and its metalliferous treasures—Traps, or ancient lavas, and their effects—strata of the Silurian and Cambrian systems—and, lastly, Granite, Syenite, Porphyry, and other modifications of the plutonic or igneous rocks. The present notes refer to two or three days spent in exploring the country around Leicester, and in examining the granite of Mount Sorel[815]—the slate quarries of Swithland—the syenitic crags of Bardon Hill—the porphyritic masses of Markfield and Grooby—and the coal-mines of Whitwick. On our previous excursion by railway to Leicester (see Excursion to Matlock, p. 867), the order of the succession of the strata from the metropolis to that town was described; on this occasion it will only be requisite to direct the traveller’s attention to the abrupt isolated hills, by Hinckley, Grooby, and the craggy peaks of Charnwood Forest, in the distance, on the left of the railroad, before reaching Leicester. If a pedestrian excursion be resolved upon, three or four days at least will be required to follow the route presently pointed out; in a carriage and pair, it may be accomplished in a long summer s day, by starting from Leicester at six, and returning by ten or eleven.[816]
[815] Sorel, a corruption of Soar Hill, or hill on the river Soar.
[816] It maybe well to remind the visitor that at Leicester the following objects are worthy of notice:—the Roman Milestone, now placed in the High-street; the remains of the Roman Wall; and the Blue Boar Hotel, where Richard III. slept the night before the battle of Bosworth.