Sola mihi Buxtona placet, Buxtona Britannis
Undæ Grani, Aponus, Psaulia, Calderiæ.
About half a mile off is that stupendous cavern called Pool’s Hole, under a great mountain: the entrance at the foot thereof is very low and narrow, so that you must stoop to get in: but immediately it dilates into a wide and lofty concavity, which reaches above a quarter of a mile end-wise and farther, as they tell us: some old women with lighted candles are guides in this Cimmerian obscurity: water drops from the roof every where, and incrusts all the stones with long crystals and fluors: whence a thousand imaginary figures are shown you, by the name of lions, fonts, lanterns, organs, flitch of bacon, &c. At length you come to the Queen of Scots pillar, as a terminus of most people’s curiosity. A stream of water runs along the middle, among the fallen rocks, with a hideous noise, re-echoed from all sides of the horrid concave: on the left hand is a sort of chamber, where they say Pool, a famous robber, lived. We may very well apply these verses to the place:
At specus & Caci detecta apparuit ingens
Regia, & umbrosæ penitus patuere cavernæ:
Non secus ac si qua penitus vi terræ dehiscens
Infernas reseret sedes & regna recludat
Pallida, diis invisa, superque immane barathrum
Cernatur—— Virg. Æn. viii.
Within appears old Pool’s tremendous cave,