The prospect hence southward is noble, and very comprehensive. Dudley castle, and many of the steep summits of the hills in Worcestershire, are in view; together with the mighty height of the Wrekin, which, from a plain, rises like a sugar-loaf to a narrow tip, and of very difficult ascent. The Watling-street runs under it. It is good land here, warm and woody, being just beyond the moor.
STAFFORD.
The castle here to the north west, a mile and half off, stands on a tip of rising ground very steep to the north-west; on which they have raised a keep, or high mount of earth: on that stood a square tower of stone, part of which remains. Here is the most magnificent prospect quite round, that one can imagine; the Malvern, the Wrekin, and many Welsh mountains, lift up their narrow heads beyond the utmost horizon, and above the clouds, as it seems. To the eastward is room for the castle, fenced too with a deep ditch. This was the work of Edward the elder, in the Saxon times; or rather his sister, the virago Elfleda, A. D. 913. A little church stands near the castle, called the Castle church, with a house or two near it. The situation of Stafford is low, in a broad marshy vale, where several rivers meet; and it has been fortified quite round, the waters of the rivers favouring that purpose. Two miles directly eastward is Beacon hill, a large parcel of rocks laid upon a level eminence, and covered with grass, having a steep ascent on every side, like a camp: it has a very pleasant prospect. The town-house here is a handsome large building. Upon St. Amor heath, under Beacon hill, a battle was fought in the civil wars.
We passed through Uttoxeter, where I could find nothing Roman, notwithstanding its name, cester; only heard of three gold coins found by the river side, not far off, some time since: it stands in a very fine country, watered by the Dove, a fruitful river, running through large meadows. Thence, in our way to Derby, we saw several large, flat Celtic barrows, upon a common at Sidbury. We rode over the meadows under Tutbury castle, famous for the bull-running on Aug. 10. where the people of two counties meet according to ancient usage, and contend for the honour of their counties, sometimes to bloodshed. The castle, once the seat of the dukes of Lancaster, stands on a very high precipice, looking north and west, strong by nature and art; very probably a Roman camp originally, as its name, bury, imports: it is not far from the Rigning-way. Tot signifies an eminence. Underneath it we went through Hilton. The lord of the manor there held of the dukes, by a ridiculous appearance before him, on the day after Christmas, whilst Jack of Hilton blowed the fire. Of this, of the king of the fidlers, of the bull-running, &c. see a large account in Dr. Plot. Mr. Gale says, this Jack of Hilton was a Saxon idol, called Pouster: it was made of brass, hollow, with a little hole, which when filled with water, and set before the fire, as an æolipile, vented its contents in vapor, rarified with great force. This was a good philosophical trick to delude the vulgar, and would appear like magic to them, ignorant of the cause.
Mr. Prescot of Chester showed us the impression of an intaglia found at Uttoxeter.
A mile and half off Derby we fell into the Rigning-street coming from Burton; which, leaving Derby a little on the east, passes over Nun-green to Derventio: there it crossed the river on a bridge, and thence went to Chesterfield.
DERVENTIO.
I find the Rigning proceeds over the common, by the mill and brook at the west end of Derby, and falls into a valley, which gives a gentle descent to the river side, every where else steep, over-against the old city: this, no doubt, is the reason why the Romans placed it in that very spot. The river is very broad and deep, equal to the Medway at Maidstone; the sides steep, so that a ford was not at all practicable: it is six or seven foot deep here at least. Darley slade is the name of the valley where the descent of the road is: they call the road the Foss hereabouts; which shows that no more is meant by the name, than that it is an artificial work: the Foss and Rigning therefore are but synonymous terms. A little up the river, beyond the city, was the bridge: in time of a frost, when there is clear ice, they can see the foundation of the piers very plainly, and a piece of one is still left. Thence the road proceeds over the pasture, where, after a fortnight’s dry weather in summer, they can distinguish it by the parched grass: it goes up the valley north of Bradsal, by Priory Hall, so to Chesterfield. Another such way, they say, went up the hill directly from the street of the city by Chadsden: part of it has been dug up near the town by the Crown ale-house, and its ridge is still visible. In the pasture over-against the house two square Roman wells were opened by a violent flood in Sir Simon Degg’s time: they were made of very broad flat stones, let into one another, and were paved at bottom with bricks set edge-wise, as they tell me. Roman coins are found in every road, foot-path, and ditch, about the town: they never dig in the gardens, or pastures, but they find them, together with rings and other antiquities. A man who kept the Duke’s-head ale-house found seven score at a time in digging a hole to set a post in but they are all dispersed. The city of Derventio is in possession of the deanery of Lincoln: the city walls were dug up in great quantities to mend the ways with but they were so strong, they were forced to blow them up with gunpowder. There is much painted glass in Morley church, a mile beyond Bradsal, and tombs of the Sacheverels. A piece of the wall of Derventio is left under Mr. Hodgkinson’s garden-house. I saw a piece of a vase of coral-coloured earth found there, also several pieces of pillars; and they meet with foundations wherever they dig. Mrs. Hodgkinson showed us a gold Anastasius, victoria aug. g. g. said to be found near Leicester and a silver Arcadius. I saw a large brass coin, found at Derventio, Diva Faustina. I find this city is exactly of the same dimensions as Manduessedum, 120 paces long, 80 broad.
I rode to the hill south of Littleover, upon the Rigning-way, which lies in a strait line under the eye as far as Etocetum, and the hills beyond it. Litchfield cathedral appears a little to the west of it. The valley of the Trent, by Burton, is bounded on each hand by great heights. Repton, the burial-place of Ethelbald and other Mercian kings, is in view. From the other side of the hill, north of Littleover, the road butts upon the valley of Bradsal, by Priory hall, directly over Derventio. The Rigning is the common road from Burton to Derby, till a little north of Littleover it descends the hill to the left of the common road, which there is drawn to the right on account of Derby. I saw a great number of coins found here; Trajan, Carausius, pax aug. Victorinus, Magnentius, Dioclesian, Valens, &c. Mr. Hodgkinson gave me a Constantine, soli invicto comiti, struck at London. I measured the castrum with exactness: it is 600 foot long, 500 broad. We saw the wall on the outside Mr. Lord’s house: the mortar is full of pebbles as big as nuts, but excessively hard. Darley Slade is a fine descent for the road. We saw the admirable silk-looms again: there is a large additional building to them. The five churches here have all tower-steeples: the new one, a spacious and neat pile; the tower belonging to it, of old work, is stately. There is an old chapel on the bridge. A weak chalybeat water was found out lately, two miles off. The market-place is a pretty square.
Entering the Peak country, where the rocks begin, we saw two tumuli on the edges of two opposite hills. We came by the great rock called Radcliff, where the hermitage is: these and the neighbouring rocks have a frightful appearance: on the back of them are some stones set upright, two and two, as if the remains of a Celtic avenue. All around, the hills are big with lead ore. The cattle drinking the water here are liable to a distemper called the belon: it is owing to the mercury that falls in the smoak of the smelting-mills: they become asthmatic, and frequently run mad. Cats, dogs, and poultry, are seized with it.