For a simple afternoon, there is nothing within easy reach more delicious than Miller's Dale itself, the significance of which name is really the lucid and babbling Wye, in its sweetest portion, and the unique recess which holds Chee Tor, not to mention the pretty Wormhill springs. The entrance to the vale is close to the station, the path lying first through a long-extended grove of trees, then changing to the green turf of a most beautiful seclusion, the ground rising in pleasant slopes, smooth except where broken by uncovered rock, while by our side, all the way, the stream runs peacefully, circling at times in quiet pools, or quickening in ripples that seem to speak, the shallower parts decked with pebbles that are covered, when the sun shines, with lacework of leaf-shadows. The springs are at the foot of the slope where a steep and rugged path leads to Wormhill. The water wells out of the ground just as in the streets of a city when some great conduit underneath has given way, being derived, there can be no doubt, from some far-distant original source, whence it has travelled by secret subterranean channels. The phenomenon is in Derbyshire by no means an uncommon one. Streams in several places suddenly lose themselves in the ground, bursting out again, it may be miles away, after the manner of the Guadalquiver;--here, at Wormhill, it appears, nevertheless, to have its most pleasing illustration. The Tor is found in the magnificent gorge in front, a stupendous mass of limestone, rising vertically from the water's edge, with a grand curvilinear outline of nearly a quarter of a mile in extent, the surface uniformly grey and bare, except for scattered ivy and a few iron-like yews that are anchored in the crevices. Upon the opposite side there is a corresponding cliff, but less precipitous, and clothed in every part with half-pendulous shrubs and trees. This wonderful scene may be reached also from Ashwood Dale, starting from Buxton, and when about half-way to Bakewell creeping down on the left to the margin of the stream. The path is romantic, but cannot be recommended, being in many parts difficult and here and there decidedly perilous. [Illustration] Footnote [18: In his very interesting "Reminiscences of a Lifetime in Marple and the Neighbourhood," 1882, a contribution to our local literature which in the accuracy and variety of its entertaining details does the author genuine credit.] [Illustration] CHAPTER XII. THE NORTH-EASTERN HIGHLANDS. My heart leaps up when I behold The rainbow in the sky-- So was it when I was a boy; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! WORDSWORTH.