[157]
with the black heath around, and produce a most singular effect. It was not, however, till we had nearly reached the place, that we discovered it; as it lies in a broad hollow, with hills swelling out to a great height on every quarter of it. From the summit of that down which the road descends to the town, we had Buxton spread beneath us like a map; a straggling place, consisting of inns and shops for the accommodation of the company, with the elegant addition (made a few years since by the present Duke of Devonshire, at the enormous expence of 120,000l.) of a noble crescent, and a grand series of stables behind it. This building is of stone dug on the spot, and faced with fine free-stone from a quarry one mile and a half from Buxton, on the Disley road. It consists of three stories, the lowest rustic, forming a beautiful arcade or piazza, as a shelter from the sun and heat; within which are shops. Ionic pilasters form the divisions between the windows above, and support an elegant balustrade that surmounts the front. In the centre of this is the Devonshire arms in stone topped with a pair of natural stag's antlers. This decoration gave occasion to the whimsical reproof of an hypocritical taylor some years ago, who, neglecting the admonition of Apelles, " Nesutor ultra crepidam," committed a mistake somewhat similar to the man
