Three successive tours in the north of England
by Henry Skrine
This out of copyright short extract describes Skrine's travels after leaving Derrbyshire and entering Sheffield - with descriptions of the scenes presented, and occasional observations on the state of society.
TRAVELS IN DERBYSHIRE
... The charming vale of Ashbourne, the Gardens of Ilam and the paintings of Okeover, may also be visited from hence with ease; neither is the cavern of Castleton an inconsiderable object. We pursued the mazes of this cave under the auspices of a guide grown grey in his office; and our return to the blaze of day, after the temporary night we had experienced, was attended with its customary degree of surprise and admiration.
Passing the village of Hope in the midst of its rich valley, we mounted a dreary range of moors, from whence we descended to Sheffield, a dirty, unpleasant town, but rich in its manufactures.
Here the country began to improve; and after we had passed the town of Rotherham, famous for its iron works, we reached the ancient mansion of Thrybergh Park, situated on a fine eminence above the river Don, and commanding all the vale from Sheffield to the hills near Doncaster, bounded towards the north by the groves and buildings of Wentworth.
Having passed some pleasant days with our friends at this place, we set out with them to visit most of the fine objects with which the county of York abounds; and began with the splended display of Wentworth house and its environs.
Entering the park through a neat modern gateway, the lawn, wood and water opened upon us with the happiest effect, and the approach to the house was attended with sufficient grandeur. The front is truly magnificant, being nearly a copy of Lord Tylney's celebrated seat on Epping Forest; but the wings, which are very extensive, seem inadequate to the structure and deficient in taste. The whole also, both without and within, appears unfinished; and perhaps it ought to be lamented that too great an outline has been taken to be completed within the life, or by the taste, of any one possessor. An attempt was made by its late noble owner to remove a hill in front, which excludes great part of the distant prospect; but this, though partly effected, seems to have stagnated from the difficulty of the undertaking, and will probably never be accomplished. The views however, of the park and its extensive plantations, with two lofty pillars which marl its boundaries, are sufficiently striking; and well diversified with all the ornaments of wood, water, and fine swells of ground.
About half a mile from Wentworth House, we passed through the village of Wentworth, and soon afterwards reached an obelisk, directing our way through a well clumped avenue, across a heath to the groves which encompass Wentworth Castle, the fine seat of the Earl of Strafford. Much beauty as well as grandeur is exhibited in the approach, which partakes in the rural and forest like species of scenery, but somewhat ornamented, till it terminates in a spacious park, where a profusion of wood and water appears most judiciously disposed, and the two grand fronts of the house burst on the sight with almost unequalled magnificence. This great pile of building exhibits a happy specimen of the architecture prevailing in two different ages, which yet sufficiently correspond with each other to please the eye when united. The old front is a very extensive, bold plain building, containing several good apartments, together with the hall, extending through the house, and supported at each end by two pillars of foreign marble. The view from the windows, of this noble room is enchantingly striking, commanding the whole vale with its opposite hills, abundantly clothed with wood and villages, and decorated with several ornamental buildings, while the verdant lawn of the park sloping gradually to a great sheet of water, so dispersed as to assume the form of a serpentine river, and surrounded by noble groves of oaks, descending on each side of the house, strongly contrasts the wilder feature of the distant prospect. The new front forming an angle with the other, exhibits a beautiful specimen of the Grecian taste, in its chaste decoration, and its highly finished portico, resting on fluted Corinthian pillars. If I could mark a defect, it should consist in the frames of the windows being burnished with gold, which though admissable, in such a house as Chatsworth, is not compatible with the taste of a more modern building. The new apartments also, which are yet, in an unfinished state, are too uniform in point of size to equal the grandeur of the exterior. The gardens of this place, rising above the house, are well laid out, and are crowned with a high building imitating a castle, which contains a handsome room, and commands an unbounded prospect over a fine country; to embellish which, the beauty of the park and its adjacent woods contribute not a little.
Crossing the vale to which Wentworth Castle gives so great an ornament, we ascended the opposite hill to the pleasantly situated inn of Bank Top, and soon reached the gloomy town of Barnsley, covering a steep descent with its dirty streets and blackened with the tinge of its manufactures.
Here we deserted the great road, and pursued a wretched lane for the purpose of visiting Nostell Park, the seat of Sir Rowland Wynne, which ill repaid our curiousity. An overgrown and yet unfinished modern house in the midst of a bare and flat park, without features or keeping, could indeed interest a stranger, but little; and the surrounding country, crowded with collieries did not enliven the scene. ...
Source:Three successive tours in the north of England, and great part of Scotland. Interspersed with descriptions of the scenes they presented, and occasional observations on the state of society,by Henry Skrine,London, 1795. Based on information from English Short Title Catalogue. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Group.London : printed by W. Bulmer and Co., and sold by P. Elmsly, 1795.
See some photographs of Wentworth Castle , and the Stainborough Park estate which are described above
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