A View of Matlock Bath in Derby
shire
one of "a Variety of Copper plate
cuts, neatly engraved". Artist and engraver not known.
The following description has been extracted from "A
New Display of the Beauties of England ...", where the
engraving was published.[1]
"Matlock [Bath] is a most delightful village,
and is much celebrated for its bath, to which many people resort
in the summer. It is situated near the river Derwent, and consists
of a large range of elegant houses, built in the most uniform
manner, with stables and out-houses. The bath is divided into
two rooms, one for the gentlemen and one for the ladies, and
over them are very convenient rooms for the use of those whose
disorders oblige them to bathe frequently. The ladies bath
is finely arched over with stone ; and at one end of it are
several convenient rooms, with apartments for servants.
The assembly room is on the right hand, and at the top is
a music-room, to which you ascend by a grand staircase. There
is a fine terrace before the house, and near it is a place
where the gentlemen divert themselves in the evenings. From
this place there is a rocky shelf, descending to the river,
which is extremely rapid, and runs with such a murmuring noise,
as fills the mind with a pleasing admiration".
William Bray provides a sense of scale. "The
bath is twenty yards above the river, and from it to the top
of the rocks on the west side of the house is 120 yards perpendicular,
where stand some small cottages" (also quoted on Old
Bath 1779).
The cottages are not included in this view, but a rather curious
tent like structure is to the right of the hotel.
The open ground above the River Derwent was littered with boulders
- these were actually pieces of tufa, a stone that can
become very hard. The river's edge appears to have been very
rocky at that time and there are large pieces of tufa in the
river itself. Bray noted that:
"All along this course of warm waters,
from their first eruption down to the river, are vast heaps
of petrifactions, which are soft before they are exposed
to the air, and very light, but afterwards turn to a smoaky
blue colour ... when they [i.e. the waters] begin
to lose their warmth and motion, the petrifactions are found".
He also observed that the situation of the New Bath was much
pleasanter than that of the Old Bath, but the Old Bath was
much larger.
The outflow/cascade from the old bath's thermal spring into
the river can be seen just below the centre of the engraving.
The ferry crossing, which several early writers mention using
to cross over to the Lovers' Walks, would have been to the right
of this image.
The hotel's buildings (enlargement).
The oval stone commemorating the Old Bath's rebuilding by
Smith & Pennell seems to be on a different part of the
building from later images. |
The hotel was a notable meeting place and 1776 was the year
when a significant Parliamentary Act came into being for the
district, legislation that would have major consequences. The
Commissioners met at the Old Bath. Robert Mason was the hotel's
proprietor at this time.
Derby Mercury 29 December 1775 to January 5 1776
NOTICE is hereby GIVEN,
That the Commissioners appointed in and by an Act of Parliament,
intitled "An Act for dividing and inclosing certain
Commons or Pieces of waste Ground, in the Parishes of Bonsall,
Wirksworth, and Matlock, in the County of Derby," intend
to meet at Matlock Old Bath, on Wednesday the Seventeenth
Day of January next, for the Purpose of putting the said
Act into Execution.
Derby, Dec. 30th, 1775.
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Images from the same book or in other volumes of the work:
 Eighteenth
Century Lists: Statute Labour for Mending the Highways, 1761.
Amongst the people listed were the "Injoyers of Ould
Bath".
The proprietors of the Old Bath and Robert Mason are mentioned in
Eighteenth Century Lists: Poor Rate, 1784 (part 2)
Mr. Mason's Hotel is mentioned by a gentleman
called H. Rooke in on site extracts of The
Gentleman's Magazine Library, 1731-1868, pp.46-7
See FAQ: Tufa for a description of how tufa is formed.
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