BUXTON, a village in Derbyshire, much celebrated for its mineral waters, lies in a barren valley, surrounded with bleak and uncultivated mountains, about thirty-two miles north of Derby. In describing the approach to this place, a modern writer remarks : " All before us appeased the most forlorn nakedness ; and had w e not observed some marks of human industry in the stone divisions of the fields, •c should have conceived that the country round was one wide extent of hopeless sterility." The handsome appearance of the town, howet er. and the comfortable accommodations of its inns, in some measure repay its visitors for the dreariness of its NIC1111 ty. A magnificent range of buildings, in the form of a crescent, has been erected within the last thirty y ears by the Duke of Devonshire, solely for the reception of the company who resort every season to the wells. It con tains three elegant hotels, and sonic private lodging hou ses ; and in the front is a beautiful colonnade, which is seven feet wide within the pillars, and eleven feet high. This edifice was designed and executed under the direc tion of Air Carr ; and, together with the offices behiLd, which arc likewise remarkably elegant, is said to have cost nearly 120,000/. It displays no affected ornament, but is finished in a style of elegant simplicity. Besides the crescent, there is another building called the //Gil, which was erected in the 16th century by the Eall of S:trewsburv, for the accommodation of visitants, but which was rebuilt and enlarged in 1670 by the Elul of Devonshire. contains the baths, a al is also one of the principal hotels for toe reception of company. he baths are five in Lumber ; the gentlemen's bath, the ladies bath. one for the poor, and two private baths. The water is generally drank at St Ann's well, all elegem little building in the antilue style, opposite to the cres,ent, where it is coutcyed fro n the origh.al into a white nimble basin!. This we;i is rt. arded one of the seven• wonders of the Peak, fro.n Lie circumstance that hot and cold spring water may be obtained within twelve inches of each other.
Buxton has a small manufacture of cotton, but its chief support arises from the visits of strangers, who are annually attracted by the benefit of its waters, or the cu riosities of the adjacent country. During the bathing season, which commences in June, and generally con cludes in October, the amusements of Buxton consist in assemblies and plays, of which there are three every ; and for the diversion of gentlemen a pack of har riers arc kept by subscription.
The warm springs of Buxton were known to the Ro mans, as appears from several ancient roads concentrat ing at this spot, and also from the remains of an ancient bath, which was discovered here in 1781, and other spe cimens of Roman architecture ; and they are supposed by Dr Gale to be the Aquis of Ravennas. They seem, however, to have been entirely deserted during the mid dle ages ; and it was not until the sixteenth century that they were again brought into notice, by Dr Jones, who in 1572 published a treatise on their beneficial qualities, entitled, " The Benefit of the Ancient Bathes of Buck stones, which cureth most grievous Sickness." Since that
time their celebrity has continued to increase, and they have been found very beneficial in various diseases, par ticularly in gout, rheumatism, nephritic and bilious disor ders, and debility of the stomach and intestines. The springs yield a most plentiful supply of water, and have been calculated to throw up about sixty gallons in a mi nute. The water is used both externally and internally by invalids, and is also employed in the principal hotels for making tea, and other common purposes. When drank, however, in considerable quantities, it is apt to occasion feverish symptoms, and is found to possess a binding and heating quality. Dr Denman recommends it to be taken in moderate portions ; and observes, that, " in common, two glasses, each of the size of the third part of a pint, are as much as ought to be drank before breakfast, at the distance of forty minutes between each ; and one or two of the same glasses between breakfast and dinner will be quite sufficient." In the baths the water rises through the crevices of the floor, and its tempera ture is almost invariably at 82° of Fahrenheit's thermo meter ; but that which is drank at the well loses about three-fourths of a degree in its passage from the spring to the marble basin. This water is perfectly colourless, and without either taste or smell ; and, except its tempe rature, has scarcely any quality to distinguish it from the purest common springs. According to Dr Pearson's analysis, a gallon of it, when evaporated, deposited 16 grains of sediment, of which 111 were calcareous earth, 22 vitriolic selcnite, and nearly 2 sea salt ; and the same gentleman was the first who ascertained the nature of the air-bubbles which constantly rise with the water and break at the surface, and which he found to consist al most entirely of azotic gas, with a small portion of atmos pherical In the neighbourhood of Buxton are immense quanti ties of lime-stone, of which many hundred tons are annu ally burnt ; and it is worthy of notice, that the habitations of the workmen arc scooped out of the small mounts formed of the refuse of the kilns, and appear like a range of caves along the side of the hill. Some of these habi tations contain two or three rooms, but few of them have any other light than what they receive by the door and the chimney. " When the workmen," says a modern traveller, " descend into their caves at the time of rc past, and a stranger secs the many small columns of smoke issuing out of the earth, he imagines himself in the midst of a village in Lapland." The village of Buxton contains 180 houses, and 760 inhabitants ; and its annual visitors, including their at tendants, are supposed to be about 500. See Britton's Beauties of England and Wales, vol. iii. p. 437, and DERBYSHIRE. (L)