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The Seven Wonders of the Peak

Perhaps the first tourist guide-book to the Peak District was De Mirabilibus Pecci: Concerning the Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, first published in 1636. In long-winded Latin verse, this long-lived tutor to the Cavendish family at Chatsworth described seven ‘wonders’ of the Peak, diplomatically putting Chatsworth at the head of the list. His other wonders were Peak Cavern at Castleton; Eldon Hole, an open pot-hole near Peak Forest; the Ebbing and Flowing Well at Barmoor; Mam Tor, the ‘Shivering Mountain’ near Castleton, and Poole’s Cavern and St. Ann’s Well at Buxton.

Charles Cotton, the fast-living squire of Beresford Hall above Dovedale, later rehashed Hobbes’s poem as The Wonders of the Peak, and astutely had it published in the surrounding cities, from where most visitors came.

The wonders became the accepted itinerary of a ‘Grand Tour’ of the Peak District, followed by many early travellers like Celia Fiennes and Daniel Defoe. Defoe’s cynical pen poured scorn on all the wonders with the exceptions of Eldon Hole and Chatsworth, ‘one a wonder of nature, the other of art’. He described Hobbes’s and Cotton’s wonders as ‘most weakly called’ and complained at these ‘trifles’ being extolled ‘as if they were the most exalted wonders of the world’.

But whatever Defoe’s views, the Seven Wonders of the Peak became firmly established in the public’s mind, reflecting the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in a local context. All are still there for modern visitors to ‘wonder’ at, with the exception of the well at Barmoor, which ceased to ebb and flow many years ago.