MATLOCK
Engraved by B. Howlett

This engraving dates from around the time Joseph Notzel Cumming and his wife Mary began running the Old Bath Hotel. The caption is "Matlock" but this is an engraving of Matlock Bath and was signed by B : Howlett S C^[1].

Tourists of the time could not go overseas because of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars so guides were printed to encourage people to visit parts of the British Isles they may not have been to before as an alternative to the Grand Tour. In the preface to the book Howlett's engraving was published in the author wrote that he "hopes his work will furnish information and advice to those persons who are at a loss to know where their leisure may most agreeably be spent, or their health the most completely restored^[2] " ....

A few years later David Peter Davies described the scene:
"Following the lower road, which leads to the Old Bath, another house of public reception, a new and most pleasing point of view is reached. Here the river recedes in a curve from the road, forming a little meadow as a foreground to the picture. This is firmly opposed and backed, by a line of rock and wood, a mass of trees to the right, and shutting out, for a short time, all other features of the scenery^[3]".

References (coloured hyperlinks are to information elsewhere on this web site):

^[1] Bartholomew Howlett (1767–1827) was a draughtsman and landscape engraver. He was baptized at Gainsborough on 5 July 1767 (IGI). There is more information about him in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

^[2] "A Guide to all the Watering and Sea-Bathing Places; with a Description of the Lakes ..." (1806), by the Editor of The Picture of London, London : Printed for Richard Phillips, 6, Bridge-street, Blackfriars, and to be had of the Booksellers at all the Watering and Sea-bathing Places ; W. Lewis, Printer, Paternoster Row booksellers.

^[3] Davies, David Peter (1811) "History of Derbyshire" pub. S. Mason, Belper, p.467.
Derbyshire's Parishes, 1811 is based on this book and is a searchable alphabetical listing on site. There are descriptions of parishes in the county, including Matlock and Matlock Bath.