With the mention of Derbyshire there were many ideas connected. It was impossible for her to see the word without thinking of Pemberley and its owner.“But surely,”said she,“I may enter his county without impunity,and rob it of a few petrified spars without his perceiving me.”
It is not the object of this work to give a deion of Derbyshire, nor of any of the remarkable places through which their route thither lay;Oxford,Blenheim,Warwick,Kenilworth,Birmingham, etc. are sufficiently known.A small part of Derbyshire is all the present concern.To the little town of Lambton, the scene of Mrs. Gardiner's former residence, and where she had lately learned some acquaintance still remained,they bent their steps, after having seen all the principal wonders of the country; and within five miles of Lambton, Elizabeth found from her aunt that Pemberley was situated.It was not in their direct road,nor more than a mile or two out of it.In talking over their route the evening before,Mrs.Gardiner expressed an inclination to see the place again.Mr.Gardiner declared his willingness,and Elizabeth was applied to for her approbation.
The time fixed for the beginning of their northern tour was now fast approaching, and a fortnight only was wanting of it, when a letter arrived from Mrs.Gardiner,which at once delayed its commencement and curtailed its extent.Mr.Gardiner would be prevented by business from setting out till a fortnight later in July,and must be in London again within a month,and as that left too short a period for them to go so far,and see so much as they had proposed,or at least to see it with the leisure and comfort they had built on, they were obliged to give up the Lakes, and substitute a more contracted tour,and,according to the present plan,were to go no farther northwards than Derbyshire.In that county there was enough to be seen to occupy the chief of their three weeks; and to Mrs. Gardiner it had a peculiarly strong attraction.The town where she had formerly passed some years of her life, and where they were now to spend a few days, was probably as great an object of her curiosity as all the celebrated beauties of Matlock,Chatsworth,Dovedale,or the Peak.