Last weekend I was in Derbyshire, staying in a converted
watermill near the town of Ashbourne. There had been a mill on the site since
the Domesday book and the current building still preserves many ancient
features from the 17th to the 19th centuries including a lot
of the mill machinery cleverly built into the current, very elegant,
accommodation.
The Peak District, as well as being a stunningly beautiful
place, has lots of literary and historical associations. Some scenes in Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, the 14th century poem, were set there.
Sir Walter Scott set his 1823 novel Peveril of the Peak in Derbyshire and of
course key scenes in Pride and Prejudice take place in the Peak District too. I
had always thought that Charlotte Bronte drew her inspiration for Jane Eyre
from Yorkshire but apparently that too was inspired by Derbyshire and one of my
all time favourite time slip novels, A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley was
set in the county. With so much literary inspiration around me I suppose it’s no
wonder I felt a strong urge to set a book there myself!
I wandered around Ashbourne on the Saturday. The Peak
District has been a tourist destination for centuries; the Dukes of Devonshire
developed the town of Buxton as a spa resort in the 18th century and
Ashbourne became a wealthy and fashionable social centre at the same time,
attracting visitors who came to admire the scenery of Dovedale. Six of the
coaching roads met there including the route from London to Carlisle. There are
still a number of coaching inns and elegant 18th and 19th
century town houses built by tradesmen, clergymen, doctors, lawyers and the
country gentry. Naturally Ashbourne had assembly rooms and a social season
offering the usual round of dances, card parties and theatricals. The Mansion
is the most imposing Georgian house in the town and it’s garden contains a
little summerhouse where Samuel Johnson, a friend of the owner, did some of his
writing.
Ashbourne was also a parole town, housing 172 French
prisoners of war during the period 1803 – 1814. They were billeted all over the
town – I’m guessing that accommodation in the coaching inns and pubs was the most
popular – and joined in with the social life of the town, and four of them
married the four daughters of the landlord of the Cock Inn!
I enjoy Georgian and Regency books that are set in country
towns and could quite see myself setting a book in Ashbourne. How do you feel
about country town settings? Is there a particular book you enjoyed that was set
outside of London?
