Peak Experience

 

Samuel Johnson, Rambler 124, 25 May 1751

 

Adam Bede novel by George Eliot A picture of Market Day at Ashbourne

 

Samuel Johnson, poet, essayist and lexicographer, is most famous as the collater of the first dictionary of the English language.  Johnson was great friends with Ashbourne’s Revd John Taylor and a frequent guest at his Mansion House, Church Street.

 

Plaque on house saying Dr Samuel Johnson visited Dr John Taylor here

 

Johnson wrote at least 30 sermons for his friend and Taylor later led Johnson’s burial service at Westminster Abbey.  You can find the house near Ashbourne’s stunning church, once intended to be the Diocesan cathedral. Have a drink at the Green Man, Johnson’s favourite local watering hole.  Johnson described the pub as ‘a very good inn at Ashbourne’.  In fact, Johnson visited the inn so frequently that he even had his own chair here, with his name carved into it!

 

The Green Man, Johnson's favourite local watering hole

 

In George Eliot’s Adam Bede, her well-loved first novel, Ashbourne features as fictional Oakbourne.  The novel’s Snowfield is based on nearby Wirksworth, where the author stayed with her mill-manager relatives.  In 1814 Uncle Samuel Evans was appointed manager at Wirksworth’s Haraam Mill, among the first in the country to use water power.  Samuel’s wife Elizabeth is thought to be the model for Dinah Morris in the book.

 

Portrait of George Eliot

 

Eliot (real name Mary Anne Evans) depicts Victorian provincial life as rural economies begin to industrialize.  Her novels are profoundly moral yet rarely preachy, the characterization does all the moral work.  Adam Bede, Daniel Deronda, Middlemarch, Silas Marner, all have been popular television series and/or films.  For an Eliot tour, visit outlying Ellastone, birthplace of her father Robert Evans, then Norbury church where her grandparents and Aunt Susannah are buried.

 

Fabulous Sudbury Hall is now owned by the National Trust.  House and gardens are open to visitors and the hall offers many specialized tours too.  You might want to ‘Meet the Butler’ and discover all about ‘life below stairs’.  Is it familiar?  In the BBC Pride and Prejudice, Sudbury’s lavish interiors feature as Pemberley, Darcy’s family home.

 

A picture of the 1995 BBC Pride & Prejudice DVD A picture of Sudbury Hall exterior  A picture of Sudbury Hall interior

 

Go further: If you have longer, go east to Wirksworth and visit the Heritage Centre in a former mill to discover George Eliot’s links to the town.

 

Full range of visitor facilities at Ashbourne market town.  The information centre has maps of the town, showing interesting highlights, and can help you with local accommodation.

 

Samuel Johnson, letter to Boswell

 

Public transport information for all locations can be found by calling Traveline on 0871 200 2233.

Sudbury Hall is served by buses from Uttoxeter to Burton – visit Traveline for details, and to plan your journey to Ashbourne, which is served by frequent buses from Derby.