Editing Buxton (section)

=== Spa town boom ===
[[File:055383 st anns well.jpg|left|thumb|150px|People filling bottles with water at St Ann's Well]]
[[File:buxton wells.JPG|right|thumb|Buxton Wells, from a 1610 map]]
Built on the [[River Wye, Derbyshire|River Wye]], and overlooked by [[Axe Edge Moor]], Buxton became a spa town for its geothermal spring,<ref name=Dunn>{{cite news |first=Paul |last=Dunn |url=https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/best_of_britain/article7098524.ece |title=Great British Weekend: Buxton |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522094142/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/best_of_britain/article7098524.ece |archive-date=22 May 2010 |newspaper=[[The Sunday Times]] |date=17 April 2010 |url-status=live |access-date=20 September 2011}}</ref> which gushes at a steady 28&nbsp;°C.

The spring waters are piped to [[St Ann's Well (Buxton)|St Ann's Well]], a shrine since medieval times at the foot of [[The Slopes, Buxton|The Slopes]], opposite the [[Buxton Crescent|Crescent]] and near the town centre.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1001456 |desc=The Slopes, Buxton |access-date=4 May 2012}}</ref> The well was called one of the [[Seven Wonders of the Peak]] by the philosopher [[Thomas Hobbes]] in his 1636 book ''De Mirabilibus Pecci: Being The Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk/objects/2-36/ |title=De Mirabilibus Pecci: Being the Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire |website=www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk |access-date=29 April 2020}}</ref>''

The Dukes of Devonshire became involved in 1780, when the [[William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire]] used profits from his [[copper]] mines to develop it as a spa in the style of [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]. Their ancestor [[Bess of Hardwick]] had brought one of her four husbands, the [[George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury|Earl of Shrewsbury]], to "take the waters" at Buxton in 1569, shortly after he became the gaoler of [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], and took Mary there in 1573.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lovell |first1=Mary S. |title=Bess of Hardwick |date=2005 |publisher=Little, Brown |location=London |isbn=0-316-72482-3 |pages=238–239}}</ref> She called Buxton "''La Fontagne de Bogsby''". She stayed at the site of the [[Old Hall Hotel]], where Earl of Shrewsbury had built a lodging for visitors.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scott |first=Jade |title=Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots |date=2024 |publisher=Michael O'Mara Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-78929-646-4 |page=135}}</ref> According to John Jones of Derby, author of ''Buxtone's Bathes Benefyte'' (1572), the visitors to Shrewsbury's "goodly house" enjoyed a game of table bowls known as ''trou madame''.<ref>{{cite book |first=John Daniel |last=Leader |title=Mary Queen Of Scots In Captivity: A Narrative Of Events From January, 1569 To December, 1584 |location=Sheffield |publisher=Leader & Sons |date=1880 |pages=303, 305}}</ref> 

[[File:Buxton Spring Gardens, 1965.png|thumb|Buxton in 1965 with shoppers and tourists filling Spring Gardens]]
The area features in the works of [[W. H. Auden]], [[Jane Austen]] and [[Emily Brontë]].<ref name=Dunn/> Buxton's profile was boosted by a recommendation from [[Erasmus Darwin]] of the waters there and at [[Matlock, Derbyshire|Matlock]], addressed to [[Josiah Wedgwood]] I. The Wedgwood family often visited Buxton and commended the area to their friends.{{Citation needed|date=October 2008}} Two of [[Charles Darwin]]'s half-cousins, [[Edward Levett Darwin]] and Reginald Darwin, settled there.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Charles |last1=Darwin |first2=Frederick |last2=Burkhardt |first3=Sydney |last3=Smith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ao2I3-8PXBgC&dq=levett+darwin&pg=PA265 |title=The Correspondence of Charles Darwin |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |date=1985 |isbn=0-521-25587-2}}</ref> The [[Buxton railway station|arrival of the railway]] in 1863 stimulated growth: the population of 1,800 in 1861 exceeded 6,000 by 1881.<ref>{{cite book |title=Railways of the Peak District |first1=Michael |last1=Blakemore |first2=David |last2=Mosley |date=2003 |isbn=1-902827-09-0 |publisher=Atlantic Transport Publishers}}</ref>