in that church. Before the Norman Conquest the property is said to have been owned by the Ferrars family, but it was granted by William to his natural son, William Peverill. From his descendant it passed, after forfeiture, to the Avenalls, and then to the Vernons. The last of these in the male line was Sir George Vernon, who, from his princely style of living, was called the "King of the Peak." Dying in 1567, he left his Derbyshire estate to his daughter Dorothy, a name, as we shall presently see, famous at Haddon. She was married to John Manners, son of the Earl of Rutland. In the hands of that family Haddon has remained up to the present day, and till the

earlier part of the last century was their usual residence, when it was deserted for Belvoir. The Vernon hospitality was still maintained, for we read that the ninth earl, created Duke of Rutland by Queen Anne, had a retinue of 140 servants, and kept open house from Christmas Day to Twelfth Night.

The house, which is not well seen from the railway, stands on a low wooded knoll above the river. It is still in good repair, and though it has been for many years deserted by its owners, is occasionally used, by their permission, for local gatherings of various kinds. We have thus a remarkably fine and perfect example of a baronial mansion as it was some two or three centuries since. Here, deserted and silent now, may be seen the

"Hall of wassail, which has rung

To the unquestioned baron's jest;
Dim old chapel, where were hung
Offerings of the o'er-fraught breast;

6.

HADDON HALL.

Moss-clad terrace, strangely still,

Broken shaft and crumbling frieze,

Still as lips that used to fill

With bugle blasts the morning breeze!"

89

Haddon Hall is a solid stone building, with corner towers and turrets, battlemented walls, and mullioned windows-a hall rather than a castle-built for enjoyment rather than for defence, but still strong enough to offer resistance to an ill-armed assailant: a pile more pleasing for its antiquity and associations than for any grace of design. It is probable that only a few portions, of no great extent, are earlier than the middle of the fifteenth century, to which and somewhat subsequent periods the greater part belongs. Haddon is built round two quadrangles, the outer being entered from the gateway tower on the north-west. In the first court a gloomy chamber is known by the name of the Chaplain's Room, in which some odds and ends belonging to the ancient mansion are preserved, such as huge pewter plates, jack-boots, spurs, a buckskin doublet, and the like; also an old oak cradle, in which it is said the first Duke of Rutland was rocked. Behind the wainscot a curious washing-tally was found a few years since, which has been described in the Reliquary." It consists of an oblong piece of wood, pierced with holes to show numbers, while above each is the name of an article of clothing. Parts of the chapel and the font are Norman, but there have been later additions. The Great Hall, probably built by Sir Richard Vernon, stands between the two quadrangles. It has large open fire-places with "dogs," a dais for the high table, and a panelled oak screen at the lower end, with a music gallery above, cutting off a passage through the building; on the opposite side of this are the buttery, with its hatch, the cellars, kitchen, &c., approached through pointed archways-in short, all the arrangements which may still be seen in use in the college halls of the English Universities. Against this screen is a curious relic of olden custom, in the form of an iron hasp. To it the hands of a recalcitrant toper were tied above his head, after which cold water was poured down his sleeves. Total abstinence evidently would have found scant favour at Haddon Hall in the olden time. In the porch a Roman altar discovered in the neighbourhood is preserved. A doorway at the upper end of the hall leads into a passage, on the other side of which is the dining-room, a chamber of later date, built by the "King of the Peak," whose initials, G. V., with the date 1545, are carved on the fire-place. Those of his wife are also to be seen, and the motto beneath the royal arms, "Drede God and honor the king." The ceiling is divided into panels by beams, and there is a finely carved oriel window; one of the heads adorning this is said to be a portrait of Will Somers, jester to Henry VIII. The likenesses of Henry VII. and his queen are also carved on panels in the room. Prince Arthur, their eldest son, is said to have visited Haddon more than once during his short life, for Sir Henry Vernon was his governor. Above this apartment is the drawing-room, and opposite to it the long gallery or ball-room-a gallery 109 feet long and eighteen wide, with three bay windows. It is said that the floor was made from the bole of a single oak-tree grown on the estate, the root of which was wrought into the six solid steps giving access to the room. The other state apartments need not be particularly described. The castle contains a few old pictures

* H. G. Bell (Haddon Hall).

of no great value, some fine tapestry, and a good many bits of curious furniture: among them a state bed richly adorned, used, it is said, for the last time by George IV. on the occasion of his visit (as Prince Regent) to the Duke of Rutland. The garden and terrace walk, with its fine old limes, must not be forgotten, for the latter figures prominently in the memories of Haddon. To this a flight of stone steps leads from an ante-room in the house, down which, according to tradition, Dorothy Vernon, younger daughter of Sir George, descended to join her lover, John Manners, second son of the Earl of Rutland. Her bedchamber is still pointed out, and the lattice through which she acted Juliet to her Romeo, who gave notice of his presence by sounding his lute in the adjoining wood. The elopement, it is said, was effected during a ball which was given on occasion of the marriage of the elder sister. The runaway afterwards received pardon, and as there was no heir male, the Derbyshire property, on the death of Sir George Vernon, passed to the Manners family.

Beyond Haddon the valley opens out, and the scenery becomes yet richer as we approach the confluence of the Wye and the Derwent. Here, hard by the railway, is seen the Peacock Inn at Rowsley, a favourite haunt of the disciples of Isaak Walton and Charles Cotton. It is a fine example of an old English house, bearing over the door the date 1653 and a peacock, with tail displayed, the crest of the Manners family. The little village church contains, in a mortuary chapel, a handsome altar-tomb, with a recumbent figure, to the memory of Lady Manners, wife of Lord John Manners, and her infant, who died in 1854.

From Rowsley we must ascend for a short distance the valley of the Derwent to visit Chatsworth, "the Palace of the Peak," as it is appropriately called-the grandest, though not the most frequented, among the residences of the present Duke of Devonshire. It is situated in the midst of an extensive and beautifully wooded park. References to it in old writers give the idea of a bleak and desert-like neighbourhood, and such, no doubt, was once the condition of this part of Derbyshire; but careful planting has so altered the aspect that to the visitor at the present day the scenery seems hardly less rich than the house.

The manor of Chatsworth at the time of the Norman Conquest belonged to the Crown, and after passing into private hands, was purchased by Sir William Cavendish, who pulled down the old hall, and began the building of a "spacious elegant house," which was left unfinished at his death, and completed by his widow, the well-known "Bess of Hardwick "-so called as being born in the old hall, and builder of the present house at that place. She was one of those persons who certainly did not hold the maxim that "fools build houses for wise men to dwell in," for she had almost a mania for bricks and mortar. Tradition, indeed, reports that it had been foretold that she would not die till she left off building, and that she expired at last during a hard frost, when the works were of necessity at a standstill. She was also noted as the wife of four husbands, all of whom she survived. Sir William Cavendish was the third; the Earl of Shrewsbury, custodian of Mary, Queen of Scots, being the fourth. The hall at Chatsworth was one of the prisons of this princess, in which she passed many weary months, beguiling the time with embroidery, at which she wrought

"till very pain made her give it over." Her captivity here extended, with considerable intervals, over a period of about twelve years. In the days of the Civil War the house was fortified and garrisoned by Sir John Gell on behalf of the Parliament; but in October, 1643, it was taken by the Earl of Newcastle, and held for some time. by the king's forces, during which it was unsuccessfully attacked by a detachment of the Parliamentary forces from Derby. The present mansion was commenced by the fourth Earl of Devonshire (afterwards first duke) in the reign of James IV. He had been prosecuted in the Court of King's Bench, and fined £30,000 for striking Colonel Culpepper in the king's presence-chamber. "It was under this load of difficulties that he first projected the now glorious pile of Chatsworth, as if his mind rose upon the depression of his fortune. For he now contracted with workmen to pull down the south side of that good old seat, and to rebuild it on a plan he gave to them for a front to his gardens, so fair and august that it looked like a model only of what might be done in after-ages. When he had finished this part he meant to go no further, till, seeing public affairs in a happier settlement, for a testimony of ease and joy, he undertook the east side of the quadrangle, and raised it entirely new, in conformity to the south, and seemed then content to say that he had gone half way through, and would leave the rest for his heir. In this resolution he stopped about seven years, and then re-assumed courage, and began to lay the foundation for two other sides to complete the noble square.' These were in a more elaborate style than the former, and the duke also spent large sums on statues, pictures, and decorations, and on the garden. The later works were supervised by Sir Christopher Wren. The period thus occupied was altogether about twenty years; and it appears doubtful whether operations were ever so completely suspended as is stated above. The magnificent north wing was added to the house by William Spencer, sixth Duke of Devonshire, who, as an inscription in the Great Hall states, "Edes has paternas. anno MDCCCXI., Hæres accepit, anno mæroris sui MDCCCXL. perfecit." The allusion in the last line is to the death of the Countess of Burlington, his niece, and wife of the heir to the title, the present duke. As regards the interior of Chatsworth, with its costly fittings, one may well remark with old Charles Cotton† :

"And should I be so mad to go about

To give accounts of everything throughout
The rooms of state, staircases, galleries,
Lodgings, apartments, closets, offices;
Or to describe the splendours undertake
Which every glorious room a heaven make:

The pictures, sculpture, carving, graving, gilding-
"Twould be as long in writing as in building."

Suffice it to say that there are some good pictures, a still more valuable collection of drawings, several statues of great merit in the fine sculpture gallery, a library containing an exceptionally large number of the choicest literary treasures, more especially

* Dr. Kennet's "Memoirs of the Cavendish Family," quoted in Adam's "Gem of the Peak," p. 159. "Wonders of the Peak" (Chatsworth).