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[Illustration: THE WYE NEAR CRESSBROOK DALE]
THE PEAK DISTRICT
Text by R. MURRAY GILCHRIST
Pictures by E. W. HASLEHUST
[Illustration]
Blackie & Son Limited
London and Glasgow
Blackie & Son Limited
50 Old Bailey, London
17 Stanhope Street, Glasgow
Blackie & Son (India) Limited
Warwick House, Fort Street, Bombay
Blackie & Son (Canada) Limited
Toronto
* * * * * *
BEAUTIFUL ENGLAND
The Heart of London.
Dartmoor.
Canterbury.
Oxford.
Bath and Wells.
In London’s By-ways.
The Peak District.
Winchester.
The Thames.
The Cornish Riviera.
Shakespeare-land.
Cambridge.
York.
The English Lakes.
BEAUTIFUL SCOTLAND
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.
Edinburgh.
The Scott Country.
The Shores of Fife.
* * * * * *
Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing
Page
The Wye near Cressbrook Dale _Frontispiece_
High Tor, Matlock 5
Bakewell, South Church Street 12
Monsal Dale 16
Queen Mary’s Bower, Chatsworth 21
Haddon Hall 28
Dorothy Vernon’s Bridge, Haddon 33
Miller’s Dale 37
Lathkil Dale 44
Dovedale 48
Peak Cavern Gorge, Castleton 53
Mam Tor 60
[Illustration: HIGH TOR, MATLOCK]
[Illustration: THE PEAK DISTRICT]
FROM SPA TO SPA
In Peakland one marvels most at the strange variety of
scenery--illustrations of all English inland beauty seem to have been
grouped there for man’s delight. There are tender meadows, streams such
as must have meandered through Arcady, fantastical hillocks, mountains
that cut the skyline with dog-tooth edges, moors that change colour
every day of the year; there are two of the most notable houses in
existence--houses famous all over the civilized world--and two spas
unlike each other and unlike any spas in England.
The folk are genial and ever willing to pass the time o’ day; they show
themselves, as in the days of Philip Kinder, the eighteenth-century
historiographer, “courteous and ready to show the ways and help a
passenger. The women are sober and very diligent in their huswifery;
they hate idleness, and obey their husband.”
Kinder also asserts that they are much given to “dance after the
bagpipe, and almost every town hath a bagpipe in it”. To-day the
Peaklanders are as fond of dancing as ever, and although no piper
produces eerie music, at feast times they can still make a very
pretty show. The hill country has endowed the youths and maidens with
suppleness and they trip it with exceeding grace.
Peaklanders are shrewd, lovable, and unspoilt, somewhat distrustful of
foreigners--all unrelated folk who dwell on the farther side of the
moors are foreigners--yet quite as hospitable as the more reserved
natives of Yorkshire. Old customs are tenaciously preserved--in some
places the wells are dressed with flowers for the festival of the
patron saint, and in one of the most remote villages every Royal Oak
Day a quaint and pretty pageant enlivens the irregular grey streets. At
such times the kin from far-distant towns return to the old home and
spend a few hours of happy merrymaking.
To my thinking the most satisfactory entrance to the Peak Country is by
way of Scarthin Nick, a gap through which the old London-to-Manchester
coaching road passes on its way to Matlock Bath. Throughout the year
this valley never fails to suggest a foreign country: in the blackness
of mid-winter one might believe oneself in Norway; in spring and summer
one is curiously reminded of Switzerland; in autumn, when the foliage
glows marvellously, one might be looking upon some fanciful picture
done by a southern painter with a passion for vivid colour. To the
right flows the Derwent, with clear waters tranquil before the crossing
of a white weir, or churning merrily between great boulders.
From the Black Rocks near by may be seen one of the finest views in all
Peakland--the Matlock Dale with its High Tor and its quaintly named
Heights of Abraham, its grotesque sham mediæval castle, its pleasantly
situated mansion of Willersley, which was built by one of Derbyshire’s
best-famed men, Sir Richard Arkwright. Farther away lie Dethick--with
a quaint church that was built by the grandfather of Mary Stuart’s
Anthony Babington--and Lea Hurst, the Peakland home of Miss Florence
Nightingale. The Via Gellia, a narrow valley, well-wooded, opens not
far from the old posting house; in May the traveller is assailed there
by rustic children who offer bunches of greenish lilies of the valley.
Matlock is crowded with holiday-makers in summer-time, and progress
along the road becomes somewhat difficult; nevertheless it is
impossible even then to deny the strange beauty of the place. There
is an air of pleasant freedom; life moves briskly; the valley might be
threaded by a great highway. No watering-place has a greater wealth
of lovers’ walks, of caves, of petrifying wells, and other objects of
interest well-calculated to amuse and delight the tripper. The visitor
is happy, albeit feverish, and there is to be seen little aping of the
manners of fine society.
Onward through Darley Dale one sees to the left Oker Hill, with its
solitary tree--the survivor of two planted by the brothers Shore,
collateral ancestors of the Lady of the Lamp. Wordsworth wrote a
pathetic sonnet concerning the separation of these young men. In Darley
churchyard is one of the most famous yews still existent. Centuries
ago much of the land about here was owned by the Dakeyne family, whose
motto--“Stryke, Dakyns, the Devil’s in the Hempe!” still puzzles the
student of heraldry. Sir Joseph Whitworth’s Institute--surely a boon
to the young countryfolk--rises near the road, as does his Cottage
Hospital, and, farther, his house, Stancliffe Hall, now shorn of much
of its dignity by rough quarries.
Just beyond Rowsley Bridge may be seen the old Peacock Hotel, perhaps
the most picturesque hostelry in all England. Above the porch of this
gabled, creeper-covered house stands a stone peacock in his pride.
This bird is the badge of the Rutland family--one finds inns bearing
the name in many Derbyshire villages. The sheltered garden is well
worth seeing; it might be the glory of some ancient well-beloved
mansion. Quaint flowers thrive there, and beside the Derwent
stretches a pleasant well-screened walk, where one may rest with some
“well-chosen book or friend”, and hear the tranquil susurrus of the
smoothly gliding stream.
Then, beyond Fillyford Bridge over the Wye, which joins the Derwent
not far from the inn, debouches one of the strangest and most
beautiful vales of Peakland. To the left of this is the village of
Winster, with a fine old mansion that was once occupied by Llewellyn
Jewitt, the well-known Derbyshire antiquarian, and a singular Market
Hall with walled-up windows. The place lies in a backwater. One
expects to see naught modern at Winster; the inhabitants should wear
eighteenth-century garments, and should carry lanterns and pattens to
their tea parties. Near by are the grotesque Rowtor Rocks, Robin Hood’s
Stride, and Cratcliff Tor. One is continually reminded of the weird
and charming Vivares engravings that may be found embellishing the
coffee-rooms of conservative inns.
Then Haddon is passed, and the old story--ill-founded to be sure--that
Mrs. Radcliffe sought inspiration there for her glowing romances comes
to mind. Even in the richest sunlight the wonderful house suggests
mystery and romance. The Wye glides, clear as morning dew, almost level
with the green surface of the water meadows. There is, within a stone’s
throw of the white road, a little footbridge of the kind that one
crosses in happy dreams.
Bakewell, which owes part of its fame to the luxurious pastry known
as “Bakewell Pudding”, has perhaps the most beautiful situation of
any Peakland town. It is eminently quaint, there is an aristocratic
air about the place, and the principal streets are kept wonderfully
clean. At fair times may be seen crowds of booths reaching from the
“Rutland Arms”, to the post office--booths where are sold gaudy pots
from Staffordshire, gingerbread flat and curly, fried fish, and the
sticky sweetmeats beloved by children of country and of town. In the
marketplace are galloping horses, swings, shooting galleries, and
everything that from long usage appeals to the innocent rustic mind.
There are many handsome old houses here, but the finest, Holme Hall,
is not visible from the highway. The church is a graceful building,
admirably placed, with a tall slender spire, which looks its best when
pricking through a golden December mist. Near the porch is a curious
epitaph: “Know, posterity! That on the 8th of April in the year of
grace, 1757, the rambling remains of John Dale were, in the 86th year
of his pilgrimage, laid upon his two wives.
“This thing in life might cause some jealousy,
Here all three lye together lovingly;
But from embraces here no pleasure flows,
Alike are here all human joys and woes;
Here Sarah’s chiding John no longer hears,
And old John’s rambling Sarah no more fears;
A period’s come to all their toylesome lives,
The good man’s quiet, still are both his wives.”
The interior of the church is of great interest, since here is the
richly coloured Vernon Chapel, where lie the famous Dorothy and her
husband Sir John Manners, also the lady’s ancestor, Sir George Vernon,
King of the Peak, and Sir Thomas de Wendesley, who fell at Shrewsbury.
Some of the effigies are strangely realistic, with appropriate
inscriptions culled from Holy Writ. Perhaps the most interesting to
the antiquarian is that of Sir Godfrey Foljambe, the founder of the
Chantrey of the Holy Cross, and of his wife Dame Avena. These figures,
represented from the waist upwards, are carved in alabaster, under
a canopy with two shields, the one displaying escallops, the other
fleurs-de-lis.
From Bakewell Bridge may be had one of the most beautiful glimpses
of the Wye, which divides there to encircle a green eyot. Against the
brown bed of the shallow stream, sleepy fish lie with scarce a tremor.
The grass of the banks hardly loses colour in the heart of winter.
After leaving the town, the Buxton road soon reaches the village of
Ashford-in-the-Water, a strange old place with a picturesque mill. In
the park of Ashford Hall the Wye is artificial but charming, its waters
spreading into emerald-green reaches. The church of Ashford contains
some of those funeral adornments known as “maidens’ garlands”, cages
of cut paper which were carried at the funerals of such girls as died
unmarried.
A mile or two beyond this sleepy hamlet, Monsal Dale opens to the
right. On one hand are osier beds, rich in colour at every season; on
the other the Wye rushes happily over a stony bed. Beyond Monsal the
well-wooded valley contracts, and the road climbs to the grey village
of Taddington, in whose churchyard may be seen one of the oldest
crosses in Derbyshire. Taddington is devoid of interest; one leaves
it without regret, and, after crossing some miles of bleak uplands,
begins to descend to Ashwood Dale. There the road has several sharp
curves, and travellers of all kinds must go warily. Nearer Buxton the
Wye glides smoothly in an ugly concrete channel, suggestive of a
gutter. To the left, a mile or so before reaching the town, a wonderful
little ravine, known as Sherbrook Dell, with a Lover’s Leap Rock,
abruptly cleaves the hillside. Except in times of drought this opening
has a fascinating appearance; it is like the scene of some old story of
gnomes and fairies.
[Illustration: BAKEWELL, SOUTH CHURCH STREET]
Buxton itself is interesting--if unpicturesque. Throughout the year
it has a swept-and-garnished appearance. The shops are excellent, as
befits a watering-place frequented by fashionable folk, ailing and
sound. There are several hotels to which the vulgar word palatial may
be applied, there are hydropathic establishments and boarding houses in
plenty, and there is a fine hospital of widespread fame, with a dome
that enjoys the distinction of being greater in diameter than that of
St. Peter’s at Rome.
The most striking feature of the town is the Crescent, a fine
half-circle of brown stonework that was erected in the eighteenth
century. It is three stories high, with an arcade that extends from
end to end. Formerly it consisted of hotels and one private boarding
house, and the lower-floor rooms were used as shops; but now it is
occupied entirely by two hotels, the “St. Anne’s” and the “Crescent”.
In the latter may be seen one of the finest Adam rooms in the country.
This was formerly known as the “Assembly Room”, and has been scarcely
altered since the day of opening. The length is 75-1/2 feet, the width
30 feet, and the height 30 feet. There is an air of old-time dignity
about the place, and it is easy for the imaginative to repeople it with
the stately folk of Georgian days.
Buxton, notwithstanding its fame of old, has but few antiquities.
Before 1570 the Earl of Shrewsbury erected a great house for the
accommodation of visitors. It was probably in this place that Mary
Stuart rested during her cure, and wrote with a diamond upon glass:
“Buxtona, quæ calidæ celebrabere nomine lymphæ,
Forte mihi posthac non adeunda, vale”;
in translation:
“Buxton, whose fame thy milk-warm waters tell,
Whom I, perhaps, no more shall see, farewell”.
A hundred years later the hall was taken down and a “most commodious
edifice” raised by the Earl of Devonshire, Bess of Hardwick’s
great-grandson. In old maps may be found a picture of the former
building, which is thus described by Doctor Jones, in 1572, in his
treatise on the Buxton waters:--
“A very goodly house, foure-square, foure storeys high, so well
compacte with houses of office beneath and above and round about,
with a great chambre and other goodly lodgings to the number of
30: that it is and will be a bewty to behold, and very notable for
the honourable and worshipful that shall need to repaire thither,
as also for other. Yea, the poorest shall have lodgings and beds
hard by for their uses only.... A phisicion to be placed there
continually, that might not only counsyle them how the better to
use God’s benefyte, but also adapt their bodies making artificial
baths, by using thereof as the case shall require, with many other
profitable devyses, having all things for that use or any other, in
a rediness for all the degrees as before it bee longe it shall be
the scene of the noble earle’s own performing.”
For the gentlemen Doctor Jones recommends the diverting exercises of
bowling, shooting at butts, and tossing the wind-ball. The ladies may
enjoy the calmer pleasures of walking in the galleries, and “if the
weather be not agreeable to their expectacion, they may have in the
ende of a benche eleven holes made, into the which to trowle pummets
or bowles of lead, bigge, little, or meane, or also of copper, tynne,
woode, eyther vyolent or softe, after their own discretion, the pastime
Trowle Madame is termed. Likewise men feeble, the same may also
practise in another gallery of the new buildings.”
Even in those days men of note came here to take the waters--the lords
Leicester and Burleigh amongst others. In the Harleian MSS. one may see
a letter to the Earl of Essex, in which the latter writes:--
“Your Lordship, I think, desyreth to heare of my estate, which is
this: I cum hither on Sunday last at night, took a small solutive
on Monday, began on Tuesday, yesterday I drynk of the waters to
the quantity of 3 pynts at 6 draughts; this day I have added 2
draughts, and I drynk 4 pynts, and to-morrow am determyned to
drynk 5 pynts, and mixt with sugar I fynd it potable with pleasure
even as whey. I mean not to bath these 8 dayes, but wyll contynew
drynking 10 dayes.”
The Earl of Essex himself writes, several years later: “The water I
have drunke liberally, begynning with 3 pynts, and so encreasing dayly
a pynt I come to 8 pynts, and from thence descendyng dayly a pynt till
I shall ageyne return to 3 pynts, wch wil be on Thursday next, and then
I make an ende”.
The church of St. Ann is singularly small, and uninviting of exterior
aspect. Inside, however, one may see ancient ceiling beams and a
quaintly illuminated altar. The only person of any note buried in the
dreary little graveyard was one John Kane, a comedian, who in 1799 died
because he mistook monkshood for horse-radish.
One of the wonders of the Peak is Poole’s Hole, a cavern situated
less than a mile to the west of the Crescent. The Wye threads its way
through this, its waters strongly impregnated with lime. There are
various more or less appropriately christened stalactites, and the
cavern, being smooth of path and well-lighted with gas, is without
terrors even for the most nervous. Mary Stuart is said to have visited
the place, and we are shown a stalactite which bears her name.
[Illustration: MONSAL DALE]
Perhaps the chief interest in Buxton consists of the Grounds, a
pleasaunce embellished by the Wye, whose water here is of a sickly
yellow. There of a sunny afternoon may be seen those who are taking
the cure, some in bath chairs, some leaning heavily upon stout
sticks, but the majority looking in the best of health. The band
discourses pleasant music; nevertheless the gaiety of Buxton is always
chastened--not even on a Bank Holiday have I seen ought approaching
rowdiness.
In the neighbourhood are many excellent walks and drives, the most
popular being to the “Cat and Fiddle”, a hostelry on the Macclesfield
road. This enjoys the distinction of being the second highest inn in
England. Quaint enough are the surmises concerning the origin of the
name, and much is perennially written thereon in the local newspapers.
Buxton often enjoys brilliant sunlight when the rest of Peakland is
plunged in gloom. It is bracing and supremely healthy; but its sister
spa of Matlock has a less shrewd atmosphere. At Matlock, for all its
beauty, one wishes to leave the valley for the hilltop, whilst at
Buxton one usually idles and spends the days in watching other folk
take their pleasure with becoming sobriety.
CHATSWORTH
It would be impossible to find two houses more dissimilar than
Chatsworth and Haddon. Chatsworth is--although the building was begun
as far back as 1687--comparatively modern of aspect; none would guess
its age as more than fifty years. The stone is lightly coloured, the
window frames are gilded, and in certain lights the Palace of the Peak
suggests a well-preserved matron who intends always to guard carefully
against any signs of the oncoming of age. It is tranquil and perhaps
somnolent, a house where one cannot believe that anything of real note
has ever happened. Somewhere there is a picture, dim and faded, of
the house built by Sir William Cavendish, second husband of Bess of
Hardwick; this is stern, forbidding, and one is glad that it stands no
longer in this happy valley.
Old Chatsworth, however, was not without its admirers. Charles Cotton
wrote:--
“Cross the court, thro’ a fine portico,
Into the body of the house you go:
But here I may not dare to go about,
To give account of everything throughout.
The lofty hall, staircases, galleries,
Lodgments, apartments, closets, offices,
And rooms of state, for should I undertake,
To show what ’tis doth them so glorious make,
The pictures, sculptures, carving, graving, gilding,
’Twould be as long in writing, as in building.”
There dwelt Thomas Hobbes, as favoured by my lord the earl and my
lady the countess as was Samuel Johnson by the brewer Thrale and
his vivacious Hester. Probably the _Leviathan_ was written there,
stimulated by the ten or twelve pipes of tobacco that Doctor Kennet
tells about.
Bess of Hardwick had more magnificent taste than Sir William. Hardwick
Hall, the Duke of Devonshire’s seat near the Nottinghamshire border,
is one of the finest Elizabethan mansions in the country, a place of
great bays with latticed panes that turn into gold when the sun creeps
westward. Her ladyship must have loved the daylight--there is still
extant a distich:
“Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall”.
Some biographers of this remarkable woman--perhaps the most striking
female genius ever born in Derbyshire--express surprise that the
daughter of a simple country squire should have attained such a lofty
position; but all who have seen the old house in which Bess was born
will understand that her sire must have been a person of considerable
importance. The ruins still stand not far from the stately palace she
commanded, and in some respects the old house is more interesting than
the inhabited one. One wonders why her ambition prompted her to raise
another so near; possibly it was because of the prophecy that she would
live as long as she continued to build.
Her first spouse was one Robert Barley, of Barlow, a little hamlet
about six miles from Chatsworth. Both were of tender years, and he died
very soon, leaving her mistress of his estates. After him she wedded
Sir William Cavendish, by whom she had several children. Her third
husband was Sir William St. Lo, a south-country knight; and her fourth
George, Earl of Shrewsbury, the unhappy jailer of Mary Queen of Scots.
Before accepting the offer of the last, she stipulated for the marriage
of two of her Cavendish children with two of his young Talbots.
[Illustration: QUEEN MARY’S BOWER, CHATSWORTH]
At first Lord Shrewsbury doted on his shrewd and comely wife, but as
the years passed honey turned to gall, and finally both agreed to part.
The countess was no mate for a peace-loving old man, and, moreover, she
boasted a bitter tongue and a cruel pen. She was coarse and vulgar--as
probably were all the great ladies of her time--she professed to be
jealous of the royal captive, she well-nigh lost her husband the favour
of Elizabeth by arranging the marriage of Darnley’s brother with her
step-daughter, from which union resulted Arabella Stuart. None the
less she was a woman with a heart, and in her letters may be found
one or two profoundly touching expressions. She won her way through
life; she trampled on the weak, and possibly her only real happiness
proceeded from the knowledge of realized ambition. She lived to a
great age, and only died because a frost interfered with her building
operations. Several dukes now living claim her as ancestress, and owe
much to her splendid business ability. Somehow one associates her more
closely with the Cavendish family, since she had no offspring save by
the master of Chatsworth.
In the park the two most interesting features are the “Stand”, a tower
on the hilltop whence in Elizabethan days the ladies of the family were
wont to watch their squires hunting; and the moated flowerless garden
which to-day bears the name of “Queen Mary’s Bower”. The ceilings of
some of the rooms in the “Stand” are quaintly pargeted, and from the
highest windows there is a magnificent view of Longstone Edge and Eyam
Moor. At the back stretches a peacock-haunted woodland where lie the
lakes that feed the fountains of the great house. To descend the hill
there is a narrow path with many stone steps, beside which rushes a
merry little stream.
“Queen Mary’s Bower”, which is said to have been used as an airing
place by the unfortunate prisoner, rises from a moat near Derwent bank.
It resembles a dwarfish heavy-balustraded keep, filled with rich soil
in which grow ancient trees. A broad staircase crosses the moat, rising
to a locked wicket gate, through which may be seen the melancholy
little enclosure. According to local tradition a secret passage
descended from here to the old house. One may easily imagine the
captive sitting here amidst her ladies and working with her everlasting
needle.
The bridge near by, crossing the river which for the nonce is deep
and sullen, was copied from one of Michael Angelo’s designs, and the
uncouth figures in the niches were wrought by Theophilus Cibber, the
Georgian poet-laureate’s father. On the farther bank roam herds of
red and fallow deer--the former descendants of those that ran wild
in the forgotten Forest of the Peak. On a misty day, when house, and
bridge, and bower are all veiled, these magnificent animals have a
most impressive appearance--they move slowly then--there are no wild
flights--they scorn man and are lords of the whole park.
Notwithstanding its great natural beauty the park somehow conveys an
impression of monotony. There are few of those sudden tantalizing
glimpses that one expects in such a place, and the neatness is perhaps
too apparent. Some of the trees are of great age, but none are
comparable with the giants of Sherwood Forest, twenty miles away. The
atmosphere is too tranquil--it is hard to believe that this pleasaunce
is haunted with the memories of noted folk. Mary the Queen and Bess the
Countess might never have wrangled and made friends in this beautiful
valley.
Chatsworth is filled with wonderful treasures. There may be seen the
rosary used by Henry the Eighth before he became Defender of the Faith,
masterpieces by the greatest painters, priceless tapestries from the
French looms, books of almost incredible value. It is a house of cedar
and rock amethyst and variegated alabaster and gilding is everywhere
lavishly displayed. The most ancient piece of furniture appears as well
preserved as though it had been fashioned in our own time. There must
be some charm about Chatsworth--naught there can ever fade or decay.
Many marvellously delicate carvings, attributed to Grinling Gibbons,
but more probably the work of a local genius called Watson, adorn the
walls, notably a delicate cravat in lime-wood, which might have been
wrought by some old Chinese craftsman.
Verrio, and Laguerre, and Thornhill painted the frescoes. In one,
Verrio, who had quarrelled with the housekeeper, immortalized the
luckless woman as the ugliest of the Fates. Verrio had a somewhat
childish wit--on one door he painted a violin, with the intention of
deceiving a fellow painter. To-day one would not attempt to remove it
from the hook.
It cannot be denied that the present house has something of the
aspect of a museum. It contains so many rich treasures that one’s
sense of proportion becomes mazed, and one is almost relieved to
pass out-of-doors again by way of the Sculpture Gallery, where the
masterpieces date chiefly from the earlier half of the nineteenth
century.
The Gardens are as stiffly beautiful and as artificial as the house.
One is reminded of the _Roi Soleil_ when one sees the little temple
with its long flight of stairs down which on state occasions water
flows, or the canals and basins with their slender fountains, the chief
of which, known as the “Emperor”, rises to a height of 267 feet. In one
place is to be seen a weeping-willow tree--of copper--and much mirth
is excited when visitors, passing to the recess behind, are playfully
drenched by a too-willing gardener.
In late spring the rhododendrons glow splendidly here--perhaps the best
view may be obtained from the steep road on the farther bank of the
river.
The Great Conservatory, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, before the Great
Exhibition, is enjoyable for such as wish to be transported to the
tropics, and to breathe an oppressively perfumed air.
The road over the bridge leads to the model village of Edensor,
in whose church may be seen the tomb of two of Bess of Hardwick’s
sons, who died in James the First’s days. It is gaudily coloured and
morbidly suggestive. On one side is the carved suit of armour of Henry
Cavendish, on the other the coronet and robes of William, first Earl of
Devonshire. Between, under an altar slab, are the figures of a corpse
in winding sheet and a skeleton. It is all very ugly and grotesque, but
none the less interesting as an instance of the decorations beloved by
mourning Jacobeans.
A more important memorial of the past is the brass to John Beton,
Comptroller of the captive Queen’s household, who died at Chatsworth
in 1570. The Latin inscription tells how, with others, he bravely
liberated his mistress from Loch Leven Castle. He died young, and was
probably deeply regretted by the mimic Court.
The graveyard contains the resting places of the more recent members of
the Cavendish family, simple and with no affectation of pomp. Perhaps
the one that excites most interest to-day is that of Lord Frederick,
whose assassination in Phoenix Park filled the whole country with
dismay.
HADDON HALL
The best view of Haddon is to be gained from the road that runs from
Rowsley to Bakewell. Shortly after crossing Fillyford Bridge one sees
the towers rising above the tree-tops, harmonizing so well with their
green setting that it is hard not to believe the house old as the
landscape itself. The stonework is of a wonderful colour--a grey that
changes with the seasons. It is warm and cheerful in summer; in winter
I have seen it greenish as though covered with a thin moss.
There is an ancient dove-house near the road--a square building with no
pretension to architectural charm; one wishes that its narrow ledges
might still be dappled with proud birds, since then it would be easy
to believe that Haddon was once again a house of living folk. The Wye
glides between; crossing the bridge one comes to a quaint house with
a formal garden, where may be seen crests in topiary of the boar’s
head and the peacock. Thence a steep incline rises to the great oaken
doorway that opens to the first court. In the wall high above are three
grotesquely carved gargoyles which bear the name of the “Three Muses”.
A small entrance wicket opens, and one passes through the archway,
turning to examine the chaplain’s room with its unclerical jack-boots
and pewter dishes. It matters little to whom this retreat was dedicated
in olden times; at Haddon one is in love with illusions and will
sacrifice none.
The chapel where the Vernons and the Manners listened to their priest
stands in the south-west corner of the courtyard. In spite of the
fact that long ago the rich heraldic glass of the west window was
stolen, it is still a place of warm colour. Near the entrance is a
short flight of stairs which leads to a dark balcony, used formerly,
according to Doctor Cox, the distinguished antiquarian, as an
organ-loft. The general public, however, prefer to believe that this
was the confessional. On the walls are some ancient frescoes, and there
is a gigantic oak chest which once contained the vestments of the
officiating cleric.
Haddon has not been used as a residence since the reign of Anne,
although the furniture was not removed to Belvoir Castle until about
the year 1760. The first Duke of Rutland was the last occupant; he
lived there in great state and kept open house “like an old courtier
of the Queen’s”. Lysons tells us that between 1660 and 1670, although
Belvoir was then the principal seat, every year were killed and
consumed at Haddon “between 30 and 40 beeves, between 400 and 500
sheep, and 8 or 10 swine”!
Notwithstanding that the place is deserted, all the rooms are
scrupulously clean, perhaps cleaner than in the days when the floors
were strewn with rushes. The two courtyards are kept in perfect order,
and such flowers as grow there may be the same as flourished in
Tudor times. On a hot day a strong and pleasant aroma comes from the
dignified old yews in the Winter Garden.
The Banqueting Hall and the Kitchens, more than anything else in the
place, carry the mind back to those warm-hued times. Horace Walpole, in
1760, wrote that “the abandoned old castle of the Rutlands never could
have composed a tolerable dwelling”, and modern folk, although filled
with admiration for the state apartments, cry out upon the servants’
quarters, forgetting that, lighted with roaring logs in the vast open
fireplaces, and always dim with a mist of roasted meats and spiced
breads, they must have presented an appearance of very comfortable
cheer. It is easy to repopulate them with merry scullions and buxom
wenches. Doubtless their laughter echoed along the dark passage and
reached the ears of my lord and his family, as they sat together at the
long table on the dais. But that must only have been when the musicians
who sat in the Minstrels’ Gallery were silent for the masters of
Haddon loved to listen at mealtimes to “sounds and sweet airs that give
delight and hurt not”.
[Illustration: HADDON HALL]
Here are one or two old paintings, and beside the entrance is an iron
ring which was attached to the wrist of such as shirked his ale, the
scorned liquor being poured down his sleeve. The Dining-Room near by
is panelled with oak, and the ceiling, whence the whitewashing has
been removed, shows remains of ancient frescoes. Above the fireplace
is the Vernons’ fine motto: “Drede God and honor the Kyng”. The most
interesting things in this room are the carved heads of Henry the
Seventh and his Queen, and the Court Jester, Will Somers--to be found
in the frieze of a dainty oriel.
There are no paintings of any value at Haddon, but such canvases as are
seen--the clearings of the Belvoir Castle lumber-rooms--seem altogether
in keeping with the house. Marvellous tapestries adorn many of the
rooms, notably the Withdrawing-Room, which is immediately above the
Dining-Room. They are of a kind to haunt one’s dreams; they might be
used as background for a thousand old romances. In one of the smaller
rooms not shown nowadays to the ordinary visitor, hangs a startling
panel of a king or knight, evidently designed by a master.
But one cannot particularize all the charms of this wonderful house.
Of late one or two harpsichords have appeared in the state chambers;
somehow one resents the introduction of the eighteenth century into so
ancient a building. The instruments displayed here should be the lute,
the virginals, the viola da gamba.
Haddon stands unevenly, owing to the slope on which it is built, and
the inner court is considerably higher than the first. There is only
one third-floor room, in what is known as the Eagle Tower. Many of the
smaller rooms, despite their cleanliness, have an oppressive air of
desolation, and there is one, dark and ill-odoured, that seems given
over entirely to the bats.
After the Withdrawing-Room, where there is a dainty recessed window
from which may be seen a lovely view of the gardens and the river, one
passes to the Long Gallery--the chief glory of Haddon. To reach the
doorway one ascends a semicircular staircase of solid oak, cut from the
root of a single tree whose trunk and arms are said to have furnished
the planks for the floor of this great chamber. On entering, such as
do not know Haddon are silent for a moment, as though not quite sure
whether they are in presence of someone worthy of vast respect. Whether
it be because of the ghosts of those who danced lavoltas and pavans
and sarabands, I cannot say, but I have never seen a crowd of men and
women there who did not at first speak with bated breath.
The colouring here is rich and warm, the panelling with its carved
boars’ heads, and peacocks, and crescents has darkened until it
resembles walnut. Originally the pargeting was painted and gilt. Traces
of this decoration still remain. The windows are excellently designed;
the central bay is as large as an ordinary-sized room.
The dominating spirit here must surely be that of Lady Grace Manners,
whose death mask hangs in a glass case under the great east window. It
is the face of a sad and worn-out lady, with the bitterness of death
upon her lips. None the less she appears to have enjoyed a pleasant
enough life, since in Bakewell Church we read that she “bore to her
husband four sons and five daughters, and lived with him in holy
wedlock thirty years. She caused him to be buried with his forefathers,
and then placed this monument at her own expense, as a perpetual
memorial of their conjugal faith, and she joined the figure of his body
with hers, having vowed their ashes and bones should be laid together.”
From the Long Gallery is entered the Lord’s Parlour, called in the
seventeenth century the Orange Parlour. Here is something that
is viewed with the greatest interest by sentimentalists old and
young--the doorway through which the heroine of Haddon is said to have
passed on the night of her elopement. There are folk who profess to
believe that Mistress Dorothy Vernon wedded Sir John Manners in quite
a humdrum fashion, and that the pretty tradition only dates from the
beginning of the nineteenth century. But Haddon is such an admirable
setting for romance, that one prefers to believe the story.
In the State Bedroom stands one of those magnificent draped bedsteads
beloved by quality folk in olden time. It is over fourteen feet high, a
curious and weird four-poster hung with rich green embroidered velvet,
and is supposed to date from the fifteenth century. The last person who
slept in it was the Regent, during a visit to Belvoir Castle. This room
contains a remarkable old washing-tally with revolving disks of ivory,
whereon one may read of “Ruffes, Bandes, Boote Hose, Pillowberes”,
and other strange personal and domestic articles. Near the window is
a dim mirror with a lacquered frame. Tradition holds that this was
once the property of the Virgin Queen. A very quaint and daintily made
spinet stands near the farther doorway; some of its wires still respond
janglingly to the pressed key.
[Illustration: DOROTHY VERNON’S BRIDGE, HADDON]
The fireplace is surmounted by an alto-relievo of plaster, representing
Orpheus in the very act of charming the beasts. This is grotesque
and out of keeping with the solemn dignity of the house. From the State
Bedroom one soon reaches a corkscrew staircase that climbs the Peveril
Tower, whence a singular view may be had of the roofs and courtyards
and the green Haddon meadows. Fuller, in his _History of the Worthies
of England_, observes concerning the richness of this pasture land,
that “one profferred to surround it with shillings to purchase it,
which, because to set sideways, not edgeways, was refused”.
The Gardens with their lichened balustrades and staircases are perhaps
as famous as any in our country. From the upper one is to be gained
an extraordinarily fine view of the principal façade. They are formal
gardens but formal without embarrassment; the yews, which must be
almost as old as the house itself, seem to diffuse a pleasant calm. In
the narrow borders grew ancient roses with loose petals--roses such as
were used in still-rooms by the high-born dames who loved to prepare
their own simples and sweet extracts. The Lower Garden is terraced
down the hillside, and across the river stretches a wonderful old
footbridge, somewhat similar to those reared in pack-horse days in the
remoter part of Peakland. Fond legend declares that Dorothy Vernon
crossed this on the night of her elopement.
THE ATHENS OF THE PEAK
Eyam, known years ago as “the Athens of the Peak”, surpasses in
literary interest any other part of the Peak Country. There, in the
days of her youth, before it was her duty to “rock the cradle of her
aged nursling”, as she piously calls her father, dwelt the bluestocking
Anna Seward, who in later years won for herself the title of “Swan
of Lichfield”. She was the rector’s daughter, and even in childhood
must have been singularly wordy. Most readers will remember Scott’s
confusion upon learning that she had made him her literary executor.
An interesting figure was Anna Seward, and not devoid of charm. She
occupied a certain position in the literary history of the eighteenth
century as the acquaintance--but not the friend--of Drs. Johnson and
Darwin. Glimpses of her are to be found in Boswell’s Life. She always
impresses one as despising those who without private means devoted
themselves to the profession of letters. Her compliments were paid
from a superior height, and she never descended to the level of the
paid scribe. She loved to patronize, and in those days the humble,
with some notable exceptions, were not averse from patronage. It is
easy enough to imagine her moving in the quaint rectory, filled with
inordinate share of intellectual pride. After her maturity she lived
on terms of some intimacy with other bluestockings of the period, and
doubtless had she chosen might have told some very piquant stories.
Unfortunately, however, she had not the gift of conciseness, and all
that she describes is viewed through a dull mist.
William and Mary Howitt are connected more popularly with Eyam, since
they sang, in banal rhyme, the story of its great catastrophe. For
Eyam, in the seventeenth century, was visited by the Great Plague, and
the whole village well-nigh brought to ruin. A box of clothes had been
sent by a wretched London tailor, and, when this was opened, one by
one the countryfolk sickened, until in little over a twelvemonth only
ninety-one survivors were left out of a population of three hundred and
fifty. Many weird stories are told of that time of terror, and old men
still love to speak of bones turned up by the ploughshare.
It was due to the rector, Mompesson, and to a dispossessed clergyman
named Stanley, that the frightful disease was kept within a certain
area. Both these men worked nobly, and their names are still revered.
Mompesson’s wife, whom he loved dearly, fell ill and died. It is
said that before the signs of sickness were apparent with the lady,
she commented to her husband on the sweetness of the evening air,
and thereby convinced him that she was already infected. Her tomb, a
coffer-like construction carved with cherubs and crossbones, stands not
far from the porch.
On a Sunday the devoted Mompesson preached to his flock from a natural
archway in Cucklet Dell, the pleasaunce afront the Hall. It was
considered advisable that, since the air was poisoned, the villagers
should no longer meet in the church. A strange sight the little valley
must have presented in those days. One sees again the anguished faces
of the men and women who have lost those they loved best; and every
time they gathered together more and more were missing. It must have
seemed that one and all were doomed, and after so long an ordeal
probably all wished for death.
Several interesting relics of that time still remain. Beside the field
path that descends to Stoney Middleton, where the wild gilliflowers
grow, an old fellow once showed me a flat stone in which were cut
several round holes. There, said he, the Eyam folk had dropped their
coins in vinegar for disinfecting purposes, and the inhabitants of the
surrounding country had exchanged them for provisions. High on Eyam
Edge, near a grim deserted mine, is a water trough with a carved hood,
which, according to tradition, was used for a similar purpose.
[Illustration: MILLER’S DALE]
A pleasant if somewhat melancholy half-hour may be spent in the
churchyard, where are to be found several curious epitaphs, the most
striking being on a worn stone near the south chancel.
“Here lith the body of Ann Sellars
Buried by this stone--who
Dyed on Jan 15th day, 1731.
Likewise here lise dear Isaac
Sellars, my husband and my right,
Who was buried on that same day come
Seven years, 1738. In seven years
Time there comes a change--
Observe, & here you’ll see
On that same day come
Seven years my husband’s
Laid by me.”
Another epitaph, on a slab fastened to the tower, tells of an old
inhabitant who must have loved his Shakespeare.
“Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages,
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages.”
There is a fine scrolled cross with age-worn figures of the Virgin
and Child, which owes its present position to the antiquarian zeal of
Howard the philanthropist. But perhaps the most suggestive object
in this beautiful resting place is a chapel-shaped tomb with grated
windows and without roof--the lead having been sold about a century
ago by the descendants of those who lay there. It is certainly a place
whence a ghost might rise o’ nights; one wonders that the villagers
have no weird legends concerning its past.
Beside the church is a small gabled cottage with a forecourt proudly
embellished with oldfashioned flowers. This is the “Plague House”.
Tradition insists that the tailor’s box was opened in one of its rooms.
A little farther, lying behind a terraced garden, stands Eyam Hall,
perhaps the most beautiful of the minor Peakland houses. Semicircular
steps rise to a fantastical white gate with carved stone posts, and one
may look upon a soft green lawn and a Jacobean façade whereon grows the
Virginian Creeper. The latticed panes glimmer; the stonework is richly
coloured. In autumn the sight of the gorgeous foliage is worth a day’s
journey.
This district abounds with old stories--it is with regret that one
finds the younger generation careless of the traditions cherished by
their fore-elders. In the days when Prince Charlie marched towards
London, Eyam folk were greatly scared, and their cattle were driven to
a little valley known as Bretton Clough, and hidden till the tremor
had passed. One used to hear old dames boasting of their grandfathers’
clocks, which in those long-past days had been lowered for safety down
mine shafts. A grandfather’s clock and a corner cupboard may still be
found in almost every cottage. The natives of Eyam are well-read and
kindly--it is possible that the influence of the “Swan of Lichfield”
has not yet entirely faded.
On the little green near the hall still stand the two posts of the
stocks--it is easy enough to picture the penitent drunkard enduring
neighbourly abuse, and bowing his head under a shower of rotten eggs.
But at Eyam one may be sure that no lasting harm was ever wrought upon
those who loved their cups unwisely.
On the moor that reaches to the “Edge” are several cairns, and a
druidical circle of minor importance. From the summit of the Sir
William Hill is what was described to me as a “perfect horizon”. There
may be enjoyed one of the most striking views in Peakland--in one
direction one glimpses the wild hills of Kinderscout, in another the
rich woods and towers of Chatsworth. And sometimes may be seen the
“Emperor Fountain”, rising high and quivering like a white plume in the
breeze.
THE DALES
Perhaps the most startling view in all Peakland is that from “Headstone
Edge”--as oldfashioned countrymen call the place--at the curve of
Monsal Dale. There, after leaving the dusty road and crossing a few
yards of grassy waste, one looks down into the great valley, where the
Wye runs tranquilly between broken-edged meadows, with abrupt hills on
either side. A viaduct crosses the stream; to the left is a smooth lake
with gleaming surface. A narrow path descends and runs alongside the
bank until the Ashford road is reached.
The uplands above Monsal Dale are dull and uninspiring. No hedgerows
are to be seen; the fields are surrounded by walls of loosely built
limestone that fall in gaps during every rough storm. A considerable
portion of the small farmer’s time must be devoted to their repair. The
stone is of a greyish white, and in winter is embellished with orange
lichen. The scattered trees that have attained a shrivelled maturity
are almost invariably lopsided. Thorns are the most common; sometimes
one finds thereon puny flowers long after the passing of mid-summer.