Beauchamp Chapel attached to St. Mary’s Church. The chapel is one of
the most exquisitely beautiful buildings remaining in this country, and
ought to be seen by every visitor to Warwick. It is placed on the south
side of the choir of the church, from which it is entered by a descent
of several steps beneath a doorway said to have been carved by a mason
of Warwick in 1704, but probably being only a freshening and touching
up, or restoration, of the original design. The size of the chapel is
58 feet in length, 25 in breadth, and 32 in height, and its design and
finish are of the most chaste and beautiful and elaborate character.
It was built in the reign of Henry VI., in accordance with the will of
its founder, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who died in 1439. The
foundation was laid in 1443, and in 1475 the chapel was consecrated,
and the body of its founder with much solemnity laid therein. It is
stated to have cost £2,481 4_s._ 7_d._, an enormous sum in those days,
when the value of a fat ox was only 13_s._ 4_d._: and the contracts for
some of the work are still preserved. In the chapel is the monument
of the founder, which is, with only one exception, the most splendid
monument of its kind in the kingdom. It is an altar-tomb of Purbeck
marble, bearing the recumbent effigy of the great earl, in fine latten
brass, gilt. His head, uncovered, rests upon a helmet, and at his feet
are a bear and a griffin. The tomb is surmounted by one of the few
“hearses” that yet remain in our churches. It consists of six hoops
of brass, extended by five transverse brass rods, on which formerly
was hung a pall, “to keep the figure reverently from the dust.” Around
the tomb, in niches, are fourteen figures in “divers vestures, called
weepers,” friends and relatives of the deceased who mourn his loss.
Between the weepers are smaller niches, raised upon pillars, containing
whole-length figures of angels holding scrolls, inscribed “Sit deo
laus in gloria, defunctis misericordia.” The effigy of the earl is the
finest of its class, and it is a perfect figure, the armour on the
back, and all the details being as highly and carefully finished as
those on the front of the figure. For this effigy in brass, William
Austen was paid (exclusive of cost of workmen, carriage, &c.) £40, and
the goldsmith, Bartholomew Lambespring, was paid £13 for gilding it;
the “weepers” cost in brass, 13_s._ 4_d._ each, and the angels 5_s._
each; and the gilding of these, and preparing them for gilding, cost
also a considerable sum—the contracts being of the highest interest,
and very minute in every particular.
[Illustration: _The Beauchamp Chapel, monument of the founder._]
In the same chapel are monuments, &c., to Robert Dudley, Earl of
Leicester, and his Countess Lettice, 1588; to Ambrose Dudley, Earl of
Warwick, 1589; to Robert Dudley, Lord Denbigh, 1584; to Lady Katherine
Leveson, and others.
The windows were filled with stained glass, for which the contract with
John Prudde of Westminster is preserved; but it has undergone much
change and mutilation: it still, however, especially that of the east
window, is of great beauty.[35] Adjoining the chapel is an exquisite
little oratory, with a confessional near; of these we give engravings.
[Illustration: _The Confessional._]
The Church of St. Mary is of considerable antiquity, and is mentioned
in Domesday Book. The Norman Earl, Henry de Newburgh, formed the
intention of uniting the endowments of St. Nicholas within the Castle
with St. Mary’s, which was carried out by his son, whose grant of
incorporation was executed in 1123. Probably the church was built about
that time, as the crypt is of Norman character. In the reign of Edward
III., Thomas Beauchamp ordained by his will in 1369, that a choir
should be erected; and many alterations have at one time or other been
made. A great part of the church was burnt down in 1694, and rebuilt at
a cost of £5,000, to which Queen Anne contributed £1,000. In the crypt
is preserved the ducking stool.
[Illustration: _The Oratory._]
It is desirable to add a word or two concerning “Guy’s Cave” and the
“Statue of Guy” at Guy’s Cliff, to which the visitor ought by all
means to “wend his way.” Indeed, the town of Warwick, and the whole of
the neighbourhood by which it is surrounded, is one grand assemblage
of interesting objects, of which the mind cannot tire or become
satiated. To all we have described—the towers, the lodges, the several
apartments of the castle, and to the gardens and grounds—the publicly
is freely, graciously, and generously admitted: a boon for which we are
sure every visitor will be grateful.
One of the few remaining “antiques” that yet endure to the town we
have selected for engraving—the EAST GATE; but, as will be seen, the
base only can be considered ancient; it has been “transmogrified,” yet
is still striking and interesting. The Earl of Leicester’s Hospital,
founded by Robert Dudley in 1586, is a singularly beautiful and perfect
specimen of the half-timber houses; it escaped the great fire that
nearly destroyed the town in 1694. There are not many other ancient
edifices in the venerable town.
[Illustration: _Warwick: the East Gate._]
Thus, it will be readily understood that a day at Warwick supplies a
rare treat; not only to the antiquary, and the historian, but to the
lover of nature. The best views of the Castle are obtained from the
opposite side of the Avon, near a narrow stream crossed by a bridge,
which is part of the main road;[36] of the old bridge there are some
remains, rendered highly picturesque by ivy and lichens that grow in
profusion there, and near the old mill, the date of which is coeval
with that of the Castle. Superb trees grow in the immediate grounds,
huge chestnuts and gigantic cedars, that have sheltered the stout earls
time out of mind: the walls are grey with age; but it is a sober livery
that well suits the stronghold of the bold barons, and suggests the
tranquillity of repose after the fever of battles, sieges, and deeds
that cannot fail to be summoned from history as one looks from the
filled-up moat to the towers and battlements that still smile or frown
upon the environing town they controlled or protected.
It demands but little imagination to carry the visitor of to-day back
through long-past centuries, from the moment we enter the picturesque
yet gloomy passage cut through the rock, covered with ivy, lichens,
and wild flowers in rich abundance, and pass under the portcullis that
yet frowns above the porter’s lodge: the whole seems so little changed
by time, that one might wait for the king-maker and his mighty host to
issue through the gateway, and watch the red rose or the white rose
on the helmets of attendant knights; by no great stretch of fancy one
might see the trembling Gaveston, the petted minion of a weak monarch,
dragged forth to death: a hundred events or incidents are associated
with these courts and towers, inseparably linked with British history;
and it is impossible to resist a feeling of reverence approaching awe
while pacing peacefully among them.
The “frowning keep,” nearly hidden by the green foliage of surrounding
trees, may be accepted as an emblem of the Castle; where tranquillity
and peace are in the stead of fierceness and broil. Warwick, while it
has lost little of its grandeur, has obtained much of grace from time;
Time which
“Moulders into beauty many a tower,
That when it frowned with all its battlements
Was only terrible.”
HADDON HALL.
[Illustration: _Dorothy Vernon’s Door._]
HADDON HALL is, perhaps, the most interesting, and is certainly
the most attractive, of all the ancient mansions of England: and
none have been so fertile of material to Artists. Situate in one
of the most picturesque, if not the most beautiful, of our English
shires, absolutely perfect as an example of the Baronial Halls of our
ancestors, and easily accessible by charming routes from populous
towns, it is not surprising that it should be visited annually by tens
of thousands; and that in America it is regarded as one of the places
in the “Old Country,” which no visitors, even of a week, to the classic
land of their History, should neglect to see, examine, and describe.
HADDON HALL is distant fourteen miles from BUXTON; perhaps the most
fashionable, as it certainly is one of the most cheerful, and, we
believe, the most healthful of all the Baths of England. Its waters are
as efficacious, in certain ailments, as are those of Southern Germany;
while the surrounding district is so grand and beautiful, so happily
mingling the sublime and the graceful, as to compete, and by no means
unfavourably, with the hills and valleys that border the distant Rhine.
The poet, the novelist, the traveller, the naturalist, the sportsman,
and the antiquary have found appropriate themes in Derbyshire, in
its massive rocks—“Tors”—and deep dells; its pasture-lands on
mountain-slopes; its rapid, yet never broad, rivers—delights of the
angler; its crags and caves; its rugged and ragged or wooded steeps;
above all, its relics of the earlier days when Briton, Roman, Saxon,
and Norman, held alternate sway over the rich lands and prolific mines
of this lavishly endowed county; and of a later time, when shrewd monks
planted themselves beside the clear streams and rich meadows, to which
they bequeathed magnificent ruins to tell of intellectual and material
power in the time of their vigorous and prosperous strength.
Unequivocal evidence exists that the Romans knew the curative
properties of the Baths at Buxton; and it is almost certain, from the
many Celtic barrows and stone circles found in the neighbourhood, that
a still earlier race was acquainted with them. Probably, therefore,
for more than a thousand years Buxton has been one of the principal
“health-resorts” of this island. Yet few remains of antiquity exist
in the town. The dwelling—in which was lodged Mary, Queen of Scots,
on her several visits, while in custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury,
and to which “good Queen Bess,” while sojourning at Kenilworth, sent
the Earl of Leicester, that he might drink of the healing waters,
“twenty days together”—was removed just a century ago: a handsome and
very commodious hotel occupies the site: it is still called the “Old
Hall;” and immediately behind it are the two springs—the Saline and
the Iron—the Chalybeate and the Tonic. On a window-pane of one of the
rooms in this Old Hall, Mary, Queen of Scots, is said to have scratched
the following touching and kindly farewell—the pane of glass having
been preserved until recent years:—
“Buxtona, quæ calidæ celebrare nomine lymphæ,
Forte mihi posthac non adeunda vale!”
Cheerfulness is the handmaid of health: and, although there are many
patients in and about Buxton, they do not seem to suffer much: there
are more smiles than moans in the pump-room; and rheumatism is not a
disease that makes much outer show of anguish.
It would be difficult to find in any part of the British dominions a
drive so grandly beautiful as that between Buxton and Haddon. Within
half a mile of its centre is “the Duke’s Drive” (formed in 1795 by the
then Duke of Devonshire): it runs through Ashwood Dale, Miller’s Dale,
and Monsal Dale, passing “the Lover’s Leap” and “Chee Tor”—stupendous
crags, from the crevices of which grow small trees, partially crowned
and covered with ivy, ferns, and lichens, groups of varied foliage
intervening; with here and there umbrageous woods; and the river
Wye—not the “sylvan Wye, thou wanderer through the woods,” of
Wordsworth, but its namesake of lesser fame, that has its source a mile
or two north of Buxton—journeying all the way, until at Rowsley it
joins the Derwent (not the Derwent of the English lakes), from whence
the blended waters, running by Matlock, Belper, and Derby, flow into
the Trent, and so make their way to the sea.
[Illustration: _Haddon, from the Meadows on the Bakewell Road._]
To give a list of the several objects that delight the eye and mind
during this comparatively short drive, would fill more pages than we
have at our disposal. The lowest part of the town of Buxton is one
thousand feet above the level of the sea; the naturalist, the botanist,
and the geologist will find treasure-troves in any of the surrounding
hills and valleys: while natural marvels abound, within a few miles,
in all directions—such as Poole’s Hole, the Blue-John Mine, the Ebbing
and Flowing Well, and the Peak Cavern, with its summit crowned by the
fine old castle of “Peveril of the Peak.” Majestic Chatsworth—to
which, on certain days, the people are admitted, the park being at all
times freely open to all comers—is distant about three miles from
Haddon, across Manners Wood and intervening hills: in short, there are
a hundred places of deep interest within a drive of Buxton, and, if it
be a long drive, Dovedale—the loveliest dale in England—is easily
reached; so, indeed, is far-famed Alton Towers.
From Manchester and Buxton the way to Haddon is through the ancient
town of Bakewell, to the venerable parish church of which we shall, in
due course, conduct the reader—for it contains the monuments of THE
VERNONS. But before entering the old Hall, we must ask the reader to
glance at another route to Haddon—that which he will probably take if
his tour be made direct from London.
No doubt many visitors to Haddon will start from DERBY; and if the road
from Buxton is charming, so also is that from the capital of the shire:
it is more open; the vales are wider; the views are more extensive;
there are the same attractions of hill and dell and rock and river;
cottages embosomed in foliage; church steeples seen among richly-clad
trees; clean and happy-looking villages; and distant towns, never
indicated, except in one case—that of Belper—by the chimneys and
sullen shadows of manufactories. For more than twenty miles there is an
unbroken continuation of scenic loveliness, such as, in its calm and
quiet charm, its simple grace, and all the attractions of home nature,
can be found nowhere else in the wide world.
Leaving Derby, and passing by the famous “Boar’s Head” cotton
manufactory of Messrs. Evans on the left, and Breadsall on the right,
the first station arrived at is Duffield, a delightful village, where
was once the castle of the Peverels, and so on to Belper, famous for
its cotton mills of the Messrs. Strutt; thence through a delightful
country to the pleasant Junction of Ambergate, from whence the railway
runs by the picturesque village of Cromford, the creation of one
great man, Sir Richard Arkwright; Matlock Bath, the most popular and
beautiful of inland watering-places, whose villa residences peep out
from the heights in every direction, and whose “High Tor” frowns down
upon the railway beneath; Matlock Bridge, whose hill-side of Matlock
Bank is studded with famous hydropathic establishments; and Darley
Dale, with its fine old church, and grand old yew tree, the largest in
the kingdom, until the train stops at Rowsley. Here the passenger for
Haddon, or Chatsworth, will alight, and here he will find conveyances,
should he care to ride on. Here too he will find a pleasant hostel,
“The Peacock,” in which to refresh the inner man.
[Illustration: _The Peacock at Rowsley._]
“The Peacock” at Rowsley is one of the prettiest and pleasantest inns
in “all England:” it has ever been in high favour with “brethren of
the angle”—long before the neat and graceful railway station stood
so near it that the whistle of the train is audible a dozen times a
day, and twice or thrice at night. The fine old bridge close at hand
throws its arches across the Derwent; neatly and gracefully trimmed
gardens skirt the banks of that clear and bright river, into which
flows the Wye about a furlong off; and rivers, meadows, rocks and
dells, and hills and valleys “all round about,” exhibit to perfection
the peculiarities of the vale, so rich in the beautiful and the
picturesque. “The Peacock” is the nearest inn to Haddon; and here
hundreds of travellers from all parts of the world have found not only
a tranquil resting-place, but a cheerful home.[37] We have thought it
well to picture it, and have placed at its doors one of the waggonettes
that drive hither and thither from Buxton and other places; and the
tourist may rest assured that this pretty inn is indeed a place at
which he may “rest, and be thankful.”
[Illustration: _Haddon, from the Rowsley Road._]
At Rowsley the tourist is but three miles from Chatsworth, and two
miles from Haddon. A pleasant walk through the valley brings him in
sight of Haddon Hall; and from this road he obtains, perhaps, the best
view of it. Partly hidden, as it is, by tall and full-leaved trees,
its grandeur is not at once apparent; but the impression deepens as he
ascends the steep pathway and pauses before the nail-studded door that
opens into the court-yard.
Before we proceed to describe the HALL, however, we shall give
some accounts of its earlier owners—the VERNONS—reserving for an
after-part the history of their successors, the illustrious family of
MANNERS, from their origin, as knights, to the period of their high
elevation, as Earls and Dukes of Rutland, and so down to the present
time.
The history of Haddon, unlike that of most of our ancient baronial
residences, has always been one of peace and hospitality, not of war
and feud and oppression; and however much its owners may, at one period
or other, have been mixed up in the stirring events of the ages in
which they lived, Haddon itself has taken no part in the turmoils. It
has literally been a stronghold: but it has been the stronghold of home
and domestic life, not of armed strife.
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Arms of Vernon quartering Avenell._]
HADDON, at the time of taking the Domesday survey, when the manor of
Bakewell belonged to, and was held by, the king, was a berewite of
the manor; and there one carucate of land was claimed by Henry de
Ferrars. Over-Haddon, a village two or three miles off, on the hills,
was also another berewite of the same manor. To whom Haddon belonged
in the Saxon period is not clear; the first owner of which there is
any distinct knowledge is this Henry de Ferrars, who held it in 1086,
and who, by grant of the Conqueror, had no less than 114 manors in
Derbyshire alone; he built Duffield Castle, and founded the Church of
the Holy Trinity, near the Castle of Tutbury.
Haddon was at a very early period held, it is said, by tenure of
knight’s service, by William Avenell, who resided there, and was
possessed of much land in the neighbourhood. Soon after the foundation
of Roche Abbey, in 1147, William de Avenell, Lord of Haddon, gave to
that establishment the grange of Oneash and its appurtenances. One
of the daughters and co-heiresses of William de Avenell, Elizabeth,
married Simon Bassett, of the fine old family of Bassett, owners of
much property in this and the neighbouring counties; the other married
Richard de Vernon; and thus Haddon passed into that noted family, of
which we proceed to give some particulars.
The House of Vernon is of very considerable antiquity, and derives its
name, as do many others in the Baronage of England, from its primitive
domicile in Normandy—the _Châtellenie_ of Vernon, forming one of
the territorial subdivisions of that country: the castle, with its
hereditary lords, is recorded in the Anglo-Norman chronicles. According
to the present territorial division of France, Vernon is a commune in
the _Département de l’Eure_ and _Arrondissement d’Evreux_; and as being
the _chef-lieu_, gives name to the canton in which it is situate. From
this locality, one of the most picturesque and luxuriant of the vine
districts, the family of Vernon takes its origin; and also the ancient
family of De Redvers—the two families, indeed, being originally
identical, the name of De Redvers having been assumed by a Vernon in
the eleventh century, from the place of his residence, Révière, in
Normandy: his family were “Comtes de Révières and Vernon, and Barons
de Néhou;” both families tracing from the d’Ivry stock. Mauriscus
d’Ivry (father of Robert d’Ivry), who was father of Alselin Goël—the
names of whose sons, Roger Pincerna, surnamed “the stammerer,” Lord of
the Castle of Grossœuvre; William Lupellus (Lovel), who acquired the
castle of Ivry on the death of his elder brother; and Robert Goël—are
well known in history; the one as holding the Honour of Ivry in right
of his descent from Count Ralph, uterine-brother of Richard I., Duke
of Normandy; another as the founder of the family of Lovel; and the
third as having held his castle of Grossœuvre against King Stephen;
he had a son, Baldwin, who took the surname of De Revers from the
place of his residence: and two generations later, William, the son
of Richard, assumed the name of Vernon, from the _Châtellenie_ of
that name which he held. His son, Hugh de Revers, or Vernon, usually
called Hugh de Monachus, had a son, William de Vernon, Lord of Vernon,
who founded the Abbey of Montebourg. By his wife Emma he had issue
two sons, Walter and Richard: the latter of whom, Richard de Redvers
(as the name became afterwards spelled), or Vernon, came over at the
Conquest, and was created Baron of Shipbroke in Cheshire. He married
Adeliza, daughter of William Peverel of Nottingham, and received with
her in frank-marriage—that is, a free gift of an estate given with a
wife on her marriage, and descendable to their joint heirs—the manor
of Wolleigh, Buckinghamshire. One of these sons, Baldwin de Redvers,
was created Earl of Devon, and from him descended the line of earls of
that name; while William de Redvers, who inherited the Norman baronies
of Vernon, Révières, and Néhou, re-assumed the surname of Vernon from
those possessions. He had an only son and heir, Hugh de Vernon, Baron
of Shipbroke, who married a daughter of Raynold Badgioll, Lord of
Erdiswicke and Holgrave. By this lady he had a numerous issue: the
eldest, Warin, continuing the barony of Shipbroke; Matthew, inheriting
the lordships of Erdeswicke and Holgrave, who was ancestor of the
Vernons of those places, and Richard, already alluded to. This Richard
de Vernon married Avice, the daughter and co-heiress of William de
Avenell, Lord of Haddon; his other daughter and co-heiress marrying Sir
Simon Bassett. By marriage with this lady Richard de Vernon acquired
Haddon and other estates, and thus became settled at Haddon Hall.
He had issue, an only daughter and heiress, who married Gilbert le
Francis; and their son, Richard le Francis, took the name of Vernon,
on coming into the property, and settled at Haddon. He married Mary,
daughter of Robert, Baron of Stockport. His descendant, Sir Richard
Vernon, Lord of Haddon and of Appleby, &c., married Maude, daughter and
co-heiress of William de Camville, by whom he had an only son and heir,
William Vernon, who was only ten years of age at his father’s death in
1422, when he was found heir to his grandfather. In 1330 he obtained
a grant of free warren, or the exclusive right of killing beasts and
birds of warren within prescribed limits in the royal forests, &c.,
from the king. He married Joan, daughter of Rhee, or Rhis, ap Griffith,
and heiress of Richard Stackpole, and had issue by her Sir Richard
Vernon, Knt., of Pembrugge (sometimes called Sir Richard de Pembrugge),
Lord of Haddon and Tonge, which latter lordship he acquired by his
marriage with the sister and heiress of Sir Fulke de Pembrugge, or
Pembridge, Lord of Tonge in Shropshire. Their son, Richard Vernon, was
father of Richard Vernon, Treasurer of Calais, Captain of Rouen, and
Speaker in the Parliament at Leicester in 1426. By his wife, Benedict,
daughter of St. John Ludlow of Hodnet, he had issue, with others, Sir
William Vernon, Knt., who, marrying Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert
Pype of Spernore, acquired that manor and lordship. He was buried at
Tonge, where a monument was placed to his memory.