do well to notice the lock and other details of the door, which are
somewhat curious. This noble apartment extends, as will be seen on
reference to the engraved plan already given, nearly the entire
length of the south side of the upper court-yard—commencing near the
Banqueting Hall, and, running the entire remaining length of the upper
court-yard, is carried out into the winter garden beyond.
[Illustration: _Steps to the Ball-room._]
This grand room is wainscoted throughout its entire dimensions with
oak panelling of remarkably good architectural character. The general
design is a series of semicircular arches, alternately large and small,
divided by pilasters with foliated capitals, and surmounted by a frieze
and a turreted and battlemented cornice. The pilasters, divided like
the whole design up to the frieze, are of three heights. The basement
of the wainscoting, about one-eighth of its entire height, is plainly
panelled, and devoid of all ornament. The second height, rising to
more than a third of the whole, is of a much more decorated character.
The pilasters are fluted, and the spaces between them filled in with
geometric designs, the narrower spaces being by far the most elaborate
in their design. The third height is a series of semicircular arches,
alternately wide and narrow, divided by the pilasters, the crown of
the arch of the narrower ones being on a level with the springing of
the larger ones. The whole of the arches, in which pictures formerly
hung, spring from small brackets and semi-pilasters at the sides
of the pilasters, and are elaborately decorated. Over each of the
smaller arches is a shield of the arms of Manners, with a crescent for
difference, and surmounted on the frieze by their crest, a peacock
displayed, also differenced with a crescent, alternating with those
of the Vernon crest, a boar’s head. The pilasters in this height are
carved in scale pattern, and are finished with capitals of foliage
filling up the spandrels of the arches. Above these is the frieze, the
spaces of which are occupied respectively with the crests just named,
alternating with the rose and thistle conjoined on one stem. Above this
is a remarkably fine turreted and battlemented cornice, in which the
loopholes, &c., are cut quite through the whole thickness of the wood.
The ceiling of this magnificent room is coved—the coving receding for
the cornice. It is covered with elaborate and exquisitely designed
geometric tracery, consisting of squares, lozenges, quatrefoils, &c.,
beautifully foliated at their points, and containing shields of arms
and crests, the arms being those of Manners impaling Vernon, and the
crests those of Manners and Vernon alternately. This ceiling was
originally painted and gilt in a very rich manner, remains of the
colouring and gilding being still distinguishable, here and there,
through the whitewash. On the walls still hang one or two pictures,
which perhaps, however, only add to the solitariness of its appearance.
[Illustration: _Dorothy Vernon’s Door: Interior._]
On the south side of this noble apartment is a charming central
recessed window of large size, 15 feet by 12 feet—large enough, in
fact, to accommodate a goodly party around the fine old central table,
which still remains—and two smaller recessed, or bay, windows. On
the north side are two windows looking into the upper court-yard; the
east end is entirely taken up by a strongly stone-mullioned window of
twenty-four lights, with a side window on each side. In the recessed
windows are the royal arms of England, and the arms of Vernon, Manners,
Talbot, &c., in stained glass. Our engraving shows about one-half, in
length, of this noble room.
Opposite to the central recess is a fire-place, which still holds the
original fire-dogs rising from goats’ feet, and decorated with human
heads and heads of goats. In the centre of the large window at the
end will be observed a glass case, containing a cast of the head of
Lady Grace Manners, whose monument is in Bakewell Church. She was the
daughter of Sir Henry Pierrepoint, and wife of Sir George Manners, of
Haddon, the eldest son and heir of Sir John Manners and Dorothy Vernon
his wife. Lady Grace “bore to him (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 Bakewell) 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.”
[Illustration: _Dorothy Vernon’s Door: Exterior._]
From near the upper end of this Long Gallery, or Ball-room, a highly
enriched doorway opens into the Ante-room, or Lord’s Parlour.
The ANTE-ROOM, now occasionally called the “Lord’s Parlour,” and, two
centuries ago, was designated the “Orange Parlour,” is a small room,
hung with paintings, and having around the upper part of its walls a
cornice embellished with the crests of the Vernon and Manners families.
The interest, however, attached to this apartment rests in the
strongly barred door which opens from it on to a flight of stone steps
leading down to the terrace and winter-garden. This doorway, known
far and wide as DOROTHY VERNON’S DOOR, we have engraved, both as seen
from its exterior side and its interior side, and have also given the
“initial” illustration on page 221.
It is said, and no doubt with truth, that it was through this doorway
and down these steps that the lovely Dorothy Vernon, one of the
co-heiresses of that grand old family, passed on the night of her
elopement, and that at the top of the opposite flight of steps, shown
in our ground plan, and known as “Dorothy Vernon’s Steps,” she was
received into the arms of her ardent and true lover, John Manners,
who had horses in waiting; and that they flew through the woods and
fields until they gained the high road, and made their way into the
neighbouring county. It was through this doorway then that not only the
lovely Dorothy passed, but with her the fine old mansion itself and all
its broad lands, into the hands of the noble family now owning it.
Very sweetly has the tradition of the love and elopement of this
noble pair been worked up by imagination in a story, “The Love-steps
of Dorothy Vernon,” by a popular writer in the “Reliquary;” and thus
another modern author very pleasantly embodies it in verse:—
“The green old turrets, all ivy-thatch,
Above the cedars that girdle them, rise,
The pleasant glow of the sunshine catch,
And outline sharp on the bluest of skies.
“All is silent within and around;
The ghostly house and the ghostly trees
Sleep in the heat, with never a sound
Of human voices or freshening breeze.
* * * * *
“It is a night with never a star,
And the Hall with revelry throbs and gleams;
There grates a hinge—the door is ajar—
And a shaft of light in the darkness streams.
“A faint sweet face, a glimmering gem,
And then two figures steal into light;
A flash, and darkness has swallowed them—
So sudden is Dorothy Vernon’s flight!”
Passing through the Ante-room, the visitor next enters the STATE
BED-ROOM, known two hundred years ago, it seems, as the “Blue
Drawing-room.” The walls are hung with Gobelins tapestry, the subjects
being illustrations of Æsop’s Fables; and above this is a frieze,
similar to that in the Ante-room, bearing the crests of Vernon and
Manners. This apartment is lighted by a large bay-window, overlooking
the upper court-yard, and raised a couple of steps above the level
of the floor of the room itself. In this window stands an antique
dressing-table and a grand old looking-glass, which are worthy of the
most careful examination. Over the chimney-piece is a fine example of
pargetting, representing Orpheus, by his musical powers, charming the
brute creation.
[Illustration: _The State Bed-room._]
The STATE BED, shown in our engraving, measures 14 feet 6 inches
in height. It is furnished in green silk velvet and white satin,
exquisitely embroidered and enriched with needlework. It is one of the
finest remaining beds in existence, and is presumed to be the work
of Eleanor, daughter of Thomas, and eldest sister and co-heiress of
Edmund, Lord Roos, of Hamlake, and wife of Sir Robert Manners; which
lady died in 1487. According to traditional report, it was removed
many years ago from Haddon to Belvoir Castle, and afterwards restored
to Haddon. The last person who ever slept in it is said to have been
George IV., when Prince Regent; he occupied it during his visit to
Belvoir Castle.
From the State Bed-room a doorway behind the tapestry opens upon a
short flight of stone steps, leading to what is usually called the
ANCIENT STATE ROOM, or PAGE’S ROOM, and which two centuries ago was
called the “Best Lodging-room.”
This apartment, like the previous one, is hung with Gobelins tapestry,
the subjects being illustrations of some of the events in the life of
Moses. The thickness of the walls, the small size of the windows, and
the lowness of these rooms, show that they belong to the more ancient
part of the building.
[Illustration: _The Archers’ Room—for Stringing Bows, &c._]
From the Page’s Room a short flight of steps leads into a passage,
or small room, which may appropriately be called the ARCHERS’ ROOM
and is shown in our engraving, where the visitor will notice a
remarkable WOODEN FRAME for the stringing of bows and cross-bows—the
only one probably which he will ever see preserved. It forms one of
our illustrations. The passage leads by a few stone steps into a
rude apartment, probably a guard-room, where, behind the rafters,
innumerable bats now build their nests; also into the cross-bow
room, where the bows were hung; and into several other old and
cheerless-looking rooms; also to a spiral stone staircase, which,
springing from the gateway under the PEVEREL TOWER, leads by seventy
steps, some so worn that they have been covered by wooden ones, to the
top of the tower, the ascent of which will amply repay the visitor for
his trouble by the grand and interestingly beautiful view he obtains
of the mansion and the neighbourhood. Of the turret on the PEVEREL, or
EAGLE TOWER, we give an engraving.
Having descended the tower, the visitor returns through the State
Bed-room into the Ante-room, and is here usually dismissed into the
grounds, through “Dorothy Vernon’s Door.” As we have not, however,
initiated _our_ tourist into the mysteries of all the rooms and
passages of this noble pile of building, we will not dismiss _him_
in this summary manner, but bring him back into the Banqueting Hall,
whence we will show him the kitchens and suite of rooms on the
north side, and then conduct him to the grounds and to some of the
interesting places in the neighbourhood.
[Illustration: _The Rack for Stringing the Bows._]
The KITCHEN and range of domestic offices at Haddon are very large
and extensive, and show, more strikingly than any description, the
marvellous amount of cooking that must have been carried on, and the
more than princely hospitality observed by its owners in its palmy days.
The four doorways, already spoken of as existing in the wall of the
passage opposite to the screen of the Banqueting-Hall, and beneath the
Minstrels’ Gallery, have all of them pointed arches. The first of these
doorways, on entering from the lower court-yard, or quadrangle, yet
retains its old oaken door. This room was the _buttery_, and the door
still has perfect its buttery-hatch in the middle. This is a small
opening, with a little wicket to close and fit, just large enough to
pass out a trencher of provisions to the servants or retainers, or as
alms to wayfarers. From this room a flight of stone steps conducts to
the vaulted cellars, and it also communicates with the storerooms and
other offices, &c.
[Illustration: _The Eagle, or Peverel Tower._]
The second doorway, which is open, leads down a long passage to the
GREAT KITCHEN. At the end, the passage terminates in a strong and
massive half-door, the top of which is formed into a broad shelf. To
this point only were the servants permitted to come, but were forbidden
access to the kitchen itself. The dishes were placed on the door-shelf
by the cooks on the one side, and removed by the servitors on the
other, and by them carried up the passage into the Banqueting-Hall.
The kitchen is of immense size, its ceiling supported by massive
beams and by a central support of solid oak. It contains two enormous
fire-places, stoves for various purposes, and spits, pot-hooks, and
tenter-hooks by the score; enormous chopping-blocks, dressers of all
sorts and sizes, tables of solid oak, six or seven inches in thickness,
and hollowed into circular chopping-troughs—one of which is worn
through by constant use—and every possible appliance for keeping open
house in the most lavish style. Adjoining the kitchen are a number of
rooms, bakehouse, larders, pantries, salting-rooms, &c., all fitted in
the same marvellously massive manner. In one of these should be noticed
an enormous salting-trough, hollowed out of one immense block of wood,
without joint or fastening. This is among the most wonderful relics of
the place, and ought to claim attention from the visitor.
The third doorway opens into what is conjectured to have been the
wine-cellar—a vaulted room well adapted for the purpose, and close at
hand for the Banqueting Hall.
The fourth doorway opens at the foot of a flight of stairs leading
up to the apartments on the north side, which, for more than half
its length, contains a second as well as a first floor. These rooms
are many in number, and curiously labyrinthine in construction, and
although not possessing attraction enough to be shown to the general
visitor, are nevertheless among the most interesting in the mansion.
Some of them are hung with tapestry which ranks among the best in the
house: one room especially, where groups of children gathering fruit
are depicted, is peculiarly beautiful. In two of the apartments on this
side are charming little closets, on the tapestry of one of which the
royal arms are depicted.
[Illustration: _Gallery across Small Yard._]
One of these tapestried rooms is named in an old list of apartments
of 1666 as “Lady Dorothy’s Chamber,” and a neighbouring apartment
is called “Lady Cranborne’s Chamber.” A third tapestried apartment
was called “Roger Manners’ Room.” All these rooms are on the central
portion of the northern side of the Hall, over the kitchen and
adjoining rooms. The apartment over the buttery was the “Great Nursery.”
Most of the rooms on this side of the building have evidently been
intended for sleeping apartments; and there is a staircase with
ornamental rails, on which remains of the original gilding still serve
as a relief to the sombre colour of the oak.
One of the most charming “bits” on this side is a short WOODEN GALLERY,
here engraved, with oak balustrades, which leads across a tiny little
open court from one of the tapestried apartments to another, and on
the walls of which mosses and lichens grow in luxuriance. It is just
the spot, opening from the heated rooms, for a lounge in the pure
air; and no doubt from this gallery Dorothy Vernon, and many another
high-bred dame, has looked up to the stars overhead while passing from
room to room, on a festive night, as well as on many a quiet evening.
[Illustration: _Room over the Entrance Gateway._]
Among the apartments not usually shown are also two handsome wainscoted
rooms, with carved ceilings, situated over each other, in the entrance
gateway tower. Above the uppermost of these is a room supposed to have
been a place of confinement, because there are traces of _external_
bolts and bars. It has two windows, in one of which are two massive
stone seats inserted in the wall. It has also a door leading out to the
leads.
Most of the points of interest have now been described; but the curious
rambler, who may choose to linger and pry into nooks and corners, will
do well to visit some of the basement rooms—as that on the left-hand
side under the Eagle or Peverel Tower—an arched warder’s room, where
he will note the thickness of the walls (7 feet); the next room
westward, which seems to have been the earlier kitchen and bakehouse;
the room under the State Bed-room, used in later times as a gymnasium
for the family; the Armoury, which is under that portion of the Long
Gallery with the deep projecting recess; and the rooms under the Long
Gallery nearer the Dining-room, where the splay of the windows is
nearly 9 feet, and which seem to have been used as washing-houses. Also
the so-called Aviary, which opens toward the garden, under the Earl’s
Bed-room and adjoining rooms; and of the rooms yet unmentioned on the
west side of the lower courts, suffice it to say, that on the ground
floor, next to the so-called Chaplain’s Room, were two waiting-rooms;
and then the Steward’s Room, next to the chapel entrance; over this
entrance the Steward’s Bed-room, approached by a spiral staircase near
the belfry tower from a closet in which access is gained to the leads;
and after passing the clerestory windows of the chapel, there is an
angle commanding a good view of the lower court. Then on this first
floor are a bed-room, the “Barmaster’s Room;” the real Chaplain’s Room,
in which is now a collection of bones; a small room still used by the
duke for private papers; and another bed-room, which brings us back to
the entrance gateway.
But enough has been said of the interior of Haddon to satisfy the
wants of the tourist, and, although we could linger for hours over the
various rooms not yet specifically described, and fill several chapters
with their description, we must reluctantly leave them, and pass on
into the grounds, and so make our way to Bakewell, to show the visitor
the last resting-places of the noble families to whom Haddon has
belonged.
Leaving, then, by a small doorway at the end of a passage leading out
from the Banqueting-Hall, and passing the Dining-room on the right, the
visitor will enter what is called the “Upper Garden.” To his right he
will see below him, on looking over the strongly-buttressed wall—one
of the oldest parts of the building—the “Lower Garden,” roughly
terraced down the hill side, and to his right a gravelled path leads by
the side of the building to the wall of the chapel, where, by a long
flight of sixty-seven steps, it descends to the old foot-bridge—one of
the prettiest objects in the grounds: this we have engraved.
To his left, the “Upper Garden,” 120 feet square, is a lawn; up its
centre, as well as around it, runs a broad gravel walk, opposite
to which rises a splendid wide flight of stone steps, with stone
balustrades, leading to the TERRACE and WINTER GARDEN. Along the sides
of this garden are beds partitioned off by hedges, or as they may more
appropriately be called, walls of yew and box.
[Illustration: _The Terrace._]
The TERRACE, one of the glories of Haddon, extends the full width of
the Upper Garden, the balustraded wall running flush with the end
of the Long Gallery. From this terrace the finest view of the south
front of Haddon is obtained, and it is indeed a view to revel in, and
not to be forgotten. The WINTER GARDEN of the terrace is planted with
yew-trees, many centuries old, whose gnarled and knotted roots may be
seen curiously intertwining and displacing the stone edgings of the
parterres. It is altogether one of the most charming outdoor “bits”
which even the most romantic and vivid imagination can conceive.
At the north end of the Winter Garden of Haddon Hall, in that
charmingly shady corner formed by the wall of the Long Gallery on the
one side, the outer wall of the garden on the opposite, and overhung
with a grand melancholy-looking yew-tree, which casts a sombre and
even gloomy shadow across it, is that most attractive feature of the
mansion, “Dorothy Vernon’s Door,” previously spoken of as opening out
of the Ante-room.
[Illustration: _The Hall from the Terrace._]
From the interior, by the way of Dorothy Vernon’s Door, a short flight
of stone steps, with balustrated sides, leads down to the Winter
Garden, on the opposite side of which, nearly opposite to this doorway,
a long flight of stone steps leads up to another, and considerably
higher terrace, called DOROTHY VERNON’S WALK—a broad pathway, or
promenade, passing between an avenue of lofty lime and sycamore
trees—and one of the most secluded and romantic “lovers’ walks” in the
neighbourhood.
The old BOWLING GREEN, near the summit of the hill above Haddon,
occupied an acre of ground, and was approached by an avenue of trees.
It was enclosed by a thick hedge of yew, with a flight of stone steps
for an entrance. On one side was a lodge, or summer-house, over one of
the doorways of which are initials and the date of 1696. The “Green”
is now converted into a garden. The old kitchen-garden, years ago taken
away, was situated near the foot-bridge.
There is also a plot of ground, levelled, and in form a parallelogram,
which is known as the “Archery Ground.”
Before leaving Haddon, the visitor should step inside the building
now used as a stable, in which he will find some features worthy of
observation. In the cottage inhabited by the kindly and respected
custodian of Haddon, is some fine carved furniture, and in the garden
in front, the yew trees, cut into the form of a peacock and a boar’s
head—the crests of Manners and of Vernon—form pleasing objects, and
are sure to attract the attention of the visitor.
* * * * *
MANY other interesting particulars regarding this grand old mansion
might be given, but we now proceed to speak of the family of its
present noble owner, the Duke of Rutland, in the same way as we have
already done of its former possessors, the Avenells and Vernons.
The noble family of Manners, like that of Vernon, is of considerable
antiquity; and, although the records of its early members do not extend
so far back as those of the Vernons, its history is more illustrious,
and its dignities are more exalted. The most ancient of the ancestors
of the present Duke of Rutland, of whom there is direct evidence, was
Sir Robert Manners, Lord of the Manor of Ethale, in Northumberland,
from whom descended another Sir Robert, who married Philippa, daughter
of St. Bartholomew de Mont Bouchier, by whom he had issue, a son,
also named Robert, who married Hawise, daughter of Robert, Baron de
Muschamp, in the reign of Henry I. Their great-grandson, another Sir
Robert Manners, married Agnes, daughter of Sir David Coupland. Their
son, Sir Robert, had issue by his wife, Joan de Heton, four sons; three
of whom dying without issue, the second son, William Manners, inherited
the estates. He married Ellen, or Janetta, daughter of David Baxter, of
Derby, by whom he had a son, Sir Robert Manners.