PEVERIL OF THE PEAK
'Old Peveril' was one of the pet nicknames with which Scott was dubbed
by some of his young legal friends in Parliament House, and he carried
the sobriquet for the remainder of his life, taking great delight in
it. He did not, however, take much pleasure from the composition of
the novel, finding it a tiresome task from which he could only find
relief by planning its successor. It marks the beginning of a malady
which ultimately proved fatal. Scott concealed the symptoms from his
family, but confided to a friend that he feared Peveril 'will smell of
the apoplexy.' It proved a heavy undertaking, covering a period of
twenty years of exciting history and three distinct, but widely
differing, localities, namely, Derbyshire, the Isle of Man, and London
in the time of Charles II.
In the high Peak country of Derbyshire, about fifteen miles west of
Sheffield, lies the village of Castleton, nestling snugly at the foot
of a somewhat precipitous hill. Away back in the time of William the
Conqueror, a son of that monarch received a grant of large estates in
Derbyshire, and selected the very summit of this steep and almost
inaccessible rock as the site of his castle. His name was William
Peveril and the bit of a ruin which still remains, high in the air
above the village, is called Peveril Castle. We reached it after a
very hard climb, by a steep path running zigzag across the face of a
long {329} grassy slope. It was scarcely worth the effort, for the
'castle' is now only a small square tower, of no interest whatever,
except from the fact that it gave the name to one of the Waverley
Novels.
The domain of this William Peveril seems to have extended far to the
south of Castleton, and included in it was the site of Haddon Hall, a
fine mediæval mansion, picturesquely situated on the river Wye, between
Bakewell and Rowsley, and still in wonderfully good repair. The
Peverils held the property for about a century, when they were deprived
of the lands by King Henry II. In 1195, Haddon came into the
possession of the Vernon family, who continued to reside there for
nearly four centuries. The last of the name was Sir George Vernon, who
became celebrated as the 'King of the Peak.' His large possessions
passed into the hands of his youngest daughter, Dorothy, whose
elopement and marriage with John Manners, youngest son of the Earl of
Rutland, threw about the old mansion that atmosphere of poetry and
romance which has ever since been associated with it. To me, the most
pleasing part of the old hall is the terrace and lawn, back of the
house. A flight of broad stairs, with stone balustrades, leads to
Dorothy Vernon's Walk, which is shaded by the thick foliage of oaks,
limes, sycamores, and other forest trees, for which the park was once
famous. Grassy mounds mark the boundaries of the lawn, and the castle
walls, with their wide windows and luxurious mantle of deep green ivy,
add a delightful charm to the picture. This is further enhanced by the
romantic associations of the place. Traditions say that John Manners,
who, for some reason, was forbidden the opportunity to {330} visit the
fair Dorothy openly, hovered about these terraces disguised as a
forester, seeking brief interviews in secret. On the night of a ball
in celebration of her sister's wedding, Dorothy slipped into the
garden, and passing through the terrace made her way across the Wye
over a quaint little bridge, built just large enough for a single
pack-horse, and now known as the 'Pack-Horse Bridge.' On the other
side, John waited with horses, and the two rode away to be married.
Whatever may have been the objection to the marriage, events soon
adjusted the affair and Dorothy Vernon became the sole owner of the
mansion. It has remained ever since in the possession of the Manners
family, the Earls and Dukes of Rutland.
In his description of Martindale Castle, the seat of Sir Geoffrey
Peveril, Scott doubtless had in mind, to some extent at least, this
more pretentious mansion on the original property of the Peverils,
rather than the uninteresting tower at Castleton. He refers to Haddon
Hall in one of his notes as having suggested a certain arrangement of
rooms, and in his account of Lady Peveril's dinner to the Cavaliers and
Roundheads, in honour of the restoration of King Charles II, he makes
use of two large dining-rooms, which Haddon Hall could readily supply,
but which might be difficult to find in any ordinary mansion of the
period.
[Illustration: THE PACK-HORSE BRIDGE, HADDON HALL]
Lady Peveril, it will be remembered, in spite of the 'good fellowship'
and 'reconciliation' which the banquet was to celebrate, dared not
permit the rival factions to dine together, so she adopted the unique
expedient of placing the jovial Cavaliers in the hall, while the strict
Puritans occupied the large parlour. The great hall of {331} Haddon is
about thirty-five feet long and twenty-five feet wide. At one end is
an ancient table, many centuries old, and at the other is a minstrel's
gallery, with carved panellings and ornamented by stag's heads. A
great open fireplace gives a suggestion of good cheer, even to the bare
room. Back of this is another large dining-room on the oaken walls of
which are some fine old carvings. It also has a large open fireplace,
above which is the motto
_Drede God and Honor the Kyng._
The room was formerly larger than now and may have been in the author's
mind as the scene of the Puritan part of the banquet. Haddon Hall,
however, although it doubtless furnished some few suggestions, must not
be taken as an 'original' of Martindale Castle. The novelist never
felt the necessity of an exact model, but freely used the places with
which he was familiar for such suggestions as they might chance to
furnish. In his later work he often described localities which he had
never visited, frequently doing so with an exactness suggesting the
most intimate personal knowledge.
This was true of the Isle of Man, which Scott had never seen, but which
he describes in 'Peveril of the Peak' with great accuracy, relying for
his information upon Waldron's 'Description of the Isle of Man,'
published in 1731.
After an interval of several years following the events in Derbyshire,
Julian Peveril appears as a visitor at Castle Rushen, in the southern
end of the Isle of Man. Tradition says that this ancient castle was
founded in the tenth century by Guttred, the son of a Norwegian {332}
chief named Orry, who took possession and with his sons and successors
reigned for many years as kings of the Isle of Man. Later the Earls of
Derby ruled as monarchs of the island and Castle Rushen was their royal
residence.
The traditional castle of the Norwegians was replaced in the thirteenth
century by a strong fortress of limestone. This was partly destroyed
by Robert Bruce in 1313 and remained in ruins for three centuries. It
was then rebuilt by the Earls of Derby in its present form. The
central keep is a strong tower with walls twenty-two feet thick at the
base and about seventy feet high. It is surrounded by an embattled
wall twenty-five feet high and nine feet thick. On the tower facing
the market square is a clock presented in 1597 by Queen Elizabeth.
In 1627, James Stanley, celebrated as 'the great Earl of Derby,' became
lord of the island. This nobleman was executed in 1651, charged with
the crime of assisting Charles II before the battle of Worcester.
During his absence in England the Castle Rushen was heroically defended
by his wife, the brave Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess of Derby.
William Christian, popularly known as William Dhône, or 'the
fair-haired William,' had been entrusted by the Earl with the care of
his wife and children. Whatever may have been his motive, the
Receiver-General, by which title Christian was known, surrendered the
island without resistance, on the appearance of the Parliamentary army,
and the Countess was imprisoned in the castle. After the Restoration
of Charles II, the Countess accused Christian of treachery to herself
and brought about his execution in 1662.
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These were the main facts which, coming to the novelist's attention
through his brother, Thomas Scott, who for several seasons resided in
the Isle of Man, attracted his fancy and suggested the writing of
'Peveril of the Peak.'
Peel Castle, to which the action of the story is soon transferred,
stands on a rocky islet off the western coast of the island. It was
once a vast ecclesiastical establishment and now contains the ruins of
two churches, two chapels, two prisons, and two palaces. Of these the
best preserved and most interesting is the Cathedral of St. Germain, a
cruciform building, some parts of which were built in the thirteenth
century. In a crypt below was the ecclesiastical prison where many
remarkable captives were confined, the most notable of whom was Eleanor
Cobham, wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who was accused of
witchcraft and of devising a wicked plot to kill the King and place her
husband upon the throne.
Higher up on the rock are the remains of St. Patrick's Church, in the
walls of which are some good examples of the 'herring-bone' masonry
indicating great antiquity. The walls are thought by antiquarians to
date back to the fifth century. Behind this is the remarkable round
tower, about fifty feet high, which Mr. Hall Caine has introduced in
'The Christian.'
The custodian, when he learned of our interest in Sir Walter Scott,
could scarcely restrain his anxiety to show us Fenella's Tower. This
is a bit of the surrounding wall, containing a small square turret.
Beneath is a narrow stairway, forming a sally-port, through which
entrance could be gained to a space between two {334} parallel outside
walls. In time of siege, soldiers could go out and fire at the enemy
from this place of concealment through openings in the walls. If
hard-pressed they could retire to the tower and pour scalding water or
hot lead upon an attacking body. In Scott's tale, Julian Peveril,
seeking to leave the castle by this stair, is intercepted by Fenella,
who is anxious to prevent his departure. Finally eluding her grasp, he
hastens down the stair only to be confronted again by the deaf-and-dumb
maiden, who has accomplished her purpose by leaping over the parapet.
We gazed down from the walls upon a ledge of rocks at least fifteen
feet below and concluded that, for a little girl, this was a pretty big
leap!
[Illustration: THE SAXON TOWER, ISLE OF MAN]
The keep and guard-house near the entrance was the scene of the Manx
legend of the Moddey Dhoo, a large black spaniel with shaggy hair,
which haunted Peel Castle. This dog is referred to in 'The Lay of the
Last Minstrel':
For he was speechless, ghastly, wan,
Like him of whom the story ran
Who spoke the spectre-hound in Man.
The Moddey Dhoo was the terror of all the soldiers on the island, who
believed he was an evil spirit, only awaiting an opportunity to do them
harm. At length, a drunken soldier declared he would find out whether
the animal were dog or devil. He departed bravely, with much noise and
boasting, but none dared follow. When he returned the fellow was sober
and silent. He never spoke again, but three days later died in agony.
The remaining scenery of 'Peveril of the Peak' is London in the time of
Charles II. The 'dark and shadowy' city had now attracted nearly all
the personages of {335} the story. In St. James's Park, adjoining the
Palace of Whitehall, Fenella danced with wondrous grace and agility
before the King. As in 'The Fortunes of Nigel,' the Thames is the
great highway of traffic, and Julian Peveril is carried by coach to the
river from old Newgate Prison, and thence by boat to the Tower, which,
like Nigel, he enters through the Traitor's Gate.
The Savoy, a dilapidated old pile, where Julian unexpectedly meets
Fenella, was once a great palace. It was built by Simon de Montfort,
the great Earl of Leicester, in 1245. In the following century it was
almost demolished by a mob, but in 1509 King Henry VII restored and
rebuilt the palace and converted it into a hospital. Half a century
later, Queen Mary refounded and reëndowed the institution. In the time
of the story the building was probably not so antiquated and ruinous as
Scott describes it. Charles II, after the Restoration, used it as the
meeting-place of the Savoy conference for the revision of the Liturgy.
In Scott's time it was ruinous enough and since then has entirely
disappeared. Westminster Hall, where the trial of the Peverils was
held, is now the vestibule of the Houses of Parliament. It was
originally built by William Rufus, son of the Conqueror, in 1097, but
afterward destroyed by fire and rebuilt. In it some of the earliest
English Parliaments were held and it has been the scene of many
coronation festivals.
The novel gives a graphic picture of the gay, dissipated, and
scandalous court of Charles II, and an excellent portrait of that
selfish, indolent, and sensual, but witty and good-natured monarch.
His chief favourite, George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham, is
painted in no more flattering colours. He was a statesman of fickle
{336} character who could not long be trusted by any one. He was a
writer of verses, farces, and comedies, a musician, and a man of great
talent and accomplishments; but he was a profligate, absolutely
insincere and without principle.
'Peveril of the Peak' cannot be considered one of Scott's best novels.
It has never been popular. Scott himself tired of it, and even
Lockhart can find little to say in its praise.
Lady Louisa Stuart, who was one of Scott's most valued friends,
summarized it all, at the end of a good-natured criticism, with the
remark: 'However, in all this I recognize the old habit of a friend of
mine, growing tired before any of his readers, huddling up a conclusion
anyhow, and so kicking the book out of his way; which is a provoking
trick, though one must bear it rather than not _have_ his book, with
all its faults on its head. The best amends he can make is to give us
another as soon as may be.'
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