[Illustration: THE "PEACOCK," FROM THE ROAD.]
[Illustration: CHATSWORTH HOUSE, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.]
[Illustration: MARBLE DOORWAY TO STATE DRAWING-ROOM.]
[Illustration: STATE DRAWING-ROOM, CHATSWORTH.]
Below Haddon Hall the valley of the Wye broadens, with yet richer
scenery, as it approaches the confluence of the Wye and Derwent at
Rowsley, where the quaint old Peacock Inn, which was the manor-house of
Haddon, bears over the door the date 1653, and the crest of the ducal
House of Rutland, a peacock with tail displayed. Ascending for a short
distance the valley of the Derwent, which washes the bases of the steep
limestone hills, we come to Chatsworth. In sharp contrast with the
ancient glories of Haddon is this modern ducal palace, for whose
magnificence Bess of Hardwicke laid the foundation. This "Palace of the
Peak" stands in a park covering over two thousand acres; the Derwent
flows in front, over which the road to the palace is carried by a fine
bridge. From the river a lawn gently slopes upward to the buildings, and
the wooded hill which rises sharply behind them is surmounted by a
hunting-tower, embosomed in trees. A herd of at least a thousand deer
roam at will over the park, and have become very tame. Chatsworth is a
brownish-yellow building, square and flat-topped, with a modern and more
ornamental wing. Its front extends fully six hundred feet, and in parts
it is of that depth. The estate was bought in the sixteenth century by
Sir William Cavendish, who built the original house, a quadrangular
building with turrets, which was greatly extended by his wife. It was
used as a fortress in the Civil Wars, and was considerably battered. The
first Duke of Devonshire about the year 1700 rebuilt the mansion,
employing the chief architects, artists, designers, and wood-carvers of
his time, among them Sir Christopher Wren. In the grounds, not far from
the bridge over the Derwent, is the "Bower of Mary Queen of Scots."
There is a small, clear lake almost concealed by foliage, in the centre
of which is a tower, and on the top a grass-grown garden, where are also
several fine trees. Here, under guard, the captive was permitted to take
the air. In those days she looked out upon a broad expanse of woods and
moorland: now all around has been converted into gardens and a park.
Entering the house through a magnificent gateway, the visitor is taken
into the entrance-hall, where the frescoes represent the life and death
of Julius Caesar; then up the grand staircase of amethyst and variegated
alabaster guarded by richly-gilded balustrades. The
gorgeously-embellished chapel is wainscoted with cedar, and has a
sculptured altar made of Derbyshire marbles. The beautiful drawing-room
opens into a series of state-apartments lined with choice woods and hung
with Gobelin tapestries representing the cartoons of Raphael.
Magnificent carvings and rare paintings adorn the walls, while the
richest decorations are everywhere displayed. Over the door of the
antechamber is a quill pen so finely carved that it almost reproduces
the real feather. In the Scarlet Room are the bed on which George II.
died and the chairs and footstools used at the coronation of George III.
On the north side of the house is another stairway of oak, also richly
gilded. In the apartments replacing those where Mary Queen of Scots
lived are her bed-hangings and tapestries. There is an extensive library
with many rare books and manuscripts, and a sculpture-gallery, lined
with Devonshire marble, containing many statues and busts, and also two
recumbent lions, each nine feet long and four feet high and weighing
four tons, and carved out of a solid block of marble. The final
enlargement of Chatsworth was completed about forty years ago, when
Queen Victoria made a state visit and was given a magnificent reception
by the Duke of Devonshire.
[Illustration: STATE BEDROOM, CHATSWORTH.]
[Illustration: THE SCULPTURE-GALLERY, CHATSWORTH.]
The gardens at Chatsworth are as noted as the house, and are to many
minds the gem of the estate. They cover about one hundred and twenty-two
acres, and are so arranged as to make a beautiful view out of every
window of the palace. All things are provided that can add to rural
beauty--fountains, cascades, running streams, lakes, rockeries,
orange-groves, hothouses, woods, sylvan dells--and no labor or expense
is spared to enhance the attractions of trees, flowers, and shrubbery.
From a stone temple, which it completely covers, the great cascade flows
down among dolphins, sea-lions, and nymphs, until it disappears among
the rocks and seeks an underground outlet into the Derwent. Enormous
stones weighing several tons are nicely balanced, so as to rock at the
touch or swing open for gates. Others overhang the paths as if a gust of
wind might blow them down. In honor of the visit of the Czar Nicholas in
1844 the great "Emperor Fountain" was constructed, which throws a column
of water to an immense height. The grounds are filled with trees planted
by kings, queens, and great people on their visits to the palace. The
finest of all the trees is a noble Spanish chestnut of sixteen feet
girth. Weeping willows do not grow at Chatsworth, but they have provided
one in the form of a metal tree, contrived so as to discharge a deluge
of raindrops from its metallic leaves and boughs when a secret spring
is touched. The glory of the Chatsworth gardens, however, is the
conservatory, a beautiful structure of glass and iron covering nearly an
acre, the arched roof in the centre rising to a height of sixty-seven
feet. In this famous hot-house are the rarest palms and tropical plants.
It was designed by Joseph Paxton, the duke's head-gardener, and,
enlarging the design, Paxton constructed in the same way the London
Crystal Palace for the Exhibition of 1851, for which service he was
knighted. Besides this rare collection of hot-house plants, the famous
Victoria Regia is in a special house at Chatsworth, growing in a tank
thirty-four feet in diameter, the water being maintained at the proper
temperature and kept constantly in motion as a running stream. The seed
for this celebrated plant was brought from Guiana, and it first bloomed
here in 1849. Some fifty persons are employed in the gardens and
grounds, besides the servants in the buildings, showing the retinue
necessary to maintain this great show-palace, for that is its chief
present use, the Duke of Devonshire seldom using it as a residence, as
he prefers the less pretentious but more comfortable seat he possesses
at Bolton in Yorkshire. North of Chatsworth Park, near Baslow, on top of
a hill, is the strange mass of limestone which can be seen from afar,
and is known as the Eagle Rock.
[Illustration: GATEWAY TO STABLE.]