DORFOLD HALL,CHESHIRE.

of which the accompanying print, in lithotint, affords a satisfactory idea. The screen of richly carved oak is as fresh and sharp as if it had been painted by the artist only yesterday. The fireplace of cut stone is inlaid with marbles of various colours and countries. Opposite the screen is a fine oriel window; and the ceiling is of exquisite design, and remarkably bold in character. A side entrance leads through “the carved parlour” to the upper rooms by a staircase of surpassing beauty, “made gay” by painted monsters of all kinds, bearing blank shields. The several apartments, drawing-rooms, and bedchambers, are furnished with great taste; the library is exceedingly fine and spacious: here, as in other parts of the house, we find treasures of ancient art, and, among them, very choice productions of the modern school of England. At the extremity of the hall is the chapel of the mansion, small in size but of exquisite workmanship, being formed entirely of carved oak, to which Time has given the sombre tint that ever harmonises well withthe sacred character of the structure. The chapel contains a painted window by Willement, and two noble paintings by Giordano. The roof is of white and gold, with a single pendant; the gallery is for the servants, and there is a small place at the entrance for dependants.

On the whole, there are in England few fresher or finer examples of the period of its erection.

F. W. Hulme, Delᵗ.on Stone by W. Walton M & N Hanbart LithogʳˢDORFOLD HALL, CHESHIRE

F. W. Hulme, Delᵗ.on Stone by W. Walton M & N Hanbart Lithogʳˢ

DORFOLD HALL, CHESHIRE

Dorfold Hall, now the seat of Mrs. Tomkinson, was built by Ralph Wilbraham, Esq. in the reign of James I.—according to Lysons, in the year 1616—on the site of a still older mansion. It is situated about one mile from Nantwich; it is a brick building with stone dressings. The staircase and the great chamber are still perfect. The ceiling of the latter room is an extraordinary specimen of decorative plaster-work; the form is of the kind called “waggon-headed.” It is completely covered with a pattern, in bold relief, of the most complicated description, ornamented with shields of arms and various Tudor emblems. Few

such curious specimens of the intricate design of the period can now be found. Over the doorway in the great chamber is a shield of the arms of the Wilton family. Mr. Richardson, in his observations on old English mansions, observes there is every reason to suppose that Dorfold Hall, Crewe Hall, and Aston Hall, near Birmingham, were built in successive order by the same architect; many of the ceilings, fireplaces, staircases, &c. are nearly the same in all the three houses. The early rudeness of the style is seen at Dorfold Hall, its purity in Crewe Hall, and the commencement of its deterioration in Aston Hall.

The front of Dorfold is highly picturesque. The two small lodges seen in front belong to the original construction; but modern domestic arrangements requiring more room than was afforded by the old building, the small offices between the house and the old lodges havebeen added. If the reader can suppose these away, and a formal balustrade or wall, with gates in the centre, connecting the old lodges in front, he will have the exact appearance of the house in the olden time. All the old buildings were then supplied in front by great courtyards, into which carriages never entered, either from their being of too lumbersome a construction, or with a view to state. It may be hinted that the buildings of the reign of Elizabeth exhibited a considerable portion of the proud, haughty character of the sovereign.

Dorfold, like many of its neighbours in Cheshire, was besieged by the army of the Parliament during the Civil Wars.

The interior of the Hall bears many unequivocal proofs that refined taste prevails over all its arrangements. The new furniture is in keeping with the old carvings; illustrated books, and prints in harmony with the impressive character of the time-honoured structure, are profusely scattered upon the tables and along the walls. Dorfold has fallen into “good hands;” its peculiar beauties and its interesting associations are appreciated and valued; and the spirits of its ancient owners may contemplate with approval the efforts of its existing proprietors—shoots from a noble and honourable stock.

J. D. Harding, DelᵗM & N Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ.MORETON HALL, CHESHIRE.

J. D. Harding, DelᵗM & N Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ.

MORETON HALL, CHESHIRE.

Thesubject of our present delineation—Moreton Hall, is situated amidst the sandy plain of Cheshire, on the Staffordshire border of the county. Its eastern aspect is bounded by that range of hills which extends from Scotland southwards into the centre of England, and which here presents some of its most remarkable features in the high hills called “Mow Cop” and “Cloud,” both being upwards of 1000 feet above the sea-level. The former is surmounted by a ruined tower, and by a singular isolated rock called “The Old Man of Mow.” The latter is an abrupt and dome-shaped termination of a portion of the range to the northward. From the Hall, these hills present objects of interest not devoid of richness, as on this side they are clothed with the dark verdure of the Scotch fir. Moreton Hall—or, “Little Moreton Hall,” as it has been denominated to distinguish it from the residence of the Bellots in the immediate neighbourhood, seated on the plain below—is an ancient timbered house, partly embosomed in trees, but attracting the eye from a distance by the interrupted outline of its numerous roofs, its strange columnar chimneys,—in form resembling rows of prismatic crystals, some of them being rendered more picturesque by the o’er-covering

ivy,—and its black beams and diaper-like patterns distinctly traced on the white ground of the intervening plaster. On a nearer approach we discover the house to be encompassed by a narrow moat, beyond which, and at its south-western corner, is a small conical mound, prettily surmounted by a sycamore tree. The house is approached from the south over a stone arch of antique form, and bearing the Moreton arms on either side. The square Portal, with a sun-dial over it, is adorned with some bold carvings of foliage in oak on the top and sides. These are repeated on the inner opening at the entrance into the Court; each door-post here being crowned by ahalbert-bearer in high relief. Over this portal is a lofty range of building, consisting of a number of small wainscotted rooms, and an oaken staircase, which ascends to the long room or gallery, 68 feet in length, running over the top of the whole. This room is lighted from the south by a window its entire length. Like all the other apartments, its walls are lined with wainscot, except the ends, where, at the upper part, are figures and tablets, bearing inscriptions, in stucco. That at the western end represents blind Fortune with her wheel, bearing this motto on the rim: “Qui modo scandit corruet statim.” The inscription is:

“The wheel of Fortune,Whose rule is ignoraunce.”

That at the opposite extremity, Fate supporting a globe with one hand, and holding a pair of compasses in the other. The inscription:

“The speare of Destiny,Whose rule is knowledge.”

This apartment has a pitched roof, and an oaken ceiling, open to the rafters. Tradition relates that Queen Elizabeth, while on a progress through Cheshire, danced here, and that Oliver Cromwell made use of it as a council chamber during the Civil Wars.

Having passed through the portal and under the building surmounted by the long room, we enter a small Court, which is one of the most curious parts of this ancient residence. There are seven doors opening

into it; the principal entrance, (that which leads into the hall,) being nearly opposite to the portal. Besides other windows, there are two large gabled bow-windows, which light the Banquetting Hall, the antique form and curious glazing of which excite immediate attention. Indeed, the glazing of most of the windows of the house is very remarkable; the panes being small, and joined by slips of lead, so as to represent many pretty patterns. Upon bands around these windows are the following inscriptions:—“God is al in al thing. This window where made by William Moreton, in the yeare of oure Lorde MDLII.” “Rycharde Dale, Carpēder made theis windows, by the grace of God.”[5]

One of the entrances from the court, on the right, leads into a small chapel, which, by the lapse of time and disuse, has lost much of its sacred character. Almost the only indication of its former purpose is a series of tablets suspended on the walls and bearing inscribed on them, in old English characters, numerous texts of Scripture.

The principal entrance leading into the house is closed by an antique oaken door, having a small wicket in it fastened with a ponderous bolt. This door is rendered still more impregnable by many a coat of whitewash. On passing through it we are ushered into a large wainscotted apartment, having seats attached to the wainscot all round,—the ancient Banquetting Hall. In it we observed a fine old long table of oak. This apartment is lighted by the large windows already described, which contain, like some other windows of the house, small portions of stained glass, consisting of the Moreton and other arms. An inner door in the wainscot leads from the Banquetting Hall into the family apartment, which likewise looks into the court. This room has an ornamented chimney-piece, which is surmounted by arms in stucco, bearing the motto “Honi soit qui mal y pense,” and a large A on each side.

Many of the rooms have floors made of plaster. The fastenings of some of the doors of the upper rooms are curious; they consist of a large iron ring standing out from the middle of the door, through which is passed a bar of wood. This reaches across, and rests on the jambs on either side; a very secure mode of fastening to those who happen to be on the right side.

In the fine old parish church of Astbury, within two miles of Moreton Hall, there is a side chapel, at the east end of the north aisle, of great antiquity, divided between the two manorial proprietors of Little Moreton-cum-Rode. In the east window, which formerly contained some splendid stained glass, there now only remains the arms of one of the Blundevilles, the famous Earls of Chester. The three wide steps which led to the altar, a piscina, on one side, and a closet for relics, on the other, are almost the only remnants of its ancient purposes. At the Moreton end of this side chapel there are three large plain marble slabs over altar tombs, bearing the following inscriptions:—

There is a fine oaken cabinet in Moreton Hall, which, from the labels in old law-hand, has most likely belonged to the above-named Sir William Moreton.

The house belongs to a lady of the Moreton family,—in whose possession it is said to have remained since the 13th century. An adjacent meadow was formerly the mill-pool of the Hall. In front of the house there formerly stood the steps of an old cross, which have been removed. It is probable that they now surround the crosspiled up in the garden, and upon which is placed an old sun-dial. Of this cross, or rather, the remains, Mr. Pratt (the artist to whom we are indebted for the illustrations of this subject) made a drawing, which forms our initial letter.

Odd Rode, or Little Moreton-cum-Rode, are noticed as two manors in “The Survey,” and were subsequently granted to Hugh de Mara and Wm. Fitz Nigel. They are described in Domesday, as having inclosures for taking wild deer, and an aerie for hawks. The present divisions of the township are distinguished by the names of Little Moreton and Rode. A branch of the Grahams of Lostock settled in Little Moreton early in the thirteenth century, the third of whom assumed the name of Moreton, and his descendants in the male line continued till the death of Sir W. Moreton in 1763, when his nephew, the Rev. Richard Taylor, took the local name.

In the 12th Henry VIII. Sir W. Brereton made an award between Mr. Wm. Moreton and Mr. Thos. Rode, of Rode, in a dispute “which should sit highest in the churche, and foremost goo in procession:” when he very judiciously awarded between these two sticklers for precedence “That whyther of the said gentylmen may dispende in landes by title of enheritaunce 10 marks or above more than the other, that he shall have the pre-eminence in sitting in the churche, and in gooing in procession, with all other lyke causes in that behalf.”

We fear we must ascribe the rumoured subterranean passages of Moreton Hall, running under the moat to chambers hid in the mound, to no higher authority than that wild fancy which thus gilds, to its own delight, antique and curious buildings in all parts of our country—that native spirit of poetry,—

“One with our feelings and our powers,And rather part of us, than ours,”

without a sprinkling of which, this world in all its teeming beauty might be too much of a dull reality.

F W Hulme Delᵗ.on Stone by W Walton M & N Hanhart Lithogʳˢ

Place House, formerly called the “Plâs” (a corruption of “Palace”), from its having the reputation of being once the residence of the Earls of Cornwall, stands on elevated ground in the centre of Fowey, a seaport-town on the southern coast of Cornwall. It is a fine pile of building, a large portion being very ancient, though the exact date cannot be ascertained with certainty; there is, however, abundant evidence to prove that many parts of it existed so far back as 1455,[6]and were probably built about that time; a period to which also is assigned the re-erection of the church close by, a handsome and lofty fabric of the perpendicular English style of architecture: the two buildings are composed of similar materials.

The ancestors of its present possessor, J. T. Treffry, Esq., have occupied Place House, without intermission, as we believe, for many centuries past, and exercised considerable influence in Fowey, which was formerly a place of far greater importance than it is now. The townsmen acquired wealth and fame by deeds of war during the reigns of Edward I., Edward III., and Henry V., and they furnished more ships to the fleet of Edward III. before Calais than any other port in England. Among the gallant men who fought and won at Cressy, we find Sir John Treffry, to whom, chroniclers say, the French king surrendered himself on the field. His heroism at Poictiers is commemorated on a stately monument in Fowey Church, which bears the following inscription:—“The atchievements of John Treffry, who, at the battle of Poictiers, fought under Edward the Black Prince, and took the French royal standard; for it he was made a Knight-Banneret by King Edward III. on the field of battle.” In addition to this title, Sir John was rewarded for his valour with an honourable augmentation to his arms; viz. supporters, and as a quartering, thefleur-de-lisfrom the arms of France, which are still to be seen painted on the windows of Place House.

The French frequently attacked Fowey, and, according to Leland, “most notably about 1457, when the wife of Thomas Treffry, with her servants, repelled their enemies

out of the house, in her husband’s absence; whereupon he builded a right faire and strong embateled tower in his house, and embateled it to the walls of his house,—in a manner made it a castle, and unto this day it is the glorie of the towne building of Foey.” This tower we have engraved. John Treffry, most probably a son of the aforesaid Thomas, was high-sheriff of Cornwall in 1482; he left issue several sons, of whom three are portrayed on a large tomb in the adjoining church: one of these, Sir John, was a person of considerable eminence, and, with his brother William, was attainted by Richard III., but afterwards restored by act of parliament to their estates, in the reign of Henry VII. Thomas Treffry, member for the county during the first two parliaments of Philip and Mary, was compelled to leave the country for having opposed the marriage of Mary with the Spanish monarch.

From this last period to the present time we find no names of note in the genealogy of the family; but the estate appears to have been handed down, from one generation to another, in almost unbroken succession; the various members in possession holding a

distinguished position among the old county gentry.

Place House contains numerous apartments, many of which are highly interesting. In the hall is a richly carved ceiling of oak, and on the walls are emblazoned the arms of Edward VI. and the first Earl of Bedford, with quarterings, all well executed; also the arms of Treffry and Tresilhneys, quartered in Queen Elizabeth’s time. In several other parts are likewise the family arms, quartered according to the various periods to which each is assigned. One of the ancient gateways is indicated in the appended cut.

G Cattermole, Delᵗon Stone by W Walton M & N Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ

NAWORTHis one of the few remaining Castles of the Border rescued from the grasp of Time by the noble descendants of its ancient lords. It is the property of the Earl of Carlisle—the representative of “centuries of Howards”—who, according to Sir Walter Scott, “deserves high praise for the attention bestowed in maintaining the curious and venerable pile in its former state.” While, however, his Lordship has taken especial care to arrest the progress of Time over the old walls, he has been wisely cautious to prevent “repairs” from being unseemly patches upon the honoured face of “hore antiquitie.” Its condition is sufficiently dilapidated to carry instant conviction of its age; but nothing out of keeping with the solemn dignity derived from the weight of years is permitted to appear. To its early and existing condition his lordship has himself made happy reference, in some descriptive lines to this—the famous stronghold of generations of his ancestry:

“O Naworth! monument of rudest times,When Science slept entombed, and o’er the waste,The heath-grown crag, and quivering moss, of oldStalk’d unremitted war!* * * * * *If now the peasant, scar’d no more at eveBy distant beacons, and compelled to houseHis trembling flocks, his children and his all,Beneath his craggy roof, securely sleeps;Yet all around thee is not changed; thy towers,Unmodernised by tasteless Art, remainStill unsubdued by Time.”

The Castle stands on “a pleasant eminence” at the head of the Vale of Lanercost, or St. Mary’s Holme, and not far from the beautiful and picturesque ruins of LanercostPriory, which cover the dust of the ancient Lords of Naworth,[7]and many other gallant chieftains who formerly held sway over the wild Border.

The approach to it is peculiarly striking. “The front is strengthened by a curtain wall, and a gateway embrasured, and the corners of the chief building on this side by lofty square towers.” On the north, it impends over the river Irthing, at a great height; the banks shagged with wood. “The whole house,” says Pennant, “is a true specimen of ancient inconvenience, of magnificence and littleness; the rooms numerous, accessible by sixteen staircases, with most frequent and sudden ascents and descents into the bargain; besides a long narrow gallery.” “The idea of a comfortable dwelling,” according to a more recent writer, “was, indeed, entirely excluded; the whole internal contrivance seeming only calculated to keep an enemy out, or elude his vigilance should he happen to get in; its hiding-holes are numerous; but it seems probable that many of its close recesses are even now unknown.”

We have no certain information as to the period of its erection. Tradition reports it to have been built by the Dacres; but “by which of them has not been ascertained.” The earliest mention of it occurs in the reign of Edward the Third, when “Ranulphus Dacre, who had married the heiress of the Multons, obtained a license to fortify and convert his mansion here into a castle.” In the family of the Dacres it continued until the year 1569, when, by the death of the last heir-male of the family, it passed to the Howards—by the marriage of William Howard, third son of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, with the Lady Elizabeth, sister of the last Lord Dacre.[8]When visited by Camden, in 1607, it was under repair; according to Bishop Gibson, it was “again repaired and made fit for the reception of a family by the Right Hon. Charles Howard, great-grandson tothe Lord William.” By its present noble owner, the Earl of Carlisle, it is, as we have intimated, preserved from farther injury at the hand of Time,—and is the occasional residence of some members of his family, who resort to it in “the sporting season.”

The romantic fame of Naworth is derived from Lord William Howard—“belted Will Howard,” one of the heroes of Border Minstrelsy. The commencement of his chivalrous career was the first chapter to a volume of romance. He was the third son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, and grandson of the famous Earl of Surrey—

“Who has not heard of Surrey’s fame?”

His father lost his title, his estates, and his head, on Tower Hill; and bequeathed him to the care of his elder brother, as “having nothing to feed the cormorants withal.” He was married, in 1577, to the Lady Elizabeth Dacre, the ages of both together being short of eight-and-twenty. During the whole of the reign of Elizabeth, however, he and the several other members of his family were cruelly oppressed—subjected repeatedly to charges of treason, and kept in a state of poverty “very grievous to bear.” On the accession of James the Second their prospects brightened. Lord William was received into special favour; and, about the year 1603, turned his attention to the repairs of his Baronial Castle of Naworth—removing thither various paintings and articles of furniture from mansions still more neglected or dilapidated. Almost immediately afterwards he made it his permanent residence, having been—probably in the year 1605—appointed to the office of the King’s Lieutenant and Warden of the Marches.[9]The onerous and difficult duties imposed upon him he discharged, it would seem, with equal fearlessness and severity: so that, to quote from Fuller, “when in their greatest height, the moss-troopers had two fierce enemies—the laws of the land and Lord William Howard of Naworth, who sent many of them to Carlisle, that place where the officer always does his work by daylight.”

Although formidable to his enemies, the Lord William was fervent and faithful to hisfriends. His attachment to his Lady (whom he survived but a year) was “of the truest affection, esteem, and friendship;” and his love of letters, and the refined pursuits of leisure and ease, rendered him remarkable, even among the intellectual men of the period. To the courage of the soldier, “Belted Will” added the courtesy of the scholar, and, although “the Tamer of the wild Border” has been often pictured as a ferocious man-slayer, incapable of pity, history does him only justice in describing him as a model of chivalry, when chivalry was the leading characteristic of the age. He died in 1640, leaving issue by the “Lady Bessie” ten sons and five daughters—the eldest being the ancestor of the Earls of Carlisle.

This Border Castle—the Caste of “Bauld Wyllie”—remains then, as we have said, one of the least impaired and most interesting of the feudal dwellings of Ancient England. It is nearly quadrangular in form; of prodigious strength; and many indications of its early defences yet remain. The only access to it is from the south, on which side it lies low, and presents its principal front, “extending two hundred and eight feet.” Formerly (according to a MS. dated 1675), “it was surrounded by pleasant woods and gardens; ground full of fallow dear, feeding all somer time,—brave venison pasties; with great store of reed dear on the mountains, and white wild cattle, with black eares only, on the moores; and black heath-cockes, and brown more-cockes, and their pootes.”

The interior is even more primitive in character than the exterior. “The long Gallery” (which Mr. Cattermole has pictured), “extending one hundred and sixteen feet in length, is filled with many curious and interesting antiquities; among them are said to be the saddle, gloves, and belt of “Belted Will Howard.” It contains also various portraits of Members of the heroic race. The old windows are narrow and grated,

and the doors almost wholly cased with iron, moving on ponderous hinges, and with massive bolts, which ‘make a harsh and horrid clang that echoes fearfully through the winding passages.’ ‘The Great Hall,’ measuring 70 feet by 24, is lighted by a range of windows, placed high up near the ceiling, and a large oriel window at the southern end. The ceiling is formed of wood panels in large squares, in number above one hundred, on which are painted portraits of the Saxon Kings, and the Sovereigns of

G. Cattermole, DelStone by W. Walton M & N Hanhart, LithogʳˢNAWORTH, CUMBERLAND.

G. Cattermole, DelStone by W. Walton M & N Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ

NAWORTH, CUMBERLAND.

England, down to the Union of the Houses of York and Lancaster, with many other noble personages; ‘they have, however, no recommendation but their antiquity.’ The Minstrels’ Gallery has been removed. In the Dining Hall are two portraits of the Lady of Lord William—one in her fourteenth year, just after she became a bride; the other when her years were three-score ten and three. The Chapel retains much of its original condition—a pulpit and stall of oak, and a painted window, exhibiting a Knight and Dame kneeling, being among the most remarkable objects that yet endure. The apartments of Lord William Howard are, however, those to which the chief interest is attached. They are entered at the east end of the long Gallery. The approach to them was secured by iron-bound doors, several in succession, containing numerous huge bolts, running far into the stone work. The strongest defends a narrow winding staircase, up which only one person can pass; a short dark passage leads to the bed-chamber; (pictured on the opposite page) in which the ‘original furniture’ is preserved.”[10]Among the rest, the plain and simple bed on which, it is said, belted Will slept. Above the stone mantel-piece are three sculptured shields with the arms of the Dacres. Above the bed-room, reached by the narrow stone staircase referred to, are the Library and the Oratory of Lord William.

The Library, here pictured, still contains some curious MSS., with a large collection

of rare old books, many of them having the autograph of Lord William. “Not a book has been added,” according to Pennant, “since his days.” The windows of this apartment are narrow, and are reached by an ascent of three steps:—“such was the caution of the times.” The ceiling is richly carved; the corbels and bosses being embellished with armorial devices; the skirting of the room is of oak, “black from age.” Lord William was—as he is styled by Camden, “a lover of the venerable antiquities,” and in this apartment much of his leisure time was spent.[11]

The other Chamber which tradition closely associates with the memory of the Lord William, is “the Oratory,” situated near the Library. “It is fitted up with plain

wainscot, painted red, and ornamented with escallop-shells and cross-crosslets—armorial devices of the Dacres and the Howards. There are also some fragments of what is supposed to have been the rich screen of the Rood-loft of Lanercost Priory Church, consisting of carved ornaments of pierced work, in wood, richly painted and gilt, nailed up on the walls of the apartment.” The Confessional is a small dark closet within the Oratory, unfurnished. The dungeons of the Castle consist of “four dens, under the great square Tower at the south-west angle.” They “instil horror into the beholder:” there is no chink or crevice for the admission of light; and, in one of the cells, a ring, to which prisoners were chained, is still appended to the wall. In a note to “The Legend of Montrose,” Sir Walter Scott states that a private staircase led to these dungeons from the apartment of Lord William. The author of a little book, “A Guide to Naworth and Lanercost,” from which we have borrowed some of our details, sought for this passage in vain.

Few of the ancient Baronial dwellings of our English nobles possess a deeper interest than that of Naworth. It supplies a striking and emphatic illustration of the rude and lawless period of its erection, when security was the object chiefly aimed at; but mingling adornment with strength, and being a refinement upon the cheerless and gloomy structures of the Anglo-Norman chiefs; “expanding into a mixture of the castle and the mansion;” and marking the splendour of our early nobles, “before they exchanged the hospitable magnificence of a life spent among a numerous tenantry, for the uncertain honours of Court attendance, and the equivocal rewards of ministerial favour.” To borrow an eloquent passage from the “Border Antiquities:” “The vast and solid mansions of our ancient nobility were like their characters—greatness without elegance; strength without refinement; but lofty, firm, and commanding.”

Day & Son, Lithʳˢ to The Queen.

HADDONis, in the Domesday Book, mentioned as a berewick in the manor of Bakewell; it was granted by the Conqueror to his natural son, William Peverel, and it is not improbable that some parts of the present building were constructed about that time. It remained in the possession of the Peverels two generations only, and was then granted by one of the family to a retainer named Avenell,[12]on the tenure of knight’s service. In the reign of Richard I., or that of John, it again changed owners, passing by the marriage of the coheiresses of the Avenells into the families of Vernon and Bassett. “The heiress of Vernon, in the reign of Henry III., married Gilbert le Francis, whose son Richard took the name of Vernon, and died, in 1296, at the age of twenty-nine. This Richard was common ancestor to the Vernons of Haddon, Stokesay, Hodnet, Sudbury, &c.” Haddon continued a joint possession of these two families until in or before the reign of Henry VI., when the whole became vested in the Vernons, who had purchased Bassett’s moiety.

Haddon was in the possession of the Vernons more than three centuries and a half, and several of its lords held situations of great interest and responsibility. Sir Richard Vernon is mentioned as Speaker of the Parliament held at Leicester in 1425; and his son, also named Richard, was the last person who held for life the important office of Constable of England. The grandson of the latter, Sir Henry Vernon, had charge of the education ofPrince Arthur, son of Henry VIII., and is said to have had his royal pupil residing with him for some time at Haddon. Sir George Vernon, the last of this branch of the family, was distinguished for his magnificent style of living, the number of his retinue, and unbounded hospitality, which procured for him the appellation of “King of the Peak.” His possessions amounted to thirty manors, all of which on his death, in 1565, descended to his two daughters, Margaret and Dorothy. On a division of the property, the Derbyshire estates were assigned to Dorothy, the younger of the coheiresses, who married Sir John Manners, second son of Thomas first earl of Rutland, ancestor of the present noble owner, his Grace the Duke of Rutland.

Haddon was a favourite place of residence of the Earls of Rutland, and also of the first Duke, who was raised to that dignity by Queen Anne, in 1703, and who, during the life of his father, was summoned to Parliament by writ, as Baron Manners of Haddon.[13]

The first Duke resided here in great state, maintaining seven score servants, and keeping Christmas with open house, as his father had done before him, “in the true style of old English hospitality.”[14]In the reign of Queen Anne, the family finally quitted Haddon as a place of residence, and in 1760 the old hall was despoiled of nearly all its moveable furniture, which was taken to Belvoir Castle, where it still remains. Since that period Haddon has been carefully preserved, and, except on one or two occasions, when thefestivities of the place were for a moment revived, a solemn stillness has reigned throughout its precincts, broken only by the tread of the occasional visitor.

The Hall occupies a situation of extreme beauty, being placed on a bold shelving

mass of limestone, at the base of which runs the river Wye. It is surrounded by well-grown woods, and offers an almost infinite variety of rich subjects for the artist. It has much of the appearance of an old fortress, but is in reality little fitted for defence; the greater part of the present building having been erected by the Vernons and Manners in times when moral force and law had happily taken the place of the tenure by which property was maintained in earlier ages. The buildings cover a considerable space of ground, and are arranged in the form of a double square, enclosing two quadrangular courts. The entrance-tower, at the north-west corner, is one of the more ancient parts of the structure. The entrance is by a large arched gateway, leading to a flight of old dilapidated steps, on ascending which the visitor finds himself in the first great court.

The interior of the building has been so well and so minutely described by Mr. King, in the “Archæologia,” that we will transfer some of his remarks to our pages. Beginning, then, with this tower, he says:—

“The approach is by a steep hill, which a horse can scarcely climb, and which continues quite to the great arched gateway that forms the entrance: this is directly under a high tower, and seems originally to have had double gates. From hence you pass into a large square court, entirely surrounded by the apartments, and paved with flat stones. But you ascend it, at the corner, by a flight of angular steps, just within the gate, in such a manner that it is impossible to have admittance otherwise than on foot, and no horse or carriage could ever approach the door of the house. After crossing this court, you come to a second flight of steps, which lead up directly to the great porch, under a small tower, on passing through which you find yourself behind the screen of the Great Hall,—a room that was originally considered as the public dining-roomfor the lord and his guests, and, indeed, after them, for the whole family; for, in tracing the ancient apartments, there appears manifestly to have been none besides of sufficient magnitude for either the one purpose or the other.” From this hall a flight of steps leads to the upper chambers.

Over the doorway of the porch of the Great Hall are the arms of the Vernons and of Fulco de Pembridge, Lord of Tonge, in Shropshire; the latter Sir Richard Vernon was entitled to in right of his wife, who was the daughter and sole heiress of Sir Fulk de Pembridge. From this circumstance, it has been conjectured that he built this part of the house.

The provision made in the adjoining offices for the convenience and attendance of the several servants of the household is very curious. On the left hand of the great door of entrance, directly behind the hall screen, are four large doorways, with high pointed arches, extending, in a row, the whole length of the hall, and facing the upper end. The first of these still retains its ancient door of strong oak, with a little wicket in the middle, just big enough to put a trencher in or out, and was clearly the butler’s station; for the room within still retains a vast old chest of oak, with divisions for bread, a large old cupboard for cheese, and a number of shelves for butter. “Besides, out of this apartment (which is itself spacious, and separate from the rest of the house) is a passage, down steps, to a large vaulted room, arched with stone, and supported by pillars, like the crypt of a church, which, though very light and airy, was cool, and manifestly designed for the beer-cellar, there being still remains of a raised low benching of stonework all round, sufficient to hold a prodigious number of casks, and a neat stone drain all along before it, underneath, to carry away any droppings. Through this great arched room is also another passage to what was obviously the brewhouse and bakehouse, where are remains of places for vast coppers, coolers, and ovens. Near adjoining are store-rooms for corn and malt, and a communication from thence with the outside of the building for bringing in of stores. But in other respects this whole suite of offices was quite unconnected with the other offices, and had no kind of communication either with them or with the rest of the mansion, except by the door of entrance near the hall, in which is the little wicket.”

The second pointed arch—next to the buttery, and facing the hall in like manner—is the entrance of a long, narrow passage, leading, with a continued descent, to the great kitchen, and having in the midway an half door, or hatch, with a broad shelf on the top ofit, whereupon to place dishes; to which, and no further, the servants in waiting were to have access. “The next, being the third of the great pointed arches, behind the screen, at the bottom of the hall, opens merely into one very small vaulted room, unconnected with any other: that was clearly the wine-cellar; which (according to the frugality and ideas of early times, when wine was considered merely as a cordial and dram) needed to be but small.” The fourth great arch is at the bottom of a great steep staircase, quite distinct from the grand staircase of the house, and leading up to a prodigious variety of small apartments, which seem to have been designed for the reception of guests and numerous retainers, there being others, of a still inferior sort, in other parts of the house, for servants; especially in the range of building opposite to the great door of the hall.

Such was the use of these four great arches behind the hall screen, and we may with great propriety conceive, that they were the stations of the butler, the clerk of the kitchen, the cellarer, and the chamberlain, or steward of the household, of this great family. “The provision for the officers and attendants being so great, we shall yet find here, as in all very ancient mansions, that the apartments of the lord of the castle (or what we should now call the state apartments) were very few in number, and little adequate to the rest, according to our modern and more refined ideas.”

The great hall of entrance, just described, was the only large apartment for dining. At the upper end remains the raised floor, where the table for the lord and his principal guests was placed; and along one side of the hall, and also over the screen at the lower end, is a gallery, supported by pillars; from whence (when the lord and his company had retired to the apartments above, and the inferior members of the family had supplied their places) the country guests and their hospitable hosts occasionally beheld the revels.

The Great Hall still contains the old oaken table, at which the lord feasted his more

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