Haddon Hall by Esther Singleton

JOHN LEYLAND

When the Derbyshire Wye has pursued its winding way from its source / in the millstone grit, and between the wooded steeps and precipitous / limestone cliffs that curb and shape its course towards Bakewell, the / hills on either bank recede, and the river flows through pleasant / alluvial meadows, overlooked by occasional rocky scars, and by woods / of fir, ash, beech, and oak, to its confluence with the Derwent at / Rowsley. Some two miles below Bakewell, shortly before the stream of / the Lathkil comes down from its enchanting valley on the right, with / its narrow tributary, the Bradford, to swell the waters of the Wye, / the limestone crops out as a platform on the opposite bank, and there, / half-concealed by the umbrageous woodland, stand the time-worn towers / and walls of Haddon. Whether we approach the spot from the direction / of Rowsley or of Bakewell, the prospect can scarcely be surpassed / in its kind, either for the wondrous grouping of the grey towers / and battlements on the slope of the hill, or for the rich beauties / of the varied foliage on the height beyond, and the flower-decked / meads and pellucid stream below. These charms of a truly English / landscape, and an old English mansion, have long had, and must continue / to have, a spell of fascination for the artist and lover of the / picturesque; but it is not only for them that visitors come in a / ceaseless stream to Haddon.

What other place can wake such impressions / of old-time greatness touched by the witchery of bygone romance? It / is here -- better, perhaps, than any other spot in England -- that we can / grasp the conditions of life of the medieval and Tudor gentlemen. The / long line of the Vernons passes before us. We witness them, generation / by generation adding to the majestic pile; the vacant chambers are / peopled with stately ladies and mail-clad knights, the bowmen are / ranged in the courtyard, and the sentinel keeps watch from the tower. / We see the knight in anxious deliberation on questions of State and / wonder what answer shall be returned to the King-maker's letter. We / partake of the bounteous hospitality of the Knight of the Peak, as many / strangers have done before, bethinking ourselves anon of his daughter, / fair Dorothy, and how that Manners is concealed in the woods, watching / the light in her chamber. Then the sounds of revelry strike upon the / ear, the door opens and she steals down the steps, and presently we / hear the clang of hoofs upon the road. It is, indeed, such impressions / as these that have given to the external beauties of Haddon Hall the / additional charm of legend, poetry and romance, and have contributed to / make it a place to which visitors from afar will always delight to come.

Although the various parts of the celebrated hall have been built / at widely different periods, and upon a sloping and irregular rocky / platform, its plan is very easy to understand, and it may be well, at / the outset, to explain the disposition of the buildings as clearly as / may be. They surround two courtyards -- the lower one, to the west, on / the river front, and the upper one, separated from the first by the / great hall and domestic offices, rising up to the east on the hill-side / behind it. The visitor enters the lower quadrangle at its north-western / angle, placing his foot, as he passes the postern, in a hole which has / been worn deeply by unnumbered strangers before him. He notices, on his / right, beneath the archway, the porter's room, with a bedstead that / may well have kept that functionary wakeful; and beyond it, still on / the right hand and western side, the so-called Chaplain's Room -- with / its hunting-horn, old musket, Seventeenth Century boots, service of / pewter platters, and other miscellaneous contents -- as well as two / other chambers, before the domestic chapel is reached. This edifice / occupies the south-western angle, and extends about half-way up the / southern side of the lower courtyard. Being not at right angles with / the other portions of this quadrangle, it gives, with its picturesque / bell-turret, a pleasing variety to the buildings within; and, / externally, its east window and the angles of its chancel and southern / aisle, with the heavy buttress at the western end, add materially to / the picturesque effect of the hall. The chapel, moreover, contains, / with some of the foundation walls, the oldest portions of the edifice, / and the round column and chalice-like font are anterior, perhaps, to / the coming of the Vernons to Haddon.

The south side of the western / quadrangle is completed by a range of constructions, including passages / to the private apartments, and a turret stair to the battlemented / wall; and leading up to the doorway is a flight of steps -- added in the / Sixteenth Century -- which projects into the area of the courtyard. This / space is further broken up by the three steps which extend across it / from north to south, dividing it into an upper and a lower platform. / Standing upon the slight elevation thus gained, the chapel, the / buildings opposite on the western side, the entrance gateway, with the / very curious corbelling and constructive ties over it in the angle, and / the offices on the western side, with the turret, have a most pleasing / and varied effect.