Haddon Hall, Englanddetails

Almost in the centre of England stands this ideal specimen of an old baronial mansion, known as Haddon Hall. In the twelfth century it came into the possession of the Vernon family, who occupied it for 400 years. Then when the beautiful young heroine of this castle, Dorothy Vernon, eloped with the son of the Earl of Rutland, the Estate passed into the hands of the Rutlands, who still own it, although it is now uninhabited save by its custodians. It well repays a visit, if only for the revelations it affords of the style and decoration of these ancient princely homes of England. The Drawing Room, for instance, now contains no furniture, yet is a grand memorial of ancient splendor. The entire floor is of solid oak, made from a single tree which grew in the neighboring park. The walls and ceiling are of the same material, their numerous panels beautifully carved with knightly crests and coats of arms. While the huge fire-place with its antique andirons seems waiting to be filled again with blazing logs. In such a place we half expect to see some of the former ccupants of Haddon Hall, arrayed in velvet, silk and jewels, discussing in exciting tones the loss of Armada or the escape of Mary Queen of Scots. One also views with interest here the staircase down which on her sister’s wedding-night fair Mistress Dorothy ran with slippered feet to meet her suitor, and the place where mounting the horses waiting for them the lovers rode away through the summer night and next morning in Leicestershire were pronounced man and wife. (p. 85)