The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 10, No. 283, November 17, 1827

Оглавление

Various. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 10, No. 283, November 17, 1827

HADDON HALL

POETICAL LOVE-LETTER

EARLY RISING

BUNHILL FIELDS BURYING-GROUND

SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF MEZZO-TINTO.1

RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS

A BRIEF HISTORY OF "THE GUNPOWDER PLOT."

THE SKETCH BOOK No. XLIX

THE AUBERGE

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

ROMEO COATES

THE VOICE OF NATURE

CALAIS

CURIOSITY

THE SELECTOR. AND LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS

CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE

THE GATHERER

NEGRO PUN

"SPIRITS" OF THE MAGAZINES

FRAMEWORK OF SOCIETY

SEEING IS BELIEVING

SHADOW CATCHER

THE FUNDS

TEMPUS EDAX RERUM

ON JACK STRAW'S CASTLE, HAMPSTEAD HEATH, BEING REPAIRED

Отрывок из книги

The locomotive facility with which the aid of our graphic department enables us to transport our readers, (for we have already sent them to Sydney,) is somewhat singular, not to say ludicrous; and would baffle the wand of Trismegistus, or the cap of Fortunatus himself. Thus, during the last six weeks we have journeyed from the Palace at Stockholm (No. 277) to that of Buckingham, in St. James's Park, (278;) thence to Brambletye, in the wilds of Sussex, (279;) to Hamlet's Garden at Elsineur, (280;) then to the deserts of Africa, and Canterbury, (281;) in our last, (282,) we introduced our readers to the palatial splendour of the Regent's Park; and our present visit is to Haddon Hall, in Derbyshire, one of the palaces of olden time, whose stupendous towers present a strong contrast with the puny palace-building of later days, and the picturesque beauty of whose domain pleasingly alternates with the verdant pride of the Regent's Park.

Haddon is situate about one mile south-east of Bakewell, and is one of the most curious and perfect of the old castellated mansions of this country. It stands on a gentle hill, in the midst of thick woods overhanging the Wye, which winds along the valley at a great depth beneath. The house consists of two courts; in the centre building behind which is the great hall, with its butteries and cellars. Over the door of the great porch, leading to the hall, are two coats of arms cut in stone; the one is those of Vernon, the other of Fulco de Pembridge, lord of Tong, in Shropshire, whose daughter and heir married Sir Richard Vernon, and brought him a great estate. In one corner of the hall is a staircase, formed of large blocks of stone, leading to the gallery, about 110 feet in length and 17 in width, the floor of which is said to have been laid with boards cut out of one oak, which grew in the park. In different windows are the arms of England in the garter, surmounted with a crown; and those of Rutland impaling Vernon with its quarterings in the garter; and these of Shrewsbury. In the east window of the Chanel adjoining were portraits of many of the Vernon family, but a few years ago the heads were stolen from them. A date of Mi esimo ccccxxvii. is legible. In the north window the name Edwardus Vernon and his arms remain; and in a south window is Willmus Trussel. In the chapel also stands a Roman altar, dug up near Bakewell.

.....

A few years before the death of Mrs. Radcliffe, the writer of "The Mysteries of Udolpho," and several other romances, a tourist, in noticing Haddon Hall, (and probably supposing that Mrs. R. had killed heroes enough in her time,) asserted that it was there that Mrs. R. acquired her taste for castle and romance, and proceeded to lament that she had, for many years, fallen into a state of insanity, and was under confinement in Derbyshire. Nor was the above traveller unsupported in her statement, and some sympathizing poet apostrophized Mrs. R. in an "Ode to Terror." But the fair romance-writer smiled at their pity, and had good sense enough to refrain from writing in the newspapers that she was not insane. The whole was a fiction, (no new trick for a fireside tourist,) for Mrs. Radcliffe had never seen Haddon Hall.

In the "Bijou" for 1828, an elegant annual, on the plan of the German pocket-books, (to which we are indebted for the present engraving,) are a few stanzas to Haddon Hall, which merit a place in a future number of the MIRROR.

.....