The Peacock at Rowsley.
“The Peacock” at Rowsley is one of the prettiest and pleasantest inns in “all England:” it has ever been in high favour with “brethren of the angle”—long before the neat and graceful railway station stood so near it that the whistle of the train is audible a dozen times a day, and twice or thrice at night. The fine old bridge close at hand throws its arches across the Derwent; neatly and gracefully trimmed gardens skirt the banks of that clear and bright river, into which flows the Wye about a furlong off; and rivers, meadows, rocks and dells, and hills and valleys “all round about,” exhibit to perfection the peculiarities of the vale, so rich in the beautiful and the picturesque. “The Peacock” is the nearest inn to Haddon; and here hundreds of travellers from all parts of the world have found not only a tranquil resting-place, but a cheerful home.[37] We have thought it well to picture it, and have placed at its doors one of the waggonettes that drive hither and thither from Buxton and other places; and the tourist may rest assured that this pretty inn is indeed a place at which he may “rest, and be thankful.”
Haddon, from the Rowsley Road.
At Rowsley the tourist is but three miles from Chatsworth, and two miles from Haddon. A pleasant walk through the valley brings him in sight of Haddon Hall; and from this road he obtains, perhaps, the best view of it. Partly hidden, as it is, by tall and full-leaved trees, its grandeur is not at once apparent; but the impression deepens as he ascends the steep pathway and pauses before the nail-studded door that opens into the court-yard.
Before we proceed to describe the Hall, however, we shall give some accounts of its earlier owners—the Vernons—reserving for an after-part the history of their successors, the illustrious family of Manners, from their origin, as knights, to the period of their high elevation, as Earls and Dukes of Rutland, and so down to the present time.
The history of Haddon, unlike that of most of our ancient baronial residences, has always been one of peace and hospitality, not of war and feud and oppression; and however much its owners may, at one period or other, have been mixed up in the stirring events of the ages in which they lived, Haddon itself has taken no part in the turmoils. It has literally been a stronghold: but it has been the stronghold of home and domestic life, not of armed strife.
Arms of Vernon quartering
Avenell.