To the right hand, on entering, is the gigantic fire-place with its huge open chimney; and on the opposite side, at the end next the high table, a flight of steps leads up to the state apartments; and close by, through a corner partitioned off by the oak wainscoting, another door leads to the private dining-room and to the grounds. On the walls of the Banqueting-Hall are some magnificent stags’ heads and antlers, which bear evidence not only of extremely fine growth, but of great age, since they fell to the lord of the chase. There are also several pieces of old furniture: and on the walls are oil-paintings of Martin Middleton of Hazelbadge, and of an old and favourite huntsman and gamekeeper—honoured and respected retainers of the family.
Staircase to Minstrels’ Gallery.
The galleried passage, of a later date, to the Minstrels’ Gallery, occupies one side, and the “Minstrels’ Gallery” itself one end, of the Banqueting-Hall—that portion of the gallery along the side forming a passage from the drawing-room and state apartments on one side to the range of rooms on the other. The portion of the gallery over the end of the hall is considerably wider than the other, and would hold a goodly company of minstrels, or of guests, to look down on the “lord of misrule” and other revels below. In one of our engravings we show the panelled front of the Minstrels’ Gallery, and on the preceding page we give a vignette of the entrance to the gallery from the drawing room.
Passing out from the Banqueting-Hall, the visitor should next enter the Dining-room, which is one of the most charming, and certainly one of the most interesting, apartments in the whole building. The end opposite to the entrance doorway is entirely taken up by a Gothic window of eight lights, filled with glass disposed in an elaborate geometric pattern. In some of the lights are shields of arms in stained glass, one of which displays the arms of Vernon with its quarterings of Avenell, Pype, &c., &c.; another, Vernon only; and another, Vernon impaled. This room is wainscoted, the upper row of panels throughout being filled in with exquisitely-carved Gothic tracery and with heraldic bearings, &c.
Over the centre of the fire-place are the royal arms of England (quarterly France and England) with the supporters, a greyhound and a griffin, and on the one side a shield bearing the three feathers of the Prince of Wales, with the initials E. P., and on the other the arms of Vernon with its quarterings, and supported by a lion and a boar. Below these is the motto, “DREDE GOD AND HONOR THE KYNG,” carved in Gothic capitals. Near this also is the carved inscription, “Anno Dni 1545. Monseigneir de Vernon,” and, with arms, the initials “G. V.,” and “M. V.” The remainder of this fine old heraldic frieze contains a large number of shields bearing the arms of the Vernons and of the various families allied with them, interspersed with the Vernon crest, &c. At the end of the room next the fire-place is a small, but exquisitely beautiful, recessed or oriel window, with seats on all sides, and forming one of the most delicious little retirements imaginable—overlooking, as it does, the lawns and terraces, and the romantic grounds and winding river, of Haddon. This recess is panelled in the same elaborate heraldic and Gothic manner as the room itself, and, besides the coats of arms and crests, bears on one of its panels a grotesque head of a court fool, or jester, traditionally said to have been intended as a portrait of Will Somers, jester to the “merry monarch” and to his predecessor; and on two others the heads of Henry VII. and his Queen, Elizabeth of York.
The ceiling of the dining-room is divided into compartments by transverse beams, and has been elaborately painted and decorated. In the large window will be noticed a fine old wine-cooler of bronze, and the fire-place and fire-dogs are also very curious and interesting.
Oriel Window in the Dining-room.