Very different in size and in variety of interest is Haddon Hall; yet Haddon Hall, like the Peak Castle, is no longer, according to modern notions of comfort, a tolerable dwelling, although we cannot agree with Horace Walpole that it never could have been considered such. For a long period it was the home of a powerful family, and was altered again and again to meet the need which successive centuries demanded. Parts of the chapel take us back to a date but little subsequent to that of the Peak Castle; and although few, if any, remains of the rest of the contemporary house are to be seen, yet the existence of the chapel indicates that it pertained to a large house. It is easy to understand that the discomforts of a primitive house would call for remedy long before the chapel grew out of date, and we need not wonder that the chapel should be the only surviving portion of the original dwelling. The kind of accommodation to be found in a keep, however large, grew to be insufficient and inconvenient, and it became the fashion no longer to pile one room over another, but to spread them out horizontally, and thereby, among other advantages, to assign to the various rooms different sizes suitable to their different purposes. The hall, always the chief apartment, was made the central feature; the kitchens were attached to one end, the family rooms to the other; the courtyard was enclosed by ranges of buildings looking into it, and presenting little but blank walls to the outside world; through one of these ranges was pierced the entrance gateway, defended by strong doors, and sometimes a portcullis, such as rased Marmion’s plume as he dashed in hot haste from under its falling mass. Haddon is a good illustration of this kind of house, only it has two courts, with the hall placed between them, as well for greater security as to obtain large windows on each of its main sides. There are very few windows of the older rooms looking out into the country, and the kitchen in particular suffers in this respect, for a darker apartment can scarcely ever have been devoted to such important uses. The windows of the long gallery, now called the ballroom, are large and airy; but they date from Elizabeth’s time, when defensive precautions were no longer necessary. Haddon appeals to all sorts and conditions of men. Its romantic situation and venerable appearance delight the ordinary sightseer; its veritable and unrestored antiquity appeals to the more earnest student of by-gone ways; while to those interested in the minute details of the past, it is a storehouse of all kinds of work wrought in all kinds of styles. Surely, it has enough of true and genuine interest to be able to dispense with the fictitious, sixpenny-magazine romance of Dorothy Vernon. Let those who cling to her invented story, and picture her as a fascinating, winsome heroine, go and look at her portraiture on her monument in Bakewell Church—a more staid, prosaic person could hardly be imagined.
Another romantically placed house is Bolsover Castle, which is mentioned in ancient records as a sister stronghold of the Peak Castle. Of the early building nothing is now left; but the sites of the keep and of the enclosing wall are curiously preserved, and occupied by highly interesting buildings of the early seventeenth century. The keep is replaced by a square house, planned with considerable ingenuity so as to obtain within a limited and strictly defined space the customary arrangements of a Jacobean residence. It rises abruptly from the brow of a steep hill, and looks far and wide over the valley now studded with colliery chimneys. Within the thickness of the wall which marks the enceinte of ancient times are contrived quaint chambers, carefully vaulted and furnished in some cases with curious chimney-pieces. Indeed, this early seventeenth century work, particularly in the successor of the keep, is quite remarkable in respect of its vaulting and its fireplaces. Vaulting was very seldom used in Jacobean work, yet here we have examples of that method of construction which need not fear comparison with those of earlier days, when masons were much more accustomed to its use. The chimney-pieces at Bolsover are a noteworthy series, exhibiting a great variety of treatment, yet preserving a family likeness, and adorned, most of them, with unusual delicacy. This part of the castle was executed for Sir Charles Cavendish, a son of the renowned Bess of Hardwick, about the year 1613. The actual owner of Bolsover was Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury; but he had granted a lease of 1,000 years to Sir Charles, who was at once his step-brother and his brother-in-law.
Bolsover Castle: “La Gallerie.”
Outside the ancient precincts of this part of the castle stand the ruins of a later building, lying parallel with the brow of the hill, and leaving a broad terrace between the building and the sloping ground. It is designed on a much larger and coarser scale than its neighbour, and was built by Sir William Cavendish, son of Sir Charles, about the year 1629.
It was this Sir William, subsequently created, after a distinguished career, Duke of Newcastle, who wrote a celebrated treatise on horsemanship, some plates of which he adorned with a view of his Bolsover building. This he calls “La Gallerie,” and it was probably intended as a supplement to the somewhat restricted accommodation of the earlier house. The Duke was also responsible for another charming portion of this interesting group of buildings at Bolsover, in the shape of the Riding School, a structure which has a considerable Dutch flavour about it.
Bolsover has been mentioned out of its strict chronological order because of its early foundation and the peculiar manner in which it preserves the outline of the original castle. It has a notable predecessor in date at South Wingfield, where, about the middle of the fifteenth century, Ralph, Lord Cromwell, treasurer to King Henry VI., built a lordly house, which vied with Haddon in importance. Much of it has gone to hopeless ruin, but there still remain long stretches of wall and decayed buildings forming two large courts. The outer gatehouse is left, flanked by an ancient barn. Through the middle of the range which divides the courtyard is pierced a second gateway, over which are carved the purses of the Lord Treasurer. On the opposite side of the second court is the porch of the house itself, leading on one side to the great hall, with its vaulted undercroft, and on the other to the kitchen department. Midway along one of the far-stretching fronts rises a lofty tower, from the summit of which may be studied the domestic economy of a colony of rooks as they sway below in their nests among the topmost branches of the trees.
On the death of its builder, Wingfield passed by purchase to the Earls of Shrewsbury, and in the fulness of time it passed to Gilbert, seventh earl. On his death it went to his eldest daughter, who had married the Earl of Pembroke. Then came the troublous times of Charles I., and Wingfield, being held by the then Earl for the Parliament, who should be sent to attack it but his kinsman, William Cavendish, of Bolsover, Duke of Newcastle, and author of the treatise on horsemanship. The attack was successful, but fickle fortune soon restored it to the Parliament, and by order of that assembly the place was “slighted.” From that drastic operation it has never recovered, although part of it was for a time patched up and made into a residence.
Of work dating from the time of Henry VIII. the county can show hardly any examples. Some panelling at Haddon is the most noteworthy, but this lacks that peculiar mixture of Gothic and French renaissance which makes the work of that time particularly interesting. Yet, even in this panelling, put up by Sir George Vernon, the “King of the Peak,” as he was called, although it is free from the actual renaissance touch, there seem to be indications which point that way, and it forms one of the links which connect the old style with the new, and goes to show that in the development of architectural style no change came quite abruptly.
