Memorials of old Derbyshire

by Unknown

[J. Buckler, 1812.

Haddon Hall (North View).
(From a Water-colour Drawing in possession of Hon. F. Strutt, showing 16th Century Brewhouse, now removed.)

During the next of the periods into which styles group themselves, namely, that of Elizabeth and James I., there were notable additions made to Derbyshire houses. There is all the beautiful work of the Earl of Rutland at Haddon—of him who came into possession in right of his wife, Dorothy Vernon. Chief among it is the long gallery, which he formed among the ancient walls, pulling down here and adding there, adorning it with handsome panelling and a fretted ceiling, all ornamented with his own arms and those of his wife. There are Hardwick Hall, and Barlborough; the remains of Swarkeston in the extreme south, and Sudbury in the south-west, not to mention numerous manor houses scattered all over the county.

Hardwick Hall is, in some respects, one of the most interesting of Derbyshire houses. It is an excellent example of the stately and symmetrical planning which was much in vogue in the days of Elizabeth, and it has survived without any serious alterations, except such as were necessary for the comfort of modern life. Haddon has not been obliged to submit to this test, and therefore retains even more of its original flavour; but Hardwick illustrates vividly the large ideas and the desire for magnificence which dominate much of the design of that period. Moreover, it retains what very few of its contemporaries can boast of—its entrance gatehouse and garden walls. The builder was the renowned Bess of Hardwick, one of the great Elizabethan builders, a worthy rival of the Cecils and Hattons. She claims on her monument in All Hallows’ Church, Derby, to have built Hardwick, Chatsworth, and Oldcotes; but the last-named has disappeared, and Chatsworth has been rebuilt, leaving this house as her sole monument. The legend runs that so long as she kept building she would not die, but that a long frost occurring while she was engaged upon Bolsover, the men were obliged to desist from their work, and thereby struck the knell of their mistress. But we have already seen that Bolsover was the work of her son, and that it was not begun until six or seven years after her death.

The work at Hardwick presents the most complete contrast to that at Bolsover. There everything had to be restricted to the narrow limits of the old site; all the work is carefully designed, and much of it delicately executed. Here the arrangements are far from compact, and the detail is coarse. No particular ingenuity has been exercised. The staircases are merely flights of steps, without any of the charming balustrades and newel-posts which adorn most Elizabethan staircases. The windows are so overdone in order to produce a striking external effect, that many of them are mere shams, and never were anything else, while others have a floor going across them, and light one storey with their lower lights and another with their upper. But it is just these points which lend interest to the place, and show how everything had to give way to the prevailing passion for symmetry.

There are some fine rooms on the top storey: the presence chamber, with a deep frieze of modelled plaster exhibiting a variety of hunting scenes; the library, with a charming relief over the fireplace of Apollo and the Muses; the long gallery, a characteristic apartment of the age; and a room called after “Mary Queen of Scots,” but bearing the date 1599, which was twelve years subsequent to her death. It is true, however, that Mary was placed for some years under the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was husband of Bess of Hardwick (her fourth venture), and it is also not improbable that the wife was inclined to be jealous of the influence which the royal captive obtained over her husband.

Haddon Hall (North View), circa 1825.
(From a Water-colour Drawing in possession of Hon. F. Strutt, showing 16th Century Brewhouse, now removed.)

The documentary evidences of Mary’s long period of custody are copious; they afford no suggestion of her visiting Hardwick, but she was on several occasions at Bess’s other great house at Chatsworth. Moreover, the true dates of the second hall at Hardwick make the Queen’s sojourn here an impossibility. The date usually assigned to Hardwick Hall is 1576, but the dates actually appearing in the house are 1588, 1597, and 1599, all subsequent to Mary’s death. The parapet is ornamented with Bess’s initials, E.S., and a coronet.

In front of the house which Bess built lie the ruins of that in which she was born. This, also, must have been a good house, but one of the older manor-house type, and not conforming to the new and fashionable order of things. Nevertheless, it was adorned from time to time to suit the prevailing fancy, and both it and its more splendid offspring flourished side by side for many years. It offers another example of the fact that so strong was the desire among those who could afford it to build afresh in the new style, that in many instances houses built in Henry VIII.’s time were either rebuilt in Elizabeth’s or, as here at Hardwick, were suffered to remain and to add point by their modest dimensions to the extent and splendour of the newer dwelling.