The Stately Homes of EnglandJewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
History
The Stately Homes of England
Jewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
Historic buildings -- England
Most of the points of interest have now been described; but the curious
rambler, who may choose to linger and pry into nooks and corners, will
do well to visit some of the basement rooms—as that on the left-hand
side under the Eagle or Peverel Tower—an arched warder’s room, where
he will note the thickness of the walls (7 feet); the next room
westward, which seems to have been the earlier kitchen and bakehouse;
the room under the State Bed-room, used in later times as a gymnasium
for the family; the Armoury, which is under that portion of the Long
Gallery with the deep projecting recess; and the rooms under the Long
Gallery nearer the Dining-room, where the splay of the windows is
nearly 9 feet, and which seem to have been used as washing-houses. Also
the so-called Aviary, which opens toward the garden, under the Earl’s
Bed-room and adjoining rooms; and of the rooms yet unmentioned on the
west side of the lower courts, suffice it to say, that on the ground
floor, next to the so-called Chaplain’s Room, were two waiting-rooms;
and then the Steward’s Room, next to the chapel entrance; over this
entrance the Steward’s Bed-room, approached by a spiral staircase near
the belfry tower from a closet in which access is gained to the leads;
and after passing the clerestory windows of the chapel, there is an
angle commanding a good view of the lower court. Then on this first
floor are a bed-room, the “Barmaster’s Room;” the real Chaplain’s Room,
in which is now a collection of bones; a small room still used by the
duke for private papers; and another bed-room, which brings us back to
the entrance gateway.
But enough has been said of the interior of Haddon to satisfy the
wants of the tourist, and, although we could linger for hours over the
various rooms not yet specifically described, and fill several chapters
with their description, we must reluctantly leave them, and pass on
into the grounds, and so make our way to Bakewell, to show the visitor
the last resting-places of the noble families to whom Haddon has
belonged.
Leaving, then, by a small doorway at the end of a passage leading out
from the Banqueting-Hall, and passing the Dining-room on the right, the
visitor will enter what is called the “Upper Garden.” To his right he
will see below him, on looking over the strongly-buttressed wall—one
of the oldest parts of the building—the “Lower Garden,” roughly
terraced down the hill side, and to his right a gravelled path leads by
the side of the building to the wall of the chapel, where, by a long
flight of sixty-seven steps, it descends to the old foot-bridge—one of
the prettiest objects in the grounds: this we have engraved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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