DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20000#0064
34
were removed by Lord Holland about 1820, while close by is a large bronze bust of Napoleon. The
garden is interesting to all horticulturalists, for it was here that the dahlia was first successfully
cultivated by the third Lady Holland, who brought the seeds from Spain.
The original entrance forecourt was on the south front, but this was altered in 1873, when the
entrance was moved to its present position on the east side of the house. At right angles to the east
front of the house, and as if forming one side of an entrance courtyard, is the perforated wall and the
stone gateway, shown on Plate 58*, which were erected in 1629 by Nicholas Stone, from the design of
Inigo Jones, and for which, according to Walpole, Stone was paid the sum of ^ioo.1 The gates are
reached from the forecourt by a double flight of steps on either side of a fountain in the wall. These
steps lead to the pleasure grounds on the north side of the house.
HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE.
PLATE 59.
HE very name of Haddon Hall is so surrounded with romance that it is difficult
to consider it in any but a romantic spirit, and to analyze its beauties by means
of plan and section would seem to approach the old place without a due spirit of
reverence; still it forms so interesting a study in garden planning, and so well
demonstrates the importance of considering the house and garden as one design,
that the latter has been measured for illustration in this work.
Situated on a rather steep hillside, overlooking the valley of the Wye, here
only a narrow stream, one of Haddon's greatest charms is the way in which house and gardens seem
to fall into harmony with the surrounding landscape. The Hall consists of buildings round two
courtyards, on levels varying about two feet, and the principal rooms, including the Long Gallery,
are on the south-east side.
The Great Hall or Banqueting-House was built about 1452, and formed the principal feature of the
original building. The famous Long Gallery is later, being Elizabethan in character. It has three
fine bay windows overlooking the garden. In the panelling of the gallery the arms of the Manners and
Vernon families are found, and there is no doubt that the work of this period was done by John
Manners, who married Dorothy Vernon. He became Sir John in 1603, and it was his grandson, on
the failure of the elder branch, who became Earl of Rutland in 1641. Haddon still belongs to the
Rutland family.
The gardens, as now existing, date from between the middle of the sixteenth century and the end of
the seventeenth. A flight of steps leads from the ante-room, between the Long Gallery and the state
bedroom, on to the terrace, now overshadowed by the grand old yews that no doubt formerly marked
the angles of a parterre, and have been allowed to remain uncut since the commencement of the
eighteenth century, when the Hall ceased to be occupied. At the north-east end of this terrace a
rectangular flight of steps leads up to the fine old sycamore avenue known as Dorothy Vernon's Walk
(although it was probably made after her romantic marriage), which even when first planted must always
have been a shady and secluded retreat. This walk forms the north-east boundary of the gardens. At
1 Walpole's " Anecdotes of Painting."
were removed by Lord Holland about 1820, while close by is a large bronze bust of Napoleon. The
garden is interesting to all horticulturalists, for it was here that the dahlia was first successfully
cultivated by the third Lady Holland, who brought the seeds from Spain.
The original entrance forecourt was on the south front, but this was altered in 1873, when the
entrance was moved to its present position on the east side of the house. At right angles to the east
front of the house, and as if forming one side of an entrance courtyard, is the perforated wall and the
stone gateway, shown on Plate 58*, which were erected in 1629 by Nicholas Stone, from the design of
Inigo Jones, and for which, according to Walpole, Stone was paid the sum of ^ioo.1 The gates are
reached from the forecourt by a double flight of steps on either side of a fountain in the wall. These
steps lead to the pleasure grounds on the north side of the house.
HADDON HALL, DERBYSHIRE.
PLATE 59.
HE very name of Haddon Hall is so surrounded with romance that it is difficult
to consider it in any but a romantic spirit, and to analyze its beauties by means
of plan and section would seem to approach the old place without a due spirit of
reverence; still it forms so interesting a study in garden planning, and so well
demonstrates the importance of considering the house and garden as one design,
that the latter has been measured for illustration in this work.
Situated on a rather steep hillside, overlooking the valley of the Wye, here
only a narrow stream, one of Haddon's greatest charms is the way in which house and gardens seem
to fall into harmony with the surrounding landscape. The Hall consists of buildings round two
courtyards, on levels varying about two feet, and the principal rooms, including the Long Gallery,
are on the south-east side.
The Great Hall or Banqueting-House was built about 1452, and formed the principal feature of the
original building. The famous Long Gallery is later, being Elizabethan in character. It has three
fine bay windows overlooking the garden. In the panelling of the gallery the arms of the Manners and
Vernon families are found, and there is no doubt that the work of this period was done by John
Manners, who married Dorothy Vernon. He became Sir John in 1603, and it was his grandson, on
the failure of the elder branch, who became Earl of Rutland in 1641. Haddon still belongs to the
Rutland family.
The gardens, as now existing, date from between the middle of the sixteenth century and the end of
the seventeenth. A flight of steps leads from the ante-room, between the Long Gallery and the state
bedroom, on to the terrace, now overshadowed by the grand old yews that no doubt formerly marked
the angles of a parterre, and have been allowed to remain uncut since the commencement of the
eighteenth century, when the Hall ceased to be occupied. At the north-east end of this terrace a
rectangular flight of steps leads up to the fine old sycamore avenue known as Dorothy Vernon's Walk
(although it was probably made after her romantic marriage), which even when first planted must always
have been a shady and secluded retreat. This walk forms the north-east boundary of the gardens. At
1 Walpole's " Anecdotes of Painting."