erty
of Sir George Vernon, who had two daughters, famous for their beauty.
Margaret Vernon married a Stanley, and on the night of the wedding
Dorothy Vernon eloped with Mr. John Manners. The story is very romantic.
The ballroom from which Dorothy stole away when the wedding party was at
its height is still just as it was then, excepting for the furniture.
From the windows you can see the little stone bridge where Manners
waited for her with the horses. Haddon Hall became the property of
Dorothy Manners and has remained in the hands of the Rutland family,
being now owned by the Duke of Rutland.

"That is the romance of Haddon Hall, but one could make up a hundred to
oneself when one walks through the different rooms. What a queer feeling
it gives me to go through the old doorways, to stop and look through the
queer little windows, and on the courtyard, wondering who used, long
ago, to look out of the same windows. I wonder what they saw going on in
the courtyard?

"We climbed to the top of the highest tower. The stairway wound upward
with stone steps about three feet high cut out of the wall. At intervals
we found little square rooms, very possibly where the men at arms
slept. What a view at the top! The towers and roofs and courtyards of
the castle lay before us. All around us the lovely English country, and
as far as the eye could see, hills, woodland, and the winding river. It
was glorious. Maud and I danced a two-step in the ballroom.

"If stones could only talk! Well, if they could I should want a long
confab with each one in the old courtyard of Haddon Hall. Who can tell,
William the Conqueror himself may have stepped on some of them."

We drove from Haddon Hall to the Peacock Inn for luncheon, going over to
Chatsworth for the afternoon. Again I turn a few leaves of the diary:

"Chatsworth is one of the homes of the Duke of Devonshire. The park is
fourteen miles across and I don't know how big it is, but Dr. Wrench
told me the number of acres, and I think it was three or four thousand.
We drove five miles through the park before reaching the gates of
Chatsworth--shall I call it house or castle? I have pictures of it, and
it is a good thing for I could not describe it. Dr. Wrench, being the
Duke's physician, was able to take us through the private rooms. On
entering the Hall, a broad marble staircase leads to the corridors
above, from which others branch out through different parts of the
house. We walked miles