ernon, the other of Fulco de Pembridge, lord of Tong, in Shropshire,
whose daughter and heir married Sir Richard Vernon, and brought him a great
estate. In one corner of the hall is a staircase, formed of large blocks of
stone, leading to the gallery, about 110 feet in length and 17 in width,
the floor of which is said to have been laid with boards cut out of one
oak, which grew in the park. In different windows are the arms of England
in the garter, surmounted with a crown; and those of Rutland impaling
Vernon with its quarterings in the garter; and these of Shrewsbury. In the
east window of the Chanel adjoining were portraits of many of the Vernon
family, but a few years ago the heads were stolen from them. A date of _Mi
esimo_ ccccxxvii. is legible. In the north window the name _Edwardus
Vernon_ and his arms remain; and in a south window is _Willmus Trussel_.
In the chapel also stands a Roman altar, dug up near Bakewell.

All the rooms (except the gallery) were hung with loose arras, a great part
of which still remains; and the doors were concealed every where behind the
hangings, so that the tapestry was to be lifted up to pass in or out. The
doors being thus concealed, are of ill-fashioned workmanship; and wooden
bolts, rude bars, &c. are their only fastenings. Indeed, most of the rooms
are dark and uncomfortable; yet this place was for ages the seat of
magnificence and hospitality. It was at length quitted by its owners, the
Dukes of Rutland, for the more splendid castle of Belvoir, in Lincolnshire.

For many generations Haddon was the seat of the Vernons, of whom Sir
George, the last heir male, who lived in the time of queen Elizabeth,
gained the title of king of the Peak, by his generosity and noble manner of
living. His second daughter and heir married John Manners, second son of
the first Earl of Rutland, which title descended to their posterity in
1641. For upwards of one hundred years after the marriage, this was the
principal residence of the family; and so lately as the time of the first
Duke of Rutland, (so created by queen Anne,) _seven score_ servants were
maintained, and during twelve days after Christmas, the house was "kept
open."

A few years before the death of Mrs. Radcliffe, the writer of "The
Mysteries of Udolpho," and several other romances, a tourist, in noticing
Haddon Hall, (and probably supposing that Mrs. R. had killed heroes enough
in her time,) asserted that it was there that Mrs. R. acq