Part 24

Some fine antlers, and parts of antlers, of the red deer, one of which, with four points at the top, measured more than three feet along its outer curve, and was six-and-a-half inches in medium circumference, have also been found. But these are not the only remains of extinct animals found in the neighbourhood, for those of the wild dog, the wild hog, the horse, the deer, the roebuck, and the ox—both the _Bos urus_ and the _Bos longifrons_—all of which once ran wild in Derbyshire, have been found, in the course of deep draining near the Hall, and preserved under the careful direction of Mr. Nesfield.

Perhaps the most elegant relic yet discovered is the ring shown in our engraving, which is in possession of his Grace the Duke of Rutland. It was found a few years ago, not far from the “Bowling Green,” and is evidently of the fifteenth century, and is of extremely fine workmanship and elegant design. The hoop is wreathed, and has originally been enamelled, and bears between the foliage the inscription, in old English letters, “de boen cuer,” which is one of frequent occurrence as a posy upon mediæval rings, probably in this case, meaning _de bon cœur_, and showing the hearty affection of the giver to the receiver. The little figure engraved on the besel is St. John the Baptist, with the Lamb enfolded in his mantle, and has most likely also been enamelled. It is probably a kind of charm-ring—_i.e._, a ring possessing physical or phylacteric qualities against epilepsy, the _mal de St. Jean_. It is of the purest gold, and weighs ninety-seven grains.

Another interesting “find” was the Washing-Tally already referred to, which is of the time of Charles I, and of extreme rarity. Of this tally, as intimately connected with the inner and home life of Haddon, at the period of the height of its hospitality and glory, we give the accompanying accurate engraving, which is drawn of a somewhat reduced size, and for which, as for the ring, and other engravings, our readers are indebted to the _Reliquary Archæological Journal_, edited by Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A. This very interesting relic is five-and-a-half inches in length and four-and-a-half inches in depth. It is formed of a piece of beech-wood, a quarter of an inch in thickness, covered with linen on the back and sides. Its construction is precisely that of a “horn-book.” In front, the names of the different articles of clothing are printed from a copper plate and protected by a sheet of horn. Around the edge, a narrow slip of thin brass, fastened down with highly ornamented nails, attaches the horn, the paper, and the linen, to the wood. The “tally” is divided into fifteen squares, in each of which is a dial numbered from 0 to 12, and above each square is the name of the article of clothing intended to be taken into account. These are “Ruffes,” “Bandes,” “Cuffes,” “Handkercher,” “Capps,” “Shirtes,” “Half-Shirtes,” “Boote-hose,” “Topps,” “Sockes,” “Sheetes,” “Pillowberes,” “Tableclothes,” “Napkins,” and “Towells.” On each of the dials is a circular brass indicator, fastened by a little pin in its centre, so as to be turned round at pleasure. Each indicator is pierced on one side, close to the edge, with a round hole through which one number only on the dial is visible at a time, and opposite to this hole is a raised point by which the indicator can be turned as required.

It may here be well to note, that although Haddon Hall is no longer used as a residence by the Duke of Rutland, he has within three or four miles of it a delightful shooting-box, Stanton Woodhouse, pleasantly situated and charming in every respect, where he and others of his family occasionally sojourn. This and his other shooting-lodge, Longshawe, some distance across the moors of the same county, are two charming retreats for the sportsman. It may be mentioned, too, that at Rowsley, close at hand, is the admirably executed effigy of Lady John Manners and her infant, by W. C. Marshall, R.A.

Passing on from Haddon to Bakewell, the tourist will not fail to notice the Dove-cote on a mound near the road-side, and from this road-side he will obtain one of the best and most charming views of the Hall to be gained from any point.

BAKEWELL CHURCH, the burial-place of some of the members of the Vernon and Manners families, to whom Haddon Hall successively belonged, is nearly two miles distant from Haddon, and may be seen on looking up the valley of the Wye. Bakewell itself is a pleasant and remarkably clean little market-town, built on the banks of the Wye; there are several good public buildings in the town itself, and many substantial residences in its neighbourhood. It is, however, to the church only that we now desire to call attention in a short description.

It is a cruciform building, of about 150 feet in length from west to east, and about 105 feet in width across from wall to wall of the north and south transepts, with a central tower and spire. It contains some extremely fine Norman and Early-English features, and is lofty and remarkably well proportioned. In the centre rises a noble tower, the lower part of which is square, and the upper octagonal, with the angles boldly chamfered, and this is surmounted by a lofty spire. There can be no doubt, from remains which have been found, that a church had existed on this spot from very early pre-Norman times. In Domesday survey, it is stated there were two priests for the church of Bakewell. It was afterwards made a collegiate church. It was granted by William the Conqueror to William Peverel, his natural son, but was, with the other immense possessions of that family, forfeited by attainder by one of his descendants in 1154; it remained in the possession of the crown till it was given by Richard I., on his accession to the throne in 1189, to his brother John, Earl of Morteigne, afterwards King John. To him is traditionally ascribed the rebuilding of the nave (with the exception of the west end, which he is said to have left standing), and its endowment; but it is more probable that it was built and endowed by a Peverel, who gave part of the Bakewell tithes to Lenton Priory. In 1192, Earl John gave the church, with all its prebends and other appurtenances, to the present cathedral of Lichfield. In 1365, a chantry was founded in the church by Sir Godfrey Foljambe and Avena his wife, whose beautiful little monument will be seen on one of the piers of the nave. The nave, which was erected probably about 1110, is separated from the side-aisles by semicircular arches, rising from piers of solid masonry instead of pillars. At the west end is a fine Norman doorway ornamented with beak-head mouldings and other characteristic features.

The church was extensively repaired and restored in 1841, when numerous very interesting remains were brought to light. These included an extensive series of incised sepulchral slabs, of very early date, bearing crosses of various forms, and many interesting devices; several ancient crosses used as headstones; a considerable and extremely beautiful assemblage of fragments of encaustic paving tiles; and several fragments of coped tombs, and of crosses with the interlaced ornament so characteristic of the Saxon period, as well as many stone coffins, and sculptured fragments of mouldings, capitals, &c., belonging to the more ancient edifice.

Of these curious remains the greater part were preserved in the porch of the church, and consist of considerably more than fifty incised slabs—some of which are perfect, and others in fragments—and perhaps a score or two of other stones. It is also stated, and is much to be regretted, that at least four times the number of sculptured stones preserved were rebuilt into the walls during the alterations, so that, including a number taken away and now preserved at Lomberdale, there must have been from three to four hundred found. In the same porch, a selection of the ornamented paving tiles is also preserved; among the patterns are many of extreme beauty and elegance.

The font is also deserving of especial notice. It is octagonal, each of its sides bearing a figure beneath a crocketed canopy. A fragment of another ancient font will be seen in the porch.

The part of Bakewell Church, however, with which we have now particularly to do is the VERNON CHAPEL, in which, divided from the south transept by a beautiful open oak screen, lie buried the later Vernons and the earlier members of the Manners family connected with Haddon. This chapel was, it appears, erected “late in the Decorated period, about 1360, upon the walls of the former chapel. The Early-English half-pillars at each extremity of the arches had been retained, and were very beautiful examples, well worthy of imitation. The hollows of the mouldings, up to a certain height, being filled with bold roses, capitals in a different style were afterwards added to suit the decorated arches. The central pillars, with their central clustered shafts, are of singularly elegant design; the tracery of the windows partakes of the flamboyant character. The upper part of the buttresses was also altered to correspond with the new work.” It will bear comparison with any structure of the kind in England, and has been rebuilt in good taste.

In the centre of the Vernon Chapel stands a fine altar-tomb, bearing the recumbent effigies of Sir George Vernon, the “King of the Peak,” and his two wives, Margaret Taylebois and Maude Langford. This tomb is an extremely beautiful and characteristic example of the elaborately decorated monuments of the period to which it belongs. Along its sides, under a series of canopied arches, are figures bearing shields of the arms of the Vernons and their alliances and those of the families of his two wives. Sir George is habited in plate armour and surcoat, and wears a straight long beard and straight hair. He has a double chain and a sword. The inscription on this interesting tomb is as follows:—“Here lyeth S^r George Vernon, Knight, deceased ye —— daye of —— an^o 1561, and Dame Margaret his wyffe, daughter of Sir Gylbert Tayleboys, deceased ye —— daye of —— 156—; and also dame Mawde his wyffe, dawght^r to S^r Ralphe Langford, deceased ye —— daye of —— anno 156— whose solles God pdon.” The inscription, it will be seen, has never been finished, the blanks for the dates not having been filled up. The surcoat worn by the knight is elaborately emblazoned with his own arms with all its quarterings; and, taken altogether, this is a remarkably fine and interesting monument.

At the south end of the chapel stands, to visitors to Haddon, perhaps the most interesting of its monuments. It is that of Dorothy Vernon, about whose elopement we have already discoursed, and her husband, Sir John Manners, with their children. This lady, it will be recollected, was one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Sir George Vernon, whose monument we have just been describing, and his first wife Margaret Taylebois, and by her marriage with Sir John Manners, she conveyed Haddon Hall and the other Derbyshire estates of the Vernons to the family of Manners, to whom they still belong. This monument we, for the first time, engrave. It is a large and very imposing-looking erection. At the top, in the centre, is a large shield, bearing the shield of Manners, with its sixteen quarterings, and on either side is an obelisk ornament, one of which bears the arms of Manners and the other of Vernon. Beneath these is a bold cornice and ornamental frieze, on which again occur three shields with the arms, respectively, in the centre Manners impaling Vernon; and on one side Avenell, and on the other Roos.

This cornet and frieze surmount a semicircular arch, beneath which are the kneeling figures, facing each other, of Sir John Manners, in plate armour, and his wife, Dorothy Vernon, in close-fitting dress, with cap, and frill or ruff around the neck. Between them there is a pedestal, bearing the following incription:—“Here lyeth S^r John Manners, of Haddon, Knight, second sonne of Thoas, Erle of Rutland, who dyed the 4 of June, 1611, and Dorothie his wife, one of the daughters and heires to S^r George Vernon, of Haddon, Knight, who deceased the 24 day of June, in the 26 yere of the raigne of Queen Elizabeth, 1584.” Above the pedestal is a large shield, with quarterings of the armorial bearings of the families of Manners and Vernon and their alliances; the shields bearing the sixteen quarterings of Manners, differenced with a crescent, impaled with the twelve quarterings of Vernon. On the spandrels are also shields of arms, the one bearing Manners quartering Roos and two others; and the other, Vernon quartering Avenel and two others. The lower part of the monument contains four figures of the children of Sir John and his wife Dorothy, and two shields, the one bearing the arms of Manners, and the other those of Vernon.

At the opposite or north end of the chapel is a much larger and more pretentious monument, that of Sir George Manners, son and heir of Sir John Manners and Dorothy Vernon, and of his wife, Grace Pierrepoint. At the top is a large shield bearing the arms of Manners with its sixteen quarterings, and on each side is an obelisk. Beneath these is a massive and bold cornice, supported on Corinthian pillars, forming a recess in which is a semicircular arch, elaborately carved, and over it the inscription, “The day of a man’s death is better than the day of his birth.” Under this arch and cornice are the effigies of Sir George Manners and his wife, kneeling, and facing each other, while between them is a double desk, or lectern, on the front of which are the words—“Thy prayers and thine alms are gone up before thee,” and a shield bearing the arms of Manners impaling Pierrepoint. Behind the figures, on a tablet, is a Latin inscription, which has been thus translated:—“Sir George Manners of Haddon, Knt., here waits the resurrection of the just in Christ. He married Grace, second daughter of Sir Henry Pierrepoint, Knt., who afterwards bore to him four sons and five daughters, and lived with him in holy wedlock thirty years. She caused him to be buried with his forefathers, and then placed this monument, at her own expense, as a perpetual memorial of their conjugal faith, and she joined the figure of his body with hers, having vowed their ashes and bones should be laid together. He died 23rd April, 1623, aged 54. She died ——.” Sir George is represented in armour, and his lady is habited in close dress, with ruff, hood or coif, and long veil. Beneath the figures of the knight and his lady, the monument is divided into two heights, each of which is formed into an arcade holding the effigies of their children. The upper arcade consists of four semicircular arches, with shields of armorial bearings in the spandrels. Within the first of these arches is the effigy of the eldest son—a “chrisom child”—who died in infancy and is, as usual, represented bound up, mummy fashion, in swaddling-clothes; in the second, the kneeling effigy, in armour, of John Manners, who ultimately succeeded to the title of eighth Earl of Rutland; and in the third and fourth, those of two of the daughters. In the lower arcade, which is formed of five archways, the first two being semicircular and the remaining three pointed, are respectively the kneeling effigies of Henry Manners, who died at the age of fourteen, and is habited as a youth; Roger Manners, in armour; and three daughters. In the spandrels of the arches, as in the upper arcade, are a series of shields with armorial bearings. Over the nine arches are the nine inscriptions as follows:—Over the “chrisom child,” “Mine age is nothing in respect of thee;” over the son and heir, “One generation passeth and another cometh;” over the youth, Henry Manners, “My days were but a span long;” over the fourth son, Roger, “By the grace of God I am what I am;” over the daughters, beginning with the eldest, “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband,” “The wise woman buildeth her house,” “A gracious woman retaineth honour,” “A prudent wife is from the Lord,” and “She that feareth the Lord shall be praised.” On the pedestal by Sir George, “Christ is to me both in death and life an advantage,” and on the opposite one, by his wife, “I shall go to him, he shall not return to me.” The arms on the shields are those of Manners, differenced with a crescent; Pierrepoint; Manners impaling Montague; Sutton impaling Manners; Howard impaling Manners; and the other alliances also impaled.

On the wall is a memorial to John Manners, son of Dorothy Vernon and her husband, Sir John Manners, with the inscription—“Heare lieth buried John Manners, gentleman, third son of S^r John Manners, Knight, who died the xvi day of July, in the yeere of our Lord God 1590, being of the age of 14 yeers.”

The most ancient, and certainly one of the most interesting, monuments in the church, is that of Sir Thomas de Wendesley, or Wensley, of Wensley, who was killed at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. It is an altar-tomb, with the recumbent effigy of the knight in plate armour, wearing the conical helmet or bascinet, and camail or tippet of chain mail, with gussets of the same at the arm-pits. His girdle, which is exceedingly rich, encircles his hips; the sword is lost, but the dagger remains. His surcoat is emblazoned with his arms, and he wears the collar of SS. On the front of the helmet is inscribed IHO NAZAREN.

In the chancel is an altar-tomb to John Vernon, 1477, the inscription on which runs as follows:—“Hic jacet Johis Vernon filius et heres Henrici Vernon qui obiit xii die mensis Augusti Anno Dni Mo cccclxxvii cuj anime piciet̄ dē;” and in the Vernon Chapel is an incised slab, with the arms of Eyre.

In the nave is a small but exceedingly beautiful monument bearing the half-length effigies, side by side, under an elaborately-crocketed canopy, of Sir Godfrey Foljambe and Avena his wife. The knight is represented in armour, with conical helmet or bascinet, and tippet of chain mail; his surcoat bearing the arms of Foljambe. The lady wears a reticulated caul. In each of the spandrels is a shield, the one bearing the arms of Foljambe, the other that of the family of Ireland, of Hartshorne, to which the lady belonged.

There are several tablets and inscriptions in various parts of the church which are worthy of a passing glance, and there are also some memorial stained-glass windows of good design. Among these is one in memory of the late Duke of Rutland, representing the Resurrection, bearing the following inscription:—“The above window was erected, by subscription, in memory of John Henry, Duke of Rutland, who died 20th January, 1857, aged seventy-nine years.” Others are put in to the memory of the late Mr. Allcard and of Mr. Jonathan Wilson and others.

Before leaving the interior of this fine old church, it will, no doubt, interest the visitor to be told in fewer words, and more correctly than could be gleaned from the strange tales sometimes told in the place, the story of the uncovering of the remains of Dorothy Vernon, her husband, and other members of the family, during the rebuilding and alteration of the church. When the excavations were commenced on the site of the monument of Sir John Manners and his wife Dorothy Vernon, the remains of two persons, supposed to be the knight and his lady, were found; the skull of the one was identified as that of Sir John, by its peculiar form and its likeness to his sculptured effigy; that of the other, which lay near it, with beautiful auburn hair still attached, among which were some pins that had been used to fasten it—was naturally, and no doubt correctly, considered to be that of the once lovely Dorothy. In another part three children’s leaden coffins were found, but not opened, and the bones of an infant (probably the “chrisom child,” represented on the tomb of Sir George Manners) were discovered rolled up in a sheet of lead. These, no doubt, were the children of different members of the Manners family. A leaden coffin was also found which contained the body of a lady. The part of the lid over the head had been violently torn away—the piece of the sheet of lead being missing—and this was carefully and thoroughly examined. The body had been buried in lime, but the part of the lid had been torn off, the head cut off, taken out and surgically examined, and then hastily replaced, but with the face downwards. The rest of the body was undisturbed. Several other bodies were, of course, found, as were some few other interesting matters which require no notice here.

In the churchyard, near the east wall of the south transept, stands one of the finest so-called “Runic crosses” in the kingdom. It is, exclusive of the modern pedestal, about eight feet in height: the upper limb of the cross is broken off. Of this fine old cross we give an engraving. The front of the cross, which in bad taste has been turned towards the wall, is sculptured in four heights, with figures beneath arches—the upper group being the Crucifixion: the whole, however, is much defaced. The opposite side, the one shown in our engraving, is boldly sculptured, with a beautiful scroll-pattern of foliage terminating at the top in an animal, and at the bottom is a cross within a circle; on the head is a figure on horseback. The sides of the cross are sculptured in scroll-work of foliage, of much the same design as the side just described; the end of one of the limbs bears an interlaced ornament, and the other a figure. This cross, and the one at Eyam, a few miles distant, are among the most perfect and beautiful remaining examples of the early period to which they belong.

If the tourist still wishes to linger for a few minutes in the churchyard, he will find much to interest, to please, and to amuse him. To _interest_ him in examining the external features of the church, especially the Norman doorway and arcade, &c., at the west end, and the beautiful doorway of Early-English design on the south side, as well as the stone coffins grouped together in one corner. To _please_ him, in the magnificent view he obtains of the surrounding country, especially of the valley of the Wye as it runs its zig-zag course towards Haddon; and to _amuse_ him, in reading the strange verses which occur on some of the grave-stones which crowd around him on every side, and in the church itself.

One of these, to the memory of a former parish clerk and leader of the choir, reads as follows:—

“ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF PHILIP ROE, WHO DIED 12TH SEPTEMBER, 1815, AGED 52 YEARS.

“The vocal Powers, here let us mark, Of PHILIP, our late Parish Clerk. In church, none ever heard a Layman With a clearer Voice say Amen! Oh! who with Hallelujah’s Sound Like Him can make the Roofs resound. The Choir lament his Choral Tones, The Town—so soon here lie his Bones. Sleep undisturbed, within thy peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with such tones as thine.”

Another long inscription to the memory of John Dale, barber-surgeon, of Bakewell, and his two wives, Elizabeth Foljambe and Sarah Bloodworth, 1757, thus curiously ends:—

“Know, posterity, that on the 8th of April, in the year of grace 1757, the rambling remains of the above-said John Dale were, in the 86th yeare of his pilgrimage, laid upon his two wives.

“This thing in life might raise some jealousy, Here all three lie together lovingly, But from embraces here no pleasure flows, Alike are here all human joys and woes; Here Sarah’s chiding John no longer hears, And old John’s rambling Sarah no more fears; A period’s come to all their toilsome lives, The good man’s quiet; still are both his wives.”