146 REFLECTIONS ON HADDON. its precincts. Though desolate and cheerless within, it will long remain the ornament and attraction of this part of the Peak. - A venerable edifice, or a dilapidated ruin, is an object of great and powerful interest, exciting an association of ideas from which some of our most pleasurable sensations are deduced. Whether it is because we regard with reverence whatever has been touched by the hand of Time, and rendered sacred from his impression being stamped upon it or from an attachment to whatever is picturesque in form and colour, the force and beauty of which almost every mind can feel and appreciate or whether it is that in the contemplation of ancient halls and castles the tales of other times take possession of the soul, and the scenes of centuries gone by are again presented to the imagination, passing with a rapidity and an indistinctness like figures in a dream, not intimately known, and yet recognized whatever be the cause of that subdued and hallowed feeling which almost every man has experienced from beholding such objects, it ranks amongst the purest pleasures of reflection, and enriches existence. This mysterious sensation of undefinable delight is no doubt attributable to that subtle quality of the mind which we denominate imagination, and Haddon is admirably calculated to afford incentives to the exercise of this active and excursive faculty: its towers and turrets its massy walls and gloomy apartments - its loose hanging tapestry, and dark carved ceilings, rich with crests and armorial bearings- its painted windows, admitting only a dubious light—these, the remaining fragments of its grandeur, all conspire to exalt the mind of the spectator - to impress him with solemn and soothing emotions, and to fix his attention on objects and scenes of a remoter date, in the contemplation of which all considerations of self are lost: to him, Haddon is a link in the chain by which he is more intimately connected with a period of time and a race of beings long since passed away. Dr. Johnson observes, that "whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, and virtue: that man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona." Mrs. Ann Radcliffe, who was a native of Derbyshire, often visited Haddon Hall, for the purpose of storing her imagination with those romantic ideas, and impressing upon it those sublime and awful pictures which she so much delighted to pourtray: some of the most gloomy scenery of her "Mysteries of Udolpho" was studied within the walls of this ancient structure. The rising grounds behind Haddon are covered with a regular plantation of oak, lime, ash, and sycamore of the most luxuriant growth, which forms a capacious avenue, that communicates with an excellent garden and a summer-house of modern construction: passing along this avenue, my mind occupied with the scenes of other times, and filled with those ideas which a contemplation of Haddon is peculiarly calculated to inspire, and thus previously prepared to be imposed upon, I felt myself the momentary inhabitant of an enchanted grove, that almost realized some of the fanciful pictures of Tasso: a rich profusion of blossom covered the lime trees, and filled the air with fragrance - ten thousand bees were feeding on the treasures they contained the bell of every flower was inhabited and in motion, and the lighter branches, agitated by these little marauders, seemed every where imbued with animal life, while all around, their hum of felicity and enjoyment kept up a perpetual concert of native melody. The summer-house, which is approached by this grove of limes, is pleasantly situated on the summit of the hill, and commands a very extensive view of the mountain scenery of Derbyshire. In this really charming place the late Duke of Rutland established a bowling-green, for the accommodation of the gentlemen of Bakewell and the neighbourhood, who are chiefly his tenantry; some years ago during the summer months, it was occasionally well attended, but in the year 1816, when I last beheld it, it was totally neglected, and had a very desolate appearance; the rank grass every where prevailed. Lower down the vale, about a mile and a half from Haddon, is the village of Rowsley, near which the Wye loses itself in the bosom of the Derwent. How reluctantly the mind quits its hold of objects that have produced a portion of its felicity! with what regret it lingers round scenes on which it has dwelt with delight, and as it pauses to recal sensations originally excited by objects no longer present, it feels a softer glow of 148 FAREWELL TO THE RIVER WYE. pleasure as it beholds them through the medium of recollection. Such were the feelings with which I quitted the borders of the WYE. Adieu, thou lovely river! I have traversed thy romantic banks from thy source in the vicinity of Buxton, to where thy clear and silvery stream mingles with the yellower waters of the Derwent, and feel grateful to that Being who has intimately connected some of our most refined and purest pleasures with the contemplation of those works in the midst of which he has placed our habitation. SECTION X. Edensor.- Monument to the Earl of Devonshire in the Church. -Inscription to the Memory of John Beton. - Chatsworth Park and House. Cascade in the Garden. Fountain in the Court. Figure of Arion. HAVING regained the course of the Derwent, after quitting it near Stoke, we returned up the valley from Rowsley to Edensor, a little village about two miles distant, which is situated upon the verge of Chatsworth Park, where we passed the night at a comfortable inn, built for the accommodation of travellers by the late Duke of Devonshire. The church at Edensor stands on the side of a hill, in the upper part of the village, and it is surrounded with a spacious burial-ground: within it is clean and neat, and its appearance altogether intimates its proximity to the residence of a noble family. In the chancel there is a very costly and splendid alabaster monument to the memory of the first earl of Devonshire, which contains several figures as large as life, sculptured in relief, and elaborately finished: this monument is divided into different compartments, the whole of which are profusely ornamented, gilt, and coloured. A tabular monument is placed at the foot of the large one, on which are two recumbent figures; one is completely draped from head to foot- the other is a fleshless skeleton. There is something strikingly impressive in this. representation of a man who appears to have just passed from time into eternity, with all the habiliments of life about him, and the bare-ribbed image of death, which lies at his side, awfullyintimating the transition that must soon be made. The sculptor has here "bodied forth" a lesson of mortality which is extremely simple, yet full of pathos and instruction. Near this monument we observed a brass tablet with a long latin inscription upon it, to the memory of John Beton, a con fidential servant of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots; he appears to have entered into the service of his royal mistress early in life, and he was one of the principal agents in her deliverance from the castle of Loch Levin: afterwards he was employed by the Queen in an embassy to Charles the Ninth, King of France, and likewise to Elizabeth: he died at Chatsworth in the year 1570, at the age of thirty-two. Situated as Mary then was, she could ill bear the loss of such a servant; though a Queen, she was yet a prisoner, and with the exception of the little circle of domestics who attended upon her person at Chatsworth, she had none to do her homage. "Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood "With solemn reverence; throw away respect, Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty; "For you have but mistook me all this while : “How can you say to me, I am a king?" SHAKSPEARE, Rich. II. Poor Mary!" she both needed friends and tasted grief," and the death of one who had always served her with zeal and fidelity, was a calamity she most severely felt, and a loss she could not easily repair. To the Rev. R. Smith, the Rector of Edensor, I am indebted for a correct copy of the elaborate inscription which records the death of this faithful servant of the unfortunate and cruelly persecuted Queen of Scotland. INSCRIPTION. Deo. Opt. Max. et Posteritati sacrum Johanni Betonio Scoto nobilis et optimi Viri Johannis Betonii ab Anthmwty filio Davidis Betonii illustriss. S. R. E. Cardinalis Nepoti, Jacobi} Betonii Reverendiss. S. Andreæ Archiepiscopi et Regni Scotia Cancellarii digniss. pronepoti. ab ineunte ætate in humanioribus disciplinis et philosophiâ quo facilior ad jus Romanum (cujus ipse consultiss. fuit) aditus patet, ab optimis quibusqz præceptoribus et liberaliter et ingenué educato: omnibus morum facilitate, fide, prudentiâ et constantiâ charo: unde a Sereniss. Principe Maria Scotorum Gallorumqz Reginâ in prægustatoris primum mox Economi munus suffecto, ejusdemqz Sereniss. Reginæ unâ cum aliis e vinculis truculentiss. Tiranni apud levini lacus castrum liberatori fortiss. quem post varias legationes et ad Carolum 9 Galliarum Regem Christianiss. et ad Elizabetham sereniss. Anglorum Reginam fœliciter et non sine laude susceptas: fatis properantibus in suæ ætatis flore sors aspera immani dysenterias Morbo é numero viventium exemit. Jacobus Reverendiss. Glasguensis Archiepiscopus et Andreas Betonii ejusdem sereniss. Reginæ ille apud Regem Christianiss. legatus, hic vero œconomus in perpetuam rei memoriam ex voluntate, et pro imperio sereniss. Reginæ heræ clementiss. frs mœstiss. posuerunt. Obiit anno salutis 1570. vixit annos 32. menses 7. et diem dni expectat apud Chathworth in Angliâ. |