nobility there, to suit the more moderate household and private style of living of their successors, being gradually pared down, until a very small portion of the once princely mansion can be traced in the dilapidated farm-house. This may be regarded the sixth age' of the decaying mansion previous to its ruined state, when the ivy-mantled walls afford shelter only to owls, forming the

'Last scene of all

That ends this strange eventful history.'

Haddon Hall was erected at various periods, and affords excellent examples of the several styles of domestic architecture, from the Early Pointed to the Tudor and Elizabethan. Haddon was originally a 'barton,' or farm, appertaining to the lordship of Bakewell, which was given by William the Conqueror to his natural son William Peverell. It became forfeited to the Crown, and passed to the Avenell family; and in the reign of Richard I. it came into the possession of Sir Richard de Vernon by marriage, thenceforth becoming the chief residence of the Vernon family, until, by the marriage of Dorothy Vernon with Sir John Manners, second son of Thomas the first Earl of Rutland, which title he inherited, it came into the possession of the Manners family, through whom it has descended to the Duke of Rutland. His Grace, with good taste and laudable reverence for a noble relic, has preserved the Hall intact, for the gratification of the admirers of our national antiquities. The tapestry, panelings, and cornice in the drawing-room, and the shields in the dining-room, yet remain.

The long gallery retains its carved wainscoting and ornamented ceiling of the Elizabethan period. It was probably used as a ball-room, as well as for promenading; and from hence we may suppose Dorothy Vernon eloped with her lover on the day of her sister's nuptials. The chapel is a good specimen of the Early Pointed style, and is one of the most ancient portions of the building remaining.

It is impossible to visit this fine old place without echoing these sentiments:

'How many a Vernon thou hast seen,
Kings of the Peak, thy walls within ;
How many a maiden tender;
How many a warrior stern and steel'd,
In burganet, and lance, and shield,
Array'd with martial splendour!

The grandeur of the olden time
Mantled thy towers with pride sublime,

Enlivening all who near'd them;

From Hippocras and Shevris sack
Palmer or pilgrim turn'd not back,
Before thy altars cheer'd them.

Since thine unbroken early day,
How many a race hath pass'd away,

In charnel vault to moulder!

Yet Nature round thee breathes an air
Serenely bright, and softly fair,

To charm the awed beholder.'

і

LOVE PASSAGE FROM THE DIARY OF

LADY COWPER.

ADY COWPER, whose charming Diary was

published in the year 1864, was the wife of

Lord Chancellor Cowper, and a Lady of the Bedcamber to Caroline Princess of Wales during a part of the reign of George 1. She was originally a Miss Clavering, one of a Jacobite family in the north of England. She became acquainted with Lord Cowper by going to his chambers to consult him upon certain law business; whereupon, as she was pretty, clever, and accomplished, a toast of the Kitcat Club, and otherwise a highly attractive person, it is not surprising that Lord Cowper fell in love with her, and that they were forthwith married; though, for reasons with which we are not made acquainted, their marriage was for some time kept secret from their friends. The following story is told by Lady Cowper of a design upon her lord's affection, carried on by Lady Harriet Vere with much assiduity and craft, while his marriage with herself remained un

known. This amusing embroglio is thus told by her ladyship in her Diary:

'My lord being a widower when the late queen gave him the seals, it was no wonder the young women laid out all their snares to catch him. None took so much pains as Lady Harriet Vere, whose poverty and ruined reputation made it impossible for her to run any risk in the pursuit, let it end as it would. She had made several advances to my lord by Mrs. Morley, her kinswoman, and finding nothing came of it, they immediately concluded my lord must be pre-engaged to somebody else; so they set a spy upon him, and found that he had country lodgings at Hammersmith, where he lay constantly; and upon inquiry they found I was the cause of this coldness to Lady H. Upon this they settled a correspondence under a feigned name with him, and in those letters (which were always sent by a fellow dressed up in woman's clothes, who could never be overtaken) they pretended to be some great person that threatened him, if he married me, to hinder the passing of his title. The first of these letters came the day before I was married. However, it did not hinder our marriage, though my lord thought it advisable to keep it a secret; and so he removed the next day, to London. His correspondents seeing they had made him leave the place, thought it would be no hard matter to break the match; and from that time to the beginning of January, which was almost four months, my lord had a letter every

day!-some of whole sheets of paper filled with lies about me, to say that I was a mean wretch, that I was coquette, and should be more so, that my playing so well was and would be a temptation to bring all the rakes in town about me, that it had been so thus far of my life, and that I was treated so familiarly by the rakish part of the town, that one night at a play, my Lord Wharton said to my Lord Dorchester, "Now that the opera is done, let's go and hear Molly Clavering play it over again" (which was all a plain lie, for I never did play in any public company, and only at home, when anybody that visited my Aunt Wood, with whom I lived, asked me; and for those two lords, I had never been in a room with either of them in my whole life).

'These,' continues the Diarist, are only specimens of what lies they inyented to hurt me. At last, when they thought they had routed me by the ill impressions they had falsely given of me, upon a day when my lord was at the House of Lords, one Mr. Mason, of the House of Commons, came to him and told him that Mrs. Weedon (a client of my brother's that had a foul cause in the Court of Delegates) desired to speak with him. My lord at first refused, but at length she teased him so much, that he consented to see her; and by her appointment, and saying she had a very fine lady to recommend to him (which gave him a thought he should find out his correspondent), he waited upon her at Mrs. Kirk's, which was the place appointed. He had some little jealousy before he went that the fine