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Blooming at Haddon Hall

2/14/2013

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   I visited Haddon Hall on a cool early summer day and found roses climbing all over the ancient grey walls, their colorful profusion a perfect complement to the lichen-covered stone.   Haddon Hall, high above the Wye River near Matlock  in Derbyshire, is typical of medieval manor houses: built of local rock with  thick walls and small windows.
     The property is listed in the Domesday Survey conducted shortly after William the Conqueror took over England. The Domesday Book was a great survey completed in 1086, a sort of census. William wanted to know who the landholders were and what taxes he could collect from  them, so his clerks looked for property holders from the time of Edward the Confessor. The judgment of the assessors was final and there was no appeal. The name Domesday comes from the Old Englishword dom (same root as doom in modern English) meaning accounting or reckoning. The book of this census is known by the English as 'Domesday', that is the Day of Judgment. The Haddon estate came into the  Vernon family through the marriage of its heiress in 1170 to Richard Vernon.

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Many  of the finest English Country Houses evolved from ancient foundation structures
of which few traces remain. Rebuilding, remodeling, and redecorating have been
beloved preoccupations for centuries. Houses were altered by almost every generation to incorporate the latest technological improvements or to enhance the size, style and beauty of their surroundings. The richer the family members, the more they rebuilt over and over again.
        The oldest and best-preserved old houses usually are passed down in a family through the female side. History repeated itself when in the mid-1550’s, Dorothy Vernon eloped with Sir John Manners, a son of the Duke of Rutland, against the wishes of her father. But despite his opposition to the match, Haddon Hall soon became the property of the Manners family, which has owned it ever since. It was,
however, a secondary residence to the Rutland’s primary estate, Belvoir (pronounced Beever) Castle (the subject of an upcoming blog).

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    Since  secondary residences were visited rarely, there was little urge to remodel to wife’s property. This pattern is repeated many times throughout the history of various stately homes. Cotehele in Cornwall and Chiswick near London are two more excellent examples. The romance of Dorothy Vernon and Sir John Manners was the basis for the 1902 novel Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall by Charles Major, popular author of historical romances including When Knighthood was in Flower  (1898). Major altered parts of the story and his novel was further enhanced when  it was made into a movie starring Mary Pickford in 1924. The story has also  inspired a play and an opera.

Haddon’s exterior is typically medieval, severe and somber, yet softened by lovely gardens. Inside, many rooms are open to visitors. In 1370, Richard de Vernon built the banqueting hall to house forty to fifty people. The house and continued to grow in subsequent centuries, both in number of inhabitants and in number of rooms and
outbuildings.
 

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    The long gallery was added later and is typical of those found in Tudor and  Elizabethan era houses, designed to replace cloister-style open air walkways. One strolled back and forth in the long gallery to take daily exercise where it  was somewhat more protected.
      Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Haddon Hall was ignored and fell into disrepair. Not until the 1920’s was major restoration begun. It continues today under the direction of Lord and Lady
Edward Manners. Haddon Hall is often used in films and plays a role in many tv
productions as well.
    hether it was the elopement story or the abundant  roses, I found Haddon Hall very romantic inspiration for the imagination.

A few more pictures:

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My Love for Stately Homes

2/12/2013

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Above, Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, UK

Here’s how my research interests in English country houses developed...

I grew up near Chicago and spent my summers at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a sparkling glacial lake just north of the Illinois border. Many of the properties along the 27-mile shoreline were great mansions built by Chicago millionaires (back when a million meant something!) as their summer homes in the mid-19th century. How I fantasized about life in those huge houses. May I point out that I blame my father for giving me royal illusions by choosing the name Victoria?
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 Above, photo of Stone Manor on Geneva Lake, WI, is used by the courtesy of Mark Czerniec. Thanks, Mark.

Geneva Lake is ringed with the great mansions of Chicago titans like the Wrigleys and the Schwinns. The one above, known both as Younglands and as Stone Manor, was built by Otto Young, developer of the long gone State Street landmark, The Fair Store.  Also a real estate mogul and financier, Young was born in Germany in 1844 and died at Lake Geneva in 1906. He had been treasurer of the board of the  World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago.

My mother told me her first visit to Lake Geneva was as a child in the 1920’s when she and her family visited an aunt, the Swedish cook at one of the great houses. Even the downstairs servants were allowed to invite their families from time to time. But I identified more with upstairs residents, of course. Wishful thinking
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If you visit Geneva Lake, you may want to schedule a tour of Black Point, shown above.  The home has been open to the public for a few years. I used to come here as a teenager when Uncle Ernie Schmidt entertained the young sailors on the lake. The house was built in 1888 by Chicago beer baron Conrad Seipp, one of Uncle Ernie's relatives.

Ever since childhood, I have had a great interest in these great homes and in the families who lived in them. My interests widened to English country houses when I visited England as a college student.
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Above, Bowood House, Wiltshire, UK

A few years ago, several friends and I took a course at Oxford University (through the Smithsonian Associates) to study the history of stately homes in Britain. We were in residence at Worcester College and traveled around Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Wiltshire to various estates under the leadership of Geoffrey Tyack, as delightful a professor as I have ever known.
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I will be writing about some of the houses I've visited soon. But first, remember some of the earliest remains of English Country Houses are actually Roman. The Romans were in Britain for over 400 years, beginning in 55 B.C. and left behind remains from the Channel ports to Hadrian’s Wall. Bath has its famous Roman springs. Excavations have uncovered the ruins of many country estates, such as the Chedworth Roman Villa, above, now run by the National Trust in Gloucestershire.

After the Romans left Britain, or were assimilated into the population, most building was done in wood and thus, little is left.  Exceptions are the fortresses constructed for protection, many of which remain either as ruins or as much-expanded centers of contemporary powerful families, such as Windsor Castle, Arundel Castle and Alnwick Castle.   More soon! 

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    Victoria Hinshaw, Author


    Here I will share some of my articles on favorite topics, such as English Country Houses, the Regency Royals, Jane Austen, and the like. Some of these articles have been published elsewhere, probably on the blog I share with Kristine Hughes and Louisa
    ​Cornell:  numberonelondon.net

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