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24 PART II DESCRIPTION OF HADDON HALL BY S. RAYNER
This agent, also, when the old building required slating, contrived to raise the requisite
funds, or a part of them, by disposing of such of the useless lumber (as he no doubt
considered it), as was not fit for fuel. For he sold a lot consisting of pewter dishes, and
iron and brass utensils, with eighteen guns, and half a dozen swords, to one Matthew
Strutt for the sum of twenty pounds. The old man, who now has the care of the mansion,
and who acts as a guide to visitors, says, that among the brass articles thus sacrificed,
there were curious candlesticks, eighteen inches in diameter at the bottom, with rich
mouldings; and he also describes as remarkable, some singular curtain rods, and carved
bedposts, having “knobs” in the middle, richly carved, a foot and a half in diameter.
If we suppose some inquisitive antiquary, after ransacking each hole and corner of
Haddon Hall, to have rescued from dirt and cobwebs the diary of an ancient retainer of
Sir Henry or Sir Richard Vernon, what a treasure of interesting facts and usages, of
curious anecdotes and tales of times long past, might be brought to light! But, alas! no
revelations of that kind are to be expected; and few and faint are the memorials of the
domestic history of the Vernons of Haddon now existing. Indeed this mansion has been
so long deserted by its owners, that the recollections of the knights and nobles of the
succeeding family of Manners who dwelt here, are become obscure; and but little can
now be gleaned from tradition concerning them. In this dearth of intelligence we can
only present the reader with a brief extract from the Reminiscences of the Old Guide
mentioned above.
This person, William Hage, is a descendant of John Ward, who in 1527 was deerkeeper
to the lord of Haddon [George Vernon at age 19], and of whom there is a portrait
hanging in the Banquetting Hall, or Old Dining Apartment. According to the statement
of Hage, his ancestor was “turned out of the family six times for drinking too much, and
at length died drunk.” His son, however, succeeded him in his office; and his posterity in
the female line have continued in the service of the proprietors of Haddon Hall even to
the present time; the father of William Hage having been groom to the Marquis of
Granby [John, who was the son of the 3rd Duke of Rutland, and who died before his
father in 1770], and he himself having long had the care of the house and gardens here,
and the office of guide to the visitors.”
The following, which is among the stories the old man relates, ludicrous as it is,
affords an interesting proof of the free and easy temper, and hospitable demeanour of the
old Earl of Rutland, and of the frugal housewifery of the Countess.