most others. Every comfort and the best accommodation may be had at Bakewell by the traveller, a Bank, a good Library, and other shops exist also for the benefit of its inhabitants and the stranger. Bakewell is 2 miles from Haddon, 4 from Chatsworth, 16 from Sheffield, 16 from Casleton (via Middleton Dale,) 12 from Buxton, 10 from Matlock, and 152 from London. The late Mr. White Watson, F.L.S., was in possession of the Baths and pretty grounds and walks adjoining, which are close by the Rutland Arms. This gentleman had collected a great many fossils and minerals peculiar to Derbyshire, which were scientifically arranged and highly illustrative of the geological character of the county. We understand this has been purchased since his death by the Geological Society intended to be established in the town, which will prove to them a valuable acquisition. The commons about Bakewell and Over Haddon were formerly one continued dreary waste, but now they present a scene of rich enclosures interspersed with wide spreading plantations belonging to the Duke of Rutland. A great part of the subsoil in the valley is shale, which forms excellent pasture land, it is bounded on the east by Gritstone hills and on the west by the Limestone measures. From hence we proceeded to Haddon over a dead flat piece of ground which is relieved by an eminence just before reaching the gate leading over the pastures to Haddon. Here the fine old Hall comes in view. The lovely Wye in this flat vale takes many a circuitous rout and is said to travel more than double the distance or four miles in two.

The sun was fast declining in the west when we reached this point. The house with its old weatherbeaten towers and battlements peering from amidst the thick foliage, its numerous turrets gleaming in the sunbeam; finely shaded and strikingly contrasted with the umbrageous envelope, presented a fine object for the pencil. Its situation is preeminently beautiful, standing on a shelving and rather elevated mass of the first Limestone; it overlooks the entire dale and its meandering and lovely Wye, backed by noble woods and surrounded with park-like trees of

great beauty which chiefly screen its old walls from view. At first sight it has more the appearance of an old fortress than what it really is, a Hall chiefly in the Elizabethian style and without any effectual defences as we shall presently see from the following remarks, which we beg to make while we contemplate this interesting structure,a structure which assisted the imagination of Mrs. Radcliffe in its wildest flights when writing the Mysteries of Udolpho. A book happily out of fashion in the present day.

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HADDON

Is decidedly one of the finest specimens of a Hall of the olden time" in existence. The old tower, with narrow.loop holes and gloomy uncomfortable rooms, is the only part which retains that stern character the peculiar feature of that iron age when "every man's hand was against his fellow,"-that age of darkness and military despotism which succeeded the destruction of the Roman power by the savages of the north. In these times cach successful Conqueror parcelled out the nation, or territory subdued, into so many military "fiefs" held only by virtue of devotion to their Prince, who claimed their services whenever circumstances required. These were again subdivided into smaller portions to their dependents and retainers who held their lands upon precisely the same tenure of doing fealty to their lord, and could be called upon at any moment to defend his person and domains from the aggression of a neighbour, or to proceed with him to serve their common chief either at home or abroad. Thus Europe universally became subject to military rule which gradually softened, and settled down into what is termed the feudal system—a simple modification of this military despotism with a somewhat less stern aspect, still retaining its form and sanguinary character.* The bulk of the population

The small Baronies and Baronial Courts and Manors are still existing relicts of these times only shorne of their power as it is fitting they should be.

under this system were no better than serfs of the soil, perfectly at the will of their masters and plunged in the grossest ignorance and superstition. Surely it it may be emphatically said of this period that "darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." This was a time of peril, when caprice, passion, ambition, or avarice, was the order of the day, and when either happened to be in the ascendant, pretexts were not long wanting to make an attack upon a neighbour to gratify a bloodthirsty desire, or accomplish any purpose of conquest, or revenge, as the case might be.Can we wonder, therefore, that every where sprung up those gloomy, wretched abodes, those castles and fortresses which frown upon a country, surrounded with moats and defended with bastions, draw-bridges, and towers of immense strength. The times required it. No man felt safe a moment from the inroad of the foe. The old part of Haddon which has elicited these remarks, is a specimen of the architecture of those times, and it is said to be older than the conquest; but this forms only a small part of (shall we say) modern Haddon. The first great quadrangle, and the three sides of the second, are built in the style of our ancient Halls, "a composite"-a combination of the Gothic, Saxon, and Teutonic, without those powerful and gloomy defences which were not so necessary in more modern times, when men became united, and subject to law,—and one common form of government. Haddon, therefore, as a quiet country seat of our gentry in the sixteenth century, kept still in good repair, with all its ANCIENT honours about it, just as deserted by the family 160 years ago; and really retaining all that character, as if they had quitted it but yesterday, is a beautiful specimen of that age. Its ancient Hall, with the huge oaken, yet not inelegant table, the immense fire-place, the rude music gallery, occupying two sides, the roof and rafters exposed, all in perfection, involuntarily carry us back to the period of its glory; and we have vividly pictured before us the rough but profuse and generous hospitality of the times. The glee and the revelry which succeeded