244 J 



BARLBOROUGH, 



CHESTERFIELD, 



THE SEAT OF ... 



MISS DE RODES. 



THIS very cliaracteristic and interesting mansion, which 

 ranks high among the architectural gems of Derby- 

 shire, stands in the north-eastern part of that county, 

 close to the Yorkshire border, about eight miles from Chester- 

 field and eleven from Sheffield. The situation is hih anj 





THE STAIRWAY AND AVENUE 



imposing, for, like Hardwick and Bolsover, its neighbours, the 

 place is lifted aloft on a hill. It was built by Francis RoJes, 

 Queen's Sergeant in the time of Elizabeth, who afterwards 

 became one of the Justices of the Common Pleas, and in the 

 mansion he was so proud to build his descendants have lived 



to the present day. This 



learned lawyer, who took a 

 great part in the affairs of his 

 county, was the son of John 

 Rodes of Staveiey Wood- 

 thorpe, Derbyshire, and his 

 family traced its descent from 

 Ge-ard de Rodes, a promi- 

 nent baron in the reign of 

 Henry II. He appears to have 

 made a considerable fortune by 

 his practice, and was among 

 the Derbyshire gentlemen 

 who assured the Queen of the 

 peaceable state of the county 

 at the time cf the Northern 

 Rising. He was raised to the 

 order of the coif in 1578, and 

 became Queen's Sergeant in 

 1582 at about which time he 

 began to build his beautiful 

 Derbyshire home and, after 

 becoming a Justice of the 

 Common Pleas, took pirt in 

 the trial of Mary, Queen of 

 Scots, at Fotheringhay. He 

 died in the year of the Spanish 

 Armada, at Staveiey Wood- 

 thorpe, though Barlborough 

 Hall was his principal seat. 



The personality of the 

 judge is impressed upon his 

 abode. Over the splendid 

 door on the south front you 

 see his arms and name, and 

 read the inscription " Serviens 

 Domino? Regime ad legem, 

 Anno Domini, 1584," this 

 probably being the date of the 

 completion of the house ; and 

 a similar inscription is over a 

 splendidly-carved mantelpiece 

 in the admirable long gallery 

 wl.ich runs along the whole 

 eastern face 'f the mansion, 

 \vith the judge's arms repeated 

 on two panels, accompanied 

 by some unusual heraldic 

 features. Again, in one of the 

 rooms is a fine four-post bed, 

 hung with blue embroidered 

 cloth, which is said to have 

 been given to him by Queen 

 Elizabeth. That the judge 

 was no ordinary man may be 

 inferred from the legal dignity 



Life." 



