300 fkiuGS of the Buntino^f ielD 



of the Trent, and, when his Royal Master cooll)- appro- 

 priated the revenues of the i\bbeys, my Lord Rutland 

 had a splendid slice of the plunder. Some two- 

 score fat manors, wrested from Mother Church, in 

 Leicestershire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, 

 Shropshire, Yorkshire, fell to the share of Henry's ever- 

 accommodating Chief Justice in Eyre. 



It was the first Earl of Rutland who began trans- 

 forming Belvoir Castle from a fortress into a mansion, a 

 work which was completed by his eldest son. But it 

 was the second son, plain John Manners, who is best 

 remembered, for it was he who was the hero of the most 

 romantic episode in the history of the Manners. Who 

 has not heard of the elopement of Dorothy Vernon, 

 daughter of the fierce and passionate ' King of the Peak ? ' 

 the brave girl whom neither her father's threats, her 

 mother's tears, nor the bold wooing of the brilliant and 

 handsome soldier Edward Stanley could shake from her 

 loyalty to the plain and homely lover to whom she had 

 plighted her troth. John Manners was no beauty, but 

 there must have been grit in him, else had he never lain 

 for days and nights in the woods, risking a bolt from 

 the keeper's crossbow, for a furtive glimpse at the sweet 

 maiden who had won his heart. And he brought his 

 courage to the sticking point on that dark, wet Saint 

 Thomas's eve, when he rode up to Haddon Hall, and, 

 whilst ' the line of festal light ' shone from the windows 

 and the dancers footed it merrily, waited till the cloaked 

 and hooded little figure that had slipped away from the 

 ball-room, came tripping down the steps of the terrace, 

 put her hand in his, as he lifted her into the saddle, and 

 then away they galloped into the dark labyrinth of the 

 forest. In vain the ' King of the Peak,' with fifty horse- 



