HADDON HALL. 511 



driving (on those level roads) of a John Bull who is bred to hold 

 the reins, would be a stranger revelation to one of our uncouth look- 

 ing drivers, than an explanation of the whole art of governing a 

 monarchy. 



These Derbyshire hills are, in some parts, covered with wood, 

 and in others entirely bare, or rather only covered with grass, af- 

 fording pasture to large flocks of sheep. As I drove amid long 

 slopes and rounded summits, some 200 or 300 feet high, I was 

 struck with the exquisite purple hue, like the bloom on a plum, 

 with which some of the hill-sides were suffused in the soft afternoon 

 light. A little nearer approach enables one to solve the riddle of 

 the mysterious color. The whole hill-side was thickly covered 

 with purple heather, in full bloom, which, at a distance, gave it the 

 seeming of having been dipped in some delicate dye. I cannot tell 

 you how these hills, and the wild wastes and downs of England, 

 covered with the delicate bells of the heath, affected me when I 

 first saw them. When you remember, that with all the forest and 

 meadow richness of America, not a single heath grows wild from 

 one end of the country to the other, and that we scarcely know the 

 plant, except as a delicate and cherished green-house exotic a plant 

 which every English poet has embalmed in his verse, and which is 

 the very emblem of wild, airy freshness you may believe me, when 

 I tell you that a million, spent in gardens under glass, could not 

 have given me the same exquisite delight, which I experienced in 

 running over, plucking, and feasting my eyes upon these acres of 

 wild heather. There are half a dozen species, with different shades 

 of color white, pink, pale and deep purple ; but the latter is the 

 most beautiful, as well as the most common. 



HADDON HALL. Next to Chatsworth, Haddon Hall is the most 

 noted locality in Derbyshire. As the two places are but a few 

 miles apart, they form the best possible contrast, Chatsworth being 

 one of the most finished specimens of the luxury, refinement, and 

 grandeur of modern England, as Haddon is of the domestic abodes 

 and habits of an English nobleman two hundred years ago. 



Haddon Hall gives, perhaps, the best idea that may be gathered 

 any where in this country, of the ancient baronial residence, exactly 

 as it was. No part of this large castellated pile (which is finely 



