Chats^uoorth, Wootton Lodge. 579 



cottages are being rebuilt, added to, or repaired and 

 ornamented, and their gardens will be enlarged and 

 tastefully laid out and planted. All the houses 

 will be supplied with water from an elevated source, 

 the village being on the side of a hill ; and there 

 will be a public play-ground and open shed, and a 

 public drying-ground. Behind the houses are the 

 fields for grazing the cows, of which each cottager 

 has one or more. The school is almost the only 

 building so far finished as to enable us to judge of its effect, which, we think, 

 will be excellent. We entered several of the cottages, and found them most 

 comfortable and commodious within ; all of them had back kitchens, pantries, 

 and dairies for the produce of the cow, with the sleeping-rooms up stairs. 

 We have no doubt, that, when this village is completed according to Mr. 

 Paxton's ideas. His Grace the Duke will be so much pleased with it, as to 

 cause a revision to be made of all the cottages on his extensive estates ; and 

 a better mode of doing good, both positively to the occupants, and, by ex- 

 ample, to the cottagers of other proprietors, and to cottagers generally, we do 

 not think could be devised. 



All that Derbyshire wants, to render it the most beautiful and interesting 

 county in England, is, plantations on the high grounds to improve the climate 

 and beautify the face of the country, and more artistical cottages, farmhouses, 

 and gardens. 



Chatsworth to Wootton Lodge, by Chesterfield and Derby. — May 24. To 

 Chesterfield the country is bleak, but the fields are divided by stone walls, 

 and tolerably well cultivated. The railroad from Chesterfield to Derby 

 passes through the most interesting tract of country on the line between 

 Sheffield and London ; and the road from Derby, by Ashbourne to Alton 

 Towers, is most romantic. 



Wootton Lodge is a remarkably fine old place. The house is a square 

 building, of the time of Elizabeth, imposing from the magnitude of the mass, 

 and from its great height, considering, that it is a dwelling-house, in propor- 

 tion to its width. It is situated on a prominent rock or hill, surrounded on 

 three sides by a deep ravine, which separates it from higher hills, which are 

 covered with oak woods. The elevation of the house, we repeat, is very im- 

 posing, and this arises chiefly from magnitude, and from the height and breadth 

 of the many raullioned windows, and the large spaces of naked wall between 

 them. 



The mass of the building is sufficiently large to constitute it grand, and 

 the height, relatively to the breadth, being greater than what is common 

 in buildings of this era, it joins to grandeur a character of elegance, which 

 never can be given in buildings without departing somewhat from the common 

 proportions, and exceeding these to a certain extent in height. The windows 

 at Wootton Lodge are grand, and yet elegant, from the same cause by which 

 these impressions are produced by the general mass ; that is, they are as 

 broad, if not broader, than usual, and they are decidedly higher than is 

 commonly the case in windows of this style. It may be laid down, then, as 

 a principle, that a building or a window, broader than is usual in proportion 

 to the height, is mean ; and, on the contrary, that a house or a window, higher 

 than is usual in proportion to the width, is comparatively elegant. 



In Wootton Lodge, there are few projections in the way of bays, no towers, 

 very little ornament, scarcely any upper cornice, and the roof, which is of lead 

 and flat, is of course not seen. The chimney shafts are good, though few and 

 simple. Altogether, the exterior of this house deserves the study of the archi- 

 tect, not for its ornaments or details, for these are few, but to find out the 

 cause of the powerful impression which it makes on the mind. We were not 

 within, but from the large windows and the broad space between them in the 

 elevation, it is impossible to doubt, that the interior contains some very 

 magnificent rooms. It is entered through a court of honour, with offices as 



