SHALLCROSS AND YEARDSLEY HALLS. 1 93 



some incident after the surrender of one of the many towns 

 that fell into- the hands of Alexander." 



From this it will be seen that their date is only a few years 

 prior to the building of the present hall. 



The facades of the hall both north and south, especially 

 that overlooking Whaley Bridge, with its handsome flight. of 

 steps leading to the main entrance, cannot be passed over in 

 any review of Derbyshire architecture ; for of the plain, and 

 perhaps not justly appreciated, style of the first quarter of the 

 eighteenth century they are faultless, and no doubt in its early 

 years the hall must have been considered one of the show-places 

 of the county. The steps, unfortunately, indicate some slight 

 modernization, but subject to this their replica, although on a 

 larger scale, is also to be found at Ditchley. The wings were 

 added at a later date, when more accommodation was considered 

 necessary, but they have in no way detracted from the appear- 

 ance of the main building. In a semicircle, commencing from 

 the east end of the hall and surrounding the crest of the hill 

 on the southern side, is an avenue of fine forest trees planted 

 upon a slightly raised bank. This, whilst adding much to the 

 picturesque effect of the whole, has been a puzzle to many, for 

 it has the appearance of a causeway and avenue of approach 

 to the hall, and yet dies away into the fields on the west. If 

 the bank had ever been an earthwork the filling in of its ditch 

 would have practically levelled the whole, so it would seem to 

 have been purposely banked up with soil from elsewhere. Years 

 ago the principal collieries on the Shallcross estates lay beyond 

 this belt on that side, and a quarter of a mile away, too, is the 

 old, and now disused, High Peak Railway.* We can there- 

 fore well understand why the plantation was so made, namely, 

 to act as a screen from the workings and a shelter from the east 

 winds, from which so exposed a situation would otherwise be 

 unprotected. 



[Editorial Note. — The Rev. W. H. Shawcross, vicar of 

 Bretforton, Worcestershire, is preparing a history of the owners 

 of Shallcross from its earliest times, which I trust will appear 

 in our next volume. — W. J. Andrew.] 



* The old railway connecting the canals at Whaley Bridge and Cromford, 

 worked by haulage from stationary engines. 



J 3 



