Our tour of English country houses continued with a welcome change in the weather. My friend Marystephanie and I were relieved to find the temperature lowered to 84 degrees. Believe me, those ten degrees made a lot of difference!

We visited Haddon Hall, which has been used in the filming of The Princess Bride and many other films. It is truly ancient, its construction dating from the late medieval era (11th century) with more construction done during the Tudor era.  It sits atop a steep, albeit short, hill and now is the home of Lord and Lady Edward Manners, the first family members to live there for over 200 years.

Haddon Hall was the home of the legend of the beautiful Dorothy Vernon (1544-1584), who eloped with John Manners because her father opposed their match.  She supposedly slipped out during a party at the grand house and met her love at the bridge over the River Wye.  This romantic legend, which owes little to actual fact, has been celebrated in books, a light opera, plays, and a silent film starring Mary Pickford. Hey, a good story always wins out over reality!

Haddon Hall was fascinating in many ways. In the kitchen, we saw the remnants of a small railroad that was built by the 9th Duke of Rutland to ferry food from the stable block kitchens up to the main house.  One of the railroad cars has been transformed into a bar and now sits in the buttery off the main hall. There were also ancient dole cupboards, where the lord of the manor would leave food for the poor, thus leading to the phrase “on the dole”. 

Haddon Hall is unique in that many rooms in it have been untouched since Tudor times, specifically the Hall, the dining room, and the Long Gallery.  Our guide told us that the Long Gallery was used as a place of exercise in Tudor times.  Women would walk there during bad weather.  Light came through the bombé windows which were curved glass windows created in Italy. These windows overlook the terraced gardens for which Haddon Hall is famous.

And those gardens are still magnificent.  The climbing rose bush by the side doorway is breathtaking.

We had lunch in the Haddon Hall visitor center with a lemon and raspberry posset (pudding) for dessert and then we were back to our Cavendish Hotel, a relatively new edifice built in 1700.