Big Houses Let’s go visiting one of the Peak ‘s more modest “great houses” with Mr Hall and his party in 1853. “Well! Longshaw House is reached at last: and what do we find it? Had it been a stately Belvoir, it were treason against the grand old reign of Nature around, by marring, if not destroying, the wildness of the landscape. Nay, even picturesque Haddon had not been so well here as where it is, among the bowery trees by the beaming Wye. A “lodge” in the “vast wilderness” – just a snug and simple “lodge,” becoming its use and position, was wanted – and we have it. Can it be that three days ago the descendant of the ancient “kings of the Peak,” with England’s prime minister, and numerous lords and ladies fair, besides, occupied this unostentatious retreat – as neat, compact, and comfortable, as a Quaker’s country villa – and now as still. Just as one of the olden Wortleys built a lone lodge on Wharncliffe, “whereunto he might resort to hear the wild bucks bell;” so is Longshaw – dark from the stone of which it is built – suited to the whir and cry of the wild moorland fowl. But let us enter; and everything inside is in keeping with everything out: there is nothing superfluous, though much of the neatest and best. In the hall are well preserved mementos of the ornithology of the neighbourhood – including eagles and other birds now very rare. In the drawing room is little ornament; - stay – was it there we saw that curious and smile provoking pictorial screen? Something there is about which memory never can be uncertain – namely, that two pictures only occupy its walls – one, a large engraving of the late beautiful and excellent Duchess, copies of which are treasured with so much regard in many mansions – the other a portrait of our accompanying friend. We glance through the window upon a fountain in full play; and then pass to the dining room, where a few good mountain landscapes and one marine picture, as works of art – and a view from the window of the proximate moors and rocks, as the work of nature – are what chiefly strike us – and the effect is pleasing. Ascending to the bed-rooms, two of them are found to be large and elegant – all of them are light and cheerful – and into a third we step with some emotion. Though by far the smallest of the three, and quite plain, it is that which was wont to be occupied by the late Sir Robert Peel, on his annual visit, and is now preferred by the Duke himself. It has the advantage of commanding a fine west view of the moors. The rest of the bed-rooms are in similar taste, with little or no ornament, unless that title can be given to the purest cleanliness. At length we descend, and have a glance at the gardens and the stables, and a stroll through the grounds – taking, in our way, the head of a large pond, which we saw gleaming a little while before; and the only possible comment on all which is, that they are convenient to the house and very appropriate to it – or will be, when time has finished its fast-progressing work of assimilation.” Taken from The Peak and the Plain by S.T. Hall. 1853 More Pictures Chatsworth Houses great and small