HARDWICK HALL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23057, 7 June 1938, Page 2

HARDWICK HALL

REOPENING PLANNED HISTORIC ENGLISH HOME Hardwick Hall, historic Derbyshire house, is to become the future home of the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. Her son, the new Duke of Devonshire, is taking over Chatsworth House, the family seat, where she is in residence at present. Hardwick Hall, "more glass than wall," is only a few miles distant from Chatsworth. in the Peak District. One of the most talked-of houses in English history, built by the masterly Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, it became in turn a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots, and then for centuries a rendezvous of statesmen, writers and sportsmen, until it fell into disuse T2 years ago. Queen Mary, to whom the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire is Mistress of the Robes, visited it with .the late King George five years ago. The Duchess will use hangings worked by Marv, Queen of Scots. She will plan some of her decoration schemes round the valuable tapestries in several of the rooms. She intends to spend a considerable part of each year at Hardwiqk Hall, and will doubtless take great pleasure in developing the gardens. She is a very keen gardener. The valuable needlework has suffered from being kept in disused rooms and there will be rejoicing at the reopening of the old hall.