The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-13 00:00:00

BAKEWELL AND HIGH PEAK INSTITUTE.

FESTIVITIES AT HADDON HALL.
On Friday Haddon Hall was the scene of festivities
which will long be remembered by the inhabitants of Bake-
well aad the adjacent villages. About three yeah ago soma
of the resident clergy and gentry established an iostitie ion
for the purpose of creating amongst the rising g, neration a
taste for literature, seiersoe, and art, and their efforts have
bean highly successful. The institute now numbers
its OIeOIOCTS most of the young men of the district ; its weD.
selected library is assiduously frequented ; its lectures, of
which then have bean a constant sucrsssion delivered gratis
by the yrojeMon and their friends, are numerously and re.
spectably attended ; its classes are introducing many a ta-
lented eon of the Peak "to the higher walks of literature{
and last, bet not least, its annual fetes are so popular that all
the tickets are Invariably disposed of weeln before the day
of *oiling arrives.
The institute has derived much benefit from the sapped
most cordially extended to it by Lord John Manners, his
*obis father, the Duke of Reamed. and the resident gentry.
The Duke of Devonshire is also amongst the patrons of the
establishment. At its first =Rivers/ay the Duke of Rutland
granted to the committee the use of Haddon Hall, one of
the finest specimens now in existence of the barmial mu-
llions of ancient days, aad it was most natural that the com-
mittee should keys nought again the same permission, which
was cheerfully accorded by the Duke of -Rutland, and the
arrangements were made upon the most liberal scale. The
company, which mustered early, comprised all the fashion of
the Peak. Tea was served in the hall, the dining room,
sad the banqueting room, as the company arrived. Lord
John Manners and the principal victors reached the scene of
festivity about seven o'clock, and soon afterwards the
strollers were eolleeted from terrace, ball, and bower, and
gathered together in the banqueting hall. The galleries
were filled with ladies.
it. NZAIFFIZLD, Req., who officiated as chairman in the
place of his father-In-law. Caren Underwood, the presi-
dent of the Bakewell and High Peak Institute, lsmen'ed
the absence of the noble duke, the present possessor of that
ancient hell, who, he was happy to assure the members,
highly approved of the exertions of his steward, Captain
Underwood, to establish so useful and permanently bout-
cial an institution as that the anniversary of which they IMO
met to celebrate. The learned gentleman dwelt at MOM
length on the present position and prospects of the institute,
and expressed great pleasure to the hope that a recent at-
tempt to form a mac= at Bakewell was likely to be sue-
mated, as within a few miles of that town there had bum
discovered traces of every race that had inhabited this island.
lie concluded by_calling upon
Lord 7OHN X , who, when the cheering with
which he was received had subsided, said—Ladies and flea-
tlemen,—The committee of the, Bakewell and High Peak
Institute, encouraged by the Mitten of the fete held here last
year, have thought it right to afford us the opportsuity of
assembling here under similar circumstances on this occa-
sion ; and I am sure I need not tell you that when application
was made to my father for the use of this hall, that pinch-
don was granted not only with readiness, but with the
greatest possible delight aad satiefsetion. (Cheers) I am
charged to emus you that, but for his admen:lag years, and
the Evers day's work which Le thought it yesterday his duty
to uodcrgo at Leicester in support of an important public
institution! he would have been here in person to welcome
you to his old hall, and to express to you the pleasure he
derives from meetings of this ramie. (Cheers.) I must,
however, now sok you to aecept from me, as his moot
unworthy substitue, a cordial welcome. Many of
our neighbours at this moment are agitated by domestic
convulsions or lean of foreign invaders, while here, in oar
own tight little kingdom, we have our hardy Queen coast-
ing the picturesque shores of the moat unfortunate parties
of her dominions, and receiving a joyous welceme from its
excitable, bat, I firmly believe, loyal populatioo. (Cheers.)
Ireland is emphatically the country of rein. Tarn which
way you will in that land, you see nothing but rule. Cabin
and abbey, ensile and grange, cottage and farm-lieuse,
wherever you direct your eyes, you see in ruin ; and I do not
think any one travelling in Ireland could draw a happy and
hopeful augury from her architectural remains. Bat here,
while we wander through corridor and court, we truce
without effort the history of this part of the country. We
read in these old walls (the representatives of their still
older predecessors raised from the same old limestone rock),
nom the day when Sir Richard Vernon obtained from the
crown permission to erect a wall about his house, provided
it had no embattlements upon it, or when the same Sir
Richard Vernon obtained from the Pope, in consequence of
the occasional floods which from time to time ravageil the
vale,. permission to have a chaplain reside at and divine
service performed in the chapel, down to our as-
semhly here this beautiful August evening in 1849.
I say that we may trace from those days to these the
fortunes and occupations of the inhabitants of this part
of the country. Not only in the higher classes of society.
but in the ranks of the yeomanry and peasantry, can I
believe be traced, through the parish registers of Bakewell
and Youlgreave, the members :of one family following each
other's occupation dowa the long stream of yeera, (coin gene-
ration to eperation, tilling the same beautiful valleys, or as
miners winning from their wealth-producing banks the
valuable minerals with which these mountain districts are
stored ; and we fiad at this day men pursuing the same occu-
pation as that followed by their fathers at the period when
these simple chronicles were first published. I think that,
in the course of this investigation, we than find that no very
great change has occurred in the social, religious, and civil
polity of these hills, and I think also that we shall be able
to satisfy ourselves that what changes have occurred are
in the main for the better. If the spirit of our laws has
become more humane, let us hope that they have not
therefore become emasculated. If our religion he less
superstitious, let us hope that it is not mere dull and
more cold. If the ties which bind man to man,
and clan to clew, have became more relaxed, let us
hope that we hays not grown more selfish. If learn-
ing and knowledge be increased, let us hope that they
have not brought evils in their train. Let us, I say, Lope
this, and, still more, let us endeavour to prove that we are
justified in the expression of that hope. -I have alluded to
the changes which have taken place in the increase of learn-
ing and in the 'Tread of knowledge ; and it would, indeed,
be strange if, in addressing such an assembly as that which
now crowds the hell, I should shut my eyes to the fact itself,
or to the inference which that tact necessarily bean ; but at
the same time I am also aware that all instruction is not
education' and that all knowledge is not wisdom—and it is
because I have p tined the catalogue of your library, and
because I have Lstened to those who are most conversant
with the Bakewell and High Peak Institute, that I am con-
vinced its management is sound and judicious, and that I
rejoice heartily in its welfare and suscen, and commend it
cordially to the good wishes and support of all now present.
It is pleasant to thick that thou books which have the best
character and are of the greatest importance, are those which
are most frequently taken out by the members. It is also
pleasant to find that there is a growing feeling in favour
of the establishment in cone Lion with the institute of a
museum in rho town of Bakewell. I think they are wrens
who are deterred by preliminary difficulties in the pursuit of
that object. I have known instances in which it has ap
peered at first perfectly hopeless to establish anything of the
kind, but people have been encouraged to commence, and
from the smallest beginnings great results have followed.
In a district so fertile with natural objects of wonderment !
lord curiosity, if every gentleman would only forward the
curious specimens of natural science to the nascent museum,
in a short time there would be realised from the natural
produce of your mines, and from your fields and roads, a
considerable and interesting nucleus for a moseam of this
sort, and, depend upon it, an undertaking so supported
will not be without a fair share of success. (Chun.)
Although I have said that we must draw • great distise-.1
tion between instruction and stimuli= and although I hue I
endeavoured to show why I do not think all branches of
knowledge synonymous with the acquisition of wisdom, fat
be it from me to throw the slightest impediment in the way
of those who quit the more useful highways of learning and '
saunter through the by-ways of literature. Oa the con-
trary, I abominate moot heartily the system which would:
teach only the exact Klemm and leave out all ornamental
literature. I detest most cordially that system which
would substitute Mrs. Somerville for Mrs. Haien&
Ihpend upon it, in no useful art —ln no comines-
place manufacture—not even in the most tutronnatis
trade—will the man who takes an occasional flight into she
realms of fancy be without his reward in that particular os-
imitation by which he earns his daily braid. How is it that
now in every great branch of English industry, we more ce
less depend upon the foreign designer for patterns? How is it
that government are obliged to establish schools of &Wen
to educate the people in the art of designing the patterns
they are afterwards to work up in our manufactures ? It is
owing to the want of that spirit which may be essentially
promoted by the reading of such books as those to which I
have just alluded. (Cheers.) Do not imagine, then,
that I wish to threw any impediment in the way of an
occasional flight into the realms of fancy and of
poetry, because it is in them, rather than is the
stricter kingdom of science, that beauty of pattern and
excellence of design are to be found. Within this very
hall, in °idea times, the knight, the pest, the pilgrim,
the forester, the huntsman were wont to carouse, perhaps
with rader, but perchance also with heartier, cheer. In
the fair gallery up stain (the long picture-gallery, at that
moment prepared as a ball-rants In the reception of the
pests) where we shall soon enjoy a more enlivening
amusement than that of listening to speech-makers—
cheers)—in that fair gallery many a stately corronto and
dnnidn portant, or the more picturesque dances which
flourished under the dynasties of the Tudon and the Stuart.,
were wont to be seen, or in later times—" the stuck-up days
of hoop and puff "—manyie hoc r has there sailed stiffly—
men Mathen y—ely perhaps down the man dance.
I ghost laughter.) Again tus this evening make the old
walls te'eebo with the sounds of harmless merriment. Let
as baps that we may enjoy the festivities which the excel-
kme anaegments of our Mu& have provided for as in as
ia spirit as in olden days they used to bring to their =ties. Let us hope that we may be at ones both merry
Sad wits--that we may have the wisdom to look beck to
Shorn with gratitude, amino the Anne with hops ; for
sines we do so we cannot rightly enjoy anything pre-
owned to us. We look back to the past with gratit that
we ere still sitting under the shatter of than great Christian
institutions which juat a thousand years ago Bing Alfred
was bons as it wars to inaugurate. We west look to
the Were with hope, that oar doesendents may be pi-
.= to aajoy the steolter of them imitation index
we are happy eaangla to live. Let as hope that
ley inetitations may be spared to them by . time ; sad
as the W,e, flowing fee water* by old mod!
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