The San Francisco call., 1906-08-30

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idol of romance has been shat
A tered; another favorite char
acter of quasi-historic novelists and
playwrights has been demolished.
Dorothy Vernon, in word, has been
exposed and the exposure has stripped
her of every vestige of heroism and
revealed her as a commonplace wo-
man without even beauty to render
her attractive Charles Major made
her beloved by thousands of American
readers with his delightful story
Sweet Doll of Haddon Hail. In
"The Heiress of Haddon, "Haddon
Hail. and various other romances she
has charmed multitudes. Only last
season, as Dorothy O the Hail." she
scored great success on the London
stage. So great has been the interest
aroused by the fctions woven around
her that last year 10000 visitors, the
majority of whom came across the
Atlantic, visited Haddon Hall and
passed over the Dorothy Vernon
SlCpS, dOWH -Will(il SliC - SQppOoCd
to have fed to join her bold lover,
Sir John Manners.
Alasl it must now be acknowledged
that they and the thousands who have
preceded them on the same pilgrim
age have all been fooled At the time
of Dorothy Vernon's marriage these
steps were not in existence. The ball
room in which, according to mythical
legend, she was dancing just before
her elopment had not then been built.
She had no cruel stepmother, no
stony-hearted father, no adventurous
hero lover There was no palpitating
dash down the terrace steps, no furi-
Gus flight through the night, no run
away marriage, no final scene of fam
lily forgiveness and reunion.
The high-born ancestress of John
Manners, Duke of Rutland, who has
just died, was no heroine at all. Her
marriage was as prosaic as every
thing else known about her which
can be labeled as a fact. Neither her
father nor her stepmother opposed 1t.
They did not keep her imprisoned
in Haddon Hall to prevent Sir John
Manners from. meeting her. He did
not hang around the hall disguised as
forester, awaiting his opportunity
to run off with her. In fact, as the
son of an Earl and heir to fine es-
tates, he wass an excellent match for
Dorothy, who was only the second
daughter of country squire. The
sole thing to wonder at is that he
married her at all, for her tabled
beauty is not borne out by her effigy
on her tomb in Bakewell Church. She
is there portrayed as a thin-cheeked
! hard-visaged, Calvinistic woman
praying with tight lips. But the ways
of Cupid are sometimes as mysterious
as those of Providence. 1t was after
Sir John married her that he built
the steps which bear her name.
But what the real Dorothy lacks
in romantic elements is supplied by
the story of her resurrection. Sir
Henry Maxwell-Lyte, visiting Belvoir
Castle on behalf of the Historical
Manuscripts Commission, came across
a key bearing a label with the in
scription Key of old writings over
stable" He found that the key un-
locked a door to a loft over the
stables. Piled up to a height of four
feet on the floor was mass of papers
covered with a thick layer of faller
plaster and dust They had been un-
touched for years save by rats which
had gnawed indiscriminately among
their contents and inflicted irreparablt
damage on many precious historical
documents Among those which they
had spared sufficiently to be still de
cipherable in part were priceless
records of Haddon Hall, including
letters to the Vernons of Haddor
from Warwick the "Kingmaker," Ed
ward ", Richard III and Henry
VIII, and enough concerning Dorothy
Vernon to destroy utterly the claim!
to heroism and romance which
various writers have put forward OF
her behalf 1t was Eliza Metyarc
writing under the nom de plume O
"Silverpen," in 1920, who first pre-
sented Dorothy Vernon as the heroin,
of the elopement fable, and other bet
ter equinned writer's, following hel
lead, gave full scope to their imagina
ton and made her one of the mos
= popular women in history. But G