Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-26
Special Correspondence of The Star.

LONDON, August 16, 1906
u MOTHER idol Of romance has been
. ~ shattered; another favorite char
- acter OF quasi historic novelists
- and playwrights has been demol-
1shed. Dorothy Vernon, in a word,
has been exposed, and the exposure has
stripped her OF every vestige of heroism
and revealed her as commonplace woman
without even beauty to render her attract
i've. Charles Major made her beloved by
thousands of American readers with his de-
hghtful story, Sweet Doll of Haddon
Hail." In The Heiress Of Haddon," Had
don Hail. and various other romances she
has charmed multitudes Only last season
as Dorothy O. the Hail. she scored a great
success on the London stage. So great has
been the interest aroused by the fictions
woven around here that last year 10000
visitors, the majority OF whom came across
the Atlantic, visited Haddon Hall and
passed over the Dorothy Vernon Steps, Z"
down which she is supposed to have fed to
join her bold lover, Sir John Manners.
Alas! 1t must now be acknowledged that
they and the thousands who have preceded
them on the same pilgrimage 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 myth
fcal legend. she was dancing just before her
elopement had not then been built. She had
no cruel stepmother, no stony-hearted
father. no adventurous hero-lover There
was no FACILITATING dash down the terrace
steps. no furious fight through the night.
no runaway marriage, no final scene Of
family forgiveness and reunion.
The hfgh-born anceStress Of John Man
ners. Duke Of Rutland, who has just died,
was no heroine at all. Her marriage was
as prosaic as everything 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 Had
don Hall to prevent Sir John Manners from
meeting her. He did not hang around the
hall disguised as a forester. awaiting his
opportunity to run OF with her. In fact, as
the son Of an earl and heir to fine estates,
he was an excellent match for Dorothy.
who was only the second daughter of q
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 eff1gy
there portrayed as a tflin-cheeked, hard-vis-
aged, Calvanistic woman. praying with
tight lips. But the ways OF Cupid are some
times as mysterious as those Of Providence
It was after Sir John married her that he
built the steps which bear her name.
But what the real Dorothy lacks in ro-
mantle elements Is supplied by the story Of
her resurrection. Sir Henry MaxweH-Lyte.
visiting Belvoir Castle on behalf OF the his
torica manuscripts commission. came
across key bearing label with the In
scription. key Of old writings over stable
He found that the key unlocked q door to
loft over the stables. Piled to height
OF four feet on the floor was q mass Of
papers covered with q thick layer Of fallen
plaster and dust. They had been untouched
for years save by rats. which had gnawed
indscrfminately among their contents and
inflicted irreparable damage on many pre-
cious historical Documents Among those
which they had spared sufficiently to be
stiH decipherable in part were priceless rec
ords OF Haddon Hall, including letters to
the vernons of Haddon from Warwick the
''kingmaler." Edward ~. Richard III and
Henry VIII. and enough concerning Doro-
thy Vernon to destroy utterly the claims
to heroism and romance which various
writer's have put forward ON her behalf. It
was Eliza Metyard. writing under the nom