Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1906-10-06

tige OF heroism and revealed her az
con1rnonplace woman without even
beauty TO render her attractive
Charles Major made her beloved by
Thousands OF American readers with his
delightful story. Sweet Doll OF Had
don Hall. In the "IIeiress OF Had
DON" Haddon Hail." and various other
romances she has charmed muitituaes'
Only last season as Dorothy o the
Hall" she scored great success on inc
London stage. so great has been the
interest aroused by the fiction woven
around her that last year 10000 visitors
the majority Of whom came across the
Atlantic, visited Baddon Han, ana
passed over the Dorothy Vernon
Steps" down which she is supposed to
have fed 10 Join her bold lover, sir
John Manners.
They and those who preceded them
on the same pilgrimage have all been
fooled. At the time OF Dorothy YER
mons marriage these steps were not IN
existence. The ballroom In which, ac-
cording 10 mythical legend, she was
dancing lust before her elopement had
not then been built. She had no cruel
step-mother, no stony-hearted father,
no adventurous hero-loYer. There was
no palpitating dash down the terrace
steps. no furious flight through the
night, no runaway marriage, no mai
ecene OF family forgiveness and reun-
lon. 4
The high-b0rn ancestress OF John
Manners, Duke Of Rutland. who has
lust 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 IL. They
did not keep her imprisoned in HsG-
don Hall to prevent Sir John Manners
from meeting her. He did not hang
around the hall disguised az for
ester, awaiting HIS opportunity to run
of with her. In fact. as the son of an
an earl and heir TO fine estates, he
was an excellent catch for Dorothy,
who was only the second daughter OF a
country squire. Tho 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
Blackwell church. She is there por-
trayed as thin-cheeked, hard
visaged, Calvanistlc woman, praying
with tight lips. But the ways OF
Cupid are sometimes as mysterious as
John married her that he built the steps
which bear her name.
But what the real Dorothy lacks In
romantic elements IL supplied by the
story OF her resurrection. Sir Henry
Maxwell-Lyte, visiting Belvoir Castle
oh behalf Of the Historical Manu-
scripts commission. came across
key bearing a label with the inscrip-
ton, Key OF old writing over stph'e "
He found that the key unlocked a door
to n loft over the stables. Piled to a
height Of four feet on the floor was a
mas of papers covered with q thick
layer OF fallen plaster and dust. They
had been untouched for years, save
by rats, which had knawed indiscrim-
lnately among their contents and m
nlcted lrreparable damage ON many
precious historical documents. Among
those which they had spared sum
GENTLY to be still decipherable In part
yere priceless records OF Haddon Hall,
including letters to the Vernons Of
Haddon from Warwick, the King
maker" Edward ", Richard III, and
Henry VIII, and enough concerning
Dorothy Vernon to destroy utterly the
claims TO herolsm and romance which
various writer's have put forward on
her behalf II was Eliza Metyard
writing under the nom de plume OF
"silverspoon, In 1920. who first pre-
sented Dorothy Vernon as the heroine
OF the elopement fable, and other bet
ter equipped writer's. following her
lead gave full scope 10 their imagina-
ton and made her one OF the most
popular women IN history. But q. Lee
Blanc Smith, who has been allowed to
rummage freely among the papers dis