"This beautiful pile of embattled walls and turrets clustered
on the side of the Wye valley with its rich pastures, shady
nooks, and sedgy banks, makes one of the finest specimens of a
baronial mansion remaining in England. The work dates from
different centuries, as the owners grew in wealth and ideas of
comfort; but in general it belongs to the period after that
when a lordly home must first of all be a strong fortress. The
estate was granted by the Conqueror to " Peveril of the Peak,"
and in the 16th century had passed by marriage to the Vernons,
the last of whom. Sir George Vernon (d. 1567), earned by his
sumptuous ways the title of "King of the Peak."
Extract from "Black's Guide to Buxton and the Peak District of Derbyshire"
