Romantic and richly painted, this Raphael Tuck & Sons "Oilette" card transports the viewer to the legendary stone staircase at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire — the very steps from which Lady Dorothy Vernon is said to have eloped with her lover John Manners during a masquerade ball in the 1560s, one of England's most beloved romantic legends. The oil-painting reproduction glows with warm amber and ochre tones, the worn stone balustrade topped with great ball finials, light streaming through a leaded mullioned window onto the figure of a young woman in a blue Edwardian walking dress and wide-brimmed hat, frozen in a moment of narrative suspense. Unused, with the divided back and "For Postage in the United Kingdom only" text characteristic of post-1902 Edwardian production. Published under Royal Warrant as Art Publishers to Their Majesties the King & Queen, Tuck's Oilette series represents the gold standard of Edwardian scenic art postcards.