Chapter VI: FOURTH DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, from 1854 to 1865: complete (8)

The GRAND STAIRCASE is one of the most magnificent parts of this palatial residence. It occupies, in plan, a space of 35 by 21 feet, and comprises flights with five landings. “The balusters are massive, and carved in the Italian form; above the handrail are represented genii, armorial lions, &c., and here is a hatch-gate, probably to keep the favourite dogs from ascending to the drawing-rooms. The upper division of the ceiling is enriched by a very beautiful pendant in the Florentine style,” relieved by gold and silver and colour. On the walls are hung a series of family portraits of the Cecils by Lely, Kneller, Vandyke, Zucchero, Reynolds, and others. At the foot of the staircase is the DINING-ROOM, panelled throughout with oak, and having an enriched ceiling. Over the door is a marble bust of Lord Burleigh. Near this are the breakfast, summer, drawing, and other rooms, all of which are fitted and furnished in a style of sumptuous magnificence, and contain a vast number of very valuable paintings. Among the pictures contained in this noble mansion are no fewer than five original portraits of Queen Elizabeth, including the celebrated large one by Zucchero; and many portraits, &c., which were the private property of that sovereign.

The GREAT HALL, or MARBLE HALL, is 50 feet by 30 feet, and is extremely lofty. It is lit by an oriel window at the upper or daïs end, and by three bay windows; and is panelled with oak and lined with fine old tapestry. A carved screen, with an open gallery, decorated with armorial bearings, badges, &c., is at the east end, and the ceiling, which is coved and divided into compartments, is decorated with the heads of the Cæsars. Here are deposited two banners presented to the late marquis by the Duke of Wellington—part of the “spoil” of Paris in 1814: here are also two other banners taken in the Crimea.

The Staircase leads, almost direct, to KING JAMES’S ROOM, or the GREAT CHAMBER, one of the noblest apartments of the house, the extreme magnificence of which it is not easy to describe; in truth, it is too rich, and the eye turns involuntarily to the grand oriel windows for relief. The ceiling is of exquisite design, and was till recently plain white; now it is all gold and colours. The chimney-piece is massive, of white marble; and a central niche over the fire contains a life-size statue of James I. in dark stone. The fire-dogs are of silver; the furniture and the six chandeliers are gilt; the curtains are of white satin; the chair and sofa coverings are crimson velvet; and the carpet, “patent Axminster,” is of Elizabethan design, worked in brown, gold, scarlet, and blue. This room, which is very large, contains some of the most important pictures, including Reynolds’s portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte.

The GALLERY extends the whole length of the south front; it is about 60 feet long and 20 feet wide. The ceiling is of remarkable beauty, and of the finest examples of a period that was most prolific in such designs. The walls are panelled with oak, and are profusely carved.

The LIBRARY, of equal dimensions with King James’s Room, is enriched over the chimney-piece with a fine mosaic portrait of the first Earl of Salisbury—1608. The collection of books and MSS. is of extreme interest and value. Here, among other treasures, are preserved “the forty-two articles of Edward VI., with his autograph;” Cardinal Wolsey’s instructions to the ambassador sent to the Pope by Henry VIII., with Wolsey’s autograph; and a pedigree of Queen Elizabeth, emblazoned, tracing her ancestry to Adam. The state papers in the collection extend through the successive administrations of Lord Burleigh and his son, the first Earl of Salisbury, and include documents which came into Lord Burleigh’s hands through his connection with the court. Here are no fewer than 13,000 letters, from the reign of Henry VIII. to that of James I. Among the earlier MSS. are copies of William of Malmesbury’s and Roger de Hoveden’s English History; a splendid MS., with miniature of Henry VII.; another, with the autograph of Henry VI.; a treatise on Councils, by Archbishop Cranmer; the original depositions touching the divorce of Anne of Cleves; the proclamation of Edward VI. on ascending the throne; the original council-book of Queen Mary I.; historical MSS. by Lord Burleigh; the Duke of Norfolk’s book of copies of his letters on the affairs of Mary Queen of Scots; accounts of the Earl of Northumberland’s conspiracies, and the actual draft, in the handwriting of Sir Robert Cecil, of the proclamation declaring James of Scotland King of England, as well as the papers relating to the gunpowder plot, and to the Raleigh conspiracy, &c. Here are also many autograph letters of Queen Elizabeth, and the famous Cecil papers, “the oak cradle of Queen Elizabeth, the pair of silk stockings presented to her by Sir Thomas Gresham, and the purse of James I.”

The CHAPEL is a remarkably fine and interesting room, with a richly-painted window, and a gallery decorated with paintings of scriptural subjects.

The Park and grounds are full of fine trees, which from many points offer beautiful pictures, more particularly when seen in combination with the house or garden-terraces. Among the grand old trees in the park are the “Lion Oak,” nearly 60 feet in girth, and a thousand years old; and “Queen Elizabeth’s Oak,” under which she is said to have been sitting when she received the news of her accession to the throne. The Gardens and Vineyard are remarkably beautiful and interesting. The latter, which is entered through an avenue of yew trees forming a picturesque wall on either side, and cut so as to give the appearance of walls and towers, with loopholes and battlements, is immortalised by Pepys.

The Privy Garden, on the west side of the mansion, is enclosed within a high and closely-cut hedge, with a close walk or avenue all around it. In each of the four angles stood a mulberry tree, said to have been planted by King James I., and in the centre is a pond surrounded by rock-work.

The three pairs of splendid entrance-gates, of French metal work, and of the most elaborate and artistic character, were put up by the late Marquis of Salisbury in 1846, when Hatfield House was honoured by the presence of her Majesty and the Prince Consort.

The town of Hatfield presents few objects of antiquity; it stands on the side of a hill, on the height of which are the gates of the mansion. Close at hand is the parish church, a structure with little pretence to architectural beauty.

We may not omit to mention that at the termination of the grounds runs the clear and beautiful river Lee—here of considerable depth. There is no bridge to cross to the other side, where are the kitchen gardens of the house, but a ferry-boat is always at hand.

On a steep above the river is the yew-tree walk—a series of pathways bordered by the venerable trees, dwarfed generally, but producing a most agreeable effect.

In all respects, therefore, Hatfield House is largely gifted by Nature as well as Art.

CASSIOBURY.

CASSIOBURY, or Cashiobury, as it is sometimes spelt, lies about a mile distant from Watford, in Hertfordshire. It is, therefore, within easy distance—sixteen miles—from London, and may be considered as one of the breathing places of denizens of the Metropolis. The name of Cassiobury is said, and with reason to be derived from the Casii, a tribe of the Britons who occupied the district, and whose stronghold, Verulamium, lies only a few miles away. The Casii were, at the time of the landing of Julius Cæsar, commanded by Cassivelanus, under whom they fought many battles with the invaders. The hundred is still called the hundred of Cassio, and the affix of _bury_ evidently signifies an assemblage of dwellings surrounded by walls, or a burgh or borough. “Being as its name implies, the only _bury_ within the manor of Cassio during the Saxon era, it might have been either the seat of justice for the hundred (for the name _bury_ will admit of this construction), or an occasional retreat of some of the British princes residing at Verulamium, of whom Cassivelanus was one,” and by some writers it is stated to have been “the actual seat or home of Cassivelanus.”

Under the Saxons the manor of Cassio was, it has been stated, among the numerous possessions of Offa with which he endowed the Abbey of St. Albans, and it remained attached to that abbey until the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII. In Domesday Book it is stated that “the Abbot of St. Albans holds Cassiou; it answers for twenty hides; of these the abbot holds nineteen. There is land for twenty-two ploughs. Six hides are in demesne, and there are five ploughs, and a sixth may yet be made. Three foreigners and thirty-six villeins with eight bordars have there fifteen ploughs, and one may yet be made. There are, moreover, three bordars and two bondmen, and four mills of 26_s._ 8_d._ Meadow for twenty-two ploughs. Pasture for the cattle. Pannage for 1,000 hogs. Its whole value is £28; when received £24; and in King Edward’s time £30. St. Alban held and holds this manor in demesne.” In the twelfth century the revenue duties payable from Cassio to the abbey were, at Christmas 2_s._ and twenty-four hens; at Easter, 2_s._ and 600 eggs; and on St. Alban’s day, 2_s._ and twenty-four cheeses. By Henry I. the whole liberty of Cassio was formally made over to the abbey. In 1546, after the dissolution of the monasteries, “the lordship or manor of Cayshobury” and other places was granted to Sir Richard Morrison, Knight, in consideration of certain property in Yorkshire and Worcestershire, and of the sum of £176 17_s._ 6_d._ in money; to hold the same by the service of the tenth part of a knight, and paying for the same yearly £5 12_s._ 6½_d._ Soon after this, Sir Richard commenced the erection of “a fayre and large house, situated upon a dry hill not far from a pleasant river in a fayre park, and had prepared materials for the finishing thereof; but before the same could be half built, he was forced to fly beyond the seas.” The mansion was completed by his son, Sir Charles Morrison, who died in 1599. On the marriage of Elizabeth Morrison, the only surviving child of Sir Richard’s grandson, the property passed to her husband, Arthur Capel, created Baron Capel of Hadham in 1641, from whom the present possessor, the Earl of Essex, is lineally descended. Baron Capel appears to have resided more at Hadham than at Cassiobury, but his son, Arthur Capel, created Viscount Malden and Earl of Essex in 1661, after residing there for a time, took up his residence at Cassiobury, the greater part of which he is said to have rebuilt—indeed, it is said that the whole of the mansion, with the exception of the north-west wing, was rebuilt by him, employing for the house May, the architect, and for the laying out of his gardens Moses Cooke—who in 1675 published a volume on fruit-trees—and, it is also said, Le Notre, and Rose, his head-gardener at Essex House, in the Strand.

Of the house and its gardens, Evelyn, on the 16th April, 1680, thus wrote:—“On the earnest invitation of the Earl of Essex, I went with him to his house at Cassioberie in Hartfordshire. It was on Sunday, but going early from his house in the square of St. James’s, we arrived by ten o’clock; this we thought too late to go to church, and we had prayers in his chapell. The house is new, a plaine fabric built by my friend Mr. Hugh May. There are divers faire and good roomes, and excellent carving by Gibbons, especially the chimney-piece of ye library. There is in the porch or entrance a painting by Verrio, of ‘Apollo and the Liberal Arts.’ One room parquetted with yew which I lik’d well. Some of the chimney-mantles are of Irish marble, brought by my lord from Ireland, when he was Lord-Lieutenant, and not much inferior to Italian. The tympanum or gable at the front is a _basso-relievo_ of Diana hunting, cut in Portland stone handsomely enough. I did not approve of the middle dores being round, but when the Hall is finished as design’d, it being an oval with a cupola, together with the other wing, it will be a very noble palace. The library is large, and very nobly finished, and all the books are richly bound and gilded; but there are no MSS. except the parliament rolls and journals, the transcribing and binding of which cost him, as he assured me, £500. No man has been more industrious than this noble lord in planting about his seat, adorned with walkes, ponds, and other rural elegancies; but the soile is stonie, churlish, and uneven, nor is the water neere enough to the house, though a very swift and cleare streame run within a flight shot from it in the valley, which may be fitly call’d Coldbrook, it being indeed excessive cold, yet producing fair troutes. ‘Tis pitty the house was not situated to more advantage, but it seems it was built just where the old one was, which, I believe, he onlley meant to repaire; this leads men into irremediable errors, and saves but a little. The land about it is exceedingly addicted to wood, but the coldnesse of the place hinders the growth. Black cherry-trees prosper even to considerable timber, some being 80 foote long; they make alsoe very handsome avenues. There is a pretty oval at the end of a faire walke, set about with treble rows of Spanish chesnut-trees. The gardens are very rare, and cannot be otherwise, having so skilful an artist to govern them as Mr. Cooke, who is, as to ye mechanick part, not ignorant in mathematiks, and portends to astrologie. There is an excellent collection of the choicest fruit.”

By the second Earl of Essex the gardens were altered and improved; and it is said that those of the old mansion of the Morrisons which had not been reconstructed by the first earl, were restored or rebuilt by him. With the exception of these alterations and a few other occasional repairs, the house remained as it was left by the first Earl of Essex, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the greater part was again rebuilt by the late earl, from the designs of James Wyatt.

We now proceed to speak of the families of Morrison and Capel, to whom Cassiobury has successively belonged.

William Morrison, or Morysine, in the reign of Henry VI. resided at Chardwell, Yorkshire, and it was his grandson, Thomas Morrison, of Chardwell, son of William Morrison by a daughter of Roger Leigh, of Preston, who removed into Hertfordshire. He married a daughter of Thomas Merry, of Hatfield, by whom he had a son, Sir Richard Morrison, who, in 1537, succeeded Cardinal Pole in the prebend of Yatsminster-Seconda in Salisbury Cathedral. In 1539 he was appointed by Henry VIII. ambassador to Charles V., Emperor of Germany, in which he was accompanied by Roger Ascham, and, in 1546, had a grant of the manor of Cashiobury, and soon after commenced building there a mansion of considerable size. Besides Cashiobury he had grants, and acquired much property, in London, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Somersetshire. Under Queen Mary and her persecutions Sir Richard was compelled to fly from England, and died at Strasburg in 1556. He married Bridget Hussey, daughter of Lord Hussey (who, after his death, married successively Henry, second Earl of Rutland, and Francis, third Earl of Bedford), by whom he had issue one son, Sir Charles Morrison, Knight, and three daughters, Elizabeth, married first to Henry Norris, son of Lord Norris, of Rycote, and secondly to Henry, second Earl of Lincoln; Mary, married to Bartholomew Hales, of Chesterfield; and Jane Sibilla, married, first to Edward, Lord Russell, and, second, to Arthur, Lord Grey, of Wilton. Sir Charles Morrison, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and was a minor at the time of his father’s death, married Dorothy, daughter of Nicholas Clarke, and widow of Henry Long, of Shengie, and by her had issue a son, Sir Charles Morrison, and three daughters, Bridgett, married to Robert, fifth Earl of Sussex, and Elizabeth and Catherine, who died unmarried. This second Sir Charles, who succeeded his father in 1599, and was then a minor, was created a baronet by letters patent, June 29, 1611, and on the coronation of Charles I. was installed a Knight of the Bath. He married Mary, daughter and co-heiress of Baptist, Lord Hicks and Viscount Campden (the lady afterwards married successively Sir John Cooper, Bart., and Sir Richard Alford, Knight), and by her had issue two sons, who died young, and a daughter, Elizabeth Morrison, who thus became his only heir. This lady, Elizabeth Morrison, married Arthur Capel, who, by letters patent, dated August 6, 1641, was created Baron Capel, of Hadham, and thus the large estates of the Morrisons, both at Cashiobury and elsewhere, passed into the family of Capel, its present holders. The arms of Morrison were, _or_, on a chief, _gules_, three chaplets of the first. Crest, specially conferred on Sir Richard, in allusion to his literary attainments, a Pegasus rising, _or_.

The noble family of Capel to whom Cassiobury, as has been stated, passed by marriage with the heiress of Morrison, and to whom it still belongs, is of considerable antiquity, and few families have been enriched by so many scions of brilliant intellect. The family appears to have been originally of Capel’s Moan, hear Stoke Neyland, in Suffolk, and here, in 1261, resided Sir Richard de Capel, Lord Justice of Ireland: in 1368, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III., left by will “to John de Capell, my chaplain, a girdle of gold, to make a chalice in memory of my soul.” Later on another John Capel, who died in 1441, left, by his wife, Joan, besides a son, John, a second son, William Capel, who was a draper and citizen of London, “and successively alderman, sheriff, representative of the city in Parliament, and lord mayor, and had the honour of knighthood conferred on him by Henry VII.” He was twice lord mayor, and several times M.P. of the city. He died in 1515, and “was buried in a chapel founded by himself on the south side of the church of St. Bartholomew, near the Royal Exchange, London.” He also gave his name to Capel Court. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Arundell, of Lanhorne, by whom, besides two daughters, he had a son, Sir Giles Capel, Knight, who succeeded him, and married, first, Mary, daughter of Richard Roos, son of Lord Roos, and, secondly, Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Newton, by whom he had issue a daughter, and two sons, Sir Henry and Sir Edward. Sir Henry Capel married Anne, daughter of Lord Roos, and granddaughter of the Duchess of Exeter, sister to King Edward IV.: he died without surviving issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Sir Edward Capel, whose wife was Anne, daughter of Sir William Pelham, ancestor of the Dukes of Newcastle; he, dying in 1577, was succeeded by his eldest son. Sir Henry Capel, Knight, who, by his second wife, Catherine, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Rutland, had, besides several others, a son, Sir Arthur Capel, Knight, who succeeded him, and was in turn succeeded by his son, Sir Henry Capel. This gentleman, who, like many of his family, had been Sheriff of Herts, married twice. By his first wife, Theodosia, daughter of Sir Edward Montagne, he had issue, besides others, a son, Arthur Capel, who was a minor at the time of his death.

Arthur Capel was born about the year 1614, and, both his parents dying when he was young, he was brought up by his grandfather, Sir Arthur. He espoused the royal cause in the troublous times of Charles I., and became one of his most valued and zealous adherents. He was rewarded with a peerage, being created Baron Capel of Hadham, the king in desiring this reward having written to the Queen, “there is one that doth not yet pretend, that deserves as well as any; I mean Capel; therefore I desire thy assistance to find out something for him before he ask.” After taking an active part in support and defence of the king, Lord Capel was imprisoned in the Tower, and on the 9th of March, 1649, he was beheaded before the great gate of Westminster Hall. “His body was buried at Little Hadham, with an inscription stating him to have been murdered for his loyalty to King Charles I.; and his heart, according to a wish he had expressed to Bishop Morley, was enclosed in a silver cup and cover, to be eventually buried at the feet of the master whom he had so zealously served. But no funeral rites being performed to the memory of Charles I., the cup was kept in a press at Hadham, where it was discovered in 1703, and its contents placed in the family vault.” It was this Lord Capel who, before his elevation to the peerage, had married Elizabeth Morrison, and so acquired Cassiobury and the rest of the large possessions of the Morrison family. The issue of this marriage was four sons and four daughters, viz., Arthur, who succeeded his father; Sir Henry Capel, created Baron Capel of Tewkesbury; Charles and Edward, who died unmarried; Mary, married, first, to Lord Beauchamp, and, secondly, to Henry, Duke of Beaufort; Elizabeth, married to the Earl of Carnarvon; Theodosia, wife of the Earl of Clarendon; and Anne, of John Strangeways.

Arthur, second Baron Capel, was, in 1601, created Viscount Maiden and Earl of Essex, and in 1670 was appointed ambassador to the court of Denmark. He it was who, as has already been stated, rebuilt Cassiobury, and formed its beautiful gardens. In 1683 his lordship was apprehended at Cassiobury on a charge of being concerned in the famous “Rye House Plot,” and was committed to the Tower, where he was, as is believed, foully murdered, or at all events, where he was found dead with his throat cut. The earl married Elizabeth, only daughter of Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, by whom he had six sons and two daughters, most of whom dying young, he was at his death succeeded by his fifth son, Algernon Capel.

Algernon, second Earl of Essex, was Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to King William III., and held important offices under Queen Anne. He married Mary, daughter of the Earl of Portland, by whom he had issue two daughters and one son, William Capel, who succeeded him as third Earl of Essex. This Earl married twice, and had, by his first wife, Jane, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, four daughters; and by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of the Duke of Bedford, four daughters, and one son, by whom he was succeeded. This was—

William Anne Holles Capel, fourth Earl of Essex, one of the Lords of the Bed-chamber to George II. and George III., and Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire. He married Frances, daughter of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Bart., by whom he acquired the estate of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, which was afterwards sold to Richard Arkwright, Esq., of Cromford, Derbyshire, and by her had issue two daughters, and a son, George Capel, who succeeded him, in 1759, as fifth Earl of Essex; and, secondly, Harriet, daughter of Colonel Thomas Bladen, by whom he had issue five sons, viz., one who died young; John Thomas, whose son succeeded to the title and estates as sixth Earl of Essex; Lieut.-General Thomas Edward Capel; Hon. and Rev. William Robert Capel, chaplain to the King; and Rear-Admiral the Hon. Bladen Thomas Capel. His lordship died in 1799, and was succeeded by his son, George Capel, who, having succeeded to the estates of his maternal grandmother, assumed the name of Coningsby, and became George Capel-Coningsby, fifth Earl of Essex, Viscount Malden, and sixth Baron Capel. His lordship married twice, first, in 1786, Sarah, daughter of Henry Bazett, Esq., of St. Helena, and widow of Edward Stephenson, Esq.; and secondly, in 1838, Catherine, daughter of Mr. E. Stephens, but had no issue by either marriage. His lordship died in 1839, and was succeeded in his title and estates by his nephew, Arthur Algernon Capel, the son of his half-brother, the Hon. John Thomas Capel.

Arthur Algernon Capel, sixth Earl of Essex and Viscount Malden, and seventh Baron Capel of Hadham, was born January 28th, 1803. In 1825 he married the Lady Caroline Jeanetta Beauclerk, third daughter of the eighth Duke of St. Albans, and by her, who died in 1862, had issue: Arthur De Vere Capel, Viscount Malden, born 1826 (heir to the title and estate, who married, in 1853, Emma Martha, daughter of Sir Henry Meux, Bart., and has issue), the Hon. Adela Caroline Harriet Capel, now deceased, married to the Earl of Eglintoun; the Hon. Reginald Algernon Capel, married to Mary, daughter of John Nicholas Fazkerly, Esq., and niece of the Earl of Rokeby; and the Hon. Randolph Capel. In 1863, his lordship married, secondly, the Lady Louisa Caroline Elizabeth Boyle, daughter of Viscountess Dungarvon, and sister to the Earl of Cork, and by her has issue living, the Hon. Arthur Algernon Capel, born 1864, and the Hon. Beatrice Mary, born 1870. His lordship is patron of the livings of Watford, in Hertfordshire, Rayne, in Essex, and Shuttington, in Warwickshire.

The arms of the Earl of Essex are—_Gules_, a lion rampant between three cross-crosslets fitchée, _or_; crest, a demi-lion rampant supporting a cross-crosslet fitchée, _or_; supporters, two lions, _or_, ducally crowned, _gules_; motto, “Fide et Fortitudine.”

The park of Cassiobury embraces an area of nearly seven hundred acres, of which more than three hundred and fifty are called “the Home Park,” and about two hundred and fifty the “Upper Park;” they are separated from each other by the river Gade, which flows between them. The remainder of the ground is divided into woods, lawns, gardens, and all the other elegancies of grounds around the house, the site of which is also included in it. The parks are well wooded with majestic trees, among which are a profusion of beech, oak, elm, and fir—some of the latter resembling in their enormous size those of Norway. Several of the beech-trees, too, are of gigantic size, some being said to cover an area of ground nearly 150 feet in diameter.

The present mansion was built from the designs of Mr. James Wyatt, at that time the fashionable architect of Fonthill Abbey, of parts of Windsor Castle, and other places: it is of that peculiar style of Gothic architecture which characterizes most buildings erected by him. The general plan is a square; the building surrounding a court-yard or quadrangle, with a cloister on two of its sides; the entrance being to the west, the chief room to the south, the private or family rooms to the east, and the kitchen, servants’ offices, &c., to the north. A porch screens the entrance-doorway, that opens into a narrow cloister, on the right of which is a small vestibule and enclosed staircase. Eastward of these is the great cloister, having five windows, partly of stained glass, and its walls adorned with full-length family portraits and other paintings.

Branching off from the cloisters is the SALOON, placed between the dining and drawing-rooms. “Its ceiling is adorned with the painting Evelyn mentions as belonging to the hall of the old mansion, and to have been the work of Verrio, the subject being composed chiefly of allegorical figures—Painting, Sculpture, Music, and War. In this apartment are two cabinets, containing numerous miniatures painted by the Countess of Essex,” and many family and other portraits.

In the DINING-ROOM, which is a noble apartment, with wainscoted walls, also hang several remarkably fine family and other portraits, by Vandyke, Hoppner, and other painters; and several fine pictures,—notably, “The Cat’s Paw,” by Landseer, and “The Highlander’s Home,” by Wilkie.

The GRAND DRAWING-ROOM, which is filled with all the elegancies and luxuries of the most refined taste, and with the choicest cabinets, is adorned with paintings by Turner, Callcott, Collins, and others. These are of the highest order—rare and beautiful examples of the great English masters in art. Adjoining the drawing-room is the conservatory cloister, which is entered both from it and from the library.

The LIBRARY, which occupies four rooms,—respectively known as the Great Library, the Inner Library, the Dramatists’ Library, and the Small Library,—is remarkably extensive; and contains, as such a library ought, a rare collection of valuable books in every class of literature. In these various rooms is preserved a fine collection of family paintings; and here, too, will be seen some of Grinling Gibbon’s matchless carvings, which are noticed by Evelyn as being there in his day. Among the historical relics preserved in the Library is the handkerchief which Lord Coningsby applied to the shoulder of King William III., when that monarch was wounded, in 1690, at the battle of the Boyne. It is stained with the blood of the king. There is also here a piece of the velvet pall of Charles I., taken from the tomb at Windsor, when it was opened in 1813, with a fragment of the Garter worn by the king at his execution.

Like these, the other apartments at Cassiobury are filled with choice paintings and with everything that good taste and a lavish hand can suggest. The family portraits are, as might be expected, numerous, and of the highest order of art, several are by Vandyke, Cornelius Jansen, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other famous artists. Throughout the rooms are scattered admirable works by Rembrandt, Cuyp, Teniers, &c., &c.

We have made but brief reference to the gardens and grounds, and scarcely noticed the spacious and very beautiful Park. They are charms that neither lofty descent nor large wealth could purchase—the bequests only of Time. Centuries have passed since some of these magnificent trees were planted. The house is best seen from one of the high steeps on the opposite side of the river that runs through the demesne; lines of venerable chestnuts border a greensward that extends miles.

Here and there glimpses are caught of the mansion, made by distance more picturesque than it is at a nearer range. In fact, there is at Cassiobury the happy combination of grandeur and beauty, natural grace in association with rich cultivation, that makes so many of the Stately Homes of England the boast and glory of the country.

The family burial-place of the Morrison and Capel families of Cassiobury is at Watford, where a fine monumental chapel exists in the parish church. This chapel “contains sepulchral memorials to the Morrison and Capel families, from that of Lady Morrison, wife of Sir Richard Morrison, who directed the chapel to be built in 1595.” In the centre is an altar-tomb, supported upon six pillars, of various coloured marbles, on which rests the recumbent figure of “Lady Bridget, Countess of Bedford”—the lady by whom the chapel was founded—and daughter of Lord Hussey. She died in 1600.

On the south side “is a large and gorgeous monument to Sir Charles Morrison the elder, whose effigy, in armour, in a reclining posture, is placed under the canopy.” On either side of the tomb, in kneeling positions upon pedestals, are figures of the son and daughter of Sir Charles Morrison, and Bridget Morrison, Countess of Sussex. This work was executed by Nicholas Stone, in 1619, who agreed with Sir Charles to make “a tomb of alabaster and touchstone,” and whose entry in his note-book as to price is very curious. He says he made it with “one pictor of white marble for his father, and his own, and his sister, the Countess of Sesex, as great as the life, of alabaster, for the which I had well payed £260, and four pieces given to drinke.”

On the opposite side of the chapel is another large monument to the second Sir Charles Morrison, designed and executed by the same “carver and tomb-maker,” as he is termed in the contract, and for which he agreed with the widow to receive £400. There are also several other interesting monuments and monumental slabs; the chapel is hung with banners and hatchments.

At this time, the church is undergoing thorough repair and restoration.

CHATSWORTH.

CHATSWORTH, the “Palace of the Peak,” perhaps more than any other house in England, merits its proud distinction as a “STATELY HOME.” Situated in the most beautiful district of Derbyshire; possessing many natural advantages within the circuit of its domain—of hill and valley, wood and water, rugged rock and verdant plain, and rendered attractive by every means the most poetic imagination could conceive and unbounded wealth accomplish, it is foremost among the finest and most charming seats in the kingdom; where the delights of natural beauty, aided by Art, may be fully and freely enjoyed by all comers. Belonging to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire—one of the most enlightened and liberal-minded of our English aristocracy—Chatsworth, with its park and grounds, is thrown open to “the people,” under such restrictions only as are essentially necessary to its well-being and proper conservation. Assuredly no mansion and grounds are more freely and liberally made available to the public, while none are more worthy of being visited. It will be our task, therefore, to endeavour to describe several of its beauties and attractions, and to unfold and spread out before our readers some of the rich treasures of Nature and of Art it contains.

And, first, a few words on its geographical position and history.

Chatsworth lies in the parish of Edensor, in the hundred of High Peak, in the county of Derby. It is three miles from the Midland Railway Station at Rowsley (of which we have spoken in our account of Haddon Hall, and which is the most convenient station for visitors from the south), three-and-a-half miles from Bakewell (where there is a station convenient for visitors from the north) two from Baslow, twenty-six from Derby, ten from Matlock Bath, nine from Chesterfield, twelve from Sheffield, fourteen from Buxton, thirty-seven from Manchester, and about one hundred and fifty-four from London. The railway stations from which Chatsworth is best reached are, as just stated, Rowsley and Bakewell; the line from London and the south to the former passing through Derby, Duffield, Belper, Ambergate (where the lines from Sheffield, Leeds, York, and the north join in), Whatstandwell, Cromford, Matlock Bath, Matlock Bridge, and Darley Dale; and to the latter from Manchester and Buxton, passing Miller’s Dale, Monsal Dale, Longstone, and Hassop.

At the time of the Domesday Survey of William the Conqueror, Chatsworth belonged to the Crown, and was held by William Peverel, the entry being as follows: “In Langlie and Chetesuorde, Leuenot and Chetel had ten ox-gangs of land for geld [land for ten oxen]. This belonged to Ednesoure. William Pevrel keeps them for the king. Five villanes and two bordars have two ploughs and one acre of meadow there. Wood, pasturable, one mile in length and one in breadth, and a little underwood. In the time of King Edward it was worth twenty shillings; now, sixteen shillings.” The name of _Chetesuorde_, now altered into Chatsworth, was doubtless originally _Chetelsuorde_, from the name of one of its Saxon owners, Chetel. After the Peverels, the manor of Chatsworth was held by the family of Leche, who had long been settled there before they became possessed of the manor, and who held it for several generations. In the reign of Edward III. one member of this family, John Leche, of Chatsworth, whose father is said to have been of Carden (a line continued by a younger son), was one of the surgeons to the king. In the reign of Henry IV. Sir Roger Leche, knight, held, among other property, lands at Glossop. They also held, among others, the manors of Totley. Shipley, Willersley, Cromford, and the prebendal manor of Sawley. John Leche, surgeon to Edward III., was, it appears, grantee of Castle Warin and other lands, and had a son, Daniel Leche, whose son, John Leche, married Lucy de Cawarden, and thus became possessed of the manor of Carden. The family of Leche of Chatsworth became extinct in the reign of Edward VI., by the death of Francis Leche, who had, however, previously sold this manor to the Agards. One of the co-heiresses of Ralph Leche, of Chatsworth, uncle to Francis, married Thomas Kniveton, of Mercaston, father of Sir William and grandfather of Sir Gilbert Kniveton; another married a Wingfield, and the third espoused Slater, of Sutton, in the county of Lincoln. Francis Leche, to whom we have referred, married Alice, daughter of John Hardwick, of Hardwick, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Leake, of Hasland, a branch of the Leakes, Earls of Scarsdale. This Alice, on the death of her only brother, John Hardwick, without issue, became one of his co-heiresses, with her three sisters—Mary, who married, first, Wingfield, and, second, Pollard, of Devonshire; Jane, married to Godfrey Bosville, of Gunthwaite; and Elizabeth, better known as “Bess of Hardwick,” who married, first, Robert Barley, of Barley—second, Sir William Cavendish—third, Sir William St. Loe—and fourth, Gilbert, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury. This Francis Leche, as has just been stated, sold the manor and estates of Chatsworth to Agard, who shortly afterwards resold it to Sir William Cavendish, the husband of “Bess of Hardwick,” and, consequently, the brother-in-law of Alice Leche.

The family of Agard is of very ancient origin in the county of Derby, being settled at Foston as early as 1310. In the reign of Charles II. the Foston estate was sold by John Agard, and about the same time, one of the co-heiresses of Charles Agard, the last heir-male of the main line, married John Stanhope, of Elvaston, the ancestor of the Earls of Harrington. Another branch of the Agards settled at Sudbury, in the same county, and one of them married the heiress of Ferrars, of Tamworth. The Agards, as feodaries or bailiffs of the honour of Tutbury, were possessed of a horn (described in the “Archæologia”) which passed, with the office, to Charles Stanhope, Esq., of Elvaston, on his marriage with the heiress. Arthur Agard, born at Foston, in 1540, was an able and eminent antiquary, and was one of the members of the first Society of Antiquaries. His essays read to the Society occur in Hearne’s “Discourses,” and a treatise by him on the obscure words in Domesday-book, are, with other papers, in the Cottonian Collection in the British Museum. He held office as Deputy-Chamberlain of the Exchequer, and died in 1615. A John Agard founded a chantry at Lupton.

Shortly after acquiring Chatsworth by purchase from the Agards, Sir William Cavendish pulled down the old Hall of the Leches, and began the erection of the mansion which, in a few years after its construction, was destined to become a place of historical interest. Sir William Cavendish, it appears, died before his plans for building had been carried out to any great extent; and its completion, on a much larger scale than he had intended, was left to his widow (who ultimately became Countess of Shrewsbury), by whom Hardwick Hall and other places were erected; and of whom it was said that, having a firm belief she should never die so long as she continued building, kept on year after year; until at last, a terrible frost coming on, the masons were thrown out of work, when she languished and died. The mansion, commenced by Sir William Cavendish, and completed by his widow, was a quadrangular building, the west front of which had a square tower at each end, and the entrance, in the centre, was between four angular towers. Of this front of the building a representation is happily preserved at Chatsworth, which, through the kindness and courtesy of its noble owner, the present Duke of Devonshire, we are enabled to engrave.

It was in this mansion that that truly unhappy sovereign, Mary, Queen of Scots, was kept so long a prisoner under the care of the Earl of Shrewsbury—the suite of rooms occupied by her being on the upper, or state-room story, of the east side of the quadrangle, and immediately opposite to the then principal entrance. The unfortunate queen was first brought captive to Chatsworth in May or June, 1570, from Tutbury Castle, probably spending a short time on her way at another of the earl’s residences, Wingfield Manor: here she remained for some months, and here, it is pleasant to know, the severity of her confinement was in some degree relaxed; yet the surveillance kept over her by the Earl of Shrewsbury was enough to disappoint a scheme laid for her release by two sons of the Earl of Derby, and a Derbyshire gentleman named Hall. At this time the Queen of Scots’ establishment consisted of thirty persons, among whom was John Beton, a member of the same family to which Cardinal Beton belonged. This faithful servant, who was her “prægustator”—an office in royal households of which frequent mention is made in the old writers of the Middle Ages—died while Mary was in captivity at Chatsworth, and was buried in the church of Edensor, close by, where a monument, which yet remains, was erected by his attached mistress. Of this monument we shall give an engraving later on. During this same year at Chatsworth it was that the series of personal negotiations which kept hope alive in the breast of the fair captive was commenced, and in which Cecil and Mildmay, who were at Chatsworth in October, took part. At this time the project of removing her to Sheffield was mooted, and on his return to court from Chatsworth, Cecil wrote his memorable letter, allowing her a little horse-exercise about the grounds of Chatsworth.

“Now for the removing of yt quene, hir Maty said at the first that she trusted so to make an end in short tyme yt your L. shuld be shortly ac’qted of hir; nevertheless when I told her Maty that yow cold not long indure your howshold there for lack of fewell and other thyngs, and yt I thought Tutbury not so fitt a place as it was supposed, but yt Sheffield was ye metest, hir Maty sayd she wold thynk of it, and wtin few dayes gyve me knolledg: Only I see her Maty loth to have yt Q. to be often removed, supposying that therby she cometh to new acqueyntance; but to that I sayd Yor L. cold remove hir wtout callying any to you but your owne. Uponn motiō made by me, at the B. of Ross’s request, the Q. Maty is pleased yt your L. shall, whan yow see tymes mete, suffer ye Quene to take ye ayre about your howss on horssback, so your L. be in copany; and therein I am sure your L. will have good respect to your owne company, to be suer and trusty; and not to pass fro yowr howss above one or twoo myle, except it be on ye moores; for I never feare any other practise of strangers as long as ther be no corruptiō amongst your owne.”

This letter was followed by another, giving the irate queen’s promise to remove Mary to Sheffield, whither she was taken a little before Christmas. The orders for the government of the household of the captive queen after her removal were so stringent and curious that they will, no doubt, be read with interest. The original document is preserved in the Cottonian Library in the British Museum. It is as follows:—

“To the Mr of the Scotts Queene’s household, Mr Beton.

“First,—That all your people wch appertayneth to the Queen shall depart from the Queen’s chamber or chambers to their own lodging at IX. of the clock at night, winter and summer, whatsoever he or she; either to their lodging within the house or without in the Towne, there to remain till the next day at VI. of the clock.

“Item,—That none of the Queen’s people shall at no time wear his sword neither within the house, nor when her Grace rydeth or goeth abroade: unless the Master of the Household himself to weare a sword, and no more without my special license.

“Item,—That there shall none of the Queen’s people carry any bow or shaftes, at no tyme, neither to the field nor to the butts, unless it be foure or fyve, and no more, being in the Queen’s companye.

“Item,—That none of the Queen’s people shall ryde or go at no tyme abroad out of the House or towne without my special license: and if he or they so doth, they or he shall come no more in at the gates, neither in the towne, whatsoever he or she or they be.

“Item,—That youe or some of the Queen’s chamber, when her Grace will walke abroad, shall advertyse the officiar of my warde who shall declare the messuage to me one houer before she goeth forth.

“Item,—That none of the Queen’s people whatsoever he or they be, not once offer at no tyme to come forth of their chamber or lodging when anie alarum is given by night or daie, whether they be in the Queen’s chambers or in their chambers within the house, or without in the towne. And yf he or they keepe not their chamber or lodgings whatsoever that be, he or they shall stande at their perill for deathe.

“At Shefeild, the 26th daie of April, 1571, per me,

“SHREWSBURIE.”

These orders satisfied Elizabeth, for Cecil says:—“The Q. Maty lyketh well of all your ordres.”

It will no doubt interest our readers to be put in possession of a list of her attendants at this time. They were as follows:—

“My Lady Leinstoun, dame of honour to the quene’s Ma^{te}.
M’rez Leinstoun.
M’rez Setoun.
Maistresse Brusse.
M’rez Courcelles.
M’rez Kennett.
My Lord Leinstoun.
M^{re} Betown, mr. howshold.
M^{re} Leinstoun, gentilman servāt.
M^{re} Castel, physition.
Mr Raullett, secretaire.
Bastien, page.
Balthazar Huylly.
James Lander.
Gilbert Courll.
William Douglas.
Jaquece de Sanlie.
Archibald Betoun.
Thomas Archebald.
D—— Chiffland.
Guyon l’Oyselon.
Andro Matreson.
Estien Hauet, escuyer.
Martin Huet, m^{re} cooke.
Piere Madard, potiger.
Jhan de Boyes, pastilar.
Mr. Brusse, gentilman to my Lord Leinstoun.
Nicholl Fichar, servant to my Lady Leinstoun.
Jhon Dumfrys, servant to Maistresse Setoun.
William Blake, servant to Maistresse Courcelles, to serve in absence
of Florence.”

Besides these the following supernumerary servants were kindly allowed by the earl and approved by the queen:—

“Christilie Hog, Bastiene’s wyff.
Ellen Bog, the Mr cooke’s wyff.
Cristiane Grame, my Lady Leinstoun’s gentilwoman.
Janet Lindesay, M’rez Setoun’s gentilwoman.
Jannette Spetell.
Robert Hamiltoun, to bere fyre and water to the quene’s cuysine.
Robert Ladel, the quene’s lacquay.
Gilbert Bonnar, horskeippar.
Francoys, to serve M^{re} Castel, the phesitien.”

The earl, to insure her safe-keeping, took to himself forty extra servants, chosen from his tenantry, to keep watch day and night: so this must, indeed, have been a busy and bustling, as well as an anxious time, at Chatsworth and at Sheffield.

In the autumn of 1578 Mary was once more at Chatsworth, but in November was back again, as close a prisoner as ever at Sheffield. Again in 1577 she was, for a short time, at Chatsworth, at which period the Countess of Shrewsbury was still building there. It was in this year that the countess wrote to her husband the letter endeavouring to get him to spend the summer there, in which she uses the strange expressions, “Lette me here how you, your charge _and love_ dothe, and commende me I pray you.” In 1581 Mary was again brought to Chatsworth, and probably was there at other times than those we have indicated. In any case, the fact of her being there kept a captive, invests the place with a powerful interest of a far different kind from any other it possesses. One solitary remain—“Mary Queen of Scots’ Bower”—of this ill-starred sovereign’s captivity at Chatsworth now exists; to this reference will be made later on.

It is also essential here to note, that during these troublous times, the ill-fated Lady Arabella Stuart—the child of Charles Stuart, Earl of Lennox, and of his wife Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of Sir William Cavendish, by his wife “Bess of Hardwick”—was born at Chatsworth. The beautiful, much-injured, and ill-fated Lady Arabella, whose sole crime was that she was born a Stuart, is thus in more ways than one, like her relative, Mary Queen of Scots, not only mixed up with Chatsworth, but with the family of its noble possessor. The incidents of the life of this young, beautiful, and accomplished lady, which form one of the most touching episodes in our national history—the jealous eye with which Elizabeth looked upon her from her birth—the careful watch set over her by Cecil—the trials of Raleigh and his friends—her troubles with her aunt (Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury)—her being placed under restraint—her marriage with Seymour—her seizure, imprisonment, sufferings, and death as a hopeless lunatic in the Tower of London, where she had been thrown by her cousin, King James I., are all matters of history, and invest her short, sad life with a melancholy interest. One of the old ballads to which her misfortunes gave rise, thus alludes to her connection with Derbyshire:—

“My lands and livings, so well known,
Unto your books of majesty,
Amount to twelve-score pounds a week,
Besides what I do give,” quoth she.

“In gallant Derbyshire likewise,
I nine-score beadsmen maintain there,
With hats and gowns and house-rent free,
And every man five marks a year.”

During the civil wars the old hall of Chatsworth was taken possession of, and garrisoned, in 1643, for the Parliament by Sir John Gell, being then placed under the command of Captain Stafford, from whose company at Chatsworth in the latter part of the year, forty musqueteers were ordered to be drafted off, and joined to the army of Fairfax for his proposed march to Chesterfield and the North. At the end of the same year the Earl of Newcastle’s forces having taken Wingfield Manor, and other places in the county, made themselves masters of Chatsworth (which had been evacuated on his approach to Chesterfield), and garrisoned it for the king under Colonel Eyre, who the following spring received reinforcements from Tissington and Bakewell. In September, 1645, “the governor of Welbecke having gotten good strength by the kinges coming that way, came to Derbyshire with 300 horse and dragoones, to sett upp a garrison at Chatsworth, and one Colonel Shallcross, for governor there. Colonel Gell having intelligence thereof, sent presently Major Molanus with 400 foott to repossess the house; and having layn theire 14 days, and hearing of the demolishinge of Welbecke, Bolsover, and Tickhill castles, was commanded by Colonel Gell to return to Derby.”

A little before these troublous times, in 1636, Thomas Hobbes, best known as “Leviathan Hobbes” or “Hobbes of Malmesbury,” who, before he was twenty years of age, became tutor to the sons of Sir William Cavendish (then recently created Baron Cavendish of Hardwick), and who lived and died in the family, thus wrote of the beauty of Chatsworth, and of the nobleness of soul of its owner, his patron and friend:—

“On th’ English Alps, where Darbie’s Peak doth rise
High up in Hills that emulate the skies,
And largely waters all the Vales below
With Rivers that still plentifully flow,
Doth CHATSWORTH by swift Derwin’s Channel stand,
Fam’d for its pile, and Lord, for both are grand.
Slowly the River by its Gates doth pass,
Here silent, as in wonder of the place,
But does from rocky precipices move
In rapid streams below it; and above
A lofty Mountain guards the house behind
From the assaults of the rough eastern wind;
Which does from far its rugged Cliffs display,
And sleep prolongs by shutting out the day.
Behind, a pleasant Garden does appear:
Where the rich earth breathes odours everywhere;
Where, in the midst of Woods, the fruitful tree
Bears without prune-hook, seeming now as free;
Where, by the thick-leav’d roof, the walls are made—
Spite of the Sun where all his beams display’d—
More cool than the fam’d Virgil’s beechen shade;
Where Art (itself dissembling), rough-hewn stone
And craggy flints worn out by dropping on
(Together joyning by the workman’s tool),
Makes horrid rocks and watry caverns cool.”

Of Hobbes we give an interesting and curious memoir in the present volume, under the head of “Hardwick Hall.” Of the old house as it existed in 1680-1, we have, fortunately, a very graphic word-picture, preserved to us in Charles Cotton’s “Wonders of the Peak;” and an admirable pictorial representation in one of Knyff’s careful drawings, engraved by Kipp, of the same house, when the south front and other parts had been rebuilt, but the west front with its towers was remaining entire. Cotton’s—friend and companion of Izaak Walton—description of the place is so clever and so graphic that it cannot fail to interest our readers. We can, however, find room for but a few passages:—