Chapter VI: FOURTH DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, from 1854 to 1865: complete (2)

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS’ ROOM—a room which, it appears to us, the Countess of Shrewsbury prepared expressly for the reception of the furniture used by the truly unfortunate captive who had for so many years been a prisoner in charge of her and her husband, and in which, when finished, she placed her bed and other furniture, so as to preserve them as precious relics. On the panels of the wainscoting of the room are the initials of the countess, E.S., with the coronet and the date 1599; and on the door the same date twice occurs. The woodwork is “tricked” in arabesque patterns; over the door, on the interior side, are carved the royal arms of Scotland, with the order of St. Andrew, supporters, crown, &c., and the letters M. S., and the motto, IN · MY · DE · FENS. Around the whole is the inscription, MARIE · STEWART · PAR · LA · GRACE · DE · DIEV · ROYNE · DE · SCOSSE · DOVARIERE · DE · FRANCE. Over the fire-place, in parget-work, are the arms of Hardwick in lozenge, with coronet and supporters; the arms of Hardwick impaling Leake; and those of Cavendish, with a crescent for difference, impaling _argent_ a fesse _gules_. The bed—the very one in which the poor queen lay during a part of her captivity—is adorned with the work of her own hands, bearing her monogram. The counterpane, too, is an elaborate piece of needlework, said to be her own work; and some of the furniture is of the same period. We have engraved this historically interesting room as one of our illustrations.

Near this is the BLUE BED-ROOM, hung with tapestry, and containing a noble bed, hung with blue, to which needlework by Christian Bruce, Countess of Devonshire, has been transferred with much judgment and care. Over the chimney-piece is the “Marriage of Tobias.” Other bed-rooms adjoin, which it is not necessary to notice.

The PICTURE-GALLERY, the “great glory” of Hardwick, occupies the entire length of the building from north to south, on the upper floor of its eastern front. Its length is 170 feet, and its width 40 feet, including the recessed windows; its height being 26 feet. The walls of this superb gallery are hung with the finest tapestry, almost hidden, however, by the magnificent assemblage of portraits with which it is, as will be seen from our engraving, literally covered. The tapestry here is, as has been said, remarkably fine, and is very early, some of it bearing the date of 1478. It was brought from the old mansion and from Chatsworth. The gallery is lit by eighteen enormous windows, each 20 feet in height, on its eastern side, which is deeply recessed. In the centre of this side is a gorgeous canopy over the state seat, bearing the monogram of W.D., with a coronet; and on the western side are two gigantic chimney-pieces, reaching from the floor to the cornice, composed of Derbyshire black marble, alabaster, and other marbles, one bearing in the centre of its upper height a finely sculptured figure of Pity, and the other that of Justice. They are said to be the work of “Stephens, a Flemish sculptor, or of Valerio Vicentino.” The ceiling is of geometric design, in raised plaster-work; it gives that finish to the room which is wanting in other of the apartments. The upper portion of the walls, above the wainscoting and arras, is worked in panels and festoons.

The furniture is of the most costly and curious character, and in perfect preservation. Much of it, indeed, belongs to the time, or to a time not much later, when the house was constructed, and indicates the artistic feeling and manual dexterity of the foundress. Here are beds of state, with their curtains of black and silver; Venetian velvets and damascenes; “cloth of Raynes to slepe on softe,” and hangings “raied with gold;” hard cushions of blue baudekyn; high-seated chairs, covered with samit and powdered with flowers, yet most uncomfortable for use; screens of crimson velvet, covered with patterns worked in silver wires; couches, every portion of which is thickly overlaid with threads of silver and of gold; tables with legs twisted and turned about in the most picturesque manner; fire-dogs of gorgeous description; and a magnificent giant-glass, with the arms of Devonshire impaling Ormonde—these are among the beauties which greet the eye at every turn in its progress through Hardwick.

As we said at the commencement of this chapter, there is no place so likely as Hardwick to carry the mind back to those times which we have indicated and to which it belongs. One is unresistingly and forcibly carried by the imagination back to the time of Elizabeth, and while pacing along through these rooms, we are led, “in the mind’s eye,” to people them with the forms of those who lived and moved and had their being within its walls.

To the paintings in the picture-gallery and those scattered through the several rooms, the dining-room more especially, we can but make slight reference. They count some hundreds of the finest and most historically interesting portraits of which any mansion can boast. To enumerate them would occupy a dozen of our pages: we must, therefore, be content to say that among them are original portraits of Queen Elizabeth; of Mary, Queen of Scots; of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia; of Arabella Stuart; of the foundress of the building, “Bess of Hardwick,” afterwards Countess of Shrewsbury; of Kings Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; of Georgiana, the “Beautiful Duchess” of Devonshire; of Robert Boyle, the philosopher; of the seventh and unfortunate Earl of Derby; of Lord Treasurer Burleigh; of Queen Mary; of Sir William St. Loe, third husband of “Bess of Hardwick;” of George, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury; of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., cartoons by Holbein; of James V. of Scotland, and his queen; of Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury; of Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury; of Lady Grace Talbot; of several distinguished members of the Clifford family; of Queen Catherine of Arragon; of Christian, Countess of Devonshire; of Lady Jane Seymour; of Elizabeth, Countess of Devonshire; of the first Duke of Ormond; of Rachel, Duchess of Devonshire; of Edward Russell, Duke of Bedford; of John, first Duke of Rutland; of Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel; of William, Lord Russell; of the Marchioness of Hartington; of Queen Anne; of Frederick, Prince of Wales; of King William III.; of King George III.; of King James I.; of Sir Robert Walpole; of Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam; of the Princess of Orange; and of most of the noted men of the time; of numerous celebrities of the Cavendish family and their alliances; and of Thomas Hobbes—“Leviathan Hobbes,” or “Hobbes of Malmesbury,” as he is called.

From the leads of Hardwick Hall, which are gained by a spacious staircase, the upper rooms of the towers are reached, and a magnificent view of the surrounding country is obtained.

Having described HARDWICK HALL as it now exists, and given a brief history of the noble family of Cavendish to whom it belongs, we resume the subject, to speak of the older mansion, now in ruins; of the Hardwicks to whom it belonged; of the marvellous daughter of that house, “Bess of Hardwick,” and her alliances; and of AULT HUCKNALL, the parish church, and its many monuments, among which is that to the great philosopher, “Hobbes of Malmesbury,” who lived and died at Hardwick.

And, first, as to the family.

The family of Hardwick is one of considerable antiquity in the county of Derby, although now extinct, and was for several generations settled at Hardwick, from which place, indeed, it is probable the name was assumed.

In 1203 the manor of Hardwick was granted by King John to Andrew de Beauchamp, but in 1288 it was held of John le Savage—who owned the neighbouring manor of Steynsby, and was probably of the same family as the later Savages, of Castleton and other places—by William de Steynsby, by the annual render of _three pounds of cinnamon and one pound of pepper_. The grandson of William de Steynsby, John Steynsby, died seized of the manor in 1330. It afterwards passed into the hands of the Hardwicks, and was held by them until it passed to the Cavendishes by the marriage of the heiress to Sir William Cavendish. The first of the Hardwick family known was William, who married the daughter of Goushill, of Barlborough (which family of Goushill, in the time of Henry III., married the heiress of Hathersage, and whose heiress, in the sixteenth century, married Wingfield), and by her had two sons, Roger and William, the latter of whom was living in the thirty-second year of Henry VI. Roger Hardwick, of Hardwick, married the daughter of Robert Barley, of Barley, and had issue by her, John, who succeeded him. John Hardwick, of Hardwick, married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Bakewell, of Bakewell, one of the co-heiresses of which family married Linacre before the year 1400. By her he had issue, a son, John Hardwick, who, marrying Elizabeth, daughter of — Pinchbeck, of Pinchbeck, was, in turn, succeeded by his son, John Hardwick, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Leake, of Hasland, a younger branch of the Leakes, Earls of Scarsdale. By this lady John Hardwick, who died January 24, 1527, had issue, one son and four daughters, viz., John, Mary, Elizabeth, Alice, and Jane. John Hardwick, the last male representative of the family, who was only three years old at his father’s death, married Elizabeth, daughter of Philip Draycott, of Paynsley, but died without issue, leaving his sisters his co-heiresses. Of these, Mary married, first, Wingfield, and, second, one of the Pollards, of Devonshire, who was Gentleman Usher to the Queen; Alice married Francis Leech, of Chatsworth, and died without issue; Jane married Godfrey Bosville of Gunthwaite; and Elizabeth (“Bess of Hardwick”) married, first, Robert Barley, of Barley; second, Sir William Cavendish; third, Sir William St. Loe; and fourth, Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury. The Francis Leech just named, who married “Bess’s” sister Alice, was the last of his family. He sold Chatsworth to Agard, who resold it to the second husband of “Bess,” Sir William Cavendish, by whom it was rebuilt in almost regal magnificence.

Elizabeth Hardwick was, it will have been seen, one of the co-heiresses of her father, and ultimately heiress to her brother, from whom she inherited Hardwick and other estates. She was a most remarkable, clever, and accomplished woman, and one of the most successful, in her many marriages, in her acquisition of property, in the alliances of her family, and in the erection of magnificent mansions; and no account of Hardwick would be complete without, at all events, a brief notice of her extraordinary and brilliant career. When very young—indeed, it is said, when scarcely fourteen years of age—Elizabeth Hardwick became the wife of Robert Barley, of Barley (or Barlow), in the county of Derby, son of Arthur Barley, of Barley-by-Dronfield, by his wife, Elizabeth Chaworth. This young gentleman, who was devotedly attached to his young and charming wife, died within a few months after their marriage, leaving his possessions to her. By this short marriage there was no issue. Remaining a young, indeed childlike, widow for some twelve years or thereabouts, she then married Sir William Cavendish, as detailed in our former chapter, and so brought to him the possessions of the Hardwicks, which she had inherited from her father and brother, as well as those of the Barleys, acquired by her first marriage. By Sir William Cavendish she had a family of three sons and three daughters, viz., Henry Cavendish, of Tutbury, ancestor of the Barons Waterpark; Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth, created Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, and Earl of Devonshire, and ancestor of the present Ducal house of Devonshire; Sir Charles Cavendish, of Bolsover Castle, ancestor of the Barons Cavendish, Viscounts Mansfield, Earls, Marquises, and Dukes of Newcastle; Frances, wife of the Duke of Kingston; Elizabeth, wife of Charles Stuart, Duke of Lennox, and mother by him of Arabella Stuart; and Mary, wife of Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury.

Sir William Cavendish died in 1557, and his lady was thus a second time left a widow. A few years later she married her third husband, Sir William St. Loe, Captain of the Guard to Queen Elizabeth, “owner of a great estate, which,” as Bishop Kennett says, “in articles of marriage she took care should be settled on her and her own heirs, in default of issue; and, accordingly, having no child by him, she liv’d to enjoy his whole estate, excluding his former daughters and brothers;” thus adding his property to the already immense possessions she had acquired in her own right and by her two former marriages. The death of Sir William left her for the third time a widow; but she was soon after wooed and won by George, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, who had not long before lost his countess, Gertrude Manners, daughter of the Earl of Rutland. Before she would consent, however, to be united to the first peer of the realm, she stipulated that he should give his daughter to her eldest son, and that Gilbert Talbot, his second son (the eldest being already married) should espouse her youngest daughter. These family nuptials were solemnised at Sheffield on the 9th of February, 1567-8; her daughter being at the time not quite twelve years old, and her husband being under fifteen. Gilbert Talbot became seventh Earl of Shrewsbury.

The history of the events of her life while Countess of Shrewsbury is that of the kingdom at large; for it was during this time, from 1568 to 1584, that Mary, Queen of Scots, was confided to the care of the earl and his lady, and by them was kept a close prisoner. Into these annals—known by every student of English history—it is not our province now to enter. Suffice it to say, that the wearisome task, imposed by a rigorous and arbitrary sovereign, was executed with a zeal and with a diligence that were worthy a far better cause. In 1568 the earl received from his royal mistress the intimation of the trust she was about to confide to him, and on the 20th of the following January, 1569, the order for removing Mary from Bolton to Tutbury was made. Here the poor captive was received by the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury; and here, kept a close prisoner, she remained for several months, passing her time as best she might in needlework. “I asked hir grace,” says White, “sence the wether did cutt of all exercises abrode, howe passed the tyme within? She sayd that all the day she wrought with hir nydill, and that the diversitie of the colours made the worke seme lesse tedious, and contynued so long at it till veray payn made hir to give over; and with that layd hir hand upon hir left syde and complayned of an old grief newely increased there.” In June the earl removed her to Wingfield Manor, in Derbyshire, now, like Tutbury itself, a splendid ruin; and later on in the same year back again to Tutbury. In 1570 Mary was removed to Chatsworth, and from thence to Sheffield, also now a ruin. Here she remained, occasionally staying at Chatsworth for some length of time. In 1584 she was again removed to Wingfield, in 1585 to Tutbury, and in the following year to Chartley, to Fotheringhay, and that fatal block, which will ever remain a dark blot on the escutcheon of “good Queen Bess.” It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance, touching the captivity of Mary under the constableship of the Earl of Shrewsbury, that the places belonging to him where she was confined, Sheffield Castle and Manor, Tutbury Castle, Wingfield Manor, and Chartley (as well as Fotheringhay, where she was executed), have all fallen to ruin, while Chatsworth and other places which belonged to the countess still flourish.

It is not certain, although there is every probability that such was the case, that Mary was ever at Hardwick. There can be but little doubt she spent, at all events, a few days there; but this would, of course, be at the old Hall, as will be shown later on.

The Earl of Shrewsbury, about whom strange rumours regarding his conduct and intentions towards his captive at the time of his discharge from his trust were afloat, and over whom a female domestic, Eleanor Britton, had gained an injurious ascendency, afterwards, in consequence, living a not very happy life with his second countess, died in 1590; and thus “Bess of Hardwick” became, for the fourth time, a widow. “A change of conditions,” says Bishop Kennett, “that, perhaps, never fell to the lot of one woman, to be four times a creditable and happy wife, to rise by every husband into greater wealth and higher honours, to have a numerous issue by one husband only; to have all those children live, and all, by her advice, be creditably disposed of in her lifetime; and, after all, to live seventeen years a widow in absolute power and plenty.”

The countess, besides being one of the most beautiful, accomplished, and captivating women of her day, was, without exception, the most energetic, business-like, and able of her sex. In architecture her conceptions were grand; while in all matters pertaining to the Arts, and to comforts and elegancies of life, she was unsurpassed. To the old Hall of her fathers, where she was born and resided, she made vast additions—indeed, so much so as almost to amount to a recreation of the place; and she entirely planned and built three of the most gorgeous edifices of the time—Hardwick Hall, Chatsworth, and Oldcotes—the first two of which were transmitted entire to the first Duke of Devonshire. “At Hardwick she left the ancient seat of her family standing, and at a small distance, still adjoining to her new fabric, _as if she had a mind to preserve her Cradle, and set it by her Bed of State_,” as Kennett so poetically expresses it.

Her “Bed of State”—the present Hall, erected by her—we have already described. Her “Cradle”—the old Hall, wherein she was born and nursed, but which is now in ruins—we shall describe presently.

The latter part of her long and busy life she occupied almost entirely in building, and it is marvellous what an amount of real work—hard figures and dry details—she got through; for it is a fact, abundantly evidenced by the original accounts, remaining to this day, that not a penny was expended on her buildings, and not a detail added or taken away, without her special attention and personal supervision. Building was a passion with her, and she indulged it wisely and well, sparing neither time, nor trouble, nor outlay, to secure everything being done in the most admirable manner. It is said, and it is so recorded by Walpole, that the countess had once been told by a gipsy fortune-teller that she would never die so long as she continued building, and she so implicitly believed this, that she never ceased planning and contriving and adding to her erections; and it is said that at last she died in a hard frost, which totally prevented the workmen from continuing their labours, and so caused an unavoidable suspension of her works. Surely the fortune-teller here was a “wise woman” in more senses than one; for it was wise and cunning in her to instil such a belief into the countess’s mind, and thus insure a continuance of the works by which so many workmen and their families gained a livelihood, and by which later generations would also benefit.

Besides Hardwick, Chatsworth (for which a good part of the old Hall at Hardwick was, at a later period, removed), Oldcotes, and other places, the countess founded and built the Devonshire Almshouses at Derby, and did many other good and noble works. She died, full of years and full of honours and riches, on the 23rd of February, 1607, and was buried in All Saints’ Church, Derby, under a stately tomb which she had erected during her lifetime, and on which a long Latin inscription is to be seen.

Of the countess—the “Bess of Hardwick,” who was one of the greatest of the subjects of that other “Bess” who sat on the throne of England—portraits are still preserved at Hardwick, and show that she must have been, as Dugdale says of her, “faire and beautiful.” Whatever faults of temper or of disposition she had—and she is said to have had plenty of both—she had good qualities which, perhaps, outbalanced them; and she, at all events, founded one of the most brilliant houses—that of Cavendish—which this nation has ever produced.

The old Hall at Hardwick, of the ruins of which we give an engraving, was, in its palmy days, a place of considerable extent and beauty, and from its charming situation—being built on the edge of a rocky eminence overlooking an immense tract of country—must have been a most desirable residence. In it a long line of the ancestors of the countess were born, and lived, and died; and in it she too was born and lived, as maiden, as four times wife, and four times widow. In it, if Mary, Queen of Scots, was ever at Hardwick, she must have been received, and in it the larger part of the great works of its remarkable owner must have been planned. It was her “home,” and her favourite residence; and it is said that when she began to build the new Hall—which, as we have said, closely adjoins the old one—she still intended making the older building her abode, and keeping the new one for state receptions and purposes of hospitality. This plan, however, if ever laid down, was ultimately discarded, and the old mansion, after all the improvements which had been made in it, was in great measure stripped and dismantled for the requirements of the new Hall, and of Chatsworth.

A tolerably good idea of the extent of the ruins of the old Hall will be gained from our engraving, which shows, perhaps, its most imposing side, with the green sward in front. In its interior, several rooms, in a more or less state of dilapidation, still remain, and can be seen by the visitor. The kitchens, with their wide chimneys, and the domestic offices on the ground-floor, amply testify to the almost regal hospitality which must at one time have characterized the place; while the chambers, the state-rooms, and the other apartments for the family, testify to the magnificence of its appointments.

The principal remaining apartment—and of this we give an illustration—is at the top of that portion of the building which overlooks the valley. It is called the “Giants’ Chamber,” taking its name from the two colossal figures in Roman armour, which they term _Gog_ and _Magog_, in raised plaster-work over the fire-place. This pargetting is bold in the extreme, and in very high relief, and the two figures, between which is a remarkably free and artistic winged figure with a bow, must have had a wondrous effect as they frowned down upon the gay throng assembled in olden times on the rush-strewn floors. The room, which has been wainscoted, is 55 feet 6 inches in length, 30 feet 6 inches in width, and 24 feet 6 inches in height; and of it Bishop Kennett thus speaks: “That old house has one room in it of such exact proportion, and such convenient lights, that it has been thought fit for a pattern of measure and contrivance to the most noble Blenheim.”

In other apartments, pargetting of the same general character as distinguishes the rooms in Hardwick Hall itself is to be seen over the fire-places. In one place a figure or two; in another, animals of the chase; in a third, a moated and fortified building; in another, armorial bearings; and in yet another, the same motto—now from the dangerous state of the walls and floors not discernible—which occurs on the fine old table described in our last—

“The redolent smell of eglantyne
We stagges exault to the devyne”—

will be noticed, and all of the highest order of workmanship. Of the moated and fortified building just alluded to, we give an engraving on our initial letter, and beneath it, we have added the arms of the present noble house of Cavendish.

We have, on a previous page, spoken of the marvellous aptitude for business, and the careful attention to even the minutest details of expenditure, &c., evinced by the Countess of Shrewsbury, and we purpose now to make this a little more evident by giving some particulars of the erection of Hardwick Hall built by her.

The Hall, as it now stands—for it is, in every essential part, just as the countess left it—was, it is thought, commenced about the year 1576, and finished in 1599. The book of accounts of the wages paid is very curious and interesting, and gives the names of all the various wallers, ditchers, stone breakers, labourers, &c., with the gardeners, thatchers, moss-getters, &c., employed by the countess between January, 1576, and December, 1580. The accounts are made up every fortnight during that time, and all the items are carefully ticked off with a cross by the countess, and each fortnight’s accounts signed by her. Of one of the signatures we have engraved a fac-simile: it reads—“thre ponde hyght pence. E. SHROUESBURY.”

Of the items of which this fortnight’s accounts, amounting only to £3 0_s._ 8_d._ are composed, we copy the following:—

“This fortnight work begane one Munday beinge the xxjth of January, viz.:—

George Hickete xj days v_s._ vj_d._
his mane xj days iij_s._. viij_d._
and his boy xj days iij_s._ viij_d._
Robert bucknail vj days ij_s._
his mane vj days xviij_d._”

In the park are some remarkably fine old oak and other forest trees, round which almost countless herds of deer may be seen browsing. Some of these trees are of gigantic size, of considerable girth, and of great beauty. Our engraving on page 139 gives a distant view of the Hall, with some of these fine trees in the foreground.

HAULT HUCKNALL (Haute Hucknall, as it is called in the early registers, and Ault Hucknall, as it is now not unfrequently spelt) is the parish in which Hardwick Hall stands; and it is therefore necessary, especially as the two places are intimately connected in more ways than one, to say a few words about its church and monuments. The church, which is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, formerly belonged to the Abbey of Beauchief, but was, with the impropriate rectory, granted in 1544 to Francis Leake, from whom it passed to the Cavendishes, and now belongs to the Marquis of Hartington. The church contains some interesting remains of Norman and of Early English work, among which are the aisle under the tower, the window in the west end of the north aisle, and the old plain font,—the font now in use having been brought here from Bamford Church in the same county. In the south wall of the chancel is a pretty little piscina, and there are aumbries in the north aisle and in the Hardwick Chapel. At these places it is supposed altars formerly stood, and one of the altar-stones, with the five crosses emblematic of the five wounds of our Saviour, may be seen forming one of the paving-stones of the floor near the altar-rails. The porch has a vaulted stone-roof, and in the nave are remains of wall-paintings.

Some portions of an elegant carved-oak screen which formerly separated the Hardwick Chapel from the south aisle are still preserved, as are also several of the original massive oak benches. In the east window of the Hardwick Chapel, as shown in our engraving, the stained glass represents our Saviour on the cross, with the figures of the Virgin Mary and of St. John, &c. There are also some kneeling figures, and the arms of Hardwick and of Savage.

Among the monuments in this interesting church are some deserving especial attention. In the floor of the chancel is a monumental brass, the figure belonging to which is unfortunately lost, commemorative of Richard Pawson, 1536, sometime vicar of the parish, bearing the following inscription in black letter:—

“Orate pro aia domini Ricardi Pawson Vicarii
Istius qui obiit die qua Vocavit eū d̄ns post an̄m
d̄ni millesimum quingentesimū tricesimū sextum
cujus aiē ppicietur deus. A.”

At the east end of the Hardwick Chapel, beneath the window, as shown in the engraving on the next page, is an elegant tomb, of Derbyshire marble, to the memory of Anne, daughter and co-heiress of Henry Kighley, of Kighley, in Yorkshire, and first wife of the second Sir William Cavendish, created, after her death, Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, and Earl of Devonshire. She was the mother of William, second Earl of Devonshire, and Gilbert Cavendish, author of “Horæ Subsecivæ,” Frances, wife of Lord Maynard, and James, Mary, and Elizabeth, who all died young.

The most interesting tomb, however, in this pretty church, is that of Thomas Hobbes, who is best known as “Hobbes, of Malmesbury,” or as “Leviathan Hobbes.”

The monument to this great “philosopher” and free-thinker is a plain slab of stone in the Hardwick Chapel—the raised slab shown on the floor in this engraving—which bears the following inscription:—

CONDITA HIC SUNT OSSA
THOMÆ HOBBES,
MALMESBURIENSIS,
QVI PER MULTOS ANNOS SERVIVIT
DUOBUS DEVONIÆ COMITIBUS
PATRI ET FILIO
VIR PROBUS, ET FAMA ERUDITIONIS
DOMI FORISQUE BENE COGNITUS
OBIIT ANN^o DOMINI 1679,
MENSIS DECEMBRIS DIE 4º
ÆTATIS SUÆ 91.

Before speaking of Hobbes and his connection with Hardwick, where he died, it will be well to note that the parish registers of Hault Hucknall commence in the year 1662, and that the entry regarding the burial of Hobbes, for the copy of which we have to express our thanks to the Rev. Henry Cottingham, the respected vicar of the parish, is as follows:—

“Anno Regni } 31 Law. Waine, { James Hardwick,
Caroli Sucund } _Vicar_. { Thomas Whitehead,
Anno dom. 1679. _Churchwardens_.

“Hardwick | Thomas Hobbs Magnus Philosophus,
Sepul. fuit et affidavit in Lana
Sepoliendo exhibit. Decem. 6” (or 8).

Thomas Hobbes[28] was born at Malmesbury on Good Friday, 1588, in the year of “the Spanish Armada,” and it is said that his birth was hastened by his mother’s terror of the enemy’s fleet, and that a timidity with which through life he was afflicted was thus induced. He and fear, he was wont to say, “were born together.” His being born on Good Friday has also been turned to account in the way of accounting for his wonderful precocity as a child, and his subsequent intellectual progress. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Oxford, and there made such progress that before he was twenty years old he was taken into the service of Sir William Cavendish, who had a few years before been created Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, as tutor to his sons, Gilbert, who died before attaining his majority, and William, who became second Earl of Devonshire. With the latter young nobleman, who married, as already narrated, Christian, daughter of Lord Bruce, of Kinloss, Hobbes travelled through France and Italy. At his death he left, besides other issue, William, Lord Cavendish, who succeeded him as Earl of Devonshire, and who, at that time, was only in the tenth year of his age. This Lord Hardwick was, as his father had been before him, placed under the tuition of Hobbes, “who instructed him in the family for three years, and then, about 1634, travelled with him as his governor into France and Italy, with the longest stay in Paris for all the politer parts of breeding. He returned in 1637, and, when he soon after came of age, his mother (Christian, Countess of Devonshire), delivered up to him his great houses in Derbyshire all ready furnished.”

With this nobleman (who married Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Salisbury, and was succeeded by his son, afterwards created Duke of Devonshire) Thomas Hobbes remained for the rest of his life. “The earl for his whole life entertained Mr. Hobbes in his family as his old tutor rather than as his friend or confidant; he let him live under his roof in ease and plenty and his own way, without making use of him in any publick or so much as domestick affairs. He would often express an abhorrence of some of his principles in policy and religion; and both he and his lady would frequently put off the mention of his name and say ‘He was an humourist, and that nobody could account for him.’”

Of Hobbes’s works—of his “De Cive,” his “Leviathan,” his “Elémens Philosophiques de Citoyen,” his “Behemoth,” or his hundred other writings—it is, of course, not here our province to speak; but one of his smaller productions, because of its connection with the family of his noble patron, his “De Mirabilibus Pecci,” may claim a passing word. This is a Latin poem descriptive of the “Wonders of the Peak, in Derbyshire”—the same subject which Charles Cotton, later on, wrote upon in his “Wonders of the Peak”—wherein Hobbes describes a tour which he, with a friend, took on horseback, starting from Chatsworth, where he was residing, and visiting Pilsley, Hassop, Hope, Castleton, Peak Forest, Eldon Hole, the Ebbing and Flowing Well, Buxton, Poole’s Hole, Chelmorton, Sheldon, Ashford, and so back to Chatsworth, quaintly describing all he saw on his journey.

If the earl was attached to Hobbes, he was at least amply repaid by the devotion and fondness his old tutor showed to him and to his family. Indeed, so intimate was the old man with the family of his patron, that whenever the earl removed from one of his houses to another, Hobbes accompanied them, even to the last of his long life. “There is a tradition in the family,” said Bishop Kennett, in 1707, “of the manners and customs of Mr. Hobbes somewhat observable. His professed rule of health was to dedicate the morning to his health and the afternoon to his studies. And therefore at his first rising he walk’d out and climb’d any hill within his reach; or, if the weather was not dry, he fatigued himself within doors by some exercise or other to be in a sweat; recommending that practice upon this opinion, that an old man had more moisture than heat, and therefore by such motion heat was to be acquired and moisture expelled. After this he took a comfortable breakfast, and then went round the lodgings to wait upon the earl, the countess, and the children, and any considerable strangers, paying some short address to all of them.” ... “Towards the end of his life he had very few books, and those he read but very little, thinking he was now only to digest what formerly he had fed upon. If company came to visit him, he would be free in discourse till he was pressed or contradicted, and then he had the infirmities of being short and peevish, and referring to his writings for better satisfaction. His friends, who had the liberty of introducing strangers to him, made these terms with them before their admission—that they should not dispute with the old man, nor contradict him.”

Thus lived Hobbes, whether at Hardwick or at Chatsworth, and thus were all his foibles kindly looked upon and administered to, and his life made happy by allowing him in everything—even his attendance on worship in the private chapel, and his leaving before the sermon—to have, literally, “his own way.” In December, 1679, the earl and countess went from Chatsworth to Hardwick Hall, probably with the intention of keeping up their Christmas festivities there, and even at that time the old man—for he was ninety-one years of age—would accompany them. “He could not endure to be left in an empty house, and whenever the earl removed he would go along with him, even to his last stage from Chatsworth to Hardwick; when in a very weak condition he dared not be left behind, but made his way upon a feather bed in a coach, though he survived the journey but a few days. He could not bear any discourse of death, and seemed to cast off all thoughts of it. He delighted to reckon upon long life. The winter before he died he had made a warmer coat, which he said must last him three years, and then he would have such another. In his last sickness his frequent questions were whether his disease was curable; and when intimations were given that he might have ease, but no remedy, he used this expression:—‘I shall be glad then to find a hole to creep out of the world at;’ which are reported to have been his last sensible words, and his lying some days following in a silent stupefaction did seem owing to his mind more than to his body. The only thought of death that he appeared to entertain in time of health was to take care of some inscription on his grave. He would suffer some friends to dictate an epitaph, among which he was best pleased with this honour, ‘_This is the true philosopher’s stone_;’ which, indeed,” adds the bishop, “would have had as much religion in it as that which now remains,” and of which we have just given a copy.

As we have already remarked, it is not our business to discuss the political or philosophical principles which Hobbes expressed in his writings: these, both in and after his time, were the subject of much controversy. We may, however, remark that it was well for those who were committed to his tutelage and close companionship, that their minds do not seem to have been corrupted by his avowed rejection, not only of the Christian faith, but apparently of any faith at all in the existence of a Deity. Nowhere—and he had abundance of opportunity in some, at least, of his voluminous writings—does he show any glimmering even of religious belief; and the history of his latest years, and the last expression which proceeded from his mouth, testify to his fear of death, and his dislike to have the subject mentioned in his hearing. A mere materialist would not thus have been “subject to bondage,” inasmuch as the conviction of utter annihilation must remove all ground of apprehension regarding the “something after death.” Hobbes closed his eyes a resolute doubter, if not an actual disbeliever; and no ray of comfort or of hope came to brighten his last moments as he passed into the world of spirits to exchange uncertainty for certainty, the mortal for the immortal.

The late Sir William Molesworth endeavoured to rekindle some interest in Hobbes’s writings by republishing an edition of his works: happily, the attempt was a failure, so far, we believe, as to any extensive sale of the poison contained in them.

Externally, Hault Hucknall Church, although highly picturesque and venerable in appearance, presents not many striking features. The tower, which stands between nave and chancel, was probably terminated by a spire—the upper remaining part being of much later date than the lower.

We have thus described the seat, next in importance to that of Chatsworth, of the long-descended and long-ennobled family of Cavendish. Their principal residence, Chatsworth, we describe and illustrate in another part of this volume.

ARUNDEL CASTLE.

ARUNDEL castle takes high rank among the “Stately Homes of England.” Some of its more prominent features we present to our readers. Of very remote antiquity—for it traces back to a period long anterior to the Conquest; deeply interesting in its historical associations—for it has played a leading part in the principal events of the kingdom; and of great importance in its family connections—for a long line of noble and illustrious names, from the reign of Alfred the Great to our own time, are associated with its history—Arundel stands, a proud monument of England’s greatness, and of the beauty of England’s fair domains.

The manor of Arundel was, it is stated, given in the will of Alfred the Great (“Æthelme mines brother suna thone ham æt Ealdingburnam, & æt Cumtune, & æt Crundellan, & æt Beadingum, & æt Beadingahamme, & æt Burnham, & æt Thunresfelda, & æt Æscengum”) to his nephew, Æthelm, the son of his brother. To Earl Godwine, and to King Harold, it is also stated successively to have passed. At the time of the Norman Conquest the possessions and the earldoms of Arundel, Chichester, and Shrewsbury, were given to Roger de Montgomery, a relative of the Conqueror, and “one of the council which formed the invasion of England, leading the centre of the army in that famous battle of Battle Abbey, wherein the crown accrued to the Norman.” He commanded the entire army of archers and light infantry in the decisive battle; and to his superior skill in military tactics was principally owing the successful issue. To requite him for his valuable services, and place him in a position of advantage, the Conqueror established him at Arundel in all the magnificence of the age. Of his immense possessions, those by which he was immediately surrounded constituted three lordships, ten hundreds and their courts and suits of service, eighteen parks, and seventy-seven manors. He took a prominent part in affairs of state, both in the reign of the Conqueror and in that of William Rufus, and at last entered the monastery at Shrewsbury, which he had founded, and where he died. He was succeeded in his possessions in Normandy by his eldest son, Robert, Comte de Belesme, and in his English earldoms and possessions by his youngest son, Hugh, who led a turbulent life, and met with a premature death at Anglesey, in repulsing the descent made by Magnus, King of Norway, on that island; he was shot from his horse by an arrow, which pierced through his brain.

On the death of Hugh, his elder brother, Robert, came over from Normandy to claim the earldoms and inheritance, to which, on paying a heavy fine, he succeeded. “He was a cruel, crafty, and subtle man, but powerful in arms, and eloquent in speech, and for fifteen years seldom out of rebellion; till at length peace being made between the king and his competitor, he was called to account for all his actions, but shifted away and fortified his castles, which the king (Henry I.) besieged, and forced him to sue for clemency, which was granted; but all his possessions were seized, and himself banished.” He ultimately died in Warwick Castle—the earldoms reverting to the crown.

Before tracing the descent to a later time, a word on the derivation of the name Arundel may not be out of place. It has been conjectured to be derived from various sources. Thus, Hirundelle, from _Hirundo_, a swallow; from the name of a famous horse, _Hirondelle_, which was the favourite of its owner, one Sir Bevis, who is said to have been warder or constable of the castle; from _Arundo_, a reed, which grows in the river; from _Portus Adurni_; and from _Arun_, the name of the river, and _dell_, from the valley along which it flows; as well as from _araf_ and _del_, and other sources.[29]

The estates and earldom having reverted to the crown under Henry I., were settled upon that monarch’s second wife, Adeliza, daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, who married, for her second husband, William de Albini (son of William de Albini, surnamed Pincerna, who came over with the Conqueror), who is said to have been called “William of the Stronghand,” because, when cast into a lion’s den—so the story goes, in consequence of his refusal to marry the Queen of France—he seized the lion, thrust his hand into its mouth, and down his throat, and tore out its heart! He was Lord of Buckenham, and one of the most powerful of the barons. In the troublous reign of Stephen, Albini and his royal wife lived at Arundel Castle, and here received the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I. by his first wife, and mother of Henry II., who, with her half-brother, Robert of Gloucester, and a retinue of knights and retainers, remained there for some time. Stephen, on news reaching him of the presence of his rival, the Empress, drew his forces to Arundel, and laid close siege to the castle. Albini, however, not only preserved his royal guest from violence, but by good generalship or caution, secured for her a safe conduct to Bristol, from which she took ship, and returned to the Continent. Albini was, subsequently, the meditator between Stephen and the son of Queen Matilda, Henry, afterwards Henry II., by which the crown was secured to that prince and his heirs, and so brought about a happy peace. For his loyalty and good services he was, by Henry II., confirmed in the estates and titles he had enjoyed through his wife Queen Adeliza, and was, in addition to the earldoms of Arundel and Chichester, created Earl of Sussex. Besides taking a very prominent part in most affairs of the nation, Albini was one of the deputation to the Pope in the matter of the king’s dispute with A’Beckett; was sent to conduct the daughter of Matilda into Germany on her marriage with the Duke of Saxony; was one of the king’s trustees to the treaty of the marriage of Prince John to the daughter of the Count of Savoy; and commanded the royal forces against the rebellious princes, taking prisoners the Earl of Leicester, and his countess, and all the retinue of knights. He and his wife founded the Priory of Calceto, near Arundel; built the Abbey of Buckenham; endowed prebends in Winchester; founded the Priory of Pynham, near Arundel; and the Chapel of St. Thomas at Wymondham. This earl having, in conjunction with his wife, founded the Priory of Calceto, near Arundel, granted its priors many privileges: among which were an annual allowance of timber for the repairs of the bridge, and a right of pasturage for cattle in common with the burgesses of Arundel. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the office of bridge-warden, previously held by the friars, devolved on the Mayor of Arundel, who still continues the office. The meadows were retained in the possession of the burgesses, and are still held by them. He died in 1176, and was succeeded by his eldest son (or grandson), William de Albini, who married Maud, widow of the Earl of Clare, by whom he had issue, two sons, William and Hugh, and six daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son, William, who, dying without issue, was succeeded by his brother, Hugh de Albini, the youngest son, who married Isabel, daughter to the Earl of Warren and Surrey, but died without issue. The estates then passed to his sisters and co-heiresses; that of Arundel descending to John Fitzalan, son of the second sister of Hugh de Albini, by her husband, John Fitzalan, Baron of Clun and Oswestry.

He was succeeded in the earldom and estates by his son, John, who dying two years afterwards, was succeeded by his son, Richard, then only five years of age. That nobleman greatly improved the Castle of Arundel, and is thus described in “the Siege of Caerlaverock:”—

“Richard, the Earl of Arundel,
A well-beloved and handsome knight,
In crimson surcoat marked, and well
With gold and rampant lion dight.”

In 1302 King Edward I. was the guest of the earl, at Arundel, and at that time created Arundel a borough, and granted the earl certain privileges, of taxes, &c., for the purpose of fortifying it. He was succeeded by his son, Edmund Fitzalan, who, being taken prisoner by Mortimer, was beheaded at Hereford. He was succeeded by his son, Richard Fitzalan, to whom Arundel Castle, which had, on the execution of the last earl, been giving to the Earl of Kent, was restored, as were also the baronies of Fitzalan, Clun, and Oswestry. He led an active and useful life, and distinguished himself at Crescy, Vannes, Thouars, and other places, and founded a chantry of six priests at Arundel. He was succeeded by his son, Richard, in his titles and estates; he died on the scaffold, in Cheapside, in 1397, the king, Richard II., being present at the execution. Ten days afterwards, “it being bruited abroad for a miracle that his head should be grown to his bodye againe,” the king sent, secretly, by night, “certaine nobilitye to see his bodie taken up, that he might be certified of the truth, which done, and perceiving that it was a fable,” he had the grave closed up again. Through this attainder Arundel reverted to the crown, and was given to the Duke of Exeter.

The earl was succeeded by his son, Thomas Fitzalan, who was, by Henry IV., restored both in blood and in all his possessions and titles. He held, among other important offices, those of Warden of the Cinque Ports, Constable of Dover Castle, and Lord High Treasurer of England. He married, in the presence of the king and queen, Beatrix, daughter of John, King of Portugal, but died without issue, when the Arundel estate passed, by entail, to his cousin, Sir John Fitzalan (or Arundel, as he called himself), Lord Maltravers. His son, John, succeeded him as Baron Maltravers and Earl of Arundel, and was created Duke of Touraine, but being wounded before Beavois, was carried prisoner to that place, where he died, and was succeeded by his son, Humphrey, who died a minor. The title and estates then passed to the brother of Earl John, William Fitzalan, who, in his turn, was succeeded by his son, Thomas, who again was succeeded by his son, William, who died in 1543. This nobleman was succeeded in his titles and estates by his son, Henry Fitzalan, who in the four reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, led a most eventful life, holding many important offices, and acquitted himself nobly in all. He left issue, two daughters (his only son having died a minor in his father’s lifetime), Joan, married to Lord Lumley, and Mary, married to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. But the latter lady having died after giving birth to a son, Philip Howard, and the other, Lady Lumley, having been married twenty years without issue, the earl entailed the estates, &c., on Lord and Lady Lumley for their lives, and then to Philip Howard, the son of his sister Mary. Thus ended the Fitzalan family, and from that time the titles and estates have belonged to the ducal family of Howard.

Philip Howard, so christened after Philip I., of Spain, one of his godfathers, was only son by his first wife, Mary, daughter of the Earl of Arundel, of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who was beheaded for high treason in 1572. The title of Duke of Norfolk being lost by his attainder, Philip Howard did not enjoy it, but was Earl of Arundel and Surrey. He was also unjustly attainted, was tried for high treason, sentenced for execution, but ultimately died, during his imprisonment, in the Tower. This ill-fated young nobleman had married Anne, daughter and heiress of Lord Dacres of Gillesland, by whom he had an only child, born after he was cast into prison, and who succeeded him. This was Thomas Howard, the celebrated Earl of Arundel and Surrey (and afterwards Earl of Norfolk), whose brilliant career and high attainments are matters of history. His lordship, who is so well known as the founder of the collection of marbles, &c., married the Lady Alathea Talbot, daughter and one of the co-heiresses of Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, by whom he had issue, Henry Frederick, Lord Mowbray and Maltravers (who succeeded him), Sir William Howard, ancestor of the Earls of Stafford, and James, Thomas, Gilbert, and Charles, who all died unmarried.

Henry Frederick, the eldest son, who, during his father’s lifetime, had been called to the Upper House by the title of Baron Mowbray and Maltravers, married the Lady Elizabeth Stuart, eldest daughter of the Duke of Lennox, of the blood royal, for which, for a time, he incurred the displeasure of his Majesty, and, with his lady, was placed in confinement. He had issue, ten sons and three daughters. These sons were, Thomas, who succeeded him; Henry; Philip, who became a cardinal, and was variously styled Cardinal of Norfolk and Cardinal of England; Charles, who married Mary Tattershall and founded the Greystocke line; Talbot, Edward, and Francis, who died unmarried; Bernard, who married Catherine Tattershall; and two others.