Part 27

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.