Part 28

“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:—

“This _Palace_, with wild prospects girded round, Stands in the middle of a falling ground, At a black _mountain’s_ foot, whose craggy brow, Secures from _eastern tempests_ all below, Under whose shelter _trees_ and _flowers_ grow, With early blossom, maugre native snow; Which elsewhere round a _tyranny_ maintains, And binds crampt _nature_ long in _crystal chains_. The _fabrick’s_ noble front faces the _west_, Turning her fair broad shoulders to the _east_; On the _south_ side the stately _gardens_ lye, Where the scorn’d _Peak_ rivals proud _Italy_. And on the _north_ several inferior _plots_ For servile use do scatter’d lye in spots.

* * * * *

Environ’d round with _Nature’s_ shames and ills, Black heaths, wild rocks, bleak craggs and naked hills And the whole prospect so informe and rude, Who is it, but must presently conclude That this is _Paradise_, which seated stands In midst of _desarts_, and of barren _sands?_”

The engraving from Knyff’s drawing illustrates, to a remarkable degree, this description by Cotton, but for our present purpose it is not necessary, perhaps, to enter further into it. The house formed a quadrangle, the west front being the principal. An enclosed carriage-drive with large gates led up to the north front; the stables and stable-yard were at the north-west angle; and the part where now the Italian garden stands, was a large square pool of water with a fountain in its midst. Since then the whole of the grounds have been remodelled, the immense fish-pools, the stables, &c., taken away, and a new part added to the mansion. The grounds were as fine, according to the taste of the times, as any then existing, and the description given of them by Charles Cotton brings vividly to the mind the time when “Sunday posies,” of “roses and lilies and daffy-down-dillies” were in vogue, and when peonies were worn in the button-hole; while rosemary and bay were the choicest of scents.

Fountains and statues as described by Hobbes and by Cotton still adorn the grounds, and it may be well to note that the busts on the pillars in the Italian garden, which we engrave, originally belonged to the inner court of the old mansion.

In 1687, William Cavendish, third Earl of Devonshire, who was afterwards created Duke of Devonshire, after making considerable alterations in the gardens and grounds, commenced rebuilding the house. The first part commenced was the south front, which appears to have been begun to be rebuilt on the 12th of April, 1687, under the direction of William Talman, the architect. The east side next followed; the great hall and staircase being covered in, in April, 1690. In 1692 Sir Christopher Wren came down and surveyed the works, at which time it appears that about £9,000 had been expended. In 1693 the east front and the north-east corner were commenced, Talman receiving £600 in advance for the work. In 1700 the east front appears to have been completed, and about the same time the principal, or west, front of the old mansion was taken down, and the rebuilding completed in 1706. In 1703 the old south gallery was demolished and rebuilt, and in 1704 the north front was removed, and the building of the new one to take its place commenced. The whole edifice appears to have been finished in 1706, but its noble owner, whose munificence and taste reared the magnificent pile, did not long live to enjoy its beauties, for he died in the following year, 1707. Dr. White Kennett, Bishop of Peterborough, who preached the funeral sermon of this nobleman, wrote at the time some account of the Cavendish family, in the course of which he introduced some highly interesting particulars relating to the mansion and grounds, remarking that “tho’ such a vast pile (of materials entirely new) required a prodigious expense, yet the building was the least charge, if regard be had to his gardens, water-works, pictures, and other of the finest pieces of Art and Nature that could be obtained abroad or at home.”

The Duke seems to have determined to erect a true Palace of Art, and for that purpose he employed the best artists of the time in its decoration. Among the painters employed to decorate the ceilings and walls of the various rooms with the creations of their genius, were Verrio, Laguerre, Sir James Thornhill, Ricard, Highmore (sergeant-painter to William III.), Price, and Huyd. The carvers in stone and wood, whose names appear in the accounts, were Caius Gabriel Cibber, Samuel Watson, Henry Watson his son, Mons. Nadauld, J. T. Geeraerslius, Augustine Harris, Nost, William Davies, M. Auriol, Joel Lobb, and Lanscroon. The principal iron-worker appears to have been Mons. Tijou, a French smith, whose daughter was wife of Laguerre the painter; and the lead-worker, who did the regular plumber’s work, as well as the lead-piping of the willow-tree, and other water-works under the guidance of Mons. Grillet, was a Mr. Cock, of London, whose bill came to about £1,000.

In 1820 the late Duke—William Spencer Cavendish, sixth Duke of Devonshire—who had succeeded to the title in 1811, commenced some great improvements at Chatsworth by erecting, from the designs of Sir Jeffrey Wyatt, the north wing, containing, with all the domestic offices, a number of other apartments, as well as the dining-room, sculpture-gallery, orangery, banqueting-room, and pavilion; and by altering and re-arranging several other rooms. The grounds and gardens, also, were by this gifted nobleman, very materially remodelled and improved under the direction of his head-gardener, the late Sir Joseph Paxton, to whose labours, including the erection of the gigantic conservatory, the forming of the artificial rocks, &c., we shall have to refer.

Having now traced so far as is necessary for our present purpose the history of Chatsworth, we proceed to speak of the noble and historical family of Cavendish, its princely owners. This, however, we shall do but briefly; having already, in our account of Hardwick Hall, gone into the family history at some length.

The family of Cavendish, to whose noble head Chatsworth belongs, traces back to the Conquest, when Robert de Gernon, who came over with the Conqueror, was rewarded by him for his services with large grants of lands in Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire, &c. His descendants held considerable land in Derbyshire; and Sir William Gernon, _temp._ Henry III., had two sons, Sir Ralph de Gernon, lord of Bakewell, and Geoffrey de Gernon, of Moor Hall, near Bakewell. From the second of these, Geoffrey de Gernon, the Cavendishes are descended; his son, Roger de Gernon (who died in 1334), having married the heiress of the lord of the manor of Cavendish, in Suffolk; and by her had issue four sons, who all assumed the name of Cavendish from that manor. These sons were Sir John Cavendish, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench; Roger Cavendish, from whom descended the celebrated navigator, Sir Thomas Cavendish; Stephen Cavendish, Lord Mayor of London; and Richard Cavendish. Sir John married Alice Odyngseles, who brought to her husband the manor of Cavendish Overhall; and their eldest son, Sir Andrew Cavendish, left issue, one son, William, from whom the estates passed to his cousin. Sir Andrew was succeeded by his brother, Sir John Cavendish, who, for his gallant conduct in killing the rebel, Wat Tyler, was knighted by the king; he married Joan, daughter to Sir William Clopton, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William, a citizen and mercer of London, who married Joan Staventon, by whom he had issue two sons, the eldest of whom, Thomas, succeeded him; and whose son and heir, Sir Thomas Cavendish, Clerk of the Pipe, &c., married twice, and left by his first wife three sons, George Cavendish, who wrote the “Life of Cardinal Wolsey,” Sir William Cavendish, and Sir Thomas Cavendish. The second of these sons, Sir William Cavendish, became the founder of the present ducal house of Devonshire and of several other noble families. He married, first, a daughter of Edward Bostock, of Whatcross, in Cheshire; second, a daughter of Sir Thomas Conyngsby, and widow of William Paris; and third, Elizabeth, daughter of John Hardwick, of Hardwick, Derbyshire, and widow of Robert Barley, of Barley, in the same county. Of this lady, who became much celebrated as the Countess of Shrewsbury—“Bess of Hardwick,” as she was called—an account will be found in the present volume under the head of Hardwick Hall. By these three wives Sir William had a numerous family. By his first he had one son and two daughters who died young, and two daughters who married; by his second he had three daughters, who died young; and by his third (“Bess of Hardwick”), he had also several children. These were Henry Cavendish of Tutbury; Sir William Cavendish, created Earl of Devonshire, and who was the direct ancestor of the Dukes of Devonshire; Sir Charles Cavendish, whose son was created Baron Cavendish of Bolsover, Baron Ogle, Viscount Mansfield, and Earl, Marquis, and Duke of Newcastle; Frances, married to Sir Henry Pierrepoint, ancestor of the Duke of Kingston; Elizabeth, married to Charles Stuart, Duke of Lennox (brother of Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and father of King James I.), the issue of which marriage was the ill-fated Arabella Stuart, who was born at Chatsworth; and Mary, who became the wife of Gilbert, Earl of Shrewsbury. Sir William Cavendish was succeeded by his son, Sir William Cavendish, who was created Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, and Earl of Devonshire, by King James I., “at which time of his creation his Majesty stood under a cloth of state in the hall at Greenwich, accompanied with the princes, his children, the Duke of Holstein, the Duke of Lennox, and the greatest part of the nobility, both of England and Scotland.” The earl married, first, Anne, daughter of Henry Kighley, of Kighley; and, second, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Boughton, and widow of Sir Richard Wortley.

He was succeeded by his second son by his first wife, Sir William Cavendish, as second Earl of Devonshire. This nobleman—who had been under the tuition of the famous philosopher, Thomas Hobbes—married Christiana, only daughter of Edward, Lord Bruce of Kinloss, a kinswoman of the king, “who gave her with his own hand, and made her fortune ten thousand pounds.” By her he had issue three sons and one daughter, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William, as third Earl of Devonshire, who was only ten years of age at his father’s death. This nobleman married Elizabeth Cecil, daughter of the Earl of Salisbury, by whom he had two sons, William (who succeeded him) and Charles, and one daughter. William, fourth Earl of Devonshire, before succeeding to the title, was one of the train-bearers to the king on his coronation, and sat in the Long Parliament as member for Derbyshire. His lordship was one of the principals in bringing about “the Glorious Revolution” of 1688, and placing William III. on the throne; the place of meeting for plotting for the great and good change being on Whittington Moor, not many miles from Chatsworth, at a small cottage-inn belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, known as the “Cock and Pynot” (_pynot_ being the provincial name of the magpie), still existing, but recently partly rebuilt. The “plotting parlour,” as the room in this cottage is called, in which the Earl of Devonshire met Earl Danby, John d’Arcy, and others, to plan the revolution, is held in veneration, and the very chair in which the earl sat during the deliberations is preserved by his Grace at Hardwick Hall, where it has been taken, and is, indeed, a most interesting historical relic. The earl, who, as we have already stated, was the rebuilder of Chatsworth, married Mary, daughter of the Duke of Ormonde, by whom he had issue three sons, William (his successor), Henry, and James; and one daughter, Elizabeth. His lordship was, in 1694, advanced by William III. to the dignity of Marquis of Hartington and Duke of Devonshire. He died in 1707, and was succeeded, as second duke and fifth earl, by his son, William Cavendish, captain of the yeomen of the guard to the king, who succeeded to all his father’s appointments, including being Lord Steward of the Household, Privy Councillor, Lord Warden and Chief Justice in Eyre, Lord Lieutenant, K.G., &c.; he was also made one of the Regents of the kingdom. His grace married Rachel, daughter of William, Lord Russel, and on his death was succeeded by his son William as third Duke of Devonshire.

The third Duke, who became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, Lord Steward of the Household, Lord Justice for the administration of government during the king’s absence, Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, &c., married Catherine, heiress of John Hoskins, by whom he had a numerous family. He was succeeded by his son—

William, as fourth Duke of Devonshire, who had, during his father’s lifetime, been called to the Upper House by the title, hitherto of courtesy, of Marquis of Hartington. His grace was made Master of the Horse, a Privy Councillor, one of the Lords of the Regency, Governor of the County of Cork, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, First Commissioner of the Treasury, and Chamberlain of the Household, &c. He married Charlotte, daughter, and ultimately heiress, of Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington and Cork, by which alliance—the lady being Baroness Clifford in her own right—the barony of Clifford came into the Cavendish family. The issue of this marriage was three sons and one daughter—viz., William, who succeeded to the title and estates; Lord Richard, who died unmarried; Lord George Augustus Henry, who was created Earl of Burlington, from whom the present noble Duke of Devonshire is descended; and Lady Dorothy, married to the Duke of Portland.

William, fifth Duke of Devonshire, married—first, the Lady Georgiana, daughter of Earl Spencer, one of the most accomplished and elegant women of the time, and who is best and most emphatically known as “the beautiful Duchess,” by whom he had issue one son, William Spencer Cavendish (who succeeded him), and two daughters, the Lady Georgiana, married to the Earl of Carlisle; and the Lady Harriet Elizabeth, married to Earl Granville. His grace married secondly the Lady Elizabeth Foster, daughter of the Earl of Bristol, and widow of John Thomas Foster, Esq. On his death, in 1811, the title and estates passed to his only son—

William Spencer Cavendish, sixth Duke and ninth Earl of Devonshire, one of the most kindly, generous, and liberal-minded men, and one of the most zealous patrons of art and literature. He was born in Paris in 1790, and, besides holding the office of Lord High Chamberlain, &c., went on a special embassy to Russia from the British court. This embassy his grace conducted on a scale of princely magnificence at his own charge, and concluded it to the entire satisfaction of both nations. By him the modern improvements of Chatsworth were, with master-mind and lavish hand, planned and carried out. His grace, who never married, died in January, 1858, and was succeeded in his titles and estates—with the exception of the barony of Clifford, which fell into abeyance between his sisters—by his second cousin, the present noble head of the house, who was grandson of the first Earl of Burlington. The sixth Duke—the “Good Duke,” for by that title he is known best, and it is as amply merited by the present noble peer—was, by express wish, buried in the churchyard at Edensor, just outside the park at Chatsworth, where a plain and perfectly simple coped tomb, with foliated cross, covers his remains.

The present noble owner of princely Chatsworth, William Cavendish, seventh Duke of Devonshire, Marquis of Hartington, Earl of Devonshire, Earl of Burlington, Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, Baron Cavendish of Keighley, &c., Knight of the Garter, LL.D., F.R.S., Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the County of Derby, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, High Steward of the Borough of Derby, &c., was born 27th April, 1808. His grace is the eldest son of William Cavendish, eldest son (by his wife the Lady Elizabeth Compton, daughter and heiress of Charles, seventh Earl of Northampton), of George Augustus Henry Cavendish (third son of the fourth Duke of Devonshire, by his wife the Lady Charlotte Boyle, as already stated), first Earl of Burlington, and Baron Cavendish, of Keighley, which titles were created in his favour in 1831: he died in 1834. William Cavendish, just referred to, was born in 1783, and in 1807 married the Hon. Louisa O’Callaghan, eldest daughter of Cornelius, first Baron Lismore, by whom he had issue three sons and one daughter, viz., the present Duke of Devonshire; Lord George Henry Cavendish, the present highly-respected M.P. for North Derbyshire, of Ashford Hall, in that county, married to Lady Louisa, youngest daughter of the second Earl of Harewood; Lady Fanny Cavendish, married to Frederick John Howard, Esq.; and Lord Richard Cavendish, all of whom are still living. Mr. Cavendish died in 1812, before his eldest child, the present Duke, was four years of age, his wife surviving him until 1864. His grace was educated at Eton, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as M.A., and was Second Wrangler, Senior Smith’s Prizeman, and in the first class of the Classical Tripos, 1829. In the same year he became M.P. for the University of Cambridge, which seat he held until 1831, when he was returned for Malton, and in the same year, as Lord Cavendish, for Derbyshire, and at the general election in the following year, for North Derbyshire, which constituency he represented until 1834, when he succeeded his grandfather as second Earl of Burlington. In 1856 he was, as Earl of Burlington, made Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire, a post he held until 1858, when, on succeeding to the Dukedom of Devonshire, he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire. From 1836 to 1858 he was Chancellor of the University of London, and, besides many other important appointments, is at the present time President of Owen’s College, Manchester.

His grace, at that time Mr. Cavendish, married, 1829, his cousin, the Lady Blanche Georgiana Howard, fourth daughter of the sixth Earl of Carlisle, by his wife the Lady Georgiana Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonshire. By this beautiful and accomplished, as well as truly estimable lady, who died in 1840, his grace had issue four sons and one daughter, who, with the exception of the eldest, are still living. These are—

1st. Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquis of Hartington, M.P., P.C., LL.D., was born in 1833, and is unmarried. The Marquis was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as B.A. in 1852, M.A. in 1854, and LL.D. in 1862. He holds at the present time the responsible post of Her Majesty’s Chief Secretary of State for Ireland, and has successively held office as a Lord of the Admiralty, Under-Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for War, and Postmaster-General, and was attached to Lord Granville’s special mission to Russia.

2nd. The Lady Louisa Caroline Cavendish, born in 1835, and married in 1865 to Admiral the Hon. Francis Egerton, R.N., M.P. for East Derbyshire, son of the first Earl of Ellesmere, by whom she has issue two sons and one daughter.

3rd. Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish, M.P. for the north division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, born in 1836, and married in 1864 to the Hon. Lucy Caroline, daughter of Baron Lyttelton.

4th. Lord Edward Cavendish, late M.P. for East Sussex, born in 1838, and married in 1865 to Emma Elizabeth Lascelles, a maid of honour to the Queen, and granddaughter to the Earl of Harewood, by whom he has issue two sons.

His grace is patron of thirty-nine livings, and in Derbyshire alone is lord of forty-six manors. His other seats are:—Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, about fifteen miles from Chatsworth; Holkar Hall, in Cartmel; Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire; Lismore Castle, Ireland; Compton Place, Eastbourne, Sussex; and Devonshire House, London.