Part 36

The Kitchen and Fruit Gardens are about eight acres in extent within the walls, and more than that outside. They are arranged in the most effective, convenient, and admirable manner, and managed with that care and judgment which are the distinguishing characteristics of the head gardener’s skill. His charming cottage forms one of our vignettes; it is overgrown with clematis and other climbing plants, which grow with natural luxuriance over its porch and hedgerows. Nature, indeed, in the grounds and gardens of Belvoir, is the first, the main, and the ultimate study; and thus at all points, and in every direction, natural instead of artificial beauties present themselves to the eye, and give the greatest charm of all to whatever the visitor sees. Wild flowers are especially cultivated and bedded out in all their native simplicity, while numbers of Alpine and other plants are also acclimatised, and mingle their beauties with those of our own country. _Belvoir_ is indeed well named, not only for its “beautiful prospect” from the building itself, but its hundreds of beautiful prospects within its own boundaries.

Well might a gifted authoress thus write on leaving so lovely a place as Belvoir Castle and its surroundings:—

“Farewell, fair castle, on thy lordly hill Firm be thy seat, and proud thy station still: Soft rise the breezes from the vale below— Bright be the clouds that wander o’er thy brow: O’er the fair lands that form thy broad domain, Short be the winter—long the summer reign. Pilgrim of pleasure to thy stately towers, Fain would I leave among thy friendly bowers Some votive offering—and, ere on my way With many a backward glance I turn to stray, Bid virtue, strength, and honour crown thy walls; Joy, love, and peace abide within thy halls; While grateful mirth and noble courtesy, As now, for ever, hold their seat in thee; And still upon thy lordly turrets rest The grateful blessing of each parting guest.”

The neighbourhood of Belvoir Castle is one of great beauty, and it is rich in objects of interest both to the botanist, the naturalist, and the geologist; while to the lover of Nature it presents charms of unusual attraction. In the hills and vales surrounding the castle, nearly the whole series of lower oolitic rocks may be traced, from the white limestone down to the black liassic shales. Capping the hills to the south, which are of greater elevation than the castle, is the inferior oolite, or rather a variety of it called “Lincolnshire limestone,” a hard, light rock, very rich in fossil remains. On these hills the growth of trees is stunted, but the ground is covered with a profusion of lovely flowers. Underlying the oolite is the upper lias clay, rich in fossils and shells. Belvoir Castle itself stands on the extremity of a long northern spur of these hills, upon the middle lias, or marlstone, which caps all the neighbouring heights, and gives their soil a remarkably red tinge. It is very rich in iron, both in veins and in lump ore. The vale of Belvoir, below the castle, towards the north, lies mostly upon the lower lias, which is celebrated for its richness in fossil remains, some of the ammonites here found being of gigantic size. The vale is, however, best known to geologists on account of its sauria, which are both numerous and well preserved. In the old river-ways and hollows of the vale, in the drift, are also found traces of the mammoth, gigantic antlers, and other remains of extinct races of animals, which through untold ages have been hidden from sight.

Our views of Belvoir, we may add, are engraved from photographs, taken specially for the purpose, by Mr. R. Keene, and by Mr. George Green.

Bottesford Church, a fine structure of the Perpendicular period, with a lofty crocketed spire, is mainly interesting as being the resting-place for several of the old monuments of the successive owners of Belvoir, removed hither from the priories of Belvoir and Croxton, and as the burial-place of several generations of the family of Manners. The earliest of the monuments is one which has been variously ascribed to Robert de Todeni and the third William de Albini: if to either, it most probably commemorates the latter of these. Other early monuments are to members of the De Ros family. Among these are William de Ros, 1414; Margaret, his wife; and John, Lord Ros. Among the monuments of the Manners family are those of Thomas, first Earl of Rutland, and his countess, 1543; Henry, Earl of Rutland, and Margaret, his countess, 1563; Edward, third Earl of Rutland, 1587; John, fourth Earl of Rutland, 1588; Roger, fifth Earl of Rutland, 1612; Francis, sixth Earl of Rutland (and his “two sonnes, both which dyed in their infancy, by wicked practice and sorcerye”), 1632; George, seventh Earl of Rutland, 1641; John, eighth Earl of Rutland, and his countess, 1670; and others.

TRENTHAM.

TRENTHAM, the magnificent seat of his Grace the Duke of Sutherland, is beautifully situated not far from the rise of the river Trent, in one of the most charming parts of Staffordshire. Its nearest town is Newcastle-under-Lyme, closely adjacent to the most important centre of British industry, the Pottery district, rendered famous in the world of commerce by its vast productions, which supply every civilised country, and in the world of Art by the “things of beauty” produced by its matchless artists, and which will literally remain a “joy for ever,” in whatever place they may be preserved.

The history of Trentham is not one that requires much attention, for, unlike many other places, it has had no stirring historical incidents connected with it, and its story is therefore one of peace. Its vicissitudes have not been unpleasant ones, not one scene of rapine or war or murder being recorded in its annals; and it has become the “home”—literally the most charming and comfortable of English homes—of one of our greatest nobles, where domestic comforts take the place of state and ceremony, and homelike surroundings supplant unmeaning grandeur.

Trentham Monastery was, it is stated, founded by Ethelred, who succeeded his brother Wulphere as King of Mercia in 675, and who induced his niece Werburgh (daughter of Wulphere) “to leave the religious house at Ely, where she was abbess, to superintend the nunnery he had built at Trentham, as well as other similar religious foundations in Mercia—viz. Hanbury, near Burton-on-Trent; Repton (the capital of the Mercian kingdom), in Derbyshire; and Weedon, in Northamptonshire. Werburgh died at Trentham, after leading a long and pious and eminently useful life, and, being shortly afterwards canonised, became one of the most celebrated of Anglo-Saxon saints. It is supposed that the original site of St. Werburgh’s Nunnery was at Hanchurch, about a mile from Trentham, the spot being marked by some venerable yews of great antiquity, which still form three sides of a square. It was called Tricengham, and is by that name described by Tanner, Dugdale, and others.

There is no record for the next four hundred years; but in the Domesday survey a priest is mentioned as being there. In the time of William Rufus (1027 to 1100), the priory having been restored or rebuilt by the Earl of Chester, “the prior and canons entered upon Trentham by a deed of gift from Hugh, first Earl of Chester; and a deed of institution by Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Lichfield (1139), describes John, the prior, as instituted to the priory of Trentham and its appendages, on the presentation of the Empress Maude, at a synod held at Lichfield.” The building appears to have been continued by the fourth Earl of Chester, as the charter, commonly known as the deed of “Restoration,” is that of Randle, the fourth earl (about 1152). It is the remains of this building which have furnished the fine Norman pillars of the present church. In 1162 the church of Sutton-en-le-Felde, in Derbyshire, was given to Trentham by Ralph de Boscherville. The chapelries of Whitmore and Newcastle also belonged to it; and soon after this date Hugh Kyveliok, Earl of Chester, gave to it the church of Bettesford. In the next century Clayton Griffith became an appanage of the priory, as did Over-Elkiston. In 1321 the advowson was claimed by the Earl of Lancaster, who instituted a prior (Richard of Dilhorne), whose election was afterwards confirmed by the King.

Early in the reign of Henry VI. the priory obtained from the King in very express terms a confirmation and enlargement of former grants. After reciting the original deeds of gift of Henry II. and Randolph, Earl of Chester, the King bestows on “my Canons of Trentham” “Crofts for cultivation, and all other lands belonging to the manor (_in malo territoris_), and the two moores on either side of the village between the wood and the river of Trentham for the purpose of being made into meadow land for the maintenance of the brotherhood and of the hospitalities of the house.... And forbid any man to sue them at law in opposition to this deed, except in my own court.” Given at Dover, 23rd of May, 6th Henry VI. In the latter part of this deed the prior is described as abbot. The _territorium_ which was to be taken into cultivation appears to have been the land extending from the King’s Wood and the High Greaves, and North Wood down to the river. The field lying on the sloping ground between the farmhouse of North Wood and the river is still called the Prior’s More, or Moor.

After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1531, the priory of Trentham (whose last prior was Thomas Bradwell, who, elected 22nd Henry VIII., held office at the time), whose annual value was returned at £106 2_s._ 9_d._ clear, was granted, in 1539, to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, brother-in-law to Henry VIII., and afterwards came into the possession of the Levesons, a Staffordshire family of great antiquity seated at Willenhall. Nicholas Leveson, Lord Mayor of London, died in the year that Trentham was granted to the Duke of Suffolk. His great-grandson, Sir John Leveson, left two daughters only, his co-heiresses, one of whom, Frances, by marrying Sir Thomas Gower of Sittenham, carried Trentham and other extensive possessions into this ancient Yorkshire family, which dates from the Conquest.

Sir Richard Leveson was distinguished as a naval commander. He is considered to be the subject of the fine old plaintive ballad “The Spanish Lady’s Love,” although the same honour has been ascribed to Sir John Bolle, for he accompanied the Earl of Nottingham in his expedition against Cadiz when he was twenty-seven years of age. The ballad, one of the best in our language, tells the story of a “Spanish lady” “by birth and parentage of high degree,” who, being detained as a prisoner by the English captain, was so overcome with his kindness that she conceived a violent attachment towards him; so much so, indeed, that when—

“... At last there came commandment For to set the ladies free, With all their jewels still adornéd, None to do them injury; Then said this lady gay, ‘Full woe is me! O, let me still sustain this kind captivity!

* * * * *

Thou hast set this present day my body free, But my heart in prison strong remains with thee.’”

The captain urged many objections, each one of which in turn she argued away and removed, even when he said—

“I have neither gold nor silver To maintain thee in this case, And to travel is great charges As you know in every place.”

She answered—

“My chains and jewels every one shall be thine own, And the five hundred pounds in gold that lies unknown.”

At length, finding all other argument useless, he is made boldly to declare—

“I in England have already A sweet woman to my wife; I will not falsify my vow for gold or gain, Nor yet for all the fairest dames that live in Spain.”

To which she makes him the magnanimous answer—

“Oh! how happy is that woman That enjoys so true a friend! Many happy days God send her! Of my suit I’ll make an end: On my knees I pardon crave for this offence, Which love and true affection did first commence.

Commend me to thy loving lady, Bear to her this chain of gold And these bracelets for a token, Grieving that I was so bold: All my jewels in like sort bear thou with thee, For they are fitting for thy wife, and not for me.”

And she, taking an affecting leave of him, declares her intention of spending her days in prayer in a nunnery. Sir Richard married the daughter of the famous Earl of Nottingham, who was Lord High Admiral and Commander-in-chief of the fleet which defeated the Armada. Sir Richard Leveson, who was in this engagement, was, in 1601, made Vice-Admiral, and died in 1605. In the collegiate church at Wolverhampton was formerly a “stately monument in black marble erected to his memory, by which were two brass plates, the one inscribed with the chief events of his life, registered at length in Latin,” and the other in English, erected by Sir Richard Leveson. It was executed by Le Sueur for £300, the original contract being still preserved at Trentham. During the civil wars “this bronze effigy was ordered by the Committee of Sequestrations at Stafford to be taken away and cast into cannon; but by the timely interposition of Lady Leveson, the Admiral’s widow, it was redeemed for a sum of money, and deposited in Lilleshall Church till the strife was over. The marble monument being destroyed, it now occupies a niche in the church of Wolverhampton,” and a copy is preserved in a recess in the court-yard at Trentham.

Sir Richard Leveson, Knight of the Bath, M.P. for Shropshire, and afterwards for Newcastle-under-Lyme, was devoted to the cause of Charles I. He made his residence at Trentham, “being accounted one of the best housekeepers and landlords in the county. In consequence of his adherence to the royal cause, his property was sequestrated, for which he compounded by the payment of more than £6,000—the largest composition obtained. A letter of his to the Governor of Shrewsbury strikingly indicates the distresses sustained even by persons of distinction during those troubled times:—

“_S^r_

“Since the unhappy surprise of Stafford by the rebelles, the place where I am is not safe, either for myselfe or my goodes, and therefore I have sent 2 wagons loaded with some household stuffe, which I desire, with your dispensacon, may be received into your towne of Shrewsbury, into a roome which I have longe reserved in myne owne handes for this purpose against a tyme of neede; and that to this effecte you will please to give order unto your watch for free passage to and fro, whereby you will oblige mee more and more to remayne

“Yo^r ever affectionate frende “R. LEVESON.”

“LILLESHALL LODGE, _16 May, 1643_.

“To my much respected frende “S^R FRANCIS OTELEY, Kt “Governour of Shrewsbury—Haste these.”

The Sir Richard Leveson who built the old hall at Trentham in 1633 (two views of which are given in Plot) died in 1661. His widow, Lady Katharine Leveson (daughter of Robert, Duke of Northumberland, and Lady Alice Dudley), was a great benefactress to the parish. She died at Trentham in 1674, and was buried at Lilleshall. Her charities were almost boundless. Sir Richard Leveson dying without issue, the Trentham estates passed to his sister and co-heiress, who had married Sir Thomas Gower, and in the Gower family they have remained to this day. Sir William Leveson-Gower, his second son, who inherited the estates on the deaths of his elder brother and nephew, married Lady Jane Granville, eldest daughter of the Earl of Bath, by whom he had issue, with others, Sir John Leveson-Gower, who in 1703 was created Baron Gower of Sittenham. He married Catherine, daughter of the first Duke of Rutland, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. The eldest of these sons, John, was in 1746 advanced to the dignity of Viscount Trentham and Earl Gower. He was married three times: first, to Evelyn, daughter of the Duke of Kingston, by whom he had four sons and seven daughters; secondly, to Penelope, daughter of Sir John Stonehouse, by whom he had one daughter; and, thirdly, to Lady Mary Tufton, daughter of the Earl of Thanet, by whom he had three sons and one daughter, one of whom was the famed Admiral John Leveson-Gower. His lordship was succeeded by his third son by his first wife, Granville Leveson Gower, who in 1786 was raised to the dignity of Marquis of Stafford. He married three times: first, Elizabeth Fazakerly, by whom he had a son, who died in infancy; second, Lady Louisa Egerton, daughter of the first Duke of Bridgewater, by whom he had issue a son, George Granville, who succeeded him, and three daughters (Lady Louisa, married to Sir Archibald Macdonald; Lady Caroline, married to Frederick, Earl of Carlisle; and Lady Anne, married to Edward Vernon Harcourt, Archbishop of York); third, Lady Susan Stewart, daughter of the Earl of Galloway, by whom he had issue one son, Granville Leveson-Gower, created Baron Leveson of Stone, and Viscount and Earl Granville (who married Lady Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonshire, and was father of the present eminent statesman, Earl Granville), and three daughters—viz. Lady Georgiana Augusta, married to the Earl of St. Germains; Lady Charlotte Sophia, married to the Duke of Beaufort; and Lady Susanna, married to the Earl of Harrowby. The Marquis, who held many important public offices, died in 1803, and was succeeded by his eldest son—

George Granville Leveson-Gower, as second Marquis of Stafford. This nobleman married, in 1785, Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland and Baroness Strathnaver (a title dating from 1228), and was, in 1833, advanced to the dignity of Duke of Sutherland. His grace, who had been called to the Upper House during his father’s lifetime as Baron Gower, became heir to the Duke of Bridgewater, and thus added immense wealth to the family property. He had surviving issue two sons—viz. George Granville, by whom he was succeeded, and Lord Francis, who took the name and arms of Egerton, by sign-manual, in 1833, and was raised to the peerage as Earl of Ellesmere in 1846 (he married Harriet Catherine, eldest daughter of Charles Greville, Esq., by whom he had issue, with others, the second Earl of Ellesmere, and Admiral Egerton, who married Lady Louisa Cavendish, daughter of the present Duke of Devonshire)—and two daughters, viz. Lady Charlotte Sophia, married to the Duke of Norfolk; and Lady Elizabeth Mary, married to Richard, Marquis of Westminster, father of the present Duke of Westminster.

A noble colossal bronze statue of the Duke (who died in 1833), the figure being sixteen feet in height, and placed on a lofty column on Tittensor Hill (called “Monument Hill”), forms a conspicuous object against the sky from the house and gardens of Trentham. It is one of Chantrey’s masterpieces of Art. The column, base, and steps were designed by Barry. The entire height is fifty-nine feet, including the figure. It bears the following appropriate inscription:—

IN LASTING MEMORIAL OF GEORGE GRANVILLE, DUKE OF SUTHERLAND, MARQUIS OF STAFFORD, K.G. AN UPRIGHT AND PATRIOTIC NOBLEMAN, A JUDICIOUS, KIND, AND LIBERAL LANDLORD; WHO IDENTIFIED THE IMPROVEMENT OF HIS VAST ESTATES WITH THE PROSPERITY OF ALL WHO CULTIVATED THEM; A PUBLIC YET UNOSTENTATIOUS BENEFACTOR, WHO, WHILE HE PROVIDED USEFUL EMPLOYMENT FOR THE ACTIVE LABOURER, OPENED WIDE HIS HAND TO THE DISTRESSES OF THE WIDOW THE SICK, AND THE TRAVELLER; A MOURNING AND GRATEFUL TENANTRY, UNITING WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, ERECTED THIS PILLAR A.D. MDCCCXXXIV.

George Granville Leveson-Gower, second Duke of Sutherland, was called to the Upper House during his father’s lifetime as Baron Gower. He was born in 1786, and married, in 1823, the Lady Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Howard, daughter of the Earl of Carlisle. By this happy union his grace had issue four sons and seven daughters. Among these were—the present Duke of Sutherland, of whom more presently; Lord Albert Sutherland Leveson-Gower, who married, in 1872, a daughter of Sir Thomas Nevill Abdy, Bart., and died in 1874, leaving issue one infant; Lord Ronald Charles Leveson-Gower, late M.P. for Sutherland; Lady Elizabeth Georgiana, married, in 1844, to the present Duke of Argyll, and is mother of the Marquis of Lorne; Lady Evelyn, married to Lord Blantyre; Lady Caroline, married to the Duke of Leinster; and Lady Constance Gertrude, married to the present Duke of Westminster. His Grace the Duke of Sutherland died in 1861, aged seventy-four, and was buried in the Mausoleum at Trentham. He was a man of liberal, kindly, gentle, and benevolent disposition, and was beloved by people of every class; indeed, such was the affectionate attachment of his tenants, that after his death they erected statues to his memory on most of his estates.

The Duchess, whose refined taste, attachment to Art, amiability of disposition, winning manners, and energetic character were beyond praise, died in 1868, and was also buried in the mausoleum at Trentham. She was Mistress of the Robes to the Queen, by whom she was esteemed as a beloved friend. To her pure taste Trentham owes many of its most attractive features, and had she lived to carry out the full bent of her inclination, much more would have been accomplished. A chastely beautiful altar-tomb, with a recumbent effigy of the Duchess, by Noble, has been erected in Trentham Church, and is one of the highest and purest achievements of sculptural Art. “Recurring to the monument in Trentham Church,” says the Rev. Prebendary Edwards, “it tells us, though in silence, of a rare combination of affection, thought, and artistic skill in all who have been engaged upon it. It could not have been confided to better hands than Mr. Noble’s, who, as sculptor, has had his heart in his work. Resting in calm and the deepest repose, as between life and death, the figure recalls with wonderful truth the beauty of feature and gentleness of expression of her whom it represents.” The monument is placed at the east end of the south aisle, and the sculptor has been happy in finding a spot for his marble where the light of a south window falls on the countenance of the figure on the tomb beneath. The floor is laid with encaustic tiles, bearing the arms of the family and the initials of the deceased. The monument contains the following inscription, written by Mr. Gladstone:—

HENRIETTÆ DUCISSÆ DE SUTHERLAND FIDO MARMORE DESCRIPTA EFFIGIES EJUS CARISSIMA IMAGO NUNQUAM NON VIDEBITUR INTER SUOS MORARI QUIPPE QUÆ ET MULTUM ET A MULTIS AMATA HAUD SCIAS AN NON MAGIS IPSA AMAVERIT EGREGIA MENTIS ET FORMÆ DOTIBUS GNATA SOROR UXOR MATER PARENS ABSOLUTISSIMA HABUIT INSUPER E CORDIS BENEVOLENTIA QUOD IN AMICOS LARGE DIMANARET DULCEDINUM ET DELICIARUM OMNIA QUEIS FRUI DATUM EST HOMINIBUS ILLI CARPERE DIUTIUS LICUIT ILLI QUOD RIRIUS CIRCA SE DIFFUNDERE SUB EXTREMUM VITÆ SPATIUM ETIAM IN DOLORIBUS SPECTATA NUSQUAM MEDIOCREM SE PRÆBUIT DENIQUE DEI OPT. MAX. CONSILIUM LIBENTER AMPLEXA ET USQUE AD FINEM SINE MOLLITIE TENERRIMA TRANQUILLE IN CHRISTO OBDORMIVIT LONDONI XXVII DIE OCTOBRIS ANNO REDEMPTORIS MDCCCLXVIII

Besides this and other inscriptions, at the head of the tomb we read—

IN TE MISERICORDIÆ IN TE PIETADE IN TE BENEFICENZA IN TE S’ADUNDA QUANTUNQUE IN CREATURA É DI BONTADE;