Lord's Island, in Keswick Lake, is memorable as having been the
home of James Radcliffe, third and last Earl of Derwentwater,
whose life and great possessions were forfeited in 1716, in the
attempt to restore the royal line of Stuart to the throne, and
whose memory is affectionately cherished in the north of England.
An eminence upon its shores, called Castle-Rigg, which overlooks
the vale of Keswick, was formerly occupied by a Roman fort, and
afterwards by the stronghold of the Norman lords, who were called,
from the locality of this their chief residence, de Derwentwater.
Their early history is wrapt in obscurity; but their inheritance
comprised the greater part of the parish of Crosthwaite, in
addition to possessions in other parts of Cumberland, and in other
counties. These became vested in the Radcliffe family in the reign
of Henry the Fifth, by the marriage of Margaret daughter and
heiress of Sir John de Derwentwater, with Sir Nicholas Radcliffe,
of lineage not less ancient than that of his wife, he being of
Saxon origin, and of a family which derived its name from a
village near Bury in Lancashire. In later time the Norman tower on
Castle-Rigg was abandoned, and its materials are said to have been
employed in building the house upon that one of the three wooded
islands in the lake, which is called Lord's Island, and upon which
the Radcliffe family had a residence. This island was originally
part of a peninsula; but when the house was built, it was separated
from the main land by a ditch or moat, over which there was a
draw-bridge, and the approaches to this may still be seen. Of
the house itself, little more than the moss-covered foundations
remain. The stones, successively, of the Roman Castrum, of the
Norman Tower, and of the lord's residence, are said to have been
subsequently used in building the town-hall of Keswick.
The estate of the Derwentwater family seems to have originally
extended along the shores of the lake for nearly two miles, and
for a mile eastward of the shore. On one side of it lies the
present road from Keswick to Ambleside, on the other its boundary
approached Lodore, whilst the crest of Walla Crag, divided it
from the common. There, surrounded by a combination of grandeur
and beauty which is almost unrivalled in this country, the
Knightly ancestors of James Radcliffe, the third and last Earl of
Derwentwater, whose virtues and whose fate have encircled his name
with traditional veneration, had their paternal seat.
This chivalrous and amiable young nobleman was closely allied by
blood to the Prince Edward, afterwards called "the Pretender," in
whose cause he fell a sacrifice; his mother, the Lady Mary Tudor,
a natural daughter of King Charles II. and Mrs. Davis, being first
cousin to the Prince. He was nearly the same age as the Prince,
being one year younger: and in his early childhood was taken to
France to be educated, when James the Second and his consort were
living in exile at St. Germain's, surrounded, however, by the noble
English, Scottish, and Irish emigrant royalists, who followed the
fortunes of their dethroned monarch. The sympathies of his parents
having also led them thither, the youthful heir of Derwentwater
was brought up with the little Prince, at St. Germain's, sharing
his infantine pleasures and pastimes, and occasionally joining his
studies under his governess the Countess of Powis. A friendship
thus formed in youth, nurtured by consanguinity, strengthened by
ripening age, and cemented by the extraordinary good qualities of
the young nobleman, and his power to win affection and esteem,
culminated in that attachment and devotion to the cause of his
Prince and friend, which terminated only with his life.
The Earl appears to have visited Dilston, his ancestral home in
Northumberland, for the first time in 1710, when he was in his
twenty-first year; and in the spring of the same year he spent
some time on the Isle of Derwent, where the ancient mansion of the
Radcliffes was then standing. During a considerable portion of the
two next succeeding years, his chief residence appears to have been
at Dilston, where he lived in the constant exercise of hospitality,
and in the practice of active benevolence towards not only the
peasantry on his wide estates, but all who needed his assistance,
whether known to him or not, and whether Papist or Protestant. He
seems to have taken great delight in rural pursuits, and in the
pleasures of the chase, and in the charms of nature by which he
was surrounded.
On the 10th of July 1712, when he had completed his 23rd year, he
espoused Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Sir John Webb, of Canford,
in the county of Dorset, Bart. His acquaintance with this charming
young lady began in the early springtime of their lives, when
both were receiving their education in the French capital. The
lady had been placed in the convent of Ursuline Nuns in Paris for
instruction: and they had frequent opportunities of seeing each
other at the Chateau of St. Germain's, where the exiled monarch
took pleasure in being surrounded by the scions of his noble
English and Scottish adherents, who were then living at Paris.
On the rising of the adherents of the house of Stuart under
the Earl of Mar in August 1715, it was very well known to the
government, that the Earl's religion, his affections, and
sympathies, were all on the side of the exiled heir of that
family, and that his influence in the north of England was not
less than his constancy and devotion. A warrant was issued for the
apprehension of the Earl and his brother, the government hoping
by thus, as it were, gaining the move in the game, to prevent the
exercise of the Earl's influence against King George. A friendly
warning of the attentions which were being paid to him at Whitehall
reached the Earl in time; and on hearing that the government
messengers had arrived at Durham, on their way to arrest him and
his brother, they withdrew from their home, and proceeded to the
house of Sir Marmaduke Constable, where they stayed some days.
The Earl afterwards took refuge in the home of a humble cottager
near Newbiggin House, where he lay hidden some time. He remained
in concealment through the latter part of August, and the whole of
September. During this time of anxiety and surveillance, all the
money, and even all the jewels of the Countess, are said by local
tradition to have become exhausted: and to such straits was she
reduced, that a silver medal of Pope Clement XI. struck in the 14th
year of his Pontificate (1713), for want of money is said to have
been given by her, when encompassed by the Earl's enemies, to a
peasant girl, for selling poultry, or rendering some such trifling
service.
Early in October it was represented to the Earl that the adherents
of the exiled Prince were ready to appear in arms, and to be only
waiting for him and his brother to join them. It would appear
that at this critical moment, the Earl, influenced by many
considerations, personal and domestic, as well as prudential,
wavered in his resolution; and tradition avers that, on stealthily
revisiting Dilston Hall, his Countess reproached him for continuing
to hide his head in hovels from the light of day, when the gentry
were in arms for their rightful sovereign; and throwing down her
fan before her lord, told him in cruel raillery to take it, and
give his sword to her. Something of this feeling is attributed to
her in the old ballad poem entitled "Lord Derwentwater's Farewell,"
wherein the following lines are put into his mouth:--
"Farewell, farewell, my lady dear:
Ill, ill thou counselled'st me:
I never more may see the babe
That smiles upon thy knee."
The popular notion that the Earl was driven into his fatal
enterprise by the persuasions of his lady is evidently here
referred to. But the amiable and gentle character of the Countess,
that affectionate and devoted wife, whom the Earl in his latest
moments declared to be all tenderness and virtue, and to have
loved him constantly, is a sufficient refutation of the popular
opinion, which does so much injustice to her memory. Nevertheless
there is historical reason for believing that the Earl did suddenly
decide on joining the Prince's friends, who were then in arms;
and his lady's persuasions may have contributed to that fatal
precipitation. On the 6th of October, the little force of horse
and men, consisting of his own domestic levy, was assembled in the
courtyard of his castle; arms were supplied to them; the Earl, his
brother, and the company, crossed the Devil's Water at Nunsburgh
Ford; and the fatal step was irrevocably taken. Old ladies of the
last century used to tell of occurrences of evil omen which marked
the departure of the devoted young nobleman from the home of his
fathers, to which he was destined never to return; how on quitting
the courtyard, his favourite dog howled lamentably; how his horse,
the well-known white or dapple gray, associated with his figure
in history and poetry, became restive, and could with difficulty
be urged forward; and how he soon afterwards found that he had
lost from his finger a highly prized ring, the gift of his revered
grandmother, which he constantly wore.
It is not necessary to dwell upon the details of this unfortunate
and ill-conducted enterprise, in the course of which James III.
was proclaimed in town and village, in Warkworth and Alnwick, in
Penrith and Appleby, Kendal and Lancaster, to the final catastrophe
of the little band at Preston. There, hemmed in by the government
troops, the brave and devoted friends of the royal exiles, who
had been led into this premature effort contrary to their better
judgments, and went forth with a determined loyalty which good or
bad report could not subdue, saw reason to regret, when too late,
their misplaced confidence in their leaders. Already they saw
themselves about to be sacrificed to the divided counsels of their
comrades and the incapacity of Foster, their general. Defensive
means imperfectly planned, and hastily carried out, enabled them
to hold the approaches to the town for three or four days against
the Brunswickers, whom they gallantly repulsed, in a determined
attack upon their barricades. But overmatched by disciplined
troops; out-generalled, and out-numbered; and finding resistance
to be unavailing; on the morning of Monday the 14th of October
they surrendered at discretion to the forces sent to oppose them.
Being assembled in the market place to the number of 1700, they
delivered up their arms, and became prisoners. The young Earl was
sent to London, which he reached on the 9th of December, and was
conducted to the Tower on the capital charge of high treason.
Unavailing efforts were made by his wife and friends to save him.
It appears that on the 20th of February his life was offered to him
by two noblemen who came to him in the tower, in the name of the
King, if he would acknowledge the title of George I. and conform to
the Protestant religion: but these terms were refused by him. The
offer of his life and fortune was repeated on the scaffold, but he
answered that the terms "would be too dear a purchase." The means
proposed to him, he looked upon as "inconsistent with honour and
conscience, and therefore I rejected them." He went to the block
with firmness and composure: and his behaviour was resolute and
sedate. In an address which he delivered on the scaffold, he said
"If that Prince who now governs had given me my life, I should have
thought myself obliged never more to have taken up arms against
him." And the axe closed, by a "violent and vengeful infliction,"
the brief career of the beloved, devoted, and generous Earl of
Derwentwater. He was twenty-seven years of age.
Lady Derwentwater, who had been unceasing in her efforts to save
her husband, and solaced him in his confinement by her society
and tender care, after his death succeeded eventually in having
his last request in the Tower fulfilled. She had his body borne
to its last resting place in the peaceful chapel at Dilston to be
interred with his ancestors. She made a short sojourn at Dilston
before leaving it for ever; and then repaired with her little son
and daughter to Canford, under the roof of her parents.
Before leaving the North, the Countess visited the house and
estates at Derwentwater; and while there her life seems to have
been in some danger; for the rude peasantry of the neighbourhood,
to whom her southern birth and foreign education, as well as the
principles and attachments in which she was brought up, were
doubtless uncongenial, blamed her, in the unreasoning vehemence
of their grief, for the tragic fate of their beloved lord and
benefactor. Accordingly, not far from the fall of Lodore, a hollow
in the wild heights of Walla Crag is pointed out by the name of
Lady's Rake,[5] in which the noble widow is said to have escaped
from their vengeance. Her misfortunes needed not to be thus
undeservedly augmented. A more pleasing version of the story of her
flight is, that the Countess escaped through the Lady's Rake with
the family jewels, when the officers of the crown took possession
of the mansion on Lord's Island. No doubt this loving woman did her
utmost for the release of her lord. And this steep and dangerous
way has a human interest associated with it which has given a
special hold upon the hearts of the Keswick people. In old times
a large white stone in among the boulders used to be pointed out
as the Lady's Pockethandkerchief, and that it still hung among the
crags, where no one could get at it.
In June, 1716, the Countess was living at Kensington Gravel Pits,
near London: whence she soon afterwards went to Hatherhope; and
subsequently made a brief sojourn under the roof of her parents at
Canford Manor; after which she took up her residence at Louvaine.
Here she died on the 30th of August, 1723, at the early age of
thirty; having survived her noble husband little more than seven
years; and was interred there in the Church of the English regular
Canonesses of St. Augustine.
The white or gray horse of the Earl is historical. Shortly before
the rising, and when he was in danger of apprehension, the
following short note was written by him:--
"Dilston, July 27th, 1715.
"Mr. Hunter,
"As I know nobody is more ready to serve a friend than yourself,
I desire the favour you will keep my gray horse for me, till we
see what will be done relating to horses. I believe they will be
troublesome, for it is said the D. of Ormond is gone from his
house. God send us peace and good neighbourhood,--unknown blessings
since I was born. Pray ride my horse about the fields, or any where
you think he will not be known, and you will oblige, Sir, your
humble servant,
"DERWENTWATER."
"He is at grass."
In the first sentence the reference is made to the jealous penal
regulation, which forbade a Roman Catholic to possess a noble animal of
height and qualities suited to military equipment.
From tradition preserved in the family of Mr. Hunter of Medomsley,
the person addressed, there is every reason to believe that the gray
horse mentioned in the above letter, was the identical steed which was
brought by the son of Mr. Hunter to Bywell, and taken thence by Lord
Derwentwater's servant to Hexham for his lordship's use; and upon which
the devoted Earl rode from Hexham, with the gallant champions of the
Prince's right, on the 19th of October following.
A man named Cuthbert Swinburn, then 90 years of age, who was born at
Upper Dilston, and whose family resided there for some generations,
related to a correspondent of W. S. Gibson, Esq., the author of Memoirs
of the Earl of Derwentwater, that he remembered the young Earl, and
saw him pass their house riding on a white horse, and accompanied by
several retainers, on the morning when he joined his neighbours in the
Prince's cause.