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.
[Illustration: _The Old Hall as it formerly stood._]
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.
“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.
[Illustration: _Chatsworth from the River Derwent._]
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.