and that she, and her daughters, might easily be made instruments
to enlarge his kingdom; and be, as it were, the executioners of his
vengeance, not caring whether it lighted upon innocents, or no; he
came more near unto them, and in plain terms, to come quickly to the
purpose, offered them his service, and that in such a manner, as they
might easily command what they pleased; for he would attend you in
such pretty forms of dog, cat, or rat, that they should neither be
terrified, nor any body else suspicious of the matter. Upon this, they
agree, and (as it should seem) give away their souls to the service of
such spirits, as he had promised them; which filthy conditions were
ratified with abominable kisses, and an odious sacrifice of blood,
not leaving out certain charms and conjurations, with which the devil
deceived them, as though nothing could be done without ceremony,
and a solemnity of orderly ratification. By this time doth sathan
triumph, and goeth away satisfied to have caught such fish in the net
of his illusions: by this time, are these women devils incarnate, and
grow proud again in their cunning and artificial power, to do what
mischief they listed. By this time, they have learnt the manner of
incantations, spells, and charms. By this time, they kill what cattle
they list; and under the cover of flattery and familiar entertainment,
keep hidden the stinging serpent of malice, and a venomous inclination
to mischief. By this time, is the earl and his family threatened,
and must feel the burthen of a terrible tempest, which, by these
women’s devilish devices, fell upon him; he neither suspecting nor
understanding the same. By this time, both himself and his honourable
countess, are many times subject to sickness and extraordinary
convulsions; which they, taking as gentle corrections from the hand of
God, submit with quietness to his mercy, and study nothing more than
to glorify their Creator in heaven, and bear his crosses on earth.
“At last, as malice increased in these damnable women, so his family
felt the smart of their revenge and inficious disposition; for his
eldest son, Henry, Lord Rosse, sickened very strangely, and after
awhile, died. His next, named Francis, Lord Rosse accordingly, was
severely tormented by them, and most barbarously, and inhumanly
tortured by a strange sickness. Not long after, the Lady Catherine was
set upon by their dangerous and devilish practices; and many times
in great danger of life, through extreme maladies and unusual fits,
nay, (as it should seem, and they afterwards confessed) both the earl
and his countess were brought into their snares, as they imagined,
and indeed determined to keep them from having any more children. Oh
unheard of wickedness and mischievous damnation! Notwithstanding all
this, did the noble earl attend his majesty, both at Newmarket, before
Christmas; and at Christmas, at Whitehall; bearing the loss of his
children most nobly; and little suspecting that they had miscarried
by witchcraft, or such like inventions of the devil; until it pleased
God to discover the villanous practices of these women, and to command
the devil from executing any further vengeance on innocents, but leave
them to their shames, and the hands of justice, that they might not
only be confounded for their villanous practices, but remain as a
notorious example to all ages, of his judgment and fury. Thus were
they apprehended, about Christmas, and carried to Lincoln gaol; after
due examination, before sufficient justices of the peace, and discreet
magistrates, who wondered at their audacious wickedness. But Joan
Flower, the mother, before her conviction, (as they say,) called for
bread and butter, and wished it might never go through her, if she
were guilty of that whereupon she was examined; so, mumbling it in her
mouth, never spake more words after; but fell down and died, as she
was carried to Lincoln gaol, with a horrible excruciation of soul and
body, and was buried at Ancaster.
“When the earl heard of their apprehension, he hasted down with
his brother, Sir George, and sometimes examined them himself, and
sometimes sending them to others; at last, left them to the trial
of law, before the judges of assize at Lincoln; and so they were
convicted of murder, and executed accordingly, about the eleventh of
March, to the terror of all beholders as example of such dissolute and
abominable creatures.”
On the stately monument of the Earl at Bottesford the death of these
two sons is thus alluded to:—“In 1608 he married the Lady Cecelia
Hungerf’rd, daughter to the Hon’ble Knight, Sir John Tufton, by whom he
had two sonnes, both which dyed in their infancy, by wicked practice
and sorcerye.”
In the civil wars Belvoir Castle was taken by the Royalist party
in 1642, and placed under command of Colonel Lucas. In 1645 the
King himself was there. In the same year Prince Rupert and Prince
Maurice were at Belvoir. Soon afterwards it was besieged by the
Parliamentarians; the outworks and stables, which had been fortified,
were taken by storm; the entire village of Belvoir was demolished; and
on the 3rd of February, 1646, the castle, with its appurtenances, was,
in pursuance of terms of capitulation, surrendered to the Parliament,
who immediately appointed Captain Markham as its governor. Shortly
afterwards the castle was disgarrisoned and restored to its owner,
the Earl of Rutland. In 1649 the Council of State reported “their
resolution for demolishing the castle; which the Earl of Rutland was
content with,” and it was accordingly demolished, the Earl receiving a
miserable pittance by way of compensation, and taking up his residence
at Haddon Hall. About 1662 the Earl appears to have commenced the
rebuilding of the castle, which was completed in 1668. In 1801 the
then Duke of Rutland, father of the present duke, who had, during his
minority, conceived the idea of rebuilding and extending the castle,
began to carry out his design by pulling down the south and west fronts
next to the court-yard, and continued rebuilding under Wyatt till 1816,
by which time the south-west and south-east parts were completed, and
the Grand Staircase and Picture Gallery in the north-west front were
nearly finished. In that year a fire broke out in the castle, by which
the north-east and north-west fronts were entirely destroyed. By that
fire a large number of valuable paintings, estimated at nearly eleven
thousand pounds in value, were totally destroyed. Among these were no
less than nineteen by Sir Joshua Reynolds (including the “Nativity”
and a number of family portraits); and many by Rubens, Vandyke, Carlo
Maratti, Lely, Domenichino, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Titian, Poussin,
West, and others. Fortunately, although five children of the Duke and
Duchess (who themselves were at Cheveley), and all the household were
sleeping in the castle, no loss of life occurred. In March, 1817, the
Duke commenced rebuilding the castle, the architect being the Rev. Sir
John Thoroton, of Bottesford, to whose good taste and that of the Duke
and his amiable duchess, are due the fine proportions and the majestic
character of the building as it now stands.
Belvoir has often been visited by royalty. James I. and Charles I.
both stayed there, and in 1813, the Prince Regent, afterwards George
IV., and the Duke of York, spent several days there. In 1839 the
Dowager Queen Adelaide remained there for nearly a week, and in 1843
our present beloved Queen Victoria, with the Prince Consort, the Queen
Dowager, the Duke of Wellington, and others, visited the Duke, and
remained his guests for four days. In 1866 their Royal Highnesses the
Prince and Princess of Wales visited Belvoir, and the Prince again
remained there in 1873. Other members of the royal family have also
been received within its walls.
The principal apartments of the castle are, by kind permission of the
Duke, shown to visitors, and the surrounding grounds are literally, as
we have before said, open to all, “without let or hindrance.”
Passing up the steep ascent from near the cosy inn (on, or closely
adjoining to, the site of the old priory), the visitor, if on foot,
wends his way along the path among magnificent forest trees, and up
a flight of stone steps to the basement story of the castle, where,
in the solid masonry from which the superstructure rises, are the
workshops of the artisan retainers of the family; and from hence by a
rising pathway to the bastion, mounted with cannon, which gives an air
of baronial importance to the place. If the visitor ride or drive, the
ascent is somewhat more circuitous, but the carriage-way leads to the
same point—the Grand Entrance to the Castle.
The Grand Entrance, which is shown to the spectator’s left in our
general views from the north-west, opens from an advanced groined
porch, into which carriages drive from one side, and out at the other,
massive doors enclosing them while visitors alight. Over the doors are
armorial bearings of the family and its alliances. From the porch the
entrance doorway opens into the groined entrance passage, or corridor,
decorated with stands of arms, banners (among which is the one borne by
the present Duke of Rutland at the funeral of the Duke of Wellington),
and military trophies, which leads to the Guard-room, or Great Hall
of the mansion. This noble room, which has a groined ceiling, and a
mosaic floor of black and white marble and Nottinghamshire freestone,
bears in recesses and arcades on its walls groups of arms and armour,
trophies of war, and other appropriate decorations; and in two glazed
recesses a number of relics of the great Marquis of Granby, and of
his brilliant military achievements, and his well-earned decorations.
Besides many other objects of peculiar interest in this room are two
tables made from remarkable deposits, of eleven years’ formation, in
the wooden water-pipes of the Blithe Mine in Derbyshire; a model of the
old castle; standards, arms, and armour from the field of Waterloo; a
Chinese junk; and some good armour.
Opposite the entrance are the Grand Staircase and the Guard-room
Gallery. In the windows of the latter are finely executed stained-glass
figures (by Wyatt) of Robert de Todeni, William de Albini, Walter
Espec, and Robert de Ros, with their armorial insignia. From the
landing at the head of the Guard-room Staircase, which contains
full-length portraits of Queen Anne and George Prince of Denmark,
access is gained to the Grand Staircase leading to the principal
apartments; the walls of the staircase itself being hung with
full-length paintings of the first eight Earls of Rutland, with their
armorial bearings within the archways. The ceiling is richly groined.
The Regent’s Gallery, so called from the Prince Regent (George IV.),
for whose use it was fitted up on his visit to Belvoir in 1813, is one
of the main features of the castle. It is a noble apartment, 128 feet
long by 18 feet wide, with a central bow, formed by the central tower,
of 36 feet wide. At one end is Nollekens’ fine bust of George IV., and
at the other the equally fine bust of the late estimable duke, while
other parts of the room are adorned with corresponding sculptures
of the late Duchess of Rutland, the Marquis of Granby, Lord Robert
Manners, Pitt, Cromwell, William III., George II., Earl of Mansfield,
Duke of Somerset, Earl of Chatham, Admiral Keppel, and others. One
striking feature of this gallery is the Gobelins tapestry (eight
pieces) which adorns the walls. It is in perfect preservation, and
represents scenes in the story of Don Quixote from designs by Coypel,
and appear to have been made in 1770. The walls are also adorned
by many family portraits and other paintings by Reynolds, Hoppner,
Kneller, Smirke, Lely, Bishop, Zucchero, Stothard, and others. The
appointments of this splendid room are arranged with perfect taste, and
it is filled with objects of interest and beauty; one object that often
attracts attention being a carved chair, bearing an inscription showing
that it was made, as is also one belonging to the Queen, from the wood
of the tree at La Haye Sainte, against which the Duke of Wellington
took up his station at the battle of Waterloo. The opposite end of the
Regent’s Gallery to that at which the visitor enters from the Grand
Staircase is one gigantic mirror filling the whole space, and thus,
in appearance, giving it a double length. From this end one doorway
leads to the private gallery of the chapel, and another opens into the
library.
The Library is entirely of oak, the ceiling divided into compartments,
with carved bosses at the intersections, and armorial bearings
decorating other parts. Over the fire-place Grant’s fine portrait of
the late duke, “presented to his grace as a token of affection and
esteem by his tenantry, 27th February, 1856,” is placed, and forms a
pleasant feature in the room. The collection of books is, as is natural
to expect, of the most choice and costly kind, many of the literary
treasures being priceless gems of past ages. Among these are several
curious and valuable MS. rarities and sketches by the old masters.
The Picture Gallery, a noble apartment of admirable proportions, has
a coved ceiling, rising from a cornice richly ornamented in gold and
white, with figures and foliage in bold relief. The collection of
pictures in this gallery, some two hundred in number, is remarkably
fine and choice, and contains many notable examples of the best and
most reputed masters—Murillo, Rubens, Teniers, Gerard Douw, Rembrandt,
Claude, Gaspar Poussin, Parmigiano, Carlo Dolce, Berghem, Carracci,
Guido, Vandyke, Holbein, Bassano, Paul Veronese, Bronzino, Van der
Heyden, Netscher, Van der Velde, Reynolds, Jansen, Ruysdael, Correggio,
Albert Dürer, Dekker, Schalken, Spagnoletto, Caravaggio, Wouvermans,
Cuyp, and a host of others.
[Illustration: _The Grand Corridor, or Ball-room._]
The Duchess’s Boudoir, a lovely room, commanding an almost enchanting
view of the grounds and distant country, was the favourite apartment
of the late duchess, and remains as left by her. Like the other private
rooms, passages, and corridors, it contains many genuine pictures of
note as well as family portraits.
The Grand Corridor, or Ball-room, which, seen from the landing of the
staircase, is shown in the engraving on the preceding page, is one
of the most striking features of the interior of the castle. It is
of Gothic design, the whole being of stone, and copied from various
parts of Lincoln Cathedral. It is lit by nine windows in length, with
stained-glass armorial decorations, and has an elegant groined ceiling,
with carved bosses at the intersections; and the walls are arcaded,
and contain full-length life-size and other portraits of the present
noble duke (two) by Grant; the late Lady John Manners, by Buckner; Lord
Robert Manners, by Reynolds; and several others.
The Queen’s Sitting-room, or Green Assembling-room, in the Staunton
Tower, besides being an elegant apartment, commands a magnificent view
of the charming grounds and the distant country, including Croxton with
the Duke’s Deer Park, Woolsthorpe, Harlaxton, the Kennels, and the
Lake. Adjoining this are the Chinese Rooms—a suite of bed and dressing
rooms, so called from the style of their furniture and papering—which
were occupied by our beloved Queen in 1843.
The Grand Dining-room has a richly panelled ceiling of white and gold,
and contains a side-table of white marble, carved by Wyatt, so as to
look like a table “covered with a white linen table napkin; the folds
being so accurately represented in the marble as to require a close
inspection to convince the observer of the solidity of the material.”
It weighs between two and three tons. In this room are magnificent
examples, life-size full-length portraits, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and
others by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
The Elizabeth Saloon, so called after the late duchess (Elizabeth,
second daughter of Frederick Howard, Earl of Carlisle, and wife of
John Henry, fifth Duke of Rutland), by whose taste and judgment it was
arranged and decorated. The walls are hung with satin drapery, and
the ceiling, which was painted by Wyatt, is filled with mythological
subjects and family and other portraits. The furniture and appliances
are sumptuous and elegant, and altogether this saloon is the most
gorgeous in the castle. Among its Art treasures are a full-length
marble statue of the late duchess by Wyatt; two full-length life-size
portraits of the late duke and duchess by Sanders; several rare enamels
and pictures; a number of choice watercolour drawings; an extensive
series of cabinet portraits, &c.; and many cabinets, caskets, and other
choice objects.
Other apartments are the King’s Rooms, so called because used by
the Prince Regent while at Belvoir; the Hunters’ Dining-room; the
Wellington Rooms, so named because occupied by the Duke of Wellington;
the Family Dining-room, &c., but these require no word of comment.
The Chapel, with panelled stone walls and elegant groined ceiling, has
a canopied reredos, containing one of Murillo’s grandest and choicest
works—the “Holy Family,” whose value is estimated at four thousand
guineas.
The Wine Cellar in the Staunton Tower, with its vaulted ceiling and
carved boss with crowned monogram of the Blessed Virgin, is one of
the oldest parts of the castle. The Ale Cellar is said to contain
thirty-one thousand gallons of liquor! The largest tun, which holds
about thirteen hundred gallons of ale, is called after the founder
of the castle, “Robert de Todeni,” while the next three largest are
named respectively the “Marquis of Granby,” “Lord John,” and “Lord
George.” The Housekeeper’s Rooms, with their fine assemblage of old
Chelsea, Derby, Sèvres, and other china services; the Steward’s Room;
the Plate Pantry, with the grand and invaluable services of plate; the
kitchens and other offices, perhaps the most perfect of any in their
arrangements and appliances, are all deserving more notice than the
mere mention we can give them.
The Muniment-room, under the able guardianship of Mr. Green, is, in our
eyes, one of the most important and interesting features of the castle,
and one in which we would fain “live and move and have our being” for
the rest of our lives. It is a perfect mine of historical wealth, and
as a storehouse of genealogical and antiquarian lore is unsurpassed
by any other mansion. It literally overflows with deeds and MSS. of
one kind or other, and all in the most admirable order and condition.
The deeds in this room are above four thousand in number, the greater
part of which date back to the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and
fifteenth centuries.
[Illustration: _The Duchess’s Garden._]
Among the treasures are the cartularies and registers of Belvoir Priory
and Croxton Abbey; rent-rolls of Croxton; household books of various
early periods; a vast amount of original letters; personal accounts and
bills relating to Haddon Hall; inventories of Riveaulx Abbey, Belvoir,
Croxton, St. Dunstans-in-the-West, Haddon, &c.; plea-rolls, charters,
and grants and confirmations of lands, pedigrees, agreements, &c.
One of the great glories of Belvoir, however, is its grounds and
surroundings; but to these, which to do them justice would require a
special article to themselves, we can only devote a few brief lines.
[Illustration: _The Statue Garden._]
The whole place is a labyrinth of beauty, each separate spot that we
come to exceeding in exquisite loveliness those we have passed, and
each turn bringing to view fresh glimpses of charming scenery which
show how well Nature has been studied, and how thoroughly Art, with the
pure and accomplished taste of the late duchess, has been wedded to
her. The Duchess’s Garden, below the slope on the west of the castle,
is formed in an exquisite glade, surrounded on all sides by grand old
trees and luxuriant shrubs; the beds terraced one above the other,
or gently sloped and planted in amphitheatre form, with masses of
colour which give a richness and peculiarity to the scene. The Duke’s
Walk—an avenued path extending in its devious way for about three
miles in length—passes above this garden, and is broken by glimpses
of all the varied scenery on the way, and rendered pleasant by rustic
summer-houses, seats, and other resting-places. Near to the Duchess’s
Garden, in this walk, a tablet, admirably carved by the late Mr. Bath,
of Haddon, bears a sonnet from the pen of the fifth duke in memory of
the duchess. It runs as follows:—
“One cultivated spot behold, which spreads
Its flowery bosom to the noontide beam—
Where num’rous rosebuds rear their blushing heads,
And poppies rich, and fragrant violets teem.
Far from the busy world’s unceasing sound—
Here has Eliza fixed her favourite seat,
Chaste emblem of the scene around—
Pure as the flower that smiles beneath her feet.”
Of the character of the Duchess’s Garden a writer in the _Journal
of Horticulture_ (to which we are indebted for the two beautiful
engravings on pages 8 and 24), thus speaks:—“This is a beautiful glade
of considerable extent, surrounded on all sides by trees of grand
dimensions, which on our visit were in their early beauty, developing
those varied tints of green which, if not quite so glowing as the
autumnal ones, are at any rate fresher, and, moreover, are associated
with the thoughts of the lengthening and brightening days of summer,
and not with the shortening and darkening days of winter. In this glade
the natural rocks have been accommodated to the requirements of Alpine
gardening, while the upper portion has been arranged in beds.” “The
bedding pansies, the oxlips (of which the Belvoir strain is remarkably
fine), were in flower. The beautiful _Gentiana verna_, accommodated
with nice little ledges on which its brilliant blue shone out
brilliantly, the bright yellow _Doronicum Austriacum_, and other fine
plants were there. And then how beautiful were the blue forget-me-nots!
how luxuriantly fine the _Saxifraga crassifolia_! Then, again, we had
the brilliant blue of _Lithospermum prostratum_ as it trailed over the
rockery, and that of its larger congener, _L. Gastoni_. Of a softer but
no less beautiful shade of blue was _Myosotis dissitiflora_, though now
nearly past, as it is the earliest of the tribe. Then how fine was
_Veratrum nigrum_, beautiful for its foliage!” “Then there were bright
masses of _Dianthus neglectus_ and _alpinus_, with their dense tufts
of lovely pink flowers; and turn which way you will, gems of rarity
or beauty met the eye.” “One likes to linger on these slopes; and as
one stands on the upper portion of it, and looks down on the carpet of
lovely green backed by the feathery and elegant foliage of the birch,
it is indeed hard to be obliged to tear one’s self away from it.”
[Illustration: _Belvoir Castle, from the Stables, showing the Covered
Exercise-ground._]
The Statue Garden, one of the most striking “bits” in the grounds,
is so called from a number of statues by Cibber which adorn it.
This garden, when viewed from the terrace, entirely screened from
observation from the castle, is one of marvellous and old-world beauty;
the majestic and venerable silver firs—remarkable for their gigantic
growth and their hoary age—the grounds, half garden, half wood (a
strange combination of natural wildness with artificial planting),
adding much to the effect of the scene.
The Dairy, the Kennels, the Stables with the covered Exercise-ground,
and the Farm, as well as the magnificent Lake of ninety acres in
extent, are all objects of special interest, but to them we can only
thus allude.
[Illustration: _The Gardener’s Cottage._]