side of the valley from the castle, on a spot immediately facing the
windows of the Duchess’s boudoir, chosen by herself as a fit place
wherein she might rest. Her grace died in 1825, and was buried at
Bottesford Church. In 1826 the mausoleum was commenced, and completed
in 1828, when her body, and those of nine other members of the family,
were removed to it and deposited in the vault. Since then others have
been removed there, and the “good duke” also there rests, as does the
lamented Lord George Manners (brother of the present duke), who died in
November, 1874. The mausoleum is approached by an avenue of grand old
yews, which give a solemnity to the place which is eminently in keeping
with its character. The building is in the Norman style, and consists
of what may perhaps be called a chapel, with apse and a projecting
porch, and vaults beneath. Within the apse, lit with a flood of golden
light from above, is one of the most exquisitely beautiful pieces of
sculpture it has been our good fortune to see. On it the Duchess is
represented as rising from the admirably sculptured tomb with expanded
arms, and her face elevated towards the clouds, in which are seen four
cherubs—the children who preceded her to the grave—one of whom is
holding over her a crown of glory. It is by Wyatt, and is considered to
be his masterpiece.
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.
[Illustration: _Trentham, from Monument Hill, Tittensor._]
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.”
[Illustration: _Statue of Sir Richard Leveson in the Court-yard at
Trentham._]
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.
[Illustration: _Monument of Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, Trentham
Church._]
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;