ancient fire-place, is still a very interesting relic, and one of the
most perfect things in the castle. It occupies the whole interior of a
large strong square tower. The windows, which have stepped sills, are
set high up in the walls, and are connected by a perforated passage
of defence provided with garde-robes, which runs all round. Two pairs
of very strong vaulting ribs, intersecting in the centre, carry the
louvre, which is of stone and of immense size. The lower part, twelve
feet square, rises to upwards of the same height above the leads, and
is surmounted by an octagon fifteen feet higher still. Externally it
forms a very striking and effective feature. Below the Kitchen a cellar
of the same shape and size has a well-groined vaulted roof carried
on a central pillar. Another to the east, which has a large double
fire-place at one end, has a strongly ribbed circular segmental vault.
All the first-floor chambers of the west front, including Clifford’s
Tower, have plain barrel vaults. The lower chamber of Bulmer’s Tower
had till lately a richly groined vault of great strength and beauty.
The Hall Tower has both its lower stories vaulted; the first ribbed,
the second plain. The whole of this tower, inside and out, has been
wonderfully preserved. Vaults, windows, grilles, doorways, stairs,
garde-robes, all are nearly intact, and will bear careful examination.
It is really the most perfect thing in the place. The Chapel, all
mutilated as it is, still deserves notice. The Sanctuary, which forms
the central portion of a tower, has a boldly ribbed quadripartite
vault. Above it is a guard-chamber. Its exterior window, above the
eastern one of the Chapel, is marked by a very remarkable little
hanging machicoulis.
[Illustration: _Raby Castle, West Side._]
The entrance to Raby is by the Porter’s Lodge in the north-west portion
of the embattled outer wall. In this Lodge are found some family
relics; among others, the sword worn by Lord Barnard, son of the first
Earl of Darlington, at the battle of Fontenoy, where a bullet, striking
his sword, broke it, and then, glancing off, disabled its wearer. The
Gateway is flanked by two towers, each of which is surmounted by a
figure of a mail clad warrior.
The main entrance to the castle itself is on the west side, between
two towers. It is a long passage, with groined roof and traces of
portcullis; and carriages drive through this passage into the
Quadrangle, or Court-yard. Crossing this, and facing the main entrance
just alluded to, is the enormous doorway opening into the Great or
Entrance Hall. Through this doorway the carriages literally drive into
the mansion, and there set down the guests in the Hall itself, which
is of great size, with an arched roof, supported by eight octagonal
pillars in its centre. “When the brilliant gas above combines its glare
with that of two enormous fires, and the roof is echoing to the tramp
of horses and the roll of wheels, the visitor cannot but be struck
with the unusual entrance,” says a recent writer. In this Hall is hung
Turner’s famous picture of Raby Castle.
Above this Great Hall is the famous Baron’s Hall immortalised by
Wordsworth, where
“Seven hundred knights, retainers all
Of Neville, at the muster’s call,
Had sate together in Raby’s hall.”
This Hall, which is 126 feet long by 36 feet broad, is ceiled with
oak and contains a large number of family portraits; also “Interior
of an Artist’s Studio,” by Teniers, and portraits of Queen Elizabeth,
Cromwell, James II., and Frederick, Prince of Wales. The south end
of the room is modern, being built over the Octagon Drawing-room. A
staircase leads from the Baron’s Hall to the Chapel, renovated by the
second duke. Some of the windows are filled with stained glass by
Wailes; others with old German glass. The Chapel contains Murillo’s
“St. Catherine” and “The Saviour bearing the Cross.”
In most of the apartments of the castle are many fine pictures,
portraits and others, among which are the Duke of Cleveland, son of
Charles II.; Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland; Lady Barnard, wife
of Christopher, Lord Barnard; Harry, second Duke of Cleveland, in his
Garter robes; and the first Duke of Cleveland in his uniform as Colonel
of the Durham Militia. The Octagon Drawing-room, built by the second
duke, is, in all its details, a most elaborate and highly finished
apartment. The furniture is elegant. In this room is Hiram Powers’
celebrated statue of the “Greek Slave,” purchased by the second Duke of
Cleveland for £1,800.
The Kitchen is a fine specimen of mediæval architecture, and is
evidence of the lavish hospitality of a former age. “The enormous oven
would have baked bread for an army, and is described by Pennant as
being, in his time, used as a wine-cellar, ‘the sides being divided
into two parts, and each part holding a hogshead of wine in bottles.’”
It is not necessary for us to enter further into the details of the
interior arrangements of the castle. All we need say is, that the rooms
are fitted and furnished with all the appliances of Art which might be
expected in the home of so enlightened and so liberal-minded a nobleman
as his Grace the Duke of Cleveland.
Staindrop, closely adjoining Raby Park, is an interesting town, whose
Church contains many monuments to members of the noble families of
Nevil and Vane. The Church was restored in 1849. Among the monuments,
perhaps the most interesting are an altar-tomb, with recumbent
effigies, to Ralph Nevil, Earl of Westmoreland, and his two wives,
Margaret, daughter to Hugh, Earl of Stafford, and Joan, daughter to
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster; and a monument in wood, with effigies
of Henry, fifth Earl of Westmoreland (1564), and his two wives. There
is also a magnificent white marble altar-tomb to the first Duke of
Cleveland, by Westmacott, the recumbent figure on which is beautifully
executed. In the chancel there is a monument, of exquisite design, in
the purest white marble, in memory of Sophia, Duchess of Cleveland
(wife of the second duke), who died in 1859. Within the altar-rails are
other monuments, including those of Henry, second Earl of Darlington,
who died in 1792; Margaret, Countess of Darlington, who died in 1800;
and Katharine Margaret, Countess of Darlington, who died in 1807. There
are also stained-glass windows in memory of Henry, second Duke of
Cleveland; one erected by the friends and tenants of the Duke, and the
other by Lady Augusta Powlett, his sister-in-law. A monumental brass of
chaste design, on the north side of the Church, preserves the memory of
William, third Duke of Cleveland. North of the Church is a Mausoleum,
erected by the second Duke of Cleveland, in which the remains of the
Duke and other members of the family repose.
CLIEFDEN.
OUR notice of “charming Cliefden” must necessarily be brief; not
because the “Stately Home” itself lacks of stateliness, of beauty, of
grandeur, or of interest; not because the episodes in its history are
“few and far between,” or devoid of incident; not because its glorious
situation and its picturesque surroundings present few features for the
pen to dwell upon, and the poetic or artistic mind to linger over; and
not because the genealogies of the families to which it has belonged
will not vie both in point of antiquity, in fame, and in noble and
illustrious actions with others; but simply because the space at our
disposal will admit only of words where we would gladly have written
paragraphs. In interest, in beauty, and picturesque surroundings,
Cliefden will bear favourable comparison with most others of our
series, while it yields to none in the loveliness, the romantic beauty,
and the attractiveness of its situation. To take only a cursory glance
at such a place is like peeping in at the door of a picture gallery,
without having time to note any of the treasures spread on its walls.
Cliefden, now one of the seats of his Grace the Duke of Westminster,
is situated in Buckinghamshire, and overlooks the river Thames in its
most attractive part. It is to Cliefden that the river here owes its
chief loveliness, but it is also to the river that Cliefden is indebted
for one of its principal attractions. From the Berkshire side of the
Thames the woods and the mansion form a magnificent scene, but it is
from the bosom of the stream that its beauties are best understood
and most enjoyed. “Cliefden runs along the summit of a lofty ridge
which overhangs the river. The outline of this ridge is broken in the
most agreeable way; the steep bank is covered with luxuriant foliage,
forming a hanging wood of great beauty, or in parts bare, so as to
increase the gracefulness of the foliage by the contrast; and the whole
bank has run into easy-flowing curves at the bidding of the noble
stream which washes its base. A few islands deck this part of the
river, and occasionally little tongues of land run out into it, or a
tree overhangs it, helping to give vigour to the foreground of the rich
landscape. From the summit the views are really magnificent; both up
and down the river they are of surpassing beauty. Looking over Windsor,
the eye ranges far away till it loses itself in the hazy distance, to
which the royal pile gives an aërial grace, while it adds majesty to
the whole view. Looking up the river towards Hedsor the charming seat
of Lord Boston, we have a prospect little less splendid, though of
a different character. A vast extent of country lies at one’s feet,
covered with dense wooded tracts, from which ever and anon peeps up an
old grey tower; and the blue smoke marks a secluded village, while the
glorious river winds away like a broad stream of molten silver.” The
immediate grounds, whether Thamesward or landward, are well laid out,
and present at every turn spots of beauty and loveliness not excelled
elsewhere.
[Illustration: _Cliefden._]
Speaking of the river scenery about Cliefden, Mr. Hall, in his “Book
of the Thames,” says, “Those who accuse our great island river of
insipidity, who, if they concede its claims to beauty, deny its
pretensions to grandeur, will do well to row beneath the thick
woods of Taplow and Cliefden, and, looking up, they will have no
difficulty in imagining themselves in one of the grandest and richest,
in picturesque attractions, of our English lakes; indeed, they will
require only the near and distant mountains to fancy themselves under
the heights of Glena, in all-beautiful Killarney. Well may we rejoice
to scan the charms of our glorious river, and ask the aid of Poetry
and Art to give them fame and power. But the painter will fail here.
He may select graceful nooks, and a thousand objects will, singly or
in groups, present themselves as fitting subjects for his pencil;
but he cannot convey to the eye and mind a just idea of the mingled
grandeur and beauty of this delicious locality; while the poet will
find only themes which have been, ever and everywhere, the chosen and
the favoured of his order. Those who row past these charming woods,
and note what has been done by taste, in association with wealth, to
render every part delightful, ascend any of the heights and examine the
‘prospect,’ near or distant, their enjoyment will be largely enhanced.
It is impossible, indeed, to exaggerate the beauty and harmony of the
foliage which everywhere surrounds us:—
‘Beautiful in various dyes,
The gloomy pine, the poplar blue,
The yellow beech, the sable yew,
The slender fir that taper grows.
The sturdy oak with broad-spread boughs;
And, beyond., the purple grove.
Haunt of Phyllis—Queen of Love!’
But there are here hundreds of other trees which the poet could
not commemorate, for they were unknown in England in his time. All
climes and countries have contributed to the wealth of foliage at
Cliefden—woods, lawns, and gardens are enriched by tributes from
every land to which enterprise has conducted British science to gather
treasures converted from exotics into subjects naturalised and ‘at
home.’”
Cliefden formerly belonged to the ancient family of Manfeld, of
Buckinghamshire, from whom it was purchased by the infamously
profligate George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, who built the
mansion, and expended large sums of money in laying out the grounds and
planting them with all the rarities of arboriculture he could procure.
He employed Archer, the architect, to design and erect the mansion, and
to adorn the grounds with alcoves and other buildings of a like nature.
[Illustration: _The Thames at Cliefden._]
The house was a commanding square structure, of three stories in
height, besides the terrace (440 feet long), and it had wings connected
with the main building by a colonnade. It was built of red brick, with
stone dressings. He furnished it in a sumptuous manner, and hung its
walls with fine tapestry and valuable pictures. Here the Duke brought
his mistress, the Countess of Shrewsbury, and here gave full bent to
his licentious habits. Thus Cliefden gained an unenviable notoriety,
and has been immortalised in song and in prose:—
“Gallant and gay, in Cliefden’s proud alcove,
The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love.”
In 1667-8 the Duke had taken part in a singular triple duel about the
Countess, and had mortally wounded her husband by running him through
the body. Pepys thus wrote of this duel:—“January 17th. Much discourse
of the duell yesterday between the Duke of Buckingham, Holmes, and
one Jenkins, on one side, and my Lord of Shrewsbury, Sir John Talbot,
and one Bernard Howard, on the other side: and all about my Lady
Shrewsbury, who is at this time, and hath for a great while been, a
mistress to the Duke of Buckingham. And so her husband challenged him,
and they met yesterday in a close near Barne-Elmes, and there fought:
and my Lord Shrewsbury is run through the body, from the right breast
through the shoulder; and Sir John Talbot all along up one of his
armes; and Jenkins killed upon the place, and the rest all in a little
measure wounded.
[Illustration: _Cliefden: the Cottage._]
This will make the world think that the King hath good counsellors
about him, when the Duke of Buckingham, the greatest man about him,
is a fellow of no more sobriety than to fight about a mistress. And
this may prove a very bad accident to the Duke of Buckingham, but that
my Lady Castlemaine do rule all at this time as much as ever she did,
and she will, it is believed, keep all matters well with the Duke of
Buckingham; though this is a time that the King will be very backward,
I suppose, to appear in such a business. And it is pretty to hear how
the King had some notice of this challenge a week or two ago, and did
give it to my Lord Generall to confine the Duke, or take security that
he should not do any such thing as fight: and the Generall trusted to
the King that he, sending for him, would do it; and the King trusted
to the Generall. And it is said that my Lord Shrewsbury’s case is to
be feared that he may die too: and that may make it much worse for the
Duke of Buckingham: and I shall not be much sorry for it, that we may
have some sober man come in his room to assist in the Government.”
[Illustration: _Cliefden: the Summer Cottage._]
The Countess of Shrewsbury (the Duke’s mistress), who was Anna Maria,
daughter of Robert, Earl of Cardigan, is said to have held the Duke’s
horse, habited as a page, while the duel was being fought, and that
she thus not only saw her husband mortally wounded, but then went
home with the murderer, where she took him to her arms “in the shirt
covered with her husband’s blood.” The Duke was married to the Hon.
Mary Fairfax, daughter and heiress of Lord Fairfax, the Parliamentary
general—a woman of pure tastes and faultless habits—whom he
shamefully neglected. Pepys, under date the 15th of May, 1668, says, “I
am told also that the Countesse of Shrewsbury is brought home by the
Duke [the Earl had died of his wounds in March] of Buckingham to his
house, where his Duchesse, saying that it was not for her and the other
to live together in a house, he answered, ‘_Why, madam, I did think so,
and therefore have ordered your coach to be ready to carry you to your
father’s_;’ which was a devilish speech, but, they say, true; and my
Lady Shrewsbury is there, it seems.”
Large as was the income of the Duke, his profligacy, extravagance, and
immoralities so swallowed it up that he did not complete Cliefden, and
died in wretchedness; and but for the timely help of Lord Arran, a
few days before his decease, in abject poverty and loneliness. “There
is not,” wrote Lord Arran, “so much as one farthing towards defraying
the least expense;” and Pope, in one of his epistles to Lord Bathurst,
remarks—
“Behold! what blessings wealth to life can lend,
And see what comforts it affords our end!
In the worst inn’s worst room, with mat half-hung,
The floors of plaster, and the walls of dung,
On once a flock bed, but repaired with straw,
With tape-tied curtains, never meant to draw,
The George and Garter dangling from that bed,
Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red,
Great Villiers lies—alas! how changed from him,
That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim,
Gallant and gay in Cliefden’s proud alcove,
Tho bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love;
Or just as gay at council in a ring
Of mimick’d statesmen and their merry king.
No wit to flatter, left off all his store;
No fool to laugh at, which he valued more;
There victor of his health, of fortune, friends,
And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends.”
Soon after the Duke’s death all his property, being deeply mortgaged,
was sold, but did not realise enough to pay his debts; and dying
without issue, “his titles, which had been undeservedly conferred on
his father, and only disgraced by himself, became extinct.”
Cliefden was purchased by Lord George Hamilton (fifth son of the Duke
of Hamilton), who was created Baron Dechemont of Linlithgow, Viscount
Kirkwall of Orkney, and Earl of Orkney, in 1696. His lordship completed
the mansion, and did much towards beautifying the grounds. Dying
without male issue in 1737, his eldest daughter, Anne, became Countess
of Orkney, and succeeded to the Cliefden estate. She, however, did
not reside here, but let it to H.R.H. Frederick, Prince of Wales,
father of King George III., who for many years made it his summer
residence. Here, at Cliefden, on the 1st of August, 1740, was first
performed Thomson and Mallet’s masque of _Alfred_, in which occurs
the ever-famous and patriotic “ode in honour of Great Britain,” “Rule
Britannia”—
“When Britain first, at Heav’n’s command,
Arose from out the azure main”—
the music of which was composed by Dr. Arne. It was, therefore, within
the walls of Cliefden that “Rule Britannia” was first heard, and this
gives it a literary interest of no small note. The masque in which
it formed so prominent a feature was prepared and given at Cliefden,
to commemorate the accession to the throne, in 1714, of King George
I. (grandfather of Frederick, Prince of Wales), and in honour of the
third birthday of his daughter, the young Princess Augusta. It was
repeated the following night, and soon became the most popular of all
compositions.
In 1795 the mansion (it is traditionally said through the carelessness
of a maid-servant reading a novel in bed) was totally destroyed by
fire, the wings, at some distance from the main building, being alone
saved; while nearly all the sumptuous furniture, pictures, and tapestry
were devoured by the flames. The estate was afterwards purchased by Sir
George Warrender, by whom the mansion, which had been left in ruins
since the fire, was rebuilt in 1830. After his death the estate was
sold by Sir George’s executors to his Grace the Duke of Sutherland,
and on the 15th of November, 1849 (the day of thanksgiving for the
cessation of the cholera), only a few months after its purchase, it was
again burned down.
In the following year, 1850, the Duke of Sutherland set about
rebuilding the mansion on a scale of princely magnificence, and having
engaged the services of Barry as architect, the present pile soon rose
from the ruins of the former buildings. The “centre portion, which is
a revival of the design for old Somerset House, now extends to the
wings, which, together with the terrace, are made to harmonize with
the new building.” The house and grounds, like Trentham, owe much of
their beauty and loveliness to the good taste of the Duke and Duchess,
the latter of whom, when a dowager, made it one of her favourite
residences. The interior of this “Stately Home” needs no particular
description. The rooms are, of course, one and all sumptuously
furnished with all the appliances of wealth and taste, and are lavish
in their attractions. It is truly a “home of beauty and of taste.”
Cliefden passed from the Duke of Sutherland to his daughter, the Lady
Constance Leveson-Gower, married to the present Duke of Westminster,
whose property this splendid domain is.
[Illustration: _The Principal Front._]
The family of Grosvenor, of which the present owner of Cliefden is
the illustrious head, is one of high antiquity, tracing, as it does,
in England, from the Norman conquest, when his grace’s ancestor came
over with William the Conqueror. The principal line of the Grosvenors
was seated at Hulme, in the hundred of Northwich, in Cheshire, and was
descended in direct line from Gilbert le Grosvenour, nephew of Hugh
Lupus, the Norman Earl Palatine of Chester, whom he accompanied to this
country. The name, it is said, was derived from _le Gros Venour_, from
the family having held the hereditary post of chief huntsman to the
Dukes of Normandy. This main line was extinct in the twenty-second year
of the reign of Henry VI., the line being continued by Ralph Grosvenor,
second son of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, of Hulme. He married Joan Eaton,
daughter and sole heiress of John Eaton, of Eaton, or Eton, in
Cheshire, Esq., early in the fifteenth century. In 1621-2 a baronetcy
was conferred on the representative of the family; and in 1676, Sir
Thomas Grosvenor having married Mary, sole daughter and heiress of
Alexander Davies, of Ebury, in the county of Middlesex, Esq., laid the
foundation of the immense wealth and rapidly increasing honours of the
Grosvenors.
In 1761 the then baronet, Sir Richard Grosvenor, was elevated to the
peerage by the title of Baron Grosvenor of Eaton, in Cheshire, and
in 1781 was advanced to the titles of Viscount Belgrave and Earl
Grosvenor. He married Henrietta, daughter of Henry Vernon, Esq., by
whom he had issue an only son, Robert Grosvenor. The Earl died in 1802,
and was succeeded by his son, Robert Grosvenor, as second earl.
This nobleman was born in 1767, and married, in 1794, the Lady Eleanor
Egerton, daughter of the first Earl of Wilton, by whom he had issue his
successor, Lord Richard, who became third earl and second marquis; Lord
Thomas, who became Earl of Wilton; and Lord Robert, M.P. In 1831 Earl
Grosvenor was advanced to the dignity of a marquis, by the title of
Marquis of Westminster being conferred upon him. He died in 1845, and
was succeeded by his eldest son—
Richard, second Marquis of Westminster and third Earl Grosvenor.
He was born in 1795, and in 1819 married the Lady Elizabeth Mary
Leveson-Gower, second daughter of the first Duke of Sutherland, and by
her had issue a family of four sons and nine daughters. His lordship,
dying in 1869, was succeeded by his eldest son, the present peer, Hugh
Lupus Grosvenor, in all his titles and estates, who, in 1874, was
created Duke of Westminster.
The present noble head of this illustrious family, his Grace, Hugh
Lupus, first Duke and third Marquis of Westminster, Earl Grosvenor,
Viscount Belgrave, Baron Grosvenor of Eaton, a Baronet, and a Knight
of the Garter, was born on the 13th of October, 1825, and succeeded
his father in 1869. His grace was educated at Eton and at Balliol
College, Oxford, and represented Chester in Parliament from 1847 to
1869, when he entered the Upper House. In 1852 his grace, then Marquis
of Westminster, married his cousin, the Lady Constance Leveson-Gower,
daughter of the second Duke of Sutherland, and sister of the present
noble owner of Trentham. By this union his grace has issue, living,
five sons and three daughters. These are—Victor Alexander, by courtesy
Marquis of Westminster, to whom (born in 1853) her Majesty the Queen
stood sponsor in person, who married, in 1874, the Lady Sibell Mary
Lumley, daughter of the Earl of Scarborough, by whom he has issue, and
is heir to the titles and estates; Lord Arthur Hugh Grosvenor, born in
1863; Lord Henry George Grosvenor, born in 1864; Lord Robert Edward
Grosvenor, born in 1869; Lord Gerald Richard Grosvenor, born in 1874;
the Lady Elizabeth Harriet, born in 1856; the Lady Beatrice Constance,
born in 1858; and the Lady Margaret Evelyn, born in 1873.
The Duke of Westminster is patron of eleven livings, four of which are
London churches; and his seats are Eaton Hall, Cheshire; Cliefden,
Buckinghamshire; Halkin, Flintshire; and the mansion in Upper Grosvenor
Street.