[Illustration: TRENTHAM HALL.]
The rivers which drain the limestone hills of Derbyshire unite to form
the Trent, and this stream, after a winding and picturesque course
through Midland England towards the eastward, flows into the Humber, and
ultimately into the North Sea. Its first course after leaving Derby is
through Staffordshire, one of the great manufacturing counties of
England, celebrated for its potteries, whose product Josiah Wedgewood so
greatly improved. The county-seat is Stafford, on the Sow River, not far
from the Trent Valley, and on a high hill south-west of the town are the
remains of the castle of the Barons, of Stafford, originally built a
thousand years ago by the Saxons to keep the Danes in check. This
castle was destroyed and rebuilt by William the Conqueror; again
destroyed and again rebuilt by Ralph de Stafford in Edward III.'s reign.
In the Civil Wars this castle was one of the last strongholds of King
Charles I., but it was ultimately taken by Cromwell's troops and
demolished, excepting the keep; a massive castellated building of modern
construction now occupies its place. The river Trent, in its winding
course, forms near Trentham a fine lake, and the beautiful neighborhood
has been availed of for the establishment of the splendid residence of
the Duke of Sutherland, about a mile west of the village, and known as
Trentham Hall. The park is extensive, the gardens are laid out around
the lake, and the noble Italian building, which is of recent
construction, has a fine campanile tower one hundred feet high, and
occupies a superb situation. The old church makes part of Trentham Hall,
and contains monuments of the duke's family and ancestors, the
Leveson-Gowers, whose extensive estates cover a wide domain in
Staffordshire. Trentham, which is in the pottery district and not far
from Newcastle-under-Lyme, was originally a monastery, founded by St.
Werburgh, niece of AEthelred. She was one of the most famous of the
Anglo-Saxon saints, and some venerable yews still mark the spot where
her original house stood, it being known as Tricengham. These yews, said
to have been planted about that time, form three sides of a square. The
religious house, rebuilt in William Rufus's reign, was given, at the
dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII., to his brother-in-law,
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and it afterwards came into possession
of the Levesons. From the marriage of a daughter of Sir John Leveson
with Sir Thomas Gower sprang the family of the present ducal house of
Sutherland, the head of it being created Marquis of Stafford in 1786 and
Duke of Sutherland in 1833. The present duke is the third who has held
the title, his mother having been the daughter of the Earl of
Carlisle--the famous Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland. The old Trentham
Hall was built in 1633, being rebuilt and enlarged by Sir Charles Barry
about fifty years ago.
[Illustration: TRENTHAM HALL--ON THE TERRACE.]