In describing the ancient baronial mansion, Haddon Hall, it was
mentioned that the Dukes of Rutland had abandoned it as their residence
about a hundred years ago and gone to Belvoir in Leicestershire. Belvoir
(pronounced Beever) Castle stands on the eastern border of
Leicestershire, in a magnificent situation on a high wooded hill, and
gets its name from the beautiful view its occupants enjoy over a wide
expanse of country. In ancient times it was a priory, and it has been a
castle since the Norman Conquest. Many of the large estates attached to
Belvoir have come down by uninterrupted succession from that time to the
present Duke of Rutland. The castle itself, however, after the Conquest
belonged to the Earl of Chester, and afterwards to the family of Lord
Ros. In the sixteenth century, by a fortunate marriage, the castle
passed into the Manners family. Thomas Manners was created by Henry
VIII. the first Earl of Rutland, and he restored the castle, which had
for some time been in ruins. His son enlarged it, making a noble
residence. The sixth Earl of Rutland had two sons, we are told, who were
murdered by witchcraft at Belvoir through the sorcery of three female
servants in revenge for their dismissal. The three "witches" were tried
and committed to Lincoln jail. They were a mother and two daughters, and
the mother before going to the jail wished the bread and butter she ate
might choke her if guilty. Sure enough, the chronicler tells us, she
died on the way to jail, and the two daughters, afterwards confessing
their guilt, were executed March 11, 1618. The seventh Earl of Rutland
received Charles I. at Belvoir, and in the wars that followed the castle
was besieged and ruined. After the Restoration it was rebuilt, and in
finer style. The Dukes of Rutland began to adapt it more and more as a
family residence, and, after abandoning Haddon Hall, Belvoir was greatly
altered and made a princely mansion. It consists of a quadrangular
court, around which are castellated buildings, with towers surmounting
them, and occupying almost the entire summit of the hill. Here the duke
can look out over no less than twenty-two of his manors in the
neighboring valleys. The interior is sumptuously furnished, and has a
collection of valuable paintings. A large part of the ancient castle was
burnt in 1816. The Staunton Tower, however, still exists. It is the
stronghold of the castle, and was successfully defended by Lord Staunton
against William of Normandy. Upon every royal visit the key of this
tower is presented to the sovereign, the last occasion being a visit of
Queen Victoria. Belvoir, in the generous hands of the Dukes of Rutland,
still maintains the princely hospitality of the "King of the Peak." A
record kept of a recent period of thirteen weeks, from Christmas to
Easter, shows that two thousand persons dined at the duke's table, two
thousand four hundred and twenty-one in the steward's room, and eleven
thousand three hundred and twelve in the servants' hall. They were
blessed with good appetites too, for they devoured about $7000 worth of
provisions, including eight thousand three hundred and thirty-three
loaves of bread and twenty-two thousand nine hundred and sixty-three
pounds of meat, exclusive of game, besides drinking two thousand four
hundred bottles of wine and seventy hogsheads of ale. Thus does Belvoir
maintain the inheritance of hospitable obligation descended from Haddon
Hall.