WORTLEY & THE WORTLEYS LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE SHEFFIELD LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, ALSO THE ROTHERHAM LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY, BY THE Rev. ALFRED GATTY, D.D. VICAR OF ECCLESFIELD, AND SUB-DEAN OF YORK. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. SHEFFIELD : PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THOMAS RODGERS, CHANGE ALLEY CORNER. 1877. TO THE COUNTESS OF WHARNCLIFFE, THROUGH WHOM the HOUSES of LASCELLES AND WORTLEY WERE UNITED, AND GRACE AND WORTH ADDED TO THE LATTER, THIS LECTURE IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED. A. G. AVORTLEY & THE WORTLEYS. TO venture on speaking of a place which is named in the Domesday survey, and of a family which claims traceable descent from at least the reign of King Stephen, demands, in treating of their earlier history, both caution in the le6lurer and credulity in his hearers. The Lordship of Wortley, as it is locally called, occupies three-fourths of the parish of Tankersley. Its ecclesiastical position has been that of an ancient parochial chapelry. These district churches, in olden time, were founded and endowed by the lords of the manor for the convenience of their own households, and such tenants as resided at a distance from the parish church. Their origin is often very obscure. It is not known when Wortley Chapel was first built ; but so early as in the reign of Henry III. — that is, in the thirteenth century — Mr. Hunter thinks that an undated deed describes Sir Nicholas Wortley as giving to his servant, Alan Alemote, a messuage for his life, charging the same with an annual payment of £2. to the chapel of St. Leonard, of Wortley. Near the end of King Henry's reign — that is, in the year 1268 — there was a dispute betwixt the lord of Wortley and the parson, documentary evidence of which exists in the archives at Wortley Hall, to this effe6t : that " Nicholas de Wortley, who had brought an assize of a novel disseisin against Henry, Parson of the Church of Wortley, for Common of Pasture in Wortley, comes into Court, and signifies that he will proceed no farther in the said action, by entering his retraxit se upon record." Appended to this ancient memorandum is the following : — " N.B. — It should seem, by this entry, that the vill of Wortley was at this time a distinct parish of itself, of which the defendant Henry was Parson." This inference, if corredl, would show that Wortley once held a more dignified position, in the Church, than it has since occupied. Blackstone tells us that " a parson is one that hath full pos- session of all the rights of a parochial church. He is called parson (persona), because in his person, the Church, which is an invisible body, is repre- sented." The cause of dissension betwixt Nicholas de Wortley and Parson Henry was probably no unusual source of difference at this time ; for it was in the twentieth year of Henry HI., that " the statute of Morton first gave power to Lords, to endow wastes and commons, provided they left sufficient common of pasture for the freeholders." However all this may have been, it is certain that, through a long series of years, the church at Wortley was no more than a chapel of ease to Tankersley, whose re6lor nominated the curate to the chapehy ; but the first Lord Wharnchffe very properly recovered the patronage of this small benefice to himself and heirs ; and so it now rests — the Incumbent having all parochial rights, and cure of souls, secured to him by the course of recent legislation. To return to the place itself. The name of Wortley appears to be derived from the Anglo- Saxon, and to signify, " The Field of Herbs " — not inappropriate to the wild growths of this mount- ainous and stony distri6l. The Domesday record tells us, that the cultivated land in Wortley before the Conquest consisted of five carucates, that is, what five ploughs could work, or about 500 acres ; and of pasturable wood, there was one square leuka and a quarter, or 1800 acres ; and, as Wharncliffe Wood is 1400 acres, and the rest of the Chase about 600, the measurements nearly correspond. This is interesting, as showing how small is the change which has taken place, on that rugged hill side, during the space of 800 years. The whole of Wortley was then divided into two portions : one of which contained four carucates, with a leuka of wood ; and the other consisted of one carucate, with one-fourth of a leuka of wood. At the Con- quest, the value of the first-named larger portion was forty shillings, and that of the smaller portion ten shillings. This was the estimated valuation in Edward the Confessor's time. When, in 1086, the Domesday Survey was pub- lished, a sad change had come over the distri6l. The larger portion was returned as waste, and valueless, which had before been worth forty shillings ; whilst the smaller portion, escaping more easily, was set down in value at eight shillings and eightpence — something less than what it had previously been worth. The cause of this woeful depreciation can only be ascribed to the terrible vengeance of the Conqueror, who, with more than Turkish fury, devastated our northern country in 1070 ; because of the insurgent spirit which broke out in rebellion at York and elsewhere. Wortley was not given to a Norman at the Con- quest, but was allowed to be held of the king by Elric, who, with Ulsi, another Saxon, was joint owner in the time of the Confessor. This Elric held the larger wasted portion of Wortley, which became included with Tankersley; whilst the lesser portion passed to the honour of Skipton. One great antiquity, appertaining to Wortley, are the Ironworks, which still exist on the estate. Large quantities of scoria — some probably of the time of the Roman occupation — have been found in the woods ; and I have heard it said, that the excellent road from Grenoside to Wortley, which was made in the time of the first Lord Wharncliffe, owes its durability, in great measure, to much of this half-fused iron ore being used for its foundation. At any rate, the Wortley Ironworks rank amongst the oldest in the country, and are certainly anterior 7 to any other hereabouts. Mr. James Cockshutt, who was at one time in partnership with the great Welsh ironmaster, Crawshay, owned them at the beginning of the present centur}^, and was amongst the first to appreciate the inventions of the unfor- tunate Henry Cort. He laid down a grooved rolling mill, and puddled his iron into blooms, and was an early pioneer of those more recent processes which have made iron malleable as clay in the potter's hand. One small testimony to the anti- quity of the Wortley forges may be read on a gravestone in Wortley churchyard : — "Here lieth the body of Francis Askew, of Upper Forge, ham- merman, died 24 Oct. i66g." We will proceed to the family of Wortley. No doubt much obscurity hangs about their origin in very early times ; but it must have been, during the life of the Conqueror's sons, that Alanus* de Wortley was born ; and he was the first known progenitor of the noble house, still in possession of Wortley lordship. Dodsworth appears to have rescued the name of Alanus from oblivion, but nothing else is known of its owner. Not fewer perhaps than eight Nicholas de Wortleys followed him in succession, most of whom were knights, and their line extended into the middle of the fourteenth century. One proof of their social eminence is, that they * In the illuminated pedigree at Wortley Hall, Ralph de Wortley is named as the founder of this family ; but Mr. Hunter prefers the authority of Dodsworth. He says: "In the received pedigrees a Ralph de Wortley occupies the place which of right belongs to Alan." — .S. Yorkshire. 8 adopted, as their coat armour, at a very early period, the shield of Furnival, the great lord of Hallamshire — the only difference being, three bezants on a bend. They held a charter of free warren from 1246, which gave them all game rights, and forbade any person to enter the lands of Wortley, or Hardwick,* for chase or like purpose, without the license of Nicholas de Wortley and his heirs, on pain of forfeiting £10. They enfran- chised their bond-tenants, after the manner of Thomas de Furnival, who did this in 1297 5 and in 1307 they obtained, for their tenants at Wortley, a market every Thursday, and a three-days' fair at Whitsuntide. They also built a chapel, as before shown. Fortunate marriages, too, were made by them, which brought additional estates. The second Nicholas de Wortley married Dionysia de New- march, through whom, it is probable, came the Hardwick property. The next Nicholas married an heiress, Isabel Heron, who brought lands in Hoyland Swein. The succeeding Nicholas married Joan Musard, who brought the Horbury estate ; and a subsequent Sir Nicholas married Elizabeth de Wannerville, who brought half the manor and advowson of Hemsworth, with other lands ; and at Hemsworth some generations of the family both lived and were buried. It is evident that the mediaeval Wortleys were a wise and thrifty race, looking well after the pre- servation and extension of their estates — nor least * Hardwick is near Aston. so, by means of that mercantile operation, peculiar to the period — I mean, the disposal of heiresses in marriage. The very solid and important position they held in this part of the country, is amply proved by the grave responsibilities that were thrown upon them — sometimes in conne6tion with other leading members of the aristocracy, whose names and estates have nevertheless disappeared from modern history. For example, " Ralph de Bulmere and Nicholas de Wurteley are by letters patent of the 7. Oct. 1332, commissioned and dire6ted to raise 300 archers and 700 foot, in the County of York, with all expedition, to go with the King to oppose the Scots, if they should attempt anything in the Marshes." (Rymer's F., vol. iv., p. 534.) Again we have "John de Wortley, by letters dated 29 May 1415, commissioned to muster and array men at arms in the West Trithing (now cor- ruptly called Riding) of the Co. of York ; and to employ them for the defence of the sea coasts, and elsewhere ; and also to place Bekyns in the usual places that notice may be given of the approach of the enemies, in case they should attempt to make a descent whilst the King was beyond the sea in his expedition against France." (Rymer's Foedera, vol. iv., p. 225.) And again, the same authority says, " Nicholas Wortley received payment for those who went to France with the King, pro uno homine ad anna et pro it sagittariis, xi/. vii>s. vi^. This Nicholas the brother, not the father of Sir Thomas Wortley." (R. F., vol. xi., p. 86). Such 10 is the statement in the evidences at Wortley Hall ; but Mr. Hunter does not enumerate a Nicholas amongst the brothers of Sir Thomas. Of this doughty knight, Sir Thomas himself, some details must be recalled. He was born about the year 1440, during the time of the first great Earl of Shrewsbury, whose a6tive military life was chiefly spent out of Hallamshire ; and as the two succeeding Earls were engaged in the Wars of the Roses, and their successor came to the title in 1473, when only five years old, and did not reside at Sheflield much before the year 1500, there was ample room for a Wortley to occupy that foremost place in the distri6l which ordinarily belonged to a Talbot. Hence, it is said by the author of the illuminated Wortley pedigree, which was drawn out in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that Sir Thomas Wortley was "the only man in these parts." He was squire and knight for the body to four kings : — Edward IV., Richard HI., Henry VH., and Henry Vni. They made him steward of the royal Castle of Middleham, also of Kimberworth, also of Fount- ains, Nostell, and Monk Bretton Abbeys, from which he had yearly fees. Twice he was High Sheriff of Yorkshire, and he served his royal masters in their wars. He appears also to have lived with great hospitality. Archbishop Scott, whilst building his college at Rotherham and the church, was his frequent guest, as well as Arch- bishop Savage ; and divers noble youths were con- signed to his pare and training, according to the M custom of the time, before undertaking the man- agement of their own estates. Sir Thomas was thrice married, and to good purpose : first, to Catherine FitzwilHam of Sprotbro' — secondly, to an heiress, the widow of Sir John Pilkington — and thirdly, to a daughter of Sir Richard FitzwilHam of Aldwark, who was the widow of John FitzwilHam of Sprotbro'. We are told of his personal habits, that " he was much given to showting in the long bowe, and many of his men were cuninge archiers, and in them he did much delite." It was he who built the Lodge on Wharncliffe Crags, where "he did lye for the most part of the grease time," that he might hear the hart's bell, or bellowing of the stag, at a certain season of the year. And it is further related of this vigorous sportsman, that "he would go into the Forest of the Peak, and set up ther his tent with great provision of vitales, having in his company many worshipfull persones, with his owne familye, and would remain ther vii. weeks — or more, huntinge and makynge other worthy pastimes unto his companye." His breed of hounds too was so famous, that the King of Scotland wrote to ask for some of them ; when Sir Thomas loyally sent his Majesty ten couples, with his own huntsman, who remained eleven years with the king. All seemed to prosper with this lusty old knight, and not least remarkable, in the course of his life, was the special favour which he managed to secure from both Richard III., and his successor, by 12 conquest, Henry VII. We must hope that he took no part on the battle-field of Bosworth ; for personal obligation would preclude his choosing either side. To have fought against King Richard, would have been raising his hand against his best benefactor ; whilst he lived through the reign of Henry VII., in high favour with that king also, and he died in 1516, and was buried at Hemswoith. Immediately on the death of Sir Thomas, came an illustration of the Psalmist's maxim — Man " heapeth up riches, but cannot tell who shall gather them." The old knight's only son, Thomas, was the issue of his third marriage ; and his one other child was Isabel Talbot, who had married, without his consent, and was daughter of his first wife. To her he left nothing by will ; and gave all his estates to his son, Thomas Wortley. Twenty- five years of litigation followed ; for the daughter claimed the estates, which were settled at her mother's marriage : she also disputed the legitimacy of her half-brother's birth ; for his mother was married during the lifetime of Lady Pilkington, whom Sir Thomas had divorced ; and when, after heavy expenses had been incurred on both sides, a settlement of the dispute was obtained by arbitration ; about one-third of the Wortley estates were given to the daughter, and so alienated from the family property, whilst the lawyers had appro- priated the cash. The memory of old Sir Thomas Wortley is best preserved in this neighbourhood, by the inscription 13 on the rock at Wharncliffe Lodge, which he had built in his old age. The son, Thomas, who succeeded him, married a daughter of Sir John Savile-of Tankersley, and died at the early age of 42, after a harassing life of litigation and losses. His widow became the wife of Richard Corbet, Esq., of Shropshire, who nursed the estate for the benefit of the issue of his wife's previous marriage — their own union having brought no children — and he added to the property, by purchasing the manors of Carlton and Swinton, as well as other lands in the neighbourhood. His widow long survived him. Her son, Francis Wortley, was a remarkable man. The Earl of Shrewsbury spoke of him, as " a gentleman bothe wise and of very good cred}i;h in the country." Lord Burleigh commended him, " as of great lyving and accounte." His first wife was a daughter, and co-heiress, of Robert Swyft of Rotherham and Broomhall, who bore him a very large family, for whom he made handsome provision: and there was issue from his second wife, who in her widowhood married Francis Foljambe of Aldwark. So highly did Lord Shrewsbury esteem Mr. Wortley, that he proposed to commit to his custody the unfortunate Queen Mary, during a temporary absence when he wished to visit the Court — but the responsibility and expense were prudently declined. He had been trained to the Law, when young ; and his polished intelledl and experience qualified him for posts of honour and 14 labour in his own county. His son Richard, who was knighted, left a large family, having rebuilt the Old Hall at Wortley in 1586. He died 25th July, 1603, and was "buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The son, and successor of Sir Richard, was Sir Francis Wortley, who was knighted by James I. at his palace of Theobalds in Hertfordshire, and was created a baronet in the following year, on the first institution of that order. He was a man of learning, as well as courage ; but had to lay down the book and pen, and grasp the sword, when the unhappy times of Charles I. forced every family to take a side in the contests of a civil war. Sir Francis was loyal to his king, and turned his house into a fortress ; and with 150 dragoons, whom he raised and formed into a troop, he harassed the enemy, so long as the royal cause could be maintained in these parts.* He is described in John Hobson's journal, who died in 1735, as " a tall proper man, with grey hair, and was one of the first who took up arms for the king." He fought what was called the battle of Tankersley Moor, which must have been some encounter between his dragoons and a skirmishing party from the opposing side. He was not as unscrupulous as his son who succeeded him, for they had a quarrel which caused the latter to fly to Italy. Hobson tells us that a man named * Besides commanding a troop of horse, Sir Francis Wortley is recorded in the Army lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers, 1642, as Colonel of the 5th regiment of foot, which averaged 1000 strong. His traditionary riding boots are preserved atjWharncliffe Lodge. 15 Bailie, of Dodworth, having been pressed into the king's service, deserted, and when young Francis Wortley caught him, he became "judge and executioner all himself," for he hanged him on a tree near Wortley Hall, v^ithout trial. This greatly incensed the old baronet, and caused a separation. The baronet must himself have had a hot temper, for in 1623 he insulted Sir Thomas Savile, and challenged him to fight in Germany, whither he would go to meet him ; but Sir Thomas preferred a duel in a neighbouring field, and we may suppose that their tempers cooled down while settling the place of meeting, for the quarrel appears to have subsided. Oliver Heywood says that "Sir Francis Wortley in the war time kept Penistone Church as a garrison for the king ;" and adds, "though it did him no good, but from thence he roved up and down the country, robbing and taxing many honest people." Those were not times of delicacy, and Sir Francis had his own full share of misfortune. In June, 1644, he was made a prisoner at Walton House, the seat of the knightly family of Waterton, and consigned to the Tower of London, where he lived and wrote both prose and poetry for several years. The portrait of Sir Francis, which hangs in Wortley Hall, represents a man of severe and melancholy aspe6l, clad in armour, and it harmonizes with the life of misfortune to which he was latterly subjedled. He must have become needy and distressed, before the king assumed a directly t6 hostile attitude against his ParHament ; and, to remain a firm royahst as the breach widened, was to incur the certainty of financial ruin. Hence, we find Sir Francis leasing his manors of Wortley, Pilley, Hunshelf, and Hoyland Swein, to Anthony Crofts, Esq., a brother of Sir Henry Crofts, who had married a sister of the distressed baronet. This lease of the lands was to extend over 40 years, and the sum paid was ;f 7,800. To the mother of Sir Francis, who by a second marriage had become Countess of Devonshire, this lease was afterwards transferred; and, in June 1635, ^^e Countess purchased the whole property for ^^20,000 : her son agreeing at the same time to settle the manor of Carlton on his own son, the second Sir Francis Wortley. In the following month, the Countess also settled on her grandson the purchased estates, to be enjoyed at her death, which took place on the 23rd Odober, 1643. This transaction, no doubt, secured the estates to the family. It is remarkable that in the month immediately succeeding the death of the countess a warrant was issued by the Marquis Newcastle to Sir Francis Wortley, not only to disarm and disenable his brother, Sir Edward Wortley, who had been put into possession of the estates of their mother, for safety's sake, no doubt, and had espoused the side of parliament, which was gaining the upper hand ; but also to imprison him, if he found cause, and he was himself to handle the lands and cause them to be tilled, manured, and sown, according to the '^7 course of husbandry, so that they might the better 3'ield profits and contribute assessments to the king's commissioners. This order does not appear to have been executed, for it came from the weaker side. It was dated 25th November, 1643. 'The estates became sequestered under the common- wealth, and on the 4th April, 1646, Francis Wortley, the younger, took the national covenant and compounded for the lands to which he was heir. On 24th Feb., 1648-g, Roger Betteridge and Sarah his wife — she beins: a sister of Sir Francis Wortley — petitioned to compound for Carlton, on the plea that Sir Francis did in 1625 agree to pay his sister ^^2000, when she attained the age of 12 ; and ;;riooo more, when she was 21 ; and that being unable to do this, he did sell to her the manor of Carlton, of which she did then ask for possession as being in destitute circumstances. During all this trouble. Sir Francis was a prisoner in the Tower of London, and Mr. Hunter says that he died " much in debt," in Whitefriars, the Alsatia of Sir Walter Scott's Fortunes of Nigel: but he does not give the date. He certainly died in lodgings in London, and as he made his will on gth September, 1652, when " sick of the sickness whereof he died ;" and this was proved on the 13th of the same month, by his son and successor, he must have drawn his last breath between these two dates. In his will he desires to "be buried at Windsor, where my father was buried ; " but it i8 cannot be proved that his wish was fulfilled, as the Registers of St. George's Chapel at Windsor do not record any burials between 1646 and 1660. In 1661 his brother Sir Edward Wortley was buried there, and on the 30th March, 1666, his son Sir Francis was also interred. That he was hopeful to the last about his property may be inferred from his leaving pfioo to the poor of Tankersley, £^0 to the poor of Wortley, and ^^50 for making a family vault there, besides some annuities ; but the bequests were not received. To " Susan Morris, my landlord Wiseman's ser- vant," he left 40s. The second Sir Francis caused a rent in a line of ancestry which had continued unbroken during five centuries through male descendents only. Having no other children, he left to his daughter, Anne, all his large territorial possessions ; and his will (which was imperfedl as to signatures, and was unsuccessfully disputed,) annexed to the condition of obtaining her in marriage, that her husband should assume the name of Wortley. The first Earl of Sandwich was appointed one of her guardians ; and, on her father's death, he immediately sent his retainers, and had her con- veyed to Hinchinbroke, where in due time he married her to his second son, Sidney Montagu. Like most forced alliances, it did not prove to be a happy one. How soon after the capture of the heiress her espousals with Sidney Montagu took place I cannot 19 tell. She was only six years old when Lord Sandwich took charge of her, but was too great a prize not to be secured. Possibly, therefore, even as a child she may have been bound to her future husband. In those days such things occurred. Evelyn states the case of the first Duke of Grafton (an illegitimate son of Charles II.), who, when nine years old, was married to the Lady Isabella Bennet, who was only five ; but then, she was daughter and heiress of Lord Arlington, and brought with her the Euston Estate, near Thetford, where the Duke of Grafton now lives. When, in 1688, the Prince of Orange sailed for England to take the vacated throne of James II., Mr. Montagu astonished his neighbours, who were not, like himself, in the secret of the intended landing at Torbay, by going several times in the day to a high spot at Wortley, known as the " Wortley Ashes," and there spreading his hand- kerchief to try which way the wind blew, that he might calculate on the arrival of the Dutch fleet. As these ash trees at Wortley date in age about the time when King William arrived in England, it seems probable that they were planted in commemoration of the great historical event.* * The following is entered in Hobson s diary — " 17TH October, 1727 — At Wharncliffe Lodge, Hon. Sidney Wortley, died the Sunday before, about 8 o'clock. He was aged about 78 years, and son to the Earl of Sandwich, that was killed in the Dutch Wars, 1672. "37TH November, 1727 — That day Mr. Wortley was carried from Wharnchffe Lodge in order to be buried at Barwell, near Oundle, Northants." The severe action in which Lord Sandwich fell, was the battle of Solebay, fought on the 28th May, 1672, against the Dutch Admiral De Ruytor. 20 The second son of Sidney Montagu's marriage was Edward Wortley Montagu, to whom attaches an interesting and romantic story. His elder brother died during the Hfetime of their father ; and Mr. Wortley is presented to us, in his youth, as a fine scholar, with strong literary tastes, and a cool, calculating brain, which served him in good stead, both in private and public life. That he became the very intimate friend of both Addison and Steele (some of whose papers in the Spe6iator and Tatler, if not contributed by his pen, owed their inspiration to his genius), is a sufficient testimony to his intelledlual culture. At the age of twenty-two, he met for the first time, at the tea table of his sister, a young lady who was only fourteen years old, a daughter of the Marquis of Dorchester, afterwards Duke of Kingston ; but who, notwithstanding her early girlhood, fixed his attention and interest, and became the loadstar, whether for happiness or otherwise, of his long protra6led life. This child, if we may so speak of her, was singularly precocious. She had already gained a reputation for learning far beyond what ladies of her day were commonly taught. She was deeply read in the old romances then popular, but which are never looked at now ; and, by indefatigable labour and a strong memory, she had acquired in private study, such a knowledge of the Latin language as enabled her to appreciate the classical authors. So remarkable a student was at once irresistably 21 attra6\ive to the temperament and taste of Wortley Montagu ; and he became the " guide, philosopher, and friend " in her ardent pursuit of hterary and scholastic attainments. On the evening of their first meeting, she had perceived that Mr. Wortley's particular attention was drawn to herself (a dan- gerous discovery, perhaps, for so romantic a young lady) ; and, as her intimacy ripened with his two sisters (with one of whom — Mrs. Anne Wortley — she afterwards corresponded unreservedly for several years), it soon occurred that the letters written to her by a female hand were the studied communi- cations of the fascinated brother. All this while, Mary Pierrepoint was prematurely thrust by her widowed father into the society of her elders, for the gratification of his paternal pride in her beauty and talents, which only tended to efface the bloom of youthful feeling from her own nature, and make her the spoilt idol of fashionable life. The vidfim of this mistaken upbringing wrote, in one of her later letters, that "to vanity and credulity all the pleasures of life were owing," a sentiment which seems partially to explain the unsatisfa6loriness of her subsequent career. The aid and guidance of her tutor, communi- cated through letters, or at occasional interviews, gradually rose into the courtship of a permitted suitor ; and so we find, in the correspondence of Mrs. Ann Wortley and Lady Mary Pierrepoint, an exchange of compliments and expressions of de- votion (always veiled under grandisonian language) 22 which could only pass between two lovers. What the one wrote was intended for the brother, and what the other put on paper in reply was di6lated by him. Like the whole correspondence of this remarkable heroine, every letter of Lady Mary smells of the lamp of the study — a tone of some- what ostentatious scholarship is perceptible even in the wit and force of her most familiar outpourings. These measured utterances, the result of a literary training, drew more upon the brain than the heart ; and the colder temperament of Wortley Montagu, in his dominion over his pupil's affeftions, rendered her chara6\er more artificial than it would otherwise have been. The romance of the lives of this singular couple was more that of the stage than of nature and truth. Mrs. Anne Wortley died when her young friend was about twenty ; and then Mr. Wortley, three years before he married, began to write his own love-letters, and was personally addressed in return. Even after their communication became thus dire6l, and there was no reserve in admitting a mutual attachment, the lady's letters were still redolent of headwork. They betrayed no joyous flow of sentiment, testifying that she was at ease in the confidence of being the obje6^ of warm affection ; but even in the anticipation of an early union, they assumed a very business-like shape. And yet we are told that " all her letters were written without study, and sent forth without revision." As such, they are indeed marvellous produdions. 23 Lord Dorchester, when consulted, accepted Mr. Wortley as a husband for his daughter, but on the condition that he settled his property on any future eldest son. To this proposal the suitor would not agree, and Lady Mary bowed to his reasoning on the point ; but she properly stipulated for a settle- ment in case of her own widowhood. Her father was inexorable, forbade the marriage, and com- manded his daughter to prepare for a more compliant suitor. To this she would not assent ; and the only alternative was an elopement, which must have taken place about August, 1712, as the mar- riage license is dated the i6th of that month. The lady's father was highly incensed at this step, and for some years refused his forgiveness, as well as any fortune to the fugitive, so that, for their con- dition, the young couple were poor ; and the lady lived much in the country, whilst her husband sought political employment in the capital. During the year after their marriage their only son was born, at what place is not known — cer- tainly not at Wharncliffe. In the following year Mr. Wortley was made one of the Lords Commis- sioners of the Treasury, and then his wife appeared at Court, and became a great favourite of the king, being the only English lady whom George L admitted amongst his German coterie. In January, 1717, Mr. Wortley was appointed our ambassador at Constantinople, whither his wife and infant son both accompanied him ; and here was their only other child born, who ultimately became the M Countess of Bute, wife of the Prime Minister, and succeeded to the Wortley estates. Small-pox, as is well known, was the scourge of this country in former times. Lady Mary Wortley was herself attacked by the disease, which removed her eyelashes, and so far impaired her beauty. With that resolution, therefore, which marked her chara6ler, she subjefted her little son — then four years old — to inoculation in both arms. Her child was the first European who underwent this opera- tion. In less than two years' time the family returned to England, where Lady Mary encountered fromthe public generally, and the medical profession in particular, all that usual opposition and obloquy which meet the introduction of scientific novelties. But she persisted, by her example and influence, in the establishment of what led to vaccination, which movement has since proved such an in- valuable blessing to this country. I have said that Mr. Wortley's income was only small, until he succeeded to his father's estates. I have seen, in Lady Mary's own handwriting, her household expenditure for four years — from 1724 to 1728. The years in which least was spent cost her ;^84g 3s. 6^d. ; and the most expensive year caused an outlay of £1140 12s. 8d. The adtual housekeeping averaged ;;^25o ; and two houses were maintained — one at Twickenham, and another in London — the rent of the latter being £12^. This may have been in Cavendish Square. No personal expenses of Mr. Wortley are set down, but all those 25 ■ of his wife and two children. There are charges for sedan chairs, watermen for the Thames, and operas. I can find no record of young Wortley's baptism, which offends my clerical sensibilities ; and super- stition might persuade one that, with the Turkish infe6tion, he had imbibed Turkish morals, for a more thorough scapegrace can scarcely be imagined than was quickly developed in this unnatural child. In about two years after their return to England, the boy was sent to Westminster School, where he at once exhibited the possession of remarkable abilities ; but in a little while he ran away from school, and for a whole year was serving an honest fishmonger at Blackwall, by crying "fish " through the streets, and carrying a basket of them on his head. After a long and vain police search had been made for the truant, his voice betrayed him to an acquaintance of the family who happened to be on the spot when he was shouting for custom, and he was taken home and sent back to school. But he was soon again on the tramp ; and this time he bound himself to the master of a ship which was sailing for Oporto ; and there he deserted, and went up the country, finding work in the vineyards for two or three years. The same friend who discovered him at Blackwall again traced him, through the English Consul, and Mr. Wortley permitted Mr. Forster, who was the rescuer, to take the place of a travelling tutor, and so give 26 vent to the vagabond spirit of his son. This plan lasted for awhile, with apparent success. The youth applied his mind to study, with excellent results ; and from a post which he held in the service of the Government, he was ele6ted member for Huntingdonshire in 1747. But there was no steadiness of life or purpose in the man. He became involved in debt, and to escape annoyances, fled to Paris, where he underwent a very severe imprisonment on the false accusation of a gambling Jew. We must understand that, in the year 1727, Mr. Wortley senior had inherited the vast estates of his father ; whilst in 1739 Lady Mary commenced that voluntary exile on the Continent, which lasted for more than twenty years. The cause of this strange alienation from her country and home has never been fully explained. No doubt the lady was eccentric as well as clever, which produced com- plications. The boldness of her writings and sayings had involved her in serious misunder- standings — more especially with Pope, whose malignant pen attacked her character. It may be suspe6ted, too, that she did not find much geniality in the severe and stately mind of her husband, who was devoting himself to the improvement of his property, and public affairs. The vicious life of her son no sooner received maternal forgiveness, than it broke loose afresh in almost incredible wickedness. Her daughter was already married to the Earl of Bute, She was satiated with fashionable life ; 27 and to make banishment endurable, she had great mental resources. These circumstances contributed, if they did not suffice, to render a foreign residence the acceptable resting-place of her latter years, whilst her very extraordinary published correspondence was the fruit of her voluntary retirement. To revert to the son's adventures. He was returned member of Parliament for Bossiney — a private borough, with its seventeen eledtors, which was disfranchised by the first Reform Bill. This formed part of the Tintagel estate, which his father had purchased. He wrote a book at this period, called " Refle6lions on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republics, Adapted to the Present State of Great Britain," and this pleased his father; indeed, he seemed, like Falstaff, inclined to " purge and live cleanly " for the rest of his days. But "confidence," said Lord Chatham, " is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom ;" and Mr. Wortley was not deceived by appearances, but wholly dis- inherited his son in favour of his daughter, the Countess of Bute. The following sketch, from the caustic and unfavourable pen of Horace Walpole, pourtrays the aged father, in his rude lodge at Wharncliffe, whilst rebuilding the hall, four years before his death, which took place in 1761, when he was eighty years old : — " Old Wortley Montagu lives on the very spot where the dragon of Wantley did, only I believe 28 the latter was much better lodged : you never saw such a wretched hovel ; lean, unpainted, and half its nakedness barely shaded with hareteen, stretched till it cracks. Here the miser hoards health and money, his only two objefts : he has chronicles in behalf of the air, and battens on Tokay, his single indulgence, as he has heard it is particularly salutary. But the savageness of the scene would charm your Alpine taste : it is tumbled with frag- ments of mountains, that look ready laid for building the world. One scrambles over a huge terrace, on which mountain ashes and various trees spring out of the big rocks ; and at the brow is the den, but not spacious enough for such an inmate. However, I am persuaded it furnished Pope with this line, so exadlly it answers to the pi6lure — ' On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abode." I wanted to ask if Pope had not visited Lady Mary Wortley here during their intimacy, but would one put that question to Avidien himself?" This is not a very lovable portrait, but the artist generally dipped his brush in satire ; at any rate, when the original died, he left his estates, to which he added by purchase both Tintagel, in Cornwall, and Simonstone, in Wensley Dale, with no less a sum in money than ;f5oo,ooo, to his daughter. Lady Bute, charging the property with an annuity of p^i,ooo to her brother, which the Earl of Bute generously supplemented to a large amount, as he well might do, for his family retained the money. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu returned to 29 England within a year of her husband's death ; but it was only to have her own eyes closed by the hand 'of her daughter, to whom she was ever most tenderly attached. To mark her disgust at her son's wild proceedings, she left him, by will the sum of half-a-crown. On the west side of the north door, in Lichfield Cathedral, there is a female figure, in marble, leaning on an urn, and inscribed M. W. M. The inscription runs — SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU, WHO HAPPILY INTRODUCED, FROM TURKEY, INTO THIS COUNTRY, THE SALUTARY ART OF INOCULATING THE SMALL-POX. CONVINCED OF ITS EFFICACY, SHE FIRST TRIED IT WITH SUCCESS ON HER OWN CHILDREN, AND THEN RECOMMENDED THE PRACTICE OF IT TO HER FELLOW-CITIZENS. THUS, BY HER EXAMPLE AND ADVICE, WE HAVE SOFTENED THE VIRULENCE, AND ESCAPED THE DANGER, OF THIS MALIGNANT DISEASE. TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF SUCH BENEVOLENCE, AND TO EXPRESS HER GRATITUDE FOR THE BENEFIT SHE HERSELF RECEIVED FROM THIS ALLEVIATING ART, THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY HENRIETTA INGE, RELICT OF THEODORE WILLIAM INGE, ESQ., AND DAUGHTER OF SIR JOHN WROTTESLEY, BART., IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, MDCCLXXXIX. And now we come to an episode of this son's life 3^ which seems to be almost incredible. He was residing at Alexandria, about the year 1763, when a Captain Ferve, a Dane, arrived there, with his wife, in the capacity of English Consul. The lady was young, and very handsome — her maiden name was Catherine Dormer, and she was of English descent, but a Roman Catholic by faith. Wortley Montagu is described at this time as " an amiable man, of much wit and immense erudition, knowing all the European languages, also Latin, ancient and modern Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish." His portrait, by Romney, shows that he possessed a fine countenance and person ; and he had all the experience of a great traveller. On becoming acquainted with Mrs. Ferve, he fell violently in love ; and, being determined to possess her, he conceived the plot of employing her husband on a lucrative commission, which would detain him in Europe for some time. During his absence, Wortley Montagu forged letters, and produced a certificate of the death of her husband, which enabled him to make proposals of marriage to the wife. To this she assented, on the condition that he became a Roman Catholic ; and he was received into the Roman Church at Jerusalem, on the 7th of Odober, 1764. The husband, hearing of this scandalous alHance, hastened back from Europe, and demanded his wife. A lawsuit followed, which was tried in Italy, and Mr. Wortley was triumphant; as the previous marriage was declared null and void, on account of Ferve being a Protestant. 31 Pending the enquiry, the lady had taken refuge in a monastery, near Mount Lebanon, from which she was now released by Mr. Wortley. After residing some time in Smyrna, they returned to Egypt, in 1771, and lived at Rosetta, where this eccentric man conceived the wish to become a Mussulman, and make a pilgrimage to Mecca. He tried to induce his wife to join him in this apostacy, also to acknowledge a negro boy, whom he had adopted, and who finally became his heir, as her own son. She refused both requests, and he left her in 1773, and travelled into Italy, when the lady found a home, with her married sister, in Egypt. In the year 18 19, a lady who still lives visited a convent in Rome, in company with her mother, where she found one of the inmates bearing the name of Madame Montagu, who, they had reason for believing, was a daughter of E. Wortley Montagu. She had lived there ever since she was five years old, and was then employed with other nuns in educating the noble young ladies of Rome who were consigned to their care. She had the appearance of a very old person, which may partly have arisen from her secluded life. Her countenance was very striking, and bore some resemblance to her reputed father, and her eye had an eagle glance. The Countess of Bute, under the idea of a conventual life having been forced upon her, had made her the offer of a settle- ment of .;^500 a year, and procured for her a dispensation from her vow from Pope Pius VII. ; but her vocation must have been quite sincere, for she 32 declined both the offer and the opportunity. Who her mother was has never been discovered. A yet greater scandal closed the career of Mr. Edward Wortley Montagu, full details of which are given by the first Lord Wharncliffe, in his edition of his great-grandmother's works. It appears that in 1776 Mr. Wortley, then living at Venice, caused, through the agency of his friend Romney, the painter, a notice to be printed in the P^iblic Advertiser of April 1 6th; in that year. This announcement pro- claimed that a gentleman, who had sat in two successive Parliaments, was nearly sixty years of age, lived in great splendour and hospitality, and from whom a considerable estate must pass, if he died without issue, was willing to marry a widow, or single lady, of genteel birth and polite manners, provided she was about to become a mother ! Lord Wharncliffe's pen thus concludes this odious story : " It has always been believed in the family that this advertisement was successful, and that a woman, having the qualifications required by it, was adtually sent to Paris to meet Mr. E. Wortley, who got as far as Lyons, on his way thither. There, however, while eating a beccafico for supper, a bone stuck in his throat, and occasioned his death, thus putting an end to this honest scheme." James Archibald, second son of the third Earl of Bute, succeeded to the Wortley property, as his mother's heir, and assumed the name of Wortley, in addition to that of Stuart, on Lady Bute's death, in 1794. He also brought the Belmont Estate, in 33 Perthshire, which had been acquired by the first Earl of Bute in a singular manner. As Sir James Stuart, of Bute, and a young man, he became the suitor of Agnes, eldest daughter of Sir Georg-e Mackenzie, of Rosehaugh, who was Lord Advocate of Scotland in the reigns of Charles II. and his brother, James II. The young people had cause to know that Sir George would be opposed to their union ; and this great lawyer being, known at the time by the name of " bloody Mackenzie," on account of his severe treatment of the king's enemies, was not likely to be open to gentle persuasions. Sir James Stuart therefore addressed him in this fashion ; — " Sir George, I wish to take your opinion on a point of law ; but I am not to ask it of you as a friend, but as a lawyer ; and therefore I tender you a fee." " Well, what is it. Sir James }" was the reply. " Suppose," said the other, " that a gentleman wished to marry a lady, who was an heiress, but he found the parents were averse. If he were to carry her off, without their consent, the marriage would be illegal, and she might be disinherited : what, in such a case, could be done to effe6t a legal marriage .'*" " Oh," said Sir George, " let the lady carry off the gentleman." " Very good," was the reply, " will you give me that in writing ?" Sir George Mackenzie complied, and soon afterwards the pair eloped, so managing their runaway match that the lady was made to appear as the active person in the abdudtion. Her father was very angry, and threatened to disinherit his daughter ; but her husband produced 34 the written opinion, and the severe judge was compelled to submit. The second son of the second Earl of Bute succeeded to the Mackenzie property, and assumed the name ; and as he died without children, Belmont Castle and estate came to the third Earl's second son, who was the father of the first Lord Wharn- cliffe ; and he assumed the name and arms of Mackenzie, in 1803. This gentleman was born in September, 1 747 ; and before he was twenty years old — that is, in June^ 1767 — he privately married Margaret, daughter of Sir David Cun- ningham, Bart., of Levingstone. The lady returned and resided with her own family for a time, concealing the step which she had taken ; but it necessarily became known, and several children were the issue of the marriage. Colonel Stuart Wortley Mackenzie, her husband, sat in Parliament for the county of Bute ; and having lost his eldest son, who died unmarried in 1 797, he resigned his Yorkshire estates to his second son, who was the first Lord Wharn- cliffe, and resided chiefly in London and Scotland. James Archibald Stuart Wortley Mackenzie was born in 1776, and in early childhood underwent a singular adventure. Like the old story of Mrs. Montagu's son, he was carried off by chimney sweeps from Richmond Park, where his father occupied the Deputy Ranger's house, these sable gentry having offered him a ride on their donkey. At the end of four days' absence they brought him back, after what seems to have been a voluntary a6t of the child's 35 own hardihood. After the usual education, he entered the army, and served in a Highland regiment at the Cape of Good Hope and elsewhere, until recalled to his responsibilities at Wortley, in 1810. In 1799, he married Lady Caroline Creighton, a daughter of the first Earl of Erne, whose widow, Lady Erne, resided about half a century ago at Wharncliffe Lodge, as its last occupant. When Mr. Wortley took possession of the Hall, it was in no finished state, and it stood in the middle of a ploughed field ; and the present beauty of the garden, pleasure grounds, and ornamental planting, is mainly due to the fine taste and fostering care of his wife, the Lady Caroline Wortley. Mr. Greville, whose diary seldom says a good word of anyone, calls Lord Wharncliffe — for he was so created in 1826 — "a spirited, sensible, zealous, honourable, consistent country gentleman," which is, perhaps, praise enough — at least from a cynic — but the description scarcely conveys a notion of the physical and moral power which he possessed, and exercised in his own great county, which he repre- sented in Parliament for several years. During Sir Robert Peel's two administrations he was made Lord Privy Seal, in 1834, and in 1841 Lord Presi- dent of the Council. In 1831 he undertook the difficult and delicate task of mediating betwixt the Duke of Wellington and Earl Grey for a compromise over the first Reform Bill ; and in 1846, when the Corn Laws were repealed, his strong common sense and influence were again employed in moderating 36 the obje6\ions of the country party. As a chairman of Quarter Sessions he was, perhaps, never excelled. In the year 1843 he did me the honour of inviting me to Wortley Hall, to meet my kind friend Bishop Longley, who then held the See of Ripon. He mounted the Bishop and myself on ponies, and rode with us to the most striking spots on the estate. As we returned through the Park, he pointed to an uncarved slab of stone on the front of the Hall, and asked me what I thought people said about his not having his coat of arms cut upon it. I ventured to say that I thought they might imagine he was waiting until an earl's coronet could be added; to which he made no reply : but his grandson, who has now won the higher achievement, and may place the coronet of an earl over the door if he likes, had the baron's insignia duly carved. John Stuart Wortley^ second Baron Wharncliffe, was a man of scholarly tastes and habits. Born in 1 80 1, he distinguished himself in the Honour Schools at Oxford, and in 1825 he married Georgiana Elizabeth, a daughter of the Earl of Harrowby. Their two daughters have since connected the family, by marriage, with the noble houses of Drogheda and Buccleugh. In early life, Lord Wharncliffe accom- panied the late Earl of Derby, Mr. Labouchere (afterwards Lord Taunton), and Mr. Denison, the Speaker of the House of Commons (who was created Lord Ossington), in a tour through the United States of America — a journey which is now common in all ranks of society ; but they were the first embryo 37 statesmen from England who made this expedition of observation and enquiry. At the time, it was much talked of as a very interesting adventure. In 1835, Lord Wharncliffe contested an election of Members for the West Riding, and was defeated by Lord Morpeth. In 1837 he repeated the experiment against Lord Morpeth and Mr. Strickland, and was again unsuccessful ; but in 1841, with Mr. Beckett Denison as his colleague, he was elected at the head of the poll — the two Conservatives defeating Lord Milton and Lord Morpeth. His later life was afflicted by an illness, which made him seek the alleviation of an Eastern climate, after the estates which he had inherited had been improved by his careful manage- ment He died in 1855, ^^^ was succeeded by his son, the present Earl, whose late youngest brother unsuccessfully contested the Borough of Sheffield in 1865. In former times, a seat in Parliament was easily attainable by the Wortleys, through their Cornish borough of Bossiney, or their Scotch property ; but the undivided County, or West Riding contests, sustained on the Conservative side by the first and second Lords, and by the youngest brother of the latter Lord, were costly, severe, and arduous. The Honourable Charles Stuart Wortley, second son of the first Lord Wharncliffe, married Lady Emmeline C, E. Manners, a daughter of the Duke of Rutland, and died in 1844, at the early age of forty-two. Their surviving son. Colonel Wortley, is well known by the remarkable effe6\s which he has introduced into photographic art. 38 This noble family have not shrunk from Parli- amentary duties, and the House of Commons has often listened to the voice of the Right Hon. James Stuart Wortley, the Earl of Wharncliffe's uncle, who successively held the officesof Judge Advocate General, Recorder of London, and Solicitor General. But the present noble owner of Wortley never sat in the House of Commons. For five years, he was an officer in the Grenadier Guards ; and during the subsequent five, he travelled not only on the common route in Europe, but also in America, India, Ceylon, and in the most distant Colonies of Australia and New Zealand ; and " travel," said Lord Beaconsfield, " is the best education of a prince." At any rate, it is an admirable qualification for a high social position — it brings men in close contact with their fellow men, not only of their own order, but of all ranks, and manners, and thoughts ; and if I may venture, without presumption, to pass a criticism on our noble neighbour, I should say, that his wide experience of the world has made him, with his Countess, the popular master of the rifle contests at Wimbledon, and the no less acceptable guest at a Working Men's Institute. Thomas Rodgers, Printer, &c., Change Alley Comer, Sheffield.