Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, Anthony van Dyck, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
If you haven’t read Nadine Akkerman’s work, Invisible Agents, I heartily recommend it. It covers the world of espionage and women during the seventeenth century in Britain. It has been suggested that successful female agents were few and far between – but Ackerman sets out to disprove the view.
One of the most famous intelligencers – was Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle. Born Lucy Percy, the daughter of the 9th Earl of Northumberland (the so-called Wizard Earl) and Dorothy Devereux – making her a descendent of Mary Boleyn. At the age of 18-years she married James Hay soon to become the Earl of Carlisle.
James was one of King James I’s Scottish favourites and a Groom of the Stool (Yes, he wiped the king’s bottom for him!). The Hays’ proximity to the Crown continued when Charles I ascended the throne, thanks in part to James’s assisting with the negotiations for Charles’ marriage to Henrietta Maria. It is thought that Lucy was the Duke of Buckingham’s mistress at this time as well as becoming one of the Queen’s ladies in waiting. At first Henrietta was not keen on Lucy’s presence – mainly because Lucy wasn’t a Catholic and because she was spying on the Queen on Buckingham’s behalf. Ultimately the two women became friends – although it was a relationship destined to be a rocky one on occasion.
In 1636 the Earl of Carlisle, who was twice Lucy’s age, died. The Duke of Buckingham had been assassinated in 1628 – so there she was an independent and glamorous widow. She took up with Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford – the new royal favourite. He also advised her on her Irish property. However, when Strafford was impeached by Parliament she distanced herself from the earl. In any event she had found a new beau- the Parliamentarian John Pym.
By the outbreak of the civil war in 1642 both the Royalists and the Parliamentarians thought that Lucy was their intelligencer. She had after all warned her lover, John Pym, about the king’s intentions to have him arrested. Henrietta believed that Lucy was cosying up to Parliamentarians like the earls of Warwick and Essex to spy on her behalf and they, in turn, believed that she was spying on the Royalists. Her house, it should be noted, was full of Royalists but it didn’t prevent her moving seamlessly between London and the Royal Court at Oxford.
Lucy would go on to raise funds for the Royalists and took messages to Henrietta when she was in France. In 1649 – shortly after the king’s execution, Lucy was arrested and carted off to the Tower. Somehow or other her jailors didn’t spot that she was writing letters to the new king, Charles II. She used her brother as a courier. Ultimately, eighteen months after her arrest, she was freed and continued her work as a royalist agent seeking the restoration of the monarchy.
Lucy died at the beginning of November 1660 but is remembered in fictional form today as Alexander Dumas’s Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers.
Predominantly Parliamentarian in sympathy, Derbyshire raised a regiment under the command of Sir John Gell of Hopton Hall and secured Derby in early December 1642. The Earl of Derbyshire went into exile and Chatsworth found itself being occupied by both sides at different times. The earl’s younger brother Charles Cavendish, would die in the Royalist cause.
Bolsover, the home of the earl’s cousin, William Cavendish, Marquis of Newcastle, also had a Royalist garrison although it was never besieged. Wingfield Manor was also garrisoned as well Tissington Hall in the Peak District and Barton Hall to the south of the county. Gell set about securing the property of Royalists in February 1643. He began with Elvaston Castle the home of his rival Sir John Stanhope who had died in 1638. At the time Stanhope’s widow, Mary, was in residence. Gell’s forces ransacked the manor, ruined her flower garden and defaced Sir John’s newly erected tomb before entering the family vault and repeatedly plunging their swords into the coffins it contained. The destruction of Mary’s flower garden was at Gell’s express orders – I’m not warming to the man whose own tomb can be viewed in Wirksworth Church. Not content with his work, Gell went on to raid Jacinth Sacheverell’s home at Morley and Sir John Coke’s property at Melbourne.
By November that year Chatsworth, Wingerworth and Staveley, all Royalist locations, were garrisoned by Parliamentarian troops as was Wingfield Manor. In December, Newcastle’s Royalists laid siege to Mary Queen of Scots former prison and on 19 December the Parliamentarian garrison there surrendered.
It was at about the same time that the Royalists garrisoned Tissington Hall, then the home of William FitzHerbert. Colonel Eyre was able to garrison Chatsworth, the Parliamentarians having withdrawn, as well as his own home at Hassop. It meant that the Royalists looked more secure in Derbyshire than they had since the beginning of the conflict. Unfortunately for them, Newcastle, withdrew into Yorkshire to counter the Scottish invasion into England in January 1644.
In July, Gell besieged Wingfield Manor but when he discovered that Colonel Eyre (the Royalist from Hassop who incidentally was at Marston Moor) was intent on raising the siege he sent men, commanded by Major Saunders, to shadow their movements. It meant that when Saunders saw at opportunity at Boylestone he was able to surround the colonel’s men in the church where they spent the night and capture them.
Even so, without artillery it would be impossible to capture Wingfield and it was only when Gell arranged for some cannon to be sent from Sheffield that he was able to capture it. Staveley Hall had already surrendered as had Bolsover Castle.
With key positions secured, Gell returned his attention to other Royalist homes in the area. One of his targets was Barton Blount just three miles from Tutbury. However, Sir John’s own career was coming to an end. King Charles’ surrender in May 1646 members the gentry who had been at war returned home and began to challenge Gell’s position and, after an acrimonious election, complaints about Gell arrived in London.
And as an aside – the lady whose flower garden had been destroyed at the start of the war – Mary Radcliffe, the widow of Sir John Stanhope — she was married to Gell in 1644. It was an unlikely match and it appears Gell wanted to get his hands on her money. They were separated four years later. He took her children, from her first marriage, to court claiming that Mary had secretly set up a trust so that Gell could not get his hands her £1000 per year income.
Mary Radcliffe. William Larkin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
And it just goes to show that a peruse of the Internet can reveal some unlikely finds. it appears that Mary, having separated from her unpleasant spouse (and Sir John Stanhope was described as choleric – so neither marriage sounds particularly comfortable) moved to London and the newly fashionable area of Covent Garden. She died there in 1653.
Mary Radcliffe’s shoes – Kerry Taylor auctions 2015
The image on the left depicts Lady Anne Clifford, aged 15, with pictures of her governess Mrs Anne Taylor, or Taylour, and her tutor, the poet, Samuel Daniel. She studied Ovid, Chaucer and Cervantes Don Quixote. The latter was published in two parts in 1605 and 1615.
The middle picture portrays George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland as well as Anne’s mother, Lady Margaret Russell and Anne’s two short lived older brothers, Francis and Robert, who died before they were breeched- hence the long dresses. The four images on the wall behind depict George’s sisters, Lady Frances Clifford, Baroness Wharton and Lady Margaret Clifford, Countess of Derby. In addition there are images of Lady Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick and Lady Elizabeth Russell, Countess of Bath.
The final image, on the right hand side, portrays Lady Anne Clifford, aged 56-years, and images of her two husbands – the earls of Dorset and Pembroke.
Baroness Wharton was married to Philip Wharton – named after his godfather who just so happened to be Philip II of Spain. He was born in 1555. He narrowly avoided bankruptcy when he entertained James I. Frances died in 1592.
I’ve blogged about the Countess of Derby previously. Lady Anne Clifford’s grandfather, Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland was married to Lady Eleanor Brandon, the daughter of Henry VIII’s sister Mary, prior to his union with Anne Dacre, who was Lady Anne Clifford’s grandmother. It meant that Anne’s aunt had a claim to the throne. Prior to the death of Edward VI, the Duke of Northumberland attempted to arrange a marriage for Margaret Clifford that would bolster his position but in the event she was married following the accession of Mary I to the 4th Earl of Derby – Henry Stanley. In 1579 she was arrested for seeking a prediction regarding Elizabeth I’s death. Predicting the death of a monarch let alone plotting to kill one was a serious crime. The countess’s doctor was executed and she lived under house arrest. She died in 1596, never having been returned to royal favour.
The Countess of Bath was the second wife of William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath. The marriage was about power in Devon. At the time the Earl of Bedford, who was Elizabeth, Anne and Margaret’s father was the county’s Lord Lieutenant as well as an important landholder in the region. She died in March 1604/1605 (depending on which calendar you’re using).
In 1609, Lady Anne Clifford married Richard Sackville who became the 3rd Earl of Dorset the same year. They were the same age, with Anne being 19-years at the time of the marriage and Richard being 20. But the union was not a success. Richard had expensive tastes as well as mistresses and something of a gambling problem. Anne wrote that the ground steadied beneath her feet when her husband left the country to complete his education. Lady Anne Clifford, on the other hand, was determined to win her Westmorland inheritance as her father’s only legitimate child. Sackville was more interested in the money which was offered to Anne as an alternative. Supporters of the earl, of whom King James I was one, thought that Anne ought to be obedient to her husband’s wishes. Her lack of compliance saw Richard deny her access to their eldest child, Margaret, for a time. In the end Richard received £20,000 despite Anne’s continued objections. Her husband considered her ‘devoid of reason.’
Anne kept a diary of her life, in part to keep track of her legal battles and her claim to the Clifford estates. She thought that it would be a useful document if she had to go to court. Her diaries from Knole make sad reading as it is clear that she lived in self imposed isolation much of the time. As well as her writing she also completed needlework. Although, it is evident that she got on well with many of her staff. There is mention of her playing backgammon with the steward for instance. There is also evidence of Anne ensuring that she fulfilled her duty as the mistress of Knole. She lists the whole household in 1623 and arranged her notes according to their place in the Great Hall which makes fascinating reading, not least because it lists the nursery staff among the 100 or so servants. Among the number was Grace Robinson described as a ‘blackamoor’ who was seated at the table with the laundry staff. The Sackville family were linked to the trade in slaves, the 4th Earl – Richard’s brother- was Governor of the Somers Island Company . However, it is unclear whether Grace was a paid servant or someone who had been trafficked into forced labour.
What makes her diary sad is she records living with a ‘discontented heart’ but putting on a brave face. I’m not entirely sure that a brave face was what most women would put on these days if their husband openly brought their mistress to live in the family home as Sackville did when he moved Lady Martha Penistone in to Knole. Sir Thomas Penistone, Lady Penistone’s husband was among the earl’s retinue of thirty gentlemen. Each of them received £50 a year. Martha died from smallpox in 1620, about a year after becoming the earl’s mistress.
For Anne, the grandeur of Knole was nothing compared to the castles that she felt should be hers in the north of England. Sackville died in March 1624. Anne Clifford recorded in her diary that news of her husband’s death came at a time when her two daughters both had small pox, as did she. One of her first actions after Richard’s death was to buy the wardship of her daughters, Margaret and Isabella, from the king. Their other three children had died in infancy.
The earldom of Dorset passed to Richard’s brother, Edward. The fourth earl was forced to sell some of his family’s land to pay his brother’s debts but he rose at court as Queen Henrietta Maria’s chamberlain. He fought on the side of the royalists during the English Civil War but his wife Mary Curzon of Croxhall in Derbyshire who had served as governess for the royal family remained in London to care for Princess Elizabeth and her brother Henry, Duke of Gloucester. her payment from Parliament ensured that Knole remained in the Sackville family. She died in 1645 having been asked to be relieved of her employment and she received a funeral in Westminster Abbey- making her another remarkable woman of the 17th century.
Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset Attributed to William Larkin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Loving the gold lace pompoms on his shoes – shoe roses and heels were two ways that you could express your wealth and status. I don’t suppose the gold work embroidery on his stockings downplayed his position in society either. In fact I rather suspect the whole outfit would be described as among the extravagances that led to the earl having to mortgage Knole in order to pay his debts.
I’ve encountered Mary Sidney on several occasions in the past few years. She was the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, their mother was born Mary Dudley, the sister of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Mary, the wife of Sir Henry Sidney, was one of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite ladies. Sir Henry who was raised alongside Prince Edward, his father being the prince’s chamberlain and his mother the prince’s governess. It’s easy to see how the pair were married to one another – the Sidneys were already close to Edward VI and Dudley, who later became the Duke of Northumberland, wanted to ensure their support.
Henry and May had seven children. Mary was the fifth child, born in 1561. Her eldest sister, Margaret, died while she was still a toddler in 1558. Elizabeth died when Mary was just six, while Ambrosia who was only a year older than Mary died in 1575. Mary’s youngest brother, Thomas, also died at a young age.
All of them were raised at Penshurst in Kent, at Ludlow Castle in Wales and Ticknell Palace near Bewdley. They also travelled to Dublin. It was while they were there that Elizabeth died. When Mary was three, her 10-year-old brother, Philip, was sent to Shrewsbury School where he remained for the next four years before continuing his education at Oxford University. Having finished his studies there, Philip was granted a licence to travel for two years in order to improve his knowledge of foreign language.
For Mary education, of the humanist kind enjoyed by Elizabeth I, meant a proficiency in French and Italian. She was also taught Latin, music and needlework. They were essential skills for a young woman who might find herself in Elizabeth’s court.
By the time Philip returned home in 1575, following Ambrosia’s death, Mary and her mother were residing at Elizabeth’s court. It was an opportunity for her to acquire court polish and for her parents to make her a good match. The good offices of the queen and of the Earl of Leicester gave the Sidneys an advantage in securing a union with the Herbert family in 1577. It was another factor in making a daughter’s education arrangements. It was essential that a young woman should meet the expectations of the family into which she might marry. Manners and conduct were consequently an important part of education. Girls were expected to be respectful and modest.
After her marriage to Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (becoming his third wife) who was more than two decades older than her, she was responsible for the good management of his estates as well as providing him with a family of four children. Much of her surviving writing is business correspondence. It’s a reminder that while women were regarded as having roles within the private rather than pubic sphere, that as representatives of their husbands, their influence could be wide ranging. Somehow, as well as entertaining the queen, running a household and managing her husband’s estates, she managed to find time to have a chemistry laboratory at Wilton House where she developed medicines and invisible ink.
More important, she created the Wilton Circle of poets that included the likes of Edmund Spenser and Ben Johnson. She would receive more dedications than any other woman of non royal status. And she wrote her own work -unusual in publishing under her own name- but avoiding criticism by focusing on religion, translations, elegies and works of praise. It helped that her that she was the sister of Sir Philip Sidney. Her story of patronage began after his death when she encouraged authors to publish works written in his praise. It seems that she wrote throughout her life thereafter but most of what exists today dates from the 1590s. it is likely that much of what she wrote has been lost to history. There was a fire at Wilton during the seventeenth century and also at Baynard’s Castle which was another of her homes.
In short, Mary Sidney is a perfect example of the paradox that many early modern women became. On one hand they were expected to be obedient wives, interested in the domestic and the religious but on the other they were business women, patrons of the arts and like Mary, on occasion, able to demonstrate their intellect and achieve remarkable things.
Charles I set off for Scotland on 10 August 1641. At the beginning of the summer he had signed the death warrant of his friend the Earl of Strafford and Ship Money Tax had been declared illegal. How much respite the king enjoyed from the turbulence of his three kingdoms when he arrived in Edinburgh on 14 August is another matter entirely. He was still there when an Irish rebellion broke out in October.
Which brings me to November. On the 8th of November, ten days before the king left his Scottish capital, the English Parliament demanded that in future Charles should only appoint advisers and ministers approved by them. On the 23 the Commons narrowly voted in favour of the Grand Remonstrance which criticised the king’s temporal and religious policies. Even so, when he arrived back in London on 25 it was with much ceremony and popular acclaim.
Ferdinando Fairfax second Baron Fairfax of Cameron and the father of Sir Thomas Fairfax who was Member of Parliament for Yorkshire was part of the committee that presented the Grand Remonstrance. This was a list of 200 grievances against the king including his perceived abused of power as well as things like illegal taxation.
Christian Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire by Anthony Van Dyck via Wikipedia.
I keep returning to Christian. She doesn’t always seem very appealing though, Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Leicester (and briefly governess to Charles I’s younger children Elizabeth and Henry following his execution) found her crafty and cold when it came to financial matters during negotiations between the Sidneys and Christian for her son to marry Lady Dorothy Sidney. The Sidneys could not supply a large enough dowry so Christian’s son ended up married to Elizabeth Cecil, a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Salisbury.
Apparently Christian Bruce, the daughter of Edward Bruce, 1st lord of Kinloss was one of Elizabeth Stuart’s companions at Combe Abbey where she was raised by John Harington of Eaton and his wife. So, she received an extensive education even if it did not contain a grounding in Latin and Greek. Combe Abbey is now a hotel but the parkland is open to the public.
She was married in 1608 to William Cavendish, 2nd Earl of Devonshire. No doubt her dowry of £100,000 helped to seal the deal. Her new husband, who was eighteen-years-old, went off to Cambridge University with his tutor, Thomas Hobbes, before tackling the Grand Tour. He departed for Europe in 1610 and got into the usual scrapes that youthful aristocracy might be expected to find themselves.
At the time Christian was only about twelve years old but the marriage was almost over before it began. William, or Wylkyn, as he was known within his family was in love with someone else. Margaret Chatterton, a servant of William’s aunt, Arbella Stuart, and formerly of Wiliam’s mother, claimed that William had promised to marry her. Quite what William’s father thought of the matter is best not speculated upon. The baron, as he was at that time, was known to take after his mother, Bess of Hardwick, when it came to careful husbanding of his assets. William’s uncle, Henry Cavendish, wrote that it was a shame that the boy wasn’t married to a ‘grown woman’ rather than a child. Henry who was the eldest of Bess of Hardwick’s sons had something of a reputation, so his view is perhaps not surprising. He died the same year that his nephew and Christian were married which meant that William’s father inherited Chatsworth.
Christian became Countess of Devonshire in 1626 when her father-in-law died. Two years later, her husband also died. Her ten-year-old son, another William, became the 3rd Earl of Devonshire. Christian set about restoring the family fortunes which were somewhat depleted thanks to the 2nd earl’s exuberant spending. This involved winning more than thirty legal cases over contested property rights. It took four years but at the end of it, in 1630, she was able to offer Thomas Hobbes a salary as tutor having declared in 1628 that her son was too young for a tutor to save the expense.
Unfortunately for Christian, her son did not understand that his father’s creditors could claim the money they were owed from his estates – it meant that mother and son were soon at loggerheads and that Thomas Hobbes was being asked to help both sides. Ultimately Parliament was called upon to pass an act which allowed the countess to sell some previously entailed land to settle her husband’s debts.
As if finances weren’t worrying enough there was the small matter of the English Civil War. William’s cousin, yet another William Cavendish, the Earl of Newcastle, was loyal to the Crown. Christian is usually regarded as the reason why the Earl of Devonshire chose to absent himself from his country rather than join one side or the other. According to the De Lisle and Dudley manuscript – William may have enjoyed spending lavishly but generally speaking, he did what his mother told him. It was the earl’s younger brother, Charles Cavendish, who took to the field and who died for the royal cause at Gainsborough. Despite the fact that Christian was a friend of Henrietta Maria, the Devonshire estate had to be preserved – Bess of Hardwick would have approved the calculations that Christian made when she called her son home to compound for his estates before the end of the war.
Christian and William chose to live at Latimers in Buckinghamshire rather than returning to Derbyshire. She was well connected to the Parliamentarian forces. She was grandmother-in-law to Frances Cromwell, through the marriage of Robert Rich (he died soon after the marriage.) Her daughter Anne was married to Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick. Meanwhile, the Earl of Devonshire was required to remain aloof from the conflict that still raged but the countess offered the king refuge at Leicester Abbey after the Battle of Naseby and later stayed at Latimer’s while he was a prisoner. She took charge of Charles II’s belongings after the Battle of Worcester and became embroiled in the work of the Seal Knot. Even so, after the Restoration, the Earl of Devonshire chose to remain in the country rather than spending much time at court. He was made Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire and in 1663 joined the newly formed Royal Society.
Christian welcomed Charles II and Henrietta Maria to her home. When she died in 1675 she was described as being ‘affable and of sweet address’ – presumably her biographer had not been on the receiving end of financial bargain with the countess…now I just need to find out much more….
Chatsworth in gingerbread form – Chatsworth at Christmas 2024
Celia visited the Peak District in 1697 during the homeward leg of her journey. Having sampled the ale at Chesterfield, which she thought very fine, Celia and her two servants continued to Chatsworth.
The Peak Districtlandscape
Celia did not much enjoy the journey from Chesterfield to Chatsworth. According to her the hills were too steep and the landscape barren. However she did pause to consider the minerals that Derbyshire contained and, in good Puritan fashion, looked to find God’s work around her – although she doesn’t use the words ‘sublime’ or ‘awe inspiring’ she infers both ideas which would become increasingly popular with the beginning of the Eighteenth Century.
Alll Derbyshire is full of Steep hills and nothing but the peakes of hills as thick one by another is seen in most of ye County wchare very steepe, wch makes travelling tedious and ye miles Long. You see neither hedge nor tree but only Low drye stone walls round some ground Else its only hills and Dales as thick as you Can Imagine, but tho’ the Surface of ye Earth Looks barren yet those hills are impregnated wth Rich marble stone metals, Iron and Copper and Coale mines in their bowells, from whence we may see the wisdom and benignitye of oer greate Creator to make up the Defficiency of a place by an Equivolent, and also the diversity of the Creation wch Encreaseth its Beauty.
Chatsworth, the Duke of Devonshire and the Glorious Revolution
One of the difficulties of writing about individuals is that it’s easy to get caught up in their lives and ignore what’s happening on the political stage at the time. In this instance William Cavendish, the 4th Earl of Devonshire was one of the so-called ‘Glorious Seven’ who supported the deposition of James II and who invited James’ son-in-law, William and the former king’s daughter Mary to take the throne in his stead. The Glorious Revolution happened in 1688 – so still less than a decade before Celia made her journey. The earl became the 1st Duke of Devonshire in 1694 and Marquis of Hartington. Unsurprisingly he set about turning the family seat into something rather splendid. At the time of Celia’s visit, Chatsworth was being transformed into a baroque palace. It’s possible that Grinling Gibbons was busily carving in the chapel at Chatsworth or elsewhere in the house at the time of Celia’s visit, or else the work was being completed by Derbyshire craftsman, Samuel Watson. Inevitably Ms Fiennes enjoyed her visit, describing the house and ornate seventeenth century gardens in some detail.
Bakewell and Haddon Hall
More hills and steep inclines but Celia found the town both ‘pretty’ and ‘neat’ – adjectives which still apply. By the end of Celia’s journey it is clear that she visited many stately homes – and all without the aid of a National Trust or Historic Houses card. To Celia, Haddon seemed rather old fashioned – which is its appeal these days.
Buxton and St Anne’s Well
Both Chatsworth and St Anne’s Well were described as wonders of the Peak but Celia was not impressed with the latter, nor with Buxton’s beer or the accommodation offered by the Duke at the hotel there:
the beer they allow at the meales is so bad yt very Little Can be dranke. You pay not for yr bed roome and truely the other is so unreasonable a price and yeLodgings so bad, 2 beds in a Roome some 3 beds and 4 in one roome, so that if you have not Company Enough of your own to fill a Room they will be ready to put others into the same Chamber, and sometymes they are so Crowded that three must Lye in a bed. Few people stay above two or three nights its so Inconvenient. We staid two nights by reason one of our Company was ill, but it was sore against our Wills for there is no peace nor quiet with one Company and another going into the bath or Coming out; that makes so many strive to be in this house because the bath is in it. Its about 40 foot Long and about 20 or 30 ffoote broad being almost square. There is 10 or 12 springs that bubble up that are a Little warme, its not so warme as milke from ye Cow, and not a quick spring, so yt its not Capable of being Cleansed after Everybody has been in. Its warme Enough just to Open the pores of ones body, but not to Cause sweat, I was in it and it made me shake, its farre from the heate that is in the Somersetshire baths. Its Cover’d over the top, but not Ceiled and there is an open place in the middle like a Tunnell wch pours the Cold down on ye head, it would in my thoughts be better if it were Exposed all to ye aire and sunn. There is a pavemt of Stone on one side at ye brim to walke on, with benches of Stone to Sitt on. You must have a guide ytSwims with you, you may Stand in some place and hold by a Chaine and ye water is not above yr Neck, but in other parts very deep and strong it will turn you down. About 10 or 12 yards distant is a spring Called St Anns Well wch is for drinking, they have arch’d it up yt its much hotter, it heates ye Cup you take it up in but not or near so hot as ye Somersetshire baths and springs are, the taste is not unpleasant but Rather like Milk, they say its Diaretick – I dranke a part of a Cup full.
I’m not sure I would describe Buxton water as tasting like milk but Celia was something of an expert.
Poole’s Cavern, Mam Tor, Peak Cavern and Tideswell
Celia who must have read a copy of Thomas Hobbe’s De Mirabilibus Pecci: Being The Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire, Commonly called The Devil’s Arse of Peak took the opportunity to visit both Poole’s Cavern, Mam Tor and Peak Cavern at Castleton. Her journal describes her scrambling over rocks and wading waist deep in water with a company of other ladies and gentlemen – which rather changes my view of seventeenth century aristocratic women. For some reason I cannot imagine Celia spending her days with embroidery! Although of course, I could be wrong the two activities are not mutually exclusive.
I can definitely see that Celia liked a checklist of places to visit on her adventures (rather like me on my holidays) because she also went to Tideswell to see the well which ebbed and flowed with the spring rains. The tidal aspect of the spring stopped at the end of the Eighteenth Century
Celia and her two servants departed the Peak District by way of Ashbourne having explored the area and taken the waters in the way that tourists would continue to do through the following centuries. These days she might be rather more impressed with Buxton’s spa hotel and swimming pool.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Celia travelled extensively from spa town to spa town but enjoyed exploring country towns and stately homes. In 1697 she visited Yorkshire as part of her Northern Journey to take various spa waters.
Her views on Ripon
A pretty Little market town mostly built of Stone, 8 mile (from Knaresborough I think), a Large Market place with a high Cross of severall Stepps; we were there the Market day where provisions are very plentifull and Cheape.Â
In the Market was sold then 2 good Shoulders of veal, they were not very fatt nor so large as our meate in London but good meate, one for 5d the other for 6d , and a good quarter of Lamb for 9d or 10d , and its usual to buy a very good Shoulder of Veale for 9 pence, and a quarter of Beefe for 4 shillings; Indeed it is not large ox Beef but good Middling Beasts: and Craw ffish 2d a Dozn -so we bought them.
Notwithstanding this plenty some of ye Inns are very dear to Strangers that they Can impose on. The town Stands on a hill and there is a good large Stone built Church well Carved, they Call it a minster. There is very fine painting over the alter, it Looks so natural just like Real Crimson satten with gold ffringe like hangings, and Severall rows of Pillars in jsles on Either side wch looks very naturall. There are two good Bridges to the town, one was a rebuilding, pretty large with Severall arches Called Hewet bridge-its often out of repaire by reason of the force of ye water that Swells after great raines, yet I see they made works of wood on purpose to breake the violence of ye Streame and ye Middle arche is very Large and high.
There are Severall good houses about ye town and Severall Gentlemens Seates about a mile or two distance’…She went on to describe Newby Hall which she thought was the finest country house in Yorkshire at the time.
Celia’s interests
Celia was nothing if not practical. She was interested in what she saw, the lives people led and the sights that she might see. She always wrote about town markets, describing how busy they were and whether they were thriving or not.
Celia was also very enthusiastic about stone built houses, wide streets and cleanlinesss. Rather than looking to the past her writing suggests she was in favour of modernity. Interestingly, many of Ripon’s buildings were rebuilt from brick by the time of Celia’s visit – or at least old timber framed buildings were being record in brick to make them look thoroughly modern. Obviously brick was less expensive that stone – by the end of the Georgian period it was the building material of choice and reflects the changing social status of town dwellers as well as the increasing wealth of the urban and mercantile classes.
Inevitably my pictures of Ripon town are locked up on my faulty external hard drive – but at least its an excuse to go back…
Setting aside civil war and plague, the end of the seventeenth century saw the start of what can only be described as the UK’s tourist industry with the likes of Celia Fiennes making long journeys to improve her health. Her work wasn’t published until the eighteenth century. It was also forgotten for a long time before being rediscovered. Daniel Defoe’s Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain, the first volume published in 1724, was second only in popularity to Robinson Crusoe.
Less well known today are the works of John Taylor who made a journey in 1618 from London to Edinburgh on foot in 1618 and followed it up with a published account – oddly enough I don’t feel the need to replicate his journey.
John Ogilby published the first modern road map in 1675. I love the roads with their mountains and lakes looking remarkably like something from The Hobbit but without the dragons. Travel couldn’t be described as straightforward even with a map. The roads were often terrible and there were highwaymen of the non-romantic variety not to mention the vagaries of accommodation and the weather. Rather like Betjeman I’m more enthused by train journeys and car travel – not to mention a lovely hotel or holiday cottage.
One of the reasons I enjoy Betjeman’s poetry is because of his description of towns and other places he visits – though I think he may have been a little unfair on Slough. The Shell Guide to Cornwall, written in 1934, heralds the age of cheaper motor transport and modern tourism. I will admit to preferring Arthur Mee’s King’s England series. I love the detail contained in them, although they are very much a product of the period in which they were written – I’m not sure that you’d be encouraged to provide quite so much moral critique today – although its a tone the series shares in common with Daniel Defoe and Celia Fiennes. And to be honest, they’re not really guide books as such – more something for the reader to dip into, although I will admit that if I’m planning a journey I always looks to see what the King’s England for a particular has to say about local churches.
Then of course there are the modern histories and travel guides. The number of them reflects changing leisure time as well as ease of transport. I used to love Letter from America with Alasdair Cooke when I was a teenager. And, if I’m going to broaden the field – it’s impossible to think of travelogues without mentioning Bill Bryson. And I haven’t even ventured that deep into the realm of travel writing.
And why am I posting this? Well, I’ve just completed and sent off the ms for The Little History of Nottinghamshire. On Monday I’m beginning a four week class on Celia Fiennes. It’s not too late to sign up if you’d like to join me exploring various locations with Celia and her two servants.
