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 District landscape
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.
Bess of Hardwick disowned her eldest son Henry but he had still inherited Chatsworth despite the fact that Bess entailed what she could to William and his heirs. Due to his debts Henry sold Chatsworth to his brother William.
In 1605 thanks to the auspices of his niece Arbella Stuart he became a baronet. In 1618 with the aid of £10,000 paid to James I he became an earl. In addition to his land holdings in Derbyshire he was also investing in foreign trade – the East India Company, the Muscovy Company, the Bermuda Company and also in the settlements in Virginia.
By the time he was in his twenties young William was a polished courtier (pictured left). He also had a reputation of brawling, drinking and womanising. He also spent money as though it was water. This Cavendish was behaving as though he was a member of the aristocracy.
Which brings us to the English Civil War. Christian Bruce was a friend of Henrietta Maria. The Cavendishs were Royalists. In 1642 the 3rd Earl presented himself in York with his younger brother Charles who joined with Prince Rupert and his cavalry, took part in the Battle of Edgehill and ultimately became the Royalist commander for Derbyshire and Lincolnshire prior to his death at the Battle of Gainsborough. Meanwhile the earl, no doubt on his mother’s advice, took himself off to Europe until 1645 when he compounded for his Royalist sympathies – paid a fine of £5000 and returned to live in England at Leicester Abbey where his mother had her residence (it had been purchased by the first earl in 1613) and from there he went to Latimer Place in Buckinghamshire until the Restoration when he returned to Chatsworth.
Born in 1641, yet another William became the fourth earl upon his father’s death in 1684. There had been an older brother but he died in his infancy. The third earl had preserved the Cavendish estates largely by keeping his head down and letting his cousin (William Earl, Marquis and the Duke of Newcastle) of and younger brother get on with Royalist soldiering. The fourth earl was described by Bishop Burnet as being of “nice honour in everything except the paying of his tradesmen.” Like his father he had been sent on the Grand Tour and like his Uncle William (Newcastle) he fancied himself as a bit of a poet. It is easy to see how this particular Cavendish fitted into the court of King Charles II who was also known for his late payments. Like his monarch Cavendish also had a reputation for womanising. He had several children by a mistress called Mrs Heneage. Apparently Charles II had told Nell Gwynn not to have anything to do with him – re-arrange the words pot, kettle and black into a sentence of your choice. It could be that Charles took against William Cavendish because he publicly snubbed the Duke of York (James) at Newmarket on account of his catholicism. Aside from seduction the fourth earl also seems to have spent a lot of time picking fights and duelling.
Let us return today to the Royalist summer of victories in 1643. It was really only in the east of the country that events did not go all Charles I’s way. On 20 July 1643, Lord Willoughby captured Gainsborough in Lincolnshire for Parliament. This meant that the Earl of Newcastle could not now communicate so easily with the royalists at Newark and he could not simply march south expanding royalist territory. The Committee of Safety scratched their various heads and then sent Oliver Cromwell and Sir John Meldrum from the Eastern Association Army to back up Lord Willoughby as he was being threatened by the Royalist military commander – Colonel Charles Cavendish – who was the nephew of the Earl of Newcastle.
As with all civil wars some people change their minds. Having described the Hothams (father and son) shutting the city gates of Hull in Charles I’s face in 1642 it comes as something of a surprise to discover that John Hotham (junior) was executed for treason on 1st January 1645 for conspiring to let the royalists in! John Hotham senior was executed the next day. Unfortunately for them their coat turning tendencies had been proved by the capture of the Earl of Newcastle’s correspondence after the Battle of Marston Moor.
I must admit that there are a several of things that I love about Chatsworth aside from the stunning backdrop and the Emperor Fuuntain – always interesting when the art exhibition is in residence; the hunting dogs situated in the Elizabethan courtyard (though they’ve shifted during renovation work), the intricate carvings of Grinling Gibbons, artifacts belonging to Mary Queen of Scots and a delightful portrait of Magdalena de Vos painted by her father Cornelius.