Ancestral Acres: Belvoir Castle stories
From Edward III to the Dukes of Rutland
By James Arnott (Introduced by Neil Fortey)
Introduction
James Arnott was intensely interested in the society of Belvoir Castle that he played an important part in as Chief Clerk to the estate for many years. In the following passages, which are presented here is approximately chronological sequence, he describes a variety of subjects, ranging from the establishment of the Order of the Garter by Edward III, then the Earls of Rutland, to the Dukes of Rutland and their families, culminating in the funeral of the 10th Duke of Rutland in 1999. Additionally there are three singular sections which talk about the poet RS Hawker, the aristocratic style of life, and the Guggenheim museum.
The words are all James Arnott’s. The series of short chapters is as follows:
The first, A MATTER OF CHIVALRY, describes the creation of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III in 1348.
EIGHT EARLY EARLS concentrates on Francis, the 6th Earl of Rutland, and the famous witchcraft episode of 1618.
THE MAUSOLEUM AND THE DUCHESS OF RUTLAND describes the mausoleum at Belvoir Castle, and the Duchess, wife of the 5th Duke, who died in 1825.
The short section entitled HENRY JOHN MANNERS: 8TH DUKE OF RUTLAND talks about the Duke, who died in 1925, about his wife and family.
THE 9th DUKE AND HIS BROTHER continues with this theme, describing the lives of the 9th Duke and his brother Lord John Manners. This ends with by linking Harston Hall, which is on the Belvoir Estate, with the village of Morwenstow in Cornwall.
PRIEST AND POET talks about the Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker, vicar of Morwenstow during the mid-19th Century.
LINDY GUINESS’S WEDDING describes the marriage, in 1953 at Westminster Abbey, of the 10th Duke’s sister Lady Isabel to Sir Robert Throckmorton in 1953.
WEDDING RECEPTION AT CLARIDGES is about the marriage of the 10th Duke to his second wife, Frances Helen Sweeny, in 1958.
A COMING OF AGE describes the party held on the 19th July 1980 at the Castle to celebrate the Coming of Age of the Marquis of Granby (David, now the 11th Duke).
A VERY SPECIAL OCCASION describes the tea party held in the grounds of the Castle to celebrate the 10th Duke’s half-century in that role in July 1990.
THE MARQUIS OF GRANBY describe the wedding in 1992 of David, the Marquis of Granby and Miss Emma Watkins; “The Wedding of the Year”.
HER GRACE THE DOWAGER DUCHESS OF RUTLAND describes the life of this well known lady, wife of the 9th Duke of Rutland and mother of the 10th Duke, who died in 1989 aged 95.
HIGH SOCIETY talks about the style of life enjoyed by great lords and ladies.
THE GUGGENHEIM CONNECTION takes a somewhat ironic view of the Guggenheims and their Museum in Venice.
THE LAST WORD tells of the funeral, at St. Mary the Virgin, Bottesford, of Charles John Robert Manners, 10th Duke of Rutland, in February 1999. He was aged 79.
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A Matter of Chivalry
Edward the Third was born at Windsor Castle in 1312. In 1327, at the age of fifteen, he was crowned King at Westminster Abbey. He died in 1377 and was buried in the Abbey. During his reign, he created the first English Dukedom when Edward, Prince of Wales, became Duke of Cornwall. But, in 1348, he founded the Order of the Garter, probably the most famous of all the Orders of Chivalry. At the same time he established St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle where, in the choir, are the exquisitely carved stalls of the Knights of the Garter. After 1475, the building was replaced by the existing Chapel, one of the most sumptuous late Gothic buildings in England.
When a Knight Companion was created, a plate showing his Arms, usually in enamel, and the date of his creation, was attached to his stall in the Chapel of the Order, and his crested helm and banner would be displayed there. On his death, helm and banner were taken away, but the stall-plate still remains.
The first member of the Manners family to become a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter was the 6th Earl of Rutland in the year 1616. Many years later, the 5th Duke of Rutland (1778 - 1857) also became a Knight of the Order of the Garter.
The origin of the order is not without interest. According to Walter Carruthers Sellar and Robert Julian Yeatman, who together wrote “1066 and all that”, Edward III had very good manners. One day, in 1348, at a royal dance he noticed some men-about-court mocking a lady whose garter had come off, whereupon, to put her at her ease he stopped the dance and made the memorable declaration: “Honi soie qui mal y pense” which, translated means: “Honey, your silk stocking’s hanging down”, and having replaced the garter with a romantic gesture, gave the ill-mannered courtiers the Order of the Bath, which at that time, was an extremely uncomfortable, indeed painful experience.
Not all honours presumably are welcome or gratefully received. But I am left wondering what the romantic gesture was with which Edward replaced the lady’s garter…….
Eight Early Earls
The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin stands in the village of Bottesford, 4 ½ miles north of Belvoir Castle, in Framland Deanery in the Diocese of Leicester. The church dates back to the early 12th century, the first recorded Incumbent being Nicolas de Albini, sometime before 1209. Within the walls of this splendid church, in the chancel, are memorials to three members of the de Roos family. But more importantly perhaps, there are memorials to eight Earls of Rutland, all of whom died between the years 1543 and 1679. Of these elaborate and impressive memorials, none evokes more interest than that of Francis and Cecilia, and the reason for that is simply due to the fact that over the years that memorial has become known as “The Witchcraft Tomb”.
By his first wife Frances, the 6th Earl had a daughter Catherine. By his second wife Cecilia, he had two sons Henry and Francis. All three children, it is said, were bewitched. Catherine survived the illness she suffered, but the two boys died in their infancy – “by wicked practise and sorcery”.
The perpetrators of this dreadful crime were none other than a servant at the castle, Joan Flower and her two daughters Philippa and Margaret. It was not until five years after the supposed “bewitching” that the three witches were arrested and subjected to extensive examination by various justices and the then Rector of Bottesford, Dr. Samuel Fleming.
Eventually, all three women were committed to Lincoln gaol but Joan Flower died at Ancaster on the way “by wishing the bread and butter she ate might choke her if she was guilty”. Her daughters were tried at Lincoln, confessed, and were executed on the 11th March 1618. Catherine, the 6th Earl’s daughter, became the Duchess of Buckingham and, from her father, inherited Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire, which was founded in 1131, by monks belonging to the Cisterian order who came from Clairvaux in France, which abbey was ruled by St. Bernard. Rievaulx of course is the name used by Harold Wilson, the former Labour Prime Minister, when he was raised to the Peerage and became Lord Wilson of Rievaulx. What connection he had with the Cisterian Monks I don’t profess to know. Presumably they had all disappeared by the time he took his title.
There is a book “The Witch and the Priest” by Hilda Lewis, published by Hutchinson Library Services Ltd of Fitzroy Square, London W1, which tells the whole story of the witches of Belvoir. It is an engrossing tale.
The Mausoleum and the 5th Duchess of Rutland
The Revd. Irvin Eller in his history of Belvoir Castle has this to say about the Mausoleum:
“As soon as the exterior folding doors are opened, a pair of magnificent brass gates present themselves, and through them is seen the tomb and sculptured representation of the Duchess as in the act of ascending to the clouds above! I have observed the effect of this scene, under almost every variety of atmosphere. I have accompanied fiends of almost every shade of temperament; memory has pondered again and again upon the subject; yet, neither from the resources of my own mind, or that of others, can I obtain words in which will at all adequately describe the impressions made by this scene. It creates a depth of feeling of which the individual is sufficiently conscious; but it seems at the same time to paralyse the power of expressing it.
The Duchess is represented as rising from the tomb, with expanding arms and the face elevated towards the clouds, in which one sees four cherubs – the children who have preceded her to the grave – one of whom is holding over her a crown of glory. The group is lighted from the above and from the two sides by windows of glass stained with ruby, amethyst, topaz and emerald colours. This arrangement of the light is judiciously contrived as not to be obvious to the visitor, except upon close examination. I have seen the effect of the sun shining on those windows and it is undoubtedly quite splendid.”
The four children referred to above were Caroline, born 25th May 1800 who died in December 1804; George John Henry, born 26th June 1807 who died on 4th August 1807; George John Frederick born on 20th August 1813 who died 15th June 1814 and Adolphus Edward born on 10th November 1817 who died 6th February 1818.
The other seven children were:
1 Elizabeth Frederica born 10th December, 1802.
2 Emmeline Charlotte Elizabeth born 2nd May, 1806.
3 Kathleen Isabella born 4th February, 1809.
4 Adeliza Gertrude Elizabeth born 29th December, 1810.
5 Charles Cecil John (Marquis of Granby) born 16th May, 1815.
6 John James Robert born 13th December, 1818.
7 George John born 23rd June, 1820.
The foundation stone of the Mausoleum was laid by His Royal Highness the Duke of York, on March 1st 1826. It was consecrated by the Bishop on Lincoln on November 28th 1828, and a sermon was preached on the occasion in Knipton Church by the Chaplin to the Bishop, the Revd. Graham, Master of Christ College, Cambridge. The last person to be laid to rest there was the Dowager Duchess of Rutland who died in December 1989, age 95.
The Duchess referred to by Revered Eller was Elizabeth the wife of the 5th Duke of Rutland, 2nd daughter of Frederick Howard, Earl of Carlisle. Born on the 13th November 1780, she married the 5th Duke on April 22nd 1799, and died on November 29th 1825, aged 45. She was the mother of eleven children four of whom died as referred to above. There is a portrait of the 5th Duke and Duchess either side of the Grand Staircase leading from the Guard Room.
Following the death of Her Grace, a document was printed and extensively circulated among the Duke’s tenants, extolling her manifold and great virtues. Here are but a few of the comments contained in that document.
In this distinguished lady were united the attractive softness of the most perfect grace and beauty with a vigour of understanding and a clearness of intellect, seldom equalled in either sex. Her taste was pure and refined; her piety was fervent, simple and unaffected. She was the idol of that domestic circle which was the joy and pride of her heart. Her benevolence was unostentatious: her heart warm and affectionate. Her grace was a successful practical farmer upon a large scale, and her exertions rewarded by several prizes and medals from the societies.
She also had a great interest in architecture. Eight years before she died she had completed in detail, very beautiful designs for an entrance to Hyde Park Corner. She also produced designs for a proposed quay on the south banks of the River Thames, and the elevation of York House was the product of Her Grace’s taste. But her most ambitious project to which she devoted much of her time was her plan for a royal palace suited to the sovereign of the British Empire. Undoubtedly a most remarkable lady.
Henry John Manners: 8th Duke of Rutland
The 8th Duke, referred to by H.F.J. as Grandfather Duke, married Violet, daughter of Col.Hon.C.H.Lindsay. She has been described as passionate, intelligent, and an accomplished artist whose exquisite pencil drawings were much prized by her friends. Together the Duke and Duchess had five children; two sons and three daughters. But at the age of nine the elder son Robert, Lord Haddon died. His marble monument, a finely sculptured recumbent figure, is the most beautiful and moving work his mother ever created, and was exhibited in the Tate Gallery.
The second son John became the 9th Duke on the death of his father in 1925. The first daughter, Marjorie married Charles, the sixth Marques of Anglesey. The second daughter was Lady Violet who some years after my arrival at Belvoir I was surprised to meet when she came into the Estate Office during a stay at the Castle. In 1912 she was married to Lord Elcho, son and heir of the Earl of Wemys, but he was killed in 1917 - the aristocracy did not escape the carnage of the First World War. So she did not become the Countess of Wemys but years later married a gentleman from Cheltenham, an architect by profession, called Guy Holford Benson and it was as Lady Violet Benson that I first met her.
Another member of the Wemys family was Martin Charteris, for many years Private Secretary to the Queen, who a few years ago was quoted as having described the Duchess of York as vulgar. (In 1978 he was created Baron Charteris of Amisfield, East Lothian).
Lady Violet’s younger sister was Lady Diana Manners, who in 1923 became well known when she played the part of The Madonna in Max Reinhardt’s production of The Miracle.
In 1919 she married Duff Cooper who became British Ambassador to France in 1944. He died in 1954 and was buried in the grounds of the Mausoleum at Belvoir. It was not until 1986 that she joined him there.
There is a sad little footnote relating to Lady Diana Manners and her mother the Duchess. It is generally believed that Diana, born in 1892, was not the daughter of the Duke of Rutland but of Henry Cust to whom Violet Duchess was greatly attached. Cust is the family name of Lord Brownlow of Belton House, near Grantham.
The Duke and his Brothers
The Duke’s elder brother, Lord John Manners, rather resented the suggestion that he belonged to the privileged classes. There was perhaps good reason for his resentment. When the Duke, having inherited the estate, took possession of the Castle, Lord John and his youngest brother, Lord Roger, were obliged to leave the ancestral home and make their own way in the world. Lord John took up farming, renting some of his brothers’ land whilst Lord Roger became a stockbroker. Both of them, of course, had a benefit of a title, although it has to be said “Lord” was but a courtesy title – they did not have a seat in the House of Lords.
The Duke himself, of course, suffered no such resentment. On his return to Belvoir at the end of the war, he decided that although he had a seat in the House of Lords and had therefore some say in the affairs of the state, he would devote himself to local affairs, in which he might be more influential. So in due course he became a member of Leicestershire County Council and was in fact chairman of the Council for many years. And there were other ways, in which he could exercise his influence and authority. He was Chairman of the local Conservative Association. He was Chairman of the governors of Belvoir High School. He was a local magistrate.
Also serving on the bench at Belvoir was Sir Arthur Curtis who at one time had been A.D.C. to the Duke of Gloucester when he was Governor-General of Australia. The Duke never could convince Sir Arthur of the seriousness of poaching. He himself would have the perpetrators transported for life if that were possible. Not so, Sir Arthur – he turned a deaf ear to the Duke’s appeal for sterner sentences – not always, it must be admitted, uttered seriously.
As patron of the Living of Bottesford and Muston, the Duke was responsible for the appointment of a new rector and could exercise his personal preference for the type of man he would choose: High or Low Church? Middle of the road – or Evangelical?
Obviously he would, avoid appointing the person whose favourite hymn was the one about the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate.
Recently, I read a variation on these lines as follows:
The poor man in his castle,
The rich man at his gate,
The charge is six pounds fifty
To visit the Estate.
If choosing a new parson was a problem, it was not to be compared to the greatest problem facing the Church of England that, according to Bernard Levin, journalist and drama critic of The Times, was the fact that “vicars” rhymes with “knickers”.
If the brothers of the Duke were obliged in due course to leave home, the Duchess herself would one day have to do the same, and that is when the Marquis of Granby took possession of his inheritance and with his wife and family, took up residence at the Castle.
At that moment the Duchess, newly widowed, would have to find another home. In anticipation of that day the Duke bought a house on a neighbouring estate called Harston Hall. As it was not immediately required, it was advertised to let on lease and in due course acquired a tenant – a lady from a small village called Morwenstow in North Cornwall. A horse loving type, she was apparently in the habit of going each year to the Royal Windsor Horse Show, but finding it a long haul from Morwenstow to Windsor, had decided to look for a place nearer Windsor and came to stay, as Lessee, at Harston Hall. Here I will digress for a moment or two……
Priest and Poet (R.S. Hawker)
In 1823 a young man by the name of Robert Stephen Hawker went up to Pembroke College, Oxford, taking with him his newly wedded wife. He was 20 years of age at the time – his wife was a little older – she was in fact 41 years of age.
But the young man applied himself to his studies, worked hard, passed his exams, and got his degree. Then some years after leaving Oxford he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England and in due course, in 1834, he became Vicar of the Church of St. Morwenna and St. John in the village of Morwenstow, the village in Cornwall to which I referred a short time ago and from whence came the tenant of Harston Hall.
At that time there were no lighthouses around the coast of the British Isles and the north coast of Cornwall was notoriously rocky and fierce westerly gales swept across the Atlantic with tremendous fury. So it is not surprising many ships came to grief. As a result, a feature of life in the Parish of Morwenstow at that time was that periodically – quite often in fact – someone would come to the vicarage door to say that another body had been washed up on the shore or a body had been sighted at the foot of the cliffs along the coast, and then it became the task of the Vicar to recover the body – not always easy and indeed quite dangerous on occasions – and give that body a Christian burial. It was the custom of Merchant seamen in those days to wear a gold earring or length of gold wire entwined in the lobe of one ear. The idea behind this custom was the knowledge that one day the man might be shipwrecked, drowned, and his body washed up on some foreign shore. Hopefully the gold earring would help to pay for a decent burial.
The Vicar of Morwenstow – the Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker – was a most conscientious man and held a service in church every morning. But the local parishioners, having to work for a living were unable to attend such services, so the Vicar, who would normally begin the service by addressing the congregation with the words, “ Dearly beloved brethren” would begin, “Dearly beloved Charlotte” his wife being the only other person present.
In September 1843, Reverend Hawker called on the people of Morwenstow “to gather together in the chancel of our church on the first Sunday of next month and there receive in the bread of our new corn, that Blessed Sacrament”. This was the first occasion when a Harvest Festival service was held in the Church of England.
In the course of time Reverend Hawker acquired a reputation as a minor poet, his best known work perhaps being the poem “And shall Trelawney die” which is about a Cornish folk hero imprisoned by King James II in the Tower of London, and the determination of 20,000 Cornishmen to cross the Tamar river and march to London to rescue Trelawney.
The Vicar’s wife Charlotte died in 1863 at the age of 80 after a long illness during which her husband nursed her with the utmost tender loving care. Just less than two years later, at the age of 61 Hawker married again, this time to a girl of 20, by whom he had three daughters. The lives of other men – and women too – are not without interest.
Wedding Reception at Claridges
In 1958 the Duke married his second wife, Frances Helen Sweeny, the daughter of Charles and Margaret Sweeny. Margaret was, at that time, the Duchess of Argyll.
The wedding took place at Caxton Hall Registry Office on the 15th May, and the reception was at Claridges Hotel, to which we were invited, that is, the senior Heads of Departments on the Estate with our wives.
The bride’s wedding dress was of blush pink organza, the head dress a crescent of pink ostrich feathers, the gloves were pink and the skirt floor length at the back and only knee length at the front, short enough to show off the pink ostrich feather lining, all the work of Norman Hartnell. At Claridges we met the new Duchess and her mother and father for the first time.
Charles Sweeny, I had known of since I was about twelve years of age because he was in the 1930s, amateur golf champion, and having been brought up in Scotland I knew of his achievements, golf being a popular game there.
Charles Sweeny’s great grandfather was a miner who with his close friends, the Guggenheim brothers formed the American Smelting Company, which is still in existence today and still highly profitable. It was, in fact, the foundation of the family fortune which was considerable, and from which Charles Sweeny benefited greatly.
It was whilst a student at Oxford that he became a champion golfer and with an allowance of £100 a month was able to live the high life, not only in this country but abroad, in such places as Biarritz, Deauville, Cannes, Le Touquet and Monte Carlo.
His interests, apart from golf, included high finance, politics, the entertainment world and horse racing. His intimate friends included the Duke of Westminster and most of the aristocracy of Europe. Through the Trust Company founded by his father he was behind some of the biggest financial deals in the City in association with such men as Charles Clore, Sir Isaac Wolfson, Tiny Rowland, Lord Hanson and Sir James Goldsmith.
In 1933 he married the glamorous debutante Margaret Whigham, whose father, George Whigham, was Chairman of all the Companies in the Celanese Group. After that marriage ended she married again and became the Duchess of Argyll, but that marriage ended in what was a rather sensational divorce. If Charles Sweeny, father of the present Duchess of Rutland was always in a position to enjoy life to the full he was not without a sense of duty also. When the war came, he organised the Americans in London into a motorised unit and when the Royal Air Force desperately needed pilots he recruited American volunteers to join the RAF and as a result the strength of the RAF was increased by three squadrons known as Eagle Squadrons.
In May 1986 in Grosvenor Square, Mrs Thatcher unveiled the Eagle Squadron Memorial. It records the name of the 244 American pilots who served in the three RAF Eagle Squadrons, about a third of whom were killed in action.
Frances Helen Sweeny was not the first rich young American girl to marry into the British aristocracy. In 1895 Consuela Vanderbilt married the 9th Duke of Marlborough. Years later, having been Duchess of Marlborough for about 25 years, and having produced two sons, she took her mother off to Rome, where before a Papal court - the Rota – mother was obliged to confess to having married off her daughter to this English Gentleman, against her will. As a result of that confession the marriage was annulled and the Duchess was able to marry the French Army Colonel, Louis Balsan, to whom she had become attached, and to return to America*.
No such calamity befell the Duke and Duchess of Rutland; they have remained happily together for over 40 years.
*The above story is perhaps a little more complicated than I have described. In 1906, after 11 years of marriage and with two sons, the Duke and Duchess were legally separated. In the spring of 1921, the Duke of Marlborough married, in Paris, Gladys Deacon, a beautiful girl endowed with a brilliant intellect. On the 4th July 1921, the Duchess of Marlborough married Jacques Balsan in the Chapel Royal of the Savoy. But all this is suitably described in a book by Consuela Vanderbilt Balsan: The Glitter and the Gold first published in 1953 by William Heinemann (and again in 1973) which can be obtained from the local or county library.
Lindy Guiness’ Wedding
The Duke has two sisters; Lady Ursula, born in 1916, and Lady Isabel, born in 1917.
During the last war Lady Ursula worked for British Marco in Grantham, the firm now known as Bmarc which was recently involved in the Arms to Iraq controversy. At that time (in 1943) Lady Ursula married a lieutenant in the Italian Navy, Anthony Marreco, but was divorced in 1948. She married again in 1957, Robert Elland Nicholai D’Abo, and lives at West Wratting Park, Cambridge. Her husband died in 1970.
Lady Isabel married in 1953, Sir Robert Throckmorton (who died in 1989) and lives at Caughton Court, Alcester, near Stratford on Avon. Before that, however, she had been married to Loel Guinness in 1936 and has a daughter, Belinda Serena Rosemary - Lindy Guinness - who married the 5th Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, Sheridan Frederick Terence. The wedding took place at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday 21st October 1964 at 3.30pm, and we were invited (that is the senior staff and their wives and a few old retainers). After the wedding service we were taken by coach (there were a number of coaches) to the Napoleon suite at the Café Royale.
The guests, there were at least 1500, included Princess Margaret, Princess Alexandra and Princess Margaretha of Sweden and one man, I particularly remember, not having expected ever to meet him in the flesh, was Nubar Gulbenkian, whose father, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian had a fortune estimated at 300 million pounds which he left to an international trust for educational, artistic, and charitable purposes (The Gulbenkian Foundation).
Closed circuit television was installed in several rooms so that everyone could see the cake being cut. The four-tier cake, four feet high, measured 32 inches across and had a shamrock on top.
The bride’s dress was the quintessence of simplicity and elegance. London couturier, John Cavanagh provided the plainest of white silk gabardine dresses, it had a sculptured line, moulded bodice and narrow stand away collar, to set off the fabulous Dufferin and Ava “shamrock” tiara.
Unfortunately the marriage was childless. In 1988, the 5th Marquis of Dufferin and Ava died, and because there was no heir the title has lapsed.
A Coming of Age
On the 19th July 1980 there was a party at the Castle, to celebrate the Coming of Age of the Marquis of Granby [David, now the 11th Duke], to which my wife and I were invited (together with a few hundred other guests).
The invitation read: “Dancing 10.30 o’clock. White tie preferred” which was a little unfortunate if you only had a dinner jacket and black tie, but there was no need to stand on ceremony. We went to the party.
The Castle was lavishly decorated with flowers by a firm from London.
A firm of caterers had arrived the day before with lots of equipment, food and wine – and a large staff. On the night the Castle was full – full of Lords and Ladies and young men too (including one or two Hooray Henry’s!).
It was a night of glamour, of elegance, of bejewelled ladies, elegantly, expensively attired in ball gowns and dresses of exquisite good taste.
When, at 10.30 the band struck up the floor in the Regents Gallery was soon crowded. The leader of the band was Lord Colwyn who did not, I think, have a seat in the House of Lords.
I can’t pretend I danced all night.
At 4 o’clock in the morning we were having breakfast in the Grand Dining room: bacon and eggs, strawberries and cream – an unexpected combination, but most enjoyable.
At six o’clock in the morning they were still dancing down in the Rose Garden to the sound of a steel band.
But by then we were back home – sound asleep. It had been a very special occasion – not only for the Marquis of Granby.
The Marquis of Granby
In what the Grantham Journal described as “The Wedding of the Year”, the Marquis of Granby, eldest son of the 9th Duke and Duchess of Rutland, and Miss Emma Watkins daughter of Mr and Mrs John Watkins of Heartsease, Knighton, Powys, were married in the Chapel at Belvoir Castle on 6th June 1992.
The bride, who was given away by her father, wore a dress of crepe satin and French lace and a tiara.
There was a special line of honour formed by RAF cadets as the bride and bridegroom left the chapel to receive the 400 guests who gathered at Belvoir to wish the couple well. RAF musicians played background music during the reception at which Sir Simon Gourley proposed the health of the bride and groom.
Later the guests, many of whom had travelled from Herefordshire and Wales for the occasion, dined in the Castle and danced to Lord Colwyn’s band.
On Friday the 5th June, 150 pensioners from the Belvoir and Haddon Estate were invited to the Castle for afternoon tea and to meet the Marquis and his charming young wife, now the Marchioness of Granby.
At the end of the afternoon, wedding gifts were presented on behalf of the pensioners by Mr Fred Burton, a retired head-keeper from the Haddon Estate, and by Mr Richard Donger, a retired farm tenant from the Belvoir Estate.
The Marquis thanked them both and referred to the special relationship his family enjoyed with both estates. Later in the evening, around 500 guests assembled for a cocktail party, those present included employees and tenants of the Haddon and Belvoir estates as well as employees from the bride’s father’s farm in Powys, and of course friends of the family.
A matching pair of fishing rods in a presentation case were presented by the Haddon Estate, and a chandelier from the Belvoir Estate.
That the union was a fruitful one there is no doubt: The Marquis and the Marchioness now have three daughters: Violet, Alice and Eliza.
Will they I wonder, in due course, all marry the sons of Dukes? or a Royal Prince perhaps?
I should not miss the opportunity of wishing the Marquis and Marchioness much joy and happiness together throughout their lives.
POSTSCRIPT: From the births column of the Times, Wednesday 7th July 1999: RUTLAND: On the 3rd July 1999, to the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, a son, Charles John Montague (Marquis of Granby).
A Very Special Occasion
The Marquis of Granby succeeded to the title of Duke of Rutland on the death of his father, the 9th Duke, in 1940. He was at the time a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards.
Fifty years later, in July 1990, he celebrated his half-century as the 10th Duke of Rutland. There was a tea party in the grounds of the Castle to which all past and present employees, both from the Belvoir and Haddon Estates, were invited together with farm and Cottage tenants, Estate pensioners and indeed anyone and everyone who had a connection with the Estates. Also present, in force, were the Dukes family, family, sons and daughter, brothers and sister and in attendance: men of the Corps of Commissionaires.
Coaches were laid on to collect from around the various villages on the Estate, old pensioners and those who were unable to go to the Castle under their own steam. And taxis were laid on for those who wished to leave early – a kindly thought this as there were a few elderly folk who could manage only a limited amount of excitement.
Tea was served on the North Terrace, and everyone was free to wander round the gardens meeting and greeting old friends, recalling times past of just sitting and watching the assembled crowd. It was a glorious summer’s day.
The cannons were fired in salutations and there were speeches and presentations. An oil painting, specially commissioned for the occasion was presented to the Duke from the Belvoir Estate, and a new set of rods in a splendid case specially made from some old, seasoned timber was presented on behalf of the Haddon Estate. The Duke, in his speech, paid tribute to the support of his wife over the years.
And then – about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, on the still air of a hot summer’s afternoon, there came the sound of music, and then we saw, coming up the drive to the Castle, men in red uniforms – it was the regimental band of the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards – the Duke’s old regiment.
As they reached the top of the drive they turned right onto the cannonade and there came to a halt. At which moment, the Duke to who all this was of course a great and pleasant surprise, stepped forward to greet the officer in charge and to thank him and the band for being present.
And then we were entertained to a programme of music suitable for such an occasion, which of course we all thoroughly enjoyed.
At 5 o’clock, as we made our way home, it was with the feeling that: All’s well on the Belvoir Estate.
And that, ones hopes will continue to be the case and that all those in the years to come who are employed on the Estate, will find pleasure in their labour.
Her Grace The Dowager Duchess of Rutland
One could not write about Belvoir without referring to Her Grace the Dowager Duchess of Rutland with whom I was privileged to be acquainted, having from time to time to call on her at Belvoir Lodge on matters of a domestic nature.
The widow of the 9th Duke of Rutland and mother of the present 10th Duke, she was born Kathleen Tennant in London on January 30th 1894, the third and youngest daughter of Francis John Tennant of Innes, Morayshire and Lympne Castle, Kent, and the grand-daughter of the Scottish industrialist and Baronet, Sir Charles Tennant, whose family was ennobled with the Barony of Glenconner.
It was from 10 Downing Street on the 27th January 1916, that she set out for
St. Margaret’s, Westminster, to marry John Henry Montague Manners, Marquis of Granby. At that time, her uncle by marriage, Herbert Asquith, was in his last year as Liberal Prime Minister – she herself was a niece of the formidable Margot Asquith.
In 1925, the Marquis succeeded his father as 9th Duke of Rutland.
Frank Tennant, her father had been one of “The Souls” an intellectual group at the turn of the century which prided itself on unconventional behaviour.
This boisterous and uninhibited ancestry sometimes caused the Duchess to rebel, but mildly, against the extreme formality of life at Belvoir Castle where the Duke would insist on a white tie even for a small family dinner.
Although she had a splendid sense of fun “Kakoo” Rutland as she was once known, also had a highly developed sense of social proprieties. She did not take to Wallis Simpson and was most upset, indeed, profoundly shocked when Edward VIII’s abdication forced the Duke and Duchess of York, who were close friends, on to the throne.
She herself was one of the four duchesses chosen to hold the canopy over Queen Elizabeth at the Coronation of King George VI in 1937.
It was unfortunate that her husband, the 9th Duke, should die in 1940 at the early age of 53.
She then moved to Belvoir Lodge, where she was well served by her two servants Emily Stenton and Sidney Parkes. From the Lodge she continued her work as a Justice of the Peace and took a great interest in her large family, by whom she was much loved.
The Dowager Duchess of Rutland, who died on December 4th 1989 at the age of 95 at her home in Wilton Street, Belgravia, was one of the last survivors of the world of splendour and formality of the pre-war aristocracy, yet remained all her life a person of natural and unaffected simplicity. It is her innate kindness and consideration that I most remember, and which remains with me to this day. I was indeed a little privileged myself, to have known her.
High Society
It did not require a great deal of perception to realise that one’s own lifestyle was a little different from that of the Duke and his family. The Duke is a rich man: The Sunday Times in a recent record of “Britain’s Richest 500” placed him at 134 and worth £85 million. But he is by no means idle. He was for many years Chairman of Leicestershire County Council and was at one time Chairman of the East Midlands Economic Development Committee for which he was awarded C.B.E.
I sometimes wondered why anyone should want to leave an estate where there was so much to see and to enjoy. Yet it is perhaps understandable that after a long winter in the country, the need for a change would arise, at which time the whole family would up sticks and with a small retinue of servants, take up residence for some months in the family’s town house in London. Or at least they could in the past. Today not so many landed gentry have a house in London. Until 1925 the London home of the Rutland family was at 16 Arlington Street.
Hertford House, the former home of the Marques of Hertford in Manchester Square, off Wigmore Street, which runs parallel to Oxford Street, (London W1) is a town house which can be visited daily. It is now the home of the Wallace Collection, bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace (who died in1897) and opened as a National Museum by King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales.
But the attractions remain: banquets and balls, dinners and dances, the Derby at Epsom, Royal Ascot, tennis at Wimbledon, cricket at Lords (or Eaton v Harrow) the Henley Regatta, Polo at Guard’s Club, Windsor (or Smith’s Lawn), racing again – at Goodwood, and Cowes Week.
For those culturally inclined there is the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Opera at Glydebourne (black tie, champagne and hampers) or the English National Opera at Kenwood, North London and concerts or recitals at the Albert Hall or the Barbican.
The late Lord Lovat of Beauly, Inverness-shire, 24th Chief of Clan Frazer of Lovat, in his biography describes the scene at Kings Cross late in the evening at the beginning of August, when North Country families and those from across the border are arriving to catch the late night sleeper heading north – after some months in London.
The stationmaster is there, on parade, immaculate in top hat and tailcoat. The station too is immaculate: there is not a bit of litter to be seen. Over the years the station- master has come to know the railway company’s customers – clients – and can talk knowledgeably to them, “I hear coveys will be small on the high ground this season because of the late snow”.
As a result during the year, he will receive gifts of game – grouse and pheasant, joints of beef and venison and trout and salmon.
But I remember most Lord Lovat’s reference to the sleeping berth attendant, busy filling his mother’s hot water bottle.
Where today, I wonder, can one receive such service?
The Guggenheim Connection
I mentioned earlier the Guggenheim brothers who were associated with Charles Sweeny’s great grandfather in founding in1901 the American Smelting Co., and in doing so laid the foundations of the family fortunes which were considerable. Many years ago, in Venice, I came across the home — the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni – of a member of that family — Peggy Guggenheim who was a great art collector. So too was Solomon R. Guggenheim who built a museum in New York which bears his name and which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in 1959.
In the garden attached to the palace there was an equestrian statue of which I had seen a photograph. It was what one might call an example of modern art by which I mean it bore little resemblance to the subject it was meant to represent, which was in fact a rider on horseback. The horse was rough hewn, there was little in the way of detail, and the rider, a nude male figure, was rather squat and dumpy. By no means could one say it was in heroic mode. And certainly it bore no resemblance to the majestic military gentleman one might see on horseback in many a town square.
But the rider himself had one unique feature; he had a detachable penis – in fact he had two or three of various sizes. Apparently it was Miss Guggenheim’s custom, when entertaining her lady friends, to arrange for the largest spare part to be attached to the figure on horseback, so that her friends, in wandering around the garden might be excited, delighted, surprised, shocked or merely amused, or in contemplating the size of the object before them, be filled with a feeling of deprivation.
If Miss Guggenheim’s guests were rather staid sort of ladies, then an appendage of more modest proportions would be placed in position.
I have to admit I have never managed to decide whether Miss Guggenheim’s bizarre behaviour suggests that women can be as bawdy or as vulgar as men or whether it merely means Miss Guggenheim was a girl who enjoyed a good giggle.
The Last Word
Charles John Robert Manners, the 10th Duke of Rutland C.B.E. died on Saturday 2nd February 1999 at his home Belvoir Castle. He was aged 79 and had been ill after suffering a stroke some months previously.
His funeral took place at the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin in the village of Bottesford some four miles from Belvoir on Thursday 1999 at eleven o’clock. There were more than four hundred mourners in church with almost as many in the two marquees erected in the churchyard where the service was relayed to a television monitor for all to see and hear.
After the service, the funeral cortege made its way back to Belvoir where, in the Mausoleum on a hill above the Castle, His Grace was laid to rest. For all those who had attended the Funeral Service, a Reception was held at the Castle, where we were most hospitably received by members of the family.
On Thursday the 18th March 1999 a Memorial Service was held in the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks, London.
Her Majesty the Queen, Princess Margaret, Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Prince Michael of Kent and Princess Alexandra, were all represented at the service. Present were two members of the family and friends and former colleagues.
There appeared of course Obituary Notices in the National and Local press, describing the life and time of His Grace the Duke of Rutland, and in particular and in some detail, his service to the community, on reading which I realised I had been privileged to have served and to have been employed by one who was a truly noble English Gentleman.
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