Читать книгу Bess of Hardwick and Her Circle - Maud Stepney Rawson - Страница 6

Photo by Richard Keene, Ltd., Derby HARDWICK OLD HALL: THE GIANTS CHAMBER (So called from the two colossal figures, dubbed Gog and Magog, in raised plaster-work over the fireplace) Page 6

Gradually her great hobby asserted itself—the desire to build—and this constructive energy, as her story will show, went hand in hand with her master passion, the love of power and possession, to the end of her days. The mansion of the Leeches did not please her. It must be rebuilt for the glory of the Cavendishes. Her knight yielded to the wish. They set about the work quickly, living meanwhile, one supposes, in the original mansion. Hardwick Hall, it will be remembered, was not yet hers. John Hardwick, her father, had passed away in the nineteenth year of Henry VIII. That reign was at an end, and the reign of Edward VI drawing to its close. Hardwick House eventually became the portion of the red-haired daughter, some say through the will of her brother, who apparently died without heir. But for the moment the Cavendishes needed a fine house for domesticity on a large scale and old Chatsworth did not suffice them. Elizabeth Cavendish had plenty to do in founding her family. These were great and busy times for the great lady. Shoulder to shoulder husband and wife worked at their building, at their estate, at the management of their tenants, their parks and palings, their farms and holdings. The red-haired girl was in her element as matron and comptroller and lady bountiful. Fortune smiled on her enterprise, and when the crown of Edward VI descended to Mary of England, Sir William Cavendish still held securely his valuable post in the Exchequer.

It is a fine English picture as one looks upon it, this married life of the Cavendishes—knight and lady amongst their babies, enlarging their county circle, increasing their county honours, holding intercourse with Court and capital, with market and county town.

Here is a letter on domestic matters from Sir William to his lady showing his trust in her management of their joint affairs:—

“To Bess Cavendish,

“My Wife.

“Good Bess, having forgotten to write in my letters that you should pay Otewelle Alayne eight pounds for certain oats that we have bought of him over and above twelve that I have paid to him in hand, I heartily pray you for that he is desirous to receive the rest at London to pay him upon the sight hereof. You know my store and therefore I have appointed him to have it at your hands. And thus fare you well. From Chatsworth the XIIIth of April.

W. C.”

And here is a characteristic letter from his good lady during her absence from home in 1552 to her man of affairs, in which she soundly takes him to task for discourtesy to her “sister Jane,” orders beer to be brewed against her own return, and issues commands for building and repairs:—

“Francis, I have spoken with your master for the deals or boards that you wrote to me of; and he is content that you shall take some for your necessity by the appointment of Neusante, so that you take such as will do him no service about his building at Chatsworth. I pray you look well to all things at Chatsworth till my aunt’s coming home, which I hope shall be shortly, and in the meantime cause Broushawe to look to the smithy and all other things at Penteridge. Let the weaver make beer for me forthwith, for my own drinking and your master’s; and see that I have good store of it, for if I lack either good beer or good charcoal or wood I will blame nobody so much as I will do you. Cause the floor in my bedchamber to be made even, either with plaster, clay, or lime: and all the windows where the glass is broken to be mended: and all the chambers to be made as close and warm as you can. I hear that my sister Jane cannot have things that is needful for her to have amongst you: If it be true, you lack a great of honesty as well as discretion to deny her anything that she hath a mind to, being in my house; and then assure yourself I cannot like it to have my sister so used. Like as I would not have any superfluity or waste of anything, so likewise would I have her to have that which is needful and necessary. At my coming home I shall know more, and then I will think as I shall have cause. I would have you give to my midwife from me, and from my boy Willie and to my nurse from me and my boy, as hereafter followeth: first to the midwife from me ten shillings, and from Willie five shillings: to the nurse from me five shillings, and from my boy three shillings and four pence: so that in the whole you must give to them twenty-three shillings and four pence. Make my sister privy to it, and then pay it to them forthwith. If you have no other money, take so much of the rent at Penteridge. Tell my sister Jane that I will give my daughter something at my coming home: and praying you not to fail to see all things done accordingly, I bid you farewell. From London the 14th of November.

“Your Mistress,

“Elizabeth Cavendish.

“Tell James Crompe that I have received the five pounds and nine shillings that he sent me by Hugh Alsope.

“to my servant Francis Whitfield,

give this at Chatsworth.”