―322―

The abbey at Holioke has, properly speaking, never been
dissolved. When Henry VIII. granted it to the earls of
Walney, he took no further notice of it. The earl, though
he followed the temporising fashion, then prevalent, was a
good catholic at bottom, and enjoying in his own domain very
considerable power, he suffered the abbey to continue unim-
paired. They recruited their numbers by tuition, and continu-
ed with little visible change in their condition, till the opening
of the seventeenth century. At that period, the number of
members was much diminished, and the spirit and zeal of those
that remained, had from various causes greatly declined. It
now became the principal family mansion of the lord, when he
remained at Orme.

At the breaking out of the civil wars, Edgar Henry, earl
of Orme and Walney, sided with the crown. Orme castle un-
derwent a long siege from the parliamentary forces, and was
given up only at the order of the king after his captivity. The
earl who commanded in the fortress, stipulated for favourable
conditions both for himself and his estate: but the terms of
surrender were disregarded by the victors. The earl was
carried a prisoner to London, and thrown into the tower, from
which, after a rigorous confinement of eighteen months, he ef-
fected his escape. His property was sequestered, his castle was
demolished with gunpowder; the abbey was burnt to the

―323―

ground; his tenants were pillaged without mercy; subjected
to grievous penalties on account of their religion, for the ma-
jority were catholics, or sent into exile. Walney which un-
der the benign auspices of its lords, had been the most flour-
ishing and populous district of England, became, during the
next twenty years, a scene of desolation and misery. This
uncommon vengeance had been provoked by the formidable
and vexatious opposition which the republican cause had al-
ways encountered from the earl. No English nobleman had
made greater exertions on the king's behalf. The earl's whole
revenue had been applied to the equipment and maintenance
of troops, which he headed himself. His tenants cheerfully
resorted to his standard, and almost all the young men of Orme
and Walney had fallen in the course of the war. The Orme
men formed a separate regiment, whose ardour, perseverance
and courage, were not exceeded by any of their compeers.
In the course of five or six campaigns, a body of a thousand
hardy youths were reduced to fifty or eighty. Two of these
effected the rescue of their lord.

The earl's offences set him beyond the reach of republican
mercy; though indeed he was too high spirited to solicit any
favours from the conquerors. During an exile of twenty
years, he suffered many evils which a mind less inflexible
might without difficulty have avoided. He spent the greatest
part of this interval at Venice, disdaining to owe his subsist-
ence to any thing but his own talents and industry.

The restoration of monarchy was the signal of his return to
his native country. He was reinstated in all his honours and
estates: on visiting Orme, he beheld nothing but desolation
and ruin. The two great monuments of the glory and devo-
tion of his ancestors, were level with the ground. The earl
was particularly distinguished by his fervent attachment to the
religion of his ancestors; time a long residence in Italy,
where nothing but the hope of returning one day to his native
country, prevented him from becoming a monk.

St. Ulpha, the divinity of Orme, was of course the object
of his religious veneration. He had escaped death, amidst
the perils of war, under her protection. He had been preserv-
ed, during his exile, from the extremity of suffering, by her
intercession. He made a vow, that if ever he were restored

―324―

to his estate, he would signalize his gratitude by establishing
her convent and her temple. This was a favourite subject of
his meditations, and whether it arose from a spirit naturally
sanguine, or from his better knowledge of men and things, he
always cherished the conviction, that he should one day re-
turn. With this view he continually ruminated on the plan
he should adopt, in erecting and reorganizing his abbey, and
came back to England at the restoration, with his imagination
replete with ideas upon this subject. He brought with him
Nicolas Rosea, an ingenious architect, Martine, a sculptor
of great merit, and Carlo Rota a painter, all Venetians,
young men, whom he had accidentally discovered, and rescued
from poverty and neglect.

In visiting his estates, he found a treasure, wholly unex-
pected in possession of Saxby, the vicar of Bootle. This man
had obtained permission of the parliamentary agents to take away
whatever he pleased from the abbey before it was destroyed.
He was at heart an enemy to the victorious cause, but either
his policy or timidity made him outwardly compliant with
every innovation. This conduct insured him the favour and
protection of the government, and this favour he industriously
employed for the benefit of the absent lord. All the books
and papers of every kind he conveyed to Bootle cap, an an-
cient building near his village, where they reposed in safety,
till the earl's return. To him they were then presented, and
constituted the most valuable treasure which it was possible
for him to receive.

The only claim which the earl made upon the gratitude of
the king, was a full and parliamentary confirmation of his pa-
ternal rights in Orme and Walney. This claim, with some
little difficulty was complied with, and the lordships of Orme
and Walney were united and erected into a county palatine,
by the name of Orme Norwalk, and granted to the earl and
his heirs general, with power to aleinate by testament, but not
by deed. By this grant confirmed by act of parliament, the
earl possesses all regal rights and privileges within these lord-
ships; justice is administered by him and his agents with no
appeal but to the king and council. All ecclesiastical, civil and
fiscal affairs, are wholly independent of those of Great Britain.

―325―

No taxes are levied but by authority of the lord. The peo-
ple are not represented in the British parliament, and the lord
possesses a seat in the house of peers, by virtue only of his ti-
tle of viscount Sudleigh. The condition of these extensive
grants was merely that of rebuilding within fifteen years, the
fortress called Orme castle, and keeping constantly within it
twenty men, able to bear arms.

This was the condition of the original grant, made by Rich-
ard, in consequence of which, Arthur, the first earl of the
Carril family, erected on the foundation of the Norman edi-
fice, which he pulled down, one of the noblest military struc-
tures of that time known in England. After flourishing as
the mansion of the family for nearly three centuries and
an half, it was totally subverted by the fury of civil war un-
der Charles I. On visiting his domain in 1661, the earl found
nothing but a melancholy ruin. The building had been redu-
ced to fragments, by the force of gun powder, and lay confu-
sedly scattered on the surface. A natural superstition con-
nected the existence and prosperity of the family with the well
being of this fortress in a kind of physical sense. The terms
of the former and recent grants, had made a political connec-
tion between them. As the earl made the re-erection of this
edifice a favourite point with him, he willingly consented to a
condition which would bind his successors as strongly by po-
litical, as he himself was bound by moral considerations to sup-
port this edifice. In his plan therefore the solid and the du-
rable were consulted, and to these qualities, where necessary,
all other regards were made subordinate. Fifteen years were
sufficient to execute the grandest project in building, with the
assistance which his riches and authority enabled him to
obtain.

Edgar, in his youth, had spent some years in Italy, and had
there formed intimate connections with the Roman family of
Pamphili. A niece of this family had contracted a passion
for this Englishman, which might have terminated in marriage
had Edgar's father been willing to deviate from the family
custom of allying himself with his own name. The son bowed
to paternal authority, and gave up the Italian lady. This
sacrifice, indeed, was made not only to filial duty, but to his
patriotic sensibility, since, the countenance of the lady's fam

―326―

ly was to be obtained only by adopting Italy for his country.
He married his cousin of Sudleigh, as his father directed, and
this marriage produced three sons and a daughter. There was
little affection between husband and wife, and when the civil
war commenced, her family siding with the parliament, and
the wife preferring the politics of the brother to those of the
husband, the discord between them became violent. He suf-
fered her to take refuge with her family, but sent his children
into France. She died at Sudleigh, after professing presbyte-
rianism, in 1654. His Italian mistress never lost her regard
for him; she continued to live unmarried for his sake, and
her father, of whom she was the only child, made new over-
tures to him on the death of his wife. These, being accom-
panied with the old conditions, were rejected, notwithstanding
the little hope that could, at that time, be reasonably entertain-
ed, of his relation to his native country, and notwithstanding
the many hardships and privations to which his exile subject-
ed him. His pride, indeed, was such that he obstinately re-
jected every pecuniary aid which the generosity of the Pam-
phili made him. All these obstacles, however, were remov-
ed by the death of the old count. Henoria Pamphili, now freed
from all restraint, obeyed her own inclinations, and gave her-
self and her estate to the Englishman without conditions in 1659.
On the great revolution that happened the year after, the earl
sold his wife's property to her uncle for 100,000l. sterling; a
treasure which he brought entire to England, and which he
devoted to the repairing of the devastation made by the re-
cent usurpation in Walney.

There are four apartments next the roof in Orme castle,
12 feet 6 inches in diameter, and 16 feet 8 inches in height, of
which one is entirely dark and inaccessible, there being no ave-
nue connected with it, either for light, air, or human footsteps.
On every side, around, above and below, it is enclosed with
solid stone not less than three feet in thickness. This apart-
ment was probably constructed rather to indulge a capricious
fancy than for any reasonable purpose. Some conjectures
have been formed concerning it by various members of the
family. That it is not an empty room has been inferred
from the anxiety displayed by the earl in its construction.

―327―

He was present when the last stone was placed over it, and
went in alone, before this was done, staying there some time
alone.

Another of these rooms has an avenue, the only one, by
which it has a long and intricate communication with a closet
belonging to the lord's chamber.

A third is lighted from the court by a window; and is ac-
cessible by a narrow stair case.

Ormesey or Ormsey house was formerly the scite of an abbey
dedicated to St. Ulpha, and occupied by nuns who were gene-
rally called the nuns of Ormsey. This nunnery was founded
by the earl of Orme, in the tenth of Henry IV. and peopled by
a colony from the monastery in Walney. At the dissolution of
religious houses it came into possession of the Carril's, and
continued to be their town residence till the usurpation of Crom-
well. Earl Edgar's escape from the tower, when under sen-
tence of death, occasioned its destruction, for the mob, impelled
by some rumour of his being concealed in this house, attacked,
rifled, and burnt it to the ground. At the restoration, the
present mansion was built upon the ancient foundations, and
continues to be the most spacious, solid, and magnificent struc-
ture for private use in the metropolis. In every prospect of
London, it forms an object nearly as conspicuous and eminent
as St. Paul's and Westminster abbey. It is equally remark-
able for its vastness and simplicity, and architecture has seldom
produced a monument more calculated for duration.

This mansion has been a favourite object of attention with
its owners for a century and an half. They have spared no
pains nor cost in improving and adorning it, and its present
furniture and embellishments are the accumulated result of the
care and wealth of successive generations.

Andrew Pamphili, count of Tarsi, the father of the lady who
married earl Edgar, inherited from his ancestors and left to his
daughter, a precious collection of sculptures, paintings, and
medals. Some time before his death he had planned the build-
ing of a palace at Rome, and had provided for this purpose
great quantities of marbles, of which some of the finest kind
were found at his own estate of Tarsi. This plan was adopt-
ed with little variation by his son-in-law for his own house of

―328―

Ormsey, and the materials thus provided, were appropriated
to the English, instead of the Italian palace.

The count of Tarsi, had large estates both in the Neapolitan
and Roman territory. The former he sold, as before said, to
his kinsman, and the latter was reserved, by contract for the
younger children of this marriage: his honours and estates in
England being the property of his children by his first wife.
His first marriage had produced three children, one son and
two daughters. These, early severed from their rebellious
and heretical mother, had been brought up in Italy. They ac-
companied their father to England. The daughters married
suitably to their rank. At forty years of age, the son allied
himself to a portionless niece of his mother-in-law, and died
ten years afterwards (1680) leaving an infant son. His widow
buried herself at St. Ulpha, and left her child to the care of
his grandfather.

Four sons of Honoria Pamphili, lived to reach manhood.
The eldest became count of Tarsi, the second was a knight of
Malta, and passed his life in the military service of the em-
peror, in which he attained an high rank. The third embraced
religion, and died bishop of Ostune. The fourth married a
Sicilian heiress, and passed a private inoffensive life at Pa-
lermo.

Earl Edgar buried his second wife in 1682. He himself
expired January 30 (the anniversary of the death of his friend
and benefactor Charles 1) 1700, at the age of ninety, more
through grief at the disappearance of his grandson, the hus-
band of Miss Tenbrook, than any other cause.

Sir Gerard Orme of Sudleigh, whose sister married earl
Edgar, who had abjured the catholic religion and persuaded his
sister to do the same; who had sowed dissention between her
and her husband, and encouraged her in her rebellion to his
will; who had distinguished himself as much by his activity
and zeal in the republican, as the earl had in the royal cause,
was excluded from the amnesty granted at the restoration.
The king had resolved on his attainder, and would have
granted his forfeited estate to his brother-in-law. Sir Gerard
had been once married, but his wife died, and, left an on-
ly son, whom the father disowned, because he declined fol-

―329―

lowing the paternal example in a change of religion. His sis-
ter's son was consequently his presumptive heir, and the king
proposed to anticipate the course of nature by entailing Sud-
leigh upon him.

The earl instead of profiting by this favourable disposition,
prevailed upon the king to pardon Sir Gerard, and restore him
to his property. Sir Gerard though a violent and haughty
spirit, was not insensible to gratitude and compunction. This
treatment converted his ancient rancour into the tenderest ve-
neration. He embraced again the faith of his early years.

Gerard Orme, the son of Sir Gerard, being disowned and
proscribed by his father, in the year 1648, withdrew to the
continent, sharing with the banished earl, his poverty and pa-
tience. Being of a martial and enterprising character, he en-
tered the naval service of Venice. His father being disposed
to receive him again with kindness, diligent search was made
after him, and he was finally discovered in the habit and em-
ployment of a captive slave at Linope, where he had remain-
ed unknown and hopeless, for six years. He was redeemed
and restored to his country, in 1664, at the age of thirty-two.
He married earl Edgar's second daughter, and left behind him
in 1689, an only daughter. This girl and her cousin were in-
tended for each other, but the young man, as we have seen
married Miss Tenbrook, and the lady chose the rector of
Sudleigh.

The life of earl Edgar, was a busy and eventful drama, till
the settlement of the kingdom, under Charles the Second. His
high rank and the personal favour of Charles I, might have
opened the way to honours and offices, had his ambition sought
them. But though a member of the council, he kept himself
pretty much aloof from the projects and intrigues of the court.
His exile had confirmed him in this resolution, and the gene-
ral rule of conduct, for the remainder of his life, was to be
as neutral and inoffensive as possible with respect to the af-
fairs of the nation at large. He saw that his peculiar habits
and opinions disabled him from being of any service to his
countrymen in general. He therefore willingly devoted all
his wishes and exertions to his own patrimony: he fortified
and enlarged his claims to his own estates by the amplest royal

―330―

and parliamentary grants, and thenceforth studiously demean-
ed himself as one who was a stranger in England. His coun-
sels when he could not avoid giving them, were always fa-
vourable to the religion and liberties of the kingdom. He was
regarded with great veneration by James the Second, but he
merely employed the favour he enjoyed with that monarch, to
dissuade him from the conduct he pursued, and which ended
in his ruin. This advice, with his prudence and beneficence
in general, insured him the reverence of all parties. The
prince of Orange paid him great respect, and his property and
honours remained unimpaired by the revolution.

The chief business of the last forty years of his life, was the
superintendance of his own concerns in Rutland and Huntly.
The functions of prince and landlord he for the most part dis-
charged in his own person. He made himself thoroughly ac-
quainted with the condition of his tenants, and his govern-
ment was altogether paternal.

All the inhabitants of these lordships were, previous to his
time, tenants at will. Each parish had a steward and jurat
appointed by the lord, and holding their offices at his plea-
sure. These decided on the life, liberty and property of the
tenants, without any limitation, but in certain cases an appeal
to the lord. The earl was not satisfied with making a judi-
cious choice of officers, and maintaining a rigid watch upon
their conduct. He had the wisdom to impose limitations in
his own power. He divided his land into portions, more
equal than formerly; he reduced the rent to a somewhat low-
er sum than had hitherto been given. He abolished all the
contributions in kind, and all the personal services with which
they had hitherto been burthened. He granted them leases
for fifty years, clogged with no conditions but such as were
beneficial to themselves, and guarded their privileges from
abuse. Their leases were unassignable without the consent of
the lord. The tenant's children succeeded him at his death, a
choice being made among them by a kind of jury of twelve
neighbouring farmers, subject to the decision of the lord. If
he died childless, his successors were chosen by this jury
among the worthy part of the community. The tenant forfeit-
ed his lease by conviction for certain crimes; by the nonpay-

―331―

ment of rent for three months after it was due, and by the
breach of some other conditions of the grant.

The administration of justice, was carefully new modelled.
Instead of a despotic jurisdiction in the jurat, he was now re-
duced to a ministerial officer; he arrested and imprisoned
culprits, but they were judged by a bench of twelve judges,
annually selected from the tenants, by the lord. Their deci-
sion was only subject to an appeal to the lord.

The land tenants of each parish were bound together into
one community by new and powerful ties. Their leases
bound them to deposit their names, the births and deaths in
their families, with suitable vouchers in the jurat's office. The
judges and the candidates for vacant farms were only taken
from the actual tenants and their sons. The rector of the parish
was in like manner to be born within the precincts of the coun-
ty, and descended from a tenant.

The tythe was commuted into money, was received with the
rent, and payable by the steward. Schools and teachers were
provided for the instruction of the people; and their condition
in all respects was, in a few years, greatly improved.

The lordships of Huntly and Rutland were each divided into
twenty parishes, whose area was upon an average 6500 acres.
Five thousand of these was equally divided into one hundred
farms. The rent was fixed at half a crown an acre, for the en-
suing fifty years, and the rector's dues at ten shillings for each
farm. The whole rent of each amounted only to twelve thou-
sand five hundred pounds. The salaries of the steward and
jurat were each sixty-two pounds ten shillings a year. The
steward, jurat, and vicar had each an house, garden, and field
for a cow, rent free.

Each parish had a common or waste of about fifteen hundred
acres, which the earl, from a naked and unprofitable heath, con-
verted into an heavy forest. This forest was given to the whole
parish, under certain conditions, and for certain uses. The
principal use was to supply tenants with fuel and materials for
building and tools.

About thirty thousand acres in Huntly, the curate retained
in his own hand. They principally formed the park and gar-
dens of Hawkshead and Ulverstone.

―332―

The earl entertained very whimsical, and some may think,
very sublime notions of property. He conceived that all the mo-
ney received from his English estates in the form of rent, was
held by him merely in trust for the benefit of those who paid
it. He was bound, he thought, to disburse it again for their use.
His whole revenue therefore was expended in building a church,
a schoolhouse, and what he called an asylum in each parish, in
repairing the calamities occasioned among his tenants by fire,
death, or other accidents. That equality of conditions so desirable
in speculation, but in practice so difficult, he laboured with the ut-
most diligence to preserve, not only preventing any from rising
above a certain level, but, by an equitable distribution of his
income among the needy and unfortunate, to prevent as much
as possible, any from falling below that salutary level.

Till the eldest son of Honoria Pamphili was of age he receiv-
ed the revenues of Tarsi, 20,000 ducats, or 5,000 pounds a year.
About four-fifths of this were regularly remitted to England.

The father of earl Edgar possessed the manor of Lodewick,
but this he devised to his second son Alfred. Alfred was of
a temper melancholy and austere. He shut himself in this re-
treat, and carefully avoided all connection with the world and its
affairs. He amused himself in his chapel and his library, and
died in 1683, at eighty years of age. His estate devolved to
his brother.

Lodewick is a wild spot in Pembrokeshire. It is a consider-
able demesne of 10,000 acres, which the earl embellished by a
mansion of considerable magnitude. It is very remarkable that
Lodewick is inhabited by Saxons, whose language is totally
distinct from that of all their neighbours. It is a vale remark-
ably secluded among hills and rocks, and which is scarcely acces-
sible except by one craggy road. Edgar visited it upon his
brother's death, and introduced many alterations and improve-
ments in this little territory. He found the people bound in
profound ignorance, but honest, laborious, and thrifty. Their
principal support was sheep and cattle, which they reared among
the mountains, and sold periodically to the drover. On a scan-
ty harvest of oats, together with cheese and milk they subsist-
ed. The money paid for their cattle and sheep enabled them to

―333―

pay their moderate rent, and purchase some of the luxuries and
superfluities of life. An hundred and fifty acres of the most
fertile land was cultivated by the late owner for the subsistence
of his family, while a park, hemmed in by a massy wall, and
well stocked with deer, occupied one fourth of the whole territo-
ry. An ancient fabric, somewhat in the castle fashion, scarcely
afforded shelter to civilized men.

The interior boundary of Lodewick is a large precipice,
which tends in a circular direction, seldom less than two hun-
dred feet in height. In one spot the rock slopes so as to afford
access by a winding road to the top. From the summit the
ground declines inward every way towards the centre, where
innumerable rivulets collect into a small lake about half a mile
in length and breadth. As the height of this lake is at all sea-
sons uniform, there must be an invisible outlet for the waters.
How this upland valley became inhabited by a race of Saxons
is a curious problem, which local traditions pretend to solve by
relating that Edward the First granted this valley to an hermit
of Essex who led hither a colony from some part of England,
and founded the convent whose ruins are still visible on the
edge of the lake. This monastery subsisted in a great degree
on a plan which prevented all manner of intercourse with the
rest of mankind. At the dissolution, Henry the Eighth pre-
sented it to Mayle, a Flemish merchant, in payment of a debt
which the monarch had contracted. He brought his wealth
along with him, and built an house, with all suitable appenda-
ges, in 1545. It continued in his family till the attainder of
Nicholas Mayle for the conspiracy called the gun-powder plot,
when it was granted, 1602, to the earls of Orme and Walney,
and made an inseparable parcel of the county of the palatine
of Orme Norwalk. This gift was sought by the earl at the in-
stigation of his mother, who, tired of the world, was anxious to
withdraw from it, and who justly thought that a more absolute
seclusion and quiet retreat than this would be sought for in
vain in Europe. The son gave it to her for life, and hither she
came in 1610.

Catharine, daughter of Henry VII, was born in 1498. At
the age of eleven she was betrothed to the prince of Portugal,
and was preparing to be sent to that kingdom, when her father

―334―

died. When 19 years old (1417) she was married to Henry
Carril, earl of Rutland, produced two sons and two daughters,
and died 1558, at Wortlepool, in Gloucestershire, a manor given
to her brother Henry VIII. She died eleven years after her
brother.

Her sons, Edward and Felix were born 1518, and 1520,
and her daughters Catharine and Mary within three years af-
ter. Mary married the prince of Altimura, in 1544, and Ca-
tharine married Sir Herbert Carril Orme of Sudleigh. Ed-
ward married Margaret of Florae in France, in 1537. Of six
sons two only, Ambrose and Felix, born in 1539 and 1545,
lived to reach manhood. Ambrose married his cousin Catha-
rine of Sudleigh, the only child of her mother, in 1577.

Catharine Tudor Carril, countess of Orme, was born in 1545.
She was the great grand daughter of Henry VII. Her husband
died 1602, and she chose to withdraw, after a busy and event-
ful life, to the solitudes of Lodewick. She was thirteen years
old at the accession of Elizabeth. Till 19 she resided pretty
much at court, and then married the earl of Orme. Their re-
ligion, their proximity to the crown, their interest in the cause
of the Catholics, and especially of the Scottish Mary, sub-
jected them to innumerable dangers during Elizabeth's life.

Her eldest son, Arthur, was born in 1566, and her husband
died in 1602, the year before Elizabeth, when she was fifty-
seven years old. She lived till 1646, thirty-seven years at
Wortlepool, so much estranged from the world and its con-
cerns that she knew not of the civil war and contentions between
king and parliament. She left Lodewick to her grand-son Al-
fred, who adopted her manner of life, and never passed the
mountains. By carefully abstaining from any part in the trou-
bles of the time he remained unmolested. His brother paid
him a visit in 1661, after a separation of twenty-five years. Al-
fred died in 1687, at the age of seventy-six, and the estate of
Lodewick went to his surviving brother.

Wortlepool was the residence of the countess of Florae, the
estate which the daughter of Henry VII, brought into the fa-
mily, and which the voyage of Mrs. Coulthurst was necessary
to retain in the family. It is a parish and manor in Devonshire,
of seven thousand acres. It is a rich, fertile and picturesque

―335―

domain, adorned by a noble mansion, built for his sister, by
Henry VIII, and preserved in a very perfect state till the pre-
sent time. Many important events in the history of the Ormes’
have occurred at this place, and made it memorable. The halls
and chambers, the gardens and park have all an air of regal
magnificence and grandeur.

Ormesby house in London, Arthursley in Middlesex, with
its small demesne of eight hundred acres, Wortlepool and Lo-
dewick are all part and parcel of the county palatine of Walney.
Of these Wortlepool is the only portion rendered alienable by
the original grant.

When the princess Catharine lost her husband in 1537,
she returned to Wortlepool, and died there. It afterwards
was successively occupied by the dowagers or unmarried la-
dies of this family. It became, insensibly, a custom for the
single females, especially in advanced life, to make this man-
sion their asylum. The estate with its inhabitants was ex-
empted from the jurisdiction of the king's officers. All
authority, civil, criminal and fiscal, was exercised by the stew-
ards of the earl, or, what usually happened, by the lady tenant
of the mansion. The welfare and happiness of the tenants
usually depended on the personal character of these ladies.

The estate was left to the countess of Florac by the will of
her father, and hence she derived the power of bequeathing it
to others.

Wortlepool castle was the first production of that singular
designer Albright. This artist was found by the earl of Rut-
land in an obscure lodging at Nurenberg in Germany, of which
city he was a native. His poverty, his enthusiasm, and the
ideal symmetry and beauty of his plans, induced the earl to
bring him into England. Wortlepool was the first effort of his
genius, and the large marriage portion given to the countess by
the king, was expended in this mansion. He was subjected
therefore to few limitations on the score of expense. This
liberality, however, was displayed more on the quantity of ma-
terials and the labour expended in modelling and adjusting
them, than in the extent of the building or the gorgeousness of
its furniture.

―336―

Albright built at Wortlepool, a castle with all its offices
and appendages, and a church. His gratitude to the earl, who
had rescued him from poverty, and had enabled him to marry
the woman of his choice, and settled on him a pension with-
out conditions of any sort, induced him to devote his invention
and industry entirely to his patron's service. He was anxious
for opportunities to exercise his skill in honour of the Carril
family, and never worked for others, whatever rewards were
offered him, but at the particular request of his patron.

Everard Albright was born of obscure parents in the ter-
ritory of Nurenburgh, in 1497. His talents for painting and
sculpture, showed themselves at a very early age, and obtained,
for him, the notice and protection of Araham Rednitz, a pain-
ter of that city. This person he accompanied to Flanders and
Italy, and pursued with great industry every means of improv-
ing himself in his favourite art.

Rednitz died at Bologna of the plague, and left his pupil,
as yet scarcely twenty, friendless and pennyless. The youth
found his way back to his native city, with great difficulty.
His master left a daughter, a woman of considerable beauty
and merit, of whom the youth became enamoured; but her
mother's relations, under whose care the was placed, and who
were people of some rank and property, prohibited their inter-
course. In this extremity the young earl of Rutland fell in
with Albright, relieved his distresses, and aided him in carry-
ing off his mistress to England. The earl was, at that time, on
his way to Vienna, with his father, who was the English am-
bassador to the emperor. On his father's death, which hap-
pened in Germany, he returned to England, and found the
painter and his wife securely settled at his house in London.
From that time 1520, till his death in 1593, at the age of se-
venty-three, Albright passed his whole time, till incapacita-
ted by age and infirmity, in executing works in painting, sculp-
ture and architecture on his patron's account. His wife brought
him several children, but only three grandsons survived him,
one of whom, Caspar, inherited his talents for painting.
Caspar was born in 1566: he passed his life like his grand-
father, in the service of the Carrils, and died, aged eighty nine,
in 1655. He left no posterity.

―337―

All the works in painting, sculpture and architecture, be-
longing to the family, and executed from Henry VIII, to the
restoration, were done by these two artists and their pupils.
Their exertions were chiefly confined to Ormsey, Arthursake,
St. Ulpha's castle, abbey and church, Wortlepool castle and
church, and Lodewick castle and church. St. Ulpha's castle,
Ormsey and Arthursake which they improved and adorned,
were destroyed with all their furniture, books and pictures dur-
ing the civil war. The buildings at Wortlepool and Lode-
wick remained, together with their furniture and pictures,
unimpaired to the present day, except by time. St. Ul-
pha's did not escape injury, but was less defaced by the zeal
and fury of the times than might have been expected.

In sculpture, the elder Albright was equal to any artist of
his times. In painting, his exertions were chiefly confined to
portraits. Of these, there are still preserved one hundred and
nine, including every member of the Carril family who flour-
ished from 1520 till 1580. In sculpture, St. Ulpha's, Wortle-
pool and Lodewick contain innumerable specimens of his skill
in stone, metal, and wood. All the intricate ornaments which
enrich the walls of these edifices were designed, and most of
them executed by him. Many busts, statues and groupes
representing real or ideal persons, and which are valued as
masterpieces of the art, are still to be seen at their places.
His own sepulchral monument in the church at Wortlepool
was among his last performances.

His style of architecture, in particular embellishments, re-
sembled that of the age in which he lived, but in the plans of
his building, the formation and distribution of its greater parts,
his style was altogether peculiar to himself. The great end
which he seems always to have kept in view, was durability.
In pursuit of this end little regard was paid to expense. Wood
and every other combustible or frail material was very sparing-
ly introduced. He dealt almost entirely in stone, brass and
marble, and of these he was prodigal. The stone employed
was modelled into masses; the largest that was manageable, was
hewn with the greatest nicety, and bound together by liga-
ments of iron.

―338―

Wortlepool contains within a square of 175 feet, a consi-
derable part of which is not occupied with building, upward of
twenty-four rooms, from twenty-five to thirty-two feet in di-
ameter, and from forty to forty-five feet in height. It also
contains forty-eight rooms, from 16 to 18 feet in diameter,
and from twenty to twenty-four feet in height: above 72 con-
siderable rooms in all, besides a considerably greater number
of circular closets, from four to six feet wide, and from eight
to twelve feet high.

Each of the angular towers is divided into three stories:
about forty-eight feet in height. In each story is an octagonal
apartment, thirty feet wide. Of these eight sides in each room,
two of them are occupied by windows five feet wide. One of
them is the door of entrance from the centre of the mansion.
Three of them have doors opening into passages two feet six
inches wide, and eleven feet high, which lead into turrets,
placed at these angles of the tower, where a winding staircase
conducts to three upper circular closets five feet wide and ele-
ven high. Each of these octagons, therefore are connected,
by these staircases, with twelve spacious closets. The whole
number of such closets, therefore, is 144.

To each of the principal rooms in the body of the building,
there are connected in like manner, two sets of closets and
staircases, four closets in each set: making in all, eight closets
to each room, and 96 in the whole.

To each of the forty-eight rooms, of the third rank, there
are likewise two closets of similar dimensions annexed: which
makes, when added together, 96. So that the whole number of
such closets or apartments amounts to 336.

The passage leading to these closets is from 2 to 2½ feet wide,
by 11¼ in height. Each closet has a nich or recess, from 2 to
2½ feet in width and depth for holding a cabinet of drawers or
shelves.

The height of the body of the building is 128 feet: of the
four great angular towers 144 feet, and of the twelve small
cylindrical turrets 160 feet, exclusive of domes and spires.

There are four principal staircases, which wind round an
hollow oval, 15 feet wide and 22½ in length. This oval is
lightened by an oval aperture in the roof 10 feet wide and 17½

―339―

feet long. This opening is protected by glass. The stair is
27 feet wide, whose exterior edge is supported and protect-
ed by open iron work, consisting of slender pillars of that
metal.

The floors and ceilings of every apartment, closet, passage
and staircase in this building is of fine white free stone; flat
or arched wood is now here introduced as a main support.
Even the window frames are of brass or iron. For the sake
of warmth or elegance, a stone floor or wall is sometimes
overlaid with a wooden one. The doors too are generally,
though not always, of timber. In some cases they are of
iron or brass or bronze, either plain or gilt; of these metals
the architect has been astonishingly lavish.

Tis plain, from this account, that this mansion, though
none of its apartments are very large, has a vast number of
them, and is qualified to accommodate a very numerous fami-
ly. If employed as a convent or college, there are forty-eight
rooms, 15 feet in diameter, which might serve conveniently as
dormitories for, at least, the same number of persons. There
are twelve rooms which might serve as kitchens, refectories,
parlours and the like, and twelve more which might serve as
libraries, chapels, auditories and rooms of state.

As a private dwelling, the lower story would amply accom-
modate a numerous domestic establishment of servants and
officers, while the two upper would supply no less than sixteen
suits of apartments.

The house has been chiefly occupied as a private dwelling.
The princess Catharine, however, intended it to serve the
double purpose of a mansion for herself and a convent for
nuns. This lady conceived ideas of religion wholly different
from those generally adopted. She made a convert of her hus-
band, and had this house constructed after a model peculiar to
herself and her architect.

The chapel is at the east end. The interior of it is com-
prized within a square of eighty feet. The centre of it is form-
ed by a vault resting on four clustered pillars placed at the an-
gles of a square of forty feet. The sides of this square are,
severally, arcades, twenty feet in depth. The height of the
lateral arcades, as well as of the central vault is eighty-five
feet.

―340―

The entrance of the chapel from the mansion, is on the
western side, under a semicircular gallery, twenty-four feet
above the pavement, twenty feet wide and ten deep. This gal-
lery is supported by eight brass columns, one foot in diameter,
and forms the choir of the chapel.

On the eastern side, and consequently opposite the choir, and
sixty feet distant from it, is a niche answering in shape and di-
mensions that which contains the choir. The principal altar is
placed in the centre of this niche. It is a cylindrical pedestal
sustaining a statue of the full size of St. Rhoda, to whom the
church is dedicated. The statue and pedestal are of the finest
porphyry. The latter is adorned with designs in relief, carved
with the greatest elegance, in eight compartments, representing
the chief events in the life of the saint. The statue was mo-
delled after the foundress herself. It was originally placed at
St. Ulpha's, and was brought hither at the restoration, to sup-
ply the place of an image of solid silver, originally placed here,
but which fell a prey to republican avarice in 1646.

The altar is five feet in diameter, by three in height. It
rests upon a base formed of three steps, of white marble.

The first Catharine became a widow in 1547. Her husband
excited the displeasure of the king, by inadvertently dissenting
from his theological opinions, and by a spirit which Henry sus-
pected might prove dangerous to his successor. Orders were
given to arrest him, and in resisting these orders, the earl was
slain. The countess, with her son, a boy, was then at Wortle-
pool, and there she continued, in a sort of religious seclusion to
her death, in 1568.

Her grand daughter Catharine of Sudleigh, lost her mother
in her infancy, and resided till nineteen years of age at Wor-
tlepool. One of the last acts of her life was to accomplish
the marriage of this girl with her grandson the earl of
Orme.

This Catharine was left a widow in 1602, 44 years old, and
spent the subsequent years at Wortlepool. Her death in 1650,
was chiefly occasioned by that of Charles I. She was succeed-
ed in this mansion by her grandson Alfred, who lived here
till 1687. From this time till 1702, it was left to domestics. It
then became the dwelling of the earl who married Miss Ten-

―341―

brook. Here the family of his first and second wife, chiefly re-
sided till the death of the last survivor of the house in 1755,
when the runaway countess of Florac, acquired possession by
her father's will, and here he resided till her death in 1799.
The twins Mary and Elizabeth were born here.

The apartments of this house have been usually distributed as
follows: the whole of the lower story, containing an hall or tho-
roughfare, a kitchen, a refectory, a steward's room, an house-
keeper's room, an office for judicial business with the tenants,
another for pecuniary business, twelve bed chambers for domes-
tics; the vault beneath the chapel, used for the celebration of fu-
neral rites; all that die within these walls, being buried in vaults
beneath these two rooms for preserving implements and furni-
ture used in interment; three rooms employed as sepulchres,
one where the inurned bones of St. Rhoda repose, a second
appropriated to the foundress of this house, a third the sepul-
chre of her grand daughter. There is a fourth room, accessi-
ble by a secret avenue, immediately beneath the great altar,
entirely dark, and considered as a sanctuary claiming the great-
est veneration.

Catharine Tudor was a woman of great learning, fervent pie-
ty, and warm imagination. She adopted certain religious tenets,
in consequence of certain impressions made upon her fancy
during sleep. The figure of St. Rhoda appeared to her in a
lively dream, assured her of particular protection, in return
for which worship and submission were exacted; directed her
to build a temple to her honour, pointed out the spot where
her bones were deposited, requiring her to transport them to
the shrine to be prepared for her, and communicated the lead-
ing principles of true religion and acceptable worship.

The vision was repeated with no material variation, for se-
ven nights, and the feelings and convictions of Catharine
were rendered uniform and permanent, by this means.

Catharine had plunged deeply into the theological studies
and controversies of the times. Her keen and rigorous under-
standing was by no means satisfied with the evidence and argu-
ments she met with. She sought for better information by
prayer, and her intense devotion and ardent longings termina-
ted in what she deemed the special revelation already men-
tioned.

―342―

She was prevailed upon to marry the earl of Orme, on the
secret condition of his adopting her religious sentiments, and
allowing her to execute the directions of her dream. Albright
was immediately employed in building and adorning Wortle-
pool. The bones of St. Rhoda were taken from her sepulchre
at Holioke, and placed in the apartment already mentioned:
her altar and statue were erected in pursuance of the directions
of the Saint herself. The dark sanctuary above mentioned,
was the scene of an actual monthly conference between this
divinity and her worshipper. On a certain night, on the clock's
striking twelve, the lady arose from her bed, and proceeded
alone to this sanctuary, where she held according to her own
belief, personal and waking communion with her patroness.
The interview lasted an half hour, and was interruptedly con-
tinued during the whole time of her residence here.

As soon as the house was prepared for her reception, she
made it her permanent abode. Her husband was at liberty to
come and go, but, on no account, would she leave it herself.
She formed her family into a kind of convent, whose great duty-
was the worship of Rhoda according to forms prescribed by
herself. She took fifteen companions of her own sex, who
made a vow to assist and obey her in quality of matron
abbess. Her discretion and seclusion enabled her to escape
the tyrannical caprices of her brother. Edward, Mary and
Elizabeth suffered her to pursue her own way. She recruited
her family from her immediate tenants, and thereby procured
domestics and companions exactly to her own taste. She was
a wise and beneficent mistress, and was ever considered by her
vassals as something above humanity. They adopted the re-
ligion she precribed to them, and their posterity adhere to it at
this day.

This religion left abstract doctrinal sentiments concerning
Christ and God to the choice of every individual. It merely
extended to modes of worship. It prescribed a general reve-
rence for the deity, and particular gratitude to Jesus Christ,
but, with regard to these, it taught that no stated forms of
worship were due. The worship, which consists of particu-
lar observances, festivals, prayers, dresses and gestures were
deemed entirely superfluous and absurd so far as these relate

―343―

to God and Christ. The sole object of such worship was
some human being, already translated to heaven, and exercis-
ing a sort of delegated and vicarial power over certain indivi-
duals. To the family of Carril, and to the vassals of that fa-
mily, living within the precincts of Orme, Ulpha, Agnes and
Rhoda were the proper objects of worship. With regard to
herself and her posterity, and to the inhabitants of Wortle-
pool, their worship was exclusively due to Rhoda, whose claim
to this preference was founded upon actual revelation. She
had taken this place and these persons under her peculiar
guardianship, and absolved them from the duty of worshipping
any other deity.

The worship she exacted was the recital of certain verses,
in the Latin language, before her image. This was to be done
at the meridian of every day. This image was to be worn in
the bosom, and displayed in the house. On Sundays and at
four festivals in each year, all who were able were to attend at
church, and join in the praises and prayers there addressed to
Rhoda; those who could not attend were to recite them at
home.

The breviary of this worship was composed by Catharine
herself. It consisted of hymns in Metrical Latin, and set to
music for the voice and the organ. Vocal music was regular-
ly taught to parishioners who were qualified to learn. A choir
was selected from the best behaved and best instructed of
these, consisting of either sex, and the whole of religious
worship consisted in singing their hymns at prescribed times
and places. Conservators of the church, in number twelve,
were annually elected by the tenants, and approved by the lady,
and by them was the due order in religious matters preserved.
Marriage was celebrated in presence of the twelve conservators,
and the whole congregation, on the fourth Sunday, monthly
through the year; confession, penance, priesthood, baptism,
the eucharist, sermons, crucifixes, masses, tapus, and incense,
and almost all that distinguishes the Catholic worship were un-
known. The protestant would be nearly as little pleased as
the Catholic, since the divinity addressed was once a mere
mortal, and is now represented by a carved image.

―344―

The second story contains a room for convening the whole
family on domestic occasions; two refectories for principals;
four grand chambers with four closets to each. The four
closets consist of a lavatory, a wardrobe, a study and an ora-
tory.

In the third story are also four chambers, each with four
closets: three libraries with two closets annexed to each.

The second and third story are likewise occupied by the cha-
pel, which is eighty feet in breadth and width. The four an-
gles of the chapel are rounded into towers fifteen feet in
diameter and one hundred and sixty in height. The two
easternmost of these turrets have their centres, at the height of
forty feet hollowed out into eight small circular apartments
five feet in diameter and fifteen high. There is a narrow stair-
case connected with each tower by which is preserved the com-
munication between these rooms. One of these staircases is
connected with a passage which leads through the solid of the
chapel wall, to the chamber of the abbess, and downward to the
leuitissimus already described.

At the expulsion of Arthur Carril from the Isle in 1070,
he wandered over the continent as far as Constantinople. By
signal services rendered to the reigning emperor, the recovery
of Rhodes from the Saracens, he attained a grant of the feu-
dal sovereignty of that island. Under him and his four im-
mediate successors, the island enjoyed considerable prosperity,
but the death of the fourth Arthur left a widowed daughter
and an infant grandson to the mercy of a treacherous minister.
The grandson with extreme difficulty escaped the snares laid
for him, and joining Richard the First of England in Palestine,
finally obtained the heiress and isle of Orme. He rescued his
mother from the efforts of his enemy in Rhodes, and brought
her to England. She became abbess of St. Ulpha's, and ac-
quired, by her extraordinary merits and sanctities, the title
and honours of a saint. Her name was Rhoda.

A companion of Rhoda's escape was Alexander Alphus;
this person brought away with him the Archives of Rhodes,
or the most important part of them. From these he afterwards
compiled an history of Rhodes under the Arthurs. He placed
it in the library of his convent in the year 1209. It was che-

―345―

rished by the monks with the greatest care. The convent was
first inhabited by Rhodian exiles, who perpetuated in their suc-
cessors for several generations the use of the Greek language
in their missals and religious services. It became extinct
about the beginning of the fourteenth century. A translation
was made of the Rhodian chronicle into Latin in the year
1278, by Edred, then abbot. Edred, in his poem, relates that
ten years before his time the Rhodian archives were destroyed
by a fire which broke out in the convent, and that the chroni-
cle of Ulpha's happened to escape by having been lent the day
before to the lord, who wanted some amusement in a fit of
sickness. Greek, he says, being almost supplanted by the La-
tin in his convent, he thought proper to translate it, that the
monks might consult it with more ease. When the abbey was
taken and plundered in the civil wars 1640, some part of the
library was preserved in the manner already mentioned. These
relics were replaced at the restoration of the abbey 1665, and a
catalogue drawn up at that time mentions among others the
Rhodian chronicle of Ulpha's in Latin. In 1723, Simon Tuild,
dean of St. Ulpha, was employed to examine and arrange all
the monuments extant of this family, and to compile an history
of the house of Carril. He accordingly thoroughly examined
libraries and cabinets: arranged and printed at the Palatine
press, all the records discovered, and then compiled a copious
history from these materials. The Rhodian chronicle is con-
tained in this collection, and its information is detailed in the
history. The original manuscript is still preserved at the ab-
bey. It appears to be a copy made in the year 1480, and its
accuracy is attested by the signatures of several members of
the convent, appointed by the abbot to compare it with the
original.

A chronicle still extant, of the same age with the last and
only copy of the “Liber Rhodeanus,” relates the history of
the convent, which the historian pretends to have collected
from the contents of the conventical library at that time. Ac-
cording to him, the first apostle of the island was St. Ulpha,
a female who inherited the sovereignty of the island from her
father Tutus. Her uncle, instigated by ambition, had her kid-
napped and sold to traders, who carried her a captive to Rome,

―346―

about the year 400. She there became the slave of a Roman
nobleman, called Marcus Vitreus: but her wisdom and beau-
ty soon obtained for her her liberty, and made her the nurse of
her former master. The death of her husband left her mistress
of great wealth, all which she voluntarily abandoned for the
sake of raising her countrymen of Tutesell from the barbarism
and infidelity in which they were involved. She accordingly
returned to the island, and her uncle being dead, was readily
acknowledged as the lawful successor. She speedily converted
her subjects to Christ, and died in this abbey, founded by her-
self, in 454. Her descendants, for she brought a son with her
from Rome, governed the island till 640, when the Northum-
brian Saxons invaded and subdued it. The conqueror was Ed-
gar, a pagan Saxon, who was converted by a miracle wrought
on the shrine of Ulpha, and sanctified his conquest by marry-
ing the heiress of the native princess. The island henceforth
became Saxon, and continued in possession of the descendants
of Edgar, till 1070, when Geoffry Martil, count of Florae, a
companion of the conqueror, whose posterity held it till 1200,
when Arthur Carril, lineally descended from Ulpha and Edgar,
regained possession by the grant of Richard I, and marriage of
the heiress of Geoffry Martil.

The historians of the island relate that Ulpha was the mother
of a line of ten princes, of whom the great Arthur was one.
From the accession of Edgar till the Norman conquest there
reigned twenty-one kings of Tutesell. Of Rhodian princes there
were four of this family; and from 1200 to the present time
there have been thirty earls of Orme and Walney.

No family has made a more conspicuous and illustrious
figure in British annals than this. The heir of it has, on seve-
ral occasions, been allied to the royal family. Their rank has
always been considered as that of a sovereign house, and as su-
perior to that of the rest of the nobility. The second earl of
Orme acquired kingly power, and maintained it for several
years, under Henry III. On his death, and the banishment
and attainder of his sons, his next brother succeeded to the
island. He had previously been abbot of St. Ulpha's and bishop
of St. Orme, but in consequence of succeeding to the earldom,
was secularized and obtained a dispensation to marry. The

―347―

wife of the second earl, who was daughter of king John and sis-
ter to Henry, died at St. Ulpha's abbey in 1296. The earl's bo-
dy was delivered to his brother, and buried at St. Ulpha's.

During the earl's prosperity there were none of the nobles so
rich as he. The whole county of Leicester was bestowed upon
him by king Henry III, as a feudal sovereignty. Besides this
and his little insular kingdom, he possessed two castles with
land around them in different parts of England. All these
were forfeited at his death, and nothing but the island was left
to his brother.

The second earl's wife being the eldest daughter of king John,
and himself being lineally descended from Edgar Atheling,
by the marriage of Geoffry Martil, first lord of Orme under
the Normans, with Edgar's only child, many entertained very
favourable sentiments of his right to the kingdom. Having ac-
quired the real sovereignty, he willingly forewent the name of
king. The Saxon part of the community always secretly recog-
nized his title: the Normans were of course averse to it: but
had Henry had no son, or had his son been of a different cha-
racter from that of Edward I, there is little doubt of his success.
This was the true source of his popularity. The people consi-
dered him as martyrs do their liberties, and their veneration in-
creased in spite of the oppression of the pope and clergy. The
worship paid to him could only be checked and suppressed by
strenuous efforts of the government; but though it was extin-
guished in England, it could not be suppressed in Tutesell,
where his name was ranked as a divinity with Arthur, Ulpha
and Rhoda.

Anglesey has always been inhabited by a race whom their
peculiar dialect, manners and religion, as well as their insular
situation, have separated from the rest of the kingdom. They
have never been conquered, since their governors always
obtained the sanction of lawful hereditary right, by descent
from or marriage with the heirs of the primitive lords. They
have ever had but little intercourse, except that of trade with
the neighbouring coasts. For a thousand years have they been
Wended into one mass by marriage and conversation, and there
is a shape, physiognomy and moral character, as well as a lan-
guage and law, by which they are obviously distinguished

―348―

from their neighbours, and compacted as it were into one
body.

In ecclesiastical as well as civil officers, the isle has been
independent of the rest of the world. Neither the claims of the
pope, nor of the English prelates to superiority, have ever been
quietly acknowledged. Unlucky circumstances, the folly, faci-
lity or superstition of the lords or bishops, have on some occa-
sions, yielded to papal and prelatical encroachments, but these
have prevailed only for a time. Much disturbance and confu-
sion have been sometimes excited by these claims. Papal usur-
pation was finally terminated by the reformation in the six-
teenth century, since which the ecclesiastical independence of the
island has never been molested, except during the republican
triumphs, in the time of Charles II.

The island is divided into thirty rectories. Some of these
are further divided into subrectories. This has been the case,
where the village whose inhabitants originally composed a con-
gregation of the due size, has swelled into a town, and requir-
ed more than one chapel.

There are five convents of men and five of women. At the
head of these is the abbey of St. Ulpha, the head or abbot of
which is likewise bishop of Orme. This abbey is also a college,
in which every rector and subrector must take his degree, and
be qualified, by due examination, for his office.

The monks and canons of St. Ulpha, are, in number, thirty.
The vacancies in this body are supplied by their own election:
the concurrence of twenty being necessary to every choice.
The candidates must be natives of the isle, between forty and
fifty years of age; must have passed a probation of fifteen years
in their college; must devote themselves to celibacy, and never
leave the isle; may lose their place by resignation, provided it
be unanimously accepted by canons and bishops, by breach of
conventical rules, provided the sentence be in like manner
unanimous. They choose, twenty concurring, their bishop, or
abbot, who appoints, with the approbation of the majority, all
the rectors, from persons under forty and above thirty, natives
of the isle; and duly qualified by an education of ten years
at the college, and a degree. No canon can be rector or sub-

―349―

rector, but the latter may become canons. The lord has a nega-
tive upon the choice of bishops, canons and rectors.

The life and conduct of the rectors and subrectors, are ame-
nable to synods, consisting of rectors, canons and bishops, who
meet in the cathedral, semi annually. These likewise form
rules and orders for the church.

The East riding of York wants little of being an Island.
The Derwent, the Humber and the sea, embrace it on all
sides. The former takes its rise within a few miles of the sea
shore, and after a sinuous course of about 80 miles, joins the
Humber, forming its present boundary on the North and West.
It formerly included a tract of very rich land, about fifty thou-
sand acres, called Reeveland, situated between the Derwent
and Ouze, and near their confluence, which was the property
by marriage of the Carrils. The late earl sold the whole for
twenty pounds an acre. It was a level piece of ground, whose
fertility is exceeded by no district in the kingdom. At the res-
toration it was, notwithstanding its value, nearly desolate, but
earl Edgar invited improvers, by granting it on leases of sixty
years, at the inconsiderable price of one shilling an acre.
A few public spirited farmers, by repairing breaches in the
embankment of the Ouze, by which the whole had been in-
undated, and by new and suitable drains, set an example which
many others followed. By this means, it was soon converted
into a most productive and valuable body of meadow. The
leases expiring about the time when his great grandson assum-
ed the management of his father's estate, he seized the oppor-
tunity offered of selling it. The tenants, whose ancestors had
grown rich upon it, eagerly became the purchasers. The true
annual value of this ground did not fall short of thirty shil-
lings an acre, so that the price he set upon it, twenty pounds
an acre, or 13⅓ years purchase, was extremely cheap: yet it
produced a million sterling, the whole paid by instalments in
ten years.

Of this immense sum, half was loaned to government, and
the produce, 25,000 per ann. was employed in the exclusive
improvement of Anglesey. The lands in the Isle, in the
hands of others, amounted to 120 acres; the annual value of

―350―

which was about 26, and the gross value, at 20 years pur-
chase, 200l. 300l. therefore was sufficient to purchase 120
acres. The interest of the residue 35,000 a year, was em-
ployed in the improvement of the property thus acquired.

The isle of Jersey was originally part of the dutchy of
Normandy, and the patrimony of Hugh Martil, the companion
of the conqueror. It remained in his descendants till his only
daughter and heiress, Isabella de Martil, was given by Henry
the Fifth in marriage to a Carril, in 1420. The new proprie-
tor confirmed and enlarged the privileges of its inhabitants.
They have immemorilaly enjoyed a kind of republican inde-
pendance, the right of being governed by their own customs,
administered by officers elected by themselves. One jurat, and
five subjurats, the first of whom is appointed by the lord, for
life, from among the latter, who are elected by the people of
each parish every five years, distribute justice. Each parish
has a priest chosen by the people, and some other officers.

Till the present century, the priest derived his subsistence
from fees due on baptisms, marriages and burials, and from a
sort of tythe on the oats produced. The whole value was ex-
tremely small; from about fifteen to twenty pounds a year.

The jurats and subjurats profits consisted of fines imposed
upon certain offences, and of the costs in civil suits. From
these the former was able to extract about one hundred pounds
a year, and the latter about thirty. As they are free from all
national taxes and customs, commodities are cheap, and provi-
sions plentiful.

The ground is considered as the lord's property, of which
twenty thousand acres are divided into five hundred farms
(forty acres each) of the residue about half is a waste or com-
mon, extending over the cold bleak hills in the middle of the
isle: the other half is the homestead or demesne of the lord.
The farm land paid a rent of four shillings an acre; but the
tenant holds the land to him and his heirs within the third de-
gree. The non payment of rent for a year after it is due, the
failure of heirs and the commission of certain crimes restores
it. The lord however is bound immediately to confer it
on the same terms, on some native of the parish. All males,
not engaged in agriculture as farmers, between twenty-five and

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fifty, pay to the lord a capitation of twenty shillings a year.
These are the outlines of the constitution of Jersey at the ac-
cession of the present lord.

The whole revenue from land was about four thousand
pounds; from the capitation about two hundred and fifty pounds.
The latter sum paid the steward and his officers, and the for-
mer was regularly remitted to London in bills of exchange.

Till 1720, this isle was almost totally rejected and unvisited
by its proprietors. The nomination of jurats and stewards;
some acts of supreme legal jurisdiction, and an acknowledg-
ment of the receipt of bills were generally the only circumstan-
ces in which the character and power of the landlord was dis-
played. The spirit of the government both in fiscal and judi-
cial matters depended entirely on the spirit of those customs
which time has converted into laws, and on the character and
habits of the officers.

At this period the indefatigable Arthur visited it in person:
traversed every part of the island, conversed with individuals
of all classes, inspected their condition with his own eyes, and
obtained from the priests and jurats, accurate and full amounts
of all things necessary to be known. After thoroughly digest-
ing and considering these particulars, he introduced various al-
terations and improvements. His measures greatly restrained
the manufacture and consumption of spirituous liquors: intro-
duced an improved agriculture; abolished all fees payable to
the clergy and the jurats, substituting ample stipends in their
stead, payable from his own coffers, and in fine secured the wel-
fare of the people by many wise and salutary institutions. To
those changes to which his own legal power was unequal, he
obtained the popular consent by collecting the clergy and chief
people of the island into a kind of national assembly. A whole
year was passed by him within the island, engaged assiduously
in these arrangements; and in subsequent years, he occasion-
ally visited it in order to inspect the operation of his plans.

The island has extensive quarries of salt; and of white,
black and gray marble, of a grain little inferior to the best
Italian. It has likewise excellent coal and iron. An extensive
manufactory of iron was established by which the island was
abundantly supplied with that article, and some profitable ma-

―352―

nufacture of hardware adopted. The marble has been for some
centuries in use in the edifices constructed by this family, but
earl Arthur created a demand and sale for it to an extent ex-
tremely advantageous to the island. Contractors for these
works were easily found, on the favourable terms allowed them
by the lord, and they furnish a regular subsistence to an hun-
dred families, at twenty pounds a piece; a rent to the landlord
of five hundred pounds a year, and a profit to the undertakers
of one thousand.

The trade of the island consists in salt, coals, bar iron and
red marble, each of these articles is raised, and sold within the
island or exported by a company who rent the several pits,
mines and quarries of the lord. The whole sum paid in wages
is about four thousand pounds a year to two hundred persons.
An annual profit of four thousand pounds is divided by twenty
proprietors, and one thousand is paid in rent. Thus the lord's
fixed revenue became five thousand pounds a year.

The area of Jersey is about fifty square miles: of Guern-
sey about thirty: of Alderney five: of Sark four, and of
Herm one. With each of the four last there is one or two isles
connected, containing from one to fifty acres. These islands
consist of three principal groups, whose relative position may be
considered as forming the points of a triangle whose sides are
about thirty miles long, and whose base, the extremities of
which are Alderney and Jersey, is about forty miles in length.

They lie in the gulf, or bay, formed by the coasts of Brittany
and Normandy. Jersey is placed in the midst of this bay, nearly
at an equal distance, about thirty miles from its bottom and
sides. Alderney is separated from the French coast by a strait
about twelve miles wide. It is somewhat surprising that these
islands, incorporated as it were by their position with France,
should have been politically disunited from it for near four hun-
dred years. It is not surprising, however, that their inhabi-
tants should retain the language and religion of the neighbour-
ing kingdom, and that they should not form an integral part of
the British empire.

The political constitution of all these islands is nearly the
same. The land is held at an immutable rent, of the earls of
Rutland, and the civil and criminal jurisdiction divided between

―353―

officers of their own election, and of his appointment. The
area of these islands is about ninety square miles, or fifty-eight
thousand acres. The whole population is about ten thousand
persons.

The principal edifices in these islands were erected by Am-
brose, earl of Rutland, who was banished hither by queen Eli-
zabeth. He was obliged to resign all his English estates to his
son, and was allowed to retain this portion of his territory on
condition of his never setting foot in Great Britain. He reti-
red hither, accordingly, in 1582, and his restless spirit found
sufficient occupation in erecting the fortresses which now remain
on the principal isles, and in administering the government in
person till his death, twenty years after. His wife refused to
follow him hither, and passed the remnant of her days at Wort-
lepool. He governed his vassals with justice, not untinctured
with severity: conducted himself as one wholly independent of
England, and maintained the post and state of a sovereign
prince. He brought with him a considerable treasure, and in-
creased it by sending vessels to trade and pillage in the Indian
and American seas. His presence and projects produced great
effects on the condition of the islands and their inhabitants.

Though upwards of sixty years of age, he persuaded Catha-
rine de Brissac, a young lady of high birth to elope with him
from Paris, and retire with him to this island. In a short time
she brought him a son and daughter, and repenting her con-
duct, endeavoured to escape to France. The discovery of her
purpose exposed her to the resentment and jealousy of her se-
ducer, who imprisoned her in a fortress in Sark, from the
walls of which she threw herself in despair, and was dashed in
pieces.

The earl ascribing her discontent to the machinations of her
family, and having narrowly escaped assassination by one of her
brothers, gratified his vengeance by stealing away her only re-
maining sister, and killing her brother who endeavoured to res-
cue her from his attempts. The lady he prevailed upon to live
contented with her destiny, and even to become enamoured of
him. She had no children, and died of a fever caught in an
excursion on the water in 1592. The earl sincerely lamented
her death, and was touched with such remorse for past miscon-

―354―

duct that he thenceforth became as remarkably serious and de-
vout as he had previously been gay and insolent. He did not
intermit his attention to the affairs of his estate, but he sub-
jected himself to certain rigorous penances and privations.

Catharine de Brissac had been three months a prisoner,
when, in despair, she caused her own death. One week in
every year, the earl condemned himself to pass in the tower in
which she had been confined, without attendants, without bed,
and almost without food. Three hours each day in this week, he
passed upon his knees, in tears and supplication, in a small
chapel which belonged to it. He thus endeavoured to atone,
not only for the wrongs done to his unfortunate mistress, but
for the hypocrisy and irreligion of his early life. He wrote
conciliatory letters to the countess, and obtained her forgive-
ness for offences committed against her. His own constitution
was unimpaired by the irregularities, hardships and excesses
of his youth, or by the austerities and penances to which he
condemned himself in old age. A religious melancholy which
preyed upon his mind, gradually infected his body, and he died
without pain or struggle in his eighty-second year, and was
buried according to his own directions, in the same tomb with
the two ladies he had seduced.

His natural children Frances and Catharine, had been sent
while infants, into Italy. A kinswoman of their mother who
lived in retirement at Florence, consented to take charge of
them. An evil star appeared to reign with uninterrupted sway
over their destiny. The guilty circumstances of their birth
appeared to have entailed a curse upon them from which they
never could escape.

Ambrose Carril, was the celebrated favourite of Elizabeth.
That mystery in which his connections with that queen, are in-
volved in the histories of the times, is in a great degree, re-
moved by the records in possession of this family. These ac-
quaint us that a commerce of love actually subsisted between
the queen and her favourite.

The estates of this family are found in many parts of Eng-
land besides Rutland and Huntley. It is more remarkable of
them than of any other family, that chance or discretion has
uniformly augmented their estates since the beginning. The

―355―

immense personal property of Tenbrook, devolved by his will
on the eldest of his grandsons, and was entirely devoted by
him, to improving Athelney.

Arundel in Sussex, Conway in Wales, and Berkley in Glou-
cestershire, are all surrounded by extensive domains. The faci-
lity or generosity of earl Florace, however, prevented him from
making the most of these portions of his property. He let
them out, not only at very low rents, but on long terms of se-
venty-five years. He had no avarice, no taste for the arduous
cares either of a steward or a governor, and in relation to his
property, generally chose that mode of proceeding, which
gave him least trouble, and required least thought. His su-
perfluous revenue, he expended in building the sumptuous cas-
tles to be found at these places, in adorning them with all the
productions of the arts, and in converting the grounds in their
immediate vicinity into a terrestrial paradise. The ancient and
proper patrimonial possessions of his family, he almost whol-
ly neglected; visited them with great reluctance, and only
when absolutely necessary. The great passion of his life at-
tached him to these three places. In the course of twenty
years, he finished the extensive gardens and magnificent cas-
tles belonging to them, at the expense of 600,000 pounds.

The Berkley estate contained eight thousand acres, of which
three thousand five hundred were included in the park. The
Conway, 16,000 acres, 10,000 being park. Of the whole,
13,500 were in the hands of tenants, and produced only about
3000l. a year. He gave up all the rest of his estate to his
eldest son, when only eighteen years of age, in some degree
entailing to that son the future fortunes and destiny of the
rest of his children. He reserved to himself an income from
the funds of 100 per ann. on which he passed the rest of his
life, and secured the affluence and comforts of the family of
his second wife. By her he had no children. This income,
together with the three manors above mentioned, he left to
his widow and her sisters with the remainder, first to the sur-
vivors and survivor of them in succession, and then to his
three daughters, one of them to each, with three thousand
pounds annual income, from his estate in the stocks.

―356―

Earl Vincent was born in 1678. He married Miss Ten-
brook in 1701. His wife died thirteen years afterwards (1714.)
The next year he married Julia Caloni, who left him a widow-
er (by her) childless, in 1730. He himself died in 1743. The
last of the Caloni sisters expired at Conway, seventy-seven
years old (1772.)

Till this period, according to earl Vincent's will, these three
manors could not revert to the Rutland family. When lady
Jane eloped from her husband, and came pennyless to England,
the order of time was voluntarily anticipated by the Caloni
ladies, and they put her in immediate possession of Cleves, and
of 50,000l. this being the estate, and the proportion of money,
to which she was entitled only in remainder, after the close of
all their lives. They would have done the same to Mary,
when, in her widowhood, she returned to settle in England,
but she would not permit it.

After her grandfather's death, earl Vincent resided at Ar-
thursake, till Conway was habitable. He then removed his
family hither, and this became his settled and principal abode,
and that of his widow and her family for upward of sixty
years. After the death of Laura Caloni, in 1772, it devolved
to Mary Carril. She never visited it, but took care that the
domestics and furniture of the last possessor, should, accord-
ing to her last wishes, be properly taken care of. The house
and grounds were kept in perfect order. At the death of
Mary (1786) it devolved to the earl.

Conway castle is an edifice of three stories, constructed of
massy blocks of Jersey marble, and rising from a rocky emi-
nence to the height of 130 feet, exclusive of turrets and pinna-
cles. Like Cleves and Arundel, it is planned with the great-
est art, and finished in a style which shows that labour and
expense were wholly disregarded by the builder. Beside a great
display at the excellencies of the chissel and pencil, of which
the building itself has afforded the immediate occasion, it con-
tains a great number of the most precious monuments of an-
cient and foreign art. The same praise may indeed be con-
ferred on Cleves and Arundel, but not quite in so liberal a mea-
sure as on Conway.

―357―

Earl Vincent had the merit and pleasure of the whole plan
and contrivance of these three buildings. They afforded oc-
cupation and amusement to all his hours, and his plans were
of such a nature, that they never could be entirely completed.
If we could overlook the pleasure afforded by invention, we
might reasonably wonder why this man could not be satisfied
with the numerous residences, truly royal, which he already
possessed in his palatine estates, and most of which were con-
siderably more extensive than these.

Earl Edgar erected and endowed three colleges, one in
Rutland, one in Huntley, and one at Oxford. The two for-
mer were seminaries, from the members of which the latter
was supplied with pupils and fellows. The district or lord-
ship of Cleves in Yorkshire, he bestowed upon the hall of Ox-
ford. The revenues of this district for ten years together, he
employed in erecting and finishing the edifice, and then invest-
ed the fraternity with the fee simple of the land.

Cleves was the property of earl Edgar's mother. It was a
noble patrimony, consisting of upwards of 20,000 acres, divid-
ed into three parishes. He regulated this district in the same
manner with Rutland and Orme, dividing it into lands of fifty
farms, granting these in perpetuity at a fixed rent of ten shil-
lings an acre, and securing a stipend of 100l. a year to each
rector. The revenue hence accruing was vested in the war-
den and fellows of Cleves hall.

The rules of this college were drawn up and carefully di-
gested by the earl himself.

Walter Carril, the first of that name, earl of Orme, married
Philippa, the daughter of Arthur, duke of Brittany, in 1309.
Arthur was succeeded by his eldest son, John the third. Wal-
ter and Philippa left a son, Walter the second, born 1310.
The count of Ponthieve, younger brother of John, left a
daughter. John chose for his successor, the daughter of his
brother, in preference to the son of his sister, and married her
to Charles de Blois. After John's death, a cavil ensued be-
tween the two claimants in 1341, which, after twenty-three
years continuance, ended in 1364, in the full establishment of
Walter, the third earl of Orme, in this dutchy. This Wal-
ter died in 1380, leaving two sons, the eldest of whom his will

―358―

left duke of Brittany, while the youngest Arthur acquired the
English estates and honours. Henceforth this great family
was divided into two branches, that of England and Brit-
tany.

The Carrils continued in possession of Brittany, in lineal
male descendants for seven generations, till 1491, when the
marriage of Ann, eldest daughter and heiress of the last duke,
with Charles VIII, king of France was solemnized. The duke's
younger daughter Isabella, was married to the earl of Orme,
in 1487, and thus in some sort, re-united the two branches.

The history of Brittany, during this period of 150 years,
forms a part of the history of the Carril family. The greatest
harmony subsisted between the two branches, and frequent in-
termarriages took place between them. In more than one in-
stance, a daughter of Brittany became countess of Orme, and
a daughter of Orme became dutchess of Brittany. Ann the
last dutchess, was daughter of an Orme, and Isabella was first
cousin to her husband. This connection always reflected great
lustre and credit on the English earls, and was, on many occa-
sions, of eminent service to them. In every disaster, Britta-
ny was a sure place of refuge to them, and aid and mediation
were frequently supplied by its dukes.

Brittany was, in many respects, one of the most singular
states in Christendom. It was compact, insulated from the
neighbouring provinces by many peculiar institutions, as well as
by language. Its people are at this day descendants of the
aborigines of the country, and may be said to have never been
conquered. In the wreck of the Roman empire, the descen-
dants of its ancient chieftains acquired sovereignty and inde-
pendence, and their posterity continued in possession of it,
amidst all the shocks and revolutions occasioned by the Goths,
Franks and Normans, till the fifteenth century. Geoffry Mar-
til who accompanied the conqueror, and was first earl of Orme
and Athelney, was a younger son of the then duke of Brit-
tany.