Volume I Part 16 (1/2)

[159] Hardwicke Papers, vol ii p 600

[160] Chainal letters, for which I aister Office, Edinburgh

[162] The spelling is preserved as in the original

[163] These words ritten in the Chevalier's own hand

[164] Letters in the possession of A Macdonald, Esq

[165] Bolingbroke

[166] Lockhart Papers, vol ii p 221

[167] Lockhart Papers

[168] See various papers in the State Paper Office Collections for 1722

[169] Lockhart, vol ii p 149

[170] Id p 183

[171] Lockhart, vol ii p 198

[172] Mr C Kirkpatrick Sharpe was good enough to inform me that he had seen some letters on this subject, which exculpated Lady Mary W

Montague The correspondence was destroyed, but it conveyed to the entleainst Lady Mary Wortley was groundless

JAMES, EARL OF DERWENtwatER

In the vale of Hexham, on the summit of a steep hill, clothed ood, and washed at its base by a rivulet, called the Devil's Water, stand the ruins of Dilstone Castle A bridge of a single arch forms the approach to the castle orits rapid waters with those of the Tyne, rushes over rocks into a deep dell eht, and casting a deep gloo waters beneath their branches

Through the arch of the bridge, a mill, an object ever associated with peace and plenty, is seen; and, beyond it, the eye rests upon the bare, dilapidated walls of the castle Its halls, its stairs, its painted chambers, may still be traced; its broken towers command a view of romantic beauty; but all around it is desolate and ruined, like the once proud and honoured family elt beneath its roof

This was once the favourite abode of the Ratcliffes, or Radcliffes, supposed to be a branch of the Radcliffes in Lancashi+re,[173] from ere, it is said, descended the Earls of Sussex,[174] who became the owners of Dilstone in the days of Queen Elizabeth

During several generations after the Conquest, a family of the name of Devilstone was in possession of Dilstone, until the time of Henry the Third The estates then passed to many different owners; the Tynedales, the Crafters, the Claxtons, were successively theto some accounts,[175] until the tenth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, that it first owned for its lord one of that unfortunate race to whoed, until escheated to the Crown But certain historians have asserted that, so early as the reign of Henry the Sixth, Dilstone was the seat of Sir Nicholas Radcliffe[176]

At this period, too, other estates were added to those already enjoyed by the Radcliffes Sir Nicholas married the heiress of Sir John De Derater, to whog and Keswick, and who, since the tireat consideration in the county of cumberland This alliance with the Derater faht to the Radcliffe the possession of a territory, which, for its beauty and value, ht envy, did not for many years, entice the-place, a gloo wildernesses,” was far less coreat fa monastery which reared its head in the Vale of Hexha, eventually, abandoned by the Radcliffes, went utterly to decay; the materials of the olda new residence on Lord's Island, in Keswick Lake; and the estate was divided into tenancies, which, in process of time, were infranchised The ancient demesne of the De Deraters has now passed into the hands of the Trustees of Greenwich Hospital, and the oaks of the park which skirts the lake have of late years supplied much valuable ti several centuries after the intere with the De Deraters, to increase in wealth and in of James the Second, in 1688, when, in consequence of the eldest son of Sir Francis Radcliffe havinghis father's life tihter of Charles the Second, by Mistress Mary Davis, Sir Francis was created Earl of Derater, Baron Dilstone, and Viscount Langley[177] ”This alliance to the royal blood,” says the biographer of Charles Radcliffe, ”gave thedom, and was likewise the occasion of that strict attachment which the several branches of the Derater family have inviolably preserved for the line of Stuarts ever since”[178]

There was also another reason for this act of royal favour on the one hand, and for this devotion on the other: Sir George Radcliffe, we find by the Macpherson papers, was Governor of Ja the troubles of the Great Rebellion; and, under his care, the young prince remained some tiht of the effect of this connection with royalty, in ennobling an ancient and loyal race, theinfluence on the fortunes of the family That they were proud of the alliance appears froe used to wear the prince's feather, that plume which has, since the days of Edward the Black Prince, distinguished the heir apparent to royalty But the consanguinity in blood to the Stuarts produced another, and a far more serious result The sons of the Lady Mary Tudor and of Francis, second Earl of Derater, were educated, like brothers, with the son of the abdicated monarch James Radcliffe, as born about the year 1692, and who afterwards became Earl of Derater, passed his childhood at St Germains with his royal namesake, Jaht up in France; both of these youths, whose fate was afterwards so tragical, were reared in the faith of the Church of Roy They thus grew up, without perhaps hearing, certainly without entertaining, a doubt of those rights which they died to assert ”The late Earl of Derater,” writes the biographer of Charles Radclyffe, ”and his brother Charles were so strongly attached to the Pretender's party, that their advice or consent was not sothe disaffected previous to the Rebellion; neither did the party think it necessary, because they were always sure of them whenever they should come to action”

In 1705, Francis, Earl of Derater, died; and during a season of domestic tranquillity, whilst as yet the Jacobites were full of hopes that the succession would be restored to the Stuart line, his son James succeeded to the Earldonity and influence to rank Besides the castle of Dilstone and Castlerigg, which Leland, who visited cu the ”head place of the Radcliffes,” radually added to the patrimonial possessions

It was the disposition of Lord Derater to ees of wealth and birth to the benefit of others He returned to England, English in heart, and becalish nobleman ”He was a man,” said a contemporary writer, ”formed by nature to be beloved; for he was of so universal a beneficence, that he see his own people, a them he spent his estate, and passed his days in deeds of kindness, and in acts of charity, which regarding no differences of faith as obstacles to the course of that heavenly virtue, were extended alike by this unfortunate nobleman to Protestant and to Roman Catholic In his days, Dilstone was the scene of an open-hearted hospitality, ”which,” observes the renegade Jacobite who has chronicled the events of the period, ”few in that country do, and none can, come up to” That castle-hall, now ruined and for ever deserted, was thronged by the distressed, hether the poor denizens of the place or the wanderer by the way side, found there relief, and went away consoled The owner of the castle gave bread to thousands, who long remeood will of his equals, and disarmed the animosity of those who differed from him in opinion Beloved, trusted, almost reverenced in the prime of youth, James Earl of Derater held, at the period of the first Rebellion, the enviable position of one whose station was renity of virtue To the solid qualities of integrity, he added a sweetness and courtesy of manner which must have lent to even ho and blest, he thus dwelt amid the romantic scenery of the Vale of Hexham