The Stately Homes of England

by Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt; S. C. Hall

The South Front.

He was succeeded, as second Duke of Dorset, by his son Charles, who, among his other offices, held that of Master of the Horse to Frederick, Prince of Wales. He married Grace, daughter of Viscount Shannon, who was Mistress of the Robes to Augusta, Princess of Wales, but had no issue. He was succeeded in 1769 by his nephew, John Frederick, as third duke. He married, in 1790, Arabella Diana, daughter and heiress of Sir John Cope, by whom he had issue George John Frederick (who succeeded him as fourth duke); Mary, married to the Earl of Plymouth; and Elizabeth, married to Earl Delawarr. The third duke died in 1799, his only son being at that time in his sixth year. The Duchess, who married, secondly, Lord Whitworth, resided at Knole till her death in 1825; the fourth duke, her son, who had only three months before attained his majority, being killed by a fall from his horse in 1815. At his death Knole and some other estates passed to his sister and co-heiress, the Lady Mary Sackville, who married first, in 1811, Other Archer, sixth Earl of Plymouth, and, second, William Pitt, second Baron and first Earl Amherst, but had no issue by either of those marriages. Her ladyship died in 1864, and the estates then passed to her sister and co-heiress, the Lady Elizabeth Sackville, created in 1864 the Baroness Buckhurst, wife of the late George John Sackville-West, fifth Earl Delawarr, with remainder to her second and younger sons, and was mother of the late peer, Charles Richard, sixth Earl Delawarr; the present peer, the Right Hon. Reginald Windsor Sackville-West, seventh Earl Delawarr and Baron Buckhurst; the Hon. Mortimer Sackville-West, married to Charlotte, daughter of Major-General William Dickson, and is a claimant for the barony of Buckhurst, the present owner of Knole; the Hon. Lionel Sackville-West; the Hon. William Edward Sackville-West, married to Georgiana, daughter of George Dodwell, Esq.; the Lady Elizabeth, married to the present Duke of Bedford; the Lady Mary Catherine, married first, in 1847, to the second Marquis of Salisbury, and second, in 1870, to the fifteenth (present) Earl of Derby; and the Lady Arabella Diana, married to Sir Alexander Bannerman, Bart.

The sixth Earl of Delawarr, Charles Richard Sackville-West, C.B., was born in 1815, and succeeded his father in 1869; educated at Harrow, and entered the 43rd Foot, 1833; Captain 21st Fusiliers, 1842; Major in the army, 1846; Brevet-Colonel, 1850; Lieut.-Colonel and Colonel, 1854; Major-General, 1864. His lordship, as Lord West, served in the Sutlej campaign, 1845; was Aide-de-camp to Lord Gough at the battles of Moodkee and Ferozeshah, and Military Secretary during the remainder of the campaign; was present at Sobraon, and has received medal and clasps; served in the Crimea, including the battles of the Alma and Balaclava; commanded a detached wing of the 21st Fusiliers at the battle of Inkermann, and also that regiment at Sebastopol. In the expedition to Kinbourn he was in command of a brigade, and afterwards commanded one at Shorncliffe Camp. His lordship was an Officer of the Legion of Honour, a Knight of the Medjidie, &c.

His lordship, who was unmarried, died, by his own hand, April 23rd, 1873, and was succeeded by his brother, the Hon. and Rev. R. W. Sackville.

The present noble peer, the Hon. and Rev. Reginald Windsor Sackville, seventh Earl Delawarr, Viscount Cantelupe, Baron Delawarr, Baron West, and Baron Buckhurst, second son of the fifth Earl Delawarr, and brother of the sixth earl, was born in 1817; was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he proceeded B.A. in 1838, and M.A. in 1842; and became Rector of Withyham, in Sussex. He assumed, in 1871, the surname of Sackville only, in lieu of that of Sackville-West. His lordship married, in 1867, Constance Mary Elizabeth, daughter of A. D. R. W. Baillie-Cochrane, Esq., M.P., by whom he has issue living, the Hon. Lionel Charles Cranfield Sackville, Viscount Cantelupe, born in 1868; the Hon. Gilbert George Reginald Sackville, born in 1869; the Hon. Edeline Sackville, born in 1870; and the Hon. Leonore Mary, born in 1872. His lordship is patron of six livings, four of which are in Sussex and two in Oxfordshire.

The arms of Earl Delawarr are—quarterly, or and gules, a bend vaire, argent and azure. Crest—on a ducal coronet composed of fleurs-de-lis, as estoile, argent, supporters on either side, a leopard, argent, spotted sable. Motto—“Nunquam tentes aut perfice.” His seats are—Buckhurst, Tunbridge Wells; and Bourn Hall, Cambridge.

The present owner of Knole is the Hon. Mortimer Sackville-West, son of the fifth and brother of the sixth and seventh (present) Earl Delawarr, to whom it passed on the demise of his mother, the Baroness Buckhurst, to which title, now assumed by Earl Delawarr, he is a claimant. Mr. Sackville-West, who was born in 1820, became Captain Grenadier Guards in 1845, and is a Groom in Waiting in Ordinary to her Majesty. He married first, in 1847, Fanny Charlotte, daughter of the late Major-General William Dickson, C.B., E.I.C.S., of Beenham House, Berkshire, who died in 1870; and second, in 1873, Elizabeth, second daughter of Charles Wilson Faber, Esq.

Knole House is full of highly honourable and deeply interesting associations with the past. Seen from a distance, the mansion appears irregular; but, although the erection of several periods, and enlarged from time to time to meet the wants and wishes of its immediate occupiers, it exhibits few parts out of harmony with the whole, and presents a striking and very imposing example of the earlier Baronial Mansion, such as it was before settled peace in Britain warranted the withdrawal of all means of defence in cases of attack from open or covert enemies. The neighbourhood, as well as “the house,” is suggestive of many sad or pleasant memories. From the summits of knolls, in the noble and well-stocked park, extensive views are obtained of the adjacent country. Scattered about the wealds of Kent are the tall spires of scores of village churches: Hever—recalling the fate of the murdered Anne Boleyn and the destiny of the deserted Anne of Cleves; Penshurst—the cradle and the tomb of the Sidneys; Eridge—once great Warwick’s hunting-seat; the still frowning battlements of Tunbridge Castle; these and other subjects within ken demand thought and induce reflection, both of which obtain augmented power while treading the graceful corridors and stately chambers of the time-honoured mansion. The walls are hung with authentic portraits of the great men of various epochs who, when living, flourished here; not alone the noble and wealthy owners of the old hall, but the worthies who sojourned there as guests, to have sheltered, aided, and befriended whom is now the proudest, as it will be the most enduring, of all the boasts of lordly Knole.