His seats are Castle Howard, Yorkshire, and Naworth Castle, Cumberland.
The heir-presumptive to the titles and estates is, as just stated, Admiral the Right Hon. Edward Granville George Howard, Baron Lanerton of Naworth, which peerage was bestowed on him in 1873. He was born in 1809, entered the Royal Navy in 1823, and advanced step by step till he became Admiral in 1870. He married, in 1842, Diana, daughter of the Hon. George Ponsonby, by whom, however, he has no issue.
In the grounds of Castle Howard an avenue of about a mile in length, bordered on either side by groups of ash-trees, leads to a pretty, cosy, and comfortable inn, on the front of which is the inscription:—“CAROLUS HOWARD, COMES CARLIOLENSIS, HOC CONDIDIT ANNO DOMINI MDCCXIX.” It forms a sort of entrance gate to the park: the mansion, however, is a long way off, the whole length of the avenue from the road to the house being four miles, with the avenue of trees continued all the way. Midway is an obelisk one hundred feet in height, which contains the following inscriptions:—
“Virtute et Fortunæ, Johannes, Marlburiæ
Ducis Patriæ Europæquæ Defensoris.
Hoc saxum admirationi ac famæ
Sacrum Carolus Comes Carliol posuit,
Anno Domini MDCCXIV.”
“If to perfection these plantations rise,
If they agreeably my heirs surprise,
This faithful pillar will their age declare,
As long as time these characters shall spare;
Here then with kind remembrance read his name,
Who for posterity perform’d the same.”
“Charles, the third Earl of Carlisle of the family of Howards, erected a Castle where the old Castle of Henderskelf[44] stood, and called it Castle Howard. He likewise made the plantations in this park, and all the outworks, monuments, and other plantations belonging to the said seat.
“He began these works in the year MDCCII, and set up this inscription anno Domin MDCCXXXI.”
The history of the house is thus told; but it has no pretensions to the name of a castle: the mansion is free from all semblance of character as a place for defence, being simply and purely the domestic home of an English nobleman, though, as our engravings show, very beautiful in construction, of great extent, and perfect in all its appliances.