The Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, who was born in 1810, married, in 1846, Elizabeth, only daughter of Lieutenant-General Charles Ashe A’Court, who survives him, and is the present Baroness Herbert of Lea. By her he had issue four sons and three daughters—viz. George Robert Charles Herbert, now Earl of Pembroke; Sidney, Lord Herbert, who is heir-presumptive to his brother, and was born in 1853; William Reginald Herbert, born in 1854; Michael Henry Herbert, born in 1857; Mary Catherine Herbert, born in 1849; Elizabeth Maude Herbert, born in 1851; and Constance Gwladys, born in 1859. Lord Herbert of Lea died in 1861, and was succeeded in that title by his eldest son, George Robert Charles Herbert, then eleven years of age, and who, eight months later, succeeded to the full family estates and earldom.
The present peer, the Right Hon. George Robert Charles, thirteenth Earl of Pembroke, Earl of Montgomery, Baron Herbert of Cardiff, Baron Herbert of Shurland, and Baron Herbert of Lea, Hereditary Visitor of Jesus College, Oxford, and High Steward of Wilton, was born July 6th, 1850, and succeeded his father as second Baron Herbert of Lea, in 1861, and his uncle as Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, &c., in 1862. His lordship, in 1874, married the Lady Gertrude Frances Talbot, daughter of the eighteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, and sister of the present earl.
The arms of the Earl of Pembroke are—party per pale, azure and gules, three lions rampant, argent. The crest is a wyvern, vert, holding in its mouth a sinister hand couped at the wrist, gules. The supporters are—dexter, a panther guardant, argent, incensed, spotted, or, vert, sable, azure, and gules alternately, ducally collared, azure; sinister, a lion, argent, ducally collared, or. Motto—“Ung je serviray.” The Earl is patron of twelve livings, ten of which are in Wiltshire, one in Dorsetshire, and one in Shropshire.
His lordship’s brothers and sisters, children of Lord Herbert of Lea, were, on his succeeding to the earldom, raised to the rank of earls’ children by royal warrant in 1862.
Wilton, a town of “great antiquity,” is situated at the conflux of the rivers Nadder and Willey, from the latter of which it is said to derive its name—“Willytown” or “Wilton:” “in Latin it is called Ellandunum.” The ancient Britons had one of their chief seats here; it was a capital of the West Saxons, and was undoubtedly famous long before the Norman Conquest. Afterwards it obtained renown from the number and importance of its monastic establishments. Leland informs us that it had over twelve parish churches. Of its abbey there are no remains. It was dissolved in the thirty-fifth year of King Henry VIII., and the site and buildings given to Sir William Herbert, afterwards created Earl of Pembroke; while from its relics Wilton House was principally built.[47]
Wilton, from the River.
Wilton House—one of the grandest and most beautiful in the kingdom, and the entrance to which adjoins the town—stands on the site of a monastery of Saxon foundation, which, on the dissolution, was levelled with the ground. As we have just intimated, no portion whatever of the monastic buildings remains, but there can be no doubt they were of considerable extent and importance. The mansion was built partly from the designs, it is said, of Hans Holbein, to whom is ascribed the porch, which, however, in the early part of the present century was much altered. “The garden front was built by M. Solomon de Caus in the reign of Charles I., and, having been destroyed by fire in 1648, was re-erected by Webb from plans which are presumed to have been furnished by Inigo Jones. In the commencement of the present century the house was considerably enlarged and remodelled by James Wyatt, R.A., one of the principal additions being the cloisters for the display and preservation of the magnificent collection of sculptures. The general plan of the house is a hollow square, the glazed cloister occupying the central space.”
The Cedars.