Welbeck, the Riding School.
The Riding School—the finest in existence—is a noble room, measuring in its interior no less than 379 feet in length, by 106 feet in width, and above 50 feet in height. It is covered by a semicircular and highly ornate iron and glass roof, rising from iron columns, which form the side of a charming corridor running round it. This corridor has an open carved timber-work roof, of elegant but massive design. The general idea of the design of this roof has been taken from that of the old Riding-house, but altered in its details, and rendered more elaborate and elegant: the cornice round the main building is chastely decorated with wreaths of foliage, birds, and other objects, arranged with great taste. The room is at night lighted by nearly eight thousand gas jets, and has a strikingly beautiful effect. Near it are the Hunting Stables, unequalled for amplitude of accommodation and for excellence of arrangement, with their accompanying saddle-rooms, offices, and grooms’ barracks. These stables form a quadrangle, the yard being nearly 180 feet square, and contain some six-and-thirty spacious loose boxes and a number of stalls, the planning and arrangement of the whole being perfection itself. Not far from these are the coach-houses and coach-house stabling, and the covered “gallop” and lunging-rooms. These form another marked feature of Welbeck. The gallop is, in its entire interior length, 1,072 feet, and its general central width 33 feet; while the lunging-rooms at either end are about 70 feet in width, and 191 and 293 feet in length respectively. The whole of this immense space is covered with glass, and laid down in tan, &c.; it is believed to be the finest covered gallop in existence. Besides this are outdoor tan gallops, roughing and brood boxes, &c. The Kennels are also very extensive.
The Cowyards, Cowhouses, Sheds, and Dairy are of great extent, and are arranged with every modern appliance. The Dairy, in the centre of which is a crystal sparkling fountain rising from a marble bowl, is unsurpassed anywhere; the floor is of Minton’s encaustic tiles, and the fittings and wall-tiles of chastely beautiful patterns. Near it are the steward’s and other offices, the visitors’ stables, the telegraph office, and many other buildings.
The Gardens of Welbeck are one of its great glories, so extensive, so well arranged, so liberally provided, and so productive are they. Among the special features—arrangements nowhere else on the same principle adopted—are the peach wall, nearly one thousand feet in length, with lean-to glass on Rendle’s patent, but so arranged, with a series of strawberry beds on the other side of the path, that they can be lifted down and run, as on a tramway, to cover the strawberries; thus each division of the lean-to forms a frame to cover a strawberry bed of its exact size. The fruit walls are built with recesses in their backs, in which braziers of fire can be placed, so as to hasten and help the ripening of the fruit. The range of pine-houses is about the same length, as are also the magnificent vineries. A pretty and novel feature, too, is a fruit arcade. This arcade is nearly one thousand feet in length, and is formed of a series of ornamental iron arches, and over the whole of this are trained a number of apple-trees up one side, and pear-trees up the other, and bearing profusely for the whole of this immense length. Then there are the orchard-houses, in which hundreds of standard peach and other trees grow in pots; the potting-houses, the pine-pits, the conservatories, the forcing-houses, the giant mulberry-tree, and a host of other gardening attractions.
Another important part of Welbeck is the series of Workshops and Yards. Here are immense carpenters’ yards and workshops, fitted with every possible kind of machinery and every mechanical appliance—fit for the most extensive contractor; there the extensive stoneyards and masons’ workshops; in another place the painters’ sheds and the forging-sheds; in another the smiths’ and engineers’ shops; and in yet another the powerful steam-engines for driving the various kinds of machinery. Here, too, are extensive gas-works, consisting of no less than four huge gasometers; the fire-engine house, fitted with engines in constant readiness and with gear of every kind; the immensely ponderous traction engines, for which his grace is so justly famous, and of which some six or seven are constantly at work; and many other matters to which we need not allude.
The works now for many years carried on by the Duke of Portland have been, and yet are, of the most stupendous character, and must have been accomplished at a lavish and princely outlay. His grace has, however, done all things “wisely and well,” and if his outlay has been princely, it has been expended in a princely manner, and to the benefit of thousands of his fellow-creatures. It is not for us, in a work like ours, to moralise, but it strikes us that to enter upon and carry out large and important works in a liberal, energetic, and spirited manner is a far better, far higher, and far nobler way of filling a mission on earth than getting rid of capital in some objectionable pursuits. The Duke of Portland is a great benefactor to his race, and by finding employment, as he does, to some two thousand persons or more, the good he does is incalculable.
The collection of pictures at Welbeck is very fine and very extensive, and embraces many paintings, family portraits, and others of note and of matchless value. Among these portraits are several of the celebrated Duke of Newcastle, of his countesses, and of his horses, with views of Welbeck, &c.; a remarkably fine original portrait of the Countess of Shrewsbury, “Bess of Hardwick,” bearing the inscription, “Eliz: Hardwick, Daughter and Coheir of John Hardwick, of Hardwick in the County of Derby, Esqre. Married to her second husband, Sir Wm. Cavendishe of Chatsworth, in the same County. She settled her 3rd son Charles Cavendishe at Welbeck in the County of Nottingham;” a remarkably fine original portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots; an equally fine one of the Lady Arabella Stuart, by Zucchero; portraits of most of the members of the Bentinck family and their alliances, and of the Cavendish, Harley, and Holles families, besides a large number of general subjects. Among them may be named as a few of the more interesting:—Elizabeth Basset, of Blore, first wife of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, by Mytens, signed “Ætatis suæ 25 anno 1624. D. Mytens fct.;” Sir Charles Cavendish, father of the first Duke of Newcastle, and his wife, Lady Ogle of Ogle, daughter of Cuthbert, Lord Ogle, by Mytens; Sir Charles Cavendish; William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, by Vandyke; Margaret Lucas, Duchess of Newcastle, the gifted authoress, second wife of the first Duke of Newcastle, by Lely; Henry Cavendish, second Duke of Newcastle, by Lely; Elizabeth Cavendish, Duchess of Albemarle and Montague, by Lely; the second Duke of Albemarle, by Lely; Elizabeth Cavendish and her husband, the Earl of Bridgewater, by Lely; Henry Bentinck, Earl of Portland, and Henrietta Cavendish Holles, wife of the second Earl of Oxford, by Kneller; Henrietta Cavendish Harley, Duchess of Portland, by Hudson; Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford, by Dahl; Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, by Kneller; Duke of Portland, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Napoleon, by Paul de la Roche; “Angel Contemplation,” by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and bequeathed by him to the then Duke of Portland; Margaret Cavendish Harley, by Michael Dahl; and another of the same, by Charles Jervas; Lucy Harrington, Countess of Bedford; Frances Howard, Countess of Essex, by Vansomer; Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, and his countess, Elizabeth Vernon, by Holbein; Henry, Prince of Wales, by Zucchero; George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, by Jansen; Margaret Wooton, wife of Sir Thomas Grey, and grandmother of Lady Jane Grey, by Holbein; King Edward VI., by Holbein; the bloody-shouldered Arabian horse, sent over from Aleppo by Mr. Nathaniel Harley, with figures of the Turk and his dog, by John Wootton, 1724; Sir Francis Vere, and Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, by Mark Garrard; Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury; Ben Jonson; Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, by Vandyke; Sir Hugh Myddelton, by Jansen; William Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, by Vandyke; Gervase Holles, son of Freschevelle Holles; Gerard Thomas Fairfax; John Holles, second Earl of Clare; Sir Edward Harley; Denzil Holles, Lord Holles, by Holbein; King Charles II.; James Butler, second Duke of Ormond, by Lely; William III. in his coronation robes, and Queen Mary II., by Kneller; Lord Cornbury and lady, by Lely; Lady Ogle, Duchess of Somerset, by Kneller; William III. when Prince of Orange, given by him to the Earl of Portland; Lady Frances Villiers, by Lely; Catherine Harley, Duchess of Buckingham, by old Zeeman; Matthew Prior, the poet, by Jonathan Richardson, and another, by Rigaud; Charlotte Davis, Viscountess Sundon; and Queen Elizabeth, by Lucas de Heere. These, however, are not a tithe of the rare and excellent pictures contained in this splendid collection, which our limits alone prevent us from enumerating. As an assemblage of historical and family portraits, as well as of rare examples of the best masters, the Welbeck collection takes high rank among the choicest private galleries of the kingdom. The collection also includes some good ivories and a large number of valuable miniatures. Among the treasures here preserved, too, are the original MS. of the Duke of Newcastle’s grand book on “Horsemanship,” already alluded to; a large number of letters from royal, noble, and celebrated personages; several patents of creation; a MS. account of the regalia, jewels, plate, &c., of Henry VIII., signed in several places by that monarch; some curious MS. inventories; and many other matters of historical value.
Welbeck formerly had its share of royal visits, and of these some curious accounts are given in the Duchess of Newcastle’s “Life” of her husband. Thus—“When his Majesty (Charles I.) was going into Scotland to be crowned, he took his way through Nottinghamshire; and lying at Worksopp-Mannor, hardly two miles distant from Welbeck, where my Lord then was, my Lord invited His Majesty thither to a Dinner, which he was graciously pleased to accept of: this entertainment cost my Lord between Four and Five thousand pounds; which His Majesty liked so well, that a year after His Return out of Scotland, He was pleased to send my Lord word, that Her Majesty the Queen was resolved to make a Progress into the Northern parts, desiring him to prepare the like Entertainment for Her, as he had formerly done for Him: Which my Lord did, and endeavour’d for it with all possible Care and Industry, sparing nothing that might add splendor to that Feast, which both Their Majesties were pleased to honour with their Presence. Ben Jonson he employed in fitting such Scenes and Speeches as he could best devise; and sent for all the Gentry of the Country to come and wait on their Majesties; and in short, did all that ever he could imagine, to render it Great and worthy Their Royal Acceptance. This Entertainment he made at Bolsover Castle, in Derbyshire, some five miles distant from Welbeck, and resigned Welbeck for Their Majesties Lodging; it cost him in all between Fourteen and Fifteen thousand pounds. Besides these two, there was another small Entertainment which my Lord prepared for His late Majesty, in his own Park at Welbeck, when his Majesty came down, with his two Nephews, the now Prince Elector Palatine, and His Brother Prince Rupert, into the Forrest at Sherwood, which cost him Fifteen hundred pounds. And this I mention not out of a vain-glory, but to declare the great love and Duty my Lord had for His Gracious King and Queen, and to correct the mistakes committed by some Historians, who not being rightly informed of those Entertainments, make the World believe Falsehood for Truth.” The first of Ben Jonson’s masques here alluded to was entitled “Love’s Welcome. The King’s entertainment at Welbeck, in Nottinghamshire, a house of the Right Honourable William, Earl of Newcastle, Viscount Mansfield, Baron of Bothal, Bolsover, &c., at his going into Scotland, 1633.” It was one of the best of Jonson’s masques, and the quintain was introduced and performed by gentlemen of the county in the garb of rustics.