From Memoir and Letters of Lady Mary Arundell

JAMES EVERARD, tenth baron Arundell of Wardour, was in every way an excellent and ad­mirable man. Brought up at Stonyhurst, endowed with a taste for learning and piety, of martial bearing and handsome appearance, there is no wonder how he gained the heart of his future bride, though the number of her suitors was legion. Indeed, as Lady Mary Arundell afterwards wrote of herself in one of her letters from abroad, she had during her life at Stowe been accustomed to hear herself “perseveringly married to at least three divers men per annum, but as it did me no harm I never took the trouble of contradicting it.” Her future husband had already served in a Volunteer Regiment during the French War before the date of his marriage in 1811, and he afterwards distinguished himself in much trying service as an officer in the Wiltshire Yeomanry, in which regiment he was appointed Captain of the Sarum troop, August 21st, 1817. He not only distinguished himself as a soldier but also as a scholar and an antiquarian, and he is the author of some chapters in Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s “History of Wiltshire.” By birth he was des­cended of along and a noble line, the ancient family of Arundell having flourished for many centuries in the west of England, and its lineage can be traced in direct descent from Rogerius Arundel, who, at the general Survey, called Domesday, was found possessed of twenty-­eight lordships in the County of Somerset. Amongst his more illustrious ancestors must be mentioned Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour, who when serving as a volunteer at a very early age in the Imperial Army in Hungary, took the Standard of the Turks with his own hands, in an engagement at Gran, for which heroic achievement he was created by Rodolph II, Emperor of Germany, a Count of the Sacred Roman Empire, with descent to his heirs male and female for ever (A.D. 1595), while upon his return to his native country he was elevated to the Peerage as Baron Arundell of Wardour (1605).[i]

In 1817 the husband of the subject of our Memoir succeeded to the title on the death of the ninth baron, his father, and thereby came into actual possession of the noble demesne of Wardour Castle. The family residence is well known as a fine example of the classical taste of the end of the eighteenth century. It is situated about half a mile through the Park from old Wardour Castle, the only one in Wiltshire of which the walls re­main. The castle was built on a fair eminence, now in the centre of a well-timbered park, about the end of the fourteenth century, and played a con­siderable part in the Parliamentary Wars, being chiefly celebrated for the brave defence of it by Blanche, Lady Arundell, when for a considerable time during the absence of her husband in 1643, she, with a very small garrison, defended the castle successfully against the Parliamentary forces. When after nine days this handful of men succumbed to the forces of the enemy, the besiegers were themselves dislodged by her son Henry, after­wards third Lord Arundell, by a mine which he sprung under the castle, thus sacrificing to his loyalty that noble and historic monument, which even now in its ruins presents to our view an imposing mass of masonry. The fine grove of magnificent and stately cedars of Lebanon and other rare conifers, in which the great tower stands embosomed, lends a charm and fragrance to this romantic spot which is not easily forgotten.

For some years before succeeding to the title the Arundells had occupied apartments in Wardour Castle, as their father, the 9th Baron, after his second marriage in 1806, preferred living at his town residence in Dover street, London. Thus they were no strangers to their tenants when they came into actual possession. Intervals however were spent in visiting, and much time was also spent abroad. In 1815 when the allied monarchs were assembled in Paris, and the festivities there offered a universal attraction, the Hon. J. E. Everard and his wife were amongst the visitors in the gayest capital of Europe.

We will here insert, by way of sample, a letter, written by Lady Arundell after her last visit to her sister Catherine, who was married to Mr., afterwards Sir Edward Tichborne Doughty,[ii] Bart., at Upton House, Poole, near Bournemouth, in which she incidently makes mention of this circumstance. It is dated Tuesday, Oct. 22nd, 1844, and was written from High Cliffe, near Christchurch, on her way to Loughborough, where she had then her home:­

“My dearest Katty, I arrived here safely but sadly and very cold; a good fire removed that, but all Mrs. Berkeley’s kind reception and her cheerful room and pretty view had no power to cheer me, though I did my very best. It is impossible to feel cheerful when one leaves so many whom one loves, and comes to the end of a series of happy days, which have so completely counter­acted heartache and worry, and thrown so bright a sunshine over a mind so much of late unused to cheerfulness and so much overpowered by anxiety and care. For all this I feel deeply for the kindness that made five weeks such unclouded happiness to me. Upton has long been a bright spot which I love to turn to in memory when I am sick or sorry, and this last visit will be an additional stock of bright and delightful recollections to me. May the dear old three sisters[iii] often meet there again, and sit on the sisters’ bench. How nice it all must look to-day! and how I long to be there again though the morning has been spent in seeing much that is worth seeing and splendid at High Cliffe, an odd jumble of church and house, and the fine glittering sea, and a lovely drive under this unclouded sky. The view from hence is certainly pretty, but not to be compared to yours. No Venice like Poole­—too open a view—but had it been the bay of Naples I am too Upton sick as yet to like anything. Lady Stuart, very civil, calling yesterday to ask me to see her house and meeting me as she left me 30 years and more ago when Lady E. Yorke and Lady M. Grenville were sort of London friends. She had much to show me, and we spent a very pleasant morning, except when that poor memento mori Lord Stuart[iv] was wheeled in and out, and crossed us in the garden walks. However he knew me and greeted me, and could say a few words about Paris where I last saw him in 1815, the English Ambassador,—the acute, brilliant diplomatist, with his Salons filled with all that was remarkable and recherché in Europe, and now a crippled driveller! However when I walked on with Lady S., Mrs. Berkeley stayed to talk to him and he told her who I was and remembered me at Paris, poor man! and now is he eclipsed for ever! There is much here to amuse me, drawings, books, works, etc., and Mrs. B. has given me a literal cargo of silks, satins, velvets, gold-lace, etc. She is all good nature and kindness. She begs many regards specially to D. Mr, and thanks for his portrait of Fr. Mathew which pleases her much. Best of loves to poor dear old Laura and Mac Scratch. I hope he told dear Mr. Brindle[v] how I regretted not wishing him good-bye and thanking him for all his kindness to me. I will write soon: when I am settled in my hermitage and I wish I could get there without the long journey and London noise and smoke and a long business talk with old Butler[vi] which I dread. Adieu, dearest Katty, ever more than ever your most affectionate sister, M. F. Arundell.”

But the quiet tenour of English life spent in a country home was soon to be rudely broken into by events of a different character. Some account of the disturbed state of the country in these days cannot be well omitted in the biography of one who was accustomed to take an active interest in all around her.

When Lady Arundell’s husband became a Cap­tain of a Troop of the Yeomanry Cavalry of Wiltshire, the corps had not been long in existence. It is now called “The Prince of Wales’s Own Royal Regiment,” and has for its proud motto Primus in Armis, as it enjoys the honourable dis­tinction of being the premier Yeomanry Regiment in Great Britain. The first mention of the expres­sion “Yeoman Cavalry” occurs in a speech made by Mr. Pitt in the House of Commons, March 5th, 1794, at a time when England was threatened with invasion from France. Amongst the proposals of Mr. Pitt was the following:—”As an augmenta­tion of the cavalry for internal defence was a very material object, they might under certain circumstances have a species of cavalry consisting of gentlemen and yeomanry, who might not be called out of their respective counties but on the pressure of an emergency, or in case of necessity.” In the plan sent round by the Government to all the Lord Lieutenants of Counties, persons raising two volunteer troops of fencible cavalry 80 strong were to have the rank of Major; four, that of Lieut-­Colonel; and six, that of Colonel; while besides these several volunteer regiments, other bodies of cavalry were to be raised within particular districts or counties consisting of gentlemen or yeomanry, the officers receiving commissions from the King, the members to find their own horses, the arms and accoutrements being given by the Crown.

Years ago when the famous Gordon Riots broke out in London King George III sent down a special messenger to Salisbury ordering that a troop of horse should be immediately posted at Wardour Castle for the protection of his friend Lord Arundell, to whom he had become attached while at Weymouth. The arrival of the soldiers was the first intimation of this graceful act of forethought on the part of his Sovereign, and as they rode up to the hall door Lord Arundell came forth to meet them in a somewhat troubled and astonished spirit. But the days of lurking, restless suspicion on the one hand, and of true yet often undemonstrative loyalty on the other, were now passed to return no more, and from the first formation of the Wiltshire Yeomanry in 1794 to the present date the scions of the House of Arundell of Wardour have held no inconsiderable place in the annals of the regiment. On the final formation of the Wiltshire Yeomanry and on the first presentation of colours at Devizes, in June, 1798,[vii] we find on the muster-roll of the Hindon troop, the Hon. B. Arundell as Cornet, and in the official list of the officers of the regiment, up to the present day, we read the names of five members of the family bearing the name of Arundell alone.

Some idea may be formed of what onerous duties pressed on the English Yeomanry of those days from this single fact. In August, 1804, the Salisbury troop were ordered to send one non­-commissioned officer and four privates to Woodyates Inn, and there to remain, and the same number to perform the same service in Salisbury, until further orders. Each of these parties was on duty for seven days, and were regularly relieved every week by fresh men, until November 1805. During the “Weavers’ Riots” of 1816 and later during the so-called “Machine Riots,” duty had to be constantly performed by the Hindon and Salisbury troops. With these two bodies the Arundells of Wardour were most connected.

Whether the autograph letter written by the Rev. P. Baines, O.S.B., which was carefully kept amongst her papers, refers to any trouble of Lady Arundell in connection with the distracted state of the country during the first years of her residence as Lady of the Manor at Wardour, does not appear. But the letter which was written within three years of his being consecrated Bishop of Siga, and appointed to rule over the western district, is of too great interest to be here omitted:­

Bath, Aug. 8th, 1820.

My Dear Lady Arundell,

I have been so very busy for some days past that I have resisted the inclination I felt of writing to you in answer to the desponding part of one of your former letters. The return of Lord Arundell will I hope have rendered all consolation from any other quarter unnecessary, yet as it is my office to preach, and you have sometimes honoured my preachments with saying they gave you some com­fort, I will introduce what very little I have to say with a very short sermon.—In most cases of dis­tress in high life I find that the best way to afford consolation is to convince the persons afflicted that their sorrows are of their own voluntary creation, and that the same power which brought them into being can again destroy them. In fact most of these noble complainers are unhappy only because they do not enjoy what in this life never is enjoyed for any length of time, perfect happiness. The sudden transition from a state of much less to a state of much greater enjoyment may sometimes make the latter appear perfect happiness for a time, because it equals or surpasses our former experience or our past expectations. But human desires travel so swiftly, that they soon overtake our happi­est lot, and then they never stop long in one place, or move on side by side with our sober-faced enjoy­ments but rush impetuously on and soon leave the latter, however perfect, behind. And when once our desires have outstript our enjoyments we are unhappy; and that in proportion not to what we actually suffer, but to the distance between our enjoyments and our wishes. Is this intelligible? It is true, I am sure, if you can but understand what I mean. Therefore we so often see persons possessing in abundance almost every earthly blessing, who yet are not happy—nay are quite as unhappy as those who possess not one-tenth of their advantages, and are perhaps really distressed. I have known a lady of high rank, of great person­al endowments, of a superior mind and unusual accomplishments, united to a husband deserving of and possessing her warmest affections, with all the endearments of almost as many friends as she had acquaintances, and above all with the comforts and assistances of the true religion, which she embraced from conviction and knew how to prize-with moreover many other blessings temporal and spiritual which I have not time nor room to detail. You will hardly believe me, but I have known a favoured mortal of this description complain and grieve and be unhappy!! And why? Because she saw other blessings in addition to the above, which she would have enjoyed if she had possessed them, and which she would have possessed if this or that event had not happened, or if this or that had! You will admit, my dear Lady Arundell, with me, that the lady in question is a very unreasonable being—and that she would do much better if she would look upon the real blessings she possesses, and comparing them with the lot of the great bulk of poor mortals, return thanks to Provi­dence that she is one of the most favoured of human beings. But I have run out the story of this strange lady to such a length that I have no room left to say anything about yourself. This I must do some other time. For the present I will only add, that whatever afflictions you may have, whether real or imaginary, whether of your own creation, or the production of the powers above, I most sincerely and feelingly condole and sympa­thise with you, and wish I could afford you any better consolation. Always remember that you possess Religion, the best of comforters, and the truest of friends. Fly to her in all your afflictions—offer them all to her and if she cannot take them from you, she will help you to carry them or lighten their pressure upon you. Let your princi­pal hopes and desires repose in abetter world, and give only your every-day thoughts and your most superficial wishes to the affairs of this.—Some one knocks at the door—so I have only time to say with what respect and regard I am,

Dear Lady Arundell,

Yours, etc.,

P. Baines.

P.S. It oddly enough happens that the short sermon which was only to have been the introduc­tion is become the whole of my letter, a proof some would say how aspiring and insatiable is religion, which takes all if you give it a little. I wish it would take all those who say so, but they will take care it does not get a footing. To falsify these remarks I will take another sheet, and say not a word about religion. (No other sheet remains.)

The so-called “Weavers’ Riots” having begun in 1816[viii] spread in January of 1822 into Wiltshire. They were caused by the great disorganization of trade consequent on the rearrangement of prices which took place at the conclusion of the war with France. The great fall in wages thus occasioned, and the attempt of the manufacturers to meet re­duced prices by the introduction of machinery, particularly of spring looms, in cloth and silk weaving, which at that time was done in a great measure by the operatives in their own homes, caused great discontent amongst the working classes. Bands of men paraded the county, intimidating obnoxious workmen who accepted the lower prices, wrecking their houses and breaking up all the spring looms they could find. The Hindon and Salisbury troops, which at times of general apathy and fancied security, when the regiment dwindled away so that some of its troops had to be disbanded, ever maintained their efficiency, and at critical periods even surpassed the other troops in numeri­cal strength, were immediately called out, and effectively dispersed the rioters, so that no further disturbance took place until 1826, though much discontent was still prevalent amongst them.[ix]

In this latter year, Bradford-on-Avon and Trowbridge were in the possession of the mob for the whole of Saturday, May 6th, and much damage was done to the houses of the townsmen who were unpopular with them, the rioters taking care to destroy all the new gas lamps that had just been put up to light the streets, The Wiltshire Yeomanry assisted by special constables were able on Sunday morning to arrest the ring-leaders and to lodge them in Fisherton gaol in the course of the afternoon. Four troops remained in Bradford till May 11th; when they were relieved by two troops of the 6th Dragoon Guards from Dorchester and Weymouth. In a few days, however, more ringleaders having been arrested quiet was re­stored.

No fresh outbreak occurred till the “Machine Riots” of 1830. The distress caused by want of employment, and the very heavy burden of taxation, at that time pressing on the people was further augmented by a cold, wet summer and an indifferent harvest. The unsettled state of the Continent and the revolutions that occurred in France, Belgium, Spain and Portugal during the year, tended still further to disturb the minds of the disaffected and distressed. “In the third week in November rioting became general in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire. It assumed a particularly serious character in the last county, and a severe encounter occurred at Avington, the seat of the Duke of Buckingham, where one hundred and fifty farmers had assembled and encamped round the house. The place was attacked by a mob, which was only beaten off after a sharp fight. No lives however were lost, and several of the rioters were taken prisoners.”

On the 19th October, 1830, on the application of the magistrates sitting at Salisbury, the Sarum troop assembled under Lieut. Peniston,[x] to whom the command was given during the unavoidable absence of Lord Arundell, and he was re-enforced by the speedy arrival of the Hindon troop. Bands of men were known to be roaming about the country, destroying the machinery that had lately been introduced into agriculture, especially thresh­ing machines, and in a few cases burning the outbuildings of unpopular farmers.

It may perhaps give some idea of the nature of these stirring times, and of the prominent part taken in them by Lady Arundell’s husband, if we extract an account of the occurrences more imme­diately concerning him, from Graham’s “Annals of the Yeomanry Cavalry of Wiltshire”:—­

“Notwithstanding the dispersal of the mob in the morning, many bad characters still continued to wander about, and the Salisbury men had to patrol the streets all day to prevent them assembling in any number. A dismounted guard of ten men, with carbines, was posted at the Council House, and it was arranged the Salisbury troop should remain on duty all night, and be relieved by the Hindon troop in the morning. Lord Arundell arrived in the evening, and the next morning, the 24th, Lieut-Colonel Baker came in and established his headquarters in the town. At 2 p.m. intelli­gence was brought in that a riotous assemblage was collecting at Alderbury, and a request for the assistance of the Yeomanry from Lord Radnor and Mr. Fort, who had gone out to meet them with the intention of persuading them to disperse peaceably. Colonel Baker at once issued an order for twenty-five men from each of the two troops to parade and march to Alderbury. The Salisbury men were at dinner at the “Three Swans” when this order was given, and were turned out, formed, told off, and on the march within seven minutes from the time the order was given. Colonel Baker subsequently decided to take the whole of the Hindon troop instead of men from both, and accordingly proceeded with it to Alderbury. There they found a large number of men in the village, who had been busy destroying the machinery in the neighbourhood, and had halted there to collect their forces before marching on Salisbury. Lord Radnor and Mr. Fort, who had attempted to per­suade them to disperse, were waiting on the Salisbury Road when the troop came up. The rioters were much disconcerted at hearing of the defeat of the other party at Bishop’s Down, and while the leaders were consulting together in a public-house, the Yeomanry quietly surrounded it and took twelve of them, allowing the rest to disperse to their own homes, The Yeomanry then returned to Salisbury with their prisoners.

“Colonel Baker, on his return to Salisbury at 5 p.m., found a messenger waiting for him with a letter from Mr. Eyre Coote of West Park, asking for immediate assistance, as a large number of men were reported to be advancing to attack his house. The Salisbury troop were at once turned out and marched off under Lord Arundell. On their arrival they found that the rioters had meanwhile attacked the place, but that Mr. Coote and a num­ber of gentlemen and their servants, who had come to his assistance, had beaten them off, taking eleven prisoners. Lord Arundell thereupon decided to return to Salisbury, but as Mr. Coote represented that the rioters were still lurking about in the woods, that they had expressed their firm intention of pulling down his house sooner or later, and that he and his friends were worn out with watching and anxiety, having had no sleep for three nights, Lieut. Peniston and twelve men were left as a guard, with orders to return to Salisbury in the morning if no further attack seemed imminent. Lord Arundell and the rest of the troop left at 10 p.m., taking the prisoners with them; and no further disturbance having occurred Lieut. Peniston left early the next day (Thursday), arriving at headquarters at 9 a.m. The horses of this detachment had not been unsaddled, neither had the men taken off their boots, since 11 a.m. on the previous Tuesday. Soon after a farmer arrived from Hin­don and stated that much alarm prevailed in that district, and that serious disturbances were anti­cipated. The Hindon troop, accompanied by Mr. Wadham Wyndham as magistrate, marched from Salisbury at 10-30 a.m. in that direction, and on the route received information that a desperate mob was moving on Pyt House, destroying machines in that neighbourhood. The troop proceeded thither with all possible speed, but did not arrive until the mob had done great damage in destroying property, and Mr Benett had narrowly escaped with his life.

They then went off to Lurley Farm, where they broke up and destroyed a good deal of property, and had just recommenced their march on Tisbury when they were met by the Hindon troop. The road at that point passed through a cutting, and on the top of the bank on either side was a planta­tion, with a bank, and post and rails round it. Many of the rioters got into this enclosure, and there being a good supply of stones they inflicted much damage on the Yeomanry without their being able to get at them. The troop then divided into two bodies, and one went round and attacked from the upper side. After about half an hour’s skirmish the men began to lose their temper, and at last a pistol fire was opened on the men in the plantation. The rioters, over five hundred in number, who were armed with axes, sledge-hammers, pickaxes, and bits of broken machinery, sallied out and engaged the Yeomanry in a hand-to-hand fight, which lasted more than twenty minutes, when they broke and fled in every direction pursued by the Yeomen, who cut them down without mercy. One man was shot dead on the spot, a large number severely wounded, and twenty-five taken prisoners. None of the Yeomen were killed but Capt. Wynd­ham was severely wounded in the face and head, and many of the troopers badly cut and bruised, as also were most of the horses. A wagon and cart were procured to convey the prisoners to Fisherton Gaol. The whole troop escorted them to Fonthill Park, after which, Corporal King, with a detachment of fifteen men, returned to Pyt House, and mounted guard all night. The remainder of the troop proceeded to Barford, when, from infor­mation received, it was thought necessary to send back Sergt. Goddard with nine men to Mr. King’s, Chilmark. This detachment remained there until order was generally restored, being relieved on occasion by fresh men from Salisbury. The remainder of the troop lodged the prisoners in Fisherton Gaol about twelve that night, and returned to head-quarters at Salisbury. The decisive nature of the fight at Hindon had the good effect of preventing any further outbreak in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, and the two troops, aided by the troop of Lancers, were occupied during the next fortnight with assisting the civil power in arresting and bringing in prisoners.”

In the official letter addressed by Lord Arundell to the Adjutant Lieut. Peniston, at Devizes, apparently written in great haste, without date or heading of any kind, the commander of the Sarum troop says: “You are probably aware by this time that Colonel Mair, thinking my presence at home might tend to calm the ferment existing in Tisbury, requested me on Saturday to go home, and return hither this morning. I obeyed his wishes. I yesterday saw Mr. Benett; he has re­covered his bruises [he had been stoned by the mob], but surrounded by eighteen men of the Hindon troop, seemed to me in a considerable state of excitement and alarm. He complained much that none of the people, farmers or gentry, would come to his assistance [he was for some reason ex­tremely unpopular both with farmers and labourers]: a small party of twenty, farmers and others of Fonthill and Tisbury, went to him afterwards, and were sworn in as special constables. I announced in our chapel my wish that the people should be sworn in, and at three o’clock p.m., Mr. Thomas Grove and myself administered the oaths to two hundred men of Anstey, Hatch, and Tisbury, formed them into squads and gave them leaders. Nothing can exceed the good feeling of the people towards me. I have still a party of four­teen under Quarter-Master Browne at Chilmark, whom Colonel Mair requests should remain there till further orders. My absence and yours from Salisbury will account to Lieut. Colonel Baker for an officer not having been sent to Chilmark with this detachment.”

By a letter from Lord Melbourne dated 24th January 1831, the King signified his pleasure that the Corps should be henceforth styled the “Royal” Wiltshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry, and this was the first honorary and distinctive title ever conferred on a Yeomanry regiment in the country.

Thus were passed many years at Wardour, and both before and after succeeding to the title it would seem that the 10th baron and his wife were favourably known to their neighbours and had earned popularity and love especially from the poor and needy by being mindful in due time of their wants and welfare.

Chapter IV