(568) Cavendish-Bentinck of Welbeck Abbey, Dukes of Portland - part 2

This post has been divided into three parts. Part 1 consists of my introduction to the family and its property, and an account of  Welbeck Abbey and Bolsover Castle. This part contains histories of the other houses built or acquired by the family. Part 3 gives the biographical and genealogical details of the family. 

Bulstrode Park, Buckinghamshire

The Temple Bulstrode estate was a property of Bisham Abbey (Berks) for two centures before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and afterwards was quickly granted by the Crown to Sir Robert Drury (d. 1577) of Hedgerley Park. It seems likely that the Drurys or their succeessors built a house at Bulstrode, but the first building on the site of which anything is known is that depicted on a wonderfully detailed estate map of 1686 by John Fisher in the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, which appears to show a modest mid 17th century house with a hipped roof, dormers and cupola, flanked by wings, one of which may be lower, older and semi-timbered. 

Bulstrode Park: detail of 1686 estate map showing the north front
of the  Old Hall. Image: Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies D-RA/3/71. 

The estate map was made at the time the property was acquired by the infamous 'hanging judge', Sir George Jeffreys (1648-89), 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem, and Fisher's map also incorporates a plan and two elevations for a much larger new house, which was intended to envelop the old manor house. It has been suggested that Fisher was the designer of this house, but it seems more likely that he simply incorporated a plan and elevations produced by the architect on his map. Fisher seems not to have been noted as an architect elsewhere, and since Lord Jeffreys would have had access to the best available designers, it seems improbable that he would have commissioned his plans from a mere surveyor. Although the judge died in 1689 - while awaiting the new king's pleasure in the Tower of London - it would seem from later evidence that these designs were in fact executed, perhaps being finished by the judge's son John, who came of age in 1694 and died in 1702.

Bulstrode Park: plan and elevation for new house from a detail on John Fisher's estate map of 1686. The image has been rotated so that north is at the top. The elevation relates to the east front, on the right hand side of the image as presented. Image: Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies D-RA/3/71.

The plan and elevations on the estate map show that the new house was to have long low elevations. The fifteen-bay east front was to be single storey, with a two-storey pedimented centre of five bays, while the seventeen bay south front was to have a tall piano nobile over a lower basement storey, and six bays either side of its five-bay pedimented centre. Later views confirm that the south front at least was built to these plans, and as far as can be determined from the available evidence, so was the east front. The old hall stood parallel to the south front and to its north, with its central porch tower clearly visible on the plan above. A narrow light well separated the original house from the back of the new south range.

Bulstrode Park: the south front of the house built c.1686 and the adjacent gardens, probably of c.1710, from Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. 4, 1734. The depth of the house is exaggerated, but the view shows the south side of the old hall in the centre of the picture.

The estate was purchased in 1706 by William Bentinck (1649-1709), 1st Earl of Portland, who amassed an extensive portfolio of property in England after 1689. He had been Superintendent of the Royal Gardens in the 1690s and was responsible for bringing the French parterre designer, Claude Desgots, to England to work at Hampton Court. He may have consulted Thomas Hewett (1656-1726) about improvements to the house (a 'Mr Hewett' was paid £30 in 1706) and certainly undertook extensive improvements to the gardens at Bulstrode, with his erstwhile deputy, George London, being employed as the designer. It seems unlikely that work was finished before his death in 1709, when the estate passed to his son Henry, made 1st Duke of Portland in 1716. He was evidently still undertaking improvements in 1715, when bricks were made at Bulstrode by the order of the architect, William Talman, who probably designed some of the more architectural components, such as the staircases at either end of the south front or the orangery north-east of the house. The gardens were depicted in two views in the fourth volume of Vitruvius Britannicus in 1734, and other map and documentary evidence allows us to confirm that most of the features shown were actually carried out: the long canal shown on the western edge of the gardens is still there, and some of the boundaries and avenues are identifiable as relict features by the way they have constrained later developments. 

Bulstrode Park: the wider landscape created for the 1st Earl and 1st Duke of Portland, between 1706 and 1720, from Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. 4, 1734.

In 1745-49, the 2nd Duke of Portland employed Stiff Leadbetter of Eton (Bucks) to make repairs and alterations to the house. Leadbetter, who was trained as a carpenter, was by then also a builder and surveyor, and was on his way to developing a significant architectural practice. His activities at Bulstrode were probably largely confined to new interiors in the house, but he evidently impressed as a few years later he was involved in similar works at Portland House in Whitehall. Work seems to have continued in the 1750s, but whether under Leadbetter's direction or not is unclear. Mary Delany, who stayed at Bulstrode as a guest of the Duchess of Portland many times, recorded in 1756 that 'Bulstrode is greatly improved; the old apartments below new floored and furnished, and many alterations in hand within and without doors'. As this implies, in the 1750s attention turned back to the gardens. The formal landscape shown in Vitruvius Britannicus was by then very old fashioned, and much of it was swept away or altered to a more informal appearance.  In 1756, the great horseshoe-shaped gravel walk 'with great slopes and a place in the the bottom for water (which fronted the house), that could never be made to answer its purpose, is all thrown down, and a lawn is to be substituted in its place, that will fall with a hanging level towards the park, and open a very fine and agreeable view to the house'. The 2nd Duke died in 1762, and Bulstrode passed to his son, the 3rd Duke. However, the 3rd Duke preferred Welbeck to Bulstrode, and effected an exchange with his mother, who had been left Welbeck (her family seat) for life. This explains why, until her death in 1785, Bulstrode remained in the possession of the 2nd Duchess, who created a menagery on the southern border of the park for her collection of exotic animals and birds. In the 1770s a grotto was built, which Mrs Delany and the Duchess decorated with snail shells. The Duchess, whose chief and abiding interest was botany, also created an American garden in the newly informalised landscape, with specimens of many exotic trees and plants from North America. 

Bulstrode Park: plan of the landscape in 1784. Although many of the formal elements of the landscape depicted in Vitruvius Britannicus have been removed, the overall shape of that design remains recognisable. Image: Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies D-RA/3/76.

Bulstrode Park: drawing of the grotto by S.H. Grimm, 1781. Image: British Library.

Bulstrode Park: drawing of the house from the south-east by S.H. Grimm, 1781. Image: British Library.

After the Duchess' death, the property returned to her son, and the 3rd Duke seems to have undertaken further major landscaping work in the park to the designs of Samuel Lapidge, successor to Capability Brown, whose team were at work in the park until the mid 1790s. From 1789 onwards he also consulted Humphry Repton - then making proposals for Welbeck - about further improvements. Repton criticised the tendency of Lapidge's workmen to smooth away hills and hollows in the interest of a level greensward, and produced a Red Book in 1790, but he continued to visit Bulstrode and provide advice until the duke's death. Many of his suggestions appear to have been carried out, including the creation of a new drive and the design of a flower garden, which he engraved for Peacock's Polite Repository in 1802, and it seems to have been one of the commissions of which he was most proud. 

Bulstrode Park: detail of a watercolour of the park showing the east front of the house, 1794. Image: British Museum.

Bulstrode Park: plan of the park from Repton's Observations on the theory and practice of landscape gardening, 1803.

In the 1790s, the 3rd Duke handed over Welbeck to his son (later the 4th Duke) and moved to Bulstrode, where he commissioned the overworked and often inattentive James Wyatt to conduct a rebuilding of the much altered 17th century house. Work seems to have begun about 1806 with the construction of a new west wing and a rebuilding of the south-west corner of the old house in a castellated style. At the same time, parts of the old house were unroofed and partially demolished, so that the house was very much a building site when the 3rd Duke died in 1809 and work at Bulstrode was abandoned, for the 4th Duke had determined to sell the estate and concentrate his resources on Welbeck and his London property.

Bulstrode Park: this drawing may show the house Wyatt intended to build as the west wing (left) and west end of the south wing (centre) closely correspond to what was built. Image: Historic England BB90/4047.

Bulstrode Park: sketch of the house by John Buckler, 1818, showing the partially-rebuilt south range (left) and the partially unroofed east range.
Image: British Library.

Bulstrode Park: perspective view of Wyatville's proposal for completing the house, c.1812.
Image: Sotheby & Co, where the drawing was sold 10 April 1997.

The estate was sold in 1810 to the 11th Duke of Somerset, who in about 1812 commissioned designs from Jeffry Wyatville for completing the mansion begun by Wyatt for the Duke of Portland. Wyatville's designs, now in the RIBA Drawings Collection, show that he intended to retain and remodel the surviving fabric of the old house, giving it a castellated character and a few decorative features, but only in completing the remodelling of the south range, begun by his uncle, did he intend much new work. Even this modest scheme was, however, not proceeded with, and in 1814 the fittings of the chapel (which seems to have lain on the west side of the house, between the two parts rebuilt by Wyatt) were sold. A great deal of timber was sold from the park during the Napoleonic Wars, when timber prices were high, and for much of the early 19th century the estate seems to have been unoccupied and neglected, with the Duke living at Maiden Bradley (Wilts) and later Stover House (Devon).

Bulstrode Park: the perspective drawing of Benjamin Ferrey's
design proposal, showing the house from the north-west.

Bulstrode Park: the west porch tower of the
Wyatt wing was the only part of the old house
not demolished in 1861. It is now known
as the Pigeon House.

Matters changed when the 11th Duke of Somerset died in 1855 and was succeeded by his son, Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset, a Whig politician who clearly had an interest in architectural matters since he had (briefly) been First Commissioner of Works. He decided to make Bulstrode Park his principal seat, and selected as his architect the Gothic Revivalist Benjamin Ferrey, who between 1861 and 1870 almost completely cleared the site and rebuilt a new house of harsh red brick and stone. The only part of the old house suffered to remain was a brick porch tower from the west end of the Wyatt wing, which was made into a garden feature. The architect's perspective drawing makes the house look attractive in a spreading, picturesque way, but the reality is disappointing, partly because the materials have not aged gracefully. The house is of two and three storeys with a big square north tower as the entrance porch and a jumble of gables, spired towers and clustered chimneystacks. The entrance front is rather dwarfed by the adjoining service courts and the garden front is largely symmetrical and recessed behind a wilfully detailed colonnade. The best feature is the unexpectedly jolly and inventive turret at the south-west corner. 

Bulstrode Park: the entrance front.

Bulstrode Park: the present house from the south-west, showing the side elevation and garden front.

Bulstrode Park: plan of the Benjamin Ferrey house from The Builder, 1861.

Little survives of the original Benjamin Ferrey interiors except for the staircase which stands in a top-lit vaulted hall surrounded by a gallery with iron railings and clusters of four twisted columns. The remaining rooms were remodelled c.1900 by F.C. Eden in neo-Georgian style, and have been further altered since during the period when the house was in institutional use by Christian organisations between 1958 and 2016. In the latter year it was sold and planning permission was obtained for its conversion to an hotel, but the house was sold again in 2023 and its future is currently uncertain.

Bulstrode Park: staircase hall, 2017. Image: Landwood Group.

Descent: Crown granted 1538 to Sir Robert Drury (d. 1577); to son, Robert Drury, who sold 1591 to his son, Sir Henry Drury (d. 1617), kt.; to widow, Susan, Lady Drury (fl. 1635) for life, and then to Marmaduke Darrell (b. c.1621); sold 1670 to trustees of Sir William Bowyer (1612-79), 1st bt., who sold also in 1670 to Sir Roger Hill, kt.; sold 1686 to Sir George Jeffreys (1648-89), 1st bt. and 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem; to son, John Jeffreys (1673-1702), 2nd Baron Jeffreys of Wem; to sister Mary, wife of Charles Dive; sold 1706 to William Bentinck (1649-1709), 1st Earl of Portland; to son, William Henry Bentinck (1682-1726), 2nd Earl and 1st Duke of Portland; to son, William Bentinck (1709-62), 2nd Duke of Portland; to son, William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1738-1809), 3rd Duke of Portland; to son, William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1768-1854), 4th Duke of Portland, who sold 1810 to Edward Adolphus Seymour (1775-1855), 11th Duke of Somerset; to son, Edward Adolphus Seymour (1804-85), 12th Duke of Somerset; to daughter, Lady Helen Guendolen (1846-1910), wife of Sir John William Ramsden (1831-1914), 5th bt.; to son, Sir John Frecheville Ramsden (1877-1958), 6th bt.; sold 1958 to Bruderhof Community; sold 1966 to Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade Ltd.; sold 2016 to Dr Ahmed Elfituri, who obtained permission for conversion to an hotel; sold 2023.

Bothal Castle, Northumberland

In origin, Bothal is a medieval castle, built on a naturally defensible site on the north bank of the River Wansbeck, east of Morpeth. The site is believed to have been occupied for several centuries before licence to crenellate was granted to Robert Bertram in 1343, after which the stone castle of which parts survive was built. The castle consisted of a gatehouse tower separating an inner bailey with a number of square towers (of which little survives) around it from an outer bailey (the Yethouse Court), which had a further square tower (the Ogle Tower) at its north-west corner. 

Bothal Castle: engraving of the castle by Samuel & Nathaniel Buck, 1728.

Bothal Castle: north side of the gatehouse tower
by S.H. Grimm, c.1790. Image: British Library.

Bothal Castle: drawing from the north-west by James Moore, 1792.
Image: Yale Center for British Art

The four-storey gatehouse tower may stand on the site of an earlier keep, and was always the dominant feature of the building. Its outer face to the north has a pair of crenellated polygonal turrets flanking the gate passage, and two of the merlons support carved stone figures, presumably intended to suggest to approaching enemies a discouraging level of vigilance. Similar figures are found at other castles in the north-east (Alnwick, Raby, Hylton), and they are sometimes called apotropaic, but here their function was to ward off earthly rather than supernatural evil. At the south-west angle of the gatehouse is a taller stone turret containing a newel stair under a pretty umbrella vault. At ground level, the long passageway through the gatehouse has a pointed vault with chamfered ribs, and is flanked by vaulted guard rooms; three 'murder holes' allowed defenders in the room above another means of repelling intruders.

Bothal Castle: the site as shown on the 1st edn OS 25" map, 1896

Bothal Castle: the site as shown on the 1st edn OS 6" map, 1859. 

By the early 18th century Bothal Castle had been abandoned and stood in ruins. The engraving of 1728 by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck  suggests the gatehouse itself was then largely still intact, and the bailey walls survived to a much greater height than is suggested by later drawings and engravings. By the early 19th century, the picturesque qualities of the site were appreciated, and it was regularly depicted in collections of engravings from Francis Grose onwards. 

Bothal Castle: the house from the inner bailey, as enlarged in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Copyright unknown.

Bothal Castle: the house from the west in 2007. Image: PookieFugglestein. No rights reserved.

The 4th Duke of Portland, who was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, funded the restoration of the gatehouse tower in 1830-31, as an estate office for his northern properties and a home for his agent, William Sample. As part of the work, the transomed 16th century window on the south side of the tower and the present drawing room fireplace were brought to Bothal from Cockle Park Tower, which had partially collapsed in 1828. The Sample family remained the tenants of the castle, and extended it to the west in the 1850s and again in 1909. A range of stables had also been built along the west side of the outer court by 1859.

Descent: [The medieval section of this descent is partly speculative.] Robert Bertram (d. 1363); to daughter, Helen, wife of Robert Ogle (d. 1355); to son, Sir Robert Ogle (1353-1410); to younger son, Sir John Ogle (later Bertram) (d. 1450); to son, Sir William Bertram (d. 1466); to son, William Bertram alias Ogle (fl. 1458); to brother, Robert Ogle alias Bertram; perhaps to son, Robert Ogle alias Bertram, who died young, and on his death to Ralph Ogle (1468-1512), 3rd Baron Ogle; to son, Robert Ogle (c.1490-1540), 4th Baron Ogle; to son, Robert Ogle (d. 1545), 5th Baron Ogle; to son, Robert Ogle (c.1526-62), 6th Baron Ogle; to half-brother, Cuthbert Ogle (c.1540-97), 7th Baron Ogle; to daughter, Catherine (d. 1629), 8th Baroness Ogle, wife of Sir Charles Cavendish (d. 1617); to son, Sir William Cavendish (1593-1676), later created Viscount Mansfield (1620), Earl of Newcastle on Tyne (1628), Marquess of Newcastle on Tyne (1643) and Earl of Ogle and Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne (1665); to son, Henry Cavendish (1630-91), 2nd Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne; to daughter, Lady Margaret Cavendish (1661-1716), wife of John Holles (1662-1711), 4th Earl of Clare and later Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne; to daughter, Lady Henrietta Cavendish-Holles (1694-1755), wife of Edward Harley (d. 1741), 2nd Earl of Oxford and Mortimer; to daughter Lady Margaret (d. 1785), wife of William Bentinck (1709-62), 2nd Duke of Portland; to son, William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1738-1809), 3rd Duke of Portland; to son, William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1768-1854), 4th Duke of Portland; to son, William John Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1800-79), 5th Duke of Portland; to first cousin once removed, William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck (1857-1943), 6th Duke of Portland; to son, William Arthur Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1893-1977), 7th Duke of Portland; to daughter, Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck (1916-2008); to nephew, William Henry Marcello Parente (b. 1951), Prince of Castel Viscardo.

Fullarton House, Troon, Ayrshire

Fullarton House, Troon: an early 20th century postcard view, showing the three-storey centre of 1745 and the lower wings and pavilions of c.1790. 

Fullarton House: second and first floor plans, as first built.
Image: RCAHMS.

The house was built in 1745 for William Fullarton, whose family had owned the estate since the 13th century, but was on a different site to its predecessors. As first built, it was a rather Gibbsian three-storey, seven-bay house with a three-bay breakfront on both the entrance and rear elevations, supporting steep-sided pediments decorated with mighty urns. The house was entered on the ground floor of the west front, but the principal reception rooms were placed on the upper floors. As originally built, a staircase lay behind the entrance hall and extended into the breakfront on the east elevation. The dining room and two other reception rooms were on the first floor, and the drawing room, with a coved ceiling and fine plasterwork, was on the second floor. The east front had a row of three oculi surmounted by a curiously Mannerist pedimental swag on the first floor, probably to disguise the fact that the staircase rose against this wall.

Fullarton House, Troon: the grand saloon of c.1745 (the north room on the second floor) shortly before demolition. Image: RCAHMS.

In 1790, the Adam brothers were called in by Col. William Fullarton, and made designs for a larger new mansion in the castle style, a castellated stable block, and a classical mausoleum. Only the stables were built, with the two more visible fronts decorated in the castle style and the rest more plainly treated. 

Fullarton House, Troon: the castle-style stable block designed by Robert & James Adam, 1790. Image: Roger Griffiths. No rights reserved.

Although the castle-style house was never built, work did begin in 1791 on adding two-storey wings to the original house, and probably also on constructing the charming pavilions and strongly architectural piers which framed the west front. The pavilions and piers are very probably the work of Robert and James Adam, but it is hard to accept that the wings were designed by them, even allowing for a sudden reduction in the budget. On the entrance front, the wings were merely stepped forward from the older house and had Venetian windows on the ground and first floors. At the rear, the wings were much longer, cramping the appearance of the main block, although the fenestration was the same as on the entrance side. The interior was significantly replanned with the addition of the wings, which included two new main staircases, allowing that behind the entrance hall to be taken out. A new single-storey curved and glazed corridor, linking the two staircase halls, was added in front of the east elevation, probably around 1820, in order to assist the circulation.

Fullarton House: east (rear) elevation, showing the far-projecting wings and the glazed passageway linking them. Image: RCAHMS.

In the late 19th and 20th centuries, the house was let to Lord and Lady Glenarthur, but after they moved to London, the house was sold in 1928 to the local council, and parts of it were converted into flats. As is so often the case, the Town Council failed to undertake adequate maintenance, and the condition of the property quickly deteriorated. It was pulled down in 1966, but the stable block survived and was converted into housing by Hay, Steel & Macfarlane in 1974.

Descent: built for William Fullarton (d. 1759); to son, Col. William Fullarton (1754-1808); sold 1805 to William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1738-1809), 3rd Duke of Portland; to son, William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1768-1854), 4th Duke of Portland; to son, William John Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1800-79), 5th Duke of Portland; to sisters, Charlotte (1806-89), Viscountess Ossington, and Lucy Joan (1807-99), Baroness Howard de Walden, who seem to have bequeathed it to William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck (1857-1943), 6th Duke of Portland; sold 1928 to Troon Town Council, which demolished it in 1966.

Langwell House, Berriedale, Caithness

The core of the present house is a crowstep-gabled farmhouse, said to have been built after 1813 for James Horne, but possibly including some 18th century work. This modest house was purchased by the 5th Duke of Portland in 1857 and somewhat enlarged, creating a rambling house. Much of it was apparently built of ashlar stone, but it was harled in the 20th century and remains so today.

 

Langwell House: postcard view of the house c.1930.

Langwell House: the house today. Image: Robert Richmond.

The estate, later of more than 81,000 acres, was purchased for £90,000, presumably to replace Fullarton, which the Duke knew would pass on his death to his sisters. He never lived at Langwell, although he did visit it occasionally, but he caused most of the estate to be converted in a deer forest, and the 6th and 7th Dukes used it as a shooting lodge. 

Langwell Lodge: the walled garden c.1930, from an old postcard.

The large walled garden at the west end of the policies was created in the early 19th century for the original farmhouse, but the present layout was devised by the head gardener, John Murray, for the 6th Duke in 1916. After falling into disrepair, was restored by Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck, and it is now open to the public on an occasional basis through Scotland's National Gardens Scheme.

Descent: sold 1788 to Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster (Caithness); sold 1813 to James Horne (1754-1831); to nephew, Donald Horne (1787-1870); sold 1857 to William John Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1800-79), 5th Duke of Portland; to first cousin once removed, William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck (1857-1943), 6th Duke of Portland; to son, William Arthur Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1893-1977), 7th Duke of Portland; to daughter, Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck (1916-2008); to nephew, William Henry Marcello Parente (b. 1951), Prince of Castel Viscardo.

To continue to part 3 of this post, click here.

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 3181-87; H. Repton, Observations on the theory and practice of landscape gardening, 1803, pp. 65-72; T. Besterman, The Druce-Portland Case, 1935; A. Hamilton Thompson, The Premonstratensian Abbey of Welbeck, 1938; A.S. Turberville, A history of Welbeck and its owners, 1938-39 (2 vols); J. Harris, William Talman: maverick architect, 1982, pp. 19, 46; M.C. Davis, The castles and mansions of Ayrshire, 1991, pp. 261-63; Sir N. Pevsner, I. Richmond, J. Grundy, G. McCombie, P. Ryder & H. Welfare, The buildings of England: Northumberland, 2nd edn., 1992, p.199; S. Daniels, Humphry Repton, 1999, pp. 166-70; P. Smith, 'Welbeck Abbey and the 5th Duke of Portland', in M. Airs (ed.), The Victorian Great House, 2000, pp. 147-64; P. Smith, ‘Lady Oxford’s alterations at Welbeck Abbey, 1741-55’, Georgian Group Journal, 2001, pp. 133-68; P. Smith, 'Welbeck Abbey and the 6th Duke of Portland', in M. Airs (ed.), The Edwardian Great House, 2001, pp. 77-92; L. Worsley & T. Addyman, ‘Riding houses and horses: William Cavendish’s architecture for the art of horsemanship’, Architectural History, 2002, pp. 194-229; P. Smith, 'The survival of the fittest: Welbeck Abbey and the great houses of Nottinghamshire in the 20th century' in M. Airs (ed.), The Twentieth-Century Great House, 2002, pp. 35-56; D.M.L. Onnekink, The Anglo-Dutch Favourite.The career of Hans Willem Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (1649-1709), PhD thesis, Univ. of Utrecht, 2004; L. Worsley, ‘Female architectural patronage in the 18th century and the case of Henrietta Cavendish Holles Harley’, Architectural History, 2005, pp. 139-162; A. Gomme & A. Maguire, Design and plan in the country house, 2008, pp. 70-72; H.J. Grainger, The architecture of Sir Ernest George, 2011, pp. 315-22; R. Close & A. Riches, The buildings of Scotland: Ayrshire and Arran, 2012, pp. 326-27; C. Hartwell, Sir N. Pevsner and E. Williamson, The buildings of England: Derbyshire, 3rd edn., 2016, pp. 167-79; C. Hartwell, Sir N. Pevsner and E. Williamson, The buildings of England: Nottinghamshire, 3rd edn., 2020, pp. 678-90; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries for 1st Earl, 2nd Duchess, and 3rd and 5th Dukes of Portland, and for Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck;

https://her.highland.gov.uk/Monument/MHG24066;

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols33-4/pp37-41;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEXf1RgM1E;

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/cavendish-bentinck-lord-william-1802-1848.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 5 February and updated 7 February 2024. I am grateful for the assistance of Pete Smith, Alex Bond and Gregor Matheson Pierrepont with preparing the articles on this family, and to Dart Montgomery for suggesting improvements.