some Irish
property belonging to George, Earl of Shrewsbury. Bess of Hardwick was
here often, and it was at Rufford that, in 1575, she arranged the
marriage of her daughter, Elizabeth Cavendish, with Darnley's brother,
from which union issued the ill-fated Arabella Stuart. Queen Elizabeth
was greatly offended by what she justly regarded as an encroachment upon
royal prerogative, and both mothers-in-law were sent for a time to the
Tower. The Earl of Shrewsbury wrote in explanation to Lord Burghley:--

"The Lady Lennox being, as I heard, sickly, rested her at Rufford
five days and kept most her bedchamber, and in that time the young
man her son fell into liking with my wife's daughter before
intended, and such liking was between them as my wife tells me she
makes no doubt of a match, and hath so tied themselves upon their
own liking as cannot part. My wife hath sent him to my lady, and the
young man is so far in love that belike he is sick without her."

Then, giving a slight hint of his countess's ambitions, he adds:--

"This taking effect, I shall be well at quiet, for there is few
noblemen's sons in England that she hath not prayed me to deal for
at one time or other, and now this comes unlooked for without thanks
to me."

[Illustration: THE JAPANESE GARDEN, RUFFORD ABBEY]

Arabella Stuart was born at Chatsworth, and thenceforth all Lady
Shrewsbury's pride was fixed upon this granddaughter who might possibly
become a queen. At Rufford there are two curiously touching portraits of
this dreamy child, in whose sad little face one reads the promise of
untoward fortunes. In 1576 the Earl of Lennox died, and two years later
Queen Elizabeth took "oure lyttl Arbella" under her protection. When she
was seven years old, this "very proper child" sent a specimen of her
handwriting to her royal kinswoman, desiring the bearer to present her
"humble duty to her Majesty, with daily prayers for her". The Queen of
Scots in the following year maliciously informs her sister of England
that "nothing has alienated the Countess of Shrewsbury from me but the
vain hope, which she has conceived, of setting the crown of England on
the head of her little girl, Arabella, and this by marrying her to a son
of the Earl of Leicester. These children are also educated in this idea;
and their portraits have been sent to each other."

Bess of Hardwick died in 1608, and in her will, which must have been
mad