the reign of Edward II., gave the name of that estate as a
surname to his children, which they ever after bore. The study
of the law seems to have been for a long period the means of
according position and celebrity to the family, Sir William
Cavendish, in whose person all the estates conjoined, was Privy
Councillor to Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary; he had been
Gentleman-Usher to Wolsey; and after the fall of the great
Cardinal, was retained in the service of Henry VIII. He
accumulated much wealth, but chiefly by his third marriage,
with Elizabeth, the wealthy widow of Robert Barley, at whose
instigation he sold his estates in other parts of England, to
purchase lands in Derbyshire, where her great property lay.
Hardwick Hall was her paternal residence, but Sir William began
to build another at Chatsworth, which he did not live to
finish. Ultimately, Elizabeth became the wife of George Talbot,
Earl of Shrewsbury; she was one of the most remarkable women of
her time, and the foundress of the two houses of Devonshire and
Newcastle. Her second son, William, by the death of his elder
brother in 1616, after being created Baron Cavendish, of
Hardwick, was in 1618 created Earl of Devonshire. It was
happily said of him, 'his learning operated on his conduct, but
was seldom shown in his discourse.' His son, the third Earl,
was a zealous loyalist; like his father, remarkable for his
cultivated taste and learning, perfected under the
superintendence of the famous Hobbes of Malmesbury. His eldest
son, William, was the first Duke of Devonshire; the friend of
Lord Russell, and one of the few who fearlessly testified to
his honor on his memorable trial. Wearied of courts, he retired
to Chatsworth, which at that time was a quadrangular building,
with turrets in the Elizabethan taste; and then, 'as if his
mind rose upon the depression of his fortune,' says Kennett,
'he first projected the now glorious pile of Chatsworth;' he
pulled down the south side of 'that good old seat,' and rebuilt
it on a plan 'so fair an august, that it looked like a model
only of what might be done in after ages.' After seven years,
he added the other sides, 'yet the building was his least
charge, if regard be had to his gardens, water-works, statues,
pictures, and othe