THE MANNERS.

riniE MANNERS have been gentlemen in character, in blood, I and in English position for more than six hundred years. The founder of the House as a territorial power, was one of the earliest Yorkists, who, by a lucky alliance, obtained the estates of one of the oldest English baronies, but his own pedigree was one of very unusual clearness. Not to speak of Henry de Manners (or De Manneriis),

• who in 25th of Henry IL paid eighty marks for livery of his father's lands in Northumberland, and whom Lord John Manners may, we believe, safely include in his next edition of the Man- ners pedigree, Sir Robert de Manners was certainly extant in Henry III's time, and in 1272 held Hothal, now called End, of the Muscamp barony in that county, and his son Robert, in 1278, held

so much land—two knights' fees in chief—that he was " con- strained " to take on himself the honour and the responsibilities of knighthood. His grandson, Sir Robert, who succeeded in 1349, was a distinct historical figure, for in the 17th of Edward II. he was certified as a man entitled by ancestral descent to bear arms, and in the 1st of Edward HI. he distinguished himself by his defence of Norhasn Castle against the Scots. Edward, who had an idea apparently of creating a new Scotch aristocracy to back him, one of the many ideas which threw back the Union, ordered him to take seisin of Selkirkshire and the forest of Selkirk and Ettrick, which, of course, he did not re- tain. He had, however, his own lands and bits of new grants in Northumberland, helped Lord Grey of Wark materially in his defeat of the Earls of March and Sutherland, and received in re- ward what in that age was equivalent to a peerage, the right of fortifying his house at Etal. He was subsequently one of the Wardens of the Marches, fought at Neville's Cross, and generally proved himself a stout and efficient feudal gentleman. His son, Sir John, who married a widow, daughter of Sir Henry de In Val, of Seton Delaval, was dead before the 4th of Henry IV., and their son, Sir John de Manners, was a regular Border chief, was pursued and heavily fined for the murder of William Heron and Robert Atkinson, but was, nevertheless, knighted and re- garded apparently as a very decent person. People had to be killed in those days, and the killer's son, Sir Robert, not only was uninjured by his father's crime, but in the 27th of Henry IV. obtained a joint grant with the Percy of the goods of Sir Robert Ogle, outlawed. He married a daughter .of the despoiled gentleman, and their son, Sir Robert Manners, was in the modern sense the true founder –the man to whom we we it that there is a Duke of Rutland at Belvoir and a Lord John Manners to talk refined Toryism in the Lower House. Sir Robert was an early Yorkist, and Edward IV. gave him twenty marks out of some Percy forfeitures, Locre, Newsham, Newslede, Shenhow, and Elyngham ; together with the immensely profitable Sheriffdom of Northumberland, an office which was in all but name a most important vice-royalty. Neville, the king-maker, liked him too, and gave him twenty marks a year out of Barnard Castle, and he managed so adroitly, or was personally a man of such pleasant bearing, that when the Percies returned in 1480 they appointed him Master Forester. His crowning achievement was, however, his marriage with Eleanor, sister and co-heir of Edmond de Roos, six- teenth Baron Roos, Norman of Normans, of the real conquering blood, and owner of some of the grand slices of land carved by his ancestor out of the Saxon kingdom. The real hold over England still remained with the few of these people who had survived the wars of the Roses, and Eleanor de Roos brought into the new family vast lands in Leicestershire, and Rutland, and Lincolnshire, among them the barony of Belvoir Castle, a splendid stronghold built by Robert de Todenai, in the Conqueror's time. It descended from him to the Albini, and Isabel d'Albini brought it in Henry HI's time to De Rocs. The place has been built and re-built, but a Belvoir Castle has been a noble's house of the first rank in England since the Conquest, a remark not true, we believe, of any other house in the kingdom. Edmond de Roos dying with- c4t issue ix 1508, the barony fell into abeyance between .his

sisters, but Isabel the second, dying also childless—the was wife of Sir Thomas Lovell, of Ryhall—the barony devolved on Eleanor's son, George Manners, who thus inherited the baronies of De Roos,

Vaux, '1'rusbut, and Belvoir. So :powerful :did these lordships make him, that he aspired to a semi-royal alliance, and married

Anne, sole daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas St. Leger, by Anne of York, eldest sister of Edward IV. His eldest son, Thomas Manners, inherited under his father's will the manors and lands of Pokky, Bindlowe, Howsom, Oswoldirk, and Anpleford, be- sides half the De Roos property,[of the whole remainder of which he received livery in the 16th Henry VIII. The family had now risen to the grade of the greater barons, the blood royal flowed in its veins, and in consideration of that fact Thomas was, on the 18th of June, 1525, created Earl of Rutland.

The new Earl was a courtier, conducted Anne Boleyn from Greenwich to her coronation, and sat as one of her judges, and fought with success against the insurgents in:the Pilgrimage of Grace. In 1539 he was appointed Chamberlain to Anne of Cleves, Henry's "Flemish mare," in 1510 he was Chief Justice in Eyre of all places north of the Trent, and in the 33rd year of Henry VIII. he received a magnificent slice of the Abbey lands. The King gave him the manor of Muston, Leicestershire, part of the possessions of the dissolved priory of Osulveston, and of the manors of Waltham and Croxton, in the same county, as also of the manors of Upwell, Outwell, Elme, and Ermithe, in Norfolk and Suffolk, belonging to the dissolved monastery of Nuneaton, in Warwickshire, also of the manor of Branston, in Northamptonshire, belonging to the dis- solved abbey of Lillealuill, in Shropshire, together with the manors of Bellesdak and lielmesley, and the rectory of the church of Ilelmesley, belonging to the ;dissolved monastery of Kirkham, in Yorkshire, with lands in Brandesdale, in the same county, belong- ing to the abbey of Riesvaulx. In 1542, he accompanied the Duke of Norfolk into Scotland, aud died on September 20, 1543, leaving, besides an estate to each younger son, and 60/. a year and 10,000/. to each daughter, the following estates to his successor :—The manor of Melton Roos, Lincolnshire, and lands in Melton Roos, Beckby, Kernington, Barnaby, Ulceby, Wrawby, Glamford Briggs, Elahrun, and Wotton, Lincolnshire; the manor of Oraton, and the Stoke, and all the lauds, &e., in Groton, Streton, Kueton, Scarrington, Carcolston, Thurverton, Staunton, andiDalington, in Notting- hamshire, as well as the manors of Belvoir and Wolleatrop, and certain lands, tenements, and hereditaments in Belvoir, Wollestrop, Denton, Aubone, Haddington, Wyvell, Aslackby, Cadby Magna, Uffington,Valington, Deeping, Stroxton, and Aslackton, in Lincolnshire ; and in Easton, Midleton, Melbourne, Blettesdeu, Barkby, South Croxton, Knypton, Winston, Bottesforde, Statherne, Hardby, Howes, Lubbenham, and Redmilde, in Leices- tershire ; in Dalton and Naborne, in Yorkshire ; in Carlton, Dyngley, Brampton, Braddon, Sewell, Horpoole, Stoke Aubeney, Wilberaton, Rushton, Daysborowe, and Cottingham, in Northamp- tonshire ; in Collesden, Oeley, and Richtone, in Bedfordahire ; and in Clipston, in Buckinghamshire; and many other manors, Ste., amounting to the clear yearly value of 1,8621. Is. 8d., over and above the sum of 552/. is. 50., payable to the King for lands purchased or exchanged, and over and above all rents and deduo- tione of bailiffs and stewards' rents. To his wife he left several manors to the yearly value of 700/.

The first Earl began the rebuilding ofBelvoir Castle, which Henry, the second Earl, completed. The latter was a partizan of the Dudleys, and was flung, on Mary's accession, into the Fleet ; but ha made his peace, and was appointed Captain.General of the forces intended to act against France. Elizabeth continued the royal favour, both to him and his son, who was sent, while still a royal ward, against the Northern Earls, grew up a "profound lawyer" and a man of singular accomplishments, and died in 1587, leaving an only child, Elizabeth, who became, as heiress-general, Baroness de Roos, married William Cecil Lord Burghley, grandson of the statesman, and carried the De Roos barony for a moment into that new family.

The earldom, however, remained, falling to John Manners, brother of the last Earl, who died in a few months, and was suc- ceeded by his son Roger, fifth Earl, and Essex's fast friend. When Essex made his mad attempt Rutland was by his side, and with the Earl of Southampton was thrown into prison. He was not, how- ever, brought to trial, and was released on the accession of James I., with whom Essex's plot was intimately connected. After the acces- sion of that King he was sent on a complimentary embassy to Den- mark, and was appointed steward of the manor and soke of Grant- ham. He died June 26, 1612, having married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of the celebrated Sir Philip Sidney, but having no children by her, the Earldom devolved on his brother, Francis, sixth Earl of Rutland. This Earl, also, had spent the early part of his life in foreign travel. On the accession of James he was made a Knight of the Bath, and, on his brother's death, Lord-Lieutenant of Lincolnshire and Justice in Eyre of the forests, 8:c., north of the Trent ; in 1616 a Knight of the Garter, and accompanied the King to Scotland. In 1623 he had the command of a fleet of ships and pinnaces appointed to bring Prince Charles back from Spain, and died December 17, 1632.

In 1616 Earl Francis made a claim to the barony of Roos, as heir male of Henry, nineteenth Baron, William Cecil, the son of Elizabeth Manners, having died in the lifetime of his father without children. The ancient barony was, neverthe- less, awarded to another, William Cecil, as heir-general. The Crown, however, at the same time, created, by patent, a nets barony of Roos of Hanlulte, Trusbut, and Belvoir, in the person of Earl Francis ; and William Cecil dying in 1618 without issue, the ancient barony of Roos reverted to the Manners. Earl Francis, however, leaving only a daughter, Katherine, married to the first George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards to the Earl of Antrim, the barony of Roos became again separated from the earldom of Rutland. After the death of the second George Villiers it fell into abeyance between the heirs- general of the sisters of Earl Francis, till in 18040 this abey- ance was terminated in: favour of Charlotte Boyle Walsingliam, the wife of Lord Henry Fitz-Gerald (fourth son of the first Duke of Leinster), as one of the co-heirs of the barony, she and her descendants taking the name of "De R03," in addition to Fitz- Gerald. Her second son is the present Lord de Ros—a mistake in the writ of summons to his brother and predecessor which seems now likely to be perpetuated.

His son John, second Puke of Rutland, married the second daughter of the celebrated William Lord Russell, and so produced some of Lady Russell's best letters ; but he was a man of no note whatever, and the grandson John, the third Duke, was little more distinguished. He held, however, high office in the Household, was singularly respected as a country gentleman, and married Bridget Sutton, heiress of the last Lord Lexington, whose great estate passed to the Duke's second son, who took the family name.

The Duke's eldest son, who died before him in October, 1770, was the well-known Marquis of Granby, whose name is familiar to us on the signboards of old inns. He was a distinguished I officer, who led the cavalry at the battle of Minden, and served with distinction in the subsequent campaigns on the Continent.

His conduct on the trial of Lord George Sackville for cowardice was marked by great generosity. They had been on bad terms in the army, but, when summoned as a witness for the prosecution, Granby softened and extenuated the evidence against Sackville as much as possible consistently with truth. On May 14, 1763, on George Grenville succeeding Lord Bute, Granby was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance, and on August 13, 1766, was made Commander-in-Chief. He had been proposed for the office the year before—chiefly to spite the Duke of Cumberland; but the King resisting, Grenville desisted at the express request of Granby himself. Lord Granby continued to hold this office and a seat in the Cabinet till January, 1770, when, entirely disapprov- ing of the proceedings in the case of John Wilkes's election, he both spoke and voted against the Ministry, and notwithstanding the request of the King to the contrary, resigned all his employ- ments, and went into strong opposition to Lord North's Govern- ment. His death in the autumn of the same year, in the prime of life, and of a great and increasing reputation -and popularity, prevented him probably from redeeming the name of Rutland from the mediocrity which had for several generations attached to it. He had married a daughter of Charles, Duke of Somerset, and his eldest surviving son by her, Charles, succeeded his grand- father as fourth Duke of Rutland. Lord George Manners, his third son, became the heir of his brother Robert, and took the name of Sutton. Lord George's fourth son, Charles Manners- Sutton, became ultimately, in 1804, Archbishop of Canterbury. The- Archbishop's eldest son, again bearing the same name, was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 for seventeen years, and on March 10, 1835, was created Baron Bottesford and Viscount Can- terbury. Another peerage also was acquired for the Manners family by Thomas, fifth son of Lord George Manners-Sutton, who became successively Solicitor-General, a, Baron of the Exchequer, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Baron Manners, of Foston, Lin- colnshire, in 1807.

The fourth Duke of Rutland was the early friend of the younger Pitt ; the late Marquis of Granby, his father, having been a devoted follower of Lord Chatham. He had been one of the members for the University of Cambridge, at which University he sought and made the acquaintance of young Pitt—five years his junior. When they both came to live in London a close intimacy and fast friendship was formed between them, which continued to the close of the Duke's life, and deter- mined the politics of the Manners family on the Tory side. It was through the interest of the Duke of Rutland with Sir James Lowther that Pitt first entered the House for one of the latter's boroughs. When Pitt formed his Ministry in 1783, Rutland entered the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal, and at the commence- ment of 1784 the Duke was persuaded to accept the office

of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. His post was not an easy one. "This city" [Dublin], he writes in the August of the following year, "is, in a great measure, under the dominion

and tyranny of the mob. Persons are daily marked out for the operation of tarring and feathering; the magistrates neglect their duty ; and none of the rioters—till to-day, when one man was seized in the fact—have been taken, while the corps of volunteers in the neighbourhood seem, as it were, to countenance these outrages. In short, the state of Dublin calls loudly for an immediate and vigorous interposition of Government." Pitt

endeavoured to heal this state of things by stimulating Irish commerce, and some propositions of his extending the prin- ciples of free trade between the two countries were modified into "eleven resolutions" by the Duke, and passed in that shape through the Irish Legislature. However, they were rendered unpalatable to the Irish in the shape which they ulti- mately assumed after their passage through the English Legisla- ture, and such was the outcry in Ireland that the Bill in- troduced into the Irish Legislature to carry them into law was obliged to be withdrawn. But in other respects the Duke's Government was popular rather through his personal habits and character than any remarkable ability on his part. " Young," says Lord Stanhope, "of noble aspect, and of princely fortune, he was generous, frank, and amiable, as became the son of the gallant Granby. Fond of pleasure, he held a court of much magnificence ; and the succession of various entertainments that he gave, splendid as they were in themselves, derived a greater lustre from his Duchess, / a daughter of the house of Beaufort. and one of the most beautif women of her day. But besides and beyond his outward acco plishments, the confidential letters of the Duke to Pitt show hi to4uive possessed both ability and application in business." Iftis Irish career, however, was cut short in October, 1787, by a putrid fever, which carried him off at the early age of thirty-four. His eon and successor, John Henry, fifth Duke of Rutland, passed through life without attaining any political prominence, remaining a constant Tory ; and dying, January, 20, 1857, was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles Cecil John, sixth and present Duke of Rutland, who, as Marquis of Granby, was rather prominent in the House of Commons as a Tory of the oldest type—a staunch and unbending Protectionist, and in foreign politics a disciple of the old Holy Alliance school. He is unmarried, and his next brother, Lord John Manners, filled the office of First Commissioner of Woods and Forests in the Derby Cabinets, and is well known both as a politician and a partizan of High Church principles, and author of some verses, two of which struck the public ear as expressing the very worst form of feudal feeling, and will be quoted against him as long as he lives.

The history of the family explains his lines. For generations they have been patricians, kindly men enough, fond of country life, with fair capacities and few conspicuous vices, but still patricians, doing little and enjoying much, without much con- fidence in their own claims, and, therefore, very apt to push forward those of their order. They have been and are English gentlemen simply, and though that is a high service of its kind, still Belvoir and its dependencies is, to say the least, an ample recompense.