The wideness and catholicity of his taste was shown by
the fact that he could appreciate fully the two beautiful houses of which be was the owner, though nothing could possibly have been more different than their respective styles. Naworth, a border castle standing between two ravines, has every element of the picturesque and the romantic, while Castle Howard is one of the most striking examples of a Rococo palace to be found in these Islands. Though built by Vanbrugh it has none of the heaviness and cumbrousness so often, though so unfairly, attributed to that great architect, but is instead, with its light dome and long graceful façade, just the kind of building which a painter might draw if he were commissioned to paint a picture of a palace inhabited by eighteenth century fairies. It is the kind of house in which the lady, the lord, and Sir Plume of " The Rape of the Lock " might have waged their war and the attendant sylphs "have taught the doubtful battle where to rage." Lord Carlisle is succeeded by his eldest son, Lord Morpeth, who for several years has been a Member of Parliament, and has main- tained the best traditions as regards public service of the great Whig family of which he is now the head. As the Carlisle Howards are proud to remember, their most notable ancestor, the first Earl of Carlisle, was the captain of Cromwell's Life Guards. It is interesting to remember that, through his mother, the daughter of Lord Wensleydale, Lord Carlisle was descended from a stock of Yorkshire yeomen. The admixture is typically English.
Previous page
