CHAPTER II

HOW THE BENTINCKS BECAME POSSESSED OF WELBECK,--A FEMININE INTRIGUE


_Cherchez la femme_ is a French saying, which has somewhat of a cynical
ring about it. The female hand has to be discovered in the family
alliances of the Cavendishes and the Bentincks from which a tangle of
intrigue may be unravelled. There was in the first instance that
accomplished matchmaker, Bess Hardwick, a country squire's daughter, who
was married four times, and from her sprang children and grandchildren
with whom were intertwined the families of no less than five Dukes.

To the north of the county of Nottingham, in the heart of England, is a
rich and fertile tract of country known as "The Dukeries," once embraced
by Sherwood Forest, and even now thickly wooded with magnificent oaks
and presenting charming forest scenery.

Its fastnesses were the home of the romantic Robin Hood and his
"merrie" band of robbers, the subject of legend and adventure. To-day
there are in this beautiful region, within two or three miles of each
other, the seats of the Duke of Portland at Welbeck Abbey, the Duke of
Newcastle at Clumber, the Earl Manvers (whose family formerly had the
title of Duke of Kingston) at Thoresby, and Worksop Manor, formerly the
seat of the Duke of Norfolk. It was this cluster of the homes of the
nobility that gave it the name of "The Dukeries."

Both Welbeck and Clumber belonged to the Dukes of Newcastle at one time;