Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 62091-h.htm or 62091-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/62091/62091-h/62091-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/62091/62091-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/firstdukeduchess01longuoft Transcriber’s note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Some characters might not display properly in this UTF-8 text file (e.g., empty squares). If so, the reader should consult the html version or the original page images noted above. Footnotes were moved to the ends of the text they pertain to and numbered in one continuous sequence. Other changes made are noted at the end of the book. THE FIRST DUKE AND DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE [Illustration: WILLIAM CAVENDISH, DUKE OF NEWCASTLE] THE FIRST DUKE AND DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE By the Author of “A Life of Sir Kenelm Digby,” “The Life of a Prig,” etc. With Illustrations Longmans, Green, and Co. 39 Paternoster Row, London New York, Bombay, and Calcutta 1910 PREFACE The compiler of these pages does not labour under the delusion that he has written a book. All that he has attempted has been, as it were, to invite his reader to an arm-chair in his study, and to place in the reader’s hands a succession of open volumes and copies of manuscripts containing passages which throw more or less light upon the lives of the first Duke and Duchess of Newcastle. Occasionally he has ventured to make a few remarks, either of introduction or of retrospection, concerning the evidence thus brought before his guest, remarks which may easily be skipped at will. This humble form of literary labour has the signal advantage that, if it fails to attract the reader, it succeeds in affording an object for reading to the writer. Much assistance has been most kindly given in this work by Mr. Walter Herries Pollock. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v CHAPTER I. Clarendon’s _History_ and the Duchess’s biography—Pepys—Family history—A wonderful grandmother—Boyhood—Hobbes—Wotten—The Court of Savoy—Said to have been disliked by Buckingham—Marriage 1 CHAPTER II. Raised to the peerage—Purchases of peerages—Correspondence with Buckingham—Cousin Pierrepont—Created Earl of Newcastle—Money-squeezing—Newcastle’s rent-roll—Letters among the Portland MSS. 12 CHAPTER III.