Elizabeth Hardwick was, it will have been seen, one of the co-heiresses of her father, and ultimately heiress to her brother, from whom she inherited Hardwick and other estates. She was a most remarkable, clever, and accomplished woman, and one of the most successful, in her many marriages, in her acquisition of property, in the alliances of her family, and in the erection of magnificent mansions; and no account of Hardwick would be complete without, at all events, a brief notice of her extraordinary and brilliant career. When very young—indeed, it is said, when scarcely fourteen years of age—Elizabeth Hardwick became the wife of Robert Barley, of Barley (or Barlow), in the county of Derby, son of Arthur Barley, of Barley-by-Dronfield, by his wife, Elizabeth Chaworth. This young gentleman, who was devotedly attached to his young and charming wife, died within a few months after their marriage, leaving his possessions to her. By this short marriage there was no issue. Remaining a young, indeed childlike, widow for some twelve years or thereabouts, she then married Sir William Cavendish, as detailed in our former chapter, and so brought to him the possessions of the Hardwicks, which she had inherited from her father and brother, as well as those of the Barleys, acquired by her first marriage. By Sir William Cavendish she had a family of three sons and three daughters, viz., Henry Cavendish, of Tutbury, ancestor of the Barons Waterpark; Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth, created Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, and Earl of Devonshire, and ancestor of the present Ducal house of Devonshire; Sir Charles Cavendish, of Bolsover Castle, ancestor of the Barons Cavendish, Viscounts Mansfield, Earls, Marquises, and Dukes of Newcastle; Frances, wife of the Duke of Kingston; Elizabeth, wife of Charles Stuart, Duke of Lennox, and mother by him of Arabella Stuart; and Mary, wife of Gilbert, seventh Earl of Shrewsbury. [Illustration: _Hardwick Hall, from the Park._]