The famous rising in Scotland in 1715 in favour of the son of James II., the Chevalier de St George, or, as his adherents called him, James the Third, brought many of the leaders of that ill-starred rebellion to the Tower, and some to the block. Of the latter the young Earl of Derwentwater was the most conspicuous. James Radcliffe, Lord Derwentwater, was the only Englishman of high birth who took up arms for the Jacobite cause in this rebellion of 1715. He appears to have been a youth of high merit, and was only twenty-six when he was persuaded to throw life and fortune on the side of the Chevalier. One who knew him writes “that he was a man formed by nature to be generally beloved.” His connection with the Stuarts was possibly brought about by the fact that his mother, Mary Tudor, was a natural daughter of Charles II., and also that he was a Catholic by birth. He was a very wealthy landowner, with vast estates, which, after his execution, were given to Greenwich Hospital. They brought him in, including the mines, between thirty and forty thousand pounds a year, a great fortune in those days. His home, from which he derived his title, was situated in the most beautiful of the English lakes, the lovely Lake of Derwentwater in Cumberland, and was called Lord’s Island. Derwentwater had been taken prisoner at Preston, with six Scotch noblemen, William Maxwell, Earl of Nithsdale, Robert Dalziel, Earl of Carnwath, George Seton, Lord Wintoun, William Gordon, Lord Kenmure, William Murray, Earl of Nairn, and William Widdrington, Lord Widdrington. They were brought up to London with their arms tied behind them, their horses led by soldiers, and preceded by drums and music, in a kind of trumpery triumph, and imprisoned in the Tower. Much interest was made on their behalf in both Houses of Parliament; in the Commons, Richard Steele pleaded for them, and in the Lords, a motion for reading the petition presented to both Houses, praying the King to show mercy to the prisoners, had only been carried against the Ministry by a majority of nine. An address was presented to George the First, praying him to “reprieve such of the condemned lords as deserved mercy.” To this petition George, or rather, his Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, answered that the King would act as he thought most consistent for the dignity of the Crown and the safety of the people, thus virtually rejecting the address. Many of those who had places in the Government and had voted against the Ministry were dismissed from their offices. [Illustration: _Window in the Cradle Tower_]