Besides Welbeck Abbey, he has country seats at Fullarton House, Troon, Ayrshire; Langwell, Berriedale, Caithness; Bothal Castle, Northumberland, and a London residence at 3, Grovesnor Square.

There are still descendants of the Hon. William Bentinck, eldest son, by the second marriage of the first Earl of Portland.  The Hon. William was born in 1704 and created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1732.

The vast fortune of the House of Portland has been built up in a remarkably short space of time, a little over 200 years, and no other great family has received so many honours and acquired such wealth in the same period.  In the last century one of the Dukes held fourteen different public offices at the same time, while a younger son was Clerk of the Pipe, and a brother-in-law and nephew had 7,000l. per annum in official salaries; a daughter too was the recipient of a State pension for pin-money.

One of the characteristic traits of the Bentincks has been that in founding the fortunes of the family in the past their scions were successful in capturing great heiresses.  These brief genealogical details will help to explain future developments in the history of this noble family.

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; but to elucidate their settlement upon these vast estates and the subsequent division of the domains, through marriage, we must take up the thread of Bess Hardwick’s machinations.

She was the daughter of the Derbyshire squire of Hardwick, and in 1534 was married, when she was only 14 years of age, to Robert Barley, of Barley, in the same county.  It was not long before he passed over to the majority, leaving his fascinating widow with a substantial jointure on his property.