34 ‘GREEN DALE CABINET.” 
to time were greatly augmented. In 1329, it is stated, ‘ The 
Bishop of Ely bought the whole manor of Cuckney, and settled 
it upon the Abbey, on condition of their finding eight canons, 
who should enjoy the good things and pray for Edward the Third 
and his Queen, their children and ancestors, &c.; also for the 
bishop’s father and mother, brethren, &c. ; but especially for the 
health of the said lord bishop while he lived, and after his death, 
for his soul; and for all theirs that had faithfully served him, or 
done him any good;” to which was added this extraordinary 
injunction, ‘That they should observe his anniversary, and on 
their days of commemorating the dead, ‘should absolve his soul _ 
by name,’ a process whose frequent repetition might naturally be 
considered as needless, unless the pious bishop supposed that he 
might perhaps commit a few additional sins whilst in purgatory.” 
In 1512, Welbeck was, it is said, made the chief house of the 
Order of Premonstratensians. At the dissolution it was granted 
to Richard Whalley, and later on passed to the Cavendishes, in 
the person of Sir Charles Cavendish, third son of Sir William 
Cavendish, by his wife, Elizabeth Hardwick, afterwards Countess 
of Shrewsbury, and founder of the noble house of Newcastle. 
From them it passed successively, by marriage, to the Holles 
(created Duke of Newcastle), Harleys (Earl of Oxford and 
Mortimer), ard Bentincks, in the person of William, second 
Duke of Portland, who, by his marriage with Lady Margaret 
Cavendish Harley, acquired the estates of that illustrious family. 
It is to the second of these alliances, that of the Lady 
Henrietta Cavendish Holles, with Edward Harley, second Earl 
of Oxford and Mortimer, founder of the “ Harleian” Collection 
of MSS. (and later on advanced to the dignity of Duke of 
Newcastle), that the interest of the piece of furniture I am about 
to describe attaches itself. 
The “Green Dale Oak,” to which I have made allusion, is only 
one out of many remarkable and historical trees that give a 
character peculiarly its own to the broad domains of Welbeck. 
It is one of the best known and most famous of trees, and takes 
rank among the oldest and most venerable in existence. Venerable 
