8 MACKWORTH : ITS CASTLE AND ITS OWNERS. 



and other places, as " his own right and inheritance," as against 

 his elder brother John Curzon, and from a postscript it appears 

 that on the 12 August following the said Francis Curzon had 

 full seizin of the said castle, &c., delivered to him by John Ferrars, 

 high sheriff, placing him in undisputed possession. At that time 

 one George Humston seems to have been tenant of the castle. 



It is not now known with certainty when or by what means the 

 castle was demolished. All that now remains is a portion of the 

 grand gateway erected a little before the year 1500 (Plate I.).* 

 From a plan and drawing of it in the possession of Lord Scarsdale, 

 it has evidently remained exactly in its present condition for the 

 last hundred years. 



" According to the tradition of the village the castle was 

 demolished in the civil wars, and some high ground in the 

 neighbourhood still bears the name of ' Cannon Hills,' from the 

 tale that the ordnance was there planted by the destroyers."t 



In the field adjoining the west side of the gateway, are two 

 large contiguous quadrangular plots, clearly indicating two court 

 yards, once surrounded by the castle buildings. Fragments of 

 rubble may be discerned in the ridges of the outer boundaries. 



It does not seem possible to gather any satisfactory account of 

 the destruction of the building. The Curzons purchased it in 1655, 

 when the damage would be accomplished, if it fell, as seems likely, 

 in the Parliamentary struggles. Had Mackworth Castle been a 

 place suitable for the reception of the Queen of Scots, Sir Ralph 

 Sadler would not have overlooked it when eti route with his charge 

 for Tutbury. He writes to the Lord Treasurer, Feb. 5th, 1584 : — 



" Now as toching the Q. majesties mislyking that I lodgid this 

 Q. in Derbie towne coming hitherwarde, I assure her majestie 

 and your Lordship that it was full sore against my will if it might 



have been holpen And as for any gent, house 



that way or any other in dyvers miles, there was none but Mr. 

 Knyveton's house of Mercaston, a small house for such a purpose 

 and very little meanes in that village." 



* For the excellent etching of the Gateway on this plate, the Society is 



indebted to Mr. F. J. Robinson. 



+ Beauties of Eiiglaiid and Wales, iii. 410. 



