8 England's oldest hunt. 



principally now-a-days, perhaps, as the founder of Rievaulx 

 Abbey, locally, if not generally, spoken of as " Rivers." 

 On his death, the estates were inherited by his sister, Adeline, 

 who was married to Peter de Ros, another name linked with 

 the history of our broad-acred Shire. He was of Ros in 

 Holderness. His marriage with this heiress was a fortunate 

 one for his family, and we are constrained to wonder if even 

 in these early days there were such things as mercenary 

 marriage-making dowagers. For no less a period than that 

 stretching over fourteen generations of this one family, were 

 the Helmsley estates presided over by a de Ros, and it was 

 Robert Fursan who founded the castle, he being the great 

 grandson of Peter and Adeline. 



The erection was completed about 1200. His grandson, 

 who was named after him, married Isabel d'Albini, the 

 daughter of the lord of Relvoir. Thus these two estates 

 were united, eventually passing, in 1508, with the barony 

 of Ros, through the female line, to Sir George Manners, of 

 Etal, Northumberland, whose son was created Earl of 

 Rutland. In 1618, Francis Manners, the sixth Earl, suc- 

 ceeded to the title, and his daughter, Katherine, was one of, 

 the richest heiresses, if not the richest, of her day, for at the 

 death of her father she was to inherit Helmsley and Belvoir. 

 To his equal mortification and indignation, she eloped with 

 and married George Villiers, the favourite of James I. 

 He was the first Duke of Buckingham, and though the 

 marriage was clandestine, it proved by no means an unhappy 

 one, if the letters which passed between the twain are to be 

 taken as any criterion. It was the realisation of the some- 

 what hackneyed saying, " short but sweet." Wiiting to him 

 in Spain, she comforted him with the assurance that — " Only 

 this can I say for myself, you could never have one that 

 could love you better than your poor loving Kate doth — 

 poor now in your absence, but else the happiest and richest 

 woman in the world." 



In 1629, he met his death by assassination, and was 

 succeeded by his son, then a child, who is the main actor 

 in this history, and for whom we claim the honour of being 



