Hardwick

“ The new Hardwick, the present hall, was not actually finished till seven years after the Earl’s death, and there and at the older house the Dowager and the semi-royal grandchild spent many years together. The former was, as has been instanced, busy betimes with making matches for the child. After the disappointment about 332Lord Leicester’s little son, the old ambitious spirit flares up gloriously in the proposal that Arabella, who was just ten years old, should marry James of Scotland. ”

“ He was just about to give up trying to form some plan, when the door opened and Hardwick and Ferris came out. Hal crouched near the foot of the steps, and the pair passed within three feet of him.
"It isn't safe to talk over private matters in a house like that," remarked Hardwick. "I know a place where we will be far more at liberty to discuss the thing I have in mind." ”

“ His hands were now loose, but he kept them behind him.
"You'll feel a sight worse before we are done with you," returned Hardwick, grimly.
"What do you intend to do with me?"
"You'll see soon enough," said the ex-book-keeper.
He turned to the others, and as he did so Hal bent down and freed his feet.
"By Jove! he's loose!" cried Parsons, glancing around.
"Yes, and I intend to stay so," cried Hal, stepping into the room. "Hardwick, I want that tin box."
"Ho! ho! hear him talk!" exclaimed Hardwick. "Jump on him, boys!"
"Stand back, every one of you!" cried Hal. "I am not alone here. ”

“ By this lady John Hardwick, who died January 24, 1527, had issue, one son and four daughters, viz., John, Mary, Elizabeth, Alice, and Jane. John Hardwick, the last male representative of the family, who was only three years old at his father’s death, married Elizabeth, daughter of Philip Draycott, of Paynsley, but died without issue, leaving his sisters his co-heiresses. Of these, Mary married, first, Wingfield, and, second, one of the Pollards, of Devonshire, who was Gentleman Usher to the Queen; Alice married Francis Leech, of Chatsworth, and died without issue ”

“ The suit was commenced a few days afterwards. Mr. Hardwick went to the county seat, some dozen miles distant, and secured the aid of an able lawyer, who gave him hope of prevailing and keeping his shop.
The affair necessarily created a great stir in the busy little town. As the cheerful clatter of the trip-hammer echoed along the stream on still evenings, and the fiery plume waved over the chimney, neighbors looked out from their windows, and wondered if the good blacksmith would, after so many years of honest toil, be stripped of his property and be reduced to dependence in his old age. ”

“ Allen sneered at the words, and Hardwick's lip curled.
The youth noticed neither of them. The tears stood in his eyes, as he replied:
"Thank you for saying that, Mr. Sumner," he returned, in a low voice. "I may be nothing but a poor-house boy, but I am honest, and will help you get back your bonds, and prove my innocence to the world."
Again Mr. Allen's sneer was heard, and Hardwick's lip curled, even more than before. Neither Mr. Sumner nor Hal paid any attention to either of them. The broker stepped to the telephone.
"Who are you going to summon?" asked Mr. Allen. ”

“ The first of the Hardwick family known was William, who married the daughter of Goushill, of Barlborough (which family of Goushill, in the time of Henry III., married the heiress of Hathersage, and whose heiress, in the sixteenth century, married Wingfield) , and by her had two sons, Roger and William, the latter of whom was living in the thirty-second year of Henry VI. Roger Hardwick, of Hardwick, married the daughter of Robert Barley, of Barley, and had issue by her, John, who succeeded him. ”

“ Photo by Richard Keene, Ltd., Derby
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS BED, NOW AT HARDWICK HALL
Page 358
359“The redolent smell of aeglantyne
We stagges exault to the deveyne.” This legend is to be faintly traced in the interior of the ruined old hall. With the exception of the Shrewsbury coronet and the initials, you find very little suggestion of the Talbots. Everywhere the arms of Hardwick predominate in panel, fireplace, and lock. They strike the eye the instant you enter the house by the great entrance-hall. ”

“ These, which are in a lozenge-shaped shield, are surmounted by an earl’s coronet, and have for supporters, two stags, proper, each gorged with a chaplet of roses, argent, between two bars azure. The arms are those of Hardwick of Hardwick, the maiden name of the Countess; the supporters, [129] which she had no right to assume, the family of Hardwick not being entitled to any, were assumed from the crest of that family, which, with a slight variation, formed those granted to her son, the first Baron Cavendish, of Hardwick, and Earl of Devonshire. ”

“ Approaching the outer door he locked it.
"Now I cannot be surprised in that direction," he thought. "And if Hardwick or Ferris try to leave I can hide in the closet."
Having made these preparations against being discovered, Hal approached the curtain to listen to whatever might be said.
"You say you wish you could fix Carson?" he heard Hardwick say.
"I do," returned Ferris. "I hate him, and I would do almost anything to get square."
"Then I'll tell you of a little plan that you can work, Dick. I don't like the fellow myself, and it will delight me to see you get the best of him." ”

“ At last Master Clement desisted. He stared with a fixed face at Master Hardwick who stared beyond him. “Thou impenitent old man—!” He rose and with a gesture dismissed the three in line. Will and Dorothy and the boy filed out, primed to discuss among themselves master’s impenitency. “I go now, Master Hardwick,” said the minister, “but I shall come again to-morrow, though I fear me thou art as utterly lost as any man in England!”
Aderhold accompanied him from the chamber into the hall. ”

“ There is Henry Hardwick, a man of decided ability but with just that grain of iron lacking in his make-up that would make him a success in his enterprises and the master of his domestic circumstance. Fred Pemberton’s efficiency, on the other hand, verges on hardness and almost wrecks his love-life, deep and true though it is. ”

“ There is within you a fountain of love and strength. [120] Trust yourself to your higher self.... Hoist sail and away!”
The night passed, and at dawn Master Hardwick died. Aderhold closed his eyes, straightened his limbs, and smoothed the bed upon which he lay. Going to the window he set the casement wide. The dawn was coming up in stairs and slopes of splendour. The divine freshness, the purity, the high, austere instigation, the beginning again.... ”

“ He came over and shook the door.
"See if the key is on the inside of the lock," suggested Ferris.
At these words Hal put down his hand and felt to make sure that the key was turned to one side.
"I can't see anything," said Hardwick, after an examination.
"Then Jackson must have put it in his pocket," said Churchley.
"Perhaps it was nothing but a rat after all," said Ferris.
"I have half a mind to run up and ask Jackson," said Hardwick. "He lives right on the floor above."
"Oh, don't bother!" returned Churchley. "If it's a rat you may be sure he has gone back to his hole long ago." ”

“ Opposite to the chapel, a doorway opens into the Dining-room, a noble apartment, the lower part of the walls being wainscoted, and the upper hung with a number of family portraits, amongst which are an interesting painting of “Bess of Hardwick,” with this inscription upon it:—“Elizabeth Hardwick, daughter and co-heir of John Hardwick, of Hardwick, in the county of Derby. To her second husband, Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth, in the same county. She settled her third son, Sir Charles Cavendish, at Welbeck, in the county of Nottingham.” ”

“ Hardwick, so I cannot judge on that point.”
“No great loss,” said Jack. “You wouldn't care much about seeing her again. She is a tall, gaunt, disagreeable looking woman; while Ida is fair, and sweet looking. I didn't fancy this Mrs. Hardwick when I first set eyes on her. Aunt Rachel was right, for once.” ”

“ But from whatever side Hardwick is approached, the land is full of beauty, and rich in the picturesque.
Hardwick Hall is one of the many princely seats—Chatsworth, Bolton Abbey, Lismore Castle, Holker Hall, Compton Place, Eastbourne, and Devonshire House, London, being among the others—of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, in which resides the duke’s eldest son and heir, the Marquis of Hartington, M.P., at this time Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Ireland. ”

“ He says some thinks the moonshiners have taken him in mistake for a revenuer; and some believe it was robbery--for his watch and money; and Mr. Hardwick is blaming it on the Groner crowd that raised up such a fuss when Lura Dawson died in the hospital here. Gid says they've searched every ridge and valley this side of Big Unaka. He--Johnnie, he says he believes Mr. Stoddard suicided."
"Where is Shade Buckheath?" whispered Johnnie.
"Shade's been out with mighty nigh every crowd that went," Laurella told her. "Mr. Hardwick pays them wages, just the same as if they were in the mill. ”

“ But there was a cool, sea wind, which, wandering up from the distant coast, set every human creature (not in sickness, sorrow, or 'hard bound in misery and iron') , aglow with the joy of living. It raised the spirits even of that plaything of destiny known among men as William Hardwick, so that as the whispering breeze stole through the open windows of the Court he held up his dejected head and felt almost like a man again. ”

“ Hardwick's voice grew stern. "I am a man, while you are a boy, and I know what is best for both of us."
"Well, have your own way."
"I think it will be a wise plan for you to get Carson out of the way. He is altogether too smart a fellow to have around," continued the book-keeper.
"I don't think he looks very smart," sneered Ferris, who could not stand hearing Hal praised.
"He's smarter than you or most people think. ”

“ Hardwick House eventually became the portion of the red-haired daughter, some say through the will of her brother, who apparently died without heir. But for the moment the Cavendishes needed a fine house for domesticity on a large scale and old Chatsworth did not suffice them. Elizabeth Cavendish had plenty to do in founding her family. These were great and busy times for the great lady. Shoulder to shoulder husband and wife worked at their building, at their estate, at the management of their tenants, their parks and palings, their farms and holdings. ”

“ One is almost as much to be pitied if he cannot get the favourable award of the public as the slave of the Eastern potentate whose head was taken off if he failed to amuse his master; for a second-rate brewer is not to be endured, while a popular one grows rich and lives in the lap of luxury. Of this the life of Mr. T. W. Hardwick affords striking proof. ”

“ How do I know but what you are not a footpad?" cried Hardwick, getting angry at Hal's apparent coolness.
"Because a shot might bring others to the spot," said the youth, bravely.
"No one is around."
"You forget that in New York detectives often travel in pairs."
It was a random remark, but it told. Hardwick turned pale, and shifted uneasily.
"You're a cool customer," he said, eyeing Hal sharply.
"Detectives have to be cool." ”

“ Moreover, there is the more excuse for her superstition, since, as we know, crystal-gazers and conjurers with their charmed plates of gold, their phials and symbols, came and went in the country and about the English and foreign courts. It is more than possible that such persons, though included in Shrewsbury’s roll of “practicers” and suspects, occasionally found their way into my Lady’s parlour in Chatsworth or Hardwick. There is behind this old soothsayer’s story a deeper meaning. ”

“ They must have had traffic already with the great family of Talbot—which, besides Sheffield Castle, owned so many large seats in Derby and Nottingham—and both of them naturally held intercourse with “Mr. Secretary Walsingham” and “Mr. Treasurer Cecil.”
When Sir William St. Loe died—tolerably soon, alas!—Bess Hardwick had gone far with her building, social and actual. Her third widowhood found her richer, bolder, better known at Court, and able to play her part in an ever-widening circle of the powerful and prosperous.
Such a lady would naturally make enemies. ”

“ Surprisingly, the tests indicated that remote-controlled ships which had been completely sterilized went undetected, while ships carrying rats or other life were blasted. Norden, as the expert on all strange radiation, had been sent to work with Hardwick in attempting to devise a screen for the hypothetical life radiation.
He never learned whether Hardwick was a wild genius, or an even wilder lunatic. While he was wearing Hardwick's improvised shield during one of the attempts to test it, the Aliens had landed and broken in. ”

“ Refuge—security—here in this silent place, behind the great screen of Hawthorn Wood.... Aderhold stayed and was glad to stay, and served the old man well for his keep. The region grew to know that here was old Master Hardwick’s kinsman, brought with him when he came back from London, [70] to live with him and doubtless become his heir. He was a leech. Goodman Cole, living by the forest, fell ill of a racking cough and a burning fever, sent for the doctor at the Grange, was swiftly better, and sang the leech’s praises. ”

“ As the two men went companionably down the walk and out into the street, the Scotchman said apologetically:
"Of course, I knew Miss Lydia would be alarmed. I understand about her and Stoddard. It made me hesitate a while before coming up to you folks with the thing."
"Well, by the Lord, you did well not to hesitate too long, Mac!" ejaculated Hardwick. "I shouldn't feel the anxiety I do if we hadn't been having trouble with those mountain people up toward Flat Rock over that girl that died at the hospital." He laughed a little ruefully. "Trying to do things for folks is ticklish business. ”