CASSIOBURY, or Cashiobury, as it is sometimes spelt, lies about a mile distant from Watford, in Hertfordshire. It is, therefore, within easy distance—sixteen miles—from London, and may be considered as one of the breathing places of denizens of the Metropolis. The name of Cassiobury is said, and with reason to be derived from the Casii, a tribe of the Britons who occupied the district, and whose stronghold, Verulamium, lies only a few miles away. The Casii were, at the time of the landing of Julius CÆsar, commanded by Cassivelanus, under whom they fought many battles with the invaders. The hundred is still called the hundred of Cassio, and the affix of bury evidently signifies an assemblage of dwellings surrounded by walls, or a burgh or borough. “Being as its name implies, the only bury within the manor of Cassio during the Saxon era, it might have been either the seat of justice for the hundred (for the name bury will admit of this construction), or an occasional retreat of some of the British princes residing at Verulamium, of whom Cassivelanus was one,” and by some writers it is stated to have been “the actual seat or home of Cassivelanus.”

Under the Saxons the manor of Cassio was, it has been stated, among the numerous possessions of Offa with which he endowed the Abbey of St. Albans, and it remained attached to that abbey until the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII. In Domesday Book it is stated that “the Abbot of St. Albans holds Cassiou; it answers for twenty hides; of these the abbot holds nineteen. There is land for twenty-two ploughs. Six hides are in demesne, and there are five ploughs, and a sixth may yet be made. Three foreigners and thirty-six villeins with eight bordars have there fifteen ploughs, and one may yet be made. There are, moreover, three bordars and two bondmen, and four mills of 26s. 8d. Meadow for twenty-two ploughs. Pasture for the cattle. Pannage for 1,000 hogs. Its whole value is £28; when received £24; and in King Edward’s time £30. St. Alban held and holds this manor in demesne.” In the twelfth century the revenue duties payable from Cassio to the abbey were, at Christmas 2s. and twenty-four hens; at Easter, 2s. and 600 eggs; and on St. Alban’s day, 2s. and twenty-four cheeses. By Henry I. the whole liberty of Cassio was formally made over to the abbey. In 1546, after the dissolution of the monasteries, “the lordship or manor of Cayshobury” and other places was granted to Sir Richard Morrison, Knight, in consideration of certain property in Yorkshire and Worcestershire, and of the sum of £176 17s. 6d. in money; to hold the same by the service of the tenth part of a knight, and paying for the same yearly £5 12s. 6½d. Soon after this, Sir Richard commenced the erection of “a fayre and large house, situated upon a dry hill not far from a pleasant river in a fayre park, and had prepared materials for the finishing thereof; but before the same could be half built, he was forced to fly beyond the seas.” The mansion was completed by his son, Sir Charles Morrison, who died in 1599. On the marriage of Elizabeth Morrison, the only surviving child of Sir Richard’s grandson, the property passed to her husband, Arthur Capel, created Baron Capel of Hadham in 1641, from whom the present possessor, the Earl of Essex, is lineally descended. Baron Capel appears to have resided more at Hadham than at Cassiobury, but his son, Arthur Capel, created Viscount Malden and Earl of Essex in 1661, after residing there for a time, took up his residence at Cassiobury, the greater part of which he is said to have rebuilt—indeed, it is said that the whole of the mansion, with the exception of the north-west wing, was rebuilt by him, employing for the house May, the architect, and for the laying out of his gardens Moses Cooke—who in 1675 published a volume on fruit-trees—and, it is also said, Le Notre, and Rose, his head-gardener at Essex House, in the Strand.

Of the house and its gardens, Evelyn, on the 16th April, 1680, thus wrote:—“On the earnest invitation of the Earl of Essex, I went with him to his house at Cassioberie in Hartfordshire. It was on Sunday, but going early from his house in the square of St. James’s, we arrived by ten o’clock; this we thought too late to go to church, and we had prayers in his chapell. The house is new, a plaine fabric built by my friend Mr. Hugh May. There are divers faire and good roomes, and excellent carving by Gibbons, especially the chimney-piece of ye library. There is in the porch or entrance a painting by Verrio, of ‘Apollo and the Liberal Arts.’ One room parquetted with yew which I lik’d well. Some of the chimney-mantles are of Irish marble, brought by my lord from Ireland, when he was Lord-Lieutenant, and not much inferior to Italian. The tympanum or gable at the front is a basso-relievo of Diana hunting, cut in Portland stone handsomely enough. I did not approve of the middle dores being round, but when the Hall is finished as design’d, it being an oval with a cupola, together with the other wing, it will be a very noble palace. The library is large, and very nobly finished, and all the books are richly bound and gilded; but there are no MSS. except the parliament rolls and journals, the transcribing and binding of which cost him, as he assured me, £500. No man has been more industrious than this noble lord in planting about his seat, adorned with walkes, ponds, and other rural elegancies; but the soile is stonie, churlish, and uneven, nor is the water neere enough to the house, though a very swift and cleare streame run within a flight shot from it in the valley, which may be fitly call’d Coldbrook, it being indeed excessive cold, yet producing fair troutes. ‘Tis pitty the house was not situated to more advantage, but it seems it was built just where the old one was, which, I believe, he onlley meant to repaire; this leads men into irremediable errors, and saves but a little. The land about it is exceedingly addicted to wood, but the coldnesse of the place hinders the growth. Black cherry-trees prosper even to considerable timber, some being 80 foote long; they make alsoe very handsome avenues. There is a pretty oval at the end of a faire walke, set about with treble rows of Spanish chesnut-trees. The gardens are very rare, and cannot be otherwise, having so skilful an artist to govern them as Mr. Cooke, who is, as to ye mechanick part, not ignorant in mathematiks, and portends to astrologie. There is an excellent collection of the choicest fruit.”

By the second Earl of Essex the gardens were altered and improved; and it is said that those of the old mansion of the Morrisons which had not been reconstructed by the first earl, were restored or rebuilt by him. With the exception of these alterations and a few other occasional repairs, the house remained as it was left by the first Earl of Essex, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the greater part was again rebuilt by the late earl, from the designs of James Wyatt.

We now proceed to speak of the families of Morrison and Capel, to whom Cassiobury has successively belonged.

William Morrison, or Morysine, in the reign of Henry VI. resided at Chardwell, Yorkshire, and it was his grandson, Thomas Morrison, of Chardwell, son of William Morrison by a daughter of Roger Leigh, of Preston, who removed into Hertfordshire. He married a daughter of Thomas Merry, of Hatfield, by whom he had a son, Sir Richard Morrison, who, in 1537, succeeded Cardinal Pole in the prebend of Yatsminster-Seconda in Salisbury Cathedral. In 1539 he was appointed by Henry VIII. ambassador to Charles V., Emperor of Germany, in which he was accompanied by Roger Ascham, and, in 1546, had a grant of the manor of Cashiobury, and soon after commenced building there a mansion of considerable size. Besides Cashiobury he had grants, and acquired much property, in London, Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Somersetshire. Under Queen Mary and her persecutions Sir Richard was compelled to fly from England, and died at Strasburg in 1556. He married Bridget Hussey, daughter of Lord Hussey (who, after his death, married successively Henry, second Earl of Rutland, and Francis, third Earl of Bedford), by whom he had issue one son, Sir Charles Morrison, Knight, and three daughters, Elizabeth, married first to Henry Norris, son of Lord Norris, of Rycote, and secondly to Henry, second Earl of Lincoln; Mary, married to Bartholomew Hales, of Chesterfield; and Jane Sibilla, married, first to Edward, Lord Russell, and, second, to Arthur, Lord Grey, of Wilton. Sir Charles Morrison, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and was a minor at the time of his father’s death, married Dorothy, daughter of Nicholas Clarke, and widow of Henry Long, of Shengie, and by her had issue a son, Sir Charles Morrison, and three daughters, Bridgett, married to Robert, fifth Earl of Sussex, and Elizabeth and Catherine, who died unmarried. This second Sir Charles, who succeeded his father in 1599, and was then a minor, was created a baronet by letters patent, June 29, 1611, and on the coronation of Charles I. was installed a Knight of the Bath. He married Mary, daughter and co-heiress of Baptist, Lord Hicks and Viscount Campden (the lady afterwards married successively Sir John Cooper, Bart., and Sir Richard Alford, Knight), and by her had issue two sons, who died young, and a daughter, Elizabeth Morrison, who thus became his only heir. This lady, Elizabeth Morrison, married Arthur Capel, who, by letters patent, dated August 6, 1641, was created Baron Capel, of Hadham, and thus the large estates of the Morrisons, both at Cashiobury and elsewhere, passed into the family of Capel, its present holders. The arms of Morrison were, or, on a chief, gules, three chaplets of the first. Crest, specially conferred on Sir Richard, in allusion to his literary attainments, a Pegasus rising, or.

The noble family of Capel to whom Cassiobury, as has been stated, passed by marriage with the heiress of Morrison, and to whom it still belongs, is of considerable antiquity, and few families have been enriched by so many scions of brilliant intellect. The family appears to have been originally of Capel’s Moan, hear Stoke Neyland, in Suffolk, and here, in 1261, resided Sir Richard de Capel, Lord Justice of Ireland: in 1368, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III., left by will “to John de Capell, my chaplain, a girdle of gold, to make a chalice in memory of my soul.” Later on another John Capel, who died in 1441, left, by his wife, Joan, besides a son, John, a second son, William Capel, who was a draper and citizen of London, “and successively alderman, sheriff, representative of the city in Parliament, and lord mayor, and had the honour of knighthood conferred on him by Henry VII.” He was twice lord mayor, and several times M.P. of the city. He died in 1515, and “was buried in a chapel founded by himself on the south side of the church of St. Bartholomew, near the Royal Exchange, London.” He also gave his name to Capel Court. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Arundell, of Lanhorne, by whom, besides two daughters, he had a son, Sir Giles Capel, Knight, who succeeded him, and married, first, Mary, daughter of Richard Roos, son of Lord Roos, and, secondly, Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Newton, by whom he had issue a daughter, and two sons, Sir Henry and Sir Edward. Sir Henry Capel married Anne, daughter of Lord Roos, and granddaughter of the Duchess of Exeter, sister to King Edward IV.: he died without surviving issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Sir Edward Capel, whose wife was Anne, daughter of Sir William Pelham, ancestor of the Dukes of Newcastle; he, dying in 1577, was succeeded by his eldest son. Sir Henry Capel, Knight, who, by his second wife, Catherine, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Rutland, had, besides several others, a son, Sir Arthur Capel, Knight, who succeeded him, and was in turn succeeded by his son, Sir Henry Capel. This gentleman, who, like many of his family, had been Sheriff of Herts, married twice. By his first wife, Theodosia, daughter of Sir Edward Montagne, he had issue, besides others, a son, Arthur Capel, who was a minor at the time of his death.

Arthur Capel was born about the year 1614, and, both his parents dying when he was young, he was brought up by his grandfather, Sir Arthur. He espoused the royal cause in the troublous times of Charles I., and became one of his most valued and zealous adherents. He was rewarded with a peerage, being created Baron Capel of Hadham, the king in desiring this reward having written to the Queen, “there is one that doth not yet pretend, that deserves as well as any; I mean Capel; therefore I desire thy assistance to find out something for him before he ask.” After taking an active part in support and defence of the king, Lord Capel was imprisoned in the Tower, and on the 9th of March, 1649, he was beheaded before the great gate of Westminster Hall. “His body was buried at Little Hadham, with an inscription stating him to have been murdered for his loyalty to King Charles I.; and his heart, according to a wish he had expressed to Bishop Morley, was enclosed in a silver cup and cover, to be eventually buried at the feet of the master whom he had so zealously served. But no funeral rites being performed to the memory of Charles I., the cup was kept in a press at Hadham, where it was discovered in 1703, and its contents placed in the family vault.” It was this Lord Capel who, before his elevation to the peerage, had married Elizabeth Morrison, and so acquired Cassiobury and the rest of the large possessions of the Morrison family. The issue of this marriage was four sons and four daughters, viz., Arthur, who succeeded his father; Sir Henry Capel, created Baron Capel of Tewkesbury; Charles and Edward, who died unmarried; Mary, married, first, to Lord Beauchamp, and, secondly, to Henry, Duke of Beaufort; Elizabeth, married to the Earl of Carnarvon; Theodosia, wife of the Earl of Clarendon; and Anne, of John Strangeways.

Arthur, second Baron Capel, was, in 1601, created Viscount Maiden and Earl of Essex, and in 1670 was appointed ambassador to the court of Denmark. He it was who, as has already been stated, rebuilt Cassiobury, and formed its beautiful gardens. In 1683 his lordship was apprehended at Cassiobury on a charge of being concerned in the famous “Rye House Plot,” and was committed to the Tower, where he was, as is believed, foully murdered, or at all events, where he was found dead with his throat cut. The earl married Elizabeth, only daughter of Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, by whom he had six sons and two daughters, most of whom dying young, he was at his death succeeded by his fifth son, Algernon Capel.

Algernon, second Earl of Essex, was Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to King William III., and held important offices under Queen Anne. He married Mary, daughter of the Earl of Portland, by whom he had issue two daughters and one son, William Capel, who succeeded him as third Earl of Essex. This Earl married twice, and had, by his first wife, Jane, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, four daughters; and by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of the Duke of Bedford, four daughters, and one son, by whom he was succeeded. This was—

William Anne Holles Capel, fourth Earl of Essex, one of the Lords of the Bed-chamber to George II. and George III., and Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire. He married Frances, daughter of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Bart., by whom he acquired the estate of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, which was afterwards sold to Richard Arkwright, Esq., of Cromford, Derbyshire, and by her had issue two daughters, and a son, George Capel, who succeeded him, in 1759, as fifth Earl of Essex; and, secondly, Harriet, daughter of Colonel Thomas Bladen, by whom he had issue five sons, viz., one who died young; John Thomas, whose son succeeded to the title and estates as sixth Earl of Essex; Lieut.-General Thomas Edward Capel; Hon. and Rev. William Robert Capel, chaplain to the King; and Rear-Admiral the Hon. Bladen Thomas Capel. His lordship died in 1799, and was succeeded by his son, George Capel, who, having succeeded to the estates of his maternal grandmother, assumed the name of Coningsby, and became George Capel-Coningsby, fifth Earl of Essex, Viscount Malden, and sixth Baron Capel. His lordship married twice, first, in 1786, Sarah, daughter of Henry Bazett, Esq., of St. Helena, and widow of Edward Stephenson, Esq.; and secondly, in 1838, Catherine, daughter of Mr. E. Stephens, but had no issue by either marriage. His lordship died in 1839, and was succeeded in his title and estates by his nephew, Arthur Algernon Capel, the son of his half-brother, the Hon. John Thomas Capel.

Arthur Algernon Capel, sixth Earl of Essex and Viscount Malden, and seventh Baron Capel of Hadham, was born January 28th, 1803. In 1825 he married the Lady Caroline Jeanetta Beauclerk, third daughter of the eighth Duke of St. Albans, and by her, who died in 1862, had issue: Arthur De Vere Capel, Viscount Malden, born 1826 (heir to the title and estate, who married, in 1853, Emma Martha, daughter of Sir Henry Meux, Bart., and has issue), the Hon. Adela Caroline Harriet Capel, now deceased, married to the Earl of Eglintoun; the Hon. Reginald Algernon Capel, married to Mary, daughter of John Nicholas Fazkerly, Esq., and niece of the Earl of Rokeby; and the Hon. Randolph Capel. In 1863, his lordship married, secondly, the Lady Louisa Caroline Elizabeth Boyle, daughter of Viscountess Dungarvon, and sister to the Earl of Cork, and by her has issue living, the Hon. Arthur Algernon Capel, born 1864, and the Hon. Beatrice Mary, born 1870. His lordship is patron of the livings of Watford, in Hertfordshire, Rayne, in Essex, and Shuttington, in Warwickshire.

The arms of the Earl of Essex are—Gules, a lion rampant between three cross-crosslets fitchÉe, or; crest, a demi-lion rampant supporting a cross-crosslet fitchÉe, or; supporters, two lions, or, ducally crowned, gules; motto, “Fide et Fortitudine.”

The park of Cassiobury embraces an area of nearly seven hundred acres, of which more than three hundred and fifty are called “the Home Park,” and about two hundred and fifty the “Upper Park;” they are separated from each other by the river Gade, which flows between them. The remainder of the ground is divided into woods, lawns, gardens, and all the other elegancies of grounds around the house, the site of which is also included in it. The parks are well wooded with majestic trees, among which are a profusion of beech, oak, elm, and fir—some of the latter resembling in their enormous size those of Norway. Several of the beech-trees, too, are of gigantic size, some being said to cover an area of ground nearly 150 feet in diameter.

The present mansion was built from the designs of Mr. James Wyatt, at that time the fashionable architect of Fonthill Abbey, of parts of Windsor Castle, and other places: it is of that peculiar style of Gothic architecture which characterizes most buildings erected by him. The general plan is a square; the building surrounding a court-yard or quadrangle, with a cloister on two of its sides; the entrance being to the west, the chief room to the south, the private or family rooms to the east, and the kitchen, servants’ offices, &c., to the north. A porch screens the entrance-doorway, that opens into a narrow cloister, on the right of which is a small vestibule and enclosed staircase. Eastward of these is the great cloister, having five windows, partly of stained glass, and its walls adorned with full-length family portraits and other paintings.

Branching off from the cloisters is the Saloon, placed between the dining and drawing-rooms. “Its ceiling is adorned with the painting Evelyn mentions as belonging to the hall of the old mansion, and to have been the work of Verrio, the subject being composed chiefly of allegorical figures—Painting, Sculpture, Music, and War. In this apartment are two cabinets, containing numerous miniatures painted by the Countess of Essex,” and many family and other portraits.

In the Dining-Room, which is a noble apartment, with wainscoted walls, also hang several remarkably fine family and other portraits, by Vandyke, Hoppner, and other painters; and several fine pictures,—notably, “The Cat’s Paw,” by Landseer, and “The Highlander’s Home,” by Wilkie.

The Grand Drawing-Room, which is filled with all the elegancies and luxuries of the most refined taste, and with the choicest cabinets, is adorned with paintings by Turner, Callcott, Collins, and others. These are of the highest order—rare and beautiful examples of the great English masters in art. Adjoining the drawing-room is the conservatory cloister, which is entered both from it and from the library.

The Library, which occupies four rooms,—respectively known as the Great Library, the Inner Library, the Dramatists’ Library, and the Small Library,—is remarkably extensive; and contains, as such a library ought, a rare collection of valuable books in every class of literature. In these various rooms is preserved a fine collection of family paintings; and here, too, will be seen some of Grinling Gibbon’s matchless carvings, which are noticed by Evelyn as being there in his day. Among the historical relics preserved in the Library is the handkerchief which Lord Coningsby applied to the shoulder of King William III., when that monarch was wounded, in 1690, at the battle of the Boyne. It is stained with the blood of the king. There is also here a piece of the velvet pall of Charles I., taken from the tomb at Windsor, when it was opened in 1813, with a fragment of the Garter worn by the king at his execution.

Like these, the other apartments at Cassiobury are filled with choice paintings and with everything that good taste and a lavish hand can suggest. The family portraits are, as might be expected, numerous, and of the highest order of art, several are by Vandyke, Cornelius Jansen, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other famous artists. Throughout the rooms are scattered admirable works by Rembrandt, Cuyp, Teniers, &c., &c.

We have made but brief reference to the gardens and grounds, and scarcely noticed the spacious and very beautiful Park. They are charms that neither lofty descent nor large wealth could purchase—the bequests only of Time. Centuries have passed since some of these magnificent trees were planted. The house is best seen from one of the high steeps on the opposite side of the river that runs through the demesne; lines of venerable chestnuts border a greensward that extends miles.

Here and there glimpses are caught of the mansion, made by distance more picturesque than it is at a nearer range. In fact, there is at Cassiobury the happy combination of grandeur and beauty, natural grace in association with rich cultivation, that makes so many of the Stately Homes of England the boast and glory of the country.

The family burial-place of the Morrison and Capel families of Cassiobury is at Watford, where a fine monumental chapel exists in the parish church. This chapel “contains sepulchral memorials to the Morrison and Capel families, from that of Lady Morrison, wife of Sir Richard Morrison, who directed the chapel to be built in 1595.” In the centre is an altar-tomb, supported upon six pillars, of various coloured marbles, on which rests the recumbent figure of “Lady Bridget, Countess of Bedford”—the lady by whom the chapel was founded—and daughter of Lord Hussey. She died in 1600.

On the south side “is a large and gorgeous monument to Sir Charles Morrison the elder, whose effigy, in armour, in a reclining posture, is placed under the canopy.” On either side of the tomb, in kneeling positions upon pedestals, are figures of the son and daughter of Sir Charles Morrison, and Bridget Morrison, Countess of Sussex. This work was executed by Nicholas Stone, in 1619, who agreed with Sir Charles to make “a tomb of alabaster and touchstone,” and whose entry in his note-book as to price is very curious. He says he made it with “one pictor of white marble for his father, and his own, and his sister, the Countess of Sesex, as great as the life, of alabaster, for the which I had well payed £260, and four pieces given to drinke.”

On the opposite side of the chapel is another large monument to the second Sir Charles Morrison, designed and executed by the same “carver and tomb-maker,” as he is termed in the contract, and for which he agreed with the widow to receive £400. There are also several other interesting monuments and monumental slabs; the chapel is hung with banners and hatchments.

At this time, the church is undergoing thorough repair and restoration.