. More famous homes of Great Britain and their stories . ; so ithappened that on another of the name of Alan Bellingham, adescendant of the first, the luck of Levens descended neither oncharacter nor fortune, and in io8s it became imperative for himto sell the whole of his Levens estates. Tradition has generallya tinge of accuracy, yet I fancy that a local historian of the day,in describing Alan as an ingenious but unhappy young man,who consumed a vast estate, must be responsible for the popularbelief that he gambled away his property bit by bit, whilst play-ing repeated games of chance with a
. More famous homes of Great Britain and their stories . ; so ithappened that on another of the name of Alan Bellingham, adescendant of the first, the luck of Levens descended neither oncharacter nor fortune, and in io8s it became imperative for himto sell the whole of his Levens estates. Tradition has generallya tinge of accuracy, yet I fancy that a local historian of the day,in describing Alan as an ingenious but unhappy young man,who consumed a vast estate, must be responsible for the popularbelief that he gambled away his property bit by bit, whilst play-ing repeated games of chance with a certain friend of his, oneColonel Grahme. Anyhow, it was this most wily courtier ofboth Charles II. and James II. who found himself eventuallypossessor of this place, and with his advent, Levens historytakes quite a new departure, the interest consequently increasingnot a little. The days of Jacobite intrigue were now at theirheight, when no mans life was safe for many days together: theair was rent by religious strife, every mans hand was against his. i3i 132 Xevens Iball neighbour for worshipping God in a different manner from him-self; and prisons were overflowing with the victims of a Kingwho fell short of very few for intolerance and fanatical tyranny. Colonel Grahme was a firm adherent of the Stuarts, and inthe thick of every Jacobite rising of the day ; he had led a some-what stormy life in his youth, and had served in the French Walpole describes him as a fashionable man in his day,and noted for his dry humour ; judging by other contemporaryrecords, I believe modern slang would style him as a bit of adog. His wife, Dorothy Howard, was maid of honour to theQueen, Catherine of Braganza, and said by Evelyn to be notonly a great beauty, but a most virtuous and excellent of them both by Sir Peter Lely hang in the Drawing-room. Grahme stood for Westmorland from 1685 to 1722; wasPrivy Purse to James II., and until the Kings abdication wasMaster
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectcountry, bookyear1902
