er, John of Gaunt, Owen Glendower, and
Hotspur being witnesses before the High Court of Chivalry. Sir Robert
established his defence, and since those days the Grosvenors have ever
held a high rank in the nobility of England. Quite as proud a
patrician position was held through the centuries by the family of
Gower. In the early part of this century, the heir of the Grosvenors
espoused the most beautiful daughter of the House of Gower,--Lady
Elizabeth Mary Leveson Gower. This lady was the youngest daughter of
George, the second Marquis of Stafford, who married, in 1785,
Elizabeth, who was Countess of Sutherland and Baroness Strathnaver in
her own right. The Marquis was created Duke of Sutherland in 1833.

The Lady Elizabeth Mary was born in 1797, and married, in 1819,
Robert, Viscount Belgrave, eldest son of the second Earl of Grosvenor.
The portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence was painted in the year preceding
her marriage.

The Marquisate of Westminster had been created in 1831, and in 1845,
when the Viscount's father died, he succeeded to the title. He had
entered Parliament in 1818 as member for Chester. He spoke but rarely
in the House, although a hard worker on committees. He greatly
improved his vast London property, and had the credit of administering
his estate with a combination of intelligence and generosity seldom
seen. Of reserved habits and inexpensive tastes, he was averse to
ostentation and extravagance. He died in 1869. His successor was his
son (born in 1825) the present Duke, who was elevated to a dukedom in
1874. He is one of the wealthiest peers in the kingdom, is a man of
great taste, and has patronized the arts with almost a Medician
munificence.

The seat of the family is the renowned Eaton Hall, near Chester; that
stately mansion set in the centre of a country rich in pastoral
beauty. Its enlargement and beautification was begun by the second
Earl in 1802, and has been carried on by its present lord until it is
now the most magnificent of all the modern mansions of the nobility.
G.F. Watts's heroic equestrian statue of Hugh Lupus, the founder of
the family and a nephew of William the Conqueror, challenges
admiration as one enters the grounds. There is no great picture
gallery in the Hall, for that is at Grosvenor House in London, but the
family portraits are here. Let into panels of the dining-room are
portraits from the time of the first Earl, who was painted by
Gainsborough. The Viscount Belgrave