Lancelot Rolleston, the schoolboy squire - his formative years…

Schoolboy - Lancelot's guardian William Mundy.⁴

In 1862 the 14-year-old Lancelot Rolleston had just inherited an almost bankrupt Watnall estate. In his father’s will the estate was worth less than £100. 

He was just a schoolboy and in no position to revive an impoverished estate. His family hadn’t even lived on the estate since he was an infant so he’d know very little about it. For the past few years the hall had been rented out and his family were living in a townhouse in Brighton before sending him away to boarding school.

Guardians…

In such cases, the underage inheritor is said to be “in his minority” and cannot control his estate without the help of older legal guardians. The University of Nottingham archives have a document showing the estate's rental income for the year of his father's death... "1862-1863 Rental for Watnall, Nottinghamshire and Toynton, Lincolnshire. Account of Edmund Percy, with the guardians of Lancelot Rolleston Esq., a minor." With finances tight after his father’s death, he must have worried whether he could continue his education, at Wellington College in Crowthorne, Berkshire where he was a boarder and which was due to last for several more years.

Fortunately his guardians had a plan. They were his widowed (but at 41 still relatively young) mother Eleanor Charlotte Rolleston and old family friend William Mundy of Markeaton Hall the MP for South Derbyshire. Lancelot’s guardians had responsibility for him, his two younger brothers and sister as well as the running of his estate. In 1865, on his behalf, they apply to the Court of Chancery to sell the mineral rights on the Watnall estate to the Barber colliery company.

“…guardians William Mundy of Markeaton and Eleanor Charlotte Rolleston of Watnall aforesaid, Widow, his guardians, praying, that the Court of Chancery would be pleased to authorize a lease of the bed or seam of coal and hereditaments comprised in the agreement of the 12th day of June, 1865, in the Petition mentioned, to be granted to Thomas Barber, James Davidson, William Herrick Dyott, Edmund Percy, and Elizabeth Campbell, for the term of years, and at and under the rents and subject to the provisoes and conditions mentioned or referred- to in the said agreement…”

Lancelot's younger
brother Robert

In 1863 his little brother Robert Sidney Rolleston had already been packed off to join the Navy at the tender age of 13. That may appear rather young but it was the typical age for younger sons of aristocratic families to go to sea. He'd been studying at a private Navy prep school in Southsea, passed his entrance exams and joined up in June 1863. He had an eventful career, taught the young King George V and his brother Prince Albert Victor as naval cadets on HMS Britannia at Dartmouth in 1878, commanded many a warship and eventually retired as a Vice-Admiral in 1920. He’s buried next to his older brother in the family plot in the grounds of Watnall Hall. There's more about his life here.

It can be assumed that Lancelot's mother, Eleanor Charlotte Rolleston (nee Fraser) must have had some private income. She was the sister of the Earl of Lauderdale whose family seat is at Thirlestane Castle in Scotland. Her mother was Lady Anne Maitland of Ness Castle who had infamously eloped with a wild young laird Robert Fraser of Torbreck, Inverness in 1807. Eleanor Charlotte carried on living in Brighton with Lancelot’s young sister. Years later when she died on the 2nd June 1894, aged 77, she left Lancelot a half share of her £4,395 estate. That was a huge boost to the Watnall Hall finances.

Education…

Wellington College honours its war dead.

Meanwhile, Lancelot was continuing his education away at Wellington College. The school had a proud military tradition. He was taught by the author Rev. Charles Kingsley (of "The Water Babies" fame).  A devotee of "muscular Christianity", Kingsley would take the boys out running and since 1860, just a year after the College opened, he offered a prize for a steeplechase race which still bears his name and continues to be run to this day. 

Kingsley Run 2022

It always included several wet ditches, a boggy area which became known as ‘the Slough of Despond’, and a crossing of the Blackwater river. These could be formidable obstacles – the runners would finish covered in red mud or sometimes get stuck completely! Lancelot must have enjoyed his schooldays though as later, at Watnall Hall, he’d keep a picture of Reverend Kingsley on the dining room mantelpiece.

His Nottinghamshire mentor at this time was John Chaworth-Musters of Annesley Hall who was 9 years older than Lancelot. Lancelot spent a lot of time riding and hunting with the family and John probably appreciated young Lancelot’s plight. He himself was orphaned by the age of 7 and was cared for by his uncles. When his grandfather 'Jack' Musters of Colwick died in 1849, John inherited the Chaworth-Musters estates, and moved, with his uncle Philip and siblings Mary Ann and George, to their old ancestral seat of Annesley Hall. The rents of the estates were received by his uncle during John's minority much as Lancelot’s Watnall rents would have been by his guardians.

Mentor - John Chaworth-Musters of Annesley Hall

In the early 19th century the Chaworth-Musters had built up a famous hunt in the county, having no less than four sets of kennels in various parts of Nottinghamshire. When the family came back to live at Annesley Hall they restarted the sport here and Musters became a legendary and much respected huntsman. The hall had been moth-balled for many years. In 1834 the American writer Washington Irving and poet William Howitt visited searching for the "spirit of Lord Byron" and found it “forsaken, neglected and ghostly by reason of the deep desolation which possessed its grey walls, silent courtyard and unkempt gardens…” which sounds rather like it is again today.

“We applied for admission at the front door, which was under a heavy porch. The portal was strongly barricaded, and our knocking was echoed by waste and empty halls. Every thing bore an appearance of abandonment. After a time, however, our knocking summoned a solitary tenant from some remote corner of the pile. It was a decent-looking little dame, who emerged from a side door at a distance, and seemed a worthy inmate of the antiquated mansion. She had, in fact, grown old with it. Her name, she said, was Nanny Marsden; if she lived until next August, she would be seventy-one; a great part of her life had been passed in the Hall, and when the family had removed to Nottingham, she had been left in charge of it. The front of the house had been thus warily barricaded in consequence of the late riots at Nottingham, in the course of which the dwelling of her master had been sacked by the mob. To guard against any attempt of the kind upon the Hall, she had put it in this state of defence; though I rather think she and a superannuated gardener comprised the whole garrison. “You must be attached to the old building,” said I, “after having lived so long in it.” “Ah, sir!” replied she, “I am getting in years, and have a furnished cottage of my own in Annesley Wood, and begin to feel as if I should like to go and live in my own home.”

University…

Hall at Christ Church, Oxford

Lancelot completed his education by going up to Oxford, where he read Greats (Classics & Maths) at Christ Church College. It’s probably no coincidence that this was John Chaworth-Muster’s alma mater. Today, Christ Church is probably best known as the filming location and dining hall inspiration for Harry Potter's Hogwarts. Here he met Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll of "Alice in Wonderland" fame) who was his maths professor and Lord Randolph Churchill (father of Sir Winston) who was a fellow student. Churchill stayed at Watnall Hall as a guest in April 1887 on a visit to the Nottingham Conservatives. Dodgson himself had been taught at Christ Church by Reverend Baden-Powell, father of Lord Robert Baden-Powell founder of the Boy Scouts who Lancelot befriended in later life and who visited him at Watnall Hall. In his Reminiscences Lancelot also mentions his uncles from the Maltby Hall branch of the family. George Rolleston, who was the first distinguished Linacre professor of anatomy and physiology at Oxford, and George's brother William, who emigrated to New Zealand and became a prominent politician. William has the rather dubious honour of having a memorial lamp post dedicated to his memory on a street corner in Temuka, New Zealand. Rather more grandly though he also has a New Zealand mountain named after him, unsurprisingly named Mount Rolleston.

While at Oxford, Lancelot continued his father's solution to the financial problems by keeping Watnall Hall leased out. The census of 1871 shows that it was occupied by quarry owner Mr. Robert Charles Lindley, his wife and children - two of whom had been born at the Hall. In 1869, as chairman of the local agricultural society, the 22-year-old Lancelot talks about his intention to return to the Hall... "The Rev. Baron Von Hube proposed the health of the chairman, whose family he said was most dear to the parishioners of Greasley. No doubt some of them remembered a school in the neighbourhood which was founded by an ancestor of Mr. Rolleston [Bog End]. He (the speaker) longed for the chairman coming to reside on the estate. (Cheers.) ‘The toast was drunk with honours. The Chairman replied, expressing himself at a loss how to thank them sufficiently. He was unable to come to the Hall until he had done at Oxford, nor did he think it was wise for a young man to come directly he was of age, before he had learnt something of the world. (Hear,hear.) He hoped to tread in the footsteps of his ancestors, and he hoped to come there 20 more years. (Loud cheers.)"

After Oxford, Lancelot spends a lot of time with the Chaworth-Musters family. An excellent horseman, he was introduced to it as a youngster and rapidly became a life-long enthusiast for hunting, frequently riding out with the Chaworth-Musters. At Oxford he kept in practice by hunting with drag-hounds.

The census of 1871 finds Lancelot, aged 24, visiting the Chaworth-Musters at Burleigh Fields House on the outskirts of Loughborough. It’s the perfect environment to cultivate his love of horses and hunting. The family did not spend long here though. Around 1876 they were back at Annesley Hall and Lancelot too seems to have moved back into Watnall Hall. In the 1876 Post Office Directory of Nottinghamshire, the listing for Watnall says... "The Hall, an ancient brick building, is the seat of Lancelot Rolleston, esq., J.P., and stands in a park of about 60 acres." 

The Chaworth-Muster’s were often in Scotland fishing the river Dee for salmon. They owned a fishing lodge, Lysne Lodge, on the Laerdal river in Norway's Surnedal region. The lodge is still there today, a time capsule to the so called "salmon lords". 

Lancelot's 1889 Norway hunting diary

They also hunted reindeer, boar and surprisingly even brown bear. Lina Musters poetically recounts an epic 3 year long campaign to kill a troublesome bear that's killing the local sheep. She calls it "the Bjorn, the Feld-Kong" and hunting it involves days and nights hiding out in a reindeer-skin sleeping bag in the mountains. Lancelot also went hunting in Norway and several moth-eaten trophy heads were on display at Watnall Hall when it was demolished in 1962. Our only record of his Norwegian holidays is the remains of an 1889 diary recently found in Watnall. 

Lancelot’s occupation in the 1871 census is listed as “Landowner & Magistrate”. A 24-year-old magistrate must have been unusual but in Victorian times, magistrates were usually local gentry and had to own land to be appointed. He'd been appointed the year before and would remain a magistrate for a remarkable 70 years until his death aged 93 in 1941. In 1906, the Liberal government abolished the property qualification for county magistrates. Local magistrates were unpaid, as is still the case today, so he would have done it out of obligation rather than for money.

Horseman…

Master of the South Notts

He was made Master of the South Notts. Hunt in 1876 and remained in that position for six seasons until 1882 riding his horse called Rocket. During his Mastership he had built a new kennels for the Hunt at Gedling, but kept his own pack at Bulwell Hall at first then later at Rufford Abbey. Although money was still short, he is said to have made a donation to the county pack of £100 whereas Mr. Holden of Nuthall Temple only gave £5. He was obviously well respected by his hunting companions. Mr. Leonard Jacks visiting Watnall Hall around 1881 notes that... 

“On a small table, embedded in velvet, there is the hunting horn, which was presented to Mr. Rolleston, a year or two ago, as master of the South Nottinghamshire hounds, by the followers of the hunt—a token, no less of their admiration of the master’s conduct in the field, than of their appreciation of his geniality and uniform courtesy. This responsible and trying post— for even fox-hunting has its trials and responsibilities, Mr. Lancelot Rolleston accepted, on the resignation of Mr. Chaworth Musters, a few years ago, and hunting men say that the country has never furnished better sport under any previous master.”

The hunting horn is still in the hands of his descendants, the Scott-Dalgleish family. Such was his admiration for his horses that they were sometimes included in family wedding photos. Imagine the typical wedding picture composition with bride, groom and both sides of the family and there, off to the side posing proudly, is the Colonel with his favourite white horse!

Even the Colonel's horse gets in the wedding picture!

As an example of his enthusiastic horsemanship, he recalled in his Reminiscences that one morning in 1877 he set off on his horse and rode to see his cousins at Maltby Hall in Yorkshire. He went up through Brooksbreasting and followed all the old bridleways up to Maltby, visited and rode back again. When he stood for MP of Mansfield in 1886 people recall that he rode to nearly all his hustings meetings there on horseback. 

In 1889 he takes up the prestigious post of Master of the Rufford Hunt. It moves him and his wife into high society. They rent out Watnall Hall and move to Wellow Hall near Edwinstowe where they are closer to the Rufford Hunt's area. They host elaborate hunt balls in the Duke of Portland's enormous underground ballroom at Welbeck Abbey and he makes influential contacts that will last him all his long life.  

He also rode in a few steeplechases and bred horses for stud at Wellow Hall near Mansfield. This is from the "Stallions" section of The Sportsman newspaper on Feb 12, 1902... 

"TO SERVE MARES THIS SEASON - "WELCOME", Bay Horse (1892), the property of and bred by L. Rolleston, Esq., Wellow Hall, Newark. "Welcome" is a beautiful bay horse, with great power and quality, standing 15 hds 2 1/2 in. on short legs. He has a beautiful temper, is a sure foal getter, and his stock are most promising. He is probably the best representative of famous hunting and steeple-chasing blood at the stud. He was got by Ellesmere out of Bertred, by Lamlash out of Miss Honiton (dam of Zoedone, Rufus and St.Galmier - Zoedone won the Grand National). Ellesmere was a noted hunter and sire of hunters. He was by New Oswestry, dam by Glenaloer, grandson by The Steamer, great grandson by The Emporer. New Oswestry and The Steamer were noted hunter sires in Shropshire. Bertred won two steeplechases, and carried Mr. Rolleston nine seasons. Fee 20 guineas [and usually 1 guinea to the groom]. Apply, Mr H Richards, Wellow Hall. Newark." 

Soldier…

He’d also joined his late father’s mounted cavalry regiment, the Watnall Troop of the South Notts Hussars cavalry back in 1868. This was a volunteer Yeomanry regiment so he would have done it out of a sense of duty rather than for financial recompense. It was the start of his illustrious military career and he gradually rose through the ranks. Good swordsmanship and horsemanship were prized attributes for a Victorian cavalry officer.

He presented to Sgt. James Clark of the Watnall Troop the best swordmanship prize of a rather elegant and expensive portable barometer. By 1875 he was a Captain and by retirement age he was Colonel of the entire Imperial Yeomanry. More about that part of his life in a later instalment of Tales from Watnall Hall… He also held the office of High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1877 at the relatively young age of 30.

Squire in residence…

By 1879, aged 32, he had momentously moved back into Watnall Hall, reclaiming it for the family. At the opening of Kimberley's rebuilt parochial school that year he is referred to as "Captain Rolleston (Watnall Hall) and Mrs. Rolleston" (presumably his mother as he is not yet married). The old school was in the way of the new Midland Railway line (1875) so had to be rebuilt in its present location on Church Hill. For Lancelot, things must have improved financially, although he still only had a small staff of 2. There are newspaper articles about him sitting on the local agricultural committee too so he seems keen to take up his traditional mantle of local hereditary squire.

It was around this time that he was visited at Watnall Hall by Leonard Jacks author of The Great Houses of Nottinghamshire and the County Families, (1881) who writes an informative article about the Hall… “The interior is large and roomy, and when it is stated that Mr. Lancelot Rolleston, who now owns the estate, and lives at Watnall Hall, is unmarried, it may readily be imagined that certain of the apartments are not regularly used. Under the present regime, the library and the dining room may be described as the principal rooms.”

Marriage..

Wedding 1882

At the age of 35, he married Lady Charlotte Emma Maud Dalzell on 25th February, 1882 at Newton Abbot in Devon. Their marriage would turn out to be a long and happy one.

Lady Maud was the niece of the 10th Earl of Carnwath and she became a "Lady" in her own right when her brother inherited the title in 1887. She was born in 1859 in Bruges, Belgium. Her father was Colonel Robert Alexander George Dalzell an English gentleman aristocrat and soldier born into this noble Scottish family. He was the last son of a large family so did not inherit much family money. Nor did he ever inherit the Earl of Carnwath title although his sons did after his death.

Her mother Sarah Bushby Harris was the eldest of 7 daughters from a prominent and wealthy Canadian family from Eldon House, London, Ontario. His marriage to Lady Maud brought Lancelot into contact with wider society but probably did not provide him with much of the wealth he needed to live the life of a gentleman. It does appear to have been a "love match" though with Lady Maud turning down at least one richer suitor for "Lance" as she calls him in her diaries...

Sarah Dalzell (nee Harris)

Lady Maud's family checked up on Lancelot's finances before the marriage. Her grandmother Amelia Harris writes in her diary³.. "1881 Oct 28 … Sarah tells me that [her daughter] Maude is to be married to Launcelot. She is much pleased with the match. She likes him very much. He has three or four thousand £s a year. She, Maude, refused a much better match in point of money, a gentleman worth 30,000£s a year. …"  Amelia did not pass much Canadian wealth to Lady Maud's mother Sarah when she died in 1882. Most went to her other siblings. Lady Maud's father had a reputation (recorded in the Harris family diaries) for tight purse strings and his modestly paid career in the military² probably did not provide much of a dowry for the newly-married Rollestons... "Capt Dalzell’s father looks very sharp after money."

Lancelot's mother-in-law Sarah lived at the hall with them and became the grand old dame of Watnall eventually dying on 29^th May 1916 aged 94. A souvenir family autograph card from the hall dated 20^th March 1916 includes her spidery moniker next to which she’s proudly written “aged 94”. See the picture of it attached here. There are also two Muriel Dalzells, mother and daughter, Lady Maud's sister-in-law and niece.

Like his father he also made investments on the stock market and into local companies, including the railways which were thriving. When his mother died in 1894 his half share of her £4,395 estate improved his financial situation somewhat but he does not appear to have ever been particularly well off. He was now well established as Watnall’s local squire and benefactor which he would remain for all of his long life.

However, troubled times lay ahead for him. His experiences during the Boer War in 1900 and problems providing an heir for his estate would make his life difficult. But that’s a tale for another time…

Sources : Watnall Hall and the Rollestons - RA Horton 2000; Debretts Peerage; University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections archive; Public census records; Military service records; Wellington College website; Eldon House Diaries, London, Ontario, Canada; Leonard Jacks The Great Houses of Nottinghamshire and the County Families; Washington Irving diaries; William Howitt diaries; South Notts Hussars museum website; Eastwood and Kimberley Bygones group; Leicestershire Antills and Connected Families website; Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham; London Gazette 1865; Wellington College archives https://www.wellycom.net/2020/03/26/the-kingsleys-a-look-back-through-history/;Burke's The Landed Gentry https://archive.org/details/genealogicalhera02byuburk/page/1372/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater&q=rolleston; Nottingham Guardian 15th Oct 1869 Greasley and Selston Agricultural Society annual show and dinner at the Horse and Groom Moor Green; Nottingham Guardian supplement Aug 1 1879 - parochial school; 1889 Norway diary - see Norwegian Holidays article at watnallhall.blogspot.com; 1876 Post Office Directory of Nottinghamshire https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.30135978.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3Adb55d356d8fae46fff2a8221af87eba9&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&origin=&initiator=search-results;

Notes

1- Derby Daily Telegraph April 12th 1887

2 - Officers' pay, too, was notoriously low, ranging from £91 a year in the case of the junior officer, the ensign, up to £211 for a captain, and £365 a year for a regimental commander, the lieutenant-colonel. These were, of course, solid middle-class incomes, but were derisory compared to the expenses that an officer was expected to incur during his career, and indeed compared to what many would have been used to in private life. Especially in the cavalry, officers were usually expected to enjoy a private income sufficiently large to be their chief means of support, with their pay, in the parlance of the time, seen as 'not merces but honorarium'.

BEYOND THE QUEEN'S SHILLING: REFLECTIONS ON THE PAY OF OTHER RANKS IN THE VICTORIAN BRITISH ARMY - Cameron Pulsifer. Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. 80, No. 324 (Winter 2002), pp. 326-334 (9 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/44230867

3 - Amelia's diary entries relating to the Dalzells and Rollestons are in this article's note#12 https://watnallhall.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-watnall-hall-rolleston-graves-today.html 

4 - William Munday is the grandson sitting on his granfather's knee. His grandfather,  Francis Noel Clarke Mundy, wrote an epic poem, as an early environmental campaigner, lamenting the enclosure and loss of his beloved Forest of Needwood in Staffordshire... 

To My Grandson William, on his Repeating to me most perfectly and accurately my Poem, The Fall of Needwood, which he had secretly got by Heart.  January, 1809.

Aged, as aged lovers use,

I coax'd, then quarrell'd with my Muse;

This hour acknowledg'd her with pride,

Turn'd peevishly the next aside;

Now all was just as I could wish;

Now bad the best, and pshaw! and pish!

Despairing of herself to please

One so perversely prone to teaze,

For once, though foreign to her heart,

She stoop'd to court the help of Art.

The plotting pair rejoic'd to see

Attentive William at my knee.

Never did grandsire's arms enfold

An apter child of seven years old.

They plac'd, as playthings for his age,

Proof sheets, and scraps, and refuse page.

He, of all learning he had heard

Or read, his grand-papa's preferr'd,

Delighted this his text to spell,

And catch all fragments as they fell,

Till memory the whole had stor'd;—

But kept in secrecy her hoard.

Forgetful, incorrect, at times

Loosely I mutter'd o'er my rhimes;

Listening, this little boy the while

Reprov'd my errors with a smile.

I doubted, ask'd, encourag'd, led,

When with a blush he rais'd his head,

The Fall of Needwood to recite;—

My little boy is always right.

Ah, who can tell the Muse's joy,

When o'er this interesting boy,

With eager appetite I hung,

And drank the honey of his tongue?

Verse, that so recommended came,

I could not slight, I could not blame:

He gave it with a flow so sweet,

My work though humble, seem'd complete.

Thus sometimes to fastidious ear

Harsh may the shrill-ton'd lark appear,

Or loudly, from her lofty haunt,

The throstle unregarded chaunt;

Yet, if retired in secret glen,

Peeps, from a lowly bush, the wren,

With innocence of look, that wins

Attention, ere her note begins,

Soft, as if cherub whispers stole

To wake, and harmonize the soul,

Is there, that can its love withhold,

An ear so dull, a heart so cold?

Nay; but the praises, Muse, belong

More to the songster than the song.

© by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes   

Analysis (ai): This poem is a celebration of the author's grandson's perfect recitation of his poem, "The Fall of Needwood." The author's initial dissatisfaction with his own work is transformed by his grandson's enthusiastic and accurate performance. The poem's structure mirrors this journey, beginning with the author's self-doubt and ending with his delight at his grandson's accomplishment.

The poem is notable for its metrical regularity and rhyme scheme, which contribute to its playful and celebratory tone. It also employs a variety of literary devices, including alliteration, assonance, and personification, to enhance its musicality and emotional impact.

Compared to the author's other works, this poem is relatively short and lighthearted. It lacks the epic grandeur of some of his other poems, but compensates with its charm and sincerity. Within the context of the Romantic era, the poem's emphasis on the innocence and spontaneity of childhood aligns with the Romantic fascination with youth and nature.

Francis Noel Clarke Mundy

1739-1815

Quoted from Needwood Forest and the Fall of Needwood, With Other Poems, 1830, the Preface says, His kindness of heart was shown in his intercourse, not only with the rich and the noble, but with the patient poor and the secret sufferer. It was his delight to relieve the afflictions of those who lived in the neighbourhood, and the story of misfortune found a listener in his ready sympathy. As a magistrate, in which capacity he for many years presided as chairman at the Quarter Sessions, his impartiality was universally respected, and his interpretation of the laws held in reverence. The firmness with which he enforced their sanctions, was tempered by a lenient consideration of the weakness of human nature; and while he guarded the interests of society by his decisions, he pitied the wretched victim of outraged justice.