Sir, – Not many visitors to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire take the trouble to visit the village of Edensor, just a few minutes by foot from the main house but well worth the detour.
It was to St Peter's Church in this picturesque village that the body of Frederick Cavendish, chief secretary in Ireland, was brought in May 1882. As Frank McNally has recently pointed out in An Irishman's Diary ("Finding the memorial to the victims of the Invincibles", August 22nd), Frederick Cavendish was killed within a few hours of taking up his new appointment.
In the Cavendish chapel, along with a wreath sent by Queen Victoria, is a framed cutting from the Illustrated London News depicting the funeral in Edensor church on May 11th. Over 30,000 mourners, including the prime minister, William Gladstone, attended.
The late dowager duchess, the former Deborah Mitford, wrote of the graveyard that “the sheep tend the grass better than any machine”.
And only the sheep and a few stragglers were there that afternoon when I visited. – Yours, etc,
SHEILA SMITH,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.