Cavendish’s family has lived at Holker since 1756 when the estate passed from the Lowther family to Lord George Cavendish, son of William Cavendish, the third Duke of Devonshire. A century on, William Cavendish, the seventh Duke of Devonshire, was in situ at Holker and spent his final years there. “Out of choice, he loved it,” says Cavendish.
In 1871, a fire destroyed the house’s west wing and took with it more than 100 paintings, including those by Canaletto, Rubens and Holbein. “As the ashes were still smouldering, [William Cavendish] and his daughter set about rebuilding the house,” says Cavendish.
When Victor Cavendish, the ninth Duke of Devonshire, inherited the Devonshire estates in 1908, Holker fell to his younger brother Lord Richard Cavendish and branched away from the main line.
Holker’s current custodian returned home to the estate in 2014, having spent 15 years working as an artist. Her father, Richard Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Furness, once said that she was like a “hefted sheep”, ever drawn back to Holker.
“I don’t necessarily think of myself as a hefted sheep,” she says. “But he is right – coming back here felt like coming home in a really profound sense. I love Cumbria, I love the people. It seemed to make sense.”
The estate she took on had been nurtured by her parents for 40 years and was in a good, well-diversified state. Her father inherited Holker in 1972 from his father – another Richard Cavendish – after he died aged 54. “He hadn’t had good health for a long time and inherited Holker himself [in 1946] at a low ebb,” she says. “He concentrated much of his life on it, and my father was young and newly married when he inherited.”
