ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

   The novelist Lady Helen Emily Craven (1874-1926), was a direct descendant of Elizabeth Craven. The daughter of the 3 rd  Earl of Craven, she is usually known by her married name, Forbes, under which her novels were published.   She first ventured into print writing newspaper articles about fashion at the age of sixteen. On 7th October 1890 she advised readers of The Guardian :- "A fine and warm September has delayed considerably the production of autumnal novelties, for in these days of cheap imitation the best milliners and dressmakers jealously withhold their newest inventions till the last possible moment. Despite the rumours that reach us from Paris of a threatened revolution in dress, of stiff Holbein bodices, with padded rolls upon the hips, as yet the simple, graceful gored skirt and Princess polonaise continue to hold their ground. It is in the Tudor times, the long-past days of pearl-broidered kirtles and jewelled stomachers, that we shall find the o...

George Berkeley, 8th Baron of Berkeley. [I am taking the liberty of borrowing this excellent paper by John Morgan of Warwick University, about George Berkeley, 8th Baron Berkeley, a direct ancestor or Elizabeth Craven. It reveals that while he was a cultivated, and well-travelled man, the 8th Baron was not, by the standards of most peers, rich. The Berkeley family narrowly escaped ruin during the Civil War, when they sided with King Charles I, but were rewarded with an earldom after the Restoration.] George Lord Berkeley, literary patron, nobleman, occasional sitting peer and fond traveller was born to Sir Thomas Berkeley and Elizabeth Carey in Essex, October 1601. Sir Thomas was the son and heir apparent of Henry Lord Berkeley, 7 th  Baron Berkeley. Henry outlived his son and died in November 1613, at Caludon in Coventry. John Smyth of Nibley, antiquary and life-long steward of the Berkeleys' estates notes that Henry 'may bee called  Henry the Harmlesse , or  Posthumous...