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The Earl possessed two manors here—the Lodge or Manor on the hill, and the Castle in the valley above the meadows—now built over—where the Dun and Sheaf joined their waters. This move was regarded as a most excellent method for change and expansion. Both houses were habitable, there was good fishing, and plenty of ground for exercise without going out of bounds. Nothing was lacking now to hasten the departure save the royal permission.

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The move to Sheffield was now abandoned because of the desperate excitement aroused in Elizabeth’s mind by the disclosure of the love affair which was brewing between Mary and the Duke of Norfolk. This matter for some time was not entirely a secret. A certain number of influential English nobles agreed with those of Scotland that such a marriage would be an excellent solution of the entire Scottish question. Even Leicester himself, adored of Elizabeth, joined his opinion to theirs. And these gentlemen had drawn up a proposal to Mary of which one clause runs, “Whether, touching her marriage with the Duke of Norfolk which had been moved to her by the Earl of Moray and Lidington, she would wholly refer herself to the Queen’s Majesty and therein do as she would have her and as her Majesty did like thereof—willing that all things should be done for her Majesty’s surety, which might be best advised by the whole Council.”