He said. She described these visits herself. She said. She and her family were so entranced with Dove’s nest that they had an engraving of the house made which was used on the title page of some of her books. One of these is shown. Thomas Benson did not marry and had no children. When he died in 1869 the property was inherited by John Benson (1817–1876), one of his relatives who was born in 1817 in Colton and in 1851 married Eleanor Haythornthwaite (1820–1855). The couple had two daughters. When John Benson inherited Dove’s Nest in 1869 he went there to live for the rest of his life. When he died in 1876 he set up a trust for the distribution of his estate and Dove’s Nest was in this trust. Documents from the Wordsworth Trust Collection show that the Benson Trust continued until about 1960. During this time the house was let to numerous tenants. The first of these tenants was Captain Thomas Frederick Bolton (1830–1884) of the Westmorland Rifle Volunteers and his wife Ellen Briscoe (1822–1910). He died in 1884 and Ellen continued to rent the house until her death in 1910. The next tenants were Alfred Holden Illingworth (1869–1925) and his wife Emily Kathleen Wade (1871–1923). He was described as a well-known sportsman and keen angler. His wife died in 1923 and two years later he presented Kelsick Scar to the National Trust to honour her memory. There is a plaque on the Scar which can be seen at this reference. The Samling Hotel