with Philip, we can trace a gradual change in her feel-Anne Stanhope, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope, ings and public conduct. Her devoted attachment to a lady,' as Lloyd says, of high mind and haughty, Philip, and the cold neglect with which he treated her, undaunted spirit.' As the protector's wife, she could not fail to tell upon a kind and ardent heart; chose to hold her head higher than the queen-dowablighted hope and unrequited affection will change the ger, who had married his brother the admiral. Very best dispositions; and she, whose youthful years had great,' says the same quaint writer, were the aniundoubtedly given a good promise, became disgusted mosities betwixt their wives, the duchess refusing to with the world, suspicious, gloomy, and resentful. bear the queen's train, and, in effect, justled her for The subsequent cruelties of her reign were deplora- precedence; so that, what between the train of the ble; yet it is but fair to ascribe much of them rather queen and long gown of the duchess, they raised so to her ministers than to herself; she believed it to be much dust at court as at last put out the eyes of both a point of her religion to submit her judgment to the their husbands.' spiritual dictation of Pole, Gardiner, and Bonner; On the second period (1549 to 1553) we must not and they burnt men upon principle. This was a enter. It embraces the triumph of the lofty and towmiserable mistake-bigotry in its worst sense; but ering Warwick, soon after the Duke of Northumberwe can imagine it existing in a mind rather distorted land, over the protector Somerset-the trials and and misled, than callously cruel. No one ever ac- deaths of both these great men-and the character of cused Cranmer of cruelty; yet he insisted on burn- the young king, which comes out more harsh, and ing Joan of Kent. These remarks, the reader who cold, and levelling, than we looked for. It may be wishes to judge for himself, should follow up by a matter of question, from a few glimpses we get in studying Sir Frederick Madden's minute and inter- these letters, whether the early death of Edward did esting memoir of Mary, prefixed to the volume of her not save the Church of England from some severe privy purse expenses. The following letter from blows; but we have no room for extracts, and must her when princess, addressed to the Duchess of So-be contented with pointing out these new materials merset, her "good Nan," exhibits her in an amiable to the future historian of the period. One passage light, interceding for two poor servants who were in a letter of Sir Richard Morysine contains a graphic formerly attached to the household of her mother, portrait of Charles V. (vol. ii. p. 135). The empeand who had fallen into poverty :

To My Lady of Somerset.

ror sitting at his ease without a carpet or anything else upon it, saving his cloak, his brush, his spectacles, and his tooth-pick:' the courtesy with My good Gossip,-After my very hearty com- which he received Edward's letter, putting hand to mendations to you, with like desire to hear of the his bonnet and uncovering the upper part of his head :' amendment and increase of your good health, these the impediment in his speech, his nether lip being in shall be to put you in remembrance of mine old suit two places broken out, and he forced to keep a green concerning Richard Wood, who was my mother's leaf within his mouth at his tongue's end:' we are servant when you were one of her Grace's maids; pleased with these minute touches when connected and, as you know by his supplication, hath sustained with so great a man. He hath a face,' says Morygreat loss, almost to his utter undoing, without any sine, unwont to disclose any hid affection of his recompense for the same hitherto; which forced me heart, as any face that ever I met with in all my life; to trouble you with this suit before this time, where- his eyes only do betray as much as can be picked out of (I thank you) I had a very good answer; desiring of him. He maketh me oft think of Solomon's sayyou now to renew the same matter to my lord your ing, a king's heart is unsearchable,—there is in him alhusband, for I consider that it is in manner impossi-most nothing that speaks besides his tongue.' ble for him to remember all such matters, having The third and last section embracing, as it does, such a heap of business as he hath.

the whole of Mary's reign, is perhaps the least satisfactory of the three. This, however, is to be attributed solely to its shortness: for it discloses many curious documents; of which by no means the least important are the letters of Simon Renard, Charles V.'s ambassador at the English court. We obtain from it a few hints relative to Elizabeth's connection with Wyatt's conspiracy; and referring the reader to the papers themselves for particulars, shall content ourselves with transcribing Mr. Tytler's brief summary, which seems to embody the substance of all that has hitherto been disclosed on that obscure point of history.

Wherefore, I heartily require you to go forward in this suit till you have brought it to an honest end, for the poor man is not able to lye long in the city. And thus, my good Nan, I trouble you both with myself and all mine, thanking you with all my heart for your earnest gentleness towards me in all my suits hitherto, reckoning myself out of doubt of the continuance of the same. Wherefore, once again I must trouble you with my poor George Brickhouse, who was an officer of my brother's wardrobe of the beds, from the time of the king my father's coronation; whose only desire it is to be one of the knights of Windsor if all the rooms be not filled, and, if they be, to have the next reversion; in the obtaining whereof, in mine opinion, you shall do a charitable follow each other at such brief intervals that any deed, as knoweth Almighty God, who send you good health, and us shortly to meet, to his pleasure. From St. John's, this Sunday at afternoon, being the 24th of April. Your loving friend during my life, -vol. i. p. 48. 'MARYE.' This good Nan,' the gossip of the Queen, was

These letters of Renard tell their own story, and

comment is unnecessary. If I do not overrate them, they add many new and important facts to the history hitherto been the great authority; a slight glance at of this period, on which Noailles' despatches have them will convince the critical reader how differently the same facts appear in Noailles' pages and in Renard's narrative. Both ambassadors undoubtedly had their bias, the one for, the other against, Mary;

and, between the two, we are likely to arrive at On the following Tuesday at three o'clock, the something like the truth. As to one point, Eliza- Earl of Pembroke and the Admiral came to bring us beth's connexion with Wyatt's plot, I confess, to the Queen and her Council; here, in a chamber Renard's letters leave on my mind little doubt of her knowledge of the designs of the conspirators in her favour. That she directly encouraged them there is no direct proof; and, if Wyatt wrote to her, and the Lord Russel delivered his letter, she could not help it. It may be said, concealment was equivalent to indirect encouragement; but we can imagine her shrinking from becoming an informer, and yet disapproving of the enterprise.'-vol. ii. p. 421.

where was the blessed Host, the ratifications of her Majesty and his Highness were delivered, and the oaths taken by both the one party and the other: but, before this, the Queen fell on her knees, and called God to witness that this marriage was not in her the result of any carnal affection; that it did not originate in ambition, or any motive except the good of her kingdom, and the repose and tranquility of her subjects; that in truth, her single intention in all she Queen Mary's knight (Sir Frederick Madden) is which she had already made to the crown; expressdid, was to prove faithful to the marriage and oath more chivalric than her esquire (our author;) for the former maintains that personal beauty was superad round were in tears. ing this with so much grace, that those who stood After this, her Maded to all her other good qualities,-a cause in which the latter refuses to do battle: but the esquire's knees, and requested us to join our prayers with hers, jesty, as she had already done, dropped upon her opinion is sustained by all the authentic portraits, that God would be pleased to give her his grace to of which one is engraved for his second volume-fulfil the treaty which she had sworn, and that He though we wish he had rather obtained the use of would make the marriage fortunate. Upon which, that which was taken by the French from the Madrid the Count Egmont presented to her the ring which Gallery, and which is now in Lord Ashburton's pos- your Majesty has sent, and which she showed to all session. One document now disinterred contains a the company (and assuredly, Sire, the jewel is a refutation of the commonly received opinion of her precious one, and well worth looking at.) After this severity towards her sister, at the time of Wyatt's we took our leave, first enquiring whether her Marebellion. A narrative in Fox has furnished all our historians, from Strype to Turner, with materials for she begged to send her most affectionate regards, jesty had any commands for his Highness; to whom an invective against Mary. That writer states, that begging us to assure him that for her part, as long as on the day after the rising, the Queen sent three of she lived, she would by all dutiful obedience endeavher council to Ashridge with a troop of horse, to bring the Lady Elizabeth to court, quick or dead' and her to vie with him in mutual love and good offices: she added that, as his Highness had not yet written to has embellished his account of the journey, and of her, she deferred writing to him till he began the the mode in which the messengers performed their

6

errand, with sundry touches of cruelty which render correspondence.'—vol. ii. pp. 326, 328.

the whole story revolting. Mr. Tytler publishes the We cannot find room for a description of the maroriginal report of the commissioners, describing their riage, but must refer the reader to vol. ii. p. 430. interview with Elizabeth, and entering into full de- He will also be interested with the new proof adtails of their conduct: from which it is proved that duced by Mr. Tytler of the extent to which the unFox's narrative is completely erroneous. Another happy Queen indulged the delusion she was about to source of misapprehension, which had led some of become a mother. There exists in the State Paper our historians into error respecting Mary's feelings Office an original letter addressed to Cardinal Pole, towards her sister, is also here pointed out (vol. ii. p. and signed by Philip and Mary, wherein the wished429.) Her responsibilities are heavy enough, with- for event is mentioned as having already occurred: out needing that any unfounded calumnies should be God has been pleased, amongst his other benefits, laid to her charge. to add the gladding of us with the happy delivery of There were two rare qualities united in Queen a Prince.'-(p. 469.) The anxiety of Charles V. Mary's character; she was determined in council, re- on the subject is strikingly illustrated in a letter solute and bold in action: but when she had accom-from Sir John Mason, p. 470. But we must restrict ourselves to some one definite object. plished her purpose, she was, Mr. Tytler thinks, as mild as was consistent with her personal safety. Deeply impressed with the historical importance The letters of Renard show, that Courtenay, Earl of which attaches to the name of Cecil, Mr. Tytler has Devon, was deeply implicated in Wyatt's rebellion, lost no opportunity of directing attention to him in and in the eye of the law he was worthy of death; the course of these two volumes, which embracing yet Mary not only pardoned him, but treated him that portion of his life, concerning which least of all with much kindness, and sent him to travel for his im- is known, contain much that is new about this great provement (vol. ii. p. 471.) Mr. Tytler gives a minister. His biographers, dazzled by the lustre of touching letter addressed to the Earl by his mother his acts and high station under Elizabeth, invariably (p. 473.) and another more curious, but less interest-slur over the two preceding reigns; contenting theming, from the Earl to the Queen herself (p. 494.) selves with vague assertions or unsupported conjecMore illustrations of Mary's merciful disposition tures. Let us attempt, with Mr. Tytler's help, to supply this defect. Cecil was born, as he himself might be quoted. informs us in one of his little memorandum-books,

One of her most unpopular acts was her match with the Spanish Prince; and we extract a description of Mary's behaviour with reference to her approaching marriage, as given in one of the somewhat lengthy despatches of Renard to Philip's imperial

father:

preserved in the British Museum, on the 13th of September, 1520.

was Richard Cecil, Esq., yeoman of the wardrobe. stock and feather beds. He mentions no large sums From these facts we may infer that he was de- of money; and Richard, as he inherited little, so scended from an honest and respectable, rather than had he little to bestow.

from a 66 very ancient and honourable house," as his Burleigh himself, having received the rudiments biographers have so often repeated. He belonged, of education at Grantham and at Stamford, at the age I think, to the gentry of the country. The heralds, of fourteen was sent to St. John's College, Camit is true, in the palmy days of Burleigh, got up bridge; where he is said to have made extraordinary for him a handsome descent from William Sitsilt, progress; his diligence being so great, that, accordan intimate friend of William Rufus, in the year ing to the story preserved by one of the gentlemen 1091; which pedigree (with reverence be it spoken) of his household, he hired the bell-ringer to call is said to be drawn by Camden; yet so much doubt him up at foure of the clocke every morninge ;'—an hangs over the effusions of Rouge Dragons and Cla- anecdote which the seminary priests afterwards rencieux's, when working for prime ministers, that, turned into an assertion that he was hired as the till the proofs are produced, we may be allowed to bell-ringer's boy. This over-application impaired hesitate.'-vol. i. p. 71. his health, and is supposed to have laid the founda

6

We may indeed. But Mr. Tytler should here tion of that malady, to which, in his old age he behave mentioned Cecil's mother, Jane Hickington, came a martyr. He had, no doubt, something of the the daughter and heiress of a Lincolnshire gentle- stimulus of the grand Magister Artium.' It is reman, William Hickington, of Bourne. It was she corded by a contemporary, and evidently a partial who brought Burleigh, then a small property, into writer, that one Medcalf, then master of that house the family. She lived to a great age, to see her son (St. John's) seeing his diligence and towardness, prime minister, and to keep (as her letters and other would often give him money to encourage him;' papers show) a very strict and severe scrutiny over and Cecil himself in after years declared that his the farming and planting operations of the great bringing up' had been mean."-Vol. i. p. 430. Statesman, who in her lifetime managed Burleigh We know from his Journal,' says Mr. Tytler, for her. There is a curious portrait of her at Hatthat, on the 6th of May, 1541, when twenty-one field, exceeding grim and plain, but with an expression of strong sense. years he came to the inns of court. His marSuch were Cecil's ancestors: age, nor does there seem to be the remotest proof that he had any claim to the genealogical honours of the house of Sitsilt; neither do we remember, amid all the orthographical vagaries which his name admits of, ever having seen it blundered into Sitsilt by any one of the family. It was alternately Cyssell, Cyssyll, Cissell, Cecyll: and various persons addressing the minister, contrived, by a little gratuitous exercise of ingenuity, to torture the sibilants into combinations yet more uncouth and eccentric. He himself invariably spelt his name Cecil.

of

rage to a sister of Sir John Cheeke took place in August, 1541, and this seems to me to have been the first thing that brought him into notice; for, Cheeke being appointed tutor to Prince Edward in 1544, he ther-in-law: and yet I suspect he did not even then must have had opportunities of befriending his brodesert the law, and come to court. The exact year when he did so has not yet been pointed out by any of his biographers, and his Journal is silent.'-vol. i. P. 72.

The traditional account of Cecil's obtaining the This great man, who has illustrated a long and notice of Henry VIII., by confuting O'Neill's two honoured posterity, may well dispense with ances- chaplains in a Latin argument on the supremacy tral glories. Still, however, his progenitors can be question, is very vague; but true or false, it is fair to shown to have been respectable.' In a bitter at- infer from such a report, that he gave early evidence tack upon him which came from abroad, it is said of that understanding and judgment for which he behis grandfather kept the best inn at Stamford, and came afterwards so remarkable. the writer ridicules his quartering lions in his coat, The conjecture respecting the circumstance which when a couple of fat capons would have been more first swelled Cecil's sail with the gales of court favor appropriate. The greater part of this piece is, no is probably correct. Sir John Cheeke, as tator to doubt, a mere lying libel; but it is curious enough the young king, must have possessed considerable that in the will of David Cecil, he leaves to his sou influence at court, though he was a person of inconRichard, Burleigh's father, all the title and interest siderable origin. Baker says,-- Cheeke's mother that he has or may have in the Taberd at Stamford.' sold wine in St. Mary's parish, in Cambridge, in That David, therefore, had something to do with which quality she may be met with upon the college this inn is clear: it is possible that his ancestors books.' By this marriage Cecil had one son, Thomas, may have had a nearer connexion with it; but he afterwards Earl of Exeter; and the next point decould, we think, have had none but one of property. serving of notice in his history has been first distinctHe styles himself, in his will, of Stamford, in the ly pointed out by Mr. Tytler; viz., that at the age of county of Lincoln, Esquire' and in those days twenty-seven, he managed the whole correspondEsquire meant something. In the British Museum ence of the Protector Somerset, probably in the capaare preserved many of his letters: they prove that city of his private secretary.' (vol. i. p. 73.) This he was patronized by Cromwell, the able but unscru- was in 1547, at which time we may begin to regard pulous minister of Henry VIII., and seem the pro- Sir William Cecil in the light of a public manduction of a worthy man, and of one possessing con- though the statement that he was master of requests siderable local authority and importance. He evi- in that year is inaccurate; he was not appointed to dently lived in something like affluence; but from this office till much later.

6

his enumeration of the effects which he bequeathed The period, therefore, when he entered on his pubto his wife, and to his sons Richard and David, his lic career was precisely that interesting epoch with property seems to have consisted mostly of farming which the volumnes before us commence. Somerset,

the lord protector of the kingdom, at that time in the impressed with Cecil's merit and value: Cecil, who zenith of power, was his friend and patron; Cecil was now twenty-nine, pursued the path which it is accompanied the duke on his great Scottish expedi- probable that, under similar circumstances, most men tion in 1547, at the battle of Pinkey (10th Septem- would have pursued; and the consequence of his adber); and he narrowly escaped being killed by a herence to Warwick was his promotion to the secrecannon-shot. In the following February (1547-8) taryship on the 5th of September, 1550. the protector speaks of him in such terms as seem In 1551, the memorable year of Somerset's second to show that he managed much of his correspond- and final fall, our author again directs attention to ence (vol. i. p. 75); and this very well agrees with Cecil's conduct. Edward VI. states in his journal, an entry in Cecil's Latin diary, which has misled the that when the duke sent for the Secretary Cecil to biographers. Under the year 1548, he says, Mense tell him he suspected some ill, Mr. Cecil answered, Septemb. cooptatus sum in officium secretarii,'- -mean- that if he were not guilty, he might be of good coning of private secretary to the protector. Accord-rage; if he were, he had nothing to say, but to laingly, Sir Walter Mildmay and others, addressing ment him: whereupon the duke sent him a letter of him in that year, style him Secretary to my lord defiance;' and on this reply, so cold, measured, and protector's Grace.' unkind,' Mr. Tytler proceeds to pass some severe Perhaps there never was a period of history more comments: but let us look a little into this. Surely trying to a statesman than that when Cecil com-before we condemn him for having turned his back menced his career. It was a fiery furnace wherein upon his friend and first patron in the hour of adverpure faith and honesty proved fatal to their posses- sity, it is necessary to examine scrupulously on what sors, and the baser qualities stood a man in better the charge rests: now the only evidence is the young stead. He was most fortunate who could most skil- king's journal, and there cannot be a doubt, I think,' fully steer his barque amid the conflicting currents says Mr. Tytler himself, that the narrative of Edin the great ocean of politics; for to resign oneself to ward was the story told him by Northumberland' the influence of any one of these, and to become in- (vol. ii. p. 60.) It is proper to remember that Cecil volved in utter ruin, were the same thing. The re- was now a man of considerable personal standingcollection of Cecil's subsequent greatness suggests that he had to make his choice between two ambisome investigation of his conduct during this extra- tious chiefs that it is quite possible he sincerely ordinary period; and first,-What befel him when disapproved of Somerset's, and approved, as far as Somerset was hurled from place and power in 1549? he then understood them, of Northumberland's views When the Duke was deserted by his former friends and, finally, that much would depend on the lanand colleagues-openly denounced as an enemy by guage and manner in which he communicated with the council, who till that hour had done his bidding, Somerset on the occasion; as to which we have no Cecil was one of the very few who clung to him. evidence at all. In October, 1551, he was knighted; Cranmer, Paget, Smith, and he, were almost the and Pickering wrote from Paris, congratulating him only friends who remained with the Protector at on having been found undefiled with the Duke's Windsor at that memorable moment when the impe- folly.' Northumberland and he lived apparently on rious Warwick was summoning him to withdraw terms of great intimacy and friendship, as Mr. Tytler himself from the king's majesty, disperse the force shows from a curious letter in which the Duke aswhich he had levied, and be content to be ordered sures him that he will not fail to visit his father, in according to justice and reason. Of these, Cranmer his progress through Lincolnshire, were it only to and Paget proved false to him, but Smith and Cecil drink a cup of wine with him at the door; for I will shared his imprisonment. Mense Novembris, 4° 3° not trouble no friend's house ofine otherwise in E. 6, fui in Turre,' says Cecil: a statement which this journey,' says the magnificent Northumberland, has puzzled Mr. Tytler (vol. i. pp. 245 and 274), my train is so great, and will be, whether I will or but we think without reason. The Duke and Smith not' (vol. ii. p. 11.) It must have gratified old were committed to the Tower on the 13th of October, Richard Cecil,' observes Mr. Tytler, 'to see the boy how then, says our author, did it happen that Cecil who had left his roof with no such bright prospects, did not follow them thither till the following month? return to it secretary of state, and friend and confidant We reply, first, that Cecil's having been in the Tower of the first man in the realm. But had he known the in November is no proof that he was not sent there cares and dangers of the office, he would have hesiin October; and secondly, that as Mr. Tytler has tated to change his own cloth of frieze for his son's himself remarked (vol. i. p. 76) Cecil's diary is evi- cloth of gold.' Cecil seems to have deeply felt the dently the work of a later period of his life; and restraint to which Northumberland's imperious temtherefore its minute statements are not to be felied per subjected him. In a remarkable entry in his The inconveniences attending a residence in the private diary, he describes himself as having no will Tower during the nipping month of November pro- of his own under Edward, and as only recovering the bably made the strong impression upon his memory. rights of a free agent by the death of the young Mr. Tytler has shown that Cecil obtained his king- Libertatem adeptus sum, morte Regis; et ex liberty 25th January, 1549–50 (vol. i. p. 274.) The misero aulico factus liter et mei juris.' fact is interesting; but still more interesting and extraordinary is the fact that, on his release, he pos- Cecil's desertion of Somerset, and his devotedsessed the regard not only of Somerset but also of ness to Northumberland, brought him to the brink of Warwick. That he should have been obliged to sa- a precipice. The moment of trial was now come, and crifice the duke's friendship in order to obtain a share it is curious to trace him under it; yet let us do it of the earl's confidence seems only natural; but Mr. with every allowance. The times were dreadful, and, Tytler appears to think that he did not then do so in the vocabulary of statesmen, to lose your place and (vol. i. pp. 276-7.) Warwick must have been deeply to lose your head were then almost convertible terms. VOL. XXXVIII.-MARCH, 1840.

on.

34

We must find room for another extract.

rect.

On his first suspicion of the desperate game which short years, could he but be successful in surmounting Northumberland was playing, Cecil appears to have them in safety, would restore the religion and the adopted an expedient not uncommon in those days government of the country to that footing on which with councillors who wished to get rid of a danger- it was the wish of his heart to see them placed. ous question. He became very sick, and absented When, therefore, we find him following Paget and himself from court. This, at least, is Strype's con- Hastings to the court of the emperor for the purpose jecture, and there is every reason to believe it cor- of conducting to this country Cardinal Pole, we feel Many of his friends, however, thought him less inclined to believe, with Mr. Tytler, that he really ill, and amongst these, Lord Audley, who cultivated with assiduity the friendship of Cardinal loved and studied the healing art, undertook his Pole, the great man of the day, to whom Mary gave cure, as appears by the following humorous recipe her chief confidence' (vol. ií. p. 475), than to suspect and epistle.' Cecil's disease was that Cecil absented himself as a measure of precaudeeper fixed than to be cured by soup formed from tion; too happy to be out of the way of those trials the distillation of a sow-pig boiled with cinnamon to which all Protestants (especially such as had enjoyand raisins, or a compost of a porpin or hedgehog ed favour in the preceding reign) were exposed. Cestewed in red wine and rosewater. It was North-cil's name does not occurțin the instructions with which umberland's plot that troubled his digestion.'-vol. Paget and Hastings were furnished (vol. ii. p. 445), ii. p. 171. and he does not appear to have attended them in an

It must be unnecessary to do more than remind official capacity; if he did, it must have been in a the reader of the daring scheme of the last-named very subordinate one. It seems tolerably certain, ambitious peer to divert the succession into his own however, that with his characteristic sagacity, Cecil family, and of the reluctance of the council to com- did attach himself in some degree to Cardinal Pole. ply with his wishes. Cecil was as loth as the rest The Cardinal,' says Burnet,' was a man of a geneto affix his signature to the king's will, and at first rous and good disposition, but knew how jealous the was so fearful of becoming implicated in any of court of Rome would be of him if he seemed to favour Northumberland's proceedings, that he, as we have heretics, therefore he expressed great detestation of seen, absented himself from the council on the plea them. Nor did he converse much with any that had of sickness. This was from the 22nd April to the been of that party but the late Secretary Cecil, who, 2nd June, 1553, at which time Lord Audley pre- though he lived for the most part privately at his house scribed his hedgehog soup. His signature, however, near Stamford, where he afterwards built a sumptuin common with that of the rest of the council, was ous house, and was known to favour the Reformation obtained by Northumberland, and he was thus made still in his heart, yet in many things he complied accessory to an act directly hostile to Queen Mary. with the time, and came to have more of his confi This placed him in a critical position on her ac-dence than any Englishman. cession. Northumberland on the scaffold, and the The question in how far Cecil conformed to the Roman Catholic party triumphant, were appalling popish church after his return to England is one with changes. We must content ourselves with a general which his biographers have coquetted. There is in reference on this subject to the volumes under con- the State Paper office a document illustrative of this sideration (pp. 191 to 206), where an extraordinary subject, from which Mr. Tytler prints a few extracts. paper is published in illustration of Cecil's conduct. It gives the names of them that dwelleth in the It is entitled A brief Note of my Submission and of parish of Wimbleton, that was confessed, and received my Doings, and was presented by himself to the the sacrament of the altar,' at Easter, 1556: the first Queen. He endeavours to exculpate himself on the three persons being my master Sir William Cecil, grounds,-1st, of his having acted on compulsion-my lady Mildred his wife, and Thomas Cecil [his I did refuse to subscribe the book, when none of the son]' (vol. ii. p. 443: from which, viewed in concouncil did refuse; in what peril I refer it to be con-nexion with other documents cited by Mr. Tytler, sidered by them who knew the duke;' 2ndly, of his the fact that Sir William Cecil conformed to the full having participated, to the least possible extent, in extent during Queen Mary's reign may be considered the treasonable practices of Northumberland, or as established. He confessed, attended mass with rather of his having secretly acted against him, e. g. Ihis wife, and brought up his son, Thomas, afterwards dissembled the taking of my horse, and the rising of Earl of Exeter, in the profession of the Roman Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, and avowed the Catholic faith. The paper to which Mr. Tytler has pardonable lie where it was suspected to my danger.' called attention was apparently in the hands of Dr. All this seems rather shabby; but he was pardon- Nares before him; yet could it extort from the latter ed, though he lost all his places. It is not wonder-nothing beyond the general admission,- Of Sir ful that he should seem to have taken little part in William Cecil's conformity, to a certain extent, there public affairs during Mary's reign; though we can be do doubt.' (Life, vol. i. p. 673.) Sir William strongly suspect not so much because he could not Cecil's conformity was exactly what he found nehave acquired a larger share of influence and authority, cessary to his personal security. as because he did not choose to contend for any. But A more pleasing feature, which comes prominently while he shunned all public business, he continued forward during this reign, was his strong attachment to be the private adviser of Elizabeth. Write my to country occupations,-his love of his farm-of his commendations in your letters to Mr. Cecil,' said the garden-of planting and horticulture. In the pocketPrincess to Parry, her cofferer, in 1551; I am well book which he carried with him into the Low Counassured, though I send not daily to him, that he doth tries, when he accompanied Paget, we meet with no not, for all that, daily forget me: say, indeed, I as- ambitious memoranda-no hints for government or sure myself thereof.' (vol. i. p. 426.) He foresaw statistical collections-but a method of cultivating that, provided Queen Mary died without issue, a few the willow is carefully set down, dated from Menen.