Part 43
The history of Audley End has been pretty fully told in the history of the families to whom it has belonged; but little, therefore, need be added. The architect of the mansion has been variously stated to be Bernard Jansen and John Thorpe, but the weight of evidence seems to be in favour of the latter. Regarding the house itself, and especially the “admirable drink” kept in the cellar, we have two striking pictures written by “quaint old Pepys” in 1659-60 and 1667. “Up by four o’clock,” he says on the 27th February, “Mr. Blayton and I took horse and straight to Saffron Walden, where, at the White Hart, we set up our horses, and took the master of the house to show us Audley End House, who took us on foot through the park, and so to the house, where the housekeeper showed us all the house, in which the stateliness of the ceilings, chimney-pieces, and form of the whole was exceedingly worth seeing. He took us into the cellar, where we drank most admirable drink, a health to the king. Here I played on my flageolette, there being an excellent echo. He shewed us excellent pictures; two especially, those of the Four Evangelists, and Henry VIII. After that I gave the man 2_s._ for his trouble and went back again. In our going, my landlord carried us through a very old hospital, or almshouse, where forty poor people was maintained; a very old foundation: and over the chimney-piece was an inscription in brass, ‘Orate pro animâ Thomæ Bird,’ &c., and the poor-box also was on the same chimney-piece, with an iron door and locks to it, into which I put 6_d._ They brought me a draft of their drink in a brown bowl tipt with silver,[45] which I drank off, and at the bottom was a picture of the Virgin and the Child in her arms, done in silver. So we went to our Inn, and after eating of something, and kissed the daughter of the house, she being very pretty, we took leave, and so that night, the road pretty good, but the weather rainy, to Epping, where we sat and played a game at cards, and after supper and some merry talk with a playne bold mayde of the house we went to bed.” Again, in 1667, he says: “I and my wife and Willet (the maid), set out in a coach I have hired with four horses, and W. Hewer and Murford rode by us on horseback; and before night come to Bishop’s Stortford. Took coach to Audley End, and did go all over the house and gardens; and mighty merry we were. The house indeed do appear very fine, but not so fine as it hath heretofore to me; particularly, the ceilings are not so good as I always took them to be, being nothing so well wrought as my Lord Chancellor’s are; and though the figure of the house without be very extraordinary good, yet the stayre-case is exceeding poore; and a great many pictures, and not one good one in the house but one of Henry VIII., done by Holbein; and not one good suit of hangings in all the house, but all most ancient things, such as I would not give the hanging up of in my house; and the other furniture, beds, and other things, accordingly. Only the gallery is good, and above all things the cellars, where we went down and drank of much good liquor. And indeed the cellars are fine: and here my wife and I did sing to my great content. And then to the garden, and there eat many grapes, and took some with us; and so away thence exceeding well satisfied, though not to that degree that by my old esteem of the house I ought and did expect to have done, the situation of it not pleasing me; thence away to Cambridge, and did take up at the Rose.”
Evelyn, who wrote a little before Pepys—in 1654—says he “went to Audley End, and spent some time in seeing that goodly palace, built by Howard, Earl of Suffolk, once Lord Treasurer. It is a mixed fabric ‘twixt ancient and modern, but observable for its being completely finished; and it is one of the stateliest palaces in the kingdom. It consists of two courts, the first very large, winged with cloisters. The front hath a double entrance; the hall is faire, but somewhat too small for so august a pile; the kitchen is very large, as are the cellars, arched with stone, very neat, and well disposed. These offices are joyned by a wing out of the way very handsomely. The gallery is the most cheerful, and, I think, one of the best in England; a faire dining-roome and the rest of the lodginges answerable, with a pretty chapel. The gardens are not in order, though well inclosed; it has also a bowling-alley, and a nobly walled, wooded, and watered park. The river glides before the palace, to which is an avenue of lime-trees; but all this is much diminished by its being placed in an obscure bottom. For the rest it is perfectly uniform, and shows without like a diadem, by the decoration of the cupolas and other ornaments on the pavilions. Instead of railings and ballusters, there is a bordure of capital letters, as was lately also in Sussex House.”
In 1721, on the advice of that man of little taste, Sir John Vanbrugh the architect, the three sides of the grand quadrangle, which formed so magnificent an entrance to this splendid mansion, were destroyed, along with the kitchen and offices, which were behind the north wing. The chapel and cellars, which projected from the gallery wing at each end, soon shared the same fate. The inner court thus was alone allowed to remain untouched, and the mansion was confined to one hollow square. In 1747 the house was in a state of dilapidation, and projects were set on foot both for pulling it down, and for converting it into a silk manufactory. Two years later, the eastern wing, whose feature was the magnificent gallery, was pulled down. The house was, at an enormous expense, restored, repaired, and made habitable by the first Lord Braybrooke, and, though there remains but a small portion of the original edifice, it is yet a noble and stately building.
We have left ourselves scant space for a description of the noble and very beautiful house, one of the best of those of the Elizabethan era that time has left us, though it is not now as it was when Evelyn pictured it in the quotation we have given; but the gardens are charmingly kept, and have been laid out with taste and skill; the classic river Cam runs in front, and it is here of considerable breadth, Art having utilised the small stream, and made what is technically termed “a sheet of ornamental water;” it is also used to supply fountains and _jets d’eau_ in various parts of the grounds.
The house is distant about a mile from the pretty and picturesque town of Saffron Walden, whose Church holds rank among four of the most perfect examples in Great Britain; and close to it is a Museum containing much that is deeply interesting—many specimens of the earliest races by whom this island was inhabited in the pre-historic ages.
We give several engravings of the house; one of its principal Lodge, one of its attractive Gardens, and one of a comparatively modern structure in the grounds, called the Temple of Concord, built, it is said, to commemorate the recovery of George III. from his first afflicting illness.
Before we reach the house, proceeding from the Audley End station, we may pause awhile to examine the Abbey Farm-buildings and a square of venerable and very comfortable Almshouses, in which “nine old ladies” are passing in ease the residue of their lives—blessing, as we bless, the lord who founded them.
The grand feature of the house is the Hall: it is not, as Evelyn thought it was, “somewhat too small,” but is finely proportioned, in some parts admirably carved, and it contains many portraits—among others that of the founder and his wife and daughter. The ceilings throughout the mansion are of much beauty, and, besides several grand examples of the ancient masters and “throngs” of family portraits, there are some rare specimens of china. There are other curious relics—among them the chair of Alexander Pope, and the carved oak head of Cromwell’s bed, converted into a chimney-piece.
Audley End is not often visited: it is somewhat out of the highway of England, but of a surety it will largely repay those who love Nature and appreciate Art, and who rejoice that one of the grandest and most beautiful of our landmarks of family history is yet in its perfection and thoroughly “well cared for.”
BURLEIGH.
“BURLEIGH HOUSE by Stamford town,” as Tennyson has it in his simple and beautiful ballad, “The Lord of Burleigh,” stands in a noble park just outside the fine old town of Stamford. Stamford is in two counties—Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire—on the river Welland, which here divides them, and at the same time separates six parishes, five being in Lincolnshire, and the sixth, St. Martin’s, or Stamford-Baron, in Northamptonshire. In this latter county are Burleigh House and its surrounding demesne. The park for pedestrians is conveniently entered at Burleigh Lane, one of the outer streets of the town; thus the grounds, being so ready of access, are an incalculable boon to the inhabitants. The principal Lodges are on the North Road, immediately south of St. Martin’s, and are noble and important buildings, erected in 1801 at a cost of more than £5,000, by the tenth earl, the approach being greatly improved in 1828 by his immediate successor.
The park, nearly seven miles in circumference, was planted by “Capability Brown,” and besides its attractions of wood and temples, grottoes and other buildings, contains a fine sheet of water three-quarters of a mile in length, spanned by a handsome bridge of three arches, with noble sculptures of lions. The Roman road, Ermine Street, may be traced in some parts of the park on its way from Caistor to Stamford. The park, which contains about fourteen hundred acres, was principally laid out by the first Lord Burleigh, but has been since then considerably extended and improved, one of the greatest improvements being the filling up of the fish-pond, and the formation of the serpentine lake on the south front. The house is a mile distant from the Grand Lodge entrance, the approach being, for a considerable distance, among magnificent oak and other forest trees, through beautiful upland scenery.
In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Burleigh (variously spelled Burleigh, Burghley, and Burley) was let to farm by the Church at Burgh to Alfgar, the King’s chaplain, at whose death it was seized by the Crown, and afterwards redeemed for eight marks by Abbot Leofric, and was confirmed to Peterborough Abbey in 1146. At the time of taking the Domesday survey it was held of the Abbot of Peterborough by Goisfrid. In the reign of Henry III. it is stated to have been in like manner held by Thomas de Burghley, who died in 1280, and remained in that family for two or three generations. “Peter de Burlegh, it appears,” says Sharpe, “held possession here in the twenty-fourth of Edward I., and obtained a grant of free warren in the third of Edward II. Geoffry, his son, succeeded him, but, dying without issue, his widow, Mariot, married John de Tichmersh, who, in her right, held the manor in the third of Edward III., and continued to do so until the twentieth year of the same reign.” Somewhat later it is said to have belonged to Nicholas de Segrave, it “having descended to Alice de Lisle as part of the inheritance of John de Armenters. From Nicholas de Segrave it passed to Warine de Lisle, who, with others, took up arms against the king, was defeated at Borough Bridge, and executed at Pontefract. By Edward III., Gerard de Lisle, son of Warine, was restored to his father’s possessions, and held Burleigh with the other estates.” In 1360, Sharpe states, Burleigh was in the possession of Robert Wykes, one of whose descendants, Margaret Chambers, sold it to Richard Cecil, father of the Lord Treasurer, who also purchased the adjoining manor of Little Burleigh.
The present mansion was commenced in 1575 by the first Lord Burleigh, whose principal residence was, however, at Theobalds, in Hertfordshire. The old structure was mainly retained, the existing portions being “in the eastern part of the present building, and are exceedingly fine and substantial; they are—the kitchen, with a groined roof of vast extent and most peculiar construction (perhaps the largest apartment in Europe devoted to culinary purposes); the imposing banqueting-hall, with its magnificent bay window and open carved roof, surpassed by only one other in England (Westminster); and the chapel, reached by a unique vaulted stone staircase, elaborately ornamented, and remarkable for its radiating arch.” The building, when completed and finished, was said to be the most complete and splendid in the kingdom. It is recorded that when, in the civil wars, Burleigh was taken by the Parliamentarians, Cromwell and his officers and army behaved with the utmost consideration and courtesy to the family. Cromwell himself, “when he beheld it (Burlegh), forgot his rage for destruction, and, charmed with its magnificence, displayed his republican generosity by depositing his own picture (by Walker) among those of its fine collection.” It is also recorded that later on, William III., when he saw Burleigh, “with a jealousy and a littleness of spirit unworthy of a monarch, declared that it was much too gorgeous for a subject.”
Queen Elizabeth delighted to visit Burleigh; and we read that “twelve times did he (Lord Treasurer Cecil) entertain the Queen at his house for several weeks together, at an expense of £2,000 or £3,000 each time.” It is traditionally said that on one of her visits, when the Lord Treasurer was pointing out its beauties to Elizabeth, her Majesty, tapping him familiarly on the cheek, said to him, “Ay, _my_ money and _your_ taste have made it a mighty pretty place!” Burleigh was, in 1603, visited by King James I. on his way from Scotland, and in 1695 by King William III. The most magnificent royal visit was, however, that of Queen Victoria with the Prince Consort in 1842, when she was accompanied by her ministers and the Court.
The family of Cecil seems to be derived from Robert ap Seisylt, or Sitsilt, or Seisel, a Welsh chieftain, who, in 1091, assisted Robert Fitzhamon in his conquest of Glamorganshire, for which he received a grant of lands in that county. Without entering particularly into the genealogy of the early members of this family, it will be sufficient for our present purpose to say that fifteenth in succession from this Robert ap Seisylt was David Sicelt, who, having joined the Earl of Richmond (Henry VII.) in Brittany, was rewarded for his service by a grant of land in Lincolnshire. Under Henry VIII. he “was constituted Water Bailiff of Wittlesey, in the county of Huntingdon, as also Keeper of the Swans there and throughout all the waters and fens in the counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, and Northampton for the term of thirty years; also, in the fifth of Henry VIII., he was made one of the King’s Sergeants-at-arms; and, having this employment at court, obtained for Richard, his son and heir, the office of a page to the Crown. Likewise, in the eighth of Henry VIII., he obtained a grant for himself and son of the Keepership of Clyff Park, in the county of Northampton; and in the fifteenth of Henry VIII. (continuing still Sergeant-at-arms) was constituted Sheriff of the King’s Lordship of Coly Weston, in that county; and was Escheator of the county of Lincoln from November 15th, 1529, to November 15th following. In the twenty-third of Henry VIII. he was constituted Sheriff of Northampton; and having been three times Alderman of Stamford,” departed this life in the year 1541. He married the heiress of John Dicons, of Stamford, by whom he had a son, Richard Cecil, who succeeded him.
This Richard Cecil, as a page, attended Henry VIII. at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and afterwards became Groom and Yeoman of the Robes, Constable of Warwick Castle, Bailiff of Whittlesea Mere, with the custody of swans, and steward of several manors. He purchased the manors of Burleigh and Little Burleigh, and had grants of land at Maxey, Stamford, &c. He married Jane, daughter and heiress of William Heckington, of Bourn, by whom he had, with other issue, a son, William Cecil, the famous Lord Treasurer.
This William Cecil, first Lord Burleigh, was born in 1520 at his mother’s house at Bourn, and early received marks of royal favour under Henry VIII. Under Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth he held, with other offices, that of Secretary of State; and by the latter was made Lord High Treasurer of England, and created Baron Burleigh of Burleigh, and installed a Knight of the Garter. His lordship remained Lord Treasurer until within a few days of his death in 1598. Lord Burleigh married twice, each time gaining a large increase both to his fortunes and to his social and political influence. His first wife, to whom he was married in 1541, was Mary, sister of Sir John Cheke, who, within a year of their marriage, died, after giving birth to his son and successor, Thomas Cecil. In 1545 he married, secondly, Mildred, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, by whom he had, with numerous other issue, a son, Robert Cecil, who was created Earl of Salisbury, and was the progenitor of the present Marquis of Salisbury. Lord Burleigh died in 1598, and was succeeded by his son—
Thomas Cecil, second Baron Burleigh, who held many important offices, and was, by King James I., in 1605, created Earl of Exeter. He married, first, Dorothea, one of the co-heiresses of John Nevil, Lord Latimer, and by her had issue five sons—viz. William, who succeeded him; Sir Richard, whose son David also became Earl of Exeter; Sir Edward, who was created Baron Cecil of Putney and Viscount Wimbledon; Christopher; and Thomas—and eight daughters. Lord Burleigh married, secondly, a daughter of the fourth Lord Chandos and widow of Sir Thomas Smith, by whom he had issue one daughter.
William Cecil, third Baron Burleigh and second Earl of Exeter, married, first, Elizabeth, only child of Edward, Earl of Rutland, by whom he had issue an only child, William Cecil, who, in his mother’s right, became Baron Roos, but who died without issue in his father’s lifetime; and, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Drury. Dying in 1640, he was succeeded by his nephew, David Cecil, as fourth Baron Burleigh and third Earl of Exeter; he married Elizabeth, daughter of John, Earl of Bridgewater; and, dying in 1643, was succeeded by his son, John Cecil, who was only fifteen years old at his father’s death. He married, first, Lady Frances Manners, daughter of the Earl of Rutland; and, secondly, Lady Mary, daughter of the Earl of Westmoreland and widow of Sir Bryan Palmes. By his first wife he had issue one son, John, who succeeded him; David, who died young; and a daughter, Frances, married to Viscount Scudamore. He died in 1687, aged fifty-nine, and was buried at Stamford. John Cecil, who succeeded his father as sixth Baron Burleigh and fifth Earl of Exeter, espoused Lady Anne Cavendish, only daughter of the Earl of Devonshire and sister of the first Duke of Devonshire (widow of Lord Rich), by whom he had issue, John, who succeeded him, and other children.
John Cecil, seventh baron and sixth earl, married, first, Annabella, daughter of Lord Ossulston; and, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Brownlow, by whom he had, with other issue, John and Brownlow, who succeeded as seventh and eighth earls. He died in 1721. John Cecil, his eldest son, who succeeded on his father’s death in 1721 as seventh earl and eighth baron, died unmarried in 1722, when the titles and estates devolved on his brother, Brownlow Cecil, who thus became ninth Baron Burleigh and eighth Earl of Exeter. This nobleman married, in July, 1724, Hannah Sophia, daughter and heiress of Thomas Chambers, of Derby and London, a beautiful and amiable woman, to whom a monument is erected in the gardens, bearing the following touching lines:—
“Oh, thou most loved, most valued, most revered, Accept this tribute to thy memory due; Nor blame me, if by each fond tie endeared, I bring again your virtues unto view.
“These lonely scenes your memory shall restore, Here oft for thee the silent tear be shed; Beloved through life, till life can charm no more, And mourned till filial piety be dead.”
By this lady, who died in 1765, aged sixty-three, the Earl had issue three sons—Brownlow Cecil, ninth Earl of Exeter; Thomas Chambers Cecil, whose son ultimately became tenth earl; and David Cecil—and two daughters, viz. Margaret Sophia and Elizabeth (who became the wife of John Chaplin, Esq.). His lordship died in 1754, and was succeeded by his son.
Brownlow Cecil, tenth baron and ninth earl, succeeded to the titles and estates in 1754, and having married Letitia, only daughter and heiress of the Hon. Horatio Townsend, he died without issue in 1793, and was succeeded in his title and estates by his nephew, Henry Cecil, only son of the Hon. Thomas Chambers Cecil, by his wife, Charlotte Garnier.
Henry Cecil, eleventh Baron Burleigh, tenth Earl of Exeter, and first Marquis of Exeter, was born at Brussels in 1754, and for many years in his early life was M.P. for Stamford. His lordship was married three times: first, to Emma, only daughter and heiress of Thomas Vernon, Esq., of Hanbury, from whom he was divorced in 1791, after having issue by her one son, Henry, who died young; secondly, to Sarah, daughter to Thomas Hoggins, of Bolas, Shropshire, by whom he had issue four children, viz. the Lady Sophia Cecil, married to the Hon. Henry Manvers Pierrepoint (whose daughter married Lord Charles Wellesley, second son of the first Duke of Wellington, and was mother of the present heir-presumptive to that dukedom); Lord Henry Cecil, who died young; Lord Brownlow Cecil, who became second Marquis of Exeter; and Lord Thomas Cecil, who married Lady Sophia Georgiana Lennox; and, thirdly, to Elizabeth, Duchess of Hamilton, by whom he had no issue. The second of these three marriages has supplied a theme to many novelists and dramatists. They have used the poet’s license somewhat; but it is certain that the bride and her family had no idea of the rank of the wooer until the Lord of Burleigh had wedded the peasant-girl. Thus Moore pictures Ellen, the “hamlet’s pride,” loving in poverty, leaving her home to seek uncertain fortune. Stopping at the entrance to a lordly mansion, blowing the horn with a chieftain’s air, while the porter bowed as he passed the gate, “she believed him wild,” when he said, “This castle is thine, and these dark woods all;” but “his words were truth,” and “Ellen was Lady of Rosna Hall.”
The story is more accurately and more plaintively poetically told by the Laureate Tennyson, who undoubtedly adheres more literally to fact when he describes the lady as bowed down to death by the heavy weight of honour laid upon her, “unto which she was not born.” Tennyson’s ballad of “The Lord of Burleigh,” in which the story of the “village maiden,” from her wooing when she was plain Sarah Hoggins to the time of her early death as Countess of Exeter, is so sweetly and touchingly told, is too sadly beautiful to be omitted here. It is as follows:—
“In her ear he whispers gaily, ‘If my heart by signs can tell, Maiden, I have watched thee daily, And I think thou lov’st me well.’
“She replies, in accents fainter, ‘There is none I love like thee.’ He is but a landscape painter, And a village maiden she.
“He to lips that fondly falter Presses his without reproof, Leads her to the village altar, And they leave her father’s roof.
“‘I can make no marriage present, Little can I give my wife, Love will make our cottage pleasant And I love thee more than life.’