150 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



sorrow at her displeasure, and anxiety about his 

 debts, as well as disease, all combined to kill him at 

 the age of fifty-one. 



A greater man than Hatton possessed Brownsea 

 Island for a very short time. No other, in fact, 

 than Sir Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury ; 

 who already owned Hatfield, having exchanged 

 Theobald's for it with King James. Nothing is 

 known of Brownsea during his ownership of it 

 whether he ever stayed there, or if he only used 

 it as a means of gaining money for other pleasures. 

 The Castle was well fortified by the Parliamentary 

 party at the time of the Civil War. Bury, the 

 treasurer for the county, mentions " large chests of 

 musquets " as coming from Weymouth. Old books 

 say that Charles II.'s visit to Poole and Brownsea 

 was owing to his fear of the Plague which conduct 

 appears somewhat out of keeping with the character 

 of the Merry Monarch. But whatever the cause, 

 he certainly visited Poole ; and the record of his 

 visit runs thus : " After dinner it pleased His 

 Majesty with the Duke of Monmouth and Lord 

 Ashley to take Coll. William Skult's boat to 

 Brownsea, steered by the sayd Collonel and rowed 

 by six masters of shipps, where his Majesty tooke 

 an exact view of the said island, castle, and bay, 

 and this harbour, to his great contentment, and 

 then returned in the said boat unto the key of 

 Poole, where the said mayor had the honour to 



