HATFIELD HOUSE 207 



contemporaries : " For his person he was not 

 much beholding to Nature, though somewhat for his 

 face, which was the best part of his outside ; for his 

 inside it may be said, and without offence, that he 

 was his Father's owne sonne, and a pregnant presi- 

 dent in all his discipline of state ; he was a courtier 

 from his cradle ; and he soon made shew what he 

 was and would be." "He" was no other than 

 Sir Robert Cecil, the sometime " imp " and after- 

 wards "the staff" of Elizabeth's declining years; 

 the proud owner of "Theobalds," with all its 

 fascinating conceits, walls covered with Phillyrea, 

 a Maze, a Mount, and a jet d'eau; all quaintly 

 described by Mandelslo and Paulus Hentzner in 

 their " Travels." Theobalds was indeed a typical 

 " princely " Garden of the time of Elizabeth, and one 

 often cited to show the foolishness of the Formal 

 style, especially by Horace Walpole, in his well- 

 known "Essay on Gardening." 



Sir Robert Cecil kept James of Scotland well 

 informed as to the failing health of the Queen, 

 and made up to the lesser star when he saw the 

 great light waning two facts which did him no 

 injury in that King's eyes ! The Scotch King left 

 Edinburgh on April, 1603, for his progress to "the 

 Land of Promise," as he called his new kingdom. 

 Sir Robert Cecil writes in one of his letters : "His 

 Majesty is now come on his journey as far as 

 Burghley House (which belonged to Lord Burleigh's 



