I IO 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



EAST FACADE. 



and was in gracious mood over the subject who 

 could, on Majesty's broad hint, " most willingly and 

 dutifully " make offer of Theobalds, " preferring his 

 Majesty's health and contentment before any private 

 respects of his own." But the dutiful Minister must 

 not go houseless, and, therefore, by a patent ot 1 607 

 the manor of Hatfield with the palace, with Hatfield 

 Wood, Innings Park and Middle Park, were once 



/.\ 'I HE I'KIORY GAKDK\. 



again pieces in a king's bargain with a subject. 

 Having thus bartered away his father's house, the 

 Earl must have a seat in the new style, the old palace 

 of the Bishops Hatfield, four-square about a court- 

 yard, being a relic of those earlier times for which the 

 Jacobean age had deep contempt. He must have 

 great rooms and broad windows, as much glass as 

 wall, with a touch of the Italian taste in the ornaments. 



New Hatfield 

 House was planned 

 by the Earl in 

 committee, not 

 with architects and 

 builders, but with 

 three earls who 

 knew what should 

 belong to an earl's 

 dwelling. The 

 Earl of Suffolk, 

 who had covered 

 Essex fields with 

 the halls and courts 

 of that vast pile 

 which was Audley 

 End, was the first 

 of these counsel- 

 lors, the Earl ot 

 Worcester the 

 second, while the 

 third was Henry, 

 Earl of Southamp- 

 t o n , William 

 Shakespeare's 

 patron. With their 

 help the main lines 



