CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA K 35 



together : These are in and near to Rome. And how much 

 more doth it please the pious curiosity of a Christian to see that 

 place on which the blessed Saviour of the world was pleased to 

 humble himself, and to take our nature upon him, and to converse 

 with men : to see Mount Sion, Jerusalem, and the very sepulchre 

 of our Lord Jesus ! How may it beget and heighten the zeal of 

 a Christian, to see the devotions that are daily paid to him at 

 that place I Gentlemen, lest I forget myself, I will stop here, 

 and remember you, that but for my element of water, the inhabit- 

 ants of this poor island must remain ignorant that such things 

 ever were, or that any of them have yet a being. 2 



Gentlemen, I might both enlarge and lose myself in suchlike 

 arguments. I might tell you that Almighty God is said to have 

 spoken to a fish, but never to a beast ; that he hath made a 

 whale a ship, to carry and set hjs prophet, Jonah, safe on the 

 appointed shore. Of these I might speak, but I must in manners 

 break off, for I see Theobald's House,* I cry you mercy for 

 being so long, and thank you for your patience. 



VARIATION. 



2 ignorant that such things yet ^x^.-r-'s-d edit, ignorant that such things have yet a 

 being. — 3<^ and ^th edit. 



* The site of Theobald's Palace lies a little to the north of the road to Ware, at the 

 distance of twelve miles from Londgn, in the parish of Cheshunt. It was built about 

 1560 by Sir William Cecil, afterwarqs Lord Burleigh, and is said to have been first 

 intended as a small mansion for the residence of his younger son. Queen Elizabeth 

 having honoured it with a visit in 1564^ her minister was induced to enlarge it ; and he 

 completed the whole upon a more extensive scale in 1571. Her visits to it, as appears 

 from Lord Burleigh's Diary, yere repeated ten times between 15^2 and 1597. In 1603, 

 Sir Robert Cecil, his son, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, entertained King James the 

 First at it, in his way from Scotland to London, when he came to take possession of the 

 crown ; and in 1606 gave Him a second entertainment ; soon after which the palace and 

 manor were exchanged for the ancient royal residence at Hatfield. Theobalds became 

 afterwards one of King James's favourite places of retirement : and he died there, March 

 27th, 1625. It was also an occasional place of residence with his successor, who went 

 from it in 1642 to put himself at the head of the army. Norden, in his Description of 

 Hertfordshire, says, " To speake of the state and beauty thereof at large as it deserveth, 

 for curious buildinges, dehghtfull walkes, and pleasant conceites, within and without, 

 and other things very glorious and ellegant to be seene, would challenge a great portion 

 of this little treatise ; and therefore, leaste I should come shorte of that due commenda- 

 tion that it deserveth, I leave it, as indeed it is, a princely seate." After the Restoration 

 of King Charles the Second, the house, park, and manor were granted to the Duke of 

 Albemarle, on the death of whose son without male issue they again reverted to the 

 Crown ; and were granted to the Duke of Portland by King William the Third in i68g. 

 In 1762 the property of Theobalds was sold by the late Duke of Portland to George 

 Prescott, Esq., who, three years after, pulled down what remained of the house, and 

 built another for himself about a mile to the south of it. It is now, 1814, held on lease, 

 under the representatives of Sir George William Prescott, Bart., by Job Matthew Raikes, 

 Esq. An idea of the mansion, as it appeared in Walton's time, may be obtained from 

 Mr Lysons's Description in the " Environs of London," edit- 1811, vol. i. part ii. p. 773* 

 chiefly taken from the Parliamentary Survey of 1650, now in the Augmentation Office. 

 A representation of the exterior will be found in King's Sheet of Views, to illustrate 

 Camden's Britannia. One of the best views of the interior is in the background of a 

 picture at Earl Poulet's, Hinton St George, in Somersetshire. The stables of Theobalds 



