twelfth Earl of Exeter, and thirteenth Baron Burleigh of Burleigh,
a Privy Councillor, and Hereditary Grand Almoner of England, who
was born on the 30th of April, 1825, and was educated at Eton and
St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated as M.A. in 1847.
He sat as M.P. for South Lincolnshire from 1847 to 1857, and for
North Northamptonshire from 1857 to 1867, in which year he succeeded
to the titles, and took his seat in the Upper House. In 1856 he was
appointed Militia Aide-de-camp to the Queen, and in 1866 was made
Treasurer of her Majesty’s Household. In 1867 and 1868 he was Captain
of her Majesty’s Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, and he holds
many local and other appointments. His lordship married, in 1848,
Lady Georgiana Sophia Pakenham, second daughter of the second Earl
of Longford, and has issue living—Brownlow Henry George Cecil, Lord
Burleigh, born in 1849, and married to Isabella, daughter of Sir Thomas
Whichcote, Bart.; Lord Francis Horace Pierrepoint Cecil, born 1851,
married to Edith, youngest daughter of W. Cunliffe-Brooks, Esq., M.P.;
Lord William Cecil, born 1854; Lord John Pakenham Cecil, born 1867;
Lady Isabella Georgiana Katharine Cecil, born 1853; Lady Mary Louisa
Wellesley Cecil, born 1857; Lady Catherine Sarah Cecil, born 1861; Lady
Frances Emily Cecil, born 1862; and Lady Louisa Alexandrina Cecil, born
1864.
His lordship is patron of seventeen livings, five being in Rutland, one
in London, and eleven in Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire.
The arms of the Marquis of Exeter, engraved on our initial letter,
are—barry of ten, _argent_ and _azure_; six escutcheons, three, two,
and one, _sable_, each charged with a lion rampant, _argent_. Crest—on
a chapeau, _gules_, turned up, _ermine_, a garb, _or_, supported
by two lions rampant, the dexter _argent_, the sinister _azure_.
Supporters—two lions, _ermine_. Motto—“Cor unum via una.” His seats
are Burleigh, near Stamford, and Brookfield House, Ryde, in the Isle of
Wight.
The visitor to Burleigh House is admitted by the Porter’s Lodge into
the Outer Court, which is a quadrangle surrounded by the domestic
and business offices of the establishment. He then passes into the
Corridor, decorated with bas-reliefs by Nollekens, and so reaches the
Great Hall, or Queen Victoria’s Hall, a banqueting-room of magnificent
size and of matchless beauty, with open-work timber roof, stained-glass
windows, richly carved gallery, and royal and other portraits. This
noble apartment, shown in the accompanying engraving, which, with
others of our series, is taken from a photograph by F. Robinson, is 68
feet long, 60 feet in height, and 30 feet in width, with, in addition,
a deeply recessed bay window.
[Illustration: _The Great Hall._]
It has a magnificent open timber-work roof of carved oak, and the
lower portions of the walls are wainscoted; and at one end is a
music gallery, the cornice of the panelling and the gallery being
supported on a number of richly carved spiral Corinthian columns. The
fire-place is remarkably fine, and the window is filled with stained
glass. Among the pictures in the Hall are a portrait of the Prince
Consort in his Garter robes, presented to the Marquis by the Prince;
Dahl’s full-length portraits of George I., George II., and the Queen
of George II.; and portraits of Viscount and Viscountess Montague,
Earl of Peterborough, Sir Walter Raleigh, &c. From the Hall, passing
through Vestibule and Corridor, which contain busts of the Cæsars and
other examples of sculpture, and the Ancient Stone Staircase—a part
of the original building, shown in the opposite engraving—the Chapel
is reached. The Chapel contains, among its other attractions, a fine
assemblage of carving, said to be by Grinling Gibbons, and among the
best of his productions; an altar-piece by Paul Veronese, the subject
being the “Wife of Zebedee;” the seat used by Queen Elizabeth when
she worshipped here, and used also for the same purpose by Queen
Victoria; and many good paintings. The communion-table and altar-rails
are of cedar-wood, and the pulpit and reading-desk of mahogany. The
magnificent chimney-piece of various marbles was brought from a
convent near Lisbon. The Ante-chapel is also an interesting room.
The Chapel-room contains many paintings by Carlo Dolce, Domenichino,
Lanfranco, Albert Dürer, Guercino, Andrea Sacchi, Parmigiano, the
Carracci, Guido, Teniers, Bassan, Rubens, Carlo Maratti, Bolognese,
Giulio Romano, Le Brun, and others.
The Billiard-room, panelled with Norway oak and enriched with a
decorated ceiling, is hung with family and other portraits. Among
them are Lawrence’s full-length group portraits of the tenth Earl and
Countess—Sarah the “village maiden”—and their daughter, the Lady
Sophia; several other Earls and Countesses of Exeter, and others of
their families; the first Duke and Duchess of Devonshire; Barbara
Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland; Duchess of Montrose, &c.
We will not, however, go through the various rooms in the order in
which they are visited, but select, here and there, an apartment for
notice, our object being, not to furnish a guide for the visitor’s use,
but to give a general sketch of the mansion and its surroundings.
The Ball-room has its walls and ceiling painted by Laguerre in his best
style, the subject of the latter being described as the “History of the
Planetary System.” On the east side of the walls is painted “The Battle
of Cannæ,” and on the west “The Continence of Scipio;” the others being
“The Loves of Antony and Cleopatra,” &c. The Brown Drawing-room, lined
with oak, contains many valuable paintings as well as some exquisite
examples of Gibbons’s carvings, as also do the Black and Yellow
Bed-rooms. In this latter room is the ancient state bed from which it
takes its name. This is hung with black satin, ornamented with fine
old needlework, and lined with yellow silk. In the windows is some good
stained glass, and over the chimney-piece a fine example of Gibbons’s
carving. Among the paintings in this and the West and North-west
Dining-rooms are pictures by Guercino, old Franck, Libri, Angelica
Kauffmann, Rubens, Scilla, Cimabue, Giordano, the Carracci, Elsheimer,
Van Balen, Salvator Rosa, Castiglione, G. Bolognese, Van Eyck, Murillo,
Claude Lorraine, Domenichino, Mola, Jordaens, and others.
[Illustration: _The Ancient Stone Staircase._]
In the China Closet, besides several good paintings, a case of ceramic
treasures is preserved.
Queen Elizabeth’s Bed-room is one of the most interesting apartments
in the mansion, “and presents almost the same appearance as on the day
when the great virgin queen first reposed therein—the very bed on
which her royal form reclined, the same rich ancient tapestry which
then decorated the walls, and the same chairs which then furnished the
room, and upon some of which Elizabeth herself was once seated. The bed
is hung with dark green velvet, embroidered with gold tissue, and the
walls are hung with tapestry representing Bacchus and Ariadne, Acis
and Galatea, and Diana and Actæon.” Queen Elizabeth’s Dining-room,
or the Pagoda Room, looks out upon the lawn, in the centre of which
is a majestic and venerable tree planted by the “Virgin Queen,” the
“Good Queen Bess,” herself. In this room are a Chinese pagoda and many
interesting portraits and other paintings. Among these are Shee’s
portrait of the late marquis; Cranach’s head of Luther; Holbein’s Henry
VIII., Thomas Cromwell, Edward VI., Queen Mary, Duke of Newcastle, and
Queen Elizabeth; Mark Gerard’s Queen Elizabeth and the Lord Treasurer
Burleigh; Zucchero’s Robert Devereux; Rembrandt’s Countess of Desmond;
and admirable examples of Van Eyck, Annibale Carracci, Velasquez,
Titian, Cranach, Paul Veronese, Cornelius Jansen, Dobsone, Vandyke, old
Stone, Dance, Romney, and others. The Purple Satin Rooms are also hung
with valuable paintings, and the furniture is of superb character.
The George Rooms, as a magnificent suite of five apartments, occupying
the south side of the mansion, are called, have the whole of their
ceilings painted with allegorical and mythological subjects by Verrio.
These are the apartments specially set aside for royalty, and have
been repeatedly so occupied. The first George Room has its floor of
oak inlaid with walnut, and the carvings over the doors are among the
best existing examples of Gibbons. The Jewel Closet has a similar floor
and equally good carvings; and in the centre, in a large glass case,
are preserved numerous jewels and curiosities of great separate and
collective value. “Here are a plate of gold, a basin, and spoons, used
by Queen Elizabeth at her coronation; a curiously ornamented busk, also
used by Queen Elizabeth, and a jewelled crystal salt-cellar, supposed
to have belonged to that great queen; a minute jewelled trinket sword,
once belonging to the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots; a handkerchief
of William III.; Cæsar’s head carved in onyx (a choice antique, 2½
inches oval, and set in diamonds); Henry VIII. and his children cut in
sardonyx; the head of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh on the back of an
antique intaglio of Caracalla, depending from which is a small head
of Elizabeth, both cameo on onyx. There are, besides, a multitude of
enamelled trinkets, miniature vases in gold filigree, amber, diamonds,
precious stones, &c., &c. To this collection have been added, of late
years, a chrysanthemum wreath worn by Queen Victoria at the baptism of
the Lady Victoria Cecil, youngest daughter of the second marquis, and
a pair of white kid gloves worn by her Majesty at the same time: the
wreath has been incrusted with metal by a process of electro-gilding,
but in effecting this it was broken into several pieces. There is
also a very elaborately ornamented trowel, used by Prince Albert,
in 1842, in the ceremony of laying the first stone of the present
building of the Royal Exchange, London, and presented by him to the
Marquis of Exeter, who attended his Royal Highness at the time as Groom
of the Stole. There are also here a magnificent jewelled crucifix,
several feet in height, and of great value, some rare china, and other
articles. One other object remains to be noticed in this apartment:
this is a beautiful specimen of carving in white wood of a bird, nearly
the colour and about the size of a canary: it is represented as dead,
hanging by one leg from a nail, and so exquisitely is it worked, that
looking upon it it is difficult to believe it merely the resemblance of
reality.”
The State Bed-room, or second George Room, is the bed-room set apart
for the repose of royalty, and its furniture and decorations are of
great richness. A magnificent bed was here erected by the then marquis,
in preparation for a visit from George IV. when Prince of Wales, and
was subsequently several times used by various members of the royal
family; but when Queen Victoria visited Burleigh in 1844, a bed even
more rich and costly was substituted, in which her Majesty and her
royal consort, Prince Albert, reposed during their stay. The hangings
are of crimson velvet lined with white satin. The walls are hung with
rare tapestry.
The State Dining-room, and the Great Drawing-room, or fourth George
Room, are gorgeous in the extreme, and filled to repletion with choice
works of Art and antiquity; while the fifth of these George apartments,
named the Heaven, from the subjects of Verrio’s paintings, which cover
alike the ceiling and walls, contains cabinets, paintings, and busts
of great value. The whole of this suite of rooms is hung with choice
pictures, of which, of course, space prevents our giving an account.
The Grand Staircase, leading to the Great Hall, completes this suite;
its ceiling is by Verrio, and the staircase and landings are adorned
with sculpture and paintings.
We regret that we cannot find space to describe the numerous other
admirably constructed and beautifully furnished apartments of this
noble mansion, one of the most interesting of the many glorious
baronial halls of the kingdom.
The burial-place of the family of Cecil is St. Martin’s Church,
Stamford, where many monuments exist; and the visitor will find much to
interest him in this and the other churches of that town.
HEVER CASTLE.
HEVER CASTLE was originally the stronghold of the family of De Hevre,
said to have been of Norman extraction, one of whom, William De Hevre,
is stated to have had license from King Edward III. to embattle this
his manor-house. His daughters and co-heiresses inherited the estates,
and through them, by marriage, they were conveyed to the families of
Cobham and Brocas, the former of whom, having obtained the whole by
purchase, sold it to Sir Geoffrey Bullen, or Boleyn, in which family it
remained until it was seized by the Crown.
The family of Boleyn, or Bullen, traces from Sir Thomas Bullen, Knt.,
of Blickling and Saul, in Norfolk, and Joan, his wife, daughter and
heiress of Sir John Bracton, Knt. The grandson of Sir Thomas was Sir
Geoffrey Bullen, the purchaser of Hever Castle and other estates of
the De Hevre family. Sir Geoffrey “was a wealthy mercer in London,
as also Lord Mayor of that city in 37 Henry VI., and, having married
Anne, eldest daughter and co-heiress to John, Baron Hoo and Hastings,
by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Nicholas
Wichingham, he had issue, Sir William Bullen, Knight of the Bath at
the coronation of King Richard III.” Sir William married Margaret,
daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond (third brother
to James, Earl of Wiltshire), and by her had, with other issue, a son,
Thomas Bullen, afterwards created Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond.
This Thomas Bullen, or Boleyn, whose career, and that of his
unfortunate daughter, Queen Anne Boleyn, are so intimately woven into
the history of our country, was, in 1496, in arms with his father for
suppressing the Cornish rebellion; and, under Henry VIII., “being one
of the knights of the king’s body, was, jointly with Sir Henry Wyat,
Knt., constituted governor of the Castle of Norwich. In the following
year he was one of the ambassadors to the Emperor Maximilian, touching
a war with France, and soon after was sole governor of Norwich Castle.”
In the eleventh year of this sovereign’s reign “he arranged the famous
interview of King Henry VIII. and Francis I. between Guisnes and
Ardres, and in the thirteenth year was accredited ambassador to the
latter. The next year, being treasurer of the King’s household, he
was sent ambassador to Spain, to advise with King Charles upon some
proceedings in order to the war with France.” In 1525, with a view to
further the suit of the monarch to his daughter Anne, Sir Thomas Bullen
was created Baron and Viscount Rochfort, and afterwards successively
Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, a Knight of the Garter, and Lord
Privy Seal. “He subscribed the articles against Cardinal Wolsey in 21
Henry VIII., and soon after was sent again ambassador to the Emperor
Charles V.”
This Sir Thomas Bullen, afterwards, as we have shown, created Baron
Rochfort, Viscount Rochfort, Earl of Ormond, and Earl of Wiltshire,
married Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and by
her had issue one son—George, commonly called Viscount Rochfort, but
summoned as Baron Rochfort during the lifetime of his father—and two
daughters, Anne and Mary. Lord Rochfort married Jane, daughter of
Henry Parker, Earl of Morley. He was beheaded during the lifetime of
his father, and left no issue. Of the daughters, the Lady Anne Bullen,
who was created Marchioness of Pembroke, became second queen to King
Henry VIII.; and the Lady Mary Bullen, married, first, William Cary,
Esquire of the Body to King Henry VIII., and brother of Sir John Cary
of Plashley, one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber to the same
monarch; and, secondly, Sir William Stafford, Knt. The husband of this
lady, William Cary, was the son of Thomas Cary, of Chilton Foliat, in
Wiltshire (son of Sir William Cary, of Cockington, Devon, Knt.—who
was slain at the battle of Tewkesbury—by his second wife, Alice,
daughter of Sir Baldwin Fulford), by his wife, Margaret, daughter and
co-heiress of Sir Robert Spencer, of Spencer Combe, by the Lady Eleanor
Beaufort, daughter of Edmund, and sister and co-heiress of Henry, Duke
of Somerset. Lady Mary Bullen had, by her first husband, William Cary,
a daughter, Catherine, married to Sir Francis Knollys, K.G.; and a son,
Sir Henry Cary, Knt., who was created Baron Hunsdon at the coronation
of Queen Elizabeth, and from whom descended the Barons Hunsdon and
Earls of Dover and Monmouth; while from his brother, Sir John Cary, of
Plashley, Knt., by his wife, Joyce, sister of Sir Anthony Denny, king’s
remembrancer, are descended the Viscounts Falkland.
[Illustration: _Entrance Gateway, with Portcullis._]
Anne Boleyn, or Bullen, was born at Hever in or about the year 1507;
and in 1514, when only seven years of age, was appointed one of the
maids of honour to the King’s sister—who had then just been married to
Louis XII. of France—and was allowed to remain with her when her other
English attendants were unceremoniously sent out of the country. On
the Queen’s second marriage with Brandon, Anne Boleyn was left under
the powerful protection of the new queen, Claude, wife of Francis I.
She was thus brought up at the French Court. When war was declared
against France in 1522, at which time her father, Sir Thomas Boleyn,
was ambassador to that country, it is thought she was brought back
to England by him, and, shortly afterwards, was appointed one of the
maids of honour to Queen Catherine, wife of Henry VIII., and was thus
brought under the notice of that detestable and profligate monarch.
She had not been long at Court when, it is said by Cavendish, a strong
and mutual attachment sprang up between her and the young Lord Percy,
son and heir of the Earl of Northumberland, who made her an offer of
marriage, and was accepted. At this time she was only sixteen years of
age. The match, however, was not destined to be made, for the King “had
already turned his admiring eyes in the same direction, and, jealous of
the rivalry of a subject, he caused the lovers to be parted through the
agency of Cardinal Wolsey, in whose household Percy had been educated;
and that young nobleman, probably under compulsion, married, in 1523, a
daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury.” Anne, on being thus compulsorily
separated from her young and fond lover, was removed to Hever. Here,
within a few weeks, she heard of the marriage of her accepted lover,
and, with feelings which can well be imagined, kept herself secluded.
To Hever the King repaired on a visit, but probably suspecting the
cause of his arrival, Anne, under the pretext of sickness, kept closely
to her chamber, which she did not leave until after his departure.
“But this reserve was more likely to animate than daunt a royal lover;
and Henry, for the purpose of restoring the reluctant lady to court,
and bringing her within the sphere of his solicitations,” created her
father Baron and Viscount Rochfort, and gave him the important post
of Treasurer of the Royal Household. He also surrounded himself with
her relatives and friends. Among those who were his chief companions
were her father, Thomas, Viscount Rochfort; her brother George; her
uncle, the Duke of Norfolk; her cousin, Sir Francis Bryan; her near
relative and admirer, Sir Henry Norris; her intimate friend, Sir
William Compton; and the King’s old favourite, the Duke of Suffolk—a
lively but dissolute society, not one of whom showed any high regard
for marriage vows, or treated their infringement as anything but a
jest. “Suffolk,” says Mr. Brewer, “had been betrothed to one lady;
then married another; then abandoned her, on the plea of his previous
contract, for the lady whom he had in the first instance rejected.
Norfolk lived with his duchess on the most scandalous terms. Sir
William Compton had been cited in the Ecclesiastical Court for living
in open adultery with a married woman. The fate of Norris and George
Boleyn is too well known to require comment. Sir Francis Bryan, the
chief companion in the King’s amusements, and the minister of his
pleasures, was pointed out by common fame as more dissolute than all
the rest.” Sir Thomas Wyatt, though married, wore her miniature round
his neck, and sang of her love. Still, however, Henry’s suit, which was
dishonourable even to one so depraved and lost to honour as he was,
was unprosperous when made; and she is said by an old writer, and one
not favourable to her, to have replied firmly to the King, “Your wife
I cannot be, both in respect of my own unworthiness, and also because
you have a queen already; and your mistress I will not be.” Foiled in
his attempt to gain her by any other means, the unscrupulous monarch
now began seriously to set himself to the task of obtaining a divorce
from Queen Catherine, who had been his wife for seventeen years, in
order that he might replace her by Anne Boleyn. The history of these
proceedings is a part of the history of the kingdom, and need not be
here detailed. It is, however, a tradition of Hever that when the
King came “a wooing” he sounded his bugle in the distance, that his
lady-love might know of his approach. The divorce being obtained, Anne
Boleyn, having previously been married to the King, became “indeed a
queen;” and having given birth to two children—Queen Elizabeth and a
still-born son—was arrested on a false and disgraceful charge, and was
beheaded, to make room for a new queen in the person of one of her own
maids of honour, Jane Seymour.
Of the personal appearance of Queen Anne Boleyn Mr. Brewer thus
pleasantly discourses:—“The blood of the Ormonds ran in her veins.
From her Irish descent she inherited—
‘The black-blue Irish hair and Irish eyes.’
And, like the Irish Isolt of the great poet, Anne Boleyn was remarkable
for the exquisite turn of her neck and her glossy throat. She was a
little, lively, sparkling brunette, with fascinating eyes and long
black hair, which, contrary to the sombre fashion of those days,
she wore coquettishly floating loosely down her back, interlaced
with jewels. The beauty of her eyes and hair struck all beholders
alike—grave ecclesiastics and spruce young sprigs of nobility.
‘Sitting _in_ her hair on a litter’ is the feature at her coronation
which seems to have made the deepest impression upon Archbishop
Cranmer. ‘On Sunday morning (1st September, 1532), solemnly and in
public, Madame Anne being then at Windsor, _con li capilli sparsi_,
completely covered with the most costly jewels, was created by the king
Countess of Pembroke.’ George Wyatt, grandson of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the
poet, one of her admirers, describes her, in the fantastic language of
the sixteenth century, as having ‘a beauty not so whitely as clear and
fresh above all that we may esteem, which appeared much more excellent
by her favour passing sweet and cheerful. There was found, indeed, upon
the side of her nail upon one of her fingers some little show of a
nail, which yet was so small, by the report of some that have seen her,
as the work-master seemed to leave it an occasion of greater grace to
her hand, which, with the tip of one of her fingers, might be and was
usually by her hidden, without any least blemish to it.’”
The Earl of Wiltshire (Sir Thomas Boleyn), father of the ill-fated
queen, died in 1538—two years after witnessing the beheading of his
only son, Viscount Rochfort, and of his daughter, Queen Anne Boleyn;
and on his death the family of Boleyn, in the main line, became extinct.
After the death of the Earl, Henry, with the rapacity that kept pace
with his profligacy, claimed and seized the castle of Hever in right
of his murdered wife, and subsequently settled it upon one of his
later wives. He also purchased adjoining lands from others of the
Boleyn family, and thus enlarged the estate. The castle and manor of
Hever, and other adjoining lands, were settled upon Anne of Cleves,
after her divorce, for life, or so long as she should remain in the
kingdom, at the yearly rent of £93 13_s._ 3½_d._ She made Hever her
general place of residence, and died there according to some writers,
but at Chelsea according to others, in 1557. In “the same year the
Hever estates were sold by commissioners, authorised by the Crown,
to Sir Edward Waldegrave, lord chamberlain to the household of Queen
Mary, who, on the accession of Elizabeth, was divested of all his
employments, and committed to the Tower, where he died in 1561.” The
estates afterwards passed through the family of Humphreys to that of
Medley.
[Illustration: _Hever Castle, from the East._]