Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/112

 90 THE CECILS

and in her doings so temperate as if she bare the age double her years ; of stature like to be goodly ; and of beauty very well. Her hair brown, yet her complexion very fair and clear ; the favour of her face everybody may judge it to have both grace and wisdom. Sir, although it be a dangerous matter thus much to write of a young woman, yet do I assure you I have said nothing more than she deserveth." l

The young couple settled down to a quiet domestic life at Wimbledon, and afterwards at Burghley, and for several years we hear no more of them, beyond the bare announcement of the birth of their numerous children.

In 1569 Cecil took part as a volunteer in the suppression of the Northern Rebellion, and gained the favour of the Earl of Sussex, the Commander- in-Chief. Again, in 1573, he served as a volunteer in the expedition which was sent into Scotland under Sir W. Drury to the assistance of the Earl of Murray, and was present at the siege of the Castle of Edinburgh. Two years later, on the

1 By this marriage Thomas Cecil obtained the manor of North Crawley, Bucks, part of the ancient barony of Bedford, in virtue of the possession of which he officiated as Grand Almoner at the coronation of James I. Thus, as Mr. Oswald Barron has pointed out, the connec- tion of the Marquesses of Exeter with the " stately sinecure of the Grand Almonership " is territorial only. " Originally vested in the Beauchamps of Bedford, it was held by the earlier Lords Latimer, in co-heirship with others. From the later Lords Latimer, who, though not their descendants, inherited a portion of the Beauchamp fief, some of the old lands passed by marriage to the first Earl of Exeter, who was appointed as Lord Burghley from among their holders, to officiate at the Coronation of James I. since when the Earls have been similarly selected by the Crown at certain coronations " (Northamptonshire Families, p. 24).

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