Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/126

 102 THE CECILS

the register of her birth, " Georgi-Anna," l died in 1621 at the age of five.

The Earl died in February, 1623, a t the age of eighty, and was buried by the side of his first wife in Westminster Abbey. 2

Though not a man of any great distinction, he was upright, honourable and good-natured. From his portrait we should judge him to have been of a kindly and humorous, if somewhat hesitating, disposition. James I. thought much of him, and after his early escapes he seems to have led a meritorious and useful life, and to have deserved to be called " right pious and charitable." Some years before his death he converted part of the old palace of the Bishops of Lincoln, at Liddington, in Rutland, into a hospital called Jesus Hospital, which he endowed for the maintenance of a warden, twelve brethren, and two women. He was an extensive benefactor to the town of Stamford, and in 1612 he granted to Clare Hall, Cambridge, lands to the yearly amount of 108, for the endowment of three fellows and eight scholars.

1 Charlton, Burghley, p. 122. She was born at Wimbledon, the Queen standing sponsor. The pedigree makers name her " Sophia Anna."

2 The inscription on the monument in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, states that the second Countess was also buried there, but, as a matter of fact, she was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

�� �