Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/58

 42 THE CECILS

biographer, " which at Theobalds were perfected most costly, beautifully and pleasantly ; where one might walk two miles in the walks before he came to their ends." The gardens are also described by Hentzner, who visited them in I5Q8. 1 They were " encompassed with water, large enough for one to have the pleasure of going in a boat and rowing among the shrubs," and there were labyrinths, a fountain with a marble basin, "built semi-circularly," with statues of the twelve Roman Emperors in white marble. Hentzner also mentions a gallery, or cloister, on the south side of the house, painted with the Kings and Queens of England and, as we learn from another account, with " the pedigree of Lord Burghley and divers others ancient families " as well as castles and battles. 2

The house itself must have been a noble pile, with its three main courts, its great halls and galleries, its richly ornamented ceilings and chimney-pieces, and its beautiful tapestries. One ceiling is described by a visitor 3 as containing " the signs of the zodiac with the stars proper to each," across which the sun was, by some ingenious mechanism, made to pursue its course. ' The walls were decorated with trees, with bark so artfully arranged that it was impossible to dis-

1 A translation of his Journey to England was issued by Horace Walpole at the Strawberry Hill Press, 1758. See Gentleman's Magazine, February, 1836, p. 150 ; Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire, II. 88.

2 Parliamentary Survey taken in 1650. Quoted in Lysons' Environs of London, IV. 33, sqq. ; and in the above-named authorities.

3 The Duke of Wiirtemberg's secretary (1592). Quoted by Mr. Gotch.

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