Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/96

 76 THE CECILS

throughout the succeeding centuries was to depend, were due first of all to Burghley. To him, despite his limitations, England owes a debt such as she owes to few of her statesmen.

Burghley was of middle height, " of visage well- favoured and of an excellent complexion." He was of a gentle, good-natured disposition, considerate to his inferiors, hating pomp and show, and a man of real piety and devotion. He had an extraordinary capacity for work, and his domestic biographer states he " never saw him half an hour idle in four and twenty years together." Yet, in his moments of leisure, he was able to throw off entirely the cares of business and, though temperate in food and drink, was so " pleasant and merry " at table that " one would imagine he had nothing else to do." " At night, when he put off his gown, he used to say 'Lie there, Lord Trea- surer/ and bidding adieu to all State affairs, disposed himself to his quiet rest." *

He lived a simple life and was content with simple pleasures, such as riding about his gardens on his mule. 2 " He seldom or never played at any game," we read, " for he could play at none. He would sometimes look a while on shooters or bowlers as he rid abroad." And though Elizabeth used to enjoy hawking and hunting at Theobalds,

1 Fuller, Holy State, ed. 1841, p. 253.

2 One of these animals he had for twelve years. " A beast hardly to be matched for my purpose," he writes, " yet now both the ' moyle ' and her master are grown very aged, and therefore, though I cannot amend, yet I would be glad to amend my old beast with a new." To Sir Ed. Stafford, October 2nd, 1586 (Hatfield MSS., III. 366).

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