In the dress that she was wed in,
That her spirit might have rest.”
The Countess, whose story is thus so plaintively told, died on the 18th of January, 1797, at the early age of twenty-four, and her portrait, preserved in the house, cannot but interest every visitor. The Earl, her husband, was in February, 1801, advanced to the dignity of Marquis of Exeter, and in May, 1804, he died, and was succeeded by his son by this romantic and happy, though brief, espousal.
This son, Brownlow Cecil, second Marquis and eleventh Earl of Exeter, and twelfth Baron Burleigh, was only nine years of age when, on the death of his father in 1804, he succeeded to the titles and estates. In 1824 his lordship married Isabella, daughter of William Stephen Poyntz, Esq., by whom he had issue eleven children—viz. William Alleyne, Lord Burleigh, the present Marquis of Exeter; a daughter, born in 1826; Lord Brownlow Thomas Montague Cecil; Lady Isabella Mary Cecil, who died in infancy; Lady Mary Frances Cecil, married to Viscount Sandon, M.P., heir to the earldom of Harrowby; Lord Edward Henry Cecil; Lady Dorothy Anne Cecil, who died in infancy; Lord Henry Poyntz Cecil; a son, who died as soon as born; Lord Adelbert Percy Cecil, to whom Queen Adelaide stood as sponsor; and Lady Victoria Cecil, to whom her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort were sponsors, married to the Hon. William Charles Evans-Freke, brother of Lord Carbery. His lordship died in 1867, and was succeeded by his son—
The Quadrangle, looking West.
The present noble peer, William Alleyne Cecil, third Marquis and 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.