William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-1598)
The first lord Burley (who was Secretary of Estate) was at first but <a> country-schoole-master, and (I thinke Dr. Thomas Fuller sayes, vide Holy State) borne in Wales.
I remember (when I was a schooleboy at Blandford) Mr. Basket, a reverend divine, who was wont to beg us play-dayes, would alwayes be605 uncovered, and sayd that ‘’twas the lord Burleigh’s custome, for (said he) here is my Lord Chanceller, my Lord Treasurer, my Lord Chief Justice, &c., predestinated.’
‘He made Cicero’s Epistles his glasse, his rule, his oracle, and ordinarie pocket-booke’ (Dr. J. Web in preface of his translation of Cicero’s Familiar Epistles).
Notes
603Cecil, lord Burleigh:—Memorandum, the true name is Sitsilt, and is an ancient Monmouthshire family, but now come to be about the size604 of yeomanry. In the church at Monmouth, I remember in a south windowe an ancient scutcheon of the family, the same that this family beares. ’Tis strange that they should be so vaine to leave off an old British name for a Romancy one, which I beleeve Mr. Verstegan did putt into their heads, telling his lordship, in his booke, that they were derived from the ancient Roman Cecilii.