WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH. parentage. WILLIAM CECIL, descended from an ancient and Birth and respectable family, was born at Bourn in Lincolnshire, in the year 1520. * Both his father and grandfather held honourable appointments under Henry the Eighth. His father was Master of the Robes, an office, in that age, of considerable distinction. During his early education, his progress Education either exhibited nothing remarkable, or has been overlooked by his biographers, amidst the splendour of his succeeding transactions; for we are merely informed, that he received the first rudiments of learning at the grammar schools of Grantham and Stamford. † But at St John's College, Cam- at Cambridge, to which he was removed in the fifteenth 1535. year of his age, he gave strong indications of the qualities calculated to raise him to future eminence. He suffered no irregularity to interrupt his pur * Lord Burleigh's Diary in the British Museum, Harleian MS. No. 46. + Life of William Lord Burghley, by one of his domestics, edited by Collins in 1732, p. 6. bridge; suits, and seemed resolute to excel his fellow-students, by the certain means of incessant application. That he might daily devote several hours to study, without any hazard of interruption, he made an agreement with the bell-ringer to be called up every morning at four o'clock. The strength of his constitution, however, did not correspond with the ardour of his mind; for, in consequence of much sitting, without proper intervals of exercise, he contracted a painful humour in his legs; and though subsequently cured of this distemper, his physicians considered it as a principal cause of that inveterate gout which embittered the latter part of his life.* His indefatigable industry soon led to a proficiency which drew on him the particular notice of his teachers. The master of the college encouraged his perseverance by occasional presents, † but his ambition seems to have required no such stimulant. He began, at sixteen, to put in practice the methods then usual of acquiring literary celebrity, by delivering a public lecture. His first topic was the logic of the schools; but, three years afterwards, he ventured to comment on the Greek language, which had hitherto been cultivated with more eagerness than success. He was afterwards *Life of William Lord Burghley, p. 6. Fuller's History of the University of Cambridge, p. 95. ambitious of excelling as a general scholar; and successively directed his industry to the various branches of literature then cultivated at the university. * Inn. 1541 When he was supposed to have laid a sufficient foundation of useful knowledge, he was removed from the university to Gray's Inn, where he ap- at Gray's plied himself to the study of the law, with the same method and industry as he had observed at Cambridge. He found leisure also for several collateral pursuits: the antiquities of the kingdom, and more especially the pedigrees and fortunes of the most distinguished families, occupied much of his attention; and, such was his progress in these pursuits, that no man of his time was accounted a more complete adept in heraldry. † This species of information, had he adhered to his destination for the bar, might have been of little utility; but, in his career of a statesman, it often proved of essential advantage. His practice was to record with his pen every thing worthy of notice which occurred to him either in reading or observation, arranging this information in the most methodical manner, a singular example of diligence, which is authenticated to posterity by collections of his manuscripts, still preserved in many public and * Life of William Lord Burghley, p. 7. + Bacon's Works, Vol. IV. p. 358, edit. 1740. Introduction private libraries. While, from this practice, he derived, besides other advantages, an uncommon facility in committing his thoughts to writing, he neglected not to cultivate an accomplishment still more essential to his intended profession,-a ready and graceful enunciation. By frequenting various companies, and entering into free discussion, he learnt to express himself with ease and confidence ; while the extent of his information, and the soundness of his judgment, prevented his fluency from degenerating into declamation. These acquisitions, united to a singular indusat Court. try, must have raised him, at an early period, to great eminence in his profession, had not an incident, which introduced him to the notice of Henry VIII., soon diverted his attention to a different career. Cecil, having accidentally met, in the presence-chamber, with two Irish priests, who had come to court in the train of O'Neil, their chieftain, happened to enter into an argument with them on the pope's supremacy, of which they were zealous abettors; and, by his superior knowledge and fluency, so baffled his antagonists, that they began to vent their uneasy feelings in violent expressions. This contest was conducted in Latin; and the particulars of it having been reported to Henry, the monarch, pleased with this indication of talents, and still more with the successful refutation of the pope's supremacy, desired to see the |