.

Another of Sir Anthony Cooke's daughters was Lady Burleigh, who had been
governess to Edward VI., second wife of the famous lord-treasurer, and
direct ancestress of the present talented marquis of Salisbury,
vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, whose sister, Lady Mildred
Beresford-Hope, wife of the well-known son of the author of
_Anastasius_, bears the same name (Mildred) as her ancestress. Indeed,
names are thus frequently transmitted for centuries in English families,
and often thus serve as links in genealogical research. The Cooke family
has long been extinct, and their stately seat was pulled down by a
London alderman in the eighteenth century.

Another sister, Lady Hobby--whose husband resided at Bisham Abbey, a
fine old place, maintained in admirable repair, near Windsor--was a
terrible disciplinarian, and there is an ugly story of her having
whipped a wretched son of hers into his grave, from exasperation at his
inability to make his "pothooks," when she was teaching him writing,
without blots. Curiously enough, when, some years ago, improvements were
being made at the Abbey, a number of copy-books of the style of writing
common at the period in which Lady Hobby lived were discovered behind
wainscoting, and all were blotted.

The manor of Gorhambury, the great Bacon's seat, was purchased by his
father, whose other seat was Redgrave in Suffolk. Gorhambury is near the
town of St. Alban's, renowned for its abbey, now in course of splendid
rehabilitation.

Not far from St. Alban's once stood the celebrated Roman city of
Verulam, called by Tacitus _Verulamium_, which Bacon, deeply imbued with
Latin learning, appropriately selected for his first title. The plough
has now for many centuries made furrows over it, and the only vestiges
remaining are a few detached masses of the wall. Verulam was bounded on
the south-west by the Roman Watling Street. Gorhambury was built by Sir
Nicholas, and in the archbishop of Canterbury's library at Lambeth may
be seen an interesting account of the expenses. It need scarcely be
added that Queen Elizabeth paid her lord-keeper a visit there. Sir
Nicholas Bacon left Gorhambury to Mr. Anthony Bacon, the eldest son of
his second marriage, and he, dying unmarried, left the estate to his
brother Francis.

Gorhambury now belongs to the earl of Verulam, whose family name is
Grimston. It was left by the great Bacon to his friend, Sir Thomas
Meautys, and thence, by a course of i