210 THE CECILS
wrote Sir John More to Winwood, " that his lord- ship must shortly leave this world, or at least dis- burden himself of a great part of his affairs. In this short time of his lordship's weakness, almost all our great affairs are come to a stand, and his hand is already shrewdly missed ; carendo magis quam fruendo quod bonum est perspicimus." l From this attack he recovered so far that at the beginning of March he was able to " walk daily in his garden," and to receive frequent visits from the King and Queen. " His sickness drowned all other news," we hear. 2 " Every- man's care and curiosity ran that way, insomuch that it seems he was never so well loved as now, when they thought him so near lost." After a short respite, however, his malady, which now proved to be a complication of scurvy and dropsy, gained upon him, and on April 27th, " the vigour of his mind maintaining his weak body," he left London and proceeded to Bath. Here, at first, he derived benefit from the waters, but his disease again got the upper hand, and his con- dition became so desperate that his son, Lord Cranborne, was sent for, and came posthaste with Sir Edward Cecil to Bath. After some sixteen days' sojourn Salisbury resolved to return to London, but his strength was unequal to the effort, and he died at Marlborough on May 24th, 1612. His body was carried to Hatfield, and he
��1 February I7th, 1612 (Winwood's Memorials, III. 338).
- Chamberlain to Carleton, March nth, 1612 (Court and Times of
James I., I. 137).
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