Hatfield House lies some twenty miles from London, in the county of Hertford, and is the seat of the most noble the Marquis of Salisbury—the representative of the grand old line of the Cecils. The history of the mansion is one of considerable interest, dating, as its name _Hetfelle_ indicates, from Saxon times, and undergoing many changes under its royal and noble and ecclesiastical owners. It belonged to the Saxon kings until, in the reign of Edgar, it was given by that monarch to the monastery of St. Etheldreda, at Ely, which was founded in 673, destroyed in 870, and refounded in 970, and erected into a bishopric in 1108, in the reign of Henry I. [Illustration: _The Old Palace at Hatfield._] Thus Hatfield being attached to the new bishopric, and the manor becoming one of the many residences of the prelates, acquired, it is said, its appellation of “Bishop’s Hatfield.” Hatfield continued to be one of the palaces of the Bishops of Ely, and was occasionally used as a royal residence, until the reign of Henry VIII., when it was made over to the crown. “William de Hatfield, second son of Edward the Third, was born at the palace,” and at various times before it finally became vested in the crown, it was used and frequented by royalty. During the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII. the young Prince Edward, afterwards Edward VI., resided at this palace, and is variously stated to have been here and at Hertford when the news of the death of his father was conveyed to him, and when, consequently, his accession to the crown took place. In the fourth year of his reign the youthful monarch conveyed Hatfield to his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen Elizabeth, and here she frequently resided. Indeed, the greater part of the troublous reign of Mary, the Princess passed at Hatfield, “with few privations and no personal hardships to endure,” but with much mental torture; for it must not be forgotten that she had been removed from Ashbridge to London and imprisoned in the Tower, for her supposed participation in Wyatt’s rebellion, and was then, under surveillance, permitted to retire to Hatfield. It was at Hatfield that Elizabeth, it is said, while seated under an oak, received the welcome intelligence of the death of her sister, “the bloody Queen” Mary, and on hearing the news she fell upon her knees, exclaiming in Latin, _A Domino factum est istud, et est mirabile oralis nostris_ (“It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes”), words which she adopted as a motto for her gold coinage, while on her silver issue she chose the somewhat similar one, _Posui Deum adjutorem meum_ (“I have chosen God for my helper”). Thus Hatfield became identified with the coinage of the realm as well as with many of its rulers. The day following this event Elizabeth was waited upon at Hatfield by several noblemen of the late queen’s Council, whom she received very kindly, “but presently showed her decided preference for Sir William Cecil