Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoigne-Cecil, third Marquis and sixth Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranborne, and Baron Cecil, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, was born in 1830, was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A., 1850, M.A. and Fellow of All Souls’ College, 1853), and in 1853 was returned to parliament as M.P. for Stamford, for which place he sat until, in 1868, he succeeded to the title. In 1866-7 he held the office of Secretary of State for India, and still holds many important local appointments. In 1857 his lordship married Georgina, daughter of Sir Edward Hall Alderson, Baron of the Court of Exchequer, by whom he has issue living four sons, viz., James Edward Hubert, Viscount Cranborne, born 1861; Rupert William Ernest, born 1863; Algernon Edward Robert, born 1864, and another born 1869; and two daughters, Beatrix, born in 1858, and Gwendolen, born in 1860. His lordship is patron of eight livings in Hertfordshire, Dorsetshire, and Essex. The arms of the Marquis of Salisbury are quarterly, first and fourth CECIL, viz., barry of ten, _argent_ and _azure_, over all six escutcheons, three, two and one, _sable_, each charged with a lion rampant, _argent_, a crescent, _gules_, for difference; second and third GASCOIGNE, viz., _argent_, on a pale, _sable_, a conger’s head, erased and erect, _or_, charged with an ermine spot. Crests, first, on a wreath six arrows in saltire, _or_, barbed and feathered, _argent_, banded, _gules_, buckled and garnished, _or_, surmounted by a morion or steel cap, proper (Cecil); second, on a wreath a conger’s head erased and erect, _or_, charged with an ermine spot (Gascoigne). Supporters, two lions, ermine. Hatfield House is of vast extent; it is of brick, with stone dressings. It was built between the years 1605 and 1611 by Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury. After being suffered to fall into decay, it was restored and beautified by the sixth earl, about the middle of the last century.[38] In 1835, a great part of the west wing was destroyed by fire (in which the Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury perished), little being left of that part of the house besides the outer walls. On this disaster occurring, occasion was taken to effect a general reparation of the entire building. The house is built in the form of a half H, comprising a centre and two wings, the hollow part being turned towards the south. The centre is a magnificent example of the Palladian style, and, although of mixed architecture, presents, in its totality, a design of great richness and beauty. [Illustration: _The East View._]