The Peasant Countess.

freedom from the bonds of wedlock , that he was bound down with heavy debts , and put on a disguise , and came to reside as a poor and humble man at Bolas Magna , a delightful rural idllage , nestling amongst the green lanes ancl apple orchards of Shropshire . He was not troubled with visitors , no one coming to inquire after him ; to the fashionable world he was lost , and from the gaze ancl knowledge of all his relatives he had vanished . To the simple villagers , Henry Cecil , or , as he was known to them , John Jones , was a

puzzle , and as he had not any ostensible means of obtaining a living , numerous were the surmises as to who and what he was ; the prevailing belief at one period being that he obtained his bread as a highwayman . One authority tells that in anticipation of the divorce he paid address to a young lady of considerable attractions , called Taylor ; she , however , being engaged , declined his hand . He lived in the house of a cottager named Hoggins , and his daughter Sarah , a plain , hut honest girl , was next flattered by the

noble refugee . Eventually he obtained the heart and hand of the village maiden , though not until after a struggle , for the equivocal nature of circumstances went against him . The worthy mother sturdily opposed the union , but the father's logic

was simple , and ultimately prevailed ; tor , as in then - clay and m our day , mothers cannot withstand such arguments as , ' Why , my clear , he has plenty of money . ' He showed that he had plenty of money by erecting the largest house hi the district ; it is now called Burleigh Villa . It stands in pleasant fields , ancl faces the well-know a inland beacon , the AVrekin , ancl is about half-a-dozen miles from it . Mr' . Cecil bad not a long courtship , for on the 3 rd of October hi the year of grace 1791 , hi the littl > village church of BolasHenry Cecil was united in the bonds of matrimony to Sarah

, Hoggins . A writer who has paid considerable attention to this marriage says : ' It has been set forth that Mr . Cecil , disgusted with the character of his fashionable wife , resolved to seek some peasant mistress who should love him for his own sake alone ; but the probability is that the young noble was simply eccentric , or that a craving of sympathy in his solitary life had disposed him to take up with the first respectable

woman who should come in his way . ' They continued to live in the village , and who Henry Cecil was and what was his parentage remained a mystery to all—even his wife did not know . A little daughter was born to them , but it only lived a few days and was buried in the churchyard of Bolas , without a stone to mark the spot , and the grave is now forgotten . ' He appears to have not been particular , as to what work he performed . On one occasion , we are told , he gratified his father-in-law by carrying a large ig to a neihbouring squireHis manners ancl conductin iteof the

p g . , sp , mystery as to his means , inspired confidence , ancl he obtained the appointment as overseer , or churchwarden , or parish constable . On parochial duties he had to attend the Shrewsbury Sessions , where he was noticed by a brother magistrate , who had been a schoolfellow , but it did not lead to his detection .

-tie spent much tune m carefully supplying by education all the accomplishments which might be supposed to be wanting in a peasant girl who had become a wife ancl a mother . A little more than two years after his marriage he read in a country paper the tidings of the death of his uncle the earl , which occurred near the end of December , 1 / 93 . Feeling the time had arrived that his presence would be required at Burleigh House , he accordingly set out one fine morning in January . Having bidden adieu to Mrand Mrs ins Cecil and his wife ( just nineteen of )

. . Hogg , Henry young years age set out on horseback for a destination of which she was ignorant . Mr . E . AValford says , ' Her husband merely told her that he was called on business into Lincolnshire , and that she must accompany him . Like a good and trustful wife , she at once obeyed jus wish , and made the journey seated , as was the fashion of the day , on a pillion behind him . They rode on through Cannock Chasepast Lichfield and Leicester

, , s'opphig ^ at the various gentlemen and noblemen's seats on the road , till they came within sight of a noble Elizabethan mansion in a lordly park . Sarah Cecil gazed in admiration , and quietly remarked' What a magnificent house !' 'How should you like , my dear Sally , to be mistress of such a place ? ' was her lord ' s reply . J " ¦