Cooke, Mildred

, the eldest of these daughters, we mentioned in the article of William Cecil, lord Burleigh, remarking that she was long the faithful wife of that great Statesman; that she was learned in the Greek tongue, and wrote a letter to the University of Cambridge in that language; that she was a patroness of literature; and that she was distinguished by her numerous charities. To this we may now add, that her preceptor was Mr. Lawrence, an eminent Grecian; and she fully answered the care and pains that were taken in her education: but her reading was not confined to the classic writers of Greece only, but extended, likewise, to the ancient Christian fathers, particularly Basil, Cyril, Chrysostom, and Gregory Nazianzen. A piece of Saint Chrysostom’s was translated by her, from the original, into the English language. It was on the 21st of December, 1546, and in the 20th year of her age, that she was married to sir William Cecil. Her death, as we have seen in her husband’s article, was on the 4th of April, 1589. She had an admirable understanding, and is said to have been a good politician. Nor is this at all surprising, considering her intellectual powers, and that, for more than forty and two years, she was the wife of such an illustrious statesman as Lord Burleigh. As an evidence of her political talents, Mr. Ballard has produced a letter written by her, on the 26th of October, 1573, to sir William Fitzwilliams, at that time lord deputy of Ireland. The letter contains some excellent advice; and shews, that she was | not only a woman of great good sense, but well acquainted with the world. Five days after her decease, lord Burleigh wrote what he calls a meditation on the death of his lady, which contains several farther particulars concerning her, and is a striking testimony of his affection to her memory. ¹