The Great House that Sir Thomas More built hereabouts was at this time owned by an Earl of Lincoln who was more than somewhat odd. His son-in-law called him 'this ungrateful miser' and his son claimed that he locked up his wife. In April 1601 Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to his house and he was so concerned at the likely cost of having to entertain her that he hid and his servants were instructed not to answer the door. Sir Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury and Elizabeth's Secretary of State who had sold the house to the Earl, wrote to rebuke Lincoln saying that '...after knocking at both gates some of your people did not only show themselves within, but some of them looked out of the house over the walls. These things did not a little trouble the Queen...' Cecil also wrote that the Queen would dine with Lincoln the following Saturday.

O/S Co-ords:2687.7558
Source(s):

Chelsea