120 THE CECILS
he had held for six-and-twenty years and took final leave of Holland. 1
From this time onward he displayed great energy, acting on numerous commissions and enquiries as member of the Privy Council no sinecure in those days and of the Council of War. He incurred the hatred, not unmixed with fear, of the civil authorities of Portsmouth, by his strenuous endeavours to strengthen the fortifica- tions of the town. His name is prominent in all the military commissions of the time, and he was recognised as the chief authority on all matters connected with the Army, into which he introduced many necessary reforms.
His second wife died in May, 1631, and he had still no son and heir. He therefore determined to marry once more, and in 1635, ne being sixty- three and his bride seventeen, he allied himself to Sophia Zouch, daughter of Sir Edward Zouch of Woking. His ambition was realised by the birth of a son, Algernon, in December, 1636 ; but the boy survived only for a few months and his father's hopes were then finally shattered.
Viscount Wimbledon died on November i6th, 1638, and was buried in St. Mary's Church, Wimbledon, where a monument of black marble, erected by his daughters, preserves a record of his achievements.
1 Mr. Dalton suggests that he fell into disgrace with the Dutch Government, owing to a dispute about compensation for the damage done by a fire at Cecil House, which Wimbledon had leased as a resi- dence for the Dutch Ambassador, and that, in consequence, he was removed from his command (II. 311). But he was in his sixtieth year, and his activities at home demanded all his time.
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