THE SALISBURY LINE 241
for many years. " I feel very anxious," wrote Mrs. Calvert, 1 " and we all abominate that miserable little animal, Lord Cranborne, for giving all this trouble and expense." However, he came out at the bottom of the poll, and took refuge at Weymouth, which he represented from 1813 to 1817. He then succeeded in winning Hertford, and sat for that borough as a supporter of Lord Liverpool until the death of his father in 1823.
In 1821 Lord Cranborne married Frances Mary, daughter and heir of Bamber Gascoyne, of Childwell Hall, near Liverpool, and assumed, by Royal licence, the name of Gascoyne, calling himself Gascoyne-Cecil. For ten years (1818 1827) he acted as Commissioner for Indian affairs, and in 1826 he was admitted to the Privy Council. For many years after his accession to the title he devoted himself to the management of his estates and to local affairs. With greater wisdom than was shown by his kinsman of Exeter, when he saw that the railway was coming, in 1850, he contrived that it should pass his very gates, and at the same time he succeeded in having the Great North Road diverted to its present situation, thus easing the traffic, much to the benefit of Hatfield. 2 He was a keen agriculturist, and an active magistrate, and succeeded his father as Colonel of the Herts Militia, and High Steward of Hertford.
1 September 2jth, 1812. An Irish Beauty of the Regency, edited by Mrs. Warrene Blake.
2 Antrobus, Hatfield, p. 100.
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