Rediscovering Rycote

In August 1568 Elizabeth I and her court visited Rycote as part of her summer progress. Sir Henry Norris, Rycote's owner, was not present as he was serving the Queen as ambassador to the French court. On Sunday 29 August, Cecil, Elizabeth's Secretary of State, wrote to Norris that "the Queens Majestie is well lodged to her great contentation as she hath commanded mee to write to you lacking only the presence of your self whom shee wisheth here untill Thurday [sic] then she will depart ffrom hence" (MS. Eng. hist. f. 8, fols. 127v-128r). This portrait was possibly given to the University of Oxford by William Fletcher in 1797 (Garlick, Bodleian Portraits, p. 57).