A large mansion built by sir Edward Cecil, son of Thomas, earl of Exeter. Sir Edward was an eminent military character in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. By the latter he was created viscount Wimbledon, and baron Cecil of Pulney, in Surrey. He died issueless, , and the title became extinct. Stow, in his annals, says this house was

burned quite down in

November, 1628

, and that the day before, his lordship had the misfortune of having part of his house at Wimbledon, in Surrey, blown up by gunpowder.

There have been few shops in the metropolis that have acquired more celebrity than Doiley's warehouse. The original founder of the house (who, probably was a refugee, and after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, sought an asylum in this kingdom) formed a connexion in the weaving branch of business with some persons in Spital-fields, whose manufactures, most judiciously fostered by government, and most properly, and indeed patriotically, encouraged by the nobility, &c. were just then ascending toward that eminence which they afterwards attained. Doiley was a man, it is said, of great ingenuity; and probably having also the best assistance, he invented, fabricated, and introduced a variety of stuffs, some of which were new, and all such as had never been seen in this kingdom. He combined the different articles, silk and woollen, and spread them into such an infinite number of forms and patterns, that his shop became a mart of taste, and his goods, when issued, the height of fashion. To this the Spectator alludes in of his papers, when he says to this effect, viz.

that if Doiley had not by his ingenious inventions, enabled us to dress our wives and daughters in cheap stuffs, we should not have had the means to have carried on the war.

Provok'd Wife,

I fear those Doiley stuffs are not worn for the want of better clothes.

On the north side of , between Exeter-change and , is the

[] Moser's Vestiges in Europ. Mag.