hundred and eighty paces in length, set round on every side with supporters of wood, which sustain a balcony, from whence the nobility and other persons of distinction, can take the pleasure of seeing hunting and hawking, in a lawn of sufficient space; for the fields and meadows, clad with a variety of plants and flowers, swell gradually into hills of perpetual verdure, quite up to the castle, and at bottom, stretch out into an extended plain, that strikes the beholders with delight."

Queen Elizabeth's bed-chamber was the apartment in which Henry VI. was born. In this room, Hentzner describes a table of red marble with white streaks, a cushion most curiously wrought by her majesty's own hands, a unicorn's horn, of above eight spans and a half in length, valued at the absurd price of ten thousand pounds; also, a bird of paradise, of which, our author gives a minute and somewhat ludicrous account. From the royal chamber, he wanders into the gallery, ornamented with emblems and figures, and another chamber adjacent, containing (where are they now?) "the royal beds of Henry VII. and his queen, of Edward VI., Henry VIII., and Anne Boleyn, all of them eleven feet square, and covered with quilts shining with gold and silver. Queen Elizabeth's bed," he tells us," is not quite so long or so large as the others, but covered with curious hangings of embroidery work. The tapestry represented Clovis, king of France, with an angel presenting to him the fleur-de-lis, to be borne in his arms, instead of the three toads, the ancient device of his royal predecessors. This antique piece of tapestry, was stated to be one of the only surviving relics of the conquest of France, by the victorious Edward III. or Henry V.

Hentzner describes the royal barge, as having two splendid cabins, beautifully ornamented with glass windows, painting, and gilding.

Hampton Court must, indeed, have been a palace fit for this mighty empress of pomp and pageantry, in the truly palatinal grandeur of the Tudor architecture, and furnished in the manner our eloquent German describes. He tells us, that the chapel was most splendid, and the queen's closet quite transparent, having crystal windows; and that there was, besides, a small chapel, richly hung with tapestry, where the queen performs her devotions. In queen

Elizabeth's chamber, the bed was covered with costly coverlids of silk.

"In one chamber," pursues he, " were the rich tapestries, which are hung up when the queen gives audience to foreign ambassadors; there were numbers of cushions ornamented with gold and silver, many counterpanes and coverlids of beds, lined with ermine, in short, all the walls of the palace shine with gold and silver." Alas! for the vanished glories of this once royal abode, what strains of lamentation would our marvellous German have poured forth, could he now behold the dishonouring change that has befallen the Dutchified. palace of Hampton Court. He winds up the climax of his description of its splendour, under the great Elizabeth, with the description of a certain cabinet, called Paradise, where, "besides that everything glitters so with silver, gold, and jewels, as to dazzle one's eyes," he says, "there is a musical instrument made all of glass, except the strings." The walls of the Hampton-Court gardens were at that timecovered with rosemary.

In addition to Nonsuch and Richmond, Elizabeth had a variety of minor palaces, in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, to which suburban residences she retired, when alarmed by suspicion of the vicinity of pestilence in Westminster, or Greenwich. She had the Lodge at Islington, the Grove at Newington, her Dairy at Barnelms, and the royal palace and park of Mary la Bonne, now Regent's Park; here the ambassadors of the czar of Russia, in 1600, had permission to hunt at their pleasure.

Hentzner was much struck with the fine library of this learned female sovereign, at Whitehall. "All these books," continues he, "are bound in velvet of different colours, but chiefly red, with clasps of gold and silver; some have pearls and precious stones, set in their bindings." Such was, indeed, the fashion in the magnificent reign of Elizabeth, when, except in the article of the rush-strewn floors, engendering dirt and pestilence, luxury had arrived at a prodigious height. Hentzner particularly notices two little silver cabinets, of exquisite work, in which, he says, the queen keeps her paper, and which she uses for writing-boxes. Also a little chest, ornamented all over with pearls, in which she keeps her bracelets, ear-rings, and other things of extraordinary value. The queen's bed is described as being ingeniously

composed of woods of different colours, with quilts of silk velvet, gold, silver, and embroidery. Among the portraits, he mentions one of the queen, at sixteen years of age.

At Greenwich palace our worthy traveller enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding the imperial lady, to whom pertained all these glories, in propria persona, surrounded with the pomp and elaborate ceremonials, which attended the fatiguing dignity of the royal office, in the reign of the maiden monarch, but not as she appeared to the poetic vision of Gray.

"Girt with many a baron bold,

Sublime their starry fronts they rear ;

And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old

In bearded majesty [not the ladies, we hope] appear.
In the midst a form divine,

Her eye proclaims her of the Tudor line;

Her lion port, her awe-commanding face,
Attemper'd sweet with virgin grace.'

Such, probably, was a correct portrait of England's Elizabeth, in the first twenty years of her reign; but when Hentzner saw her, at Greenwich, she was in her sixty-sixth year, and Time, which does his work as sternly on royalty as on mortals of meaner mould, had wrought strange changes in the outward similitude of the virgin queen. But Hentzner must speak for himself. After telling us, that he was admitted into the royal apartments by a lord chamberlain's order, which his English friend had procured, he first describes the presence chamber, "hung with rich tapestry, and the floor, after the English fashion, strewed with hay,' through which the queen commonly passes in her way to chapel. At the door stood a gentleman, dressed in velvet, with a gold chain, whose office was to introduce to the queen any person of distinction, that came to wait on her. It was Sunday, when there is usually the greatest attendance of nobility. In the same hall were the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of London, a great number of counsellors of state, officers of the crown, and gentlemen, who waited the queen's coming out, which she did, from her own apartment, when it was time to go to prayers, attended in the following manner :

"First went gentlemen, barons, earls, knights of the garter, all richly dressed, and bare-headed; next came the chancellor, bearing the seals, in a red silk purse, between two, one of

1 He probably means rushes.

which carried the royal sceptre, the other the sword of state, in a red scabbard, studded with golden fleurs de lis, the point upwards. Next came the queen, in the sixty-sixth year of her age, as we were told, very majestic; her face, oblong, fair, but wrinkled; her eyes small, yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked; her lips narrow, and her teeth black, (a defect the English seem subject to, from their too great use of sugar.) She had in her ears two pearls, with very rich drops; she wore false hair, and that red; upon her head she had a small crown, reported to be made of some of the gold of the celebrated Lunebourg table. Her bosom was uncovered, as all the English ladies have it, till they marry; and she had on a necklace, of exceeding fine jewels; her hands were small, her fingers long, and her stature neither tall nor low; her air was stately; her manner of speaking mild and obliging. That day she was dressed in white silk, bordered with pearls of the size of beans, and over it a mantle, of black silk, shot with silver threads; her train was very long, the end of it borne by a marchioness. Instead of a chain, she had an oblong collar, of gold and jewels. As she went along, in all this state and magnificence, she spoke very graciously, first to one, then to another, whether foreign ministers, or those who attended for different reasons, in English, French, and Italian; for, besides being well skilled in Greek, Latin, and the languages I have mentioned, she is mistress of Spanish, Scotch, and Dutch. Whoever speaks to her, it is kneeling; now and then she raises some with her hand. While we were there, W. Slawata, a Bohemian baron, had letters to present to her; and she, after pulling off her glove, gave him her right hand to kiss, sparkling with rings and jewels-a mark of particular favour. Wherever she turned her face, as she was going along, everybody fell down on their knees. The ladies of the court followed next to her, very handsome and well-shaped, and for the most part dressed in white. She was guarded, on each side, by the gentlemen pensioners, fifty in number, with gilt battle-axes. In the ante-chapel, next the hall where we were, petitions were presented to her, and she received them most graciously, which occasioned the acclamation of LONG LIVE QUEEN ELIZABETH!' She answered it with, I THANK YOU, MY GOOD PEOPLE.' In the chapel was excellent music: as soon as the service

was over, which scarce exceeded half an hour, the queen returned, in the same state and order, and prepared to go to dinner. But, while she was still at prayers, we saw her table set out, with the following solemnity:-"

"A gentleman entered the room, bearing a rod, and along with him another, who had a table-cloth, which, after they had both kneeled three times, with the utmost veneration, he spread upon the table, and, after kneeling again, they both retired. Then came two others, one with the rod again, the other with a salt-cellar, a plate, and bread; when they had kneeled, as the others had done, and placed what was brought upon the table, they too retired, with the same ceremonies performed by the first. At last came an unmarried lady, (we were told she was a countess,) and along with her a married one, bearing a tasting-knife; the former was dressed in white silk, who, when she had prostrated herself three times, in the most graceful manner, approached the table, and rubbed the plates with bread and salt, with as much awe as if the queen had been present. When they had waited there a little while, the yeomen of the guard entered, bare-headed, clothed in scarlet, with a golden rose upon their backs, bringing in, at each turn, a course of twenty-four dishes, served in plate, most of it gilt; these dishes were received by a gentleman, in the same order they were brought, and placed upon the table, while the ladytaster gave to each of the guard a mouthful to eat, of the particular dish he had brought, for fear of any poison. During the time that this guard, which consists of the tallest and stoutest men that can be found in all England, being carefully selected for this service, were bringing dinner, twelve trumpets and two kettle-drums made the hall ring for half-an-hour together. At the end of all this ceremonial, a number of unmarried ladies appeared, who, with particular solemnity, lifted the meat off the table, and conveyed into the queen's inner and more private chamber, where, after she had chosen for herself, the rest goes to the ladies of the court."

"The queen dines and sups alone, with very few attendants; and it is very seldom that anybody, foreigner or native, is admitted at that time, and then only at the intercession of somebody in power."1

1 Hentzner's Travels.