tragedy, in five acts, composed on the ancient tragic model, with the interlude of assistant choruses, in lyric verse, was performed before queen Elizabeth; whose classic tastes must have been much gratified by such a production. It was the joint composition of her poetic cousin, sir Thomas Sackville, (who shared the literary genius of the Boleyn family,) and Thomas Norton, and was called "Ferrex and Porrex, or Gorbaduc." Probably the quaint and impertinent representation of the whole life and reign of the royal Blue-beard, Henry VIII., which, it is said, was among the popular dramatic pageants of the reign of Edward VI., would have given an unsophisticated audience more genuine delight, than all the lofty declamations of the imitator of the Greek drama. Elizabeth caused a stage to be erected at Windsor Castle for the regular performance of the drama, with a wardrobe for the actors, painted scenes, and an orchestra, consisting of trumpeters, luterers, harpers, singers, minstrels, viols, sagbuts, bagpipes, domeflads, rebecks, and flutes, and very queer music they must have made.

Queen Elizabeth passed much of her time at Windsor Castle on the spacious terrace erected by her, for a summer promenade, in the north front of the castle. She generally walked for an hour before dinner, if not prevented by wind, to which she had a particular aversion. Rain, if it was not violent, was no impediment to her daily exercise, as she took pleasure in walking under an umbrella in rainy weather, upon this commanding and beautiful spot.

In the neighbouring park she frequently hunted, and we have the following testimony, that her feminine feelings did not prevent her from taking life with her own hand, as this letter, written by Leicester at her command, will testify:

"To the right honorable and my singular good lord my lord of Canterbury's grace, give these.

"My lord,

"The queen's majesty being abroad hunting yesterday in the forest, and having had very good hap, beside great sport, she hath thought good to remember your grace with part of her prey, and so commanded me to send you a great fat stag, killed with her own hand; which, because the

weather was wet, and the deer somewhat chafed and dangerous to be carried so far without some help, I caused him to be parboiled, for the better preservation of him, which, I doubt not, will cause him to come unto you as I would be glad he should. So having no other matter at this present to trouble your grace withal, I will commit you to the Almighty, and with my most hearty commendations take my leave in haste. "Your grace's assured, "R. DUDLEY."

"At Windsor, this iiii of September.1

6

While Elizabeth kept court at her natal palace of Greenwich, she, on St. George's day, celebrated the national festival with great pomp, as the sovereign of the order of the Garter, combining, according to the custom of the good old times, a religious service with the picturesque ordinances of this chivalric institution. "All her majesty's chapel came through the hall in copes, to the number of thirty, singing, O God the Father, of heaven,' &c., the outward court to the gate being strewed with green rushes. After came Mr. Garter, and Mr. Norroy, and Master Dean of the chapel, in robes of crimson satin, with a red cross of St. George, and after eleven knights of the garter in their robes; then came the queen, the sovereign of the order, in her robes, and all the guard following, in their rich coats, to the chapel. After service, they returned through the hall to her grace's great chamber. The queen and the lords then went to dinner, where she was most nobly served, and the lords, sitting on one side, were served on gold and silver. After dinner, were two new knights electedviz., the earl of Shrewsbury and lord Hunsdon.""

On the 10th of July, the queen came by water to the Tower, to visit her mints, where she coined certain pieces of gold with her own hand, and gave them away to those about her. Katharine Parr's brother, the marquis of Northampton, and her own cousin, lord Hunsdon, each received one of these memorable pieces. About five she went out at the iron gate, and over Tower-hill, in great state, on horseback, with trumpeters, and her gentlemen-pensioners, heralds, serjeants at arms, gentlemen, and nobles preceding her, lord Hunsdon bearing the

1 No other date, but it must have been before the year 1564, when he was created earl of Leicester.

2 Hist. Order of the Garter, by sir H. Nicolas, vol. i. p. 189.

sword of state before her majesty, and the ladies riding after her. In this order, the maiden monarch and her train proceeded by the way of Aldgate, down Houndsditch and Hog-lane,' places little accustomed, now, to behold royal equestrian processions, with gorgeous dames and courtly gallants, sweeping in jewelled pomp through those narrow, dusky streets; but Elizabeth, whose maternal progenitors had handled the mercer's yard and wielded the civic mace, was peculiarly the queen of the city of London, where she was always hailed with enthusiastic affection. As long as the Tower was a royal residence, our sovereigns did not entirely confine the sunshine of their presence to the western quarter of the metropolis, but gave the city, in turn, a share of the glories of regality. Elizabeth and her train, on the above occasion, proceeded, we are told, through the fields to the Charterhouse, the splendid residence of the lord North, where she reposed herself till the 14th, when Burleigh has noted in his diary the following entry:-"The queen supped at my house in Strand (the Savoy), before it was finished, and she came by the fields from Christ-church." Here her council waited on her grace, with many lords, knights, and ladies. Great cheer was made till midnight, when she rode back to the Charter-house, where she lay that night.

The next day, Elizabeth set forth on her summer progress into Essex and Suffolk. All the streets of the city, through which she was to pass, were freshly sanded and gravelled, and the houses hung with cloth of arras, rich carpets, and silk; but Cheapside, then proverbially called the Golden Chepe, made a display of magnificence in honour of the passage of the sovereign, which we should vainly look for in these days of flimsy luxury, being hung with cloth of gold and silver, and velvets of all colours. All the crafts of London were ranged in their liveries from St. Michael the Quern as far as Aldgate. The aldermen, in their scarlet robes, had a distinguished place in the royal procession, nearer to her majesty's person than her nobles and officers of state,

1 Nichols' Progresses.

2 Ibid.

save my lord Hunsdon, who bore the sword of state before her, and was immediately preceded by the lord mayor, who bore the sceptre. At Whitechapel, the lord mayor and aldermen took their leave of her grace, and she proceeded on her way towards Essex, and is supposed to have lodged that night at Wansted-house, in the forest. On the 19th of July, Elizabeth reached Ingatestone, the seat of sir William Petre, one of her secretaries and privy councillors. She had had the wisdom, as well as the magnanimity, to overlook his former inimical proceedings in the time of her adversity, regarding them probably as political rather than personal offences. She remained at his house two days, and then passed on to Newhall, one of the seats of her maternal grandfather, sir Thomas Boleyn, where Henry VIII. had ofttimes visited, and wooed her fair, ill-fated mother, during the fervour of his passion. Over the portal, the words, Viva Elizabetha, and a complimentary Italian quatrain, still bear record of her visit.

2

She visited Colchester during this progress, and arrived at Harwich, August 2nd, where she enjoyed the sea breezes for several days, and was so well pleased with the entertainment she received, that she inquired of the mayor and corporation if she could do anything for them. They returned humble thanks to her majesty, but said, "they did not require anything at that time." When the queen departed, she looked back at Harwich, with a smile, and said, "A pretty town, and wants nothing."

Her majesty arrived at Ipswich, August 6th, the inhabitants of which, like the other towns through which she passed, had been assessed for the expenses of her entertainment. She found great fault with the clergy for not wearing the surplice, and the general want of order observed in the celebration of divine service.

1 Nichols' Progresses.

Queen Elizabeth relished the Colchester oysters so greatly, which she probably tasted for the first time during her visit to the town, that they were afterwards sent for by horse-loads by the purveyors of the royal table.-Corporation Records of Colchester.

3 Taylor's History of Harwich,

The bishop of Norwich, himself, came in for a share of the censure of the royal governess of the church, for his remissness, and for winking at schismatics. Above all, she expressed her dislike of the marriage of the clergy, and that in cathedrals and colleges there were so many wives and children, which she said, was " contrary to the intention of the founders, and much tending to the interruption of the studies of those who were placed there.” She even proceeded to issue an order, on the 9th of August, addressed to the archbishop of Canterbury for his province, and to the archbishop of York for his, forbidding the resort of women to the lodgings of cathedrals or colleges on any pretence. Her indignation at the marriage of her bishops carried her almost beyond the bounds of delicacy, and when archbishop Parker remonstrated with her on what he called, the "Popish tendency," of a prohibition, which was peculiarly offensive to him as a married man, she told him, "she repented of having made any married bishops," and even spoke with contempt of the institution of matrimony altogether. It is well known, that the first time the queen honoured the archiepiscopal palace with a visit-on which occasion an enormous expense, and immense trouble and fatigue, had been incurred by the primate and his wife—instead of the gracious words of acknowledgment, which the latter naturally expected to receive at parting from the royal guest, her majesty repaid her dutiful attention with the following insult:-"And you," said she, "madam I may not call you, mistress I am ashamed to call you, and so I know not what to call you; but, howsoever, I thank you."3

Elizabeth looked as sourly on bishops' daughters as she did on their wives; and having heard that Pilkington, bishop of Durham, had given his daughter in marriage a fortune of 10,000l., equal to the portion bequeathed by her father, Henry VIII., to her and to her sister, she scotched the see of Durham of a thousand a year, and devoted the money to her garrison at Berwick.