might be tempted to ask what could induce the Spanish ambassador to forge an anecdote which any one of the many thousand eye-witnesses of the ceremony could have disproved, were it not a well-known axiom in politics that the lie which will last a day is always worth the telling.

was of course worn by the Queen; and the 2nd, or "Imperial crown of these realms," we learn from Strype, was carried by the Earl of Shrewsbury; the Earl of Westmoreland bearing the cap of maintenance or of estate, which the sovereign wears with the parliamentary robes previous to the coronation. Vide the descrip

tion of Elizabeth's, page 41, note.

ELIZABETH. 1558-1603.

"THE Lady Elizabeth," as we have so frequently styled her, ascended the throne on the death of her sister, Nov. 17th, 1558. On Thursday the 12th of January, 155, the Queen went from Westminster to the Tower by water.

*In England, from the end of the thirteenth century until the reformation of the Calendar by George the Second, in 1753, the year did not commence before the 25th of March.

to "

The Thames was crowded with stately barges enriched with carved and gilded figures, and exhibiting the badges of their respective owners; the Bachelors' barge of the Lord Mayor's company, the state barges of the trading companies of the City, with bands of music on board, and innumerable boats whose "light-dipping oars" kept time melody divine." On the 13th, the Queen made knights of the Bath within the Tower. On the 14th (the day previous to her coronation), the Queen entered the city drawn in a sumptuous chariot, preceded by trumpeters in scarlet gowns, and heralds in their coat armour. She was surrounded by the principal nobility and gentle. men of the realm, and attended by a train of ladies all habited in crimson velvet. Along the streets were placed railings covered with rich drapery, within which stood in close ranks the Trades' Companies, bearing the ensigns of their "mysteries," "themselves well apparelled with manie rich furres, and their liverie hoods upon their shoulders in comelie and semlee manner, having before them sundrie persons well apparelled in silks and chains of gold, as riflers and garders of the said companies a.” Above their heads floated banners and pennons with loyal inscriptions in letters of gold, while festoons of rare needlework, cloth of gold, embroidered silks, and costly hangings, were tastefully arranged in awnings, or suspended from the windows and balconies of the houses. The Queen was enthusiastically greeted on her leaving the Tower. On approaching Fenchurch Street, she was

a Holinshed. Chron.

saluted by strains of merry music, and a beautiful child stationed on a sort of triumphal arch bade her welcome in the name of her people ". Her Majesty having returned thanks, the procession moved on, but soon halted in Gratious (Gracechurch) Street, where at the sign of the Eagle an arch extended from one side of the street to the other. Upon this was erected a stage of three stories, exhibiting the following royal personages in an allegorical device ;-first, Henry VII. and his spouse of York, from whom Elizabeth derived her name; secondly, Henry VIII. and Ann Boleyn; and lastly, her Majesty in person, in all her robes. The import of this pageant, which was represented by children appropriately dressed, was explained by a“ fair child,” who in a poetical address illustrated the union of the two Houses to which Elizabeth owed her birth by the well-known emblems-a red and white rose.

The royal cavalcade next advanced towards Cornhill, and passing by the Conduit in Cheape," which was fancifully decorated, arrived at the end of Cornhill, where another magnificent triumphal arch was erected; this con

b I have not thought it necessary to encumber the narrative with all the "goodly speeches" and loyal effusions in verse or worse, which were made upon the occasion; the reader who is curious in such matters will find them faithfully set down in Holinshed's Chron. and Tottill's Tract, reprinted in Nichols's Progresses. A sample however will be found in the next page. The old account, as it stands in the works just mentioned, is excessively verbose and tedious, and has also been recently printed in the various newspapers on the occasion of her Majesty's visit to Guildhall.