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his own precept touching the enforcement of the laws be ye contrary, at your first entry to your kingdom, to that Quinquen nium Neronis, with his tender-hearted wish, vellem nescire literas, in giving the lawful execution against all breakers thereof but exception.' It was, at any rate, a rash and unjustifiable act thus to forestall the judge of assize; but they are bold censurers who magnify the proceeding into an attack on national liberty, and perceive in this unlucky pickpocket the proto-martyr of Stuart despotism.

On the twenty-second evening of his progress, King James reached Hinchinbrooke, the mansion of Sir Oliver Cromwell, amidst crowds which now thickened daily on his road, in defiance of his repeated prohibitions. The issuing of these edicts by the new sovereign is a commonplace topic of reproach, and little regard has been vouchsafed to the reasons alleged in their justifi cation. How far it might have been consistent with true policy in James to brave the imminent hazards of dearth, discord, and the plague, rather than check the first outbreakings of English loyalty, is a question which we shall not now agitate; the proclamations were such as evidently could not be enforced, and the monarch must incur censure who begins his reign with a measure at once unpopular and ineffectual.

Of the entertainment at Sir Oliver Cromwell's we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Great must have been the wonder of those who did not know the secret springs of state affairs, when they saw, within little more than a week, the Earl of Southampton, the associate and all but fellow-sufferer of Essex, attending the new sovereign at Hinchinbrooke with the sword of state, and Cecil, the reputed author of Essex's downfall, honoured by his Majesty with a visit of four days at Theobalds. Acquainted as we now are with the secret and highly confidential intercourse between James and Cecil during the last years of Elizabeth, we feel no surprise that Sir Robert should have retained his power under a prince whose esteem he had so long cultivated in private. We do marvel, however, at the boldness of Weldon, who represents Cecil as lurking fearfully in York at James's first arrival there, and not venturing to appear at court, or in public, till some friends, raised by his wit and purse,' disposed the king in his favour. One of these, he tells us, was Sir George Hume; but it seems the principal protector was Aston, whom Sir Anthony calls the king's barber. He further states, in opposition to clear testimony from other quarters, that Cecil died on the top of a molehill near Marlborough,' of the Herodian disease,' his end being hastened by the knowledge that he was totally disgraced with his sovereign. These are some rays of the historical light

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for which we tolerate one of the most vulgar, petulant, and obscene productions that malice or curiosity ever detained from oblivion.

Some amusing particulars of the king's visit to Theobalds appear in a tract of the day, written by one John Savile.* He and his companions being stationed (like Mrs. Gilpin) at a window of the Bell at Edmonton, counted, in half an hour, three hundred and nine horses and a hundred and thirty-seven footmen; which course continued that day from four o'clock in the morning till three o'clock afternoon, and the day before also.' The king rode up the avenue in the midst of his nobility, but not continually betwixt the same two.' At the courtyard he alighted, but had not gone ten princely paces' before' there was delivered him a petition by a young gentleman, his majesty returning him this gracious answer, that he should be heard and have justice.' Here Cecil met the king, and conducted him into the house amidst great applause. The crowd increasing, his majesty soon after showed himself openly out of his chamber window, by the space of half an hour together;' and he then went to walk in the labyrinth-like garden' till supper time. Cecil kept open house, and even the ragged regiments' had beef, veal, mutton, bread, and beer as long as his majesty stayed. Some of the royal train, though not ragged, brought with them other inconveniencies even more scandalous in the eye of refinement-we allude to the discovery made by Lady Anne Clifford and her friends, after sitting in Sir Thomas Erskine's chamber, and which she notes as a change in the "fashion of the court' since Queen Elizabeth's time.†

James had been guarded from county to county by the respective sheriffs, and the same peaceful escort now attended him to the capital. At Stamford-Hill he was met by the Lord Mayor, and a train of knights and aldermen, wearing scarlet gowns and gold chains, besides five hundred citizens, all very well mounted, clad in velvet coats and chains of gold.' Here, too, appeared that honourable old knight, Sir Henry Lee,' of Quarendon, with sixty gallant and well-mounted followers. He had enjoyed favour and employment under Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, and he was now very lovingly received by King James. Richard Martin, of the Middle Temple, (afterwards Recorder of London,) played the orator in behalf of the city magistrates; his speech (and perhaps most of those which have been made on similar occasions) may be summed up in two lines of a poem ‡ in the collection called Sorrow's Joy:'

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Nichols, vol. i,, p. 135.

+ Nichols, vol. i. p. 111, note 3,

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By Cecil, eldest son of the great Burleigh.-Nichols, vol. i. p. 16. The lines are only an amplification, by the way, of the old heraldic exclamations at the royal funerals. Eliza's

eczigo14 Eliza's dead-that rends my heart in twain; lgonq sit to Code And James proclaim'd-this makes me well again! 9q49

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Our exact observer mentions, as a proof of the general enthu☺ siasm, that although there were no hope to find what was lost,TM especially by the loser, notwithstanding, in token of excessive joy inwardly conceived in the heart, many threw up their hats." James rested four days at the Charter-house, then occupied by Lord Thomas Howard; he afterwards proceeded on horseback to Whitehall, took barge there for the city, shot London-bridge, heard a peal of ordnance at the White Tower, disembarked at the fortress, and duly made the round of its curiosities, not omitting the lions, which enjoyed his notice on many subsequent occasions. Indeed, they were very good courtiers, if we may believe Mr. Hubbocke, the Tower chaplain, who tells the king on their behalf, Magnificæ et regales bestia, leones Anglicani, adorant leonem Scotia, O vere de leone Judæ oriunde !"*

James followed, with more diligence than might have been expected from his habits, the example of his great predecessor in perambulating such parts of the kingdom as could be conveniently! included in a royal line of march. For him, no spot of England seems to have possessed such attractions as his own residence of Theobalds, or those of Royston and Newmarket, where he could uninterruptedly devote the fair weather to sport, and the foul to literature, and where, it has been supposed, the fresh and bleak atmosphere was congenial to him, as resembling his native air Still, as the custom of that period was, he frequently bestowed on his noble and wealthy subjects the burdensome, but often highly valued, honour of a residence at their houses. In those proud mansions, where domestic magnificence was carried to a pitch of almost princely state on more common occasions, the royal visit afforded an opportunity of display which, in spite of all its at tendant inconvenience, was embraced by many with the same pride which a munificent citizen of Rome or Athens may have felt in giving a show to the people, or fitting out a galley for the republic. This ambition, uniting with the more generous impulses of hos pitality and loyalty, urged some men to a profusion which, if it did not cause, materially hastened the downfall of their fortunes. Such was the fate of William, Marquis of Winchester, who enter tained Queen Elizabeth thirteen days at Basing-House. Indeed, Osborne affirms of this princess, that she visited the grandees of her kingdom with a design to cripple their estates, and thusi render the proprietors less rampant,' and more subservient to the crown. He adds, as another motive, her desire to lessen the influence of those inferior stars,' by eclipsing them in the view See his speech in February, 1604. Nichols, vol. i., p. 326.

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of the people. It is also to be remembered, that a royal progress was expensive to the crown, and burdensome, as well as vexatious, in some respects, to the public; and that, while the sovereign rested at private houses, his own treasury was spared, and a tax shifted from the country to those who, perhaps, were ambitious of bearing it, but who, at all events, were marked out by usage. and general opinion as fit supporters of it. Queen Elizabeth exacted this due of the crown, as she deemed it, without remorse. The language in Macbeth

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• Your servants ever

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt,
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure,

Still to return your own,'

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scarcely exceeded her idea of a subject's obligation. She made twelve visits at Theobalds, remaining, sometimes, from three to six weeks, and each visit cost Burleigh two or three thousand pounds. To play the churl with Elizabeth on these occasions was extremely perilous, even when hospitality was put to the rudest proof. The queen came to Berkeley Castle unexpectedly, for it had not been set down in the 'gests' as a place to be visited. Lord Berkeley, who was absent, had in his park a stately game of reddeer, in which he took great delight. Such wanton havoc was made among these creatures during her majesty's stay, that the peer, when he heard of it, in a sudden fit of passion, disparked the ground. 1 ten and gonad fa

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On a progress of King James, in 1608, the grandees' seen to have excused themselves in the least ceremonious manner.

The progress holds on towards Northamptonshire, as unwelcome to those parts as rain in harvest, so as the great ones begin à remuer menage, and to dislodge, the Lord Spencer to his daughter Vane in Kent, and divers other gentlemen devise other errands other ways.'......... Progresses of King James, vol. ii., p. 200.

The uncertainty of Elizabeth's movements was a source of great anxiety to those nominated as her entertainers. James was punctural In 1614, Christian of Denmark came incognito to London, and, after dining at an ordinary in Aldgate, proceeded in a hackney coach to Somerset-House, where he surprised his sister, Queen Anne, with a very rustic abruptness. The King of England was on a progress; he returned home, entertained his brother-in-law for a few days, and then résumed his journey of state at the point which he would, by that time, have reached, if no interruption had bccurredati nesto

The duty rendered on these occasions was, in some instances, paid with reluctance; but when the sovereign' met a genuine welcome,

welcome, which was by no means unfrequent, hospitality assumed a character of enthusiasm; invention was exhausted in varying and refining the entertainment; verse, oratory, pageantry, quaint disguises, allegorical and dramatic representations often adapted to the natural scenery of park, lake, and garden, all contended to surprise and to enchant. But on this subject it is sufficient to name theprincely pleasures of Kenilworth." The festivities at Burley on the Hill, in the time of James, are another, but a less distinguished example of magnificent homage paid by a favourite to his sovereign and benefactor. A solid and permanent proof of hospitable loyalty was sometimes given in the enlarging and costly improvement of mansions (as Theobalds, Gorhambury, Hinchinbrooke) for the fitter reception of the royal visitor. Queen Elizabeth happening to observe, at Sir Thomas Gresham's, that the court-yard would look better if converted into two, Sir Thomas employed workmen in the night, and had the partition completed by the time of her majesty's rising. A house is easier divided than united,' was the remark of the kind courtiers, in allusion, it seems, to some known differences in this knight's family.'

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The celebrity attendant on a royal visit adhered long to places as well as persons. A chamber in the decayed tower of Hoghton, in Lancashire, still bears the name of James the First's room. Elizabeth's apartment, and that of her maids of honour, are still known at Weston House, in Warwickshire; her walk 'marked by old thorn-bushes,' at Hengrave, in Norfolk; near Harefield, the farm-house where she was welcomed by allegorical personages; at Bisham Abbey, the well in which she bathed ; and at Beddington, in Surrey, her favourite oak. She often shot with a cross-bow in the paddock at Oatlands. At Hawsted, in Suffolk, she is reported to have dropped a silver-handled fan into the moat and an old approach to Kenninghall Place, in Norfolk, is called Queen Bess's Lane, because she was scratched by the brambles in riding through it.

Among those subjects of King James, who acquired their chief renown by magnificence in entertaining the monarch, two of the most remarkable were Sir George Selby, long distinguished in Northumberland as the King's Host;' and a person, to whom we have before alluded, and whose history requires us to couple with the name of Oliver Cromwell the ideas of unthinking frankness and devoted loyalty. Sir Oliver of Hinchinbrooke, the uncle and godfather of the Protector, was a Huntingdonshire gentleman of large property, knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and often member of parliament for his county, where he appears to have been much beloved. He was, in a remote degree, connected with the royal

family;

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