'The earl of Leicester had been elected chancellor of the University of Oxford, and in the autumn of 1566 the queen consented to honor this seat of learning with her presence, long ambitious of such a distinction. Her majesty was received with the same ceremonies as at Cambridge; learned exhibitions of the same nature awaited her, and she addressed this University, not in latin but in greek.

'A variety of dramatic exhibitions, prepared for her recreation, were performed in the magnificent hall of Christ's church. When the last play was over, the queen summoned the poet into her presence, whom she loaded with thanks and compliments. The part of the only female in the play was acted by a boy of fourteen, whose performance so captivated the queen that she made him a present of eight guineas. Elizabeth was the foundress of Jesus College, Oxford.

'The observation of Lord Talbot, that the Earl of Leciester showed himself more than ever solicitous to improve the favor of his sovereign, received confirmation from the unparalleled magnificence of the reception which he provided for her, when, during her progress in the summer of 1575, she honored him with a visit in Warwickshire. The princely pleasures of Kenilworth were famed in their day as the quintessence of all courtly delight, and very long, and very pompous descriptions of these festive devices have come down to our time. They were conducted on a scale of grandeur and expense which may surprise; but taste was still in its infancy.

'A temporary bridge, seventy feet in length, was thrown across a valley to the great gate of the castle,

and its posts were hung with the offerings of seven of the Grecian deities to her majesty, displaying in grotesque assemblage, cages of various large birds, fruits, corn, fishes, grapes, and wine in silver vessels, musical instruments of many kinds, and weapons and armor hung trophy-wise on two ragged staves. A poet standing at the end of the bridge explained in latin verse the meaning of all. The Lady of the Lake, invisible since the disappearance of the renowned prince Arthur, approached on a floating island along the moat to. recite adulatory verses. Arian being summoned for the like purpose, appeared on a dolphin four and twenty feet long, which carried in its belly a whole orchestra. A sybil, a 'salvage man,' and an echo, posted in the park, all harangued in the same strain. Music and dancing enlivened the Sunday evening. Splendid fire-works were displayed, both on land and water; a play was performed; an Italian tumbler exhibited his feats; thirteen bears were baited; there were three stag hunts, and a representation of a country bridal, followed by running at the quintain. Finally, the men of Coventry exhibited, by express permission, their annual mock fight in commemoration of a signal defeat of the Danes.

'Nineteen days did the Earl of Leicester sustain the honor of this royal visit, a demonstration of her majesty's satisfaction in her entertainment quite unexampled.

The favorite, anxious to secure his ascendency by fresh efforts of gallantry and instances of devotedness, entreated to be indulged in the privilege of entertain

ing her majesty for several days at his seat of Wanstead house; a recent and expensive purchase, which he had been occupied in adorning with a magnificence suited to the ostentatious prodigality of his disposition.

'It was for the entertainment of her majesty on this occasion, that Philip Sidney condescended to task a genius worthy of better things, with the composition of a mask in celebration of her surpassing beauties and royal virtues, entitled 'The Lady of May.' In defence of this public act of adulation, the young poet had probably the particular request of his uncle and patron to plead, as well as the common practice of the age.'

Unsatiated with festivities and homage, the queen continued her progress from Wanstead through the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, receiving the attendance of numerous troops of gentry, and making visits in her way to all who felt themselves entitled or called to solicit with due humility the costly honor of entertaining her. Her train was numerous and bril

liant; and the French ambassadors constantly attended her motions. About the middle of August she

arrived at Norwich.

This ancient city, then one of the most considerable in the kingdom, yielded to none in a zealous attachment to protestant principles and to the queen's person; and as its remote situation had rendered the arrival of a royal visitant within its walls an extremely rare occurrence, the magistrates resolved to spare nothing which could contribute to the splendor of her reception. At the furthest limits of the city she was met by the mayor, who addressed her in a long and very abject latin oration, in which he was not ashamed to pronounce,

that the city enjoyed its charter and privileges 'by her only clemency.' At the conclusion, he produced a large silver cup filled with gold pieces, saying in latin, here is a hundred pounds of pure gold, with which the queen expressed herself much pleased. Pageants were set up in the principal streets, of which one had at least the merit of appropriateness, since it accurately represented the various processes employed in those woollen manufactures, for which Norwich was already famous.

Two days after her majesty's arrival, Mercury—in a blue satin doublet lined with cloth of gold, with a hat of the same garnished with wings, and wings at his feet-appeared under her chamber window in an extraordinarily fine painted coach, and invited her to go abroad and see more shows; and a kind of mask, in which Venus and Cupid with Wantonness and Riot were discomforted by the Goddess of Chastity and her attendants, was performed in the open air. A troop of nymphs and fairies lay in ambush for her return from dining with the Earl of Surry; and in the midst of these heathenish exhibitions, the minister of the Dutch church watched his opportunity to offer to her the grateful homage of his flock. To these deserving strangers, protestant refugees from Spanish oppression, the policy of Elizabeth, in this instance equally generous and deserving, had granted every privilege capable of inducing them to make her kingdom their permanent abode. At Norwich, where the greater number had settled, a church was given them for the performance of public worship in their own tongue, and according to the form they preferred; and encourage

ment was held out to them to establish here several branches of manufacture, which they had previously carried on to great advantage at home. This accession of skill and industry soon raised the woollen fabrics of England to a pitch of excellence unknown in former ages, and repaid with usury to the country their exercise of public hospitality.

It appears that the inventing of masks, pageants, and devices, for the recreation of the queen on her progresses, had become a distinct profession. George Terriers formerly commemorated as master of the pastimes to Edward Sixth, one Goldingham, and Churchyard, author of the Worthyness of Wales, of some legends in the Mirror for Magistrates, and a prodigious quantity of verse on various subjects, were the most celebrated proficients in this branch. All three are handed down to posterity as contributors to the princely pleasures of Kenilworth,' and the two latter as the managers of the Norwich entertainments. They vied with each other in the gorgeousness, the pedantry, and the surprisingness of their devices.

Richard Topliffe, who at this time was a follower of the court, in a letter addressed to the Earl of Shrewsbury, gives some particulars of this progress worth preserving. I did never see her majesty better received (he writes) by two counties in one journey from Suffolk and Norfolk; Suffolk of gentlemen, and Norfolk of the meaner sort, with exceeding joy to themselves and well liking to her majesty. Great entertainment at the master of the Rolls, greater at Kenninghall, and exceeding of all at Norwich.'