The Girls' Book of Famous QueensFarmer, Lydia Hoyt
History
The Girls' Book of Famous Queens
Farmer, Lydia Hoyt
Queens -- Biography -- Juvenile literature
“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 a 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, 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. 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!’”
But while the queen was still at service in the chapel, her table was
set out with the following solemnity:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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