“And now, having conducted Elizabeth to this triumphant moment of her life, we will leave the subject this morning,” said Mr. Wilmot, “and renew it to-morrow.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAP. VII. ---------- “THAT Elizabeth was a woman endowed with a masculine mind,” said Mr. Wilmot, “that she was prudent, wise, and energetic to an extraordinary degree, and that she deserves to be ranked amongst the most illustrious of sovereigns, cannot be denied; and yet, contrary to Roger Ascham’s assertions, respecting her early simplicity, we find her, after ascending the throne, uniting to all this greatness of character, a vanity so unbounded, and a love of admiration so childish and weak, that we start at the contrast and inconsistency, displayed at times by this wonderful female. “Contemporary historians have left on record several descriptions of the public festivities then in fashion; and though it must be allowed, that the spirit of the age fostered this romantic turn of disposition; yet we can hardly help mingling a smile of ridicule, with our admiration of the loftier traits of her mind, when we peruse the accounts of the entertainments with which the queen was wont to be amused, even to a late period of life. Holinshed, with his usual minuteness, has entered very fully into the relation of these festivities; and I shall abridge, for your amusement, one of the many narrations he presents us with. “In one of her progresses, which were very frequent, she stopped at Norwich, where she was received by the mayor and corporation, with every demonstration of joy, and with a variety of orations and most doggrel rhyme. “Two days after her arrival, Mercury, in a blue satin doublet, lined with cloth of gold, his garments ‘cut and slashed in the finest manner,’ with a peaked hat of the same colour, as though it would cut and sever the wind asunder; and on the same, a pair of wings, and wings at his feet, in a coach, most extraordinarily painted with birds and naked spirits, hanging by the heels in the air and clouds, and with horses winged and painted, appeared at her window, 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 discomfited, in no very gentle manner, by the goddess of Chastity and her attendants, was exhibited in the open air.