A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II.
John Locke · en
After the Prince was gone, there came to Whitelocke Grave Eric Oxenstiern
and Lagerfeldt, to take their leaves of Whitelocke, they being to go to
Stockholm by command of the Ricksdag; and Grave Eric gave unto Whitelocke
a paper, in French, of damage sustained by a Swedish ship taken and
brought into London, which he recommended to Whitelocke to be a means
that satisfaction might be procured.
[SN: Whitelocke goes to a running at the ring.]
Whitelocke being informed that now at the Court, among other solemnities
and entertainments to welcome the Prince, the gallants used the exercise
and recreation of running at the ring, a pleasure noble and useful as to
military affairs, improving horsemanship, and teaching the guidance of
the lance, a weapon still used by horsemen in these parts of the world;
this generous exercise having been in use in England in Whitelocke's
memory, who had seen the lords, in presence of the King and Queen and a
multitude of spectators, in the tilt-yards at Whitehall and at St.
James's House, where the King, when he was Prince, used also that
recreation: it made Whitelocke the more desirous to see the same again,
and whether, as they used it here, it were the same with that he had
seen in England. He went _incognito_ in the coach of General Douglas,
without any of his train, to the place where the running at the ring was.
He would not go into the room where the Queen and Prince and great lords
were, but sat below in a room where the judges of the course were, with
divers other gentlemen, who, though they knew Whitelocke very well, yet
seeing him cast his cloak over his shoulder, as desiring not to be known,
they would take no notice of him--a civility in these and other countries
usual.
The Senator Vanderlin, Grave Tott, and the Baron Steinberg were the
challengers to all the rest; and of the other part were Marshal Wrangel,
Grave Jacob de la Gardie, and nine or ten others. All were well mounted;
Wrangel upon an English horse, given him by Whitelocke. Their clothes,
scarfs, feathers, and all accoutrements, both of men and horse, were very
gallant. They ran for a prize which the Queen had ordained, and they
comported themselves with much activeness and bravery; and it was the
same exercise which Whitelocke had formerly seen in his own country.
_May 19, 1654._
[SN: The Sound Dues.]
Woolfeldt visited Whitelocke in the morning, and brought with him a paper
concerning the Sound, written in French with his own hand, wherein he
showed much affection to the Protector and to England, and as much
distaste to his own country. The paper Whitelocke laid up, and
transcribed in a larger treatise.
[SN: Effect of the Prince's visit.]