Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/277

 CHARACTERS.

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ha've made in the manners and tajles of the people ; and no ie/s fo, to ob- /erve that ground-'vjork of charac- ter, ixihich is the fa7ne in the people of tkofe days and of ours, and ^vhich no accidental circumftances are able totally to alter,

WE arrived next at the royal palace at Greenwich, re- ported to have been originally built by Humphry Duke of Glou- cefter, and to have received very magnificent additions from Henry VII. It was here Elizabeth, the prefent Queen ^ was born ; and here fne generally refides, particularly in fummer, for the delightfulnef's of its fituation. We were admit- ted, by an order Mr. Rogers had procured from the lord-chamb°r- lain, into the prefence-chamber, hung with rich tapellry, and the flsor after the Englifh fafhion, ftrevved with hay, through which the queen paffes in her way to chapel; at the door ftoo;i a gentle- man drefi'ed in velvet, with a gold chain, whofe office was to intro- duce to the queen any perfon of diftinftion that came to wait on her: it was Sunday, when there is ufually the greatell attendance of nobility. In the fame hall were the Archbifhop of Canterbury, the Bifhop of London, a great num- ber of counfellors of ftate, officers of the crown, and gentlemen who waited the queen's coming out; which (he did from her own apart- ment, when it was time to go to prayers, attended in the follow- ing manner; firftwent Gentlemen, Barons, Earls, Knights of the gar- ter, all richly dreffed, and bare- headed; next came the chancellor bearing the feals in a red filk purfe between two ; one of which carried the royal fceptre, the other the fword of ftate, in a red Icabbard

ftudded with golden fleurs de lis, the point upwards; next came the queen, in the fixty-fifth year of her age, we are told, very majeftic ; her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled ; her eyes fmal!, yet black and p!ea- fant; her nofe a little hooked ; h-r lips narrow, and her teeth black (a defeft the Englifh feem fubject to, from their too great ufe of fuga;) ; file had in her ears two pearls with, very rich drops; llie wore falfe hair, and that red; upon her head fie had a fmall crown, reported to be made of fome of the gold of the ce- lebrated Lunebourg tnble; her bo- fom was uncovered, as all the Eng- lifh have it till they marry; and Ihe had on a necklace of exceeding fine jewels; her h^nds were fmall, her fingers long, and her ilature neither tall nor low; her air was llarely, and her manner of fpeaking mild and obliging. That day fhe was drefied in white filk, bordered with pearls of the fize of beans; and over it a mantle of black filk, fhot with filver threads ; her train was very long, the end of it borne by a marchionefs; inftead of a chain, fhe had an oblong collar of gold and jewels. As fhe went along in all this ftate and magnificence, fhe fpoke very gra- cioufly, firft to one, then to ano- ther, whether foreign minifters, or thofe who attended for different reafons, in Englifti, French, and Italian ; for, befides being well f<il!ed in Greek, Latin, and the languages I have mentioned, fhe is miftrefs of Spanifh, Scotch, and Dutch: whoever fpeaks to her, it is kneeling ; now and then fhe rai- fes fome With her hand. While we were there, W. Slawara, a Bohe- mian baron, had letters to prefent to her; and ftie, after pulling off her glove, g^avc him her hand to S 4. kifs.