Page:The Queens of England.djvu/490

 442 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. him forever. Hawking was another of her favorite amuse- ments ; nor can it be reckoned much to her honor that she took prominent part in these sports as carried on by the court crew that surrounded her, when, according to the most honor- able witness, "the manners were such as made me devise the beasts were pursuing the sober creation, and not man in quest of exercise and food." After the hunting came the feasting, and here the historian's task is less easily discharged. He is under the reserves of modern usage and manners, and can touch the theme but slightly. There is some indication of the habits of the court in the arrangements for the reception of the queen's younger brother, the Danish Duke of Hoist, an awkward youth whom Arabella Stuart laughs at as "the Dutchkin," and who had twenty dishes of meat allowed him every meal. But the Dan- ish king's visit two years later gives us clearer insight into the court entertainment and fashionable feasting of the day. He stayed a month ; during which time, says a contemporary writer, "the court, city, and some parts of the country, with banquetings, masques, dancings, tiltings, barriers and other gallantry besides the manly sports of wrestling, and the brutish sports of baiting with beasts, swelled to such greatness, as if there were an intention in each particular man this way to have blown up himself." The allusion is to the great plot then recently exploded, by which Guido Faux and his friends would have blown "the Scotch beggars back to their native mountains ;" and the same allusion is similarly made by an- other not less trustworthy writer. "The gunpowder fright is got out of all our heads, and we are going on, hereabouts, as if the devil was contriving every man should blow up himself, by wild riot, excess, and devastation of time and temperance." It is perhaps fortunate that the more particular account which has transpired of these banquetings, masques, and dancings, riots, and excesses, should be by an eye-witness so faithful and honorable, so incapable of exaggeration or falsehood, as Sir John Harrington ; for it would not otherwise be credible. He was an invited guest at Theobalds when Cecil entertained two kings there, and tells his friend Mr. Secretary Barlow that English nobleman whom he had never seen before even taste good liquor, he now saw follow the fashion, and wallow in beastly delights. They had women, he adds, and wine of such plenty as would have astonished each sober beholder; and