the battle into the admiral's vessel. There are Indian guns elaborately ornamented, but these are the chief objects, and we pass into the

QUEEN'S OLD PRESENCE CHAMBER AND OLD AUDIENCE CHAMBER,

two fine halls to the right, still painted as of old by Verrio and now further adorned with more of the French tapestry, their rich but harmonious colouring giving the noblest decoration. There is a remarkable cabinet with finely chased brass, almost worth its weight in gold. The picture over the door, a full-length of Queen Mary Stuart, is most interesting. She is represented as she was during her last months of life, and in the background is the ghastly scene of her execution. There, in a black-draped hall, the poor kneeling figure has received the first blow of the headsman's axe, and a stream of blood pours from the wound. It is unfortunate that this picture, however grim, is placed so high. The controversy still raging over that sad end and its justification will never cease while the story is discussed. The latest evidence with regard to the papers at Hatfield tends to show that Cecil forged the letters purporting to have been written by Mary. The water-mark on the paper is the same as on that used by the English accuser. The handwriting, though like Mary's, is more crabbed, and it is impossible to believe that in such intimate

correspondence she would have employed any but her ordinary somewhat careless writing.

VANDYKE ROOм (p. 123).

Some of the Vandykes (now all collected in the old Ball-room) were in the rooms now tapestried. It is a marvel how many portraits were painted by this great artist in a comparatively short time. He was not very long in England, nor very long at Genoa, and yet the galleries in Italy and here are seldom wanting in some of his fine paintings. He was the first man to group naturally several subjects in one canvas. There is no stiffness about his pictures. An easy dignity and distinction marks everything he performed. The studies of Charles I., whether sitting "high on horse," or more minutely delineated in the three heads in one canvas, represent him as no other sovereign has been portrayed. The face with its dignity and grace makes one understand why all men liked him, until they were deceived. But if it be hard to understand how that charming presence could be guilty of deception, it is in a certain weakness of purpose which may be discerned in the expression. Perhaps Perhaps more sinned against than sinning," is the thought that crosses the mind while gazing at his features.

Look at the portrait of Vandyke by himself, almost in profile. There you understand the refinement of the hand guided by that intelligence, and

A MARRIAGE EMBASSY.

125

the chin and jaw show something of the set purpose for labour that could accomplish so much work.

In Queen Henrietta Maria he seems to present the very woman, quick, kindly, elegant, but not of the nature to breed great men. When she was married to Charles, in 1625, Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, went to bring her to England, and he is said to have "had for the occasion seven rich suits embroidered and laced with silver; besides one of rich white satin uncut velvet, set all over with diamonds, of the value of £80,000; also a sword, girdle, hatband and spurs, with diamonds. Another rich suit of purple satin embroidered all over with rich Orient pearls, of the value of £20,000. He was attended by 20 privy gentlemen, seven grooms of his chamber, thirty chief yeomen, and 2 master cooks of his own servants for the household 25 second cooks, 14 yeomen of the 2d rank; seventeen grooms to them; 45 labourer selleters belonging to the kitchen, 12 pages, with 3 suits apiece; 24 footmen with 3 rich suits, and 2 rich coats apiece; 6 huntsmen, two rich suits, 12 grooms, 6 riders, and 8 others to attend the stables. Three rich velvet coaches inside, and without gold lace all over. Eight horses to each coach, and 6 coachmen richly suited: 22 watermen in sky-coloured taffeta, all gilded with anchors. Besides these, 1 marquis, 6 earls, many gentlemen of distinguished rank, and 24 knights. The whole train that went to France amounted to

nearly 700 persons!" The Queen effected, we are told, "great changes in the fashions of the day;" and so did the King--each in their own way!

ST. GEORGE'S HALL (p. 127)

wears again the aspect of a gallery of the Norman time, and its restoration has been done with taste, and aptly, for the space occupied by it was in the reigns of Norman kings the feast-hall of the Upper Ward. There was another hall in the Lower Ward which in altered form still remains, near the Bell Tower; but it was insignificant in comparison to this long gallery, erected on the vaulted basements of the Edwards. The seventeenth century saw it remodelled in its interior, and Verrio's flying and flitting angels here, as elsewhere, whirled in chaotic allegory around the heads of kings enthroned on thunder-clouds.

In the beginning of this century the ceilings were removed and the timber roof shown, full-length portraits were placed along the wall formerly bounding the old " Horn" and another open court, and the shields of the Knights of the Garter were blazoned on the woodwork on the southern side on the roof.

The great banquets held here in honour of foreign sovereigns, or for other reasons of state, are well set out in this place, where so many guests can be seated at the long table extending from one end to the other, and laden with the gilded plate of which there is a