GIRLHOOD OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 169 beth being then thirty-five years of age. When the queen heard of his death she exclaimed that she would rather have lost ten thousand pounds than her tutor Ascham. Nevertheless, she did not, in his lifetime, compensate him too liberally. His salary was twenty pounds per annum ; but I think that sum was fully equal to ten times the amount in the money of to-day. There can be no doubt that the praises which Ascham bestowed upon the queen were in some degree deserved. She was in truth a highly educated lady, with all her foibles and faults. At Oxford you may see her copy of St. Paul's Epistles, with the binding ornamented with designs by her own hand, and with her thoughts written in Latin that were suggested by reading the epistles. We have also some verses of her composition which are not wanting in force and fluency. She did credit to her schoolmaster. This renowned princess in some particulars lived with extreme simplicity, for even kings in that age enjoyed few of the comforts and decencies of civilization. The housekeeping books of some of the great families of that period have been published, from which we learn that few houses then had the luxury of a chimney, and that only princes' beds were provided with two sheets. Carpets were unknown, and floors were strewn with rushes. The household of the Princess Elizabeth were called at six in the morning, and the whole of them, perhaps sixty in number, repaired at once to the chapel, where Mass was said, as the Church of England prayers were still frequently called. At seveil o'clock the Princess and her ladies sat down to breakfast. And what did they have for breakfast ? Not coffee, tea, chocolate, or cocoa. Before each person was placed a pewter pot of beer, and another of wine. On fast days the breakfast chiefly con- sisted of salt fish, and on other days a great joint of
