458 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. re. a will that nothing is too laborious for him. Hearing lately that the Laird of Dun 1 had passed two days and two nights Avithout sleep, he passed three ; but if he once finds himself beaten in such exercises, he ab- hors them ever after. He dislikes dances and music, and amorous talk, and curiosity of dress, and courtly trivialities. 2 He has an especial detestation for ear- rings. 3 From want of instruction, his manners are rough and uncouth. He speaks, eats, dresses, and plays like a boor, and he is no better in the company of women. He is never still for a moment, but walks perpetually up and down the room, and his gait is sprawling and awkward. His voice is loud, and his words sententious. He prefers hunting to all other amusements, and will be six hours together on horse- back, galloping over hill and dale. . . . His body is feeble, yet he is not delicate ; in a word, he is an old young man. 4 Three unfavourable points only I ob- serve in him. He does not understand his own in- significance. He is prodigiously conceited, and he underrates other princes. He irritates his subjects by indiscreet and violent attachments. He is idle and careless, too easy and too much given to pleasure, par- ticularly to the chase, leaving his affairs to be managed by Arran, Montrose, and his secretary. Excuses, I know, must be made for so young a man ; but it is 1 Sir John Erskine. 2 ' Mignurdises du cour.' 3 Then coming into fashion with French courtiers. Henry III. wore large pendants of pearls, and they may be seen in the early pictures of Charles I. 4 'C'est ung vieulx jeunehomme,'
