of the old English Catholic kind, quaint perhaps and forced, but truly and even beautifully emblematic. There was again a 'little mountain,' which was hung with red and white roses; a gold ring was placed on the summit, on which, as the Queen appeared, a white falcon was made to 'descend as out of the sky'—'and then incontinent came down an angel with great melody, and set a close crown of gold upon the falcon's head; and in the same pageant sat Saint Anne with all her issue beneath her; and Mary Cleophas with her four children, of the which children one made a goodly oration to the Queen, of the fruitfulness of St Anne, trusting that like fruit should come of her.'[1]
With such 'pretty conceits,' at that time the honest tokens of an English welcome, the new Queen was received by the citizens of London. These scenes must be multiplied by the number of the streets, where some fresh fancy met her at every turn. To preserve the festivities from flagging, every fountain and conduit within the walls ran all day with wine; the bells of every steeple were ringing; children lay in wait with songs, and ladies with posies, in which all the resources of fantastic extravagance were exhausted; and thus in an unbroken triumph and to outward appearance received with the warmest affection she passed under Temple Bar, down the Strand by Charing Cross to West-
- ↑ Hall, p. 801. Hall was most likely an eye-witness, and may be thoroughly trusted in these descriptions. Whenever we are able to test him, which sometimes happens, by independent contemporary accounts, he proves faithful in the most minute particulars. Chapuys says that Anne was received with marked coldness.—Divorce, cap. 13.
