NEPTUNE ON THE LYON.

My borrowed name of Neptune now I leave,
The like doth Amphitrita my faire Queene,
And, worthy Lord, grant favour to receive,
What in these mysteries we seeme to meane;
Britanniae's glorie hath beene heard and seen,
Reviv'de from her old Chaos of distresse,
And now united in firme happinesse.

Blest be that second Brute, James our dread King,
That set his wreath of Union on her head;
Whose verie name did heavenlie comfort bring,
When in despaire our hopes lay drooping dead;
When comfort from most hearts was gon and fled.
Immediatlie the trumpet's toong did say,

God save KING JAMES; oh 'twas a happy day!
AMPHITRITA. Our latest Phoenix, whose dead cinders shine
In angels' spheres, she, like a mother milde,
Yeelding to Nature, did her right resigne

To Time's true heyre, her god-son, and lov'de childe;
When giddy expectation was beguilde,

And Scotland yeelded out of Teudor's race
A true-borne bud to sit in Teudor's place.
Which seat to him and his, Heaven ever blesse,
That we nere want a Rose of Teudor's tree,
To maintaine Britaine's future happinesse,
To the worlde's end in true tranquillitie.
When good provision for the poore is made,
Sloth set to labour, vice curb'd every where ;
When through the Citty every honest trade
Stands not of might or insolence in feare,
But justice in their goodnesse does them beare;
Then, as before, in safety I may saie,

All that yeare long each daie is holliday.
Now in behalfe of that Societie,
Whereof thou bear'st a loving brother's name,
What hath been done this day to dignifie,
They pray thee kindly to accept the same;
More circumstance I shall not need to frame,
But from the Merchant-taylors this I say,
They wish all good to LEONARD HOLLIDAY.

Finis.

"Christianus the Fourth, King of Denmarke, having two yeeres since received the order of Knighthood of the Garter, sent Henricus Ramelius, his Principall Secretary and Counsellor of Estate, attended only with thirty Gentlemen, and twenty others of inferior nature unto his Majestie, to be solemnlie enstalled in his right; which Ambassador arrived at London the last of August; and at the King's appointment and charge, lodged and dieted at Somerset House, attended and served by the King's Gentlemen Ushers, Yeomen of the Guard, Gromes of the Chamber; their meate dressed by his Highnesse chiefe Cookes. Hee was enstalled at Windsor the Sth of September, and imbarked for Denmarke the 28th of September.

66

Sunday, the 29th of September, Doctor Bancroft, Lord Archbishoppe of Canterbury, was sworne a Privie Counseller of Estate, at Hampton Court.

Captaine Christopher Newport brought two young crocodiles and a wilde bore from Hispaniola, and they were presented alive unto his Majestie 1."

On the 30th, the Earl of Dorset thus writes, from Oxford, to the Earl of Shrewsbury: "God doth know, I need neither hunger to eat nor slepe, but to attend continually upon his Majestie, and to undress.

.; but I thank Almighty God all these labours are now overcome, and his Majestie this day departed hence with the Queen and Prince towards Windsor, with so precious an acceptance of all our Entertainments as is to us an infinite comfort, and happy requital of all our labours 2."

At Windsor, in October, the King knighted Sir Thomas Hoskins, of Surrey, and Sir Peter Salstonstall 3, of London; and, in a few days, after visiting Hampton Court, went to Royston in, and returned the 31st.

4

The history of the Gunpowder Plot might occupy a large volume: and King James's own composition on the subject is of great extent.

The present Work regards rather the amusements than the troubles of the Reign, and shall therefore content itself with two letters, which will amuse the

1 Howes.

Unpublished Talbot Papers, vol. I. p. 30.

One of this family was knighted July 23, 1603 (see p. 209).

• The Ringers at St. Margaret's, Westminster, were paid 10s. " for ringing at the time that the Parliament-house should have been blown up."

Reader, without wearying his patience. The first contains a summary and circumstantial account from the pen of the Secretary of State; the other, never before printed, affords the conversation of the day.

On the 9th, the Earl of Salisbury wrote the following Letter on the subject: "Sir Charles Cornwallis; It hath pleased Almighty God out of his singular goodness, to bring to light the most cruel and detestable Conspiracy against the person of his Majestie, and the whole State of this Realm, that ever was conceived by the heart of man at any time or place whatsoever. But the practise there was intended not only for the extirpation of the King's Majestie and his Royal Issue, but the whole subversion and downfall of this Estate; the plott being to take away, at one instant, the King, Queen, Prince, Councell, Nobilitie, Clergie, Judges, and the principall Gentlemen of the Realme, as they should have been altogether assembled in the Parliament House in Westminster the 5th of November, being Tuesday. The meanes how to have compassed so greate an acte, was not to be performed by strength of men, or outward violence, but by a secret conveyance of a great quantitie of gunpowder in a vault under the Upper House of Parliament, and soe to have blowne up all at a clapp, if God out of His mercie and just revenge against so great an abomination had not destined it to be discovered, though very miraculously, even some twelve houres before the matter should have been put in execution. The person that was the principall undertaker of it is one Johnson, a Yorkshire man, and servant to one Thomas Percy, a Gentleman Pensioner to his Majestie, and a near kinsman to the Earl of Northumberland.

"This Percy had about a year and a half agoe hyred a part of Vyniard House in the Old Palace, from whence he had access into this vault to lay his wood and cole; and, as it seemeth now, had taken this place of purpose to work some mischief in a fit time. He is a Papist by profession, and so is his man Johnson, a desperate fellow, who of late years he took into his service. Into this vault Johnson had, at sundry times, very privately conveyed a great quantity of powder, and therewith filled two hogsheads and some thirty-two small barrels, all which he had cunningly covered with great store of billets and faggots, and on Monday at night, as he was busie to prepare his things for execution, was apprehended in the place itself, with a false lanthorne, booted and spurred. There was likewise found some small quantitie of fine powder for to make a trayne, and a peece of match, with a tinder-box to have fyred the trayne when he should have seen time, and so

Hæc eft vera & prima origmalis editio Thoa Perci

Os vultum vides Thome tognomine Percy

Inter Britannos nobiless notiffimi
Quers rebus coat ambitione fuperftitiofo
Animo nefandam machinatur dum necem
Regi Regina Ordinibus diprenditur ipfum
Deo volente Jeclus in auctorem vuite"

A ThomasIchry Captoverrunt
B The Ichryfo Regi adduxe-
C The Perfin Arce fugit
Thomas Perfs fagittatus

mortuus