The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1897-10-06
Wadsworth Dispatch,
PUBLISHED
$500 Per Annum.
THE { { PLAlSANCE.

of the Great Elizabeth.
John Benefits serial in st. Mich
olas, master Skylark," is a story
of the time of Shakespeare and con-
tains many quaint pictures of old
English life. The iero ard his fel-
low schol II g. Fauls ale com
manded to sing before the queen,
and there is the following account
of their reception:
A smoking dinner was waiting
them of whitehait with red pepper
and a yellow juice SO sour that
Nick's mouth drew up in a knot,
but it was very good. There were
besides silver dishes full of sugared
red c~urrants and heaps of comtts
and sweetmeats, which Master
Gyles would not allow them even
to touch, and saffron cakes with
raisins in them and spiced hot cor
dial out of tiny silver cups. Bare
headed pages clad in silk and silver
lace waited upon them as if they
were t1edgeling kings, but the boys
we're too hungry to care for that or
to try to put on airs and waded into
the meat and drink as if they had
been starved for a fortnight.
But when they were done Nick
saw that the table off which they
had eaten was inlaid with pearl and
silver tiligree and that the table
cloth was of silk, with woven metal
work and gems set in it worth more
than 1000 crowns. He was very
glad he had eaten first, for such
wonderful service would have. taken
away his appetite.
And truly a wonderful palace was
the Queens Plaisance, as Greenwich
House was called. Elizabeth was
born in it, and SO loved it most of
all. There she pleased oftenest to
receive and grant audiences to n
voys from foreign courts, and there,
on that account, as was always her
proud, jealous way, she made a
binding show of glory and of
wealth, of science, art and power
that England, to the eyes which say
her there, might stand in second
place to no dominion in the world,
however rich or great.
1t was a very house of gold.
Over the door where the lads
marched in was the queens device,
a golden rose, with a motto set be-
low in letters of gold, "Dieu ct mon
droit," and upon the walls were
blazoned coats of noble arms on
branching golden trees, of pure gold
and finest silk, costly beyond COM
pare. The royal presence chamber
shone with tapestries of gold, of
silver and of oriental silks of as
many shifting colors as the birds of
paradise and wrought in exquisite
design. The throne was set with
diamonds, with rubies, garnets and
sapphires, glittering like a pastry
crust OF stars and garnished with
gold lace work, pearls and orna-
ment, and under the velvet canopy
which hung above the throne was
embroidered in seed pearls, "Vivat
Regina Elizabetha!" There was no
door without a gorgeous usher there,
no room without page, no corridor
without a guard, no post without a
man of noble birth to fill it.
On the walls of the great gallery
we've mastery paintings of great
folk, globes showing all the stars
fast in the sky and drawings of the
world and all its parts, SO real that
one could W the savages in the
new world hanging to the underside
by their feet, like tiles upon the cell
ing. How they stuck was more
than Nick could make out, and
where they landed if they CHANGED
to slip ana fall troubled hlm a deal,
until in the sheer multiplication OF
wonders he could not wonder any
more.