A large number of high
officials waited for the queen to appear on her way to chapel.
Ultimately she came out, attended by a gorgeous escort. She is described
as sixty-five years old, very majestic, with an oblong face, fair but
wrinkled, small black, pleasant eyes, nose a little hooked, narrow lips,
and black teeth (caused by eating too much sugar). She wore false red
hair, and had a small crown on her head and rich pearl drops in her
ears, with a necklace of fine jewels falling upon her uncovered bosom.
Her air was stately, and her manner of speech mild and obliging. She
wore a white silk dress bordered with large pearls, and over it was a
black silk mantle embroidered with silver thread. Her long train was
borne by a marchioness. She spoke graciously to those whom she passed,
occasionally giving her right hand to a favored one to kiss. Whenever
she turned her face in going along everybody fell on their knees. The
ladies of the court following her were mostly dressed in white.
Reaching the ante-chapel, petitions were presented her, she receiving
them graciously, which caused cries of "Long live Queen Elizabeth!" She
answered, "I thank you, my good people," and then went into the service.

[Illustration: GREENWICH HOSPITAL, FROM THE RIVER.]

King James I. put a new front in the palace, and his queen laid the
foundation of the "House of Delight," which is now the central building
of the Naval Asylum. King Charles I. resided much at Greenwich, and
finished the "House of Delight," which was the most magnificently
furnished mansion then in England. King Charles II., finding the palace
decayed, for it had fallen into neglect during the Civil Wars, had it
taken down, and began the erection of a new palace, built of freestone.
In the time of William and Mary it became the Royal Naval Asylum, the
magnificent group of buildings now there being extensions of Charles
II.'s palace, while behind rises the Observatory, and beyond is the
foliage of the park. The asylum was opened in 1705, and consists of
quadrangular buildings enclosing a square. In the south-western building
is the Painted Hall, adorned with portraits of British naval heroes and
pictures of naval victories. The asylum supports about two thousand
seven hundred in-pensioners and six thousand out-pensioners, while it
has a school with eight hundred scholars. By a recent change the
in-pensioners are permitted to reside where they please, and it has
lately been converte