his delight was in athletic
exercise and manly sports; the anecdote we have quoted will testify to
his skill and pluck. We read of him living at one time at Richmond, and
swimming daily in the Thames; of his riding more than 100 miles in one
day; of his hunting, and tennis playing, and shooting. The people could
not fail to love one who so thoroughly entered into their sports, or to
admire him all the more for his proficiency in them.

But, unlike some boys, Henry did not cultivate physical exercises at the
expense of his mind. Many stories are related of his wit and his
learning. A joke at his expense was generally a dangerous adventure,
for he always got the best at an exchange of wit. Among his friends
were some of the greatest and best men of the day, notably Raleigh; and
in such society the lad could not fail to grow up imbued with principles
of wisdom and honour, which would go far to qualify him for the position
he expected to hold.

His ambition was to enter upon a military career, such as those in which
so many of his predecessors had distinguished themselves. In this he
received more encouragement from the people than from his own timid
father, who told him his brother Charles would make a better king than
he, unless Henry spent more time at his books and less at his pike and
his bow. The people, on the other hand, were constantly comparing their
young prince with the great Henry the Fifth, the hero of Agincourt, and
predicting of him as famous deeds as those recorded of his illustrious
namesake. However, as it happened, there was no war into which the
young soldier could enter at that time, so that he had to content
himself with martial exercises and contests at home, which, though not
so much to his own taste, made him no less popular with his father's
subjects.

In Henry Stuart the old school of chivalry had nearly its last
representative. The knightly Kings of England had given place, after
the Wars of the Roses, to sovereigns whose strength lay more in the
council chamber than on the field of battle; but now, after a long
interval, the old dying spirit flickered up once more in the person of
this boy. Once again, after many, many years, the court went to witness
a tournament, when in the tiltyard of Whitehall, before king and queen,
and lords and ladies, and ambassadors, the Prince of Wales at the head
of six young nobles defended the lists against all comers. There is
something melancholy a