alone at her table, and her mother and the queen's sister stood far
below her. And when the queen spoke to her mother or to the king's
sister, they kneeled down every time before her, and remained kneeling
until the queen drank water. And all her ladies and maids, and those
who waited upon her, even great lords, had to kneel while she was
eating, which continued three hours(!). After dinner there was
dancing, but the queen remained sitting upon her stool, and her mother
kneeled before her. The king's sister danced with two dukes, and the
beautiful dances and reverences performed before the queen--the like I
have never seen, nor such beautiful maidens. Among them were eight
duchesses, and above thirty countesses and others, all daughters of
great people. After the dance the king's singing men came in and sang.
When the king heard mass sung in his private chapel my lord was
admitted: then the king had his relics shown to us, and many sacred
things in London. Among them we saw a stone from the Mount of Olives,
upon which there is the footprint of Jesus Christ, our Lady's girdle,
and many other relics."

CARDS AND OTHER CHRISTMAS DIVERSIONS IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

The amusements of the people in the fifteenth century are referred to
by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., who says: "In England, in the
third year of the reign of Edward IV. (1463), the importation of
playing-cards, probably from Germany, was forbidden, among other
things, by Act of Parliament; and as that Act is understood to have
been called for by the English manufacturers, who suffered by the
foreign trade, it can hardly be doubted that cards were then
manufactured in England on a rather extensive scale. Cards had then,
indeed, evidently become very popular in England; and only twenty
years afterwards they are spoken of as the common Christmas game, for
Margery Paston wrote as follows to her husband, John Paston, on the
24th of December in 1483:--'Please it you to weet (_know_) that I sent
your eldest son John to my Lady Morley, to have knowledge of what
sports were used in her house in the Christmas next following after
the decease of my lord her husband; and she said that there were none
disguisings, nor harpings, nor luting, nor singing, nor none loud
disports, but playing at the tables, and the chess, and _cards_--such
disports she gave her folks leave to play, and none other.... I sent
your younger son to the lady Stapleton, and she said accordin