ed
eastward. On the frontier of Nottinghamshire the Lord Lieutenant of the
county, John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, with a great following, met
the royal carriages and escorted them to his seat at Welbeck, a mansion
surrounded by gigantic oaks which scarcely seem older now than on the
day when that splendid procession passed under their shade. The house in
which William was then, during a few hours, a guest, passed long after
his death, by female descents, from the Holleses to the Harleys, and
from the Harleys to the Bentincks, and now contains the originals of
those singularly interesting letters which passed between him and his
trusty friend and servant Portland. At Welbeck the grandees of the north
were assembled. The Lord Mayor of York came thither with a train of
magistrates, and the Archbishop of York with a train of divines. William
hunted several times in that forest, the finest in the kingdom, which in
old times gave shelter to Robin Hood and Little John, and which is now
portioned out into the princely domains of Welbeck, Thoresby, Clumber
and Worksop. Four hundred gentlemen on horseback partook of his sport.
The Nottinghamshire squires were delighted to hear him say at table,
after a noble stag chase, that he hoped that this was not the last run
which he should have with them, and that he must hire a hunting
box among their delightful woods. He then turned southward. He was
entertained during one day by the Earl of Stamford at Bradgate, the
place where Lady Jane Grey sate alone reading the last words of Socrates
while the deer was flying through the park followed by the whirlwind of
hounds and hunters. On the morrow the Lord Brook welcomed his Sovereign
to Warwick Castle, the finest of those fortresses of the middle
ages which have been turned into peaceful dwellings. Guy's Tower was
illuminated. A hundred and twenty gallons of punch were drunk to His
Majesty's health; and a mighty pile of faggots blazed in the middle of
the spacious court overhung by ruins green with the ivy of centuries.
The next morning the King, accompanied by a multitude of
Warwickshire gentlemen on horseback, proceeded towards the borders of
Gloucestershire. He deviated from his route to dine with Shrewsbury at
a secluded mansion in the Wolds, and in the evening went on to Burford.
The whole population of Burford met him, and entreated him to accept a
small token of their love. Burford was then renowned for its saddles.
One inhabitant of