t pieces of her wardrobe....
When she made any public feasts, her tables were magnificently served
and many side-tables adorned with rich plate. At these times many of the
nobility waited on her at table. She made the greatest displays of her
regal magnificence when foreign ambassadors were present. At these times
she would also have vocal and instrumental music during dinner; and
after dinner, dancing[148]."

[Note 148: Bohun's Character of Queen Elizabeth.]

The queen was laudably watchful over the morals of her court; and not
content with dismissing from her service, or banishing her presence,
such of her female attendants as were found offending against the laws
of chastity, she was equitable enough to visit with marks of her
displeasure the libertinism of the other sex; and in several instances
she deferred the promotion of otherwise deserving young men till she saw
them reform their manners in this respect. Europe had assuredly never
beheld a court so decent, so learned, or so accomplished as hers; and it
will not be foreign from the purpose of illustrating more fully the
character of the sovereign, to borrow from a contemporary writer a few
particulars on this head.

It was rare to find a courtier acquainted with no language but his own.
The ladies studied Latin, Greek, Spanish, Italian, and French. The "more
ancient" among them exercised themselves some with the needle, some with
"_caul work_," (probably netting) "divers in spinningsilk, some in
continual reading either of the Scriptures or of histories either of
their own or foreign countries; divers in writing volumes of their own,
or translating the works of others into Latin or English;" while the
younger ones in the meantime applied to their "lutes, citharnes,
pricksong and all kinds of music." Many of the elder sort were also
"skilful in surgery and distillation of waters, beside sundry artificial
practices pertaining to the ornature and commendations of their bodies."
"This," adds our author, "I will generally say of them all; that as each
of them are cunning in something whereby they keep themselves occupied
in the court, there is in manner none of them but when they be at home
can help to supply the ordinary want of the kitchen with a number of
delicate dishes of their own devising, wherein the _portingal_ is their
chief counsellor, as some of them are most commonly with the clerk of
the kitchen," &c.

"Every office," at court, had "either a Bible o