of a Queen consort so excited the public attention. In former times the royal brides might have been young, beautiful and accomplished, but the object of the present spectacle wag, besides all this, a woman for whose exaltation an important part of the national system had been subverted, or rather perhaps by whose ambition the shackles of popery, which for ages had bound the nation in spiritual and intellectual darkness, were burst asunder. The prelude of this solemnity, which on Whit-sunday was to be concluded, commenced on the Thursday in Easter week, with the ceremony of conducting tbe Queen from Greenwich to the Tower, which is thus described by Hall, Stow, and others. In obedience to royalorders, the mayor and the leading members of the city of London took to their barges on the nineteenth of May at one o'clock, and proceeded in procession to convey tbe Queen from Greenwich to the Tower. The mayor and his brethren were dressed in scarlet, with massive gold chains about their neck, and those that were knights wore the collar of SS. in the mayor's barge were shalmcs, shagbushes,* and divers other musical instruments, which continually made goodly harmony. Before the mayor's barge was a sort of gun boat, called a frovst or waiter, full of ordnance, in which froyst on the middle of tho deck was a great red dragon who kept continually moving his frightful tail, and vomiting wild fire into the Thames ; and round about the froyst stood terrible monsters and savage men casting fire, and making hideous noises, to which the ordnance in the froyst responded in one continuous roar. On the right of the mayor's barge was the bachelor's barge gaily decorated witli streamers, banners, and royal devices ; and on the left was another froyst, on the deck of which was a pageant in honour of Anne Boleyn. It was meant to represent her device, and consisted of a mount upon which stood a tree of gold, * Bude wind instruments. In this reign music was greatly discouraged hy the reformers, they pronounced " syngliig, and saying of mass, to be but roryng, howling, whistelyiig, mummyng, conjuryng, and jogeling, and tho playing at the organeys, a foolish vanity." covered with white and red roses, and with a white falcon crowned, perched on the centre of the tree, and beneath it Anne's motto Mihi etmees. Me and mine. The barges were all gaily bedecked with silk and clotli of gold, their sides were set full of flags and banners, and their chords Avere hung with innumerable little pennons, having small belli attached to their ends, which made a goodly noise as they gracefully wavered in the wind. Thus arrayed the fifty barges, representing the companies of tbe city of London, rode downwards to Greenwich, and there cast anchor, making great melody. At three o'clock the Queen appeared in rich cloth of gold, and attended by a bevy of damsels all elegantly attired. When she entered her barge the citizens moved theirs forward in their order. The mayor immediately preceded her, and on her right were the bachelors, whose minstrels, continuously playing their trumpets and other melodious instruments, greatly delighted her. A hundred barges belonging to the nobility followed, magnificently ornamented with silk or cloth of gold gliding on in harmonious order to measured strains of music. The river was covered with boats, the shores were lined with spectators, and it might have been supposed that London was deserted of its inhabitants^ but for tbe innumerable multitudes collected near the Tower to witness the Queen's disembarkation, which was heralded by a discharge of artillery the most marvellous that ever was heard, but which was lost amid tbe shouts and answered by the spontaneous iicclamations of the delighted populace, few of whom perhaps quitted the gorgeous scene indifferent to the future welfare of the woman who had that day been the object of universal curiosity and attention. On her landing, Anne was conducted by the lord chamberlain, and the officers at arms to the King, who with loving countenance received her at the postern by the water side, and kissed her, and then she turned back again and thanked the mayor and the citizens for their kindness to her on that day, and so entered the Tower. Whilst she remained in the Tower with