Two pages respecting the Armada then seen “neare the Lizard, making for the entrance of the Channell,” and appearing on the surface of the water “like floating castles.”
A page of news from Ostend, where “nothing was talked of but the intended invasion of England. His Highnesse the Prince of Parma having compleated his preparationes, of which the subjoined Accounte might be depended upon as exacte and authentique.”
Something to say—for a newspaper.
And a few lines dated “London, July 13, of the lord mayor, aldermen, common councilmen, and lieutenancie of this great citie” waiting on Her Majesty with assurances of support, and receiving a gracious reception from her.
Such was the newspaper of 1588.
The great events of Elizabeth’s reign, in war, in politics, in legislation, belong to the historian; the great march of mind, the connecting link which that age formed between the darkness of the preceding ones (for during the period of the wars of the Roses all sorts of art and science retrograded), and the high cultivation of later days, it is the province of the metaphysician and philosopher to analyse; and even the lighter characteristics of the time have become so familiar through the medium of many modern and valuable works, that we have ventured only to touch very superficially on some few of the more prominent of them.
FOOTNOTES:
[120] Harrison.
[121] From this separate mention of tapisterie and arras-work by so accurate a describer as Harrison, it would seem that tapestry of the needle alone was not, even yet, quite exploded.