[211]. The house now belonging to Count Oñate, just out of the Puerta del Sol.
[212]. It is certain that Olivares urged Philip most fervently to attend to business in the early years of his reign. See my chapter on Philip IV. in ‘The Cambridge Modern History,’ vol. iv., for a letter on the subject from Philip.
[213]. On the site of the present Teatro español in the Plaza de Sant Ana.
[214]. Philip had had a son by another lady high at Court three years before this, in 1626, of whom an account from unpublished sources will be found in ‘The Year after the Armada,’ etc., by Martin Hume.
[215]. From an unpublished contemporary account in Italian. B. M. Add. 8,703.
[216]. Ashburton Collection.
[217]. Soto de Aguilar, one of Philip’s gentlemen of the wardrobe, wrote an interminable account of all the festivities of his time (MS. Royal Academy of History. Copy in the writer’s possession), from which have been derived many details.
[218]. The garden was that of Monterey, and with the two adjoining gardens, which for this occasion were thrown into one, occupied the whole space from the Calle de Alcala to the Carrera de San Geronimo, called the Salon del Prado.
[219]. Amongst other trifles offered to the ladies at this feast were some of the small jars (bucaros) made of fine scented white clay, which it was at the time a feminine vice to eat. Madame D’Aulnoy gives a curious account of the evil effects produced by this strange eatable. She also mentions the curious craze in Madrid at the time amongst people of fashion to throw eggshells filled with scent at each other in the theatres, parties, and even whilst promenading in carriages. Philip himself was much addicted to this pastime.
[220]. This was the garden on the corner of the Carrera de San Geronimo and the Prado, now occupied by the Villahermosa palace and grounds.