“Here it rested for the night, and on the following day was removed towards Westminster; Sir Edward Howard bearing the king’s banner, on a courser, trapped in the arms of the deceased monarch. In Westminster was a curious hearse, composed of nine ‘principals[[7]], all full of lights,’ which were lighted at the coming of the corpse.
[7]. Principals, in architecture, are corner-posts, which are fixed into the ground-plates below, and into the roof.
“Six lords bore the coffin from the chariot, and placed it under the hearse, the image lying on the cushion, on a large pall of gold. The hearse was double-railed. Within the first rail sat the mourners; and within the second partition stood knights, bearing banners of saints; and without the same stood officers of arms.
“When the mourners were placed in order, garter king-at-arms cried, ‘For the soul of the noble prince, king Henry the Seventh, lately king of this realm;’ and immediately the choir began ‘plecabo,’ and a dirge was sung; which being finished, the mourners departed, and, after taking refreshment, reposed for the night.
“On the next day three masses were solemnly sung by three bishops: at the last was offered the king’s banner, courser, and coat-of-arms, his sword, target, and helm. At the conclusion the mourners made their offerings of rich palls of cloth of gold, and bauderkin, (or cloth of gold, with figures embroidered in silk:) ‘Libera me’ was then sung, and the body committed to the earth.
“At this part of the ceremony the king’s treasurer, lord steward, chamberlain, and comptroller of the household, broke their staves and cast them into the grave; garter king-at-arms exclaiming, with a loud voice, ‘Vive le roi Henri le huitième, roi d’Angleterre et de France, sire d’Irlande.’
“The obsequies ended, the party returned to the palace, where a sumptuous feast was provided for them.”
“What a happiness it is,” said Mrs. Spencer, “that we are no longer under the burdensome ceremonies of popery—that we are not required to sing dirges for the dead, nor pay for masses, to deliver their souls from an ideal purgatory.”
“It is so,” replied Mr. Wilmot. “The ensuing coronation,” he continued, “of Henry the Eighth and Katherine, was conducted with circumstances of extraordinary pomp; but it is not my intention to enter into a minute description of it; and I shall only relate to you a few of the pageants that were exhibited on the occasion, and which mark the manners of the age. Amongst others, was a park, artificially constructed, with pales of white and green, wherein were fallow deer; and, in the park, trees, bushes, and ferns, very curiously constructed. The deer were hunted in the presence of the queen and court, and afterwards presented to them. Another device was a palace, in which was a curious fountain, and over it a castle, surmounted with a crown imperial, with battlements of roses and pomegranates, gilded; whilst, under and about the said castle, ran a vine, the grapes and leaves whereof were gilded with fine gold, with white and green lozenges strewed about the castle; and, in every lozenge, either a rose or a pomegranate, and a sheaf or arrows; or else the letters H. and K. in gold, with certain arches and turrets gilded, to support the same castle; whilst, from the mouths of certain beasts, ran white, red, and claret wine.
“Henry the Eighth was remarkably expert at the games then in practice; such as bearing off the ring, wrestling, casting the bar, &c. Shooting, singing, dancing, and music, seem likewise frequently to have engaged him; and it will afford you some idea of the mixture of simplicity and ostentation of the age, when I tell you, that, in the second year of his reign, he rose early on May-day, to gather hawthorn and green boughs. Richly dressed himself, and, accompanied by his knights, squires, yeomen, and guard, arrayed in white satin and sarcenet, with bows and arrows, he went shooting into the wood; and returned again to court, every man wearing a green bough in his cap. These rural festivities seem often to have been repeated, and accompanied with more or less splendour. Nor could the royal party have had far to ride, ere they could procure those symbols of the beautiful month they were about to commemorate. For it was only late in the preceding reign, that the gardens, which had been continued, time out of mind, without Moorgate, now called Moorfields, were destroyed, and a plain field made of them, for archers to shoot in. And a few years after the excursion of the youthful monarch, which I have just mentioned, the citizens of London, disliking the enclosures of the common fields about Islington, Shoreditch, Hoxton, and other places near the city, whereby they could not be suffered to exercise their bows, nor other popular games, as they had before been accustomed to, assembled themselves one morning, and went with spades and shovels into the said fields, and there worked so diligently, that all the hedges about town were cast down, and the ditches filled.”