A reviewer of "The Sidneys of Penshurst," by Philip Sidney, says there is a tradition that the Black Prince and his Fair Maid of Kent once spent their Christmastide at Penshurst, whose banqueting hall, one of the finest in England, dates back to that age of chivalry. At Penshurst Spenser wrote part of his "Shepherd's Calendar," and Ben Jonson drank and rhymed and revelled in this stateliest of English manor houses.
christmas in the hall.
"A man might then behold, At Christmas, in each hall, Good fires to curb the cold, And meat for great and small."
Queen Elizabeth died on March 23, 1603, after nominating James VI. of Scotland as her successor, and
The Accession of King James,
as James I. of England, united the crowns of England and Scotland, which had been the aim of Mary Queen of Scots before her death.
