ae

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A RIDDLE.
PAS I was going through a field of wheat,
I picked up something good to eat:
"T'was neither tish, flesh, feather nor bone,
I kept it till it ran alone.
THE REPLY 1s—HeEn’s Kee.

 

 

KING JAMES THE FIRST.

© HIS king was the son of the unhappy
Mary, Queen of Scots, and Lord
Darnley. He was born in Edin-
burgh Castle. His father was
murdered before he was a year old,
and before he was two years of age
Lo he had bécome a crowned king.

& James was always fond of favour-
ites. His first pet he made the
Duke of Lennox; his second be-
came Earl of Arran. These men,
like all such favourites, grew proud and insolent,
and ruled Scotland. ‘The Raid of Ruthven,’ as it is
called, threw Arran into prison, sent Lennox to
France, and made the youthful king a sort of
prisoner. But James soon escaped, and then the
tables were turned. Arran was set free, and Gowrie,
though he had been pardoned, was sent to the block.

When he came to man’s estate James lost his
mother, Queen Mary, who, after twenty years of
imprisonment, was executed. About two years after
this the king went to Norway, and there married
Anne, a Denmark Princess. She was the mother
of the unfortunate Charles the First.

When Elizabeth died James became King of Eng-
land. Some, however, including the famous Sir
Walter Raleigh, wished the Lady Arabella Stuart to
be the sovereign. Sir Walter nearly lost his head
then for the share he had taken in this matter, and
he did lose it some years after, as a sacrifice to the
King of Spain, and to the deep disgrace of James.

When James came to England he knighted almost
every one he met. No less than forty-five persons
were knighted at Belvoir Castle. In three months’
time he had knighted seven hundred.

This son of a graceful mother was slovenly and
awkward. His goggle eyes rolled about, and his
legs seemed too weak for his body. He was indolent
and easy, more fond of lying in bed than of doing
kingly business, very extravagant, and always in
need of money. This led him to sell titles and the
high posts of State to those who offered the most
money for them. He did not thus choose the best
men for posts of honour and usefulness, but those
who would pay the most. No wonder many evils
throve and many people were discontented !

James is said ‘to have divided his time between
his inkstand, his bottle, and his hunting.’

As to the first, he was a good scholar, and fond of
disputing, and showing his learning before great
divines. ‘Did not I pepper them?’ said he once,
when he thought he had the best of it.

As to his bottle, we fear he did drink more wine

  
  
 

 

E-

than was good for him, and most likely he shortened
his days thereby. Once he and his brother-in-law,
the King of Denmark, were unkingly enough to get
drunk, and were carried to bed.

As for hunting, it was James’s passion, which many
tumbles from his horse could not stop. Once he was
pitched right into the New River, and nothing of him
but his boots were seen. He had a dog named Jowler,
who was lost one day, and the king knew no happi-
ness till Jowler came back. Hunter-like, James

,used to dress in colours as green as grass, with a

little feather in his cap, and a horn instead of a
sword. He never could abide the sight of a sword.

Ilis extravagance and his love of favourites were
his chief faults. These wretched men rose to wealth,
and power, and rank, one after the other, and dis-
gusted the nation.

Now it was Ramsay, who had stabbed the Earl of
Gowrie at the time of the Gowrie plot. Now it was
Herbert, made Earl of Montgomery, but, unlike all
Herberts, a coward. His mother, Philip Sydney’s
sister, tore her hair when she heard that her son was
a poltroon,

Soon after the handsome Robert Carr had the
good luck to break his leg close by the king. This
accident made his fortune. ‘The king would lean on
his arm, and pinch his cheek in playful fondness, and
gave him his heart’s desire, and more. The lucky
youth became Viscount of Rochester and Earl of
Somerset, and then—such is the vanity of all earthly
things—he and his wile fell into disgrace, and were
seen no more at Court. ;

After this George Villiers, a new favourite, rose
up, and, in course of time, became a duke, but
never managed to become a gentleman. He was a
fine dancer, and wore great diamond buttons on his
coat and strings of pearls dangling about him. A
writer of the time says, ‘No man dances better, and
no man jumps better: indeed, he jumpt higher than
ever Englishman did in so short a time.” ven his
mother, ‘the old Countess,’ was in such favour that
she grew rich by getting people into all sorts of offices
in army, navy, or church.

The proud king allowed Buckingham to be very
familiar with him. He used to write letters to James
beginning, ‘My dear dad and gossip,’ and ending,
‘Your humble slave and dog, Steenie.’ :

Buckingham, too, would wear his hat when the
Prince of Wales took his off, and he would call the
Prince all sorts of ridiculous nick-names.

When the Prince Charles and the Duke went to
Spain to get the Prince a wife, Buckingham insulted _
some of the Spanish grandees, and the match never
came off. Charles returned wifeless, but he brought
home a beard and many presents, some of which
were described by Buckingham, like an over-grown
schoolboy, as ‘four asses, two he’s and two she’s ;
five camels, two he’s and two she’s, and a young one;
and one elephant, which is worth your secing.’

This favourite, always courageous and ready-
witted, and sometimes able to da a noble action,
came to a fearful end, being stabbed at Portsmouth
about three years after his master was dead.

When the Spanish match came to nothing, James
cast his eyes on Henrietta Maria, sister of the
Trench king, as a suitable wife for his son, Prince