the
Princess Mary is: "Item, for shaving Jane fooles hedde, iiiid."
Another is: "Item, geven Heywood, playeng an enterlude with his
children before my Ladye's grace xls."

The great event of Christmas, 1539, was

THE LANDING OF ANNE OF CLEVES,

at Deal, on the 27th of December. King Henry had become alarmed at the
combination between France and Spain, and his unprincipled Chancellor,
Cromwell, desirous of regaining his lost influence with the King,
recommended a Protestant marriage. He told Henry that Anne, daughter
of John III., Duke of Cleves, was greatly extolled for her beauty and
good sense, and that by marrying her he would acquire the friendship
of the Princes of Germany, in counterpoise to the designs of France
and Spain. Henry despatched Hans Holbein to take the lady's portrait,
and, being delighted with the picture produced, soon concluded a
treaty of marriage, and sent the Lord Admiral Fitzwilliam, Earl of
Southampton, to receive the Princess at Calais, and conduct her to
England. On her arrival Henry was greatly disappointed. He did not
think the Princess as charming as her portrait; and, unfortunately for
her, she was unable to woo him with winning words, for she could speak
no language but German, and of that Henry did not understand a word.
Though not ugly (as many contemporaries testify), she was plain in
person and manners, and she and her maidens, of whom she brought a
great train, are said to have been as homely and awkward a bevy as
ever came to England in the cause of Royal matrimony. The Royal
Bluebeard, who had consorted with such celebrated beauties as Anne
Boleyn and Jane Seymour, recollecting what his queens had been, and
what Holbein and Cromwell had told him should again be, entered the
presence of Anne of Cleves with great anticipation, but was
thunderstruck at the first sight of the reality. Lord John Russell,
who was present, declared "that he had never seen his highness so
marvellously astonished and abashed as on that occasion." The marriage
was celebrated on the 6th of January, 1540, but Henry never became
reconciled to his German queen; and he very soon vented his anger upon
Cromwell for being the means of bringing him, not a wife, but "a great
Flanders mare."

CHRISTMAS AT THE COLLEGES.

The fine old tower of Magdalen College, embowered in verdure (as
though decorated for Christmas), is one of the most picturesque of the
venerable academical institutions of Oxford. It stan