nner, ryse from his
owne, & goynge to each of their tables in his Hall, cheerfully bid
them welcome. And his further order was, having guests of Honour or
remarkable ranke that filled his owne table, to seate himselfe at the
lower end; and when such guests filled but half his bord, & a meaner
degree the rest of his table, then to seate himselfe the last of the
first ranke, & the first of the later, which was about the midst of
his large tables, neare the salt."

Another home of Christmas hospitality in the days of "Good Queen Bess"
was Penshurst in Kent, the birthplace of the distinguished and
chivalrous Sir Philip Sidney. "All who enjoyed the hospitality of
Penshurst," says Mills's _History of Chivalry_, "were equal in
consideration of the host; there were no odious distinctions of rank
or fortune; 'the dishes did not grow coarser as they receded from the
head of the table,' and no huge salt-cellar divided the noble from the
ignoble guests." That hospitality was the honourable distinction of
the Sidney family in general is also evident from Ben Jonson's lines
on Penshurst:

"Whose liberal board doth flow
With all that hospitality doth know!
Where comes no guest but is allow'd to eat,
Without his fear, and of thy Lord's own meat
Where the same beer and bread, and self-same wine,
That is His Lordship's, shall be also mine."[57]

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.

[Illustration: 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.

[49] Cassell's "History of England."

[50] "Domestic Memoirs of the Royal Family."

[51] "History of the English People."

[52] "Progresses."

[53] "English Plays."

[54] Sir William Dugdal