ce,
in Southwark; three peals of ordnance greeting them as they embarked
with torches and lamps, as they passed the Temple Garden, and as they
landed. This short trip cost L300. The king, after all, was so tired,
and the hall so crowded, that the masque was adjourned till the Saturday
following, when all went well. The next night the king gave a supper to
the forty masquers; Prince Charles and his courtiers, who had lost a
wager to the king at running at the ring, paying for the banquet L30 a
man. The masquers, who dined with forty of the chief nobles, kissed his
majesty's hand. Shortly after this twenty Templars fought at barriers,
in honour of Prince Charles, the benchers contributing thirty shillings
each to the expenses; the barristers of seven years' standing, fifteen
shillings; and the other gentlemen in commons, ten shillings.

One of the grandest masques ever given by the Templars was one which
cost L21,000, and was presented, in 1633, to Charles I. and his French
queen. Bulstrode Whitelocke, then in his youth, gives a vivid picture
of this pageant, which was meant to refute Prynne's angry
"Histro-Mastix." Noy and Selden were members of the committee, and many
grave heads met together to discuss the dances, dresses, and music. The
music was written by Milton's friend, Lawes, the libretto by Shirley.
The procession set out from Ely House, in Holborn, on Candlemas Day, in
the evening. The four chariots that bore the sixteen masquers were
preceded by twenty footmen in silver-laced scarlet liveries, who carried
torches and cleared the way. After these rode 100 gentlemen from the
Inns of Court, mounted and richly clad, every gentleman having two
lackeys with torches and a page to carry his cloak. Then followed the
other masquers--beggars on horseback and boys dressed as birds. The
colours of the first chariot were crimson and silver, the four horses
being plumed and trapped in parti-coloured tissue. The Middle Temple
rode next, in blue and silver; and the Inner Temple and Lincoln's Inn
followed in equal bravery, 100 of the suits being reckoned to have cost
L10,000. The masque was most perfectly performed in the Banqueting House
at Whitehall, the Queen dancing with several of the masquers, and
declaring them to be as good dancers as ever she saw.

The year after the Restoration Sir Heneage Finch, afterwards Earl of
Nottingham, kept his "reader's feast" in the great hall of the Inner
Temple. At that time of universal