and shopkeepers, and the pride, prodigality and
luxury of the purchasers and idlers by whom it was frequented and
maintained.

Elizabeth soon after paid homage to merit in another form, by conferring
on her invaluable servant Cecil,--whose wisdom, firmness and vigilance
had most contributed to preserve her unhurt amid the machinations of her
implacable enemies,--the dignity of baron of Burleigh; an elevation
which might provoke the envy or resentment of some of the courtiers his
opponents, but which was hailed by the applauses of the people.

Before the close of the year, the death, at a great but not venerable
age, of that corrupt and selfish statesman the marquis of Winchester,
afforded her an opportunity of apportioning to the new dignity of her
secretary a suitable advance in office and emolument, by conferring on
him the post of lord-high-treasurer, which he continued to enjoy to the
end of his life.

On the first of May and the two following days solemn justs were held
before the queen at Westminster; in which the challengers were the earl
of Oxford, Charles Howard, sir Henry Lee and sir Christopher
Hatton,--all four deserving of biographical commemoration.

Edward earl of Oxford was the seventeenth of the illustrious family of
Vere who had borne that title, and his character presented an
extraordinary union of the haughtiness, violence and impetuosity of the
feudal baron, with many of the elegant propensities and mental
accomplishments which adorn the nobleman of a happier age. It was
probably to his travels in Italy that he owed his more refined tastes
both in literature and in luxury, and it was thence that he brought
those perfumed and embroidered gloves which he was the first to
introduce into England. A superb pair which he presented to her majesty
were so much approved by her, that she sat for her portrait with them on
her hands. These gloves became of course highly fashionable, but those
prepared in Spain were soon found to excel in scent all others; and the
importance attached to this discovery may be estimated by the following
commission given by sir Nicholas Throgmorton, then in France, to sir
Thomas Chaloner ambassador in Spain:--"I pray you, good my lord
ambassador, send me two pair of perfumed gloves, perfumed with
orange-flowers and jasmin, the one for my wife's hand, the other for
mine own; and wherein soever I can pleasure you with any thing in this
country, you shall have it in recompense the