Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/425

AT PETERBOROUGH. 3fii sarsnet, beaten with oil and fine gold, with a scutcheon of arms on each, one of the Trinity, another of St. George, the third of our Lady, the fourth of St. Katharine. Four banner- rolls of the Queen's arms, with Prince Arthur's arms ; ten banner-rolls for the hearse, and sixteen pensells ; twenty-two scutcheons of fine gold for the chariot and horses, and four- score scutcheons beaten in party gold upon buckram in oil, for the other two chariots and the four horses that bore the banners of saints ; besides twenty-two cbaffrons for the chariot horses and officers, and scutcheons in metal and upon paper royal. There was also a majesty and a valence, and eight rache- ments of black sarsnet wrought in party gold, and in every corner of the same a scutcheon of her arms, and at the valence her word and arms. The charges of the wardrobe were numerous. The fol- lowing sample will suffice to show how liberally this depart- ment of the ceremony was conducted. Cloth was to be provided for the thirty ladies and gentlewomen mourners, according to their degree : namely, a duke or a duchess was to have for their mantle, slop and gown sixteen 3'ards at 1 0.s. the yard, and livery for sixteen servants, after their degrees. Countesses were allowed the same quantity at 8^. per yard, and livery for twelve servants. Barons, six yards at 8s., and livery for ten servants. Bannerets and knights of the garter, bishops, squires, gentlemen, and j^eomen and groom wTre all clothed, with a proportionate number of their servants, according to the same rate of their degree. In fact, nothing that was usually done to show honour to the dead was omitted, and the whole of these arrangements must have produced a deep impression upon the vast con- course of persons wdio, from the counties of Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, and jSTorthampton, came to gaze upon the solemn procession, as it conveyed the body of the royal lady to the grave. There has no account been left of the religious obser- vances when the royal procession reached Peterborough Abbey, for Henry VIIL did not constitute the foundation a bishopric until six years afterwards. I am indebted to W. Hopkinson, Esq., of Stamford, a gentleman who is the possessor of an exceedingly beautiful and original portrait of Queen Catherine of Arragon, for the following additional facts : —