Page:The Queens of England.djvu/31

MATILDA OF SCOTLAND. 19 To confirm this amicable treaty, Henry invited his brother to his court, and Robert came. Six months were spent in gaiety and feasting; never had there been such merry times in Eng- uand ; the land was at peace ; there were no wars without, and no internal commotions ; the reigning king and queen were undisturbed in their united rights, and they were equally united in their domestic affection. The country prospered, and the conflicting races of Saxons and Normans began to intermingle. Henry, by the choice of a good queen, .had done more to secure his power than if he had gone through the kingdom with an army of warriors. Matilda's domestic life was one of extreme piety ; in these days we should have called her a devotee, but still in the world's youth much outward show was needed and displayed ; and Matilda was probably truly sincere in her self-imposed devo- tional exercises ; such as making pilgrimages, barefooted, to the Abbey of Westminster, and washing and kissing the feet of the poor, duties we should now consider very unnecessary, and quite unbefitting a royal lady. Yet Matilda's simple-minded subjects loved her the more for this voluntary humility, and each day gave her firmer hold on their hearts. But Matilda's exertions for the good of her people were not confined to these religious observances. She tried in every way to improve the condition of the country, by causing roads to be made where before were wild heaths and forests. Thus com- merce was facilitated, and a general amelioration in society effected. In the nineteenth century, when hedged roads inter- sect the land from end to end, and railways cut across the most solitary places, we can hardly imagine such a state of things as existed at the time of which we write, when there was hardly a road, except the four Roman ones, of which traces still remain, and when not a bridge yet spanned our rivers and streams. The first bridge that ever was built we owe to Matilda. It still stretches its one arch over the river Lea, at Stratford-le-Bow, to commemorate the place where its royal founder had once nearly met her death by a sudden flood. Several hospitals, particularly St. Giles in the Fields, and Christ Church, where Duke's Place now is, and several charit- able communities owe their foundation to Matilda; indeed, she seems to have done more real good to the nation than many of the kings who preceded and followed her. To be able to effect this, she must have possessed more power in the government than is generally the prerogative of a queen-consort ; but Henry