All present were in twinkling of an ee,

Baith beast, and bird, and flower, before the Queen. And first the lion, greatest of degree,

Was called there, and he most fair to sene,
With a full hardy countenance and keen,
Before dame Nature came, and did incline,
With visage bold, and courage leonine.

This awful beast was terrible of cheir,
Piercing of look, and stout of countenance;
Right strong of corps, in fashion fair, but fier,
Lusty of shape, light of deliverance,
Red of his colour as the ruby glance;
On field of gold he stood full mightily,
With flower de luces circled pleasantly*.

This description is not only noble, containing as fine a picture of the monarch of the beasts as is to be found in the whole range of poetry, but is peculiarly appropriate, being a blazon of the Scottish arms, a red lion rampant upon a field of gold, encircled with a border of fleurs-de-luces; Nature permits him to lean his paws upon her knee, and placing the royal crown upon his head, commands him as king, and protector of the smallest as well as the greatest of his subjects, to rule over them with benignity, and to temper justice with mercy. A fine moral lesson to the prince, of whom the lion is meant to be the personification:—

The lady lifted up his clawis clear,

And let him lightly lean upon her knee,
And crowned him with diadem full dear

Of radiant stones, most royal there to see,
Saying, The king of all beasts make I thee,
And the protector cheif in woods and shaws,
Go forth-and to thy lieges keep the laws.

* There is scarce a word changed, except from the old to the more modern spelling.

Justice exerce with mercy and conscience,
And let na small beast suffer scaith nor scorn
Of greater beasts that bene of more puissance :
Do law alike to apes and unicorns,

And let no bowgle with his boistrous horn
Oppress the meek plough ox, for all his pride,
But in the yoke go quietly him beside.

Then crowned she the eagle king of fowls,
And sharp as darts of steel she made his pens,
And bad him be as just to whaups and owls,
As unto peacocks, papingoes, or cranes;

And make one law for strong fowls and for wrens; And let no fowl of rapine do affray,

Nor birds devour but their own proper prey *.

The queen next addresses herself to the flowers, and, with great beauty and propriety, selecting the thistle, whose warlike thorns peculiarly fitted him to protect the softer plants from scaith or

Scorn

Then called she all the flowers that grew in field,
Describing both their fashion and effeirs1;
Upon the awfull thistle she beheld,

And saw him guarded with a bush of spears;
Considering him so able for the weirs,

A radiant crown of rubies she him gave,
And said, in field go forth and fend the lave3.

Nature then proceeds to the coronation of the rose, as queen of flowers; and the praises, bestowed on the beauty and rare qualities of this gem of the garden, are gracefully applied to the illustrious English princess, who was about to bestow her hand and her heart upon his royal master:

Then to the rose sche turned her visage,
And said, O lovely daughter, most bening,
Above the lily,-lustrous in lynage1,

From the stock royal, rising fresh and ying,
But any spot or macall doing spring 3;
Come bloom of joy, with richest gems be crown'd,
For o'er them all thy beauty is renown'd.

A costly crown, with stones all flaming bright,
This comely queen did on her head enclose,
While all the land illumined was with light;
Wherefore, methought, the flowers did all rejoise ‘—
Crying at once-Hail to the fragrant rose!
Hail empress of all plants! fresh queen of flowers!
To thee be praise and honour at all hours *.

The crown is no sooner placed on the head of the queen of flowers, than the birds, led by the mavis and the nightingale, strain their little throats in one loud, but melodious song of triumph and loyalty; with the noise of which the poet awakes, and starting from his couch, half afraid, anxiously looks round for the brilliant and fragrant court, in which he had beheld these wonders; but the garden, the birds, the flowers, and Dame Nature, have all faded into empty air; and he consoles himself by describing the vision.

This sweet poem was written, as we already know, in commemoration of the union of James IV. with the lady Margaret Tudor. It was finished, as he intimates in the concluding verses, on the ninth of May. The marriage did not take place for some months after; but the preparations for it had commenced as early as the fourth of May, when a commission was given by 1 lineage. 2 young. 3 springing without spot or taint. *Poems, vol. i. p. 9.

4 rejoice.

Henry VII. to several of his nobles, to treat with the King of Scots regarding the dowry. Some of the minute particulars attending the journey of the princess to Scotland, and her first meeting with the king, as recorded by Leland in his Collectanea, are characteristic of the times. On the 1st of August she left Berwick, and was conducted to Lambertoun Kirk, where she was delivered, free of all expense, to the messengers of the King of Scots; who conducted her from thence to Fast Castle, and thence through Dunbar, where they schott ordnance for the luve of her.' On the 3d she reached the Earl of Morton's house at Dalkeith, where she was immediately visited by the king, his leure behind his back, and his berde something long,' attended by his brother the Archbishop of St. Andrew's, the Bishop of Caithness, the Earls of Huntley, Argyle, and Lennox, the Lord Hamilton, and many other lords and gentlemen, to the number of sixty horse. The king was then conveyed to the queen's chamber, and she met him at the chamber-door, honourably accompanied; and at the meeting, he and she, after making great reverences the one to the other, kissed together; and in like manner, kissed the ladies and others also. And he, in especial, welcomed the Earl of Surrey very heartily. After which, the queen and he went aside, and communed together for long space. On the 7th, the princess left Dalkeith, nobly accompanied and in fair array, seated in her litter, which was very richly adorned. Half way between that and Edinburgh, the king met her, mounted on a bay horse, running at full speed as he would run after

the hare, and surrounded by a troop of his nobles. On reaching his capital, he mounted a palfrey, having placed the princess on a pillion behind him; in which honest and antique fashion, the gallant monarch rode through the good town to his palace, amid the acclamations of his subjects. On the 8th of August the marriage took place in the chapel of Holyrood. James was then in his thirty-third year, his youthful queen just fourteen; and some characteristic touches of manners may be gleaned from the Treasurer's Accounts.' In his description of the king's first interview with his bride at Dalkeith, Young, the English herald, seems to have been struck with the length of James's beard; and his young bride was probably a little annoyed at it, for on the day after the marriage we find, that the gallant monarch employed the Countess of Surrey, and her daughter Lady Gray, to clip his beard; for which service, these noble tonsors received-the first, thirty-five ells of cloth of gold; and the last, fifteen ells of damask gold *.

If we may judge from the expensive preparations, and the costly dresses of the nobles, as they appear in the same ancient records, the marriage must have been celebrated with uncommon pomp and magnificence: and amidst the various presents and hymeneal offerings, which on that joyous occasion were laid at the feet of the princess, few

*Item, the 9 day of August, after the marriage, for 25 eln cloth of gold to the Comitass of Surry of Ingland, quhen sche and her dochter, Lady Gray, clippit the King's berde, iiic xxx lb. Item, for xv eln of damas gold, by the King's commande to the said Lady Gray of Ingland, je xxx lb.— MS. Collections by the Rev. Wm. M'Gregor Stirling.