160 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



was by steps covered with tapestry wrought in gold. A large cloth of lawn covered 

 both bed and steps, and reached a good way over the floor. As soon as the ambas- 

 sadors and other officers had assembled, the dowager countess of Marr approached 

 the bed, and making a low obeisance, took up the prince, and delivered him 

 into the hands of the duke of Lennox, who immediately presented him to the 

 Enghsh ambassador, whose office was to carry him into the chapel. After 

 a variety of minute ceremonies, too tedious to recapitulate in this place, the 

 procession set out in magnificent order, preceded by the lyon-king-at-arms, and 

 the other heralds in their state uniforms, aU the nobility and foreign ambas- 

 sadors, and was received in the Chapel Royal, where a sermon was delivered 

 by his majesty's chaplain, and followed by an appropriate address in Latin, 

 spoken by the bishop of Aberdeen. The king, leaving his seat, and followed 

 by the ambassadors, advanced towards the pulpit, while the duke of Lennox, 

 again receiving the prince from the Lady Marr, delivered him to the Enghsh 

 ambassador, who held him in his arms during the performance of the sacred 

 ceremony. The child was christened by the names of Frederic Henry, which 

 were no sooner pronounced than they were thrice repeated aloud by the lyon- 

 king-at-arms, and confirmed by the inferior heralds with a flourish of trumpets. 

 Various other ceremonies being duly performed, the royal family, attended by the 

 same gorgeous retinue, retired to the great hall, or " Parliament House," 

 already named, under continued salvos of artillery from the castle, answered by 

 volleys of small arms from the troops lining the ramparts. When the procession 

 halted, the duke of Lennox, again receiving the prince from the Enghsh ambas- 

 sador, presented him to the king, who dubbed him a knight, the earl of Marr 

 touching him with the spur. He was next created a duke,* with various other 

 anient titles attached, all of which were proclaimed by heralds at an open 

 window of the hall, and followed with the usual flourish of trumpets. The 

 prince was then carried by the English ambassador to his chamber in the palace, 

 where aU the guests of distinction now approached with their baptismal oflferings, 

 styled propines.-f The ceremony concluded with that of knighting a great number 

 of gentlemen present, and was succeeded by a sumptuous banquet at eight 



* The king placed upon the infant's head a ducal coronet, and the lyon proclaimed — " The right 

 excellent, high and magnanimous, Frederic Henry, by the grace of God, knight and baron of Renfrew, 

 lord of the Isles, earl of Carrick, duke of Rothsay, prince and great steward of Scotland." — Hist. Stirling, 



t Melvil records several of these as presented by the foreign ambassadors. From Queen Elizabeth 

 was a cupboard overlaid with silver, and some cups of massy gold. The States presented a gold box, 

 inscribed, "Gift to the prince of five thousand (pounds) a year," accompanied by two cups of the same 

 precious material, and " so weighty," says Melvil, whose office it was to receive them, " that I could hardly 

 lift them and set them on the table." — Melvil's Memoirs. 



