EARLY COACHES 7 



him much in her favour, for she was so knocked about 

 in it during her first drive that she refused ever to use 

 it again. Elizabeth's next coach was intimately con- 

 nefted with what to her was a most important event, 

 for William Bonner brought it from Holland, and with 

 him came his wife, who introduced the art of clear 

 starching, by the aid of which the Queen's ruffs spread 

 out stiffly to a truly astonishing extent. 



The early coaches, gorgeous with cloth of gold, 

 embeUished with wonderful carvings, adorned with 

 ostrich plumes, were outwardly everything that was 

 magnificent and regal, but agonizing to drive in. Being 

 utterly destitute of springs, they pitched and rolled in 

 an alarming manner over the rough roads, so that it is 

 no wonder that, when giving audience to the French 

 ambassador, Elizabeth complained that she was "suffer- 

 ing aching pains in consequence of having been knocked 

 about in a coach which had been driven a little too fast 

 only a few days before."^ 



Queen Elizabeth had, however, a very keen per- 

 ception of the state and pageantry due to royalty, and 

 on public occasions she used her coach despite its mani- 

 fold discomforts. At the public thanksgiving for the 

 defeat of the Spanish Armada, she proceeded in great 

 pomp to St. Paul's Cathedral, attended by an enormous 

 retinue on horseback. Elizabeth made a truly impressive 

 appearance in "a chariot throne made with foure 

 pillars behind to have a canopie, on the top whereof was 

 made a crowne imperial, and two lower pillars before 

 1 Ddpeches de La Mothe-F6nelon. 



