GREENWICH PARK 
111 
from the Black Heath to the northern gate and round 
through the town to the Palace, the guns firing from the 
Tower in her honour. 
It was at Greenwich that the boy king, Edward VI., 
died, and Mary and Elizabeth were constantly there. 
Their state barges bearing them to and from the Palace 
must have been no uncommon sight on the Thames. It 
was on landing on one of these occasions that the famous 
episode of Sir Walter Raleigh laying his cloak in the 
mud for the Queen to tread on, happened. One of the 
many brilliant scenes in the Park took place after Eliza¬ 
beth’s accession, when the citizens of London, overjoyed, 
wished to give her a very special greeting. It was on 
July 2, 1559, that “ the City of London entertained the 
Queen at Greenwich with a muster, each Company 
sending out a certain number of men-at-arms” (1400 
in all), “to her great delight. . . . On the 1st of July 
they marched out of London in coats of velvet and 
chaines of gold, with guns, moris pikes, halberds, and 
flags ; and so over London Bridge unto the Duke of 
Suffolk’s Park in Southwark; where they all mustered 
before the Lord Mayor, and lay abroad in St. George’s 
Fields all that night. The next morning they^removed 
towards Greenwich to the Court there ; and thence to 
Greenwich Park. Here they tarried till eight of the 
clock; then they marched down into the Lawn, and 
mustered in arms : all the gunners in shirts of mail. At 
five of the clock at night the Queen came into the 
gallery over the Park Gate, with the Ambassadors, Lords, 
and Ladies, to a great number. The Lord Marquis, 
Lord Admiral, Lord Dudley, and divers other Lords 
and Knights, rode to and fro to view them, and to set 
the two battles in array to skirmish before the Queen : 
