Note 69 — STRAWBERRY HILL.

See his most amusing description of Hardwicke:—“The next is her (Mary Queen of Scots) dressing-room, hung with patch-work on black velvet. Then her state bed-chamber. The bed has been rich beyond description, and now hangs in costly golden tatters. The hangings, part of which they say her Majesty worked, are composed of figures, large as life, sewed and embroidered on black velvet, white satin, &c., and represent the virtues that were necessary for her, or that she was forced to have, as Patience and Temperance, &c. The fire-screens are particular: pieces of yellow velvet, fringed with gold, hang on a cross bar of wood, which is fixed on the top of a single stick that rises from the foot. The only furniture which has any appearance of taste are the table and cabinets, which are all of oak, richly carved. There is a private chamber within, where she lay, her arms and style over the door. The arras hangs over all the doors. The gallery is sixty yards long, covered with bad tapestry, and wretched pictures of Mary herself, Elizabeth in a gown of sea-monsters,” &c. &c.—Correspondence of Horace Walpole.