Note 130 — THE PROLOGUE. (continued 2)

These cupboards or rather sideboards of plate were necessary appendages to every splendid entertainment. The form of them somewhat resembled some of the old cumbrous cabinets to be found still in ancient houses on the continent. There was a succession of step-like stages, or desks, as Cavendish calls them, upon which the plate was placed. The reader will have a better conception than description can convey of this piece of antient ostentation, from a print in a very curious work by Julio Bello, entitled Laurea Austriaca: Francof. 1627, folio, p. 640. Where our King James I. is represented entertaining the Spanish ambassadors in 1623.