out into the princely domains of Welbeck, Thoresby, Clumber and Worksop.  Four hundred gentlemen on horseback partook of his sport.  The Nottinghamshire squires were delighted to hear him say at table, after a noble stag chase, that he hoped that this was not the last run which he should have with them, and that he must hire a hunting box among their delightful woods.  He then turned southward.  He was entertained during one day by the Earl of Stamford at Bradgate, the place where Lady Jane Grey sate alone reading the last words of Socrates while the deer was flying through the park followed by the whirlwind of hounds and hunters.  On the morrow the Lord Brook welcomed his Sovereign to Warwick Castle, the finest of those fortresses of the middle ages which have been turned into peaceful dwellings.  Guy’s Tower was illuminated.  A hundred and twenty gallons of punch were drunk to His Majesty’s health; and a mighty pile of faggots blazed in the middle of the spacious court overhung by ruins green with the ivy of centuries.  The next morning the King, accompanied by a multitude of Warwickshire gentlemen on horseback, proceeded towards the borders of Gloucestershire.  He deviated from his route to dine with Shrewsbury at a secluded mansion in the Wolds, and in the evening went on to Burford.  The whole population of Burford met him, and entreated him to accept a small token of their love.  Burford was then renowned for its saddles.  One inhabitant of the town, in particular, was said by the English to be the best saddler in Europe.  Two of his masterpieces were respectfully offered to William, who received them with much grace, and ordered them to be especially reserved for his own use.619

At Oxford he was received with great pomp, complimented in a Latin oration, presented with some of the most beautiful productions of the Academic press, entertained with music, and invited to a sumptuous feast in the Sheldonian theatre.  He departed in a few hours, pleading as an excuse for the shortness of his stay that he had seen the colleges before, and that this was a visit, not of curiosity, but of kindness.  As it was well known that he did not love the Oxonians and was not loved by them, his haste gave occasion to some idle rumours which found credit with the vulgar.  It was said that he hurried away without tasting the costly banquet which had been provided for him, because he had been warned by an anonymous letter, that, if he ate or drank in the theatre, he was a dead man.  But it is difficult to believe that a Prince who could scarcely be induced, by the most earnest entreaties of his friends, to take the most common precautions against assassins of whose designs he had trustworthy evidence, would have been scared by so silly a hoax; and it is quite certain that the stages of his progress had been marked, and that he remained at Oxford as long as was compatible with arrangements previously made.620