Stuarts

106 THE STUARTS
by Van Somer. She has exceedingly light flaxen hair, and the pale pink
and white complexion which so often goes with it. Very similar to this is
a miniature at Windsor, described by the unfortunate Van der Doort as
follows : Item. " Done upon the right light. The fifth picture being Queen
Ann of famous memory, of the same bigness, upon a red oval card on a
white hair dressing in a blew habit adorned with pearls, and a picture-box
at her left breast. Done by Isaac Oliver after the life. Length 2 ins.,
breadth i£ ins." In passing I may remark upon the expression " a picture-
box at her left breast." In those days miniatures were worn in beautifully
made ivory boxes on the left breast as tokens of betrothal.
James and Anne had five children : Henry, Charles, Elizabeth, Mary
and Sophia. The two last died in infancy. The three eldest appear to
have been very united, and the affection subsisting between Henry and
his sister is well attested. The following letter from the Harleian MSS.
addressed by Charles when Duke of York, to Henry, offers to give him
all his boyish treasures, and is pleasant reading :
" Sweet sweet Brother,
" I thank you for yowr letter. I will keep it better than all
my graith, and I will send my pistolles by Maister Newton. I will give
anie thing that I have to yow, both my horss, and my books, and my pieces,
and my cross bowes, or anie thing that yow would haive. Good Brother,
loove me, and I shall ever loove and serve yow.
" Your looving brother to be
" commanded,
"York."
The Prince of Wales delighted in outdoor sports, and besides the well-
known picture at Hampton Court, there is another painting at Wroxton
Abbey of him and Lord Harrington, his horse, and the stag they have
hunted, which may be taken as evidence of this. Charles, on the other hand,
was ailing and rickety in his youth, and his brother used to say of him, that
he would make him Archbishop of Canterbury.
However disparaging may be the remarks freely made by historians on
the characteristics of James and his consort, upon but few princes have such
general and enthusiastic encomiums been showered as upon their eldest son,
who, born at Stirling in 1594, died in his nineteenth year at St. James', not