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Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1445, 3 September 1885, Page 4

The N.Z. Times says : — There has lately been ou view at Mr Edward Joseph' 6 gallery, m Bond-street, a very curious, and it would seem genuine, relic of Queen Elizabeth. This is a small prayer book, three inches by two inches, in* which the Queen has written, m a very neat hand, on sixty five leaves of vellum, prayers m English, Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. Tim inside of the shagreen case, which is adorned with ruby clasps, contains a pair of miniatured of the Q;ieen and the Dued'Alenquon, painted by Nicholas Hilliard, and the book is evidently a gage-d'amour prepared by the Queen for her suitor, probably about 1581, when, as r-aders of Mr Froude will probably remember, she announced to thu Court that she had accepted him as her husband. The prayers are very autobiographical ; the writer speaks of herself as " drawing my blood from kinges," and thanks God for " passing me from a prison to a palace," and " placing me a Sotiveraigne Prince over this people of England." The history of the book can be traced from James 11, who gave it to the Duke of Biiwick, whence it passed to Horace Walpole, and afterwards to the DucheßS of Portland. At her sale, m 1786, it was bought for Queen Charlotte for 101 guineas*. She left it to one cf her la-dies-in-wailing, from whom it was acquired by the luto Duchess of Leeds ; thence it passed into the lat« owner's hands. It is described m Wnlpolu's v Anecdotes of Painting," m his account of the famous miniaturist Nicholas liilliard." i