«I this day was spectator of the most magnificent Triumph that certainly ever floted on the Thames, considering the innumerable number of boates & Vessels, dressd and adornd with all imaginabe Pomp: but, above all, the Thrones, Arches, Pageants & other representations, stately barges of the Lord Major, & Companies, with varius Inventions, musique, & Peales of Ordnance from both the vessels & shore, going to meet & Conduct the new Queene from Hampton Court to White-hall, at the first time of her Coming to Towne, exceeding in my opinion, all the Venetian Bucentoro?s &c on the Ascention, when they go to Espouse the Adriatic: his Majestie & the Queene, came in an antique-shaped open Vessell, covered with a State or Canopy of Cloth of Gold, made in forme of a Cupola, supported with high Corinthian Pillars, wreathed with flowers, festoones & Gyrlands: I was in our new-built Vessell, sailing amongst them»

«Heaven's ebon vault, studded with stars unutterably bright, through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, seems like a canopy which love has spread to curtain her sleeping world»