SATURDAY, JULY 4

In my hearty commendations to you, worthy Sir, I will first pray you to bespeak me your singular good friend, and, in the words of honest Cutwoode, ‘to pardon me if out of mine own humour and knowledge of myself I deliver this conceit before my booke, that all we write is but conceit, and nothing pleaseth conceited men more than to have partners and acquaintances with their conceits.’ Therefore if peradventure you be not so overweeningly conformed to the fashion of the present times, as to eschew my quaint and rusty language, understand ye, that I am disposed to devise a pretty chronicle for your diversion, wherein I shall tente to set forth, God willing, the most memorable entertainment and spectacle now presented by the loyal and learned Universitie of Cambridge, in honour of the Installation of the most noble and honourable good Lord, my Lord the Marquis Camden; who, upon the sorrowful decease of His Grace of Gloucester, hath now newly succeeded to the chair of Lord Chancellor of the said Universitie; wherein, in comparison of place and persons, pomp and pageantry, wine and wassail, you would have to look both north and south, at home and abroad, to see the like again.

I would you were with me here, Master Peter, to advantage you might admire in my company the rare witcheries of this delectable spot.