Coke seems to have
exaggerated the King's taste for the bottle. Welldon says James was
not intemperate in his drinking; "However, in his old age,
Buckingham's jovial suppers, when he had any turn to do with him, made
him sometimes overtaken, which he would the next day remember, and
repent with tears. It is true he drank very often, which was rather
out of a custom than any delight; and his drinks were of that kind for
strength, as Frontiniack, Canary, high country wine, tent wine, and
Scottish ale, that had he not had a very strong brain, he might have
been daily overtaken, though he seldom drank at any one time above
four spoonfuls, many times not above one or two."--_Secret History of
King James,_ vol. ii., p. 3. Edin. 1811.
Note XVII. p. 325.--SCENE IN GREENWICH PARK
I cannot here omit mentioning, that a painting of the old school is in
existence, having a remarkable resemblance to the scene described in
the foregoing chapter, although it be nevertheless true that the
similarity is in all respects casual, and that the author knew not of
the existence of the painting till it was sold, amongst others, with
the following description attached to it in a well-drawn-up catalogue:
"FREDERIGO ZUCCHERO
_"Scene as represented in the Fortunes of Nigel, by Frederigo
Zucchero, the King's painter._
"This extraordinary picture, which, independent of its pictorial
merit, has been esteemed a great literary curiosity, represents most
faithfully the meeting, in Greenwich Park, between King James and
Nigel Oliphaunt, as described in the Fortunes of Nigel, showing that
the author must have taken the anecdote from authenticated facts.
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