Harefield Entertainment

Several copies of the performance script survive, probably written by John Davies, along with the original manuscript accounts of the Queen's host which seems to have been manipulated by literary forgery in the 19th-century to enhance their interest.

Modern critics emphasise the likely role of Egerton's wife, Alice, Countess of Derby in planning and devising the events.

[6] To feed the queen and her household Egerton bought wheat for bread and "manchet", butter, eggs, gooseberries, chickens, pigeons, geese, rabbits, ducklings, pigs, partridges, trout, lobster, and crayfish and other foods.

[10] The Queen arrived at Harefield and near the house, sheltering under a tree from the rain, heard a dialogue between a Bailiff and Dairy Maid.

[11] Next, Elizabeth was given a gown of cloth of silver embroidered with rainbows by Audrey Walsingham, and a verse recalled the legend of St Swithun.

[12] Egerton provided the gown for £340, and the Countess gave the sleeves and cords to attach them with ruby and pearl tags.

[16] The concept of the Harefield lottery was the distribution of gifts by a mariner of a rich Carrack, a treasure ship, to the ladies of Cynthia, Queen of the Seas.

[21] Sir George Savile wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury with a copy of the farewell speech, and mentioned the expensive presents given to the queen, the two jewels, worth £1000 and £600, and the "gown of rainbows very rich embroidered".