A DEEP SIGH BREATHED Through the Lodgings At WHITEHALL, Deploring the absence of the COURT, And the Miseries of the PALACE.  
LONDON, Printed for N. V. and J. B. 1642.   

A DEEP SIGH BREATHED THROUGH THE LODGINGS AT .  
A Palace without a Presence! A White-Hall clad in fable vestments! A Court without a Court! These are mysteries, and miseries, which the silken ages of this peaceful Island have not been acquainted with, That the Field should be turned to Court, and the Court in to a desert! Majesty had wont to sit enthroned within those glorious Walls, darting their splendour with more awful brightness than the great Luminaries in the Firmament, And with the same life and vigour Cherishing the hearts of their admiring followers, And creating to those Favourites on whom their beams of grace reflected, names of honour, and estates to maintain it till the World's end, and now all things as in a Chaos, involved and wrapped up in the black mists of confusion, and desolation.  
To begin at the entrance into the Court, where there had wont to be a continual throng, either of Gallants standing to ravish themselves with the sight of Ladies handsome Legs and Insteps as they took Coach; Or of the tribe of guarded Liveries, by whom you could scarce pass without a jeer or a saucy answer to your question; now if you would ask a question there is no body to make answer, no nor to stop a pursuing Bailie, if you should take that for your Sanctuary.  
If you have no more manners of yourself, you may piss in the Porter's Lodge, and never fear the loss of your Hat, for neither the Giant that stood there to be seen, nor he that stood there to take gratuities, are now in rerum natura.  
Being entered the Court-yard which had wont to be a School of Compliment, where the young Courtiers used to show their new brought over French cringes, and the whole body wriggled into a gesture of Salutation; Now if you have a mind to excercise there's room enough, you may compliment against the Lenten pulpit, and no body to laugh at you.  
You may without a rub, walk into the Hall, for surely there are no strong smells out of the Kitchen to delight your Nostrils with all, no Provision to be sold, nor the greasy Scullions to be seen over Head and Ears in a Kettle full of Kidneys, nor any thing else to stop your progress into the House. And when you are in the Hall, for aught I know, you might as well have kept you out on't unless you would discourse with Mistress Echo, or play at Shitlecocke by yourself, for there's no body to play with you.  
If you step up Stairs to the Guard Chamber, where His Majesty's great Beef-eaters had wont to sit in attendance on their places, which was nothing but to tell Tales, devour the beaverage, keep a great fire, and carry up Dishes, wherein their fingers would be sometimes before they came to the King's Table, now they are all vanished, nothing left but the bare Walls, and a cold Hearth, from whence the Fire-irones are removed too, and as ' its thought converted into shoes for light Horses. The great black-Jackes set under the Table, all full of Cobwebs, and the drinking Dishes being pocket carriage you cannot but divine their fate.  
You may walk into the Presence Chamber with your Hat, Spurs, and Sword on, And if you will presume to be so unmannerly, you may sit down in the Chair of State, and no body say blacks your Eye, for now a days common men do sit in the Chair of State.  
If you be minded to survey the Lodgings and withdrawing rooms, you shall find those rich and costly hang of Persian Arras and Turky-worke, (like the Bishops) for their pride taken down, And some (like the Bishops) thrown in the Tower, and the rest clapped close Prisonets in the Wardrobe, unless it were those that (like the Bishop) made escape to York before the wars began, The very walls as if they were sensible of this calamity, do weep dowry their plaster in grief that their Ornaments should suffer so hard a fortune.  
I should lead you into the Bedchamber, but that the Gentlemen, and Grooms of it would take me for a saucy fellow, besides it may be a question whether there be a Bed left there or no, for the Chamber to be called so by.  
But you may employ your time in peeping into the out Offices, And lest the close-house should offend your stomach, you may please to walk out upon that Exchange of Projectors, the Terrace, where th'Attendants upon the Council Yable had wont to cool their toes, and by their whispering consultations digest every trade into the form of monopolies, and invent arguments of the Kingdoms good and his Majesty's benefit to put forward the same, Now you may walk a whole day and not a great Ruff, a Satin Cap with ears, and a bag of informations by his side, (the Emblem of a Pattenree) to be seen.  
There is no use of the Council Board itself, a bare Vote of the House of Commons is of validity to frustrate or at least control an Act of State.  
The counting house which used to have a constant attendance of importunate suitors, is a place grown out of remembrance; And though you would give a Cofferrer's Clerk 20. l. to help you to 30, your Debentur will not be accepted, unless you please to leave the bribe with him till such time as jupiter come down again in a shower of Gould: And then upon the faith of a Courtier, you may believe you shall receive your money, in the mean time if you be minded to wait, you will not be discouraged, for there's no body left to give you a surly answer.  
At the Lodgings of the several Lords and Gentlemen, where the smell and odour of the perfumes and tinctures of a morning's curling, and dressing, made your attendance not to seem tedious but gave a delight to your frequent and long solicitation, now there's nothing but the raw sent of moist walls, and all as silent as midnight.  
If you love fasting you may go to the Chapel, but as for praying there is no such thing within those walls, unless you can pray for yourself, which if you can do according to the way of praying now used, it is then a question whether you will be drawn to go into so superstitious a place as that is, if there were any Service, as there is none.  
In the Cockpit and Revelling Rooms, where at a Play or Masque the darkest night was converted to the brightest Day that ever shined, by the lustre of Torches, the sparkling of rich Jewels, and the variety of those incomparable and excellent Faces, from whence the other derived their brightness, where beauty sat enthroned in ●o full glory, that had not Phaeton fired the World, there had wanted a Comparative whereunto to parallel the refulgencie of their bright-shining splendour, Now you may go in without a Ticket or the danger of a broken-pate, you may enter at the King's side, walk round about the theatres, view the Pulleys, the Engines, conveyances, or contrivances of every several Scene And not an Usher o'th' Revels, or Engineer to envy or find fault with your discovery, although they receive no gratuity for the sight of them.  
There is no press at the Wine-Sellor Dores and Windows, no gaping noise amongst the angry Cooks in the Kitchings, no waiting for the opening of the Posterne-dore to take water at the Stairs, no racket nor bawling in the Tennis Court, no throng nor rumbling of Coaches before the Court Gates, but all in a dumb silence, as the Palace stood not near a well peopled City, but as if it were the decayed buildings of ruin'd Troy, where scarce a passenger is known to tread once in twenty years.  
The Officers in ordinary since they knew the price of Victuals by experience at their own charge, are grown wary husbands, and seldom seen in Taverns, because a great part of their Revenue which had wont to be spent there, is now bestowed the other way.  
The Rangers, and Keepers of the Parks, do say that instead of Shoulders, Heads and Umbleses for Fees, they are feign (poor souls God help them) to take whole Deer to themselves, And therefore you may cease your admiration at the miracle of so great store of Uenison, to be sold at the Cookes-shops about London this year.  
The Pages and Gentlemen-Ushers, who had wont to receive bribes for preferring of Dancing Masters, Persumers, Jewels, Tire-women Confectioners, Glover's, Silkemen, etc. to Court custom, have now less money than the grooms, in respect the Lords and Ladies being retired from the Court have abated much of the changeable Gallantry whereunto they had wont every day to metamorphize themselves.  
'Tis thought the Maids of honour will now be content to take Country Esquires for their Husbands, and that of less estates than a thousand pounds Per Annum, because they imagine the King and Queen's Favour to be no perpetual inheritance.  
The waiting Gentlewomen whose wits were so sharp set that you could not deliver a message without a scoff, and were sure to have a full relation made to her Lady of your form, your carriage, your garb, language and whole deportment, and it served to make sufficient discourse to keep favour, being now in the Country are grown into green sicknesses, and deep consumptions, with very grief that the Tenants are so dull headed that they cannot understand Court-jeasts, whereby their wits are deprived of their proper commendations.  
The Sticklers or Women of trust, that held favour by keeping sweetmeats from the whole Family, and eating them themselves, and by giving intelligence of the faults of the household, are grown reasonable honest of their bodies, because the Country affords no provocatives above Turkey Eggs, Artichokes, Butter'd-Ale and Hony-sops, which certainly are not so great incendiaries of rebellious blood, as Muskadel Caudells, and Amber possets, wherewith their fine chaps were so fed that they were grown to such a height of body as required private conference with the Groom o'th' Chambers to tame it, And yet a stranger might not approach them without a reverend compliment, and kissing their white hands though they were forsooth but newly come from off the close-stool.  
The Chambermaids and Damsels of the Nappery too are all dispersed, some are gone down to the Ditchers, and Herdsmen their Fathers, there to wear out the Silks, the Scarves, and broad Laces, and then return to honest russet, and dress wrought with Coventry blue again, some are e'en feign to accept of the honest Coachman's motion, and clap up a match with him, and so be enabled to keep a Country Alehouse, and live by the sins of the Yeamonry, and others for their more peculiar qualities dispersed into London and entertained by the Citizen's Wives to teach their Parakeetoes to talk, which is all they're good for.  
If at any time you desire to see any body in, or near the Court, that belongs to it, go just about the shutting in of evening, And then perhaps, you may see one creeping away with a Sack of Coals on his back, another with a bundle of Faggots, another with bottells of Wine, another bartering with a Vinegar man about certain Vessels of decayed beer, etc. for every thing would live by its own element as long as it can: But when all's gone, they'll be all gone too, and will be within a very short time If the times do not alter.  
Thus you see poor White-Hall is miserably deserted of all its darlings, from Majesty to muckery, forsaken and left in the most solitary condition that ever any Prince's Court of so great eminence and Hospitality in the whole World was. Now I should proceed to give you the reasons of this great alteration, And perhaps had this been printed at York I might have done it, But as the case is I forbear, I would be loath to have the House pulled down where it is printed, and besides I have no stomach or affection to be torn to pieces in Cheapside, and though my brains be muddy I would not have them washed in the kennel, And therefore as silence is the true sign of mourning, I will grieve inwardly for this distraction, and leave prating of it.  
FINIS.