Was there something just the slightest bit royal about Hillary Clinton's "listening tour" in upstate New York? Faithful SCRAPBOOK reader Margaret Morell thought so and tracked down this charming description of Queen Elizabeth's 17th-century "royal progresses," as described by Prof. Edward P. Cheyney in his 1904 tome, A Short History of England:
These "progresses" were a series of visits which she made from time to time from one country house to another, or from one town to another, spending sometimes some months in this way. The relief from the living expenses of herself and her subjects appealed to her thrifty instincts; she took sincere pleasure in the festivities that accompanied her visits, and they served a useful purpose in rousing the devotion of the people to herself and giving opportunities for the familiarity and courtesy with which she so well knew how to please those whom she wished to please.
Plus ca change: The modern-day Queen Elizabeth, continuing the royal listening tradition, in Scotland earlier this month.