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Elizabeth I was one of the most frequently painted monarchs, and as such developed a highly cultivated image.
One of the most constant images in her portraits are those of her slender white hands. She was notoriously vain of her hands, and made sure they were on display in almost every official portrait. She is often holding or doing something symbolic with them, as can be seen in this montage of images.
“I gather that he nearly knocked you down, damaged your property and generally made a nuisance of himself, and that you instantly concluded he must be some relation to me.”
“That’s—If he said that, you know better than to believe it. But I couldn’t very well miss the likeness.”
“Yet people have been known to speak slightingly of my personal appearance! I congratulate you on a perception worthy of Sherlock Holmes at his keenest.”
It amused and touched her to discover this childish streak of vanity in him. But she knew that he would see through her at once if she tried to pander to it by saying anything more flattering than the truth.
“I recognised the voice before I looked at him at all. And he has your hands; I shouldn’t think anybody has ever spoken slightingly about those.”
“Confound it, Harriet! My one really shameful weakness. My most jealously guarded bit of personal conceit. Dragged into the light of day and remorselessly exposed. I am idiotically proud of having inherited the Wimsey hands. My brother and my sister both missed them, but they go back in the family portraits for three hundred years.”
(via sea-change)
