e players at Sudeley. After
the shepherds had acted a piece in which the election of the King and
Queen of the Bean formed a part, they knelt before the real queen, and
said--

"Pardon, dread Sovereign, poor shepherds' pastimes, and bold shepherds'
presumptions. We call ourselves kings and queens to make mirth; but when
we see a king or queen we stand amazed. At chess there are kings and
queens, and they of wood. Shepherds are no more, nor no less, wooden.
In theatres workmen have played emperors; yet the next day forgotten
neither their duties nor occupation. For our boldness in borrowing their
names, and in not seeing Your Majesty for our blindness, we offer these
shepherds' weeds; which, if Your Majesty vouchsafe at any time to wear,
it shall bring to our hearts comfort, and happiness to our labours."

When the queen visited Kenilworth Castle, splendid pageants were
performed in her honour. As she entered the castle the gigantic porter
recited verses to greet Her Majesty, gods and goddesses offered gifts
and compliments on bended knee, and the Lady of the Lake, surrounded
by Tritons and Nereids, came on a floating island to do homage to the
peerless Elizabeth and to welcome her to all the sport the castle could
afford. For an account of the strange conduct of Orion and his dolphin
upon this occasion, we refer our readers to Sir Walter Scott's
_Kenilworth_; and the lover of pageants will find much to interest him
in Gascoigne's _Princely Progress_.

The glories of our ancient castles have passed away; some indeed are
preserved, and serve as museums, or barracks, or the country house of
some noble lord; but most of them are in ruins. All traces of many a
Norman castle have completely vanished. There was once a castle at
Reading, but the only relics of it are the names Castle Hill and Castle
Street. The turbulent barons made such terrible use of their fortresses
during the troublous times of the civil war in Stephen's reign that in
the more settled reign of Henry II. they were deprived of this means of
oppression and their castles destroyed wholesale. The civil war in the
reign of Charles I. was also another great cause of the destruction of
these old fortresses. They were of great service during the progress of
the war to those who were fortunate enough to possess them, and many of
them in spite of Cromwell's cannon were most gallantly held and stoutly
defended. Donnington Castle, Berkshire, was bravely held in spite