Having here given a general description of Castles, I shall, in a future chapter, afford my young readers accounts of some particular Castles, especially those which have historical incidents connected with them. The Queen of Spithead: Review of the Fleet. [Illustration] Peter Parley loves our good Queen, and delights to follow her in her various “progresses”—for wherever she appears, light and happiness beams around. The sun seems to welcome her wherever she goes, and bright and fair are the days that belong to her. And one of the brightest and fairest days, notwithstanding a little cloud or so that appeared, was the day when Her Majesty, accompanied by the Prince—whom every true Briton loves for his manly character, and for the good he does to every one—proceeded to visit the British Fleet at Spithead. It was delightful for old Peter to behold the Queen and the Prince, and not less so to see the young Prince of Wales emulating the British Tar, and looking like an embryo Nelson: and his heart beat with ardour at the cheers of the sailors and the booming of the guns; and he wished himself a young man again, and on board of a man-of-war, as he was for many years of his early life. I believe that no one who has been thoroughly soused in salt water ever ceases to love it, and although poor old Peter has now only a pleasure-boat to skull and row and sail about the Deben in, he still loves the sea-breeze and the sea-water, and the smell of tar; and he likes to hear the whistle of the gale in the shrouds, and the cry of the sea-gull, and the voice of the curlew on the ooze; and he would sing with his poor old voice, like a shattered clarionet of former days, “Rule Britannia,” and thank God that he has lived to see the day when England exhibits to the world that she is still able to “rule the waves.” [Illustration: _The Queen at Spithead_] The “review” was, indeed, a spirit-stirring sight. The eyes of half London and the hearts of all England were there; and a wonderful thing it was to look upon a fleet such as England never had before, and the thick black cloud of coal-smoke resting upon the horizon, or ascending to the skies in volumes, shewed the result of the innumerable applications of the giant power of steam to the purposes of navigation. Here stood arrayed the mighty force of fourteen-thousand-four-hundred-and-twenty horse-power, concentrated in the holds of the royal ships, impelling these mountain masses with as much ease as some of my young readers would drag their little boat across a puny pond.