_The herse of brass hoops._ The word _herse_ (the same as _hearse_) originally meant a harrow; then a temporary framework, often shaped like a harrow, used for supporting candles at a funeral service, and placed over the coffin; then a kind of frame or cage over an effigy on a tomb; and finally a carriage for bearing a corpse to the grave. For the third meaning (which we have here), compare Ben Jonson's _Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke_:-- "Underneath this sable herse Lies the subject of all verse," etc. _The garter._ Showing that he was a Knight of the Garter. _The noble Impe._ The word _imp_ originally meant a scion, shoot, or slip of a tree or plant; then, figuratively, human offspring or progeny, as here and in many passages in writers of the time. Holinshed the chronicler speaks of "Prince Edward, that goodlie impe," and Churchyard calls Edward VI. "that impe of grace." Fulwell, addressing Anne Boleyn, refers to Elizabeth as "thy royal impe." As first applied to a young or small devil, the word had this same meaning of offspring, "an imp of Satan" being a child of Satan. How it came later to mean a mischievous urchin I leave the small folk themselves to guess. =Page 10.=--_The famous "dun cow."_ This, according to the legend, was "a monstrous wild and cruel beast" which ravaged the country about Dunsmore. Guy also slew a wild boar of "passing might and strength," and a dragon "black as any coal" which was long the terror of Northumberland. Compare the old ballad of _Sir Guy_:-- "On Dunsmore heath I also slew A monstrous wild and cruel beast, Call'd the Dun-cow of Dunsmore heath, Which many people had opprest. "Some of her bones in Warwick yet Still for a monument do lie; And there exposed to lookers' view As wondrous strange they may espy. "A dragon in Northumberland I also did in fight destroy, Which did both man and beast oppress, And all the country sore annoy." =Page 13.=--_Master Robert Laneham._ He was an English merchant who became "doorkeeper of the council-chamber" to the Earl of Leicester. He wrote an account, in the form of a letter, of the festivities in honor of this visit of Elizabeth to Kenilworth, which was afterwards printed. He is one of the characters in Scott's _Kenilworth_. =Page 14.=--_Theatres_, etc. The cut facing page 14 shows one of the movable stages referred to by Dugdale; also two of "the three tall spires" mentioned by Tennyson in the poem of _Godiva_. The nearer church is St. Michael's, said to be the largest parish church in England, with a steeple 303 feet high. Beyond it is Trinity Church, with a spire 237 feet high.