QUEEN ELIZABETH I's VISIT TO HINCHINGBROOKE 1564

Elizabeth spent the night of August 10th 1564 at Hinchingbrooke, after a four day visit to Cambridge. According to several accounts it was at Hinchingbrooke that the following incident took place:

Elizabeth had been asked to stay for one more evening to see a play which the students had produced for her amusement.
Having a long journey before her the following day, and desiring to sleep ten miles out of Cambridge to relieve the distance, she had been unwillingly obliged to decline.
The students, so pleased with their performance, didn't want to miss the chance of showing it to the Queen, so followed her to Hinchingbrooke where she was staying. She was tired, but did not want to discourage them, and the play began.

The actors came on stage dressed as the Catholic bishopswhich Elizabeth had imprisoned and carrying a symbol of their persecution. One, called Bonner, carried a lamb in his arms at which he rolled his eyes and gnashed his teeth. A dog brought up the rear with the host in his mouth.

Elizabeth was gravely offended: she rose and with a few indignant words left the room: the lights were extinguished and the discomfited players had to find their way out of the house in the dark, and to blunder back to Cambridge.