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Queeny Park Queens Rule! - Elizabeth I of England LbNA #22203 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Fairy Princess Fiona
Plant date:May 14, 2006
Location:
City:St. Louis
County:St. Louis
State:Missouri
Boxes:1
Found by: mr. jake
Last found:Dec 9, 2010
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFr
Last edited:May 14, 2006
The "Queeny Park Queens Rule!" Series - Elizabeth I of England.

This is the sixth in the series.


NOTICE: So Sorry, but this Queen has vacated her premises due to overly damp weather and unfortunate amounts of flooding, necessitating her exodus to dry and warm places for a while.

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Background:
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This series features a set of historic Queens.
I selected "Queens" as the theme, because, obviously, the very name of
the park just begged for that (even if Queeny is simply the
last name of the man that originally owned the land there)!

Anyway, Some of the Queens that I chose to honor may be familiar to
some of you; others may be unfamiliar to most.

That is because, in selecting the queens, I attempted
to satisfy a number of things.

First, I wanted the queens to be true rulers. That is, not only were
these women titular queens, they also had
power and responsibility of rulership during at least some
part of their tenure.

Second, I wanted to select a variety of queens from relatively recent history,
as well as some from distant to ancient times.

Third, I wanted these queens to be considered rather more
"historic" than "mythological."

Fourth, I wanted to try and repesent queens from various
continents and cultures.

This final criterion was particularly difficult to satisfy, since
our western culture offers us far more historical material to work with
in some areas, and very little in others.

In any case, these are all fabulous women who had fascinating
lives, and I hope you enjoy learning a bit about each of them!

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How this works:
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I have planted 7 Queen letterboxes, plus one final box.
Each of the 7 Queen boxes will stand on its own, so you can track down any one of them,
in any order, and stamp in for as many or as few of them as you choose.

However, this is also a series. So, for those of you that wish to collect
all 7, you have a further reward you can attain. I have also planted
a final letterbox, which may be viewed as the "crowning glory"
(um... pun intended ;-) of the series.
The final letterbox requires that you find all the others first, and once you
do that, the full instructions for the final one will become available to you.


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Featured Queen VI - Elizabeth I of England
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This Queen (also called "Elizabeth Rex") lived during 1533 – 1603 AD.

As the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth had a
turbulent and danger-filled early life. Her mother was beheaded when
Elizabeth was three, and her sister Mary imprisoned Elizabeth in the Tower of London
once Mary became Queen.

Dealing with touchy circumstances and constant threats taught her in her
youth to be very shrewd and careful in answering questions. Also, never one
to waste time, she taught herself six languages as a teenager.

All her early lessons served her well. She became Queen of England at age 25
when Mary died. She went on to rule for 45 years and became known as
"The Virgin Queen". She never took a husband, claiming that she was
married to her country and its people.

Numerous monarchs in Europe sought her hand over the years. But she skillfully
used their interest for her own diplomatic purposes by never quite accepting,
nor yet totally rejecting their proposals.

She was a compelling and inspiring leader, and she boldly manifested her devotion to
her people. Under threat of destruction at the hands of Spain, she raised a fleet
to defend England against the Spanish Armada. Her fleet seemed as nothing compared
to the great Armada, but she so inspired her forces, by personally coming to address
them just before battle, that they routed the Armada against all odds.

She ruled very strongly despite (or arguably because of) a trait considered to
be a feminine weakness - indecisiveness. However, it might also be seen as her
own innate caution and circumspection which she perfected into a great personal strength.
Either way, it was a trait that kept her from making potentially rash decisions
in a way that averted a number of crises during her rule.

As it was, under her reign and by its end, England positioned itself to become a major world power and colonial giant. Literature, art and architecture flowered, and Elizabeth personally attended the young playwright Shakespeare's premiere of "Twelfth Night."

Childless but shrewd to the end, she named no heir until she was on her
deathbed. This kept would-be beneficiaries of her death from attempting
to make it come more quickly than it need.

Her people to whom she was "wedded" enjoyed the peace and prosperity of her
reign and she goes down in history as "Good Queen Bess." To this day, her success and
reputation rank with the greatest of acclaimed British rulers.

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Directions
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Park in the Queeny Park parking lot that is accessed via Mason Road, and is
closest to the Dog Museum. Make your way toward the Dog Museum. Find the
main path behind the museum and follow it down the hill (sort of south and west),
until you come to the large Picnic Shelter. As the path
approaches the shelter, bear right.

At the next fork, stay on the paved path and do not go over the wooden bridge.

Soon this path comes to a point where the pavement curves left-ish over another bridge.
If you go straight instead, you are going on a dirt path. The dirt path is the way you want
to go.

Follow it to its end, where it joins up to a gravel road/path. Go left at this
point and then stay leftish at the fork, which you will see pretty much right away.

When you come to a bench, go left.
There is no longer an orange bench near the hiding spot,
so you need to count about 160 steps along the path, from the point where you choose to go left.


Look right toward the woods for
a long rather large fallen log, and notice where some short logs are piled.

Inside an opening on top of those logs, you will find the letterbox hiding
under some more log pieces.

NOTICE exactly how the logs are arranged so that you can re-hide this
letterbox completely like it was (or should have been).
Be sure to examine it from all sides
so that it is not visible at all from any angle before you leave.

ALSO --- This is a pretty open spot with lots of potential passers-by.
If you are seen, pretend you are studying the lichens and leaves and bugs
like an amateur botanist. It helps to have a notebook and pen, so you
can pretend to be examining things and noting them down. I was asked if
I was a biology teacher using this ruse! :-)


NOTES:

Bring your own ink or ink pad, and of course paper or a logbook to stamp into,
as well as a pen to log your name, date and where you are from.

This stamp measures 2.75 X 4 inches, so you make sure your paper
or logbook is big enough for this.
You may enjoy using red, brown and blue or green for this stamp.


Finally, Please be discrete when uncovering and re-hiding this letterbox, if you happen
to visit the site during one of its more crowded times.