In the royal palace of Queen Elizabeth I, her servants were doing their regular chores, while Elizabeth sat quietly reading in her privy chambers with her ladies-in-waiting.

Suddenly, the silence in the room was disturbed by a loud rapping on the door.

'Your Highness? There is a message for you,' came the muffled voice from behind the towering door.

'You may enter,' the Queen of England said.

A young boy dressed in the Tudor colours, green and white, came into the room. He bowed low, and then gave Elizabeth the message. She raised her eyebrows, and then stood up as did her maids.

She was growing older each day, and she found it hard to get up and sit down without feeling pains in her legs and back.

'Show me where he is,' Elizabeth said. The small messenger walked rapidly down the narrow corriders, where paintings of the Tudor family hung and light spilled through the open windows. The scent of spices from the kitchen and freshly cut grass wafted into the palace.

The messenger stopped outside a door and entered it after briefly knocking.

'Your Highness is here to see you,' the boy said to a finely dressed man, standing beside something that was hidden by a velvet cloth.

'Thank you,' the man replied. Elizabeth smiled, as the man kneeled before her and didn't get back up.

'I am dazzled,' the stranger complimented, 'by such radiant beauty!'

'Do stop!' Elizabeth laughed, obviously enjoying the attention. She cleared her throat. 'So, what is it that you wanted to show me?'

'Something that will change the face of the earth,' the man replied. 'It will be used from generation to generation. It works perfectly well, and I wanted you to see it if you to thought it was satisfactory enough for your liking.'

'May I see it?' Elizabeth asked, looking amused.

'Certainly!'

The man threw back the cloth on the object, and showed it to Elizabeth. It was strangely crafted and looked like a stool but was larger. Elizabeth's maids started to quietly gossip and were as curious as Elizabeth was about what this strange chair did.

'What do you call it?' Elizabeth asked, desperate to hear more.

'I call it "The Toilet",' the man said, proudly.