The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-04-23

it, high and graceful %ohimneys;
Chiddingford. whore glass was first made
in England, with it's fine fourteenth cen-
tnry cottages and famous old Crown inn
by a spire as quaint as that of Stoke Popes
and its cottages which are in every artist
sketch book; Afford, most primitive OF
Surrey villages. with its curious ironwork
and meats; and, with scores more, winsome
old Cranleigh. where ut Baynards. Jane
Roper. wife Of the younger Sir Edward
Bray. 80 long kept the head of her father,
ill-fated Sir Thomas More, which was
finally deposited in st. Dustans', Canter-
bury.
You will never heed the passing hours If.
afoat upon tho Avon, you set out in quest
of English villages within the western
shires. The matches of the hamlets lean
rivers brink. You will have nc need for
an inn. With your yeoman companion you
will be welcomed everywhere at night
among the village peasantty. by and by
you come to the vales among the Cots
wolds. Then will you see hamlets and vii
dens, perched upon the heights. in settings
of lush orchards, waving fields within
oheckered lines of hawthorn hedges or
denser rows of lines, and these in turn
backed by banks Of forest primev val; all in
such droninR quiet, ample content and
uAAtluR OpulouCo buaVS luIl VI Guo WIuoy tx"
u%ltation of it all, you again and again ire
sistibly exclsim, Here is Already ut last!''
In Essex one could wander for a whole
summer and never tire of its messy hooks
like Thaxted. with its long struggling street
of ~many-gabled homes, its exquisite church,
Horham hall; CoRshall, with its Wondering
abbey ruins and curious "Woolpack' inn;
Saffron Walden. hot-bed Of Essex supersti-
tions. with its ruined castle. wonderful Did
houses and antique Sun Inn which has set
the Essex antiQuarians endlessly by the ears;
~Finohingfsld, with its tumble of cottages
piled one upon another and its quaint
timber-built nlmshouses. like those of
Coventry; 81. Osyth, with its remarkable
church, splendid old priory and mnrvelously
beautiful R%atehouse; and Little Dunmow.
struggling, tiny hamlot that it is. but famous
the world over for its olden glitch of
Bacon prize for conjugal felicity.
And il all these were not enough to make
you know The indesoribably interesting and
beautiful rural England OF to-day. come
hero where the shires of Bucks, Berks and
Surrey join, and saunter for but a day
roundabout royal Windsor.
Az Chertsey. but nine miles distant. once
famous for is abbey. lived and died tho
poet Cowley, while Albert Smith. author of
'Christopher Tudpole.' aud many other
charming works of fiction, was born in the
same quaint old village. Datchet, on tho
IhaCnes, about n mile from Windsor, has
the remains of n very ancient monastery;
while Dntchet Mead was rendered famous
by. Shakespeare in his Merry Wives OF
Windsor"
But four miles distant is the quaint md
sequestered village of Horton. In this, at
Bsrkyn manor house, lived Milton with
his father and mother whom they retired
from business In 1862. md here was written
his 'Comus." "Arcades." "Lycidas."
'LAlleuro' and al Penserero." At Old
Windsor, two miles down the river, ia one
of the most impressive old yew and cy-
press Swallowed ohurohyards in England,
Its Mont farm was tho hunting Aeat Of
Saxon kings. Mrs. Robinson, the author
ess and the unfortunate Perdita. il buried
heie; and is Beaumont Lodge was tho
former homo of Warren Hastings.
Bray is but n few miles distant up the
Thames. The Vicar of Bray" one Symonds,
was that spiritually vivRoious oleria who
changed his religion -four times in success
sive reigns. tina tho might die in his 'liv.
ing" At Bcaoonsheld, to tho north, near
roet, and Burke, tho statesman. Here at
occupied 80 long by Sir William lie, schel.
and you will see here a part of his GREAT
forty. foot telescope; while two miles further.
beyond MEADOWS green, ~nestlinc In ciumrs
Of vow aud oak. is tho oldan home of the
Penns. nenr which ia the mossy old pnrish
church and hamlet Of Stoke Pnpss, whsr.
was written tho pnrost and sweetest oleyv
to BIO found IN the English tongue,
EpaAn ]. WAKmMAN.
Copyright. 1904 by Edgar L. Wakeman.