St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-07-20
An Old English Town.


account fail to see before leaving
England, but never word OF Nor
witch. fear it is because the estima-
Bile Baedeker has devoted somewhat
less than three pages to the "objects
of interest" in the town. For you
know we Americans manifest touch
ing and almost chidlike faith in that
painstaking work of German indus
try. Only this morning heard one
of my countrywomen say at break
fast, she supposed if the last trump
should sound, she would seize her
Baedeker in one hand and her UNI
brella in the other. The sarcasm OF
the last phrase needs no elucidation.
First and foremost in Norwich
there is a most interesting old inn,
"The Maids Head" 1t is called
hotel, but | like that word, inn.
There has been hostelry upon this
spot for quite six hundred years and
parts of the present building are
older than the discovery of America.
The Maids Head is mentioned in
the PASTOR letters, and in one of its
rooms "good Queen Bess" slept in
1877. 1t has mullioned windows of
course, and you may be sure its an
cient state is preserved with care and
veneration.
One does not have to 60 to books
for these bits of history. They are
emblazoned upon the two great
oaken doors through which one en-
tiers the courtyard which is some
what like an Oxford quadrangle,
only much smaller. A passage at
the right leads into another court,
which is laid out as sloping garden,
with rocks and trees, running up to
the second floor of the hotel. One
almost wishes for a guide there are
so many doors and passages leading
one knows not where. Walters run
about in all direction with trays
loaded with good things and alto
gether one begins to understand the
delight with which Dickens described
such scenes. Eectriclights and other
modern Improvements may seem in
congruous to the American who is
delighting his soul with the things o.
the past, but few of us, imagine
push our antiquarianism so far a:
really to enjoy going to bed will
candles.
Already in mood for sightseeing
YOU leave the Maids Head after ;
, hearty meal of Yarmouth bloater
or some other Norfolk delicacy. Ii
every English county you are sur
to find several things to eat or drinl
t which the inhabitants tell you canno
} be found good or even tolerable out
t side the borders of the county. 1t i
certainly a prime means for encour
aging local pride.
7 II you care for buildings there is
r good cathedral. to say nothing c
S the thirty-two parish churches, all c
more or less interest. Then there
i. the castle, now museum for locs
antiquities, with the keep and dur
r geons traversing above one Of tn
e largest open market places in Ems
e land, where the East Anglican farme
:, has sold his corn, cattle and othe
O produce for unnumbered generations
lie If your taste be somewhat differer
l. you may easily lose yourself in
), maze of narrow, crooked streets an
: alleys which put Boston to sham
n The number of old houses that sti
n remain is large. Among them al
many with windows in the upp'
u story almost as long as the house
- themselves. These windows we
o for the convenience of the hand-lool
IN weaver who worked each one in h
l. own house in the old days befo
u =, factories, when Norwich was Il
ID greatest manufacturing center
t. England. My object in coming he
1t was to find some of the houses
T. those weavers, "but that is anoth
le story"
. Attractions such as these will i
terest every visitor, but to sme
r. band of kindred spirits one thin
ne more important than them all mu
> be sought out. What enthusiast
is reader of the Incompatible writin,
IN OF George Barrow would thir
a. for moment of leaving Norwi'
u. before he had seen the house whe
II Lavengro lived when he was set
er study law and learned Morse and
ne many other odd things in its plac,