St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-03-02


had private dining room in our hotel
and gave him a surprise party even to
the birthday cake with red, white and
blue candles on it. 1t is these touches of
homelife which make the days away
from our home a bit more bearable.
London came next, and Icould fill 100
pages know with just what we saw
and did the three weeks we were there.
The galleries are regular treasure houses
and so many of them. We spent one
delightful day on the Thames river from
Hampton Court back to London. 1t
gave US glimpse of the English way OF
enjoying themselves on warm summer
day. Either side of the river was lined
with prettily colored, flower bedecked
households, with the ladies in dainty
gowns serving tea to finely groomed men,
for you know the English must always
have their tea between four and i've.
Tucked away under over hanging
branches of willow trees were canoes,
row-boats, in fact every conceivable sort
of boats, where again the lady was serv-
ing tea to her companions from atasc1na-
ting tea basket, while the more energetic
were having races.
"The glimpse into the English life was
continued when we three were invited to
spend day and a half in an English
home, distant relatives of friends OF ours
in Oberlin Their home was on the
chalk cliffs ofthe North Sea overlooking
the treacherous Goodwin Sands. A beau
tiful home with only seven. maids and
men to keep it spick and span. When we
went to bed we could scarcely sleep for
the beautiful linen and lavender scent,
but finally succumbed, only to be awak-
ened in the morning by a light tap on our
door and pretty maid bringing to our
bed tiny pot of tea with cups to match
on a silver tray. Certainly we slipped it
with great deal of pleasure and mag
ined ourselves in fairyland. But that
very. day we thought we must be in fly
ing machine, and SO nearing heaven, only
at terrific speed. for these good people
took US in their fine great touring car to
Canterbury about thirty miles from their
home. Here in Canterbury we saw the
tumble 'ome of Uriah Zap and the
home of Mr.. Micawber, where he used
to sit and wait for something to turn
up Here too, some of the streets were
so narrow that people could shake hands
with neighbors across the way from the
second story window, for the second
story of these old buildings always pro-
ject over the first Oxford University was
quite as interesting as Cambridge Uni
versity, but because it rained hard here,
it was not pleasant getting about. STRAIT
ford on Avon every one is interested IN,
for Shakepeare's birthplace is still there,
and he is also buried there. And we did
as Shakespeare himself used to do, we
walked across the field to the home of
Ann Hathaway who was finally his
wife. Such quaint matched roofhouse,
with many things inside which Ann her
self had made or used. We finished Eng
land with a carriage drive from War
wick past Guys Cliff to Kenilworth cas-
tie, the ruins of which are beautiful, to
Coventry, with short run up to Biz
mingLam for the wonderful stained glass
windows and to Litch6eld for the Cath
edral.
Holland is perfectly fascinating. We
crossed the choppy channel from Queens
land to Flushing the night of September
first, taking the train there Immediately
for the little town of Middleburg on the
island of Walcheren. In Southern Hol-
land the people are wellto do farmers,
and the women have delicate featured,
refined faces, and what is best of all they
still wear the old-time costume, each
town varying it a little from their neigh
boring towns. Middleburg was a mar
ket place and rendezvous for all the still
smaller towns about so we saw various
costumes. Except for the head adorn-
ments they were quite similar. Always
the many full skirts, numbering from eight
to sixteen, the more they wore the more
money they had, with close fitting, low
necked, short-sleeved waist, and black or
coral necklaces fitting close about the
neck, and here again the more strings of
beads woman wears. just so much the
richer is she from her neighbor who can
not afford so many. And they wear
wooden shoes for every day and low vel
vet ones for dress up. The women IN the
different towns wear kerchiefs draped
little differently, and their caps may be
close fitting, with or without bangles
from their hair, or they may be beautiful
lace faring caps. They are all perfectly
charmingl The men dress much the same
throughout Holland, though we did see
trousers quite similar to the American
style, than in Northern Holland, but the
coats are short box coats coming about
to the waist line, and their hats are either
rather high, elegant looking Persian
lamb or low trim caps. We visited the
dead cities of Dunburg, Westkapella
and Vera, which were once so large and
rich but now are mere dots on the land
scape, they have been so robbed of land
and people by the hungry sea. 1t was
really pitiful to see them, especially after
one had seen the RUNS Ofthe hne old CATH
edral or town hall, in such a town, and
realized what it all stood for.
Eve stopped only a few hours in Rot
terdam for the cholera had just started
there and we did not want to run any such
risks. We took canal boat to Delft,
which by the way, is of course the ideal
way to travel in Holland with its
thousands of canals. This we did as
much as we could with the very cold
weather we had all summer.
1--WE were fortunate through Frederick's
letters of introductions. from prominent
art critics in America to go through the
Delft china factory. These doors are
closed to the usual tourist. Delft is such
a pretty picturesque city. with its pretti-
ly arched bridges across its many canals,
which have row of trees on either side.
Here we visited the home of William the
Silent and even saw the bullet hole which
came from the bullet that killed him