A WARM morning. The hills lie quivering in the haze of the almost cloudless horizon, and three hours before noon the cattle in the fields seek the shadow of the beeches and the traveller moves slowly under the overspreading elms by the roadside. In the little town of Watlington the streets are mostly deserted ; […]

No loyal churchman visiting England is likely to forego the pilgrimage to Canterbury That is among his first duties, and is one of his chief pleasures. There is the cradle of English Christendom ; there, the throne of the primate and patriarch of the Anglican communion. If he seek but to gratify his love for […]

THE steamer that goes between Havre and Southampton was just rounding the Isle of Wight, when three dejected-looking young women stepped out of a deck cabin into the clear air of the July morning. They had survived and endured with bitter complaints one of those noted passages of which the English Channel has the monopoly. […]

WITHOUT a sail on the Broads, I refuse to leave Norfolk,” declared the Matron, as we sat at dinner the night of our return from Thetford. ” It would be rather hard to answer the questions our numerous friends will ask when they hear we have been in Norfolk.” ” I know lots of people […]

THERE is a direct road to Watlington from Oxford, fifteen miles long, pleasant, hilly and traversed twice a week by carriers’ vans. It passes by the field of Chalgrove, where John Hampden received his death-wounds, and on which is a monument commemorating that event and stating that he fought in defence of the free monarch […]

THEY who would see Nature in her prettiest and gentlest moods must go to England. There, in a climate in which extremes of heat and cold are practically unknown, she displays her charms and unfolds her graces in a rich and unique manner. Association also increases the beauty of the picture, and history becomes attractive, […]

IN a secluded and detached part of Worcestershire, ten miles to the south of Stratford-on-Avon, and surrounded by the counties of Warwick, Oxford and Gloucester, is the forgotten town of Shipston-on-Stour. The town is pre-Norman in origin and was once famous for its sheep-markets. It fell asleep some two centuries since, and so far the […]

THE country around Shipston-on-Stour is beautifully undulating, its fertile hills and dales producing rich grain-harvests and affording abundant pasture for numerous flocks and herds. The little river on the western bank of which the town is built is as pretty and dainty a stream as could be found anywhere. Its name is not unique: there […]

THE title will suggest the nature of the chapter, and they who are not interested in either the ” sweet story or how it was told in these remote districts of England in bygone days may omit the next twenty pages without injury to themselves and without interfering with the thread of the book. But […]

Who could resist the temptation of walking in the gentle morning through a country pleasant to the eye, and with one who knew and loved every step of the way and was both lively in conversation and keen in observation ? So, passing up the Swan lane, we began our early journey. A lovely day, […]