151 



loved, friends whose kindness to me made my life happy and pleas- 

 ant during my sojourn in Salem. 



I hope I shall be forgiven for not replying more pi'omptly, but I 

 wished to supply an item of information to the Historical depart- 

 ment of the Institute, but poor health for many mouths prevented 

 me from making the necessary journey. I wished to give a brief 

 report on the present condition of Scrooby and Austerfield, the 

 English homes of Brewster and Bradford. 



About nineteen years ago I made a pilgrimage to Scrooby and 

 Austertield. On entering Scrooby village mj^ eye hastily wandered 

 over the scene it presented, and 1 looked eagerly for objects tliat must 

 have been familiar to the pilgrim fathers. I wanted a common point, 

 where the past and the present — the pilgrim and myself — might shake 

 hands. While in this mood mj" eye settled upon Scrooby Church ; 

 it was the object I wanted; it was the link in the chain that I was 

 looking for. Ah! there it stood in its gray old age, just as the pil- 

 grim fathers left it, and I Avas not long in recognizing in its tapering 

 spire the type of the many spires th:}t adorned the landscape of Kew 

 England some fifty years ago ; many of which I endured the pain of 

 seeing thrown down to give place to steeples and turrets, as I thought, 

 less emblematic of a christian country. On entering the church I 

 could well imagine that little or no alteration had taken place from 

 the time of the Elder Brewster, and I paced its aisles with a lively 

 interest, every step I took being in the footprints of a pilgrim 

 father. 



On strolling into the village I enquired for the site of Scrooby 

 Manor, which was soon pointed out to me, and, what was of deeper 

 interest, the manor farm-house. ^ly informant was an old man, Avho 

 was hedging and ditching. He was ver^* intelligent and very commu- 

 nicative for one of his class, and soon gave me to understand that cer- 

 tain portions of the original manor were incorporated bodily into the 

 manor farm-house, which he had just pointed out. This information 

 awakened a new interest, for I had just read in Mr. Hunter's valua- 

 ble pamphlet that no portion of it (the old manor) is nov standing. 

 I was soon knocking at the door of the manor farm-house, and on 

 hastilj^ explaining the motive of my call I was received with a genial 

 cordiality by its well-bred inhabitants. On putting the question 

 plainly, " does any entire portion of the old manor make a part of 

 this present building?" I was told that such was really the fact. 

 And then, with as much modesty as I could command, I requested to 

 be shown that particular portion, and was politely shown into an 

 tipper room called the " manor chamber." It was then a ftvmily sleep- 

 ing room and handsomely furnished. On closely inspecting the walls 

 I discovered that pecidiar recess, the Piscina, which is always found 

 in old Roman Catholic Chapels. On the landing at the entrance to 

 the manor chamber there was a small latticed window with stone 

 mullious and transom, that I could well imagine as belonging to the 

 ancient manor. Immediately before this latticed window there stood 

 a mulberrj' tree, said to have been planted by Cardinal Woolsey. It 

 was a living thing upon which the pilgrim fathers must have gazed 

 many and many a time, and peradventure eaten of its fruit. I have 

 seen the old oaks in Slierwood forest — some of them dating from 

 the days of King John, and I have paid some attention to tlie dura- 

 tion of hedges, and I can readily believe that the Scrooby mulberry 

 tree was planted by Woolsey, or as far back as his day. 



