34 BURTON, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
of weeds, and I think it is a great pity that they did not 
continue in that well doing. I fear they will very soon 
find that all the good they did has been undone, and that 
they will have to start all over again. I must not forget 
to acknowledge the good work which was done some few 
years ago by the Feoffees of the Charities, in planting 
young trees along the river banks, to replace those which 
in course of time were falling into decay. I believe to our 
worthy Treasurer, Mr. E. A. Brown, a good deal of the 
credit belongs of urging upon them the desirability of this 
expenditure. 
But away from this fine breathing place in our midst, I 
fear I must admit that our streets are ugly. How, it may 
be said, could it be otherwise? Can you expect a brewery 
to be an architectural ornament, or a collection of labourers’ 
cottages to be picturesque? Perhaps not, but I often 
think there is one thing—I may call it perhaps an accident— 
which has needlessly intensified the unloveliness of one of 
our main streets. I refer to the position of our railway 
station. It will have occurred to you, I dare say, that 
the main railway line through Burton runs very closely 
parallel to the old abandoned Roman road from Branstone, 
northwards. When it was first made it ran at a distance 
of nearly half a mile from the town, and the station was 
quite out in the open fields. I have no idea why that par- 
ticular spot was fixed for it. Like the Abbey—if my ideas 
are correct—there was previously no road to or from it. 
“Catte Street,’ as the Eastern end of Station Street was then 
called, did not extend nearly as far. Now it strikes me 
that if the Midland Railway Company had been prompted 
to make their station a few hundred yards further south, 
where Moor Street and the Forest Road cross their line, 
we should very likely by this time have at least one hand- 
some street. For Moor Street leads on to New Street— 
now miserabie and dismal in the extreme, and little used 
