266 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



naturally attracted him, as well as the noted localities where 

 proofs of the erosive power of running water were to be seen. 

 The Scottish itinerary included Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sterling, 

 Loch Lomond, and other places usually haunted by sight-seers. 



May 23. With his thoughts as much centred upon Richard Ill's war- 

 like exploits at Tewkesbury, as upon the venerable abbey, Mr. Shaler and 

 I took the third-class car, filled with good-looking country folk, for that 

 place. It happened to be election day, and men and women were gathered 

 in groups at the corners of the quaint old streets through which we passed. 

 On the way from the station to the abbey, he heard a woman say to her 

 friend, " We are having a jolly time ! did you know, already one man has been 

 thrown out of a second-story window and got smashed to pieces." While 

 walking up the beautiful avenue leading to the entrance, we noticed in the 

 graveyard close at hand a lot of rosy-faced children frolicking among the 

 tombstones. In contrast with these grim tokens of age and decay they 

 looked as bright and as ephemeral as butterflies living their happy day. At 

 the door a number of visitors were waiting to get in, and although search 

 had been made for the beadle, and even the vicar's house had been besieged 

 for the keys, there seemed no way of gaining admission, for while the inner 

 door stood open, an outside wooden gate barred the entrance. After knock- 

 ing loudly to awaken the custodian, who, it was thought, might be napping 

 in the peace of his vast surroundings, Mr. Shaler, unwilling to be balked, 

 examined the gate; and then, calling for assistance, to the astonishment 

 of the custom-hardened natives, he lifted it off its hinges and triumphantly 

 led the party into the very heart of the sanctuary. Within, unmarshaled 

 and undisciplined, we wandered through the aisles of this twelfth-century 

 Norman church, stopping here and there to look at the tombs of the old 

 knights, their effigies reposing at full length. Lost in this ancient world, 

 suddenly we were brought back into the present by angry words, seemingly 

 hurled from the far-off door, reverberating and multiplying themselves 

 through the lofty spaces. Attracted thither, we observed the other sight- 

 seers, less smitten with the ancient glory, trying to get past the avenging 

 beadle, who stood with outstretched hands beside the barred doorway 

 demanding one shilling from each intruder. Appreciating the joke, Mr. 

 Shaler rewarded him liberally for his share in the breach of beadle etiquette; 

 and after the others had gone, by his praises of the great abbey, he so cooled 

 the wrath within the ^-dropping servitor that the man volunteered to go 

 back and reveal some treasures hidden from the eyes of the thrifty. At last, 

 exhausted by the bounty of the show, we were glad to escape. While sitting 

 outside on a tombstone, waiting for the "fly," Mr. Shaler made a sketch of 



