Banbury Cross. iii 



so indeed it had, for it was recently erected by public 

 subscription. The charm was gone. 



I like new political institutions for my native land, 

 but prefer the old historical structures ; and as we drove 

 past this spick-and-span imitation of antiquity I felt like 

 criticising the good people of Banbury for the sacrilege 

 I supposed they had committed in thus supplanting the 

 ancient landmark which had made their town known 

 the wide world over. I could not help entertaining a 

 hope, too, that the original " goodly Crosse with many 

 degrees about it," had been put away in some museum 

 or other safe place where it could receive the homage 

 of all devoted lovers of Mother Goose. Alas ! inquiry 

 developed the fact that the Puritanic besom of destruc- 

 tion, which demolished so many images and other orna- 

 ments in the churches in good Queen Bess's time, swept 

 away Banbury Cross as early as 1602, and that not a 

 piece of it remains to tell of its ancient glory. 



Banbury was early noted as a stronghold of Puritan- 

 ism, and was famous, as Fuller says, for " zeale, cheese 

 and cakes." The zeal and the cheese are not now as 

 strong as they were, but Banbury cakes are still in as 

 high repute as ever, and are largely made and exported. 

 They are probably the same now as in the days of Ben 

 Jonson, who tells of them in " Bartholomew Fair," — a 

 kind of miniature mince pie, generally lozenge-shaped, 

 consisting of a rich paste with a filling of Zante currants 

 and other fruits. 



