132 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



"fanning' 1 get, even in that reinforced state, through 

 the mountainous snowdrifts. It must have been an 

 awful drive that, I know ; for 1 know the country 

 well. 



For the present however we have safely arrived at 

 Amcsbury, where we can alight at the George and 

 conjure up a celebrity or two before we go to supper. 

 Amesbury indeed is rich in these, from the time when 

 Guinevere arrived here somewhat late at night, after a 

 ride across the Plain (which is more unlike Dore's repre- 

 sentation of it than anything I have ever seen in my life, 

 but this by the way), up to the time when the charming 

 Duchess of Oueensberry played the Lady Bountiful in 

 the place, and by entertaining Prior and Gay at the 

 Abbey graced the quaint old Wiltshire town with the 

 memories of two of the not least celebrated of the 

 English humorists. 



Put indeed Amesbury is so ancient that if we cared 

 to enter the sacred garden of the antiquary, and if 

 Guinevere were not perhaps legendary enough, we might 

 start the history of Amesbury further back than 

 Guinevere. As an antiquity however I think that 

 Guinevere may pass. After the unfortunate lady had 

 retired from Amesbury 



"To where beyond these voices there is peace," 



hither came Queen Elfrida in 9S0 in search of it, after 

 her murder of her stepson Edward at Corfe ; and bent, 

 like all mediaeval murderesses suffering from a temporary 

 mental depression, on building a church. When she 

 came to the point however, and had interviewed the 

 architect and the abbot, she went the whole hog, and 

 built an abbey. In 1 177, I regret to say, all the ladies 

 of this establishment were dismissed without a month's 

 warning by Henry II. for staying out all night; and 

 twenty-four nuns and a prioress from Fontevrault in 

 Anjou, all with personal characters, filled the vacant 

 places. Within the walls of this abbe)- a whole bevy of 



