THE YORK ROAD 



333 



ling, gorse and furze on each side the margin of the road 

 as far as the eye could reach. In due course Margaret 

 Tudor arrived in Edinburgh, August 2nd, and was 

 married August 8th, 1503. 



Here is a picture of mediaeval travel such as I think 

 must have often been witnessed from the windows of 

 such old houses of entertainment as the Bell at Stilton, 

 when the Tudors ruled England. And often sterner 

 episodes of history must have passed beneath its mag- 

 nificent copper sign than wedding processions of royal 

 princesses, even in those days, when England was called 

 merry, and was merry England indeed. During the >^ear 



''9 





The Bell, Stilton. 



1-536 the Bell at Stilton was no doubt often visited by 

 one of those medley cavalcades so common at the time, 

 consisting of abbots in full armour, waggon-loads of 

 victuals, oxen and sheep, and a banner borne by a retainer 

 on which was worked a plough, a chalice and a Host, a 

 horn, and the five wounds of Christ — the well-known 

 badge which marked the fiery course of the Pilgrimage 

 of Grace, This great rising which began in Lincolnshire 

 ran much of its course along the Great North Road — 

 who knows how much of it passed through the now- 

 deserted rooms and corridors of the great Northern inns 

 such as this Bell at Stilton ! It was in an inn at Lincoln 



