118 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



That imperious queen and indefatigable tourist 

 paid several visits to Croydon Palace, and her 

 characteristic insolence and freedom of speech were 

 let loose upon the unoffending wife of Archbishop 

 Parker when she took her leave. " Madam," she said, 

 " I may not call you ; mistress I am ashamed to call 

 you ; and so I know not what to call you ; but, 

 however, I thank you." It seems evident that the 

 daughter of Henry the Eighth had, despite her 

 Protestantism, an historic preference for a celibate 

 clergy. 



XIII 



Down amid what remains of the old town is a street 

 oddly named " Pump Pail." Its strange name causes 

 many a visit of curiosity, but it is a common-place 

 street, and contains neither pail nor pump, and 

 nothing more romantic than a tin tabernacle. But 

 this, it appears, is not an instance of things not being 

 what they seem, for in the good old days before the 

 modern water-supply, one of the parish pumps stood 

 here, and from it a woman supplied a house-to-house 

 delivery of water in pails. The explanation seems too 

 obvious to be true, and sure enough, a variant kicks 

 the " pail " over, and tells us that it is properly Pump 

 Pale, the Place of the Pump, " pale " being an ancient 

 word, much used in old law-books to indicate a district, 

 limit of jurisdiction, and so forth. 



The modern side of all these things is best exemplified 

 by the beautiful Town Hall which Croydon has 

 provided for itself, in place of the ugly old building, 

 demolished in 1893. It is a noble building, and stands 

 on a site worthy of it, with broad approaches that 

 permit good views, without which the best of buildings 

 is designed in vain. It marks the starting point of 

 the history of modern Croydon, and is a far cry from 

 the old building of the bygone Local Board days, when 



