London to John O' Groat's. 191 



without any strikingly salient features, pleases the 

 eye with lineaments of quiet beauty symmetrically 

 developed by the artistry of nature. The river Ouse 

 meanders through a wide, fertile flat, or what the 

 Scotch would call a strath, which gently rises on 

 each side into pleasantly undulating uplands. Parks, 

 groves, copses and hedge-row trees are interspersed 

 very happily, and meadow, pasture, and grain-fields 

 seen through them, with villages, hamlets, farm-houses, 

 and isolated cottages, make up a landscape that grows 

 more and more interesting as you contemplate it. And 

 this placid locality, with its peaceful river sesmingly 

 sleeping in the bosom of its long and level meadows, 

 was the scene of Oliver Cromwell's young, fiery man- 

 hood. Here, where Nature invites to tranquil occupa- 

 tions and even exercises of the mind, he trained the 

 latent energies of his will for action in the great drama 

 that overturned a throne and transformed a nation. 

 Here, till very lately, stood his " barn," and here he 

 drilled the first squadron of his "Ironsides." 



My friend and host drove me one day to see a fen 

 farm a few miles beyond Eamsey, at which we remained 

 over night and enjoyed the old-fashioned English hos- 

 pitality of the establishment with lively relish. It was 

 called " The Four-Hundred- Acre Farm," to distinguish 

 it from a hundred others, laid out on the same dead 



