214 -A Walk from 



in good condition and busy occupation, in which 

 Oliver Cromwell stormed the English alphabet and 

 carried the first parallel of monosyllables at the point 

 of the pen. The very form or bench of oak from 

 which he mounted the breach is still occupied by 

 boys of the same size and age, with the same number 

 of inches between their feet and the floor which 

 separated it from his. Had the photographic art 

 been discovered in his day, we might have had his 

 face and form as he looked when seated as a rosy- 

 faced, light-haired boy in the rank and file of the 

 youngsters gathered within those walls. What an 

 overwhelming revelation it would have been to his 

 young, honest and merry mind, if some seer, like 

 him who told Hazael his future, could have given 

 him a sudden glimpse of what he was to be and do 

 in his middle manhood ! 



After tea, I continued my walk westward to a 

 small, quiet, comfortable village, about five miles 

 from Huntingdon, where I became the guest of " The 

 Old Mermaid," who extended her amphibious hospi- 

 talities to all strangers wishing bed and board for 

 the night. Both I received readily and greatly 

 enjoyed under her roof, especially the former. Never 

 did I occupy a bed so fringed with the fanciful 

 artistries of dreamland. It was close up under the 



