stable, a walk of little more than a mile 

 across the fields brings us to Houghton 

 Regis, where, as we have said, the Lea rises. 

 There is nothing remarkable in its source ; 

 the water, as at the source of rnany rivers, 

 spreads out into a sort of pond, and there is 

 little in it, or in the scenery about it, to 

 claim attention. The village of Houghton 

 Regis is one that may deserve some regard; 

 the scenery is of a cheerful rural character 

 in itself, and scattered about it are many 

 clusters of picturesque cottages, with goodly 

 thatched roofs covered with deep -colored 

 mosses, and enlivened with many a noisy 

 group of rosy children about their doors. 

 The church, too, is a fine old building, some- 

 what improved by modern taste —but a fine 

 building still ; and in it is an ancient monu- 

 ment, with the effigies of a knight in armour, 

 under a rich Gothic arch, which will well 

 repay the attention of the antiquary. On 

 the arch is a coat of arms, " a chevron 

 between three butterflies," which, according 

 to Lysons, are those of the Sewells, an an- 

 cient family who possessed the manor of 

 Sewell, mentioned in Doomsday Book. 

 Houghton Regis, as its name implies, was 

 anciently a part of the royal demesne : it 

 now belongs to the Duke of Bedford, by one 

 of whose ancestors it was purchased, with 

 the manor of Sewell, in 1750. 



It would be idle to follow our stream yet 

 awhile step by step. For some distance 

 from its source it is only a sort of a ditch, and 

 skirts ploughed fields ; and though it flows 

 past a village or two, we do not remember 

 anything worth noticing till it reaches 

 Luton. Before it arrives at Luton it has, 

 however, swelled into a brook of fair size, 

 and sometimes lays the neighboring marshes 

 under water ; indeed, throughout its course, 

 its banks are for the most part marshy and 

 liable to be flooded. Luton lies low, and 

 has at times suffered severely from inunda- 

 tions. Its name is derived from the river, 

 which was " in British LvhP (Morant.) It 

 is a neat, clean town, and from the number 

 of straw hat and other factories, has much 

 of that business-like air the city- dweller so 

 much misses in most second-rate country 

 towns in agricultural districts. Dr Waagen 

 was much struck with its appearance: — 

 " The little town of Luton," he says, " is 

 very pleasantly situated in a rather hilly 

 country. What a difference between that 

 and places of a like extent in Germany ! In 

 the principal streets there is a good flag 

 pavement, such as but few of the largest 

 towns of Germany can boast." Luton has 

 few buildings of interest ; the church is 

 almost the only one. This is of large size 

 and unusual beauty. It is of Gothic archi- 

 tecture, but of various periods ; the chancel 

 was built by John Whethamsted, Abbot of 



St. Alban's, in the fifteenth century, and is 

 deserving inspection. There is an air of 

 grandeur about the whole building ; but it is 

 to be regretted that its venerable character 

 has been greatly injured by modern barba- 

 rians — worse than Goths — who have covered 

 the whole body of the church with a thick 

 coating of lime-wash. The tower, which is 

 built of stone and flints in alternate squares, 

 is the only part that has escaped the taste- 

 less infliction ; and its time-worn aspect 

 appears to frown more darkly upon the 

 sickly hue of its appendages. Unfortu- 

 nately the evil is not confined to a distant 

 survey ; the details of the architecture are 

 almost hidden by the vile wash : and what 

 is perhaps most provoking is, that it has 

 only been perpetrated within a few years, 

 when we might have expected that a better 

 feeling would have prevailed. The interior 

 of the church contains several interesting 

 monuments. At the west end of the nave 

 is an elegant Gothic baptistry of an octagonal 

 form, which is described more at length and 

 figured in Lyson's " Magna Britannia — Bed- 

 fordshire," p. 31. On the south side of the 

 chancel are four richly-carved stone seats. 

 Other objects of interest, which we have not 

 time now to notice, will repay examination. 



The making of straw-plait is quite a 

 feature in the villages as well as in the 

 towns round about this neighborhood. In 

 fine weather, as the women and girls sit or 

 stand about the cottage-doors plaiting the 

 straw in the sunshine, by the porches gay 

 with bright flowers, they present groups 

 such as painters might delight to seize and 

 embody. We wonder that they have not 

 oftener been transferred to canvass : por- 

 trayed in true and characteristic form and 

 color, they would, we think, yield hardly, if 

 at all, in rustic grace and piquancy to the 

 often-painted distaff spinners. 



After passing by Luton, the Lea flows 

 through the park, which is extensive and 

 well wooded. 



After it quits Luton Park, the Lea runs 

 close alongside the Whethamsted Road till 

 it reaches that place. The scenery is in 

 many parts pretty, but very little varied, 

 and the banks are low. Two or three water- 

 mills are worked by it, but, like nearly ""all 

 the mills on the Lea, they are not very at- 

 tractive in their appearance. Whethamsted 

 is a cheerful little town. The church is 

 rather a curious structure, something in the 

 form of a Maltese cross, with a tower and 

 somewhat dumpy spire rising from the inter- 

 section of the nave and transept. It was at 

 Whethamsted that the barons who confede- 

 rated against Edward II. and his favorite 

 Pierce Gaveston, assembled their forces. 

 From Whethamsted the scenery is more 

 picturesque. The traveller may make his 



