Anne and her husband, and George II. It was the birthplace, too, and the early home of Victoria; and there, with maidenly humility and reverence, she received the news that the cares of a vast empire had fallen upon her. Still farther west, and near the confines of the city, the chimneys of Holland House disappear behind the elms, an older and nobler mansion of Tudor days, where Charles James Fox lived, and Addison died; where Cromwell and Penn frequented; where Macaulay used to stand on the hearth rug and monopolize the conversation to every one's delight, and which his own "Essays" describe as giving hospitable welcome to Sheridan, Sydney Smith, and Brougham, to Humboldt, Talleyrand, and Madame de Staël.

We have at last shaken off the dust of the great city, and are crossing Hammersmith Bridge, suspended across the Thames where the pace is most terrible in the great University boat races between Oxford and Cambridge, and where, if there be a flaw in the human organism, men's hearts are failing them for fear of the next turn above. Would that we might have stood there and shouted cheer to the straining crews; but we were fain to con

tent ourselves with a glimpse of the Australian champion sculler of the world, who was walking down the beach that morning, with his frail skiff upon his head, to have a preparatory pull for his coming contest. We turn south by Roehampton and Wimbledon Common, and again catch up the Thames (which here makes a wide detour) at Kingston, where early Saxon kings were crowned. The King's Stone on which he sat is there yet, surrounded by an iron railing; and we drive past it in the marketplace, and are out again into the country; ere long, near Surbiton, catching a distant glimpse of the broad red walls of Hampton Court Palace to the right. We had passed countryseats of the Duke of Cambridge, Lord Rosebery, and Earl Dunraven of yachting fame, and were approaching Epsom Downs. At our left, on the high ground, the great grandstand flashed white in the sun, whence thousands witness another contest, between gallant horses instead of brawny men, and where the Prince of Wales had just won the Derby. Flying scud, and sometimes a gentle dash of rain, had passed over us as we steadily pressed forward, now through rounded vale and now over breezy heath. Once and again, while changing horses,

the barmaid came out to give us a stirrup cup of ale, and a bite of bread and cheese. With L. and E. by his side, the guard carefully expounded the details of the way, and cheerfully punctuated his remarks by merry blasts that brought red-cheeked damsels to the windows to see the coach go by. A prime favorite was he in those parts, and carried in his capacious pockets good store of fruit and seed-cakes which he tossed to expectant children who well foreknew the moment of his passage.

There is nothing in this world quite like an English lane, winding between smiling hedgerows or thatched farmsteads, or by the side of walled suburban villas set near together, all of brick or stone, but covered with clambering vines, and each one with its name plainly marked up at the gate-post, Fernery or Robin's Nest or what not. Rural England is, of all countries, the one that is finished, not laboriously engaged in conquering Nature's wilderness, not past its zenith and vegetating amid the ruins of another age's labors; but secure from invasion in her island fortress for centuries, and perpetuating the domestic traditions and simple tastes and occupations of a long line of forefathers. Nor does this imply

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that time stands still, for it would infer stagnation if not retrogression. The peasant is not the serf that once he was, and lowly life is not without its many creature comforts. Not to go further for an illustration, the proud nobility whose mansions lined the Strand in the days of Elizabeth, could scarce pass through it on wheels, so deep was the mire. And it is much less than a century since Telford and Macadam died, who brought science to bear on ordinary English highways, till then generally impassable at certain seasons. Look at them now! It is constant and assiduous care which, at small comparative cost, keeps them what they are. Originally built on thoroughly scientific principles, the humble road-mender (and his name is legion), living a short distance from his next associate, with his little store of materials, his spade and pick and hand-barrow, does the rest, never suffering the damage of a single storm to remain unrepaired till it entails ultimate and expensive reconstruction.

And so we rumbled on by Leatherhead and Mickleham, at Boxhill signalling the "Rocket" coach of the rival line, which had its destination there; till, as the clock struck two, we drew up with a final triumphant tally-ho before the door

of the White Hart Inn in the sleepy town of Dorking, the imaginary scene of the humorous battle of that name. It would be easy to get lost in the delightful rambling passages of this old hostelry, but we had not the time for that diversion, and sat down to dull the keen edge of our appetites with such Southdown mutton as does not grow far away from the shores of the English Channel. Master and man, coachman at the head of the table and guard at the foot, with passengers sandwiched between, we made way with a merry meal, and then bade good-bye to coaching and pressed on by rail, a short distance, to ancient Guildford. We had not come to see the sights of this "happylooking town," but to visit the grave of our kinswoman, who lies by her husband's side in its rural graveyard high up on the hillside, beneath the shade of beeches, with a Celtic cross at their heads, and the long and lovely valley spread out far below them. Having made our reverent pilgrimage, we took train again for London ere night had fallen. We were deposited at Earl's Court, an adjunct, or at least a neighbor, of the vast South Kensington enterprise, at present known as the India and Ceylon Exhibition. We had time for a glimpse