England

FIRST DAY'S OBSERVATIONS AND ENJOYMENT - RURAL FOOT-PATHS; VISIT TO TIPTREE FARM - ALDERMAN MECHI'S OPERATIONS - IMPROVEMENTS INTRODUCED, DECRIED, AND ADOPTED - STEAM POWER, UNDER-DRAINING, DEEP TILLAGE, IRRIGATION - PRACTICAL RESULTS.

INVERNESS - ROSS-SHIRE - TAIN - DORNOCH - GOLSPIE - PROGRESS OF RAILROADS - THE SUTHERLAND EVICTION - SEA-COAST SCENERY - CAITHNESS - WICK: HERRING FISHERIES - JOHN O'GROAT'S: WALK'S END.

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BIRDS.

ANTHONY CRUICKSHANK - THE GREATEST HERD OF SHORTHORNS IN THE WORLD - RETURN TO LONDON AND TERMINATION OF MY TOUR.

TALK WITH AN OLD MAN ON THE WAY - OLD HOUSES IN ENGLAND - THEIR AMERICAN RELATIONSHIPS - ENGLISH HEDGES AND HEDGE-ROW TREES - THEIR PROBABLE FATE - CHANGE OF RURAL SCENERY WITHOUT THEM.

A FOOTPATH WALK AND ITS INCIDENTS - HARVEST ASPECTS - ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SKIES - HUMBLER OBJECTS OF CONTEMPLATION - THE DONKEY: ITS USES AND ABUSES.

HOSPITALITIES OF "FRIENDS" - HARVEST ASPECTS - ENGLISH COUNTRY INNS; THEIR APPEARANCE, NAMES, AND DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS - THE LANDLADY, WAITER, CHAMBERMAID, AND BOOTS - EXTRA FEES AND EXTRA COMFORTS.

by Gordon Home

1911

It was on April 24, 1538, that a writ of summons was sent forth in the name of Henry VIII., "To thee, Thomas Becket, some time Archbishop of Canterbury" - who had then been dead for 368 years - "to appear within thirty days to answer to a charge of treason, contumacy, and rebellion against his sovereign lord, King Henry II." But the days passed, and no spirit having stirred the venerated bones of the wonder-working saint, on June 10 judgment was given in favour of Henry, and it was decreed that the Archbishop's bones were to be burnt, and his world-famous shrine overlaid with gold and spark

It would be a mistake to imagine that it solely was due to that bloody deed perpetrated on a certain December afternoon back in Norman times that Canterbury occupies a place of such pre-eminence in English history, for the city was ancient before the days of Thomas of Canterbury; and in this short chapter it is the writer's endeavour to indicate the position of that tragic occurrence in the chronology of the former Kentish capital.