Dr. Wordsworth raised again. The term of Harrow gentlemen still deservedly
survives, Harrow being still the gate through which the rich son of a parvenu
family may most safely pass on his way to Oxford, if his father desires, as
all fathers do in this country, that his son should amalgamate with the
landed aristocracy.

At Pinner, the next station, we pass out of Middlesex into Hertfordshire.

Watford, a principal station, is within a mile of the town of that name, on
the river Colne. Here Henry VI. encamped with his army before the battle of
St. Albans. Cassiobury Park, a favourite spot for picnics, is close to the
station. It was the opposition of the late proprietor, the Earl of Essex,
that forced upon the engineer of the line the formidable tunnel, which was
once considered an astonishing railway work,--now nothing is astonishing in
engineering.

[VIADUCT OVER THE RIVER COLNE: ill3.jpg]

Near King's Langley we pass the Booksellers' Provident Retreat, erected on
ground given by Mr. Dickenson, the great paper maker, who has seven mills on
the neighbouring streams, and reach Boxmoor, only noticeable as the first
station opened on the line.

[LOOKING FROM THE HILL ABOVE BOX MOOR STATION TOWARDS BERKHAMSTED: ill4.jpg]

The next station is Berkhamsted. Cowper the poet was born here, his father
was rector of the parish. Berkhamsted Castle is part of the hereditary
property of the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. At this castle William
the Conqueror, after the battle of Hastings, met the Abbot of St. Albans with
a party of chiefs and prelates, who had prepared to oppose the Norman, and