that nearly envelops it, and an air of coziness and quiet seems to
surround it. Near at hand is the home where Anthony Trollope, the
novelist, lived for many years, and his sister is buried in the
churchyard.

A short distance from Hadley is the village of Edgeware, with
Whitchurch, famous for its association with the musician Handel. He was
organist here for several years, and on the small pipe-organ, still in
the church though not in use, composed his oratorio, "Esther," and a
less important work, "The Harmonious Blacksmith." The idea of the latter
came from an odd character, the village blacksmith, who lived in
Edgeware in Handel's day and who acquired some fame as a musician. His
tombstone in the churchyard consists of an anvil and hammer, wrought in
stone. Afterwards Handel became more widely known, and was called from
Whitchurch for larger fields of work. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

The road from Edgeware to the city is a good one, and being Saturday
afternoon, it was nearly deserted. Saturday in London is quite as much
of a holiday as Sunday, little business being transacted, especially in
the afternoon. This custom prevails to a large extent all over the
Kingdom, and rarely is any attempt made to do business on Saturday. The
Week-End holiday, as it is called, is greatly prized, and is recognized
by the railroads in granting excursions at greatly reduced rates. There
is always a heavy exodus of people from the city to the surrounding
resorts during the summer and autumn months on Saturday afternoon and
Sunday.

Owing to the extreme difficulty of getting about the city, we made but
few short excursions from London such as I have described. If one
desires to visit such places in sequence, without going farther into the