loyal Americans we could not willingly see wrested from our own John D.
of oleaginous fame. Eaton Hall is one of the greatest English
show-places, but it is modern and might well be matched by the castles
of several of our American aristocracy. Tame indeed seemed its swept and
garnished newness, its trim and perfect repair, after our visits to so
many time-worn places, with their long succession of hoary traditions.
The great library, with its thousands of volumes in the richest
bindings and its collections of rare editions, might well be the despair
of a bibliophile and the pictures and furnishings of rare interest to
the connoisseur--but these things one may find in the museums.

Over a main road, almost level and as nearly straight as any English
road merits such a description, we covered the forty miles from Chester
to Shrewsbury without incident. The most trying grade given in the
road-book is one in twenty-five, and all conditions are favorable for
record time--in absence of police traps. Four miles out of Chester we
passed Rowton Station, lying adjacent to Rowton Moor, where King
Charles, standing on the tower of Chester Wall which bears his name, saw
his army defeated by the Parliamentarians. We made a late start from
Chester, but reached Shrewsbury in time to visit many parts of the town
after dinner. We found it indeed a delightful old place, rich in
historic traditions, and the center of a country full of interesting
places. The town is built on a lofty peninsula, surrounded on three
sides by the River Severn, and the main streets lead up exceedingly
steep hills. In fact, many of the steepest and most dangerous hills
which we found in our travels were in the towns themselves, where grades
had been fixed by buildings long ago. The clean macadam in Shrewsbury
made it possible to drive our car without chains, though it rained
incessantly, but so steep and winding are some of the streets that the
greatest caution was necessary.