have returned over the Holyhead Road, but our desire to see more of the
country led us to take a route nearly parallel to this, averaging about
fifteen miles to the southward. Much of the way this ran through narrow
byways and the country generally lacked interest. We passed through
Banbury, whose cross, famous in nursery rhyme, is only modern. At
Waddesdon we saw the most up-to-date and best ordered village we came
across in England, with a fine new hotel, the Five Arrows, glittering in
fresh paint. We learned that this village was built and practically
owned by Baron Rothschild, and just adjoining it was the estate which he
had laid out. The gentleman of whom we inquired courteously offered to
take us into the great park, and we learned that he was the head
landscape gardener. The palace is modern, of Gothic architecture, and
crowns an eminence in the park. It contains a picture gallery, with
examples of the works of many great masters, which is open to the public
on stated days of the week.

On reaching London, we found that our tour of the Midlands had covered a
little less than eight hundred miles, which shows how much that distance
means in Britain when measured in places of historic and literary
importance, of which we really visited only a few of those directly on
the route of our journey or lying easily adjacent to it.




VI

LONDON TO LAND'S END