while, to make the picture complete, there remain even the old wooden
stocks, through the holes of which the feet of boozy unfortunates were
wont to be unceremoniously thrust in the good old times of rude simplicity;
in fact, the only really unprimitive building about the place appears
to be a newly erected Methodist chapel. It couldn't be - no, of course it
couldn't be possible, that there is any connecting link between the
American peculiarity of elevating the feet on the window-sill or the
drum of the heating-stove and this old-time custom of elevating the feet
of those of our ancestors possessed of boozy, hilarious proclivities!
At Weedon Barracks I make a short halt to watch the soldiers go through
the bayonet exercises, and suffer myself to be persuaded into quaffing
a mug of delicious, creamy stout at the canteen with a genial old sergeant,
a bronzed veteran who has seen active service in several of the tough
expeditions that England seems ever prone to undertake in various
uncivilized quarters of the world; after which I wheel away over old
Roman military roads, through Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire,
reaching Fenny Stratford just in time to find shelter against the
machinations of the "weather-clerk", who, having withheld rain nearly all
the afternoon, begins dispensing it again in the gloaming. It rains
uninterruptedly all night; but, although my route for some miles is now
down cross-country lanes, the rain has only made them rather disagreeable,
without rendering them in any respect unridable; and although I am among
the slopes of the Chiltern Hills, scarcely a dismount is necessary during
the forenoon. Spending the night at Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire, I pull
out toward London on Thursday morning, and near Watford am highly gratified
at meeting Faed and the captain of the North London Tricycle Club, who
have come out on their tricycles from London to meet and escort me into
the metropolis. At Faed's suggestion I decide to remain over in London
until Saturday to be present at the annual tricycle meet on Barnes Common,
and together we wheel down the Edgeware Road, Park Road, among the