Nothing of signal interest occurred in our progress except at one
point, near a Methodist chapel, where we caught sight of a gayly
painted blue van, lettered over with many texts and mottoes,
which my friend explained as one of the vans intinerantly used by
extreme Protestants of the Anne Askew persuasion to prevent the
spread of Romanism in England.
The signs of travel had not only ceased, but a little in front of
us the way was barred by a gate, and beyond this gate there was
nothing but a sort of savage pasture, with many red and brown
cattle in it, gathered questioningly about the barrier, or
lifting their heads indifferently from the grass. Just before we
reached the gate we passed a peasant's cottage, where he was
sociably getting in his winter's coal, and he and his wife and
children, and the carter, all leaned upon whatever supports they
found next them, and stared at the extraordinary apparition of
two, I hope, personable strangers driving in a hansom of extreme
type into a cow pasture. But we were not going to give ourselves
away to their too probable ignorance by asking if that were the
place where the Pilgrims who founded New England were first
stopped from going to Holland.
Pages:
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158