<pre style="white-space: pre-wrap">xt7n028pcv16 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7n028pcv16/data/mets.xml Butterworth, Hezekiah, 1839-1905. 1889  books b92-199-30751763 English Estes and Lauriat, : Boston : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Great Britain Description and travel. Zigzag journeys in the British Isles, or, Vacation rambles in historic lands  / by Hezekiah Butterworth. text Zigzag journeys in the British Isles, or, Vacation rambles in historic lands  / by Hezekiah Butterworth. 1889 2002 true xt7n028pcv16 section xt7n028pcv16 
 

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ZIGZAG JOURNEIYS IN THE BRITISH ISLES


THE ZIGZAG SERIES.
                BY

    HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH.


ZIGZAG YOUR NE YS IN E URO PE
ZJGZA G 70URN-E YS IN CLA SSIC LA NDS.
ZIGZAG 70URNE YS IN TILE ORIENT
ZIGZAG _OURATEYS IN TILE OCCIDENT
ZIGZAG 7O(,RNEYS 1IN NO),RTH1E1RN LANDS.
ZIGZAG 70URNE YS IN ACADIA.
ZIGZAG 70URA'EYS IN TIEM LEVANT
ZIGZAG YOURNkEYS INAr TIE SUAWY SOUTH
ZIGZAG 70URA-EYS IN lNDIA.
ZIGZAG yOURNE YS IN THME ANTIPODES.
ZIGZA G 7OURAEYS IN  THIE BRITISH
  ISLES.


  ESTES AND LAURIAT, Publishers,


BOSTON, MASS.


I

 This page in the original text is blank.


IIAMI'DEN IN THE MIDST OF THE FIGHT.

 
IGZAG


JOURNEYS


IN THE


BRITISH


ISLES;


OR,


VACATION


RAMBLES IN HISTORIC


BY


HEZEKIAH


BUTTERWORTH.


FULLY ILLUSTRATED.


   BOSTON:
ESTES AND LAURIAT,
    PUBLISHERS.


z0t


LANDS.

 
       Copyrigilt, 1889,
BIy ESTES AND LAURIAT.

      All A',,ih/s Rescrved.


         J SliOeSOitp Mr U.s:
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.

 
                       PRE FACE.


                  N  this volume -the eleventh in the Zigzag,
                    series- an American family go abroad to seek
                /   the evidences of one of their home traditions
                    that John Hampden, the English patriot, camne
              r   to America in i623 to prepare a colony for the
                    patriots in case the popular cause should fall
                    that he visited Massasoit, and learned of a plot
to destroy the Pilgrims, which was presented by this disclosure.
The traditional visit was a secret one, and occurred between the
two Parliaments of James.
   The family visit the land of Moore and Goldsmith in Ireland;
the English Lake District of the poets; Abbotsford; Scrooby, the
land of the Pilgrims; old Boston; Great Hampden, Windsor, and
the scenes of Gray's poetry; the west of England and the Isle of
Avalon, the scene of the King Arthur legends.
   The volume contains a miscellany of English wonder-stories,
many of them associated with American history, and like the pre-
ceding volumes is designed to be entertaining and educational.
While purposely zigzaggy, a connected and definite purpose under-

 
8                           PR EFA CE.

lies each volume. It is the purpose of this book to show by a
shifting scene of stories, legends, and pictures what noble men
our English ancestors were.
   The author has published some of these sketches in the " New
York Independent" (1868-70) and in the "Youth's Companion,"
and one (George III.) in the "Atlantic Monthly." The Arthur
legends are edited from the old Saxon Chronicle.

                                                             H. B.
   28 WORCESTER STREET,
            _7anuary S. I889.


                     CO NT ENT S.


CHAPTER                                                     IAGE
   I. BRITISITINTHEISLES  . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  . .     13

   II. A PROPOSED JOURNEY TO THE SCENES OF THE OLD ENGLISH
          FIRESIDESTORIES . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  .  31

 III. THE ORIGINAL STORY OF KING LEAR AND CORDELIA.-WIN-
          SLOW S JOURNEY TO POKANOKET TO VISIT MASSASOIT. . .  43

 IV. WAS JOHN HAMPDEN EVER IN AMERICA  - THE VOYAGE. -
          AMUSEMENTS AND STORIES ON THE SEA. - STORY OF GRACE
          DARLING . . .  . . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  59

  V. THE LAND OF MOORE AND GOLDSMITH.- STORIES OF THE Au-
          THOR OF THE " DESERTED VILLAGE." - THE STORY AND
          LAST ADDRESS OF ROBERT ENIMET. -GIANTS . . . . .    80

 VI. LIVERPOOL, AND THE LAND OF WORDSWORTH, SOUTHEY, AND
          COLERIDGE  . .  . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  . .    . 107

VII. MELROSE ABBEY, AND SIR WALTER SCOTT'S LEGENDARY TALES 139

VIII. GREAT HAMPDEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I 56

IX. THE LAND OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS   . . . . . .          178

  X. THE LAND OF GRAY AND THE "ELEGY'." -WINDSOR   . . . . 189

  XI. LONDON  .  . . .  . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  . . 207

XII. OLD ENGLISH CHRISTMAS STORIES AND BALLADS .    .235

XIII. THE VALE OF AVALON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

XIV. THE NATIONAL STORIES OF THE ENGLISH NURSERS AND THE
          COURT  . . .  . . .  . . .  . . . .  . .  . . .  . 276

XV. A LETTER FROM GREAT HAMPDEN        .    .. .   . . . . 3i6

 This page in the original text is blank.


ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                    PAGE
Hampden in the Midst of the Fight Frontistiece  On the Irish Coast
Blenheim, the Residence of the Duke of    St. Michael's Mount .
  Alarlborough. . . . . . . . ..       .     At the Mouth of the Mersey .
Hampton Court . . . . . . .      .   19   St. John's Church, Chester
Devonport  . . . . . . . . . . 22         St. George's Dock, Liverpool .
Plymouth . ...... .     ......... 23      Guildhall, Liverpool    ..iverpool  
Seizure of Spanish Treasure-Ships by      The Exchange, Liverpool .
  Drake  ...    ..   . . . .  .   . 25    XWindermere  
B3ridge over the Plym (Plymouth)     28   William Wordsworth
Above Ouebec . . . . . . . . . 32         Grasmere
Sir Walter Raleigh . . . . . . . 33       Cowper's House.
Land's End . . . . . . ..       . . 34    Southey's Grave .
Saint Bartholomew's Eve.    .        37 1 Hartley Coleridge
Lord Whittington and his Cat . . . . 40   Court at Oxford
Lear disowns Cordelia. . . . . . 45       The Coaching Trip.
Regan casts out her Father  . . . . 46    Ruins of Melrose Abbev
Cordelia reclaims her Father's Kingdom  48  Edinburgh Castle .
Winslow  refused Admittance to see        Louis Xl.
  M\lassasoit.. . . . . . . . . 51        Ruins of Kenilworth Castle
  The Noble Indian "... . . . . . 55       Philip de Commynes
The Famous Warwick Castle    . .     6i   The Balue Cage
Up the St. Lawrence. . . . . . . 6       Louis XI. and Charles the Rash at
The Farne Islands.      . . . . . 74        Peronne .
Tomb of Grace Darling .  . . . . . . 75   Louis XI. and Burgesses waiting for
Londonderry .. . . ... 76 News.
Trinity College, Dublin . . . . . . 77    Hampden House and Church .
The Albert Memorial. . . . . . . 8i       Death of Hampden.
Drogheda . . . . . . . . . . . 82         In Hampden Churchyard.
The Vale of Avoca  . . . . .     .   83   Hampden Park
Athlone Cast!.   .. . . . . . .      87   Ruins of the Castle near Scrooby
Oliver Goldsmith. . . . . . . . 89        Hampden's Monument .
Dublin Bay . . . . . . . . . . 93         Harrow Spire.
The Giant's Causeway  . . . . . . 95      Newstead Abbey .


PAGE
100
103
108


I lZ
114
122
124
126
127
132
'34
'35
137
140
143
145
'47
149
152

'53

'57
16o
163
167
170
173
175
iSo
i8i

 
ILL US TRA TION6.


Byron's Tomb, Harrow Churchyard .
View in Nottinghamshire.
"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of
power "
"For them no more the blazing hearth
shall burn "   .
Church of Stoke-Pogis .
Windsor Castle
George I I I.
Palm-House, Kew Gardens
St. James' Park, London
Westminster Abbey .
Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh .
The Tower of London.
Buckingham Palace .
Lady Jane Grey.
Kensington Gardens, London .
Nelson Monument, Trafalgar Square
Ginevra.
Lincoln Cathedral
London Bridge


PAGE
I82
187

190

'9'
193
195
199
203
209
213
216
217
221
225
229
236
237
241
245


The Christmas-Tree     .
Crystal Palace, London .


mIhe Minuet
Mouth of the Avon.
The Avon at Bristol .
Queen Elizabeth  .
Glastonbury Abbey .
Cape Cornwall .
Penzance
Haddon Hall.
Carnarvon Castle, Wales.
Tavistock
Pont Aberglaslyn, Wales
Tintagel, the Home of King Arthur.
Britons drawn up in line of Battle
"The Saxons withstood the attack
  bravely" .
The Saxon King reviewing his Army
In the Heat of the Combat .
Chatsworth.
In Hampden Park


I 2


PAGE
249
253
257
263
264
265
269
271
273
277
283
289
293
297
299


303
307
312
313
317


. . . . .
. . . . .


ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE BRITISH ISLES.


                       CHAPTER I.

                     BRITISH IN THE ISLES.

        - ---- HE  Hampdens lived on the Mount Hope Lands.
   / I, c\    The reader may know little about these historic
       l ! , ) fields that lie between the Narragansett and
         A i/      Mount Hope Bays, and the rivers that flow into
                 them.  They form a long, narrow peninsula.  It
                 was on the shores of these Lands that Leif
                 Ericson is supposed to have landed, and to have
                 nmade the first temporary settlement in what is
                 now-, the United States. This was about the year
icoo. A stone is still to be seen at the Narrows, near Mount Hope.
which bears a supposed Northman inscription similar to that on
Dighton Rock. The Skeleton in Armor found at Fall River, near
Mount Hope Bay, doubtless belongs to the same expedition and
period.
   On the Mount Hope Lands -which are now Bristol, Warren, and
parts of Swansea, the first two in Rhode Island and the latter in Mas-
sachusetts-lived Massasoit, the protector of the Plymouth Pilgrims
for forty years. Roger Williams came here when driven from Boston,
and lived during a part of a winter in one of the lodges of Massasoit.
Here, too, as is supposed by Belknap and a recent English writer,

 
ZIGZAG 7OURNEYS IN THE BRITISH ISLES.


came the great English patriot John Hampden, to what is now
Warren, Rhode Island, as a companion of Edward Winslow, to visit
Massasoit and to see the country. Hampden was a young man then,
and had recently married, and was doubtless intent, as he was after-
ward, on schemes of colonization in America. His visit was a hasty
one, between the two great Parliaments. America seems ever after-
ward to have been his dream; and here he would probably have
come had the popular cause against the king, and the king's claims
of divine right over the people, failed.  He found Massasoit sick,
and helped nurse him back to health again.  The scene, which is
worthy of poet or painter, is associated by circumstantial tradition
with the Massasoit Spring, near one of the old decaying wharves in
Warren.
   King Philip lived on the Mount Hope Lands, as all readers know.
Here probably the interesting Queen Wetamoo, who lived on the
other side of the bay, used to visit him, and join him in his war-
dances. Here was the old Indian town of Pokanoket, on the Kike-
muit River,-an arm of the bay. Here lived Church, the Indian
fighter. Here came Washington, to visit Bradford, the Rhode Island
patriot and statesman, who lived at Mount Hope. Dessalines caught
the air of liberty from Mount Hope Bay, and went to the tropic
islands to liberate Hayti, if the old tradition be true. General Burn-
side made his home here. The first Baptist Church in Massachu-
setts was here established at the end of the beautiful peninsula, near
the old Miles Bridge. This region is a wonderland of stories,-Indian
stories, Kidd stories, Revolutionary stories, ghost stories, witchcraft
stories. The old houses and places were full of stories. A volume
might be made of them. A romancer would make it a place of his-
toric resort and pilgrimages, and fill the old hotels of Bristol and
Warren with tourists.
   The region is one of great beauty. The water scenery from its
green hills has the spirit of romance in it, so attractive to the eye of


1 4


BLENHEIM, THE RESIDENCE OF THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.

 This page in the original text is blank.

 
BRITISH LI' THE ISLE.                    17


the painter and poet. The old New England orchards here abound,
surrounded by heavy stone-walls built by the strong men of the early
generations, and overgrown with mosses and vines.  Great trees,
with osprey's nests, line the bays and rivers.  In the spring when
the orchards are in bloom, and in the autumn when the apples are
ripe, the old places have a peculiar beauty; and also late in the fall
when the fields are yellowv with corn and pumpkins, and the pas-
tures full of golden-rod and blue gentians.  The apple-orchards it)
New England were introduced by Governor Winthrop, in honor of
which Governor's Island in Boston Harbor was given him, - an
island once covered with apple-trees.  The apple found its true
home in Rhode Island, and the orchards of the Mount Hope Lands
became especially famous for their fine fruit.
    The Hampden family consisted of John and Mary Hampden, and
their two children, Helen and Charles. The father was a captain
of one of the Narragansett Bay steamers, and as the port was Proxi-
dence, he was much away from home. A maiden sister of Captain
Hampden, Helen Mar Hampden, who was familiarly known as Aunt
Mar, lived with his family. Mary Hampden had taken great interest
in the education of her two children, and had especially instructed
them in the local history of the region. But, careful as she leas in
this respect, her efforts were exceeded by those of her sister-in-law,
Aunt Mar.
   Aunt Mar was a natural story-teller. Like many New England
girls, she had in her early days been a diligent student of Sir Walter
Scott's works, and also of those of Irving and Cooper, thus cultivating
a taste for the traditions of her own State and neighborhood. She
had been a fine singer, one of the traditional church choir, and she
delighted in the old ballads of Scott, Moore, Burns, and the musical
compositions of Bishop and Malloy. To Aunt Helen Mar had been
largely intrusted the education of Captain Hampden's children. She
'had done her work well, and her pupils were a credit to her. Helen


I 7

 
ZIGZAG 7OURNE YS LV TILE B'RITISH ISLES.


Hampden was now sixteen years of age, and Charles was fourteen.
Both were well prepared for a collegiate course.
   Aunt Mar had means. She had been left a small amount of prop-
erty in her girlhood. This had been invested for her in the savings.
banks, after the old New England way, and it now amounted to a
considerable sum. The maiden ladies of most of the old New Eng-
land country families are vell to do, and use their means with a
prudent benevolence.
   From girlhood Aunt Mar had wished to visit England. During
all her intelligent years she had been interested in England, Scotland,
and Ireland. She had read so much of the wonderful palaces, castles,
and cathedrals, that she longed to see for herself the glories of Blen-
heim and Hampton Court.   She had especially desired to visit the
places associated with the founders of the American colonies, - Sir
Walter Raleigh, the Plymouth Pilgrims, Penn, Lord Baltimore, Ogle-
thorpe; to go to old Boston, and Plymouth, and Bristol, and especially
to the places where John Hampden had struggled for the liberties
of the English race.  She had often promised Helen and Charles
that she would one day take them on such a journey.  "To visit
the places of the American pioneers,' she used to say, referring to
the old English towns, " would be a historic education."
   The home of the Hampdens was on what is called Bristol Neck,
on the highlands overlooking the Narragansett and Mount Hope
Bays, the towns of Warren, Bristol, and old Swansea, the city of
Fall River, and the island of Rhode, where beautiful Niwport looks
out on the sea. It was not far from the old Indian town of Poka-
noket, that Indian fishing-camp where enormous heaps of shells are
still found buried in the hillsides. Here the summers are cool and
bright, and the long winters invite studious pursuits.
   "When I have finished my part of your education," said Aunt
1Iar one day to Helen and Charles, " I hope to be able, as I have
said, to spend a summer with you in Great Britain; and I shall


IS


Z

 This page in the original text is blank.

 
BRITISH IN THE ISLES.


make it a part of your present education to tell you legends and
stories of the places that I hope to see." So historical storytelling
became a part of Aunt Mar's methods of education.
   Aunt Mar's stories were peculiar.  Their historical basis was
always correct, but she took a poet's license in telling them.  She
had one of those poetic minds that like to find a foundation stone
of truth and bUild a palace of fancies upon it. The greatest minds
have pursued the same metlhods,-SShakspeare, Scott, Goethe, follow-
ing Homer, Herodotus, and the ancient dramatists; and with such
examples it is not strange that the most simple neighborhood story-
teller should love to create and build.  Every imaginative mind
likes to make its own world. So much are people governed b) inmagi-
nation, that few minds like the rude corrections wlhich critics make
of their favorite stories. Few people like to be told that Dido and
iEneas did not live in the same age; that Duncan died in his bed, and
not by the red hand of Lady Macbeth; that the Iser was far from
the battlefield of Linden ; that the " high hall " where " Belgium's
capital " athered " her beauty and her chivalry " was a small room
or that our own stories of Captain John Smith and tile lovely Indian
princess, and General Gates and the Boston boys, will not bear the
critic's spectacles. A historical legend comes to stand for a truth,
and it is the most dramatic representation of it that people like.
Tlhere are but few  books of real history.  Most history is ro-
mance,- creations and colorings, that followv the theories of their
writers. Carlyle's " French  Revolution" is really an epic poem
and works like John S. C. Abbott's " Napoleon Bonaparte" are color-
ings of the past.
   Aunt Mar had a very active imagination, and used very emphatic
and often provincial language to express her glowing thoughts. But
the impressions left by her stories were usually correct historically
and morally. We say morally, for she only claimed that her stories
were based on facts, and that the picturing was only what she thought


2 1


ZIGZAG _OURN-EYS IN THE BRITISH ISLES.


it to be. She saw the whole world through her own New England
spectacles, after the manner of many greater minds.

   It was a quiet winter evening on the Mount Hope Lands, and
in the home of the Hampdens at Pokanoket. The short lonesome


DEVONPORT.


days of November were over; the first December snows had fallen,
and the long nights of the holidays were drawing near.  Captain
Hampden was in Providence; the rest of the family were gathered
around the open fire; the studies of the day were done, the books
closed, and Aunt Mar had prepared the usual historical story that
concerned one of the places she hoped to see when she should visit
England with her niece and nephew.
   " I have a story of old Plymouth, which I am going to tell
to-night," she said. " Old Plymouth, you know, is one of the places


22


PAIHSIIs 1LV lE ZATH                      23


that we shall wish to see when we go abroad. It is an old seaport
and market town in Devonshire, about two hundred and fifty mile.
from London. We could reach it in a single day from  London.
It is situated at the mouth of the Plym, - Plym-mouth. It svas
from Plymouth that the approach of the Spanish Armada was first


PLYMIOUTH.


seen.  It is a city of ships as well as forts and houses.  Hence
sail the vessels for the Cape of Good Hope, the West Indies, and
the Mediterranean, and hence sailed some of the ships that brought
the first colonists of New England. It is a place full of legends
and stories; and one of the most curious of its old stories concerns
the romantic old admiral Sir Francis Drake, and I will call it-


23

 
ZIGZAG 7OURAVEYS IN THE BRITISH ISLEdS


         SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND HIS SHIP OF GOLD.

     SIR FRANCIS DRAKE once lived on a beautiful estate upon the Tay,
but he was born upon the Tavy. His father was poor, and had twelve
children, and he hardly could have believed, had an astrologer told him so,
that any one of his twelve children would ever become a knight. Young
Francis' life was passed among the sailors of the seaport towns, like that
of any common sailor-boy. But he was what would be called a bright boy,
and he found a warm friend in the owner of a vessel; and when this friend
died, he left to him his vessel, and the young man's fortune began with the
gift.
    W hile coasting on the shores of England he chanced to hear of the
wonderful exploits of Hawkins in the New World. Francis seems to have
been all ears and imagination, and to have had perfect confidence that he
could do what any one else had done. Boys who reap golden fortunes coml-
monly have golden dreams, and with it a strong will to turn their imagin-
ings into solid events. He resolved to go to Plymouth, and to join one
of the expeditions of Haw-ins to the Spanish Main. He did so, and failed,
returning poorer than when he started. But his imagination and will did
not fail; and as long as these last there is hope of the success of any man.
He fitted out a ship of his own; and as England was hostile to Spain at
this time, he began to plunder the Spanish Main. A sea-robber or a
pirate he would be called to-day; but robbing the seas of hostile nations
was not so badly regarded at that time. He became such a successful
sea-robber that he was made an admiral, or vice-admiral, with great powers.
Oueen E lizabeth once banqueted on board one of his ships, and made him
a knight, as you have seen in the pictures of old histories. You well knOw
howv he defeated the Invincible Armada of Spain. He was made a mem-
ber of Parliament, and built a beautiful estate, on which he lavished the
spoils of Peru and the treasures of the Indies.
    But my story does not so much concern the wonderful career of the
knight, as an incident of it that shows how greedy is poor human nature,
and how little people understand the selfishness there is in the human
heart.
    The New World was at this time regarded as one vast storehouse of
,old and gems, and the return of a ship from these rich regions was an
event that occasioned the greatest excitement in the port to which she


24


L-


Z:


-1


7


N.,

 This page in the original text is blank.

 
BRITISH IAX THE ISLES.


27


came. The whole country turned out at such times to see her enter the
harbor.  Men went away poor, and returned in ships full of riches. A\
the spoiling of Peru had enriched Spain, so the spoiling of the Spanish
Main in turn enriched England. The story, of the Incas and their wealth
had filled all Europe; and though the golden empires of the Incas no
longer existed, people still regarded South America and the islands of the
Spanish Main as places of mountains of mines and valleys of treasures. To
them the very name of America meant gold. Sir Francis wvas the discoverer
of California,' and the first to find gold there. He would have found gold
there or anywhere, had there been any to find, as you may well believe.
To him gold was the world, and few men ever gained a larger share; and
he was the first to sail around the golden world and to find out how great
and rich it was.
    Among the great conquests of Sir Francis Drake on the Spanish Main w-as
the surprise and capture of Nombre de Dios, near the Isthmus of Darien, a
town rich with treasures, which he plundered, loading his ship with spoils.
After this exploit he crossed the isthmus and saw the Pacific, and then prepared
to return to England with his treasures, expecting to reach the port of Plymouth
late in the summer.

    It was Aug. 9, I573. The good people of Plymouth had made their way
to church, and many of them had become drowsy under the sermon in the sul-
try air. The minister was giving them a long discourse, possibly on selfish-
ness and the evil of laying tip treasures on earth and conforming to the world.
The great sea stretched away from the mouth of the Plym, a gentle breeze
perhaps breaking the languid air.  Suddenly, amid these tranquil surround-
ings, a British flag was seen rising above the sea. The church clerk saw it
first, and was startled, and grew worldly-minded, and whispered his discovery
to the beadle.
    "I will slip out and see," said the beadle. And he quietly vanished, saying
as he went, " I will return in a few minutes."
    But the beadle did not return.
    The flag rose higher, and came more distinctly into view. The clerk
wvhispered to one of the vestrymen, " I think that there is a ship coming into
port."
    " I will slip out and see," said the vestryman. And he too vanished, saying,
 I will be back soon."


It had been visited before by an adventurer at the time of Cortez.


ZIGZAG _OURNEYS hV THE BRITISH ISLES


But he did not come back.
The other vestryman was partly asleep, when the clerk touched him.
" There is a ship coming into port," said the clerk.
" What of that " whispered the vestryman, drowsily.


BRIDG7E OVER THE PLY14 (PLYMOUTH).


    "It may be laden with gold - from the Americas."
    "Gold! gold! Where 's my hat " And he too vanished, promising to be
back soon.
    The boys heard the whispered word " gold," and gazed from the open
window toward the sea. "A ship of gold," said one. In a moment he was
gone, and all the others followed him.
    The good old rector became disturbed, and he may be supposed to have
grown very emphatic at this point against worldliness.
    " A ship of gold! " whispered one to another.
    " A ship of gold! " it ran through the church.


28

 
BRITISH LV THE ISLES.


    " Sir Francis Drake and a ship of gold," was the low-voiced murmur.
    As often as the good rector bent down his head to quote the Scriptures,
one after another of the men slipped out of the door. The women followed;
for when did there ever appear a sight of good fortune that the women did not
follow the men to see it
    The old rector wondered that every time he raised his eyes from the good
Book his congregation should look so thinned. Where had they gone What
had happened
    At last, after scrutinizing a very hard passage, he raised his head and found
the church empty, -all except one old man who was blind, and one old man
who was deaf, and one old sailor who was fast asleep.
    " Where is my congregation gone " exclaimed the rector. " What have
they done What has come to pass "
    "I heard something said of a ship of gold," said the blind man. " Where
is the door" And he too felt his way toward the open street, and tried to
follow the crowd.
    The good rector was now left to preach to the deaf man and the sleeping
sailor. But the deaf man could see. The congregation had gone, and not for
nothing, he well knew. There must have been something wonderfully powerful
to cause them to leave, - something to be gained somehow, he reasoned.
    " I cannot hear, anyhow," he said to the parson; " so I will go and see
what has happened."
    The old rector went on with his discourse.
    Presently the sailor awoke, and found the church empty. He stared about
him, wondering if he had lost his senses. " What has happened  " said he.
    " Gold," answered the parson.
    " Gold! Where where"
    " They are crying in the streets, 'A ship of gold! a ship of gold! ' Do you
not hear them "
    " A ship of gold, and you preachin' about the old patriarchs! Why did
you not wake me up before "
    The sailor made a few strides, and the church was indeed empty.
    " It is evident that it is the will of the Lord that I should go too," said
the rector. " The empty benches do not need a preacher."  So the good
rector took off his gown and followed his flock to the wharves, and looked
out on the summer sea. And the ship of gold came slowly in, and the people
hailed the returning adventurer.
    That night the pastor and his people had sufficient relief from the hot day's


29

 
30           ZIGZAG 7OURATEYS IX THE BRITISH ISLES.

excitement to think. They consulted together, and agreed that a Sunday had
been lost, and that it was a great mystery how there should be so much world-
liness in the world.
    For many years the little port of Plymouth was wont to recall the lost
Sunday of Francis Drake and his Ship of Gold.


CHAPTER II.


A PROPOSED JOURNEY TO THE SCENES OF THE OLI) ENGLISH
                        FIRESIIJE S'rORIES.

                   JOURNEY to see the scenes and associations of
                     the old English legends and historical stories,
                     how best could it be made This had been
    0   B   D47    a study of Aunt Mar for several years. The
               - 11kNgood lady was not rich, so she must practise
                     economy.
                          I think we will go by the way of Quebec
                     and the Straits of Belle Isle, and return by the
                     way of Halifax," she said one day. " That plan
                     wvould give us so much historical ground on the
way. Besides, we should be only five days on the open ocean from
the Straits of Belle Isle, and that would be quite enough. People
have to get used to the ocean, I am told."
   " Where should we land  " asked Charlie.
   " At Liverpool, - the world's great city of ships."
   " Where should we go from Liverpool "
   " We should wish to visit the English Lake District. Here lived
the so-called Lake poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, and
there wrote De Quincey and Christopher North (Professor Wilson).
It is a region of stories. We should wish to see the scenes of Words-
worth's ballads, and of the 'Excursion.' You remember Wordsworth's
'Goody Blake and Harry Gill,' and Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner.'


ZIGZAG 7OURNE YS IN THE BRITISH I.SLES


and Southey's ' Battle of Blenheim,' and Christopher North's ' A
Child carried away by an Eagle.' The Lake District is only a few
hours' ride from Liverpool."
   " And then " asked Charlie.
   "' We would go to the land of Burns. I always wished to see the
scenes of 'Auld Lang Syne' and 'Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonn)
Doon.' "


ABOVE QUEBEC.


   " And I, of 'Tam O'Shanter,' " said Charlie.
   " And I, of the 'Cotter's Saturday Night,'" said Helen.
   " Then we would go fo Abbotsford," said Aunt Mar. " There we
should be in story-land indeed.  The Tweed, the ruins of Melrose
Abbey, and the very places that inspired Scott would all have tongues
for us."
   " We should wish to visit old Boston," said Helen.


32


SCENES OF THE OLD ENGLISH FIRESIDE STORIES    3


   "Yes," said Aunt Mar, "i old Boston and Lincoln, whence the
founders of Boston came. We might go by the way of Wakefield, as
our visit is to be one to stories. There are the old homes and places
of the following people that we should certainly wish to find: Sir
Walter Raleigh, the founder of Virginia; the Plymouth Pilgrims and
the Colonists of Massachusetts Bay; Henry Hudson; William Penn
and Roger Williams;
Lord   Baltimore,
Oglethorpe, and John
Hampden, who was
the  real father of
English and Amer-
ican liberty."  Aunt
Mar, who was very
proud of her name, oE
made the last remark
with great emphasis.
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