John and Betty's History Visit

Margaret Williamson

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• Publié par: tukuz
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 47
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Project Gutenberg's John and Betty's History Visit, by Margaret Williamson
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Title: John and Betty's History Visit
Author: Margaret Williamson
Release Date: July 27, 2009 [EBook #29517]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN AND BETTY'S HISTORY VISIT ***
Produced by Mark C. Orton, D Alexander, Linda McKeown and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.netJOHN AND BETTY’S
HISTORY VISIT

BY
MARGARET WILLIAMSON
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS


BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
Published, March, 1910
Copyright, 1910, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.
All rights reserved
John and Betty’s History Visit
Norwood Press
Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass.
U. S. A.They suddenly saw the tremendous
cathedral looming
up before them.—Page 70.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGECHAPTER PAGE
I. First Impressions 9
II. The First Evening 15
III. Westminster Abbey 20
Penshurst Place: the Home of Sir Philip
IV. 37
Sidney
V. The Tower of London 50
VI. St. Paul’s Cathedral and Its Vicinity 65
VII. A Sunday Night Chat 83
VIII. Windsor Castle, Stoke Poges, and Eton
94
School
IX. More About London 107
X. Richmond and Hampton Court Palace 122
XI. Stratford-on-Avon 138
XII. A Day in Warwickshire 161
XIII. Warwick and Kenilworth Castles 181
XIV. Sherwood Forest and Haddon Hall 203
XV. Winchester, Salisbury, and Stonehenge 222
XVI. Clovelly 238
XVII. Rochester and Canterbury 251
XVIII. Good-by To London 273
Index 289
ILLUSTRATIONS
They suddenly saw the tremendous
cathedral looming up before them (Page 70) Frontispiece
FACING

PAGE
“Oh, what’s this place? I am sure I have
seen pictures of it!” 12
“Do you remember those quaint little verses
about ‘Bow Bells’?” 16
“I only wish i could be a Guard and ride a
horse like one of those!” 20
“There’s the Abbey right ahead of us” 26
“What’s the use of having so many doors?” 40
“This seems to speak of peace, happiness,
and
safety” 44
“I want to see who those fellows in the funny
red uniforms are” 50“The king cannot proceed into the ‘City’
without being first received at Temple Bar by
the Lord Mayor” 68
“I’d feel like ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ going
around with those clothes on!” 84
“You remember, don’t you, having the guide
point out London Bridge?” 88
The moss-grown Saxon porch 96
John Milton lived there after he fled from
London 106
“Oh, here’s the old Coronation Chair, isn’t
it?” 114
“Every time I visit this palace I marvel at the
amount of history with which it is connected” 136
“Why, I didn’t suppose it was as big as that!” 140
“Did Anne truly live here?” 164
“They know how important they are, and that
this garden wouldn’t be complete without
them” 184
“It still seems alive with memories of the fair
Dorothy Vernon” 218
“There still remains the question of how
these tremendous stones were brought here” 236
One of plaster and thatch, overgrown with
roses 240
“You’ll find nothing at all like this strange little
Clovelly” 250
“William of Sens, in 1184, finished the
building which we now see” 264
Old gentlemen, stout ladies, young people,
and small children, all ride in England 286
JOHN AND BETTY’S HISTORY VISIT
[Pg 9]CHAPTER ONE
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Two eager young Americans sat, one on each side of the window of an
English train, speeding towards London. They had landed only that
morning, and everything seemed very strange to them, as they watched
the pretty scenes from the car-window. The lady who had met them at thesteamer, was an old friend of the family, who had often been to America,
and was well known to the children, though they had never seen her son
and daughter, whom they had come to visit. Mrs. Pitt soon aroused them
by saying:—
“Come, John, we are almost there, so please fetch down Betty’s wraps
from the rack. Here are your umbrellas; you may take Betty’s bag and I’ll
take yours. Yes, it is really England, and soon we’ll be in London, where
Philip and Barbara are very impatiently waiting to meet the American
[Pg 10]friends with whom they have been exchanging letters for so long. They
have been studying history hard, and have learned all they possibly could
about their own country, which they love, and want you to know, too. They
have never seen very much of England, and this is an excellent chance for
them to do some sight-seeing with you. I think you’ll have a jolly time
seeing all the strange sights and customs, and visiting some historic
places. Now, you must not expect to find Philip and Barbara just like your
friends at home; English children dress very differently, and may use
some expressions which you do not exactly understand, but you’ll soon
become accustomed to them all. Here we are at Waterloo Station.”
As the guard swung open the door, two impatient young people hurried
up to the party.
“Here we are, Mother; did they come?”
John and Betty shyly shook hands with their English friends, but did not
find anything to say, just at first. Mrs. Pitt went to the luggage-van, to find
the children’s trunks, and the others followed.
“Aren’t the trains funny, John?” said Betty, nervously holding her
brother’s hand.
[Pg 11]“See, this is the baggage part of the car, but isn’t it small!”
“Oh, there are several on each train,” explained Philip. “Are your vans
any bigger?”
“There are our trunks, Mrs. Pitt,” called John. “I know them by the C’s
we pasted on the ends.”
“Here, porter, put this luggage on a four-wheeler, please,” and Mrs. Pitt
and her charges crowded in, the luggage was piled on top, and they drove
away.
“Do you think you will like London?” asked Barbara of Betty, rather
anxiously.
Betty ventured to answer, “Oh, I think so, only it is very different from
New York.”
It certainly was! Great, top-heavy buses swung and lurched past them,
some of them drawn by splendid horses, but still more with motors. The
outsides of the vehicles were covered with all sorts of gay advertisements
and signs, in bright and vivid colors; in this way, and in their tremendous
numbers, they differ from the New York buses on Fifth Avenue.
“To-night, we will take you out for a ride on top of a bus if you like,
John,” said Philip.[Pg 12]John, losing his shyness, began to ask questions, and to give his
opinion of the things he saw.
“I think the buses are great! I shall always choose that seat just behind
the driver, where I can talk to him. He must have fine stories to tell,
doesn’t he, Philip? I like the hansoms, too. There really seem to be more
hansoms than anything else in London! Just look, Betty, at that long row
there in the middle of the street! I suppose they are waiting for
passengers. And there’s a line of ‘taxis,’ too. My, but these streets are
crowded! Fifth Avenue isn’t in it!”
Philip and Barbara looked at each other and smiled. All the sights which
were so familiar to them, seemed very novel to their American visitors.
“I suppose it would be just the same to us, if we were to visit New
York,” said Barbara. “Those bus-horses, which you admire, do look very
fine at first, but the work is so hard on them, that they only last a very
short time. Their days are about over now, for soon we shall have only the
motor-buses.”
“Oh, what’s this place? I am sure I have seen pictures of it!”—
Page 12.
“Oh, what’s this place?” cried John excitedly. “I am sure I have seen
[Pg 13]pictures of it! Why, Philip, I think you once sent me some post-cards
which showed this!”
“Oh, yes, this is Trafalgar Square,” broke in Mrs. Pitt. “People
sometimes call it the center of all London. Here is the celebrated statue of
Lord Nelson—here, in the middle; see all the flower-girls, with their
baskets, around its foot. That large building, with the pillars, is the National
Gallery, where I may take you to see the pictures. The church near it they
call St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. Yes, it doesn’t seem a very appropriate
name now, but once it really was ‘in the fields,’ it has stood here so long.Do you notice all the streets leading out from this great square? That way
is the direction of the Strand and Fleet Street; Westminster Abbey is not
far away; and you can see the towers o