ng had the happy thought of placing this episode in Bedford amid
the scenes of Bunyan's labors and imprisonment. Bunyan, himself, was
tried at the Bedford Assizes upon the charge of preaching things he
should not, or according to some accounts for preaching without having
been ordained, and was sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment in the
Bedford Jail. At one time it was thought that he wrote "Pilgrim's
Progress" during this imprisonment, but Dr. Brown, in his biography of
Bunyan conjectured that this book was not begun until a later and
shorter imprisonment of 1675-76, in the town prison and toll-house on
Bedford Bridge. Dr. Brown supposes that the portion of the book written
in prison closes where Christian and Hopeful part from the shepherds on
the Delectable Mountains. "At that point a break in the narrative is
indicated--'So I awoke from my dream;' it is resumed with the
words--'And I slept and dreamed again, and saw the same two pilgrims
going down the mountains along the highway towards the city.' Already
from the top of an high hill called 'Clear,' the Celestial City was in
view; dangers there were still to be encountered; but to have reached
that high hill and to have seen something like a gate, and some of the
glory of the place, was an attainment and an incentive." There Bunyan
could pause. Several years later the pilgrimage of Christiana was
written.

Browning, however, adopts the tradition that the book was written during
the twelve years' imprisonment, and makes use of the story of Bunyan's
having supported himself during this time by making tagged shoe-laces.
He brings in, also, the little blind daughter to whom Bunyan was said to
be devoted. The Poet was evidently under the impression also that the
assizes were held in a courthouse, but there is good authority for
thinking that at that time they were held in the chapel of Herne.
Nothing remains of this building now, but it was situated at the
southwest corner of the churchyard of St. Paul, and was spoken of
sometimes as the School-house chapel.

Ned Bratts and his wife did not know, of course, that they actually
lived in the land of the "Pilgrim's Progress." This has been pointed out
only recently in a fascinating little book by A. J. Foster of Wootton
Vicarage, Bedfordshire. He has been a pilgrim from Elstow, the village
where Bunyan was born near Bedford, through all the surrounding country,
and has fixed upon many spots beautiful and otherwise whic