lt by Edgar in 970, it was attacked and
plundered by Saxon insurgents from the fens under Hereward the Wake, in the
time of William the Conqueror. At the dissolution of religious houses under
Henry VIII., Peterborough was one of the most magnificent abbeys, and, having
been selected as the seat of one of the new bishoprics, the buildings were
preserved entire. In the civil wars, the Lady Chapel and several conventual
buildings were pulled down and the materials sold. At present the cathedral
is a regular cruciform structure of Norman character, remarkable for the
solidity of its construction.

It was commenced 1117, by John de Saiz, a Norman. The chancel was finished,
A.D. 1140, by Abbot Martin de Vecti. The great transept and a portion of the
central tower were built by Abbot William de Vaudeville, A.D. 1160 to 1175,
and the nave by Abbot Benedict 1177-1193. The fitting up of the choir is of
woodwork richly carved. The greater number of the monuments, shrines, and
chantry chapels, were destroyed by the Parliamentary troops. Two queens lie
buried here, Catherine of Aragon and Mary of Scotland, without elegy or
epitaph, monument or tombstone.

The Cathedral viewed, nothing remains to detain the traveller in this
peculiarly stupid city. Within a pleasant ride of five miles lies Milton
House, the seat of Earl Fitzwilliam.

* * * * *

STAMFORD.--Although Stamford is not upon this line of railway, travellers
passing near should not fail to visit so ancient and interesting a town. Few
English boroughs can trace back more distinctly their antiquity. Six
churches still remain of the fifteen which, beside many conventual buildings,
formerly adorned it. For Stamford was one of the towns which, had not the
Reformation intervened, would have been swallowed up by the ever hungry
ecclesiastical maw. Stamford awakens many historic recollections. It has a
place in Domesday Book, being there styled Stanford: King Stephen had an
interview there with Ranulph, Earl of Chester. In 1190, the Jews of Stamford
were plundered and slain by the recruits proceeding to the crusades; and, ten
years afterwards, when Edward I. expelled the Jews from England, "their
synagogue and noble library at Stamford were profaned and sold." Many of the
books were purchased by Gregory of Huntingdon, a monk of Ramsey Abbey, a
diligent student of ancient languages; and thus the result of much learning,
collected in Spain and Italy, and handed down