Hart" must be
a favorite among English innkeepers, for I recollect that we stopped at
no fewer than seven hotels bearing this name during our tour and saw the
familiar sign on many others. On our arrival we learned that the
Dukeries trip must be made by carriage and that the fifty miles would
consume two days. We felt averse to subtracting so much from our already
short remaining time, and when we found still further that admission
was denied for the time at two of the most important estates, we decided
to proceed without delay. The motor would be of no advantage to us in
visiting the Dukeries, for the circuit must be made in a staid and
leisurely English victoria.

Since this chronicle was written, however, I have learned that the
embargo on motoring through the Dukeries is at least partially
raised--another step showing the trend in England in favor of the motor
car. By prearrangement with the stewards of the various estates,
permission may be obtained to take a car through the main private roads.
Thus the tourist will be enabled in half a day to accomplish what has
previously required at least two days driving with horse and carriage.

In this vicinity is Newstead Abbey, the ancestral home of Byron, and one
of our greatest disappointments was our inability to gain access to it.
Perhaps we might have done so if we had made arrangements sufficiently
in advance, since visitors are admitted, they told us, on certain days
by special permission. There has, however, been an increasing tendency
on the part of the owner to greatly limit the number of visitors. The
coal mines discovered on the lands have become a great source of wealth
and the abbey has been transformed into a modern palace in one of the
finest private parks in England. The rooms occupied by Byron, it is
said, are kept exactly as they were when he finally left Newstead and
there are many interesting relics of the poet carefully preserved by the
present proprietor.

It would be a bad thing for England if the tendency on the part of
private owners of historic places, to exclude visitors from their
premises, should become general. The disposition seems somewhat on the
increase, and not without cause. Indeed, I was told that in a number of
instances the privileges given had been greatly abused; that gardens had
been stripped of their flowers and relics of various kinds carried away.
This vandalism was not often charged against Americans, but rather
against loc