adition has it that his mother buried
his body a short distance to the east of Waltham Church. The abbey gate
still stands as a massive archway at one end of the river bridge. Near
the town is one of the many crosses erected by Edward I in memory of his
wife, Eleanor of Castile, wherever her body rested on the way from
Lincoln to Westminster. A little to the left of this cross, now a
gateway to Theobald Park, stands Temple Bar, stone for stone intact as
it was in the days when traitors' heads were raised above it in Fleet
Street, although the original wooden gates are missing. Waltham Abbey is
situated on the River Lea, near the point where King Alfred defeated the
Danes in one of his battles. They had penetrated far up the river when
King Alfred diverted the waters from beneath their vessels and left them
stranded in a wilderness of marsh and forest.

Another pleasant afternoon trip was to Monken Hadley, twenty-five miles
out on the Great North Road. Hadley Church is intimately associated with
a number of distinguished literary men, among them Thackeray, whose
grandfather preached there and is buried in the churchyard. The sexton
was soon found and he was delighted to point out the interesting objects
in the church and vicinity.

The church stands at the entrance of a royal park, which is leased to
private parties and is one of the quaintest and most picturesque of the
country churches we had seen. Over the doors, some old-fashioned
figures which we had to have translated indicated that the building had
been erected in 1494. It has a huge ivy-covered tower and its interior
gives every evidence of the age-lasting solidity of the English
churches.

Hadley Church has a duplicate in the United States, one having been
built in some New York town precisely like the older structure. We
noticed that one of the stained-glass windows had been replaced by a
modern one, and were informed that the original had been presented to
the newer church in America--a courtesy that an American congregation
would hardly think of, and be still less likely to carry out. An odd
silver communion service which had been in use from three to five
hundred years was carefully taken out of a fire-proof safe and shown us.

Hadley Church is a delight from every point of view, and it is a pity
that such lines of architecture are not oftener followed in America. Our
churches as a rule are shoddy and inharmonious affairs compared with
those in England.