really worth saying, he waited to speak only "as the
Spirit moved him." I could not help thinking that I had been in many
meetings where, if this rule had been followed, everybody would have
been better off. However, in the course of a few minutes he arose again
and began his talk. We had attended many services in England at noted
churches and cathedrals, but for genuine Christianity, true brotherly
love and real inspiration, I think the half hour talk of the old Quaker
was worth them all. We agreed that it was one of our most fortunate
experiences.

In the churchyard we stood before the grave of William Penn, marked by
the plainest kind of a small headstone and identical with the few others
beside it. We expressed wonder at this, but the lady with whom we had
previously talked explained that it would be inharmonious with the
Quaker idea to erect a splendid monument to any man. For many years the
graves had not been marked at all, but finally it was decided that it
would not be inappropriate to put up plain headstones, all of the same
style, to let visitors know where the great Quaker and his family rest.
And very simple were the inscriptions chiseled upon the stones. All
around the meeting-house is a forest of great trees, and no other
building is in the immediate vicinity. One might almost have imagined
himself at a Quaker service in pioneer times in America, when the
meeting-houses were really as remote and secluded as this one seemed,
rather than within twenty miles of the world's metropolis, in a country
teeming with towns and villages.

It was about three o'clock when we left Jordans with a view of reaching
Oxford, still a good many miles away, by nightfall. In this vicinity are
the Burnham beeches, made known almost everywhere by the camera and the
brush of the artist. A byway runs directly among the magnificent trees,
which we found as imposing as the pictures had represented--sprawling
old trees, many feet in circumference, but none of very great height.
Near by is Stoke-Poges church, whose memory is kept alive by the "Elegy"
of the poet Gray. It is one of the best known of the English country
churches and is visited annually by thousands of people. The poet and
his relatives are buried in the churchyard and the yew tree under which
he is said to have meditated upon the theme of the immortal poem is
still standing, green and thriving. The church, half covered by ivy and
standing against a background of fine tr