y to the former beauty of this old
dwelling-place.

[Illustration: The Dolphin Inn, Heigham, Norwich]

We will now start back to town by the coach which leaves the "Maid's
Head" (or did leave in 1762) at half-past eleven in the forenoon, and
hope to arrive in London on the following day, and thence hasten
southward to Canterbury. Along this Dover road are some of the best
inns in England: the "Bull" at Dartford, with its galleried courtyard,
once a pilgrims' hostel; the "Bull" and "Victoria" at Rochester,
reminiscent of _Pickwick_; the modern "Crown" that supplants a
venerable inn where Henry VIII first beheld Anne of Cleves; the "White
Hart"; and the "George," where pilgrims stayed; and so on to
Canterbury, a city of memories, which happily retains many features of
old English life that have not altogether vanished. Its grand
cathedral, its churches, St. Augustine's College, its quaint streets,
like Butchery Lane, with their houses bending forward in a friendly
manner to almost meet each other, as well as its old inns, like the
"Falstaff" in High Street, near West Gate, standing on the site of a
pilgrims' inn, with its sign showing the valiant and portly knight,
and supported by elaborate ironwork, its tiled roof and picturesque
front, all combine to make Canterbury as charming a place of modern
pilgrimage as it was attractive to the pilgrims of another sort who
frequented its inns in days of yore.

[Illustration: Shield and Monogram on doorway of the Dolphin Inn,
Heigham]

[Illustration: Staircase Newel at the Dolphin Inn. From _Old Oak
Furniture_, by Fred Roe]

And now we will discard the cumbersome old coaches and even the
"Flying Machines," and travel by another flying machine, an airship,
landing where we will, wherever a pleasing inn attracts us. At
Glastonbury is the famous "George," which has hardly changed its
exterior since it was built by Abbot Selwood in 1475 for the
accommodation of middle-class pilgrims, those of high degree being
entertained at the abbot's lodgings. At Gloucester we find ourselves
in the midst of memories of Roman, Saxon, and monastic days. Here too
are some famous inns, especially the quaint "New Inn," in Northgate
Street, a somewhat peculiar sign for a hostelry built (so it is said)
for the use of pilgrims frequenting the shrine of Edward II in the
cathedral. It retains all its ancient medieval picturesqueness. Here
the old gallery which surrounded most of our inn-yards remains.