The Venerable Bede--Battle of Neville's
Cross--Chester-le-Street--Lumley
Castle--Newcastle-upon-Tyne--Hexham--Alnwick Castle--Hotspur and
the Percies--St. Michael's Church--Hulne Priory--Ford
Castle--Flodden Field--The Tweed--Berwick--Holy
Isle--Lindisfarne--Bamborough--Grace Darling.

ST. ALBANS.

[Illustration: ST. ALBANS, FROM VERULAM.]

The railway running from London to Edinburgh, and on which the
celebrated fast train the "Flying Scotchman" travels between the two
capitals, is the longest in Britain. Its route northward from the
metropolis to the Scottish border, with occasional digressions, will
furnish many places of interest. On the outskirts of London, in the
north-western suburbs, is the well-known school founded three hundred
years ago by John Lyon at Harrow, standing on a hill two hundred feet
high. One of the most interesting towns north of London, for its
historical associations and antiquarian remains, is St. Albans in
Hertfordshire. Here, on the opposite slopes of a shelving valley, are
seen on the one hand the town that has clustered around the ancient
abbey of St. Albans, and on the other the ruins of the fortification of
Verulam, both relics of Roman power and magnificence. On this spot stood
the chief town of the Cassii, whose king, Cassivelaunus, vainly opposed
the inroads of Caesar. Here the victorious Roman, after crossing the
Thames, besieged and finally overthrew the Britons. The traces of the
ancient earthworks are still plainly seen on the banks of the little
river Ver, and when the Romans got possession there arose the
flourishing town of Verulam, which existed until the British
warrior-queen. Boadicea, stung by the oppressions of her race, stormed
and captured the place and ruthlessly massacred its people. But her
triumph was short lived, for the Romans, gaining reinforcements,
recaptured the city. This was in the earlier days of the Christian era,
and at a time when Christian persecutions raged. There then lived in
Verulam a prominent man named Alban, a young Roman of good family. In
the year 303 a persecuted priest named Amphibalus threw himself upon the
mercy of Alban, and sought refuge in his house. The protection was
granted, and in a few days the exhortations of Amphibalus had converted
his protector to Christianity. The officials, getting word of
Amphibalus' whereabouts, sent a guard to arrest him, whereupon Alban
dismissed his guest secretly, and, wrap