stle, consisting chiefly of a portion
of the keep and some rough arches, are not far from the church, and
little is known of its origin. There is a museum near the ruins which
contains some interesting antiquities and a fine natural-history
collection. The newly-constructed town-hall, built in antique style,
overhanging the footway and supported on arches, is one of the most
interesting buildings in Saffron Walden: the mayor and corporation
meeting here date their charter from 1549. Not far away, at Newport,
lived Nell Gwynn in a modest cottage with a royal crown over the door.
She was one of the numerous mistresses of Charles II., and is said to
have been the only one who remained faithful to him. She bore him two
sons, one dying in childhood, and the other becoming the Duke of St.
Albans, a title created in 1684, and still continued in the persons of
his descendants of the family of Beauclerc. Nell was originally an
orange-girl who developed into a variety actress, and, fascinating the
king, he bought her from Lord Buckhurst, her lover, for an earldom and a
pension. Nell is said to have cost the king over $300,000 in four years.
She had her good qualities and was very popular in England, and she
persuaded the king to found Chelsea Hospital for disabled soldiers, and
he also bore her genuine affection, for his dying words were, "Let not
poor Nelly starve." She survived him about seven years. Also in the
neighborhood, at Littlebury, was the home of Winstanley, the builder of
the first Eddystone Lighthouse, who perished in it when it was destroyed
by a terrific storm in 1703.

[Illustration: JETTIES AT HARWICH.]

Digressing down to the coast of Essex, on the North Sea, we find at the
confluence of the Stour and Orwell the best harbor on that side of
England, bordered by the narrow and old-fashioned streets of the ancient
seaport of Harwich. Here vast fleets seek shelter in easterly gales
behind the breakwater that is run out from the Beacon Hill. From here
sail many steamers to Rotterdam and Antwerp in connection with the
railways from London, and the harbor-entrance is protected by the
ancient Languard Fort, built by James I. on a projecting spit of land
now joined to the Suffolk coast to the northward. One of the most
interesting scenes at Harwich is a group of old wrecks that has been
utilized for a series of jetties in connection with a shipbuilder's
yard. Weather-beaten and battered, they have been moored in a plac