s thefts by the flight
of a good strong English arrow, which came from a sturdy English bow
drawn by a good strong English arm. The English archers were famous
everywhere, and many a battle has been won by their valour and their
skill. A law was passed in the reign of Edward IV. that every
Englishman should have a bow of his own height, and that butts for the
practice of archery should be set up in every village; and every man
was obliged to shoot up and down on every feast-day, or be fined one
halfpenny. Consequently, in some villages we find a field called "The
Butts," where this old practice took place.[11]

Many villages are associated with the lives of distinguished
men--authors, soldiers, and statesmen. Perhaps your village may have
bred other poets besides "the mute inglorious Milton" of Gray's
_Elegy_. Not far from where I am writing was Pope's early home, the
village of Binfield, which he calls--

"My paternal home,
A little house, with trees arow,
And, like its master, very low."

On the other side lies the village of Three Mile Cross, where Miss
Mitford lived and wrote "Our Village"; and Arborfield, called in her
book Arborleigh, about which she tells some pleasant stories, is the
adjoining parish. Sometimes, as I ride down a grassy lane, a favourite
haunt of the distinguished authoress, I seem to see her seated on a
fallen tree weaving her pretty romances, while her favourite dog, which
she often describes, plays and barks around her. A few miles in another
direction lies Eversley, the loved abode of Charles Kingsley, about
whom many stories linger in the countryside. To visit the uncomfortable
brick-paved study where he wrote, the garden where he used to pace and
think out his great thoughts, is delightfully refreshing and
invigorating to a jaded writer.

[Illustration: OLD COTTAGES]

These are only instances of places which have become interesting on
account of the famous men who once lived in them; and England has many
heroes of the sword and pen whose lives each Englishman should study;
and when you visit their dwelling-places you will recall their
achievements, and perhaps endeavour to imitate their examples. Here is
an instance of how little the villagers know of the distinguished men
who once lived amongst them. The great Duke of Wellington did not live
a very long time ago, and yet some friends of mine who were staying at
Strathfieldsaye, near the Iron Duke's house, and made inqu