lding
provided for them! But they got used to it--those that were left to
carry on the business of a market, whose traditions, nay, whose
history, speaks to us of a former greatness and reputation for trade,
in the centuries that are gone, which we can hardly now understand.

CHAPTER XI.

ROYSTON IN 1800-25.--ITS SURROUNDINGS, ITS STREETS, AND ITS PEOPLE.

The prospect of Royston from its surroundings was, at the beginning of
the century, singularly bleak and uninviting in winter time. Of the
many plantations which now beautify the vicinity of the town, and
afford such pleasant walks, not one tree had got on end. The London
Road, from the top of the town to the sylvan spot now known as the
"Seven Rides," had not a single tree near it, and only one solitary
bush standing out on the hill-top against the sky-line, on the summit
of what was then a very steep hill through which the cutting has since
been made. The hills on the Newmarket Road, which have also since been
cut through, were equally bare and monotonous in colour, at least
during most of the year; and the Heath was then destitute of those
graceful patches of charming spring and autumn natural tints which the
plantations of to-day give to the neighbourhood of the Church Hill, &c.
Some of the trees along by the Ivy Farm on the Haldock Road had been
planted, but that was about all there was towards that pretty setting
of the old town in tree and foliage, which is such a pleasing view,
especially when seen from the hills around the town. The plantations
near the Heath were carried out by the late Mr. Henry Thurnall, by
direction of the trustees of Mr. George Fordham, and those about the
Green Walk by the Lord Dacre of those days, who also erected, at the
summit of the hill, a kind of summer house which was so badly
appreciated by the public that it was taken away. I trust we may at
least write respecting these advantages--other days, other manners.

{111}

The same open and exposed character, which left Royston in a semicircle
of bare hills, was also common to the surrounding parishes where the
land still lay in strips, with green baulks between, so that a 300 acre
farm was not unfrequently in four or five hundred strips, scattered
about the parish, one in this furlong or "shot," and one in that. The
country surrounding Royston on the line of Icknield Street, was not
only unenclosed, but much of it was heath country--extending from
Whittlesford to R