know the tower had been touched. This incident
gives an idea of how the cathedrals are now cared for and at what cost
they are restored after ages of neglect and destruction.

[Illustration: A TYPICAL BYWAY.]

Peterborough was stripped of most of its images and carvings by
Cromwell's soldiers and its windows are modern and inferior. Our
attention was attracted to three or four windows that looked much like
the crazy-quilt work that used to be in fashion. We were informed that
these were made of fragments of glass that had been discovered and
patched together without any effort at design, merely to preserve them
and to show the rich tones and colorings of the original windows. The
most individual feature of Peterborough is the three great arches on the
west, or entrance, front. These rise nearly two-thirds the height of the
frontage and it is almost a hundred feet from the ground to the top of
the pointed arches. The market square of Peterborough was one of the
largest we had seen--another evidence of the agricultural importance of
the town. Aside from the cathedral there is not much of interest, but if
one could linger there is much worth seeing in the surrounding country.

The village of Fotheringhay is only nine miles to the west. The
melancholy connection of this little hamlet with the Queen of Scots
brings many visitors to it every year, although there are few relics of
Mary and her lengthy imprisonment now remaining. Here we came the next
morning after a short time on winding and rather hilly byways. It is an
unimportant looking place, this sleepy little village where three
hundred years ago Mary fell a victim to the machinations of her rival,
Elizabeth. The most notable building now standing is the quaint inn
where the judges of the unfortunate queen made their headquarters during
her farcial trial. Of the gloomy castle, where the fair prisoner
languished for nineteen long years, nothing remains except a shapeless
mass of grass covered stone and traces of the old-time moat. Much of the
stone was built into cottages of the surrounding country and in some of
the mansions of the neighborhood may be found portions of the windows
and a few of the ancient mantel pieces. The great oak staircase which
Mary descended on the day of her execution, is built into an old inn at
Oundle, not far away. Thus the great fortress was scattered to the four
winds, but there is something more enduring than stone and mortar,--its
memori